Participants
Everyone heard on the recording, and absent members. With no minutes available, names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and the speaker attribution report; the transcript's garbled renderings are kept in the participation cell. Board members whose voices could not be separated are left unidentified in the dialogue file.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair, Claremont School Board; presiding | Opens the donations hearing and the regular meeting, runs every item and vote. Speaks as "an occupational therapist" in favor of play-based kindergarten (0:33:38), presses for a cost analysis of the federal lunch program (1:34:08) and proposes a board retreat before the March election (1:35:14). |
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board | Absent. Named at roll call ("Frank Sprague", 0:08:43) with no answer heard; Zullo and Towle refer to him in the third person ("I know Frank sent this out", 1:39:57). |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Roll call renders him "Jason Benoit" (0:08:36). Moves the nonpublic session, the four contract ratifications and the donations. Questions policy DAF, the community eligibility provision at Bluff, and the lunch debt, and suggests putting universal free meals to the voters as a warrant article (1:20:36). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Answers roll call (0:08:36). Named as proposing the agenda amendment ("Rob can make an amendment", 0:09:28) and as seconding the teachers' contract ("a second by Rob", 1:48:10); his own voice is not separated in the dialogue file. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Named at roll call as "Michael Pietra" (0:08:36). No speech is attributed to him. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Roll call renders her "As a Whitney" (0:08:43). Asks whether play-based learning helps boys (0:29:58) and says the capital committee will want to present its priorities (1:55:28). |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member; delegate to the NHSBA delegate assembly | Roll call renders her "Carolyn Toll" (0:08:43) and the nonpublic roll call "Carolyn Charles" (0:48:22). Asks that policy DAF go back to the policy committee (1:00:28), questions lunch-application reminders, and reports on the NHSBA resolutions (1:39:57). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the donations at the hearing (0:01:06) and gives the superintendent's report: the end of negotiations, a visit to out-of-district placements and a special-education parent advisory council (0:50:54). |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator, SAU 6 (the superintendent calls him "financial director", 0:52:54) | Explains the four bargaining agreements and their costs (1:41:04), speaks to policy DAF and the federal compliance audits, the state food-service review, and the lunch debt as "an uncollected receivable" (1:36:48). Reports the audits are "up to 17, start 18" (1:53:51). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 (per the project roster) | Explains that policy DAF answers an NHDOE compliance visit (0:57:49) and describes breakfast arrangements at Bluff (1:14:07). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Explains when the roll call is taken (0:07:55), takes the roll (0:08:36) and the nonpublic roll-call vote (0:48:22). |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School (surname from the project roster) | Speaks at the donations hearing about the Cliff mini grant and the snowshoe gift, introduces the kindergarten presentation (0:10:54) and reports on the launch of the elementary winter program (0:34:46). |
| Beth Bonneville | Kindergarten teacher, Disnard Elementary School | Named by the principal (0:10:54); presents on the state's play-based kindergarten law and her classroom, and answers Whitney's question (0:30:17). |
| Shelby Klink; Allie Howard | Kindergarten teachers, Disnard Elementary School | Named by the principal (0:10:54). Both present; the dialogue file cannot tell their voices apart, so their passages are labeled Unidentified. |
| Tyler (surname heard as Sullivan on the January 21 recording) | Student representative to the board | Reports on a student leadership summit about social media and mental health, and on school news (0:36:30). Students he names in the report are not reproduced on this page. |
| Danielle Skinner | Food program coordinator, SAU 6 | Self-identifies (1:05:18). Presents the food-service report: community eligibility provision percentages, expired meal benefits, and lunch debt of $33,070 across 142 accounts (1:18:01). |
| Unidentified | Board members and others | 240 of 796 rows (30.2%) carry no name: short votes and seconds, the two kindergarten teachers who are not told apart, and board members on the bag-lunch and food-contract questions. The board member who moves to leave nonpublic session (0:49:20) is labeled Michael Tempesta in the dialogue file; a superintendent cannot make that motion, and the project's corrections ledger treats the row as an unidentified board member. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives in the district's shares. This order is reconstructed from the presiding officer's transitions. She reads one item from the printed agenda aloud ("now it says Disney Elementary School", 0:10:41), which confirms that an agenda existed.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Public hearing: acceptance of donations | Opened 0:00:57; the superintendent presents nine gifts and grants; one commenter (the Disnard principal) speaks. Closed 0:07:27. The board then asks whether a roll call was needed; the clerk answers "The only time you do the roll call at the beginning is a public hearing." (0:07:55). |
| 0:08:02 | Call to order of the regular meeting; roll call; Pledge | Roll call 0:08:36 to 0:08:43; Pledge of Allegiance 0:08:56. |
| 0:09:23 | Review of the agenda | Amended to move the student representative's report ahead of the nonpublic session: "Rob can make an amendment to move the student rep report. Before the nonpublic." (0:09:28). Motion "I move that we accept the agenda as amended" (0:09:52), voice vote 0:10:11. |
| 0:10:21 | Approval of previous minutes | Deferred: "I think that we need a little bit more time to review those" (0:10:21). No vote. |
| 0:10:41 | Disnard Elementary School: play-based kindergarten | Presentation by the principal and three kindergarten teachers; questions from Benware, Towle, Whitney and Zullo; winter program report 0:34:42. |
| 0:36:08 | Student representative report | Taken early under the agenda amendment. |
| 0:47:33 | Nonpublic session | Benware moves "to go to nonpublic session per RSA 91 a three, subparagraph two relating to negotiations" and reads the legal-advice ground; roll-call vote 0:48:22 to 0:48:35. The board resumes 0:49:13; motion to leave nonpublic 0:49:20, roll call 0:49:52 to 0:50:07; motion "to seal the minutes for 87 years" carried by voice vote 0:50:15 to 0:50:23. See flag 2 and flag 5. |
| 0:50:31 | Citizens' comments | Opened and closed with no speaker: "Nothing, ma'am. Okay, I'm going to close citizens comments." (0:50:31). |
| 0:50:54 | Superintendent's report | Negotiations complete; out-of-district placement visit; parent advisory council; presentations promised for February. |
| 0:57:10 | Policy DAF, first read | "I make a motion. We move policy DAF to a second reading." (1:03:07), seconded by Benware 1:03:12; voice vote 1:03:29, no opposition heard. |
| 1:03:43 | Food service update | Report by the food program coordinator, with questions; no action. |
| 1:39:43 | NHSBA delegate assembly | Towle asks members to send feedback on the resolutions before the assembly on January 25. No action. |
| 1:40:48 | Ratification of pending contracts | Four agreements ratified by separate voice votes, each moved by Benware: Sugar River Education Association (teachers) 1:47:36, seconded "by Rob", vote 1:48:14; maintenance 1:48:19, vote 1:48:24; secretaries 1:48:30, vote 1:48:34; paraprofessionals 1:48:43, vote 1:48:47. No opposition heard on any. |
| 1:49:05 | Acceptance of donations | Benware lists the nine gifts and grants and moves them in one motion (1:49:18); voice vote 1:50:57, no opposition heard. Two were accepted with no amount stated (flag 6). |
| 1:51:03 | Future agenda items | Grading system, school safety, head-lice policy data, a return visit on the needle exchange program, "update on process and financial safeguards to protect the district", a Medicaid update in February, capital committee priorities. |
| 1:56:09 | Other business; upcoming dates | Board retreat to be discussed next week; budget presentation January 15, budget hearing January 21, deliberative session on "the fifth of" February (1:57:08); filing period January 22 to 31 (1:57:42); the January 9 joint meeting with the City Council cancelled (1:59:13). |
| 1:59:40 | Adjournment | A motion is seconded ("I'll second that. Heather. Got it."); the recording ends seconds later without the vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10683 SchoolBoard010820.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:06 | Donations hearing | Tempesta says people were confused by the posted notice: "it was it was on the web page. Had to look for a little bit", and that the hearing "was for the acceptance of donations at over a certain dollar amount". He lists an anonymous $7,000 gift for elementary snowshoes (0:01:33), a "Hawk Meyer contribution to the pre-K program" with "I don't know that I have a dollar amount on that one", a Cliff mini grant for a rock garden at Disnard (0:02:07), $50 and $100 for lunch debt (0:03:14), $980 from Kiwanis for the Full Circle Farm life-skills program (0:03:24), a Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation gift for the eighth-grade New York trip whose figure "faded in the copy" (0:04:04), two $500 ExxonMobil grants, and $8,500 from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for music (0:05:20). A board member notes the $8,500 check is made out to "Claremont, Cornish and Unity" (0:05:42). | OBS POS |
| 0:07:27 | Roll call timing | Zullo: "Miss Mary, at the very beginning of this, I was rushing and we didn't do a roll call." The clerk says the roll is taken when the regular meeting opens. | |
| 0:10:54 | Play-based kindergarten | The principal: "the state of New Hampshire has moved to play based kindergarten." Bonneville summarizes the 2018 law (0:11:47); teachers describe free, guided and teacher-directed play with classroom photographs. Bonneville says the class still meets "the Common Core Standards for kindergarten" (0:26:25). | |
| 0:28:19 | Board questions | Benware asks for first-grade assessment comparisons in two years: "statistics tend to tell a pretty good story." Whitney asks about boys (0:29:58); Bonneville reports "ten boys this year in a class of 15" and a change in behavior (0:30:17). Zullo: "I love it." (0:34:20). | |
| 0:34:46 | Winter program | The principal says the elementary schools sent pupils to 13 activities on the program's first day and "almost 200 students to Arrowhead in the community center" (0:35:30). | |
| 0:36:30 | Student representative | Report on a student leadership summit about social media, sleep and mental health; Stevens ACT results ("an average composite score of 28.5", 0:43:12); 51% of the class of 2019 earning the 27-credit diploma with distinction (0:44:10); middle-school spelling and geography bee results and students of the month, read by name (names not reproduced here). | |
| 0:47:33 | Nonpublic session | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to go to nonpublic session per RSA 91 a three, subparagraph two relating to negotiations, a board may enter nonpublic session to consider or act on one consideration of legal advice provided by legal counsel, either in writing or orally". Roll call 0:48:22. The tape picks up at 0:49:13, 32 seconds after the vote. Leaving nonpublic, Benware jokes "I know it's not a roll call for that." and is told "It is, it is, it is." (0:49:29). Then: "I'd like to make a motion to seal the minutes for 87 years." (0:50:15) and "All in favor?" (0:50:21). No reason for sealing is stated and no tally is heard. | MED OBS |
| 0:52:54 | Superintendent: negotiations | "all I wanted for Christmas was to stop negotiating." He thanks Seaman for recreating documents: "We didn't have a lot to go on, a lot of historical to go on." (0:53:26). | |
| 0:53:26 | Superintendent: special education | Visit with the special-education director to out-of-district placements in Vermont; a parent advisory council meeting "January 28th at 530 in the teal, room here at the Tech Center" (0:54:48); "we have three, maybe three definite, maybe four students who are looking to outpace" (0:55:29), at "a cost of approximately about between 80,000 and $100,000 per placement and transportation" (0:55:51), and a local program could mean "six $700,000 swing" in the district's favor. | |
| 0:57:10 | Policy DAF, first read | Benware: "25 pages of it". Magoon: "On January 7th, 2019, we had Lindsay from the Doe come out and do a compliance visit." and the missing policy "was one of the things that was out of compliance." (0:58:09). Benware on micro-purchases: "Micro purchases of less than $10,000. You should try to spread that around to many different. That's correct. We are not doing that." (0:59:29) and "I have a hard time voting in any policy that I'm pretty certain we're just not going to follow all of." (0:59:58). Seaman: "We do need to have these policies really as they are written" to "continue to get title money, Ida money, some big pools of dollars." (0:59:08); "We can comply." (1:02:10). Towle wants it reworked in the policy committee (1:00:28). Moved to second reading 1:03:07. | MED |
| 1:04:46 | Food service: community eligibility | Skinner: Disnard reached the 40% threshold; "The ideal number for a c p provision is 60%." Bluff "is at 49.66%" (1:06:32), so "the district will have to pay for a part of bluff." (1:07:09). Benware: "But that's not exactly how it was sold to people." (1:07:16). Seaman is to speak with the food-service management company about break-even (1:09:08). | OBS |
| 1:11:02 | Participation | Benware asks why free meals reach only about half the pupils at Bluff; Seaman: "we're leaving money on the table by not feeding kids breakfast." (1:11:34). Magoon describes late-arrival breakfast in classrooms (1:14:07). | |
| 1:16:33 | Expired benefits; lunch debt | "As of 11 or November 26th, 108 students that had benefits at the beginning of the year and then they expired, didn't reapply." She cannot contact them individually (1:17:15). "there's 142 accounts that owe more than $100." "Their total of those accounts is $33,070." (1:18:01). She wants "something to get the families to pay" (1:05:18). | OBS |
| 1:19:01 | State food-service review | Seaman: "I think it's every three years the state comes in and looks at our program." "We did get a couple of correction items we need to do."; he offers to share the report. | |
| 1:19:52 | Universal meals as a warrant article | Benware: "So essentially what we're dealing with is, is just another unfunded mandate, really." He asks Seaman to cost free meals for every pupil and "let's put it on the warrant." (1:20:36). Skinner: the district would have to cover "the $3 lunch price" and breakfast at $1.75 (1:23:19). | |
| 1:26:04 | Towle's questions | Asks for the staff accounts breakdown and about reminder letters before benefits expire; Skinner: "That's overtly identifying." (1:27:26) and the state allows only a flier to every student (1:27:31). | |
| 1:30:12 | Food-service contract | Seaman: "We renew them each year, and you get to do it for four years without having to go out for another RFP". A board member asks for an in-house and bag-lunch comparison (1:30:29); Skinner explains the federal vegetable subgroup rules (1:33:26). A board member: "I don't want to just rubber stamp it." (1:36:31). | |
| 1:36:48 | Write-off of lunch debt | Seaman: "It's an uncollected receivable. We're going to have to write this off at some time." "The number is currently at 42. We should expect it to go up roughly 5000 a month." In his previous district "a determination was to fund roughly $300,000 out of the local budget for food service above and beyond the revenue." (1:38:53). | OBS |
| 1:39:57 | NHSBA resolutions | Towle: "we will be going down to the Assembly on January 25th." | |
| 1:41:04 | Teachers' agreement | Seaman: a three-year agreement with the Sugar River Education Association, aimed to "increase starting salaries from the current $36,000, which is noncompetitive up to a $40,000 number over the next three years." Cost "approximately $680,000" for about 150 teachers; "in the first year it's a 680. In the second year it's in the 340 000 as it is in the third year" (1:42:09). Turnover "25 to 30%" (1:43:00). "The contract will be a part of the budget vote. So it will not have its own warrant." (1:47:47). | OBS POS |
| 1:43:43 | Paraprofessionals, maintenance, secretaries | Paraprofessionals: insurance change, cost "between 50 and $80,000" (1:44:11). Maintenance: two-year agreement, a 3% grid increase and a move to SchoolCare; a family policy "over $40,000 a year" against about $32,000 (1:45:40); "the cost there was approximately $21,000." Secretaries: "a reduction in the cost for the Secretary's negotiating group of $7,000." (1:46:04). "The other three will have separate Warren articles. Correct? That's at their request." (1:47:55). | POS |
| 1:49:18 | Donations accepted | Benware lists each gift. For the pre-K contribution: "I do not know the figure." For the Cliff mini grant: "Do you know the figure on that? Because I don't have that one. I couldn't find it." and "We'll get back to that." (1:49:59). The Byrne gift is read as $6,000. Accepted by voice vote 1:51:02. | OBS |
| 1:51:37 | Needle exchange follow-up | Benware wants Valley Regional Hospital back to report on "the needle exchange program at the hospital" the board approved last year, after budget season (1:52:40). | |
| 1:52:54 | Financial safeguards; audits | The future item "update on process and financial safeguards to protect the district" is explained as making sure past accounting problems do not recur (1:53:04). Seaman: "Auditor works for the board" (1:53:44); "We're up to 17, start 18. And so we're almost catching up. Let's have them come in and answer your questions and do it in executive session" (1:53:51). Benware: "And eventually we'll actually do audits in the year the following year" (1:54:00). "17 books." / Tempesta: "We just came in yesterday." (1:54:09). | HIGH |
| 1:54:29 | Grading system | Tempesta: the subcommittee on competency-based grading has held "three working meetings" and will report with the strategic plan. | |
| 1:57:08 | Calendar and elections | Tempesta: "there's two, two board seats available." plus moderator, clerk and treasurer; Zullo: "the filing dates are January 22nd through January 31st." (1:57:42). Benware explains that Rob Lovett Jr. served out a vacated term and "then Rob decided to run for the three year seat" (1:58:37). | |
| 1:59:13 | Joint meeting cancelled | "January 9th meeting? Tomorrow's meeting was canceled." Benware: "So for any of you out on TV land, don't come to the joint meeting." (1:59:19). | |
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 January 8, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. RSA 91-A is cited from its 2019 codification, whose source note ends 2018, 244:1 (in force January 1, 2019 to October 2, 2023).
HIGH The district's audits are about two and a half years behind: the FY2017 report had just arrived and FY2018 was only starting
Asked who checks the administration's financial information, the business administrator says the auditor works for the board and "We're up to 17, start 18. And so we're almost catching up." (1:53:51); a speaker adds "17 books." and the superintendent "We just came in yesterday." (1:54:09). On that account the audit of the year ended June 30, 2017 reached the district in January 2020, and the FY2018 audit had not begun. Under the Uniform Guidance a district that spends $750,000 or more in federal awards in a year must have a single audit, and the reporting package is 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": March 31, 2018 for FY2017 and March 31, 2019 for FY2018. The same evening Seaman ties the district's policies to "title money, Ida money, some big pools of dollars" (0:59:08); the record does not give the FY2017 federal expenditure figure, and this page has not seen the audit itself, so the threshold is inferred from the scale of the federal programs named, not read from a document. Two further points for a reviewer: the board member's "eventually we'll actually do audits in the year the following year" (1:54:00) describes the backlog as normal practice, and the business administrator's offer to have the auditors answer questions "in executive session" names no ground in RSA 91-A:3, II that would cover an audit briefing. Mitigation on the record: the backlog predates the current business administrator, who began in October 2019, and he describes the district as catching up.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.501(a)-(b), 2019 edition ($750,000 single-audit threshold); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1), 2019 edition (nine months after period end); RSA 91-A:3, II (2019 codification; nonpublic grounds)
MEDIUM Nonpublic minutes sealed by voice vote, with no statutory finding stated
After the nonpublic session, Benware moves "to seal the minutes for 87 years." (0:50:15; the figure may be an ASR garble) and the presiding officer calls "All in favor?" (0:50:21) with no tally heard. RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes 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 divulgence of the information likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself", or one of the statute's other listed findings applies. On tape the board neither states a finding nor records the vote by name. With six members present, a unanimous voice vote would clear two-thirds, so the defect is in documentation; the minutes, which are not available, may record more. Graded MEDIUM as a process gap, not HIGH, because the outcome may have been lawful.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1)
MEDIUM A state compliance visit found the district lacked its federal-funds policy, and a board member says the district does not follow the micro-purchase rule
The assistant superintendent says policy DAF is before the board because an NHDOE compliance visit found its absence "out of compliance" (0:58:09); she dates the visit "January 7th, 2019" (0:57:49), which may be a slip for the day before this meeting. The Uniform Guidance requires a recipient to "use its own documented procurement procedures", and for micro-purchases provides that "To the extent practicable, the non-Federal entity must distribute micro-purchases equitably among qualified suppliers." Benware reads that requirement and says "We are not doing that." (0:59:29); the words "That's correct" inside his row may be another speaker's interjection. He adds that he has "a hard time voting in any policy that I'm pretty certain we're just not going to follow all of." (0:59:58). The business administrator answers that "We can comply." (1:02:10) and that the state audits these programs "every three years" (1:01:50). Mitigation: the board moved the policy to a second reading, and staff undertook to review it with the state auditor and the policy committee. A reviewer would want the corrective-action plan from the compliance visit.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.318(a), 2019 edition (documented procurement procedures); 2 CFR 200.320(a), 2019 edition (micro-purchases distributed equitably)
MEDIUM No agenda or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. RSA 91-A:2, II required the minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" and, from January 1, 2019, to record the names of those who moved and seconded each motion. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record shows minutes were made: on January 15 the board approved the January 8 minutes with corrections, the clerk remarking that they were eight pages long (Dialogue/10694 SchoolBoard011520.mp4.CSV, rows 9 to 18). Without them, several movers and seconders heard on tape cannot be named (for example the policy DAF motion, 1:03:07), and the nonpublic session leaves no public trace beyond the sealing motion.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; minutes within 5 business days; movers and seconders)
OBSERVATION The nonpublic motion names "negotiations" but reads the legal-advice ground, and the session is absent from the recording
The motion cites "RSA 91 a three, subparagraph two relating to negotiations" and then reads the text of RSA 91-A:3, II(l), "consideration of legal advice provided by legal counsel" (0:47:33). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to "state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II", and the roll call it also requires was taken (0:48:22). Paragraph II contains no ground for negotiations: collective bargaining strategy is instead excluded from the definition of a meeting by RSA 91-A:2, I(a). Read literally, the motion relied on II(l), which is a valid ground; the reference to negotiations, and the four agreements ratified later that night, suggest the subject was bargaining. The page cannot settle which, because the session is not on the tape: only 32 seconds of recording separate the vote (0:48:41) from the resumption (0:49:13), so the recording was paused and the session's length is unknown.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(l) (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2019 codification; bargaining strategy excluded from "meeting")
OBSERVATION Two donations accepted with no amount stated, and a notice the superintendent says was hard to find
The board accepted the pre-K contribution ("I do not know the figure.", 1:49:18) and the Cliff mini grant ("We'll get back to that.", 1:49:59) without amounts, in one motion with seven stated gifts (1:50:57). The amount decides the procedure under RSA 198:20-b, III (2019 codification): $5,000 or more needs a prior public hearing with newspaper notice of the time, place and subject at least seven days ahead; under $5,000 the board "shall post notice of the funds in the agenda and shall include notice in the minutes". Because a hearing covering every gift was held first, the more demanding procedure was applied to all of them, which mitigates the point. What a reviewer cannot confirm is the notice: the superintendent says the posted hearing notice "was on the web page. Had to look for a little bit" (0:01:06), and the statute's newspaper notice is not mentioned on tape. Three gifts ($7,000, $6,000 and $8,500) are above the threshold. Authority under ¶I also depends on a district enabling article that this record does not show.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
OBSERVATION The teachers' agreement goes into the operating budget rather than a warrant article of its own
The business administrator says the Sugar River Education Association agreement "will be a part of the budget vote. So it will not have its own warrant.", while the other three agreements get separate articles "at their request." (1:47:47 to 1:47:55). RSA 273-A:3, II(b) provides that "Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body of the public employer for approval at the next annual meeting", and a cost item is "any benefit acquired through collective bargaining whose implementation requires an appropriation" (RSA 273-A:1, IV). This page has not verified a rule that requires a separate article, so the point is an observation. Its practical effect: voters cannot accept or reject the teachers' first-year cost (part of "approximately $680,000" over three years, 1:42:09) apart from the whole operating budget, and the record does not say how the default budget treats it.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (source note ends 2013, 244:1); RSA 273-A:1, IV (cost item)
OBSERVATION Lunch debt of $33,070 in large accounts, growing about $5,000 a month, with a write-off ahead
The coordinator reports 142 accounts owing more than $100, totaling $33,070, and that debt cleared by a 2018 donation has returned (1:18:01); she asks for a consequence that would get families to pay (1:05:18). The business administrator calls the balance "an uncollected receivable" that will have to be written off against local funds, and expects it "to go up roughly 5000 a month" (1:36:48). Any collection step is limited by RSA 189:11-a, VIII, which requires a meal-charge policy under which "no student will be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal or school cafeteria procedures". The figures that would settle the size of the write-off (the year-end receivable and any allowance for doubtful accounts) belong in the audited statements, which were years behind (flag 1). Separately, the coordinator's account that Bluff's community eligibility leaves the district paying part of the cost drew Benware's "that's not exactly how it was sold to people" (1:07:16).
Sources: RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2019 codification; meal-charge policy)
POSITIVE The cost of each bargaining agreement was stated in public before ratification
Before any ratification vote the business administrator gave, agreement by agreement, the purpose and the cost: about $680,000 for the teachers over three years with its year-by-year split, $50,000 to $80,000 for the paraprofessionals, about $21,000 for maintenance, and a $7,000 saving for the secretaries (1:41:04 to 1:46:04), and said which agreements would carry their own warrant articles. RSA 273-A:3, II(b) requires only that cost items go to the legislative body at the annual meeting; a public, itemized account to the board and the television audience before ratification goes beyond that minimum.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b)
POSITIVE One public hearing covered every gift, including those below the hearing threshold
The board held a single public hearing on all nine donations (0:00:57 to 0:07:27) before voting on them in the regular meeting, and the presiding officer invited citizens to speak (0:06:35). For gifts under $5,000 RSA 198:20-b, III(b) requires only agenda notice, notice in the minutes and acceptance in public session; the hearing gave those smaller gifts the same public airing as the larger ones.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(b) (2019 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: CLAREMONT SCHOOL BOARD meeting 1/8/20 (show 10683; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API refused requests from this environment on 2026-10-02, so the recording's extent is taken from the last dialogue row)
- Google Drive: no agenda, packet 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/10683 SchoolBoard010820.mp4.CSV (796 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Dialogue/10694 SchoolBoard011520.mp4.CSV (January 15, 2020; approval of this meeting's minutes, rows 9 to 18)Input/Videos/10683 SchoolBoard010820.mp4Input/Transcripts/10683 SchoolBoard010820.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 121Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10683 SchoolBoard010820.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I(a) and II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1): bargaining strategy excluded from "meeting"; minutes within five business days, with movers and seconders
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II and III, 2019 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1): nonpublic motion and roll call; grounds; 72-hour disclosure unless sealed by recorded two-thirds vote with a finding
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III, 2019 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): unanticipated funds; $5,000 hearing threshold
- RSA 189:11-a, VIII, 2019 codification: meal-charge policy
- RSA 273-A:3, II(b) and RSA 273-A:1, IV (source notes end 2013, 244:1 and 2014, 13:1, 2): cost items to the legislative body
- 2 CFR 200.318(a) and 2 CFR 200.320(a), 2019 annual edition: documented procurement procedures; micro-purchases
- 2 CFR 200.501 and 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1), 2019 annual edition: single-audit threshold and due date