JEFFERSON TWP — Another late-night bargaining session on Tuesday between the South Butler County School Board negotiator and the Uniserv representative for the district’s 168 teachers did not result in a contract.

The teachers will strike on Thursday if no agreement is reached, and both sides were sorely disappointed on Wednesday morning with Tuesday night’s session.

“I would say that the strike will start on Thursday morning,” said Brooke Witt, the Uniserv rep for the teachers.

Another bargaining session was scheduled for Wednesday night, Witt said. Classes are canceled and the teachers’ strike date is Thursday.

Witt said she has settled 15 other contracts since the South Butler teachers’ last contract expired in 2014.

“This is the culture in South Butler,” Witt said. “This is their fifth strike in 40 years.”

She said Tuesday night’s bargaining session, which included the services of a state mediator, lasted from 7 p.m. to midnight.

Witt said the school board’s negotiator, Tom Breth, threw out all the salary, health care, early retirement incentives and other items the two sides had agreed on over the hours of bargaining Monday and Tuesday night.

She said Breth is accusing her and teachers of not compromising because the progress made on the items discussed were not in writing, then Breth put together a proposal so the teachers would appear to be refusing every offer by the district.

Witt said the teachers agreed to the district’s March 6 proposals on the contract term, the length of in-service and Act 80 school days and continuing education reimbursement to get those items off the table and make room for discussions on wages and health care.

On Tuesday night, Witt said, Breth backed off on those items.

Witt said the teachers disagree with the caveat at the end of each proposal by the district that warns teachers to agree to the proposal by Thursday or the offering would be eliminated or negatively adjusted.

For example, the district offered on Tuesday night to pay teachers $1,900 per year retroactively to 2014. That amount is up from the $1,070 offered on March 6.

But the district also said if no contract is in place by Thursday, not only that retroactive payment, but payment for stepping up in the pay levels would be eliminated.

“It’s not productive to say it all goes off the table if there’s a strike,” Witt said.

She said the district’s teachers, who say they are among the lowest-paid in the region, just want to do their jobs and be duly compensated.

“They’re asking for what’s fair and reasonable, and that’s really what they’re trying to get,” Witt said.

But Breth said the teachers have refused every offering tendered by the board.

“It’s unbelievable that the teachers would initiate a strike and at the same time, refuse to tell the board and public what they need to avoid a strike,” Breth said in his Wednesday negotiations update.

He said the teachers refused to approve the reports of two state fact-finders in 2015 and 2017 plus every proposal offered by the board in four years.

“And now, the teachers refuse to tell the board or the public what it will take to avoid a strike,” Breth said. “Their actions speak louder than their union-scripted rhetoric.”

While no Wednesday night bargaining session had been planned Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, a last-ditch negotiation session was announced mid-morning for Wednesday night.

The South Butler School Action Committee, which is comprised of parents and community members, are holding a rally at the district’s primary school this evening at 6:30 p.m. to show support for students in the face of the standoff and encourage a settlement.