The Executive Board of the South Dakota School Superintendents Association issues the following statement in response to Governor Noem’s budget address: We are genuinely grateful to the Honorable Governor Kristi Noem for proposing a budget that includes legislation directly in line with the “Blue Ribbon Task Force Recommendation” and allocates an additional $11 million to specifically address the one-time shortfall of enrollment declines as a result of the pandemic. The increase in state aid does the following: It allocates funding to the schools for the “Teacher Target Salary” to increase by 2.4%, .9% above the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and increases teacher pay above the 2016 law that moved teachers’ salaries in South Dakota out of “51st” in the nation, and allows our public schools to compete for the best and brightest teachers in our region to stay in South Dakota.

Editor’s Note: This week the Topic welcomes a new columnist, Eliza Blue, who has been writing for the past seven years from her ranch home near Bison. We will let her introduce herself: My “Little Pasture on the Prairie” started out as a borrowed acre of land, and is now a full-fledged pasture with an odd assortment of orphans and vagabonds, most of them wearing woolly suits.

As I write this, on the 8th of December, it is “winter”, yet winter, as I remember it, has yet to arrive… not a single snowflake can be found anywhere. When I was a kid, winter was a glorious time, filled with playing in drifts and building snow forts in the absolutely huge snow piles cleared from city streets and parking lots.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) was recently notified by the Dept. of Interior offices of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education that it has been selected for the Education Construction Site Assessment and Capital Investment process. The process is part of the Great American Outdoors Act and includes additional funding not included in the new school replacement program administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

Regular December Board of Education Meeting School Theatre, 7 p.m. 1.

Monday, December 7: Breakfast: Cereal, yogurt, fruit, juice, and milk. Lunch: Chili Crispito, carrots, fruit, and milk.

Moreau-Grand Electric dispatched Troy Long with a boom truck to wrap Christmas lights on the tree at the corner of the Timber Lake Community Center, where the tree lighting will be part of the Christmas Extravaganza on Friday evening, Dec. 4.

Amidst the stress of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Horizon Health Care employees have once again come together to support their patients and each other through the Horizon Health Foundation’s annual giving campaign.

Monday, Dec. 7: Spaghetti with meat sauce, peas, banana, chocolate pudding with topping, and garlic bread.

Chuck and Marsha Aberle spent Thanksgiving with Jonathan, Terry, Michael, Jordan, and Ella from Spearfish and Rod Harlow from Mobridge. On Friday, they all were together at Chuck and Marsha’s house along with Justin, Carissa, and Amaya Aberle. On Saturday, Tim Bollinger joined them all for supper. On Sunday, Justin, Carissa, and Amaya once again joined them for brunch. Jonathan and Terry left on Sunday at noon.