Participants
Everyone heard or named as present on the recording. Names follow the project's 2015 to 2023 roster and the speaker attribution report; there are no minutes to check spellings against. A third of the rows (34.0%) are unidentified; much of the debate on summer hiring cannot be attributed.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Presides and takes the opening roll; votes No on the restricted hiring motion (0:21:25); asks whether the audit is available to the public (0:33:16); will contact the incoming superintendent about a July date (0:34:59). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Claremont member; Vice Chair, Claremont School Board | Moves summer hiring authority with the assistant superintendent post excepted (0:10:38); wants that decision discussed “on camera” (0:14:05); votes No on the post-nonpublic motion (0:05:59). |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont member; Chair, Claremont School Board | Seconds Zullo's motion (0:11:24); describes administrative creep at the SAU since 2006 and says “I think we're top heavy.” (0:15:54, 0:17:00). |
| Jason Benware | Claremont member | Moves and then withdraws a general summer hiring motion (0:07:11, 0:09:41); argues the board's job is “to oversee the superintendent, to write policies and to make a budget.” (0:11:31); moves the press-release authority (0:23:13). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Claremont member | Reads the nonpublic exemptions (0:02:22); calls limiting the superintendent's hiring “a gross overstep of our authority” (0:12:37); moves unrestricted summer hiring and adjournment (0:21:47, 0:36:57). |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont member | Asks whether the delegation includes “free salary negotiation authority” (0:07:54) and argues an assistant superintendent provides redundancy (0:18:35). |
| Carolyn Towle | Claremont member | Answers the roll calls (0:01:38, 0:03:15); votes No on the restricted hiring motion (0:21:30). |
| Marjorie Erickson | Vice Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Answers the roll calls (0:03:23, 0:05:46). |
| Prudence McCormick; Shannon Popescu; Gary Bader (spelling unverified) | Unity members | Answer the roll calls (0:03:19, 0:03:30, 0:21:03). McCormick is recorded No on the post-nonpublic motion (0:05:54). |
| Robert McDevitt | Unity member | Absent (0:20:52) |
| Cory LeClair | Acting Superintendent, SAU 6 (departing) | Explains the summer hiring permission (0:06:44); announces a press release (0:22:26); presents the FY2018 SAU audit and the audit backlog (0:23:54, 0:25:51). |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Arrives after the nonpublic vote (“I forgot Mary's back.”, 0:05:34); calls the two later roll calls (0:05:46, 0:20:52). |
| Mr. O'Shaughnessy (spelling unverified) | Legal counsel | Invited into the nonpublic session (0:03:30); not heard on the recording. |
| Mr. O'Neill | Invited into the nonpublic session | Named by the chair (0:03:30); not heard. The project roster records a Michael O'Neill as business administrator through at least January 2019; his role on this date is not stated. |
| Unidentified | Board members in the summer-hiring debate | Several unattributed speakers, including one who says hiring limits feel like “micromanaging the superintendent.” (0:11:00), one who says “I was on the board and that wasn't the case.” (0:14:27), and one who proposes NHSBA help with superintendent evaluation criteria (0:35:20). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair refers to “an agenda in front of us tonight” (0:01:51) and to lettered items, the last being “Letter D is the SOU18 audit.” (0:23:35). The order below is reconstructed from his transitions.
Items in the order taken up, with motions and votes from the recording.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:26 | Call to order, Pledge, roll call | The chair calls the roll in the clerk's absence (0:01:13). |
| 0:01:51 | Agenda | “I move the way we accept the agenda as written.” Seconded; carried (0:02:01). |
| 0:02:14 | Nonpublic session | Motion under RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and II(c), exemptions read in full (0:02:22, 0:02:49); roll call, every member called answers Yes (0:03:03 to 0:03:30). Counsel, the acting superintendent and Mr. O'Neill invited in. |
| 0:05:18 | Motion after the nonpublic session | The motion is not on the recording, which resumes on “Jason to have a second point.” [apparently Benware seconding]. Roll call by the clerk (0:05:46 to 0:06:21): McCormick and Zullo No, the other members called Yes or Yeah; McDevitt is called with no answer heard. Carried. See flag 2. |
| 0:06:31 | Permission for the superintendent to hire over the summer | Benware's general motion (0:07:11) is withdrawn (0:09:41). Zullo's motion, “that we would allow Mike to do the hiring as needed throughout the summer, with the exception of the assistant superintendent position, until the board has a conversation around that.”, seconded by Sprague (0:11:24), fails on roll call, 3 to 8: Yes Bader, Sprague, Zullo; No the first member called (transcript unlabeled), McCormick, Popescu, Benware, Lovett, Petrin, Whitney, Towle (0:20:49 to 0:21:43). Lovett: “I make a motion that we give Mike Tempesta the permission to employ as he sees fit over the summer.” Seconded; carried on voice vote (0:22:04). See flag 3. |
| 0:22:26 | Press release | Benware: “Motion that we give the board chair legal counsel.” and “Permission to write.” a press release; seconded; carried on voice vote (0:23:33). |
| 0:23:35 | Item D: SAU 6 FY2018 audit | Presented and explained; no action. See flag 1. |
| 0:34:02 | Future agenda items | The chair will ask the incoming superintendent for a July date (0:34:59); superintendent evaluation criteria to be an agenda item (0:36:02). |
| 0:36:13 | Other business; adjournment | Thanks to the departing acting superintendent (0:36:16). Lovett: “A motion that we adjourn.” Carried (0:37:24). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10407 SAU6060419.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:14 | Into nonpublic session | “I make a motion that we go into nonpublic session. The RSA 91-A colon, three.” The exemptions are read: II(a), “the dismissal, promotion or compensation of any public employee or the disciplining of employee, or the investigation of any charge against him or her”, and II(c), “matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself.” (0:02:22). Roll call, all Yes; the chair: “And I am a yes.” (0:03:30). He invites “lawyer Mr. O'Shaughnessy” and then “Corey and Mr. O'Neill.” | POS |
| 0:05:18 | Vote after the nonpublic session | The recording resumes mid-motion; the clerk's roll call follows: “Prudence McCormack. No.” (0:05:54) and “Rebecca. No. No.” (0:05:59); the others called answer yes. | MED |
| 0:06:41 | Summer hiring: what it is | LeClair: “So this is something that's typically done every summer.” It lets the superintendent fill “the vacant positions at the Saw level”, and “those positions would be presented to the board afterward.” (0:06:44). The open positions are “the director of business and finance, the assistant director of business and finance, HR director and the assistant superintendent” (0:08:27). Whitney: “Does this give him free salary negotiation authority as well?” LeClair: “The board wouldn't have authority over that anyway.” and salaries must fit “the budget that the board approved last fall.” (0:07:59). | OBS |
| 0:07:20 | The assistant superintendent post | Zullo wants a board discussion first; the incoming superintendent's email listed two positions, not the assistant superintendent (0:07:41). She says the board under the former superintendent “instructed that there be an assistant superintendent. That's how Corey got her position.” (0:09:15). LeClair: the post was advertised because “the will of the board was, yes, move forward with.” (0:10:07). An unidentified member: “I was on the board and that wasn't the case.” (0:14:27). LeClair: “the role and function of my job did not change. Just the title changed.” and the change was budget neutral (0:14:37, 0:15:19). | OBS |
| 0:11:31 | The board's role | Benware: “Our job is not to hire personnel” (0:11:51). Lovett: “It's just a gross overstep of our authority” (0:12:37). Zullo: “that's an important conversation that should be had on camera.” (0:14:05). Sprague: the SAU grew under the former superintendent by creep (0:15:54); “I think we're top heavy.” (0:17:00). Whitney: the assistant superintendent let the SAU replace the superintendent “pretty much seamlessly” (0:18:35). | |
| 0:20:11 | Votes on summer hiring | “I move the question.” The voice vote is unclear (“I'm not sure if you caught that, Mary.”, 0:20:29), so the clerk calls the roll; “The Noles [noes] definitely have it.” (0:21:43). Lovett's unrestricted motion then carries on voice vote (0:21:47 to 0:22:06). | OBS |
| 0:22:26 | Press release on “additional matters” | LeClair: the SAU “Will be issuing a press release, in the next day or two.” regarding “Additional matters that we discovered and, what they are and how we'll be moving forward with that.” (0:22:38). Zullo: the chair, counsel and LeClair need “permission to write the press release.” (0:23:06). The matters are not described on the recording. | MED |
| 0:23:54 | FY2018 SAU audit | LeClair: the audit “as of June 30th, 2018” makes the SAU as an entity “caught up in current with audits.” Toward the end are “the areas identified of significant deficiency and material weaknesses” (0:24:16). “So of the 17 outstanding audits that we had when I, became involved in correcting that, we have five left.” (0:25:51); “You may end up with Claremont 18 unfinished and possibly unity 18 unfinished.” (0:26:16). Reading an explanation someone prepared for her, she defines unqualified, qualified and adverse opinions (0:30:18 to 0:31:40): “it's an adverse opinion which is not what we strive for. And the reasons for that adverse opinion are listed there.” (0:32:10). | HIGH |
| 0:27:14 | The board's oversight role | LeClair: corrective action is “what will need your prompting. An oversight as a board, because this is budget.” Members should receive a bound copy of every completed audit (0:25:51); prior audits remain available, but FY2018 “is the best data because it's the most current.” (0:28:17). The auditors may attend a future meeting (0:32:48). | POS |
| 0:33:16 | Public access to the audit | Petrin: can the public see it? LeClair: “all of our records are public. I don't have it posted on our website, but I certainly could provide.” (0:33:25); she could share a PDF (0:33:52). | POS |
| 0:35:12 | Superintendent evaluation | A member proposes asking the New Hampshire School Boards Association to help “develop an evaluation criteria for the incoming superintendent” (0:35:20); others note a subcommittee already produced one (0:35:41, 0:35:52). | |
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 June 4, 2019, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH The SAU's FY2018 audit carried an adverse opinion, and the SAU's entities were still five audits behind, Claremont's FY2018 among them
Presenting the audit of SAU 6 for the year ended June 30, 2018, the acting superintendent read a description of an adverse opinion (“either statements did not fairly represent the entities accounts, or the audited statements do not comply with the generally acceptable the counting principles”, 0:31:08) and confirmed “it's an adverse opinion” with significant deficiencies and material weaknesses listed at the back (0:24:16, 0:32:10). An adverse opinion is the auditor's finding that the financial statements as a whole are not fairly presented under generally accepted accounting principles, which is a material departure by definition. New Hampshire's rule on school-district financial reporting, Rev 1102.03, sets the GAAP hierarchy with GASB statements first; this page has not confirmed whether that rule reaches an SAU as a separate entity, but the opinion itself measures the statements against GAAP. The audit report itself is not in the record, so the specific departures cannot be listed here.
She also reported “17 outstanding audits” when she began, “five left”, and that Claremont's and possibly Unity's FY2018 audits may still be unfinished when she leaves at the end of June (0:25:51, 0:26:16), a full year after that fiscal year closed. Where an entity spends $750,000 or more in federal awards in a year, the Uniform Guidance required its single audit to be submitted within the earlier of 30 days after the auditor's report or “nine months after the end of the audit period”, which for FY2018 was March 31, 2019. The record does not state Claremont's FY2018 federal expenditures, so whether that deadline applied is not established here; the backlog is graded with the adverse opinion because the administration itself described it. Mitigation stated on the record: the SAU's own audits were now current, and corrective work was under way (0:32:27).
Sources: N.H. Admin. Rules, Rev 1102.03 (eff. 3-22-13; GAAP hierarchy for New Hampshire school districts, GASB statements first); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2018 CFR edition; single-audit submission deadline); 2 CFR 200.501(a) ($750,000 single-audit threshold, unchanged from 2014 until fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024; 2022 CFR edition)
MEDIUM No minutes survive, and the one decision taken after the nonpublic session was voted with its motion off the recording
The recording pauses for the nonpublic session and resumes on a second to a motion that is never heard (0:05:18); the clerk then takes a roll call in which two members vote no (0:05:46 to 0:06:21). A few minutes later the board authorizes a press release on “Additional matters that we discovered” without saying what they are (0:22:38, 0:23:13). The public therefore cannot learn from the recording what the board decided. RSA 91-A:2, II (in force from January 1, 2019) required minutes recording final decisions and the members who moved and seconded each motion, open to inspection within five business days; RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes, and decisions made in nonpublic session, to be disclosed within 72 hours unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote with the statutory finding. MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting, because the district's shares hold no folder older than 2022.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule: the absence of minutes is explained by the shares' coverage, and on May 16 this board approved earlier minutes line by line (Dialogue/10375 SAU6051619.mp4.CSV), so minutes were being kept. The gap on this page is sharper than most, because the recording cannot stand in for the minutes on the one vote that mattered. The minutes, and the press release, are the documents that would settle it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:3, III (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION After a narrower motion failed 3 to 8, the board gave the incoming superintendent unrestricted summer hiring authority for every SAU vacancy
The vacancies were the business administrator, the assistant director of business and finance, the human resources director and the assistant superintendent (0:08:27). Zullo's motion to except the assistant superintendent until the board had discussed whether to keep the post failed on roll call (0:21:43), and the board then gave permission “to employ as he sees fit over the summer.” on voice vote (0:21:47). The acting superintendent described the permission as routine, with hires “presented to the board afterward.” (0:06:44). No statute is cited: the SAU statute this page checked, RSA 194-C:4, lists the services an SAU must provide but says nothing about board approval of SAU hires, and the SAU's own policy on it is not in the record. Two points are left for review. The acting superintendent told the board it would have no authority over salaries anyway (0:07:59), a statement this page could not verify. And whether the SAU should keep an assistant superintendent, which Zullo called “a very hot topic in the community” (0:13:47), was left without the public discussion she asked for. Teacher hiring for the districts is a separate matter under RSA 189:39, which the Claremont board's chair raised on May 15 (Dialogue/10374 SchoolBoardSpecial051519.mp4.CSV).
Sources: RSA 194-C:4 (2019 codification; source note ends 2010, 5:2); Dialogue/10407 SAU6060419.mp4.CSV (rows 57 to 199)
OBSERVATION Members disagreed on the record about how the assistant superintendent post was created
Zullo said the board under the former superintendent “instructed that there be an assistant superintendent” (0:09:15); an unidentified member who had served then replied “I was on the board and that wasn't the case.” (0:14:27); the acting superintendent, who held the post, said only the title changed, at no added cost, and she did not know whether it was done “at the direction of perhaps the board chair at the time, individually, outside of the board or the full board.” (0:14:37, 0:15:19). No rule is cited. Which of these accounts is right is a question the SAU 6 minutes and budgets of 2017 and 2018 would answer; they are not in the district's shares.
Sources: Dialogue/10407 SAU6060419.mp4.CSV (rows 79, 97 to 133)
POSITIVE The acting superintendent explained the adverse audit in plain terms, told the board its oversight duty, and offered the report to the public
Rather than pass the audit over, the acting superintendent read a plain-language explanation of audit opinions (0:29:45 to 0:32:10), directed members to the deficiencies, said correction “will need your prompting. An oversight as a board” (0:27:14), proposed that the auditors attend a later meeting (0:32:48), and said the report was a public record she would provide in print or as a PDF (0:33:25, 0:33:52). Earlier, the nonpublic motion read both exemptions in full and was taken by roll call, as RSA 91-A:3, I(b) required (0:02:22, 0:03:03). The audit was not posted online; no statute in force in 2019 required that.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2019 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU #6 SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 6-4-19 (show 10407; the Cablecast API refused requests from this environment, so the run time is taken from the last transcript row)
- 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.
- SAU 6 annual financial audit as of June 30, 2018, and the press release announced on the recording: neither inspected for this page.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019): minutes content, movers and seconders, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and III, 2019 codification: nonpublic motion and roll call; 72-hour disclosure of nonpublic minutes and decisions unless sealed
- RSA 194-C:4, 2019 codification (source note ends 2010, 5:2): superintendent services an SAU must provide; no provision on board approval of SAU hires
- RSA 189:39 (superintendents nominate, school boards elect teachers), named only to distinguish teacher hiring
- N.H. Admin. Rules, Rev 1102.03 (eff. 3-22-13): GAAP hierarchy for New Hampshire school districts
- 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1), 2018 CFR edition: single audit due the earlier of 30 days after the auditor's report or nine months after period end
- 2 CFR 200.501(a), 2022 CFR edition: $750,000 single-audit threshold (the figure in force for FY2018)