State education officials once again shot down a small Hadley charter school’s expansion plan on Tuesday, declining to vote on the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School’s petition to nearly double its enrollment.

But Richard Alcorn, the school’s executive director, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon that the effort had a “net positive outcome’’ because officials had expressed a willingness to compromise and allow a more modest expansion.

“I think that’s a very positive development, and we have to go talk to them and see what comes out of that,’’ Alcorn said. “Overall, I think we moved the ball forward in terms of getting an expansion.’’

The school’s request that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education allow it to grow from a cap of 584 students to 1,036 was a Hail Mary pass after Jeff Wulfson, the state’s acting commissioner of elementary and secondary education, had recommended against the expansion.

Without a vote on the petition, Wulfson’s recommendation stands, for now.

Wulfson said at Tuesday’s meeting of the board that his opposition wasn’t driven by concerns about the quality of education at the school, which has shown consistently high MCAS scores in recent years. Instead, he said, it reflected his belief that the school hadn’t demonstrated the demand for so many additional seats, at a time when enrollments are decreasing in Western Massachusetts.

“This recommendation certainly does not come from any antipathy toward the school. . . . We think simply that it’s a premature request,’’ Wulfson said, according to a live video stream of the meeting.

Paul Sagan, the panel’s chairman, said the board wasn’t fully convinced the school had enough families interested that it could fill the seats available under its current charter. But he indicated a willingness to support a more modest expansion if the school would work with Wulfson’s staff to arrive at a smaller number of new seats.

“We like your school. We want more schools that function in this way . . . but we need a more collaborative approach,’’ he said.

Alcorn said the board’s willingness to compromise felt like a turning point.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.