JEFFERSON TWP — The arbitration process to reach a new teacher contract has begun in the South Butler School District.

Independent arbitrator Michael McDowell was selected for the hearings, according to Jim Jones, school board president. The arbitrator will sit on a panel with a representative of the school board and one from the teachers union to form a proposed contract.

The last teacher contract expired June 30, 2008. Since then, the teachers had two strikes, the most recent one in September.

State law mandates after a teacher strike both sides submit to nonbinding arbitration. This is what is occurring now.

Jones said each side must submit its final best offer to McDowell by Nov. 13. Then representatives will meet with McDowell at a closed meeting Dec. 16.

The three-member panel decides between the offers submitted and a report prepared by a fact-finder in early 2008. The selected proposal among those three is presented to the teachers and the school board to be voted on.

If both sides accept the proposal, it becomes a contract. If either side rejects it, the two sides go back to the bargaining table, and the law opens the door for another strike by the teachers.

In the spring, the school board rejected an arbitrator's report, but the teachers accepted it.

That report was prepared by a different arbitrator than McDowell.

Also different from the previous arbitration process is the way the proposals will be considered. McDowell will consider the entire package of both sides instead of going issue by issue, Jones said.

The issues in the ongoing negotiations with the district's 185 teachers continue to be wages, health care, early retirement incentives and the length of the school day.

At the final negotiation session before the strike, the teachers were asking for a 4.3 percent salary increase each year in the five-year contract.

The average teacher pay is $51,249, and the starting pay is $33,621.

With the teachers' plan, a teacher making the average salary would earn $53,452 for the 2008-09 school year, $55,751 in the second year, $58,148 in the third, $60,648 in the fourth and $63,256 in the final year of the contract.

The latest salary offer by the school board, according to documents, begins with a 2.03 percent increase in 2008-09, and continues to 3.6 percent, 3.84 percent, 4.19 percent and 4.34 percent during the life of the proposed contract.

Under the district plan, a teacher making the average salary would get $52,427 during the retroactive year of 2008-09 and make $53,315 in the current year, $56,400 next year, $58,764 in 2011-12 and $60,761 in 2012-13.

Teachers now pay $10 per month for individual health care coverage and $20 per month for a family. The school board has asked for more contribution toward premiums or a higher deductible on the health care plan.

The school board is asking to increase the school day by 10 minutes. The school day for teachers is now 7 hours, 20 minutes. The teachers do not want to add the 10 minutes.

Also, the school board wants to reduce the length of health care provided to those who retire early to seven years, six months after retirement. Currently, those benefits are paid for up to 14 years after retirement.