Mars Area School Board members and administrators called attention to an ongoing support staff shortage at a finance and budget meeting Monday night.

The district is currently down 17 paraprofessional staff positions and eight custodial maintenance positions. The district currently offers paraprofessionals and maintenance workers starting pay rates of $13.75 per hour, and custodians $13 per hour.

District superintendent Mark Gross said the staffing shortage situation, especially with custodial staff, is at a critical point, and added he has considered looking into outside assistance for existing support staff. He said hourly wages and benefits may both be contributing to the shortage.

“I know other districts are struggling, but we are struggling exponentially greater,” Gross said. “We’re at a critical stage right now; I’m brainstorming ideas of what we can possibly do to get us through these next couple months. We’re in a critical state — we don’t have any applicants. Our existing staff is extremely overworked and tired.”

School board member Jennifer DiCuccio said she was concerned Mars Area was not doing anything to address the issue, and argued the district needs to keep up with benefits and wages offered in order to not lose staff members to other districts.

“I do understand that Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley can pay more — they have more money in taxes, I get that. I’m not saying we need to pay the same rate as them,” she said. “We are going to continue to lose staff to other school districts if we don’t become competitive ourselves.”

Board member Megan Lenz suggested reexamining the benefits offered to paraprofessionals. Currently, Mars Area offers single-person health benefits for paraprofessionals.

Seneca Valley offers $14 an hour for paraprofessionals with individual benefits. Pine-Richland pays $13.60 an hour for paraprofessionals, $14.15 per hour for custodians, and offers single or family health insurance.

“Inflation is a real thing, and the cost of everything is going to go up,” Lenz said. “At some point, we’re going to have to face the ugly truth, that we’re going to have to make some very serious choices regarding our support staff if we want to fill these open positions, whether that looks like family health care, or something along those lines, that’s going to be a dramatic hit to our budget. But at a certain point, we’re going to be held legally liable if we don’t fill positions.”

Lenz said the district should generally be mindful of the needs that come along with expanded growth.

“We benefit from the growth here, from getting that bump in tax revenue every year, but they are also bringing children, and I think that’s something that people forget, is with growth comes more people, and more kids, not just taxpayers,” she said.

Board member Lee Ann Riner added that retaining existing employees is also essential.

“If we lose the people that we already have, then it’s even worse,” she said.

The school board will next discuss and approve the tentative district budget at board meetings in May, and vote on a final budget for the 2022-23 school year in June.