The Karns City Area School Board approved a contract with its support staff union that includes 2.9% pay raises in each of the five years of the agreement.

The board approved the contract Tuesday with the Education Support Personnel Association, which represents 64 paraprofessional, clerical, secretarial, maintenance and custodial employees. Union members approved the contract in May.

The agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2020, and runs through June 30, 2025, according to Superintendent Eric Ritzert.

He said the contract is mostly aligned with a fact-finding report issued in March. A provision provides employee health care coverage instead of family coverage to all new hires eligible for health care benefits.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board's fact-finding report was requested by the union after contract negotiations that began in January 2020 reached an impasse.

Union members had been working under provision of the previous five-year contract since July 2020.