ADAMS TWP — The Mars Area School Board approved seeking bids for advertising on the Mars Area High School sign Tuesday.

“We have the signage in front of the high school on (Route) 228, and right now it has Mars Bank and it has (the James Austin Company),” Elizabeth McMahon, assistant superintendent, said. “Austin is no longer operating as it was, and so there’s no fee coming in for that — and it’s just excellent advertising space.”

McMahon explained that the signage was expected to remain only for another four years as PennDOT’s Route 228 Corridor Improvement project makes its way through the area. She recommended utilizing the signage while the district has it available.

“We were thinking about if we would look at those two pieces of advertising space and offer those up at a $25,000 fee,” McMahon said. “We could open it up to take bids from the community, the public.”

She proposed that each side of the sign would cost $25,000, but suggested giving first rights to Mars Bank for its previous sign.

“If they didn’t, that would open up two spaces,” McMahon said, “but right now we would have one from Austin.”

The $25,000 fee would give advertisers the space for four years. McMahon emphasized, however, that if PennDOT removed the sign before the end of that term, the district would give a refund for the remaining time.

“I know we’ve got generous people that would probably jump at the opportunity because like I said: 228, busy place, great advertising,” McMahon said.

McMahon said the next step would be advertising the space on the school website and social media after confirming with Mars Bank.

“I think this will be a great step for Mars,” John Kennedy, board president, said. “There’s a lot more to come, I’m sure.”

The board also approved the budget for Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School after a presentation by its executive director, Regina Hiler.

“The proposed total operating budget is $6,513,809, with an increase of $207,925,” Hiler said, “which is a 3.3% increase.”

The total operating budget does not include the budgetary reserve, a cost for capital emergencies that is not billed to the district. Including the budgetary reserve, total operating costs are $6,606,077 with an increase of $215,153, or 3.37%.

Increased costs, according to Hiler, come in part with inflation.

“Costs are budgeted to increase for instruction programs as a direct result of increased costs of consumables of food for our culinary arts programs; lumber for building construction, for carpentry; steel for welding, for machine tech — just for examples,” Hiler said.

And in part with rising enrollment.

“We do have more students wanting to come to the vo-tech, so we do have more needs,” Hiler said.