Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file. No minutes exist online to check spellings against; identifications resting on inference are marked. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Ran the hearing and meeting; presented Scott Pope's certificate; announced Horsky's resignation; deferred its acceptance to an action item; proposed soliciting letters of interest for the seat; organized the paper ballot; led the lunch-collection discussion; set the October 14 retreat. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Seconded the tuition rate; asked the per-pupil cost; asked whether the business administrator could carry the food service role; asked whether the resignation had to be accepted first; asked how cash payments meet negative balances. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved the agenda, minutes, audit, tuition rate, gift acceptance, cell phone policy and adjournment; proposed the paper ballot; named Region 10 advisory board representative; asked to hear from the tech center director. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Nominee for the search committee seat; asked to join the budget subcommittee; moved the lunch-balance write-offs and a retreat agenda item; proposed public interviews of candidates for the vacant seat. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Seconded the gift and policy motions; chosen by paper ballot for the superintendent search committee; asked about a lawyer's collection letter, the Abbey Group contract, and current enrollment numbers. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Absent as far as the recording shows (called in the roll, no answer heard; "He's not here."). Tentatively listed for the budget subcommittee. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member (resigned) | Not present. His resignation was announced; acceptance deferred to the next meeting. |
| Keith Pfeifer | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report (Pope's state award, special education staffing, the Great Schools Project, the fall festival); explained the universal lunch reversal; counted the paper ballots. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Explained the DOE-25 and MS-25 report and its deadline; presented the tuition history; explained the food service staffing gap; presented the lunch balances and the write-off proposal. Surname from the roster. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Spoke on the tech center's new staff and mentors and on enrollment reports. Identification low-medium (not named at her turns). |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll; corrected the minutes' heading; explained how an interim appointee's seat appears on the next ballot. |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 board member (Unity); superintendent search committee | Described the search committee's work and the time it would demand. |
| Scott Pope | Machine tool teacher, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Honored for outstanding service; thanked colleagues after 31 years in the district. |
| Unidentified | Student representative (a senior) | Reported on Stevens High School, the technical center and Bluff School. Name not stated on the recording. |
| Unidentified | Other voices | 59 of 719 rows, including seconds and group responses. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. An agenda existed: the chair works from lettered items and a paper copy (0:14:46). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Public hearing: Byrne Foundation donation | No one spoke; hearing closed at 0:00:46. |
| 0:01:12 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll called by the clerk; garbled on the tape. |
| 0:02:19 | Agenda | Amended to add a superintendent search committee appointment under action items; Benware moved, approved by voice. |
| 0:03:21 | Minutes of September 19, 2018 | Corrections to the heading and to a name ("Jason Ski" to Horsky); approved as amended. |
| 0:05:17 | Student representative report | Stevens book table, League of Innovative Schools, food pantry shelves, tech center events, a Bluff field trip. |
| 0:08:31 | Superintendent's report | Certificate to Scott Pope; staffing and program report. |
| 0:14:37 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:14:46 | Discussion items | Student voice presentation withdrawn; superintendent search update (Horsky's resignation announced). |
| 0:18:15 | Action: board questionnaire, fiscal year 2015 audit | Benware moved to approve; seconded; approved by voice. |
| 0:18:37 | Review and sign DOE-25 report | Not ready; to be sent to members a week before the next meeting for signature. |
| 0:20:30 | Set tuition rate | The item was read as "Set tuition rate for 1819"; the motion set the 2019-20 rate at $15,000 (Benware moved, Zullo seconded); approved by voice. |
| 0:28:38 | Universal lunch at Bluff | Report only: the application did not go through; charging resumed; the Provision 2 alternative judged not worth the cost. |
| 0:35:00 | Accept Byrne Foundation donation to the SRVRTC | $15,000; Benware moved, Towle seconded; approved by voice. |
| 0:35:55 | Policy JICJ, electronic communication devices and cell phones, third reading | Benware moved to adopt, Towle seconded; approved by voice. |
| 0:38:12 | Budget subcommittee members | Sprague and Benware, Petrin tentatively; Pierce's request deferred to the next meeting. |
| 0:39:10 | Search committee seat (added item) | Towle chosen over Pierce by paper ballot, three votes to Towle as announced. See flag 1. |
| 0:49:43 | Region 10 advisory board representative | Benware named. |
| 0:51:11 | Food service: unpaid balances | Pierce moved to put the collection policy on the October 14 retreat agenda and to let the business administrator write off balances of $20 or less and those of free or reduced status; Benware seconded; approved by voice at 1:14:46. |
| 1:15:33 | Budget retreat, October 14 | Materials requested: class sizes and a saturation study. |
| 1:18:36 | Good of the order | Invite the tech center director; public interviews for the vacant seat as a future action item; enrollment numbers for the retreat. |
| 1:24:23 | Adjournment | Benware moved; approved by voice. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Public hearing on the Byrne gift | Sprague: "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." No one spoke. | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:19 | Agenda amended | "if we just want to add for superintendent search committee." The item went under action items. | |
| 0:03:41 | September 19 minutes corrected | Woodman: the heading "should have been September 5th in September 19th". Benware: "said Jason Ski. So it should be changed to Stephen Hauschka." [Steven Horsky; both names as transcribed]. Approved as amended. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:34 | Student representative | "Miss Berry has been bringing in about 20 to 30 books every week." A food pantry at Stevens "so that students who are food challenged have the opportunity to help themselves in a secure and private manner." | |
| 0:08:31 | Scott Pope honored | Sprague: "Words cannot describe what an asset Mr. Pope has been to the Claremont School District." Pfeifer (0:11:32): Pope "has received a State of New Hampshire Department of Education award for community based learning". | |
| 0:12:30 | Superintendent's report | "while we still have some holes in personnel, particularly special education, our special education personnel are working hard to maintain our compliance with special ed laws, rules and regulations, which is not easy." "Our special ed teachers are extremely stressed and we are doing our best to hire more staff." | |
| 0:15:25 | Superintendent search update | Erickson: "We have currently six people on the committee." The committee would rely on New Hampshire School Boards Association consultants. Sprague (0:17:21): "Steven Hauschka has resigned from the Claremont." [School Board], leaving a Claremont seat on the committee to fill. | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:15 | Fiscal 2015 audit questionnaire approved | Sprague: "Approval of board questionnaire. Fiscal year 15 audit." O'Neill: it was distributed last time "but it wasn't under action items." Benware: "I move that we approved that that audit then." Approved by voice. | MEDIUM |
| 0:18:37 | DOE-25 and MS-25 not finished | O'Neill: "I must tell you, I do not have a complete. I'm almost there, but I'm not quite done." The report goes to "the Department of Education at the Doe 25 and then the Department of Revenue Administration and CMS 25." [MS-25]. "The form is due by September 1st, but I don't know anybody who files it by September 1st." He would send it a week before the next meeting "so that at the next meeting we can sign it." | HIGH |
| 0:20:30 | Tuition rate | O'Neill: "The tuition rate was reduced by Claremont School Board in March 2015"; charging less brought students back. He proposed $15,000 "because we've been at 145 for three years consecutively now." Per-pupil cost by DOE-25 "about $17,450" (0:25:59); local cost "about 12,500" (0:26:50). Benware (0:27:37): "I'd like to make a motion that we raised or change the tuition rate for the 20 1920 school year to $15,000." Approved. | |
| 0:28:41 | Universal lunch at Bluff ends | Pfeifer: "Our application for universal lunch had loved not go through with the department." Charging starts next Monday. O'Neill (0:29:52): Provision 2: "I just don't think it's worth $40,000". | |
| 0:30:20 | Who does the food service work | Zullo asked whether O'Neill now carries food service on top of business and finance. Pfeifer (0:30:45): the plan is "a retired food service director that could be with us one day a week". O'Neill (0:31:42): the contractor's director "is more of a kitchen manager" and cannot handle confidential free and reduced applications. | |
| 0:35:00 | Byrne gift accepted | Benware: "So I've done this once already, but it was during apparently discussion instead of action." He moved to accept "the donation from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation of $15,000 for the tech Center". Towle seconded; approved. | POSITIVE |
| 0:35:55 | Cell phone policy adopted | Third reading of policy JICJ ("JICJCJA20 first Century Electronic Communication devices and Cell Phone Policy" as transcribed). Benware moved to accept it "as it is written"; Towle seconded; adopted. Benware (0:38:27): "Not anonymous unanimous." The chair then offered a short "chairpersons editorial" to the student representative. | |
| 0:38:33 | Budget subcommittee | Sprague: the subcommittee will be "the group that will be working with the administration" and take its direction from the retreat. Sprague and Benware volunteer; Petrin listed tentatively (0:48:33). | |
| 0:39:36 | Resignation not yet accepted | Sprague: "I'm kind of in a gray area because it's not an action item and I don't and we don't have resignations on the agenda." He proposed (0:39:55) to "postpone accepting the resignation for the time being until we can have an action item" while soliciting "letters of interest from members in the community." | POSITIVE |
| 0:40:17 | How the seat is filled | Sprague: the interim position "would go through the election in March". Woodman (0:40:41): "you run until the next election, and then at that election, you only elect someone for that remaining number of years on that original position." Sprague (0:41:12): a solicitation "into the paper and onto the web page". | POSITIVE |
| 0:41:49 | Search committee seat by paper ballot | Benware: "Let's do a little paper ballot and just pick." Towle and Pierce were the candidates. Erickson described the time commitment (0:42:19). Sprague (0:46:59): "So if if people could write their choice down, I'll collect the paper, and I'm going to give it to Doctor Pfeifer." Pfeifer (0:48:00): "Carolyn has three votes. And Mike Michelle had votes." No member's vote was stated. | MEDIUM |
| 0:48:23 | Pierce asks to join the budget subcommittee | Pierce: "It's kind of sounded like it was already done." Members noted Petrin was absent; Pierce (0:49:14): "Just because he's not here doesn't mean we can render him out." Deferred to the next meeting. | |
| 0:49:43 | Region 10 representative | The Region 10 group links Claremont and Newport's technical centers. Sprague proposed Benware; he accepted. | |
| 0:51:11 | Unpaid lunch balances | Sprague: "We continue to feed the kids because we had to do that by law." O'Neill (0:52:35): "The total amount for the year ended June 30th, 2018 is 32,040 418." [about $32,000; the figure as transcribed]. Highest single balance "$672.50". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:02 | Write-off proposal | O'Neill: write off free and reduced-status accounts and "all the accounts under $20" and the transfers; "By doing that, I can collect 80% of the money and only have 10% of the accounts to call". Later (1:08:06): "you're writing off 26% of the money and you're getting rid of 67% of the accounts." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:59:29 | Collection options | Towle suggested a lawyer's letter; O'Neill (1:00:56): "the policy does not allow me to do that right now." Benware (1:01:57): "we're not allowed to have a policy that says you can't feed the kid, right?" LeClair (1:02:07): "And we used to be able to provide a modified meal, but we can't do that anymore either." | |
| 1:08:43 | Diplomas, a la carte, alerts | Sprague asked whether withholding a diploma could go in policy; O'Neill said a student had once been told he could not graduate. Sprague (1:09:45): "Can we shut them off on a la carte?" O'Neill: "Yes, we can do that. We can just offer them a lunch." Sprague (1:10:29) proposed automatic text or email alerts. | |
| 1:12:19 | Write-off motion | Pierce moved to put the policy on the October 14 agenda "And then also in that motion allow him to Mike to Michael to be able to abolish the under 20." with free and reduced status accounts; Benware seconded. Pierce asked for one more mailed notice (1:12:56). Sprague objected to the online payment fee; Benware (1:14:25): "So it's 295 no matter what you put in." Approved at 1:14:46. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:14:54 | Abbey Group contract | Towle: "When does Abby Group come back up for contract?" O'Neill: a "One year contract with for possible extensions" [four possible extensions], and "anything can be negotiated at any time". | |
| 1:15:33 | Retreat materials | Retreat October 14. Sprague asked for class sizes and a saturation study: below 40 or 50% "you probably have too many teachers" (1:16:47). | |
| 1:18:47 | Tech center report requested | Benware asked "that we could invite Doctor Herzog to come speak at our next meeting". Towle relayed Pope's praise for the new flow at the tech center. | |
| 1:21:04 | Process for the vacant seat | Pierce asked for candidates "coming in front of the board and each person having the opportunity to ask a question". Sprague (1:21:55): "let's put that on this, an action item for the next agenda to formalize that process". | POSITIVE |
| 1:22:23 | Enrollment numbers | Towle asked for current attendance numbers by school for the retreat; Benware noted the tech center counts include high school students. | |
| 1:24:10 | Next agenda | "an action item on the accepting the resignation of Mr. Hirschi as well." [Horsky] | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on October 3, 2018, cited from the 2018 codification or from texts whose source notes show no later change relevant here. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The board filled its superintendent search committee seat by paper ballot in open session, and no member's vote is on the record
With two members seeking the seat left by Horsky, Benware proposed "a little paper ballot" (0:41:49); the chair asked members to "write their choice down" and passed the papers to the interim superintendent to count (0:46:59), who announced "Carolyn has three votes." (0:48:00). Nobody was asked to sign a ballot and no one's choice was read out. In 2018 RSA 91-A:2, II provided: "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 exceptions. The choice of a board representative to a committee is a vote of the board, and a paper ballot whose votes are never attributed is, in effect, a secret one. At the September 19 meeting the chair had proposed a similar two-choice paper vote, and Zullo asked, on that recording, "Why would we do why does it need to be secret." (see the September 19 page). If the ballots were signed and the minutes list each member's choice, the defect would be cured; nothing on the recording suggests that, and the minutes are not online. Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the recording cannot show whether members signed their ballots or whether the minutes attribute each choice, either of which would take the vote out of the secret-ballot bar; the matter itself was minor, and no one objected.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2018 codification; secret-ballot sentence).
HIGH The district's annual financial report was unfinished a month after the September 1 statutory deadline
Under "review and sign" the DOE-25, the business administrator told the board he did not have a complete report (0:18:43), described it as filed with the Department of Education (DOE-25) and the Department of Revenue Administration (MS-25) (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). He proposed that the board receive it a week before the next meeting and sign then. In 2018 RSA 21-J:34, V required: "School districts shall submit financial reports on or before September 1 of each year." The report the statute describes (receipts and expenditures by uniform classification, and a balance sheet) is the MS-25. On his own account it was not filed on October 3, and could not be before a later meeting. Mitigation stated on the tape: the State had just released catastrophic aid figures and had not yet released next year's adequacy grants (0:19:34). The speaker's claim that late filing is common is his characterization and does not change the deadline. The limb applied is a missed statutory deadline. What the recording cannot show is the date the report was finally filed.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34, V (2018 codification; source note ends 2007, 182:2).
MEDIUM The audit of fiscal year 2015 was still open in October 2018, more than three years after that year ended
The board approved the auditors' "board questionnaire" for the "Fiscal year 15 audit" (0:18:15 to 0:18:37). At the September 19 meeting the assistant superintendent had described it as covering the 2014-15 school year, noting that no current member served then (see the September 19 page). A governance questionnaire is part of an audit still in progress, so the fiscal 2015 audit (year ended June 30, 2015) was not yet complete. For a fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014, the federal single-audit rule was OMB Circular A-133, not the Uniform Guidance, whose audit subpart applies to fiscal years beginning on or after December 26, 2014. A-133 required an audit of any entity expending $500,000 or more in federal awards and a reporting package within the earlier of 30 days after the auditor's report or nine months after the period's end: March 31, 2016 for fiscal 2015. The recording does not state the district's federal expenditures, which is why this is MEDIUM rather than HIGH; a district running federal school meal and education grant programs of Claremont's size would ordinarily pass the threshold. Where the later fiscal years stood is not said.
Sources: OMB Circular A-133 (2007 revision), sections .200(a) and .320(a); 2 CFR 200.110(b) (2016 annual edition; Subpart F applies to fiscal years beginning on or after December 26, 2014).
OBSERVATION Lunch balances were written off without saying which fund absorbs the loss
The board authorized the business administrator to write off balances of $20 or less and the balances of families with free or reduced status (1:12:19, approved at 1:14:46); he estimated this removes 26% of the money owed and 67% of the accounts (1:08:06). USDA's 2017 guidance on unpaid meal charges states that bad debt cannot be covered from the nonprofit school food service account: "these losses must be restored using non-Federal funds." The recording does not say which fund would carry the write-off. Separately, the chair's statement that the district feeds every child "because we had to do that by law" (0:51:11) was accurate for New Hampshire in 2018: RSA 189:11-a, VIII barred "different treatment from the standard school lunch meal". No violation is shown; this is noted so a reader knows what to look for in the food service accounts.
Sources: USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017 (March 23, 2017), bad debt; RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2018 codification; eff. July 2, 2016).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md section 83 records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the board corrects and approves its September 19 minutes on this recording (0:03:41 to 0:05:17). In 2018 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to include "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 within five business days; the requirement to name each motion's mover and seconder took effect only on January 1, 2019. Several points on this page (the paper ballot's count, the audit motion's exact wording, the gift hearing's newspaper notice) can be settled only from records that are not online. The limb applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2018 codification); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 83.
POSITIVE The $15,000 Byrne gift was put through a public hearing before a fresh acceptance vote
On September 19 the board had voted to accept this gift before any hearing, and staff caught the problem the same night (see the September 19 page). Tonight the chair opened with the hearing, explaining that "a gift of $5,000 requires a public hearing" (0:00:12), and the board then accepted the gift again as an action item (0:35:00), Benware noting that the earlier vote came "during apparently discussion instead of action". RSA 198:20-b, III(a) as it read in 2018 required a prior public hearing, with newspaper notice of its time, place and subject at least 7 days before, for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more. The hearing is on the tape; whether the newspaper notice ran cannot be seen from the recording. Correcting the sequence in public is the right way to handle it.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1, so the same text governed in 2018).
POSITIVE The vacancy was handled in the open: public solicitation, a deferred acceptance vote, and proposed public interviews
The chair would not accept Horsky's resignation off-agenda (0:39:36) and deferred it to an action item; proposed advertising for letters of interest "into the paper and onto the web page" (0:41:12); and the clerk explained that an appointee serves only until the next election, where the balance of the term is on the ballot (0:40:41). Pierce asked that candidates appear before the board and answer members' questions, and the chair made the process an action item for the next agenda (1:21:04, 1:21:55). In 2018 RSA 671:33, II(a) required the school board to fill a vacancy and provided that "Appointees of the school board shall serve until the next district election"; it did not require advertising or public interviews. The board went beyond the minimum.
Sources: RSA 671:33, II(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2017, 3:2, so the same text governed in 2018; amended in 2021).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10044, "SCHOOL BOARD MEETING OF 10-3": Claremont Community TV. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, hearing notice, packet, DOE-25 draft, audit questionnaire or minutes were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, September 19, 2018 (first acceptance of the gift; questionnaire introduced; search committee seats); SAU 6 Board, October 18, 2018; Claremont School Board, October 30, 2018 (lunch debt).
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.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10044 SchoolBoard100318.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 83
Laws and rules cited on this page