Participants
Names follow the agenda masthead and the minutes; where the dialogue file's label rests on weaker evidence, the row says so.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Chair | Presides; moves to reorder the agenda (0:03:21) and to fix the budget dates (0:31:04); asks administration for 6-12 alignment of behavior policies (0:42:04). |
| Arlene Hawkins | Member; acting policy subcommittee chair in Skillen's absence | Asks for the board's bullying policy in the middle- and high-school handbooks (0:39:48); questions the term "in school support" (0:51:26); asks for handbooks "before August" next year (0:58:45); presents the policy rewrites with input from the school nurse (1:01:57); calls for a roll call on the nonpublic motion (1:06:40); seconds the seal (minutes). The dialogue file also gives her the seconds on the budget dates, handbooks and nominations, which the minutes give to Gallagher and Miles. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member | Thanks Henry and the representatives (0:08:26); flags McKinney-Vento wording and a missing board member in the middle-school handbook (0:48:10, 0:49:07); moves the nonpublic session (1:06:17), which the chair records as "By Bonnie" (1:07:07) and the minutes attribute to Hawkins (flag 3). The dialogue file's label rests on elimination; the chair's words name her. |
| Jennifer Gallagher | Member; chair, Ad Hoc Disruptive Behaviors Committee | Asks that an elementary bullying clause read shall rather than may (0:54:49); moves the handbooks (0:59:20), the policies (1:02:30), the seal (1:08:25) and the nominations (1:10:53); reports an August 23 meeting with "the judge and appropriate people" (1:03:21); seconds the nonpublic motion (minutes; on tape she cannot recall, 1:07:13). |
| Frank Sprague | Vice chair | Absent (minutes; no answer in any roll). |
| Candace Crawford | Member | Absent (minutes; no answer in any roll). |
| Whitney Skillen | Member; policy subcommittee chair | Absent (the chair, 1:00:58); the minutes list her in neither the present nor the absent column. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent | Absent; the chair: "Mr. Tempesta is dealing with a family emergency and is unable to attend this evening" (0:02:58). No superintendent's report is given. |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | Presents the district's free-and-reduced-lunch push (0:04:27); presents the MS-22 for signature (0:23:55); reports business-office staffing, open audit findings and a proposed bank sweep account (0:24:38 to 0:28:35); reads the future dates (1:12:54). |
| Mike Koski | Assistant Superintendent | Confirms the handbook changes (0:59:54); reads the professional-staff nominations in Tempesta's place (1:09:18). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Calls the three roll calls; co-leads the ad hoc committee and reports the meeting location as undetermined (1:03:45). |
| Courtney Steele | Administrator, Claremont Middle School | Presents the CMS handbook changes with Irwin because Principal Frank Romeo is absent (0:33:11, 0:33:42). |
| David Irwin | Assistant Principal, Claremont Middle School (nominated tonight) | Describes the restorative-justice program being built at CMS (0:36:14) and the move from in-school suspension to a support room (0:51:50). Self-identifies as Dave Erwin (0:33:22). |
| Elementary principal (labeled Melissa Lewis) | SAU 6 elementary schools | Answers for the elementary handbook (0:55:40). The dialogue file labels her Melissa Lewis; the chair refers to Melissa Lewis having presented at the last meeting (0:32:47); the minutes do not name the elementary presenter. |
| Gary Merchant | Citizens' comments, Ward 2; NH State Representative | Praises the board's website and Henry's timeline (0:02:27); co-presents the lunch-outreach plan and its $4,000 request (0:09:09, 0:21:57). |
| Hope Damon | NH State Representative | Presents why free-and-reduced counts matter for state aid and on food insecurity (0:10:20 to 0:20:11). |
| John Cloutier | NH State Representative | Presents the community-awareness and application-support plan (0:18:14). |
Agenda
Items and wording from the posted agenda (created on Drive Wednesday, August 9, 2023); the board reordered it at the start (item IV.0 below). Dispositions from the recording and the minutes.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | I. Call to order, pledge | Called to order by the chair; pledge at 0:00:23. |
| 0:00:54 | II. Roll call; consent agenda (agenda; minutes of August 2, 2023); citizens' comments | Roll by Nester; most of it was not transcribed. The chair takes the August 2 minutes by consent, "Seeing none, we'll consider that a consent and accepting the minutes" (0:01:31), and defers agenda changes to an action item. Citizens' comments (0:01:58): Merchant only (0:02:27). |
| 0:02:58 | III. Superintendent report | None; the superintendent is absent. |
| 0:03:21 | IV.0 Request to modify the agenda (floor item) | The chair moves to add a presentation by Henry before item 1 and to move the nonpublic session ahead of the nominations; seconded by an unidentified member (0:04:04); carried by voice vote (0:04:05). The minutes record the motion and vote but name no seconder. |
| 0:04:27 | IV.1 Building Community Outreach to Capture Free and Reduced Lunch Applications (Reps. Merchant and Damon) | Henry's presentation first (0:04:27), then the three representatives (0:09:09 to 0:22:57). Their slides ask for "Board Approval and Support of this Project" and a "Total financial ask - $4,000" (presentation). No motion or vote is taken; the chair thanks them (0:23:32). |
| 0:23:55 | IV.3 MS-22 board signature; business department update; budget timeline | Henry: "It is late, but it's getting done." (0:24:17). Staffing, audit findings and a sweep account (0:24:38 to 0:28:35). No vote. |
| 0:29:47 | IV.4 Dates for Budget Public Hearing / Budget Ratification / Deliberative Session (vote) | Agenda: hearing January 3, 2024; ratification vote January 17, 2024; deliberative session February 7, 2024. Motion by the chair (0:31:04); carried by voice vote (0:31:41). Minutes: seconded by Gallagher; the dialogue file labels the second Hawkins (0:31:34). |
| 0:32:40 | IV.5 Approval of Handbooks (Exhibits E-G) | CMS (0:33:11), then elementary (0:54:31). Gallagher moves to approve "the handbooks with our notes and comments" (0:59:20); carried by voice vote (0:59:30). Minutes: seconded by Miles. Koski lists the changes (0:59:54). |
| 1:00:58 | IV.6 School Board Sub-Committees: a) Policy (JLCB, JLCC second read and adoption); b) Ad Hoc Disruptive Behaviors | Gallagher moves both policies "as written" (1:02:30); Hawkins seconds (1:02:36); adopted by voice vote (1:03:03). Ad hoc committee meets August 23 at 3:00, location to be determined (1:03:21). |
| 1:05:52 | VII. Non-Public Meeting Session, RSA 91-A:3, II(c) (moved forward) | Motion read on the record (1:06:17); roll call, all four yes (1:06:45). Session not recorded. Return by roll call (1:07:57). Motion to seal "for ten years" (1:08:25), roll call, all four yes (1:08:47 to 1:08:58). |
| 1:09:18 | IV.2 Ratification of Nomination of Professional Staff (Exhibit A) | Read by Koski (the agenda had Tempesta presenting). Gallagher moves (1:10:53); approved by voice vote (1:10:59). Minutes: seconded by Miles; the dialogue file labels the second Hawkins. |
| 1:11:39 | V. Other business: Facebook page | "Do we have any complaints about the absence of the Facebook page?"; none reported. |
| 1:12:54 | VI. Future dates | Read by Henry: SAU 6 retreat August 23 at the Teal Lantern; SAU 6 meeting August 17; next board meeting September 6; listening sessions with Fred Bramante September 7. |
| 1:13:42 | VIII. Adjournment | Without objection. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/15253 SchoolBoard081623.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:31 | Minutes by consent; citizens' comments | August 2 minutes accepted without a vote count. Merchant: "I was on the website and I was very impressed with what you folks have done with the website" (0:02:29). | |
| 0:04:27 | Henry: the district's lunch-application drive | QR-code flier on Facebook, app messages, a mailing, a prize drawing. "October 1st is our deadline to be able to get adequacy aid for fiscal year 25"; "It's $2,300 a kid currently and an additional $8,500 a kid"; "about 880 kids is our break even point per my calculations" (0:05:17). She asks that the district handle it: "But I really would like us to have an opportunity this year to be able to prove that we can get this done as well." (0:07:51). | |
| 0:09:09 | Three representatives' outreach plan | Merchant: the hold-harmless grant falls "$1 out of the whole harmless" [hold harmless] for each new aid dollar until exceeded (0:15:49). "You take 80% of 1105, you got 884 approximately. That comes down to 56.7%" (0:17:17); his slide: "884 FRL could mean up to an additional $1,177,200 in additional state aid" (presentation). Damon: helping a parent fill out the form "It's not against federal law" (0:20:11). The ask: "It's about $4,000" (0:22:57). | |
| 0:23:55 | MS-22 signed four months late | Henry: "I have your miss 22 [MS-22] that you guys need to sign this evening"; "What this is, is your budget for fiscal year 24 that you voted on" (0:23:55); "It is late, but it's getting done. So one more thing off the off of our plates next year. This one might be late" (0:24:17). The form prints "Form Due Date: 20 Days after the Annual Meeting" and a generation stamp of August 9, 2023 (Exhibit D). | HIGH |
| 0:24:38 | Business office: staff, audit findings, sweep account | New staff member rendered Lori Maury (minutes: Lori Mowrey) on payables and payroll; Sharon on "grants and audits" (0:25:06). "any corrections that are done in fiscal year 24 will be noted on fiscal year 21 audit" (0:25:31). A sweep account with Claremont Savings Bank to earn more interest (0:27:34). | |
| 0:29:47 | Budget calendar fixed | "These dates were mindfully picked not to coincide with the city council." (0:30:24). Hearing January 3, ratification January 17, deliberative session February 7, 2024 (0:31:04); carried (0:31:41). | POSITIVE |
| 0:33:11 | Middle-school handbook | Steele presents the changes. Irwin on restorative justice: "Nobody prior to, a few weeks ago told me that we needed to have that program" (0:37:16). Hawkins wants the board's bullying policy in the CMS and Stevens handbooks (0:39:48). Miles on the McKinney-Vento page: "living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or campgrounds due to lack of alternative accommodation" (0:48:10); and "Candace Crawford is not was not listed in there" as a board member (0:49:07). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:51:26 | "In school support" | Hawkins: "in school support sounds like I'm going to get academic help". Irwin: "We're moving away from a suspension model for in-school. It's not a holding cell anymore. It is a support room." (0:51:50). | |
| 0:54:31 | Elementary handbook | Gallagher: the interim-measures clause in the bullying section says the principal "may take interim remedial measures"; "remediation shall take place, not May" (0:55:20). Hawkins: "Can we get these before August?" (0:58:45). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:59:20 | Handbooks approved with changes | Motion "to approve the handbooks with our notes and comments", "Incorporated" (0:59:26); voice vote (0:59:30). Koski's list: bullying policy into Stevens and CMS, dress-code picture into CMS, elementary word changes (0:59:54). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:01:22 | Policies JLCB and JLCC adopted | Second read of the immunization and head-lice policies. Hawkins: "I took extensive notes. I reread the older policies." (1:01:57). Gallagher: "it's a fantastic rewrite of the head lice policy" (1:02:56). Adopted (1:03:03). | |
| 1:03:21 | Ad hoc disruptive behaviors committee | Meeting "with the judge and appropriate people" on August 23 (1:03:21). The chair: the committee is to "put a spotlight on the disruptive behaviors and the social and behavioral issues that are in the school, in particular bullying" (1:04:18). | |
| 1:06:17 | Nonpublic session and seal | Miles: "I move that we're moving to a nonpublic session. As for RSA 91-A2CC [91-A:3, II(c)] matters which have discussed in public would likely adversely affect the reputation of any person other than a member of the board." Roll call (1:06:45). The chair: "By Bonnie." (1:07:07). The return roll follows 38 recording-seconds later (1:07:57). Gallagher: "I'll make a motion to seal the minutes for ten years." (1:08:25); roll call, "Motion. Pass. This will be sealed." (1:08:58). | MEDIUM MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 1:09:18 | Professional-staff nominations ratified | Koski reads the nineteen names on Exhibit A, including a special education teacher for the new alternative program (1:09:18) and David Irwin as CMS assistant principal (1:10:31). Approved by voice vote (1:10:59). | |
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 August 16, 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.
HIGH The FY2024 report of appropriations voted (MS-22) was still unsigned four months after its statutory due date
RSA 21-J:34, II requires the governing body of each school district to "certify the appropriations voted" and states: "This report shall be filed within 20 days of the close of the meeting" (statute). The form itself prints "Form Due Date: 20 Days after the Annual Meeting" (Exhibit D). Claremont's 2023 annual meeting closed with the official-ballot vote on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, so the report was due Monday, April 3, 2023. The packet copy carries a DRA generation stamp of August 9, 2023, its total of $38,345,312 matches the budget the voters approved, and on August 16 the business administrator asked the board to sign it so she could upload it: "It is late, but it's getting done", adding of next year's "This one might be late" (0:24:17). That is 135 days after the due date. Mitigation on the record: the business office turned over in the interval (Henry describes "a new administration", 0:08:13), and the board signed the same night. The filing date at DRA is not in this record.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34, II (2023 codification; source note ends 2007, 182:2, eff. Apr. 1, 2007); Exhibit D-MS22 CSB.pdf
MEDIUM Nonpublic minutes sealed for ten years with no statutory determination stated, and no times recorded for the session
RSA 91-A:3, III, as it read on this date, lets a public body withhold nonpublic minutes beyond 72 hours only by a recorded two-thirds vote of the members present, taken in public session, that determines divulgence "likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself, or render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism" (statute). The vote here was in public and unanimous by roll call of the four members present (1:08:47 to 1:08:58), which meets the vote requirement. No determination was stated: the motion was "to seal the minutes for ten years" (1:08:25), and the minutes record it the same way. The session entered under II(c), the reputation ground, so the needed finding may be implied, but the statute asks for it to be made. The session is not on the recording: the return roll call begins 38 recording-seconds after the entry vote (1:07:19 to 1:07:57), so the tape was stopped or edited, and neither the tape nor the minutes give the session's start, end or length. The ten-year review in RSA 91-A:3, IV did not yet exist; it took effect October 3, 2023.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2022 codification); minutes, item 7
MEDIUM The minutes omit one member from the attendance record, name a different mover for the nonpublic motion than the recording, and record no seconder for the agenda change
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include "the names of members" and "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion" (statute). Three defects: (1) the minutes list four members present and Sprague and Crawford absent, and do not mention Whitney Skillen, whom the chair reports absent (1:00:58); (2) they record "Arlene Hawkins makes a motion to move into a non-public session" (minutes), while on tape the motion is moved at 1:06:17 and the chair, asked who made it, answers "By Bonnie." (1:07:07); (3) the chair's motion to reorder the agenda was seconded (0:04:04) but the minutes name no seconder. The dialogue file also attributes the seconds on the budget-dates, handbook and nomination motions to Hawkins where the minutes name Gallagher, Miles and Miles; that conflict may be a diarization error and is not counted here. The minutes do name movers and seconders for every other motion, and were filed on time (flag 6).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification, in force until Oct. 3, 2023); minutes
OBSERVATION The handbooks were approved "with our notes and comments" incorporated, so the adopted text was not before the board
The motion approved three handbooks subject to changes the board described in discussion (0:59:20); Koski summarized them afterwards to be sure he had them all (0:59:54), and the minutes record them only in part (one bullet ends mid-sentence: "The Claremont School Board would like to have SHS and CMS handbooks be", minutes). The changes include substantive policy text: putting the board's bullying policy in the CMS and Stevens handbooks, and changing an elementary interim-measures clause from may to shall (0:55:20). Members said the handbooks arrived late for review (0:58:45). No rule requires the board to see final text before approving a handbook; the point is that the public record does not show what was adopted.
Sources: minutes, item 5; packet Exhibits E to G (appendix)
POSITIVE The board fixed its budget-season dates five months ahead, inside the SB 2 calendar
RSA 40:13, II-a puts budget hearings in official-ballot districts "on or before the third Tuesday in January", and RSA 40:13, III sets the first session "between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January" (statute). For 2024 those fall on January 16 and February 3 to 10. The board voted a January 3 hearing and a February 7 deliberative session (0:31:04), both inside the windows, and announced them publicly in August so that, in the chair's words, "the public knows when our budget public hearing is going to be" (0:29:47).
Sources: RSA 40:13, II-a and III (2023 codification; last amended 2019, 192:2)
POSITIVE The nonpublic motion stated its ground, every nonpublic vote was by roll call, and the minutes reached the public share on the fifth business day
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires a motion to enter nonpublic session to state the specific exemption and to be decided by roll call. The motion read the text of II(c) into the record (1:06:17); a member asked for a roll call (1:06:40); entry, return and seal were each taken by roll (1:06:45, 1:07:57, 1:08:47). The minutes were created on Drive Wednesday, August 23, 2023, the fifth business day after the meeting, inside RSA 91-A:2, II's limit.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b); RSA 91-A:2, II
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/15253 SchoolBoard081623.mp4.CSV (500 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/15253 SchoolBoard081623.mp4 (local copy of the recording)Input/Transcripts/15253 SchoolBoard081623.mp4.json (diarized transcript)Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 202 (video-to-document map)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- State, as codified for the meeting date: RSA 21-J:34, II; RSA 40:13, II-a and III; RSA 91-A:2, II; RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(c) and III
- Mentioned for dating only: 2023, 189:1 (added RSA 91-A:3, IV, eff. Oct. 3, 2023)