LEWISTON — Superintendent Jake Langlais warned School Committee members Monday that city schools could lose the popular 21st Century Community Learning Center program if cuts to federal funding are made.

For over a decade, hundreds of Lewiston students from kindergarten to 12th grade have benefitted from academic tutoring and enrichment opportunities through Lewiston Public Schools’ 21st Century after-school and summer program in four schools.

“I don’t know of other places where (Lewiston) students would access these supports (locally),” Langlais said.

The program is funded by federal dollars distributed through the Maine Department of Education on a three-year cycle in high-need, economically disadvantaged school districts, according to state officials.

Last month the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School in Cumberland in violation of Title IX for allowing transgender girls to participate in girls high school sports. Trump has previously threatened to withhold federal funds from Maine over the issue.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration gave the Maine Department of Education 10 days to reverse the policy or “risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.”

“The Maine Department of Education may not shirk its obligations under federal law by ceding control of its extracurricular activities, programs, and services to the Maine Principals’ Association,” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at DHHS, said in the release. “We hope the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School will work with us to come to an agreement that restores fairness in women’s sports.”

At the end of School Committee budget talks Monday night, Langlais said it is unlikely that the school department would be able to meet its matching fund requirement for the 21st Century program if federal funds are lost.

Lewiston schools received $690,000 this school year from the state to operate the program, with a requirement that the department must match a certain percentage of program costs, which added up to about $15,000-$20,000 at each of the four schools where programs are operated, Langlais said. The department must also fund 35% of the transportation costs for the program.

The school department also has over 30 federally funded staff positions, mostly interventionists and people providing smaller group support for students who are struggling with certain things impacting their education, he said.

If federal funds are lost, the items they pay for could not be shifted to the school department’s general fund without further increasing the proposed budget, which now shows a nearly 7% increase. Property owners would only see a 3.5% increase on the part of the budget funded by taxation.

“It’s a hard thing to say, but if we lose federal funding not only will those supported things go away, we could also take a hit on federal funding that causes us to stop doing certain things like 21st Century,” he said. “… If we can’t meet the match or if the federal funding gets curbed, we’ll have to just abandon the project as a whole intentionally. I don’t want to be doom and gloom; that hasn’t happened yet.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has already pulled $125,000 for Lewiston schools, and various amounts in other districts, for the Local Food for Schools program, which allows districts to purchase local produce for their nutrition programs.

Though Langlais does not see it as highly impactful to school funding, it will likely harm local food producers, he said.

Langlais told committee members he would keep a close eye on the school funding situation at the federal level. The school department will not know exactly how much it will receive from the federal government for another few months.