Under a threat of cuts in state aid, local school departments are spending cautiously, if at all.

The Cape Elizabeth School Department has frozen its 2008-2009 spending. Scarborough schools are also cutting back on spending, reducing funding for field trips and purchasing only the things deemed necessary.

Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins said the department will continue to pay salaries and fringe benefits, but is only spending on an as-needed basis. The spending curb came after Gov. John Baldacci last week told state agencies they had one week to come up with ways to cut $150 million from current state spending as state revenues fell further behind projections.

Currently, Cape is freezing spending on any items that are not considered essential to the school, Hawkins said.

“The schools should be worried,” said state Sen. Joe Brannigan (D-Cumberland County), a member of the State and Local Government Committee. “It’s a very serious situation and the picture’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.”

Cape could lose its June 2009 payment of about $200,000 in general purpose aid from the state if the Department of Education decides to make a $54 million cut to general purpose aid, Hawkins said. Cape voters in September approved a $19.8 million budget for the school department. A little more than $3 million of that will come from general purpose aid.

“It makes it very difficult,” Hawkins said. “At this point, I have frozen all budgets. Luckily it’s early in the school year so that I have very clear control as to what we are spending until we know what all of this means.”

The Department of Education was expected to make a final decision and submit a letter to the governor detailing cuts by Thursday, said spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

“Those curtailments will come almost exclusively from general purpose aid,” Connerty-Marin said about aid that is given to schools throughout the state to supplement their school budgets. “How this will affect each school district overall is not clear.”

That uncertainty and waiting is the most difficult part, said Scarborough Superintendent David Doyle. Scarborough, which is operating with a school budget of $35 million, which includes $7 million in general purpose aid, is cutting its funding for field trips and is only purchasing necessary items, such as computer software for its computer class, he said.

Part of the budget woes come from a voter mandate requring the state to fund 55 percent of educational costs for public schools, said Brannigan. However, schools were informed earlier this year that general purpose aid would not be increasing in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The proposed cuts would take place this year.

“That’s a big concern, since we’re well into the school year and we’ve budgeted our staff and other expenditures based on a budget that was approved last May on revenue coming forward from the state,” Doyle said. “That’s an issue, and we are waiting with bated breath.”

South Portland said it has not made a move on its budget yet, but it is waiting to see how much the state decides to cut from general purpose aid, said Superintendent Suzanne Godin.

South Portland is operating with a $39 million budget with a little more than $4 million coming from general purpose aid.

“We haven’t made any decision yet, but we are definitely watching what’s happening very closely,” she said. “Once we have a better understanding, we will then make decisions about our budget.”

Schools are not the only areas facing possible state budget cuts. Brannigan said Health and Human Services, corrections and the courts will be hit hard during the next two years.

He also said the state will need to tap into its $180 million reserves to make up for budget shortfalls.

“That looked like a lot of money at one time,” Brannigan said of the reserves. “That looks pretty anemic now.”

Baldacci said last week that he is in discussions with legislative leaders about having a special session this month to make cuts he cannot make under the budget curtailment law.