Though members of the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees support an increase in teachers' pay, their concern is where the funds will come from after two years when stimulus money isn't available, leaving the LISD to pick up the additional cost of salaries.

Trustees approved a salary step increase and $1,008 per teacher in stimulus funds by a 6-1 vote at Monday night's meeting of the board.

Trustees Jamie Briggs, Ron Farr, Mark Bishop, Kirk Whitehead, Linda Floerke and Dan Claussen voted for the measure, while Wesley Crow voted against it.

"I don't have a problem with giving them more money," Crow said. "I do have a problem of what we're going to do in three years (when stimulus funds are not allocated)."

"It is what it is," said Shane Jones, LISD business manager. "We're locked into it. Three years from now this will be the salary schedule."

Trustees also approved athletic and academic stipends for the upcoming year.

"I can see what other schools in the area are paying their UIL coaches for stipends, but in light of trying to balance our budget I don't know if we can improve on that," said Superintendent Randall Hoyer.

Crow again cast the dissenting vote because, he said, UIL coaches should receive more than the stipend will provide.

Jones then discussed the LISD's budget. "We are $68,000 in the red, and we are still poring over areas where we can make possible savings on the way to a balanced budget." Some routine maintenance items have been removed from the budget, he said. "That takes out all vehicles, in- cluding new buses, from the budget. There is no major capital outlay in this schedule anywhere," Jones said, although the LISD's $250,000 commitment to improving technology remains.

Of the district's financial picture, Briggs, the board president, said the LISD has gotten in a hole. "We've had years and years of deferred maintenance where we didn't buy buses, and we're trying to correct that, and we've come awfully close to having good buses. We had a logical, comprehensive plan to improve our facilities.

"We had a plan and had the state continued to fund us in a rational manner, we wouldn't be sitting here cutting all these necessities out of our budget," Briggs said. "They have frozen us at the 2005- 06 funding level, and the only way to get additional funds is increased enrollment or to increase taxes."

The school board president said gains made with an increase in property taxes are a "secret tax" going to the state. "And the state is giving us that much less for M & O [maintenance and operation]. They have put us and hundreds of other districts in a precarious position, and we're probably faring better than other districts."

Briggs said his goal is a balanced budget.

Added the superintendent: "If the state had given us the money that they originally had and rolled those stimulus funds on top of that, we wouldn't be where we are right now.

"Our goal is to have the $68,193 whittled down to nothing so on Aug. 24 we will present a balanced budget."

Approval of the 2009-10 budget and tax rate is set for a called meeting on Aug. 24.

And with the hiring of Angela Bryant at Kline Whitis Elementary and Cammy Burns at Lampasas Middle School, all teaching positions have been filled.

A few teacher's aide positions still remain open.