While Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough and South Portland school departments will benefit from the recently passed stimulus package, waiting to find out how that money will work has thrown their budget plans into slight disarray.

Scarborough was ready to vote Feb. 26 on a final budget to send to the Town Council. It is delaying that decision until later this month when it will be clearer how much the aid the district can expect to receive through the recent federal stimulus package, Superintendent David Doyle said.

“We can’t create a budget until we know what our revenues are going to be,” Doyle said. “We figured it was better to hold off for a few weeks until we know exactly how much money we’re going to be receiving and what stipulations are attached to the money.”

State Education Commissioner Sue Gendron on Feb. 25 traveled to Washington, D.C., to discuss with President Barack Obama’s administration the details of the stimulus package and how it will affect Maine’s schools, said department of education spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

Gendron had hoped at the time to have concrete answers for Maine’s superintendents, but will need to wait until March 9 to have a better understanding of how the stimulus money will work for Maine, Connerty-Marin said.

“It was a positive meeting,” Connerty-Marin said. “Of course, in the meantime, we need some guidance soon.”

South Portland Superintendent Suzanne Godin said she would like the guidance to come sooner rather than later. South Portland’s city charter mandates that the school department submit its budget to the City Council by March 15.

Godin will submit a proposed $40.8 million school budget to the City Council on that date. The budget is a 2.2 percent increase from last year’s $40 million budget. It includes a concrete list of expenditures, Godin said, but she and the school board will need to submit a revised budget that includes a list of revenues after they better understand how much money the school district will receive from the stimulus package.

“We do have some wiggle room since the City Council won’t begin working on the budget until April 1,” Godin said. “Hopefully, we’ll have more definitive answers for them by then.”

School districts do expect $27 million in state subsidies will be restored. The state cut its general purpose aid to education to make up for a budget shortfall this year.

Scarborough will receive $781,000, Cape will get back its $441,000, and South Portland will recoup its $830,000, Connerty-Marin said.

That’s good, Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins said, but schools still don’t know if they can roll that money over into next year’s budget or exactly how that money can be spent.

Not knowing the stipulations of the money makes it difficult to develop an appropriate budget, Hawkins said.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “I didn’t get this year’s budget until Sept. 2, then in October I learned that we were losing a lot of our GPA funding so I enacted a wage freeze in October. My concern now is if we get that money back this year, can we roll it over into next year if we don’t spend all of it because we were told that we could expect GPA curtailments for the next two years.”

Schools do know they can spend the money on Title I programs, early childhood education, adult and family literacy programs, and special education programs, Connerty-Marin said. They cannot spend it on extra curricular programs, such as sports, and it cannot be spent on new construction, or buying or upgrading vehicles.

Schools are also looking cautiously at how it will implement the stimulus money, Godin said.

The state is advising schools to use the money wisely, she said. Districts are looking at one-time expenditures so they don’t put themselves in unsustainable situations.

“We’re looking at how to spend the money in a way that could produce savings going into the future,” Godin said. “We need to spend the money wisely.”

Doyle said he hopes to have a budget ready for the Town Council by March 19.

Late last month, Doyle submitted a budget proposal to the Board of Education with a 3.5 percent increase. The current budget is $35 million, and Doyle’s proposal would bring the total to $36.3 million.

The increases include adding a half-time social worker, reinstating an educational technician at the Pleasant Hill School Library, supporting and expanding an English as a second language, or ESL, program, and continuing work on a new math curriculum that will be introduced at the middle school.

In Cape Elizabeth, Hawkins is currently working on a proposed budget of $20 million. That’s a 2 percent increase over this year’s budget.

All school budgets will go to referendum by May.