ADAMS TWP – The Mars Area School District school board voted unanimously to reappoint the district's solicitor Tuesday, but failed to pass a pay raise proposed by the firm.

School board member Megan Lenz started the discussion around the vote to give Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham a $5 increase in its hourly rate by saying the board has difficult financial decisions to make in the near future. The new pay rate proposed for the firm’s services was $195 per hour.

“If we had to make a decision as to where raises should be given, and where any extra dollars could be squeezed out, it should be going towards those positions that affect the education of our children,” Lenz said.

The board agreed to split the motion to appoint and give the firm the requested pay raise into two separate votes. The vote for the pay raise was 4-3 in favor with two abstentions. Board member Lee Ann Riner said she abstained from the vote because she wants to see an itemized list of expenses that accounted for the law firm’s increased pay rate.