BUTLER TWP — The superintendent and assistant superintendent of Butler Area School District were briefly unemployed Monday evening, Aug. 21.

The district’s school board reconfigured each of their contracts, renewing superintendent Brian White’s contract for five years, effective at the end of September, and assistant superintendent Brian Slamecka’s contract for the same time period. The superintendents had to resign and be rehired for the contracts to take effect, because each of them was four years into a five-year contract.

White’s contract comes with a 2% annual salary increase, while Slamecka’s comes with a 3% annual salary increase.

“Their salary for this year hasn’t changed, so it’s just renewing the contract,” said the district’s solicitor Tom Breth. “The salary … increase stays the same.”

White’s salary this year is about $218,000, and Slamecka’s is about $163,000.

The school board also approved the creation of a girls’ wrestling coach position at Butler Senior High School, effective this school year, based on the superintendent’s personnel report.

The district has not hired a coach for the position yet, but White said there is demand for a person to coach varsity girls’ wrestling. White said administrators surveyed the student body regarding the creation of the position, and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association recommended it as well.

“Whoever is the most qualified,” White said about the hiring of a coach for the position. “Honestly it becomes an issue with programs where girls don’t get the same opportunities necessarily as playing on the boys’ team.”