Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Identifications the dialogue file marks as uncertain are marked here too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board (co-presiding) | Opened the meeting and ran the early items; spoke on childhood lead exposure as "a former educator"; reported attending a Newport school-funding forum with Heather Whitney and planned Senate testimony; said the board would have to cut $800,000 to level-fund; described the budget work he, Petrin and Benware did with administrators; proposed shared city-school services and an efficiency study of SAU 6; called for the adjournment motion. |
| Charlene Lovett | Mayor, City of Claremont (co-presiding) | Ran most agenda items; presented the lead action pilot, a lead-education training, the Cities Thrive mental-health material and suicide statistics, election-turnout figures, the Governor's diversity council report and energy initiatives; proposed the quarterly schedule and set the next agenda. |
| Michael Petrin | School Board member; SAU 6 Board chair | Reported the signed contract with Superintendent Michael Tempesta (start July 1) and a staff departure; suggested highway message signs for elections; supported sharing maintenance and accounting. |
| Carolyn Towle | School Board member | Asked about respite foster care; spoke on low deliberative-session attendance; said the Stevens sign would cost $50,000 to fix; said the capital improvement work was "Starting this week"; urged giving the new superintendent time before shared-service talks. |
| Heather Whitney | School Board member (uncertain) | Asked about the rise in foster placements; added figures in the funding discussion; framed school funding as regional economics; spoke well of Mr. Tempesta's attention to budgets; suggested Ben Nester brief the next joint meeting. The dialogue file rates this attribution low to medium (Rebecca Zullo not excluded). |
| Rebecca Zullo | School Board vice chair | Answered the roll. No speech attributed to her; see Heather Whitney. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | School Board member | Answered the roll; the chair names "Rob" as seconder of the adjournment motion. No speech attributed to him. |
| Jason Benware | School Board member, Absent | "Jason's not here." (chair, during the roll). |
| Allen Damren | Assistant Mayor, City Council | Reported on the city manager search; urged a freeze of the state aid formula and restoration of the state retirement share; recalled joint city-school fuel bids; asked about the Stevens sign and scheduling conflicts on deliberative night. |
| Jonathan Stone | City Councilor (uncertain) | Supported looking at shared services. The dialogue file marks the identification uncertain: it rests on the roll naming only Stone and Damren as councilors. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Called the roll of both bodies. |
| Caitlin Bartley | Resource worker, NH DCYF Claremont District Office | Presented the foster care shortage in the district office's 16 towns, with 2018 and current placement figures, and asked for foster, respite and support volunteers. |
| Laura Sagen | Executive Director, HIV/HCV Resource Center (spelling unverified) | Described her organization's syringe programs in Vermont and the slow start expected in Claremont. Name as heard by the transcript. |
| Unidentified | Syringe service program (Project 439) representative | Presented the program's history, the 2018 legislation and the school board's approval, and its opening at Valley Regional Hospital. The self-introduction is clipped. |
| Unidentified | Other voices | Short acknowledgements, a remark about Eagle Times election coverage, and a suggestion for a formal citizen-feedback process. 61 of 569 rows (10.7%) are Unidentified. The adjournment mover, named only as Amanda, is not identified. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the presiding officers' transitions on the recording (the chair refers to "item five, which is announcements", so a numbered agenda existed). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Six school board members and three council members present; see Board composition. |
| 0:01:34 | Minutes; citizens' forum | No minutes to review; deferred to the next meeting. No citizens came forward. |
| 0:02:00 | Announcements: city manager search; superintendent update | Damren on the search timetable; Petrin on the signed Tempesta contract. Information only. |
| 0:05:18 | Lead action team | Mayor's report; consensus to receive email updates and an agenda item. |
| 0:12:38 | DCYF foster care presentation | Presentation and questions. Information only. |
| 0:40:27 | Syringe exchange program update | Presentation and questions. Information only. |
| 0:48:31 | Education funding update | Discussion of the Senate Finance hearings on HB 2. No vote. |
| 1:02:57 | Behavioral health overview | Mayor's report; consensus that Cities Thrive material be sent to both bodies. |
| 1:13:31 | Improving participation in local elections | Discussion; carried to the next joint agenda as a protocol item. |
| 1:25:55 | Governor's Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion update | Mayor's report; referred informally to the school board's policy committee. |
| 1:31:17 | Energy initiatives update | Mayor's report. Information only. |
| 1:35:40 | Chair's item: shared city-school services | Added from the floor by the chair ("I have something"). Carried to the next joint agenda as cost-saving measures. |
| 1:45:32 | Schedule and next agenda | Consensus: quarterly meetings on the second Thursday of January, April, July and October; next agenda to include election protocol, cost-saving measures, funding update, the community mental-health continuum of care with Ben Nester, and an introduction of the new superintendent. No vote. |
| 1:54:16 | Adjournment | Chair: "Amanda. And then Rob seconded it." Voice vote; the mover is not identified. |
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.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:44 | Roll of both bodies | Clerk: "And Jason and I just have three city councilors." Council members present: Stone, Damren, Mayor Lovett. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:34 | No minutes; citizens' forum | Chair: "we do not have any minutes" to review, "so we'll pass that by and we'll look at those at our next meeting." No citizen came forward. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:06 | City manager search | Damren: the advertisement went online that day; one response so far; the deadline is "the first Tuesday in June" and the top ten would receive essay questions. | |
| 0:03:31 | New superintendent | Petrin: "we do have a signed contract" with Michael Tempesta; "His official start date at this point is July 1st." At 0:03:53 he announces that a staff member (the player, unidentified) has accepted a position in the Cornish School District. Tempesta attended the board's goal-setting retreat and would attend the May 16 SAU 6 meeting. | |
| 0:05:23 | Lead action pilot | Mayor: Claremont is one of seven communities in a pilot with Conservation Law Foundation and New Hampshire Listens; the state blood-lead threshold falls to 7.5 micrograms per deciliter on July 1; the core team includes the school board chair. Sprague at 0:08:49 ties lead exposure to behavior seen in schools. Consensus at 0:12:32 on email updates plus an agenda item. | |
| 0:13:43 | Foster care presentation | Bartley: the Claremont district office covers about 16 towns; "We had 105 children" in placement in 2018 (0:17:25); 60 in care currently, 11 "in an institution" (0:18:23, 0:19:37); one open bed in Claremont for a child three and under (0:34:01). | |
| 0:34:13 | Cost to the school district | Mayor: "Is the school district then on the hook to pay" when children are placed elsewhere? Bartley: "Yes, ma'am." Sprague: "Technically they're homeless." Sprague at 0:35:58: residential placement at Crotched Mountain (crotchet Mountain) is "about 200,000 a year." | |
| 0:41:37 | Syringe service program | Representative: opened "last Thursday", every Thursday 3:30 to 6:30 at Valley Regional Hospital occupational health; no clients yet. History at 0:43:30: begun in July 2017 at the soup kitchen, stopped because it was within 1,000 feet of a school; a 2018 law allowed hospital sites in drug-free school zones; meetings with the school board in August and September 2018. Sprague at 0:46:24: the board agreed on after-school hours given the proximity to Disnard School (Desert School). The presenters commit to attend when asked or annually and to share the state's quarterly reports (0:47:04, 0:47:55). | POSITIVE |
| 0:48:36 | Education funding | Sprague reads the proposals before the Senate: restoring stabilization grants to 2016 levels, more aid from FY2021, an independent commission; "We've been losing about 220 a year." Mayor at 0:53:58: "They have reduced the stabilization grants by 4% a year." Hearings on HB 2 the next day and May 8 (0:54:53). | |
| 0:58:52 | Freeze the formula | Damren: it "makes no sense to me to not freeze the formula" and asks for restoration of the state retirement share. Sprague at 1:00:25: "we would have to cut 800,000 just because of fixed cost increases and money sliding away from us, from the state." Whitney at 1:01:49 frames the loss as a regional economic problem. | |
| 1:03:01 | Behavioral health | Mayor reports on the Cities Thrive mayors' coalition and CDC suicide figures. Sprague at 1:10:49: in a past budget season the rumor was that mental health workers would be cut, "which thankfully never happened". Consensus to send the material to both bodies (1:11:50). | |
| 1:14:26 | Election turnout | Mayor: "the overall voter turnout for the school district was 11%" in March. Ideas: banners at schools, highway message signs (Petrin, 1:21:02), fixing the Stevens sign (Towle: "$50,000. Do you have some?", 1:22:39), keeping deliberative night free of school events (Damren, 1:22:46). | |
| 1:18:53 | Budget process described | Sprague: "Mike, Jason and I met with Corey and Keith and every single administrator" and "We probably spent 30, 35 hours in the process". Towle at 1:19:49 on low attendance at the deliberative session. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:25:06 | Public input on turnout | Sprague will post a question on a local social-media group; Towle offers the district web page; the city will use its news blast. Item carried to the next agenda (1:25:43). | POSITIVE |
| 1:26:25 | Diversity council report | Mayor reads the Governor's advisory council recommendation for a student anti-discrimination statute and says "the legislature amended RSA 35 for 354 A to expressly prohibit discrimination against based on gender identity" [RSA 354-A], asking the school board to review its policies. Sprague and an uncertain Whitney say they sit on the policy committee (1:29:13). The mayor's account of the statute is reported as her statement; this page did not verify it. | |
| 1:31:56 | Energy initiatives | The council adopted a renewable-energy tax exemption in March; Councilor Pope's energy committee will work with the new superintendent; a solar developer hopes to involve technical-center students. | |
| 1:35:40 | Shared services proposed | Sprague proposes looking at insurance, fuel purchasing, payroll and other administrative tasks at larger scale. Damren at 1:37:24: the city "always took the lead" on joint fuel bids. Stone and Petrin support (1:37:51, 1:38:17). | |
| 1:41:59 | SAU 6 efficiency study | Sprague: "We've as very publicly have had some significant dropped balls at the saw" [SAU], so the board wants someone to define "who supervises, what's the chain of command, which is very, apparently very poorly defined." Towle at 1:43:32: let the new superintendent "take the reins" for three to five months first. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:44:45 | New superintendent | Whitney (uncertain): "I was very heartened when Mr. Tempesta was at our meeting." Sprague: "He he's very money sensitive." | |
| 1:45:32 | Schedule and next agenda | Mayor: rescheduling had thrown off the quarterly plan. Agreed at 1:48:20: the second Thursday of January, April, July and October; "It has to be a really compelling reason not to do it." Next agenda set at 1:49:18 to 1:53:43, including Ben Nester on mental health and an introduction of Mr. Tempesta. | POSITIVE |
| 1:53:48 | Adjournment | Sprague: "We don't need to vote on on journey" [adjournment?], then "I'm looking for a motion." At 1:54:19: "Amanda. And then Rob seconded it." | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on May 6, 2019, cited as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Five flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Only three of the City Council's nine members attended, so the joint meeting had a quorum on the school side only
The clerk's roll (0:01:12, 0:01:25) names three council members: Councilor Jonathan Stone, Assistant Mayor Allen Damren and Mayor Charlene Lovett. The city's charter provides for "a city council of nine (9) councilors" and says "A majority of the council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business", and the city's own council page lists nine seats. The school board, by contrast, had six of seven members. A joint meeting is two bodies, and each body's quorum is counted against its own membership, so the council side could not transact business that evening. It did not try to: the schedule, the next agenda and the follow-ups were settled by consensus, and the only vote was the adjournment. The council's own notice and minutes for this date are kept by the city clerk and were not inspected; this page makes no finding about them. Recorded as an observation because nothing was decided on the council's behalf.
Sources: Claremont City Charter, sections 16 (nine councilors) and 21 (majority quorum), in a copy hosted by the Town of Newmarket; the revision date of this copy was not established; City of Claremont, City Council page (nine members), read 2026-09-26.
OBSERVATION Three board members built the budget with administrators over "30, 35 hours"; whether that group was a noticed committee is not shown
Answering a complaint about low turnout, the chair described the FY2020 budget process: "Mike, Jason and I met with Corey and Keith and every single administrator" and "We probably spent 30, 35 hours in the process" (1:19:16). Three members of a seven-member board are not a quorum, so these sessions were not meetings of the full board under RSA 91-A:2, I. But RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), in force throughout this period, makes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto" a public body in its own right. If the three met as a budget committee of the board, those sessions needed notice and minutes. The recording does not say how the group was constituted, and no committee records from 2019 are online to check. The chair's point was that the process was open ("We were talking about it all the time at our board meetings"), and that is fairly recorded here too.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1): committees and subcommittees are public bodies; RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2019 codification): meeting defined by a quorum; notice and minutes.
OBSERVATION The board chair said in public that SAU 6 had "significant dropped balls" and a poorly defined chain of command
Proposing shared city-school services, Sprague said the SAU 6 level had discussed "bringing in someone to really do an efficiency study on the structure" of the SAU, because "We've as very publicly have had some significant dropped balls at the saw" [SAU], and the board wanted to know "who supervises, what's the chain of command, which is very, apparently very poorly defined." (1:41:59, 1:42:40). This is the speaker's characterization; the recording does not identify the lapses he meant. It sits between the SAU 6 meeting of April 11, 2019, where the efficiency study was debated and deferred to the new superintendent, and that superintendent's July 1 start. No rule is cited; recorded for the chronology of the district's financial controls.
Sources: the recording as cited. No statutory rule applies.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online; the previous joint minutes were not ready, and the adjournment mover cannot be identified
MAP.md section 101 records that neither district Drive share holds anything older than 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made; the chair's reference to "item five" shows a numbered agenda existed. The chair said "we do not have any minutes" to review and deferred them to the next meeting (0:01:34); RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be open to inspection within five business days, which does not depend on their approval, so the deferral is not itself a lapse. At adjournment the chair named the mover only as Amanda and the seconder as Rob (1:54:19); no member or councilor present has that first name, so the mover is unidentified on the recording, and RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes naming "the members who made or seconded each motion". The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes content and five-business-day availability; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 101.
POSITIVE The two bodies fixed a regular joint schedule in public and sought citizen input on turnout; outside presenters committed to report back
The joint body agreed to meet on the second Thursday of January, April, July and October and set its next agenda item by item on the record (1:48:20, 1:49:18), with the mayor asking that items have a stated goal to "check it off when we get it done". Members volunteered to ask residents through social media and the district web page what would have got them to vote (1:25:06). The syringe service presenters, operating near a school under an arrangement the board approved in 2018, committed to come annually or on request and to share the quarterly reports they file with the state (0:47:04, 0:47:55). None of this is required by statute; it is practice that makes a joint body's work easier for the public to follow.
Sources: the recording as cited. No statute requires these practices.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10358, "JOINT MEETING of the CITY COUNCIL & SCHOOL BOARD 5-6-19": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- 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, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were located in the district's shares. The city clerk's records were not inspected.
- Related page: SAU 6 Board, April 11, 2019 (efficiency study; superintendent contract).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10358 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint050619.mp4.CSV (569 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10358 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint050619.mp4Input/Transcripts/10358 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint050619.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10358 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint050619.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 101
Laws and rules cited on this page