Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording, plus members whose attendance cannot be confirmed. There are no minutes to check spellings or attendance against; names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and the attribution report for this show. Students other than the student representative are not named on this page.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presides; amends the agenda (0:01:11); calls the nonpublic roll call (0:28:24); asks whether building needs for the budget have been gathered (0:38:54); questions the PRIDE staff on capacity and staffing (0:56:26, 1:01:36); lists future agenda items (1:07:53) and runs the retreat logistics (1:09:33). |
| Jason Benware | Member | Praises the outdoor program (0:24:11); moves the nonpublic session (0:28:01) and the sealing of its minutes (0:29:51); asks why out-of-district providers would release students (0:50:21) and how progress will be measured (0:51:28). The dialogue file's attribution of the three motions to him is rated medium confidence in the attribution report; the questions are high confidence. |
| Heather Whitney | Member | Seconds the minutes (0:02:23); welcomes the in-house PRIDE program and asks how parents received it (0:53:19); volunteers supplies for the retreat (1:10:06). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Named by the chair, transcribed Mr. Patron, during the motion and roll call to come out of nonpublic session (0:29:07). No speech is attributed to him. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Called in the opening roll, transcribed Carol and Joel (0:01:06), and in the roll call to come out of nonpublic session, transcribed Carol. Job (0:29:42). No speech is attributed to her; whether she answered cannot be separated in the transcript. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair | Absent, by her own statement at the next meeting, when she abstained on these minutes because she was not here (November 6, 2019 page). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member | Neither named nor heard on the recording. Attendance not established. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Asked by the chair to take the roll (0:00:56, 0:28:24, 0:29:00); her calls are merged with members' answers in unidentified rows. |
| Tyler Sullivan | Student representative | Student report (0:02:57): Friends of Rachel initiatives, the CARE conference at Colby-Sawyer, SAT day, school events. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report (0:31:16); budget update on state aid, Medicaid and negotiations (0:37:27); comments on the PRIDE program (1:00:10). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Presents the PRIDE elementary alternative program (0:42:52) and answers members' questions (0:50:39, 0:52:02). |
| Sherry McDaniel Thomas | Administrator, PRIDE program | Introduced by Nester (0:47:32); describes parent relations, early behavior data, capacity, staffing and student projects (0:54:03 to 1:07:23). |
| Dale Chenette | Principal, Bluff Elementary School | Introduces the outdoor-education presentation (0:09:00) and thanks the board (0:27:40). Named Dale on the recording (0:52:02); surname from the project roster. |
| Bluff teachers (unnamed) | Presenters | First-grade and fourth-grade teachers lead the outdoor-education segment (0:09:43 to 0:25:00); no teacher is named on the recording. |
| Bluff students | Presenters | First and fourth graders demonstrate their outdoor work. Two are introduced by name on the recording; this page does not reproduce students' names. |
| Unidentified voices | Members, clerk and staff | 209 of 401 rows (52.1%), mostly the Bluff teachers and students, plus the agenda, minutes and adjournment motions and most roll-call answers. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda was posted to any surviving district share. The items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions. Votes are by voice unless noted; no dissent is audible on any vote.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll requested (0:00:56); the answers are not separable in the transcript (0:01:06). |
| 0:01:11 | Agenda | Citizens' comments moved to follow the student representative; the policies item struck. Moved and seconded by unidentified members (0:01:48); approved (0:01:52). |
| 0:01:52 | Minutes of October 2, 2019 | Moved by an unidentified member (0:02:17), seconded by Whitney (0:02:23); approved (0:02:24). |
| 0:02:24 | Student representative report | Tyler Sullivan (0:02:57). No action. |
| 0:08:29 | Citizens' comments | Opened and closed with no speakers (0:08:40). |
| 0:08:40 | Presentation: Bluff Elementary outdoor education | Principal, teachers and students. No action. |
| 0:28:01 | Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II [(l)], legal advice | Motion attributed to Benware (0:28:01), seconded by an unidentified member (0:28:22); roll call (0:28:24 to 0:28:51). Out of nonpublic on a roll call (0:29:00 to 0:29:46). Motion to seal the nonpublic minutes (0:29:51), seconded (0:29:57), approved by voice (0:30:00). See flags 2, 3 and 4. |
| 0:30:01 | Superintendent's report | CARE conference, retired teachers' luncheon, Title I family literacy event. No action. |
| 0:37:13 | Budget update | State aid, Medicaid, budget workshop, negotiations. No action. |
| 0:41:05 | Presentation: elementary alternative program (PRIDE) | Nester and McDaniel Thomas; questions from Benware, Whitney and the chair. No action. See flag 5. |
| 1:07:42 | Future agenda items | Employee drug-testing policy, retreat report, budget timeline and other goals (1:07:53, 1:08:31). |
| 1:09:33 | Other business; adjournment | Retreat logistics. Adjournment moved by an unidentified member (1:11:04); approved (1:11:10). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10577 SchoolBoard101619.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:11 | Agenda changes | Chair moves citizens' comments after the student report, then on policies: “So nothing to do with policies tonight. So we'll strike that and let's see under discussion items.” | |
| 0:02:12 | Minutes date | The chair first reads the date as “October 2nd, 2018.”; the motion corrects it: “I moved into approval of minutes from October 2nd, 2019.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:24 | Student report | “Yesterday, 13 students went to the care conference put on by Kearsarge High School” at Colby-Sawyer College; also a Women in Engineering trip, SAT day and school events; the report ends “wishing Principal Barry speedy recovery” (0:08:08). | |
| 0:09:00 | Outdoor education at Bluff | Principal Chenette recalls the three elementary principals' request last year: “And you granted us that to do that.” First graders show nature vests and practice binoculars for a five-senses unit, a leaf weave, a memory game and applesauce from an orchard trip; fourth graders describe hikes at Moody Park and French's Ledges and their nature journals (0:20:04). | |
| 0:24:11 | Board response | Benware: “I'm just happy to see you guys are getting out and really letting these guys experience nature”. A teacher on the students' view of it: “They just think it's a second reset, which is bonus points for us because the enthusiasm is through the roof.” (0:24:39). | |
| 0:28:01 | Motion for nonpublic session | “I'd like to make a motion to go to nonpublic session for RSA 91. Dash a colon three, sub paragraph two.” The motion then reads the text of the legal-advice ground: “consideration of legal advice provided by legal counsel, either in writing or orally”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:28:38 | Roll call to enter | The transcript holds three answers: “Jason. Edwin. Yes.”, an unidentified Yes. (0:28:45) and the chair's Yes. (0:28:51). The recording then cuts to the roll call to come out (0:28:57). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:00 | Roll call to come out | Chair: “Could you do a roll call to come out of nonpublic?” The chair names Mr. Patron [Petrin] (0:29:07) and the clerk calls Carol [Towle] (0:29:42); six Yes answers follow, none audibly negative. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:51 | Minutes sealed | “I'd like to make a motion to seal the minutes for 83 years.” (the duration is probably garbled). Seconded; the chair asks “All those in favor?”, one Aye. is transcribed, and he moves on. No reason for sealing is stated. | MEDIUM |
| 0:31:16 | Superintendent's report | Tempesta attended the CARE conference with Principal Barry and describes the students' HYPE conference: “The acronym is for Hosting Young Philosophical Enthusiasts.” (0:33:14). He says “I'm going to put these reports on the on the website to we have a bunch of them back backlogged.” (0:34:30). | |
| 0:35:19 | Title I family event | The assistant superintendent's team will “jazz up our annual tightening required title one meeting” with a visiting children's author at Stevens on the 29th. | |
| 0:37:39 | Budget update | “There's some information that we're waiting to get back from our attorney” on how the new state money may be appropriated; “We also have our budget, workshop this Sunday.” (0:38:06); negotiations are under way with several bargaining units, one transcribed SERA, the paraprofessionals, the maintenance staff and the secretaries. | |
| 0:39:20 | State aid and Medicaid | Tempesta: “the number is 6.2 million that we've presented that's coming in.” but “Not all of that is coming in in this iteration.” (0:39:44). On Medicaid, “we might not take the hit that we anticipated being about 600,000.” (0:40:11). Chair: “I think the Medicaid thing is a classic example of politicians meddling in the in something they, they know very little about.” (0:40:51). | |
| 0:43:12 | PRIDE program | Nester: “Pride stands for project based, respectful, individualized data driven education.” Contracts with private providers to run a satellite program fell through: “Those didn't pan out. The contracts changed in some cases at the last minute.” (0:44:18), so the district built the program itself. | POSITIVE |
| 0:47:32 | Students returned | “As of October 16th, we've transitioned two students back from out of district placement”; he expects another student or two this year and says the program also serves students who had not yet been placed out of district (0:48:27). | POSITIVE |
| 0:50:21 | Will providers let students go? | Benware: “what what what is the motivation for them to want to release those kids back to us? I mean, they're a revenue stream for them.” Nester: “Ultimately we do.” make the decision, and providers have “a line of 20 other kids ready to roll” (0:51:07). | |
| 0:51:28 | Measuring progress | Benware asks for a quantitative measure; Nester: “There is a metric in place, a clearly quantitative metric.” (0:52:02). McDaniel Thomas: “It hasn't really been long enough to show you data charts yet.” but from last year's PowerSchool records “we're seeing about a 75% reduction in behaviors overall” (0:55:50). | POSITIVE |
| 0:53:19 | Ownership and parents | Whitney: “I'm really glad that those contracts failed and that Claremont was able to retain ownership of the program.” She asks how parents have received it; McDaniel Thomas describes relationships moving from reserved to stable (0:54:27). | |
| 0:56:32 | Capacity | Capacity is 12: “We're at half capacity right now. Both rooms have got three in them.” Receiving schools “understand that we are their least restrictive environment” (0:57:04). | POSITIVE |
| 0:59:36 | Therapeutic purpose | Chair: “Again, I'm just going to reiterate that this is really a therapeutic program.” An unidentified voice says it has visited with “Mike” (0:59:53); Tempesta: “frankly, it's amazingly successful so far.” (1:00:10). | |
| 1:01:36 | Staffing | Asked whether the program is fully staffed, McDaniel Thomas answers We are not. and says two hiring packages, one for a behaviorist, have gone to the SAU office: “Both of those packages were submitted to the saw.” [SAU] (1:01:45). | |
| 1:07:18 | Return visit | The chair invites the team back after the first semester; McDaniel Thomas: “By then we'll be able to have some quantifiable data, both academic and behavioral.” (1:07:23). | POSITIVE |
| 1:07:53 | Future agenda | Chair: “revisit our drug policy that we that the mandatory testing of employees for drugs.” Also a retreat report and goals including the budget timeline and “financial safeguards to protect the district” (1:08:31). | |
| 1:09:33 | Retreat logistics | Members divide food for the retreat; chair: “So, so 10:00.” “And we're meeting over at the community center.” (1:10:40). The November 6 recording places the retreat on Sunday, October 20, and records the approval of its minutes (November 6, 2019 page). | |
| 1:11:04 | Adjournment | “I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.” Approved by voice (1:11:10). | |
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 October 16, 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. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force from January 1, 2019, required that minutes 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" (statute text). On this recording the movers of the agenda, the October 2 minutes and adjournment are unidentified voices, and the opening roll call cannot be read (flag 3), so minutes are the only record that could settle attendance and who moved what.
MEDIUM under the project's severity rule, because the record mitigates the gap: the board approved minutes of this meeting at its next meeting on November 6, with Zullo abstaining because she had been absent (November 6, 2019 page), so minutes were written. No public copy survives.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019)
MEDIUM Nonpublic minutes sealed on a voice vote with no statutory reason stated
After the legal-advice session the board voted to “seal the minutes for 83 years.” (0:29:51). The motion gave a duration (probably garbled in the transcript) and no reason. The chair called “All those in favor?”, one Aye. is transcribed, and the meeting moved on (0:30:00). RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes and decisions to be "publicly disclosed within 72 hours of the meeting, unless, by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session, it is determined that" disclosure would harm the reputation of a non-member, "render the proposed action ineffective", or pertain to terrorism (statute text). Nothing on the recording states which determination the board made, and the tally needed to show a two-thirds vote is not audible.
MEDIUM: a documentation gap rather than a confirmed violation, because the minutes may record a determination the recording does not. A session limited to legal advice under II(l) is not itself a ground for withholding the minutes; the III determination is what does that work.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, II(l) and III (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1)
OBSERVATION Attendance and the nonpublic roll calls cannot be reconstructed from the recording
The opening roll call is transcribed as “My position. Here. Here. Carol and Joel.” (0:01:06). The roll call to enter nonpublic session holds three answers (0:28:38 to 0:28:51); the roll call to come out holds names and six Yes answers that cannot be matched to members (0:29:07 to 0:29:46). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires that the vote to enter nonpublic session "shall be by roll call, and shall require the affirmative vote of the majority of members present" (statute text). The recording shows a roll call was taken each time, and no member is heard voting no; it cannot show how many members were present or that each answered. With no minutes (flag 1), this is a gap in the record, not a finding about the vote.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2019 codification)
POSITIVE The nonpublic motion read the exemption's text aloud
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires that a motion to enter nonpublic session "shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II which is relied upon" (statute text). The motion here cited paragraph II and then read the legal-advice ground nearly word for word (0:28:01), so a viewer learns the basis for the closed session, not only a citation. The motion did not give the letter (l), which is the one gap.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(l) (2019 codification)
POSITIVE Public progress report on an in-district program for students who had been placed out of district
Six weeks into the PRIDE program, the director of special education reported that two students had returned from out-of-district placements (0:47:32); members asked how progress would be measured (0:51:28); staff gave an early figure with its limits stated (0:55:50) and agreed to return with academic and behavioral data after the first semester (1:07:23). IDEA requires that "To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities" be educated with children who are not disabled (statute text). Reporting results to the board in public, with a measurement plan and a date to come back, exceeds anything the statute requires of the board and lets residents test the program against its claims. The figures are the presenters' own; no data was shown.
Sources: 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(5)(A) (least restrictive environment)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: CLAREMONT SCHOOL BOARD meeting 10/16 (show 10577; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 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.
- Neighboring meeting page: November 6, 2019 (approval of these minutes; retreat report).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10577 SchoolBoard101619.mp4.CSV (401 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10577 SchoolBoard101619.mp4Input/Transcripts/10577 SchoolBoard101619.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 113Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10577 SchoolBoard101619.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
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), II(l) and III, 2019 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1; 280:1): motion states the exemption, roll call; legal-advice ground; 72-hour disclosure unless withheld by a recorded two-thirds vote with a stated determination
- 20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(5)(A) (IDEA): least restrictive environment