Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015 to 2023 roster, because no minutes survive to check them against; the dialogue file's transcriptions of names are noted where they differ. Several short turns in the record are labeled Unidentified because the diarizer merged board voices.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presides, limits citizens' comments to the comment period (0:06:03), attended the staff roundtable earlier that day, and himself moves the motion to support the administration's proposal (1:24:00), conditioned on freed high-school staff being used "to plug holes" in other schools (1:24:42). Transcribed "Greg. Spray" in the roll call. |
| Heather Whitney | Member (vice chair per the project roster) | Seconds the agenda, the amended minutes, the main motion and adjournment. Questions whether synchronous remote learning for all is equitable (0:47:52) and says she has "no assurance" the proposal adds value to any cohort (1:21:32). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member (remote) | Says the high school "keeps taking hits" (1:28:18); asks what prevents synchronous teaching (1:12:58), whether special education students could still attend in person (1:20:06), and how labs would work (1:30:49). During the adjournment roll call the clerk says "Rebecca was speaking. She was. I didn't hear her." (1:37:05). Transcribed "Missoula" and Becca. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Moves the agenda (0:01:55) and the amended minutes (0:04:47), and raises the correction to the December 2 minutes (0:03:44). Attended the staff roundtable ("Some of what we heard", 1:09:39); proposes putting remote students on a live class schedule (0:50:14). Transcribed "Mike patron" and "Mr. Patron". |
| Jason Benware | Member (late arrival) | Relays Patrick Adrian's typed question about a Goshen town vote (0:24:51). Has "a fundamental problem with taking 50% of the kids" who attend in person and moving them remote (1:01:59); "So let's require it." on live streaming of classes (1:03:37). Moves adjournment (1:36:26). Transcribed "Jason. Benwell" and Edwin. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (remote) | Says she has "been sending in notes as we've been discussing" (1:29:31) and leans with Zullo. Transcribed Tall. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member (remote) | Recognized in words transcribed "Okay. Roberson." (0:58:35); asks for "more finite answers" on inconsistent remote instruction for cohort C families (0:58:41). |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative | Gives the student report (0:07:42) and describes falling behind in classes during his own quarantine (0:54:08). The superintendent congratulates him on a college acceptance (0:11:19). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gives the report: Dr. Chapman's visit, county data, the Goshen agreement (0:22:15), the enrollment survey (0:31:05) and the Stevens High School proposal (0:39:28). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent | Explains the change to 10-day quarantines (0:20:16); reports "48% of the students, 248 students at Stevens are remote" (0:41:36); tells Patrick Adrian by chat that questions are not being answered (0:24:55). Transcribed "Donald". |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | The high school life skills program would "remain in person, business as usual" (1:20:37). Transcribed "Mister Nestor". |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Calls the roll calls; takes the minutes correction ("Second page. Last paragraph.", 0:04:29). |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology (title from the project roster) | Runs the slides; addressed as "Mr. Small" (0:14:56). |
| Patrick Adrian | Named only (typed question online; former board member per the project roster) | Not heard. His question, "What happens if Goshen residents vote down the tuition agreement on their voting day in March?", is read by Benware (0:25:11). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The items are reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the chair calls it a "Relatively short agenda", so a printed agenda existed.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll call at 0:00:31: answers heard for Mike, Rebecca, Rob and Frank; Benware late. |
| 0:01:42 | Approval of the agenda | Petrin moves "to approve the agenda as presented" (0:01:55), Whitney seconds. Roll call at 0:02:00: Whitney, Petrin, Sprague and Lovett heard yes. |
| 0:02:51 | Minutes of December 2, 2020 | Whitney moves approval, Petrin seconds and raises a correction: under item C the draft "says the motion was defeated, by four against three. That's the opposite. The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." (0:03:44). New motion "to approve the, the December 2nd meeting minutes, as amended" by Petrin, second Whitney (0:04:47); roll call at 0:04:56, yes answers heard. |
| 0:06:03 | Citizens' comments | Chair: "I am not going to allow people to give input into our deliberations." None offered; closed at 0:07:32. |
| 0:07:32 | Student report | Prescott Herzog. Discussion only. |
| 0:11:04 | Superintendent's report | COVID-19 update and guidance changes. Report only. |
| 0:22:15 | Tabled items: Goshen tuition agreement | Presented as one of the "items that were tabled for this meeting at the last meeting". A board voice: "No, we've already voted on this. So this is just informational." (0:30:20). No vote. |
| 0:31:05 | Tabled items: second-semester instruction (enrollment survey and Stevens High School proposal) | Sprague moves "that we support the administration's proposal" to bolster elementary attendance "by, finding selective slots for those kids, keeping middle school the same and going remote for third quarter at the high school" (1:24:00); Whitney seconds (1:24:40). Roll call called at 1:33:04; the only word captured is the clerk's "Rebecca." (1:33:21), followed by about 53 seconds with no transcript. No result is announced. The chair then asks that the item return "if there were some substantive changes" (1:34:15). |
| 1:35:41 | Next meeting, adjournment | Next meeting January 6. Benware moves adjournment, Whitney seconds (1:36:26); roll call from 1:36:35; Zullo's answer is not heard and the recording ends as the clerk calls her again (1:38:20). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:03:44 | Correcting the December 2 minutes | Petrin: "Letter C, at the very end of the letter C says the motion was defeated, by four against three. That's the opposite. The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." The chair marks the change on his copy for the clerk (0:04:37). | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:03 | Limits on public input | Sprague: with "33 participants" online and people in the room, "I'm going to limit citizens comments to citizens comments during that, segment of the meeting, whether it's an agenda item or not" (0:06:32). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:42 | Student report | A new machine for the tech center's machine tool lab "purchased through the Perkins Federal and State grants"; new scholarships; elementary holiday activities. | |
| 0:13:20 | COVID-19 update | Dr. Steve Chapman's visit; "We've yet to have a cluster in the schools, no transmission within the schools." (0:14:56). Magoon: exposure quarantine "revised to now ten days" (0:20:16) and travel quarantine "from 14 days to ten days" with a test on day six or seven (0:21:08). | |
| 0:22:15 | Goshen tuition agreement | Tempesta: drafts traded since early March, with "attorney Upton" consulted (0:23:00). Patrick Adrian's typed question is relayed although Magoon had typed back "that Frank had mentioned that we're not supposed to be answering questions" (0:24:55); answer: Goshen voters can vote it down, Goshen keeps school choice and Claremont "would just be the anchor" (0:25:18). On the tuition of $14,100 and $15,300: "Again, we're still negotiating that, and this was based on this calendar year." (0:27:40). Unity and Goshen voted; "we we have to get the signed copies back soon" and then post it (0:30:35). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:31:05 | Return-to-school survey | "We only have a 48.5%, response rates" (0:31:41); the survey extended a week. Whitney asks whether returning students would be funneled to Bluff School, which has the lowest class sizes (0:37:54); Tempesta: the district will try to stay within attendance zones. | |
| 0:39:28 | Staff roundtable and the Stevens figures | Tempesta: roundtable forums with staff were held that day "and we had board members and in Sprague in on that today"; "We can't have the whole board in would be an odd meeting. We can only have three." (0:40:02). Magoon: "as of today, 48% of the students, 248 students at Stevens are remote" (0:41:36). Remote students get "only four, 4.3 hours a week" of instruction against 17.5 hours in person (0:42:21, 0:42:46). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:43:15 | The administration's proposal | Stevens would move all students to a synchronous remote schedule, "like the Monday" with advisory and 65-minute blocks (0:45:54), so that every student gets the same live instruction. Whitney asks whether remote capability has improved enough for all classes (0:47:52); Petrin asks why remote students cannot simply join live classes (0:50:14). | |
| 0:51:21 | Members' and student's experience | Zullo describes inconsistency "in each building" between teachers (0:53:27). Herzog on falling behind during quarantine (0:54:08). Lovett wants "more finite answers" for cohort C families (0:58:41). | |
| 1:01:59 | Objections and alternatives | Benware: "I have a fundamental problem with taking 50% of the kids we seem to know is working". Sprague sees an upside: freed staff "to help cover" (1:06:04). Petrin: remote for work schedules "holds no weight to me" (1:09:39). Zullo asks "what the hangup is" on synchronous teaching (1:12:58); Tempesta cites broadcasting capacity and training (1:14:24). Nester: life skills stays in person (1:20:37). Whitney: "The only compelling argument I've really heard is Frank's argument" (1:23:07). | |
| 1:24:00 | Motion | Sprague moves, Whitney seconds; Sprague's condition is that freed staff "would be then used to plug holes" (1:24:42). An unidentified member asks whether the union would protest reassignments (1:25:40); Tempesta: "it's a change of assignment" (1:26:04). Zullo is "really torn" (1:28:18); Towle has been "sending in notes as we've been discussing, I, you know, I figured everybody was reading them" (1:29:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:33:04 | Roll call with no audible result | "We're going to vote. So Mrs. Woodman, could you do roll call vote please." Then only "Rebecca." (1:33:21) and a gap to 1:34:14. Sprague: "I think it would be interesting if this was on the agenda again January 2nd if there were some substantive changes" (1:34:15). Tempesta: the administration heard the board wants "the ability to pivot towards a hybrid" (1:35:02). | MEDIUM |
| 1:36:26 | Adjournment | Roll call; the clerk: "Rebecca was speaking. She was. I didn't hear her." (1:37:05); the chair: "No, we couldn't hear her." (1:37:16). The recording ends as the clerk calls her again (1:38:20). | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
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 December 16, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. The meeting was held under Emergency Order #12, which waived the physical-quorum requirement of RSA 91-A:2, III(b) and the requirement in III(c) that a meeting be discernible "at the location specified in the meeting notice", on conditions of telephone access and public notice of access information, until the state of emergency ended on June 11, 2021.
MEDIUM No agenda, notice, packet 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, in the text in force in 2020, required minutes with the names of members and persons appearing, the subject matter and final decisions, and the names of movers and seconders, open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; paragraph II-b required approved minutes to be posted on the body's website or a notice of where to review them. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approved these minutes on January 6, 2021, so they were produced. Their absence matters more than usual here, because flag 2 finds that the recording cannot show what the board decided on its main item. The notice that Emergency Order #12 required to carry access information is also missing.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II and II-b (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); Emergency Order #12
MEDIUM The board voted on making Stevens High School fully remote, and the result was never announced
The chair's motion to support the administration's proposal, including "going remote for third quarter at the high school" (1:24:10), went to a roll call at 1:33:04. The transcript captures only the clerk calling "Rebecca." (1:33:21) and then nothing for about 53 seconds; no tally and no result are stated. The chair's next words, asking that the item return "if there were some substantive changes" (1:34:15), suggest the motion did not carry, but the recording does not say so, and the January 6 meeting approved these minutes without discussion. Ten minutes later, in the adjournment roll call, the clerk could not hear the remote member Zullo (1:37:05) and the recording ends before her answer. RSA 91-A:2, III(c) required that members participating remotely "be able to simultaneously hear each other and speak to each other", III(e) required a roll call on every vote, and II required the minutes to record final decisions. A roll call whose answers the clerk could not hear, on the meeting's main decision, with no announced result, is a probable process gap rather than a confirmed breach; the minutes approved on January 6 would settle it and are among the records flag 1 finds missing.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II, III(c) and III(e) (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION Board members heard staff on the Stevens proposal at a roundtable held outside a meeting, with attendance capped to avoid a quorum
The superintendent said board members, including the chair, sat in on staff roundtable forums that day and that "We can't have the whole board in would be an odd meeting. We can only have three." (0:40:02). Petrin and Sprague both draw on what was said there (1:09:39, 1:06:32). Under RSA 91-A:2, I a "meeting" is "the convening of a quorum"; with seven members a quorum is four, so three members attending was not a meeting, and keeping the number at three was the lawful way to do it. RSA 91-A:2-a, II adds that communications outside a meeting "shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose" of the chapter. Nothing on the record suggests deliberation among the three, and the superintendent summarized what staff said for the public (0:40:24). The point is that the teachers' testimony that shaped the debate was heard by part of the board in a session the public could not attend.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:2-a, II (source note 2008, 303:4, unamended)
OBSERVATION A remote member says she was sending written notes during the deliberation
Towle: "I've been sending in notes as we've been discussing, I, you know, I figured everybody was reading them" (1:29:31). The recording does not show whether these went to a public chat that viewers could read or privately to members or staff. RSA 91-A:2, III(c), in the text then in force, ends: "No meeting shall be conducted by electronic mail or any other form of communication that does not permit the public to hear, read, or otherwise discern meeting discussion contemporaneously". If the notes were visible only to members, part of the deliberation took place where the public could not follow it; if they went to a public chat, there is no issue. The district's video-platform chat log, if kept, would settle it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION Two weeks after the board approved the Goshen agreement, its tuition terms were described as still under negotiation
On December 2 the board voted to approve the tuition agreement. On December 16 the superintendent said of the $14,100 and $15,300 rates: "Again, we're still negotiating that, and this was based on this calendar year." (0:27:40), and that signed copies were still to come back before the agreement would be posted (0:30:35). That is consistent with the December 2 page's finding that the board approved an agreement whose final text had not been made public. RSA 91-A:3, II(k) provides that a negotiated pupil tuition contract "shall be made public prior to its consideration for approval". The legal question is recorded on the December 2, 2020 page; this flag records the later evidence.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, II(k) (2019 codification)
OBSERVATION Public questions were confined to the opening comment period
The chair announced: "I am not going to allow people to give input into our deliberations" (0:06:03). When Patrick Adrian typed a question during the Goshen item, the assistant superintendent replied by chat that questions were not being answered (0:24:55), but Benware read it out and the superintendent answered (0:25:11). In 2020 no New Hampshire statute required a public-comment period at school board meetings (RSA 189:74 dates from 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022), so this is a practice note, and the rule was announced in advance and applied to everyone.
Sources: Cablecast: School Board Meeting live on 12/16/20
POSITIVE The board caught and corrected a reversed vote in its own draft minutes
The draft minutes of December 2 recorded the post-Christmas motion as defeated four to three. Petrin flagged it before approval (0:03:44), the board withdrew the first motion and approved the minutes "as amended" (0:04:47). RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record final decisions; correcting a reversed outcome on the record is the practice that rule depends on. The error itself traced back to the chair's mistaken announcement on December 2 (see the December 2, 2020 page).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification)
POSITIVE Every vote was put to a roll call
The chair asked for a roll call on the agenda (0:02:00), the amended minutes (0:04:56), the main motion (1:33:04) and adjournment (1:36:35), as RSA 91-A:2, III(e) requires when members take part remotely: "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." The procedure was followed; flag 2 concerns whether its results were heard and recorded.
Sources: 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/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.CSV (418 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4Input/Transcripts/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 135Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1; in force until 2023, 188:1): I meeting is the convening of a quorum; II minutes and five business days; II-b website posting; III(c) members hear each other, and no meeting by a form of communication the public cannot discern; III(e) roll-call votes
- RSA 91-A:2-a, II (source note 2008, 303:4, unamended through 2022): communications outside a meeting not to circumvent the chapter
- RSA 91-A:3, II(k), 2019 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1): pupil tuition contracts made public before approval
- Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020): waiver of RSA 91-A:2, III(b) and part of III(c) on conditions; ended with the state of emergency on June 11, 2021
- Context only, not the basis of a flag: RSA 189:74 (public comment period), enacted 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022, so not law on this date.