Local school departments are scrambling, superintendents say, after state cuts in general purpose aid were higher than expected.

The Scarborough School Department will be losing $781,000 in general purpose aid, nearly $300,000 more than it previously expected to lose after Gov. John Baldacci in early November announced that state departments needed to make $150 million in cuts to offset an upcoming budget shortfall.

Scarborough has frozen all unnecessary spending, such as field trips or buying materials that are not essential for the classrooms, said Superintendent David Doyle.

“We are looking at all of our budget lines,” Doyle said. “We are going to be curtailing our own expenses and we are scrambling to make up for the loss without cutting staff.”

Cape Elizabeth extended its spending freeze as it faces losing nearly $441,000 in general purpose aid. Superintendent Alan Hawkins originally thought the school would lose only $200,000 from the $19.8 million budget voters approved in September.

“This obviously hurts a lot,” Hawkins said. “We obviously can’t cut salaries and fringe benefits. We aren’t spending money on anything that is not necessary for the students. We do have some organizations that have field trips that were already budgeted for, and we might need to cut those trips.”

South Portland, which is operating with a $39 million budget with a little more than $4 million coming from general purpose aid, will lose nearly $830,000. Superintendent Suzanne Godin said the district previously thought it would only lose between $200,000 to $300,000.

“We are having a budget freeze,” she said. “We have frozen spending on budgeted items such as field trips and conferences.”

The state in mid-November announced that $27 million of general purpose aid for public schools would be cut, lower than the originally anticipated $54 million. However, the state doles out the education subsidy based on a formula that calculates each town’s property valuations – the higher the valuations, the less money a school district receives. And based on this formula, the state determined that Cape, South Portland and Scarborough schools would have bigger cuts in aid, Doyle said.

Doyle, Hawkins and Godin said they are going to meet with their respective town managers and town councils to map out plans to curb the negative affects of the budget cuts.

“It’s not just a school effort, but an overall town operation,” Hawkins said.

Schools were informed earlier this year that general purpose aid would not be increasing in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The proposed cuts, due to be finalized by the incoming Legislature by January at the earliest, would take place this school 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.”

Schools are not the only areas facing possible state budget cuts. State Sen. Joe Brannigan, D-Cumberland County, a member of the State and Local Government Committee, 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.”

Scarborough will tap into its $400,000 undesignated surplus budget to offset the cuts, Doyle said. The school district also caught a break, he said, because it is paying about $435,000 less in salaries that were budgeted for this year after some employees retired.

“That undesignated surplus will help us this year,” Doyle said, “But there is always next year that we need to brace for.”