NEWPORT – The 2003 budget process in SAD 48 is proving to be so painful that Superintendent William Braun said he would retire this year, if he could, to avoid going through it.

“Between what I can afford to raise [from the six SAD 48 towns] and what the state will give me, I have an $800,000 hole,” said Braun on Tuesday.

“That is a full 6 percent of my budget. I don’t have a clue what we are going to do,” he admitted.

But one thing is for sure – whatever budget cuts are made, they will deeply affect both academics and sports, a situation Braun dreads.

“One program will be pitted against another,” he said. “This will only serve to pull this district apart.”

SAD 48 serves the towns of Corinna, Hartland, St. Albans, Newport, Palmyra and Plymouth; it educates 2,200 students in eight schools – five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school.

“The two choices the governor is giving us are consolidation or raise more money,” Braun said. “I don’t see how we can consolidate further. I don’t think Pittsfield is going to send their kids to Nokomis with [Maine Central Institute] in the center of town. And as far as raising more money, my towns cannot afford it.”

Braun said last year’s $15.8 million budget was “cut to the bone.” He said the district has done extremely well to keep the buildings upgraded – “although I have a furnace in Corinna that is ready to buy the farm” – and keep programming intact.

“Every year we go through this process and say, ‘We’ll make it.’ Well, we will make it this year but I don’t know what this district will look like when it comes out the other side.”

A preliminary draft has been etched out, said the superintendent, based on fixed costs such as fuel, electricity and salaries. “We’ve gone through two-thirds of the principals’ requests. There will be nothing new. Every year we’ve cut back and controlled our budgets even with 20 to 30 percent increases. We’ve gone up annually less than our costs and it has eaten this district from the inside.

“We can’t do it any longer. It is impossible. This year academics, sports, everything will be impacted,” he said.

“If I didn’t have to wait four more years,” Braun admitted, “I would retire. Who wants to be in the position of supplying education, doing what is best for kids and then, now, because there is no money, destroying it?”

Braun said the next meeting of the district budget committee is March 6, at which time the administrator’s budgets will be reviewed.