With the recent information coming out of Pierre about teacher salaries, I wanted to take the time to inform the Avon School District patrons of what our school board has done to increase teacher salaries. A statement was made that administrators and school board members have not passed the increases in education funding on to teacher salaries. I want to assure everyone that our school board has done its best to pass all, or most of the new funding each year on to the staff members. As many of you may recall, Governor Daugaard established the Blue Ribbon Task Force to study education funding and make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature. That Task Force recommended a target teacher salary and an additional half-cent sales tax to fund the salary increases. The goal was to increase teacher salaries to retain and recruit teachers, which has helped, but most schools across the State are short staffed even with the increases. The history of increased State Aid and the raises negotiated by the Board and teachers demonstrates below that the Avon School Board has done their part to increase teacher salaries with the increased funding that has come from the State.