Participants
Everyone heard, called 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.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | SAU 6 board chair (Claremont member) | Opens the hearing and the regular meeting, manages the remote members ("just kind of wave at me", 0:02:57), restates Erickson's question about the business office increase as "61, almost $62,000" (0:09:34), asks for roll calls on every motion. Transcribed "Mike. Teacher" and "Mike patron". |
| Richard Seaman | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presents the FY2022 SAU budget (0:03:33): a seven-page document, "the $45,000 increase in the budget, or 2.6%" (0:05:14), unchanged staffing, and a lower Unity share because of a change in average daily membership. Explains the business office increase as one position moved from the superintendent's office plus a 0.2 position he had left out of last year's budget, "approximately a $20,000 number" (0:13:10). |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology (title from the project roster) | Walks through the technology lines (0:15:32): training, student data privacy agreements, a hosted PowerSchool server replacing the in-house one (0:18:53), asset inventory, and off-site backup for disaster recovery (0:22:51). Labeled "Jeff Small" in the dialogue file; addressed as Jeff. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Comments on the budget (0:06:22) and gives the superintendent's report (0:29:43): the visit by Dr. Steve Chapman of Dartmouth-Hitchcock's CHaD group, the COVID-19 data, and the Goshen tuition agreement votes (0:36:49). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent | Explains the revised travel and quarantine guidance (0:33:48). Transcribed "Don Donna McGowan" in the superintendent's introduction. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk (calls the roll) | Calls each roll call; addressed as Mary and transcribed Eric (0:26:28). |
| Frank Sprague | Member (Claremont; Claremont School Board chair) | Gives the Claremont update (0:43:54): Dr. Chapman's message "that school really is about the safest place that you can be", and the budget subcommittee's line-by-line review with Benware and Petrin. The dialogue file also gives him four budget questions (0:06:40, 0:07:25, 0:14:56, 0:19:36); the project's attribution report rates those uncertain, and the business administrator answers one insurance question as "Jason, to address your question" (0:13:31). |
| Marjorie Erickson | Member (Unity) | Relays Unity members' questions about a possible added business-office position and the lack of staff detail in the budget (0:08:08). Gives the Unity update (0:45:48): the Unity teacher contract signed "on Tuesday night", a small budget increase, and Unity's decision to go remote "January 4th through the 11th". Addressed as Marge; her update is introduced in words transcribed "start with the merger". |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Moves the agenda (0:26:20), the November 19 minutes (0:28:14), the FY2022 budget (0:48:14) and adjournment (0:52:18). First reads the fiscal 2021 figure of $1,727,004 and corrects himself to "1,772,000 and $143" (0:48:37). Transcribed "Jason. Bedwyn", Bedouin and "Mr. Benoit". |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont) | Seconds every motion and asks Benware to repeat the budget motion (0:48:34). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member (Claremont, remote) | Called in the roll calls ("Rob. Love it", "Rob. Love. Trivia"); asked at the end to stay on the call (0:53:46). No separate remarks. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Called in the roll calls ("In parallel and tall", "Carolyn. Cole", "Carolyn told"). No remarks are attributed to her. |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Member (Unity; surname from the project roster) | Called as Rocco; the chair notes he has nothing to add to the Unity update (0:48:00). |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity; surname from the project roster) | Named by the chair as Shannon (0:02:57, 0:48:00); no remarks. |
| John Dempsey | Member (Unity; spelling from the project roster) | Called as "John. Jensen" and "John Dempsey" (0:27:23). Erickson says "John's not been able to go to meetings this month" (0:08:27). |
| Gary Bader | Member (Unity; spelling unverified in the roster) | Called first, transcribed "Jerry Barber" (0:25:05); someone is then said to be "not here", and whether that refers to him cannot be told from the recording. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member (Claremont) | Not heard and not clearly called. A garbled entry transcribed "Back to school" (0:25:30) falls where her name might come in the Claremont roll; her presence is not established. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The items are reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the chair refers to "an agenda in front of us", so a printed agenda existed.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:25 | Public hearing: call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll call at 0:01:23; only "Here, here." is audible. |
| 0:03:33 | Hearing: FY2022 SAU 6 budget presentation and board questions | Business administrator, then the technology director on the technology lines (0:15:32). Questions on health insurance, the business-office increase and staffing detail. |
| 0:23:42 | Hearing: public comment | "There's no public in the room, and I don't see anybody online." Hearing closed at 0:24:10. |
| 0:24:39 | Regular meeting: roll call | Names called from 0:25:05; answers mostly inaudible. |
| 0:26:09 | Approval of the agenda | Benware moves "That we approve the agenda. As presented." (0:26:20); Whitney seconds. Roll call at 0:26:28; two yes answers heard; no result announced. |
| 0:28:08 | Minutes of November 19, 2020 | Benware moves, chair credits the second to Heather. Roll call: Erickson, Ruggeri, Dempsey, Benware, Lovett, Whitney and Petrin heard or recorded yes (0:28:36 to 0:29:34). |
| 0:29:34 | Superintendent's report | COVID-19 update, guidance changes, Goshen tuition agreement. Report only. |
| 0:43:37 | Citizens' comments | "Again no one in the room and I don't see anybody online." Closed. |
| 0:43:54 | Claremont School Board update | Sprague. Report only. |
| 0:45:48 | Unity School Board update | Erickson. Report only. |
| 0:48:00 | FY2022 SAU 6 budget approval | Benware moves "the fiscal year 22SA budget proposed budget of 1,772,000 and $143" (0:48:37); Whitney seconds (0:49:04). Roll call called at 0:49:06; the only answer captured is Whitney's Yes. (0:50:49); the chair moves on with thanks for "Your hard work on the budget" (0:51:40), which treats it as adopted. |
| 0:51:40 | Future agenda items, other business | Next SAU 6 meeting to be determined; Claremont meets December 16; Unity meets January 12, 2021. |
| 0:52:18 | Adjournment | Benware moves, Whitney seconds; roll call at 0:52:24. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/11127 SAU6121020.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:03:33 | Budget document and reductions | Seaman: he "did recently send out an email, a copy of the budget presentation"; "It's in seven page document" with the Claremont/Unity allocation on its own page (0:03:49). Training, contracted services and travel were squeezed after the last meeting; "There are no changes, as we had said, related to staffing." (0:04:49). | POSITIVE |
| 0:05:14 | Allocation between the districts | "even with the $45,000 increase in the budget, or 2.6%, you see a reduction in the allocation to unity and an increase in the allocation to Claremont", because Unity's share of average daily membership fell. The figure ties out: $1,772,143 less the $1,727,004 Benware read as the fiscal 2021 budget is $45,139, or 2.6%. | |
| 0:06:40 | Health insurance | Asked whether health insurance is "a hard number or is that is that an estimate", Seaman: "that is now a hard number. Based on the guaranteed rate", reflecting an insurance holiday from last year (0:06:50). | |
| 0:08:08 | Unity members' questions | Erickson: one Unity member asked whether a business-office position had been added; "in this budget we see no staffing. We don't know. We see line items for salaries, but we don't know who's covered" (0:08:55); otherwise "no great concern over the the budget" (0:09:21). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:10:52 | The $61,871 business-office increase | Petrin: "What is the 61,871 equate to". Seaman: "There was a transfer of one position which last year was in the superintendent's office and was moved to the business office" (0:11:43), plus a 0.2 food-service position: "I had made an error in last year's where I did not include in the budget the cost" (0:12:33); "that was an error on my part. I corrected it this year." (0:13:10). He offers a staff listing "if the board would like that" (0:14:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:15:32 | Technology lines | Small: student data privacy agreements for "every piece of software" (0:17:13); PowerSchool moved from an in-house server to a hosted one monitored "24 over seven" (0:18:53); a new inventory system tied to users and repairs (0:21:00); off-site backup after the time-clock support contract ended (0:22:12). | |
| 0:23:42 | Hearing public comment | No member of the public in the room or online. Hearing closed (0:24:10). | POSITIVE |
| 0:24:39 | Regular meeting roll call and routine votes | Roll calls on the agenda (0:26:28) and the November 19 minutes (0:28:22). The chair calls the minutes "the November 2019, 2020 meeting" while the motion names November 19th, 2020. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:30:07 | Dr. Chapman's visit and COVID-19 data | Tempesta: Dr. Chapman of "the Chad group at Dartmouth-Hitchcock" toured the schools that day and "affirmed a lot of the work" (0:30:31). Magoon on the changed guidance: quarantine now covers only the person who had close contact, not the whole household (0:35:06). | |
| 0:35:48 | Goshen tuition agreement | "Claremont voted a week ago. Seven unanimously to go forward with the agreement. Unity voted on Tuesday night 3 to 1 with with one abstention." (0:36:49); Goshen also voted (transcribed 5502). "we're getting the draft ready to sign, and we should have that posted to the public as soon as we get those signatures" (0:37:19). Tuition of 14,100 and 15,300 (0:39:21); about ten students expected to net in the first year, "easily absorbed with the existing staff" (0:41:57). | |
| 0:43:54 | Claremont update | Sprague: "The data indicates that schools are safe" (0:44:43); "Jason, Mike patron, and I" are meeting administrators for a line-by-line budget review, with one more meeting next Wednesday (0:45:10). | |
| 0:45:48 | Unity update | Erickson: the Unity teacher contract "got signed on Tuesday night"; the Unity budget hearing is in February; Unity will go "remote January 4th through the 11th" after teachers raised concerns (0:46:43). | |
| 0:48:14 | Budget motion and vote | Benware first moves "Fiscal year 21 budget of $1,727,004", then "I strike that" and moves the fiscal 2022 figure of $1,772,143 (0:48:37). Roll call follows; a gap of more than a minute in the transcript before Whitney's Yes. (0:50:49). | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:52:18 | Adjournment | Roll call; Lovett asked to stay on (0:53:46). | |
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 10, 2020, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. The meeting was held under Emergency Order #12, which waived the physical-quorum and same-location audibility requirements of RSA 91-A:2, III(b) and (c) on conditions until the state of emergency ended on June 11, 2021.
MEDIUM No notice, agenda, budget document or minutes for this hearing and meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material: neither district share holds a year folder older than 2022. The recording is the only public account of the hearing and of the vote adopting a $1,772,143 SAU budget. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes the SAU board a public body, and 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, the names of the movers and seconders, and inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; paragraph II-b required a body with a website to post approved minutes or say where they can be reviewed. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: at this meeting the board approved its November 19, 2020 minutes (0:28:14), so the SAU 6 board was producing minutes. The seven-page budget document the business administrator emailed to members (0:03:33) and the meeting notice, which under Emergency Order #12 had to carry the information for accessing the meeting by telephone, are also missing.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II and II-b (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification); Emergency Order #12
OBSERVATION Attendance and the budget tally cannot be read from the recording
The board called the roll at the hearing (0:01:23) and again for the regular meeting (0:25:05), and took a roll call on every motion, as RSA 91-A:2, III(e) requires when members participate remotely. But the names are badly transcribed ("Jerry Barber", Greater, "Back to school", "In parallel and tall"), one member is said to be "not here" without it being clear who, Zullo is never heard, and most answers are inaudible. On the budget, the vote that matters most, the only answer captured is Whitney's Yes. (0:50:49), after more than a minute in which the transcript records nothing, and no result is announced. RSA 194-C:8 provides for weighted voting only on demand, and none is heard. How many members voted, and how, would be settled by the minutes flag 1 finds missing.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II and III(e) (2019 codification); RSA 194-C:8 (weighted votes on demand; 1996, 298:3)
OBSERVATION The budget was presented without position detail, and the business administrator disclosed an omission from last year's budget
Erickson reported that Unity members could see salary lines but not "who's covered in each each one of those, items" (0:08:55), and Petrin pressed on the $61,871 business-office increase (0:10:52). The business administrator explained it as a transfer of one position plus a 0.2 position he had left out of the fiscal 2021 budget, "approximately a $20,000 number" (0:13:10), and offered a staff listing to members who wanted it (0:14:31). The explanation was given in public and the figures reconcile to the motion. No rule required position-level detail in an SAU budget presentation, so this is an observation; it records that the prior year's adopted SAU budget understated a cost that was being incurred, by the business administrator's own account.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU 6 Board Meeting of 12/10/20
POSITIVE The SAU budget was adopted before January 1, after a public hearing the statute does not require
RSA 194-C:9, I, in the text then in force, provides: "At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget". The board adopted the fiscal 2022 budget on December 10, three weeks ahead of that date, and held a public hearing first, with an invitation for comment in the room and online (0:23:42). Section 194-C:9 contains no hearing requirement. The motion's $1,772,143 is consistent with the increase the business administrator described ($45,139 over the $1,727,004 read as the fiscal 2021 figure, 2.6%).
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2019 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1)
POSITIVE The budget was circulated before the hearing and walked through line by line in public
The business administrator emailed the budget presentation to members beforehand (0:03:33), presented its structure and the allocation between the districts, and the technology director explained each technology line (0:15:32). The public-comment opportunity was offered both in the room and online (0:23:42). These go beyond what the SAU budget statute requires.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2019 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU 6 Board Meeting of 12/10/20 (show 11127; the Cablecast API returned 403 to this environment on 2026-10-02, so the run time is taken from the last dialogue row, 0:54:26)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda 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.
- Related page: Claremont School Board, December 2, 2020 (the Claremont vote on the Goshen agreement).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11127 SAU6121020.mp4.CSV (212 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11127 SAU6121020.mp4Input/Transcripts/11127 SAU6121020.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 134Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11127 SAU6121020.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), 2019 codification (source note ends 2008, 354:1): public body includes any board of a school administrative unit and its committees
- RSA 91-A:2, 2019 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1; in force until 2023, 188:1): II minutes content and five business days; II-b website posting; III(e) roll-call votes
- RSA 194-C:9, I, 2019 codification (source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1): SAU budget adopted at a meeting held before January 1; no hearing requirement
- RSA 194-C:8 (1996, 298:3): weighted votes only on demand of a majority present and voting
- Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020): waiver of RSA 91-A:2, III(b) and (c) on conditions of telephone access and public notice of access information; ended with the state of emergency on June 11, 2021