Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name (for example Lord Love for Lovett, Joel for Towle, Pizza for Petrin); there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presides from the room; asks for roll calls on each vote; notes the transportation trust was presented to taxpayers at a public hearing (1:44:54); proposes holding the retreat in place of the November 4 meeting. |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair | Seconds the agenda changes; questions using the transportation trust for special education vans (1:49:39). |
| Jason Benware | Member | Moves to strike the MOA ratification, the 5 percent retention (1:37:24) and the transportation-trust withdrawal; corrects his spacing argument from September 23 (2:12:51). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Moves all three sets of minutes; seconds the retention and trust motions; stays on the budget subcommittee; reports the Stevens golf team's season. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Seconds the minutes; asks how many high school students lose busing, and asks to see bids under board policy (1:52:28). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (remote) | Says the remote members cannot follow the motion (1:38:33); agrees with Whitney on the vans. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member (remote) | Says he cannot hear the motion being made (1:38:53). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reports the family survey, cleaning, lunch barriers, schedules and the October 19 return; explains the high school busing cut. |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator | Reports the FY20 surplus, CARES Act spending and the RSA 198:4-b and transportation-trust recommendations. |
| Audra Buckland | Assistant principal, Claremont Middle School | Presents the middle school schedule (0:37:56); introduced by name (0:34:35). |
| Frank Romeo | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Describes the schedule built for cohort C students (0:35:52). Surname from the roster; the superintendent calls him Frank. |
| Ben Nester | Director of special education | Explains the special-needs and life-skills transport the vans would serve (1:47:49). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Takes the roll and the roll-call votes. |
| Mimi (surname not transcribed) | Citizens' comment, Ward 1; Stevens High School counselor | Speaks against cutting high school buses (0:06:13). She gives only her first name and ward on tape; a Ward 1 speaker spelled her name Mimi Rhines at the April 18, 2018 meeting, which is probably the same person. |
| Patrick Adrian | Member of the public, Ward 1 (former board member) | Self-identified (1:56:32); recalls no mention of vans when the transportation trust was proposed. |
| Unidentified | Various | 81 of 730 dialogue rows (11.1%), including an administrator explaining bus capacity. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the board and staff refer to discussion items by letter (A, B, C, D).
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | All seven members answer; Lovett and Towle on the line. |
| 0:01:15 | Agenda | Benware moves to strike discussion item A, “Radical ratification of MOA.” [ratification]; Whitney seconds; roll call. The amended agenda is then approved by roll call (0:02:49). POSITIVE |
| 0:03:26 | Minutes of August 5, September 2 and September 23, 2020 | Each moved by Petrin, seconded by Zullo and approved by roll call (0:03:50, 0:04:30, 0:05:15). |
| 0:05:48 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, on high school busing. |
| 0:09:46 | Superintendent's report | Survey, cleaning, lunch barriers, transportation, middle and high school schedules, staffing. |
| 1:25:01 | Discussion and action: CARES Act reimbursement and contingency (items B and C) | Seaman's recommendation; motion to retain 5 percent of the net assessment under RSA 198:4-b, passed by roll call (1:40:04 to 1:40:59). MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 1:41:08 | Item D: approval to spend from the transportation expendable trust | A $275,000 motion for two buses and two vans is withdrawn; up to $247,000 for two buses and one van passes by roll call (2:02:30 to 2:03:03). MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 2:03:14 | Appoint the budget committee | Sprague, Petrin and Benware continue. |
| 2:05:00 | Finalize date for retreat | November 5 discussed; then moved to the regular November 4 meeting slot at 6:00. |
| 2:08:37 | Future agenda items | The chair asks about a standing item, “This update on process and financial safeguards to protect the district”; the superintendent calls it a “Carryover from the audits.” |
| 2:11:42 | Good of the order | Benware's correction; golf team; spectators at games; the chair on keeping Google Meet. |
| 2:20:24 | Adjournment | Benware moves; voice vote (2:20:27). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/11007 SchoolBoard100720.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 |
|---|
| 0:01:24 | MOA item struck | Benware moves to strike “Radical ratification of MOA.” [ratification of the MOA]; the superintendent later says the union agreements “have been tabled for tonight”. Roll call (0:01:40). | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:26 | Three sets of minutes | The chair: “We've got minutes from the fifth. The second and the 23rd. I guess I'd like to do them all separately.” Each passes by roll call. | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:13 | Citizens' comment: high school buses | “I am here today to express my concerns about cutting busses for high school.” “By taking away bussing, we are inadvertently creating a barrier for students who want to come to school.” “As a school counselor at the high school, I don't really know what to tell students and families”. She asks for “even just 1 or 2 busses for high school kids”. | |
| 0:11:46 | Family survey | Tempesta: “this is a composite of the survey 615 respondents with and it overwhelmingly being 93% that students want to return.” | |
| 0:13:06 | Cleaning | “we clean and use the foggers in the rooms every single night.” Seaman: the foggers “We had ordered them back in April.” | |
| 0:17:24 | Lunch-table barriers | Polycarbonate barriers designed and 3D-printed by middle school teachers, with delivery “beginning on on Monday”; chosen over fiberglass after a fire test (0:19:29). | |
| 0:22:08 | Why high school buses are cut | “right now we only have 24 Max students on the bus, and we're already up around 18 or 20.” “we can't go back to how the some of these busses had 60 kids on them.” Zullo asks how many high school riders are affected; no number is given (0:25:40). | |
| 0:29:30 | Other transport options | Petrin suggests Southwestern Community Services transport (0:30:09); Towle: “Southwest Community Services bus line, they're really, really good to work with”. | |
| 0:34:35 | Middle school schedule | Romeo: the schedule “was born out of the care and concern for our cohort C students by our faculty and staff”. Buckland describes blocks giving remote students regular teacher time (0:48:29). | |
| 1:08:59 | High school schedule | Tempesta presents the Stevens schedule, “still a work in progress at the high school”. | |
| 1:16:20 | On schedule for October 19? | Benware: “are we on schedule for the 19th?” Tempesta: “Barring any unforeseen things”, yes. | |
| 1:25:23 | FY20 surplus and CARES money | Seaman: “last year we had about a little, just a little bit over $2 million surplus.” Catastrophic aid came in at “closer to $600,000” against $190,000 budgeted. CARES: “I think it is $763,000 of CARES act funds” against “about 810,000 of expenditures”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:28:07 | The RSA 198:4-b recommendation | Seaman: “In the past, we have put aside 2.5% consistent with the with the law 198 for B, to establish a contingency fund.” Now “before expending these funds, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken with such funds.” The 5 percent would rise “from our current approximately $390,000” to “At $845,000.” on a net assessment of “$16.9 million”. He advises against the alternative under the governor's emergency order (1:30:50). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:37:00 | Motion on retention | Benware: “I move that we, appropriate five or we set aside 5% of current assessment per RSA 198.5 to establish a.” Contingency fund. Petrin seconds (1:37:50). Lovett: “I can't even hear what is being asked right now.” Towle: “none of us can understand Jason at all.” Benware restates it (1:39:03). | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 1:40:04 | Roll call on retention | Answers from Zullo, Benware and others; for Lovett the chair asks “Rob, did you vote because we didn't hear you?”, the transcript gives his reply as “I don't know.”, and the chair says “What Rob said. Yes.” Towle: “My boat is. Yes.” [My vote is]. Passed. | MEDIUM |
| 1:41:45 | Transportation trust: the request | Seaman: “We established a $500,000 transportation reserve specifically for the purpose of replacing busses”; created at “the vote that we had in March of this year”. Two buses at about $105,000 each and up to two vans: “up to $275,000 for the purchase of two busses and up to two vans”. | MEDIUM |
| 1:44:54 | What taxpayers were told | The chair recalls “public hearing about these these trust funds”; Seaman: “Up to $400,000 for busses, and the remainder would be for vans.” | |
| 1:49:11 | First motion and objections | Benware moves “up to $275,000 for two busses and up to two veins from the Transportation Trust” [vans]. Whitney asks why special education vans would not come from the special education trust (1:49:39). Adrian: “It was there was never a mention of bands.” [vans]. Towle agrees with Whitney (1:58:08). | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 1:52:23 | Bids | Zullo cites a policy letting the board see bids: “I don't think on my whole entire time on the school board I've ever seen bids.” Seaman: “No. Absolutely not. Your discretion.” | |
| 1:56:20 | A speaker without a microphone | The chair to Adrian: “Patrick, I can call on you, but nobody's going to hear you. Except us.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:59:22 | Seaman narrows the request | “if we're going to utilize it specific to special education, we should take it from the special education expendable trust, not from the regular transportation one.” He asks for one van with the two buses. | POSITIVE |
| 2:01:28 | Substitute motion passes | Benware: “Up to $247,000 for two busses and up to one van from the Transportation Trust.” Petrin seconds. Zullo: “I just want it to be an honest move and for people to know exactly what we're doing”. Roll call (2:02:30); passed. | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 2:03:28 | Budget subcommittee | The chair: the subcommittee has to meet the principals during the day; “in the past, it's been, Jason, Mike, Mike, P and myself doing it”. All three continue. | |
| 2:05:00 | Retreat | First set for Thursday, November 5 at 6:00; then the chair proposes “maybe the next meeting can be the retreat”, and it moves to Wednesday, November 4 (2:11:00). | |
| 2:08:55 | Audit carryover item | The chair asks about the standing agenda item on financial safeguards; Tempesta: “Carryover from the audits. I think a lot of these things are we just didn't take them off.” | |
| 2:11:49 | Benware corrects himself | On September 23 spacing: “Donna, I was incorrect and I know this.” “I'm stand corrected, and I just wanted to make that public.” | |
| 2:18:52 | Keeping Google Meet | The chair: “we'll never cancel another board meeting due to weather”, and the board “should be grateful that we have it and continue to use it”. | |
| 2:20:24 | Adjournment | “we'll do a voice. Voice call”; passed. | 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 October 7, 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. At this meeting the board retained about $845,000 of surplus and committed up to $247,000 of trust money, 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 and 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: this board approves three sets of minutes by roll call on this tape (0:03:50, 0:04:30, 0:05:15), so it kept minutes. The next recording in the corpus, December 2, 2020, approves only the November 4 retreat minutes, so this page cannot show when the October 7 minutes were approved.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
MEDIUM The remote members said they could not hear the retention motion, and one remote vote is unclear
After Benware moved the 5 percent retention, Lovett said “I can't even hear what is being asked right now.” and Towle “none of us can understand Jason at all.” (1:38:29, 1:38:33). Benware restated the motion (1:39:03), which cures the first problem. On the roll call the chair asked Lovett whether he had voted; his reply is transcribed “I don't know.” and the chair then recorded “What Rob said. Yes.” (1:40:37 to 1:40:47). The recording should be checked: the transcript may have misheard him, but as it stands the record does not show a clear answer from him.
Later the chair told a member of the public speaking without a microphone, “nobody's going to hear you. Except us.” (1:56:20), and adjournment was taken by voice. RSA 91-A:2, III(c) required that members participating remotely be able to hear each other and speak simultaneously and be audible to the public at the meeting location; III(e) required roll-call votes. The board did use roll calls on every substantive question (flag 6); the gap is audibility. The motion passed with at least five clear yes votes, so the outcome does not turn on Lovett's answer.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) and (e) (2019 codification)
MEDIUM Up to $247,000 committed from an expendable trust with no public hearing shown on the record
Seaman described the fund as the $500,000 transportation reserve created at “the vote that we had in March of this year” and an “expendable trust that we have set up for transportation” (1:43:48); the board named the use and the ceiling by roll call (2:02:30). RSA 198:20-c, II provides that, to expend a school district expendable trust fund, the school board shall hold a public hearing before the expenditure, with notice of time, place and subject published in a newspaper at least seven days before. Nothing on the recording refers to a hearing on this withdrawal; the public hearing the chair recalls (1:44:54) was the one held when the trust was proposed.
Mitigation: the vote authorized a ceiling so the district could seek bids (Seaman: “we can't go out for a bid or even get some solid pricing without at least having an agreement from the board”), and a hearing could still have preceded the purchases. The recording also does not say which statute the March article used; RSA 198:20-c, V subjects these funds to the same rules as reserve funds under RSA 35:1 or 35:1-c. A reviewer should look for a hearing notice between October 2020 and the bus purchases, and for the March 2020 warrant article.
Sources: RSA 198:20-c, I, II and V (2019 codification; source note ends 2012, 219:2, 3)
OBSERVATION The 5 percent retention: right cap, right hearing rule, but described as a board-created contingency fund
The motion was to “set aside 5% of current assessment per RSA 198.5” [RSA 198:4-b] to establish a contingency fund (1:37:24), and Seaman said the amount “needs to be re approved each year”. Ten days earlier, 2020 N.H. Laws 38:25 (effective September 27, 2020) had raised the cap in RSA 198:4-b, II from 2.5 to 5 percent of the net assessment and added a public hearing before retained funds are spent, which Seaman described accurately (1:28:52).
Two points a reader should keep separate. First, paragraph II lets the district's legislative body (the voters) authorize retention for an indefinite period until specifically rescinded; it does not itself provide for a board vote or an annual re-approval, so the board's vote reads as implementing a voter authorization whose text is not in any reachable record. Second, a "contingency fund" is the paragraph I device, created annually by a separate warrant article for unanticipated expenses; retained year-end funds under paragraph II carry no purpose limitation. The labels were mixed on the record, but the mechanism described (retain up to 5 percent, hold a hearing before spending) is paragraph II.
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, I and II (2020 codification; 2020, 38:25, eff. Sept. 27, 2020)
POSITIVE Members tested the withdrawal against the trust's purpose and narrowed it before voting
Whitney asked why vans for an expanding special education program would come from the transportation trust rather than the special education trust (1:49:39); Patrick Adrian and Towle said vans had not been part of the public case for the fund (1:56:32, 1:58:08). Seaman agreed that special education uses should come from the special education trust (1:59:22), and the board cut the motion from $275,000 to $247,000 and from two vans to one (2:01:30). RSA 198:20-c, I limits expenditure from such a fund to the purpose for which it was established; the board applied that test on its own initiative and in public.
Sources: RSA 198:20-c, I (2019 codification)
POSITIVE Roll calls on every substantive vote, and the public back in the room
With two members remote, the chair put the agenda changes, all three sets of minutes and both money motions to roll calls (0:01:40, 0:03:50, 1:40:04, 2:02:30), following RSA 91-A:2, III(e); only adjournment was by voice. It was also the meeting at which in-person public attendance resumed, as agreed on September 23, and the chair checked the phone and video lines for comment as well (0:10:03). No statute required a public comment period until RSA 189:74 took effect on September 6, 2022.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2019 codification); RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD meeting 10/7 (show 11007; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 on 2026-10-02)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda, DOE-25 or minutes. MAP.md (checked 9/26/26) records that neither district share holds a year folder older than 2022 and that the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. Not searched again for this page, per the run instructions for meetings with no Drive material. The DOE-25 Seaman asked members to sign is not preserved in any share this project reaches.
- Related meeting pages: Claremont School Board, September 2, 2020; Claremont School Board, September 23, 2020; SAU 6 Board, September 22, 2020
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11007 SchoolBoard100720.mp4.CSV (730 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11007 SchoolBoard100720.mp4Input/Transcripts/11007 SchoolBoard100720.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 132Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11007 SchoolBoard100720.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II and III(c), (e), 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes content; remote participants audible and able to hear; roll-call votes
- RSA 198:4-b, I and II, 2020 codification (2020, 38:25, eff. Sept. 27, 2020): contingency fund by separate article; voter-authorized retention of year-end unassigned funds up to 5 percent; hearing before expending
- RSA 198:20-c, I, II and V, 2019 codification (source note ends 2012, 219:2, 3): expendable trust funds; expenditure only for the stated purpose; public hearing before expending, seven days' newspaper notice
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment period; not in force in 2020