Pilot Point school officials have been wrestling with financial woes for a few years, and now they are working on a plan they feel will meet multiple needs.

School board members and district officials are considering a tax rate increase that would require voter approval.

Between the increase and cutting costs wherever possible, the board wants to approve a balanced budget and rebuild its general fund.

The superintendent is scheduled to give board members an update on the district’s progress with 2008-09 proposed budget at tonight’s meeting.

Board members met with district officials for a budget workshop Thurs­day.

The district’s business manager, Jimmy Harrod, proposed a deficit of $188,660 in a draft budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, even after the district transportation committee established $100,000 in cuts.

With an about 8 percent decrease in state funding and an almost 12 percent increase in local funding, Harrod projected the district’s revenue for the next fiscal year to be $10,786,400, while proposing operating expenses of $10,975,060.

The district’s amended budget for the current year is $10,609,670, as of Thursday.

Early in the meeting, school board President Rusty Heitzman said: “I don’t want a deficit budget.”

School board member Larry Smith echoed those words.

“The school district has passed too many deficit budgets in the past few years,” he said.

By the end of Thursday’s meeting, school board members directed district officials to go back over the budget and “cut as much as we can cut and try to balance it, if we can” without making any personnel cuts, said Superintendent Glenn Barber.

Barber said that’s very difficult because about 78 percent of the budget is personnel expenses.

Pilot Point school board members voted a few months ago to reinstate step pay raises for its instructional staff members.

The district, which has an enrollment of about 1,400 students, employs 133 people, including 111 teaching and professional positions.

In light of the increase in operating expenses, Barber pressed board members with the district’s need to retain teachers.

He presented material from a recent Texas Association of School Boards salary survey that compared the district’s teacher starting salary to similar districts.

Compared to five other area districts — Argyle, Aubrey, Krum, Ponder and Sanger — Pilot Point’s starting salary is the lowest, at $32,500, falling behind Ponder’s starting salary of $36,500.

He recommended an election to increase the maintenance and operations portion of the tax rate by 13 cents per $100 of property valuation to bring that starting salary more in line with competing districts, to help cover the district’s operating expenses and to bring up its general fund balance.

Last year, school districts were required by the state to reduce their maintenance and operation tax rates to $1 per $100 valuation and given the option to add a 4-cent enrichment tax to sustain educational programs.

As part of that mandate, the state gave districts the choice to ask voters to approve up to 13 cents more to the maintenance and operation portion of the tax rate.

Pilot Point would be able to decrease its debt service portion of the total tax rate by 4 cents, bringing the total tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year from $1.30 to $1.39 per $100 valuation, Barber said.

That would mean the school tax bill for a $100,000 home would be $1,390, or $90 more than the previous year.

If voters approve the tax in­crease, it would generate about $661,000 in additional tax revenue, Barber said. He said the state would match a portion of that with $268,000, for a total of $929,000 in revenue that the district would not have without the increased tax rate.

About $390,628 of that would cover $3,000 pay raises for teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors, bringing the starting salary up to $35,500, Barber said.

That pay raise would be in addition to the step increases the district’s teachers are getting this coming year, but it wouldn’t take effect until after the election and only if voters approve the tax increase, he said.

Board members would balance the rest of the money raised between operating costs and the general fund, Barber said.

After the current fiscal year ends at the end of August, the general fund is estimated to have $347,000, according to district officials.

It costs the district about $875,000 to cover one month of operating costs, said Barber.

The district must adopt a 2008-09 budget before Sept. 1.

AMY DODD THOMPSON can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is athompson@dentonrc.com .