LEWISTON — The public is welcome to comment on the proposed school budget before the School Committee meeting Monday, April 9.

Committee members are scheduled to vote on the budget at the meeting, which begins at 6:45 p.m. at the Dingley Building on Oak Street.

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster is recommending a bigger school budget to keep pace with a growing student population, and new programs to help more students graduate.

The budget would not increase local property taxes.

Webster initially proposed a $54.5 million budget for 2012-13, up 3.8 percent from the current $52.5 million budget. Of that $54.5 million, $38.6 million would come from state aid; $15.9 million would be raised from city taxpayers.

That would have meant a property-tax increase of $24 for a home valued at $150,000, but the committee told Webster to cut spending by $40,000 so property taxes woudn’t go up.

Webster said he would show Monday how he made the cut through a pilot collaboration with Head Start in which that program would run a new prekindergarten class at Longley Elementary School. The School Department would pay for the program but save money by not running it.

If the pilot is successful, “we should have the opportunity to offer universal pre-K in Lewiston at less cost,” Webster said.

His revised budget would create 16 new positions, in part to support a growing number of students attending the city’s schools. Enrollment is expected to grow from 5,045 to 5,232, an additional 187 students next year.

Half of the new positions would be devoted to new programs aimed at improving graduation rates.

“Lewiston has among the lowest four-year completion rate in Maine,” Webster said. “In trying to improve that, we’re using other pathways to allow students to be successful.”

The efforts would include more pre-school and elementary-grade in-house suspensions and alternative programs at the high school.

The dropout problem “doesn’t happen in high school,” Webster said. “It happens the day they first walk into the school, or the day they should walk into the school and don’t.”

His budget would spend $181,000 to create more alternative programs for high school students, allowing the school to “reach 40 to 50 students that we haven’t reached in the past,” Webster said.

Another $83,000 would create a small alternative program at Lewiston Middle School. The program would be on the second floor of the armory and would not interfere with senior citizen programs, Webster said.

And $50,000 would create in-house suspension programs at Longley and the middle school. Last year, an in-house suspension program at Montello Elementary School was successful, Webster said.

Instead of being kicked out for bad behavior, students attend a contained classroom where they study and work on re-entry plans developed by them and guidance counselors.

After the committee votes on the budget Monday, it will be sent to the City Council, then to voters in a May referendum.