BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Vocational-Technical School’s joint-operating committee accepted a fact-finding report, bringing the school’s teachers one step closer to a contract.

The school’s 21 teachers and one counselor have started their third year without a contract, the last one having expired June 30, 2014, according to solicitor Tom Breth.

Breth would not disclose any details of the fact-finding report, received Monday, because the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School Educational Association has not yet voted.

The board accepted the report with two dissenting votes from Jacqueline Pfeiffer and Linda Rieck, both from the South Butler School District.

Pfeiffer told the board: “If it was my choice, I would vote yes, but my school board instructed me to vote no.”

After the meeting, Pfeiffer said she was not entirely sure why the school board asked her to vote against the contract and could only say that the report has numbers that are higher than what were negotiated.

Jeff Celender, president of the education association, previously said wages and the health insurance plans were points of contention but would not elaborate.

The average salary for a vo-tech teacher is $47,800, according to Breth, with those numbers representing the 2013-14 school year.

The teachers’ union rejected an agreement offered by the committee in August 2015. The committee had approved that four-year agreement which had no raises to salary or health care for the first year.

The union is expected to vote on the report today.