Claremont School Board, October 30, 2018 | School lunch debt special meeting

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
Frank Sprague	Chair, presiding	Calls the roll-call vote out of nonpublic session, the agenda vote and citizens' comments; asks the business administrator whether the deficit is "this year or is that a cumulative amount" (0:16:57); explains how the board sets the budget and how revenue is estimated (0:09:03); offers his view that families "think they're paying and the child goes to school with $3 or $4 and they spend 5 or $6" (0:34:37); proposes that gifts after the deadline go to the Trinity backpack program (0:41:24); reminds viewers that Tuesday is election day (0:46:48).
Rebecca Zullo	Vice Chair	Tells the citizen commenter "we are not allowed to respond at citizens comments" (0:03:54); says "All children in this district are being fed, and they're being fed exactly the same meals" (0:27:01); proposes a cutoff date for donations (0:41:15); reports superintendent-search survey response counts (0:45:47).
Jason Benware	Member	Moves to come out of nonpublic session (0:00:12), to seal the nonpublic minutes for 97 years (0:00:49, restated at 0:00:53), to approve the agenda (0:02:16) and to adjourn (0:48:19); explains that a child who asks for lunch must be given "the exact hot lunch that any other kid would get" (0:18:47); asks that the drug and alcohol policy go to the policy subcommittee (0:43:53). The dialogue file gives him two rows that also hold another member's words; see the method note.
Michael Petrin	Member	Seconds the agenda (0:02:19); explains that state aid arrives from one pool, so the district cannot tell how much is lottery money (0:11:07); says the "new point of service accounting system is now recognizing that differently" (0:24:49); points donors to a weekend backpack food program run through Trinity Church (0:37:26); maintains the board's web postings (0:47:37). Probably also the seconder at 0:00:12 (see method note).
Michelle Pierce	Member	Asks for the debt to be split between staff and students (0:17:14, 0:21:10); says staff as well as families have used the a la carte line without paying (0:22:39); asks that donations be kept separate from what the district "will not pay" and is told they are "for students only" (0:42:04 to 0:42:25).
Carolyn Towle	Member	Thanks the commenter and invites her to the budget hearing and deliberative session (0:15:48); says Trinity's backpack program has lost some of its funding (0:38:03); offers to contact the GoFundMe organizer (0:43:29); urges the public to answer the superintendent-search survey (0:45:08).
Keith Pfeifer	Interim Superintendent, SAU 6	Attributed by elimination only; he is not named on this recording. Says the district is "aggressively talking and cooperating with the city of Claremont" on in-district special education programs (0:39:14); tells Pierce that he, the assistant superintendent and the business administrator will meet the Abbey Group (0:42:27).
Cory LeClair	Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6	Says lottery money makes up "less than 3%" of state education spending (0:06:42) and that Keno money for kindergarten was "140,000 for next year" (0:07:54); describes collection efforts (0:19:24) and the four-part plan: revisit the 2017 policy, meet the Abbey Group, hire an SAU food service coordinator, ask the Department of Education about volunteer callers (0:23:03 to 0:24:23); reports $280 received so far and states the donation deadline (0:40:43, 0:42:54); lists the policy sections the subcommittee will take up on November 7 (0:44:14).
Michael O'Neill	Business Administrator, SAU 6	Not named on the recording; the surname comes from the project roster and its spelling is unverified. Explains lottery revenue as a state revenue source (0:06:23); reads statewide aid totals from a Department of Education spreadsheet (0:12:26); confirms the deficit was generated by the 2017-18 lunch program and is $32,000 (0:17:12, 0:17:40); says it "all did start when we adopted a new policy" barring different meals (0:18:13).
Mary Woodman	School district clerk (recording secretary)	Called on by name for the roll-call vote (0:00:17) and for attendance (0:01:04). Her calls are not separately attributed in the dialogue file; they sit in Unidentified rows mixed with members' answers.
Deborah Chase	Citizens' comments, Ward 1	Name as transcribed ("Debbie chase. Deborah chase." at 0:02:44); spelling unverified. Asks "who let the ball roll down the gutter" on the lunch debt (0:03:25) and where Claremont's share of state lottery money appears in the budget (0:04:43); asks about local sourcing by the contractor, kitchen staffing, the food share cart, donations and fundraising (0:27:37 to 0:34:01); reports difficulty finding the online payment page (0:35:15); asks whether out-of-district special education students will be brought back (0:38:50).
Unidentified	Several voices	64 of 391 dialogue rows (16.4%), mostly one- to three-word interjections, roll-call calls and answers, and the second to the adjournment motion (0:48:21).

Order of business (reconstructed)

No agenda for this meeting survives in any district share. The chair calls it "a single item agenda" on the food service school lunch program (0:01:52). The items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording.
Taken up	Item	What happened
Before the recording	Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, nonpublic session	Not recorded. The chair says "We've already done the Pledge of Allegiance" at 0:01:04. The motion to enter nonpublic session, the exemption it cited and the roll call on it are not on tape.
0:00:12	Return to public session	Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to come out of nonpublic session." The second follows in the same dialogue row. Roll call by the clerk (0:00:17): every answer heard is Yes (Benware, Petrin, Pierce, Sprague, Towle, Zullo).
0:00:49	Seal nonpublic minutes	Benware, restated at 0:00:53: "I'd like to make a motion to seal the minutes of the nonpublic session for 97 years." Second in the same row. Chair: "Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?" No tally, no names and no reason for sealing are stated. See flag 2.
0:01:04	Attendance	"Mrs. Woodman, could you do attendance, please?" The answers are not transcribed by name.
0:01:52	Approval of the agenda	Benware: "We approve the agenda as written." Petrin: "A second that." Voice vote, Aye heard, no opposition recorded (0:02:20 to 0:02:24).
0:02:29	Citizens' comments	One speaker, Deborah Chase of Ward 1, on the lunch debt and state lottery money. Closed by the chair at 0:16:31.
0:16:31	Food service / school lunch program	Deficit of about $32,000 from the 2017-18 program; administration's plan; consensus to accept donations until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, with acceptance at the November 7 meeting and later gifts pointed to the Trinity backpack program. No motion or vote on the item.
0:40:11	Good of the order	Donation deadline settled; policy subcommittee to meet November 7 before the regular meeting; superintendent-search survey; election day and school closings on November 5 and 6; board web postings.
0:48:19	Adjournment	Benware moves to adjourn; an unidentified member seconds; Aye (0:48:24).

Discussion timeline

Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10095 SchoolBoard103018.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.

Topics in the order discussed. Quotations are as transcribed.
Time	Topic	What was said	Flags
0:00:05	Leaving nonpublic session	The chair asks a member to "stick your head in and say, we're we're ready"; Benware moves to come out of nonpublic session (0:00:12); roll call, all Yes (0:00:28 to 0:00:36).	MEDIUM
0:00:49	Nonpublic minutes sealed for 97 years	"I'd like to make a motion to seal the minutes for 97 years." The chair adds "Of the of the nonpublic." Benware: "Let me say that again, because it sounded bad." Voice vote at 0:01:04.	MEDIUM
0:02:29	Citizens' comments: the lunch debt	Chase: "how did we get to this point with the school being $36,000? Or I forget the exact number in debt on the school lunch program." "Who monitored that?" Zullo explains the board does not respond during citizens' comments (0:03:54); the chair instead lets the speaker stay in the discussion: "We've allowed people to participate" (0:04:41).	POSITIVE
0:04:43	Lottery money and state aid	Chase cites "$79 million this year" in lottery money for education (0:05:10). O'Neill: "they didn't give $79 million to Claremont. They gave $79 million to the state" (0:06:23). LeClair: lottery money makes up "less than 3% of the total state, money spent on education" (0:06:42); the district can identify only Keno money for kindergarten, "140,000 for next year" (0:07:26, 0:07:54). Petrin: state money comes "from this one pool" (0:11:26).
0:09:03	How the budget and tax rate are set	Sprague: "we started tonight with the budget committee"; the board estimates revenues, and what remains "becomes your local tax share" (0:09:03). He points to the Department of Revenue Administration's tax-rate setting, which "spells out clearly what the revenues are and what the expenditures are" (0:14:28). Zullo recalls Keno revenue on last year's revenue sheet (0:10:05). O'Neill reads statewide aid totals from a Department of Education spreadsheet (0:12:26).
0:15:48	Invitation to the budget process	Towle: "we need more of you, coming and asking these type of questions" and invites the speaker to the budget hearing and "the deliberative session where you get to actually vote on some of the Warren [warrant] articles."
0:16:31	Lunch deficit: size and period	The chair asks whether the deficit is "this year or is that a cumulative amount" (0:16:57). O'Neill: generated by "Activities from the 1718 school lunch program" (0:17:08, 0:17:12). Chair: "the 37,000 to 1718 school year." O'Neill: "Correct. 32." (0:17:36, 0:17:40). The current year's balance is not known; O'Neill will bring it to the next meeting (0:17:46, 0:17:52).
0:18:13	Why the debt arose: the same-meal policy	O'Neill: "it all did start when we adopted a new policy that said that you can't differentiate between what children are eating, because previous to this we used to give them a different alternative lunch." Benware: "you have to give them the exact hot lunch that any other kid would get" (0:18:47). LeClair: meals are "$3, I believe, a day" and "the federal law change that we are required to give the same meal to every child" (0:19:24).	OBSERVATION
0:19:24	Collection efforts and record keeping	LeClair lists letters home, a parent app, phone calls to families in debt and outreach on free and reduced lunch eligibility (0:19:24, 0:19:53); a new point-of-sale system makes "our record keeping is much more accurate now than it had historically been" (0:20:30). Petrin: "The the food debt has been there in the past" and the new system is "recognizing that differently" (0:24:49).	OBSERVATION
0:21:10	Staff debt and the a la carte line	Pierce asks for "a division on what the staff owes to what the student owes" and says the a la carte restriction should cover staff and students; "it's not just the parents at home that aren't paying for their kids. It's, you know, unfortunately, it's our staff too" (0:22:39).
0:23:03	Administration's plan	LeClair: revisit the policy "put in place in 17"; meet "the Abbey Abbey Group to clarify expectations, the policy and the contract language" (0:23:27); hire "a food service coordinator to work for the Siu [SAU]"; ask the Department of Education whether volunteers may make calls home, given "concerns about confidentiality issues" (0:23:59); decide whether to accept donations (0:24:23). Petrin says the coordinator does work "that the Abbey Group cannot do" (0:24:49); Benware: "what what Corey just outlined is the the right approach" (0:26:01).
0:27:01	All children are being fed	Zullo: "All children in this district are being fed, and they're being fed exactly the same meals as every other child who gets a hot lunch. So there's no child who is not being fed whether they have money or not. And that's the law." LeClair: Correct.	OBSERVATION
0:27:37	Contractor, local sourcing and kitchen staff	LeClair: the contractor was favored because "they do source local products" and "the Abbey Group is responsible for sourcing all of their products"; procurement "is very heavily regulated by the US Department of Agriculture" (0:28:08, 0:28:38). Kitchen staff "work for the Abbey Group, not for the school district" (0:29:39). On the share cart, LeClair cites "some pretty strict USDA guidelines" (0:30:30).
0:32:41	Donations toward the debt	LeClair: "if the board is willing to accept donations to alleviate the existing debt, I think you need to make that determination," with procedure at "the November 7th meeting" (0:32:53). Sprague: "I think we will be accepting donations" (0:33:20). On fundraising, Zullo: "it's quite a conversation as to whether or not taxpayers should be responsible for paying for children's meals" (0:34:04).	OBSERVATION
0:34:37	Why families are not paying	Sprague: "We're really not sure at this point. Why, why the deficit is there, why people are not paying"; the new hire is meant "to sort of figure out what's going on with this" (0:35:03).
0:35:15	Paying online	Chase could not find the payment page for three weeks; Benware "had to call the essay you [SAU] and ask" (0:35:34). LeClair describes the K-12 Payment Center app (0:36:01).
0:36:59	Other places to give	Petrin: "there is also a backpack program that I've heard about, and I believe it's run through the Trinity Church" (0:37:26). Towle: "The Trinity, they have lost some of their funding for the backpack program" (0:38:03).
0:38:50	Out-of-district special education	Chase asks whether children "being outsourced with children with disabilities" will be brought back. Pfeifer (attributed by elimination): the district would like "to educate our students in a the least restrictive environment, and hopefully that's here" (0:39:14). LeClair: it is on "next Wednesday's agenda" with the director of special education (0:39:46).
0:40:16	Donation deadline	LeClair: "we'll do a public hearing and acceptance of donation at the next board meeting"; "So far, we've received $280 in cash and checks" (0:40:43). Sprague: later gifts could go "to the Trinity backpack" (0:41:24). Pfeifer: "So under $500." (0:41:43). Pierce: donations must be kept apart from "what we will not pay"; chair: "It's for students only. Correct?" (0:42:04 to 0:42:23). Final terms, LeClair: checks "payable to the Claremont School District. Need to be received at the superintendent's office by end of business. 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6th." (0:42:54). No motion or vote is taken.	OBSERVATION
0:43:42	Policy subcommittee	The subcommittee will "meet November 7th before the regular school board meeting" (0:44:14); LeClair thinks "it's A, B, C and J" (0:44:38). Benware asks to add the drug and alcohol policy (0:43:53); Pfeifer raises administering medications in schools (0:44:54).
0:45:08	Superintendent-search survey	Towle and Zullo urge the public to take the survey. Zullo, as of Monday: "parent and guardians who have filled out is at 54 community members, 25 have have done the survey. Student two students have done it. 35 faculty have done it" (0:45:47); administrators and support staff 11, "way lower than Carol and I were hoping for" (0:46:12).
0:46:48	Election day and school closings	Sprague: "Tuesday's election day. Make sure everybody gets out and votes." LeClair: no school Monday, November 5 (parent-teacher conferences) or Tuesday, November 6, "closed because of voting" (0:46:55).	OBSERVATION
0:47:08	Board website postings	Pierce asks about posting school news; Petrin says he posted meeting agendas and a link to the survey (0:47:44) and asks members to send him material (0:48:13).
0:48:19	Adjournment	Motion, second and Aye.

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 30, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.

MEDIUM No agenda or minutes survive in any district share, and the recording omits the call to order and the vote to enter nonpublic session

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. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the clerk is present and is asked to take the roll call and attendance (0:00:17, 0:01:04), and the board votes on "the minutes of the nonpublic session" (0:00:53), so minutes were being kept; their absence from shares that do not reach back before 2022 is not proof they were never made. The recording also begins after the nonpublic session. RSA 91-A:3, I(b) required the motion to enter nonpublic session to state the specific exemption on its face and to be decided by roll call; neither the motion nor the exemption can be checked from the recording, and no other record of them was located.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; text in force for all of 2018); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2017 codification)

MEDIUM Nonpublic minutes sealed for a fixed 97 years by voice vote, with no tally and no statutory reason stated

Benware moved "to seal the minutes of the nonpublic session for 97 years" (0:00:53), and the chair took it as "All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?" (0:01:04). Under RSA 91-A:3, III as it read in 2018, nonpublic minutes and decisions had to be disclosed within 72 hours unless the body, by a recorded vote of two-thirds of the members present taken in public session, determined that disclosure would likely affect adversely someone's reputation, render a proposed action ineffective, or relate to terrorism; the information could then be withheld until, in a majority's opinion, those circumstances no longer applied. The statute sets no fixed term. On the recording no reason is stated, no count or names are given for the vote, and the term is a flat 97 years. Six members were present, so a two-thirds vote needed four; a unanimous voice vote may well have met that, and the minutes, if they survive, may record a finding and a tally the recording does not. This is a documentation gap to check against the minutes, not a finding that the seal was invalid.

Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)

OBSERVATION The same-meal rule was described as federal law; it is New Hampshire law, and federal rules limit how an uncollected lunch debt can be covered

LeClair attributed the duty to serve every child the same meal to "the federal law change" (0:19:24), and O'Neill dated the debt to the policy the district adopted under it (0:18:13). The requirement that no student be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal is in RSA 189:11-a, VIII, added by 2016, 48:1, effective July 2, 2016. The federal change of that period was different: USDA required every school food authority to have a written, communicated meal-charge policy by July 1, 2017, and its guidance left the choice between a reimbursable meal and an alternate meal to local policy. The same USDA guidance says the nonprofit school food service account may not be used to cover bad debt from unpaid charges; such losses must be restored with non-federal funds. That bears on the $32,000 the board was told came from 2017-18 (0:17:40) and on the donations it agreed to accept. Zullo's statement that feeding every child "the same meals" is "the law" (0:27:01) is accurate as to state law.

Sources: RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2018 codification; 2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016); USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017): written meal-charge policy required; bad debt restored from non-federal funds

OBSERVATION Donations were steered to formal acceptance at the next regular meeting; the cutoff fell on a legal holiday

No vote was taken on donations; the board reached consensus that gifts toward the debt would be accepted if received by 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6 (0:42:54), with "a public hearing and acceptance of donation at the next board meeting" (0:40:16). For unanticipated money under $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b), as it read in 2018, required the board to post notice of the funds in the agenda and in the minutes and to accept them in public session of a regular board meeting; a prior public hearing was required only at $5,000 or more (III(a)). The plan described matches that procedure, assuming the district had adopted the enabling article RSA 198:20-b, I requires; the November 7 record is where it can be checked. The cutoff day, November 6, 2018, was the biennial state election, a legal holiday under RSA 288:1, and schools were "closed because of voting" (0:46:55); whether the superintendent's office was open to receive checks that day is not stated.

Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1); RSA 288:1 (biennial election day a legal holiday)

POSITIVE The board took public comment at a single-item meeting and let the commenter question staff during the item

No statute in 2018 required a New Hampshire school board to hold a public comment period; RSA 189:74's thirty-minute comment period took effect September 6, 2022. The chair nonetheless opened citizens' comments (0:02:29), and when the speaker's questions went to the agenda item he chose to answer them in the item rather than cut her off: "We've allowed people to participate" (0:04:41). She then put questions to the administration through most of the lunch discussion (0:27:37 to 0:38:50), and members thanked her for coming (0:15:48, 0:40:06).

Sources: RSA 189:74 (public comment period; 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022)

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 10-30 (show 10095; 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.

Project files

Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.

Dialogue/10095 SchoolBoard103018.mp4.CSV (391 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/10095 SchoolBoard103018.mp4
Input/Transcripts/10095 SchoolBoard103018.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 85
Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10095 SchoolBoard103018.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 exemption and is decided by roll call; 72-hour disclosure unless withheld by a recorded two-thirds vote with a statutory determination
RSA 189:11-a, VIII, 2018 codification: school lunch meal-payment policy; no different treatment from the standard meal
RSA 198:20-b, I and III, 2017 codification: acceptance of unanticipated money; hearing at $5,000 or more, agenda and minutes notice below
RSA 288:1: legal holidays, including biennial election day
RSA 189:74: school board public comment period, effective Sept. 6, 2022 (cited to show it did not apply in 2018)
USDA FNS SP 23-2017 (federal guidance, not regulation): unpaid meal charges, local charge policy, bad debt