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CRANBERRY TWP — Substitute teachers and school nurses in the Seneca Valley School District will receive a pay raise after the school board on Tuesday approved higher wages through the end of the school year.

The board unanimously approved rate increases for substitute teachers and nurses by $25 per day, extending raises directors approved in November to two classes of substitutes. Substitute paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians and cafeteria workers — all of whom received raises in the first round — were not included in Tuesday’s raise.

Substitute rates will increase $25 per day across the board. Both daily substitute teachers and nurses will now make $150 a day; retired Seneca Valley teachers and nurses will earn $175 per day, as will any teacher or nurse who has subbed for more than 30 days in the 2021-22 school year; and retired teachers and nurses who have subbed for more than 30 days this year will receive $200 per day.

Although Mars Area School District made a similar move on Jan. 11, Seneca Valley substitute teachers will continue earning more than their Mars counterparts, as the rates in Mars begin at $110 per day, short even of the former Seneca rate.

Seneca Valley’s move comes a week after Superintendent Tracy Vitale told directors about the district’s continued staffing shortages as a result of COVID-19. Vitale on Jan. 11 said teachers sometimes had to cover their colleagues’ classrooms as Seneca couldn’t find enough substitutes for all missing teachers.

Vitale said Jan. 11 that the district had succeeded in finding additional substitutes following November’s pay raise, with nine new subs joining the district in December. She added that she hopes increased wages will incentivize more to come to Seneca.

The funds for increased wages will come from federal COVID-19 relief dollars.