As the three branches of state government wrangle over how to best provide aid to public schools, local school administrators say they can do little but watch and wait.

“I could hypothesize a lot, but I think the reality here is that it’s a story in the making,” said Charles “Phil” Littlefield, superintendent of SAU 15, serving Hooksett, Auburn and Candia.

Littlefield, whose districts combined received nearly $5 million in state adequacy money last year, said school districts are stuck in a “twilight zone” as they wait to see how state aid may shake down this year.

He and SAU 53 Superintendent Tom Haley – the top administrator for six districts including Pembroke, Allenstown and Epsom – each said they used numbers provided late last year by the state Board of Education to project revenues in their school district budgets.

But a state budget plan recently announced by Gov. John Lynch would give districts a flat 5 percent hike in state aid in the next two years. That plan could dramatically lower the amount of revenue coming on to some districts districts, including Hooksett, Pembroke and Epsom.

Under that scenario, Hooksett would be out nearly $400,000 in revenue next fiscal year, and more than $550,000 state aid would evaporate in both Pembroke and Epsom. And with local budgets being largely inflexible as annual School District Meeting season is in full bloom, the shortfall would be made up through 2007-08 property taxes.

Lynch described the flat 5 percent hike as an “interim” solution to the school funding issue, which has divided the courts, the governor’s office and the Legislature for more than a decade.

He’s proposing a constitutional amendment to address state aid, and said he’s waiting for a definition of an “adequate education” before embracing the current funding law for next year.

“I do not believe we should put in place a new school funding formula until we have defined an adequate education and passed this constitutional amendment,” he said in a Feb. 15 budget address. “Nor do I believe we should simply go forward with the current law.”

The state Supreme Court has given the Legislature a June 30 deadline to define an “adequate education,” a move some state lawmakers have said exceeds the court’s authority.

“The big unknown we’re all dealing with right now is the June 30 deadline the Supreme Court has set,” said Littlefield.

The governor’s budget must also survive the Legislature.

“I just think there’s a lot of work to be done between now and June 30,” Littlefield said.

“From my point of view we’ll have to wait and see how this all unfolds.”

Haley said the timing of such political wrangling couldn’t be worse, especially as official ballot voting, or SB2, school district have already had their annual meetings.

“In most cases it’s not a catastrophic change,” Haley said of this year’s potential funding changes. “The issue, I think, is the uncertainty the voters may be feeling.”

He said districts like Pembroke, which has a traditional School District Meeting, may be better off since voters will still have the chance to question their school officials about the uncertainty of state aid.

“I think once people have a more complete picture,” he said, “they’re going to be a little less panicky.”

Littlefield stressed that the operational costs in his three school districts ultimately will come from some sort of taxation.

“I never look at state aid as free money that comes out of the clouds – it is coming out of the taxpayers pockets,” he said. “It’s not like when we say ‘state aid’ it’s coming from New York.”

He said he’s not concerned about voters being anxious because he said most voters are aware that all three districts put forth “pretty conservative budget recommendations.”