Participants
Everyone heard on the recording. Names follow the project's 2015–2023 roster and attribution report for this show; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Students named on the tape in the student report are not named here.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Opens the hearings "for RSA 198 colon 28 be" [198:20-b] (0:00:10); announces "We have learned from the Attorney General's office." of a "procedural defect" (0:13:35, 0:13:48); tables the Primex item (0:49:53); reports on a Newport school-funding forum and urges residents to "hold people accountable" (1:14:52, 1:25:42); "I don't want us to become a partizan body." (1:24:46). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair | Answers the roll (0:19:58); seconds the minutes and the adjournment (0:23:37, 1:26:14); superintendent contract "wrapped up within the next week or two" (0:36:09); warns against delay that would "miss another deadline" (0:45:04). |
| Jason Benware | Member | Asks whether E-Rate money was planned for (0:02:23) and what happens if voters do not ratify (0:17:17); moves the agenda, the minutes and acceptance of the bequest (0:20:47, 0:23:56, 0:34:52); questions a 7% annual Primex cap (0:40:03); "But look at watch the voting." and "then pay attention to that because they can tell you whatever they want." (1:22:37). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Seconds the agenda and minutes (0:20:52, 0:24:02); asks about the moderator for May 15 (0:16:59) and the Primex cap (0:39:48); asks for capital-committee updates (1:12:27). |
| Heather Whitney | Member | Asks whether the Primex cap carries a fee (0:43:05, 0:43:37) and whether the kindergarten social-emotional screening triggers services (1:09:23); reports on the school-funding forum (1:19:54). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Answers the roll ("Michael patron here", 0:20:00); Towle refers to him as the board's Facebook manager (1:24:31). The attribution report could not separate his voice from Lovett's (two unidentified clusters), so no speech is attributed to him. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member | Answers the roll (0:20:00). One of two unidentified member clusters (with Petrin) offers the minutes corrections (0:21:17) and moves to adjourn (1:26:12); which of the two is not established. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk and recording secretary | Calls the roll (0:20:00). |
| Cory LeClair | Acting Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the E-Rate money (0:00:49) and the posting defect, of which "I received a notification on April 9th" (0:13:54); explains the Primex Contribution Assurance Program (0:37:05); introduces the System of Care update (0:50:06). |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Explains how the category two E-Rate money was assigned to buildings and that it reimburses work from 2017 (0:03:58, 0:05:08). |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Presents the $25,000 bequest (0:07:21, 0:07:52) and asks that it go into "the accounts that are at Stevens High School" (0:10:57). |
| Donor's family members (names not stated) | Executors' family; speakers at the hearing | Describe the donor's attachment to Stevens and ask that part go to the band and arts (0:08:53, 0:09:24). |
| Unidentified Stevens football coach | Coaching staff | Thanks the family; headsets will be a first purchase (0:10:15). |
| Unidentified student representative | Student representative | Delivers the district student report and refers to "Prescott Herzog, my colleague" (0:24:17 to 0:34:03). |
| Trinity (surname transcribed Early) | Program Director, System of Care / FAST Forward grant | Introduced by the acting superintendent with a remark that she has recently married, so the surname may have changed (0:50:06). Reports on the grant (0:50:30 to 1:10:21). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair and acting superintendent refer to agenda items by letter (0:20:17, 0:20:26); the items below follow their transitions.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:10 | Public hearing 1: unanticipated revenue | E-Rate category two reimbursements (0:00:49) and the $25,000 bequest to Stevens High School (0:06:56). No citizen comment; closed (0:11:11, 0:11:30). See flag 2. |
| 0:12:10 | Public hearing 2: procedural defect, 2019–20 budget | Warrant, MS-26 budget and default budget not posted by January 28; ratification meeting May 15 (0:13:54 to 0:15:48). No citizen comment; closed (0:18:43). See flag 1. |
| 0:19:20 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | "So at this time, I'd like to call the Claremont School Board meeting of May 1st, 2019 to order." All seven present (0:20:00). See flag 3. |
| 0:20:17 | Agenda | Summer program proposal and superintendent's report dropped; approved as amended: Benware moved, Towle seconded (0:20:47, 0:20:52). |
| 0:21:04 | Minutes of April 14 (retreat) and April 17 | Approved "with corrections": Benware moved, Towle seconded, voice vote (0:23:56 to 0:24:07). |
| 0:24:07 | Student representative report | 0:24:17 to 0:34:03. |
| 0:34:13 | Citizens' comments | None (0:34:33). |
| 0:34:33 | Acceptance of donations | Bequest accepted: Benware moved, an unidentified member seconded, voice vote (0:34:52, 0:35:03, 0:35:23). No vote to accept the E-Rate money is on the tape. See flag 5. |
| 0:35:34 | Superintendent update | Report only (0:35:44). |
| 0:36:49 | Primex Contribution Assurance Program | Tabled to the next meeting (0:49:53). See flag 6. |
| 0:50:01 | System of Care / FAST Forward grant update | Presentation and questions (0:50:30 to 1:10:25). |
| 1:10:37 | Future agenda items | May 15 ratification meeting followed by a regular meeting; subcommittee updates as a standing placeholder (1:10:44, 1:13:06); meeting dates (1:13:44, 1:14:11, 1:14:40). See flag 7. |
| 1:14:52 | Other business: school funding | Report on a Newport forum; a Senate Finance Committee hearing on May 7 (1:18:13). |
| 1:26:12 | Adjournment | Moved by an unidentified member, seconded by Zullo, voice vote (1:26:12 to 1:26:16). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:49 | E-Rate category two | LeClair: "We received $133.38." [figure garbled] "And so we received $60,720.67 for bluff, $65,174.46 for Maple, $9,899.10 for students high school, and $56.15 for district wide." The four building amounts add to $135,850.38. The money bought teacher laptops and Chromebooks, Mac lab desktops, an audiovisual upgrade at Bluff and "a badly needed server upgrade". | MEDIUM |
| 0:02:18 | Why "unanticipated" | Chair: "These are federal funds, correct?" A voice: "Federal dollars." LeClair: "We've gotten funds. This is my ninth year here. We've gotten funds for as long as I can remember. This is one of the procedural processes that we are correcting by actually having the public hearing to accept these funds instead of just accepting the revenue." (0:02:47); they "have not historically been included in the revenue side of the budget process". | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:08 | Category one and two | Malloy: "When I first got here in 2017, we hadn't spent any of our category two funds"; this check repays "funds that were spent back in 2017"; "we won't get a chunk like this again"; category one, received annually, is now zero for phone service but continues for internet (0:05:44, 0:06:07). | |
| 0:07:21 | $25,000 bequest | Barry: the donor, "Paul J. Merrill, who was a Stevens High School graduate of 1958, passed away in 2017" (the surname is also transcribed Merrow and Marrow); "Paul made a special bequest in his will of $25,000 to Stevens High School" (0:07:52). The family asks that part go "to the band and the arts department" (0:08:53). Barry: "Consider having the money put into the accounts that are at Stevens High School so that we can access it for both the arts as well as for the football team." (0:10:57). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:35 | Posting defect | Chair: "We have learned from the Attorney General's office." LeClair: "And the Department of Revenue Administration". LeClair: "I received a notification on April 9th, that there is there was a procedural defect" in which "the school district budget form the miss 26 [MS-26], and the warrant and the default budget were not posted in accordance with RSA 32 colon five" (0:13:54); "the physical paper with the signatures on it and the the final warrant wasn't put in posted in the correct spot by the deadline." (0:14:38). "The deadline for that was January 28th" (0:15:02). | HIGH |
| 0:15:02 | The cure | LeClair: a "procedural defect meeting in accordance with RSA 31 colon five B" with a warrant "to see if the district will vote to ratify the results of the March 12th annual meeting, even though the posting requirements were not met." "So the new warrant has been posted" for May 15 at 6:30 at the Technical Center (0:15:48); "The vote at this meeting can't change anything with the budget." (0:17:20). Benware: "What happens if they don't vote to ratify it?" LeClair: "Then there's a whole nother process to follow that has not yet been explained to me" (0:17:17, 0:17:20). | HIGH |
| 0:18:56 | Starting before the posted time | LeClair: "Let me just see how it was warned." "It says seven in the posting." "We can sit in awkward silence for nine minutes." "Start or you can choose to start." Benware: "It's a very good, very good choice." The chair calls the meeting to order (0:19:20). | MEDIUM |
| 0:21:04 | Retreat and April 17 minutes | A member reports corrections, including "Heather Whitcomb" and "Heather. Whiny" for Heather Whitney (0:21:49, 0:22:30). Towle asks whether the retreat minutes need a citizens' comment; the chair: "Every every regular meeting." (0:23:03). Approved with corrections (0:23:56). | MEDIUM |
| 0:24:29 | Student report | A blood drive with "43 people successfully donated blood" (0:24:55); prom; a Lion King Junior production; Stevens chosen by Fox News "to host both the Sunday morning Fox News program" and "a Democratic town hall at night on May 19th" (0:27:08); Maple Avenue's math night with about 160 guests (0:31:46); outdoor-education training from New Hampshire Fish and Game (0:32:57, 0:33:22). | |
| 0:34:33 | Accepting the bequest | Chair: "Earlier we had the public hearing on the acceptance of donations. So this is the point we would vote on to accept the donation or not." Benware: "So I'd like to make a motion to accept the donation by Mr. Merrill Merrow." (0:34:52); second (0:35:03); LeClair: "So just to clarify." (0:35:07); 16 seconds pass with no transcribed speech; "All those in favor opposed." (0:35:23). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:35:44 | Superintendent contract | Zullo: "Mr. Tempesta has been fantastic." The time taken is "just the process in general"; "I'm hoping for it to be wrapped up within the next week or two." (0:36:09). | |
| 0:37:05 | Primex rate cap | LeClair: Primex, "the New Hampshire Public Risk Management Exchange", insures district property, liability and workers' compensation; the program caps property and liability increases at "a maximum of a 7% increase" for fiscal 2021, 2022 and 2023 (0:38:59). Benware: at 7% a year "over ten years that it's doubling our premium" (0:40:03). The response date had passed: Benware "By April 12th." Towle: "Yeah. We missed it." (0:40:54, 0:40:55); LeClair: "I didn't get this from Mr. O'Neill till after that" (0:41:00). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:45:04 | Deadlines | Zullo: "I just want to make sure that we are doing the same thing we always do, which is we need to think about it and come back to it, and in the meantime, miss another deadline and then lose something somewhere along the way." Chair: "So let's table let's table this still minutes." (0:49:53). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:50:49 | System of Care grant | "a $12 million grant funneled down through SAMHSa through down to the New Hampshire Department of Ed" to seven districts, with about "17 months left of the grant" (0:50:30). A social-emotional screening of incoming kindergartners is now in all three elementary schools (0:54:53); the Youth Risk Behavior Survey is being extended to the middle school (0:55:59); school-based therapy at Bluff, Disnard and Maple (0:57:50); an Adverse Childhood Experience Response Team with police and agencies (0:59:46); FAST Forward wraparound coordinators with "49 referrals so far" (1:04:16), to move to DHHS funding (1:05:24). Asked whether the screening triggers services: "It doesn't automatically, doesn't trigger a referral, doesn't trigger special ed or anything like that." (1:09:34). | |
| 1:10:44 | May 15 and committee reports | LeClair: "The start of the May 15th meeting will be the special procedural defect meeting. And then there will be a regular board meeting immediately following that." Chair on subcommittee updates: "if it's on an agenda that's a motivator to get together and make sure there's something to report" (1:13:06). | POSITIVE |
| 1:14:52 | School-funding forum | Chair: "it was also shared that 77% of the communities are negatively impacted by the current structure" (1:16:45); "we are the have the highest, fourth, highest income meet median income in the country. And one of the lowest tax burdens" (1:17:50); a Senate Finance Committee hearing "On Tuesday, May 7th at 1:00" (1:18:13); a conversation in which "there have been five houses built in Claremont in the last eight years" (1:18:47). These are figures reported from the forum and conversations, not verified here. | |
| 1:22:37 | Holding legislators to account | Benware: "But look at watch the voting." and "then pay attention to that because they can tell you whatever they want." Towle suggests monthly updates for the board's Facebook page (1:24:31); chair: "But I don't want I don't want us to become a partizan body." (1:24:46); Whitney suggests a factual post on where school funding comes from (1:25:00). | |
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 May 1, 2019, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH The 2019 warrant, budget and default budget were not posted by the January 28 deadline; the March 12 results needed ratification
The acting superintendent reported that on April 9 she was notified, and the chair said the board had "learned from the Attorney General's office" and the Department of Revenue Administration, that the MS-26 budget form, the warrant and the default budget "were not posted in accordance with RSA 32 colon five" and that the signed final warrant "wasn't put in posted in the correct spot by the deadline", which was January 28 (0:13:35, 0:13:54, 0:14:38, 0:15:02).
RSA 40:13, II-a(d), in the 2018 codification, provides that "Warrants under RSA 39:5 and RSA 197:7 and budgets shall be posted and copies available to the general public on or before the last Monday in January" (statute's wording), which was January 28, 2019. RSA 32:5, VII, in the same vintage, requires the governing body to post certified copies of the budget with the warrant and, in an official-ballot district, certified copies of the default budget form with the proposed budget and warrant. A missed statutory posting deadline, confirmed by two state agencies, is HIGH under this project's grading.
The board's response follows the cure the statutes provide. RSA 40:16 lets an official-ballot district call a special meeting "for the exclusive purpose of curing such defect according to RSA 31:5-b", and RSA 31:5-b reaches "minor procedural irregularities" including failures of statutory notice timing; it requires a public hearing at least seven days before the curing meeting, at which the reasons are explained, and a curing meeting at least 21 days after the original vote. Tonight's hearing (May 1) came 14 days before the May 15 meeting, and that meeting falls more than 21 days after March 12. The defect also bears on the MS-22 certification circulated on April 3 (see the April 3, 2019 page).
Sources: RSA 40:13, II-a(d) (2018 codification; posting by the last Monday in January); RSA 32:5, VII(a)-(b) (2018 codification; certified budget and default budget posted with the warrant); RSA 40:16 (2019 codification; curing meeting in official-ballot subdivisions); RSA 31:5-b (2019 codification; minor procedural irregularities; hearing 7 days before; meeting 21 days after the vote)
MEDIUM By the acting superintendent's account, E-Rate money had for years been taken in without the hearing the unanticipated-funds statute requires
Explaining why E-Rate reimbursements were "unanticipated", the acting superintendent said the district had received such funds "for as long as I can remember" and that "This is one of the procedural processes that we are correcting by actually having the public hearing to accept these funds instead of just accepting the revenue." (0:02:47). RSA 198:20-b, III(a), in the 2019 codification, requires a prior public hearing, with newspaper notice at least seven days ahead, before a board acts on unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more, and ¶I conditions the board's authority on a district article. The category two payment heard tonight runs well above $5,000 (the building amounts read add to $135,850.38, although the total was transcribed as "We received $133.38.", 0:00:49); the annual category one amounts are not stated.
Mitigation is on the record: the district identified the practice itself and held the hearing tonight. The board's later vote, however, accepted only the bequest (0:34:52); no motion to accept the E-Rate money is on the tape. Whether past amounts were each $5,000 or more, and whether the district had adopted the enabling article, would settle the earlier years.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2019 codification; prior public hearing with seven days' newspaper notice at $5,000 or more)
MEDIUM The regular meeting was called to order about nine minutes before the time in its posted notice
After the second hearing the acting superintendent checked the notice: "It says seven in the posting." and "We can sit in awkward silence for nine minutes." She offered the chair the choice to start, a member called it "a very good, very good choice", and the chair called the meeting to order (0:19:03 to 0:19:20). The board then amended its agenda, approved two sets of minutes and heard the student report.
RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice "of the time and place" of each meeting (2019 codification). A body that begins business before the noticed time defeats the notice for anyone who relies on it. Mitigation: the hearings had been noticed for 6:30, the audience was already in the room, no citizen came forward when comment was invited (0:34:13), and the early business was routine. The minutes would show the time of call to order. MEDIUM as a process gap.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; notice of the time and place of each meeting)
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are publicly available
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, in the 2019 codification, requires minutes that include the names of members, persons appearing, a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, and the names of the persons who made and seconded each motion, open to public inspection within five business days.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: tonight the board corrected and approved the minutes of its April 14 retreat and its April 17 meeting (0:23:56), so minutes were kept. No public copy can be found. The minutes would settle the time of call to order, whether the E-Rate money was accepted, the terms of the bequest's acceptance, and the seconders this page lists as unidentified.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; minutes content, mover and seconder, five business days)
OBSERVATION The principal asked that the $25,000 bequest be placed in Stevens High School's own accounts
The principal asked the board to "Consider having the money put into the accounts that are at Stevens High School so that we can access it" for the arts and football (0:10:57). The acceptance motion did not state where the money would be held (0:34:52), and the acting superintendent's "So just to clarify." is followed by 16 seconds with no transcribed speech (0:35:07). RSA 197:23-a, in the 2019 codification, provides that "The treasurer shall have custody of all moneys belonging to the district" and pays out "only upon orders of the school board" (statute's wording). A bequest made to Stevens High School and accepted by the board is district money. Whether school-level accounts were held by the treasurer or outside that custody is not on the record, so this is an observation for a reader following the gift.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (2019 codification; source note ends 2015, 272:45; treasurer's custody of district money)
OBSERVATION The Primex rate-cap offer reached the board after its April 12 response date
Members found the response date on the document's first page ("By April 12th." "Yeah. We missed it.", 0:40:54, 0:40:55); the acting superintendent said she did not receive it from the business administrator until after that date (0:41:00). The vice chair warned that the board's habit of returning to items later risks "miss another deadline and then lose something somewhere along the way" (0:45:04), and the item was tabled (0:49:53). No statute governs the offer; recorded as an observation because it joins the April 11 account of a late food-service RFP (see the April 11, 2019 page) and the April 3 MS-22 as documents that moved through the SAU business office too late for their deadlines.
Sources: Dialogue/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.CSV (rows 220 to 226 and 261)
POSITIVE The board made subcommittee reports a standing agenda item
Asked how the board wanted committee updates, members agreed to carry a standing placeholder on each agenda so that subcommittees, including the new capital improvement committee, report in public; the chair: "if it's on an agenda that's a motivator to get together and make sure there's something to report" (1:11:50, 1:13:06). RSA 91-A requires each subcommittee to keep its own minutes as a public body; it does not require it to report to the full board in open session, so the practice adds a public account the statute does not demand.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; subcommittees are public bodies)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 5-1-19 (show 10350; the Cablecast API refused this environment on 2026-10-02, so the recording's extent is taken from the last transcript row, 1:26:18)
- 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/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.CSV (502 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4Input/Transcripts/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 100Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md (board composition and name spellings)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 40:13, II-a(d), 2018 codification (source note ends 2018, 241:1, 2, eff. Aug. 11, 2018; 313:1, 2, eff. Aug. 24, 2018): warrants and budgets posted by the last Monday in January
- RSA 32:5, VII(a)-(b), 2018 codification (source note ends 2018, 246:1, eff. Aug. 11, 2018): certified budget and default budget posted with the warrant
- RSA 40:16, 2019 codification (1999, 86:4) and RSA 31:5-b, 2019 codification (1988, 284:1; 1989, 287:1): curing minor procedural defects
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III, 2019 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): unanticipated funds; prior public hearing at $5,000 or more
- RSA 197:23-a, 2019 codification (source note ends 2015, 272:45, eff. Oct. 1, 2015): treasurer's custody of district money
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019): notice of time and place; minutes
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), 2019 codification (source note ends 2008, 354:1): subcommittees are public bodies