It's good that the South Butler School District has returned to labor peace after nearly two full years of uncertainty and unrest. The school board and district teachers ratified a six-year contract Tuesday.

However, Rhonda Jacoby, representative for the South Butler Education Association, might have exaggerated when she said during Tuesday evening's school board meeting that "the entire school district is pleased."

From one aspect that might be true: For the next four school years there is no threat of a strike. Two years of the new contract are retroactive: 2008-09 and 2009-10, which will conclude June 30.

Teachers had been working under terms of a contract that expired June 30, 2008.

But the entire school district might not be pleased when the cost of the new pact is pondered, as well as the possible effect on property owners' tax bills over the life of the agreement.

A teacher receiving the district's average salary of $51,249 prior to the new contract taking effect will have been paid $43,969 in new money when the new pact expires on June 30, 2014. Looking at the cumulative impact of the contract is more revealing than the picture that pay increase percentages alone paint.

The six years' pay-increase percentages of the new contract are 3.35, 3.55, 4.15, 4.3, 4.3 and 4.3, respectively. The pay hikes average out to about 3.99 percent for the life of the contract.

Meanwhile, the new contract will increase the salary of a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree to $42,000 by the contract's final year. By the end of the pact, the top salary will be $73,000.

District taxpayers must not ignore that the teachers union made notable concessions during the negotiations — something uncommon in teachers contracts in this state but a situation common to workers in other segments of the economy.

However, the South Butler teachers' concessions won't bring about the kind of immediate savings that will spare the taxpayers from much more challenging tax bills, at a time when fears abound about the state Legislature's teachers pension action of 2001.

The General Assembly's so-called pension grab is expected to begin necessitating big school tax increases in 2012.

The board rightly praised the fact that changes to the health care plan and early retirement bonus are expected to save the district $1.2 million during the next four years. But that's a yearly savings of just $300,000 — hardly a significant amount.

What that praise emanating from the board ignored was that, even with the changes, teachers will be paying much less for their health care coverage than what many — possibly most — employees in private business and industry pay for less-comprehensive coverage.

Yet those are the people who are paying for the teachers' comprehensive health care benefits that include vision and dental coverage.

As an article in Wednesday's Butler Eagle reported, the total value of the benefits package that includes health insurance, dental coverage, vision coverage and life insurance will be $16.3 million over the life of the contract — translating to about $88,000 per teacher over the contract's life.

The district employs 185 teachers.

Asked by reporters to express her personal opinion about the new contract in the aftermath of the board's vote, Jacoby declined, indicating that she was not permitted to make any comments beyond what she said at the meeting — that the teachers had approved the contract and that "the entire school district is pleased."

She also refused to divulge the number of "yes" and "no" votes, thus raising doubts about whether "the entire school district" really is pleased with the new contract.

All considered, the teachers got a good deal — a much better deal than the taxpayers. And by the end of this month, teachers will be receiving their retroactive pay for 2008-09 and 2009-10 that will boost their household finances significantly.

It's a situation that workers in the private sector envy, especially those who anticipate no meaningful pay or benefits increases in their jobs anytime soon — or who might even be wondering whether they'll have a job a year from now.

And, despite staging two strikes during the course of the contract stalemate, the teachers didn't lose a dollar of pay — something virtually unheard-of elsewhere in the working world.

Reflecting on the fact that students' test scores remained high during the contract dispute, Superintendent Frank Prazenica Jr. said, "I'm so excited for the future of our school district."

With such a generous contract providing a foundation for the next four years, there is no justification for believing otherwise.