LEWISTON – The Lewiston School Committee on Monday night unanimously approved a school budget that will not raise property taxes and not cut staffing and programs.

The $45.65 million spending plan now goes to the Lewiston City Council, which is scheduled to vote on it April 29.

After that, it will have to be approved by Lewiston residents in a citywide referendum May 6.

The new state consolidation law mandates residents vote on a K-12 budget, without adult education. The Lewiston City Council will be asked to spend $582,687 for adult education. “Nothing changes” in the budget for adult education, Levesque said.

Counting adult education, total school spending for the year that begins July 1 will be $46.2 million, up about 3 percent from last year.

Spending is higher because of staff raises (about a 3 percent increase), and rising health costs. However, health costs aren’t going as high as earlier projected, Levesque told committee members Wednesday night.

Levesque budgeted health costs to increase by 8 percent, and just found out next year’s costs will be 4 percent higher. That means Lewiston will spend $182,702 less than planned. Higher fuel costs also contributed to a larger budget.

Despite higher costs, three things created a school budget with no increase to taxpayers: more money from state taxpayers, a surplus Levesque carried from last year, and a spending plan that maintained but did not increase programs. Plus, the School Department returned $347,441 to the city to cover what would have been a slight tax increase in the state education formula because Lewiston’s property values have risen.

Lewiston was to receive about $540,000 more than last year from the state, but that increase recently rose by $215,000, Levesque said. The increase is because of an adjustment state legislators made to restore money to teach English as a Learning Language students.

School Committee member James Handy said this year’s budget process and referendum is new because of the state’s school district consolidation law.

“I’m proud to say we didn’t need a law . . . to run our schools” efficiently and effectively while maintaining high standards and a variety of programs to serve all students, Handy said.

“We always have the taxpayers’ wallets in mind as we proceeded through this process, this year and every year. That’s evidenced by the money we return to the city with our desire not to increase taxes any more than they have to be,” he said. “We’ve been there for our students, and we’ve been there for the citizens who pay the taxes.”

While most school districts spend more than they should, according to the state’s Essential Programs and Services formula, Lewiston is among the minority of communities that spends at or under the EPS recommendation.

State government did not have to tell Lewiston how to be frugal with taxpayers’ money. “We knew how to do it because we’ve done it in the past. We will continue to do so,” Handy said.

Norm Prevost agreed. “We’re all taxpayers. I pay a lot of property taxes. I’m glad to see the School Department is prudent with my tax money.”

Middle school program

In other business the School Committee unanimously approved a new program for Lewiston Middle School.

The so-called STEM Lab will combine science, math, pre-engineering and a hands-on experience for all seventh and eighth grade students, Principal Maureen Lachapelle said. Students will receive hands-on teaching using power tools. They’ll learn about woodworking, bridge construction, building a simple electromagnetic motor, alternative energy and biomedical engineer.

Lessons will teach science and math while answering students’ questions of why do we need to know this, educators said.

The estimated yearly cost is only $550, or $6 for each of the 700 students, because it is replacing the industrial arts woodworking program. The industrial arts program is disappearing because that teacher is retiring.

Also, the school committee approved a 10-year easement with the Sisters of Charity Health System, which operates St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

The hospital, which is near the middle school, needs more land to expand its emergency room, said SCHS President James Cassidy. The land is in back of the middle school’s athletic field and is not being used, Levesque said.

St. Mary’s will pay the school department $12,500 a year to lease the land. That money will be used for the middle school’s aspirations program, Levesque told the board.

The hospital will erect a fence between the end of the property used for the school and the larger emergency room, Cassidy said. Handy asked Cassidy about hospital workers smoking near the hospital, and would this bring smokers closer to the school. Cassidy said it would not. The area would be used for emergency room patient parking.