By this time of year, Lawrence school district staff usually are deep into gut-wrenching negotiations to prepare for budget cuts.

Not this time.

Supt. Randy Weseman said he wouldn’t authorize the anxiety-producing discussions until Gov. Kathleen Sebelius reveals her plan for financing the state’s 302 local school districts in the 2004-2005 school year.

“I think we need to hear from our governor,” Weseman said. “That should trigger our budget process.”

The district’s budget committee typically gets cranked up in October or November, but it’s likely the panel will remain idle until January. That’s when Sebelius delivers her budget message to the 2004 Legislature.

Weseman said he wasn’t counting on the governor and Legislature adopting an increase in state financing to school districts.

If funding remains flat, he said, the rising cost of health insurance, transportation, energy and salaries could require reallocation of as much as $1 million in the Lawrence district’s 2004-2005 budget.

The board approved about $7 million in spending cuts and fee increases over the past three years, he said.

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Leni Salkind, the board’s vice president, said delaying the budget committee’s work a couple of months would be fine. The public generally doesn’t get actively engaged in the process until April or May, she said.

“I don’t think people listen until it’s right there in their face,” Salkind said.

Weseman said the district would develop a new list of potential cuts instead of relying on the list it produced for last year’s discussions.

“We’re not going to go to the old list,” he said. “At this point, people need to put some cards on the table before we put our cards on the table.”