Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, plus members named in the roll call. Names follow the project's dialogue file; where it says Unidentified, so does this table. No minutes exist online to check attendance or spellings against. No member of the public spoke.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 chair (Unity); presiding | Ran the agenda and votes. On the missing minutes: "We still don't have minutes. Wow." Asked how removing merit pay would affect the budget; led the retreat scheduling; described the evaluation committee's meetings and said at 0:35:02 that she did not think Middleton [McGoodwin] "was ever evaluated". |
| Frank Sprague | SAU 6 vice chair (Claremont member) | Proposed at 0:09:36 an outside review of SAU staffing, recalling that former superintendent Keith Pfeiffer [Pfeifer] had suggested one; "I would prefer an impartial evaluation of of the systems of people at the saw [SAU]." Suggested teacher contract negotiating as a retreat topic. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member (Claremont) | Moved to postpone the minutes and approve the amended agenda; moved to remove the merit pay plan from the SAU 6 budget and then to amend the motion to freeze the funds until the board approves their use (0:21:04); moved adjournment. Supported the retreat as a chance for a "third eye looking in". |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (Claremont); superintendent evaluation committee | Asked who pays for an outside review and whether the merit money could fund summer help; asked for budgeting and school funding as retreat topics; asked members to send questions to the evaluation committee. The attribution report rates her separation from the chair's voice cluster medium, resting on the chair's recognitions. |
| Michael | Named in the roll call | The roll call at 0:01:05 reads Michael.; the project roster identifies Michael Petrin as the Claremont chair, but no speech is attributed to him and his presence is not established. |
| Shannon | Named in the roll call (Unity) | The roll call reads "Shannon. You not here." (Shannon Popescu per the roster). The chair names Shannon as the Unity member of the evaluation committee at 0:36:23. Presence not established. |
| Rocco and Gregory | Named in the roll call | The roll call reads "Rocco. Gregory. Here." Rocco is Rocco Ruggeri (Unity) per the roster. The attribution report suggests Gregory might be Gary Bader, but the chair later refers to Bader as absent, so that name is unresolved. |
| Unidentified member | Board member | Asked at 0:40:07 whether there is "a org chart or a list of six employees on the website or positions?" and explained at 0:42:26 that the question came from not knowing the detail of roles. Possibly a new Claremont member; not identified. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report: Unity art residency, the Croydon budget vote, the history of the SAU merit pay pool and his recommendation to end it, SAU staffing then and now; proposed inviting New Hampshire School Boards Association attorneys to the retreat. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant superintendent for finance, SAU 6 (per roster) | Present by direct address only: the chair says "Richard, I thought you weren't coming tonight." at 0:02:18 and the reply is "Still have graduation tomorrow." The attribution report rates this uncertain. |
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. The chair refers to item B and to the superintendent's report, so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:19 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll call at 0:01:05, garbled; see participants. |
| 0:01:23 | Agenda changes | Item B (minutes) postponed because the minutes were not ready. Horsky moved to approve the amended agenda; the chair seconded ("I'll second any comments."); approved by voice vote. |
| 0:02:37 | Citizens' comments | "Are there any citizens online?" Answer: "We don't do online." No speakers. |
| 0:02:57 | Superintendent's report | Unity art, Croydon budget restored, merit pay history, SAU staffing. Questions followed. |
| 0:18:26 | Merit pay | Horsky moved to accept the recommendation to remove the merit pay plan from the SAU 6 budget; no second is audible. Horsky's amendment to freeze the funds until the board approves their use was seconded (seconder unidentified) and passed; the amended motion passed by voice vote. |
| 0:22:35 | SAU 6 planning retreat | Tentatively set for Sunday, July 24 at 1:00, with New Hampshire School Boards Association speakers to be invited. No vote. |
| 0:34:06 | Superintendent evaluation and goals | Evaluation committee meets Monday, May 23; final evaluation due by the end of June. No vote. |
| 0:39:06 | Future meeting and agenda items | Next meeting June 16; staffing assessment requested for it; organization charts promised. |
| 0:43:29 | Other business; adjournment | Horsky moved to adjourn; seconded (seconder unidentified); the vote itself is not captured before the recording ends. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:19 | Call to order; roll call | The chair calls the meeting to order. Roll call as transcribed: Michael. / "Shannon. You not here." / "Rocco. Gregory. Here." / "Frank Sprague here." / "And Heather green here. Thanks." Horsky also speaks at once, so the roll is incomplete. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:23 | Minutes postponed again | Horsky asked to remove item B; the chair: "Oh, we don't have minutes." and "We still don't have minutes. Wow." An unidentified voice: "We're work now." At 0:02:37: "So we removed item B because we have no minutes." | MEDIUM |
| 0:02:37 | Citizens' comments | "Are there any citizens online?" / "We don't do online." No one spoke. | |
| 0:03:22 | Unity art; Croydon budget | Fish prints made with artist in residence Bob McDevitt at Unity. The superintendent reported that Croydon's budget was restored at its special meeting, 377 of 379 voters in favor, removing a worry about "the tuition impact" and about honoring "our existing tuition agreements with our neighbors, particularly Goshen." | |
| 0:05:09 | History of the SAU merit pay pool | The pool started in 2078 [probably 2017-18] under Superintendent Goodwin [McGoodwin], and "it was never fully adopted." He applied it equally to all SAU staff, but "we were the only group that has a merit pool in all the bargaining groups", with "upper management and even people in clerical positions getting the same rates of pay"; "I really couldn't go forward to continue it." At 0:07:34: four positions left unfilled when he arrived, with the money moved to middle school classrooms. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:36 | An outside review of SAU staffing | Sprague: former superintendent Keith Pfeiffer [Pfeifer] had suggested that "agencies out there such as New Hampshire School Administrators Association" evaluate staffing and workloads; "I would prefer an impartial evaluation of of the systems of people at the saw [SAU]." Whitney asked about cost; Sprague: "there is some cost". | POSITIVE |
| 0:12:14 | Superintendent open to review | "I do think an objective outside of wood might, might be warranted." He named Nasdaq [NESDEC] as a group that "does a lot of studies like that". At 0:14:59: "we had 22 employees" in SAU and technology in 2017-18 "And right now we have 16.5.", a difference he put at "$100,000 or $400,000". Erickson: "Certainly the 22 we didn't think was terribly effective or efficient at that time when Middleton was here." | POSITIVE |
| 0:17:49 | Staffing assessment for June | The superintendent agreed to bring his own assessment to the June meeting: "we'll have an assessment of how we, what we might like to do." | |
| 0:18:46 | Motion to remove merit pay | Horsky: "I'm going to make a motion to accept the recommendation to remove the mayor pay plan from the, say, six budget." [merit pay plan; SAU 6 budget]. No second is audible; the chair calls for comments. Erickson asked how the money would be used; the superintendent: "the amount is 30, about 35,000." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:48 | Use of the money; six years of audits | Whitney: "Could we use that to get some summer help and clean?" The superintendent: "we also inherited, you know, six years of audits that weren't done"; temporary help for grant management, "Temporary contracted use. Nothing that's going to have benefits". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:04 | Amendment: freeze the funds | Horsky: "freeze those funds until board approves use of them." Seconded by an unidentified voice. The chair at 0:21:39: "All those in favor of amending the first motion to include a freeze on the merit pay budget line?" Amendment carried; at 0:22:05 the amended motion carried: "The motion is passed." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:47 | Joint SAU retreat proposed | Invite the school boards association's attorneys (transcribed "Barrett, Christina and Will Phillips"); "they kind of divide the state up the middle of 93". Erickson: "we don't get terribly involved in what goes down on down here in Claremont." Horsky: "Because we're a group of laymen, it's it's tough for us to figure out exactly what's going on." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:26:30 | Retreat topics | Whitney: "I'd like it on budgeting." and school funding, "how schools get funded in the state of New Hampshire". Sprague: "Maybe teacher contract negotiating". The superintendent mentioned a state CTE official ("eject Baird beard himself, who runs that for the state of New Hampshire"; identity unresolved). | |
| 0:29:54 | Earlier Unity retreat | Members recalled a Unity board retreat with a pig roast ("Because Gary Bader raises pigs."). The superintendent: "It was a potluck but but also we we went through some pretty heavy issues." and "We talked about divisive concepts." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:30:59 | Retreat date set | July 10 did not suit (the superintendent and Jeff had PowerSchool training). At 0:32:54 the chair: "tentatively set it for the 24th of July at 1:00." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:06 | Superintendent evaluation | The committee meets Monday the 23rd; "We need to do the final evaluation of the superintendent by the end of June." At 0:35:02: "The first year in which there has been a formal evaluation committee in at least eight years". Sprague, asked about McGoodwin: Not really. At 0:35:49: "We had one in September. I think we had one in December. We had one in February". Members: "it's myself, it's Heather, it's Josh and Shannon for immunity [Unity] is the fourth member." | POSITIVE OBSERVATION |
| 0:37:32 | Goals and the strategic plan | The superintendent: goals "are completely driven by the by the strategic plan". Whitney asked that the strategic plan be circulated because the evaluation aligns the board's goals with the superintendent's. | POSITIVE |
| 0:39:06 | Next meeting June 16 | "We have a future meeting scheduled for June 16th", when the superintendent is to report where he thinks staffing is. | |
| 0:40:07 | Organization chart | A member: "Is there a org chart or a list of six employees on the website or positions?" The superintendent: "I will have Borg charts [org charts]." At 0:40:44 he cited "things that have been brought up recently, frankly, in the in the Claremont discussions about certifications". Position descriptions: "Those exist. All those files exist." | |
| 0:43:29 | Adjournment | Horsky: "I'd like to make a motion to adjourn." Seconded; the chair calls the vote and the recording ends. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on May 19, 2022, cited as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag is recorded as an observation. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The minutes of the previous SAU 6 meeting were still not ready four weeks later
Item B, the minutes, was pulled at 0:01:23. The chair: "Oh, we don't have minutes." and "We still don't have minutes. Wow."; at 0:02:37: "So we removed item B because we have no minutes." The word still implies the problem was known. The recording does not say which minutes item B covered. The previous SAU 6 meeting in the corpus is April 21, 2022 (MAP.md section 165), 28 days and 20 business days earlier; at that meeting, according to its page, the board tabled three sets of 2021 minutes that its clerk had not produced. Either way, minutes were months or weeks overdue. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force in 2022, requires that minutes "be promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; drafts satisfy that requirement, and board approval is a separate step.
Severity limb: MEDIUM, because the record mitigates it. An unidentified voice answers "We're work now." and the item was postponed rather than dropped, so the minutes were in progress. The recording does not show whether a draft was open to inspection in the meantime. Context from the project's governance timeline: the school district clerk's resignation was announced effective June 1, 2022. Neither the April 21 nor the May 19 minutes are posted online.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes open to inspection within 5 business days.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online, and the roll call does not establish attendance
MAP.md records that the SAU 6 share's 2022 archive begins with the July 24, 2022 retreat and the Meeting Minutes share starts in 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 the records were never made. The roll call at 0:01:05 names Michael, Shannon, Rocco, Gregory, Frank Sprague and Heather, with at least one "You not here." and Horsky and Erickson present by their speech; who else attended, and whether the body had a quorum, cannot be confirmed without the minutes. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) names school administrative units among the public bodies the law covers.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (public body includes a school administrative unit; unamended since 2008); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 168.
OBSERVATION The merit pay pool was voted out of the SAU budget and frozen, but the record does not say which budget, and the main motion has no audible second
Horsky moved at 0:18:46 "to remove the mayor pay plan from the, say, six budget." [merit pay plan; SAU 6 budget]. No second is audible before the chair calls for comments. His amendment at 0:21:04 to freeze the funds "until board approves use of them" was seconded by an unidentified voice, and both the amendment and the amended motion carried by voice vote (0:21:39, 0:22:05). The pool had been argued at length on April 21, where motions to suspend it and to pay it at a flat rate both failed and the item was tabled to May; the chair noted at 0:22:28 that this was "a bit different than the discussion last month." The superintendent put the pool at "30, about 35,000." and said it "was never fully adopted."
Two points for a reader. First, whether the vote changed the current year's SAU budget or the next year's is not stated. The SAU budget is adopted before January 1 under RSA 194-C:9, I (2022 text), so the FY2023 SAU budget had already been adopted; the freeze keeps the money under the board's control rather than letting it be reassigned administratively, which is a sound control. Second, from January 1, 2019, RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion"; with no second audible for the main motion, only the minutes could settle it, and they are not online.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2022 codification; SAU budget adopted before January 1); RSA 91-A:2, II (mover and seconder recorded in minutes; 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019).
OBSERVATION The superintendent said the SAU had inherited "six years of audits that weren't done"
At 0:19:51, explaining why the freed merit money might pay for temporary help, the superintendent said: "we also inherited, you know, six years of audits that weren't done", and that temporary help was needed "with a lot of the grant management". He mentioned that the audit firm could attend a later meeting. This is his characterization; this page did not verify which entity's audits (SAU or district), which years, or which kind of audit he meant. For context only: under the Uniform Guidance as it applied to fiscal years beginning before October 1, 2024, an entity expending $750,000 or more in federal awards in a year must have a single audit. Two weeks earlier, on May 4, the business administrator told the Claremont board that federal grant reimbursement requests were behind and that the state's monitoring visit had produced findings.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.501 (single audit; $750,000 threshold for fiscal years beginning before Oct. 1, 2024); speaker's characterization, not verified.
OBSERVATION Two further sessions were planned that are themselves meetings under the Right-to-Know law: the evaluation committee on May 23 and the joint retreat on July 24
The chair said at 0:34:06 that the superintendent evaluation committee (Erickson, Whitney, Lambert and Popescu) "is meeting on Monday the 23rd", and she tentatively set a joint SAU retreat for July 24 at 0:32:54. A committee of a school administrative unit is itself a public body under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), and a retreat at which a quorum discusses board business is a meeting under RSA 91-A:2, I ("the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body"), with notice and minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II. An evaluation committee may have grounds for nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3, II, but those require a motion and minutes of their own. MAP.md records an SAU 6 packet folder named 1. SAU SB Retreat 7.24.22, so the July retreat does appear in the district's own files. Members also recalled an earlier Unity board retreat at which "we went through some pretty heavy issues" (0:30:24); that is a Unity School Board session outside this project's record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2022 codification).
POSITIVE The board is running a structured superintendent evaluation with midyear check-ins
The chair described a four-member evaluation committee that met with the superintendent in September, December and February, a rubric, a final evaluation due by the end of June, and goal setting tied to the strategic plan (0:34:06 to 0:38:20). She said it was "The first year in which there has been a formal evaluation committee in at least eight years"; Sprague, asked whether Middleton McGoodwin had been evaluated, answered Not really. Those historical claims are the speakers' recollections. A documented, recurring evaluation is the kind of accountability practice that lets a board show its oversight of its chief executive; this page did not verify a statute requiring one.
Sources: No statute relied on; practice, reported from the recording.
POSITIVE The board asked for an impartial outside review of SAU staffing, and one followed
Sprague proposed at 0:09:36 that an outside body review SAU staffing and workloads against comparable districts ("I would prefer an impartial evaluation"); the superintendent agreed that "an objective outside of wood might, might be warranted" (0:12:58) and undertook to bring his own assessment in June. Six months later the SAU 6 board received a consultants' organizational study of the central office at its November 16, 2022 meeting. Seeking outside comparison before restructuring a central office is a good-governance step beyond any legal minimum.
Sources: Related page: SAU 6 Board, November 16, 2022.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 12400, "SAU 6 Board Meeting on 5/19/22": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. 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 section 168, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet, superintendent's slides or minutes were located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, April 21, 2022 (merit pay motions failed; 2021 minutes tabled); Claremont School Board, May 4, 2022; Claremont School Board, May 18, 2022; SAU 6 Board, November 16, 2022 (organizational study).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12400 SAU6051922.mp4.CSV (287 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12400 SAU6051922.mp4Input/Transcripts/12400 SAU6051922.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12400 SAU6051922.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 168
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on May 19, 2022. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (public bodies include school administrative units and their committees; source note ends 2008). RSA 91-A:2, I and II (meeting defined; minutes within 5 business days; mover and seconder; 2022 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1). RSA 194-C:9 (SAU budget adopted before January 1; 2022 codification, later amended 2024).
- Federal. 2 CFR 200.501 (single audit; the $750,000 threshold applies to fiscal years beginning before October 1, 2024).