Gravel Driveway Repair in Pembroke, NH

When Pembroke residents cast their votes for school board on Tuesday, the ballot will direct them to pick two out of the three candidates running.

The problem is that there are actually three open seats on the board: two for full three-year terms and one to fill out the final year of a term that was vacated early.

The Pembroke School Board wrote in a statement on Wednesday that the ballot issue was “a mistake” and clerk Cynthia Menard said in an interview that it could not be rectified prior to next week’s election.

As a result, the board wrote that it would immediately appoint the last-place finisher to the one-year seat.

The five-member board staggers its three year terms. In a typical year, either one or two seats are up for election.

The confusion stemmed from Amy Manzelli’s resignation last July midway through her term, which was set to end in 2026. Since her resignation, her seat has been filled on an interim basis by Kenneth Nivison, one of the three candidates running for the board.

The other two candidates are current board vice chair Melanie Camelo and newcomer Sharon Eaton.

Current board chair Andy Camidge is not running for re-election.

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Camelo, who has served on the board since 2021, expressed interest in an interview on Thursday in serving as the board’s next chair.

JEREMY MARGOLIS / Monitor staff

Pembroke Academy sophomore Campbell Nivison was not in the high school gymnasium last March when residents approved a $3 million reduction to the school board’s proposed budget.

On Saturday, following a year in which the district experienced layoffs, which Nivison said eroded student morale, he and other students made sure they were not absent from this year’s annual meeting.

“When a student sees that the adults around them don’t value education, it’s only logical that the student would then ask themselves, ‘Why should I be trying?’” Nivison told the crowd assembled for the school district’s annual meeting. “I cannot emphasize how important it is that students have a full educational experience – not just academically, but outside of the classroom as well.”

Nivison’s and his classmates’ advocacy paid off.

By a vote of 206-125, residents approved the school board’s proposed budget of $33.4 million, rejecting the budget committee’s proposal, which was $400,000 lower. The budget is 9% more than the one approved last year, though it is slightly less than the original one proposed by the school district.

This year’s increase will raise the local school portion of the tax rate by $1.84 per $1,000 of property value, an increase of $736 for a property valued at $400,000, according to analysis by budget committee chair Mark LePage, who took into account last year’s property reassessment.

Prior to the vote, residents – engaging in the same conversations playing out in communities across the state – complained about how the school budget pits taxpayers against students.

“I have family that’s struggling outside of my home and I’m helping them because they’re my kids,” David Roark said, his voice rising. “But you want my money. … To hell with your extra money. I’m not giving you another dime.”

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Despite frustration from Roark and others, no organized effort to reduce the budget like the one seen last year in Pembroke or earlier this week in Merrimack Valley ever materialized.

Melanie Camelo, the vice chair of the school board, expressed relief following the meeting. She attributed the significant change in sentiment to better “networking” communicating to residents what caused the budget to grow and the reality of how last year’s decision played out.

“The schools are feeling it; the students are feeling it,” she said. “The students were here.”

Pembroke eliminated 27 positions last year and another 20 employees left of their own accord, Camelo said. Patty Sherman, Pembroke’s superintendent, and Dan Morris, the high school’s headmaster, also announced they would retire and depart, respectively, at the end of the year.

For a district that just a year earlier had been recognized as having the top high school in the state, it was a stark fall from grace noticed in other towns across the region.

“There’s a certain amount of shame I get from feeling like the name Pembroke is synonymous with not supporting students,” Pembroke Academy senior Samuel Harrington said. “That in and of itself is embarrassing to me.”

The newly approved budget won’t restore much of what was eliminated last year, though it will bring back paraprofessionals in the kindergarten classes, which had been recognized as a dire need.

During the four-hour meeting, voters approved a series of warrant articles, the most significant of which could fund a $495,000 renovation to the Pembroke Academy track. That project will depend on whether the district has enough of a surplus in its operating budget at the end of this school year.

Town elections take place on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with town meeting on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Pembroke Academy.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.

Three residents are vying for two seats on the Pembroke select board. Incumbents Bryan Christiansen and Sandy Goulet are both seeking re-election with Peter Gagyi, who served on the board last year, running again.

Goulet did not respond to an interview request.

Bryan Christiansen

Bryan Christiansen has lived in Pembroke for 17 years. He volunteered to fill a vacancy on the select board in 2024, and now, he’s running for a full three-year term.

To Christiansen, Pembroke is his adopted hometown — he raised his children and is raising his step-daughter in town, and before joining the select board, he served on the town planning board and capital improvements committee.

“I had been involved civically pretty much my entire life,” he said. “You can’t just sit back and complain, or you can, but I think it’s important to get involved and I have the time and that’s what I’m doing.”

If elected, Christiansen would like to continue his work on the town’s economic development committee, which fell dormant during the pandemic but was designed to attract businesses to Pembroke. He revamped the group after joining the board last year.

The committee is currently orchestrating an inventory of businesses in town and an accompanying survey with the end goal of bringing ideas forward about how to grow and maintain Pembroke’s local economy.

With school budgets driving local property taxes and a growing need to fund state road maintenance, Christiansen said the more state aid Pembroke can get the better.

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“I’ve spent a lot of time on sports sidelines in our theater audience,” he said. “These people which were just once neighbors are now friends. I think it’s the tight knit community that draws me in.”

Peter Gagyi:

Peter Gagyi previously served on the Pembroke select board, deciding not to run for another term in 2024. Now, after a year away, he wants back in.

“I really miss being a selectman,” he said.

Last year, Gagyi watched as voters at the Pembroke school meeting cut the budget by 10%, or $3 million, forcing the district to eliminate 20 jobs as a result.

He worries the school meeting will be dejavu for voters again this year, with a similar $33 million proposed budget. As a select board member, he hopes to convey to residents that he will work to keep the local portion of tax bills more sustainable.

While on the select board, Gagyi served as the representative to the budget committee.

In the 12 years he has lived in New Hampshire, Gagyi has also watched tension build over funding, more specifically adequacy grants, sent to local towns from the state to fund public education. To him, the funds should be rephrased as “a supplement.”

“It’s not about adequacy or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just money that we’re giving you to run your school system.”

For 47 years, Gagyi has been self employed. He is still working, which he believes would help him manage the town’s finances.

“I think I bring an experience of lasting 47 years in business,” he said. “I know how to budget.”

Beyond budgeting, Gagyi hopes to bring experience and a sense of dedication to the job. He knows what it’s like to represent the town to the public, and he wants to continue to guide his community.

“I love my town. I love this town and I want to give something back,” he said. “I bring to the table common sense. I’ll listen to anybody tell tell me anything, as a Selectmen, and then I make my decisions.”

WARRANT ARTICLES: Residents will also vote on a handful of zoning amendments to update definitions on town ballots.

At the town meeting, warrant articles ask residents if they would like the town to purchase machinery for the public works department and complete repairs to Memorial Park.

Residents will also consider proposals to fund services for Court Appoint Special Advocates and support for community based health care and wellness services from Granite VNA.

Pembroke is also one of a handful of towns that has a citizen petition asking the legislators to reject any expansion of Education Freedom Accounts. If passed, the petition requires the Pembroke Select Board to write to the governor and state legislature within 30 days expressing their opposition to using taxpayer dollars to fund private and religious education.

WHEN AND WHERE: Voting will take place on Tuesday, March 11 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the gym at Pembroke Academy. Pembroke Town Meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on March 15 also at Pembroke Academy.