Participants
Everyone heard or named as present in the recording. No agenda or minutes were found, so names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and the attribution report for this recording; transcript renderings are noted where they differ.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair | Presides; adds the lunch-program item (0:01:19); introduces the new student representative and states she is his daughter (0:05:10); invites public comment during items (0:53:36); asks about putting the food-service surplus in a trust (2:08:48). |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair | Answers the roll (0:01:09); asks how restorative practice works when a victim does not want to take part (0:40:22); seconds adjournment (2:16:16). |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Moves the amended agenda and deferral of minutes (0:02:02, 0:02:17); asks how a student panel would work (0:42:20); argues the district should resist parent requests for out-of-district placement (1:51:23); asks for surplus options including a trust (2:09:17 to 2:10:02); moves adjournment (2:16:12). |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Raises "he said she said" cases under restorative practice (0:44:32); asks about parents who refuse in-district programs (1:48:46) and middle-school out-of-district costs (1:54:50); recalls the earlier unpaid-lunch controversy (2:04:03). |
| Whitney Skillen | Board member | Asks that the next visioning update cover the committee's budget (0:15:36) and how restorative practice supports a victim (0:52:22). Roll heard as "Whitney skilling". |
| Bonnie Miles | Board member | Asks how many students go unfed over weekends (2:01:44), about backpack food programs (2:02:37) and who pays for unpaid meals (2:10:25). |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Asks for a graduation update in June (2:15:14). |
| Hannah (surname not stated) | Student representative (new) | First report: middle and high school events, career day and the tech center summer camp (0:06:19 to 0:08:32). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reports on the tech center visioning committee and career day (0:09:09 to 0:15:30); on meetings with a parents' group about bullying (0:16:22); presents the $500 donation (1:57:39). |
| Chris Pratt | Incoming Stevens High School principal | Presents restorative practices (0:19:57 to 0:40:10) and answers questions to 0:52:43. |
| Baker (first name not stated) | Principal, Bluff Elementary School | Year-end presentation on family events (0:54:43 to 1:06:08); addressed as “Miss Baker” (1:06:01). |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School | Year-end presentation with the student services coordinator (1:06:31 to 1:24:27). First name from the project roster. |
| Nicole Boynton | Student services coordinator, Disnard Elementary | Introduced by Lewis (1:06:31); describes the school's weekly student recognition (1:12:15). |
| Unidentified | Principal, Maple Avenue Elementary School | Year-end presentation (1:24:50 to 1:38:23); name not stated on the recording. |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Presents the in-district special education programs' cost summary (1:40:45 to 1:57:10). |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources, SAU 6 | Lunch program update (1:59:18 to 2:15:02). |
| Melissa Small | SAU 6 staff, recording secretary | Reads the roll (0:01:07, 0:01:09). |
| Candy Crawford | Citizens' comment, Ward 2 | Self-identifies as “Candy Crawford for two” (0:03:04); asks for a visioning committee update and use of the tech center building (0:03:34), and for a report on graduates' plans (0:04:05). Labeled Candace Crawford in the dialogue file. |
| Unidentified | Others | 136 of 597 rows (22.8%): about 60 are voices in a training video shown during the restorative-practices item (0:31:19 to 0:35:59) and 36 the Maple Avenue principal; the rest are seconds, thanks and fragments. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting was found. The chair numbers the discussion items one to five (0:01:19, 0:16:12, 1:57:27); the order below is reconstructed from his transitions.
Items in the order taken up, with dispositions as heard in the recording
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll as heard names four members (0:01:07, 0:01:09). |
| 0:01:19 | Agenda amendment and approval | Chair adds item 5, lunch program (0:01:19, 0:01:40). Horsky moves the amended agenda (0:02:17); unidentified second (0:02:21); voice vote (0:02:23). |
| 0:02:02 | Previous minutes | Deferred again at Horsky's suggestion: “We can probably move on until we full for fleshed out version of those.” Chair: “So the sketch in the previous minutes.” No vote. See MEDIUM. |
| 0:02:34 | Citizens comments | One speaker, Candy Crawford, Ward 2 (0:03:04); closed at 0:05:10. |
| 0:05:10 | Student representative report | New representative introduced (0:05:10 to 0:05:58); report (0:06:19). See OBSERVATION. |
| 0:09:06 | Superintendent report | Visioning committee and career day (0:09:09 to 0:15:30). |
| 0:16:12 | 1. Bullying parent group updates; restorative practices | Superintendent (0:16:22), then the incoming Stevens principal (0:19:57). Discussion only. |
| 0:53:59 | 2. Elementary school end-of-year presentations | Bluff (0:54:43), Disnard (1:06:31), Maple Avenue (1:24:50). Discussion only. |
| 1:39:59 | 3. Special education programs update | Discussion only (1:40:45 to 1:57:10). See OBSERVATION. |
| 1:57:27 | 4. Exxon Mobil / Summit Distribution donation | $500 for STEM acknowledged; chair: no vote needed because of the amount (1:58:31). See OBSERVATION. |
| 1:58:47 | 5. Lunch program (added) | Update only; vendor decision set for June (2:10:10, 2:13:44). See OBSERVATION. |
| 2:13:44 | Other business; closing activities | Agenda requests (2:14:05); graduation update for June (2:15:14); superintendent's senior luncheon moved to the 26th (2:15:34). |
| 2:16:12 | Adjournment | Horsky motion (2:16:12); chair names Heather as second; voice vote (2:16:16). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:19 | Agenda; minutes deferred | Lunch program added as item 5 (0:01:19). Previous minutes put off “until we full for fleshed out version of those” (0:02:02). | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:04 | Citizens comments | Crawford: the tech center has “only four programs” in a building set up for eight (0:03:34); asks what share of seniors graduate and continue their education (0:04:05). The superintendent answers in his report (0:04:40). | POSITIVE |
| 0:05:10 | New student representative | Chair: “Hannah was selected as student rep, Hannah as my daughter. But it has nothing to do with me being on the school board.” (0:05:10); the high school principal took candidates from student council and “some of the staff administration, decided and chose and selected one person” (0:05:39, 0:05:58). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:09 | Visioning committee; career day | About 15 members met; “Alex Herzog was was elected to be the co-chair” (0:09:30). Skillen asks that the next update cover “how to use the budget set aside for the Visioning Committee” (0:15:36). | |
| 0:16:22 | Parents' group on bullying | The superintendent, assistant superintendent and business administrator met a group of “concerned citizens in Claremont” (0:16:22, 0:16:58); more meetings and summer forums planned (0:19:09). | |
| 0:19:57 | Restorative practices (incoming Stevens principal) | Pratt: the goal is that “Students, parents, the community know exactly how administration is going to respond” (0:21:39); the five questions (0:27:17); suspensions held in abeyance if the student completes the process (0:37:49). Asked about victims: “The victim never has to participate.” (0:40:42). Training of two to five days for panels and staff, rollout next year (0:50:45). A short training video was shown (0:31:19 to 0:35:59). | |
| 0:54:43 | Elementary year-end presentations | Bluff: an event for families “about once every month” (0:54:55). Disnard: rebuilding community after COVID (1:06:31, 1:10:37). Maple Avenue (1:25:08). Horsky asks that the board request such reports “quarterly” (1:39:01). | |
| 1:40:45 | Special education in-district programs | Three programs serve 17 students (1:43:53); operating cost “right around 686,000” (1:44:16) against “about 1.8 million” estimated for out-of-district placement (1:44:55); state aid at “a 68%” (1:45:21); sheet figure “around 623,000” (1:45:45), corrected to “around 585,000” after removing tuition students counted twice (1:46:18, 1:46:45). Horsky: “you double dipped”; Nester: “In layman's terms I double dipped.” (1:53:40, 1:53:48). Middle-school behavior programming is “The the black hole” (1:54:24). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:51:23 | Out-of-district placement requests | Horsky: “we shouldn't just lay down and continue to cost taxpayers tuition” (1:51:23). Nester: the district has not taken a placement dispute to due process (1:50:53). | |
| 1:57:39 | Donation | $500 from Exxon Mobil and Summit Distribution for STEM, to be allocated by a new committee (1:57:39). Chair: “because of the dollar amount, we do not need to vote to approve this” (1:58:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:59:18 | Lunch program | Seaman: pandemic universal free meals end June 30 (1:59:18); the five-year food-service RFP drew two responses, the incumbent Abbey Group and one heard as “fresh picks” (1:59:45). Students who cannot pay get an alternate meal (2:05:11). Estimated food-service surplus “of about $300,000” (2:07:10), which “needs to be spent on food related, something” (2:07:34). Chair asks about a trust to cover a future deficit (2:08:48); Horsky asks for options by the next meeting (2:09:41). Miles on weekend hunger: “I just can't bear that thought of.” (2:11:37). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:13:44 | Other business; adjournment | Food-service vendor decision for June (2:13:44); graduation update requested (2:15:14); adjournment (2:16:12, 2:16:16). | |
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 May 18, 2022, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes found, and the previous minutes were still a sketch
No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were found. The district's 2021 22 CSB Packets (Web) archive holds a folder for May 4, 2022 (19. CSB 5.4.22) and none was found for May 18; the 1. CSB 7.20.22 packet, which carries the minutes of February 9, April 6 and June 15, 2022, has none for May 4 or May 18; Drive title searches for 5.18.22, 5-18-22 and 051822 returned nothing (2026-10-03). The search was two-stage, but these shares are only partly listable, so this is "not found", not "never existed". The recording shows an agenda and a packet did exist (0:01:19, 1:40:28). At the start the board put off the previous minutes “until we full for fleshed out version of those”, and the chair called them “the sketch in the previous minutes” (0:02:02, 0:02:11). If those were the May 4 minutes, as the meeting sequence suggests, they were still incomplete fourteen days (ten business days) later. RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes, drafts included, "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", recording members, persons appearing, the subject matter, final decisions and each motion's mover and seconder. MEDIUM under the project's severity rule: the record mitigates, because the meeting was noticed and packeted on the evidence of the tape and only the documents are missing. Without minutes, the seconder of the agenda motion (0:02:21) is unknown.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019)
OBSERVATION A $500 private gift was acknowledged without an acceptance vote
The chair said that “because of the dollar amount, we do not need to vote to approve this” (1:58:31). RSA 198:20-b lets a school board accept unanticipated money from a private source only where the district has adopted the enabling article (¶I). For gifts under $5,000, ¶III(b) requires the board to "post notice of the funds in the agenda" and "include notice in the minutes", and says the acceptance "shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting" (statute's words). The acknowledgment did take place in public session at a regular meeting, and the item was on the agenda by the chair's numbering (1:57:27). Whether the district has the enabling article, whether the posted agenda named the gift, and whether minutes record it cannot be checked, because no agenda or minutes were found (MEDIUM). The statute does not use the word vote, so this is an observation, not a finding.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2022 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
OBSERVATION A food-service surplus of about $300,000 must stay in the food program, which limits the trust idea
The business administrator estimated a food-service surplus “of about $300,000” for the year (2:07:10) and said it “needs to be spent on food related, something”, such as kitchen equipment or a middle-school serving line (2:07:34, 2:08:08). That matches 7 CFR 210.14(a): school food authority revenue may be used only for the operation or improvement of the nonprofit food service; ¶(b) limits net cash resources to three months' average expenditures. The chair asked about putting the money in a trust to cover a future deficit (2:08:48), and the business administrator called that “another alternative”, including to “pay off any deficits” (2:09:10). Moving program money into a district trust outside the food-service account would raise the 210.14(a) question, and USDA guidance (SP 23-2017) says nonprofit food-service resources may not cover unpaid-meal bad debt, which must be restored from non-federal funds. No decision was taken; the June vendor and surplus discussion would settle it.
Sources: 7 CFR 210.14(a)-(b), 2022 edition (revenue used only for the program; three-month net cash limit); USDA FNS SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017), unpaid meal charges guidance (guidance, not regulation)
OBSERVATION The special education savings figure the board received counted two tuition students twice
The written summary gave “around 623,000” in savings or cost avoidance from three in-district programs (1:45:45). Before the meeting the director found that two tuition students from Fall Mountain were in both the cost-avoidance count and the revenue, and gave a corrected “around 585,000” not shown on the sheet (1:46:18, 1:46:45). The estimate also rests on assumptions stated aloud: every one of 17 students would otherwise be placed out of district (1:44:55), and state special education aid would come in at 68% (1:45:21). Catastrophic aid under RSA 186-C:18, III is prorated when the appropriation falls short, with no floor in the 2022 text, so the percentage changes year to year. No vote turned on the figure. The correction was made in public, but the board's copy still carries the overstated number.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (2022 codification; proportional proration, no floor; source note ends 2021, 209:2)
OBSERVATION The new student representative is the chair's daughter; the chair disclosed it and described a staff selection
The chair told the board and viewers that the new student representative is his daughter and that the high school's staff and administration chose her from about three student council volunteers (0:05:10 to 0:05:58). No statute governing student representatives was verified for this page. The disclosure was made on the record before she spoke, which is what a reader would want. Whether the selection process was written down, and whether the chair took part in any vote touching it, cannot be checked without minutes.
Sources: No verified rule; recording only
POSITIVE Citizens invited to speak at the start and on each agenda item
The chair opened citizens' comment for items off the agenda and said citizens could also speak when each item came up (0:02:34), let a speaker go ahead who was unsure her topic qualified (0:03:01), and repeated the invitation during the restorative-practices item (0:53:36). The superintendent answered her question in his report (0:09:09). RSA 189:74's public-comment requirement did not take effect until September 6, 2022.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not in force on May 18, 2022)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: School Board Meeting live on 5/18/22 (show 12399; run time not retrieved, the Cablecast API refuses requests from this environment)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda, handouts or minutes found. Checked the district archive 2021 22 CSB Packets (Web) (its listing shows folders for 4/6/22 and 5/4/22 only), the later 2022 packet folders recorded in MAP.md including 1. CSB 7.20.22, and title searches for
5.18.22, 5-18-22 and 051822 (2026-10-03). MAP.md section 167 records no packet folder; the 2021-22 archive is not yet in MAP.md.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.CSV (597 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4Input/Transcripts/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 167Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2022 codification (in force Jan. 1, 2019 to Oct. 2, 2023): minutes content, movers and seconders, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2022 codification: unanticipated private gifts under $5,000; agenda and minutes notice; acceptance in public session
- RSA 186-C:18, III, 2022 codification: special education catastrophic aid and proration
- RSA 189:74 (eff. Sept. 6, 2022): cited only to show it was not yet law
- 7 CFR 210.14(a)-(b), 2022 annual edition: use of food-service revenue; net cash resources
- USDA FNS SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017): unpaid meal charges and bad debt (guidance)