JEFFERSON TWP - Upset over financial issues and the negotiations process with district teachers, South Butler school board member Bill Purvis announced his resignation at Wednesday night's school board meeting.

Purvis, who was elected to the board in December, only served eight months of his three-year term.

Purvis, who officially resigned his post July 6, attended the meeting as a member of the audience and asked to speak during the public comment period.

"I'd like to thank the people who voted for me to be on this board," Purvis said, before addressing the board.

Purvis said he wanted to take the opportunity of being a member of the public now to point out several discrepancies in wage increases the school board has offered to district teachers during the negotiations process. Teachers have been working without a contract for 13 months, and last month board members voted to eliminate retroactivity in pay for teachers because a June 30 deadline for acceptance of the district offer was not met.

Purvis said by his figures some teachers will only see a $10 pay increase a year once co-pays for insurance premiums are deducted from their paychecks each month. As part of its latest settlement, board members are asking teachers to pay for a portion of their health care costs.

The most any teacher would see in pay increases is $350 a year once the health care costs are factored in, Purvis said, and that is for just a small amount of the 182 total teachers in the district.

"I don't know who came up with the salary scale, but I have to commend them," Purvis said. "They came up with the biggest raises on the scale on the steps where there is no one."

Purvis said only seven of the district's 182 teachers would be eligible for the highest pay raises being proposed because of flaws in the salary schedule.

Purvis also questioning why savings the district realized a few years ago in its retirement contributions were put into capital projects instead of back into funding salaries and why retirees weren't grandfathered into the old plan when changes to contributions were made.

Before taking his seat, Purvis said he was pleading with both the teachers and the school board to do whatever it takes to avoid a strike.

Many of the teachers in the audience applauded Purvis after he spoke publicly.

No school board member made any remarks in response to Purvis' comments.

Shortly after Purvis spoke, board members announced a replacement for him.

Board president Jim Jones said the district had two options in dealing with Purvis' resignation. They could accept applications and interview potential replacements before voting to choose one or they could appoint someone of their choosing.

Board members chose the later option and appointed former board member Glenn Lang.

Lang chose not to run for his seat in December, which was one of four seats open on the board. Lang was in the audience and was immediately sworn in after the existing board members approved appointing him to serve the remainder of Purvis' three-year term.

When asked why the board chose to appoint Lang instead of taking applications for the position, Jones said it was a matter of doing what was best for the district considering it is in the middle of teacher negotiations.

"We thought we were better off with an experienced board member who could jump right in," Jones said.

In other business, board member John Reiser said he and members of the calendar committee met, as well as several teacher representatives, and decided school would start as scheduled on Aug. 25. Any attempt to move the start of school as a preemptive action against preventing a teacher's strike, was unnecessary, he said.

"The consensus of opinion is to keep the calendar as it was set up already and just adjust it if the need arises," Reiser said.