Participants
Names follow the agenda masthead, the roll call and the minutes. Where the dialogue file and the minutes disagree on who spoke, the row says so.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair; candidate for the one-year seat | Presides; opens and closes the donation hearing (0:03:45, 0:05:21); introduces the ad hoc committee (0:33:55); lists the March 14 candidates, himself included, and points viewers to the CCTV candidate interviews (0:47:27). |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair | Asks for an itemized ESSER breakdown and evaluation tools (0:12:57, 0:18:59); asks about paraprofessional recruitment (0:16:55); presents the ad hoc committee's work (0:34:53); seconds the February 15 minutes. The dialogue file also gives her the question at 0:05:00, which the minutes give to Miles. |
| Frank Sprague | Member; candidate for a three-year seat | Moves the agenda (0:01:57), policy BEDH (0:41:49) and adjournment (0:57:41); questions ESSER line items (0:19:47); raises the charter school opening in the fall (0:49:01); seconds the donation. |
| Whitney Skillen | Member | Moves the February 15 minutes (0:02:16) and the donation (0:46:16); asks about unbudgeted ESSER II money (0:12:24); proposes a shared-drive reference guide (0:42:19); seconds the agenda, BEDH and adjournment. Rendered Skillet on the roll; omitted from the minutes' Present line. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member | Asks whether the board book goes home (0:40:11); proposes school buses as March 14 vote reminders (0:54:37). The minutes credit her with the question on unspent donation money (0:05:00). |
| Steven Horsky | Member | Absent (minutes) |
| Hannah Petrin | Student representative | Absent (winter vacation) |
| Michael C. Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Donation remainder stays with the class (0:05:07); ESSER placements and consultant (0:24:24, 0:25:16); charter-school contacts (0:52:01). Rendered Mr. Dempster at 0:34:44. |
| Mike Koski | Assistant Superintendent | Presents the ESSER update (0:06:10) and answers questions (0:16:17, 0:32:16, 0:51:15). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Calls the roll (0:01:31); answers on paraprofessional stipends and hiring bonuses (0:17:24). |
| Candace Crawford | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 | Voter-registration reminder (0:02:46); asks about ESSER parent engagement and the CTE exploratory program (0:32:06). Not a board member on this date. |
| Jennifer Gallagher | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; candidate for the one-year seat | Asks that board meetings not coincide with City Council meetings and announces her candidacy (0:43:51). |
| Chelsea Weatherford | Recording secretary | Submitted the minutes. |
Agenda
Items and wording from the posted agenda (created on Drive February 28, 2023); dispositions from the recording and the minutes.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:41 | I. Call to order, pledge | Called to order by the chair; pledge at 0:00:53. |
| 0:01:23 | II. General business | Roll by Ben Nester. Agenda approved by voice vote, Sprague moving and Skillen seconding (0:01:58). February 15, 2023 minutes approved by voice vote, Skillen moving and Whitney seconding (0:02:22). Citizens' comments: Candace Crawford (0:02:46). Student report skipped (0:03:24). |
| 0:03:45 | III. Public hearing | Agenda (quoted from the agenda): "Donation in the amount of $7000.00 to the Claremont Middle School from The Dorothy and Jack Byrne Foundation for the 8th grade class trip." One board question; no public comment; hearing closed at 0:05:21. |
| 0:05:42 | II.1 ESSER Fund Update | Presentation, board questions, public questions (0:31:59 to 0:33:44); no action. |
| 0:33:55 | II.2 Ad Hoc Committee Report Out | Committee report. Sprague moved policy BEDH on public participation forward, Skillen seconded; voice vote (0:41:49, 0:42:01). Sprague's words on tape are "to move policy BEDH method of public participation and board meetings to second read"; the chair had just described it as "a first reading" (0:41:45), and the minutes record a motion "to move the policy to first read". Public comment: Jennifer Gallagher (0:43:51). |
| 0:45:56 | II.3 Acceptance of public hearing donation | Skillen moved to accept the $7,000 gift, Sprague seconded; voice vote (0:46:16 to 0:46:43). |
| 0:47:05 | III. Other business / future dates | Future dates: March 7 SRVRTC Visioning Committee; March 14 election; March 15 board meeting with the Visioning Committee report; March 22 Region 10 meeting. Candidates listed; charter school (0:49:01); voter reminders (0:54:37). |
| 0:57:41 | Adjournment | Sprague moved; the chair names Whitney as seconder (the minutes say Skillen); voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/14937 SchoolBoard030123.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:46 | Citizens' comments | Crawford: the vote is March 14 and residents can register on election day with identification and proof of residency. | |
| 0:03:45 | Byrne Foundation hearing | The chair opens the hearing on "$7,000 donation to the Claremont Middle School from the Dorothy and Jack Byrne Foundation" for the eighth-grade trip. Asked what happens to any unused money, the superintendent: "I believe it would just stay in the school accountant class activities." (0:05:07). No public comment; closed at 0:05:21. | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:10 | ESSER rules | Koski: "There is a 20% requirement in SR three that it has to relate directly to Covid learning loss"; ESSER III also required maintaining local funding at the highest-need schools (0:08:00); a March 2022 community survey ranked social-emotional support, staff and facilities highest (0:08:36). | |
| 0:09:49 | ESSER balances | ESSER I spent, reimbursed and closed; ESSER II "We were granted 2.879 million. We have budgeted 2.6 of that", about 400,000 reimbursed; ESSER III "6 million, 6.4" with 6 million budgeted (0:10:22). The slides: ESSER I $763,312.22; ESSER II $2,879,320.86 allocated, $2,609,442.32 budgeted, $389,390 reimbursed; ESSER III $6,472,876.52 allocated, $6,057,609.15 budgeted, nothing yet reimbursed. Spending listed includes academic coaches, science lab equipment (about $60,000, 0:10:50) and about $100,000 of band instruments (0:11:19). | |
| 0:12:24 | Unbudgeted ESSER II | Skillen asks when the board will see a plan for "the nearly 270,000 that was unspent" before the September 30 deadline; Koski: "probably by next month." (0:12:52). The slide gives $269,878.54 unbudgeted, closing September 30, 2023. | |
| 0:12:57 | Itemized breakdown and evaluation | Whitney: "there was a request to really have an item ized breakdown of where exactly the money was going instead of a general breakdown"; she wants to know what share pays for staffing and "how are we evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions" (0:15:25). Koski: evaluation is part of each state-approved activity (0:18:31). Whitney: those reports do not tell the board "anything meaningful" (0:18:59). | |
| 0:16:17 | Highest-need schools | Koski: maintenance-of-funding applies by free and reduced lunch, "Bluff and Disney [Disnard] are two highest free and reduced lunch" (0:16:21). | |
| 0:16:55 | Paraprofessionals | Whitney asks what keeps the district from hiring paras; Nester: "I think a stipend might be the way to go" (0:17:24), but "it's tough to give a hiring bonus to someone off the street and not recognize the people who've stuck it out" (0:17:42). Whitney would give it across the board ahead of the 2025 negotiation (0:17:58). | |
| 0:19:47 | Sprague's line items | The Stevens gym and auditorium project is "still anticipated" (0:20:01); teacher cell phones; a bus-routing program at "two years 40,560" (0:22:49); a behavior program claiming "100% calmer classrooms" (Koski: "Closer to $9,000", 0:23:31); "Diagnostic placements" of about half a million (the superintendent: "We haven't we haven't funded any placements with that money yet", 0:24:24); a part-time ESSER consultant, former Fall Mountain superintendent Laurie Landry, at about 70 thousand with benefits (0:25:16 to 0:25:30). | |
| 0:25:59 | Questions routed through staff | Sprague will send his written questions to the administration and the board: "Because I can't really send it to you without violating. So maybe what I'll do is. Just maybe I'll send it to Chelsea, and Chelsea can send it to the board, and the board can maybe put some follow up questions on it." Whitney: "That would be good." (0:26:34). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:27:44 | Measuring results | Koski: "I don't think we can just directly tie in one year, improve science scores to better equipment." Whitney asks whether ESSER money could buy consistent assessment tools for five to ten years (0:28:28); the superintendent will look into a multi-year contract (0:29:42). | |
| 0:31:59 | Public questions on ESSER | Crawford asks about parent engagement; Koski: the Strengthening Families and FACE programs have not started for lack of "Time and staff" (0:32:53), and the money "can be spent until September of 24" (0:33:13). The CTE exploratory program pays CTE teachers for an extra section each quarter so the eighth grade can attend (0:33:26). | |
| 0:33:55 | Ad hoc parliamentary-procedure committee | The chair: the committee is "Frank, Heather and myself"; "in your packet you have all the stuff that we worked on" (0:34:14). Whitney: the superintendent and business administrator attended "1 or 2 of the meetings" (0:34:44); agenda items will say who presents and what; the superintendent's report will answer questions the public asked at the previous meeting (0:36:12); a pre-populated annual calendar; principal presentations with questions submitted in advance; policy BEDH modeled on SAU 70's (0:37:49); a new-member book (0:39:14). Sprague: "it really took us a couple of years to really finish it" (0:45:01). | MEDIUM |
| 0:41:49 | Policy BEDH | Sprague: "Let me a motion to to move policy BEDH method of public participation and board meetings to second read." Carried (0:42:01). The minutes call it a first read. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:43:51 | Jennifer Gallagher | Asks that the calendar "make it so that town council meetings no longer are the same time as, school board meetings", and announces her candidacy. | |
| 0:45:56 | Donation accepted | Skillen: "I'd like to make a motion to accept the generous donation from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation for $7,000 to the Claremont Middle School to support the eighth grade class trip". The chair: the trip is to Boston. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:47:05 | Election and candidates | The chair: "As Kennedy [Candace] said earlier, March 14th is the day to get out and vote." Three-year seat: Sprague, Nicholas Stone, Arlene Hawkins; one-year seat: Gallagher and the chair. The candidate forum was "canceled due to the weather", and CCTV interviews with the three-year candidates are posted (0:48:02). | |
| 0:49:01 | Charter school | Sprague, recalling a CCTV interview question on charter schools: a charter school opens in the fall and its filing says it has talked with Stevens guidance counselors and "identified 87 kids that are suitable for their program" (0:52:11). Koski: the district "sends the state money with that student" (0:51:15); federal start-up money would not come from the district budget (0:51:36). The superintendent has emailed the school but not met with it (0:52:01) and says the district will be responsible for special education there (0:53:25). | |
| 0:54:37 | Getting out the vote | Miles, a supervisor of the checklist, says turnout is low and the police sign is broken; she proposes parking school buses with a vote reminder and the date. The superintendent: school signs and banners can be done (0:57:00). | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each one cites the rule it rests on as that rule read on March 1, 2023; check the recording and the primary source before relying on any of them. Severity: HIGH, a likely breach of a binding rule or a missed statutory deadline; MEDIUM, a probable process gap or control weakness; OBSERVATION, notable with no confirmed rule; POSITIVE, practice beyond the legal minimum. This page carries no HIGH flag.
MEDIUM An ad hoc board committee that met over "a couple of years" has no notice or minutes in the public record, and its work product is not in the posted packet
The chair named the committee's members as himself, Whitney and Sprague (0:33:55); Whitney said the superintendent and business administrator attended "1 or 2 of the meetings" (0:34:44); Sprague said "it really took us a couple of years to really finish it" (0:45:01). Under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), a public body reaches, after its list of bodies, "or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto" (statute), so the committee's meetings carried the notice and minutes duties of RSA 91-A:2, II. No notice, agenda or minutes for any of its meetings was found in the 2023 packet folders or the Meeting Minutes share, and neither the recording nor the minutes give a date for any of them. The chair told members "in your packet you have all the stuff that we worked on" (0:34:14), but the posted packet folder holds five documents and none is the committee's calendar, reference guide or draft policy BEDH, on which the board then voted (0:41:49). Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH under the project's missing-records rule: the committee's existence and members were disclosed in public, and Drive searches are unreliable for proving a negative, so the absence is established only as "not found".
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2022 codification); RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; 2022 codification); packet folder 7. CSB 3.1.23
OBSERVATION The $7,000 gift got the public hearing the law then required, but the newspaper notice is not in the record
Before July 18, 2023, RSA 198:20-b, III(a) required that "For unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken", with notice "published in a newspaper of general circulation in the relevant municipality at least 7 days before" (statute; the threshold rose to $20,000 under 2023, 38:1). The board held the hearing (0:03:45 to 0:05:21) and voted acceptance afterward in public session (0:46:16), which is the order the statute requires. The record does not show the seven-day newspaper notice: the packet holds no notice, the agenda reached the packet folder on February 28, and the donation document was added the morning of the meeting (Drive file creation, 16:00 UTC, March 1). Whether the district had adopted the enabling article RSA 198:20-b, I requires is also not in this record. A copy of the published notice would settle the first point.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (2022 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1); agenda, item III
OBSERVATION The public packet reproduces the donor's check with its bank routing and account line
The packet document Jack & Dorothy Byrnes Foundation Donation--CMS is a scan of the foundation's letter and its check to the Claremont Middle School. The check image carries the bank, the check number and the full machine-readable routing and account line. This page reproduces none of those numbers. RSA 91-A:5, IV allows a public body to withhold "confidential, commercial, or financial information" (statute); it permits withholding rather than requiring it, so the posting is not shown to breach a rule, but the district published a donor's account details when the letter alone documented the gift. The project has found the same exposure in later packets. The letter is also the document addressed to the eighth-grade trip's organizer, a Claremont Middle School teacher, whose surname the district's records spell several ways; this page does not print a spelling.
Sources: RSA 91-A:5, IV (2022 codification; 2022, 122:3, eff. May 27, 2022); donation document
OBSERVATION A member's questions to the whole board are routed through a staff member to avoid a violation
Sprague recognized that sending his ESSER questions to the full board himself could be a problem ("Because I can't really send it to you without violating") and proposed that the superintendent's assistant forward them so "the board can maybe put some follow up questions on it" (0:26:20). RSA 91-A:2-a, I requires public bodies to deliberate "only in meetings", and II provides that "Communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of a public body, shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter" (statute). Distributing a member's questions for the administration's answer is not deliberation by itself; inviting members to add follow-up questions to a circulating document begins to resemble the sequential communication paragraph II addresses, and routing it through staff does not change its character. The answers would serve the public better if presented at a meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2022 codification; source 2008, 303:4)
OBSERVATION The minutes and the recording differ on attendance, on a speaker and on the BEDH reading
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to "include the names of members" (statute). The minutes' Present line names Petrin, Whitney, Miles and Sprague and omits Whitney Skillen, who answers the roll (0:01:41) and whom the same minutes name as mover or seconder of four motions. The minutes give the question about leftover donation money to Bonnie Miles; the dialogue file gives it to Whitney (0:05:00); the voice was not settled for this page. On policy BEDH, Sprague's motion on tape is to move it "to second read" (0:41:49) while the chair had described a first reading and the minutes record "first read"; a later page should confirm which reading the policy received. The minutes give Skillen as seconder of adjournment where the chair says "by Whitney" (0:57:43), which may be the same person.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification); minutes
POSITIVE Minutes with every mover and seconder reached the packet within five business days, and the ESSER report took public questions
The draft minutes were created in the meeting's packet folder on the evening of Sunday, March 5, 2023, within the five business days RSA 91-A:2, II allows, and they name the mover and seconder of each motion as that paragraph has required since January 1, 2019. The chair also opened public comment on the ESSER report (0:31:59) and on the committee report (0:43:43), items on which no vote was required.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; draft minutes, created March 5, 2023 (Eastern time)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: Claremont School Board Meeting 3/1/23 (Claremont Community Television (CCTV) / Claremont Community Media Center (CCMC); title as MAP.md records it)
- Drive packet folder 7. CSB 3.1.23 (created February 28, 2023), 5 documents:
- Minutes:
4. 3.1.23 CSB meeting minutes (Meeting Minutes share, created March 6, 2023). No public notice for this meeting or newspaper notice for the donation hearing was found in the packet folder. No notice or minutes for the ad hoc parliamentary-procedure committee were found (Drive title and full-text searches, and the 2023 packet folders listed in MAP.md; searches of this share are unreliable for negatives).
- Related page: Claremont School Board, February 15, 2023
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/14937 SchoolBoard030123.mp4.CSV (335 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/14937 SchoolBoard030123.mp4 (local copy of the recording)Input/Transcripts/14937 SchoolBoard030123.mp4.json (diarized transcript)Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 189 (video-to-document map)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- State, as codified for the meeting date: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II; RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II; RSA 91-A:5, IV; RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a)
- Mentioned for dating only: 2023, 38:1 (RSA 198:20-b threshold raised to $20,000, eff. July 18, 2023)