For Frontier School Superintendent Ronald G. DeCarli, you might say that Christmas is coming in July.

The School Board on Tuesday night extended DeCarli’s contract by one year, to 2013, and granted him a 3.5 percent total pay raise over the next 18 months. The pay raise, effective July 1, will boost his salary to $186,005 by December 2010.

The amount of his salary increase from now through the end of this year is about 2 percent.

DeCarli — who has been at the helm of Frontier since leaving the Akron School District in March 2007 — has been earning $178,000 since January 2008. When he first started in Frontier, he was paid a pro-rated salary of $170,000 and has been working under a five-year contract that last year had been extended through 2012.

The board typically determines the superintendent’s salary increases around Nov. 1 for the upcoming year, with a board vote expected each December.

But that played out differently this time around.

Board Vice President Stanley J. Figiel emphasized that given the grim economic climate, the board agreed last November to delay any compensation increase for six months. The board in late June met privately to again consider DeCarli’s contract renewal, salary and benefits.

“There has been a lot of discussion among board members,” said Figiel, noting that no retroactive pay would be given to DeCarli. “The Board of Education is aware of the difficulties in our community with layoffs and loss of jobs, so we recognize this.”

The board voted, 7-1, to approve DeCarli’s contract extension and salary raise. Board member Paul Pellicano voted against the measure but did not elaborate publicly.

In an interview after the meeting, DeCarli said he told the board that he wanted to “freeze myself” and forgo a pay raise the first six months of this year until the district had a clearer picture of the fiscal situation. Other amendments to his contract extension include $550 more in allowable medical expenses and an increase in his life insurance policy to $150,000 from $100,000.

A former basketball coach at St. Bonaventure University, DeCarli has been described as the “Energizer Bunny” by former board President Gerald Baldelli.

New board member Jack Chiappone praised DeCarli for not taking a pay raise in the last six months.

In another matter, the board abolished 6.4 vacant teaching positions, mostly at the elementary school level, due to declining student enrollment.

In reorganization matters, the board named veteran board member Nancy Wood its board president, succeeding Baldelli, who did not seek re-election. Figiel, also a longtime board member, was named board vice president. Sworn into office for a five-year term was Chiappone.