Participants
Everyone in the record. Attendance and spellings follow the agenda and the draft minutes; where the recording differs, the difference is stated. The roll was called by an unidentified voice.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Claremont School Board Chair; presiding | “I am the Claremont School board chair, so I'm running tonight's meeting.” Calls each item; names the HR manager and an organizational chart as his priorities (0:59:12). |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 Chair (Unity); by Zoom | Calls the report “fabulous”; explains indirect-cost lines in grants (1:03:07); asks for a draft budget that includes an HR director. |
| Frank Sprague | SAU 6 Vice Chair (Claremont); by Zoom | Notes an existing policy expecting exit interviews (1:04:25) and stresses qualified HR staff. |
| Atonya Hart | Member (Unity); by Zoom per minutes | Asks how hard it is to redirect grant money already allocated (1:02:40). |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont) | Moves the September 29 minutes; asks about outside resources and grant percentages; wants a process before positions are budgeted. |
| Joshua Lambert | Member (Claremont) | Moves the agenda; asks for a timeline and for two versions of the budget. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member (Claremont) | Praises the report; asks about the existing HR coordinator; moves adjournment. |
| Whitney Skillen | Member (Claremont) | Seconds the agenda motion per the minutes; no other attributed speech. |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity) | Seconds adjournment (1:34:40). Listed in person by the minutes; on the roll the transcript renders her “Shannon Lamb” and the chair says “She is online.” |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Member (Unity) | Present in person per the minutes; not named on the recorded roll and no attributed speech. |
| Steven Horsky | Member (Claremont) | Absent per the minutes. The recorded roll opens with “Sure. Steven.” with no audible answer. |
| Garry Bator | Member (Unity) | Absent (agenda and minutes spelling; spoken as “Gary Bader” on the roll). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | No formal report; introduces the consultants; calls the study “a very accurate, fair and report”; describes staffing history. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations & HR | Budget timeline: first draft December 1, final approval December 15; explains the indirect-cost rate. |
| Dr. William (Bill) Lupini | Consultant (report author); remote | Presents recommendations 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 and remarks outside the charge. Transcribed as “Doctor Lapine” and “Doctor Lupi”. |
| Dr. Anne Shaloka Wilson | Consultant (report author); remote | Presents recommendations 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. The dialogue file spells her first name “Ann”; the report and agenda spell it Anne. |
| Unidentified | Roll caller | Calls the roll at 0:01:20. |
| Unidentified | Board member | Asks whether a qualified HR director could write the SOPs instead of a consultant (1:26:10); refers to “Miss Whitney” in the third person, so not Whitney. |
| Unidentified | SAU administrator | Describes a new title-grant reimbursement process (1:27:53). |
Agenda
Items from the posted agenda (SAU 11.16.22 Agenda); dispositions from the recording and the draft minutes.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:15 | I. Call to order; Pledge | Called to order by Michael Petrin as Claremont chair; Erickson attending virtually (minutes). |
| 0:00:57 | II. Secretary roll call | Roll called by an unidentified voice; the caller concludes “So we're just missing Gary. Gary Bader is absent.” Minutes list Horsky and Bator absent. |
| 0:02:12 | II.a Agenda approval | Motion Joshua Lambert, second Whitney Skillen; voice vote, all in favor (minutes). |
| 0:02:35 | II.b Minutes of September 29, 2022 | Motion Heather Whitney (first stated as “July 9th”, corrected at 0:02:51), second Joshua Lambert per minutes; voice vote, all in favor. |
| 0:02:56 | II.c Citizens’ comments | None. Minutes: “No citizens present.” |
| 0:03:18 | III. Superintendent report | No formal report, because of the consultants’ presentation. |
| 0:03:44 | IV.a SAU 6 consultant presentation (Bill Lupini and Anne Wilson) | Presentation of the Organizational Study Report (0:06:05 to 0:50:56), then board questions (0:51:46 to 1:12:42). No action. |
| 1:13:56 | IV.b “FY23 SAU 6 Budget Timeline” (agenda wording) | First draft of the SAU budget at the December 1 meeting, sent to members November 29; final approval targeted for December 15. The budget discussed is the one to be rolled into the districts’ next budgets. No vote. |
| 1:33:48 | V. Future agenda items | Next two agendas expected to be “budget heavy”; minutes list “FY23 Budget Planning”. |
| 1:34:17 | VI. Other business | None. |
| 1:34:31 | VII. Closing; adjournment | Motion Bonnie Miles, second Shannon Popescu; voice vote (1:34:40). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/14727 SAU6111622.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in recording order. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; brackets mark editorial insertions.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:57 | Remote attendance | Petrin: “Since Marjorie and Frank are unable to attend in person, they are at home attending, via zoom.” | HIGH |
| 0:01:20 | Roll call | Names heard: Steven, Tanya Hart, Heather Whitney, Bonnie Miles, Whitney Skillen, Joshua Lambert, Michael Petrin, Frank Sprague, Marjorie Erickson, Shannon. Rocco Ruggeri is not heard. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:12 | Agenda and minutes | Both approved by voice vote with members on Zoom. | HIGH |
| 0:04:40 | Consultants introduced | Tempesta: recommended by NHSBA contacts; “They were gracious enough to put together a scope of work, and we immediately lock them in.” | |
| 0:06:05 | Scope | Lupini: the study covers “the organizational structure, staffing and practices of central administration operations” and comparisons with similar-size SAUs; “11 major recommendation areas”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:12:28 | Rec. 1: Human resources | Wilson: “a lack of clarity, consistency and timeliness” in HR functions; recommends “an appropriately trained human resources lead position” plus HR support. | |
| 0:14:13 | Rec. 2: Organization and supervision | Lupini: “the evaluation process does not line up with the recertification process”; recommends current job descriptions and an organization chart. | |
| 0:16:48 | Lost candidates | “It was anecdotal over there were conversations.” Delays between recommendation and onboarding lose candidates. | |
| 0:18:19 | Rec. 3–4: Training and cross-training | Lupini: “only one person, being aware of and trained for a particular function”. | |
| 0:22:24 | Rec. 5: Processes, onboarding, exit interviews | Wilson recommends exit interviews “given the turnover, given the number of openings that you have been experiencing”. | |
| 0:28:33 | Rec. 6: Communication and visibility | Lupini: staff said “we want to see the superintendent in our building”; website ownership. | |
| 0:31:33 | Rec. 7: Staffing | Wilson: “We noted several areas of the saw that appear to be inadequately staffed.” [SAU] Assistant to the superintendent, clerical support, cross-trained receptionist, HR manager. | |
| 0:35:47 | Rec. 8–9: Grants and finance | Regular communication between grant program managers and finance staff; a published budget process map and timeline. | |
| 0:39:54 | Rec. 10: Indirect costs | Lupini: the districts “has not, taken advantage of using the indirect cost portion of grants”. | |
| 0:41:46 | Rec. 11: Curriculum | A regular curriculum review cycle; Lupini: “we don't we don't adopt textbooks” outside the process. | |
| 0:45:04 | Outside the charge | Career-and-technical credit, technology integration, special education leadership. Wilson: “We just couldn't help ourselves.” | |
| 0:51:51 | Whitney: resources | “I can't imagine we could assign these tasks to our overburdened administrative team, who are struggling right now as it is.” | |
| 0:53:59 | Lambert: timeline | Wilson puts cross-training and clear assignments at the top; Lupini, HR. | |
| 0:59:12 | Petrin: HR manager and org chart | “One thing that I see being important is the HR manager getting that, up and rolling.” | |
| 1:02:40 | Hart and Erickson: grant indirect costs | Erickson: “All grants come with indirect costs already allocated to them”; “we just choose not to”. | |
| 1:04:25 | Sprague: exit-interview policy | “we have a policy that the expectation is that exit interviews occur” | |
| 1:08:46 | Superintendent’s response | Tempesta on staff split between budgets: “who was allocated in the SA six budget, who versus who was in the Claremont budget” “And over time, some of those things got blurred and melded.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:13:56 | Budget timeline | Seaman: “we'll have a first draft of the budget on the first and still looking at the 15th for our final approval”; “None of the recommendations here, or any of the recommendations from this report have been incorporated”. | |
| 1:19:07 | Positions versus process | Whitney: “I don't want to put positions in without a process”. Erickson asks for a budget showing an HR director (1:19:57). | |
| 1:20:49 | Existing HR coordinator; staffing | Tempesta: “we have a human resources coordinator already”. Central office and technology “there were, I believe 22.5 positions. And now we're down to 16.5 positions”. | |
| 1:26:10 | SOPs | Unidentified member asks why finance SOPs do not already exist; Seaman at 1:29:18: “There is not farther down through the structure.” | |
| 1:29:34 | Two budget versions | Lambert asks for versions with and without the recommended roles. | |
| 1:30:05 | Indirect-cost rate | Seaman: “So if we have $2 million worth of grants in a 3.5% in direct cost rate, we have the ability to take 3.5% of that $2 million”. | |
| 1:31:29 | Business records | Tempesta: “There was a lot of catch up okay to do for, for for the, for the business team and a resurrection of records that literally didn't exist.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:34:31 | Adjournment | Motion Miles, second “Shannon”; voice vote. | HIGH |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid. They are not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each rule-based flag names the provision it rests on and links to the text; an Observation marks a point that no verified rule settles. Severity: HIGH (likely breach of a binding rule or missed statutory deadline), MEDIUM (probable process gap), OBSERVATION (notable, no confirmed rule), POSITIVE (practice beyond the legal minimum).
HIGH Votes were taken by voice while three members participated by Zoom, and the minutes give no reason for remote attendance
RSA 91-A:2, III, in the text in force on this date (2019 codification, unchanged until October 3, 2023), lets a member participate remotely only when physical attendance “is not reasonably practical”; “Any reason that such attendance is not reasonably practical shall be stated in the minutes”; and “All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote.” The COVID-era Emergency Order #12 relief ended with the state of emergency on June 11, 2021.
The minutes record Marjorie Erickson, Frank Sprague and Atonya Hart “present via Zoom” and state no reason for any of them. On tape the chair gives one for two of them (“Since Marjorie and Frank are unable to attend in person”, 0:00:57); none is given for Hart. All three votes of the meeting (agenda at 0:02:24, September 29 minutes at 0:02:56, adjournment at 1:34:40) were voice votes, not roll calls.
Mitigation: the votes were procedural and no objection is heard. The statutory wording is mandatory, so the grade follows the rule rather than the stakes. The record also conflicts on whether Shannon Popescu attended in person (see flag 3), which bears on the separate requirement in ¶III(b) that a quorum be physically present.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (b), (e) (2019 codification; reason in minutes, quorum present, roll-call votes); Emergency Order #12 (2020); NHPR, June 10, 2021 (state of emergency ends June 11, 2021; reporting)
MEDIUM Minutes first appear in the public share on the tenth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting: Wednesday, November 23 for this meeting. The draft minutes were created in the next SAU 6 packet folder (4. SAU SB 12.1.22) on 1 December 2022, the tenth business day counting from November 17 and excluding Thanksgiving, a legal holiday under RSA 288:1 (the day after is not one). This follows the SAU 6 pattern of filing minutes with a later packet; Drive createdTime shows when the file reached the share, not when it was written.
Limb applied (html_briefing §5): MEDIUM, because the meeting was noticed and packeted and minutes exist. The minutes name movers and seconders as RSA 91-A:2, II requires.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; 5 business days); RSA 288:1 (legal holidays)
OBSERVATION The minutes and the recorded roll call disagree on three members
The minutes list Steven Horsky absent and Rocco Ruggeri and Shannon Popescu present in person. On the recording the roll opens with “Sure. Steven.” (0:01:20), Rocco Ruggeri is never named, the caller ends “So we're just missing Gary.”, and of Popescu the chair says “She is online.” (0:01:59). This page follows the minutes, as the project does for roll calls, but they cannot be squared with the tape on these three names. If Popescu was online, six of the twelve members were in the room rather than seven. No rule found requires the roll to be called aloud by name, so this is an Observation; it matters because of flag 1.
Sources: draft SAU6 11.16.22 Meeting Minutes; recording 0:01:20
OBSERVATION The superintendent describes missing business records and staff costs blurred between the SAU and Claremont budgets
Responding to the study, Tempesta says staff allocation between “the SA six budget, who versus who was in the Claremont budget” had become “blurred and melded” (1:10:05), and that the business team faced “a resurrection of records that literally didn't exist” (1:32:48). Seaman confirms there are no SOPs for purchasing below the administrative level (1:29:18).
These are speakers’ characterizations, not findings. No figure or financial statement is in the record that would support an accounting flag. The documents that would test them are the independent audits of the SAU and the Claremont School District for the years concerned, and the SAU budget apportionment under RSA 194-C:9, which this board was preparing to adopt on December 15.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (SAU budget adopted before January 1; apportionment); recording 1:10:05, 1:32:48
POSITIVE The full consultant study was posted in the public packet and presented in open session
The Organizational Study Report was placed in the public packet folder on the day of the meeting (Drive createdTime 16 November 2022, early afternoon), and its eleven findings, several of them critical of central-office practice, were presented and questioned in public session for more than an hour. The superintendent accepted it as “a very thorough, very fair” report. No statute required the study to be published. The budget schedule described (draft December 1, adoption December 15) also keeps the SAU inside RSA 194-C:9, I’s requirement to adopt the budget at a meeting held before January 1.
Sources: Organizational Study Report; RSA 194-C:9, I (2019 codification)
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/14727 SAU6111622.mp4.CSV (333 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/14727 SAU6111622.mp4Input/Transcripts/14727 SAU6111622.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 180
Laws and rules cited on this page