Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Speaker labels come from the dialogue file and its attribution report.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Runs the gift hearing and the meeting; presents Scott Pope's certificate (0:08:31); proposes withholding diplomas over lunch debt (1:08:43); has members write their choice for the search committee seat (0:46:59); joins the budget subcommittee (0:38:33). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Seconds the tuition motion (0:27:52); asks the per-pupil cost to taxpayers (0:26:47) and about the business administrator's added food service role (0:30:20); asks whether Horsky's resignation must be accepted (0:39:28); seconds adjournment (1:24:40). |
| Jason Benware | Member | Moves the agenda, the minutes, the audit questionnaire, the tuition rate, the gift and the phone policy; proposes the paper ballot (0:41:49); named Region 10 advisory board representative (0:51:02); asks that Dr. Herzog report on the technical center (1:19:07). Roll call transcribed "Jason. Van." |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Offers to fill the search committee seat (0:17:41); asks to join the budget subcommittee and that it wait for Petrin (0:49:14); moves the lunch write-offs (1:12:19); asks how the vacancy will be filled (1:21:04). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Seconds the gift and the phone policy (0:35:37, 0:36:45); asks the committee's time commitment (0:41:55); chosen for the search committee seat (0:48:00) and withdraws from the budget subcommittee (0:46:49). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Absent (0:49:12); named tentatively to the budget subcommittee (0:48:33). |
| Steven Horsky | Member, resigned | Not present. The chair announces "Steven Hauschka has resigned" (0:17:21); acceptance is deferred to the next agenda (1:24:10). |
| Dr. Keith Pfeifer | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report on special education staffing and the Great Schools Project (0:12:30); counts the paper ballots (0:48:00). |
| Michael (Mike) O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Reports the annual financial report incomplete (0:18:43); presents the tuition history (0:21:04) and the lunch balance proposal (0:52:35). Surname per the roster. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | "we used to be able to provide a modified meal, but we can't do that anymore either." (1:02:07); answers on the retreat room and technical center staffing. Not named at her turns; identification low-medium per the attribution report. |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 Board chair (Unity); superintendent search committee | "We have currently six people on the committee." (0:16:28); describes the time commitment (0:42:19). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Calls the roll (0:02:03); corrects her draft of the September 19 minutes (0:03:46); explains how an interim seat appears on the ballot (0:40:41). |
| Scott Pope | Machine tool teacher, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Honored for service; says he has taught in the district thirty-one years (0:10:48). |
| Unidentified | Student representative (a senior) | Student representative report on Stevens (0:05:34): a free book table, the League of Innovative Schools conference, food pantry shelves, the culinary program's chili entry. |
| Unidentified | Various | 59 of 719 dialogue rows (8.2%): short interjections and seconds. No citizen spoke at the hearing or at citizens' comments (0:14:46). A reporter is present (1:15:18). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives; the chair refers to the agenda "in front of us tonight" (0:02:19) and to an online and a paper version that differed (0:14:46). The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Public hearing: Byrne Foundation donation | "a gift of $5,000 requires a public hearing for the board to accept that." No speakers. |
| 0:01:12 | Call to order; pledge; roll call | Five members present; Petrin absent. |
| 0:02:19 | Agenda | Amended to add the superintendent search committee appointment under action items. Motion Benware; voice vote (0:03:21). |
| 0:03:21 | Minutes of September 19, 2018 | Corrections: the approval paragraph's date; a garbled name corrected to Horsky; a statement in the universal lunch paragraph reassigned from Jason to Steve (0:04:23). Approved as amended (0:05:17). |
| 0:05:17 | Student representative report | Stevens activities. |
| 0:08:31 | Superintendent's report | Certificate for Scott Pope; staffing; Great Schools Project; fall festival. |
| 0:14:37 | Citizens' comments | "Seeing none." |
| 0:14:46 | Discussion: Student Voice; superintendent search update | Student Voice presentation not given; Erickson reports on the committee's first meeting "tomorrow night at 630" (0:16:20). |
| 0:18:15 | Action: board questionnaire, FY15 audit | Motion Benware ("I move that we approved that that audit then."), second unidentified; voice vote (0:18:37). |
| 0:18:37 | Action: review and sign DOE-25 report | Not ready; to be sent a week before the next meeting for signature (0:19:34). |
| 0:20:30 | Action: tuition rate | Motion Benware to set the 2019-20 rate at $15,000, second Zullo; voice vote, no opposition heard (0:28:32). |
| 0:28:38 | Universal lunch at Bluff | Charging resumed; provision two not pursued; a part-time retired food service director proposed. No vote. |
| 0:35:00 | Action: accept Byrne Foundation donation | $15,000 for the technical center. Motion Benware, second Towle; voice vote (0:35:38). |
| 0:35:55 | Action: policy JICJ, third reading | Motion Benware, second Towle; adopted by voice vote (0:36:50); later called unanimous (0:38:27). |
| 0:38:12 | Budget subcommittee members | Sprague, Benware, Petrin tentatively; Pierce's request deferred to the next meeting (0:49:41). |
| 0:39:23 | Superintendent search committee seat (added item) | Resignation acceptance deferred; vacancy to be advertised (0:41:12). Towle and Pierce interested; paper ballot; "Carolyn has three votes." (0:48:00). |
| 0:49:43 | Region 10 advisory board representative | Benware (0:51:02). |
| 0:51:11 | Food service balances | Motion Pierce to place the collection policy on the October 14 retreat agenda and allow write-off of balances under $20 and of free or reduced status accounts, second Benware (1:12:45); voice vote, no opposition heard (1:14:52). |
| 1:15:33 | Retreat; good of the order | Retreat October 14 "next door"; requests for enrollment numbers and a technical center report. |
| 1:24:23 | Adjournment | Motion Benware, second Zullo (1:24:40). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Quotations are as transcribed; bracketed words are corrections, with the transcript's wording kept where the correction changes sense.
Chronological topics with the most concrete material first.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Gift hearing | The chair: "a gift of $5,000 requires a public hearing for the board to accept that. And prior to the board accepting it, we have to put it out for public hearing." "Again seeing none. I will close the public hearing" (0:00:46). The hearing answers the defect noted on the September 19 page; whether newspaper notice ran seven days ahead is not on the record. | POS |
| 0:03:21 | September 19 minutes | The clerk: "It should have been September 5th in September 19th" (0:03:46). Benware: "said Jason Ski. So it should be changed to Stephen Hauschka." [Steven Horsky] (0:04:10) and a universal lunch statement "should say, Steve" (0:04:23). | MEDIUM |
| 0:08:31 | Scott Pope honored | Sprague: "Words cannot describe what an asset Mr. Pope has been to the Claremont School District." (0:09:54). Pfeifer: Pope "has received a State of New Hampshire Department of Education award for community based learning" (0:11:32), with a manufacturer partner transcribed "Waylon" and "Whalen". | |
| 0:12:30 | Superintendent's report | "we still have some holes in personnel, particularly special education" and "Our special ed teachers are extremely stressed and we are doing our best to hire more staff." The district is working with the Great Schools Project of Portland, Maine (0:13:32). | |
| 0:15:25 | Search committee update | The committee meets "tomorrow night at 630" (0:16:20). Erickson: "We have currently six people on the committee. Hopefully we'll have seven before the end of this evening." (0:16:28). Sprague: "Steven Hauschka has resigned from the Claremont." [Horsky] (0:17:21). | |
| 0:18:15 | FY15 audit questionnaire | "Approval of board questionnaire. Fiscal year 15 audit." O'Neill: "We distribute it, but it wasn't under action items." (0:18:21). Benware: "I move that we approved that that audit then." (0:18:26). Approved by voice vote. | OBS |
| 0:18:37 | DOE-25 and MS-25 not done | O'Neill: "it's with regret. I must tell you, I do not have a complete. I'm almost there, but I'm not quite done." (0:18:43); the report goes to the Department of Education "at the Doe 25 and then the Department of Revenue Administration and CMS 25" [MS-25] (0:18:56); "The form is due by September 1st, but I don't know anybody who files it by September 1st." (0:19:14); the adequacy grants "have not been released yet" (0:19:34). | HIGH |
| 0:20:30 | High school tuition rate | O'Neill: the rate "was reduced by Claremont School Board in March 2015"; Claremont charged 17849 [$17,849] in 2014-15 and then lowered the rate to 145 [$14,500] (0:21:55); tuition students went "45 students and then 40 and then 30, now back up to 45" (0:22:23). "I suggest we go up to 15,000 because we've been at 145 for three years consecutively now." (0:22:46). Unity sends "about 75%" of its students (0:24:04). Cost per student "about $17,450" by DOE-25, "about 12,500" to local taxpayers (0:25:59, 0:26:50). Set at $15,000 for 2019-20 (0:27:37). | |
| 0:28:38 | Universal lunch follow-up | Pfeifer: "Our application for universal lunch had loved not go through with the department." Charging starts "next Monday" (0:28:41). O'Neill: provision two is "really not worth investing in that" and Maplewood universal breakfast would "cost us about $40,000" (0:29:52). Pfeifer: "We would like to seek a retired food service director that could be with us one day a week" (0:30:45). | |
| 0:35:00 | Gift accepted | Benware: "I've done this once already, but it was during apparently discussion instead of action" and moves to accept "of $15,000 for the tech Center" (0:35:09). Towle seconds; approved. | POS |
| 0:35:55 | Cell phone policy adopted | Student Voice "decided not to create a presentation report." (0:36:19). Benware moves "Claremont School board policy. JICGA as it is written." [JICJ] (0:36:28). Adopted; "It wasn't anonymous." [unanimous] (0:38:27). | |
| 0:39:23 | Horsky's seat | Zullo: "We need to read his resignation and then accept it?" The chair: "we don't have resignations on the agenda." (0:39:36); he will solicit "letters of interest from members in the community" (0:39:55) "into the paper and onto the web page" (0:41:12). The clerk: an appointee serves "until the next election" and then the seat runs for the remaining years (0:40:41). | POS |
| 0:41:36 | Search committee seat by paper ballot | Benware: "Let's do a little paper ballot and just pick." (0:41:49). After Erickson describes the commitment, the chair: "if people could write their choice down, I'll collect the paper, and I'm going to give it to Doctor Pfeifer. And he's going to be the official." (0:46:59). Pfeifer: "I have our G. Anderson accounting firm sitting." (0:47:17); "Carolyn has three votes. And Mike Michelle had votes." (0:48:00). The chair: "so it's Carolyn." (0:48:07). | HIGH |
| 0:48:23 | Budget subcommittee | Sprague and Benware, "And hopefully. Mike." (0:48:33). Pierce: "Just because he's not here doesn't mean we can render him out." (0:49:14) and "We waited to this meeting for you guys to find another subcommittee member" (0:49:21). Deferred. | |
| 0:51:11 | Unpaid lunch balances | Sprague: "We continue to feed the kids because we had to do that by law." O'Neill: "we couldn't single them out and give them a sun butter sandwich or something different" (0:51:41). The total for the year ended June 30, 2018 "is 32,040 418" [about $32,040] (0:52:35); one balance "was $672.50" (0:53:00). Proposed: write off free and reduced status accounts and those "under $20" (0:54:02); "If I write off the under 20, it's 52 accounts for $355." (1:07:55); "you're writing off 26% of the money and you're getting rid of 67% of the accounts." (1:08:06). | OBS |
| 1:08:43 | Diplomas and a la carte | Sprague: "I had written down withhold diploma and can can we put that in policy." O'Neill recalls "they told me I couldn't not allow people to graduate because the order lunch balance" (1:08:06). Sprague: "Can we shut them off on a la carte?" O'Neill: "Yes, we can do that. We can just offer them a lunch." (1:09:47). Sprague: "if they're not paying, they shouldn't be grabbing ice cream" (1:09:50). | OBS |
| 1:10:53 | Write-off motion | Pierce moves to put the policy on "the agenda for the 14th" and to let the business administrator "abolish the under 20" (1:12:19); O'Neill: "All the all the people with the status of free or reduced in all the people that are under $20 or less." (1:12:02). Approved. Pierce asks the reporter present to publicize payment options (1:15:18). | OBS |
| 1:15:33 | Retreat preparation | "the budget retreat is going to be October 14th." Sprague wants a capacity analysis from PowerSchool numbers: at "around 40 or 50%, you probably have too many teachers." (1:16:47). | |
| 1:18:47 | Technical center; vacancy process | Benware asks to "invite Doctor Herzog to come speak at our next meeting" (1:19:07). Pierce asks for candidate interviews as "when I was running three, almost three years ago now" (1:21:43); put on the next agenda. | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each one names the rule it rests on, as that rule read on October 3, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH The annual financial report due September 1 was still incomplete on October 3
The business administrator told the board "I do not have a complete" report (0:18:43), identified it as the DOE-25 filed with the Department of Education and the MS-25 filed with the Department of Revenue Administration (0:18:56), and said "The form is due by September 1st, but I don't know anybody who files it by September 1st." (0:19:14). RSA 21-J:34, V, in the codification in force in 2018, provides: "School districts shall submit financial reports on or before September 1 of each year." The paragraph contains no extension clause. On the business administrator's own account the district had missed that date by more than a month, and the board's review and signature were pushed to the following meeting (0:19:34). He offered context: the state had not released next year's adequacy grants, so "nobody can set their tax rate anyways" (0:19:34), and he described late filing as common. Neither changes the deadline. The DOE-25's own due date to the Department of Education is set by the department and was not verified for this page.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34, V (2017 codification; source note ends 2007, 182:2, eff. April 1, 2007)
HIGH A committee seat was filled by an unsigned paper ballot in open session
With Towle and Pierce both seeking the search committee seat left by Horsky, the members wrote their choices on paper, the chair collected them and the superintendent counted them (0:46:59), announcing only the result: "Carolyn has three votes." (0:48:00). Nothing on the tape shows members signing their ballots or announcing their votes, so the public cannot tell who voted for whom. RSA 91-A:2, II provides: "Except for town meetings, school district meetings, and elections, no vote while in open session may be taken by secret ballot." A school board meeting is none of the three. Two weeks earlier, when the chair proposed the same method, Zullo asked why the vote needed to be secret and the chair answered that it was about efficiency, not secrecy (September 19, 2018 page); the statute turns on how the vote is taken, not on its purpose. If the ballots were signed and the minutes record each member's choice, the defect would be largely cured, but no minutes survive to show it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text for all of 2018; the secret-ballot sentence predates 1992)
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The meeting accepted a gift, set the tuition rate, adopted a policy and filled a committee seat, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force throughout 2018, required minutes including "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting". This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the clerk took minutes and corrected her own draft of the previous meeting's minutes on tape (0:03:46), and members had an agenda in both online and paper form (0:14:46). The minutes would also settle the ballot question in the second flag.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION Lunch debt: proposals to withhold diplomas or cut off a la carte meet a state limit, and written-off balances need non-federal money
RSA 189:11-a, VIII, in force since July 2, 2016, requires a school's meal payment policy to ensure that "no student will be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal or school cafeteria procedures". Staff described exactly that constraint (0:51:41, 1:02:07). The chair then proposed putting diploma withholding in policy (1:08:43) and shutting students with balances off a la carte items (1:09:45), which the business administrator said could be done (1:09:47). Diplomas are outside the cafeteria language, and the statute does not address them; an a la carte cutoff for students with balances is a cafeteria procedure applied to some students and not others, which is the treatment paragraph VIII addresses. Neither proposal was adopted; the policy went to the October 14 retreat. Separately, the board authorized writing off small and free or reduced status balances (1:12:02, 1:14:52). USDA's guidance on unpaid meal charges states that nonprofit school food service account resources "may not be used to cover costs related to the bad debt" and that "these losses must be restored using non-Federal funds". The record does not say which fund will absorb the write-offs.
Sources: RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2017 codification; added by 2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016); USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017, Unpaid Meal Charges guidance (March 23, 2017)
OBSERVATION The motion on the FY2015 audit questionnaire was worded as approving "that audit"
The item was the board's questionnaire for the auditors of fiscal year 2015 (0:18:15), deferred from September 19 because it had been listed for discussion (0:18:21). Benware's motion, as transcribed, was "I move that we approved that that audit then." (0:18:26). The board was not approving an audit, which is the auditors' report; it was approving its own responses for an audit still in fieldwork more than three years after that fiscal year ended (see the September 19, 2018 page, which reviews the federal single-audit deadline that may apply). How the minutes worded the motion cannot be checked.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING OF 10-3
POSITIVE The gift was re-voted after a hearing, and the vacancy is to be advertised to the public
The board opened the evening with the public hearing that RSA 198:20-b, III(a) requires before accepting a gift of $5,000 or more (0:00:12) and then accepted the $15,000 Byrne Foundation gift by a fresh vote, with the mover noting why it was being done again (0:35:09). For Horsky's seat, the chair proposed soliciting "letters of interest from members in the community" (0:39:55) through the newspaper and the website (0:41:12), and Pierce asked for public candidate interviews (1:21:04). RSA 671:33, II(a) requires only that "The school board shall fill vacancies occurring on the school board", with appointees serving "until the next district election"; an open call for candidates goes beyond that.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(a) (2017 codification); RSA 671:33, II(a) (2017 codification; source note ends 2017, 3:2, eff. May 30, 2017)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING OF 10-3 (show 10044; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, as the API refuses requests from the build environment; the transcript runs to 1:24:41)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda or minutes. MAP.md: "neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (checked 9/26/26)." Not searched again for this page, per the run instructions for meetings with no Drive material.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4.CSV (719 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4Input/Transcripts/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 83Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 21-J:34, V, 2017 codification: school district financial reports due on or before September 1
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2017 codification (in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018): no secret ballots in open session; minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2016, 48:1): meal payment policy; no different treatment from the standard meal or cafeteria procedures
- RSA 198:20-b, III(a), 2017 codification: prior public hearing for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more
- RSA 671:33, II(a), 2017 codification: the school board fills vacancies; appointees serve until the next district election
- USDA FNS SP 23-2017 (guidance, not regulation): bad debt from unpaid meal charges restored with non-federal funds