Annual organizational and regular meeting of the SAU 6 board (the joint board of the Claremont and Unity school boards), summarized from the meeting recording and its dialogue file. No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online. The board elected an absent Unity member as chair, tabled three sets of 2021 minutes that its clerk had not produced, questioned the business administrator line by line on the central-office budget, approved the annual data and privacy governance plan, and then spent forty minutes on the SAU's merit-pay pool: a motion to suspend it failed 4–6 on a roll call, an amended motion to release it at a flat 1.5% failed 5–5, and the item was tabled to May. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 Board (School Administrative Unit 6: the Claremont and Unity school boards sitting together)
Date
Thursday, April 21, 2022. The Cablecast record's event date reads April 20, 2022; the show title and the file name say April 21, and on the April 6, 2022 Claremont recording the board fixed the next SAU 6 meeting as "April 21st".
Start time
Scheduled time not stated in available records. The superintendent calls the meeting to order at 0:00:26; the motion to adjourn comes at 1:37:12. No nonpublic session. The dialogue file spans 0:00:05 to 1:37:24.
Location
Not stated in available records.
Recording
Cablecast: SAU 6 Board of 4/21/22 (dialogue file runs 1:37:24; the recording opens on pre-meeting table talk and ends as members leave).
Minutes
None located in the district's public shares as of September 26, 2026. The SAU 6 2022 Meeting Packets archive begins with the July 24, 2022 retreat and the Claremont Meeting Minutes share begins in 2023 (MAP.md section 165, checked 9/26/26), so neither the April 21 minutes nor the May 19, 2022 packet that would have carried them for approval is reachable online.
Board composition
Twelve members named in the clerk's roll: seven from Claremont (Michael Petrin, Frank Sprague, Steven Horsky, Joshua Lambert, Bonnie Miles, Whitney Skillen, Heather Whitney) and five from Unity (Marjorie Erickson, Shannon, Gary Bader, Rocco Ruggeri, Tanya Hart). Erickson and Bader were absent; Hart was "on her way" at the roll and voted later. Frank Sprague, elected vice chair at this meeting, presided because the newly elected chair was absent.
Participants
Everyone in the record. Names follow the dialogue file's speaker labels, checked against the clerk's roll call and the project's 2015–2023 roster; where the file leaves a voice unidentified, this table says so. No member of the public spoke: the chair opened and closed citizens' comments with no takers.
Name
Role
Participation
Frank Sprague
SAU 6 Vice Chair (Claremont), elected this meeting; presiding
Nominated for chair, then withdrew in favor of Marjorie Erickson: "I'll withdraw if Marjorie wants to do it." Argued against a Unity vice chair on the ground that "we've always split the power between the two." Ran the meeting from 0:06:37. Led the questioning of the monthly budget report, line by line (cell-phone stipends, office supplies, business-office salaries and retirement, copier costs). On merit pay: "[I] Don't know how you can give out merit pay when people don't know what merit is." Voted yes on both roll calls. Rendered Greg elsewhere in this corpus.
Marjorie Erickson
SAU 6 Chair (Unity), elected this meeting in absentia
Absent (the clerk: "Marjorie Erickson is absent" at 1:13:37). Nominated by the superintendent, who told the board she "would be willing for either nomination"; elected on a voice vote at 0:04:38. Rendered Roger is absent in the second roll call.
Michael Petrin
Member (Claremont); Claremont board chair since April 6, 2022
Nominated for SAU chair and declined: "I have the Claremont chair at this point." He had chaired the SAU 6 board since March 2019. Answers No on both merit-pay roll calls as heard. Rendered Mike patron and Michael. Patrick in the roll.
Steven Horsky
Member (Claremont); SAU 6 treasurer
Asked whether the treasurer's role he had held for a year was annual; the board confirmed him on a voice vote. Moved to suspend merit pay for 2021–22 ("I would like to suspend merit pay for this calendar year"), then moved the 1.5% cap amendment and the motion to table to May. Called a point of order to stop the amicus-brief discussion under other business and moved adjournment. Rendered Horse here in the roll.
Heather Whitney
Member (Claremont); Claremont vice chair
Asked about the Croydon vote and reported the next superintendent-evaluation meeting (April 23). Seconded the suspension motion. Her main statement, at 0:58:51: "we need to have a fiduciary responsibility" and "if the administration wants to support their employees, then advocate for higher wages for them, or develop a system that the board can approve and feel really comfortable approving." The dialogue file also gives her cluster two nominations (of Frank Sprague, and of Rocco Ruggeri) with no direct naming cue; treat those two as probable, not established.
Whitney Skillen
Member (Claremont)
Opposed suspension as premature and asked for "a better proposal." Moved to release the funds "with everyone getting equal amounts this year" and to have "a well specified process for a SA6 employee performance evaluation for the next year, starting July 1st." Restated the amended motion with the 1.5% cap. Asked whether Goshen's arrangement with Unity resembled Croydon's. Rendered Whitney Spillane and What are you feeling? in the rolls.
Joshua Lambert
Member (Claremont)
Asked whether merit pay covered only SAU employees (not teachers), asked for a concrete review timeline, and seconded the amended motion. Voted No on suspension and, as heard, Yes on the amended release motion.
Bonnie Miles
Member (Claremont)
Seconded the release motion (the chair: "Bonnie seconded. She did okay."). Her roll-call answers are unlabeled in the dialogue file; as heard she answers Yes both times. Rendered If Connie Miles in the attendance roll.
Rocco Ruggeri
Member (Unity)
Nominated for vice chair; the nomination was withdrawn. Asked how the ratings translate into percentages and whether distributions had been made in earlier years without evaluations. Favored the merit instrument ("It gives you incentive to be a top performer") and leaving this year's amount to the superintendent. The identification rests on one "Thanks, Rocco" and roll-call timing (medium confidence in the dialogue file); in the second roll call the same voice cluster also carries the answer after Petrin's name. Rendered Rock over. Jerry, Rocco or Jerry and Rögle BK.
Shannon (surname not spoken)
Member (Unity)
Answers the attendance roll and No on both merit-pay roll calls; her lines are unidentified voices in the dialogue file. The project roster lists the Unity member Shannon as Shannon Popescu, attested from roll calls only.
Tanya Hart
Member (Unity)
Absent at the attendance roll ("she is on her way"); arrived and voted. Heard as No on both roll calls, though the clerk's second call runs "Yes. Okay." then "That's Tonya. No." Rendered Antonio and Tonya.
Gary Bader
Member (Unity)
Absent (roll call: "Gary Bader is absent").
Michael Tempesta
Superintendent, SAU 6
Called the meeting to order and ran the officer elections. Gave the superintendent's report on Croydon's budget cut and tuition inquiries: Claremont has "two students from Croydon" who are seniors; he had consulted counsel Matt Upton. Explained how merit pay had been paid since he arrived: "all all we did was uniformly give it to everyone and the pool was in there." Said of the instrument: "I don't like this at all."
Richard Seaman
Assistant Superintendent for Finance (business administrator), SAU 6
Presented the budget-to-actual report and answered line questions, conceding one possible error: "Frank and I may have an error in there." Presented the merit-pay document as "a copy of what was approved at a previous date" and said: "I didn't know that there was a formal process in place like this." Asked for latitude to reallocate declined amounts; was told the motion did not give it. Gave the 2023 high-school tuition figure, transcribed as "Just below 16, 59, 86." Chaired the Claremont board in 2015–16.
Ben Nester
Director of Special Education, SAU 6
Raised a friend-of-the-court letter on state (DHHS) cost-shifting that "made it into the packet but didn't make it into the agenda tonight", with a June 13 sign-on date. Identification medium in the dialogue file, supported by his presentation of the same item on May 4, 2022.
Mary Woodman
School district clerk; recording secretary
Called the attendance roll and both merit-pay roll calls. Told the board the 2021 minutes were missing: "I don't think you have them," citing computer problems. Addressed as Mrs. Whitman once.
Unidentified
SAU 6 technology staff member
Presented the data and privacy governance plan at 0:35:33 ("every year we should be presenting this to the board for approval"). Not named on the recording; the dialogue file suggests but does not establish the Director of Technology.
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted online. This list is reconstructed from the presiding officer's transitions on the recording and is labeled accordingly; the chair refers to "an agenda in front of us" at 0:07:36, so one existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
Nominations of Michael Petrin and Frank Sprague; Petrin declines; the superintendent nominates Marjorie Erickson, absent; Sprague withdraws; Erickson elected on a voice vote at 0:04:38. No weighted vote was requested.
Sprague and Ruggeri nominated; after Sprague's remark about splitting offices between the districts, Ruggeri's nomination is withdrawn and Sprague is elected, presiding in the chair's absence.
Motion to approve the SAU 6 Claremont and Unity data and privacy governance plan, assembled across three speakers on the recording (Skillen and Whitney), seconded by Horsky; approved on a voice vote at 0:38:04.
(1) Horsky motion to suspend merit pay for 2021–22, Whitney second: failed on a roll call, 4 yes and 6 no (the business administrator's count at 1:15:20). (2) Skillen motion to release the funds equally with an evaluation process by July 1, 2022, Miles second; Horsky amendment capping it at 1.5%, Whitney second, passed on a show of hands (6 to 4); the amended motion failed on a roll call, 5 to 5, at 1:27:44. (3) Horsky motion to table to the May meeting passed on a voice vote.
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Each time is 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.
The superintendent takes nominations. Petrin: "I have the Claremont chair at this point." Tempesta nominates the absent Unity member: "Marjorie did share with me that she would be willing for either nomination." Sprague withdraws; Erickson elected. Sprague recalls that the board had elected Petrin in his absence the year before.
Sprague: "no offense, Rocco, is that we've always split the power between the two." Ruggeri's nomination is withdrawn and Sprague takes the vice chair; an unidentified member: "That means you're actually running the meeting."
Sprague lists "meeting minutes from the 20th of October, 2021. November 18th of 2021. In December 16th of 2021." Horsky: "I don't recall getting." Tempesta: "they're not in the packet." Tabled. The clerk: "I don't think you have them. Okay. Because I've been having very frequent, problems with my computer." Asked to keep the board posted, she answers "I will."
Croydon's budget cut "800,000 from, from 1.7 million or something like that", a special town meeting on May 7, tuition inquiries to Claremont and Unity. "We currently have two students from Croydon" (both seniors). "We can't enter any agreements at all without board." Claremont's 2023 high-school tuition was already set; the business administrator's figure is transcribed as "Just below 16, 59, 86." Whitney asks about the vote threshold she read in the Valley News.
Seaman: the administration has "put a real restriction on expenditures going into the end of the year." Sprague questions cell-phone stipends that "come to $16,000" and that he did not remember discussing; Seaman explains them as payment for employees' own phones. Horsky asks how many phones per department.
Superintendent-office salaries: "a $12,000 deficit", explained by a replacement hired at a different salary. Business-office retirement: Sprague, "that's 25% of the whole income." Seaman: "You are correct. I have not looked at that. Frank and I may have an error in there." Copier costs: Sprague reads the budget as "20, 20, 2000" and the actual as "62, 94. So it's 4294 over", unexplained on the night. Legal fees: one SAU litigation matter "is now closed."
"So every year we should be presenting this to the board for approval." The presenter describes membership in the New Hampshire Student Privacy Alliance and signed agreements with software vendors. Sprague asks whether the state could reject it; the answer is that it would come back with recommendations. Approved at 0:38:04.
Seaman: "This is a copy of what was approved at a previous date. I don't know exactly what the time was. Three years ago." His objection: an employee would learn "six weeks from now" the basis on which the year just ended is evaluated. "It's just bad management. We should be having those conversations now."
Tempesta: "I didn't know there was a merit pool until halfway through the year." "We did the same, a similar thing last year where everyone got the same." At 0:50:02: "I don't think it was ever in place. I think it was founded three years ago. There was a huge turnover. No one knew about it and all all we did was uniformly give it to everyone." Ruggeri: "So distribution and distributions were made. But the the valuation piece wasn't in place." Tempesta: "Correct."
Horsky: "I'm going to make a motion to suspend merit pay for the 2122 year and till we have this completely fleshed out." Whitney seconds. Horsky: "it's actually currently suspended by the board. It was voted last year to be suspended because it was so unclear." Seaman disputes Sprague's claim that merit is already "baked in" through market adjustments.
Whitney: the issue is "process" and "fiduciary responsibility." Horsky: "you could have Susie, who's working her tail off, but she's getting the same amount as Bob." Skillen and Lambert ask for a timeline. Ruggeri: the document "gives you incentive to be a top performer."
Skillen asks why so much time passed since November 2021. Seaman: "I didn't know it existed." "I thought it was at the discretion of the superintendent, which seemed to be a reasonable thing."
As heard: Petrin no, Shannon no, Ruggeri no, Hart no, Sprague yes, Horsky yes, Lambert no, Miles yes, Skillen no, Whitney yes ("Heather I'm a yes"). Seaman: "Six knows four yeses and two absences." The motion fails. Sprague: "the money is still suspended because no motion has been made to release it."
Skillen moves release "with everyone getting equal amounts this year", Miles seconds. Horsky: "I make a motion to amend the capital at 1.5% instead of the 3%." The amendment passes on a show of hands: "I think it was 6 to 4." Restated: "Everyone gets paid equally 1.5%. And that we finalize a robust well specified saw six employee performance procedures by July 1st, 2022."
Ruggeri would leave the amount "at the discretion of the superintendent." Tempesta: "I don't like this at all." Seaman asks to reallocate declined shares; Sprague: the motion "caps it at 1.5%. Richard. That's the max." Seaman: "So everyone will receive 1.5%. There's not the ability to reallocate that to other employees."
As heard: Petrin no, Shannon no, Ruggeri no, Hart no (after an initial "Yes. Okay."), Sprague yes, Horsky no, Lambert yes, Miles yes, Skillen yes, Whitney yes. The clerk: "Five, five. Okay. Or even 5 to 5." "Speaker, the motion fails." Horsky's motion to table to the May meeting passes on a voice vote.
Skillen asks whether Goshen's arrangement with Unity resembles Croydon's. Horsky asks about liability if a tuition district cannot pay; Tempesta: "We have two kids now paid already that will close out." Seaman: the SAU could require payment "up front."
Nester: "This made it into the packet but didn't make it into the agenda tonight." Sprague: "Other business, we can talk about it. We can't vote on it." Nester: "it has to do with the state trying to downshift costs to the local taxpayer" and "It's not a lawsuit." Horsky calls a point of order and asks for it on the next agenda.
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on April 21, 2022. Where a provision has been amended since, the flag cites the text that governed on that date. 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. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
HIGH Minutes of three 2021 SAU 6 meetings had not reached the board four to six months later, and the clerk said on the record why
At 0:08:22 the presiding officer listed "meeting minutes from the 20th of October, 2021. November 18th of 2021. In December 16th of 2021." No member had them; the superintendent confirmed "they're not in the packet"; the item was tabled. The clerk then explained at 0:09:02: "I don't think you have them. Okay. Because I've been having very frequent, problems with my computer." (The project holds a recording of an SAU 6 meeting dated October 21, 2021, show 11980; the chair's "20th" may refer to it.)
RSA 91-A:2, II as codified in 2019 and in force on this date required that minutes "shall be promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", and that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes." On this recording the October minutes were 183 days old and the December minutes 126 days old. Severity limb (run contract section 5): graded HIGH because the recording itself shows the lapse and nothing on the record mitigates it: no one says the minutes exist in draft elsewhere, and the clerk's explanation accounts for the delay without curing it. The limit of the finding: draft minutes could in principle have been open for inspection at the SAU office without being placed in the board's packet; the clerk's words make that unlikely but do not exclude it.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
The chair worked from "an agenda in front of us" (0:07:36) and members referred to a packet ("I have your thick packet", 0:35:33), but neither is in the district's public Drive shares, and no minutes of this meeting were located. A two-stage search was made in the terms of the run contract: this meeting has no packet folder; the later SAU 6 folders begin only with 1. SAU SB Retreat 7.24.22, so the May 19, 2022 packet that would have carried these minutes for approval is not online either; and the Claremont Meeting Minutes share, which has never held an SAU 6 file, begins in 2023 (MAP.md section 165, checked 9/26/26). Because the online archive starts in July 2022, the absence is a limit of what the district posts, not by itself evidence that minutes were never kept. It is recorded as an observation.
OBSERVATION Every vote was counted by head; the statute's weighted vote was never demanded, and on the tied release motion the two districts' members split in opposite directions
RSA 194-C:8 gives each district in an SAU "one vote for each 16 pupils residing in that district and enrolled in schools under the administrative unit" in "all votes regarding school administrative unit affairs, including the organization of such unit's school board and selection of officers", but weighted votes "shall only be used upon the demand of a majority of the members of any board present and voting." No one demanded one at this meeting, so the head counts stand as the lawful result: the chair election (voice vote), the suspension motion (4–6) and the amended release motion (5–5, failing on the tie).
The observation is what the head count concealed. As heard in the second roll call at 1:25:47, the seven Claremont members present voted five to two for releasing the pool at 1.5% and the three Unity members present voted against. Claremont has several times Unity's enrollment, so a weighted count would very likely have reversed the result; the precise weights cannot be computed from the record. The individual answers are taken from an ASR roll call with several unlabeled voices and one self-correcting answer (Hart), and no minutes are available to confirm them.
OBSERVATION By the administration's own account, the merit pool had been paid out without the evaluations the board-approved plan called for, and the HR lead did not know the plan existed
The plan in the packet was, in the business administrator's words at 0:38:27, "a copy of what was approved at a previous date" about "Three years ago." The superintendent said at 0:50:02 that "all all we did was uniformly give it to everyone and the pool was in there", and when Ruggeri summarized "distributions were made. But the the valuation piece wasn't in place", he answered "Correct." The business administrator, who handles HR, said at 1:12:36: "I didn't know it existed" and "I thought it was at the discretion of the superintendent." Horsky said the pool had been "voted last year to be suspended because it was so unclear"; the board's October 2021 discussion is on the October 21, 2021 page.
No statute governs how an SAU pays a non-union merit pool, so this is not a legal flag. It records that compensation was paid on a basis the board's own plan did not describe, that the board had to rediscover its own policy, and that the evening ended with the money still suspended and the question tabled.
Sources: the recording at the times linked above. No verified rule applies.
OBSERVATION Several lines of the monthly budget report could not be explained on the night, including one the business administrator agreed might be wrong
Sprague's line questions from 0:23:14 produced $16,000 of cell-phone stipends he did not recall the board discussing, a $12,000 superintendent-office salary variance, a copier line well over budget with "nothing there" in the lease line, and a business-office retirement figure he called "25% of the whole income." Seaman at 0:32:34: "You are correct. I have not looked at that. Frank and I may have an error in there in the in the in the encumbrance." He undertook to return with detail. The board's questioning is what surfaced these items, and the business administrator said he prepares and reviews the report monthly. No rule is cited; recorded for follow-up against the SAU's later reports.
Sources: the recording at the times linked above. No verified rule applies.
POSITIVE The annual data and privacy governance plan was presented and approved, as state law required
The presenter at 0:35:33: "every year we should be presenting this to the board for approval." That matches RSA 189:66, V as in force on this date: "Each local education agency shall develop a data and privacy governance plan which shall be presented to the school board for review and approval by June 30, 2019. The plan shall be updated annually and presented to the school board." Horsky asked whether approval kept the SAU in compliance with state audits; Sprague asked whether the state could send it back. The board approved it on a voice vote at 0:38:04, ahead of the June 30 cycle.
POSITIVE The divided merit-pay motions were decided by named roll calls, and an item missing from the agenda was discussed but not acted on
The presiding officer called for a roll call on the suspension motion "because it sounds like it's going to be split votes", and again on the amended release motion, so each member's vote was stated aloud. Nothing in the law then in force required a roll call at an in-person meeting. When the special-education director raised a friend-of-the-court letter that "made it into the packet but didn't make it into the agenda tonight", the chair ruled at 1:35:10: "Other business, we can talk about it. We can't vote on it", and a member's point of order sent it to the next agenda. RSA 91-A:2, II then required notice of the meeting's time and place but not an itemized agenda, so both practices exceed the statutory minimum.
Cablecast show 12353, "SAU 6 Board of 4/21/22": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording. The record's event date is April 20, 2022 (MAP.md date note).
No packet folder: the district's 2022 Meeting Documents archive begins with 1. CSB 7.20.22 and the SAU 6 2022 Meeting Packets archive with 1. SAU SB Retreat 7.24.22 (MAP.md section 165, checked 9/26/26).
Minutes: none located (see flag 2). A Drive title and full-text search on 2026-09-26 for this date returned nothing relevant; per the run contract, a search result alone proves nothing either way.
State, Right-to-Know.RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification, in force until Oct. 3, 2023): notice of time and place; minutes within 5 business days; mover and seconder recorded. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI: public body.
State, SAUs and schools.RSA 194-C:8: weighted votes on demand of a majority. RSA 189:66, V: annual data and privacy governance plan.