The latest round of contract negotiations between South Butler School District and teachers left both sides of the long-running dispute publicly frustrated on Tuesday.

Brooke Witt, the state union representative for 168 teachers at the district, called the meeting unproductive and said fiscal concerns — the term of any new contract, revisions to teachers' health care plan, and wages — continue to be the major points of contention.

District solicitor Tom Breth said Tuesday that both parties remain at odds over virtually every issue on the table — from changes to the teachers' health care plan to the length of in-service work days.

“I think we're far apart on all the issues based on what (teachers) are saying at the bargaining table,'” Breth said.

The district's latest contract proposal includes revisions to a proposed salary schedule for teachers, but that's only if the union ratifies the contract by May 29 — a deadline that represents the start of a new health care plan cycle for the district that would limit its ability to realize savings from plan revisions.

If negotiations drag on past the end of May, the district said, it will revise its proposal to eliminate retroactive compensation payments and step moves for teachers for the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, and make changes to its health care proposal as well.

But Witt said teachers already object to the district's proposed salary schedule because it uses a lump-sum calculation to set retroactive compensation amounts, and doesn't add enough money to teachers' salary schedule in the first place.

“It (the proposal) doesn't put money on that salary schedule, and that affects people year after year,” Witt said. “South Butler is already one of the lowest pays in the county.”

The impasse — which has stretched into its third year amid disagreements over everything from large fiscal concerns to smaller matters like open house participation — has also left Breth and Witt publicly sniping at each other.

On Tuesday Witt criticized the district for using less formal sidebar negotiations over the last six weeks to revive what she called long-defunct positions that were unlikely to find consensus. She also said the proposal presented Monday night didn't amount to a substantive revision to the district's last offer.

“We're certainly frustrated,” she said. “That's not negotiating. That's not going to get us a contract.”

Breth, in turn, criticized the union for what he said was intransigence. In response to the district's offer the union floated an informal counterproposal — a tactic that prevents the district from revealing or discussing its specifics without permission. But Breth called the union's proposal unproductive in general.

“It's the same old, same old from the teachers,” he said. “High wage demands without any substantive concessions on health care or any other issues related to the financial situation of the district or the educational needs of its students.”

He called Witt's critique of the district “nonsense” and said he thinks coming to an agreement by the end of May is unlikely.

“The parties are very, very far apart, but that distance is not because the board has not attempted to reach an agreement,” Breth said.

Monday's negotiations, which were attended by a state-appointed mediator, ended without the parties setting any future meetings. Breth said the district provided teachers with 12 dates in May on which negotiations would be willing to meet.