A Berks County man has been hired as Lehighton Area School District's new business administrator.

By a unanimous vote, the school board on Monday agreed to hire Brian D. Feick as district business administrator, and appointed as district secretary, at a prorated salary of $90,000.Feick, 56, of Robeson Township, most recently served as chief business administrator at Chester Upland School District.In addition, he has also served as vice president/CFO/COO at Datastrip, as well as finance director for the borough of Pottstown.After the meeting, Feick said he believes he brings "real world experience, business experience" to the position.Feick takes over for former district business administrator J. Michael Malay Jr, who resigned from the post in December.Malay, who served in that capacity since 2008, accepted a five-year contract to serve as business manager in the Whitehall-Coplay School District.No public discussion was made on the appointment at the meeting Monday night. School district officials were not available for comment by press time this morning.By comparison, Palmerton's business manager Diane Serfass was hired in May 2012 at a salary of $76,000.According to the latest figures available at

www.openpagov.org, area school district business manager's salaries as of 2012-13 school year were: Lehighton, $88,505; Jim Thorpe, $76,667; Panther Valley, $69,688; Tamaqua, $73,777 and Weatherly, $53,886.These salaries may have been updated since the report was filed.