Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name (for example Benoit for Benware, Toll for Towle); there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Runs the meeting; reports counsel's advice on answering group emails; says he will support only a phased return (“That's a that's a hard no” on high school in October); moves the NHSBA delegate slate. |
| Heather Whitney | Member (vice chair) | Brings the state's September 1 transition guidance and proposes moving to full in-person school before November (1:01:45); named alternate NHSBA delegate. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Seconds Whitney; proposes a full K-12 return on Monday, September 28 (1:35:39); seconds the delegate motion. |
| Jason Benware | Member | Corrects a statement attributed to him in the August 2 minutes (0:03:20); seconds the agenda; moves the August 2 minutes, the $3,000 donation, the community service motion and adjournment; proposes an October elementary return. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Seconds the $3,000 gift and offers a second on the community service motion (the chair credits Towle); asks the administration questions relayed from parents; offers James Ward help by email. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (remote) | Will schedule the Capital Improvement Committee (0:24:35); favors full time for elementary only; credited with the second on the community service motion (2:48:31); named NHSBA delegate. Joins on Google Meet. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member (remote) | Volunteers as backup NHSBA delegate (3:00:04); joins on Google Meet. One attributed row. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gives the opening report (161 remote elementary students; 63 homeschool requests against six a year earlier); answers both citizens' comments. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant superintendent | Explains bus assignments, the parent Facebook page, homeschool re-enrollment and the high school's request to drop the community service requirement. |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator | Reports the FY20 surplus and summer building projects; argues against reversing the hybrid plan on one document (2:09:55). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Calls the roll-call vote (2:49:12). |
| Jeff (surname not spoken; the roster lists Jeff Small as director of technology) | District technology staff | Monitors the remote and phone lines; addressed by the chair at 1:22:36. |
| Amanda Watson | Citizens' comment; Stevens High School senior | Self-identified (1:23:54); asks for rehearsal space for student theater. |
| James Ward | Citizens' comment by phone; parent | Self-identified (1:50:00); says his emails to the administration and board went mostly unanswered. |
| Unidentified | Various | 84 of 991 dialogue rows (8.5%), including the member who moved to table the August 5 minutes. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the chair refers to items by name ("Community service", "Capital improvement plan", "2021 school board goals").
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Called to order by the chair; Mrs. Woodman takes attendance. The roll itself is barely audible on the transcript. |
| 0:01:11 | Agenda | The chair asks for amendments: “I have one donation”. Agenda accepted as amended on Benware's second by voice vote (0:02:15). |
| 0:02:15 | Minutes of August 2 (retreat) and August 5, 2020 | August 2 minutes approved as amended after Benware disputes a sentence attributed to him (0:03:45); voice vote at 0:04:13. An unidentified member moves to table the August 5 minutes (0:04:44); voice vote at 0:04:51. |
| 0:04:56 | Chair's statement on emails to the board | Reports advice from NHSBA counsel on who answers group emails (0:04:56 to 0:08:48). OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:00 | Donations (added at the meeting) | $50 from Cynthia Silva and $3,000 from National Field Representatives, each accepted by voice vote (0:10:11, 0:10:24). MEDIUM |
| 0:10:34 | Surplus on budget (FY20) | Seaman: “I'm anticipating that the surplus for last year will be in the million dollar.” No vote. OBSERVATION |
| 0:14:55 | Report on building projects | Seaman reports summer work at each building and the Dow building design; recommends another Capital Improvement Committee meeting. |
| 0:25:12 | Superintendent's report and reopening matrix | Opening-week slides, remote cohorts, homeschool numbers, and the decision-making matrix; becomes the board's reopening debate. |
| 1:23:51 | Citizens' comments (Amanda Watson) | Taken from the remote line during the reopening discussion. |
| 1:49:58 | Citizens' comments (James Ward, by phone) | Taken after the chair summarizes the reopening direction. |
| 2:37:05 | Community service requirement, Stevens High School | Benware moves to keep the 48-hour requirement and re-examine its criteria; second credited to Towle; roll-call vote, all members answering yes (2:49:12 to 2:49:46). |
| 2:50:12 | Stevens five-year graduation rates | Informational; 67 credits recovered over the summer. |
| 2:52:42 | Capital improvement plan | Left to Towle to schedule the committee meeting. |
| 2:53:15 | 2021 school board goals | Retreat date to be set, probably early November. |
| 2:55:34 | NHSBA delegate | Towle delegate, Whitney alternate, Lovett second alternate; voice vote, the chair reporting “Rob has voted yes. So everybody voted yes.” (3:00:34). |
| 3:00:55 | Future agenda items | A single-item meeting on reopening (set for September 23); SAU 6 meeting September 22 with superintendent evaluations due. |
| 3:02:33 | Adjournment | Benware moves; the chair credits Lovett with the second; voice vote, the chair noting “Both. Carolyn and Rob voted I.” |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10974 SchoolBoard090220.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 |
|---|
| 0:01:11 | Agenda amended for a donation | The chair: “We have a an agenda in front of us tonight. Are there any amendments to that agenda? I have one donation.” Accepted as amended by voice vote (0:02:15). | MEDIUM MEDIUM |
| 0:03:20 | August 2 minutes corrected | Benware: “There's a thing that says Jason Benoit stated that he feels optimistic that the hybrid type of classes is a less risky type of school” and “I didn't say that. I've not said that at any meeting.” Approved as amended by voice vote (0:04:13). | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:26 | August 5 minutes tabled | An unidentified member: “I would almost like to table these minutes to review them and to come back. I thought there was a lot of discrepancies”; tabled by voice vote (0:04:51). | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:56 | Who answers the board's email | The chair reports calling NHSBA counsel and asks the public to email one person and copy the rest: “So we we by statute, cannot answer emails en mass.” He says either the superintendent or the chair will answer group questions (0:06:56). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:06 | Two donations accepted | Tempesta: “The first is for $50 to the Claremont School District. And that is from Cynthia Silva.” Then “another great donation of $3,000 from the National Field Reps Incorporated” for back-to-school supplies. Benware moves the $3,000 “with a heartfelt thank you all”; both accepted by voice vote (0:10:11, 0:10:24). | MEDIUM MEDIUM |
| 0:10:59 | FY20 surplus | Seaman: “The expenses were at least $1 million lower than what we had anticipated them to be.” He adds “we also agreed to put $650,000, I believe it was into the into the special ed, expendable trust”. Asked about options: “The only thing that we really have available to us is to retain the 2.5%, which is voted on by the board.” The rest returns through the December tax rate (0:13:47). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:14:55 | Summer building projects | Seaman lists summer work (bottle-refill stations, paving, heating controls, a replaced fire panel and security improvements, duct cleaning, a roof). On the Dow building, “They are taking it out now to a general contractor to get an estimate of what the cost will be”; work likely “the end of the year beginning of next year”. Asked whether the extra state money paid for it: “No, really, none of it was used for that.” | |
| 0:24:35 | Capital Improvement Committee | Towle (remote): “I will send out an email tomorrow with tentative dates” for a committee meeting. | |
| 0:25:39 | Superintendent's report: opening week | Tempesta: “It's been a long time over five months tomorrow.” Slides show furniture bought with CARES money, assigned seating, sanitizing stations and the nurses' stations. | |
| 0:42:09 | Remote cohorts and homeschooling | “we did not anticipate this, that there were 161 remote students in the elementary school”. On homeschooling: “last year at this time, we had six students requesting, to be homeschooled.” This year “We already have 63 to open”. | |
| 0:44:41 | Moving students between schools | The chair: “I don't want people to think that this is some kind of an end run on, school consolidation.” Tempesta: the remote cohorts “fell fairly evenly”. | |
| 0:53:02 | Busing obligations | Whitney asks whether the district must bus every student; Tempesta answers “Within a certain range? Yes.” The chair recalls a survey answer that “about 25% would have a real hardship”. | |
| 1:01:02 | State transition guidance of September 1 | Whitney describes the new NH guidance as “100% data driven” and proposes “that we maybe implement the full open concept a little bit sooner than November”, warning against “the sunk cost fallacy”. Petrin seconds the idea (1:05:29). | |
| 1:12:45 | The chair's position: phased return | “I personally will will only support a, a phased in approach.” “if we're talking about October for high school coming, I will not support that.” He notes Sullivan County is “so far in the green”. | |
| 1:18:10 | Rapid testing | Benware on a testing machine: “it's positive results are very reliable. It's negative results are not.” | |
| 1:22:58 | Towle on the guidance | “I too would favor, full time for elementary. I would have a hard time with the high school” until a committee studies it. | |
| 1:23:54 | Citizens' comment: student theater | “My name is Amanda Watson, and I'm a senior this year at Stevens.” She says theater “was just never brought up in reopening discussions” and asks that cleaning be delayed “for an hour so we can rehearse”. Tempesta advises taking the request to the high school principal first (1:29:53); Zullo and Towle thank her. | POSITIVE |
| 1:35:39 | Petrin: full return September 28 | “I would like to see a review of the opening two weeks from tomorrow after the hybrid opening, with a plan to go to a full return on Monday, the 28th of September.” Asked if he means K-12: “I don't understand the reasoning not to open the high school as well.” The chair: “I can't support that.” | |
| 1:38:25 | Benware: elementary in October | Benware suggests “shoot for the beginning of October for the elementary” with the high school at the second quarter; he defines full open as “Cohorts A and B, going to school at the same time”. The chair asks the administration to plan both versions (1:45:31). | |
| 1:49:58 | Citizens' comment by phone: unanswered emails | “My name is James Ward.” “I only heard from two members and no one else responded whatsoever”. Tempesta disputes it (1:58:19). The chair explains the board's position: “So it's actually illegal for all of us to respond to you by statute.” Zullo offers help by email (2:05:05). | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 2:06:40 | Petrin's proposal clarified; Seaman objects | Petrin: cohorts A and B “would come back in the fall”. Seaman: “I believe it's reckless to have a full discussion that took place before, get a document that happens to support what we're talking about here, and that becomes the document we use”. Petrin: “I feel like tomorrow we could return and fold five days a week.” | |
| 2:13:51 | Positions harden | The chair: “I'm a hard no on that.” Whitney: “I think I'm being driven by science”. Benware rejects the “flavor of the week” description of the guidance. | |
| 2:21:32 | A special meeting on September 23 | Members settle on three weeks rather than two; the chair: “So it would be a single agenda meeting. Single item agenda that.” Two scenarios to be costed: a five-day return, or “a four day or a five day phased approach with young kids coming around October 1st”. | |
| 2:30:52 | Parents' questions relayed | Zullo relays questions on live instruction for remote students (2:30:52), open windows, and child care: “If there's money in the budget for families who are, needing to find daycare.” | |
| 2:37:11 | Community service requirement | Magoon: the high school administration would like to “remove the 48 hours of community service. Because what they're finding is 50% of the seniors are not completing this”. Benware: “That's a that's a solid no for me.” Whitney suggests a “Community experience versus community service”. | |
| 2:48:02 | Community service motion, roll call | Benware: “I move that we maintain the 48 hour requirement for community service at Stevens High School” and re-examine how hours are calculated. The chair asks for a roll call “for the purpose of the fact that we have Rob and Carolyn remote”. The clerk calls Zullo, Benware, Lovett (the chair reports “He votes yes.”), Petrin and Towle; every audible answer is Yes. | MEDIUM |
| 2:51:13 | Summer credit recovery | Tempesta: “there were 67 credits recovered over the summer”. | |
| 2:55:34 | NHSBA delegate | The chair asks Towle to serve again; the motion names “Heather Whitney would be the alternate”; Lovett offers to be “a backup”. Voice vote (3:00:18); the chair then notes Towle had dropped off the call (3:00:34). | MEDIUM |
| 3:01:49 | SAU 6 meeting reminder | Benware: “we have a c six school board meeting on September 22nd of which we should have completed our evaluations of the superintendent”. | |
| 3:02:33 | Adjournment | Moved by Benware; voice vote (3:02:41). | MEDIUM |
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 September 2, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: neither district share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The board accepted two gifts, tabled one set of minutes, took a roll-call vote on a graduation requirement and named its NHSBA delegate at this meeting, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force from January 1, 2019, required minutes naming the members and persons appearing, briefly describing the subjects and final decisions, and naming the mover and seconder of each motion, open to inspection within five business days.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: on October 7, 2020 the board approved the minutes of this meeting by roll call (see the October 7 page), so minutes were written. What is missing is any public copy now, and a reader cannot learn from any surviving document who moved to table the August 5 minutes (0:04:44).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1)
MEDIUM Seven of the meeting's eight votes taken by voice while two members took part remotely
Lovett and Towle joined on Google Meet. The agenda (0:02:15), the August 2 minutes (0:04:13), the tabling of the August 5 minutes (0:04:51), both donations (0:10:11, 0:10:24), the NHSBA delegate slate (3:00:18) and adjournment (3:02:41) were all called as "all those in favor" voice votes. RSA 91-A:2, III(e) required every vote at a meeting with remote participation to be a roll-call vote. Emergency Order #12 relaxed only the physical-quorum requirement of III(b), and the chair named only two members as remote, so a quorum was evidently in the room.
Mitigation on the record: the chair did call a roll for the community service motion because two members were remote (2:48:31), and twice said aloud how the remote members voted (3:00:34, 3:02:46). Every voice vote appears unanimous, so no outcome is in doubt; the defect is that the record does not show each remote member's vote on five of the seven voice votes. MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the board observed the rule on its one substantive policy vote and nothing on tape suggests a contested result.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(b) and (e) (2019 codification); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020)
MEDIUM Two gifts accepted after being added to the agenda at the table
The chair opened by asking for agenda amendments, “I have one donation”, and the superintendent then presented two (0:09:06): $50 from Cynthia Silva and $3,000 from National Field Representatives for back-to-school supplies. Both were accepted the same night.
For unanticipated funds under $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b) (as in force in 2020) directed the board to post notice of the funds in the agenda and include notice in the minutes, with acceptance in public session of a regular meeting. The acceptance was public and on a regular meeting, which satisfies the last part; the agenda notice is the gap, since the gifts reached the agenda only by amendment. The section also conditions the board's authority on a district warrant article adopting RSA 198:20-b; no surviving record here shows that article, and a reader should check the district's annual meeting results.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; $5,000 threshold until 2023, 38:1)
OBSERVATION The chair's account of why the board cannot answer group emails
Of answering a group email, the chair said “That's that's an unwanted meeting.” (the transcript's wording; elsewhere it renders the phrase as unworn and non warrant) and later told James Ward “if four of us respond to either an email or a Facebook post, that's actually a quorum” (1:59:52). The statutes point the same way but less absolutely. RSA 91-A:2, I defines a meeting as the convening of a quorum to discuss or act on the board's business, and RSA 91-A:2-a, II bars communications outside a meeting, including sequential ones, used to circumvent the chapter. Neither makes an individual member's reply unlawful; the risk is a quorum deliberating by email. The chair's practical rule (one designated reply, others copied) is a reasonable way to stay inside the law, and his advice is reported as coming from NHSBA counsel.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2008, 303:4, unamended)
OBSERVATION Year-end fund retention described as a board vote, 25 days before the law changed
Asked about the FY20 surplus, Seaman said “The only thing that we really have available to us is to retain the 2.5%, which is voted on by the board.” (0:13:26) The 2.5 percent figure was right for that date. Under RSA 198:4-b, II as it read on September 2, 2020, the district's legislative body (the voters) could authorize retention of year-end unassigned funds up to 2.5 percent of the net assessment, with no hearing requirement. 2020 N.H. Laws 38:25, effective September 27, 2020, raised the cap to 5 percent and added a public hearing before retained funds are spent.
The board acted under the new text five weeks later (see the October 7, 2020 page). Whether Claremont's voters had adopted the authorizing article, and in what terms, is not in any record this page could reach; that warrant article is the document that would settle how much the board itself decides.
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, II (2019 codification; 2.5 percent, legislative-body authorization); RSA 198:4-b, II (2020 codification; 2020, 38:25, eff. Sept. 27, 2020)
POSITIVE Public comment taken from remote callers, with no statute yet requiring a comment period
The chair opened the floor to anyone “either over the phone or Carolyn or Rob” (1:22:36), and two members of the public spoke: a student on the remote line (1:23:54) and a parent by phone (1:50:00), each answered by the superintendent and board members. No New Hampshire statute required a public comment period at school board meetings until RSA 189:74 took effect on September 6, 2022. Emergency Order #12 required telephone access for the public when a body met remotely; this board went further and let callers speak.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10974 SchoolBoard090220.mp4.CSV (991 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10974 SchoolBoard090220.mp4Input/Transcripts/10974 SchoolBoard090220.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 129Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10974 SchoolBoard090220.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I, II and III(b), (e), 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1; in force January 1, 2019 to October 2, 2023): meeting definition; minutes content, mover and seconder, five business days; physical quorum; roll-call votes with remote participation
- RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2008, 303:4, unamended): deliberation only in meetings; no circumvention by outside communications
- Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020): waiver of the physical-quorum requirement on conditions including public telephone access; the state of emergency lapsed June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021)
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2019 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): unanticipated funds under $5,000 noticed in the agenda and minutes, accepted in public session
- RSA 198:4-b, II, 2019 codification (source note ends 2014, 190:6), and the 2020 codification (2020, 38:25, eff. Sept. 27, 2020): retention of year-end unassigned funds, 2.5 then 5 percent
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment period; not in force in 2020