After months of campaigning and arguing in hopes of shaking up the Pembroke School Board, it was business as usual once the votes were counted Tuesday on Election Day.
The incumbents, Andy Camidge and Melanie Camelo, will return to the school board after each won in a lopsided race. Their competition had been vocal leading to Tuesday, hopeful that the two slots would be filled by Chuck Therrien, Richard Frederickson or Kerri Dean.
The current board was highly criticized during school meetings when it kept the mask mandate for its district in place, as opposed to making it optional.
In the end, all the arguing and petitions and shouting matches were not enough to dethrone Camidge and Carmelo, the top two vote-getters at 341 and 304, respectively. The next closest candidate was Frederickson, who had 189 votes, followed by Therrien (156), Dean (109) and Amber White (27).
The two incumbent candidates for selectmen – Richard Bean and Sandy Goulet – were running unopposed for two seats on the board and were easily elected.
Voters will decide the rest of the issues facing the town on Saturday at 10 a.m., including an operating budget of just over $10 million, which was $1.1 million more than last year.
Elsewhere, the town wants to bank $650,000 into various capital reserve funds.
Pembroke will add a little nostalgia if voters want to spend $74,340 to repair the old clock.
Saturday’s town meeting will be held in the Pembroke Academy auditorium, not the gym as was originally scheduled, because residents complained about poor acoustics after last weekend’s school meeting.