With several grades at elementary campuses nearly exceeding the state-mandated student-to-teacher ratio, the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees on Monday authorized Superintendent Randy Hoyer to hire additional instructors if needed.

The board voted 6-0, with trustee Wesley Crow absent, to grant the superintendent approval to employ contractual personnel through Sept. 13. Additional employees may not be needed, however, as Hoyer said he will try to reduce student-toteacher ratios below the 22-to-maximum by relocating transfer students and/or adjusting staff assignments.

In grades where children exceed the maximum number of students to teachers by only one or two pupils, Hoyer said the district can seek a state waiver in lieu of hiring more teachers.

Grades most likely to exceed the maximum class ratios are kindergarten and fourth grade at Taylor Creek Elementary School, kindergarten at Hanna Springs Elementary School and first grade at Kline Whitis Elementary School. “It’s going to be very tight maintain a 22-to-1 student/teacher ratio,” Hoyer said.

District administrators will monitor student numbers closely in the days immediately following Labor Day — traditionally a high point for enrollment early in the fall semester — the superintendent said.

Also at the called school meeting, the board closed a public hearing on the 2010-2011 budget after no public comments were registered. Chief Financial Officer Shane Jones provided a summary of the $24.5 million budget, which was approved 6- 0 and took effect Wednesday.

With no bus purchases or other major capital outlays, the budget is 1.04 percent lower than last year’s, Jones said. Although teachers will receive state-mandated salary step increases, the budget does not include raises for support staff.

The food service fund required a $100,000 transfer from the general operating fund, and the debt service fund will run a deficit for the next three years, Jones said, until the Hanna Springs debt payment ends. That change will save the district about $450,000 a year, he said.

District officials still are trying to adjust the food service budget to reflect the costs of running cafeterias in the new high school and at Taylor Creek, Jones said.

“We’re really going to look hard at the food service budget next year to try to bring the costs down,” he said. “We’re still in a bit of a learning phase after this last year with all the new campuses and the renovations.”

The 2010-2011 budget is based on a projected average daily attendance of 3,144 — the approximate figure for the end of the 2009- 2010 school term. Texas school districts receive state funding based on their average attendance.

Noting that last year’s attendance percentage was the highest he has seen in years, Board President James Briggs said he wondered if LISD can sustain last year’s ADA total. Hoyer said he is “fairly confident” the attendance level will not drop. If it does, though, he said the school board can adopt budget amendments later in the fiscal year to reflect lower revenue.

In other business Monday, the board voted 6-0 to approve 2009- 2010 budget amendments. The amendments reflect expenses that are expected to have increased above the budgeted amount and revenues that district officials predict will fall short of projections for the budget year recently ended. With the changes factored into calculations, the district’s general operating fund balance is expected to decrease to $11.66 million when official 2009-2010 statistics are available.

In another item, trustees voted 6- 0 to spend $2,471 on a contract with Lampasas County for election services in connection with LISD’s Sept. 25 tax ratification election.

In consent agenda items — which passed unanimously — trustees:

· reviewed LISD investment policies, and designated Jones and Wanda Bunting, director of accounting, as district investment officers.

· approved the hiring of Amanda Herridge as an English as a Second Language teacher at Kline Whitis.

· OK’d a Timeline for Accelerated Instruction Waiver, which changes the times certain students receive Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills instruction. The waiver, limited to students who fail the third administration of the fifth- or eighth-grade TAKS reading and/or mathematics test, requires students — regardless of whether they are promoted to the next grade — to receive intensive instruction during the first six weeks of the next school year.