Lewiston school committee debates cuts to student supports as budget shortfall looms

Superintendent Jake Lang presented the Lewiston School Committee with a set of FY27 budget options on April 1, proposing personnel changes and line-item corrections intended to reduce the district’s local funding request. Lang told the committee the district had identified $733,661 in recent adjustments from an updated insurance cap, a nutrition reimbursement correction and deferred facilities work, and said restoring all currently filled positions would add about $1.6 million to the local ask.

The budget presentation focused on categories of positions — well‑being and behavior supports, librarians, instructional coaches, literacy/math and multilingual coaches — and on tradeoffs between restoring filled posts, adding positions to replace sunsetting grants, or preserving core student supports. "When we add up all these items that have changed over the last few weeks or been found through the detailed effort, there's ... $733,661 that you can consider what you want to do with," Lang said.

Committee members pressed for detail…