Participants
Officers, board, staff and every floor speaker on the recording. Names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and the meeting's attribution report. The ASR lost most podium names; speakers were asked to sign a clipboard, which is not in the record.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Unidentified (moderator) | School district moderator | Addressed as madam (0:05:04) and “Madam moderator” (0:45:54); never named. A floor speaker ends with “Thank you Tracy.” (0:39:39); the project roster records Tracy Pope as moderator in later years, so this is a lead, not an identification. Reads the rules (0:03:00), runs debate and both votes. |
| Matt Upton | District counsel | Explains the defects and the cure (0:05:04 to 0:07:18); transcribed “at Upton” and “Attorney Appleton”. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduces staff (0:02:03); presents the three programs (0:07:36); answers questions on space, growth and vocational programs (0:35:50, 0:41:26). |
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board | Introduces the board (0:02:34); speaks for the article on Benware's yielded time (0:16:10); answers where savings would go (0:44:03). |
| Jason Benware | School board member; also speaks as a Ward 1 voter | Moves the article (0:14:41); speaks in favor from the floor (0:22:27). |
| Carolyn Towle | School board member | Seconds the article (0:15:45); the moderator says “second by Carolyn Cole”. |
| Rebecca Zullo | School board vice chair | Leads the Pledge (0:01:13); introduced as “assistant board chair”. |
| Michael Petrin, Rob Lovett Jr., Heather Whitney | School board members | Introduced by the chair (0:02:34); Petrin as SAU board chair. No remarks attributed. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Introduced (0:02:53); no remarks attributed. |
| Donna Magoon, Richard Seaman, Ben Nester, Jeff Small | Assistant superintendent; business administrator; director of special education; director of technology | Introduced by the superintendent (0:02:03). |
| Samantha Bailey | Voter, Ward 3 (spelling unverified) | Asks about the transition from the elementary programs to the middle and high schools (0:11:44). |
| Unidentified | Voter, Ward 3 (name transcribed “I'm wide man. More.”) | Speaks against: no business plan, “we, the taxpayers, are the bank” (0:19:18); asks for a written ballot (0:21:28). |
| Cynthia Howard | Voter, Ward 2 | Speaks against (0:25:47); identity rests on her self-identification at the November 21 meeting and the moderator's “Howard Ward two” (0:24:40). |
| Daryl (surname not recorded) | Voter, Ward 1; district employee since 1978 | Speaks in favor, from experience in regular and special education (0:28:32). |
| Cassie Burke | Voter, Ward 3 (transcribed “Kathy Burke”) | Speaks in favor as a parent whose son is being considered for an out-of-district placement (0:31:32). |
| Unidentified | Voter; retired businessman | Asks how many students and how large the program will grow (0:34:17). |
| Unidentified | Voter in favor | Out-of-district placement costs “are the thing that you can't control” (0:38:18). |
| Unidentified | Voter; parent asking about life-skills students | Asks why no vocational program for high school life-skills students was included (0:40:51). |
| Tom (surname not recorded) | Voter | Asks whether savings return to taxpayers (0:43:22). |
| Unidentified | Board member or administrator | Answers on budget pressures (0:44:42). |
| Paul Cass, Scott Pope | Vote counters | Named by the moderator for the standing count (0:46:51). |
| Unidentified | Attendee, not a registered voter | Asks to speak; “No. I live in Claremont, though I own a house.” (0:33:55) |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No warrant or notice survives; the order below follows the moderator's transitions. The article's wording is as Benware read it on the recording.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:27 | Call to order; seating; childcare | Registered and non-registered voters seated separately. |
| 0:01:13 | Pledge of Allegiance | Led by Rebecca Zullo. |
| 0:01:56 | Introductions | Administrators by the superintendent (0:02:03); board and clerk by the chair (0:02:34). |
| 0:03:00 | Rules of procedure | Proponents five minutes, then two minutes per speaker; speakers sign a clipboard with name and ward because “We were having a difficult time last meeting, hearing the names of the people speaking.” (0:03:24); motions and amendments in writing. |
| 0:05:04 | Reason for the meeting (counsel) | Upton on the two posting defects and DRA's view. |
| 0:07:22 | Superintendent's presentation | Autism program, a second PRIDE classroom, an alternative high school program. |
| 0:14:10 | Article 1, special education funding | Benware reads the November article (“establish a special education expendable trust fund pursuant to RSA 198 20 C for the purposes of funding special education costs” with $650,000) and the ratification question: “Shall the Claremont School District vote to ratify the affirmative vote at the November 21st, 2019 Special District meeting, specifically curing any defects in procedure as required by RSA 1973 A [197:3-a] relating to costume notes of that meeting and required public hearing on the school district website.” (0:15:23) Second, Towle (0:15:45). Debate 0:18:04 to 0:45:54. |
| 0:45:54 | Vote | Motion to move the question carried by voice. Voice vote on the article; the moderator: “I believe the ayes have it. Is anyone questioning that decision, Mr. Cast? Okay, we will have a standing vote.” (0:46:51) Result: 70 yes, 12 no (0:52:44). |
| 0:52:55 | Close | “That concludes tonight's meeting.” |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.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 |
|---|
| 0:05:07 | Counsel: why the vote is being repeated | Upton: the November 21 meeting “was held pursuant to our 1973 A” [RSA 197:3-a], which requires website posting seven days before the hearing and the meeting. “In this case, that did not occur.” The district “doesn't have a website” and posts on the SAU site “as a courtesy” (0:05:38). The DRA's view: “because the district utilizes the website, it has been adopted the website” (0:06:05). “In an abundance of caution, we all agree that the best thing to do would be to hold this meeting and not fight over whether it's the district website or the Saw website” (0:06:34). The defects: no notice of the hearing was posted, and the meeting notice “was posted six days ahead of the Special District meeting, not seven.” | POS |
| 0:07:36 | The three programs and the savings claimed | Tempesta: an autism program first, because “there are three students that we almost that that are ready to go out by the end of this year”, each placement “on average, $90,000”, about $270,000 (0:08:00). The PRIDE program: two students have already come back, about 155 000 in tuition, and if the program's other seven students went out “that would be another $500,000” (0:09:07). Third, an alternative high school program to reduce the dropout rate (0:09:27). He stresses the least restrictive environment and students “traveling upwards of an hour just each way every day” (0:10:53). | OBS |
| 0:11:44 | A question before the article was on the floor | After Samantha Bailey's question, others are told to wait; one asks “I don't understand why the lady was able to ask a question.” The moderator: “I didn't ask, if there were any questions. I didn't hear him do that. But, I'm sorry, that was not appropriate.” (0:14:10) | |
| 0:16:00 | Sprague: run it like a business | “Our stabilization grants have been restored. We have essentially is some seed money.” (0:16:50) The money will help pay fixed costs “such as insurance contract negotiations with our bargaining units” and “It's money that we that will have no burden on the taxpayers at all” (0:17:22). | |
| 0:18:04 | What a yes or no vote means | The moderator: “an affirmative vote tonight to ratify the November 21st vote is an endorsement to establish the Special Education Expendable Trust Fund.” and “a negative vote will disallow the establishment of the Special Education Expendable Trust Fund” (repeated before the vote, 0:45:59). | POS |
| 0:19:18 | Against: no business plan | A Ward 3 voter: the state returned about $1.3 million as tax relief and “The school board is asking us to provide $650,000, or exactly half of that tax.” “The school board did not provide a business plan for specific amounts needed to fund this project.” (0:19:36) “In this case, we, the taxpayers, are the bank.” (0:20:03) If three students would cost $90,000 each, “there should be at least $270,000 in the present budget” to start the program (0:20:29). | OBS |
| 0:21:28 | A written ballot refused | A voter asks to vote by ballot. The moderator: “In order to do that, you have to have presented the request in writing to me with five registered voters signatures prior to opening of the discussion on the ballot.” (0:21:37) | OBS |
| 0:22:27 | Benware: invest, don't patch | “Last year, we took out 12 positions to keep the tax rate level for people or very close to the level.” (0:23:12) Of legislators who might punish the district for investing the money: “they don't deserve to be in Concord to begin with.” (0:23:38) “I'm not a spender, but I am an investor, and I believe that that's what this is.” (0:24:19) | |
| 0:25:47 | Howard: new staff and the main budget | Cynthia Howard: the program plans “actually added 25, 25 staff members” as transcribed; taxpayers will pay future bargaining costs. “how can you call it a business plan when you've slipped over almost $400,000 into the original main budget that was voted on earlier this year, unbeknownst of many of the taxpayers?” (0:26:16) “It wasn't a separate warrant article for us to vote on which this should have been” (0:26:51). Claremont funds “two thirds of the special education budget, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 million. I believe you can check that” (0:27:17). | OBS |
| 0:28:32 | A district employee: not a band-aid | The PRIDE program “has clear entry and exit criteria. It has an infrastructure, is well staffed” (0:28:55). “Sending a student out of district is so far down the continuum on a least restrictive environment” (0:30:14). | |
| 0:31:32 | A parent: “There is no place here for my son.” | Cassie Burke: her son has been told he must be placed out of district; “the minimum is $90,000 a year. That's not the max.” (0:31:59) “And if we don't do it now, then guess what? We're going to do it later.” (0:33:22) | |
| 0:34:17 | How big will it get? | A retired businessman fears “in three years, say, oh, we need $6 million to keep this program going” (0:35:21). Tempesta: “the entire business plan has been online for for weeks now” (0:35:55); there is enough elementary classroom space to start, and the district could later take tuition students from elsewhere (0:36:42). | OBS |
| 0:40:51 | Nothing for life-skills students | A parent: “We got kids sitting down in life skills who were what? What do they do? How did they get out in the community?” (0:41:13) Tempesta: “We can get that here.” and the plan was assembled “as fast as we could” once the money was freed (0:41:58). | |
| 0:43:22 | Where do savings go? | Tom asks whether savings return to taxpayers. Sprague: “it's going to offset, current expenses, ongoing expenses, so that we don't have to raise taxes.” (0:44:03) An unidentified board-side speaker: “if we are able to save our district $600,000 by not sending kids out of district, it's likely it gets eaten up with all those increases and you might not see a tax increase.” (0:45:07) | |
| 0:45:54 | The vote | The question is moved and carried by voice. The voice vote on the article is called for the ayes and questioned; the moderator orders a standing count with two counters, voters showing their registration cards (0:47:15). “The final vote was 70. Yes. 12. No.” (0:52:44) | POS |
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 December 12, 2019, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No minutes, warrant or notice of this district meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting. RSA 197:20 requires the school district clerk to “keep a true record of all the doings of each meeting”. For a meeting whose whole purpose was to repair a notice defect, the missing documents are the ones that would show whether the cure itself was properly noticed: the posted warrant and notice of this meeting, the date and places of posting (RSA 31:5-b, II(d) requires the cure to “comply with all statutory notice and procedural requirements for holding special town meetings”), the written ballot request if any, the clipboard of speakers' names and wards that the moderator introduced because the last meeting's names were lost (0:03:24), and the counters' tallies.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the school board approved the clerk's minutes of the November 21 special district meeting on December 4, so the clerk was keeping minutes of these meetings, and the result was announced on tape. What is missing is any public copy now.
Sources: RSA 197:20 (2019 codification; clerk keeps a true record of each meeting); RSA 31:5-b, II(d) (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION Future spending from the new trust fund requires its own public hearing
The article creates a Special Education Expendable Trust Fund “pursuant to RSA 198 20 C” (0:14:43). RSA 198:20-c, I lets a district create expendable trust funds and provides that expenditure “shall be made only for the purpose for which the trust fund was established”; ¶II adds that “In order to expend such funds, the school board shall hold a public hearing prior to the expenditure to be made”, with newspaper notice of the “time, place, and subject” at least seven days ahead. Tonight's vote establishes the fund and its $650,000; it does not authorize any particular program spending. Each draw for the autism program, the PRIDE classroom or the high school program needs a prior hearing. This is recorded so later pages can check for those hearings.
Sources: RSA 198:20-c, I-II (2019 codification; source note ends 2012, 219:2, 3, eff. July 1, 2012)
OBSERVATION The savings case rests on projections and a business plan that is not in the record
The superintendent projected about $270,000 avoided for three autism placements (0:08:00) and about $700,000 for the PRIDE program if its students would otherwise go out (0:09:07). Opponents said no business plan had been provided (0:19:36) and that an elementary alternative program had been placed in the main budget earlier in 2019 without a separate article (0:26:16); the superintendent said the business plan had been online for weeks (0:35:55). None of the plan, the program costs or the earlier budget line is in this record, and an unidentified board-side speaker conceded the savings may be absorbed by other increases rather than seen as a tax cut (0:45:07). No rule verified for this page requires a business plan for a trust-fund article, so this is an observation; the plan's posting date and the FY2020 budget detail would settle the dispute.
Sources: Dialogue/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.mp4.CSV (rows at 0:07:36 to 0:10:53, 0:19:18 to 0:20:59, 0:25:47 to 0:27:17, 0:35:55)
OBSERVATION A voter's request for a written ballot was refused on a timing rule this page could not verify for a school district meeting
When a voter asked to vote by ballot, the moderator said the request had to be “in writing to me with five registered voters signatures prior to opening of the discussion” (0:21:37). The statute verified for this page, RSA 40:4-a, I, speaks of “any meeting of a town with a population of more than 500”, where 5 voters “present may make a request in writing prior to a vote by voice vote or division vote” that the vote be taken by secret written ballot. Whether RSA 40:4-a governs a school district's single-session cure meeting was not verified, and the request on tape was oral, so the outcome may be the same under either reading. It is recorded because the moderator's stated deadline (before discussion opens) is earlier than the town-meeting text (before the vote), and the November 21 meeting it ratified had voted by paper ballot.
Sources: RSA 40:4-a, I (2019 codification; source note ends 2006, 117:1; town meetings)
POSITIVE The cure was explained, timed and counted with care
RSA 31:5-b, II requires a cure meeting not less than 21 calendar days after the original vote (November 21 to December 12 is 21), a prior hearing (held December 4), and “the same as the majority as required for passage of the original article”; the 70-12 result clears any majority. Beyond that minimum, counsel explained the defect in plain terms and conceded it rather than arguing the website point (0:06:34); the moderator told voters twice exactly what a yes and a no vote would do (0:18:04, 0:45:59); she introduced a sign-in sheet so speakers' names would be captured after the last meeting's were lost (0:03:24); childcare was provided (0:00:53); and when a voice vote was questioned she moved straight to a standing count with two named counters and registration cards (0:46:51).
Sources: RSA 31:5-b, II(b), (c), (e) (2019 codification; source note 1988, 284:1; 1989, 287:1); RSA 40:16 (2019 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING regarding funding warrant 12-12-19 (show 10649; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API refused this environment on 2026-10-02)
- Google Drive: no warrant, notice 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.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.mp4.CSV (195 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Dialogue/10624 SchoolBoardSpecial112119.mp4.CSV (the November 21, 2019 meeting; checked for Cynthia Howard's self-identification and the paper-ballot procedure)Input/Videos/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.mp4Input/Transcripts/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 119Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10649 SchoolBoardSpecial121219.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 40:16, 2019 codification (source note 1999, 86:4, eff. Aug. 2, 1999): single-session special meeting to cure a defect according to RSA 31:5-b
- RSA 31:5-b, II, 2019 codification (source note 1988, 284:1; 1989, 287:1, eff. July 28, 1989): 21 days after the original vote; hearing 7 days before; notice and procedure; same majority
- RSA 197:3-a, 2019 codification (source note 2013, 197:1): the procedure used on November 21, 2019
- RSA 198:20-c, I-II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2012, 219:2, 3): expendable trust funds; public hearing before each expenditure, newspaper notice 7 days
- RSA 197:20, 2019 codification (source note ends 1963, 120:5): district clerk keeps a true record of each meeting
- RSA 40:4-a, I, 2019 codification (source note ends 2006, 117:1): secret ballot on written request of 5 voters at a town meeting; applicability to this meeting not verified