SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — The 146 teachers in the Slippery Rock School District are working without a contract.

The district and the Slippery Rock Education Association currently are in negotiations for a new contract.

The previous contract was effective July 1, 2010, and expired June 30.

Both the district and the association said they will not make any statements to the press regarding negotiations at this time. An e-mail from the association stated both sides likely would send a joint statement if they choose to say anything publicly.

During a school board meeting last week, district negotiation team member Polly Shaw said the team had recently met with the association’s negotiations team.

“The work continues,” Shaw said.

The contract gave average pay increases of 4.2 percent in the first year and 4 percent in the second and third years. The average pay for teachers went to $61,814 in 2010-11, $64,287 in 2011-12 and $66,858 in 2012-13.

Teachers paid between $20 and $40 per month for health care, depending on whether they had single or family coverage.

The contract was approved in February 2009, more than a year before it went into effect.

Before the recently expired contract, teachers worked with an expired contract for one year before settling on a new, 5-year contract in 2006. A state fact-finder helped the two sides settle the contract.

That contract, which covered 2005 to 2010, gave an average 3.75 percent pay raise in each of the first three years of the contract and 3.5 percent in the final two. It was also the first time district teachers shared the cost of medical insurance premiums.

Slippery Rock is not the only district in Butler County that has dealt with teacher contracts this year.

In May, the Karns City School District and the Karns City Education Association agreed on a 5-year contract to take effect in 2014.

In September, the Butler School District and the Butler Education Association reopened its contract to discuss wages for the 2014-15 school year, which is the final year of its contract.