LEWISTON, Maine – The Lewiston School Committee met Monday night to take another run at its fiscal year 2027 budget after voters rejected the original proposal at the polls last week, forcing school officials to make deeper reductions before sending the spending plan back to taxpayers.
The May 12 referendum failed 1,463 to 1,092, with Superintendent Jake Langlais noting that voters also indicated the budget was too high by a wide margin.
“We know the initial budget was rejected, and so we have to keep that in mind,” School Committee Chair Phoenix McLaughlin said during the discussion.
Langlais presented a revised package cutting an additional $1.169 million from the proposal, bringing the local funding request down to $32.88 million, a 4.35 percent increase over the current year.
The reductions include projected savings from workers’ compensation, changes at Lewiston Regional Technical Center, special education administration, a multilingual coach position, technology, facilities, transportation, and other staffing adjustments.
McLaughlin said the process was made more difficult by low voter participation, even as the defeated budget sent the committee back to the table.
“This process is so difficult when it’s a relatively small fraction voting on the budget,” McLaughlin said. “And I hope that we can at least help people make informed decisions in voting on the budget.”
He also warned that residents who vote early in the June primary may not realize the school budget referendum will not appear on the ballot until after June 2. The next in-person referendum vote is expected June 9, the same day as Maine’s primary election.
Janet Beaudoin was the only committee member to vote against the revised budget package.
Beaudoin repeatedly warned against reducing special education staffing and multilingual support, saying the district continues to see growing student needs.
“Once we take it out, we’re not getting it back,” Beaudoin said.
She also said she could not support cutting special education positions at a time when those needs continue to increase.
“I just can’t in good conscience take that away,” Beaudoin said.
Beaudoin pushed the committee to reconsider earlier proposals involving district library staffing and suggested reducing newly proposed student support specialist positions instead of cutting special education administration.
Several committee members voiced discomfort with reductions to special education and multilingual programs but ultimately supported the revised package, saying they believed additional cuts were necessary to give the budget a realistic chance of passing on a second vote.
Public commenters urged the committee not to go further, warning that continued staffing reductions would directly impact students and educators.
After several hours of debate, the committee approved the revised budget package by an 8-1 vote, with Beaudoin casting the only vote against the proposal.
The budget now heads to the Lewiston City Council, which must review it twice before it can return to voters.
