Montoursville Area School Board Tuesday night approved a new teachers contract that calls for annual salary hikes of more than 3 percent.
The three-year agreement also calls for teachers to pay more for their health benefits.
The vote was 6 to 2 in favor.
Those voting yes were Dale Ulmer, Jennifer Winters, Irv Gleason, Ellen Stoner, Thomas McNamara, and Robert Lorson.
George Hagemeyer and Dora Pioli voted against.
Scott Konkle was absent from the meeting.
Pioli said she is behind the teachers, but she simply could not support this particular contract.
"I have an obligation to the people," she said.
She noted that many people who will end up reaching into their pocketbooks for the pay raises are facing the unemployment line.
Ulmer, a member of the board's financial committee who served on the district's contract bargaining team, said he felt the contract was a fair one.
But he warned that the district will be facing some tough decisions in funding programs.
"I think both sides think they lost a little," said Superintendent Dominic Cavallaro. "I think it was a good compromise in the end."
Teachers and other professional staff had been working under terms of the last contract which expired July 1, 2010.
A tentative agreement was reached last month.
Teachers will receive pay hikes of 3.6 in the first year, 3.4 percent in the second year, and 3.1 percent in the final year of the contract.
Life insurance and dental insurance remain unchanged, Cavallaro noted.
In other matters, the board approved retirements of middle school art teacher Catheal Weiser and Loyalsock Valley Elementary School Special Education Teacher Linda Szendrey.
Weiser served the district for 14 years and Szendrey for 19 years.
Allyson Ream was hired as a part-time administrative assistant at an hourly rate of $15.
The vote to hire Ream, who will work six hours per day, 240 days a year, was 6 to 2 in favor.
Those voting yes were Winters, Gleason, Lorson, Pioli, Stoner, and McNamara.
Voting no were Hagemeyer and Ulmer.
Ulmer said he simply felt the position was being funded at too high a level.
