Participants
Everyone in the record. Names and attendance follow the minutes and the agenda masthead; the dialogue file's labels are used for who said what. 60 of 457 dialogue rows (13.1%) are unidentified.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair | Presided and, with the secretary absent, called the roll himself. Added the visioning-committee presentation and the Byrne Foundation donation to the agenda. Asked whether the committee's timeline fit the 2023-24 budget ("I believe that it's looking more like October of this year") and about the Region 10 agreement; said his "personal goal and vision for the tech center is to get it back to closer to what it used to be." Treated the $3,000 gift as needing no approval. |
| Heather Whitney | Vice Chair | Seconded the agenda change; asked that Stephanie Hurst's title be added to the minutes; moved approval of three sets of minutes. Asked whether the summer programs were ESSER funded, whether gains were tracked, and where hiring stood. Moved the visioning-committee RFP and asked that the money come "from the 100,000 that that was allocated to the visioning Committee." In other business asked the finance officer whether the 2019 audit was on track for its July 31 date. |
| Bonnie Miles | Board member | Moved the agenda change. Asked who answers citizens' questions; asked how summer-program gains are shown; asked for a standing visioning-committee update at every meeting. Identification medium (she refers to herself as one of the committee's two board representatives). |
| Whitney Skillen | Board member | Present (minutes). The minutes give her the motion to approve the agenda as revised, the seconds on the minutes and the RFP motion, and the motion to adjourn. The dialogue file leaves those turns Unidentified because her voice cluster is not named on tape; the chair's "Second from Whitney" at 0:04:30 refers to her. The sliding-scale fee suggestion at 0:42:30 comes from the same unidentified cluster. |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Asked whether the administration was ready for more restructuring forums ("Do we have a solid plan?"); suggested Title I money for summer camps; reported for the superintendent evaluation committee; summarized NHSBA notice of 2022 legislative changes affecting policy. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Absent (minutes; he abstained from approving these minutes on August 17). The transcript's roll line reads "Steven and I have two and Frank spread", which names him without an audible "here". |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Absent (minutes; abstained from approving these minutes on August 17). Named in the visioning-committee report as one of its two board members. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report on the summer programs, the June administrative retreat and the restructuring and schedule committees; hiring ("about 7 or 8 teachers still needed"); the clerk vacancy ("we have two candidates"); explained that the $100,000 for the visioning committee was "seed money"; on purchasing cards, "in the past there was some issues". |
| Michael Koski | Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Innovation (minutes) | Introduced himself ("my name is Michael Kosky"); started that week. "a bad curriculum delivered well will produce a lot of student gains". |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources (agenda) | On audits: "2019 for Claremont is completed. We sent the rep letter in last Friday"; FY2020 under way. On purchasing: store accounts with Hannaford and Market Basket; employees front costs and are reimbursed. |
| Mimi Rhines | Stevens High School summer competency recovery coordinator | Labeled Mimi in the dialogue file; surname from the superintendent's report ("1 coordinator - Mimi Rhines") and the minutes (which also spell it "Rines"). Presented credit-recovery figures and the Byrne Foundation gift she obtained for student snacks; asked for a district card she could use at a warehouse store. |
| Candace Crawford | Citizens' comments, Ward 2; visioning committee presenter | Asked for the class of 2022 graduation rate, the status of about $1 million in ESSER reimbursements, and audit progress. Later presented the tech-center visioning committee's first report. |
| David Putnam | Citizens' comments, Ward 2; visioning committee member | Asked for eight or nine years of graduation data. As a committee member, described it as "an advisory committee" and asked for approval to send out an RFP for a consultant; recalled "my 17 years of the school board". The chair's recognition is transcribed "Mr. Damron". |
| Unidentified | Visioning committee participant | Described the 2017 tech-center strategic plan ("very complete, done in 2017") at 1:10:44. Not named on tape. |
| Melissa Small | Recording secretary | Not present ("Secretary is not here tonight"); the minutes carry her name as submitter. |
| Hannah Petrin | Student representative (agenda) | Not present ("It's summer vacation, so our student rep is not here tonight"). |
Agenda
From the posted Claremont School Board Agenda 7.20.22, with dispositions from the recording and the minutes. Agenda and minutes wording is quoted as such.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | I. Call to Order and Pledge | Agenda: "6:30PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance". |
| 0:00:59 | II. Roll call | Called by the chair. Minutes: "Present: Joshua Lambert, Bonnie Miles, Michael Petrin, Whitney Skillen, Heather Whitney Absent: Steven Horsky, Frank Sprague". |
| 0:01:28 | II. Agenda: amendments and approval | Visioning committee presentation added under committee updates; item 5, the Byrne Foundation donation, added. Two votes: Miles moved and Whitney seconded the changes; Skillen moved (minutes) and Whitney seconded approval of the agenda as revised. Both carried. |
| 0:03:05 | II. Minutes approval: February 9, April 6 and June 15, 2022 | Whitney moved all three at once; Skillen seconded (minutes); carried. Whitney asked that Stephanie Hurst's title be added. |
| 0:04:30 | II. Citizens Comments | Candace Crawford and David Putnam, both Ward 2. |
| 0:11:08 | II. Student Representative Report | None; summer recess. |
| 0:11:08 | III. Superintendent Report | Summer programs (K-5, tech camps, middle school, high school credit recovery presented by Mimi Rhines), June administrative retreat, restructuring and schedule forums, hiring. |
| 0:36:27 | IV.1 Assistant Superintendent Update | Michael Koski introduced. |
| 0:39:42 | IV.2 School Board Clerk Update | "we have two candidates"; interviews to be scheduled. |
| 0:40:10 | IV.3 Claremont Summer School Update | No cost to families beyond a $25 registration fee through the community center. Discussion of sliding-scale fees and Title I funding. |
| 0:46:18 | IV.4 Committee Updates | Superintendent evaluation committee (Lambert); budget subcommittee (no update); NHSBA legislative notice (Lambert); tech-center visioning committee presentation (Crawford, Putnam). Whitney moved approval of an RFP for a consultant; Skillen seconded (minutes); carried by voice vote. |
| 1:19:29 | IV.5 Byrne Foundation donation (floor addition) | $3,000 for Stevens summer school food. Acknowledged; the chair: "It doesn't require approval." No vote. |
| 1:25:56 | V. Other Business | Audit status (Seaman); curriculum update requested (Whitney). |
| 1:31:53 | VI. Closing Activities / VII. Adjournment | SAU 6 board retreat Sunday July 24. Minutes: "Motion to adjourn the meeting by Whitney Skillen , seconded by Bonnie Miles; all in favor via voice vote." |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited row. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | Call to order; roll | "Secretary is not here tonight, but you need a roll call." The chair reads the roll: "Michael. Patron [Petrin] here. Heather Whitman [Whitney] here. Bonnie Meyer [Miles] here. Whitney Skilling [Skillen] here. Josh Lambert. Steven and I have two and Frank spread." The minutes record Horsky and Sprague absent. | |
| 0:01:28 | Agenda amended | The visioning committee's presentation goes under committee updates; "then I had to add number five. Mimi is here, and she's going to talk about a donation". | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:05 | Three sets of minutes approved together | February 9 (deliberative session), April 6 and June 15. Whitney: "if you could slide in what her professional title is. So when we use these, as you know, records, you can just follow it a little bit better." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:02 | Citizens' comments: graduation outcomes | Crawford, from the Valley News: "about 31% of the graduates identified that they were going directly into the workforce", and "about 50% of the graduates were going on to further education". Putnam asks for "maybe the last 8 or 9 years in a chart". | |
| 0:07:02 | Citizens' comments: ESSER reimbursements | "according to May 11th letter, Claremont district had over $2 million that they hadn't gotten reimbursed for, and that was for the 2019, 20 and 21, school district years." As of June 21 "about $1 million" had been received. | |
| 0:07:42 | Citizens' comments: audits | "I know that past audits were not done and that was previous administration." "as I understand, it's up to date through the 2018. And there was a commitment made that the district would be up to date by May. Excuse me. March 2023." "is there money in the budget to cover that?" | MEDIUM |
| 0:15:30 | High school credit recovery | Mimi Rhines: "we had 131 students, invited to come to recover, 270 credits" (her slide says 217). Attendance fell from 62 to 52 to 39 a week; 65 credits recovered so far. | |
| 0:18:23 | A gift for summer-school food | "the district was unable to provide that for us this year." She asked the "Jack and Bryan [Jack and Dorothy Byrne] Foundation" for snacks and "they actually gave me double what I asked for, which is amazing. $33,000." Her own slide and the chair say $3,000. | MEDIUM |
| 0:19:36 | Are summer programs ESSER funded? | Tempesta: "Yeah, they all are." Rhines: "I really hope that you guys look at kind of continuing the summer camps for the elementary kids once the funds run out". | |
| 0:27:58 | Restructuring forums | Lambert: "Do we have a solid plan? We can answer all the questions we need to answer." Tempesta: "we're presenting exactly what we are going to do. And we're going to listen to the public again." On the schedule committee: "We have a draft of a schedule." | |
| 0:31:14 | Hiring and the academic centers | "about 7 or 8 teachers still needed". "we're unable to fill the academic centers because we're going for the primary classroom first in the shortage." Whitney asks where the ESSER money shifts if the centers stay unstaffed; Tempesta mentions facilities and "outdoor classroom" as "more durable for the one time money." | |
| 0:36:38 | New assistant superintendent | Koski: "Curriculum is important, but a bad curriculum delivered well will produce a lot of student gains". | |
| 0:39:42 | Clerk vacancy | "I can't talk about the candidates. Obviously, but we have two candidates." | |
| 0:42:16 | Summer program cost | "there is a registration fee of $25 that with our partners at the community center". Unidentified member (Skillen or Horsky in the dialogue file; Horsky was absent): "I'd be in favor of, like, a sliding scale, tuition kind of offering". Lambert suggests Title I funds. | |
| 0:46:31 | Superintendent evaluation committee | Lambert: discussed "the data that came back from both boards, Unity and Claremont"; to meet again to modify the rubric. | |
| 0:49:04 | NHSBA legislative update | Lambert lists 2022 changes: immunization-exemption form, parental consent for school dental programs, "a policy that requires nonpublic or home educated students access to district programing", water bottles, the suicide prevention lifeline on student IDs, disability eligibility "until the 22nd birthday". "there's three max that we need to change before the school year starts." | |
| 0:52:55 | Tech-center visioning committee: first report | Crawford: "Superintendent Mike Tempesta asked Scott Pope to form a vision committee". Members include "two school board members, Bonnie Miles and Frank Sprague". Pope resigned as chair; the group "elected in, Alex Herzog as to be the replacement chair." Timeline: information "by the end of 2022". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:03:52 | Budget timing; Region 10 | Chair: budget planning is "looking more like October of this year." Crawford: firm figures by October or November are "not doable". On Region 10, Tempesta: "you can revisit that anytime." | |
| 1:06:18 | An advisory committee | Putnam: "typically a an advisory committee, which is what we are." "It's the same questions we were asking 12 years ago." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:10:08 | RFP for a consultant approved | Putnam asks for "your approval to send out an RFP to hire a consultant". Whitney moves "to approve, an RFP being sent out"; an unidentified member seconds; carried. Whitney: the dollars should come "from the 100,000 that that was allocated to the visioning Committee." Tempesta: "I wrote that in there with seed money for this." | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 1:19:29 | Byrne Foundation gift acknowledged | Chair: "$3,000 for the the high school. Summer school?" "So am I correct that this is under the $5,000 threshold?" Tempesta: "It's just more the acknowledgment." Chair: "It doesn't require approval." | MEDIUM |
| 1:21:57 | No purchasing-card policy | Unidentified: "Does the district have a p card or a p card policy? No." Tempesta: "in the past there was some issues. With some of those cards being in place." Seaman: store accounts; employees front money and are reimbursed "within a the next payroll". | |
| 1:23:28 | Graduation rate not final | Rhines: "graduation rate really isn't finalized because we had a few kids finishing up"; expected "by the late September meeting". | |
| 1:26:02 | Audit status | Whitney: "we expect to have that completed by July 31st." Seaman: "2019 for Claremont is completed. We sent the rep letter in last Friday, which is the final step in that." "20 has already begun for Claremont is well underway for both unity and the a you [SAU]." "the last week we had six of their people in the office." | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 1:26:56 | Curriculum approvals | Whitney: "The the board has to approve whatever curriculum goes through." Tempesta: "If we needed to have an emergency meeting to approve it, we would". | |
| 1:32:08 | SAU 6 retreat; adjournment | Retreat Sunday with NHSBA counsel. Motion to adjourn at 1:33:00; carried. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state and federal law in force on July 20, 2022, not today's text. 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. 6 flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The district's FY2019 audit was completed only in July 2022, and FY2020 was just under way
The finance officer reported that "2019 for Claremont is completed. We sent the rep letter in last Friday" and that FY2020 "has already begun" (1:26:15). The vice chair referred to an action plan date of July 31 (1:26:02); the resident said the district was "up to date through the 2018" with a commitment to be current by "March 2023" (0:08:45). FY2019 ended June 30, 2019.
For a district that expended $750,000 or more in federal awards in a year, the Uniform Guidance required a single audit with the reporting package due "within the earlier of 30 calendar days after receipt of the auditor's report(s), or nine months after the end of the audit period": for FY2019, March 31, 2020. OMB Memorandum M-21-20 later allowed packages for fiscal year-ends through June 30, 2021 that had not been filed to be delayed "six months beyond the normal due date", which for FY2019 still means September 30, 2020. This recording does not state the district's federal expenditure, so the threshold is not established on this record, and the lateness was inherited, as the resident acknowledged ("that was previous administration"). Graded MEDIUM for those reasons; see also the August 17 meeting, where members said they had not seen the completed report.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.501(a) (2022 edition); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2022 edition); OMB M-21-20, Appendix 3, section IX.
MEDIUM A $3,000 gift was accepted without notice on the posted agenda, and the minutes omit the amount
As it read in 2022, RSA 198:20-b, III(b) provided that "For unanticipated funds in an amount less than $5,000, the school board shall post notice of the funds in the agenda and shall include notice in the minutes of the school board meeting", and that acceptance "shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting." The Byrne Foundation gift is not on the posted agenda; the chair added it at the start of the meeting (0:01:50). The chair then asked "am I correct that this is under the $5,000 threshold?" and concluded "It doesn't require approval" (1:20:38, 1:20:45). The minutes record "Byrne Foundation for SHS Summer Camp program" with no amount. The figure itself is clear only from the coordinator's slide and the chair ($3,000); the transcript renders her spoken figure as "$33,000".
Mitigation: the gift was discussed openly in public session, and the money had been spent on its stated purpose through district store accounts with receipts turned in. The $5,000 figure governs whether a public hearing is needed, not whether the smaller-gift steps apply. This page has not verified that Claremont voters adopted the paragraph I authority the section rests on.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2022 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1; the threshold was raised in 2023); Supt Reprt CSB 7.20.22 UPDATE 130PM (1).pdf (slide: "We received a donation in the amount of $3,000.").
OBSERVATION The minutes record the RFP vote as a vote "to support" the committee
On the recording the motion is "to approve, an RFP being sent out" for a consultant, and Whitney then adds that the money come from the $100,000 allocation (1:13:07, 1:14:42). The minutes record "Motion by Heather Whitney made to support support the Visioning Committee and that funding comes specifically from $100,000 budget, seconded by Whitney Skillen". The authorization actually voted (issuing a request for proposals) does not appear. The minutes do name mover and seconder for every motion, as RSA 91-A:2, II requires. Smaller differences: the chair gave Stephanie Hurst's title as "director of literacy K-12" and the minutes as "K-12 Literacy Specialist".
Sources: CSB minutes 7.20.22 (1).pdf; RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification).
OBSERVATION A superintendent-formed advisory committee with two board members, funded from a $100,000 allocation the record does not source
The committee was formed at the superintendent's request, includes two of the board's seven members, meets on its own schedule and was authorized tonight to seek a consultant (0:52:55, 1:10:08). Its members call it "an advisory committee". Whether it is a public body under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) ("any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto") depends on facts not on this record, such as who appointed it; two members are not a quorum of the board, and this page draws no conclusion. The funding line is also unclear: the superintendent said "I wrote that in there with seed money", and on August 17 he described it as ESSER money, which a board member said he had "questioned". Recorded as an observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d).
OBSERVATION The February and April minutes first appear in the district's online archive the day after they were approved
Tonight the board approved minutes of February 9 (the deliberative session), April 6 and June 15, 2022. The district's Drive archive for 2022 begins with this meeting's folder, created July 21, 2022, and every file in it, including this meeting's agenda and all three sets of minutes, was uploaded that morning. So Drive cannot show whether the agenda or those minutes were available to the public earlier, in the office or on the website; RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be open to inspection within five business days, and drafts satisfy it. This is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that minutes were late. Recorded as an observation.
Sources: Drive metadata for 1. CSB 7.20.22 (folder created July 21, 2022); RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification).
POSITIVE A citizen's audit question was answered in the same meeting
The resident asked in citizens' comments whether the board received regular audit updates (0:08:45). A member asked who would answer (0:10:51); the vice chair said some answers would come during the meeting, and in other business she put the question to the finance officer, who reported the FY2019 audit complete and FY2020 under way (1:26:02). Citizens' comment was not time-limited on this recording, and both residents were heard in full. No statute requires a board to answer questions; this goes beyond the minimum.
Sources: the recording at the cited times.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/13521 SchoolBoard072022.mp4.CSV (457 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/13521 SchoolBoard072022.mp4Input/Transcripts/13521 SchoolBoard072022.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 171
Laws and rules cited on this page