Like most taxpayers of the Butler School District, perhaps Slippery Rock School District taxpayers are indifferent about paying a steep price for labor peace. That remains to be seen.

Few Butler taxpayers have spoken out against that district's sweetheart early bird contract that was ratified by the school board and teachers union in January. The Butler contract gave teachers raises in excess of 4 percent in each of the three years of the contract extension, despite the weak economy.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Feb. 24 that inflation is expected to be under 1 percent this year.

Last Monday, the Slippery Rock School Board, following in the Butler district's footsteps, approved a three-year early bird pact — also of the sweetheart variety — that, like Butler's, gives teachers average raises in excess of 4 percent for the 2010-11 through 2012-13 school years.

What those 4 percent figures don't reveal is the cumulative effect of the Slippery Rock contract, whose average raises under the contract extension are $2,490 for 2010-11, $2,473 for 2011-12, and $2,571 for 2012-13.

The cumulative effect is $14,987 over the three years.

That means that for the three years ending with the 2012-13 school year, the average teacher will have taken home $14,987 in additional pay since the start of the 2010-11 year — and it's hard to fathom that that won't affect homeowners' property tax bills.

And, like all other school districts in the state, Slippery Rock faces the pension fund bogeyman irresponsibly created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2001.

For those who might not recall, that Harrisburg action boosted lawmakers' pensions by 50 percent, and teacher pensions by 25 percent.

It has been said that property tax payers can expect an especially big financial hit beginning in 2012.

For Butler and Slippery Rock taxpayers, that pension obligation plus the sweetheart contracts portend serious challenges, especially for people impacted by the recession.

However, the situation isn't going to be easy for most taxpayers of the districts, even if they have been only minimally affected by the recession.

Whether Sippery Rock taxpayers were aware of the early bird negotiations is not clear.

The Butler Eagle reporting of the Slippery Rock School Board meetings never specifically said that the board and teachers union were beginning early bird contract talks. The reporter covering Slippery Rock expressed surprise over last Monday's school board revelation that a contract extension had been negotiated and that the teachers, on the afternoon prior to the board meeting, already had ratified the pact.

The contract passed by a 6-0 vote, with the Rev. Michael Scheer, board president, abstaining since his wife is a teacher in the district. Also abstaining were board members Tom Reiber and Dennis Thompson.

Scheer said Thursday he couldn't recall if the board ever had announced that contract talks were getting under way.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Strickland, board vice president and, chief negotiator, by her position as personnel committee chairperson, said that at a meeting last July 28, there was a motion for an executive session for the purpose of negotiations. She said on Sept. 8 there was a motion to approve the participation of Paul Cessar, district business manager, in contract talks with the Slippery Rock Education Association.

She indicated that the board did not provide taxpayers with updates on the progress of the talks with the teachers. She said that normally wasn't done in such negotiations.

On the matter of initial taxpayer response to news of the new contract, she said district residents seemed pleased that the board was able to arrive at a fair, fiscally responsible contract without the problems some other area districts have experienced.

That the contract will maintain labor peace through 2012-13 is without question, and members of the teachers union can be excused for being all smiles over what their union representatives accomplished.

Whether most district property owners also are smiling, or merely are indifferent to what has occurred, or regarding it as beyond their control, will be revealed by way of their reaction in coming weeks.

"I think we've come a long way as a district," said district Superintendent Kathy Nogay in reaction to the contract deal.

It also has committed a big pot of money to achieve further progress.

It is to be hoped that future evaluations and state testings will show that the district got its money's worth in its classrooms, in response to the big investment approved last Monday.