Participants
Everyone heard or named as present in the recording. Names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and the speaker attribution report for this recording, since no minutes survive; transcript renderings are noted where they differ.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Declines to vote on an item raised in citizens' comments (0:14:42, 0:15:12); explains how three members' review of Fish Tank came to the full board (0:36:06 to 0:37:29); describes curriculum approval as "past practice" with no policy (1:40:53); reports on the state budget, Education Freedom Accounts and his exchange with the commissioner (2:18:14 to 2:22:36); asks about the 30 seniors who did not graduate (2:35:36). |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair (self-stated on July 1, 2021) | Relays two educators' concerns about the age-appropriateness of Fish Tank's social studies content (1:11:34, 1:12:19); presses for transparency so nothing appears "slipped under the rug" (1:46:17 onward); describes an income limit on Education Freedom Accounts (2:31:03). |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Questions the athletic policy (0:06:57); asks why the pilot ran in one school (1:16:12, 1:16:39); moves to suspend Fish Tank with a roll call (1:36:38, 1:37:03), then withdraws in favor of a directive (2:02:47, 2:05:47); moves to "continue this meeting" (2:39:17). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SAU 6 chair | Moves the agenda (0:01:43); proposes letting the Vermont players condition pending an August vote (0:18:16); questions the presenters (1:08:00); sees no reason to delay the rollout (1:59:32, 2:00:03) or to need a motion (2:05:05). |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Supports the program as a teacher (1:44:51, 1:45:02); reports another district's reopening guidance (2:15:26). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member, participating remotely | Asks how the district will reassure parents worried about "Borderline indoctrination" (1:30:44, 1:31:13); opposes delay (2:00:34, 2:01:04). Attribution low for his two earliest short rows. |
| Nicholas Stone | Board member | Seconds the agenda (0:01:49); argues for community input (1:52:03). Attribution medium (one naming cue). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explains last year's out-of-town athletes (0:07:20 to 0:08:36); superintendent's report: new interim principals, Magoon's departure, summer program, COVID outlook, forums (0:19:40 to 0:31:43); on curriculum process (1:32:36); fall masking (2:09:06 to 2:12:59); graduation figures (2:37:05, 2:37:34). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 (departing) | Farewell remarks (0:34:29); "we have two teachers that are concerned" (1:41:26); relays state guidance on masks (2:16:03). |
| Richard Seaman | SAU 6 assistant superintendent for finance (transcribed "Richard Siemens") | Explains the statewide education property tax cut and adequacy aid (2:23:52 to 2:26:20); public schools must accept all resident students (2:28:47); last year's one-time state money (2:33:22 to 2:34:59). |
| Brendan (surname not stated) | District curriculum coordinator | Introduces the pilot teachers (0:37:49); describes the K-5 rollout and summer training (1:37:41). |
| Cassandra Lockwood | Second-grade teacher, Maple Avenue (moving to third grade); pilot teacher | Presents the Fish Tank pilot, its selection criteria and results (0:39:08 to 1:07:54); answers on the immigration unit (1:22:25) and on communication with parents (1:50:19). |
| Joan Fontaine | Second-grade teacher, pilot teacher (surname and school as transcribed) | Introduced by the coordinator (0:37:49); no row attributed separately. |
| Melissa Lewis | Elementary principal (roster) | "We did not change the curriculum." (1:41:52); "This is a program that's different." (1:41:18). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Calls the roll (0:01:03 to 0:01:22). |
| Michael (surname not stated on this recording) | Public commenter for a group of Wethersfield, Vermont 12-year-olds (on August 4 the middle school athletic director refers to him, as transcribed, as Michael Marsh; unverified) | Asks the board to let them play tackle football at Claremont Middle School (0:03:42 to 0:18:08). |
| Jeff Small | SAU 6 Director of Technology (roster) | Runs the slides ("Mr. small", 0:27:41); no attributed row. |
| Unidentified | Various | 63 of 721 rows (8.7%), including the June 2 minutes' mover and seconder, the second on Horsky's motion, and the second on the closing motion. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives; the superintendent refers to a board packet he was "sending ... out in a couple of hours" before the meeting (0:27:18). The order below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
Items in the order taken up, with dispositions as heard in the recording
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll as transcribed at 0:01:03 to 0:01:22. |
| 0:01:31 | Approval of the agenda | Petrin: "Accept the agenda as as presented." (0:01:43); "seconded by Nicholas Stone"; voice vote (0:01:49); "Rob is nodding." (0:02:02); the chair asks "Should we be doing roll call on all" and moves on (0:02:06). See flag 1. |
| 0:02:15 | Minutes of June 2, 2021 | Listed as "July 1st, 2021" and corrected ("Written incorrectly.", 0:02:35). "I will make a motion to approve. June 2nd, 2021 meeting minutes." (unidentified, 0:02:39); unidentified second (0:02:47); voice vote (0:02:49). |
| 0:02:59 | Citizens' comments | Request for Wethersfield, Vermont players. The chair: "It's under citizens comments. It's not an action. It's not warned." (0:14:42); "I don't want to really vote on it" but "we could safely give tacit approval" (0:17:10); conditioning may continue, item to the next agenda (0:17:36, 0:18:16). No vote. See flag 4. |
| 0:19:24 | Superintendent's report | Interim principals, assistant superintendent's departure, summer program, COVID outlook, forums. No action. |
| 0:36:06 | Action: curriculum discussion, elementary Fish Tank pilot | Presentation and debate. Horsky: "I would like to make a motion to spend use to fish tank until it's properly vetted before the community." [suspend use of Fish Tank] and "I'd like to do it as a roll call. Vote, please." (1:36:38, 1:37:03); unidentified second (1:37:16). Later withdrawn: "So in all serious I will draw the motion. I think we're just giving directive to the administrative teams in what we expect." (2:05:47). No vote. See flags 3 and 6. |
| 2:08:58 | Masking recommendation for the fall (discussion) | Decision deferred to the first August meeting (2:17:17, 2:17:29). No vote. |
| 2:18:14 | School funding: state budget, statewide education property tax, Education Freedom Accounts | Discussion. No action. See flag 6. |
| 2:35:13 | Items for the next meeting; good of the order; closing | Back-to-school plans, graduation follow-up, summer program update; athletics to the policy committee (2:38:22). Horsky: "I would like to make a motion to continue this meeting for another time." (2:39:17); unidentified second (2:39:22); voice vote (2:39:25). No continued session date is stated; the board's next meeting was August 4. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/11776 SchoolBoard072121.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:39 | Remote member; agenda and minutes | "Sorry, Rob. We just did the pledge." (0:00:39). Agenda by voice vote; "Rob is nodding. Is this." "Okay? Should we be doing roll call on all because it's." "Okay." (0:02:02 to 0:02:11). June 2 minutes approved by voice vote (0:02:39 to 0:02:49). | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 0:03:42 | Citizens' comments: Vermont players and tackle football | "I am here on behalf of a small group of 12 year old boys from Wethersfield, Vermont, who need a place to play tackle football." (0:03:42); Vermont bars tackle football in seventh and eighth grade (0:03:59); "we're willing to pay. We're willing to pay our way." (0:05:14); "They're already conditioning" (0:06:21). Tempesta: last year's two out-of-town players did pay; the board had planned a policy (0:08:16, 0:08:36). Sprague said he "don't feel good at all about, going around actually, procedurally as well as ethically going around an athletic director" (0:14:42); Wethersfield is in the catchment area and tuitions students to Stevens (0:15:12). Petrin: let them condition, then "at our next meeting, put it on the agenda" with the athletic staff present (0:18:16, 0:18:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:40 | Administrative changes | Two new interim elementary principals: "interim principal Nicole Bailey at Maple" and "Christine Baker at Bluff Elementary School", with a search committee planned for the spring; Jen Donovan becomes student services coordinator at Maple (0:19:40, 0:20:30). Donna Magoon "is going to say 40 in Milford" [SAU 40, Milford] (0:20:59). Whitney thanks her (0:23:18). | |
| 0:26:26 | Summer program, COVID outlook, forums | "We have about 200 kids participating." (0:27:09). COVID "trending very positively"; few districts will recommend until mid-August (0:28:07); bus and other rules "will have to be voted in the next meeting" (0:28:32); masks optional in the summer program (0:29:22). Monday-night forums at Stevens, the first on the strategic plan (0:30:09, 0:30:33); one-time money for playgrounds and musical instruments (0:31:43). | |
| 0:34:20 | Assistant superintendent's farewell | Magoon: "I just wanted to talk a little bit about. Me leaving" (0:34:27, 0:34:29). | |
| 0:36:06 | How the Fish Tank question reached the board | "people approached Heather with with concerns about the curriculum. She and I chatted. I involved Mike patron" [Petrin] (0:36:06); the three met the administration, and "We decided the three of us, that, we really shouldn't be having these conversations without the rest of the board." (0:36:36). | POSITIVE |
| 0:39:08 | Fish Tank pilot presentation | Lockwood: "you can see at the district level year after year, we're not seeing a lot of reading growth." (0:40:21). A "knowledge based reading program" in which students read within science or social studies topics (0:42:32, 0:42:54). "students living in poverty are already behind their peers before they even enter kindergarten" (0:46:16). In her class, "40% of children coming into second grade reading at a kindergarten level" and at year end "19% of students scoring at a kindergarten reading level" (0:55:49, 0:56:44); student names were blocked out on the slides (0:57:32). Independent reviews: one rated it as only partially meeting expectations on building knowledge (1:01:11). Fish Tank lacks decoding, so other programs supplement it (1:08:23). | |
| 1:09:02 | Concerns about the social studies content | Whitney found the text "excellent" (1:09:09) but relays two educators' view that "the subject matter was very mature and very intense and may not have been presented in an age appropriate manner" (1:11:34), and that "if they came forward publicly, that their objections would be misrepresented and they would suffer some social penalties" (1:12:19). Horsky: "Did we only use the the school that we believe to have the most poverty ridden people to see the most growth?" (1:16:39); he wants more on American history (1:19:44). Lockwood: "this is not the social studies and Science program for elementary education." (1:20:27); the immigration unit's stories (1:22:25). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:30:44 | Communicating with parents | Lovett (remote): "Borderline indoctrination is the word that I heard. How can we reassure them" (1:31:13). Tempesta: the selection ran through professional learning communities and "it's a very typical process" (1:33:50). Horsky's motion to suspend, with a roll call requested (1:36:38, 1:37:03). Brendan: "Plan was to roll it out K-5?" with four-day trainings in summer (1:37:41). Sprague: curriculum normally goes from the curriculum committee to the board; "I don't think there's a policy, but that's been from my experience, past practice." (1:40:53). Magoon: "we have two teachers that are concerned" (1:41:26). Lewis: "We did not change the curriculum." (1:41:52). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:44:51 | Board positions on the rollout | Lambert: "I don't think the community needs to tell them how to do their job." (1:45:02). Whitney: "if we are not completely transparent with the community" trust suffers (1:46:35). Lockwood: she shared each unit's books with parents of her 19 remote students (1:51:09). Sprague: "I don't see a big public uprising to this." (1:57:50). Petrin: "I personally don't see any reason to hold this up." (2:00:03). Lovett: delay "is an unnecessary step at this time." (2:01:04). Horsky withdraws his motion and asks for "a blast email and other forms of communication" (2:02:47, 2:05:47). Tempesta: "This is how you go about selecting this." (2:07:02). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:08:58 | Masks and quarantine for the fall | Tempesta: masks already optional; the administrative team is "going for the most normalcy" (2:11:25). Sprague, after listening to the state epidemiologist, says decisions "will be will be local" and asks about the "ten day quarantine" (2:12:12, 2:12:24). Magoon: a district "cannot say, you can unmask if you have been vaccinated" (2:16:03). Vote deferred: "I don't think we can vote tonight." (2:17:29). | |
| 2:18:14 | State budget and Education Freedom Accounts | Sprague: in other states "the state money follows the kit", but in New Hampshire "They get the state money and the local money. So now they get a check, they get 20. I believe they do. They get $20,000." (2:19:33, 2:19:58). Asked how to cut $20,000 per departing student, the commissioner's response as Sprague reports it was "you waste too much money anyway" (2:20:57); three siblings leaving means "That $60,000." (2:21:32); placements can cost "$250,000 a year" (2:22:01). Whitney: an income limit of "something like $43,000 per family" (2:31:03); Seaman: "I wasn't aware of that." (2:31:36). Sprague: the program was "done in a rush. So it's poorly defined." (2:32:34). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:23:49 | Statewide education property tax and one-time aid | "This past year I think it was $1.95 and they cut it." (2:23:49); Seaman: "they're cutting it in half for this coming year" (2:23:52); a lower state tax means more adequacy grant but less ability "to target dollars" (2:24:50); "$263 million" against "$363 million" (2:26:20). Sprague wants data to press legislators to repeal harmful parts (2:28:06). Seaman on a reported $2.1 million loss: last year's "$2.5 million" was "one time money", with "a million and a half dollars that went to our capital improvement and infrastructure" and "the other million dollars went back to taxpayers" (2:33:22 to 2:34:35). | |
| 2:35:13 | Next agenda: graduation shortfall, athletics policy | Sprague: at graduation "30 students didn't" "Didn't graduate" and he wants a plan for them (2:35:33, 2:35:36). Tempesta: students graduating "with college credit in hand" are "almost like a, a 30 or 40%" (2:37:05, 2:37:34). Horsky: out-of-district athletes need "a one time pass or until we can get a policy rectified" (2:38:27). Closing motion (2:39:17). | |
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 July 21, 2021, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH A member took part remotely, but every vote was taken by voice, not roll call
Rob Lovett Jr. participated from outside the room throughout (0:00:39, 0:02:02, 1:30:32). Governor Sununu's Emergency Order #12, which relaxed remote-meeting rules, ended with the state of emergency at midnight on June 11, 2021, and the 2021 bill to extend the relief (SB 95) did not pass, so on July 21 the ordinary text of RSA 91-A:2, III governed. It allows remote participation only when attendance is "not reasonably practical", requires the reason to be "stated in the minutes of the meeting", and provides that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." The board took its votes by voice: the agenda ("All those in favor say I", 0:01:49), the June 2 minutes (0:02:49) and the closing motion (2:39:25). The chair noticed the issue ("Should we be doing roll call on all because it's.", 0:02:06) and the meeting continued without one; the one roll call requested, on Horsky's Fish Tank motion (1:37:03), never happened because the motion was withdrawn. Whether the minutes stated a reason for remote attendance cannot be checked, since none survive. Graded HIGH because the roll-call rule is mandatory and the departure is on tape; the votes were procedural and none was contested, which limits the practical harm.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a) and III(e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1; in force to Oct. 2, 2023); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020; for the duration of the state of emergency); NHPR, June 10, 2021 (reporting: state of emergency ends June 11, 2021); NHMA State House Report, July/August 2021 (reporting: SB 95, to extend remote meetings, did not pass)
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes survive, and several movers and seconders are unidentified on the recording
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting; the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force since January 1, 2019, requires minutes naming members and persons appearing, describing the subject matter and final decisions, and recording the members who moved and seconded each motion, "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule applies because the record mitigates the gap: the board approved minutes of this meeting on August 4, 2021, so they were written; no copy survives in any share checked. The recording cannot replace them: the June 2 minutes' mover and seconder (0:02:39, 0:02:47), the second on Horsky's motion (1:37:16) and the second on the closing motion (2:39:22) are unidentified. The superintendent mentions sending a board packet hours before the meeting (0:27:18); none survives, including the Fish Tank handouts the presenters refer to (0:41:22).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019)
OBSERVATION A K-5 reading program rolls out without a board vote, and the board's "directive" was never voted either
The curriculum coordinator said the plan was "to roll it out K-5" with summer training already under way (1:37:41). The chair described approval as "past practice" with no policy: curriculum goes to the curriculum committee and then to the board (1:40:53); the principal answered that Fish Tank is "not a curriculum. This is a program" (1:41:18). Horsky's motion to suspend use until community review was withdrawn (2:05:47); Petrin said "I don't know that, in my opinion, that we need a motion. I think the plan is already in place to roll this out." (2:05:05). The board ended with what Horsky called a directive to send parents "a blast email and other forms of communication" (2:02:47), expressed by consensus, not by a motion. No statute examined for this page requires a board vote on an instructional program, and the district's policies are not in any share checked; the observation is that the record holds no board decision either way, so the program's status rests on administrative action and a consensus that minutes would need to capture.
Sources: recording only; no rule cited.
OBSERVATION Informal board support for out-of-district players on an item raised only in citizens' comments
The chair named the problem himself: "It's under citizens comments. It's not an action. It's not warned." Acting without the athletic director would be wrong "procedurally as well as ethically" (0:14:42). He then said "I don't want to really vote on it", proposing "tacit approval" because "everybody nodding" (0:17:10), and the board agreed the players could keep conditioning while the question went on the next agenda with the athletic staff present (0:17:36, 0:18:16). RSA 91-A:2, II in its 2019 text requires notice of a meeting's time and place, not a fixed agenda, so no rule examined bars discussing the item; but a nodded consensus is not a recorded decision, and the effect, letting the boys continue with the team, followed from it. The June 2 meeting had referred out-of-district athletes to the policy committee, which had not yet met (2:38:22, 2:38:27).
Sources: recording only; RSA 91-A:2, II (notice of time and place) for context.
OBSERVATION Education Freedom Accounts described in terms that do not match the enacted statute
The chair told the public that departing students take "the state money and the local money", about $20,000 each (2:19:58), and the vice chair cited an income limit of "something like $43,000 per family" (2:31:03), which the finance administrator said he had not known (2:31:36). RSA ch. 194-F, enacted in the 2021 state budget (2021, 91:431) and not in force until August 24, 2021, sets the grant at "the per pupil adequate education grant amount under RSA 198:40-a, plus any differentiated aid", which is state aid, not local money, and limits eligibility to households with income "less than or equal to 300 percent of the federal poverty guidelines", a test that scales with household size rather than a single dollar figure. The speakers' figures may describe local cost per pupil or a particular household size, but as stated they overstate the money that leaves the district and misstate the eligibility rule. This is a speaker characterization corrected against the statute, not a finding about the board's conduct. The chair publicly corrected both points at the next meeting (see the August 4, 2021 page, flag 5).
Sources: RSA 194-F:1 (eligible student; 2022 codification, source note 2021, 91:431, eff. Aug. 24, 2021); RSA 194-F:2 (grant amount)
POSITIVE Three members stopped a side conversation and brought the curriculum question to the full board in public
After teachers raised concerns with Whitney, she, the chair and Petrin met the administration and heard presentations; then "We decided the three of us, that, we really shouldn't be having these conversations without the rest of the board." (0:36:36), and the full presentation, the concerns and the debate were held on camera (0:37:03). Three of seven members are not a quorum, so their meetings with staff were not "meetings" under RSA 91-A:2, I; but RSA 91-A:2-a directs public bodies to "deliberate on matters ... only in meetings" and bars outside communications that "circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter". Moving the discussion into a public meeting before any decision is the practice the statute aims at. The teacher presenting student results also blocked out student names on her slides (0:57:32).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I (meeting means the convening of a quorum); RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2019 codification; source note 2008, 303:4)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: Claremont School Board of 7/21/21 (show 11776; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API refuses requests from this environment)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda, Fish Tank handouts 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.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11776 SchoolBoard072121.mp4.CSV (721 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11776 SchoolBoard072121.mp4Input/Transcripts/11776 SchoolBoard072121.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 147Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11776 SchoolBoard072121.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I, II and III, 2019 codification (in force Jan. 1, 2019 to Oct. 2, 2023): meeting defined; notice; minutes; remote participation, reason in the minutes, roll-call votes
- RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II, 2019 codification (2008, 303:4; unamended): deliberation only in meetings; no circumvention
- Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020): remote-meeting relief for the duration of the state of emergency, which ended June 11, 2021
- RSA 194-F:1 and RSA 194-F:2 (2021, 91:431, eff. Aug. 24, 2021): Education Freedom Account eligibility (300 percent of federal poverty guidelines) and grant amount (adequacy grant plus differentiated aid)