Substitute support staff in Lehighton Area School District will be getting a positive bump in pay from $10 to $12.52 per hour and granted retroactive compensation dating back to 2023.

The motion during Monday’s board meeting to raise substitute support staff wages was introduced as part of a broader effort, officials said, to ensure competitive pay rates within the district.

“This item would be approximately $7,000 a year,” Superintendent Jason Moser said. “That’s depending upon the number of hours, which could fluctuate greatly. But if we do a quarter a year and extrapolate it out, about $7,000 a year for the positions which are being addressed.”

No objections were raised, and the board approved the measure unanimously.

“We’re always glad to have them,” Moser said of the subs.

The board also voted to make the pay increase retroactive to Dec. 19, 2023. Board President Joy Beers had pushed for the substitute support staff to get an increase because full-time support staff saw a bump in its latest contract.

“I have brought up this matching raise for the substitute support staff for however long this is — a year plus — and if the administration had acted more cleanly, the staff would have received this pay already back at this time,” she said. “So I don’t think that the staff should not receive the retroactive pay because some administrative staff were a little slow.”