Participants
Everyone heard on the recording. 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.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board | Calls the meeting to order and runs every item. Introduces the budget as the work of himself, "Mike patron, Jason Benoit" and the administration (0:10:48); recounts the middle-school cuts made under a former superintendent (0:52:57); supports the elementary reorganization (1:21:03); sets the retreat and the deliberative-session readings. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair | Has corrections to the January 8 minutes (0:01:51). Asks for plain explanations of debt service, transfers and the special-education line (0:20:19), and of what voting for the default budget would mean (0:49:53); asks about teachers' job security and transportation under the reorganization (1:09:12). Takes Article 4 for the deliberative session (1:31:15). |
| Jason Benware | Board member; on the budget team | Moves the January 8 minutes and the donation. Explains that no out-of-district students aged out this year (0:22:46), argues for using one-time money on deferred work (0:31:26), supplies the article costs from his notes (0:40:36, 0:41:19), and volunteers as the board's spokesperson online (1:28:02). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Answers roll call (0:01:04). Assigned Article 7 for the deliberative session ("Rob Robert do seven", 1:32:02). Whitney says he has spoken to all the principals for the capital committee (0:38:11). His own voice is not separated in the dialogue file. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; on the budget team | Roll call renders him "Michael Peachy" (0:01:04). No speech is attributed to him. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member; Capital Improvement Committee | Says the state designed the one-time money for capital projects (0:36:40); describes "band aid projects" seen by the capital committee (0:38:11); asks about leasing buses (0:45:17) and class sizes (1:13:01). Takes Article 3 (1:32:36). |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Roll call renders her "Carolyn. Joel" (0:01:04). Raises the deliberative-session readings (1:30:26) and urges pressure on state and federal legislators over lunch debt (1:33:32). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | States the budget goals (0:12:55) and presents the grade-level reorganization of the elementary schools (0:54:19). |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator, SAU 6 (introduced as "Finance Richard Seaman", 0:11:53) | Presents expenditures (0:15:07), revenues (0:25:42), the tax-rate estimate (0:33:11), the warrant articles (0:38:45) and the default budget (0:46:11). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Takes the roll (0:01:04); on the January 8 minutes: "That's only eight pages long." (0:01:58). |
| Tyler (surname heard as Sullivan on the January 21 recording) | Student representative to the board | Gives the student report (0:03:18). Students he names are not reproduced on this page. |
| Mimi Ryan | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; school counselor at Stevens High School | "My name is Mimi Ryan. I live in Ward one." (0:05:47). Speaks against ending the outsourced hot-lunch program in favor of bag lunches. |
| Unidentified | SAU 6 administrator | Speaks on out-of-district special-education costs (0:23:23) and on the Medicaid update (1:24:22). Never named; the attribution report suggests the special-education director or Donna Magoon, unconfirmed. |
| Unidentified | Board member | Says "I posted on our Facebook page" the governor's remarks on the one-time state money (0:32:18). Never named. |
| Unidentified | Audience member called on as "the press" | The chair: "I think we have a question from the press" (1:16:44); the questioner says "I'm a teacher now" and has two students at the high school. Not named. |
| Unidentified (others) | Short remarks, seconds and votes | 119 of 538 rows (22.1%) carry no name, mostly short interjections the diarizer could not separate. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives in the district's shares. The chair refers to "an agenda in front of us tonight" (0:01:14) and reads the first action item from it; this order follows his transitions.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll call 0:01:04. |
| 0:01:14 | Agenda | "I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. I'll second that." (0:01:21); approved by voice vote. The dialogue file gives the motion and second to the chair in one row; the speakers are not separable. |
| 0:01:32 | Minutes of January 8, 2020 | Benware moves them (0:01:40); Zullo has corrections; renewed motion "with the corrections" (0:02:14), second by an unidentified member, approved; the chair: "I abstain. It's not here." (0:02:22). |
| 0:02:35 | Minutes of the December 12, 2019 special district meeting | Moved by the chair, seconded by an unidentified member, approved by voice vote (0:02:56). |
| 0:03:18 | Student representative report | No action. |
| 0:05:38 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, Mimi Ryan, Ward 1. Closed 0:09:00. |
| 0:09:00 | Acceptance of a $2,500 donation to the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Benware moves to accept "$2,500 from Doctor and Lucas Charitable Foundation. Care of the Ackerman family, it seems." (0:10:02; the foundation's name is garbled); the chair seconds (0:10:18); approved by voice vote (0:10:34). |
| 0:10:48 | FY2021 budget presentation | Superintendent and business administrator: expenditures, revenues, tax rate, seven warrant articles, default budget. Questions throughout. No vote (the board votes on January 21). |
| 0:54:19 | Elementary restructuring proposal | Superintendent's presentation and questions. No vote. |
| 1:23:26 | Future agenda items; retreat | Medicaid update pushed to March; achievement data requested; retreat set for Sunday, February 23 at 10 a.m. (1:29:01). |
| 1:26:43 | Future meetings; other business | Budget hearing Tuesday, January 21 at 6:30; a joint meeting with the City Council on February 20 "to be determined" (1:30:13); readers assigned for the deliberative session's articles; lunch-debt item moved to March at the business administrator's request (1:32:47). |
| 1:35:53 | Adjournment | "I make a motion to adjourn second." (1:35:53); voice vote 1:35:57. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10694 SchoolBoard011520.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Budget figures are as spoken; no budget document survives to check them against.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:51 | January 8 minutes | Zullo: "there were some, a few minor errors in there, Mary." The clerk: "That's only eight pages long." Approved with corrections; the chair abstains, absent on January 8. | MED |
| 0:05:47 | Public comment on school lunch | Mimi Ryan: "I googled national school lunch debt and I got about 23 million results." (0:06:06). "The only reason some students come to school is that they know they will have a full belly of food between breakfast and lunch." (0:06:26). Replacing the contract with "a ham sandwich and a carton of milk is a giant step backward" (0:07:32). | |
| 0:09:00 | $2,500 gift | The chair reads the first action item: a gift "to the sugar River Valley Regional Technical center" from a family foundation, with no conditions ("I don't think there are conditions. It's just CTE", 0:09:35). | |
| 0:12:55 | Budget goals | Tempesta: "we would focus on having a no taxpayer increase budget." He names the middle school's "half a year of science in social studies" as a historical gap (0:13:22) and "an entirely new team" negotiating the contracts (0:13:56). | |
| 0:15:07 | Expenditures | Seaman: "we're recommending a $34.7 million budget." An interfund transfer dropped: "I haven't found a reason to transfer that $65,000 over." (0:15:40). "four additional teacher positions in the middle school for science and for Social Studies" (0:16:07); pre-K moved from the tech center to district-wide (0:16:40); "capital investments of $1.5 million" (0:17:10); "Transportation is up 147,000." (0:17:58). | OBS |
| 0:18:47 | Teachers' agreement in the budget | "included in the budget is the agreement related to the Shia or the teachers agreement, and the impact from that is $403,000." Starting salary from "the 36. 228" toward "the $40,000 number" over three years (0:19:17); "the first year impact on that is the 403,000." (0:19:38). The overall increase is corrected to "2.9 million" (0:20:08). | OBS |
| 0:20:19 | Zullo's three questions | Debt service on the Stevens High School renovation bond, "at about the $1.2 million level" (0:20:26). Transfers: "I couldn't find any work papers, anything related to that." (0:21:26). Special education out of district "519,000, which is an increase" (0:21:37). | OBS |
| 0:22:46 | Out-of-district costs | Benware: "We didn't have any kids age out of out of district." Otherwise "we'd have been looking at $200,000 less" (0:23:04). An administrator: "I am pleased to say that we are down overall out of district costs." (0:23:40). The $650,000 from the special district meetings sits in "an expendable trust" separate from this budget (0:24:52). | |
| 0:25:42 | Revenues | "we're voting on the expense side. We're not voting on the revenue side." Tuition "$600,000" (0:26:37). Fund balance: "Once the audit is completed for fiscal 19, that becomes available in order to fund activity that's going on fiscal 21" (0:27:10). Adequacy "a $1.2 million increase", "free and Reduced Additional Aid, where Claremont will be receiving $322,904." (0:27:32); "Fiscal Capacity Disparity Aid, where we'll be receiving $2,583,000 one time money." (0:28:04). Medicaid at "the 50% level, $260,000" against a historical "5 to $600,000" (0:29:36). | OBS |
| 0:30:00 | Amount to be raised | "That's the $15,000,363 number, or $1.2 million lower than what it was last year." | |
| 0:31:26 | One-time money | Benware: "A tax, a massive tax cut this year only helps us this year." (0:31:51). A board member: "I posted on our Facebook page" the governor's remarks (0:32:18). | |
| 0:33:11 | Tax rate | Total appropriations "start at the $38 million number" with title, IDEA and food grants (0:34:22); "we're down by $2.07. That's our starting point within the budget." (0:35:04). Benware: "you see a much larger budget than last year, but it's purely driven by this one time money." (0:35:44). | |
| 0:36:35 | Restricted or unrestricted? | Whitney: "the state designed that, that those funds specifically for capital improvement projects" (0:36:40). Seaman: "those dollars are considered unrestricted. They can be used for whatever purpose the school district wants to use them." (0:36:53). Whitney: "the state hasn't been clear with us." (0:37:36). The capital committee saw "a roof. That's just a patch" (0:38:11). | OBS |
| 0:38:45 | Warrant articles | "we do have five additional warrant articles": 1 officers, 2 budget, 3 secretaries (requested "be a freestanding article", no net cost, 0:39:21), 4 paraprofessionals 114,180 (0:40:36), 5 maintenance and transportation $19,131 (0:41:21), 6 "$500,000 of these monies into a bus maintenance reserve" (0:42:13), described as "an expendable trust" at the board's direction (0:42:40), and 7 a capital projects reserve of "$500,000" (0:43:01). Articles add $1.51 against the $2.07 reduction (0:44:06). | |
| 0:46:11 | Default budget | "The 38 million is down to 35.5 million." It removes the $1.5 million capital, the teachers' agreement ("a reduction of $421,000", 0:46:36), "approximately 33 paraprofessional positions that had been vacant in the budget" (0:47:10) at "$759,000", and $20,500 of debt service (0:47:42). Net "$4.17 reduction" against the recommended $0.56 (0:48:42). "we're now finding it back where the default budget is now indeed lower than what the recommended budget is." (0:49:10). | OBS POS |
| 0:49:53 | What a default-budget vote means | Zullo: voting for the default "I would then be throwing away the $1.5 million". Seaman: "we lose 25% of our people each year." (0:50:33). Sprague: "You can pay me now or pay me later." (0:52:13). | |
| 0:52:57 | Middle-school history | Sprague: a former superintendent "was faced that year with a with a $900,000 deficit, I believe", and science and social studies were cut to half a year (0:52:57); "I don't want anybody to think that that's a criticism of Doctor Goodwin." (0:54:01). | |
| 0:55:42 | Elementary reorganization | Grade-level schools instead of "three replicated neighborhood schools" (0:55:18): "Maple would be the pre k, K and first grade school." (1:02:14), Disnard grades two and three, "bluff would be grades four and five" (1:02:38). "we can offer 60 seats okay for all day pre-K." (0:57:43). Current classes range from "only eight in the class" to "23 in a class" (1:03:41). An enrichment cohort and embedded special-education programs (1:01:11). | |
| 1:09:12 | Teachers and transportation | Zullo: teachers "freaking out right now about job security". Tempesta: "you free up 6 or 7 teachers" (1:09:24) and "We're not talking we're not looking to downsize those teachers." (1:09:54). Zullo: "I wouldn't be able to pick up three kids at three schools at the same time." (1:11:59). | |
| 1:21:03 | Chair's view | Sprague on a "guaranteed curriculum" and response to intervention; "I think this is a really good path." (1:22:47). | |
| 1:23:41 | Retreat | "One of the things that we have to do as a group by policy is we have to have a retreat." Dates offered (1:28:31); "Okay, the 23rd. It is," (1:29:01), 10 a.m., with members bringing food. | OBS |
| 1:27:38 | Board spokesperson online | The chair asks for volunteers to "manage what's up Claremont, and sort of be the spokesperson or persons for the board"; Benware: "I'll get hate mail, but I'll." (1:28:04). | |
| 1:30:26 | Deliberative-session readings | Article 1 to the moderator, Tracy; Zullo Article 4; Sprague Article 5 ("I was on that committee", 1:31:38); Lovett Article 7 (1:32:02); Whitney Article 3 (1:32:36). | |
| 1:32:47 | Lunch debt deferred | Seaman asks to move it to March: "I'd like to make it a more expansive, expansive discussion of food program the contract." (1:33:09). | |
| 1:33:32 | Lobbying on lunch debt | Towle: "it's time that we start putting pressure on the representatives and senators of our state". Sprague will look into speaking at a legislative session (1:34:27). | |
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 15, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. RSA 91-A is cited from its 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1) and RSA 40:13 from its 2019 codification (source note ends 2019, 192:2).
MEDIUM No agenda, budget document 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 minutes "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", naming movers and seconders. The MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule applies because minutes were made: on January 21 the board approved the 1/15 minutes after first naming the wrong date (Dialogue/10704 SchoolBoard012120.mp4.CSV, rows 397 to 406). The loss matters more here than usual. The presentation's numbers were on slides and on a draft warrant "in front of you" (0:33:11), and none of those survives, so this page cannot check a single spoken figure against the district's own document. Several motions have no identifiable seconder (the agenda 0:01:21, the January 8 minutes 0:02:20, the December 12 minutes 0:02:47).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; minutes within 5 business days; movers and seconders)
OBSERVATION The teachers' agreement has three different first-year figures in eight days
On January 8, ratifying the Sugar River Education Association agreement, the business administrator said its cost was "approximately $680,000" and "in the first year it's a 680. In the second year it's in the 340 000" (show 10683; January 8 page). Tonight the same agreement's impact in the budget is "$403,000" (0:18:47), and "the first year impact on that is the 403,000." (0:19:38), while the default budget removes it as "a reduction of $421,000" (0:46:36). The figures may measure different things (total cost against net change after turnover, or salary only against salary and benefits), but none of the three statements says so. RSA 273-A:3, II(b) sends "Only cost items" of the agreement to the voters, and because this agreement sits inside the operating budget rather than its own article, a voter sees its price only in presentations such as this one and the default-budget arithmetic. A reviewer would want the cost-item worksheet the board ratified.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (cost items to the legislative body; source note ends 2013, 244:1)
OBSERVATION Parts of the budget rest on records the business administrator could not find or that were not yet audited
Two statements tonight describe the state of the district's books. On a $65,000 interfund transfer carried in prior budgets: "I don't know what the basis for the $65,000 was. I couldn't find any work papers, anything related to that." (0:21:26). On the revenue side, the fund balance used to reduce taxes is "the surplus coming out of last year. Once the audit is completed for fiscal 19, that becomes available in order to fund activity that's going on fiscal 21" (0:27:10). A week earlier the same official said the audits were "up to 17, start 18" (show 10683; January 8 page, flag 1), so an FY2019 audit was at least two audit cycles away. No rule cited here fixes when an unaudited surplus may be estimated as revenue, so this is an observation; the risk is that the tax-rate estimate presented to voters (0:35:04) depends on a balance no auditor had confirmed. The audited FY2019 statements and the district's FY2021 revenue filing would settle it.
Sources: the recording (above); January 8, 2020 page, flag 1 (audit backlog)
OBSERVATION Board and business administrator disagree on whether the one-time state aid is restricted
Whitney says the state "designed" the one-time money "specifically for capital improvement projects" and that it "really can't be used necessarily to offset a tax rate" (0:36:40). Seaman answers that, from his conversations with the state, "those dollars are considered unrestricted" and were "rolled into the adequacy aid" (0:36:53 to 0:37:21). The amounts named are $322,904 in free and reduced additional aid and $2,583,000 in fiscal capacity disparity aid (0:27:32, 0:28:04). This page has not read the state law that created those grants, so it cannot say which characterization is right; each is labeled as the speaker's. The answer decides whether the $1.5 million capital line and the two $500,000 reserves were a choice or a requirement. The enacting law, or NHDOE's FY2021 aid notice to the district, would settle it.
Sources: the recording (above); no statute verified for this flag
OBSERVATION The February 23 retreat set tonight was held and minuted, but its draft minutes were challenged as incomplete
The chair says a retreat is required "by policy" (1:23:41), and the board fixes Sunday, February 23 at 10 a.m. (1:29:01), to "be a reflection on our goals" (1:25:57). A retreat at which a quorum discusses board business is a meeting: RSA 91-A:2, I defines one as "the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body ... for the purpose of discussing or acting upon a matter or matters over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power", and RSA 91-A:2, II then requires notice and minutes with "a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions". The board treated it as one: on March 4, 2020 a member moved to accept "the minutes of February 23rd, 2020", and another member objected that "the notes were not complete. There was a lot of things missing", so they were tabled (that meeting's transcript, show 10768: Dialogue/10768 SchoolBoard030420.mp4.CSV, rows 18 to 29). MAP.md holds no recording of the retreat, and whether it was noticed cannot be checked from here.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2019 codification)
POSITIVE The default budget was explained line by line, a week before the hearing the statute requires
The business administrator built the default budget down from the proposed budget and named each reduction and its amount: the one-time $1.5 million of capital work, the teachers' agreement, which voters had not yet approved ($421,000), about 33 vacant paraprofessional positions eliminated in the proposed budget ($759,000), and $20,500 of debt service, with the resulting tax effect (0:46:11 to 0:48:42). Those are the categories RSA 40:13, IX(b) uses (one-time expenditures, obligations, and "salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget"). RSA 40:13, XI(a) requires the default budget to be "disclosed and presented for questions and discussion at the first budget hearing"; presenting it at a televised meeting a week earlier, and taking a board member's plain-language question on what a default vote would cost (0:49:53), goes beyond that minimum. The vacant positions were vacant, and the record does not say whether any was under recruitment, which IX(b) would exclude.
Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2019, 192:2)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD PRESENTATION on FY '21 Budget 1-15 (show 10694; 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, budget, warrant 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.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I and II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1): meeting defined; notice; minutes within five business days, with movers and seconders
- RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a), 2019 codification (source note ends 2019, 192:2): default budget defined; disclosure at the first budget hearing
- RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (source note ends 2013, 244:1): cost items to the legislative body