SKOWHEGAN -- School Administrative District 54 directors are scheduled to get an update on seasonal-flu clinics in district schools at a meeting tonight, along with a first peek at school funding for next year.

The school board meeting is set for 7 p.m. in the Skowhegan Area Middle School cafeteria.

School Superintendent Brent Colbry said the district will sponsor a series of free flu-shot clinics for all students beginning next week.

"We've got a series of clinics, six scheduled, starting November 12th -- we're going to do it by school," Colbry said. "We're going to have one in each building, spread out from November 12th to December 4th and we'll give what we have; so if we have seasonal flu vaccine, that what's we'll give. If we have H1N1, we'll give that as well -- (students) can get both if they're over nine years old."

The seasonal-flu vaccine is available to all students from pre-school to high school, free of charge. Permission forms already have been sent out.

SAD 54 has 1,000 does of seasonal-flu vaccine in stock, ordered through Redington-Fairview General Hospital, with more expected. Total enrollment in the district is about 2,800 students.

Colbry said so far the district has no doses of H1N1 vaccine.

He said so far this year there has not been a spike of kids going home sick or being absent from school due to the flu or colds. Colbry said he tracks attendance each morning and has not seen an uptick in absenteeism.

As for the district budget for next year, Colbry said school officials expect leaner times ahead.

"I'm just going to share the latest that the commissioners and the governor have been talking about, with potential curtailment -- they're asking for about $38 million to be coming back out of this year's allocation for schools, for all Maine schools."

Colbry said SAD 54 officials will have to find about $500,000 to cut from a current budget that already is lean. He said district officials anticipated the cuts and are prepared.

"We could see this coming," he said. "I have tried to position ourselves so that we could absorb it. I've already stopped discretionary spending. We won't be finding more money; we'll be living within the amount of money that we've got and make reductions where we can.

"We'll just be spending less."

Voters in SAD 54 towns adopted a budget of $32.6 million for the current year, which ends in June 2010.

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com