Wiscasset’s projected school budget hike has fallen from 8.02 percent to 6.6 percent, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said.

Health insurance premiums landed at about $90,000 less than projected; that’s the number behind the drop, Wilmot told the Wiscasset Budget Committee April 14.

Employees have through May to sign up, but the projection assumes that everyone who said they would, does, Wilmot explained in an interview later. So the only likely cost shift now would be a further drop, she said.

Another big number, state aid, remains in play, however; and it could go either way, Wilmot said. So far, the state is looking to chip in an extra $280,000 this year, but a final figure is still pending, she said.

“Right now it’s still a moving target for us,” Wilmot told the budget panel.

No date has been set for the town meeting-style vote where residents can alter the budget piece by piece, school officials said.  A tentative, May 11 date that had been eyed didn’t fit state law, Wilmot said.

The budget that residents set goes on to a final vote at the polls later this spring.

The budget committee made no decisions on a recommendation to voters. That comes after the proposal is finalized, Chairman Cliff Hendricks said.

The School Committee will likely vote on the budget offer at its next meeting, 6 p.m. April 28 in the Wiscasset Middle School library, Chairman Steve Smith said.

Reviewing the draft with the budget committee, Smith said maintaining staffing levels is part of what it takes to attract students.

“Wiscasset can’t be seen as cutting budgets,” he said.

Smith said he was extremely disappointed to only be seeking $7,000 in technology, for boards that teachers will use with the elementary grades. He tried to get a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) lab  for then-Wiscasset High School last year for $100,000, but voters rejected it, and he’s not going to ask this year due to the expected budget hike, he said.

“I didn’t feel this was the time to try again,” Smith said.

When planning the school curriculum and staff learning, the department is continuing to lay a foundation for STEM programming and possible future buys of STEM equipment, Wilmot said.

In response to budget committee members’ questions, Wilmot and Smith said the $27,000 budgeted for the school resource officer (SRO) would fund a 35-hour week that follows the school calendar. Any other hours the officer does for the town, outside the SRO work, would come under the municipal budget, not the school budget, they said.