LEWISTON — School Superintendent Leon Levesque is recommending a budget for 2011-12 that would not raise property taxes and would hire new teachers to cover growing enrollment.

The recommended budget would be nearly $1 million more than the year before, going from $51.2 million to $52.2 million, a 1.9 percent increase.

Despite that $1 million more in spending, plus an expected $600,000 cut in state education money, property taxes would not go up in Lewiston, Levesque said, because the School Department has squirreled away money.

Anticipating the end of federal stimulus money, the School Department last year and this year made cuts and saved $2.1 million.

Last year, four middle school positions were cut, saving $90,000. Lewiston received $607,000 extra from stimulus money “that we banked,” Levesque said.

“We also banked the jobs bill money, $823,514.” Cuts and spending freezes helped build the savings account, or fund balance, to $704,000.

All that will help Lewiston schools maintain services without raising property taxes.

“We did not spend the extra money. We made the cuts. We saved it for this year. That money is there,” Levesque told the School Committee on Monday night.

The recommended $52.2 million budget would:

* Hire two new teachers at the Lewiston Middle School, one at Geiger, to keep pace with growing enrollment.

* Cover the costs for seven positions that have been covered by the stimulus money, including special ed coordinators, prekindergarten teaching staff and a high school social worker.

* Keep spending flat for most budget lines.

* Honor the last year of labor contracts, which call for raises of about one percent.

* Allow for health insurance costs to rise 5 percent.

* Cover the costs of the Lewiston Academy, a dropout prevention program at the high school. The academy was covered by a grant and is now in the budget.

Levesque proposed his budget earlier than normal because he’s retiring Dec. 31.

Since it’s early, he cautioned the committee and School Department to keep an eye on a few areas.

One is growing enrollment. Last August the city “picked up 60 additional kindergarten kids unexpectedly,” Levesque said. “Kindergarten enrollment is over state guidelines. We did receive a waiver. It took us completely by surprise. If this occurs again next year, we need to look at adding kindergarten positions out of the contingency account,” which would have $300,000.

Special education is another area that needs monitoring, Levesque said. That account is running over projected costs by about $400,000. The city just received two new students with high needs getting service from Margaret Murphy “at $100,000 apiece,” Levesque said. “Just two kids, $200,000.” Levesque said grant money and Medicaid reimbursement may offset some of the costs.

One more area to dog is state education money, Levesque said. If Gov.-elect Paul LePage and the Legislature next year cut more than expected, Lewiston’s budget may have to be revamped.

The budget proposal is now in the hands of the School Committee and incoming Superintendent Bill Webster, who begins his job Jan. 1.

This winter and spring Webster and committee members will work on the budget line by line before passing it. From there the budget will go to the Lewiston City Council, then finally to Lewiston voters for their approval in a referendum May 10.

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