Pembroke will not suffer any staff cuts or eliminate any sports programs after voters at the School District Meeting decided in a 95-71 vote to pass the School Board’s proposed operating budget.

“The meeting went exactly the way it should have gone,” said School Board Chairman Clint Hanson, adding there is no animosity with the Budget Committee. All warrant articles, including the hotly debated operating budget, were adopted after some changes.

Special education costs, which put the district about half a million in debt this school year and comprise almost two-thirds of the school budget increase, dominated the discussion at the meeting on Saturday, March 8.

The final approved 2008-09 operating budget for the school district is $22,447,206. The budget will result in a projected local school tax rate of $14.68 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Based on revenue projections, if the town’s proposed budget and warrant articles go through unscathed, the projected tax rate is $26.02 per $1,000 of assessed value, including state school and county taxes, $2.36 more than the current rate.For a home assessed at $250,000, this would be a $590 increase on the tax bill for a total bill of $6,505.

The Budget Committee recommended a budget $230,000 less than that, having asked both the School Board and Board of Selectmen to cut their respective budgets to reduce the combined 10 percent increase in taxes.

With the passing of both budgets and all articles, the Budget Committee’s number would be a slightly less drastic 6.7 percent increase.

For Pembroke schools, that meant cutting a staffed teaching position from each of the schools as well as the lacrosse and golf programs at Pembroke Academy, cuts many voters felt were unacceptable.

The final decision left members of the Board of Selectmen with some anxiety about the Town Meeting on Saturday, March 15.

“The town as well as the school had a very lean budget,” said the selectmen’s representative to the Budget Committee, Larry Preston. “I just hope that the voters don’t come in next week at the Town Meeting looking for extra cuts.”

The only thing left to cut on the town side is the roads budget, said Selectman Fred Kline. Voters meet at 10 a.m. at Pembroke Academy on March 15.

Pembroke voters selected their town and school district officials at the polls on Tuesday March 11. All races were uncontested, with Tina Courtemanche being written in for selectman and all open positions filled.