City commissioners are scrambling to keep their municipal charters schools afloat with last-ditch fundraising efforts in the wake of a $1.3 million deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

During a recent City Commission meeting, officials voted unanimously to impose a $250 annual activity fee for FSU Charter Elementary students and a $5 hike on school uniforms to plug the charter school budget’s swelling deficit.

Other options hashed over that evening included firing all part-time aides and reducing salaries by five percent for full- and part-timers.

One measure by Commissioner Angelo Castillo to add more students per classroom, which would trim the school’s 10,900-student waiting list and boost enrollment revenues, also passed.

“We’ve been skating by on razor-thin ice for several years now,” said Castillo. “Our funding from the state was reduced and we’re in a lawsuit with the School Board.”

The city of Pembroke Pines is also embroiled in a November 2007 lawsuit against Broward County Schools, which argues the charters are entitled to new classrooms and funding tied to state capital improvement money called “2 mill,” or cash that directly aids charters and district schools, said City Manager Charles Dodge.

The charters, which include four elementary, two middle, and a high school, service 5,422 kids. To offset the projected $1.3 million deficit, city officials had collected roughly $150,000 in proceeds from carnival, golf tournament and wine gala fundraisers.

Commissioners last March also sought a “development director,” or professional fundraiser devoted entirely to school fundraising, but the option stalled over risks that the employee’s salary and bad economy would hemorrhage the charter’s budget ever further.

To combat the deficit and iron out a fundraising strategy, Commissioner Iris Siple is inviting charter school parents, students, volunteer advisory board members and PTA members to Pines Charter Middle Central campus, at 12350 Sheridan St., June 30 at 7 p.m.

For more information, call 954-435-6501, or visit www.ppines.com.