Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name; there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | SAU 6 chair (Claremont member) | Presides (his diarized rows also carry other members' motions and answers, per the attribution report); reads the nonpublic motion under RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and later corrects it to II(k); collects the superintendent evaluations. |
| Marjorie Erickson | Unity member; Unity board chair | Confirms she is still Unity's chair (0:05:04); reports Unity's opening and the start of teacher contract negotiations. |
| Shannon Popescu | Unity member (online) | Speaks briefly on Unity youth sports (0:07:31); attribution low-medium confidence per the attribution report. |
| John Dempsey | Unity member | Newly seated; welcomed by the chair (0:07:10). |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Unity member | Answers the roll calls (transcribed "Rocco or Jerry"). |
| Gary Bader | Unity member | Absent (the clerk: "Gary Vader is not here"). |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont member; Claremont vice chair | Gives the Claremont update at the chair's invitation as vice chair (0:04:07). |
| Jason Benware | Claremont member | Moves the drug-free workplace policy without the medical-marijuana-card clause (0:14:47); probably moves BBBH-S and adjournment on the chair's recognition. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Claremont member | Supports removing the clause (0:13:37); first called on the adjournment roll. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Claremont member | Not heard in the opening roll; votes from 0:21:38; seconds two motions and helps set the evaluation subcommittee date. |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont member (Claremont board chair), remote | Asks whether the drug policy covers only SAU employees (0:17:23). |
| Carolyn Towle | Claremont member, remote | Answers roll calls over a lagging video link. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reports on reopening in both districts; agrees with removing the marijuana clause; reports after the nonpublic session that a tuition agreement is pending. |
| Mary Woodman | Recording clerk | Calls the roll and the roll-call votes. |
| Unidentified | Various | 78 of 283 dialogue rows (27.6%), including the person who explains the policy edits and the technician who stops the stream for the nonpublic session. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives, although the chair works from one ("We have an agenda in front of us") and a packet. The list below is reconstructed from his transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Call to order, roll call, pledge | Called to order at 6:32; roll call (0:01:01 to 0:01:32); the chair then returns to the pledge he skipped (0:02:01). |
| 0:02:32 | Agenda | Accepted as presented on a motion heard in the chair's diarized row and an unidentified second; voice vote (0:02:51). MEDIUM |
| 0:03:02 | Minutes of June 23, 2020 | “We have in our packet.” Moved (in the chair's diarized row), seconded, approved by voice vote (0:03:36). MEDIUM |
| 0:03:57 | Update from the Claremont School Board | Whitney, as Claremont vice chair. |
| 0:04:56 | Update from the Unity School Board | Erickson, as Unity chair; Popescu on sports. |
| 0:07:41 | Superintendent's report | Opening of school in both districts. |
| 0:11:37 | Policy ADB (drug-free workplace and drug-free schools), third read | Amended to strike the medical-marijuana-card clause and adopted by roll call (0:18:02 to 0:19:44). OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:56 | Policy BBBH-S (roles and duties of the board chairperson), third read | Adopted by roll call (0:20:38 to 0:22:19). |
| 0:22:31 | Policy BEDH (public comment and participation), third read | Adopted with an added decorum sentence by roll call (0:24:01 to 0:25:34). POSITIVE |
| 0:25:38 | Nonpublic session | Entered under RSA 91-A:3, II(a) by roll call; on return, minutes sealed by roll call and the exemption re-described as II(k) (0:30:41). HIGH MEDIUM |
| 0:31:36 | Future agenda items | Superintendent evaluations; evaluation subcommittee October 14 at 6:30; next SAU 6 meeting Thursday, October 22. |
| 0:38:33 | Adjournment | The row reads “Jason, I move that we adjourn.”; seconded by Zullo; roll call (0:38:52 to 0:39:13). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/10992 SAU6092220.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 |
|---|
| 0:01:01 | Roll call | The clerk calls Erickson, Popescu (“She's online. Okay.”), Ruggeri, Dempsey, Sprague, Benware, Lovett, Whitney and Towle. Zullo's name is not heard; she answers from 0:21:38. | |
| 0:02:32 | Agenda and June 23 minutes by voice | The chair: “A move that we accept the agenda as presented.” Both questions are called “All in favor?” with members on the video link (0:02:51, 0:03:36). | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:23 | Claremont update | Whitney: “Claremont School board is primarily grappling with how we are going to reach the full open model.” Detail is deferred to the Claremont meeting the next night. | |
| 0:05:16 | Unity update | Erickson: “Unity started in full time on the 31st of August.” On bargaining: “We had our first meeting on the 15th.” She welcomes John Dempsey, “who just joined us two meetings ago”. | |
| 0:08:13 | Superintendent's report | Tempesta: “Great transition from the principal ship to Susan Schroeder” at Unity; plexiglass dividers “made here by the by the prisoners”; Unity's town meeting “went very well without a hitch”. For Claremont, he will present the impacts of an earlier full return the next night (0:10:09). | |
| 0:12:15 | Drug-free workplace policy: the marijuana clause | Benware on drug testing: “It shows up for 30 days.” and penalizing lawful out-of-state use “doesn't seem reasonable to me”. Lovett: removing it “not only makes us more competitive”. Tempesta: “If you're under the influence of any substance or acting erratically, we would follow procedures and interventions for that anyway.” An unidentified speaker: “I don't think it's actually considered a controlled substance”, then “It's a class. Class three.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:15:45 | The amendment stated | The chair: employees should not be “unlawfully manufacturing, dispensing or distributing” at work, and “So I would just strike out the including employees possessing a medical marijuana card.” Sprague asks: “This policy only applies to, say, you employees, does it not?” [SAU employees]; answer yes (0:17:29). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:18:02 | Policy ADB roll call | The chair: “We need a roll call for this”. The roll runs 0:18:02 to 0:19:44; every audible answer is Yes. | POSITIVE |
| 0:19:56 | Policy BBBH-S, chair's duties | The motion is heard in the chair's row just after he recognizes Jason (0:19:56); seconded by Zullo; roll call with Towle on a lag (“She had a delay”); the clerk to the chair: “I sometimes forget. Sorry about that.” | |
| 0:22:42 | Policy BEDH, public comment | The final sentence on speakers' conduct is completed; the chair's wording: “strive to adhere to ordinary norms of decorum and stability, and to be concise and to the point” [civility]. Seconded by Zullo; adopted by roll call. | POSITIVE |
| 0:25:38 | Motion to enter nonpublic session | The chair: “I move that we go into nonpublic sessions for RSA 91 a. Colon three two a the dismissal, promotion or compensation of any public employee or the disciplining of such employee”, reading the rest of II(a). Roll call (0:26:15 to 0:27:25). | HIGH |
| 0:27:27 | Stream stopped | An unidentified voice: “So, Mike, I've turned off streaming. I'm not recording.” The recording resumes 0:29:50 into the file. | |
| 0:29:50 | Seal vote and corrected exemption | The chair: “That we sailed in the meeting minutes of the nonpublic for 76 years.” [sealed; the period is as transcribed] and a roll call follows. Then: “I said the wrong RSA, so I'd like to correct that. The correct RSA is RSA 91A32K. Contracts to the regarding the Goshen School District.” Tempesta: “The tuition agreement was closed pending further”. | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 0:31:46 | Superintendent evaluations | Members were to hand in evaluations; the chair will compile them: “if you guys could email those to me, I'm gonna, I guess, put it all together”. On the forms: “No I agree. No names.” | |
| 0:36:27 | Evaluation subcommittee and next meeting | Zullo: the next SAU 6 meeting is October 22, “which means the subcommittee for the evaluation will have to be prior to that”. A date of October 14 at 6:30 is proposed (0:37:47). | |
| 0:38:02 | Calendar | The chair: “the next Claremont School board meetings tomorrow night, 923”, Unity on October 13, and SAU 6 invitations for October 22. | |
| 0:38:52 | Adjournment roll call | The chair calls the names himself; most answers are clipped. | |
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 22, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH Nonpublic session entered on the employee exemption, then described as a tuition-contract session
The motion read at 0:25:38 relied on RSA 91-A:3, II(a): the dismissal, promotion, compensation or discipline of a public employee. After the session the chair said he had cited the wrong paragraph and that the correct one was II(k), “Contracts to the regarding the Goshen School District” (0:30:41); the superintendent then referred to a pending tuition agreement (0:31:26).
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to state on its face the specific exemption relied on, and I(c) confines everything discussed and decided in the session to the matters set out in that motion. On the chair's own account the board discussed a tuition contract after voting to discuss an employee matter. A correction announced after the doors reopen cannot change what the public was told when it was excluded. In the chair's favor, he made the correction on the record, addressing someone transcribed as "Mr. binder", which is the only reason the discrepancy can be seen at all.
A further question for a reviewer: II(k) covers consideration by a school board of a pupil tuition contract authorized by RSA 194 or RSA 195-A. Tuition contracts are made by school districts, and this body is the SAU board. Whether II(k) was available to it is not settled by the text and is not decided here.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a) and II(k) (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1)
MEDIUM Minutes sealed on a roll call with no statutory finding stated, in a session the law says must later be disclosed
On return the chair announced that the board had “sailed in the meeting minutes of the nonpublic” [sealed] for a period transcribed as 76 years, and called a roll (0:29:50 to 0:30:41). RSA 91-A:3, III allows nonpublic minutes to be withheld beyond 72 hours only by a recorded two-thirds vote of the members present, taken in public session, determining that disclosure would likely affect a person's reputation, render the proposed action ineffective, or concern terrorism. No determination of any kind is heard on the recording, and the statute sets no fixed term: information may be withheld only until a majority finds the circumstances no longer apply.
If the session concerned a tuition contract, II(k) adds its own rule: a contract negotiated by a school board must be made public before it is considered for approval, together with the minutes of all nonpublic sessions about it. A long seal sits uneasily with that duty. The chair calls Rob, Rocco, John, Heather, Rebecca, Jason, Marjorie and Frank, with Yes answers heard for most; whether Towle and Popescu answered is not audible, and the two-thirds count cannot be confirmed without the minutes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, II(k) and III (2019 codification)
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, so the two-stage SAU 6 search the project uses for later years has nothing to search here. The board adopted three policies, entered a nonpublic session and sealed its minutes, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force from January 1, 2019, required minutes naming members, persons appearing, the subjects, the final decisions and the mover and seconder of each motion, open to inspection within five business days.
MEDIUM limb, because the record mitigates the gap: of the June 23 minutes the chair says “We have in our packet.” So the board kept and circulated minutes. No SAU 6 recording in the corpus between this meeting and December 10, 2020 shows these minutes being approved, and the corrected nonpublic exemption makes their content important.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
MEDIUM Agenda and minutes approved by voice vote with members on the video link
Popescu was online, and Sprague and Towle took part by video. The agenda (0:02:51) and the June 23 minutes (0:03:36) were approved on "All in favor?" calls. RSA 91-A:2, III(e) required every vote at a meeting with remote participation to be taken by roll call; Emergency Order #12 did not relax that paragraph.
Mitigation: from the first policy vote on, every question went to a roll call, the chair saying “We need a roll call for this” (0:16:31), including adjournment. The two voice votes were procedural and appear unanimous.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2019 codification); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020)
OBSERVATION The marijuana clause debate rested partly on a wrong statement of federal law
An unidentified speaker said medical marijuana is not “actually considered a controlled substance” and is “Class three.” [Schedule III] ({R(88)}, {R(90)}). In September 2020 marijuana was a Schedule I controlled substance: 21 U.S.C. 812(c), Schedule I(c)(10), lists "Marihuana", and no rescheduling had occurred. The board's choice to drop the card-holder clause is a policy decision the record explains on other grounds (drug-test timing, Vermont hiring competition, and the superintendent's statement that impairment at work is handled anyway), and the amended text, as the chair stated it, still bars unlawful manufacture, distribution and possession at work. No rule is shown to be broken; the point is that one premise offered in the room was incorrect.
Sources: 21 U.S.C. 812(c), Schedule I(c)(10)
POSITIVE A public-comment policy adopted two years before the law required comment periods
The board adopted policy BEDH, public comment and participation, on third read by roll call (0:24:01 to 0:25:34), with a sentence asking speakers to keep to ordinary decorum and be concise. No New Hampshire statute required a public comment period at school board meetings until RSA 189:74 took effect on September 6, 2022. The board also moved every substantive vote to a roll call once members were on the video link.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022); RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2019 codification)
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/10992 SAU6092220.mp4.CSV (283 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10992 SAU6092220.mp4Input/Transcripts/10992 SAU6092220.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 130Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10992 SAU6092220.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(k) and III, 2019 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1): motion states the exemption; session confined to the motion; employee and tuition-contract grounds; tuition contracts and nonpublic minutes public before approval; sealing by recorded two-thirds vote with a determination
- RSA 91-A:2, II and III(e), 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes content and inspection; roll-call votes with remote participation
- Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020): waiver of the physical-quorum requirement on conditions
- 21 U.S.C. 812(c): initial schedules of controlled substances; Schedule I(c)(10), marihuana
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment period; not in force in 2020