Lewiston City Council voting on School Budget – Tuesday May 5th
Key Dates
- Tuesday, May 5th at 7pm: Lewiston City Council Budget Workshop @ Lewiston City Hall
- Tuesday, May 12th – 7am to 8pm: School Budget Referendum Vote @ Longley Building
Actions You Can Take
- Speak during public comment at the city budget workshop (date above)
- Call or email your city councilors (or send public comment to: publiccomments@lewistonmaine.gov)
- Read up on the city budget @ budgetdata.net
- Encourage your friends and neighbors to make a plan to vote on the school budget
- You can vote in-person at City Hall Wednesday May 6th and Thursday May 7th – 7:45am-4pm
- Or vote Tuesday May 12th at the Longley Building – 145 Birch St from 7am to 8pm
- For more info: https://www.lewistonmaine.gov/117/Elections
School Budgets
The School Budget is the only budget that citizens directly vote on. The School Committee approved the school budget on April 27th. The next step in the process is the City Council must vote to approve the school budget and send it to referendum to validate the vote. The referendum vote will be on May 12th.
What was cut from the School Budget?
Due to local taxpayer concerns about not being able to support rising tax burden, combined with rising fixed costs facing the schools this year which included electricity, workmans comp insurance, transportation, special education, contractual cost of living salary increases, and more, the School Committee made difficult decisions to cut 26 positions from our schools. While some are administrator roles, many others are working directly with students and teachers in classrooms, including: Ed Techs, Duty Aids, Special Ed Resource Room Teachers, Technology Coaches, and Social-Emotional Learning Coaches. The budget also uses half of LPS’s remaining fund balance. This resulted in a School Budget unanimously approved by the School Committee on 4/27 representing an 8.06% increase over last year’s local funding request for schools.
Committee Member Perspective on Budget Cuts
I am proud that the budget passed unanimously by the School Committee maintains what are in my view critical educational and school safety supports that were initially proposed for cuts, including: Librarians for our High School and Middle School; Gen Ed Social Workers; a Multilingual Coach for LMS/LHS; Family Engagement and Dean-like behavioral support staff, and more. Much of this was made possible by community advocacy as well as through additional one-time funding secured by our state legislators in the supplemental budget. Additional hope for next year includes increased state funding for Lewiston Schools. While the state currently contributes close to 70% of the total cost Lewiston’s school budget, this session our legislature passed a bill updating the school funding formula for the first time in decades. This update includes notable increases for districts with high numbers of economically disadvantaged students. These changes signal additional revenue for Lewiston’s 2027-2028 budget.
Where can I learn more?
The full agenda packet for the City Council meeting is here. You may view the school department’s budget website here, or explore the data using an interactive tool at BudgetData.net (not an official school or city tool).