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 |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Calls the meeting to order and asks "Mrs. Woodman, could you do roll call attendance, please?" (0:00:17); gives the history of the middle-school half-year schedule; tables the CCTV item because "We really should warn an action item." (0:23:49). |
| Jason Benware | Member | Moves the agenda, the minutes, the teacher hires, the donations and adjournment; asks whether professional development is optional (0:14:00); says residents expected the middle-school windows to be replaced, not bricked up (0:26:29). The chair recalls he used to teach driver education; he answers "Well, a decade." (0:18:03). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member; treasurer, SAU 6 | Asks how science and social studies teachers address deficits that are "primarily language and mathematics" (0:06:59); speaks "as a treasurer for the SA six" on uneven use of professional development (0:16:32); seconds the donations; asks for a capital improvement update at the next meeting (0:25:50). The chair calls her Carol. |
| Heather Whitney | Member | "Heather seconded that." (Benware, of the adjournment motion, 0:27:51). Not otherwise identified on the recording. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member | Named in the roll call (0:00:30); not identified as speaking. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | A Michael. is called in the roll (0:00:30); not identified as speaking. Attendance not established. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Not heard; attendance not established. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Proposes the two teacher positions, reports on professional development plans, the driver education contract and community forums, and presents the donations. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 | On professional development: "we're talking to the teachers and saying to them, what is it that you'd like to see?" (0:14:46). The superintendent says she is in her "third, second day in the role" (0:10:44). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Calls the roll at the chair's request (0:00:28). |
| Unidentified | Various | 31 of 181 dialogue rows (17.1%), including the second to the teacher motion (0:06:56) and a voice explaining the CCTV board's membership rules (0:23:05 to 0:24:27) that the attribution report could not place. No member of the public speaks, and there is no citizens' comment item on the recording. |
Named but not present: "DeForest Bierce" of CCTV (spelling as transcribed, unverified), Alex Herzog and Pauline Pelletier (district representatives on the CCTV board), former superintendent Middleton McGoodwin (transcribed "doctor McGowan"), a former middle-school "Principal Fitzgerald" (unverified), former assistant superintendent Cory LeClair, and Pat at the high school (principal Patricia Barry, per the roster).
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair refers to "an agenda in front of us" (0:00:41) and reads its items as he goes; the list below follows his transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | Pledge of Allegiance; roll call | Roll call from 0:00:28, cut short in the transcript. |
| 0:00:41 | Agenda | Amended to add the reappointment of Alex Herzog to the CCTV board ("Well, I just want to add it to the agenda."). Benware: "Make a motion to approve the agenda, as amended." (0:01:57). A second is heard; approved by voice vote (0:02:04). |
| 0:02:04 | Approval of minutes | "We haven't met for a while." Benware moves "to approve the minutes from June 16th, 2019" (0:02:27); approved by voice vote (0:02:33). See flag 4 on the date. |
| 0:02:33 | Reallocation of SAU funds and Claremont budget | Benware: "I can make a motion to approve. The, hire of two new teachers that they see in this middle school." (0:06:45); second unidentified (0:06:56); approved by voice vote (0:16:58), no opposition heard. |
| 0:17:06 | Driver education at Stevens High School | Information only. |
| 0:18:09 | Community education forums | Information only. |
| 0:19:41 | Acceptance of donations | Benware moves to accept "$720 from the American Legion", "$360 from the Polish American Citizens Club" and "$1,595.51 from the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley" (0:21:50); second Towle (0:22:16); approved by voice vote (0:22:19). |
| 0:22:25 | CCTV board of directors: district representatives | Tabled to the next meeting so the action can be warned (0:24:08, 0:24:38). No vote is heard on the motion to table; the chair states the result. |
| 0:24:46 | Future agenda items | Hiring update, Magoon's professional development work, "audit findings and reports", a capital improvement update; budget work to start at the first September meeting. |
| 0:27:39 | Adjournment | Motion Benware; second Whitney (per Benware, 0:27:51); approved by voice vote (0:27:42). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10472 SchoolBoard073019.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 |
|---|
| 0:00:41 | A CCTV appointment added to the agenda | The chair: CCTV is "running into problems convening CCTV meetings because they lack a quorum, so, I don't know, can we appoint somebody?" He proposes to "Alex Herzog reappoint him to that committee tonight, even though it's technically an action, I don't I don't know if that's something we need to warn." The item is added. | POS |
| 0:02:27 | Minutes | Benware: "So I'm going to make a motion to approve the minutes from June 16th, 2019." June 16, 2019 was a Sunday. Approved without changes ("I didn't notice anything."). | OBS |
| 0:03:06 | Two teachers from returned SAU money | The superintendent proposes to take "a portion of that money and allocate it. 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". Students "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", and a grant manager's resignation frees about $70,000. The aim is to let the middle school hire in time for the school year. | OBS |
| 0:04:28 | Why the half-year schedule existed | Sprague: when "doctor McGowan" [Dr. Middleton McGoodwin] started, "he was immediately faced with a pretty significant budget deficit. I think it was around $1 million", and he moved science and social studies "to a block half a year format" to reduce staff. It "became status quo". Test data "under Cory LeClair and the curriculum people" show "some gaps for sure". He calls the change a way to roll back "administrative creep" and "put some back into instruction." | |
| 0:06:16 | The motion | Benware: "anytime we can shift away from paying administration and going more toward, education for our children, I'm in favor of it." His motion, on the second try: "approve. The, hire of two new teachers that they see in this middle school." (0:06:45). | OBS |
| 0:06:59 | Do the new posts match the test-score gaps? | Towle asks how the hires target deficits that are "primarily language and mathematics." The superintendent: there is an eighth-grade science test, and "You need six teachers for all of the sections and the teams to do this completely. We know it's a phase in". He adds: "We have enough math teachers now at the middle school". | |
| 0:08:08 | Professional development | The superintendent plans to use "grant money" for the Research for Better Teaching "Skillful Teacher Course", run in cohorts over several years. Benware asks whether the problem is "availability of the professional development or participation". Magoon: teachers are asked "what are some of your needs?" Towle: "I see a lot of the same, teachers taking advantage of the professional development and not enough spreading out through the whole district." The motion carries (0:16:58). | |
| 0:11:26 | Grants and the budget | Sprague, on the grant-writer position: grants "can supplement but not supplant any grant that you write" and "the money that a grant writer brings in does not reduce the, the budget." This is the speaker's characterization; the page has not verified which grants carry a supplement-not-supplant condition. Towle asks whether professional development should be built into the budget instead of relying on grants. | |
| 0:17:09 | Driver education | A contract "that was vetted by our attorney" for "a four year to or five year deal that is similar at the same cost" is being finalized. Pat at the high school expects "80 plus students"; many now travel "as far as Jaffrey." | |
| 0:18:13 | Community forums | After the July forums the superintendent hopes for "at least two, in the month of August" on "Steam, education and entrepreneurship", hosted by local businesses and the makerspace outside the schools. | |
| 0:19:57 | Donations for a middle-school trip and a program | The American Legion check funds "scholarships to attend a field trip for six students. They were $120 cost". The Polish American Citizens Club "sponsored three, three scholarships at a cost of $360". The figures are corrected on the floor to $720 for the Legion. A third gift, "$1,595.51 from the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley", supports "the Finding our stride initiative". All three are accepted (0:22:19). | MEDIUM |
| 0:22:25 | CCTV board seats tabled | The chair: two district people sit on the CCTV board, Pauline Pelletier and, of late, Alex Herzog; "their terms have run out" and Pelletier "is actually resigned from the board". An unidentified voice: "She reapplied." The chair: "We really should warn an action item." and "if we post an agenda with action items, I want it to be accurate." Tabled "until the next meeting". | POS |
| 0:24:58 | Next meeting | The "third Wednesday" [August 21]: a hiring update and Magoon's professional development work; the superintendent expects "particularly audit findings and reports". Towle adds the capital improvement program. Budget work starts at "the first meeting in September". Back to School festival on the "24th of August." | |
| 0:26:12 | Middle-school windows | Sprague praises the energy improvement. Benware: people "thought we were actually going to get windows replaced and fixed rather than bricked up", and asks for "a little clearer information as to what the plan was". The superintendent agrees "we can definitely do a better job of that." and explains the old windows "wasn't airtight". | |
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 30, 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 meeting: neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The board committed about $179,000 a year to two new positions and accepted three gifts, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the 2019 codification, required minutes including "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", required that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes", and required the minutes to 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: a clerk was present and the board approved what it called the June 30, 2019 minutes, as amended and with one abstention, at its next meeting on August 21, 2019. Their content, discussed during the approval, is this meeting's teacher vote, so the June 30 date is a misstatement for July 30. What is missing is any public copy. The incomplete roll call makes the minutes the only possible record of who attended and who seconded the teacher motion.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019)
MEDIUM Three gifts were accepted at a meeting called outside the regular schedule, where the gift statute names "any regular school board meeting"
The board accepted $720 from the American Legion, $360 from the Polish American Citizens Club and $1,595.51 from the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley in one motion (0:21:50, 0:22:19). For unanticipated funds under $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b), in the 2019 codification, provides: "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." This meeting was not a regular one. At the SAU 6 board five days earlier the presiding officer said Claremont would need to meet sooner than its next scheduled meeting to reallocate the funds for teacher hires (show 10463), and the chair here opens the minutes item with "We haven't met for a while." (0:02:04). Much of the statute was met: the acceptance was in public session, the amounts and donors were stated, and the chair read "Acceptance of donations" as an item, apparently from the agenda (0:19:41). The question is the type of meeting. The severity is MEDIUM because the departure is from the text of a binding rule but turns on reading regular in its ordinary sense, and because the record does not show whether the district had adopted the enabling article that RSA 198:20-b, I requires, or whether the board relied on some other authority. The minutes would show how the board recorded the acceptance. The board's next regular meeting, three weeks later, accepted two further gifts in the ordinary way (August 21, 2019).
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
OBSERVATION The record does not show how the returned SAU money became authority to pay two teachers
The superintendent described the money as "that money" coming back from the SAU and proposed allocating "$89,669 for each position" (0:03:06); the SAU 6 board had voted on July 25 to cut two central-office positions and return $205,416 to Claremont (show 10463). The board's motion here approved "hire of two new teachers" (0:06:45), about $179,338 a year at the stated figure, with a remainder of "approximately $50,000" (0:03:38). The draft minutes, as read aloud and corrected on August 21, recorded the motion as one to accept $205,416 for fiscal year 2020 from the SAU for two additional teachers, then changed the second accept to allocate (show 10506). Nobody said whether the SAU would refund part of Claremont's assessment, reduce a later assessment, or send money that the district would book as revenue, and nobody named the budget lines involved. If the returned amount left part of the district's appropriation for the SAU assessment unspent, RSA 32:10 lets the governing body transfer an unexpended balance to another appropriation, provided the total spent stays within the total appropriated, and requires records that let any citizen requesting them "pursuant to RSA 91-A:4" ascertain the purposes transferred to and from. Nothing on the recording shows such a transfer being made or recorded, and no budget document survives. The positions also recur in future budgets. This is an observation: the mechanism may be entirely lawful, but the public record of it is missing. The election of the individual teachers is a separate step under RSA 189:39; the board voted on 33 teacher nominations on August 21.
Sources: RSA 32:10, I(a)-(b) and II (2019 codification; source note ends 2017, 127:4); RSA 189:39 (school boards elect all teachers)
OBSERVATION Minutes were approved for a "June 16th, 2019" meeting that the record cannot place
The board approved without changes "the minutes from June 16th, 2019" (0:02:27, 0:02:33). June 16, 2019 was a Sunday, and no Claremont School Board meeting from June 2019 is recorded in MAP.md or the Cablecast gallery as mapped; the last Claremont board meetings in the corpus before this one are in May 2019 (May 1, the May 6 joint meeting with the City Council, and the May 15 special meeting). The date is probably misstated, by the speaker or the transcription, and the meeting meant is probably one held in June 2019 for which no recording or document survives. If so, the corpus is missing a Claremont board meeting, and its minutes are known only from this approval. This is an observation: the minutes would identify the meeting.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD meeting 7-30; RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
POSITIVE The chair tabled an action item because it had not been warned on the agenda
The chair added the CCTV reappointment to the agenda at the start (0:01:10), then withdrew from acting on it: "We really should warn an action item." (0:23:49) and "All I want is if we if we post an agenda with action items, I want it to be accurate." (0:23:56). The item was tabled to the next meeting even though CCTV wanted the seat filled to make its own quorum (0:00:41, 0:23:32). RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice of the time and place of a meeting at least 24 hours ahead; the project's reading of the 2019 text finds no requirement that the notice list each action item. Holding an unwarned action item over so the public could see it coming exceeds that minimum. The board did reappoint a CCTV representative at its next regular meeting (August 21, 2019).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; notice of time and place)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD meeting 7-30 (show 10472; 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: SAU 6 Board, July 25, 2019 (the position cuts and the scheduling of this meeting) and Claremont School Board, August 21, 2019 (approval of minutes; the CCTV appointment).
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.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 106Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10472 SchoolBoard073019.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2019 codification (in force January 1, 2019 to October 2, 2023): notice of time and place; minutes content, names of movers and seconders, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2019 codification: unanticipated funds under $5,000 noticed in the agenda and minutes and accepted "in public session of any regular school board meeting"
- RSA 32:10, 2019 codification: transfers between appropriations and the records they require
- RSA 189:39: superintendents nominate and school boards elect all teachers