The Hopkinton school board will have to wait another year before looking to add new positions to the district.

The board and the Hopkinton budget committee met Wednesday night to discuss what the draft budget would look like if the projected tax impact were cut in half.

The board was unable to totally achieve that goal, though they came close: They reduced the budget by $300,000, which included removing a much-wanted curriculum director from the budget, a cost of around $113,000, according to Hopkinton superintendent Steven Chamberlin.

The budget would reduce the tax impact to a 57-cent increase rather than a $1.02 increase per $1,000 of assessed property value, he said

In addition to scuttling the curriculum director position, the board also used money from an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant to offset the costs of a one-on-one special education aide and used revenue from the district’s building and maintenance fund for a project that would have been raised through tax dollars, said Bill Chapin, school board representative to the budget committee.

The board also decided to budget for 100 percent of state adequacy aid, which will bump projected revenues in that category from $94,721 to $109,000. It’s a move they usually wouldn’t do, said Hopkinton school board chair Matt Cairns. The board likes to budget for around 95 percent of expected aid to be conservative.

“We’re just going to cross our fingers and hope we get it,” he said.

Cairns acknowledged it was a lot to ask for another position this year, especially when the district was facing increases in mandatory spending areas, such as health insurance. Hopkinton schools’ portion of the tax rate is notably high: – last year the rate was $21.15, making it the third-highest in the state. This year, the schools’ portion dropped to $21.07. The town’s overall tax rate this year was $33.55, down 7 cents from last year.

To combat rising health insurance costs, the school board reopened negotiations with teachers; the new three-year contract would save the district nearly $300,000 if approved by voters. Health insurance costs were projected to increase by 23.2 percent, or almost $600,000, Chamberlin said.

“I’m very pleased the school board will be able to go into the budget hearing unified with the budget committee,” Cairns said. “They said we should be patted on the back, because we had to make some very aggressive decisions this year.”

The board was able to save some of their priorities: although the curriculum director was out, they added $10,000 for a curriculum consultant, and the budget committee agreed to continue to provide $7,000 to help fund the football program, Chamberlin said. Programs such as all-day kindergarten were not impacted at all.

“I really appreciate the collaborative nature of the budget committee,” Chamberlin said. “We understand this might not have been the year to be asking for more positions.”

The overall budget, including warrant articles and recent changes, is around $19.3 million. A public hearing on the budget will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 at Town Hall.

(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndews.)