ADAMS TWP — The Mars School Board and its teachers have agreed on a three-year contract even though the current one doesn’t expire for six months.

The school board on Monday night voted unanimously to approve a collective bargaining agreement with the Mars Area Education Association’s 210 teachers.

The contract takes effect July 1, one day after the current contract expires. The new contract will expire on June 30, 2020.

Superintendent Wesley Shipley said the contract includes salary increases of just more than 1 percent for each of the contract’s three years.

In the first year of the new contract, a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree will get $43,899 and a teacher with 20 years’ experience and a master’s degree will get $83,420.

It also changes the teachers’ health care contributions.

Shipley said instead of a deductible and copay, the teachers will now have a slightly higher deductible but no copay when they visit the doctor.

The annual deductible in the new contract will be $1,300 for an individual, and $2,600 for a family.

“There is some savings to the district,” Shipley said.

School board President Dayle Ferguson called the new contract “a wonderful start to a merry, merry holiday season and three more happy New Years.”

She said from the board’s perspective, the contract is meaningful for students, fair to teachers and other specialists and fiscally responsible and sustainable for taxpayers.

“Also, it is consistent with the board’s long-standing commitment to keeping the dollars closest to our students and the educational program,” Ferguson said.

Association member and teacher Scott McCarthy said on Monday night that the association members also voted to ratify the contract.

He said both the teachers and the school board worked to agree on a contract because of a shared dedication to the school district and its students.

“We all have the same interests in working together,” McCarthy said.

He said the association members hope the board is able to reach a contract with the district’s paraprofessionals, custodians and secretaries as well.

The board is at a stalemate with the support personnel association.