JEFFERSON TWP - The South Butler School Board has rescheduled its meeting next week to coincide with a vote by the teachers' union on the latest contract offer.

The board will meet at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday. It was supposed to meet next Wednesday.

Teachers are expected to vote earlier Thursday on the latest offer extended to them by the school board, which was announced Oct. 5.

Few details have been released about the tentative agreement except it is for five years.

The district's 181 teachers have been working without a contract since June 2003.

On June 6 they authorized a strike vote, but had chosen not to exercise that option unless negotiations fell apart.

Both sides increased negotiations since an Aug. 26 vote when the teachers refused to ratify an offer presented to them by the school board. That offer was borne out of side talks between a school board member and a union member.

The main sticking points in the negotiations had been salary increases and health care benefits.

If teachers ratify the new agreement Thursday, it will then go to the school board that night for its vote.