SAU 6 Board, Strategic Plan Presentation, November 21, 2024
Single-item meeting of the SAU 6 joint board (Claremont and Unity). With no quorum at 6:30 p.m., District Management Group's 44-minute presentation of the SAU 6 Strategic Plan 2025-2030 ran before the meeting was called to order; once seven of twelve members were present the chair gaveled the board in, and the plan was adopted on an uncounted voice vote about six minutes before adjournment. The page is built from the CCTV recording's dialogue transcript, the agenda, the plan document and the draft minutes. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 School Board, the joint board of the Claremont and Unity school districts (School Administrative Unit 6). The agenda styles it a "Regular Meeting".
Date
Thursday, November 21, 2024 (agenda and draft minutes masthead). Both documents also carry a second heading dated November 14, 2024; see flag 5.
Start time
Agenda: 6:30 p.m. The draft minutes note that "as of 6:30pm, there was not a quorum of Board members, so the presentation from DMG came before the meeting was called to order". The recording opens with the chair's welcome at 0:00:00; the chair calls the meeting to order at 0:44:57; the adjournment motion follows at 0:50:40, recorded in the draft minutes as "at 7:27pm". The dialogue transcript runs 0:50:48.
Location
Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont (agenda masthead); the agenda body names the Goodrich Community Room, which the approved November 20 Claremont minutes place at the Technical Center ("SRVRTC John Goodrich Community Room"). Carried on CCTV Channel 8.
11.21.24 DRAFT SAU6 meeting minutes.pdf, filed in the December 12 packet folder 5. SAU6 12.12.24; submitted by Noelle Kronberg, school board clerk. The board approved them "as presented" on December 12, 2024 (December 12 page). No approved copy was located. See flag 1.
Board composition
Twelve members on the agenda masthead: seven from Claremont (Hawkins, Sprague, Miles, Skillen, Crawford, Petrin, Whitney) and five from Unity (Ruggeri, Erickson, Popescu, Simpson, Hart). The draft minutes record seven present: Crawford, Petrin, Popescu, Ruggeri, Sprague, Whitney, Hawkins; absent Erickson, Hart, Miles, Simpson, Skillen. Seven of twelve is a bare majority.
Participants
Everyone in the record of this meeting. Board names and attendance follow the agenda masthead and the draft minutes; the roll on tape is garbled. Unidentified voices stay unidentified.
Name
Role
Participation
Arlene Hawkins
Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont member)
Opens the recording before the gavel and hands off to the superintendent (0:00:00). Reads the mission statement (0:06:31) and the family and community engagement priority (0:16:52). Says the student-outcomes priority is "for all students, those who are struggling, but also those who are exceeding the outcomes" (0:22:36). Invites the audience to ask questions during the presentation (0:24:29) and answers one on benchmark testing (0:25:30). Calls the meeting to order (0:44:57), moves adoption of the plan herself (0:47:00), and proposes the plan as "a standing agenda item on our school board agendas" (0:50:12).
Rocco Ruggeri
Vice chair (Unity member)
Reads the vision statement (0:07:03). Moves to accept the agenda (0:46:18) and seconds the motion to adopt the plan (0:47:11). Answers the roll as Rocky Ridge in the transcript (0:45:47).
Heather Whitney
Member (Claremont; chair of the Claremont School Board)
Names building trust as the biggest challenge: "we've had a lot of changes over the decades where a lot of initiatives and there's not this long term follow through" (0:23:28). Seconds the agenda (0:46:22). The draft minutes also record her as seconder of the adjournment, whose second on tape cannot be separated from the chair's question (0:50:42).
Frank Sprague
Member (Claremont)
Picks staff effectiveness as the priority he is most excited about: "I'm a former school administrator myself" (0:21:09). In discussion of the motion, says he and Ruggeri are "two of the four members of the superintendent evaluation committee" and that page 15 of the plan gives the board "a pretty good set of ready made goals every year" (0:47:16). Moves to adjourn (0:50:40).
Candace Crawford
Member (Claremont)
Reads the staff-effectiveness priority when the presenter calls on her (0:13:14). First name called in the roll (0:45:45). Prompts the chair before the vote: "You need to take the road [roll]?" (0:48:43).
Michael Petrin
Member (Claremont)
Present per the draft minutes; the roll on tape gives Michael. Peter. followed by an answer (0:45:47). No speech is attributed to him. A reader of the student well-being priority is called Michael (0:14:51); Petrin and Assistant Superintendent Koski were both in the room, so that reading is left unidentified.
Shannon Popescu
Member (Unity)
Present per the draft minutes; answers the roll (0:45:47). No speech is attributed to her.
Marjorie Erickson, Atonya Hart, Kelly Simpson
Members (Unity)
Absent per the draft minutes. The strategic plan lists Erickson as one of four board members on its working committee.
Bonnie Miles, Whitney Skillen
Members (Claremont)
Absent per the draft minutes.
Noelle Kronberg
SAU 6 School Board clerk
Reads the roll at the chair's request (0:45:45). She is not named on tape; the draft minutes name her as clerk and are signed by her.
Chris Pratt
Superintendent of Schools, SAU 6
Introduces the consultant; dates the work In June (0:00:33). Reads the student-outcomes priority (0:10:28). Says "until now, I haven't seen a game plan" and "We were just drawing cards and hoping that we're going to get a full house" (0:28:18, 0:29:31). Reports that about 30 people answered his call for a parent and community group (0:38:48). After the vote, asks parents to join the plan's subcommittees (0:49:06).
Mike Koski
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Innovation (Michael Koski on the agenda)
Answers the community member's question on students above benchmark: a student at 4.5 in fourth grade "should finish the year at 5.5", and "the teacher's job is to to differentiate instruction" (0:26:28, 0:26:39).
Tess Nicholson-Powers
District Management Group (DMGroup), lead consultant on the plan (spelling per the draft minutes)
Presents the plan's process, mission, vision, theory of action, five priorities with their measures, and the implementation structure (0:01:35 to 0:44:50). Opens by saying "tonight we'll see if we have a quorum to approve the strategic plan" (0:02:01) and closes with "So I don't know if we have a forum [quorum]." (0:44:50).
Liz Vogel
Member of the public; Maple Avenue School parent (self-identified)
"My name is Liz Vogel." Asks how the plan will be evaluated and corrected over time: "Is it every year every six months." (0:30:46, 0:31:29). The draft minutes record her question by name.
Unidentified
Member of the public (a woman in the audience)
Asks how students already at or above benchmark will be measured and served (0:24:36); presses the point back onto differentiated teaching and the "happy numbers program" (0:27:11, 0:27:29); later asks whether the superintendent's parent group is the same as the plan's subcommittees (0:38:22). The draft minutes record all three as "a community member", without a name.
Unidentified
Readers of two priority statements
The student well-being priority is read after "Go ahead Michael." (0:15:03); the district office cohesion priority is read by a volunteer (0:19:15). Neither reader is named on tape or in the draft minutes.
Agenda
Items from SAU#6 School Board Agenda 11.21.24.docx.pdf; agenda wording is quoted from that document. Dispositions from the recording, checked against the draft minutes.
Agenda: "6:30 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance". Not done at 6:30: the presentation (item III.1) ran first because no quorum was present, and the chair called the meeting to order after it (0:44:57). The pledge follows (0:45:19).
Agenda: "Secretary Roll Call of Attendance of Board Members". Read by the clerk (0:45:45). The draft minutes list seven present and five absent (see Board composition above).
Agenda: "Agenda – Amendments and Final Approval". No amendment. Ruggeri moved to accept the agenda as presented (0:46:18), Whitney seconded (0:46:22); voice vote, ayes heard, no count (0:46:25). Draft minutes: "voice vote taken, all present voting in favor".
Not taken up
II. Citizens Comments
Noticed on the agenda. The chair never called it after the gavel; the draft minutes record "Citizens Comments-none". Two members of the public had spoken during the presentation, before the call to order. See flag 3.
III.1 District Management Group (DMG) Strategic Plan Presentation (Discussion/Vote)
Agenda: "District Management Group (DMG)Strategic Plan Presentation (Discussion/Vote)". Presentation 0:01:35 to 0:44:50, before the call to order. After the gavel the chair moved "that the saw six school board accept the Saw strategic plan for 2020 25 to 2030, as presented this evening by the DM" (0:47:00); Ruggeri seconded (0:47:11); discussion by Sprague, Whitney and the chair; voice vote, ayes heard, opposition and abstentions called with no response audible, "Motion passes." (0:48:46, 0:48:51). Draft minutes: "Voice vote taken, all present voting in favor; the plan is adopted".
Not taken up
IV. Future Dates; V. Other Business
Agenda lists the "SAU#6 FY26 Budget Public Hearing/Meeting- 12/12/2024" and a Unity Board meeting on 12/10/2024. Neither item was read aloud; the superintendent's appeal to parents (0:49:06) and the chair's standing-item proposal (0:50:12) fall here.
Sprague moved to adjourn when the chair recognized him (0:50:38, 0:50:40); a second is heard in a segment merged with the chair's question (0:50:42); ayes heard (0:50:45). Draft minutes: "Frank Sprague made a motion to adjourn at 7:27pm, Heather Whitney seconded the motion; voice vote taken, all present voting in favor".
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/16158 SAU6112124.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Everything before 0:44:57 took place before the meeting was called to order.
The chair welcomes those present and "everyone who's watching us on CCTV" to "a presentation of the strategic plan and implementation being provided by the DM Group that we have been working with" and hands the floor to the superintendent. No call to order, no roll.
Pratt: "Since when do we start? In June." He calls the plan "pretty much the map, including the destination that we want to reach for saw six" and welcomes "Tess Nicholson Powers, who has been the lead on this" (0:01:18).
The presenter: "So tonight we'll see if we have a quorum to approve the strategic plan." The process ran from a needs assessment ("in May through July", correcting her own start date, 0:02:29) through drafting "from July to October", with community feedback surveys and "120 student responses to that survey at the high school" (0:03:52). A working committee of district and school leaders and board members drafted the plan; it last met "in mid-October" (0:04:21, 0:04:52).
The chair reads the mission: "Our mission is to inspire, engage and empower every student in Claremont and Unity to achieve academic excellence in a safe, positive and personalized learning environment." Ruggeri reads the vision (0:07:03).
The presenter summarizes it: "you believe if you have the best teachers in the classroom for kids, then students will be successful", which "really puts the onus on district leaders" (0:08:20); she calls out "getting back to the basics" of literacy and numeracy (0:08:50).
Priorities: student outcomes, staff effectiveness, student well-being, family and community engagement, district office cohesion. Pratt reads the student-outcomes priority (0:10:28). Measures: K-2 literacy and math on local benchmarks, one year of growth, students with disabilities ("almost 1 in 4 students with disabilities in the district", 0:11:40), and four- and five-year graduation rates; baseline data exist in i-Ready and PowerSchool (0:12:22, 0:12:45).
Crawford reads the priority (0:13:14). Teacher retention has baseline data; for the three staff-survey measures "There actually currently was no baseline data consistently across the district based on staff feedback." (0:13:26).
Read by an unidentified voice after "Go ahead Michael." (0:15:03). Measures include chronic absence, defined aloud as "students who have missed 10% of or more of the school year", and "decreasing the number of bullying and harassment investigations, so that showing that students, yes will then feel safe in school" (0:15:14); two new student-survey measures (0:15:40, 0:16:14).
The chair reads the priority (0:16:52). Renamed from "outreach" after community feedback on "the importance of that two way relationship" (0:17:05). Four measures, none with past data (0:17:59, 0:18:29).
Read by an unidentified volunteer (0:19:15). The presenter ties it to "turnover in past years" (0:19:22); three staff-survey measures, none collected now (0:19:50). Summary: "there's a lot of baseline data to collect. And that's okay." (0:20:20).
Sprague picks staff effectiveness (0:21:09); Pratt picks community engagement (0:21:26) and names implementation as the challenge, so the plan "doesn't fall by the wayside like it does in many places" (0:22:08). The chair stresses students "who are exceeding the outcomes" (0:22:36). Whitney: "one of the biggest problems or challenges is to build trust within the district" (0:23:28).
The chair: "Oh, this is a presentation. Please feel free." An unidentified woman asks how "we're going to measure those kids who already are at benchmark" (0:24:36). The chair cites benchmark testing "three points during the year" (0:25:30); Koski points to the one-year-of-growth measure (0:26:28); the questioner names the "happy numbers program" (0:27:29) and Koski answers "Not within that. So you would use something different or have different materials." (0:27:42).
Pratt: "But until now, I haven't seen a game plan. We're going into it blindly" (0:28:18); the plan covers "both districts, Unity and Claremont" (0:28:41); "We were just drawing cards and hoping that we're going to get a full house." (0:29:31).
"I'm curious about the course correction options. So what does evaluation look like?" (0:31:03); "Is it every year every six months." and "these things often sit on the shelf" (0:31:29). The presenter takes it as the transition to implementation (0:31:50).
Four implementation goals: monitoring systems, a culture of data analysis and accountability, tracking implementation, communication (0:32:24, 0:32:48, 0:33:10). On DMG's role: "we were in discussion about whether district Management Group will support with this." (0:33:10). January to June: an implementation roadmap (0:34:06). The board's role "is to then allocate resources to hold the district accountable to meeting goals and communicate with the broader community" (0:34:34). The working committee meets monthly; subcommittees of "5 to 8 people" per priority (0:35:44, 0:36:10).
The unidentified woman asks whether the superintendent's request for a parent group is the same as the subcommittees. Pratt: "initially it was something separate"; "I got about 30 people responded" (0:38:48).
Yearly targets are kept out of the plan because "it's likely those will change" (0:40:55); "If you don't know where you're starting, then you can't know where you're going." (0:41:37). Targets to be set by the end of the school year (0:43:13). The presenter: "So I don't know if we have a forum [quorum]. Okay. So I'll let you all take it from here." (0:44:50).
"I'd like to call the saw six monthly meeting to order." No clock time is stated. Pledge (0:45:19); roll by the clerk (0:45:45); agenda accepted on Ruggeri's motion and Whitney's second (0:46:18, 0:46:22).
The chair: "our only item on the agenda is the acceptance of the strategic plan. And I have in front of me a motion that I would like to make since I find it." Motion (0:47:00), second by Ruggeri (0:47:11). Sprague: "we are probably going to have a pretty good set of ready made goals every year. And what gets written gets done." (0:47:38). Whitney thanks everyone (0:48:18); the chair credits the superintendent "for bringing this initiative forward" (0:48:22). Voice vote, "Motion passes." (0:48:51).
Pratt: "We cannot do this alone." and he would "welcome parents to get involved in the subcommittees" (0:49:06, 0:49:29). The chair: "I can see this as a standing agenda item on our school board agendas, so that we continue the conversation and have some progress monitoring" (0:50:12).
"Mister Sprague. You have a motion." Second and ayes heard (0:50:42, 0:50:45). Draft minutes: adjourned "at 7:27pm".
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each one names the rule it rests on, as that rule read on November 21, 2024, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM The draft minutes reached the public share on the fourteenth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". Counting business days as that paragraph defines them and excluding Thanksgiving (November 28, a holiday under RSA 288:1; the day after Thanksgiving is not on that list), the deadline was Friday, November 29, 2024. The draft's Drive file was created at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on December 12, 2024, in the December 12 packet folder, about two and a half hours before that night's meeting: the fourteenth business day. The board then approved the minutes "as presented" that evening, so the public first saw them online only as they were adopted. Graded MEDIUM under the project's severity rule because the meeting was noticed and packeted and the minutes exist; Drive dates show when the public could read them online, not whether a draft was available at the SAU office sooner.
OBSERVATION Forty-five minutes of presentation and discussion took place before the meeting was called to order, with a quorum present for at least part of it
The chair opened with a welcome and no call to order (0:00:00); the presenter twice said she did not know whether a quorum was present (0:02:01, 0:44:50). The draft minutes say there was no quorum at 6:30 p.m. and that "a quorum was present prior to the end of the presentation". During that time five members took part: Hawkins, Ruggeri and Crawford read plan text, Sprague and Whitney discussed priorities, and the chair answered an audience question. Under RSA 91-A:2, I a meeting is the convening of a quorum to discuss or act on a matter within the body's jurisdiction, so the later part of the presentation was a meeting whether or not it had been gaveled. The purposes of the chapter were served in substance: the session was noticed on the agenda, open, televised and recorded, and the draft minutes disclose the sequence and summarize the discussion. The cost is to the record: the clerk's roll was taken only at 0:45:45, so the record does not show who was present when, and the gaveled meeting lasted from 0:44:57 to 0:50:45, under six minutes.
OBSERVATION The noticed citizens' comment period was never called, and the minutes record it as none
The agenda lists "Citizens Comments" under General Business. After the call to order the chair took the roll and the agenda vote and went straight to the plan (0:46:05, 0:46:35); no comment period was opened, while members of the public who had spoken during the presentation were still in the room (the chair thanks them at 0:46:35). The draft minutes record "Citizens Comments-none". Public questions were taken before the gavel (0:24:29, 0:30:46, 0:38:22), so nobody was turned away on tape. RSA 189:74 requires a school board to provide a public comment opportunity "for no less than 30 minutes" at its meetings; whether that section reaches an SAU board, which it does not name, is not settled by its text, and whether the floor applies to the opportunity or to elapsed time is also open. Labeled an observation for that reason. The minutes entry is inaccurate on its face either way: comment was not none; it was not called.
OBSERVATION The agenda and the adopted plan reached the public share about four and a half hours before the meeting
Both files in the packet folder 3. SAU6 11.21.24 Strategic Plan Presentation carry a Drive createdTime of 2:00 p.m. Eastern on November 21, 2024, the day of a 6:30 p.m. meeting. The board voted on a 21-page plan that members of the public could read online only that afternoon. RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice of the meeting at least 24 hours ahead, excluding Sundays and holidays; that duty concerns the posted notice, which may have been posted elsewhere and earlier, not the packet. Nothing here shows the notice was late, so this is an observation about public access to the document being decided.
OBSERVATION Both the agenda and the minutes carry the previous meeting's date in their body heading, and the board approved the minutes as presented
The masthead of each document reads November 21, 2024, but the heading over the agenda items reads "SAU#6 School Board November 14, 2024 6:30 - 8:30 PM AGENDA Goodrich Community Room" in both the agenda and the draft minutes. November 14 was the board's previous meeting. The minutes were approved "as presented" on December 12 with the error in place. The minutes also print the agenda's clock times (6:30 p.m. call to order, 8:30 p.m. adjournment) as section headings while recording a 7:27 p.m. adjournment, so the headings are not a record of when anything happened. A reader using the minutes alone could misdate the adoption of the strategic plan.
OBSERVATION The adopted plan differs from its own presentation on how chronic absence is defined, and two of its terms deserve a second look
The presenter defined chronically absent students as those "who have missed 10% of or more of the school year" (0:15:14). The plan the board adopted "as presented" defines it in its appendix as "having 10 or more unexcused absences in a school year" (plan p. 20), a count of unexcused days that differs from a share of all absences, so the baseline for one of the plan's own measures depends on which definition the district uses. The plan also sets a goal to "Decrease the number of bullying and harassment investigations" (p. 13), which counts the district's responses to reports rather than incidents; the presenter framed it as showing that students "will then feel safe in school". And it states that "the Board of Education will provide essential guidance and oversight" (p. 16), a name the SAU 6 board does not use. None of these was raised before the vote (0:47:16 to 0:48:51). No rule is cited: the plan is a policy document within the SAU's remit, and these are points for the progress monitoring the chair proposed.
POSITIVE Public questions were invited and answered on the record, and the minutes credit them
When an audience member began to speak during the presentation, the chair invited her in ("Please feel free. Yes. Please feel free. Please do.", 0:24:29), and the chair, the assistant superintendent and the superintendent answered three public questions at length (0:25:30 to 0:27:42, 0:31:50, 0:38:48). The draft minutes summarize each question and name the one speaker who gave her name. The chair also proposed making the plan a standing agenda item for progress monitoring (0:50:12), and the superintendent asked parents to join the implementation subcommittees (0:49:29). None of this is required by statute.