Participants
Names and roles follow the agenda masthead and the draft minutes; attendance follows the minutes. Where the dialogue file's speaker label differs from the minutes, the row says so.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Arlene Hawkins | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont member) | Presides throughout; reads every roll call herself on the recording (the minutes say clerk Noelle Kronberg took them); moves entry into nonpublic session (0:06:00); presents policy BGAA as the policy subcommittee's report; bids farewell to Ben Nester (0:19:52). The dialogue file's Hawkins cluster also absorbs other members' roll answers and some of Mary Henry's speech. |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Vice Chair (Unity member) | Roll answers. Per the minutes he moved approval of the December 7 minutes, moved the 99-year seal and seconded adjournment; on the recording those motions fall in a merged male cluster the dialogue file labels Frank Sprague (0:05:16, 0:08:03). |
| Marjorie Erickson | Member (Unity) | Absent (draft minutes). The chair reads her name at 0:01:51 and a Present. follows; the minutes record her absent, and her name in the later rolls draws no separable answer. |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity) | Roll answers; per the minutes, seconded the motion sending policy BGAA to a second reading. |
| Kelly Simpson | Member (Unity) | Roll answers; per the minutes, seconded the motion to enter nonpublic session and the budget motion. |
| Atonya Hart | Member (Unity) | Roll answers (the ASR renders her name That's on your heart at 0:01:57); per the minutes, seconded approval of the December 7 minutes. |
| Frank Sprague | Member (Claremont; Claremont board vice chair) | Moves approval of the amended agenda (0:04:31), the motion to come out of nonpublic session (0:07:54) and the FY2025 budget at $2,489,151.03 (0:09:22); per the minutes also moved adjournment. His dialogue cluster is merged with Rocco Ruggeri's voice (dialogue-file note); motions the minutes give to Ruggeri are named as Ruggeri's here. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member (Claremont) | Roll answers only; per the minutes voted against the seal. |
| Whitney Skillen | Member (Claremont) | Per the minutes, moved to push policy BGAA to a second reading, "knowing and trusting the work completed by Arlene Hawkins" (minutes' wording); the dialogue file leaves that voice (0:16:51) Unidentified. Per the minutes voted against the seal. |
| Candace Crawford | Member (Claremont) | Carries the whole budget question period (0:09:44 to 0:13:26): business-office salaries and the new position, maintenance salaries, the maintenance telephone line. |
| Jennifer Gallagher | Member (Claremont) | Roll answers (Present.); per the minutes seconded the agenda motion. |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont; Claremont board chair) | Roll answers; per the minutes seconded the motion to come out of nonpublic session and voted against the seal. Not separately identifiable on the recording. |
| Noelle Kronberg | SAU 6 School Board Clerk | Named on the masthead; the minutes say she took the three nonpublic roll calls and she submitted the minutes. No voice on the recording is identified as hers. |
| Michael C. Tempesta | Superintendent of Schools | Asks to add a personnel announcement to the agenda (0:03:49); announces Ben Nester's departure (0:18:01) and a search after the holidays (0:21:00). |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | Presents the hearing overview (0:02:27) and answers Crawford's questions. Part of her speech sits in the chair's dialogue cluster and is reassigned there by note. |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Leaving for Lebanon as director of student services, effective July; thanks the board (0:20:21). |
| Michael Koski, Jeff Small, Angela Vivian | Assistant Superintendent; Director of Technology; Director of Human Resources | Listed on the masthead; not identified as speaking. Jeff is thanked for the telephone savings (0:13:07, 0:13:28). |
| Unidentified | Board member | Delivers the superintendent-evaluation subcommittee update (0:17:31); neither the recording nor the minutes names the speaker. |
| Citizens | Public hearing and citizens' comments | None present (chair at 0:05:32; minutes). |
Agenda
Official agenda items in order, with the time each is taken up on the recording and its disposition from the recording and the draft minutes.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 6:00 p.m. | I. Non-meeting with legal counsel | Agenda: "SAU6 Board Non-Meeting with Legal Counsel". Not recorded and not minuted beyond the agenda line repeated in the minutes. |
| 0:01:01 | II. Call to order, Pledge, roll | Agenda time 6:50 p.m.; minutes 7:00 p.m. Pledge at 0:01:18; the chair reads the roll at 0:01:51 to 0:02:00. Minutes: eleven present, Erickson absent. |
| 0:02:11 | III. Public Hearing for FY 2025 SAU6 Budget | A. Overview: Mary Henry at 0:02:27, about 40 seconds, bottom line only. B. Citizens' comments called at 0:03:09; none. Minutes: hearing 7:02 p.m. |
| 0:03:19 | IV. Closing of Public Hearing | Chair: "Okay. Public hearing is now closed on general business." Minutes: 7:03 p.m., "No citizens were present for public hearing, hearing closed". |
| 0:03:33 | V. General Business: agenda amendments and approval | Tempesta's personnel announcement added under additional business. Sprague moves the agenda as amended (0:04:31); voice vote, Aye. Minutes: Gallagher seconded; unanimous. |
| 0:04:43 | V. Approval of Minutes 12.7.23 | Chair corrects page two: the seal vote should show "an abstention from Marjorie Erickson". Motion at 0:05:16 (dialogue label Sprague; minutes: Rocco Ruggeri moved, Atonya Hart seconded); approved by voice. |
| 0:05:32 | V. Citizens Comments | None: "I see no citizens present for comment." |
| 0:05:32 | VI. Non-Public Meeting Session "RSA 92-A:3,II" | Agenda heading cites "RSA 92-A:3,II" and quotes (a) and (c); the chair reads it aloud the same way. Hawkins moves (0:06:00); minutes: Kelly Simpson seconded; roll 0:06:13 to 0:06:33, all present yes (minutes). Return: Sprague moves (0:07:54); minutes: Heather Whitney seconded, 7:40 p.m., all yes. Seal for 99 years (0:08:03); minutes: Ruggeri moved, Hawkins seconded, 8 to 3, Miles, Skillen and Whitney against. Minutes correct the citation to RSA 91-A:3, II (a) & (c). See flags 1, 2, 4 and 5. |
| 0:09:06 | VII.1 Fiscal 2025 Budget Approval | Sprague moves "the SA 2025 fiscal budget in the amount of $2,489,151.03" (0:09:22); minutes: Kelly Simpson seconded. Crawford's questions 0:09:44 to 0:13:26. Voice vote at 0:13:53; minutes: unanimous. |
| 0:14:22 | VII.2a Policy BGAA (first read) | The chair presents the NHSBA November 2023 sample revisions; the colour-marked changes did not print. Motion to push to a second read (0:16:51); minutes: Whitney Skillen moved, Shannon Popescu seconded, unanimous. The minutes once print the policy code as "GBAA". |
| 0:17:27 | VII.2b Supt Evaluation Sub-Committee Update | Met with the superintendent that afternoon; goals to move to a shared Google document (0:17:31). |
| 0:17:55 | Additional business (added) | Tempesta announces Ben Nester's departure (0:18:01); farewells to 0:20:57. |
| 0:21:26 | Future dates | Agenda lists 12/20/23, 1/3/24, 1/11/24 SAU budget meeting, 1/9/24 Unity. Discussion of a leftover date at 0:21:39. |
| 0:21:50 | VIII. Adjournment | Motion and second in unlabelled voices (0:21:50, 0:21:54); minutes: Sprague moved, Ruggeri seconded, unanimous, 7:55 p.m. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/15472 SAU6121423.mp4.CSV). Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Before the gavel | Room is cold; Crawford: "I hope the taxpayers appreciate that we're saving the energy." Members joke about being paid. | |
| 0:01:01 | Call to order and roll | "I'd like to apologize for who's awaiting ten minutes." The chair reads the roll herself; answers are absorbed into her segments ("Bonnie Myles here with you stealing present. Crawford. Here. Jennifer Gallagher. Present."). No clerk call is heard. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:27 | Hearing overview | Henry: "So I did make the changes that you had requested within the budget, and it actually came in less than what your bottom line that you had voted on. It's roughly about $8,000 less. So the bottom line budget was $2,489,153.03, for a total overall increase of $93,151.03, or 3.89% difference." The budget report and the motion carry $2,489,151.03; the spoken 153.03 is two dollars off the document. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:09 | Citizens' comments on the budget | "I'd like to open the citizens comments public hearing here on." Ten seconds later: "Okay. Public hearing is now closed on general business." | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:49 | Agenda amendment | Tempesta: "I just have a slight announcement recognizing our recent events for personnel." The chair places it under additional business, "and it's not on this agenda." Sprague: "I'll make that motion to approve the agenda, as amended." | |
| 0:04:43 | December 7 minutes | "The motion to seal the minutes. I have an abstention from Marjorie Erickson. That needs to be corrected." Approved as amended. | |
| 0:05:32 | Nonpublic session announced | "I see no citizens present for comment. Therefore, I'm closing the citizens comments portion of the meeting. A non public meeting has been requested under Rs 92 dash, a, three comma two A and C." Sprague: "It's a roll call." The chair: "I'll make the motion going to nonpublic." | MEDIUM |
| 0:06:13 | Roll call into nonpublic | "Please to move to Nonpublic. Carlene Hawkins. Yes. Rocco. Carey." Yes answers through Gallagher; the chair: "we will return to a public meeting at the end of that session." Minutes: all present yes. | |
| 0:07:04 | Return to public | Recording resumes on the motion out ("Mr. motion tomorrow. Nonpublic."). Roll at 0:07:11. Then: "Who entered a motion to leave the Nonpublic and who seconded?" Sprague: "I made the motion. I don't know second." An I second follows in the chair's cluster; the minutes name Heather Whitney as seconder. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:08:03 | Seal for 99 years | "I'll make a motion to seal the minutes for 99 years." Chair: "Sounds like. It sounds like a long time. It is a long time. Why do we do 99 minutes? Seems like." No reason or statutory finding is stated. Roll 0:08:31 to 0:09:04: three No answers are audible (0:08:51, 0:08:54, 0:08:58); no tally is announced. Minutes: 8 to 3. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:22 | FY2025 SAU budget motion | Sprague: "I'll make a motion to approve the SA 2025 fiscal budget in the amount of $2,489,151.03." | |
| 0:09:44 | Business office salaries | Crawford asks about "that sixth person": "the amount in there for that six person comes to 63,008, 12." Henry: "65,000, actually." Henry lists "The accounting grant manager is in there." and "The accounts payable clerk, myself. The new position." Crawford: "Okay. We'll talk later. That's. That's fine." The budget report shows Business Office Salaries rising from $335,630.39 to $428,512.61 (+$92,882.22, 27.67%). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:11 | Maintenance salary | "I noticed that the maintenance salary show, doesn't show any increase". Henry: "So they're part of the contract negotiations that are going on. So the money would stay the same. And if their contract passes, then it would increase it." | |
| 0:12:50 | Maintenance telephone | Crawford was "surprised at the maintenance telephone was at zero". Henry: "Because we don't do that anymore since Jeff changed over our systems." The report shows the line from $4,000.00 to $0.00. | |
| 0:13:53 | Budget vote | "There's a motion on the floor. And a second. Are we ready to vote? All those in favor? I posed abstention budget passes." Minutes: unanimous. | POSITIVE |
| 0:14:22 | Policy BGAA, first read | The NHSBA revisions cover the policy committee's authority to make minor changes and report them, its review process, and public comment, "which is a result of legislation that was passed this year." The green-marked text did not print: "I think the print was just printed in black and white." Motion: "So I'd like to push this policy to second read". | |
| 0:17:31 | Superintendent evaluation | "So we met with Mr. Pesto [Tempesta] this afternoon ... So Mr. Tempesta has agreed to put it on a Google Docs, and then we'll start communicating through that". Four weeks later this board ended his contract (1/11/24). | |
| 0:18:01 | Ben Nester leaving | Tempesta: "Ben Nestor has a is going to leave us. He has accepted a position as the director of student services in Lebanon". "For the last nine years in Claremont." Effective "Year for July. July." A search team "after the holidays" (0:21:00). | |
| 0:19:52 | Farewell | Chair: "Mr. Nestor, we wish you well and know that we are truly saddened." Nester: "I've valued my time here and especially the relationships that I've built with the the kids, the families and the and the staff." | |
| 0:21:26 | Future dates and adjournment | A leftover calendar date: "We had had that in there just in case at one point." Adjourned at 0:21:54 after a second. | |
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 14, 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 The nonpublic session was entered under a statute that does not exist
The agenda heads item VI "Non-Public Meeting Session RSA 92-A:3,II", and the chair announces it aloud the same way at 0:05:32 ("Rs 92 dash, a, three comma two A and C") before moving entry herself at 0:06:00. There is no RSA chapter 92-A: Title VI runs 91-A, 91-B, 91-C, 92 (tenure and oath of office), 93-A. RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II. The paragraph letters, (a) compensation or discipline of an employee and (c) reputation, were stated and are the right letters for the text the agenda quotes, so the defect is in the chapter, not the ground. The draft minutes, written later, record the motion as made under "RSA 91-A:3,II(a) & (c)", which is what the body plainly meant; they do not record that the motion as spoken cited a different chapter. The same defective citation recurs on SAU 6 agendas through February 2024.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(a), (c) (2023 codification; source note ends 2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA Title VI table of contents (no chapter 92-A); agenda, item VI
MEDIUM Minutes sealed for 99 years with no statutory determination on the record
RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes and decisions 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" (statute). The vote here was taken in public session, and the minuted 8 to 3 of eleven present clears two-thirds. What is missing is the determination: the motion at 0:08:03 is only "to seal the minutes for 99 years", nobody states which ground applies, and the chair's own response at 0:08:11 is to question the length ("It sounds like a long time. It is a long time."). The draft minutes record the motion, mover, seconder and named roll but no finding either. The exemptions cited for entry, (a) and (c), would make a reputation finding available; the record does not show that the board made one.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2023 codification); draft minutes, item VI
MEDIUM Draft minutes reached the public share on the sixteenth business day
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" (statute; drafts suffice). Five business days after Thursday, December 14 ran to Thursday, December 21, 2023. The draft minutes were created in the SAU 6 share on January 9, 2024 (Drive createdTime and modifiedTime both that afternoon), filed in the next meeting's folder, 1. SAU 1.11.24; counting out December 25 and January 1, that is the sixteenth business day. The Drive dates show when the public could see the document, not when it was written, and the minutes may have been available on request sooner; nothing in the record says so. Graded MEDIUM under the project's rule because the meeting was noticed and packeted and only the minutes were late, and the minutes exist.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2023 codification; source note ends 2023, 188:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (school administrative units are public bodies)
OBSERVATION The draft minutes and the recording disagree on who called the rolls, who moved and seconded, and one attendance
The minutes say each nonpublic roll call was "taken by Noelle Kronberg"; on the recording the chair reads every roll herself (0:06:13, 0:07:11, 0:08:31) and no clerk is heard. The minutes name Rocco Ruggeri as mover of the December 7 minutes and of the seal, where the recording's voice sits in a cluster the dialogue file labels Frank Sprague and describes as a Sprague and Ruggeri merge (0:05:16, 0:08:03); the minutes are followed on this page. The return-to-public seconder is Heather Whitney in the minutes, while the I second at 0:07:57 sits in the chair's cluster. The minutes record Marjorie Erickson absent, though a Present. follows her name at 0:01:56. On the seal roll the recording has three No answers, matching the minutes' three against (Miles, Skillen, Whitney); but the last two answers come No then Yes (0:08:58, 0:09:04), where the roll order (Gallagher before Whitney) and the minutes would predict the reverse. No tally was announced. RSA 91-A:2, II requires the minutes to name movers and seconders, and these minutes do so for every motion; the question is only which record is right where they differ.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (names of members who made or seconded each motion); draft minutes
OBSERVATION A 99-year seal adopted ten weeks after the law began requiring review within ten years
Since October 3, 2023, RSA 91-A:3, IV has provided that a body may adopt procedures to review sealed nonpublic minutes and decide by majority vote whether the paragraph III circumstances still apply, with review no more than 10 years after the last vote to withhold them. A 99-year term does not displace that review. Nothing on the recording or in the minutes mentions it, and the chair's question at 0:08:11 ("Why do we do 99 minutes?") goes unanswered except by 99 minutes. I don't I mean, yeah, out years. This is noted for anyone tracking when these minutes fall due for review, not as a breach.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, IV (added by 2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023)
OBSERVATION The hearing overview gave the bottom line only, and one spoken figure differs from the document
The public hearing ran about one minute (0:02:11 to 0:03:19). Henry's overview at 0:02:27 stated the total, the increase and the percentage, and nothing about composition. The packet's budget report (printed 12/12/2023) shows where the $93,151.03 increase sits: Business Office function +$111,171.50 (17.74%), including salaries +$92,882.22 (27.67%); Human Resources +$44,598.13 (24.84%), including health insurance from $13,692.80 to $45,554.00; Computer-Assisted Instruction +$31,535.63 (9.47%); a new School Board function of $15,600.00; offset by Superintendent's Office −$39,283.42, Special Education Administration −$69,147.71 and Maintenance −$1,323.10. Crawford's question about the new business-office position ended with "We'll talk later." The spoken bottom line "$2,489,153.03" is $2 above the report's grand total and the motion's $2,489,151.03; the report's total less the FY24 budget of $2,396,000.00 gives exactly the stated $93,151.03, so the document figure is the consistent one. No rule requires more detail at an SAU hearing (see flag 7).
Sources: SAU#6 Budget Report 12-12-23 Board V1
POSITIVE A public hearing the statute does not require, a budget adopted inside the deadline, and the counsel session disclosed
RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1" (statute) and requires no public hearing. The board noticed and held one, posted the line-item report with FY22 and FY23 actual and FY24 budget columns about 30 hours before the meeting (Drive createdTime December 13, 11:33 a.m. Eastern, with the agenda), invited comment from the floor (0:03:09), and adopted the budget eighteen days before January 1 (0:13:53). The agenda also disclosed the 6:00 p.m. consultation with legal counsel, which RSA 91-A:2, I(b) excludes from the definition of a meeting and so needed no notice at all.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2023 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1); RSA 91-A:2, I(b)
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/15472 SAU6121423.mp4.CSV (196 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/15472 SAU6121423.mp4 (local copy of the recording)Input/Transcripts/15472 SAU6121423.mp4.json (diarized transcript)Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 217 (video-to-document map)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- State, as codified for the meeting date: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) and II (2023 codification); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), (c), III and IV (2023 codification); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 194-C:9, I (2023 codification)
- Negative reference: RSA Title VI chapter list (no chapter 92-A)
- Session laws mentioned for dating only: 2023, 188:1 (RSA 91-A:2) and 2023, 189:1 (RSA 91-A:3, adding ¶IV), both eff. Oct. 3, 2023