MEDWAY — With state funding levels for education uncertain and delaying school budget deliberations, Medway selectmen decided Tuesday to delay the annual town meeting by more than one month.

The town meeting originally scheduled for May 26 will be held June 16 when residents will consider both the town’s budget and the school’s budget.

Steve Cram, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, recommended holding the annual town meeting in June this year and in future years.

“Unless things change drastically in Augusta and we get back to where we have figures early, we will probably stay with a middle of June town meeting,” he said.

Cram said he would like to be able to present an estimated tax rate at the meeting, but without a proposed school budget, he said it would be difficult to do.

Selectmen have prepared a proposed town budget, but school officials have have had to delay school budget deliberations because of the uncertainty about state funding levels.

Noting selectmen were making efforts to work with school officials, Cram said, “If we are talking good will, I don’t see why we can not be flexible,” he said.

Reacting to the postponement of the town meeting, School Superintendent Thomas Jarvis said, “That is good news. It allows us the opportunity to let the Legislature do what they need to do … to provide the information for us to prepare a budget.”

About 88 percent of Medway’s school budget comes from the state. The current 1992-93 school budget is $2.5 million. More than $1.8 million of it is funded by state subsidy, Jarvis said.

For Medway, state funding could be cut from $163,000 to $390,000.

Jarvis said, “There is no way I can put together a budget based on that large a spread. There are too many `ifs.’ If we get $390,000 less in subsidy, we are going to have major impacts on programming and personnel as opposed to a $163,000 cut, where we could work within those means, although it would not be easy. You would be making decisions without facts. You can play `what if’ only so far. When you are making decisions of that magnitude, it is very difficult to play `what if.”‘

Jarvis said that there were four school funding plans currently before the Legislature. Under a plan proposed by the Governor’s Task Force, he said Medway would receive about $1.4 million in state subsidy, or a reduction of about $382,000. In the plan the Education Committee recommended to the Appropriations Committee, Medway would receive about $1.6 million in subsidy, or about $163,000 less, he said.

Another plan presented but not recommended by the Education Committee to the Appropriations Committee would provide about $1.4 million for Medway, a reduction of about $390,000. In a plan to be presented by the Maine Superintendents’ Association, Jarvis said Medway would receive a state subsidy of about $1.7 million, or about $167,000 less than before.