AUGUSTA -- The city might close Hussey Elementary School or Hodgkins Middle School, lay off 25 to 30 employees, eliminate some academic programs or cut extracurricular activities in the coming year.

That was Augusta schools Superintendent Cornelia Brown's message to Board of Education members Wednesday night as officials began plotting how schools would grapple with an expected $1.5 million to $2 million shortfall next school year.

"Everything's on the table," board chairman William Burney said in an interview. "We're not immune from the international financial dilemma we're in."

Two months into the current school year, the district has already instituted a spending freeze in an effort to save $600,000, Brown said. The move curbs new spending on travel and professional development and prevents new purchases.

The district might find the budgetary outlook worsening as Gov. John Baldacci prepares to issue a spending curtailment order in the coming days. The state is facing revenue projections that have fallen $110 million to $150 million below earlier expectations.

"We were hoping early on for flat funding for next year," Brown said. "If you run a business, you know your costs are never static."

State agencies are submitting plans for budget cuts to the governor this week. The Department of Education will assume nearly $55 million of those cuts, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told superintendents on Monday.

Most Department of Education funds are earmarked for local school districts.

"The effect on our programs will be considerably greater than on someone who does not get as much general purpose aid," Brown said, noting Augusta's schools rely on the state for approximately 60 percent of their funding.

Brown said Board of Education members would have to decide before the end of the year -- before budget planning season -- which of the major cuts to endorse.

"If the board says we need to talk about closing a building, I wouldn't develop a budget including that building," Brown said.

If board members vote to close the 380-student Hodgkins Middle School, Brown said, the seventh- and eighth-grade students would move to the Cony High School campus, which is also the site of Capital Area Technical Center.

"We would need to make use of the Cony-CATC campus differently than we currently do," Brown said.

If the city closes Hussey Elementary School, Brown said, it would be difficult to place the 225 students in Augusta's other elementary schools.

"I don't have enough rooms in the other three elementary schools to take all the kids," she said. "I would have to look at eliminating programs."

Full-day kindergarten, pre-kindergarten, music programs and others would risk being eliminated, Brown said. Class sizes would likely increase, too, she said.

"If you've watched the growth in Augusta over the last three or four years, the growth has been in the pre-K and first and second grades," Brown said.

Board members on Wednesday seemed to agree on a need to make cuts.

"The bottom line is we are going to have to make huge cuts," Ward 3 member Jane Dennison said. "Nobody likes to do it, but it's a necessary evil in this economy."

Residents would probably not stand for an elimination of athletics, Ward 4 member Suzanne Allarie-Dowling said. But closing Hodgkins Middle Schools might be easier to stomach, she said.

"I don't think closing Hodgkins would be the worst thing in the world," she said.

The prospect of closing Hussey Elementary School drew more opposition.

"It seems like every time when there's downsizing to be done, Hussey is on the chopping block," said Melissa O'Connor, who lives near the school. "It's close by and people move to the neighborhood because of Hussey."

If residents do not want cuts, board members said, they could agree to raise the money locally through property taxes.

"People might say, 'We want to pay, we want to keep those things,'" Burney said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com