Summary of a regular meeting of the SAU 6 board (the Claremont and Unity school boards sitting jointly), generated from the Claremont Community Television recording and its speaker-attributed transcript. The board held its public hearing on the FY2020 SAU budget, heard that health-insurance rates had come in below budget, and adopted a revised budget of $1,901,532.65, lower than the prior year's; it also corrected its October minutes to record a member's dissent, heard a search-committee update, and went into nonpublic session. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 board (school administrative unit board of the Claremont and Unity school districts)
Date
Thursday, November 8, 2018. The Cablecast title and the file name say 11/9/18; the presiding officer calls "the November 8th, 20 1806 board meeting to order" (0:00:13), and MAP.md records a Cablecast event date of 11/8/18.
Start time
Not stated on the recording. Call to order at 0:00:13; budget hearing opened at 0:05:12; motion to enter nonpublic session at 0:23:58. The dialogue file ends at 0:24:58, as the board moves next door for the nonpublic session; no adjournment is recorded.
Location
Not stated in available records. The nonpublic session is held "Next door" (0:24:55).
None located online. Neither Drive share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md section 87, checked 9/26/26). The December 13, 2018 SAU 6 recording shows these minutes approved with a correction naming Mike Petrin vice chair.
Board composition
The Claremont seat vacated by Steven Horsky's resignation was filled the night before, November 7, 2018, by the appointment of Rob Lovett Jr., who had not yet been sworn in. The December 13 minutes vote indicates that SAU 6 chair Marjorie Erickson and Rebecca Zullo were absent from this meeting.
Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file. The roll call (0:00:51 to 0:01:29) is almost entirely Here. in the transcript, so attendance cannot be fully established from the recording. Where the dialogue file leaves a voice Unidentified, this page does too.
Name
Role
Participation
Michael Petrin
SAU 6 vice chair (Claremont member), presiding
Called the meeting to order, ran the hearing and moved the revised budget (0:17:41). Identified as presiding vice chair by the attribution report from the roll-call vote (Michael? answered by the chair, 0:24:28) and the December 13 minutes correction; a medium-high attribution, not a certainty.
Carolyn Towle
Claremont member
Asked that the October 18 minutes record her nay vote and her reasons (0:02:37); gave the superintendent search committee update (0:20:26). Heard as Charlie and Caroline.
Michelle Pierce
Claremont member
Asked about staffing (0:10:57) and whether the budget reflects negotiations (0:12:56); reminded the chair of the roll call (0:24:21).
Sara Lowe (low-medium confidence)
Unity member
Explained the removal of the curriculum position and the added part-time school-lunch position (0:11:42 to 0:12:34); recalled the board's earlier move of SAU staff to a deductible health plan (0:18:20). The dialogue file's attribution to Lowe is marked low-medium in the attribution report.
Unidentified
Board member(s)
Moved the agenda (0:01:57), offered a typo correction to the minutes (0:03:39), asked about Unity's revenue (0:09:02), and seconded the budget motion (0:18:02). The business administrator addresses one questioner as Frank (0:16:55); the dialogue file does not assign the voice.
Dr. Keith Pfeifer
Interim Superintendent, SAU 6
Presented the proposed SAU budget (0:05:12 to 0:08:54); reported the food service director selection (0:19:15).
Michael O'Neill
Business administrator, SAU 6
Explained the revenue formula and the revised health-insurance figures (0:13:53 to 0:17:09).
Cory LeClair
Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6
Explained the revenue slide and the eliminated position (0:09:51 to 0:11:14; attribution uncertain per the report).
Mary Woodman
Clerk (recording secretary)
Asked to call the roll (0:00:51); addressed on the minutes changes (0:04:22). No speech is attributed to her by name.
No citizens
Citizens' comments; hearing
"Seeing none, we'll close systems comments." (0:05:04). No member of the public spoke at the budget hearing (0:13:09).
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted online, though the presiding officer refers to one. This outline is reconstructed from the chair's transitions. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
Approved as amended to include Towle's recorded nay and reasons on the food service compliance manager and a typo fix (0:04:36); second unidentified (0:04:50).
None; motion to go into nonpublic "Per RSA 91-A colon, three", roll-call vote (0:24:28); answers heard are Yes.
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.
Towle: "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, and it's missing." She restated them: "I didn't want to vote for the position until I understand or understood exactly how this had happened." (0:03:16). The minutes were amended (0:04:36).
Pfeifer: "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." Wages "down $22,224.93" and "we have requested no new personnel" (0:06:22).
The district assessments show "a downward trend"; revenues include "Interest income, we expect about $250,000" and "use of fund balance. Another 75,000" (0:08:17). O'Neill: the assessment is a "seesaw because there's 50% based on assessed valuation" (0:09:37).
LeClair: "we did actually take a position out of the budget"; "we took out a curriculum coordinator position" (0:11:14). Lowe (attribution uncertain): "we actually did add a part time staff with the school, lunch overseeing piece" (0:12:08).
O'Neill: "We budgeted initial increase of 6%. It came into 4.3%." The revised budget is "$1,901,532.65" (0:15:29); Claremont's assessment is "down 47,000 565 from last year" and Unity's "down $1,734" (0:16:30).
Petrin: "I like to make a motion to accept this adopt, I guess, is that the word the new, budget that has been placed in front of us with a proposed budget for 2019, 20 of $1,901,532.65." Seconded; carried by voice (0:18:10).
"we had asked the staff to take the lead in taking that more affordable health care insurance"; the aim was that "administration and teachers were on the same plan" (0:18:42).
Towle: "We are right in the middle of, putting together our criteria"; survey response "terrific" (0:21:13); a committee meeting on November 15 from 6 to 7:30 (0:22:32); forums: "December 5th was unity. December 1st with Claire was there." (0:23:04).
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." Pierce: "You have to roll." (0:24:21). Roll call at 0:24:28.
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 8, 2018. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag names the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, it is recorded as an observation. Ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The motion to enter nonpublic session cited the section but no exemption
The presiding officer moved to go into nonpublic session "Per RSA 91-A colon, three" (0:23:58), naming neither paragraph II nor any lettered ground, and nothing said around the motion identifies the subject. The superintendent had earlier offered to discuss the food service director selection "later in nonpublic" (0:19:15), which may or may not be what followed. The law then in force required the motion to name the specific exemption on its face and the vote to be by roll call; the board did take a roll call after a member's reminder (0:24:21 to 0:24:44). MEDIUM: a probable procedural gap under a binding rule; the minutes, which are not online, might record a more specific motion than the one heard. The December 13, 2018 SAU 6 motion shows the same gap.
OBSERVATION Minutes of this meeting and its nonpublic session are not available online, and the recording cannot establish attendance
The roll call is almost entirely Here. in the transcript (0:00:51 to 0:01:29), so only the minutes can say who attended; the December 13 recording shows the minutes existed and were approved there. The district's Drive shares begin in 2022 and 2023, so neither these minutes nor any nonpublic minutes are online. Under the law then in force, minutes had to be open to inspection within five business days and nonpublic minutes and decisions disclosed within 72 hours unless withheld by a recorded two-thirds vote. Recorded as an OBSERVATION about online availability under the run's severity rule; the recording shows no statutory lapse.
POSITIVE The SAU budget was heard in public and adopted well before the January 1 statutory date
RSA 194-C:9, I, in the text then in force, required the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1". The board adopted $1,901,532.65 on November 8 (0:17:41), seven weeks early. The statute requires no public hearing on an SAU budget; the board held one anyway, with a slide presentation of the proposed figure against the prior year (0:05:57), and then revised the figure on the record when actual health-insurance rates arrived, showing the effect on each district's assessment (0:15:29, 0:16:30). Nothing on the record suggests the districts had adopted the alternative procedure of RSA 194-C:9-a.
POSITIVE The board amended its minutes to record a member's dissent and her reasons
Towle pointed out that the October 18 draft recorded the food service compliance manager motion as accepted without her nay vote or the reasons she had asked to be read into the record (0:02:37); she restated them and the presiding officer amended his motion "to include the changes that Caroline asked for" (0:04:36). The statute then required minutes to show members, persons appearing, the subject matter and final decisions; a recorded dissent with reasons goes beyond that minimum and makes the minutes a truer record of a split decision.
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 section 87, checked 9/26/26). The agenda, the budget "version three" handout and the minutes were not located.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.