Participants
Everyone in the record, as named in the dialogue CSV. No agenda or minutes are available to confirm spellings; spellings follow the project roster, and the transcript's renderings are given where they differ. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided; took the opening attendance and the retirements roll call himself while the clerk was offline; read the nurses' letter into the record (0:02:44); limited questions after the superintendent's report to clarification (0:43:35); proposed that the February 1 and February 4 district sessions count as the board's February meeting and that the first March meeting be a goals retreat (1:13:23). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Asked to add the student report to the agenda and moved the amended agenda (0:01:37, 0:02:05). Moved to follow the superintendent's recommendation to return in person on February 1 with winter sports (0:47:17). Seconded the retirements and adjournment. Rendered Mike patron, Mike Peterson. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Seconded the agenda; asked the date of the nurses' letter (0:09:28) and whether winter sports would return too (0:43:55); warned about new variants and said her own vaccination appointment was not until March (0:49:52). Rendered Carolyn Toll, Carolyn. Tall. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Present at the opening roll (0:01:09); seconded the return-to-school motion, as the chair states at 0:48:23. Two attributed rows. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (vice chair) | "not with us yet" at the opening roll; joined later. Thanked the administration and said staff are "just as safe in the school as they are in the general public" (0:51:27); explained vaccine transmission uncertainty (0:55:43). |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Not visible at the opening roll (0:00:49). Moved acceptance of the retirements ("It kind of makes me laugh. I mean, what if we didn't? They're still going to retire, aren't they?", 0:57:36), the CCTV appointments (1:01:04) and adjournment; offered to pay any candidate's filing fee (1:18:11). Rendered Jason? Ben, where, Jason Benwell, Jason Benoit. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Absent ("Rebecca Zulu won't be with us.", 0:00:49; "Rebecca's not here.", 0:53:29). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report on COVID data, board questions and grade-level estimates, and the recommendation "to continue and have have the students come back in person on, on Monday" (0:40:23); winter sports to start Monday with no spectators (0:44:33); presented the retirements and the CCTV nominees. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Questioned the public commenter's data source (0:17:20); asked the community to do "their part" outside school (0:42:26); on travel quarantine and vaccinated travelers (0:50:50, 0:54:33); briefed the annual-meeting procedure under HB 1129 (1:02:30); reported 40 kindergarten preregistrations in one day (1:16:07). |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Monitored the remote queue for citizens' comments (0:09:51) and ran the slides. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Not present at the start ("We don't have Mary here.", 0:02:22); joined and called the roll on the return-to-school, CCTV and adjournment votes; announced that filing for the school board closes Friday (1:18:25). |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative | Student report on remote clubs, scholarships and school news (0:19:05). First name on the recording; surname from the project roster. |
| Rick Deschenes | Citizens' comments (coach; ward not stated) | Spoke remotely at 0:10:54 for reinstating winter sports, citing the state school dashboard. Named Rick by the chair; the superintendent refers to "Mr. Deschenes comments" at 0:44:03. Spelling of the surname unverified. |
| SAU 6 nursing staff (letter) | Citizens' comments (written; read by the chair) | A letter from the district's nurses, received "just before the meeting" and read in full by the chair (0:02:44 to 0:09:12), urging the district to stay remote until after February vacation. The signatory is rendered Miss Seven; the name could not be recovered. |
| Mark Chase; a journalist (name garbled) | CCTV board nominees (not present) | Named by the superintendent at 1:00:20: "Erickson, go to, a journalist in the area and our our police chief, Mark Chase" for a one-year and a three-year term respectively. The journalist's name is not recoverable from the transcript. |
| Unidentified | Various | 19 rows (5.1%), mostly roll-call answers such as the Yes after Benware's name on the return vote (0:53:35). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions. The chair refers to "an agenda in front of us tonight" (0:01:24), so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Pledge; attendance | End of the pledge. The chair takes attendance himself: "So I am present. Heather Whitney is not with us yet. Rebecca Zulu won't be with us." (0:00:49) |
| 0:01:24 | Agenda amended and approved | Student report added at Petrin's request. Moved by Petrin, seconded by Towle; approved by voice vote: "Yeah, we can do I. We don't have Mary here." (0:02:22). See flag 1. |
| 0:02:44 | Minutes; citizens' comments | "So we had no minutes the previous meeting." The nurses' letter read by the chair; Rick Deschenes speaks remotely (0:10:54). |
| 0:18:55 | Student representative's report | Prescott Herzog. No action. |
| 0:20:48 | Superintendent's report | COVID data, grade-level estimates, the new state matrix, the recommendation to return Monday. Clarification questions only (0:43:35). |
| 0:45:57 | Return to in-person learning and winter sports | Petrin: "I like to make the motion that we follow the superintendent's recommendation, with return to in-person, for all schools starting Monday, February 1st, which would include the return to winter sports." (0:47:51) Seconded by Lovett per the chair. Roll call from 0:53:15: six Yes, Zullo absent. "It passes unanimously, right?" (0:54:14) |
| 0:56:21 | Board approval of retirements | Seven retirements, names not read. Benware moves, Petrin seconds "with our gratitude". Roll call called by the chair (0:59:44); "Passes unanimously." (1:00:02) See flag 3. |
| 1:00:12 | Board approval of CCTV board members | Two nominees; Benware moves, Towle seconds (1:01:13); roll call from 1:01:37, all audible answers Yes. See flag 4. |
| 1:02:05 | Annual meeting informational | Magoon on the February 1 and 4 virtual sessions and March 9 drive-up voting under HB 1129. No action. |
| 1:13:23 | Other business: February and March meetings | The chair proposes counting the February 1 and 4 sessions as the February board meeting and making the first March meeting a goals retreat; no vote. |
| 1:18:54 | Adjournment | Benware moves, Petrin seconds; roll call (1:19:12). |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited row, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:27 | No clerk; chair takes attendance | "Mrs. Woodman, are you with us?" ... "Well, I'm going to. I'll do attendance." Present: Sprague, Lovett, Petrin, Towle; Whitney "not with us yet"; Zullo absent; Benware not seen. | |
| 0:01:37 | Student report restored; agenda by voice vote | Petrin: "I, Frank, I think we, we missed Prescott student. Report." Magoon: "That's only because we said we weren't going to have one. Only because it's not a regular meeting." The chair: "All those in favor?" then "Yeah, we can do I. We don't have Mary here. All those in favor say aye." (0:02:22) | MEDIUM |
| 0:02:44 | The nurses' letter | Read in full by the chair: "We continue to have concerns related to the reopening of the schools here in Claremont." "Sullivan County right now is considered extremely high risk, with an average of 23 cases a day." (0:04:12) "Safest decision would be to stay out until after February vacation into March, at least two weeks after vacation." (0:06:39) "Many of our staff are an older population and they are scared to death." (0:08:45) Towle asks the date; the chair: "I got it today. I got it just before the meeting." (0:09:34) | POSITIVE |
| 0:10:54 | A coach asks for winter sports back | Rick Deschenes: "it really was somewhat of a return to normalcy and a getaway for these, for these kids." Citing the state school dashboard, "there was one case active within the school system" (0:15:14); winter programs involve "maybe around 50 kids" (0:16:03); "It just seemed to me like the the risk was minute." Magoon: "Just to let you know that's not always up to date." (0:17:37) | POSITIVE |
| 0:19:05 | Student report | Remote clubs, youth and government, scholarships, a February 8 college night; "at Disney [Disnard], they have been 100% remote with everybody else and have been very happy with the attendance and participation" (0:20:27). | |
| 0:20:59 | COVID trend slides | From the January 12 peak of "99 cases" in Claremont (0:21:43) down to 63 (0:28:52); the decision to go remote followed "22 active cases" and "27 active cases in quarantine" (0:23:18). Vaccination "5.2% of the population" rising to 5.9 (0:25:46, 0:29:07). "Yesterday they changed the matrix." (0:28:00) | |
| 0:24:18 | Students ready to return | "elementary teachers how they have made arrangements for 65 students to come back on on Monday. There's about 15 to 20 in the middle school as well, and 15 to 20 in the high school." (0:24:48) | |
| 0:29:54 | Board members' questions answered | No change to vacations recommended (0:31:04); college-style testing "somewhere about 20, $30,000" and "very prohibitive to do at our scale" (0:32:19); grade-level estimates by anonymized elementary schools A, B and C, with "a consistent lagging in cohort C" (0:32:41 to 0:35:16). | |
| 0:36:22 | Research on schools and transmission | A reference list from a New York Times article and a JAMA article: "a lot of consistency is about having kids in school and the benefits of it." (0:37:09) The new metric places Claremont in the moderate range (0:38:55). | |
| 0:40:23 | Recommendation: return Monday | "our recommendation based on on all of these things is to continue and have have the students come back in person on, on Monday. Now, we don't make this decision lightly. We definitely hear the perspective of others in the community, including the nurses". Magoon: "we're just asking that, you know, they do their part to keep our keep everybody safe while they're outside of the building." (0:42:43) | |
| 0:43:35 | Questions limited to clarification; winter sports | The chair: "we're not deliberating this question because we're not into our discussion action items yet." Towle asks about winter sports; the superintendent: "we are going to have winter sports. They will start on Monday." with "no spectators in the stands" (0:44:33). Magoon: "masks will be worn on and off the court." (0:45:29) | |
| 0:46:26 | The return motion and debate | Petrin: the plan "technically is a hybrid because we still have in-person with the option of remote." (0:47:17) Motion at 0:47:51. The chair on why rates in school are low: "because we are so vigilant with masking, social distancing." (0:48:55) Towle: "the variant that is coming closer and closer to us, really needs a reevaluation of our protocols" (0:49:52). Magoon: travel outside New England still requires quarantine (0:50:50). Whitney: "statistically you're safer in school and you are in the general public." (0:52:12) | |
| 0:53:00 | Roll call: return passes | The clerk calls the roll; Sprague, Whitney, Lovett, Petrin and Towle answer Yes, an unidentified Yes follows Benware's name, and Zullo is absent. The chair: "It passes unanimously, right?" (0:54:14) | MEDIUM |
| 0:54:22 | Vaccinated travelers | A chat question: "If you have the vaccine and leave New England, do you still need to?" Magoon: a two-week period after the second dose applies, but "we have not adopted that policy as of yet" (0:54:33). | |
| 0:56:29 | Retirements accepted | The superintendent: "we we have a list of, of, of folks and we that you that you have in front of you. Seven." "we never identify the teachers. They still have the right to rescind these." (0:56:53) No early-retirement incentive is being offered: "we anticipate a tough hiring season" (0:58:37). Roll call called by the chair while the clerk is offline (0:59:44). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:00:20 | CCTV board appointments | "So there are two outstanding community members for those roles. Erickson, go to, a journalist in the area and our our police chief, Mark Chase, I have are looking to join the CCTV board for a one year term and a three year term, respectively". Benware moves; "Motion made by Jason, seconded by Carolyn." (1:01:13) Roll call (1:01:37). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:02:30 | How the annual meeting will run | Magoon: "this past weekend, a, a flier or a letter went out to all the registered voters in Claremont". February 1 virtual session; the budget posted at the SAU office, Stevens, the technical center, City Hall and online (1:05:10); "at these meetings, the February 1st meeting in the February 4th meeting, the community will not be able to speak." (1:05:58) Submissions read on February 4 (1:06:57); drive-up voting March 9 in three wards; the first ballot question: "Do you approve of this voting process?" (1:09:19) | |
| 1:10:19 | Care for election workers | The chair asks that checklist workers be brought into the planning: "there are some concerns and some nervousness" (1:11:48). Petrin asks whether anyone can volunteer to check registrations (1:12:18). | |
| 1:13:23 | February meeting folded into the district sessions | "the special meeting we would have on the fourth would constitute our February meeting" and "by policy, we need to meet before a new board is elected and go over what our goal, how we did" (1:14:01). Magoon notes that would otherwise have meant three meetings in one week (1:14:45). | |
| 1:17:50 | Filing period; adjournment | Petrin: registration to run for school board "Closes. When is it close? On Friday." Benware: "I will pay your dollar for you." (1:18:11) Adjournment by roll call (1:19:12). | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on January 27, 2021, including the Governor's COVID-19 emergency orders then in effect. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Five flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM In a fully remote meeting the agenda was adopted by voice vote because the clerk had not logged in
The meeting was held by video conference: the chair looks for members' raised hands on his screen ("I'm sorry, I can't see Heather.", 0:51:26) and telephone callers are told how to unmute. When any member participates other than in person, RSA 91-A:2, III(e) as it read in 2021 required that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." Emergency Order #12, in force for the state of emergency, waived only the physical-quorum requirement of III(b), on public-access conditions; it did not touch III(e). At 0:02:22 the chair, having begun "All those in favor?", continued "Yeah, we can do I. We don't have Mary here." and the amended agenda was carried on a chorus of Aye with no record of who voted. On January 13 the same chair had stopped himself in the same situation ("Oh, I can't do it that way. Can you roll call, please?", show 11262; see the January 13 page). The mitigation is real: every later vote at this meeting, including the retirements vote the chair called himself while the clerk was offline, was taken by roll call, and an agenda vote decides little. MEDIUM, as a lapse in a binding procedure on one low-stakes vote.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(b), (e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, text in force until 2023): physical quorum except in an emergency; roll-call votes when a member participates remotely; Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020, under Executive Order 2020-04): III(b) waived for the state of emergency, subject to public-access conditions.
OBSERVATION No agenda, notice or minutes are online, and the recording itself carries two different dates
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. The recording is filed under a name ending 020321 and a Cablecast event date of February 3, 2021, while its show title says January 27; the content (a motion to return "starting Monday, February 1st", and the January 13 decision to re-evaluate "on the 27th") fixes January 27, the date used here. The chair also said at 0:02:44 "So we had no minutes the previous meeting", so the January 13 minutes were not before the board two weeks later. In 2021, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; whether that was met cannot be tested from here. Emergency Order #12 also required public notice of how to access a remote meeting; the recording shows a working dial-in, but the notice is not available. The online-availability limb of the project's missing-records rule applies.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes within 5 business days; movers and seconders recorded; Emergency Order #12; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 138 (date note).
OBSERVATION Seven retirements were accepted by roll call without the public being told whose
The superintendent presented a list of seven retirements "that you have in front of you" and said "we never identify the teachers. They still have the right to rescind these." (0:56:53). The board accepted them unanimously by roll call (0:59:44). He added that the retirements are "positively impactful for the budget" (0:56:29), which matters in a year when the proposed budget counted on $584,000 of position reductions through attrition (see the February 1 page). No statute was found that requires a school board to name retiring employees in public session, and the stated reason (a retiree may still rescind) is plausible. The observation is that the public record of this vote says nothing about which positions were vacated.
Sources: no statutory rule identified; dialogue rows at 0:56:29 and 0:56:53.
OBSERVATION Two CCTV board members were appointed, one of them a journalist whose name the record does not preserve
At 1:00:20 the superintendent presented two nominees for the board of Claremont Community Television: the city's police chief, Mark Chase, for a three-year term, and "a journalist in the area" for a one-year term, whose name the transcript renders only as Erickson, go to. The board approved both by roll call. No nomination letter, term dates or the seats' appointing authority were read into the record, and without minutes the journalist's identity cannot be recovered from any available source. CCTV produced the recording this page is built from; see the maintainer disclosure in the footer. No rule is engaged; the point is that an appointment is on the public record here only as a garbled name.
Sources: no statutory rule identified; dialogue rows at 1:00:20 to 1:01:37.
POSITIVE Opposing public input was read and heard in full before the vote, and answered
The chair read the nurses' letter into the record in its entirety (0:02:44 to 0:09:12), although it argued against the administration's recommendation and had arrived "just before the meeting". The technology director told telephone callers how to unmute (0:09:51), and a coach who wanted winter sports restored spoke for about six minutes (0:10:54); the assistant superintendent questioned his data source and the superintendent answered him directly before the vote (0:44:03). The superintendent's recommendation acknowledged "the perspective of others in the community, including the nurses" (0:40:23). No statute required a public comment period at a New Hampshire school board meeting in 2021: RSA 189:74 was enacted by 2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): school board public comment period, not in force in 2021.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11216, "School Board live on 1/27/21": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery; event date recorded as February 3, 2021 (MAP.md date note). Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, notice, slides, retirement list, nurses' letter or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: January 13, 2021 (remote period extended; re-evaluation set for the 27th), February 1, 2021 and February 4, 2021 (the two virtual district sessions), March 17, 2021.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11216 SchoolBoard020321.mp4.CSV (371 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11216 SchoolBoard020321.mp4Input/Transcripts/11216 SchoolBoard020321.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11216 SchoolBoard020321.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 138
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on January 27, 2021. RSA 91-A:2, II and III (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1; unamended until 2023, 188:1). RSA 189:74, cited only to show it post-dates this meeting (2022, 333:1).
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020), effective for the duration of the state of emergency, which lapsed at midnight on June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021, reporting).