Claremont School Board, December 19, 2018 | Regular meeting, FY2019-20 budget to public hearing

Participants

Everyone heard on the recording. There are no minutes to check spellings against; names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and attribution report, with the transcribed form kept where it differs.
Name	Role	Participation
Frank Sprague	Chair	Calls the meeting to order and answers the roll ("And Frank." / "Spike here.", 0:00:41, 0:00:50). Presides; served on the budget subcommittee with Benware and Petrin; proposes warning seniors that a balance could hold up a diploma (0:45:59).
Rebecca Zullo	Vice chair	Reports for the superintendent search committee ("We we have 14 applicants", 0:59:26); presses for a decision on lunch debt; tells the public that "the school board cannot fire staff" (1:53:30).
Jason Benware	Member; budget subcommittee	Roll as "Jason. Ben, when." / "I'm here." (0:00:38). Moves the nonpublic session, the lunch-debt recommendations, the disposal of equipment, the budget and the policies; explains the alternative program's cost case.
Michael Petrin	Member; budget subcommittee	Roll as "Michael Peacham here." (0:00:41). Moves the agenda and the motion sending donations to the food shelves; proposes reviewing the food-service contract; speaks for the JROTC course.
Michelle Pierce	Member	Moves to amend the donations motion so one third goes to the lunch debt (fails); questions whether the board should direct the administration; moves authority for the chair to sign the administrators' contract (1:01:27).
Carolyn Towle	Member	Roll as "Toll here." (0:00:41). Asks for debt-reduction targets and a letter from the district's attorney; asks that the budget binder be indexed.
Rob Lovett Jr.	Member	Roll as "Rob Lovett here." (0:00:41). Asks how often families are contacted and about payment apps; seconds the disposal of equipment and the budget motion (1:42:11).
Jesse (surname not stated)	Student representative	"I'm filling in for Prescott this evening." (0:01:57). Reports school events and a performance honoring a late Stevens teacher.
Keith Pfeifer	Interim Superintendent, SAU 6	Gives a brief superintendent's report (0:03:25; the dialogue file labels it Frank Sprague, see the method note); reports the district's second letter to parents on lunch balances (0:13:13); offers to check the food contract's no-compete clause.
Cory LeClair	Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6	Presents the lunch-debt figures (0:24:42) and the budget slides (1:05:11); reports the donations; leads the policy items.
Michael O'Neill	Business administrator, SAU 6	Explains year-end coverage of lunch debt by the general fund (0:30:56) and the food-service contract term (0:51:59); supplies the budget figure for the motion (1:41:41).
Josh Malloy	Director of instructional technology, SAU 6	Named by first name ("I'll let Josh speak to what they are", 0:52:47); surname from the project roster. Explains the surplus-equipment list.
Ben Nester	Director of special education, SAU 6	"And Ben is here, he's presented before" (1:15:57). Answers Zullo on qualifications for the program staff (1:25:53). Identification rests on that remark and content.
Mary Woodman	Clerk	"Mrs. Woodman, could you do roll call attendance, please?" (0:00:28). Calls the roll and the nonpublic roll calls and advises on voting an amendment (0:22:15).
Unidentified	Various	247 of 967 dialogue rows (25.5%), almost all one-to-five-word ayes, seconds and cross-talk.

Order of business (reconstructed)

No agenda survives online. The chair works from an agenda the board approves at the start; its text was not read. The order below follows his transitions.
Taken up	Item	What was said and done
0:00:01	Call to order, Pledge, roll call	"Claremont School Board meeting of December 19th, 2018 to order." Roll by the clerk (0:00:38).
0:00:50	Agenda	"I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented." (Petrin); seconded by Benware; carried by voice vote.
0:01:18	Minutes of November 7 and December 5	The chair: "We had an inaccuracy in the November. I guess it was a truncated version of the November 7th minutes. So we postponed approving that". Benware: "I move that we approve the minutes of December. I mean, November 7th and December 5th."; seconded; carried.
0:01:53	Student representative's report	Jesse, for Prescott.
0:03:25	Superintendent's report	Brief; the SAU office is closed the following week.
0:04:31	Citizens' comments	"Open up for citizens comments seeing none. I will close citizens comments and move along to nonpublic session."
0:05:03	Nonpublic session	"I would like to make a motion to go into nonpublic session for RSA 91. Dash a colon three. Subparagraph two a." (Benware); roll call (0:05:13). Back in public at 0:06:01: the chair begins a voice vote, Benware asks "I don't we have to roll." and the clerk calls the roll (0:06:18). No decision is announced.
0:07:06	Acceptance of donations	Petrin moves "to take these donations and accept them towards the food pantries" (0:14:20), seconded by Benware. Pierce's amendment, two thirds to the food shelves and one third to the debt (0:19:32), seconded by Benware for discussion, fails on a voice vote with nays heard (0:22:20). The original motion carries (0:22:55).
0:23:03	School lunch debt update	Benware's motion, seconded by Petrin, as restated (0:49:09): "strongly suggest to the administration that they shut off a la carte charging at zero balance, that they talked about Upton and, draft of a legal letter to send to parents that they put seniors on, warning that outstanding balances could result in them not receiving their diploma", plus "that we check into, a there's a non-compete clause with the Abbey Group." Carried by voice vote (0:52:15).
0:52:25	Disposal of equipment	Under policy DN. "I move that we give Josh permission to dispose of this equipment." (Benware), seconded by Lovett; carried (0:59:00).
0:59:14	Superintendent search update	Zullo and Towle report. No action.
1:00:41	Claremont Administrators Association agreement	The association "has ratified a proposal from the school board for a three year contract." Pierce moves that the chair "go tomorrow and sign that"; seconded; carried by voice vote (1:01:38).
1:01:54	FY2019-20 budget	Benware: "I would like to make a motion that we move the proposed budget of." O'Neill supplies the figure in pieces ("31 million." then "828,000.") and Benware ends "3063 to the public hearing." (1:41:35 to 1:41:47): $31,828,063. Seconded by Lovett; carried by voice vote (1:42:16).
1:43:48	Policy subcommittee	A group of first-read policies moved "to a second and final read" (Benware), seconded by Petrin; carried (1:46:42). A second group marked as reviewed on Benware's motion (1:47:30).
1:47:41	Future agenda items	January 2 public hearing in this room, snow date January 3; full-day kindergarten and Title I funding held for later; a February board retreat; SAU 6 meeting dates.
1:53:30	Other business	Zullo's statement on staff dismissals.
1:55:47	Adjournment	Benware moves; seconded; carried.

Discussion timeline

Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10161 SchoolBoard121918.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
0:01:18	Truncated November minutes	The November 7 minutes had been held over because the version presented was "a truncated version"; both sets are approved without further correction. Neither set is in any district share.	MED
0:03:25	Superintendent's report	The budget is "a culmination of a lot of hard work on the part of a lot of people, particularly the Budget Committee, who has gone line by line, program by program." "We're back to business on the second, so I'll probably be in a little bit next week". The dialogue file labels this passage Frank Sprague; by content it is Dr. Pfeifer, whom the chair then asks "Any questions for the superintendent?"
0:07:09	Donations for lunch debt	LeClair: "I don't have the actual copies of the checks with me, but we did receive, more checks in the 50 to $100 range for food service." The last set, "$2,300 and change we decided to put toward the food shelves." She offers to "bring forward the names after" (0:07:35). Later: "I don't recall if I have 1 or 2 checks in hand, totaling at most $150 or so." (0:21:10).	OBS
0:08:18	Split the money?	Pierce asks again to split the donations "So that we do have a little reserve." LeClair: "the donations were for the food service debt" (0:09:30). Petrin: "if we keep bailing people out with their debt is not okay with me." (0:10:16). Benware: continuing to accept such donations would "create a welfare state" (0:16:15). Asked whether a share could go to families in an emergency, LeClair: "It has to be split equally amongst." "The USDA guidelines." (0:20:43, 0:20:56).	OBS
0:13:13	Second letter to parents	"I just wanted to mention that a second letter. We sent one out in September, I followed." The passage sits in a row the dialogue file labels Frank Sprague, after the chair asks "Doctor Pfeifer, did you have something?"; by content the answer is Pfeifer's.
0:24:42	The debt in numbers	LeClair: "as of the 14th, which was last Friday, Friday, we had 540 negative accounts totaling $20,821." "Only 30.39% of those negative balances were families who received or were eligible for free or reduced lunch last year and have not applied this year." Staff: "56 negative accounts of staff members" (0:27:39) and "$926 as of last Friday in staff debt." (0:28:12). Zullo: "we were at 32 K what, at the end of last year?" (0:42:48).
0:26:51	A student with two lunches	LeClair describes a middle-school student with a hot lunch and a lunch from home whose parents may not know about the charges; "we do have at least one family who doesn't necessarily know that their child is accruing food service debt." No student is named.
0:29:10	A la carte charging	LeClair: "right now we are allowing students who have debt to still purchase a cart items." Pfeifer: "when they hit -$20, they're cut off. But in some cases, they've been continuing to allow to charge." (0:32:48). LeClair: "My recommendation is that it's it's zero." (0:33:08). Petrin would be "in favor of getting rid of all the cards" [a la carte] (0:36:33).
0:30:56	Who pays at year end	O'Neill: "Essentially, the general fund has got to transfer money to cover any debt at the end of the year." Students who transferred out last year "owed $1,366." (0:51:23).
0:37:11	The district's own notice steps	LeClair: "the policy says that a family is supposed to be contacted if their balance drops below a week's worth of lunches, which is essentially $15", then a principal's letter, then a meeting at -$30. "The first letters home this year went out in November. They didn't go out as soon as those policy points were picked up." (0:37:44).	OBS
0:41:38	Decide something	Zullo: "we've been talking about this for months and months and months". She asks whether the board can decide on "nobody charging after zero" and notes "People now know that their kids can eat whether they pay or not." (0:43:05).
0:45:59	Diplomas	Sprague: "I don't think we can hold student records hostage for back, debt. But I will say, one of the things I think we can do, is withhold diplomas." "I do not believe we need to give them their diploma until they satisfy their debts." (0:46:29). The warning is written into the motion (0:49:09).	OBS
0:50:17	Direction or recommendation	Pierce: "We we were here to make policies, not tell them how to do it." Sprague: "We also we also are involved with fiscal management, administration as well." (0:50:38). Members settle on calling it a recommendation.
0:51:59	Food-service contract	O'Neill: "it's a it's a one year contract with four optional renewals." Petrin wants to "look at that contract before we renew it" (0:52:04).
0:53:15	Surplus equipment	Malloy: "most of it is just television sets, old television sets"; "we're trying to be better about making sure we're notifying you about the things that we're surpluses". Items are posted for about a month, then hauled away quarterly (0:57:08).
0:59:26	Superintendent search	Zullo: the committee meets "tomorrow night" by Zoom; "We we have 14 applicants, as far as I know so far." Towle: "I think we're taking the top four." (1:00:09).
1:00:41	Administrators' contract	The association "has ratified a proposal from the school board for a three year contract." O'Neill: "we added the CAA to the budget" (1:19:54); Pfeifer: the difference in the motion figure is because "we proved [approved] the CAA." (1:42:03).
1:02:09	How the budget was built	Sprague: Benware, Petrin and he "met with, every school principal, and director" and "went line by line through their requests", "Probably more than between 20 and 30 hours" (1:03:45).	POS
1:05:11	Budget drivers	LeClair: voter-approved bargaining agreements "equal about 593,000"; "The total fixed cost increase is $813, 780, 813 $780,000." (1:06:08). Adequacy aid down "around $71,000" (1:06:56); stabilization down 71,000 and catastrophic aid down "30 grand", "about $101,000" in all (1:07:39). The board's target was "$457,420" (1:09:09).
1:09:29	The totals	"the approved budget for 20 1819. The current school year was $31,494,410." Version three: "$31,810,274". "With the loss of revenue, you're looking at a total budget increase right now of 416,925." (1:10:03). Benware: "roughly a just a shade under 1.5% increase over last year."
1:11:45	Positions	"reduce for full time equivalent is FTE positions at the high school" [four], all expected through attrition or reassignment; preschool 1.5, Bluff 1.0, and district-wide "six full time equivalent positions. Those are vacant paraprofessional positions" (1:12:17). "total reductions right now of around $632,000." (1:13:30).
1:13:47	Additions	A 0.4 FTE course at the technical center (an Army JROTC course, which Petrin describes at 1:31:24); added ESOL support; and the elementary alternative program for students with behaviors.
1:16:49	Alternative program	LeClair: "Nine total staff to start with the capacity of 12 students"; "three students specifically to bring back from out of district placement"; "a total return on investment of this in 1.3 years." Benware: start-up "Roughly $373,000. The actual cost of the program. Projected cost is 643,000 and change", against "about 90,000 a kid" for the three placements (1:21:17). Zullo: "for me, it's a no brainer." (1:24:45).
1:17:46	Warrant articles	A security upgrade dropping off gives "a 19 cent decrease in the tax rate"; Bluff roof, no rate impact; Disnard fire panel, 11 cents; district-wide radios "just shy of $250,000" at 35 cents (1:18:43); bus cameras "$51,000 and a seven cent impact". "the total of the warrants would be $0.77"; "worst case scenario right now is $0.87." (1:19:11). O'Neill: with the administrators' agreement the operating budget alone "becomes a $0.27" (1:19:54).
1:28:41	Staff cuts by attrition	Sprague: the board was "so conscious this year of not having a situation as we had last year, where, where people were put on pins and needles". LeClair: "many of the reductions that we're making can just happen naturally" (1:30:50).
1:41:35	Budget to the hearing	The motion figure is pieced together aloud with O'Neill; Towle: "I heard another zero." O'Neill: "We added 17,000." (1:41:56). Carried by voice vote (1:42:16).
1:45:23	Policy changes	LeClair: some policies come "straight from the New Hampshire School Boards Association recommended policy"; for policy BA, "The regularly scheduled board meeting starts at 630, not seven, and that all regular meetings shall be open to the public and press." Changes were marked "with strikethrough and bold italics" (1:45:03).
1:47:59	Hearing location	LeClair: at the high school "we were not going to be able to live stream it". Benware: "the importance of having it on TV over weighs the importance of having a big auditorium." (1:48:32). LeClair: "childcare available for folks who need it at the public hearing." (1:49:24).	POS
1:53:30	Who can fire staff	Zullo: "It's my understanding that the school board cannot fire staff. We do not have the authority to be firing a science teacher or a third grade teacher or anything like that." "we cannot fire you." (1:53:56). Benware: "the only person that we have any control over as far as employment goes is the superintendent." (1:54:23). Sprague: "We don't even have that authority." Pierce adds a family anecdote, which this page does not repeat.	OBS

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 December 19, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018 did not yet require minutes to name the mover and seconder of each motion; that sentence took effect January 1, 2019. The nonpublic motion named a specific exemption, II(a), and both entering and leaving were done by roll call, so it is not flagged.

MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share

MAP.md records no Drive material: neither district share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. RSA 91-A:2, II, as it read throughout 2018, required minutes with "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: the recording shows the board keeping minutes, approving two sets at this meeting after holding one back as "a truncated version" (0:01:18). The gap is public access, and the online shares do not reach back to 2018. It matters here because every decision on this page, including the diploma warning and the budget figure, is known only from the transcript.

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

OBSERVATION The board asked the administration to warn seniors that unpaid lunch balances could cost them their diplomas

The chair proposed withholding diplomas from seniors with balances (0:45:59, 0:46:29), and the motion carried as a recommendation to "put seniors on, warning that outstanding balances could result in them not receiving their diploma" (0:49:09, vote at 0:52:15). The governing state statute, RSA 189:11-a, VIII (in force from July 2, 2016), requires a meal payment policy to ensure "that all students have access to a healthy school lunch" and "that no student will be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal or school cafeteria procedures". It speaks to the cafeteria, not to graduation, and this page verified no New Hampshire or federal rule on the date of the meeting that addresses withholding a diploma for a meal debt. Members said the standard meal itself is still served regardless of balance (0:46:48, 0:43:05), which is what VIII protects. The point is recorded because a diploma sanction ties a parent's debt to the student's credential and was adopted without written policy text; whether it was ever applied is not in this record.

Sources: RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2018 codification; source note ends 2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016)

OBSERVATION Gifts sent to pay down lunch debt were accepted for the food shelves, without the checks, amounts or donors on the record

The assistant superintendent said the checks came in "because of the food service debt" and that "the donations were for the food service debt" (0:07:35, 0:09:30), yet the board voted to apply them to school food shelves, as it had done with a prior "$2,300 and change" (0:07:09, vote at 0:22:55). She did not have the checks with her and put the total at "at most $150 or so" (0:21:10). RSA 198:20-b, III(b) let a board accept unanticipated money under $5,000 if it posted "notice of the funds in the agenda" and included "notice in the minutes"; the chair treated the item as on the agenda, but with no agenda or minutes surviving neither notice can be checked, and the record does not show whether donors were asked about the change of purpose. Her statement that a debt donation "has to be split equally" under "The USDA guidelines" (0:20:43, 0:20:56) was not verified for this page.

Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2017 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)

OBSERVATION The administration says its own meal-charge notice steps were not followed until November

The assistant superintendent read the district policy's notice points (contact at about $15, a principal's letter at -$15 to -$20, a meeting at -$30) and said "The first letters home this year went out in November. They didn't go out as soon as those policy points were picked up." (0:37:11, 0:37:44). By December 14 there were 540 negative accounts totaling $20,821 (0:24:42). The notice points are local policy, not statute, so this is an observation; the record shows the administration identifying the lapse and mailing letters to every family with a negative balance that week (0:25:51).

Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 12-19-18

OBSERVATION The vice chair told the public the school board "cannot fire staff"; state law gives the board that power over teachers

Speaking to "some communication out in the public", the vice chair said "the school board cannot fire staff" and "we cannot fire you" (1:53:30, 1:53:56); another member said the only employee the board controls is the superintendent (1:54:23). RSA 189:13, as it read in 2018, provides that "The school board may dismiss any teacher found by them to be immoral, or who has not satisfactorily maintained the competency standards established by the school district", after notice of the cause and "a full and fair hearing", and RSA 189:39 makes the board the body that elects teachers on the superintendent's nomination. The statement was meant to reassure staff and does describe day-to-day practice, where evaluation and discipline run through the administration, as the interim superintendent added (1:54:37). As a statement of the board's legal authority it is incomplete.

Sources: RSA 189:13 (2018 codification; source note ends 2005, 178:1); RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2; unchanged throughout)

POSITIVE A line-by-line budget review with every department, and a hearing held where it can be televised, with childcare

The budget subcommittee met every principal and director and went "line by line through their requests" (1:02:09), and the administration presented the result object by object, with fixed-cost drivers, revenue losses, positions cut and each warrant article's tax-rate effect (1:05:11 to 1:19:54). For the January 2 hearing the board chose the room that can be broadcast over a larger auditorium so residents watching at home could follow it (1:48:32), and the administration arranged childcare (1:49:24). None of this is required by RSA 32:5, which asks only for a noticed public hearing; it goes beyond the minimum.

Sources: RSA 32:5, I (2018 codification; source note ends 2018, 246:1, eff. Aug. 11, 2018)

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 12-19-18 (show 10161; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 on 2026-10-02)
Google Drive: no agenda, packet, budget binder 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/10161 SchoolBoard121918.mp4.CSV (967 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/10161 SchoolBoard121918.mp4
Input/Transcripts/10161 SchoolBoard121918.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 90
Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10161 SchoolBoard121918.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)

Laws and rules cited on this page

RSA 91-A:2, II, 2017 codification (source note ends 2017, 165:1 and 234:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2018): minutes; the text in force for all of 2018
RSA 189:11-a, VIII, 2018 codification (2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016): school lunch meal payment policy
RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2017 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated money, including private gifts
RSA 189:13, 2018 codification (source note ends 2005, 178:1): dismissal of teachers by the school board
RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2): superintendents nominate and school boards elect teachers
RSA 32:5, I, 2018 codification (source note ends 2018, 246:1): budget public hearing