It's important they come up with a reasonable definition and it appears that the commissioner and her group is moving in that direction.

We definitely are cognizant of what happens in other entities, and we try to be respectable of that. But with the school board we have to look at what will help us to keep within the (state) requirements.

Our hope is that this is the beginning of a program that we can begin to expand. The main goal is where our students are five years out of high school, and the level of success and opportunities they have.

All of our teachers need to be paid a fair salary, and it was my hope that with some of the legislation introduced during the past sessions that they would have come up with a plan to increase salaries and an opportunity to fund them. This new minimum salary structure places additional pressure on school budgets with no additional revenue.

We also have to look at increasing gas prices, with all the buses. Even though we have a county co-op we still have to pay into the co-op and no money from the state goes into that account.