Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Names follow the speaker attribution in the dialogue file and the project's 2015-2023 roster; where a name rests on weak evidence, the participation cell says so. There are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | SAU 6 Vice Chair (Claremont), presiding | Calls the meeting to order (0:00:13); seconds the agenda motion (0:02:00); moves the October 18 minutes, then amends his motion to include Towle's changes (0:04:36); opens and closes the budget hearing (0:05:12, 0:13:09); moves adoption of the revised budget (0:17:41); moves the nonpublic session (0:23:58). Attribution for the presiding cluster is medium-high: he answers Yes when Michael? is called (0:24:28). |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 Chair (Unity) | Absent (per her own statement at the December 13, 2018 meeting). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member (Claremont) | Absent (per the December 13, 2018 minutes vote). Her name is called in the nonpublic roll call (0:24:30). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Says the October 18 minutes omit her nay vote and the reasons she asked to be read into the record (0:02:37); gives the superintendent search update (0:20:26). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (Claremont) | Answers the roll (0:01:23); asks whether the SAU plans to add staff or cross-train (0:10:57) and whether the budget reflects negotiations (0:12:56). |
| Sara Lowe | Member (Unity) | Attribution low-medium. Recognized by the chair as Sarah (0:10:53); explains that the curriculum director position "is no longer at the say [SAU]" (0:11:42) and that a part-time school lunch position was added (0:12:08); recalls the board's earlier move to a deductible health plan for administrators first (0:18:20). |
| Unidentified member | Board member | Moves the agenda (0:01:57), notes a typo in the minutes (0:03:39) and asks why Unity's share is falling (0:09:02). The business administrator answers "that's why, Frank" (0:16:55), so this may be Frank Sprague; not confirmed. |
| Keith Pfeifer | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the proposed budget (0:05:39 to 0:08:54); reports that a food service director candidate has been selected (0:19:15); announces a search meeting on November 15 (0:22:32). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Attribution uncertain (her rows sit in a mixed cluster). Explains that SAU revenue is the districts' expenditure (0:09:51) and that a curriculum coordinator position was cut (0:10:35, 0:11:14). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Explains the apportionment (0:09:15) and the health insurance change and revised assessments (0:13:53 to 0:17:09). The surname follows the project roster; he introduces himself by that name, as director of business and finance, at the December 13 meeting (show 10165). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk (recording secretary) | Asked to take the roll (0:00:51) and to record Towle's amendment (0:04:22). Her calls are not separately attributed in the dialogue file. |
| Citizens' comments | None | No one spoke in citizens' comments (0:05:04) or at the budget hearing (0:13:09). |
| Unidentified | Several voices | 47 of 215 dialogue rows (21.9%), including the Pledge, most roll-call answers and the seconds to the minutes and budget motions. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting survives in any district share. The items below are reconstructed from the presiding officer's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What happened |
|---|
| 0:00:13 | Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance | Opened by the vice chair. |
| 0:00:51 | Roll call | "So, Mary, can you start with roll call, please?" Answers mostly Here. |
| 0:01:44 | Approval of the agenda | "I make a motion that we approve the agenda as presented." (unidentified member); the presiding officer: "I will second that. All in favor? Aye." No opposition heard. |
| 0:02:10 | Minutes of October 18, 2018 | Towle: her nay vote on adding the food service compliance manager and her reasons are missing (0:02:37); a typo is noted (0:03:39). Amended motion "to include the changes that Caroline [Carolyn] asked for" (0:04:36); unidentified second; "Aye aye aye" (0:04:53). |
| 0:04:59 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:05:12 | Public hearing: FY2020 SAU 6 budget | Presentation, questions from members, no public comment; closed at 0:13:09. |
| 0:13:09 | Review and adoption of the FY2020 budget | Revised for a lower health insurance rate. Petrin moves "a proposed budget for 2019, 20 of $1,901,532.65" (0:17:41); unidentified second (0:18:02); voice vote, Aye, no opposition heard (0:18:10). |
| 0:19:11 | Superintendent's report | Food service director candidate selected. |
| 0:20:13 | Superintendent search status update | Towle reports; forums December 1 (Claremont) and December 5 (Unity). |
| 0:23:50 | Other board business; nonpublic session | "I'd like to make a motion that we go into a nonpublic session. Per RSA 91-A colon, three second." (0:23:58). Roll call (0:24:28 to 0:24:44); the recording ends as the board moves "Next door" (0:24:55). See flag 1. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10094 SAU6110918.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed. Quotations are as transcribed.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:10 | A missing nay vote in the October 18 minutes | Towle: "Under addition of food service compliance manager. It makes mention of the motion being accepted. I had asked my vote was nay, and I had to ask for the reasoning to be read into the record. And I gave the reasons for my neighbor [nay], and it's missing." Her reasons, restated: "I didn't want to vote for the position until I understand or understood exactly how this had happened." "Deficit had happened." (0:03:16, 0:03:36). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:12 | Budget hearing opened | "I would like to call the six school board [SAU 6 board] budget public hearing to order. And Doctor Pfeiffer has a slideshow." | POSITIVE |
| 0:05:48 | Proposed budget below last year | Pfeifer: "Bringing a budget to you that is less than last year." "Is $1,930,808.65 at the accepted budget for last year was 1,945,070 $0.02. The difference is a -$15,023.07." (0:05:57). The stated difference implies a prior-year figure of $1,945,831.72; the transcript's rendering of that number is garbled. Wages "down $22,224.93", "we have requested no new personnel" (0:06:22). | |
| 0:07:50 | District assessments and revenue | Pfeifer: the district assessment "has gone down every year"; use of fund balance "Another 75,000" (0:08:17). O'Neill: Unity's share rose slightly because its "equalized assessed valuation went up higher" while Claremont's pupils dropped; "there's 50% based on assessed valuation" (0:09:15, 0:09:37). LeClair: "it's revenue to the saw [SAU], but it's expenditure for the individual districts" (0:10:12). | POSITIVE |
| 0:10:35 | Staffing changes | LeClair: "we took out a curriculum coordinator position, and those responsibilities are being filled by our curriculum specialists in the Claremont district and myself" (0:11:14). Lowe: "we actually did add a part time staff with the school, lunch overseeing piece" (0:12:08); "I just want to make sure that we're. Being clear and upfront about that" (0:12:31). Pierce asks whether the budget reflects negotiations (0:12:56); no clear answer is transcribed. | |
| 0:13:09 | Hearing closed | "Any any any comments from the public and yeah, seeing none I guess I'll it. We will close the public hearing." | |
| 0:13:29 | Health insurance rate and the revised budget | O'Neill: "We budgeted an initial I get it. We budgeted initial increase of 6%. It came into 4.3%." (0:13:53). Revised total: "$1,901,532.65" (0:15:29), $29,276 below the hearing figure. Claremont's assessment is "down 47,000 565 from last year" and Unity's "down $1,734 from the prior year" (0:16:30). Petrin: "It's about $0.06 per thousand then." (0:17:06). | |
| 0:17:32 | Budget adopted | Pfeifer asks whether the board wants "to adopt the revised budget". Petrin moves it (0:17:41); second; "All in favor? Aye, aye." (0:18:10). Lowe recalls that "the board, some of you weren't on the board at the time" had asked administrators to move first to the deductible plan (0:18:20). | |
| 0:19:15 | Food service director | Pfeifer: "I'm not going to mention a name, but, relative to the service director position that you approved in the last meeting, we had four candidates"; two lacked food service credentials; "We interviewed two people, and we have selected one to move forward with". The candidate is a part-time food service director in Plainfield. | |
| 0:20:13 | Superintendent search | Towle: "we are right in the middle of, putting together our criteria" (0:20:26); the survey had "terrific response" (0:21:13). Pfeifer: a meeting "for November 15th, between 6 and 730 here" (0:22:32). Forums: "December 5th was unity. December 1st with Claire [Claremont] was there." (0:23:04). Towle asks members to help with outreach (0:23:36). | |
| 0:23:58 | Nonpublic session | Petrin: "I'd like to make a motion that we go into a nonpublic session. Per RSA 91-A colon, three second. You need roll call." Roll call: Michael? Yes. "Rebecca. Is right. Right." and further Yes answers (0:24:28 to 0:24:44). The recording ends. | MEDIUM |
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 November 8, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM The motion to enter nonpublic session, as transcribed, names no specific exemption, and the recording ends before the session
The presiding officer moved "that we go into a nonpublic session. Per RSA 91-A colon, three second" (0:23:58). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), as it read in 2018, required a motion to enter nonpublic session to state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II, and the decision to be made by roll call. The roll call was taken (0:24:28 to 0:24:44), but the motion as transcribed cites only the section; no lettered ground of paragraph II is heard, and the next word may be a second rather than a paragraph number. The superintendent had offered to give his report "later in nonpublic" (0:19:15), which suggests a personnel matter, but the record does not say so. The recording then ends, so nothing shows how long the session lasted, what was decided, or whether its minutes were disclosed within 72 hours or sealed under RSA 91-A:3, III. The December 13 correction to these minutes concerns the section headed as a request for a nonpublic session (show 10165, about two and a half minutes in), so the minutes may state the exemption; if they do not, this would be a HIGH item. The ASR may also have dropped a spoken letter, which only the audio can settle.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)
MEDIUM No agenda or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share, though the board approved minutes a month later
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. RSA 91-A:2, II, as it read in 2018, required minutes including the names of members, persons appearing, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions, open to inspection within five business days; RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) names school administrative units among public bodies. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: on December 13, 2018 the SAU 6 board took up the November 8 minutes, corrected one entry to read "vice chair", and approved them with the chair and Zullo abstaining as absent (show 10165, from about two minutes in). Minutes therefore existed; whether they were open to inspection within five business days of November 8 cannot be checked from here.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; text in force for all of 2018); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (public body includes a school administrative unit; source note ends 2008, 354:1)
OBSERVATION The October 18 draft minutes omitted a member's nay vote and the reasons she asked to have recorded
Towle told the board that the draft minutes of October 18 reported the motion adding a food service compliance manager as accepted but left out her nay and the reasons she had asked "to be read into the record" (0:02:37); the board amended the minutes to include them (0:04:36 to 0:04:53). In 2018 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to give a brief description of the subject matter and the final decisions; the requirement to record who moved and seconded each motion began only on January 1, 2019, and neither version requires a roll of individual votes. The omission was therefore a quality gap rather than a statutory one, and it was caught and fixed in public. The October 18 meeting is on file as show 10059 (MAP.md section 84), where the original vote can be checked.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the mover/seconder sentence was added by 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019)
POSITIVE The SAU held a public hearing on its budget that the statute does not require, and adopted the budget well before the January 1 deadline
RSA 194-C:9, I, as it read in 2018, required the SAU board to adopt its budget at a meeting held before January 1 and to apportion it among the member districts half on average membership and half on equalized valuation; it sets no hearing or notice requirement. The board nonetheless opened a public hearing with a presentation (0:05:12 to 0:13:09), invited public comment, and adopted the budget on November 8 (0:18:10). The business administrator's explanation of why Unity's share rose while Claremont's fell (0:09:15, 0:09:37) matches the statutory formula, though he calls the property half "assessed valuation" where the statute says equalized valuation. The revised figure adopted was lower than the one presented at the hearing, which raises no issue: the only change was the actual health insurance rate (0:15:29).
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, eff. Sept. 16, 2003)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-9-18 (show 10094; MAP.md notes the title and file name say 11/9/18 while the eventDate is 11/8/18; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 to this environment on 2026-10-02)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda or minutes. MAP.md records that neither share holds a year folder older than 2022 and that 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.
- SAU 6 Board, December 13, 2018 (Cablecast show 10165, MAP.md section 89): approval of these minutes, with attendance noted.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10094 SAU6110918.mp4.CSV (215 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Dialogue/10165 SAU6121318.mp4.CSV (the December 13, 2018 SAU 6 meeting; cited for the minutes approval and attendance)Input/Videos/10094 SAU6110918.mp4Input/Transcripts/10094 SAU6110918.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 87Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10094 SAU6110918.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; no mover/seconder requirement until 2019
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and III, 2017 codification: nonpublic motion states the specific exemption and is decided by roll call; 72-hour disclosure unless withheld by a recorded two-thirds vote with a determination
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d): public bodies include school administrative units and their committees
- RSA 194-C:9, I, 2017 codification: SAU budget adopted before January 1; apportionment half on average membership, half on equalized valuation; no hearing requirement