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.”

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.