Participants
Everyone in the record. With no minutes, names come from the chair’s opening introductions, direct address on tape, and the project’s roster; the dialogue file’s labels are noted where they differ.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Committee chair; board vice chair | Opens and runs the session (0:00:04); asks about impact bargaining (0:07:17), staffing reports (1:10:06) and the Extraordinary Needs grant (1:14:08). |
| Heather Whitney | Committee member; board chair | School-funding lawsuits (0:08:29); the social-worker priority (0:31:04); elementary total up 0.66% (1:11:31); five-year curriculum costs (1:21:24). |
| Candace Crawford | Committee member; board member | Most questions of the session: health-plan costs (0:11:48), paraprofessional counts, behavioral specialists (1:08:36), portable classrooms (1:15:34). On the paraprofessional negotiating team (0:52:00). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Opening summary of budget priorities (0:01:46); negotiation and warrant-article answers (1:09:00). |
| Mike Koski | Assistant Superintendent | Curriculum purchase cycle (1:14:54). The dialogue file rates this cluster medium confidence; he is never addressed by name on tape. |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | Health-plan costs (0:12:31), salary and position carry-overs (0:53:34), behavioral-specialist lines (1:08:01). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Named present in the chair’s opening introductions; no rows attributed to him. |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary | Presents the Disnard budget: social worker, workbooks, paraprofessionals (0:14:58). |
| Christine Baker | Principal, Bluff Elementary (online) | Presents the Bluff budget (0:38:13); enrollment 176, budgeted for about 190 (0:40:56). |
| Mark Blount | Principal, Maple Avenue Elementary (by telephone) | Joins after audio trouble; 22 paraprofessionals (0:56:08); asks for a locally funded interventionist (1:02:54). Spelled per the project roster; the dialogue file has the ASR form “Mark Blunt”. |
| Unidentified | Various | Twelve short interjections, several probably the speakerphone before Blount connected. |
Named but not present: Stevens principal Chris Pratt (to present the high-school schedule the next week); Steve Holt, maintenance (“Mr. Holtz” in the transcript), whose lines the committee planned to review; Dr. Bissell of the Orion Group; Jeff Small, technology (“Jeff Smalley”), texted during the audio trouble. No member of the public spoke, and no comment period was offered.
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda was located. The item list is reconstructed from the chair’s transitions. No motions or votes were taken.
| Taken up | Item | What happened |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Opening and introductions | Chair names the committee and staff present; principals Baker and Blount remote. |
| 0:01:46 | Superintendent’s overview | Four priorities: reopening the paraprofessional contract, sunsetting ESSER positions, embedding early childhood in the elementary schools, aligning schedules. |
| 0:07:17 | Questions: bargaining, lawsuits, contracts, health costs | Impact bargaining on the Stevens schedule; the school-funding decisions; teachers’ second-year increase; health-plan costs. |
| 0:14:07 | Disnard Elementary budget | Principal Melissa Lewis. |
| 0:36:29 | Maple Avenue (first attempt) and Bluff Elementary budget | Remote audio fails for Maple; the committee moves to Principal Christine Baker. |
| 0:47:06 | Maple Avenue Elementary budget | Principal Mark Blount by telephone, connected at about 0:54. |
| 1:07:05 | Behavioral specialists and staffing data | Positions absent from proposed lines; staffing report requested. |
| 1:11:31 | Elementary totals and contracts | Elementary budgets up 0.66%; paraprofessional, maintenance and secretaries’ contracts outside the lines. |
| 1:14:08 | Grants, curriculum and portable classrooms | Extraordinary Needs grant; ELA workbooks; ESSER III portables; curriculum cycle costs; fund balance. |
| 1:23:15 | Close | Next session set for 9:00 the following morning. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/15443 SchoolBoardFinance113023.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Quotations are the transcript as it stands, ASR errors included; bracketed words are this page’s readings.
Chronological topics with what was said and related flags.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Purpose of the session | Sprague welcomes viewers to the “Claremont preliminary school budget for the 2425 fiscal year” and names the committee: himself as chair, Whitney and Crawford (0:00:26). The aim is a number that “supports our schools, and at the same time is something that the taxpayers will pass come, come March” (0:01:20). | HIGH POSITIVE |
| 0:01:46 | Superintendent’s four priorities | Reopen the paraprofessional contract “to prioritize a fair and competitive contract”, sunset ESSER positions, fund some of them locally, embed early childhood in the elementary schools (0:02:17, 0:05:13). ESSER-funded academic deans, academic centers, summer and after-school programs “expire in September of 24” (0:04:47). Portable classrooms for Disnard and Bluff are in the ESSER money (0:06:11). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:17 | Impact bargaining on the Stevens schedule | No side letter with the union yet; the administration will present the change as a financial option first. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:08:29 | School-funding lawsuits | Whitney asks about “The canal and the rand” [ConVal and Rand] decisions, “roughly, I think, 5 million” (0:08:53) and per-pupil adequacy “over 7000, where we’re at 4100” (0:09:30). Tempesta: “guardedly optimistic but not holding our breath” (0:10:42). Crawford: “I think it’s prudent to plan not to get the money” (0:10:54). These are the members’ characterizations of the rulings; this page has not verified them. | |
| 0:11:09 | Teachers’ contract and health plans | Second-year teacher increase “Roughly 500,000 more” (Whitney, 0:11:33), 3.75% (Sprague, 0:11:35). Henry: family plan “upwards around 37,000, 33,000 depending”, two-person “24 to 28,000” (0:12:31), single “between 13 and 17” thousand (0:12:52); the superintendent puts the employee share at 5% (0:13:34). | |
| 0:14:58 | Disnard: social worker, supplies, workbooks | Lewis asks for a school social worker, raises instructional supplies $3,000 for paper and workbooks, and notes the state cursive requirement for grades four and five (0:15:31). | |
| 0:17:04 | Disnard paraprofessionals | One added position, to 13. Lewis: twelve on staff, five openings, two left mid-year (0:17:20), one for “a higher paying position pair position in a nearby district” (0:20:13). Thirteen “will not meet our current needs” (0:18:35); “15 would give us?” what is needed (0:18:58). | POSITIVE |
| 0:20:30 | Disnard: furniture, nurse, recruiting, field trips | Furniture +$1,000 including standing desks; nurse supplies and dues; $500 for recruitment banners near Valley Regional Hospital (0:22:43); field trips restored. | |
| 0:25:04 | Secretary line and a prior-year error | Whitney asks about a $15,000 increase; Sprague: “It was incorrectly entered last year” (0:25:39). Substitute pay about $100 to $105 a day (0:28:12). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:15 | Salary changes and double-sided copying | Crawford asks about a 2% salary increase; Henry attributes such changes to staff turnover, “unless we do a decrease in staff which we have not done” (0:29:54). Crawford urges double-sided copier defaults (0:30:02). | |
| 0:31:04 | Why a social worker | Whitney: “roughly almost $100,000” (0:31:04). Lewis on family liaison work and rising McKinney-Vento numbers (0:33:36). Sprague cites a Stevens social worker obtained through Dr. Bissell of the Orion Group (0:35:05). | |
| 0:35:51 | Special-education salary error | A Disnard decrease of about $71,000 is attributed to a budgeting error; Crawford: it pays for the social worker. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:36:29 | Remote audio fails; Bluff instead | Maple Avenue cannot be heard; the committee switches to Christine Baker (0:37:51). | |
| 0:38:13 | Bluff: workbooks, furniture, interventionist | Baker: teachers want tables and traditional desks back from the triangular ones (0:38:36); Sprague: “So these are all the things we bought during Covid money” (0:38:55). She had sought an interventionist and received a social worker “as kind of a gift” (0:40:26). | |
| 0:40:49 | Bluff enrollment and paraprofessionals | 176 enrolled, about 190 if all positions had been filled (0:40:56); 18 paraprofessional needs including one-on-ones (0:43:42), “seven of that, 18 are one on ones” (0:46:14). Superintendent on why one-on-ones are assigned: safety and significant medical needs (0:45:48). | |
| 0:42:39 | Bluff special-education line | The superintendent confirms the Bluff decrease is also a budgeting error. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:48:07 | Maple: salaries down $161,000 | Henry first ties the drop to removed behavioral support specialists (0:48:46), later to staff changes (0:54:51); open positions are carried at budget regardless (0:53:34). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:49:41 | Behavioral specialists defined | Lewis: one per building, three in the district (0:49:52). Tempesta: the aim is to bring them into the paraprofessional contract “And I’m at a better rate” (0:52:18). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:34 | Maple by telephone | Blount reports 22 paraprofessionals (0:56:08); Crawford: “You’ve got salaries for Ferris at 542,000” [paras] (0:57:32). Maple houses three district programs, budgeted in Maple (0:57:20). | |
| 0:59:39 | Maple: interventionist and Title I | Blount: Title I interventionists fell from three to one (1:00:17); a locally funded interventionist is requested (1:06:07) but Henry says it is not in the budget (1:07:02). Sprague: enrollment at Maple “down to 267 the first time in ten years under 300” (1:01:32). | |
| 1:07:05 | Behavioral specialists missing from proposed lines | Henry confirms none are in any proposed line; the superintendent explains the negotiation and that the contract cost would be a separate warrant article. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:10:06 | Staffing report requested | Sprague asks for last year’s staffing format; Henry will give school-level benefit totals, not individual benefits. | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:11:31 | Elementary total up 0.66% | Whitney: “this is an overall budget increase of 0.6 6% for the three elementary schools”, including a social worker at each (1:11:31). Maintenance and secretaries’ wages carried at current rates pending negotiation (1:12:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:14:08 | Extraordinary Needs grant and workbooks | The Extraordinary Needs grant is described as one year only (1:14:08). Koski: the ELA programs were three-year contracts; workbooks are consumable and recur (1:14:54). | |
| 1:15:34 | ESSER III portable classrooms | Plans in hand from two suppliers; bid not started; ownership rather than lease. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:17:01 | Curriculum cycle and fund balance | Whitney plans five years out (1:21:24); Koski: about $250,000 a year; Tempesta suggests fund balance. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:23:15 | Close | Next session “Tomorrow. At what time? Nine nine. 9:00” (1:23:15), recorded as Cablecast show 15444. | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each names the rule it rests on and links the primary source; where no verified rule applies, the item is an observation. Severity: 1 high, 0 medium, 6 observations, 1 positive.
HIGH No minutes, notice or agenda for this Finance Committee session has been located in any district share
The committee is a subcommittee of the school board: the chair opens by naming himself as “the chair of this committee and vice chair of the Claremont Board” and Heather Whitney and Candace Crawford as its other members (0:00:04, 0:00:26), all three present. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes any committee or subcommittee of a school board a public body, and RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes open to public inspection within five business days. MAP.md records a search of the 2023 packet archive, the Meeting Minutes share and the next board packet that found nothing (2026-08-28). This page repeated it on 2026-10-03: title and full-text searches for the date in its common forms returned only files owned by the project maintainer, not district material; a folder listing of the 12/6/23 packet returned an empty result, which proves nothing either way; and the 12/6/23 agenda and approved minutes, read in full, contain no minutes of this session. No notice or agenda was located either, and the 11/15/23 agenda’s future-dates list does not include it.
Severity follows the project rule: a public body met and no minutes exist in any district share, with nothing on the record explaining it, so the HIGH limb applies. The mitigations are real but are not minutes. The session was televised (“It looks like we’re on the air”, 0:00:04), and the approved 12/6/23 minutes, under the Finance Sub-Committee report, note that the sessions were recorded on CCTV and that a budget binder had been provided. Business Administrator Mary Henry had told the board on 11/15 she would sit down with the finance committee after Thanksgiving, so the meeting was foreseen in public. Whether notice was posted physically cannot be tested from here; the flag rests on the minutes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees and subcommittees are public bodies); RSA 91-A:2, II (2023 codification: notice; minutes within five business days); Approved CSB minutes 12/6/23 (Finance Sub-Committee report)
OBSERVATION The budget binder and the superintendent’s summary the committee worked from are not public
Every figure in this session is read from papers on the table: the superintendent’s overview summary of “four, four big buckets” (0:01:46) and the line-item budget book (“It’s about halfway down”, 0:16:50; “Page four”, 0:24:12). Neither is in any district share this page could reach, and the principals worked from their own system reports (“I don’t have the copy of what you guys have”, 0:24:41). The chair asked for a staffing report like last year’s, with names blinded (1:10:06, 1:11:22); Henry said she had run out of time (1:10:25). Without the binder a viewer cannot check the line numbers spoken on tape, several of which the ASR garbles (“1100 645”, 0:16:51).
The 12/6/23 board minutes record that a budget binder was provided and that a revised version would be available. This page found neither version in the public shares.
Sources: Approved CSB minutes 12/6/23 (budget binder reference); 2023 Meeting Documents folder
OBSERVATION Filled behavioral-specialist positions drop out of the proposed operating budget, to be replaced through a paraprofessional contract that would go to voters as a separate article
Questioning the Maple Avenue lines, Sprague found “one, two, three behavioral support people” in the current budget (1:07:47); Henry: “There are no behavioral support specialists or the Haverhill support in any of these budget lines okay” (1:08:01). Crawford: “each elementary school this year has one behavioral specialist, right? In this proposed budget, there are no behavioral specialists for the elementaries. Is that true?” (1:08:36); Henry: “That’s true. Correct” (1:08:58). The superintendent explained the intent is to move these roles into the paraprofessional contract, “I can only say so much about this because we’re in an active negotiation” (1:09:00), and the superintendent said the contract’s cost “would be a warrant article” (1:12:04); Henry: “So it’ll be a separate Warner” [warrant article] (1:12:11).
Under RSA 273-A:3, II(b) only cost items of a bargained agreement go to the legislative body, and RSA 273-A:1, IV defines a cost item as a benefit whose implementation requires an appropriation. If the paraprofessional article failed, the positions now in the buildings would be in neither the operating budget nor an approved contract. The record shows the board saw the structure; it does not show the board weighing that contingency. Crawford also cut off Sprague’s on-air speculation about the contract figure (“Frank, you got to stop talking about that”, {L(665)}), consistent with keeping bargaining positions off the record.
Sources: RSA 273-A:1, IV (cost item); RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (only cost items to the legislative body)
OBSERVATION Several FY24 budget lines were described as entered in error
Three lines were explained as last year’s mistakes rather than real changes: the Disnard secretary line, up $15,000 (“It was incorrectly entered last year”, Sprague, 0:25:39); the Disnard special-education salaries, down about $71,000 (Crawford, 0:35:51; Tempesta: “We think it was a budgeting error from last year”, 0:36:06); and the comparable Bluff line (“we believe it’s a was a budgeting error”, 0:42:50). Crawford’s response to the Disnard error: “Great. That pays for the social worker” (0:36:09).
A budget-line error is not a financial-statement error, so GASB’s restatement rules do not reach it. The point is that the voted FY24 budget carried misallocated lines, that their correction changes the year-over-year comparison voters will see on the budget form, and that the record contains no written list of the corrections. The page cannot tell from the recording whether the errors offset.
Sources: Recording only; no budget document was located (see flag 2)
OBSERVATION A proposed Stevens schedule change was not yet bargained with the teachers’ union
Sprague: “Changing the the schedule at Stevens is a, I suspect will be an issue with the union”, and asked whether provision had been made for impact bargaining (0:07:17). Tempesta: “we know that we would have to to bargain” (0:07:35); there was no side letter yet: “We want to we want to present it as a viable option financially to the board and to everyone first” (0:08:14).
RSA 273-A:1, XI includes hours among the terms and conditions of employment, and RSA 273-A:5, I(e) makes refusal to negotiate in good faith with the exclusive representative an unfair labor practice. Nothing improper happened at this session; the observation is that a budgeted schedule change rested on bargaining not yet begun.
Sources: RSA 273-A:1, XI (terms and conditions include hours); RSA 273-A:5, I(e)
OBSERVATION Portable classrooms to be bought with ESSER III money before September 2024, bid not yet started
The superintendent said portable classrooms for Disnard and Bluff were “funded in the, in the Esser monies” (0:06:11). Crawford asked whether ESSER had ended; Koski: “Not until September” (1:15:52). Tempesta: “We have plans from centipede. We have plans from Fall Mountain” (1:16:28) and “We still have to go out to bid” (1:16:43); the district could buy rather than lease, as “a nice, nice one time” (1:16:48).
ESSER funds lapse once their period of availability, including the Tydings carryover year, runs out, and a federally funded purchase must follow documented procurement procedures with a record of the procurement history. With ten months left and the bid not begun, the timing was tight. Whether the units were bought is outside this record.
Sources: 20 U.S.C. §1225(b) (one additional year of availability); 2 CFR 200.318(a), (i) (2023 edition: documented procurement procedures; procurement records)
OBSERVATION Fund balance floated as a source for curriculum purchases
Koski put the curriculum cycle at “250,000 per subject area” (1:20:20), then “$250,000 a year each year for curriculum” (1:22:27). Tempesta: “There’d be a good use of, allocates some money from a fund balance into that” (1:20:28), and “if we have a, say, a $400,000 fund balance” (1:22:49).
This is loose wording, not a decision, so it is an observation. Year-end unassigned funds a district retains under RSA 198:4-b, II may be spent only after a prior public hearing, and GASB 54 governs how any such amount is classified; money not retained is not available to the board at all. The audited fund balance and any retention vote would settle what was available.
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, II (2023 codification: retained funds; hearing before expending); GASB Statement 54, ¶6–17 (fund balance classes)
POSITIVE A televised, line-by-line budget work session with the building principals
The committee broadcast its working session and opened by telling viewers what it was for: the budget must provide “the things that we we need to provide education to our kids” while being “sustainable by the taxpayers” (0:00:56, 0:01:20). The three elementary principals then answered line by line on the record, including figures unfavorable to their own requests: Melissa Lewis said a 13th paraprofessional “will not meet our current needs” (0:18:35). Henry offered school-level benefit totals while declining to release individual employees’ benefits (1:10:52, 1:11:15). RSA 91-A does not require a subcommittee to televise its sessions; the recording is the only public account of this one (flag 1).
Sources: Cablecast recording, show 15443
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/15443 SchoolBoardFinance113023.mp4.CSV (818 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/15443 SchoolBoardFinance113023.mp4Input/Transcripts/15443 SchoolBoardFinance113023.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md (section 211)
Laws and standards cited on this page