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 (transcribed "Greg" in the roll) | Runs the meeting; adds a non-meeting to the agenda (0:01:09); asks about universal pre-K and special-education services (0:19:34 to 0:26:01); argues restructuring brings consistency (0:46:41); calls for an investigation of leaving the Region 10 agreement (1:26:18); seconds the policy motion (1:39:05); schedules the retreat (1:53:08). |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (vice chair per the project roster) | Reports on the restructuring forum and argues for the three-school model (0:38:38 to 0:46:06); answers neighborhood-school and transition concerns (0:57:48 to 1:00:51); proposes a board retreat (1:27:40); moves the policies (1:38:36); asks about the Zoom link posted for the meeting (1:56:00). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SAU 6 Board chair (transcribed "Michael. Peachy") | Moves the October 20 minutes (0:03:21); warns against rolling into a new Region 10 agreement by default (1:22:54 to 1:23:30); budget subcommittee report (1:33:42). |
| Steven Horsky | Board member (transcribed "Emily Horsey" in the roll) | On class sizes and the original restructuring intent (0:48:47 to 0:51:15); questions use of the tech center building (1:12:44 to 1:15:14); Policy Committee report (1:35:52); asks about the fiscal monitoring action plan (2:03:12); moves to adjourn (2:03:46). |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member (transcribed "Joshua. Landon") | Corrects the October 20 minutes on who raised the Puerto Rico ticket problem (0:02:34, 0:03:00); asks about full-year courses (1:30:58). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Moves the amended agenda (0:01:32); seconds the minutes (0:03:25). |
| Nicholas Stone | Board member (not heard in the transcribed roll) | Reports on the forum with Whitney (0:55:33, 0:55:55); describes his own Stevens scheduling experience (1:18:41); keeps Region 10 separate from restructuring (1:28:33). |
| Jason Benware | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; former board member (self-introduction transcribed "Jason. Ben. Where?") | Questions the cost of adding universal pre-K to the restructuring and asks about $175,000 he heard was taken from the emergency fund without a vote (0:03:45 to 0:09:27). |
| Student representative (not named on tape) | Stevens High School | Report on November 18 college-application events (0:10:04). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report: new website, restructuring with universal pre-K, secondary schedule alignment (0:10:34 to 0:37:47); on the tech center and Region 10 (1:03:37 to 1:25:26); on new state quarantine guidance (1:57:05 to 2:02:58). |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant superintendent for finance, SAU 6 | On level-funding pressure (1:34:45); explains the reserve funds, the $175,000 transportation draw and the Maple Avenue roof (1:40:08 to 1:47:36); on the fiscal monitoring action plan (2:03:25). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | On the preschool program's peer-model ratio and waiting list (0:23:19, 0:24:39); caseloads (0:54:41, 0:54:55); embedding core credits in tech courses (1:29:36). |
| Dr. Mary Ellen Janeiro | Curriculum administrator, SAU 6 (transcribed "doctor Gennaro"; the superintendent calls her Mary Ellen) | Dates the restructuring at her former high school to 2002 to 2006 (0:44:33). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Calls the roll (0:00:51 to 0:01:06); says the minutes of the meeting before October 20 need rework (0:02:16). |
| Unidentified | Various | 8 of 606 rows (1.3%), including the tech center enrollment figure (1:22:14). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair takes up “item one elementary restructuring time on learning” (0:38:12) and then the secondary schedule (1:02:58); 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 |
|---|
| 0:00:06 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll as transcribed (0:00:48 to 0:01:06). |
| 0:01:09 | Approval of the agenda | Amended to add “a quick, very brief non meeting at the end of this meeting” and the student representative's report (0:01:09). Lovett: “I make a motion to approve the agenda as amended.” (0:01:32) The chair: “I'll second that.” (0:01:39); voice vote (0:01:39). See flag 3. |
| 0:01:39 | Minutes of October 20, 2021 | “I think we're talking about October 20th. Are we not? Not September 15th.” (0:01:39) The clerk on the earlier minutes: “I have to go through all of it again. I apologize.” (0:02:16) Lambert's correction (0:03:00). Petrin: “I move that we accept the minutes, as amended.” (0:03:21); Lovett seconds (0:03:25); voice vote (0:03:34). |
| 0:03:34 | Citizens' comments | Jason Benware, Ward 1 (0:03:45); no others (0:09:52). |
| 0:09:52 | Student representative's report | Brief (0:10:04). |
| 0:10:32 | Superintendent's report | Website, restructuring and universal pre-K, secondary schedules. No action. |
| 0:38:12 | 1. Elementary restructuring and time on learning | Discussion. No action. |
| 1:02:58 | Middle school, Stevens and tech center schedule and time on learning | Discussion, including the Region 10 agreement. No action; the chair asks for an investigation of dissolution (1:26:18). |
| 1:33:09 | Subcommittee reports | Negotiations (1:33:09); budget (1:33:42); policy (1:35:52); capital improvement and the reserve funds (1:39:58, 1:40:08). |
| 1:38:36 | Policies BEDH, GADA, BGBEC, ACAC (first read) | Whitney moves adoption on first read (1:38:36); the chair seconds (1:39:05); voice vote (1:39:48). See flag 5. |
| 1:48:39 | Other business: next meeting and retreat | Retreat set for Thursday, November 11, 5:00 (1:53:08, 1:54:12). See flag 2. |
| 1:55:51 | Good of the order | Zoom link (1:56:00); quarantine guidance (1:56:27); fiscal monitoring action plan (2:03:12). |
| 2:03:46 | Adjournment of the public meeting | Horsky moves; second from the same row (2:03:46); voice vote (2:03:54). The non-meeting that followed was not recorded. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/12005 SchoolBoard110321.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:09 | Agenda: a non-meeting added | “We are going to add a quick, very brief non meeting at the end of this meeting.” (0:01:09) | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:39 | October 20 minutes approved; earlier minutes still in rework | Lambert: the draft says “that I brought up the problems with obtaining tickets for Puerto Rico, but I don't know, I didn't bring that up.” (0:03:00) Approved as amended (0:03:21 to 0:03:34). The clerk says the earlier minutes (the September 15 set tabled on October 20; September 15 page) must be redone (0:02:16). | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:45 | Citizen: pre-K cost and the emergency fund | Benware: pre-K is “costing one half $1 million or more to run that program currently.” (0:05:06) “So we're looking at basically adding having two years worth of kids coming to pre-K.” (0:05:33) On the reserve: “About $175,000 that was taken out of our emergency fund and used for something” (0:07:38); voters were told “the only way that we're going to touch that money is if we have a vote.” (0:08:07) “It literally infuriates me if this is indeed the truth.” (0:08:49) | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:10:04 | Student representative | “On November 18th, we have the I applied day, where New Hampshire waves its application fees” (0:10:04) and a virtual financial-aid night. | |
| 0:10:58 | New district website | “The the program that does at the outfit is called app to G.” (0:11:17) (probably Apptegy); credit to “Tammy Morris and Jessica Casa” (0:11:41). | |
| 0:12:05 | Restructuring with universal pre-K | The plan centers on “the universal pre-K to expand early literacy.” (0:12:32) “That's it's looking positive that we can do that with the same staff or less.” (0:13:57) Modeled enrollment “the 379 that we had, the first go in the first go round is closer to 320.” (0:17:34) Pre-Covid the preschool had “before Covid there were 120 kids in the program 110 all the time.” (0:22:31); now 52 (0:23:10); a waiting list of typical peers (0:24:20, 0:24:39). Reading data: “the total below grade level of 37%.” (0:27:38) | |
| 0:28:37 | Secondary schedule alignment | A schedule “a popular schedule that I put into a couple districts in metro West Massachusetts” (0:28:37); full-year courses would “gain about 40% more time in a class” (0:30:08). Cost: “potentially three as I see it” (0:36:27) more teachers, with “knowing that the charge is to stay neutral or less from the board.” (0:36:57) | |
| 0:38:12 | Restructuring: board views | Whitney: “we're doing a very poor job of messaging” (0:38:38); “we are really failing our students dismally.” (0:39:48); “Right now, we have two interim principals” (0:43:43). Sprague: “I was there at Stevens when we when we started this” (0:46:41). Horsky: “there is a position saved” (0:49:05) by evening out class sizes; “The success of a school board or a school district is measured based on all students” (0:50:55). Stone: at the forum “There was no real attack on the merit of the plan” (0:55:55). | |
| 0:57:48 | Neighborhood schools and transitions | Whitney reviews research on neighborhood schools and moves between schools (0:57:53 to 1:00:51); Horsky: his children attended every school in the district because the family moved (1:01:04). | |
| 1:09:39 | Tech center and the Region 10 agreement | Superintendent: “it's almost 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 where we, we send kids to Newport versus that are coming here” (1:11:10). Horsky: “Are we contractually obligated to have the tech center inside the district” (1:13:14); “I used to come over from Newport to come here and take plumbing and heating” (1:13:14). Superintendent: “are there penalties if we shut the building.” (1:15:32) Horsky: “we can't have the Health Act because Newport already has.” (1:21:13) Enrollment: “in the four programs that exist in the building, that's about 100 students a day.” (1:22:14) | |
| 1:22:54 | Region 10 renewal | Petrin: “I'm concerned that we're going to roll into a new agreement just because we don't have the answer how to do it ourselves” (1:23:30). Chair: “an investigation of the dissolution of the region ten agreement is an essential piece of the restructuring.” (1:26:18) and “The renewal cycle is this year, hence the urgency.” (1:29:20) Nester: “the single greatest thing we could do would be to embed required credits into the tech courses.” (1:29:36) Chair: “No Child Left Behind came and said, no, you can't do that.” (1:30:44) | |
| 1:27:40 | Call for a retreat | Whitney: “I think we need to have, like a retreat, a board retreat to sit down and really hash out what the vision of the restructuring plan is.” (1:27:40) | MEDIUM |
| 1:30:58 | Full-year courses; college credit | Superintendent: “20 to 30% of our kids graduate with credit from that college.” (1:32:47) | |
| 1:33:09 | Negotiations and budget subcommittee | Bargaining with custodians and maintenance workers (1:33:09) and secretaries (1:47:43); “So we can't be wildly divergent on different groups.” (1:48:01) Budget target: “a negative tax impact, which doesn't necessarily mean we're spending less money.” (1:34:19) Seaman: “true level funded is absorbing what 600,000 in fixed more than that, 750 plus” (1:34:45). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:52 | Policies adopted on first read | “These are all basically ones that we need to use for compliance with the Doe.” (1:35:52) The chair on BEDH: “I'm very impressed with the way this is written.” (1:38:16) Adopted on Whitney's motion, the chair seconding, with open highlights in the Title IX policy (1:38:36 to 1:39:48). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:39:58 | Reserve funds and the Maple Avenue roof | “we have not taken any money as of yet.” (1:40:08) “approximately $175,000, which was for the two busses and the van.” (1:41:09) “So we have the cost of the maple roof we have incurred. There's still a couple ways to pay for that.” (1:44:13) Whitney: “when we asked for the balance in the fund, the balance that we were given was less that amount.” (1:46:52) | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:48:39 | Scheduling the retreat | Dates canvassed (1:49:16 to 1:54:12); Petrin asks whether administration should attend (1:51:32); “It's not Veteran's Day. It is Veteran's Day.” (1:53:12); set for the 11th at five (1:54:12), probably at the Dow (1:55:37). The chair: “If we accomplish a lot, we can skip a December meeting.” (1:55:51) | MEDIUM |
| 1:56:00 | Zoom link | Whitney: “there was a a zoom link for this meeting tonight that the public.” (1:56:00) “It was my understanding we weren't having zoom meetings.” (1:56:11) Petrin: “It got taken down.” (1:56:16) The link had carried over in the website change (1:56:08). | |
| 1:56:27 | New quarantine guidance | A parent asked about the state's new rule that “unvaccinated persons need to quarantine for household members.” (1:56:49); the superintendent reads the guidance and says the district will “comply with it, even though it sounds almost impossible.” (2:02:52) | |
| 2:03:12 | Fiscal monitoring action plan | Horsky asks for “an update on the fiscal monitoring report and make sure that we got the, paperwork sent over to Lindsey that we needed to get over for our action plan.” (2:03:12) Seaman: due the next day or Friday (2:03:25). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:03:46 | Adjournment of the public meeting | “I would like to make a motion to adjourn the public meeting. Second.” (2:03:46); voice vote (2:03:54). | OBSERVATION |
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 November 3, 2021, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet, policy texts or minutes survive; the recording is the only public account
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. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force since January 1, 2019, requires minutes naming members and persons appearing, describing subjects and final decisions, recording the members who moved and seconded each motion, and open to public inspection within five business days. The MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule applies because the record mitigates the gap: on December 1, 2021 the board approves the minutes of this meeting on tape (show 12056; December 1, 2021 page), so minutes were written. What is lost is the public copy, and with it the text of the four policies adopted tonight (flag 5), the restructuring and schedule slides, and the item list. Movers and seconders are audible for the agenda (0:01:32, 0:01:39), the October 20 minutes (0:03:21, 0:03:25) and the policies (1:38:36, 1:39:05); in both the agenda and the policy votes the chair seconded the motion himself. Every vote was by voice.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2021 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019): minutes content, movers and seconders, five business days
MEDIUM A board retreat set for Veterans Day, at which the restructuring plan was to be settled, left no minutes in any record found
Whitney proposed a retreat because “I think we need to have, like a retreat, a board retreat to sit down and really hash out what the vision of the restructuring plan is.” (1:27:40) Members settled on Thursday, November 11 at 5:00 (1:53:08, 1:54:12), noting “It's not Veteran's Day. It is Veteran's Day.” (1:53:12), with the SAU office as the likely venue (“Let's meet at the doubt.” (1:55:37) [the Dow]). A quorum of the board meeting to discuss the restructuring is a meeting under RSA 91-A:2, I, needing posted notice at least 24 hours ahead and minutes under ¶II; November 11 is a legal holiday under RSA 288:1, which does not itself bar a meeting.
What followed is known only from later recordings. At the SAU 6 board on November 18, 2021 the superintendent said the district had prepared data for the retreat recently and reported that the Claremont board had tabled the elementary restructuring (November 18, 2021 page). No vote to table restructuring appears on this recording or on the December 1, 2021 recording, where the board approved only the November 3 minutes (December 1, 2021 page); no recording or minutes of the retreat are in the corpus, and keyword searches of the board's recordings through May 2022 found no approval of retreat minutes. The MEDIUM limb applies rather than HIGH because the retreat's notice and any draft minutes cannot be checked from here and the search of later recordings was by keyword. The project's rule for such gaps holds: what was decided off camera is a hole in the record, not a fact this page asserts. The board had minuted its April 2021 retreat (see the May 5, 2021 page).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2021 codification): meeting defined; 24-hour notice; minutes; RSA 288:1 (November 11 a legal holiday); the November 18 and December 1, 2021 recordings (shows 12033 and 12056)
OBSERVATION A non-meeting was added to the end of the agenda without its subject being stated
The chair amended the agenda: “We are going to add a quick, very brief non meeting at the end of this meeting.” (0:01:09) The meeting ended with Horsky's “I would like to make a motion to adjourn the public meeting. Second.” (2:03:46), and the non-meeting was not recorded. RSA 91-A:2, I lists the sessions excluded from the definition of a meeting, among them strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining and consultation with legal counsel. Bargaining was live: the chair reported talks with the custodians and maintenance workers (1:33:09) and stressed consistency across the bargaining groups (1:48:01). If the session was bargaining strategy it falls within the exclusion; if it covered other board business, a quorum discussing it is a meeting that must be held in public or, for a listed reason, in nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3 on a roll-call vote. The record does not say which.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) and I(b) (2021 codification): exclusions for collective-bargaining strategy and consultation with counsel
OBSERVATION The Maple Avenue roof was replaced without a decided funding source, and reserve money had not always reached the trustees
Answering the questions raised on October 20 (October 20, 2021 page) and by a citizen tonight (0:07:38), the assistant superintendent for finance said that “we have not taken any money as of yet.” (1:40:08) He had planned in July to ask the board to release money from the fund for the roof (1:42:22), the roof was then installed (1:42:45), and he “held off in July on asking for any distribution” (1:43:33) while CARES Act eligibility was explored. Result: “So we have the cost of the maple roof we have incurred. There's still a couple ways to pay for that.” (1:44:13), either a board-approved draw or savings within the budget (1:44:13 to 1:45:53). A district contract for a whole roof, three months into the year, with no decision on how it will be paid, is a budgeting gap the board learned of only through its committee. He also said that before his arrival warrant-article money had not been transferred to the trustees of trust funds: “It hadn't been done prior to that for some period of time.” (1:40:44) This page found no statute text in force on this date to test either point against, so both are recorded as he stated them.
Sources: the recording; the October 20, 2021 recording (show 11963)
OBSERVATION Four policies, including the Title IX sexual-harassment policy, were adopted on first read to clear a state monitoring action plan; their texts are not in the public record
Horsky presented BEDH, GADA, BGBEC and ACAC (as transcribed) as “These are all basically ones that we need to use for compliance with the Doe.” (1:35:52) and asked that they be adopted on first read (1:36:23); BEDH is “It's the public participation at board meetings.” (1:37:22) Whitney moved “to pass all of the, policies presented by the policy committee, which is BEDHGADAABDGBECACAC.” (1:38:36); the chair seconded (1:39:05). The chair noted “There's still a few highlights on the a CAC the title nine sexual.” (1:39:22) (the Title IX sexual-harassment policy), with questions still to “review with Mike” (1:39:29); Whitney proposed to proceed and amend later (1:39:43), and the policies passed by voice (1:39:48). At the end of the meeting Horsky asked about the paperwork owed to “Lindsey that we needed to get over for our action plan.” (2:03:12), and the assistant superintendent said that “with tonight's, discussion of the policies, I can clear that piece off.” (2:03:25) On October 20 the Policy Committee had described these as gaps found in an audit (October 20, 2021 page). Since the 2020 Title IX rule took effect on August 14, 2020, recipients of federal education funds have had to adopt and publish grievance procedures for sex-discrimination complaints; adopting the district's policy with open questions, on first read, closes a compliance item quickly but leaves the adopted text uncertain. Neither the policies as adopted nor the monitoring report and action plan are in any district share this project can reach.
Sources: 34 CFR 106.8 and 106.45 as promulgated by the 2020 Title IX rule, 85 FR 30026 (May 19, 2020), effective Aug. 14, 2020
POSITIVE Reserve money is now held by the trustees and released only on a documented board vote
The assistant superintendent described the control he put in place: when voters approve a reserve article “we're supposed to actually take that cash and send it to the trustees of the trust funds, which which I have done since we've been here.” (1:40:08) To release money “I need to provide to them the motion and the approval from the board in order for those dollars to come out of those funds.” (1:40:44) He confirmed “nothing has been distributed from the capital fund, nothing has been distributed from the Special Education Fund.” (1:40:44), and that the one draw, “approximately $175,000, which was for the two busses and the van.” (1:41:09), came from the transportation fund under the board's approval last year, with the motion and documentation sent to the trustees. “There is no way without a board vote for any of those funds to be distributed from that expendable trust.” (1:47:17) Whitney: “Well, thank you for safeguarding that.” (1:47:32) A control that ties every disbursement to a recorded board motion, explained in public in answer to a citizen's question, is the practice the October 20 discussion asked for.
Sources: the recording
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: Claremont School Board of 11/3/21 (show 12005; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API refuses requests from this environment)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda, slides, policy texts 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.
- Other recordings cited: October 20, 2021 (show 11963; page), November 18, 2021 SAU 6 (show 12033; page), December 1, 2021 (show 12056; page). The April 2021 retreat minutes are discussed on the May 5, 2021 page.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12005 SchoolBoard110321.mp4.CSV (606 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12005 SchoolBoard110321.mp4Input/Transcripts/12005 SchoolBoard110321.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 155Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12005 SchoolBoard110321.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I and II, 2021 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019; in force until Oct. 2, 2023): meeting defined, with exclusions for collective-bargaining strategy and consultation with counsel; notice; minutes content, movers and seconders, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 288:1 (source note ends 1999): legal holidays, including November 11
- 2020 Title IX rule, 85 FR 30026 (May 19, 2020; effective Aug. 14, 2020): 34 CFR 106.8 grievance procedures, 106.45 grievance process