Pembroke school board member Kerri Dean was anxious Saturday morning, minutes before the district’s annual meeting was set to start. She had heard rumors online about an effort to reduce the budget — a reality she experienced two years ago.
“I’m feeling 50-50 on things,” Dean said, eyeing the sparsely filled bleachers.
It turns out she need not have worried. The effort never materialized, and residents overwhelmingly passed Pembroke’s $34.9 million operating budget, a 4.5% increase from this school year’s.
“I think the people who were here were definitely a mixed group, and I think we presented a very fiscally responsible budget,” board chair Melanie Camelo said in an interview after the meeting.
The board and budget committee, whose members unanimously supported the budget, received widespread praise for presenting what residents described as a well-articulated proposal.
“I came here, after living here over 30 years, getting ready to fight about the budget, because I’m tired of seeing the taxes going up and up and up every year,” realtor Suzanne Walsh said.
But Walsh said the board’s explanation of its budget won her over.
“Melanie, you did an excellent job,” Walsh said, referring to the board chair. “You’ve actually turned me around, because I can see it’s not frivolous expenses.”
The main driver of Pembroke’s budget increase is health insurance. The district is expecting to weather an astounding 30% hike in rates, a jump that significantly outpaces its neighboring districts, even as health insurance expenses have increased sharply across the state.
District leaders said they are in the process of looking for cheaper health insurance options, but any change would likely not take effect until the 2027-28 school year. Superintendent Jessica Bickford attributed the high costs in part to the age of employees due to the district’s retention rate.
Pembroke is a member of SchoolCare, a non-profit that administers health insurance for approximately 90 school districts and other public entities in the state. Last year, the organization levied a surprise $30 million assessment on its members because claims had significantly exceeded its projections.
In addition to the operating budget, residents approved a series of warrant articles designed to insulate the district from financial risk going forward, including by establishing trust funds for benefits and tuition. The latter is in response to a state legislative effort to mandate open enrollment.
Financing for the trust funds would come from leftover funds at the end of this school year rather than by raising additional money through taxation.
The budget is expected to raise the local portion of Pembroke residents’ taxes by $1.49 per $1,000 of property value, or $596 on a property valued at $400,000.
As in other communities, district leaders and other residents called on state-level lawmakers to vote down universal open enrollment and increase state funding for education.
“My taxes are really high; we feel it too,” Camelo acknowledged. “But I do think what New Hampshire can do is we can learn how to advocate.”