LEWISTON – There are still two school departments in Lewiston and Auburn. Still two superintendents, two business managers, two special education directors, two transportation directors, and two adult education programs.

Because of their sizes, the Lewiston and Auburn school departments escaped having to merge this year in Gov. John Baldacci’s school district consolidation push.

But, some departments on either side of the Androscoggin River are working more with each other, department heads reported Wednesday night during a joint meeting of the Lewiston and Auburn school committees.

Comments from school board members indicated that some were more open to merging services than others.

Lewiston schools business manager Dean Flanagin and Auburn business manager Jude Cyr said that in the past year they saved each of their cities $125,000 or more by jointly buying fuel oil. Smaller savings were made – however figures were not given – by buying photocopier paper, athletic equipment and supplies. This year, 10 Lewiston high school students are attending Auburn’s alternative high, Franklin School.

Some Edward Little students attend Lewiston’s Regional Vocational Technical Center, and some Lewiston students attend a special education program in Auburn, the Regional Educational Treatment Center, which saves money because students don’t have to be sent to outside programs.

Could more special ed students be sent to the program to save money, one Lewiston board member asked. No, Cyr answered. The program is full.

Lewiston School Committee member Norman Prevost said Lewiston will soon have an empty building, the Pettingill School, where a larger RETC program could be housed. Auburn School Committee member Bonnie Hayes said no, the program needs to stay “on our side” of the river.

Special education directors for both cities shared how they work with each other. The programs have not realized big savings yet, said Lewiston Special Education Director Mel Curtis, but in the future “savings will become much more prominent.”

The departments have shared the costs of getting mandated special education forms translated from English into Somali.

Auburn City Councilor Ron Potvin asked, “Why do we have two separate special ed departments?” Why can’t there be one for both cities, he asked.

“My question is why do we need two separate school departments?” countered Auburn School Committee Chairman David Das.

Auburn Superintendent Tom Morrill said the two communities have different valuation bases, which means they get different amounts of state money for education, and have different teacher salary scales.

Lewiston School Superintendent Leon Levesque said Potvin raised an interesting question.

Education programs could be merged more easily if there was one school department for both cities, not two, Levesque said. Two school departments make working together more complicated, Levesque said. “Why don’t you just do the whole thing, and everything else will fall in place?” Levesque asked. “I don’t get it. If it can’t be solved at the top level, why do you want to do all the lower levels?”

If there was only one special ed department but two school departments, “who do you report to?” Levesque asked, adding that one district would simplify efforts.

Adult education directors for Lewiston and Auburn said their programs are also working together, something that didn’t used to happen. Recently, when one Lewiston CNA class was full, Lewiston referred those students to Auburn, said Lewiston Adult Education Director Rob Callahan.

And when Auburn only had two people signed up for chemistry, “we canceled the class and referred the students to Lewiston,” said Auburn Adult Education Director Scott Gowell.

Prevost, from the Lewiston board, asked if there will be one course brochure for both cities.

“We’re not there yet,” Gowell said.

“Giddy up,” Prevost said.