LEWISTON — The School Committee on Monday night unanimously approved a $54.5 million budget that will create more programs to help more students have success in school.

The proposed 2012-13 budget will not increase property taxes because the city is receiving more money from the state for education, in part because of Lewiston’s growing enrollment.

Superintendent Bill Webster proposed a $54.5 million budget, which is up 3.8 percent from this year’s $52.5 million.

Of that $54.5 million, $38.6 million is from state aid, and $15.9 million is from city taxpayers.

Initially, the budget would have increased property taxes $24 per year for a home valued at $150,000. But last month, the School Committee directed Webster to cut $40,000 to keep property taxes from increasing.

Webster made that cut through a partnership with Head Start at Longley School. The school will get one more prekindergarten class, but $40,000 will be saved by having Head Start run one class and the School Department run the other.

School Committee member James Handy commended Webster on Monday “for coming up with a budget that does a lot more for students, even given the circumstances we find ourselves in fiscally.”

Handy said he’s disappointed that extra education technician to help teachers with large classrooms at Martel and Geiger elementary schools are not in the budget. He said he understands the fiscal constraint, but taxpayers need to keep in mind that Lewiston “needs to move our education system ahead. It does take money for the innovative programs,” Handy said. “All students do not learn all the same way or the same time or same pace.”

Committee Chairman Tom Shannon agreed that more education technicians are needed. Some early grade classes have 26 and 27 students with diverse needs, he said.

“These are students in their formative years and can use extra guidance,” he said. Some of those classes share education technicians, “some don’t have any at all.” Getting more will be a goal, he said.

But Shannon said he’s pleased that the budget provides more for Lewiston students, which should boost the number of students who graduate from high school. Lewiston has among the lowest four-year high school completion rates in Maine.

More students will be helped by expanding Lewiston Academy and other alternative high school programs, creating a middle school alternative program and in-house suspension programs at Longley Elementary and the Lewiston Middle School. Instead of kicking students out of school for bad behavior, they’ll continue school work in contained classrooms while working on re-entry plans. “We did some good work,” Shannon said.

It’s important for this year that the school budget not raise property taxes, Shannon said. In a few years the city should have “fewer expenditures. Bates Mill No. 5 won’t be an albatross around their neck any longer. The city will have made progress with more development.”

Webster said he was pleased with the committee’s support. The budget going to the City Council “meets the needs of our students with sensitivity to the ability of our citizens to pay. It’s a good balance.”

Webster said he likes that the budget pilots or expands programs creating more pathways for success for more students. More in-school suspensions, alternative programs and prekindergarten will help meet the needs of students “that we haven’t before.”

The budget creates 16 positions, half for new programs, half to support a growing number of students. Enrollment is expected to grow from 5,045 to 5,232 next year, an additional 187 students.

Another new program is a “virtual high school” at Lewiston High School. It will allow students to take online courses,  which will expand the number of available courses.

The budget will be presented to the City Council on April 26 and get a vote by the council May 1. It goes to voters May 15.