CAPE ELIZABETH – Schools here have put a freeze on buying school supplies and equipment.

The neighboring school district in South Portland is telling staff to make sure that any time teachers take off for development training is directly related to the curriculum, because otherwise the district won’t pay substitute teachers to fill in for them. Field trips also are being monitored to make sure they’re truly necessary for learning.

Those are among the measures local school districts are taking to reduce spending as they brace for anticipated cuts in state subsidies. The state cuts to schools stem from a budget shortfall as revenues decline in the down economy.

Additionally, a statewide tax-cap proposal at the polls Nov. 3 and another ballot question about reducing the vehicle excise tax could make the situation even more dire if those measures pass, said Alan Hawkins, superintendent of Cape Elizabeth schools. Hawkins last week announced a freeze on all school spending except salaries and benefits.

“It means we will be short of some supplies,” he said. “We’re looking at pens and pencils and rulers and colored crayons, that type of supplies.”

It’s the second time in two years that the Cape Elizabeth schools have had to put a hold on spending to brace for a cut in state money. Last year, Hawkins said, Cape Elizabeth got a $421,000 cut in the $3 million state subsidy originally allotted to it for the 2008-2009 school year.

In the end, however, money from the federal stimulus bill buffered that loss, he said. This year, the superintendent said, Cape Elizabeth could lose as least as much as last year, if not more.

“Some people say it could even be double that,” he said. “Nothing is clear.”

And there may not be any federal stimulus money to cover the deficit this year, Hawkins said. If the town schools do lose $421,000 or more, there will have to be cuts in the school budget and possibly staff cuts, Hawkins said.

Cape Elizabeth’s school budget this year is just under $20.2 million. Hawkins said that represents only a 0.6 percent increase over the previous year’s budget, so the budget already is lean.

“I’m going to have to look at every piece of the school department and we could possibly be at the stage where we’re looking at staff,” he said. “If we don’t have the stimulus money this year, we’ll be in real trouble.”

In the meantime, he said, the district is limiting further purchases of supplies, focusing on those not integral to the teaching process. “That type of reduction during the current academic year can be very difficult for all involved,” Hawkins said.

However, he said, the school department can’t exceed the budget’s bottom line that voters approved last spring.

In South Portland, the schools are bracing for the expected shortfall with a “soft freeze,” said Polly Ward, business manager for the schools. She said principals were told “to limit anything not related to the curriculum.”

But she said it’s difficult because the school budget of $39.4 million is $500,000 less than it was in 2008-2009. “There’s not a lot of discretionary spending,” she said. Last year, South Portland schools lost $874,260 in state funding, and she’s heard this year’s cut could be that much or double. South Portland’s current state subsidy is $3.4 million, Ward said.

It’s not clear when school districts will know about the potential cuts in state money, school officials said. They said it could be just after the November election or early in 2010, when the Legislature is back in session.

Scarborough school officials could not be reached for comment for this story before the Current’s deadline.