Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file; no minutes exist online to check spellings against, so spellings of non-members are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided. Moved the agenda himself and took it by voice vote; noted the minutes backlog; announced the new citizens' comment policy and then opened the floor within each discussion item; set out a "hold the course" position on Covid protocols; took on contacting Vital Communities about a candidate forum; announced the deliberative session. The dialogue file attributes the opening rows to him by floor control (they sit in the superintendent's diarization cluster). Rendered Greg. Spread at the roll and Sprog by a commenter. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Pressed the superintendent to explain the tech center overhead chart and the vacant positions "for the public"; read from the Perkins grant application; asked about pre-K space; gave a long statement on property taxes and budget flex; raised the learning lost to quarantines. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Proposed a controlled access point from the middle school using relief money; gave his view of the tech center's decline and the director position; answered a commenter on background checks and trade pay; explained why members do not answer group emails or post on Facebook; questioned a 39-student drop in registered enrollment. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Asked what prevented a middle school feeder program; worked the preschool capacity arithmetic; clarified the waitlist; moved the nonpublic session. Rendered Patron at the roll. |
| Nicholas Stone | Board member | Spoke from his own experience as a 2018 graduate who took tech center courses (the dialogue file rates this attribution medium); said he was "not sure I quite agree with Frank" on protocols and wanted data first. |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Recognized at 1:30:42 because he "hasn't spoken tonight"; asked for the 50/50 preschool model to be explained. Three attributed rows. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Answered the roll. No attributed words; a commenter thanks Rob for correcting her ward. His nonpublic vote is not separable on the tape (see flag 4). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gave a combined superintendent's report covering the strategic plan, the tech center reductions and schedule, the preschool recommendation, and Covid case and attendance data. Answered commenters on the nurse and guidance positions. |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Arrived late (Nestor in the transcript) and presented the history of the preschool program since 2014-15 and the administration's recommendation. |
| Paige | Preschool coordinator (surname not stated) | Answered questions on sessions, related services, the waitlist and staffing. The superintendent's report names a director the transcript renders Jarvis alongside Mr. Nester; whether that is Paige is not established on this recording. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant Superintendent for Finance, SAU 6 | One remark, on who ran an earlier candidate forum. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk / recording secretary | Called the roll on the nonpublic motion; addressed by the chair on the missing minutes. |
| Josh | Public commenter, Ward 3 (surname not stated) | Asked what student outcomes would improve by eliminating the tech center nurse and guidance counselor; asked about the preschool waitlist. |
| Unidentified | Public commenter, Ward 2 | Asked for the slides to be emailed or posted; asked why the director was being cut to half time; asked that the podium be moved so the audience could see and hear. Later, a speaker who identifies as a realtor (possibly the same person; not established) spoke about school ratings online. |
| Jen Gallagher | Public commenter, Ward 2 | A parent of a child in the preschool program; asked why a classroom was being cut and about partnering with high school students. |
| Unidentified | Public commenter (ward heard as Three) | Read a prepared statement asking the board to revisit mask requirements. |
| Whitney Skillen | Public commenter, Ward 2 | An epidemiologist by her own account on January 18; agreed with the chair about planning for long-term Covid impacts. Transcribed Whitney Skilling. She was elected to the board in March 2022. |
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 on the recording. A written agenda existed: the chair refers to "an agenda in front of us" and lists its discussion items at 0:02:43. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Called to order by the chair ("the school board meeting of two, two, two, two"). Roll called by the clerk; all seven names are heard. |
| 0:01:36 | Agenda | No amendments. After a voice pointed out that the printed start time was 7:00, the chair made the motion himself ("I'll make a motion that we accept the agenda as presented") and took a voice vote; no second is audible. |
| 0:02:23 | Approval of minutes | None available. See flag 1. |
| 0:02:43 | Citizens' comments | The chair listed the discussion items (preschool update, SRVRTC, candidate forum, Covid protocols) and said a recent policy bars citizens' comments on them, with the public to be heard during the discussion instead. No speakers; closed at 0:03:35. |
| 0:03:35 | Superintendent's report, combined with the SRVRTC discussion | Strategic plan, tech center reductions and schedule. Board questions, then public questions from 0:49:13. Informational; no vote. |
| 1:04:24 | Preschool update | Administration recommends returning to the 2018-19 model (one fewer teacher and classroom). Board and public questions. Informational; no vote. |
| 1:36:59 | Prospective school board candidate forum | By consensus, the chair to contact Vital Communities and report back. No formal vote. |
| 1:40:38 | Covid protocols | Case and attendance data; members' views; public comment on masks and long-term effects. No motion; protocols left as they were. |
| 2:03:08 | Announcements | Deliberative session the following Wednesday (February 9) at 6:30 in the Stevens High School auditorium, snow date February 10. |
| 2:03:36 | Nonpublic session | Petrin moved to enter nonpublic session citing RSA 91-A:3 and the wording of the employee-compensation exemption; seconder unidentified; roll call, every audible answer yes. The recording ends during the roll call. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, 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 |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Call to order, roll | Pledge; phones off; the clerk's roll is transcribed as "Joshua Lambert here. Rob Lovett, junior here. Michael." and "Nicholas Stone here. Greg. Spread here." | |
| 0:01:46 | Printed start time | A voice: "It does say the start time seven." Another: "There are normal type of 630." Chair: "I'm so used to I never look at the times. But thank you for that." Agenda then accepted as presented on the chair's own motion. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:23 | No minutes to approve | Chair: "Previous approval. We didn't have any minutes. Mary." An unidentified voice, probably the clerk: "I got several." Chair: "Several meetings to to approve." and "Because we have an improvement in quite a while." (the transcript's wording; context suggests haven't had an approval). | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:10 | Citizens' comments | Chair: "So we've recently passed a policy that citizens comments cannot involve one of the anything on the agenda that's a discussion or action item." and "You will have an opportunity during our discussion to discuss that, however." No speakers: "Seeing none of closed citizens comments." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:33 | Strategic plan and schedule | Superintendent: of the plan's five-year focus items, "two of the biggest ones are time on learning and teaching and learning to improve" student achievement. Schedule alignment between the middle school, Stevens and the tech center; advanced placement and dual-credit results. | |
| 0:21:38 | Tech center positions | Superintendent: the two positions added and now cut "were the guidance position and also the nurse position"; the nurse position "was a reduction in force" and that nurse is now in another building; the guidance counselor is now full time in Unity; the accounting program was lost, leaving four programs. | |
| 0:27:06 | Teaching load under the new schedule | Chair: "If we go to to a different schedule, the proposed schedule, they're teaching five." instead of six sections a year, so some sections may need to be added. | |
| 0:29:20 | Middle school access to the tech center | Horsky: "Would there be a way to create a controlled access point from the middle school to this building with that money?" (relief funds). Petrin asked what blocks a middle school feeder program; superintendent: technically not much. | |
| 0:43:58 | Director position | Horsky: "It's hard to justify, as a board member, a program that has half as many courses as Newport at a full time position" for the director. Superintendent at 0:48:17: "We can only net six of our kids right now per a strict interpretation of the region." [Region 10 agreement]. | |
| 0:49:13 | Public questions on the tech center | Chair: "So I want to give people an opportunity to speak, if they like". Josh (Ward 3): "It said student outcomes, but I didn't hear much about the students and student outcomes." and asked "what the student outcomes you expect to see" from eliminating the nurse and guidance counselor. Stone at 0:53:43: "I can speak on the student outcome I graduated in 2018 from." | POSITIVE |
| 0:54:42 | Perkins grant application | Whitney read from the application, including "We will contract with a consultant to help develop and implement a program". Chair: "It's it's dated May of 2020." Whitney at 1:03:42: "It's being funded by the Perkins grant." | |
| 0:57:20 | Ward 2 commenter | "Could that be emailed out?" (the slides); asked why the director is cut to half time if enrollment is growing. Horsky answered on background checks and trade salaries at 0:59:35. At 1:03:57: "we really can't see or hear you sitting down." | POSITIVE |
| 1:05:28 | Preschool recommendation | Superintendent: "retain the typical peer model reduced to three teachers and focus on the restructuring plan" and "There's too much risk programmatically and financially to revert back to a" separate model. | |
| 1:07:22 | Preschool history | Nester: preschool was a self-contained special education model until NHDOE reviewed its outcome data in 2014-15; it grew to three classrooms with a director, then 2019-20 cuts removed the director and an assistant. Recommendation at 1:10:48: "revert back to the 1819 model, which removes one teacher and one classroom." At 1:11:46: "we don't want to invite New Hampshire oversight again or risk another audit". | |
| 1:13:06 | Capacity | Nester on ratios: "that's the New Hampshire rules. One teacher, one pair of 12 kids, something like that." (his characterization; not checked here). Petrin: "So going to three classrooms, two sessions per day, your max would be 72." The chair separated preschool staff from district-wide related-services staff. | |
| 1:19:28 | Members respond to social media | Horsky: "we're only required by law to service the, the, the children with special needs." (his characterization of the law; not checked here). Whitney at 1:21:00 on taxes: "because the property tax is not a progressive tax." | |
| 1:25:08 | Realtor's comment | "They go home, they get on the computer and they see the ratings are not great." Chair: "It's called the Zillow effect." | |
| 1:26:34 | Parent's questions | Jen Gallagher (Ward 2): "why are we cutting a classroom from the little guys?" Whitney: "So we're not going back to the old model." Paige at 1:31:34: "I currently have six open positions for paraprofessionals." and "based on the number of staff I have, I am full." | POSITIVE |
| 1:33:06 | Waitlist | Petrin: "the waitlist is for the neurotypical kids. There is no waitlist for kids that are identified as special ed or special needs." | |
| 1:36:17 | Why members stay off Facebook | Horsky: members cannot all answer on Facebook "because the moment we do, it's considered a meeting." and he answers group emails selectively for the same reason. | POSITIVE |
| 1:36:59 | Candidate forum | Recollection of an earlier forum run by an outside organization; the chair to "reach out to vital communities and find out what's going on" and report back. The superintendent at 1:39:43 suggested another possible organizer. | |
| 1:40:38 | Covid data | Superintendent: "the good news is we're dipping back down"; elementary attendance "it's down about a factor of six evenly across the elementaries." Horsky at 1:44:39: "the number of registered students is also declined by 39." Whitney at 1:47:39: "if 22 students are out for ten days, that's 220 days of learning lost." | |
| 1:48:09 | Chair's view on protocols | "personally, I'm not ready to declare the pandemic over in Claremont." At 1:51:35: "we have some fairly relaxed protocols compared to some of our some of our neighbors." and "we hold the course". | |
| 1:52:54 | Other views | Superintendent on state calls and what is still unknown. Stone at 1:55:32: "I'm not sure I quite agree with Frank" and wanted data first. Petrin at 1:56:22: when a substitute covers, "It's still not the science teacher." | |
| 1:57:41 | Public comment on masks | An unnamed commenter read a statement on "revisiting the masks in schools question." citing studies, and ended at 2:00:23: "I feel safe saying that masking our kids forever is not supported by most parents." | POSITIVE |
| 2:00:54 | Public comment on long-term effects | Whitney Skillen: "I agree with, with Mr. Sprog" on planning for the long term, and asked "how are these policies, plans and strategies benefiting the students of Claremont?" | |
| 2:03:08 | Deliberative session announced | Chair: "Next Wednesday, 630. Snow days the 10th. Not here at Stevens High School auditorium." | |
| 2:03:36 | Motion for nonpublic session | Petrin: "I'd like to make a motion to go to nonpublic for RSA 91-A colon. Three the dismissal, promotion or" ... "compensation of any public employee." Seconded by an unidentified member. The clerk calls the roll from 2:04:06; Whitney, Horsky, Petrin, Stone and Sprague answer yes, and a single yes follows the paired names Lambert and Lovett. The recording ends. | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on February 2, 2022. Several provisions cited below were later amended, and each flag cites the text as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM For the third meeting running the board had no minutes to approve, and the chair described a backlog of several meetings
At 0:02:23 the chair said "We didn't have any minutes" and, after an exchange with the clerk ("I got several."), that there were "Several meetings to to approve." The transcript's next words, "Because we have an improvement in quite a while.", most plausibly mean that no minutes had been approved for some time. The two preceding meetings show the same gap: on January 5 the chair said "We don't have any meeting minutes tonight due to some technical difficulties" (show 12115; January 5 page), and on January 18 a member said "We don't have previous minutes." (show 12151; January 18 page).
RSA 91-A:2, II, as it read in 2022, required that minutes "be promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The statute does not require the board to approve minutes by any date, and draft minutes satisfy it, so a lag in approval is not by itself a breach. The concern is what the lag suggests: minutes that were not ready for the board a month or more after the meetings they record were probably not open to inspection within five business days either. The project's missing-records rule puts this at MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the record mitigates it: the clerk indicates on tape that minutes exist and are pending. Whether drafts were in fact available to the public on time cannot be tested from here; see flag 5.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes open to inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting.
OBSERVATION The agenda before the board printed a 7:00 start, but the board's usual time was 6:30, and the citizens' comment period opened and closed within the first four minutes
At 0:01:46 a voice at the table noted that the agenda "does say the start time seven."; another said the normal time was 6:30 (normal type of 630); the chair replied "I never look at the times." and moved on. The clock time at which the meeting was called to order is not stated on the recording, and CCTV's show metadata could not be retrieved for this page, so it is not known whether the meeting began at 6:30 or 7:00. If the posted notice carried the same 7:00 time and the meeting began earlier, a resident relying on it would have missed the opening citizens' comment period, which drew no speakers and was closed at 0:03:35.
RSA 91-A:2, II requires posted notice of "the time and place" of each meeting at least 24 hours ahead. The posted notice for this meeting is not in any available record, so this page cannot say what time it gave. It is an observation. Mitigation on the record: the chair invited public comment within each discussion item (flag 6), so a late arrival could still be heard on every substantive topic.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification): notice of time and place posted at least 24 hours ahead.
OBSERVATION A newly adopted policy barred citizens' comments on any discussion or action item on the agenda
The chair announced at 0:03:10: "So we've recently passed a policy that citizens comments cannot involve one of the anything on the agenda that's a discussion or action item." The same rule was invoked by a member on January 5. The policy text, its number and its adoption date are not in any available record. In February 2022 no New Hampshire statute set a minimum public comment period for school boards: RSA 189:74, which requires a comment period of at least 30 minutes at school board meetings held under RSA 91-A:2, was enacted later that year (2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022). A rule of this kind was therefore within the board's discretion at the time. The chair expressly paired it with an opportunity to speak during each discussion, and the board kept that promise (flag 6).
Sources: RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): school board public comment period, not in force on this date; district policy on citizens' comments (not located; described on the recording only).
OBSERVATION The nonpublic motion stated its ground and was taken by roll call, but what followed is not in any public record
The motion at 2:03:36 named RSA 91-A:3 and recited the words of the employee exemption ("the dismissal, promotion or" ... "compensation of any public employee"), and the chair asked for a roll call vote. That tracks RSA 91-A:3, I(b) as it read on this date: the motion "shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II", and the vote "shall be by roll call". Two points are left open. First, the clerk called "Joshua. Lambert. Rob. Lovett jr." together and a single yes follows, so the tape does not show how each of those two members voted; the result was plainly a majority either way. Second, the recording stops there. RSA 91-A:3, III required minutes of the nonpublic session and their public disclosure within 72 hours unless sealed by a two-thirds recorded vote taken in public session. Whether the board returned to public session, took any action, or voted to seal is not recorded, and no nonpublic minutes are posted (flag 5).
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a) and III (2022 codification; source note ends 2021, 163:1 and 172:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2022; later amended 2023, 189:1): exemption stated on the motion's face, roll call, 72-hour disclosure of nonpublic minutes.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md records that the district's 2022 Meeting Documents archive begins with the July 20, 2022 packet and that no Meeting Minutes year folder predates 2023 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the board plainly had a written agenda, and slides and a Perkins grant application were in members' hands. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied here is the online-availability observation. The separate evidence on tape of a minutes backlog is graded in flag 1.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 161.
POSITIVE The public was heard inside every discussion item, and members answered directly
Having closed citizens' comments under the new policy, the chair reopened the floor before leaving the tech center item (0:49:13), during the preschool item (1:25:08 and 1:26:34) and during the Covid item (1:57:41), and let speakers return with follow-up questions. At least five members of the public spoke, including a parent of a preschool child and a commenter who disagreed with the district's mask rules, and members and administrators answered them on the spot. No statute then required any comment period (RSA 189:74 took effect September 6, 2022), so this exceeded the legal minimum. Horsky's explanation at 1:36:17 of why members do not reply together on Facebook or to group emails reflects the rule that a board may deliberate only in meetings and may not use outside communications to get around that.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022); RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2022 codification; source 2008, 303:4): deliberation only in meetings; outside communications not to circumvent the chapter.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 12180, "Claremont School Board of 2/2/22": Claremont Community TV. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: the Claremont
2022 Meeting Documents archive begins with 1. CSB 7.20.22, the SAU 6 2022 Meeting Packets archive with 1. SAU SB Retreat 7.24.22, and no Meeting Minutes year folder predates 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet, slides, Perkins application, policy text or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: January 5, 2022 (budget and contracts sent forward; Covid discussion set for this meeting) and January 18, 2022 (budget hearing; tech center and autism specialist comments).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12180 SchoolBoard020222.mp4.CSV (581 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12180 SchoolBoard020222.mp4Input/Transcripts/12180 SchoolBoard020222.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12180 SchoolBoard020222.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 161
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on February 2, 2022. RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; 2022 codification). RSA 91-A:2-a (communications outside meetings; 2022 codification). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), III (nonpublic sessions; 2022 codification, before the 2023, 189:1 amendment). RSA 189:74 (school board public comment), cited only to show it post-dates this meeting (2022, 333:1).
- District policy. The citizens' comment policy described by the chair; its text was not located.