CAIRO, Ill. -- Teachers will return to the classrooms Monday armed with a one-year contract that gives them 3 percent pay raises as they advance up the salary schedule.

The Cairo Teachers Association's members ratified the agreement Tuesday. The Board of Education approved it on a 4-0 vote Friday night. Three of the seven board members were absent.

"Contrary to published reports, money was never the major issue," said Ron Newell, president of the Cairo Teachers Association.

He said teachers wanted to preserve their "longevity increases" as they advanced on the salary schedule, based on their years of experience.

The board previously voted to freeze salaries and deny teachers the step increases in salaries, Newell said.

"When the board finally agreed to recognize years of experience, the settlement quickly fell into place," Newell said. The board also agreed to pick up increases in teacher retirement and health insurance costs.

School board member Tim Pierce refused to discuss the new contract. Other school officials couldn't be reached for comment Saturday.

The three school board members who served on the negotiating team for the school district showed up for Friday's meeting. But they had to round up a fourth member of the board before they could convene the meeting, Newell said.

He said he was surprised that only four school board members attended the meeting.

The school district employs 76 teachers. The school system serves nearly 1,000 students.

The agreement means there won't be a repeat of the 1994 teachers' strike.

Two years ago teachers went on strike and battled board members through more than a month of negotiations. In the end they reached an agreement that provided job security and pay increases of 4.9 percent for the 1994-95 school year and 6 percent for the 1995-96 year.

The teachers strike kept students out of the classroom for 24 school days, from Nov. 17, 1994, through the Christmas holidays.

Teachers wanted to avoid a strike this time. Newell said school board members had suggested teachers would go on strike again.

"Parents were talking about pulling their kids out of school," he said. "We just didn't need the turmoil."

Newell said teachers never were close to striking this time. "We felt comfortable that the board would at least allow the step raise."

Teachers had wanted a three-year contract this time that included a pay hike on top of the step increases.

But the board only agreed to a one-year deal. Newell said the teachers and the school board will have to negotiate all over again next year.

He said the school district could have afforded to give teachers more money than what is in the final agreement.

"The association showed the Board of Education that substantial padding existed in the budget, in the amount of at least $500,000," Newell said.

"We told them, `You know the money is there. We know the money is there. But this year we are going to let you keep it,'" he said.

Newell said a 1 percent raise adds about $25,000 to the district's expenses. With salary-step raises averaging around 3 percent, the district will spend an additional $75,000 on teachers' salaries this school year, he said.

Newell said teachers don't look at the step increases on the salary schedule as pay raises; the school board does.

Newell said school board members and Dr. Elaine Bonifield, district superintendent, had suggested to the public that the teachers wanted a hefty pay hike that would have required higher taxes to fund.

Newell said that wasn't the case.

Negotiations began in June this year. Teachers and school board members called in a federal mediator.

The two sides still hadn't reached agreement when classes began Aug. 19.

Newell said most of the agreement was ironed out in two meetings with the federal mediator: an eight-hour session on Aug. 14 and a nine-hour meeting on Aug. 29.