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. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided. Raised the CCTV board reappointment, then tabled it for proper notice; gave the history of the half-year middle-school science and social studies schedule; argued that grant money supplements rather than supplants the budget. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved the agenda, the minutes, the two teaching positions, the donations and adjournment. Asked whether professional development is required or optional; urged clearer public information on the middle-school windows. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member; SAU 6 treasurer (self-described) | Asked how science and social studies teachers address deficits that show up mainly in language and mathematics; asked whether professional development should be budgeted rather than grant-funded; seconded the donations; asked for a capital improvement program update. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Seconded adjournment, per Benware ("Heather seconded that."). The dialogue file suggests, without a recognition cue, that she may be the member who spoke for the CCTV board; this page does not adopt that. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Named in the surviving part of the roll. No speech attributed to him. |
| Michael [Petrin] | Board member (identification from roster) | Michael is read in the surviving part of the roll; the roster makes him Michael Petrin. No speech attributed to him. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explained the proposal to fund two middle-school teachers from returned SAU money; described professional development plans, a new drivers' education contract and community forums; presented the donations (first stating $760 for the Legion gift, then accepting the correction to $720). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | On professional development: the district is asking teachers what they need. The superintendent described her as in "her third, second day in the role". Surname from the roster. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll (truncated in the transcript). |
| Unidentified | Board member speaking for the CCTV board | A member who described CCTV's board from the inside ("The representative on our board."; "I called her") and its quorum rule. The dialogue file marks this voice unidentified, possibly Heather Whitney, uncertain. |
| Unidentified | Board members | The seconder of the teaching-positions motion and short responses. 31 of 181 rows (17.1%) are Unidentified. |
| Named, not speaking | Others | DeForest Bierce, CCTV contact (spelling unverified); Alex Herzog (CCTV board appointee; director of the Sugar River Valley tech center per the roster); Pauline Pelletier (former district representative on the CCTV board); Cory LeClair (Cory LeClair, former acting superintendent); Dr. [Middleton] McGoodwin (doctor McGowan); Pat [Barry], Stevens High School. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. A written agenda existed ("So we have an agenda in front of us."). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | Pledge, roll call | Roll truncated in the transcript; see Board composition. |
| 0:00:41 | Agenda | Amended to add the CCTV board reappointment of Alex Herzog. Benware moved the agenda "as amended"; seconder not clear; voice vote at 0:02:04. |
| 0:02:04 | Approval of minutes | Benware moved "the minutes from June 16th, 2019"; seconded; voice vote at 0:02:33. See flag 4 on the date. |
| 0:02:33 | Action item: reallocation of SAU funds and Claremont budget | Two middle-school teachers (science, social studies). Benware moved at 0:06:45; seconded by an unidentified member at 0:06:56; voice vote at 0:16:58, no audible opposition. |
| 0:17:06 | Drivers' education at Stevens High School | Update: a contract vetted by the district's attorney for a multi-year arrangement. Informational. |
| 0:18:09 | Community education forums | Update. Informational. |
| 0:19:41 | Acceptance of donations | $720 American Legion; $360 Polish American Citizens Club; $1,595.51 Children's Fund of the Upper Valley. Benware moved at 0:21:50, Towle seconded; voice vote at 0:22:19. |
| 0:22:25 | CCTV board of directors: reappointment of Alex Herzog (added) | Tabled to the next meeting so the action could be warned on a posted agenda (0:24:38). |
| 0:24:46 | Future agenda items | Hiring update; Magoon's professional development work; audit findings; capital improvement program update (Towle); budget process to start in September. |
| 0:27:39 | Adjournment | Benware moved; seconded, by Heather Whitney per Benware; voice vote at 0:27:42. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:41 | CCTV reappointment raised | Chair: CCTV is "running into problems convening CCTV meetings because they lack a quorum"; "I don't know if we can add it to the agenda or not, because it's a an action item". At 0:01:10: "It's simply a re appointment." | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:04 | Minutes | "Approval of minutes. We haven't met for a while." Benware at 0:02:27: "I'm going to make a motion to approve the minutes from June 16th, 2019." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:06 | Two middle-school teachers from SAU money | Superintendent: "Eight $89,669 for each position that that is needed at the middle school", "for one science position, and also for one, social studies position". At 0:03:38: "They've had only half a year of science and half a year of social studies for a few years now." "That still leaves a remainder of approximately $50,000." Also "a resignation of a grant manager that's in the vicinity of $70,000." At 0:04:13: "The we wanted to be expedient in approving this as fast as we could to give the the administrative team at the middle school enough time to hire appropriate staff". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:28 | How the half-year schedule began | Sprague: under Dr. McGoodwin the district "was immediately faced with a pretty significant budget deficit. I think it was around $1 million." At 0:05:39: "administrative creep, and to kind of roll some of that back and put some back into instruction." | |
| 0:06:16 | Motion | Benware: "anytime we can shift away from paying administration and going more toward, education for our children, I'm in favor of it." At 0:06:45: "I can make a motion to approve. The, hire of two new teachers that they see in this middle school." Seconded at 0:06:56. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:59 | Do these hires match the test data? | Towle: "how is hiring a social studies teacher and a science teacher going to actually target where our deficits are being highlighted by our test scores, since it's primarily language and mathematics." Superintendent at 0:07:47: "You need six teachers for all of the sections and the teams to do this completely." At 0:09:19: "We have enough math teachers now at the middle school". | |
| 0:11:26 | Grants and the budget | Sprague: grants "can supplement but not supplant any grant that you write" and a grant writer's money "does not reduce the, the budget." Towle at 0:12:56 asked whether professional development should be built "into the budget instead". | |
| 0:14:00 | Professional development | Benware: "is the professional development something that everybody is required to do". Magoon at 0:14:46: "we're talking to the teachers and saying to them, what is it that you'd like to see?" Towle at 0:16:32: "as a treasurer for the SA six, I see a lot of the same, teachers taking advantage of the professional development and not enough spreading out through the whole district." | |
| 0:16:58 | Vote on the positions | "Other comments. All those in favor?" Aye. "Opposed? There you go." Voice vote; no count stated. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:17:09 | Drivers' education | A contract "vetted by our attorney" for "I think a four year to or five year deal that is similar at the same cost." The high school "anticipated 80 plus students are looking for this." Sprague at 0:17:59 notes Benware once taught drivers' education. | |
| 0:18:13 | Community forums | Two August forums planned: "we're going to focus on Steam, education and entrepreneurship". | |
| 0:19:57 | Donations | "the American Legion donation was a check for scholarships to attend a field trip for six students." The Polish American Citizens Club "sponsored three, three scholarships at a cost of $360". At 0:21:01 the Legion gift is stated as "$760, you got a Legion post"; members' arithmetic at 0:21:18 ("Seven, 23, 67, 20.") corrects it, and at 0:21:20: "Seven, 20. You're right." The Children's Fund gift supported an initiative that "had already had already happened". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:50 | Donations accepted | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion that we accept three, donations of the first in the amount of $720 from the American Legion, the second in the amount of $360 from the Polish American Citizens Club, and the third in the amount of $1,595.51 from the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley." Towle seconded. Voice vote. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:25 | CCTV board seats | Chair: "the CCTV has a board of directors, and I believe there are two people from the district that sit on that"; at 0:22:51: "their terms have run out. Pauline is actually resigned from the board." A member at 0:23:17: "She reapplied." | |
| 0:23:38 | CCTV item tabled for notice | Chair: "If we have time to wait, you want to wait until we can actually worn it on an agenda table?" At 0:23:49: "We really should warn an action item." At 0:23:56: "All I want is if we if we post an agenda with action items, I want it to be accurate." At 0:24:38: "So we're going to wait on that table that and we'll put that on the next, next agenda." | POSITIVE |
| 0:24:58 | Future agenda | A hiring update and Donna's professional development work; the superintendent at 0:25:22: "particularly audit findings and reports." Towle at 0:25:50: "I'd like to do an update on the capital improvement program." Chair at 0:26:00: "the first meeting in September will probably be able to start talking about the budget process." | |
| 0:26:29 | Middle-school windows | Benware: "I think they thought we were actually going to get windows replaced and fixed rather than bricked up". Superintendent at 0:26:52: "we can definitely do a better job of that." | |
| 0:27:39 | Adjournment | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to adjourn." At 0:27:51: "Heather seconded that." | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on July 30, 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. Four flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Money coming back from the SAU assessment was committed to two new teaching positions by a motion that named no amount or budget line
The superintendent proposed allocating "Eight $89,669 for each position" for a middle-school science teacher and a social studies teacher out of SAU money returned to Claremont, leaving "approximately $50,000" (0:03:06, 0:03:38). The motion as spoken was "to approve. The, hire of two new teachers" (0:06:45); it states no dollar figure and no budget line, and it passed by voice (0:16:58). At the August 21 meeting the mover himself questioned how the draft minutes worded the motion, and the wording was changed from accepting the money to allocating it to the teachers.
Moving an unspent balance from one appropriation to another during the year is what RSA 32:10 allows the school board, as governing body, to do, provided the total does not exceed what the district meeting appropriated. The same section, as it read in 2019, requires records from which "any citizen requesting such records pursuant to RSA 91-A:4" may "ascertain the purposes of appropriations to which, and from which, amounts have been transferred". Nothing on the recording suggests the board exceeded its authority. The observation is that the recording does not show which lines were debited and credited, and no transfer record or minutes are online. The positions themselves still required the board to elect the teachers under RSA 189:39; see the 33 nominations approved on August 21.
Sources: RSA 32:10, I(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2017, 127:4): transfers between appropriations and the records they require; RSA 189:39 (superintendents nominate, school boards elect teachers; unamended since 1971).
OBSERVATION Three small donations were accepted at a Tuesday session whose regular or special status the record does not show
The board accepted $720, $360 and $1,595.51 by motion in open session (0:21:50), each gift stated with its donor and purpose, and the superintendent's misstatement of the Legion amount was corrected on the record (0:21:20). For gifts under $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b), as it read in 2019, required the board to "post notice of the funds in the agenda" and "include notice in the minutes", and provided that acceptance "shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting". "Acceptance of donations" was an agenda heading (0:19:41), so the notice limb appears met. The board's regular meetings in this period were on Wednesdays, and this session was on a Tuesday after a gap ("We haven't met for a while."); if it was a special meeting, the regular-meeting condition was not. Section 198:20-b also rests on a district warrant article adopting the procedure, which this page could not verify for Claremont. Recorded as an observation because the meeting's status is not established.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated funds under $5,000.
POSITIVE The chair tabled his own late-added action item so it could be warned on a posted agenda
The chair added the CCTV board reappointment at the start of the meeting while saying he did not know whether an unwarned action item could be taken up (0:00:41). When it came up he reversed himself: "We really should warn an action item." and "All I want is if we if we post an agenda with action items, I want it to be accurate." (0:23:49, 0:23:56), and the item was tabled to the next meeting even though CCTV was short of a quorum. RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice of the meeting's time and place posted at least 24 hours ahead; it does not require an agenda listing each action. Holding an action item until it appears on a posted agenda goes beyond that minimum.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): 24-hour notice of the meeting.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online; the minutes approved are dated to a Sunday, and the roll is cut short
MAP.md section 106 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: these minutes were approved, with a correction, on August 21. Three gaps follow from the recording alone. The minutes approved here are stated as "June 16th, 2019" (0:02:27), which was a Sunday, and the project's map holds no Claremont board recording between May 15 and this meeting, so which meeting they record cannot be checked. The roll survives only in part (0:00:28), so attendance is not established. And RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes naming "the members who made or seconded each motion"; the seconders of the agenda, the minutes and the teaching positions cannot be identified from the recording. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes content and availability; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md sections 102 to 106.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10472 SchoolBoard073019.mp4.CSV (181 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10472 SchoolBoard073019.mp4Input/Transcripts/10472 SchoolBoard073019.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10472 SchoolBoard073019.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 106
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on July 30, 2019. RSA 32:10 (transfer of appropriations). RSA 189:39 (election of teachers). RSA 198:20-b (unanticipated funds; $5,000 threshold before 2023). RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; 2019 codification).