ADAMS TWP — A tentative contract between the Mars School District and its support professionals, forged in a fact-finder’s report, was rejected by the school board on Wednesday after it learned that it may be able to save $1 million.

The vote to reject the contract created by the fact finder after she recently listened to both sides’ arguments was 7-1, with board member Steve Boggs dissenting.

The two sides have been negotiating since before the former contract expired on June 30, 2015. There are 87 secretaries, paraprofessionals and custodians in the MAESP union.

The school board in June, in an effort to determine cost, voted to seek bids from companies that could be contracted to provide support workers to the district.

Several parents have complained to the school board about replacing workers who live in the community and know the children with strangers without a vested interest in the students or the schools.

Tom Breth, the attorney who serves as the school district’s negotiator, said on Wednesday that the board would likely have voted to approve the fact-finder’s contract regarding the secretaries and paraprofessionals, but rejected it because $1 million could be saved by subcontracting custodial workers from an outside company.

He said the board will go back to the negotiation table with an offer to approve the contract for the secretaries and paraprofessionals using a private company for the custodians.

District business manager Jill Swaney said there are 39 custodians, 25 paraprofessionals and 23 secretaries in the union.

Breth said should the union accept the offer, the custodians now working for the district would be offered jobs by the contracting company.

He said the secretaries and paraprofessionals have the most interaction with students as opposed to custodians.

“We certainly want quality people working with the students,” Breth said.

He said the union members voted to approve the fact finder’s contract.

The board and union must vote on the contract again within 10 days, and go back to negotiations if either side rejects the contract, Breth said.

“We will hopefully reach a deal,” he said.

If no deal is struck, Breth said the board will proceed with subcontracting custodians.

“We still have a lot of negotiating to do before that occurs,” he said.