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 |
|---|
| Marjorie (Marge) Erickson | Chair, SAU 6 Board; member (Unity) | Presides and calls the roll; declines to hold a nonpublic session no one had requested of her (0:03:08); says the lunch debt is "a Claremont issue" (0:15:04); reports on the search survey and forums (0:39:41); "this is my fourth year on this board" (1:23:49). Not named on this recording; identified by role and by her self-identification as SAU 6 chair in a December 2018 recording (attribution report, medium confidence). |
| Sara Lowe | Member (Unity) | Moves the amendment setting a salary range for the compliance position (1:16:56); the chair calls it "the amendment, as Sarah read it" (1:18:50). Identification of the amendment's speaker is uncertain per the attribution report. |
| Craig (surname not established) | Member (Unity) | Answers the roll (transcribed Shoot, 0:01:16). |
| Robert McDevitt (probable) | Member (Unity) | Robert is called in the roll (0:01:20); no attributed rows. |
| Prudence McCormick | Member (Unity) | Absent; the chair says she called in (0:01:20). |
| Frank Sprague | Member; chair of the Claremont School Board | Moves the agenda (0:02:13); asks about the substitutes line (0:26:17); offers median-income statistics on school funding (0:46:49); seconds the evaluation tool (0:56:46) and the compliance position (1:05:43); proposes tracking why lunch bills go unpaid (1:06:39). |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Asks about competitive purchasing (0:25:15); argues the fund-balance use is "not really saving" (0:34:07); asks to defer the budget vote until the new position is decided (0:36:46); moves the funding letter (0:45:25), the evaluation tool (0:56:04) and the budget (1:22:37); prefers a stipend to an hourly rate (1:09:46). |
| Michael Petrin | Member (Claremont) | Says he now runs the Claremont School Board Facebook page and will post search information (0:41:55); asks who did the work before the food service contract (1:07:52). Called as "Michael Patrick" in the roll (0:01:02). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (Claremont) | Moves to accept the compliance position (1:05:34); seconds the budget (1:23:18) and adjournment (1:25:27). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Asks whether the lunch debt will be taken up (0:13:42); asks for budget papers before meetings (0:35:58); suspects a candidate is already in mind (1:06:03); votes Nay on the position (1:19:18) and asks for the food service contract (1:19:54). |
| Michael (Mike) O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presents the expenditure report (0:19:36), the proposed budget and apportionment (0:21:58, 0:30:03) and the compliance position (0:59:14). Surname per the roster. |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (staff) | Takes the minutes ("You got that, Mary?", 0:56:40); not heard as a separate voice. Surname per the roster. |
| Jane Gilson | Citizens' comments (Claremont) | "Jane Gilson. I'm from Claremont." (0:07:00); volunteers with a church weekend backpack food program; offers to help collect lunch debt and sign families up for free and reduced meals (0:07:57, 0:12:55). Spelling of the surname is unverified. |
| Unidentified | Unity parent (board member or audience; not established) | "I'm also a parent in in unity" and describes seeing meal charges online (0:10:25). |
| Unidentified | Various | 107 of 751 dialogue rows (14.2%), including the Claremont member who moves the minutes and mentions the retreat (0:04:58, 0:16:33) and Unity-side speakers. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives; the chair says "We have an agenda in front of us." (0:02:05) and refers to items F and G. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:30 | Call to order; pledge; roll call | The chair calls the roll; McCormick absent. |
| 0:02:05 | Agenda | Motion Sprague, second unidentified. The chair explains why no nonpublic session is scheduled (0:03:08). Approved by voice vote (0:04:27). |
| 0:04:43 | Minutes of September 13, 2018 | "I move that we accept the minutes from September 13th as written." (unidentified), second unidentified; approved (0:05:34). |
| 0:05:34 | Citizens' comments | Jane Gilson on the lunch debt; a Unity parent; discussion of whether the debt belongs to this board. |
| 0:18:26 | Budget review: expenditure report, proposed FY2019-20 budget, revenues and apportionment | Adoption for the public hearing deferred until after item F (0:37:47). |
| 0:38:42 | Superintendent's report | None; the superintendent is out under doctor's orders (0:39:07). |
| 0:39:41 | Superintendent search update | Survey live; forums December 1 and 5. |
| 0:44:05 | School funding letter | Motion Benware, second unidentified; approved by voice vote, no opposition heard (0:49:55). |
| 0:50:55 | Superintendent evaluation process | Motion Benware (restated to strike "appropriate"), second Sprague; approved (0:58:08). |
| 0:58:58 | F. Food service compliance monitor | Motion Pierce, second Sprague. Amendment (Lowe, as heard): a salaried range of $12,000 to $15,000 and tracking why payments are not made; second Benware; passed (1:18:56). Amended motion passed, one opposed, Towle (1:19:19). |
| 1:22:18 | Budget adoption for the public hearing | $1,930,809. Motion Benware, second Pierce; approved by voice vote, no opposition heard (1:23:49). |
| 1:24:32 | Next meeting; adjournment | Next meeting November 8. Motion Benware, second Pierce (1:25:27). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10059 SAU6101818.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:19 | No superintendent, no nonpublic | The chair: LeClair is "away for the weekend" and Pfeifer "has injured himself" (0:02:19). On a nonpublic session: "I never got a request for a nonpublic. First off it was never brought to the chairs attention that we were to have a nonpublic." (0:03:08) and "I can't have one without information." (0:04:04). Towle: "It just leaves a lot still up in the air." (0:03:58). | POS |
| 0:04:43 | September 13 minutes | Approved "as written"; the chair: "it's a long read." (0:05:28). | MEDIUM |
| 0:06:45 | Citizen on the lunch debt | Gilson's program packs weekend food for children the school nurses identify (0:07:09); she offers vetted volunteers "that have experience in collections" (0:07:57). The chair: "At the current time, it's primarily an issue for Claremont School Board." (0:09:22). O'Neill: billing questions go to the schools (0:11:13). | |
| 0:13:42 | Whose issue is the debt | The chair: "The $32,000 is a Claremont issue." (0:15:04); the debt "may rise to that level. It has not yet." (0:15:37). Sprague: the retreat discussion "was postponed as we were told that we would be talking about it tonight." (0:16:54). The chair: "it was never brought to my attention that it should be on the agenda at all. I read it in the newspaper." (0:17:13). | |
| 0:19:36 | Expenditure report | "a balance of $1,389,860.68, of which 1 million 781 8037 is encumbered" leaving 311,631 [the encumbered figure is garbled; $1,389,860.68 less $311,631 implies about $1,078,230 encumbered] (0:19:55). "about $100,000 that would be related to positions and benefit reductions." (0:21:14). | |
| 0:21:58 | Changes to the proposed budget | O'Neill: "There was some salary increases given by the SA board in the staff totaling 10,000 186" [$10,186] plus benefits, and the compliance monitor "at the value of 15,000 for salaries and 1147 50ft benefits." (0:21:58); the increases are for the "assistant superintendent, administrative assistant, receptionist" (0:23:26). | OBS OBS |
| 0:25:15 | Purchasing | Benware asks "how much diligence is put into checking around". O'Neill: computers through "Gulf Connection" [GovConnection, as the attribution report suggests], supplies under a price-match deal with W.B. Mason (0:25:31). | |
| 0:28:42 | Apportionment and revenues | Valuation shares "84.93 for the valuation for Claremont and 1507 for the unity"; average daily membership "Claremont has 94% and unity has a basically 6%." (0:29:46); result "89.47% and the percentage of portion to unity of 10.53%." (0:30:03). "another $75,000 from fund balance" against a projected $200,000 (0:31:24). Non-district revenue 150,750 [$150,750]; Claremont's assessment "1,592,692, which is down 18,703", Unity's "187367, which is down $1,320" (0:31:40). | POS |
| 0:33:13 | Is it a saving | Benware: "we put 75,000 in this year. We only put 55,000 in last year." so "if we didn't kick that extra 20,000 in we'd show a $5,000 difference the other direction." O'Neill: "The budget is down $15,000." (0:34:10). Towle asks for papers before meetings (0:35:58). | |
| 0:36:23 | Budget vote deferred | Benware: "I don't think we can adopt anything yet on this until we've actually discussed item F." (0:36:46). Sprague: "By approving this it's a de facto approval of that." The chair: "We're not approving a budget. We're just approving what will be presented" (0:37:25). | |
| 0:38:42 | Superintendent out | O'Neill: "he went to his doctor and his doctor said, you are not going" (0:39:07). No report. | |
| 0:39:41 | Search survey and forums | "our survey is live on Survey Monkey" with paper copies too; responses wanted "by the 1st of November in time for our criteria setting meeting" (0:40:19). Forums "December 1st and the fifth", one at Stevens High School and one at the Unity elementary school (0:40:58). Petrin: "I have become in charge of the Claremont School Board Facebook page." (0:41:55). | |
| 0:44:05 | School funding letter | To "current legislators, as well as those running for office this year." (0:44:40), based on the Hillsboro school board's letter (0:46:03). Sprague: Claremont's "median income of 45,510" (0:46:49), the state's "fifth lowest tax burden", "Bedford, the median income is 123,000." (0:47:56), and "it's important who we vote for." (0:50:45). Approved (0:49:55). | |
| 0:50:55 | Superintendent evaluation tool | "At the moment we do not have a superintendent position description" (0:50:55). Debate over "provides appropriate information only when asked" (0:54:18); adopted as "provides information only when asked." (0:56:22). | |
| 0:58:58 | Food service compliance position: the case | O'Neill: the position "exists to support the food service operations in C districts" (0:59:14); with his workload "it's very difficult for me with my current workload to to get up on all of these food service regulations" (0:59:37); the work includes applications, inspections, contract monitoring and monthly direct certification (1:00:29); "eight hours per week" (1:01:05) at "$30 an hour" (1:04:12); "I'm just concerned that I miss one thing, and it's going to cost me more than $15,000" (1:01:05). | OBS |
| 1:05:34 | Food service compliance position: the vote | Towle: "There's already a candidate. So this really isn't an open application. Correct?" O'Neill: "We've not made any decisions in hiring anybody." (1:06:20). O'Neill: "you have $34,000 this year" in balances (1:07:41). The chair, "As a unity resident", asks how much is driven by Claremont (1:12:36); Sprague: "Claremont will be bearing 86% or whatever it is of the cost." (1:13:18). The amended motion passes, Towle opposed: "I am not ready to do anything until I understand how we got to this point" (1:19:28). | OBS |
| 1:22:18 | Budget to the hearing | Benware: with the range's top in the budget, "the budget he presented to us. Stays the same." (1:22:30). O'Neill: a motion "to approve the budget for posting for the public hearing" (1:22:48) at "1,930,809." (1:23:02). The chair: "this has been the clearest and most easy that this process has been." (1:23:49). | POS |
| 1:24:32 | Agenda requests | The chair asks that agenda items go to her and the superintendent "Because there has been a communication issue and I would like to to eliminate that" (1:24:32), and to send Towle the food service contract (1:25:01). | |
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 18, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this SAU 6 meeting: neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The meeting adopted the unit's budget for public hearing, created a position and adopted an evaluation tool, 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: members had an agenda (0:02:05), the recording secretary took the minutes (0:56:40, 0:56:52), and the board approved the September 13 minutes at this meeting, which shows minutes were kept (0:04:58). The project's rule that SAU 6 minutes are often filed with later packets cannot be tested for 2018, because no SAU 6 folder from that year survives in the share.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text for all of 2018)
OBSERVATION A new SAU position was created by the SAU board alone; the statute conditions new positions and services on the districts' votes
The board created a food service compliance position (1:05:34, 1:19:19) and added it to the unit's budget (0:21:58, 0:23:26), funded about 89% by Claremont (0:30:03). RSA 194-C:5, II(c) provides: "Other administrative positions may be established, but only after 50 percent or more of the school districts in the school administrative unit representing 60 percent of the total pupils in the school administrative unit has voted favorably upon the establishment of the position." RSA 194-C:9, I separately provides that the SAU board "shall not add any new service to the school administrative unit budget unless a majority of the school districts", "representing not less than 60 percent of the total pupils in the school administrative unit", have voted favorably. Whether a part-time compliance post is an "administrative position", and whether moving food service paperwork to the SAU is a "new service", are open questions; staff described the duties as district responsibilities that the SAU business office had already been carrying (1:00:29, 1:12:50). No vote by the Claremont or Unity district is in this record. A Claremont vote alone would meet both thresholds (one of two districts, about 94% of pupils by the membership figure given at 0:29:46), so the gap, if there is one, would be easy to close. The district records would settle it.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, II(c) (2017 codification; 1996, 298:3, never amended); RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification; source 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1)
OBSERVATION Salary increases "given by the SA board" appear on no public record available to this project
Explaining the changes since September 13, the business administrator said "There was some salary increases given by the SA board in the staff totaling 10,000 186" (0:21:58), for the assistant superintendent, an administrative assistant and the receptionist (0:23:26). No vote on those raises is on this recording, and the September 13 recording ends as the board entered a nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3, II(a), the exemption covering an employee's compensation (September 13, 2018 page). Fixing SAU salaries is the SAU board's power under RSA 194-C:5, III. If the raises were decided in that nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, III required "Minutes and decisions reached in nonpublic session" to be disclosed within 72 hours unless withheld by a recorded two-thirds vote in public session. Neither the decision nor any sealing vote can be checked, because the September 13 tape stops during the roll call and no minutes survive. This is an observation: the record shows raises approved somewhere, and does not show where.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, III (2017 codification); RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1)
POSITIVE The unit's budget goes to a public hearing that the statute does not require, with the apportionment explained in public
RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1" and to apportion it half on average membership and half on equalized valuation; the section contains no public-hearing requirement. The board instead adopted the $1,930,809 budget for presentation at a November 8 public hearing (0:18:26, 1:22:48), and the business administrator walked through the apportionment on camera, step by step: valuation shares, membership shares and the resulting 89.47% and 10.53% (0:29:46, 0:30:03), which follows the statutory formula. Members also deferred adoption until the new position was decided, so the figure taken to the public matched the board's decisions (0:36:46).
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification)
POSITIVE The chair would not schedule a nonpublic session for which no purpose had been given to her
Asked whether the board was going into nonpublic session, the chair said she "never got a request" and had received no information about what it pertained to (0:03:08): "I can't have one without information." (0:04:04). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) allows a nonpublic session only on a motion that states "on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II", carried by roll call, and I(c) confines the discussion to the matters in the motion. Declining to put a nonpublic session on the evening's business without an identified exemption keeps the board inside that rule. Towle's remark that it "leaves a lot still up in the air" (0:03:58) shows the cost: whatever the session was meant to address is not on the record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and I(c) (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 10-18 (show 10059; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, as the API refuses requests from the build environment; the transcript runs to 1:26:16)
- 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/10059 SAU6101818.mp4.CSV (751 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10059 SAU6101818.mp4Input/Transcripts/10059 SAU6101818.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 84Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10059 SAU6101818.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2017 codification (in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), III, 2017 codification: nonpublic motion states its exemption; discussion confined to it; employee compensation; 72-hour disclosure of decisions
- RSA 194-C:5, II(c) and III (1996, 298:3): new administrative positions need the districts' votes; the SAU board fixes SAU salaries
- RSA 194-C:9, I (2003, 279:1): budget adopted before January 1; apportionment formula; no new service without the districts' votes