LEWISTON – A year from now, students and residents may be able to go out to eat on the Lewiston High School campus and support the education of future cooks and chefs.

The Lewiston School Department is proposing to build a $1.3 million restaurant school along side of the East Avenue building and next to the YWCA.

That new chef school would double the number of students in the Lewiston Regional Technical Center culinary arts program.

That program teaches students from Lewiston, Edward Little, Lisbon, Leavitt, Oak Hill and Poland high schools. There’s a waiting list of students who want to get into the program, said teacher and chef Dan Caron. And he receives frequent calls from restaurants looking to hire trained students.

The program is taught now at a building owned by the National Guard on Goddard Road near Exit 80. The lease on that space is up next year, and the Guard may need its space back, said LRTC director Don Cannan. “We need to expand,” he said.

As proposed, a 10,000-square-foot building would be built where some hills exist, so site preparation would involve excavating and building a retaining wall. The building would feature two classrooms, a large teaching kitchen, and a dining room that could seat 150. The existing catering and restaurant run by the LRTC students, The Green Ladle, seats 60. The exterior of the proposed building would match the brick of the high school.

The program would go from one full-time and one part-time teacher to two full-time teachers. The extra half-time position would be covered by meals sold by students, Cannan said.

The school restaurant would provide a place for teams, parent teacher organization events, sports boosters or city hall workers to hold meetings with catered meals, Cannan said.

Asked if the proposed school restaurant would take away from local businesses, Cannan said no. The restaurant opening would be limited, “and we don’t have a liquor license, so we’re not going to cater weddings.” There’s a need to produce more cooks and chefs, Caron said, adding that an additional 5,000 workers are needed in Maine in the next few years.

Staying in the current location over the next 20 years would cost $810,000, but the program could not accept more students.

Cannan said he’s often asked why he doesn’t grow the program.

“We’ve been at this three or four years,” Lewiston School Superintendent Leon Levesque said. Every time the conclusion is the same, the Lewiston High School site would be the best choice. “We do have some land,” Levesque said. “If we can make it work we could bring the program home,” meaning students would no longer have to be bused to Goddard Road.

School Committee members took no action on the proposal Monday night. They just heard information about the proposal. They will vote on the chef school in the coming weeks as they approve a school budget.

But several indicated they favor building a restaurant school near the high school.

It makes sense, several said, to expand a program to train workers that are in demand.

“It’s a no brainer,” said John Butler.

In other business, School Committee members approved two trips for high school students who qualified to compete in national speech contests. One national tournament will be held in June in Wichita, Kansas, the other in Houston, Texas, on Memorial Day weekend.

The speech students are Ashley McWhorter, Becca Spilecki, Rachel Spilecki, Ian Smedley, Jessica Fortin, Cassie Jensen, Lindsey Gaumont and Maame Bonsu.

The committee also approved a bronze sculpture that will be built outside the Farwell Elementary School when it opens this fall. The sculpture will be by Portland artist Aaron T. Stephan. It features nine bronze life-size desks resembling a school room.