Although the Old Rochester Regional School Committee had hoped to add or expand several part-time positions for 2015-16, the money wasn’t there this year.

“It’s not an ideal budget,” said Business Administrator Patrick Spencer. “We don’t think it’s what we really need here, but we're managing what we’re getting.”

On April 1, the committee approved the 2015-16 budget at $17,025,368, a 2.8 percent increase over the current budget. That number is down almost $244,000 from the previous draft due to a request from Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester Selectmen to keep the increase at 2.9 percent.

“There weren’t any positions eliminated. We just didn’t add anything,” said Spencer.

The previous budget included new part-time positions in English, math, health, physical education and sign language at the high school.

ORR High School Principal Mike Devoll had proposed sign language as a new class to help students fulfill their foreign language requirement.

The other positions were proposed to accommodate increased course offerings and expanding class sizes. No classes or teachers are being cut as a result of the budget reduction, however.

“It’s the best we can do with what the towns were able to support,” said Spencer. “We wanted to do more services to the students, but that reality is out there.”