LEWISTON — School Superintendent Bill Webster said Tuesday he is enacting a spending freeze in reaction to a recommendation by officials to cut $35.5 million from the state budget.

The Lewiston School Department spending freeze could mean things such as scheduled maintenance, roof repairs or a new floor are postponed. It could mean field trips are canceled. It could mean computers as old as five to eight years aren’t get replaced. Or it could mean cuts in tuition reimbursements to other districts, Webster said.

“Our goal is to meet the curtailment through spending cuts other than layoffs,” Webster said. “We will do all we can to have minimal impact, if any, on student learning. We’re going to be as creative as we can in finding alternatives that will allow us to maintain the same educational experience for students.”

The worst thing he could do for Lewiston schools “is to spend more money than we have,” he said.

Based on experience, Webster said the $35 million in cuts could mean as much as a $27 million reduction in General Purpose Aid to Education. If that happens, Lewiston’s share of that amount would be $945,000, a significant chunk of the city’s $54.5 million budget.

The $945,000, plus another $1 million Lewiston could owe from state changes in how special education medical costs are collected, would be more than what the School Department has in its rainy day fund of $1.3 million.

“There are few things worse for schools than a mid-year curtailment,” Webster said.

School budgets are labor intensive, with 85 percent going to wages and benefits,” Webster said. “The only way to reduce payroll and benefits is through layoffs. Layoffs are terrible to begin with, but to do it this time of year, it doesn’t do much to save.”

Teachers’ union contracts mandate that before staffers are laid off, they must be given three months’ notice. “If a district were to do a layoff in notice in January, the layoff would be the first of April. The situation means we’d save next to nothing doing layoffs mid-year, as opposed to making a decision the prior spring for the next budget.”

And unlike most Maine communities, Lewiston has a growing student population, gaining between 100 and 150 students per year.

“Are we going to lay someone off only to rehire them when we have 150 more kids in our classes? That makes no sense,” Webster said. “So we’re left with few options.”

State Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, who has served on the Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday she doesn’t know what the cuts would look like. “What’s in that curtailment is a mystery to us,” she said. “The governor is refusing to meet with our leadership.”

Webster is being prudent, Rotundo said.

Auburn Superintendent Katy Grondin said she hadn’t heard anything definitive about how schools would be affected by the state’s $35.5 million in red ink. “I did express to our administrative team this morning that we need to be mindful of our spending in order to be protective,” Grondin said.

Webster said he would look for more information from the state, meet with school principals and go through his budget “with a fine-tooth comb. It’s going to be all hands on deck.” He expects to make a presentation to the School Committee later this month.

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