BUTLER TWP — The Butler School Board voted 8-1 on Friday to approve an early-bird, five-year contract with its 486 teachers.

Superintendent Brian White said the contract, which kicks in July 1 and expires June 30, 2023, provides annual salary increases averaging 2.7 percent.

The increase at the top step of the teachers' pay scale will be 0.6 percent each year.

White said the top master's degree salary in the district in the 2018-19 school year will be $83,951. In 2022-23, the final year of the new contract, that salary will be $84,074.

Conversely, the entry-level bachelor's degree salary in the next school year will be $46,878 compared to $48,508 in 2022-23, White said.

The contract also moves the teachers from a self-funded health insurance program to a health care consortium.

White said the consortium, which is the same one used by faculty at the Butler County Community College, will allow the teachers to access quality health care while controlling costs for the district.

The contract also increases the teachers' workday by 30 minutes, which is meant to allow them common planning time for curriculum development, data analysis and professional development, White said.

The lone dissenter in the contract vote was board member Bill Halle, who said 30 percent of Butler's students can't read and 20 percent cannot perform in mathematics. “Kids are leaving the community, and the ones who are staying are that 20 percent and 30 percent,” Halle said.

Halle also said the district will need to come up with $3.6 million in five years to balance the budget, which can't even be achieved if the district raises taxes beyond the state maximum increase.

“I can't move for the contract because we can't afford this contract,” Halle said. He added that consolidations and teacher furloughs will have to be faced to balance future budgets.

Board member Al Vavro said he understands Halle's thinking, but said the district could have state-of-the-art equipment and facilities that would be rendered useless without quality teachers.

“Our teachers are our greatest resource,” Vavro said.

White said the contract is “pretty lean” while not solving the district's financial problems. But he agreed that the district must continue to attract top-notch educators.

“We can't get to the point that we are the choice of last resort for an applicant,” he said.

White said now that the teachers contract has been approved by both the school board and the education association, the board has the springboard to begin a five-year financial plan. “This is sort of a step one,” he said.

No one from the Butler Education Association could be reached for comment on Friday. Teachers voted to accept the deal earlier in the day.