Reading the June 4 front-page article "S. Butler (teachers contract) agreement announced," one reader responded, "Why are they hiding the details from the taxpayers until after the vote?"

What's the big secret about the tentative agreement, preventing the school board from giving taxpayers time to ponder details of the contract before the board and teachers vote?

Since district taxpayers will pay for what's been agreed upon, assuming that the pact is ratified, they have a right to know what the proposed contract stipulates — before the school board votes, not after.

While it's been standard procedure over the past 40 years — since passage of Act 195, the Public Employees Bargaining Act, in 1970 — for school boards and teachers unions to keep secret the provisions of still-to-be-voted-on contract proposals, that doesn't mean the procedure is right. In fact, it's a disservice to the taxpayers to deny them the opportunity to express their opinions about a contract before ratification.

That was the case when the Butler School Board approved a sweetheart three-year early bird contract extension with district teachers last year without providing contract details until the evening of the vote. And the same exclude-the-taxpayers mentality has prevailed in other Butler County districts, as well as in districts across the commonwealth.

A consumer wouldn't make a major purchase without learning something about the product he or she is considering buying. Neither should the taxpayers be handed a contract "product" and be expected to embrace it and pay for it without being able to ask questions first.

The South Butler board is to be commended for trying to represent the taxpayers' best interests throughout this long, frustrating process. But the board should not have caved in to denying the taxpayers' right to know contract details before the board's scheduled vote on June 15.

A joint release issued by the board and teachers Thursday said the contract bargaining teams "are pleased to announce that they have reached a comprehensive tentative agreement."

Tom King, district solicitor, would say only that the proposed pact is a multiyear agreement.

The teachers, who have conducted two strikes in response to not having a new contract, have been working under terms of their previous pact, which expired June 30, 2008.

Perhaps the proposed contract includes terms most district residents will consider acceptable. There's no way to know that now, without any specific details having been released.

For district taxpayers, a legitimate question now is whether the board caved in to teachers' demands without getting anything in return.

The taxpayers won't know until it's too late — if the pact is approved.

Another reasonable point of discussion from both sides' perspective is whether the contract product is worth all the trouble that both sides have endured in bringing it about.

That discussion can't begin until June 15, because of the secrecy currently surrounding the pact.

Pennsylvania has a Sunshine Law, but a cloak of secrecy is permitted to shroud school contract agreements prior to formal action on the proposals by the two sides.

There was a time when such secrecy didn't seem like a big deal, but it is a big deal now, with taxpayers facing so many economic pressures, including the financial effects of the Legislature's 2001 pension grab that are to hit in 2012 for all commonwealth school districts, not only South Butler.

South Butler taxpayers have a right to know how the proposed pact fits with the pension-related cost increases about to hit them. After the board votes on the pact, it should provide that information.

In the spirit of the Sunshine Law, Pennsylvania needs to pass a law mandating a "sunshine window" for all teacher and administrative contract proposals coming up for a vote.

Taxpayers will be paying the bill. They should have a right to speak out for or against that financial obligation before it is tossed into their laps.