JEFFERSON TWP — The striking South Butler teachers' salary and health insurance requests are affordable and would not necessitate a tax increase, according to a news release issued Tuesday afternoon.

Also, a bargaining session is scheduled for Monday evening — the first since March 14, the evening before the strike began.

Brooke Witt, the teachers' Uniserv negotiator, said in a news release that the South Butler School District has the funds to:

Pay the teachers retroactively for the past three school years

Give appropriate raises for the current school year

Move forward in a way that would not require a tax increase.

Witt said in the release that when negotiations began in 2014, the district had a general fund balance of $5.35 million.

According to the district's reported audited financials last year, that balance had increased to $8.18 million, the release said.

“The last wage proposal the teachers offered to the district via the state mediator would cost the district $1.32 million for the three previous years' wage increases,” Witt said. “Erring on the high side, and assuming a cost of 40 percent for pension contributions and payroll tax, the total cost for those three school years would be $1.85 million.”

The release said the district can pay three full years of retroactive pay out of the increase to the fund balance and still carry almost $1 million more than in 2014, when negotiations started.

Witt went on to say that the school board has budgeted $10.34 million for teachers' salaries in the current school year, which is $116,503 more than the teachers' last salary proposal of $10.22 million.

Witt's release said the teachers association has proposed reasonable future increases that will be well within the district's reach without increasing taxes for residents.

The teachers also took a concession by increasing their health insurance costs in their proposal, which would save the district almost $200,000 if implemented, said the release.

“The teachers proposals are fair, reasonable and well within the district's current financial resources,” Witt states in the release.

Neither district negotiator Tom Breth nor school board President Matthew Cimbala could be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon to respond to Witt's claims.