The SAU 6 joint board (Claremont and Unity) reviews Business Administrator Mary Henry's revised FY2025 SAU budget, recesses for a ten-minute Claremont caucus off the record, enters a nonpublic session on hiring and compensation, seals its minutes for 99 years on a divided vote, and then sends a $2,497,924 budget (a 4.25 percent increase) to public hearing without public deliberation. Built from the Cablecast recording's attributed dialogue, the agenda, the proposed budget in the packet and the December 14 draft minutes; this meeting's own minutes were approved but have not been located in any public share. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 School Board (joint board of the Claremont and Unity school boards; twelve members)
Date
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Start time
Agenda: 6:00 p.m. The chair calls the meeting to order "At 6 p.m." at 0:00:00. At 0:25:04 she says "It is now 625. We will resume at 635", and the meeting resumes at 0:25:49, 45 seconds of recording later, so the ten-minute recess is cut from the tape. The nonpublic session falls between 0:28:20 and 0:29:13 of the recording; its length is unknown. After the recess, recording positions are not clock times. No end time is available: the minutes are not public (see flag 4).
Location
Goodrich Community Room, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont (agenda)
Board composition
Twelve members: Claremont (Hawkins, Sprague, Miles, Skillen, Crawford, Gallagher, Whitney) and Unity (Ruggeri, Erickson, Popescu, Simpson, Hart). Arlene Hawkins chairs; Rocco Ruggeri is vice chair (agenda masthead). Absent: Heather Whitney and Shannon Popescu, from the roll calls on the recording (the minutes that would confirm attendance are not public). Ten present, six of them Claremont members.
Recording
Cablecast: SAU 6 Board Meeting 12/7/23 (observed extent 0:39:21 from the last row of the dialogue file; the Cablecast API refuses requests from this environment, so no run time was read from it). The recess and the nonpublic session are not recorded.
Minutes
Not located in any public share. They exist: the December 14, 2023 draft minutes record "Approval of Minutes 12.7.23", a correction by the chair ("page 2 under non-public, in the vote on the motion to seal minutes there was an abstention from Marjorie Erickson") and approval "as amended", moved by Rocco Ruggeri and seconded by Atonya Hart, "unanimously approved".
Participants
Names and roles follow the agenda masthead. Attendance is taken from the roll calls on the recording because this meeting's minutes are not public; the project's 2023–24 roll-call notes give the board's fixed roll order, which is used to place answers the transcript garbles.
Name
Role
Participation
Arlene Hawkins
Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont member)
Presides. Adds the superintendent-evaluation update to the agenda (0:01:41); corrects the November 9 minutes (0:02:25); grants the Claremont caucus under board policy (0:24:18); moves entry into nonpublic session herself under RSA 91-A:3, II(b) and II(a) (0:27:07); votes No. on the 99-year seal (0:30:20); announces the budget changes after the nonpublic session (0:30:47); reports for the policy subcommittee (0:33:55).
Rocco Ruggeri
Vice Chair (Unity member)
Roll answers, including Yes. on the 99-year seal (0:30:23).
Marjorie Erickson
Member (Unity)
Present at the opening roll (0:01:21). An abstention follows her name on the vote to enter nonpublic session (0:27:58); abstains on the 99-year seal (0:30:26; the clerk's reading of her name is transcribed "Or three years."), the abstention the December 14 meeting added to these minutes.
Shannon Popescu
Member (Unity)
Absent (no roll answer; project roll-call notes).
Kelly Simpson
Member (Unity)
Seconds the chair's nonpublic motion before its citation is added (0:26:20); roll answers.
Atonya Hart
Member (Unity)
Roll answers (transcribed "That's on your heart", Tommy and "Tanya. Hart").
Frank Sprague
Member (Claremont)
Moves approval of the amended agenda (0:02:14); questions the accounting and payroll specialist line (0:11:12) and the absence of ESSER-funded positions (0:22:01); moves the return to public session (0:29:21); seconds the 99-year seal (0:30:10) and the budget motion (0:33:28); moves adjournment (labeled; 0:39:13).
Bonnie Miles
Member (Claremont)
Roll answers.
Whitney Skillen
Member (Claremont)
Asks about office-equipment lines (0:22:58); moves sending $2,497,924 to the public hearing (0:32:57); seconds adjournment.
Candace Crawford
Member (Claremont)
Questions the wage-increase total (0:12:46) and the SAU's health-insurance share (0:21:33); asks for "the opportunity for the Claremont board. The caucus" (0:24:03).
Absent: the clerk reads her name (0:01:31, transcribed "Heather wisdom") and no answer follows.
Noelle Kronberg
SAU 6 School Board Clerk
Reads the roll calls; thanked by the chair for "recording and transcribing of last month's meetings" (0:00:35).
Mary Henry
Business Administrator
Presents the revised FY2025 SAU budget (0:06:08); says the business-office increase came down "from the increase being 176,915 to 112,303" (0:17:20) and that she wants a staff accountant (0:18:32); declines to discuss a position publicly (0:22:35).
25 rows: the member who asks when corrected minutes are posted (0:03:07); the mover of the 99-year seal (0:30:04); the speaker giving the superintendent-evaluation subcommittee update (0:37:04); ayes.
Michael Tempesta
Superintendent (agenda masthead)
No speech is attributed to him; Henry asks "How do I say that, Mike?" at 0:22:42. Whether he was in the room is not established.
Agenda
Items follow the posted agenda (SAU 6 School Board Agenda 12.7.23.docx (1).pdf); dispositions follow the recording, because this meeting's minutes are not public.
The chair adds the superintendent-evaluation subcommittee update under subcommittee reports. Sprague moves the agenda as amended (0:02:14); voice vote, approved (0:02:25).
The chair's correction: "the vote was to suspend the superintendent evaluation policy." A member asks when corrected minutes are posted (0:03:07). Accepted as amended by voice vote (0:05:40).
Henry walks through a revised budget dated "12 1 to 1231" that is not in the packet. Claremont caucus during a recess (0:25:04 to 0:25:49); nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3, II(b) and II(a) (0:27:07); 99-year seal (0:30:14); chair announces the board's budget positions (0:30:47); Skillen moves "to move the following amount of budget to the public hearing ... $2,497,924", Sprague seconds, voice vote, no discussion, "Motion passes" (0:33:31). The agenda lists the item as discussion only.
Policy subcommittee met November 28; policy BGAA to come to the December 14 meeting for first reading. Superintendent-evaluation subcommittee update added by amendment (0:37:04).
December 14 budget hearing and meeting, preceded by "a non meeting with legal counsel beginning at 6:00"; Claremont December 20; Unity December 12; BGAA first read.
A member: "there were several changes that had been suggested for the October 12th minutes. But when I went to look at the October 12th minutes, none of those changes had been made yet. The ones that are posted online." (0:03:46). Kronberg: "I don't have access to the 12 minutes, so I'll email Chelsea" (0:04:29).
Henry, after talking with the chair, "changed the amount. Of the increased to 3.7. 5%" (0:06:21). She rebuilt the FY24 column from the accounting system: "I can't say that they totally match Richard's numbers because this is what was uploaded in" (0:08:59). Wages: "the superintendent just has 3% per his contract" (0:09:23); raises "$48,254"; "The total increase, though, over the actual to the proposed is 133,000" (0:09:57).
Sprague: budget for the accounting and payroll specialist "is 49? 630 in the actual 63". Henry: "there's a change in personnel"; "I did not hire the person that's in the position right now" (0:11:25). Sprague: "somebody said it's negligible. It's about the same pay. That is not the same pay." (0:11:45).
Henry: "I changed the plan from a family plan down to a two person plan ... I am going to take a gamble that they're going to be a two person instead of a family." Contracted services cut from 25,000 to 5,000 "because I'd rather have the person than the services"; auditors "said they could" work for 10,000 (0:15:47); the $8,000 print-management line removed (0:16:20).
Henry: "I brought my total overall budget down from the increase being 176,915 to 112,303"; "If someone decides to retire, I need someone to be able to move into that role" (0:17:47); "We really got to get caught up, and I need somebody that can help me do that" (0:18:12).
Sprague notes positions "that are Esser funded. There are several." Henry: one, "she's really Claremont employee"; then "But I've moved. I can't talk about it, I can't discuss." (0:22:35) and "I can't discuss it publicly." (0:22:48). Hawkins: "we may need to have a different a different location for a discussion" (0:22:44).
Crawford: "I would like the opportunity for the Claremont board. The caucus. Is that possible?" Hawkins: "The policy does say that a caucus of reasonable duration may be called by any one of the member school boards. The board will recess while individual boards are holding a caucus" (0:24:18). Sprague: "it would be just the Claremont board, right?" (0:24:44). Recess: "It is now 625. We will resume at 635." (0:25:04); back in session at 0:25:49.
Hawkins: "we should probably go into a nonpublic session at this point to discuss what you said you couldn't discuss in public"; she moves it herself, Simpson seconds (0:26:20), then "We need the RSA" (0:26:25) and "Which one? I have to quote the exact right" (0:26:36). The motion as made: "under RSA 91-A colon three two B the hiring of any person as a public employee" (0:27:07), adding "91-A colon three comma two a. The compensation of any public employee" (0:27:27). Roll call carries (0:27:49).
Hawkins: "Do we need to seal the the minutes?" Unidentified: "I'll make a motion to seal the minutes for 99 years." (0:30:04); Sprague seconds. Roll: Hawkins No., Erickson Abstain., the others yes. No tally and no reason are announced.
Hawkins: "So we're now back in our public meeting. The board met to discuss the proposed budget that you provided for us tonight." Positions: the 3.75% salary increase; the superintendent at 3%; the assistant superintendent "receive a 5% pay raise and a one time $3,000 bump"; the SAU share of health insurance "increase from 4% to 5%" (0:31:34); "we would like to see that new position in place"; "So that would increase the Saw budget total of $101,923, for a 4.25% increase" (0:31:51).
Skillen: "I'd like to make a motion to move the following amount of budget to the public hearing for the budget year of fiscal year 2024, 2025. And that amount is $2,497,924." Sprague seconds (0:33:28). "Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor? Opposed. Abstentions. Motion passes." (0:33:31). The figure is the FY2024 budget of $2,396,000.00 (packet) plus $101,923, rounded.
Hawkins: the subcommittee met November 28 with members "Arlene Hawkins, Kelly Simpson, Candace Crawford" and staff; called to order at 1:00, adjourned at 1:50 (0:36:39); "Policies identified by New Hampshire School Board Association as priority but missing from our Saw policies were also highlighted" (0:34:59); BGAA to first reading December 14.
Unidentified: the committee meets "December 14th at 530"; "Mr. Tempesta has agreed to get us a spreadsheet outlining his benchmarks and responsibilities with dates and times and a timeline".
Hawkins: December 14 "will begin as a non meeting at 6:00" with legal counsel, then the public hearing and meeting (0:38:14).
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 December 7, 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; OBSERVATION, notable with no confirmed rule; POSITIVE, practice beyond the legal minimum. This page carries no HIGH flag.
MEDIUM A quorum of the Claremont board caucused off the record on the SAU budget
Six of the seven Claremont School Board members were present: Hawkins, Sprague, Miles, Skillen, Crawford and Gallagher. Crawford asked for "the opportunity for the Claremont board. The caucus" (0:24:03); the chair granted it under board policy, "a caucus of reasonable duration may be called by any one of the member school boards" (0:24:18), and recessed the SAU board from 6:25 to 6:35 (0:25:04). The caucus is not on the recording and no record of it has been located. RSA 91-A:2, I defines a meeting as "the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body" to discuss or act on "a matter or matters over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power". The Claremont district pays its share of the SAU budget and its members vote on that budget, so the subject is plausibly within the Claremont board's jurisdiction. The only caucus exclusion in RSA 91-A:2, I is (c), "A caucus consisting of elected members of a public body of the same political party who were elected on a partisan basis", and Claremont board members are elected on the non-partisan ballot that RSA 671:30 requires of every school district, so that exclusion does not apply. A district policy cannot add an exclusion the statute lacks. The grade is MEDIUM, not HIGH, because no authority located for this page decides whether a member board's caucus inside an SAU meeting is a meeting of the member board, and the recess was called on the record with its purpose and length stated.
MEDIUM The nonpublic session, entered for hiring and compensation, produced the board's position on the whole budget
The session arose from one answer: Henry could not discuss a position "publicly" (0:22:48). The chair moved entry under RSA 91-A:3, II(b), "the hiring of any person as a public employee", and II(a), "The compensation of any public employee" (0:27:07, 0:27:27). The motion stated both grounds on its face, as RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires. RSA 91-A:3, I(c) then provides: "All discussions held and decisions made during nonpublic session shall be confined to the matters set out in the motion." On returning, the chair described the session as broader: "The board met to discuss the proposed budget that you provided for us tonight" (0:30:47), and announced positions on the general 3.75 percent raise, the assistant superintendent's 5 percent raise and $3,000 payment, the SAU's health-insurance share, the new position and a total increase of $101,923. The board then voted to send $2,497,924 to hearing with no discussion (0:33:31). Some of these items are compensation of public employees and may fit II(a); the health-insurance share of the budget and the budget total are harder to fit, and the chair's own summary says the budget was the subject. Mitigation: everything decided was then put to a public vote, and the public hearing followed on December 14. The sealed minutes are the only record that would settle what was discussed.
MEDIUM Minutes sealed for 99 years with no statutory determination and no announced tally
RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes to be disclosed within 72 hours "unless, by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session, it is determined that divulgence of the information 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." The roll call (0:30:14 onward) shows eight yes, Hawkins no and Erickson abstaining among ten present, which clears two-thirds. No tally was announced and no determination was stated: the motion is only "to seal the minutes for 99 years" (0:30:04), and the chair's lead-in is a question, "Do we need to seal the the minutes?" (0:29:55). RSA 91-A:3, IV, in force from October 3, 2023, adds that sealed minutes must be reviewed by majority vote no more than 10 years after the last vote to withhold them, so a 99-year term does not hold the minutes for 99 years without further votes. The same board sealed another nonpublic session for 99 years a week later. Because this meeting's own minutes are not public, the recorded vote the statute calls for can be checked only against the tape.
MEDIUM This meeting's minutes were written, corrected and approved, but are in no public share
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be "promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting." The December 14 draft minutes show that minutes of this meeting existed and were approved as amended that night. MAP.md records a two-stage search for them, by folder enumeration rather than search alone, covering every one of the 19 SAU 6 folders dated after the meeting and the Claremont Meeting Minutes share: they are not filed anywhere the public can reach, the single break in this board's filing chain from November 2023 to May 2024. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's rule for missing records: the meeting was noticed and packeted, and only the minutes are missing, and they are known to exist. The same evening a member asked why the corrected October 12 minutes "posted online" did not show the changes the board had voted (0:03:46), and the clerk said she lacked access to them (0:04:29). The search was a negative from enumeration on 2026-08-29, not proof that the minutes were never available on request.
OBSERVATION The budget's base-year column and assumptions are qualified by the business administrator herself
Henry, five months into the job, told the board that the FY2024 column matches the accounting system but "I can't say that they totally match Richard's numbers" (her predecessor's) (0:08:59); that she cut health insurance by assuming a two-person rather than a family plan, "I am going to take a gamble" (0:14:43); and that a payroll position had been reclassified before her arrival. Sprague said the board had been told that change was "negligible. It's about the same pay. That is not the same pay." (0:11:45). The packet budget shows the Superintendent's Office health-insurance line falling from $128,282.24 budgeted for FY2024 to $61,369.27 proposed, and the business office rising $176,915.33, the figure Henry then cut to $112,303. None of this is shown to be wrong; it is the kind of base-year and assumption risk the board was asked to vote on in one public motion without discussion. RSA 194-C:9 governs the SAU budget and sets no form or column requirement, so no rule is applied.
POSITIVE The SAU budget went to a public hearing that the statute does not require, with three prior-year columns
RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1" and imposes no public-hearing requirement. The board voted tonight to take the figure to a public hearing on December 14 (0:32:57), where it adopted $2,489,151.03, still before January 1. The packet budget shows FY2022 and FY2023 actual expenditures and the FY2024 budget beside each proposed FY2025 line, with dollar and percentage changes. Both go beyond the statutory minimum.
SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF (six pages, printed November 30, 2023; grand total $2,590,674.91). The revised version Henry presented is not in the folder.
Minutes of this meeting: not located. MAP.md section 215 records an enumeration of all 19 later SAU 6 folders and the Claremont Meeting Minutes share's 2023 and 2024 year folders (2026-08-29). Their approval is recorded in draft minutes of SAU6 Budget Public Hearing 12.14.23.pdf (folder 1. SAU 1.11.24). The nonpublic-session minutes are sealed.