Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Speaker labels come from the dialogue file and its attribution report.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Marjorie Erickson | Vice chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity); presiding | Runs the meeting in the chair's absence ("Oh, I haven't done this in a while.", 0:02:10); asks that the middle-school teacher item go to the Claremont board; calls every vote; sets the next SAU meeting for September 12 and a Claremont meeting for July 30. Identified by content (the attribution report rates it medium): she refers to Claremont as "you guys" and to the SAU chair as "Mike patron" [Petrin]. |
| Michael Petrin | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Named in the roll call ("Michael patron"); not heard. Absent on the evidence of his abstention on these minutes on October 10, 2019 (show 10567). The presiding officer tells members to send agenda items to "the two Mike's actually Mike patron and Mike Tempesta" (0:34:55). |
| Frank Sprague | Member; chair of the Claremont School Board | Praises both nominees and moves to accept them (0:15:05); asks about lead screening at the festival for the city's lead-free committee; suggests the superintendent's "right to hire" as an alternative to an early Claremont meeting (0:36:16). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member; vice chair of the Claremont School Board | Asks whether Magoon's high-school post will be filled and about the business office assistant; says she had not advocated for an assistant superintendent but trusts the superintendent's changes (0:12:00). |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Moves the amended agenda, the corrected minutes, the position cuts, the donation and adjournment; welcomes "paring down administrative staff to add some teachers" (0:13:44). Transcribed "Jason Bedwell". Voice assigned by content (medium-low confidence). |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont) | Seconds the amended agenda; leads the corrections to the June 4 minutes (0:03:03 to 0:05:39); asks how the backpacks are allocated (0:31:23). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member (Claremont) | Answers the roll; confirms the June 4 minutes record his and Whitney's votes wrongly (0:03:38). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont); treasurer, SAU 6 | "I'm just I'm just the treasurer." (0:21:37); praises the superintendent's start; urges board members to help at the festival. Transcribed "Carolyn Tull". |
| Prudence McCormick | Member (Unity) | Named first in the roll call; her vote on June 4 is discussed during the minutes corrections (0:04:23). Not otherwise heard. |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity) | Roll call reads Sharon (0:00:17); roster spelling. Not otherwise heard. |
| Gary Bader | Member (Unity) | Roll call reads "Gary Bater" (0:00:22); roster spelling, itself unverified. Not otherwise heard. |
| Robert McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Not named in the roll call as transcribed and not heard; attendance not established. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 (since July 1, 2019) | Presents the two nominations and the restructuring, reports on his entry plan and on the pending audit, and introduces the donation. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant principal for special education, Stevens High School; confirmed as assistant superintendent | "And I'm looking forward to working with the team and to continue to move our district in a positive direction." (0:09:50). Transcribed "Donna McGowan". |
| Courtney Porter | School social worker and McKinney-Vento homeless liaison, Claremont School District | Presents the Back to School festival and the NFR and Wheelan donation (0:23:38 to 0:34:09). |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (staff) | Calls the roll. Not named on this recording except as "Miss Mary" (0:04:06); identified from the roster. |
| Unidentified | Various | 72 of 312 dialogue rows (23.1%) are short replies, chorus responses and clipped fragments, including the seconds to the nominations, the position cuts and adjournment. No citizen speaks: the presiding officer notes at the end that citizens' comments were skipped and that those present have "all spoken" (0:37:37). |
Named on the recording but not present or not heard: Jeff Small (nominated director of technology), Josh Malloy (resigned), Brynn Kane and Steven Moss (curriculum team), Pat Barry (Stevens High School principal, transcribed "Pat Perry"), and a "Charlene" who organizes lead screening; the transcript's "It Charlene? Love it." (0:26:35) is probably Mayor Charlene Lovett: the transcription engine often renders her surname Love it, and the Claremont board's August 21, 2019 recording names "Mayor Lovett" as a member of the same lead-free committee (show 10506).
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The presiding officer refers to "an agenda in front of us" (0:00:47) and to items under "discussion action"; the list below is reconstructed from her transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Pledge of Allegiance; roll call | The recording opens on the end of the Pledge. Roll call from 0:00:17. |
| 0:00:47 | Agenda | Amended to strike the middle-school teacher part of the reallocation item as Claremont business. Benware: "Make a motion to accept this, agenda. Amending it, to, read a reallocation of six funds and omitting the, CMS programing part of it." (0:01:47). Second by Whitney ("Heather."). Approved by voice vote (0:02:28); no opposition or abstention heard. |
| 0:02:41 | Final approval of the minutes of June 4, 2019 | Two roll-call votes found misrecorded and corrected (see the timeline). Benware moves to accept "the minutes for. Tuesday, June 4th, 2019. With the amendments" (0:05:45); a second is recorded to the presiding officer (0:05:56); approved by voice vote (0:06:03). |
| 0:06:19 | Nominations: director of technology; assistant superintendent | Jeff Small and Donna Magoon. Sprague: "Make a motion to accept these two nominations as presented." (0:15:05); second unidentified (0:15:08); approved by voice vote (0:15:13); no opposition or abstention heard. |
| 0:15:28 | Reallocation of SAU 6 funds | Benware moves to cut the "Assistant network administrator and the assistant business administrator" positions and "reallocate that money back to the two districts" (0:17:28). No second is heard before the vote; approved by voice vote (0:17:41). |
| 0:18:05 | Superintendent's entry plan | Report and questions; no action. |
| 0:23:17 | Donation: Back to School festival | Benware moves to accept the donation from Wheelan and NFR "in the amount of $3,602.09" (0:34:20). No second is heard; approved by voice vote (0:34:38). |
| 0:34:50 | Agenda items for future meetings; scheduling | Next SAU 6 meeting aimed at September 12; a Claremont board meeting set for Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. (0:37:18, 0:37:31). No vote. |
| 0:37:37 | Other business; citizens' comments | "We did not. Do citizens comments. Are there any? You've all spoken." No one comes forward. |
| 0:38:04 | Adjournment | Motion Benware, second unidentified; "Meeting adjourned. Thank you all." (0:38:11). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10463 SAU6072519.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 |
|---|
| 0:00:47 | Teacher hiring sent to the Claremont board | The presiding officer: the item includes "a question to reallocate money for teachers at the middle school, which I believe is a Claremont issue, not an essay issue." [SAU issue] and "it needs to be done at a Claremont school board and not here." She adds: "And then Claremont will have to have a meeting ASAP so we can hire teachers at the middle school." The board strikes that part of the item. | POS |
| 0:03:03 | Two roll calls misrecorded in the June 4 minutes | Whitney: on the summer permission to employ, "The the in favor and the against votes were switched." Lovett: "At the very least, it shows Heather and I as saying no. When we voted for four." The presiding officer: "I thought we all voted for that." Whitney reads the draft as "It says six. Affirmative. And five" and then finds the roll call to come out of nonpublic session also listing "Frank, Jason, Carolyn, Mike, Rob, Heather" on the wrong side: "So I think we all voted to come out of nonpublic as well." Approved with the corrections (0:06:03). | OBS |
| 0:06:28 | Director of technology | The superintendent nominates Jeff Small: "About 13 combined years" with the district and "28 years" in IT. "Josh Malloy resigned, and we're basically not filling one of the positions. This is part of that restructure." Small keeps "the responsibility for the networking". | |
| 0:07:27 | Assistant superintendent | The aim is to "downsized central staff a little bit so that we can get more teachers in the classroom to support the kids." The second nominee is "Donna McGowan" [Magoon], assistant principal at the high school for special education, with "a full run K through 12". Sprague congratulates the superintendent on both choices. | |
| 0:10:30 | Business office vacancies and the audit | On the assistant business administrator post the superintendent says "we're going to wait on that" until "the conclusion of the audit findings". He mentions "a remainder of approximately $50,000" in his proposal and the resignation of "the grants manager", and expects "a significant accountant in that office for the day to day, particularly as the preliminary audit findings come in." He tells viewers the auditors "almost complete with the audit findings, and we expect to hear some positive news soon about the audit findings themselves in the potential for the abatement of the fines from the." The sentence ends there; no agency or fiscal year is named. | MEDIUM |
| 0:12:00 | Fewer administrators, more teachers | Zullo: "I haven't really advocated for an assistant superintendent position." but "I trust what you're doing." The superintendent: the assistant superintendent will work on curriculum alignment with "Brynn Kane and Steven Moss". Benware: reductions usually fall "at the teacher level rather than the staff level" and "that's a good direction to be going in." | |
| 0:15:31 | The reallocation arithmetic | "So we have a total reduction overall. When you look at salary in benefits of 229 541". Two teachers are estimated "at 60,000" in salary, "approximately 80, almost 90,000" with benefits on a high step and family plan. The result: "a 205, $416 allocation that goes back to Claremont in a 24,125, 24,000 125 allocation back to unity." [$205,416 and $24,125; together $229,541]. The two positions cut are the assistant network administrator and the assistant business administrator. The vote is taken with no second heard (0:17:41). | OBS |
| 0:18:10 | Entry plan | The superintendent has met "proximately 60 or 80 folks in the community" and held forums on the "five, five Mondays in July". Recurring themes: "making sure we have enough for the schools and the students", and from teachers "closing some of the pay inequities so that we don't lose our best and our brightest". Towle: "I've been hearing great things on the outside". Zullo: "I feel like we can start focusing on kids more so than all of the other things that have been going on in the district". | |
| 0:23:38 | Back to School festival | Porter: "We have a homeless population that is over 10% of our school population, which at the state of New Hampshire level, when we look at New Hampshire, it's only 4%." and "Our students who are experiencing free and reduced lunch are at 50%." NFR "which is national field representatives, and Wheelan" are "donating 600 filled backpacks to us. The total is over $3,000." She asks whether the festival flier "need to be entered into record". The event is August 24. | OBS |
| 0:25:59 | Lead screening | Sprague, for the "lead Free schools lead Free community subcommittee", asks that "the people who do the lead screening are going to be there." Porter: "I promise you, Frank, I promise you, Frank, I worked so closely with Charlene in the past that there will be lead screening there." | |
| 0:31:23 | How the backpacks are allocated | Whitney asks whether it is "first come first serve". Porter: families will check in at their school's table first so that schools can confirm contact information, then receive a card for a backpack: "Oh, everyone will get it back. Everybody. Everyone will get a backpack." Towle: "Except they've run out before." | |
| 0:34:20 | Donation accepted | Benware moves "To accept this. Generous donation from Wheelan and NFR in the amount of $3,602.09". The presiding officer calls the vote without a second being heard; no opposition or abstention. | OBS OBS |
| 0:34:55 | Next meetings | The presiding officer proposes "the 12th of September" for the SAU and says Claremont "will have to get together sooner than their next scheduled meeting just to reallocate funds for teacher hires". Sprague: "The other option is. To. Let the superintendent exercise his right to hire. But again, if we're moving money around". She: "It's moving money around. That's the issue." Benware: "We only need four. Of us." Settled: "an essay meeting September 12th and a Claremont meeting" on "July 30th." "At 6 p.m..". | POS |
| 0:37:37 | Citizens' comments skipped | "We did not. Do citizens comments. Are there any? You've all spoken." No one comes forward. The state's 30-minute public-comment rule (RSA 189:74) did not exist until 2022, so no rule required the period. | |
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 July 25, 2019, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this SAU 6 meeting: neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The meeting confirmed two administrators, cut two positions and accepted a donation, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the 2019 codification (in force from January 1, 2019), required that minutes "shall include the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes", and that minutes be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: minutes were written and approved. The SAU 6 board approved the July 25, 2019 minutes on Sprague's motion on October 10, 2019 (show 10567), and on this recording members correct and approve the June 4 minutes in the same way (0:02:56 to 0:06:03). What is missing is any public copy. Whether the minutes were open for inspection within five business days cannot be tested from here; the approval came eleven weeks later. The project's rule that SAU 6 minutes are often filed with later packets cannot be tested for 2019, because no SAU 6 folder from that year survives in the share.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (school administrative units are public bodies)
MEDIUM Staffing decisions held for audit findings still "almost complete", with fines pending abatement
The superintendent said he would not fill the assistant business administrator post until "the conclusion of the audit findings" (0:10:30), that the office needs "a significant accountant" as "the preliminary audit findings come in" (0:10:58), and that the auditors were "almost complete with the audit findings", with hope for "the abatement of the fines" (0:11:33). He did not say which audit, which entity or which agency imposed the fines. Six weeks later, on September 5, 2019 (show 10522), he told the SAU 6 board that the auditors were then closing the Claremont fiscal 2017 audit and would start fiscal 2018 the following week, and the board discussed an IRS closing letter. If the audit in question covers fiscal 2017 (July 2016 to June 2017) and the district spent $750,000 or more in federal awards that year, the federal single-audit reporting package was due "within the earlier of 30 calendar days after receipt of the auditor's report(s), or nine months after the end of the audit period", that is, by March 31, 2018. Neither condition is established on this recording, so the page does not grade this HIGH. It is graded MEDIUM as a control weakness stated by the superintendent himself: audits running well behind, penalties outstanding, a grants manager gone, and central-office staffing set by what the audit will show. The audit reports and the federal expenditure totals would settle the extent. New Hampshire's own audit statute, RSA 21-J:19, is permissive as to timing and is not the basis of this flag.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2019 annual edition; single-audit reporting package due date); 2 CFR 200.501(a) (2019 annual edition; $750,000 threshold); 2 CFR 200.303(a) (2019 annual edition; effective internal control over federal awards)
OBSERVATION A donation for a Claremont School District event was accepted by the SAU 6 board, with no agenda or minutes to show the notice the gift statute asks for
The SAU 6 board voted to accept "$3,602.09" from Wheelan and NFR for the Back to School festival (0:34:20, 0:34:38). The festival is run by a Claremont School District employee for Claremont families (0:23:38). New Hampshire's unanticipated-funds statute, RSA 198:20-b, lets a school board accept gifts "without further action by the school district" only where the district has adopted an enabling article, and for sums under $5,000 it provides (2019 codification, III(b)): "the school board shall post notice of the funds in the agenda and shall include notice in the minutes of the school board meeting in which such funds are discussed. The acceptance of unanticipated funds under this subparagraph shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting." The acceptance here was made in public session, which the statute requires. Three things cannot be confirmed: whether the money was the SAU's or the district's to accept, since the statute speaks of a school district's school board; whether it appeared on the agenda, which does not survive; and whether the minutes noted it, which are not public. The Claremont board itself accepted two further gifts for the same festival on August 21, 2019. This is an observation: no rule verified for this page settles which board should have acted.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
OBSERVATION Two motions went to a vote with no second heard, including the vote that cut two positions
Benware's motion to cut the assistant network administrator and assistant business administrator positions and return the money to the districts (0:17:28) was followed directly by "All those in favor?" (0:17:41). His motion to accept the donation (0:34:20) was likewise put to a vote with no second on the recording (0:34:34). A second may have been given off microphone, and the transcript is incomplete in places. The requirement of a second comes from parliamentary practice, not statute, so this is an observation. It matters here because RSA 91-A:2, II, in force from January 1, 2019, requires that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes", and the minutes that would show who seconded these motions are not public.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION The draft June 4 minutes recorded two roll-call votes on the wrong side
Members found that the draft minutes of June 4, 2019 had switched the "in favor and the against votes" on the summer permission for the superintendent to employ (0:03:03, 0:03:27) and, in the roll call to come out of nonpublic session, listed "Frank, Jason, Carolyn, Mike, Rob, Heather" in a way members read as votes against, when all had voted to come out (0:04:55, 0:05:19). Lovett confirmed the draft showed him and Whitney "as saying no" when they voted for the motion (0:03:38). The errors were caught and corrected before approval (0:05:45, 0:06:03), which is how the approval step is meant to work. The point is recorded because a roll-call vote on employment authority is the kind of final decision RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to state, and because the corrected June 4 minutes are not public either. See the June 4, 2019 SAU 6 page for that meeting's own recording.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
POSITIVE The teacher-hiring decision was sent to the board the law gives it to
At the start of the meeting the presiding officer, a Unity member, asked that the part of the item that would reallocate money for middle-school teachers be struck, because it "is a Claremont issue" that "needs to be done at a Claremont school board and not here" (0:00:47, 0:01:25). The board agreed (0:01:47, 0:02:28), cut the SAU positions and returned the money to both districts (0:17:28), and scheduled a Claremont board meeting for July 30 to decide on the teachers (0:37:18). When Sprague suggested instead letting "the superintendent exercise his right to hire", she answered that "It's moving money around. That's the issue." (0:36:16, 0:36:25). RSA 189:39 provides that "Superintendents shall nominate and school boards elect all teachers employed in the schools in their school administrative unit", so the election of Claremont's teachers belongs to the Claremont board. Keeping the SAU board's action to SAU positions and leaving the district's money and hires to the district board is the allocation the statutes make. See the July 30, 2019 Claremont page for the follow-up.
Sources: RSA 189:39 (2019 codification; source note ends 1971, 371:2); RSA 194-C:5 (SAU board organization and SAU personnel; 1996, 298:3, never amended)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU #6 SCHOOL BOARD meeting 7-25-19 (show 10463; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API refused requests from this environment on 2026-10-02)
- 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.
- Related recordings cited in prose and not linked by timestamp: SAU 6 Board, September 5, 2019 (show 10522; audit status and IRS letter) and October 10, 2019 (show 10567; approval of these minutes).
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 (in force January 1, 2019 to October 2, 2023): minutes content, names of movers and seconders, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1): school administrative units and their committees are public bodies
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2019 codification: acceptance of unanticipated funds; notice in the agenda and minutes for sums under $5,000
- RSA 189:39: superintendents nominate and school boards elect all teachers
- RSA 194-C:5 (1996, 298:3): organization of the SAU board; SAU personnel and salaries
- Federal: 2 CFR 200.501(a), 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) and 2 CFR 200.303(a), 2019 annual CFR edition: single-audit threshold, due date and internal control