HOLLAND — Tuesday morning's Town Meeting here will be remembered as much for what failed to happen as what came to pass.  Two veteran faces left their respective boards, and the Holland Elementary School budget failed to materialize due to a clerical error.

Diana Limlaw declined a nomination to serve once more on the Holland Elementary School Board.  After 11 years of service, Ms. Limlaw announced that it was time to step down.

Considering the nature of the challenges ahead, it was perhaps no surprise to see that no one offered to fill Ms. Limlaw's seat.  Newly liberated from his responsibilities as a selectman, Ron Patenaude was promptly nominated to fill the vacancy.  With a wry grin he politely declined.

Ms. Limlaw encouraged people to join the school board but warned them of the many hours of work and the potential pitfalls of accepting that tremendous responsibility.  While it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about yourself, your community, education and government, it is also a challenging role fraught with disappointment, she said.

"Really make sure this is something you want to do," Ms. Limlaw said.  "I don't want to see anyone rush in without knowing what they are getting into.  It's a very challenging position, but it's also a very important one."

As the position remained vacant at the conclusion of Tuesday's meeting, the next step is for the school board to seek a candidate and recommend that candidate to the selectmen.  The appointed school board member would then serve until Town Meeting 2012.  Voters would need to elect two school board members, one for the expiring three year term and one for the remaining two years of the appointee's term, Ernie Emmerson explained.

"At that point the appointee would likely have the experience and be a perfect fit to fill out the remainder of that term," Mr. Emmerson added.

Mr. Patenaude, chairman of the selectmen, also took the opportunity to thank the voters for their support over the years but announced that he too would not be seeking re-election.  Norman Fortin was elected to replace him.

"Our moderator was in the process of going over the warning with a fine-toothed comb when he discovered a problem," Town Clerk Diane Judd told the Chronicle prior to the start of the meeting.  "That led to another problem, which was that the school budget wasn't properly warned and therefore could not be voted on today."

The first problem surrounded an article requesting that the town school district abandon Australian ballot voting for the elementary school budget.  In reviewing this request, it became apparent that the original motion to adopt ballot voting was mishandled, Mr. Emmerson explained to the assembly.  That motion should have been handled by the school board and not by the selectmen, as happened.

"But the time to reconsider that mistake is long passed," Mr. Emmerson said.  "So the motion to discontinue Australian ballot voting should likewise also go through the school board and not the selectboard as it did.  So two wrongs definitely do not make a right."

The failure to warn the school budget was a simple oversight, Ms. Judd said.  Though several sets of eyes reviewed the warning prior to publication, it somehow escaped everyone's notice until it was too late, she said.

"You can't point the finger at any one person," Ms. Judd said.  "We all fell down.  Now we are just making sure it doesn't happen again next year."

Though the school budget issue would not be decided on Tuesday, the moment to discuss the budget as a community was an occasion too ripe and too rare to pass up, Mr. Emmerson declared.  When the school board held a special meeting to discuss the budget last month, all of two citizens turned out, he said.

The school board has presented a proposed budget of $1,005,837, a slight decrease from the $1,007,072 approved last year.  Much of the savings came as a result of the departure of a teacher with greater seniority than the replacement teacher, Principal Linda Phelan explained.

The budget was particularly hit hard by the denial of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars promised to schools, Ms. Phelan said.  The school had originally expected between $45,000 and $47,000 in ARRA money.  Instead it received only $12,000, she said.

"They originally told us we would get the money over two years," Ms. Phelan said.  "I guess they reconsidered and decided against it."

The net result is that the school will receive fewer dollars to support paraprofessional staff, she said.  The loss of grant money has also led to a decrease in time for the school's student assistance counselor.  That position will drop from one and a half days a week to a single day per week, Ms. Phelan said.

Several expenditures linger on the horizon for Holland Elementary, Ms. Phelan reported.  The roof is in need of replacing, the heating system is experiencing difficulty due to an outdated electrical system, and the school's old windows and doors continue to vent heat at an alarming rate, Ms. Phelan said.

In other business the voters unanimously approved the town budget of $539,481.93.  The 2011 budget is nearly $60,000 higher than the budget for 2010.  Increased fuel costs, an additional $20,000 to the equipment fund for a new truck, as well as above-average purchases of winter sand and gravel have all pushed the town budget higher.  Those expenditures will go a long way toward improving Holland's roads, Road Commissioner Bard Wiesen said.

The only other new face to join the slate of officers is Shirley Harris as a town lister.  Ms. Harris had served the balance of the final year of the three-year term vacated by Rosemary Nelson.  The other town officers were returning incumbents.

Paula Markwell returns as auditor for a three-year term; Mark Farrow as town constable and animal control officer; Diane Judd as delinquent tax collector and town agent; Speedo Deskins as town grand juror; Winston Dowland as solid waste supervisor; Brian Currier as cemetery commissioner; and Mark Farrow and Gary Champney Jr. as members of the planning commission.