LEWISTON — Why was Lewiston School Department administrator Jackie Little touring fire stations Monday?

She was getting to know city departments, because the city and the School Department will soon share human resources duties.

Each has its own HR department, but that may change. The long-range goal is to have one department.

“Six months ago, there were two separate HR departments doing their own thing,” said Tom Jarvis, human resources director for Lewiston schools. “Now we’re looking at it as one department trying to provide that service to all employees of the city. Hopefully, we’ll be more efficient.”

Last week, the City Council and the School Committee approved a pilot project for the two departments to work together.

Both will be led by Little, assistant human resources director for Lewiston schools. In return, city safety manager Don Mailhot will provide School Department workers with safety training. Phil Nadeau, deputy city administrator, who has been filling in as HR director, will continue to work on labor union negotiations.

Not many city councils and school departments in the state are working this close together, Nadeau said. He cited Westbrook as an exception, where the School Department and city share human resources.

In February, Lewiston elected officials will be updated on how things are going and will decide whether to continue.

The change in Lewiston came about last year when now retired Superintendent Leon Levesque asked city officials about sharing resources to save money.

“The logical thing that popped up had to do with human resources,” Jarvis said. When Lewiston Human Resources Director Denis Jean retired last winter, his position was not filled; his duties went to Nadeau.

Up next is an audit comparing city and School Department employee benefits to see what could be consolidated.

Some are different because they need to be, Little said. One example could be teachers’ health benefits administered by the statewide teachers union. But other benefits, including dental, vision, disability and life insurance, are similar.

“Maybe we could take advantage of some opportunities to get better rates,” Little said. “Change can be good, but change for the sake of change is not good. We don’t intend to fix things that aren’t broken.”

Jarvis and Little are optimistic that when the one-year pilot project is over, there will be other opportunities to consolidate and save.

“One of the benefits is us getting to know each other,” Jarvis said.

It’s too early to tell how much could be saved, he said. So far, the city is saving Jean’s annual salary, which was $80,000, not counting benefits.

Consolidating is the right way to go, Nadeau said, adding that the economy is recovering very slowly. “All of this is putting pressure on local government. There’ll be more jobs shed.”

City government and the School Department are “natural partners,” he said. “Regrettably, there isn’t a long list of communities where the relationship between the school department and municipal government as is strong as it is in this community,” Nadeau said. “We’re fortunate.”

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