Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present. Attendance and spellings follow the agenda and approved minutes; where the dialogue file labels a person differently, the label is noted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Chair; Finance Committee member | Presided; replaced the budget item at 0:01:04; asked for the students’ deck to be made public (0:32:29); set out the Finance Committee’s December meetings (1:09:11); said she was not personally comfortable with a board vote on the letter (1:20:01); adjourned by consent. |
| Frank Sprague | Vice chair; Finance Sub-Committee chair | Commented on the SAT and college-access programs; asked the students about credits (0:51:44); asked that the Finance meetings be noticed (“Can you let Chelsea know so she can get it out.”, 1:08:28); asked the hearing deadline (1:15:07); moved to endorse the letter (1:20:07). Rendered “Mr. Springs” in the transcript. See flag 6 on turns the minutes give to Petrin. |
| Candace Crawford | Board member; Capital Improvement chair; Finance Committee member | Brought the letter to Senator Ward (0:02:24, 1:17:22); called the budget schedule “a very. Compressed schedule.” (1:10:25); answered the students on counselor vacancies (0:56:53). |
| Arlene Hawkins | Board member; Curriculum Committee representative; SAU 6 board chair | Could not read the chart colors (0:06:44); asked about state comparisons (0:23:18); asked where the draft policies are (1:05:32); asked whether the Friday Finance meeting would be televised (1:09:39); reminded the board a motion needs a second (1:20:47); reported the SAU 6 quorum failure of December 3 (1:23:54). See flag 6. |
| Bonnie Miles | Board member | Present per the minutes. No attributed row in the dialogue file; the minutes credit her with two questions and the second on the letter motion. See flag 6. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; Ad Hoc Communications chair | Present per the minutes. No attributed row in the dialogue file; the minutes credit him with an SAT question, an answer on the college-access program and the point of order on the letter. See flag 6. |
| Whitney Skillen | Board member; Policy Sub-Committee chair | Absent per the minutes. Referred to at 1:05:00: “Well, Whitney is the chair.” |
| Noelle Kronberg | Board Clerk | Called on for the roll at 0:00:28 (“Miss Cronenberg” in the transcript); the answers are not separable by name. Signed the minutes. |
| Mike Koski | Assistant Superintendent | Presented PSAT and SAT results from 0:04:15 to 0:25:28 from slides not in the packet (flag 2); pointed the board to iReport (0:23:43). |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | Audit update from 0:59:01: FY21 being finalized, FY22 begun, all through FY24 “done by June” (1:00:25); budget to the Finance Committee “by the end of the week”; the December Finance meetings (1:07:22, 1:08:04); “January 14th” as the hearing deadline (1:15:13). |
| Sarah Wheeler | Student presenter, Stevens High School | Self-identified at 0:34:17; presented the survey design and stress findings; described one guidance counselor for the school (0:55:37). |
| Malachi Caple | Student presenter, Stevens High School | Read the staff and student survey responses (0:42:16–0:49:54) and answered questions. Surname from the approved minutes; labeled “Malachi” in the dialogue file. |
| Lilly Clark | Student board member | Student council, fundraising and junior-class report from 0:25:49. Spelled “Lilly” on the agenda and minutes; labeled “Lily Clark” in the dialogue file. |
| Miles Sheehan | Student board member | Music department report from 0:28:37. The chair calls the pair “Mr. Miles and Miss Clark” (0:25:33), a first name, in a room that also seats board member Bonnie Miles. |
Named but not heard: Superintendent Christopher Pratt (referred to in the third person at 1:04:50 and 1:09:43; the minutes record attendance for board members only), Chelsea Weatherford (executive assistant; named as the person to post notices and documents, and congratulated at 1:23:29), and teacher Matt Hammond (named on the agenda for the psychology item). Thirty-one rows are labeled Unidentified, mostly backchannel and roll-call answers. This page reproduces no student name from the student board members’ report beyond the presenters and student members named in the agenda and minutes.
Agenda
Items as posted in “_CSB Agenda 12.4.24.pdf” (created in the packet folder 11:14 a.m. Eastern, December 3, 2024), with the time each was taken up and its disposition. The agenda names no exhibits. Items were not taken in printed order.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | I. Call to Order and Pledge | Scheduled 6:30 p.m. |
| 0:00:28 | II. Roll call | Minutes: present Crawford, Hawkins, Miles, Petrin, Sprague, Whitney; “Absent: Whitney Skillen”. |
| 0:00:40 | II.a.1 Consent agenda: amendments | Agenda heading: “Consent Agenda (vote required)”. The chair substituted the finance item (0:01:04); Crawford added the letter and Hawkins two items under Other Business. Accepted by consent at 0:02:54 (“Seeing none, we’ll accept the changes to the agenda.”); no motion or vote, as by-law 2.10 permits. |
| 0:01:04 | II.a.2 Minutes approval | Agenda: “Minutes Approval- 10.2.24 & 9.30.24 Joint City Council Meeting”. Read aloud as “Minutes approval from 10 to 24 and nine 3024 of the Joint City Council.” Minutes: “Consent approval”. See flag 3. |
| 0:03:18 | II.b Citizens Comments | “Next order of business assistant [citizens’] comments. Seeing no citizens comments, I won’t go through the diatribe of what’s expected from citizens.” Minutes: “none”. See flag 11. |
| 0:25:33 | II.c Student Board Member Report | Passed over at 0:03:40 (“Seeing that they are not present”); taken at 0:25:33 after the students were found outside. |
| 0:31:35 | III.1 SHS Psychology Class Presentation | Agenda: “Matt Hammond, SHS Psychology Teacher & students will be presenting on stress related to the new schedule.” Held open at 0:01:43 until the students arrived; presented from 0:34:17 to 0:58:30. Discussion only. |
| 0:04:15 | III.2 Update PSAT Results | Taken first because the students were not yet present (0:03:40). Discussion only. See flag 2. |
| 0:58:52 | III.3 Default Budget & Proposed FY26 Budget Summary and Tutorial | Agenda: “Default Budget & Proposed FY26 Budget Summary and Tutorial on School Budgeting, Funding, Tax Impact and Tax Rate Setting (Discussion)”. Replaced by the chair with audits and the budget timeline; introduced at 0:58:52 as “the revised, presentation from Miss Henry”. No figures. See flag 7. |
| 1:16:59 | III.4 Sub-Committees | Six listed. “Subcommittees, we’ve kind of discussed that there’s nobody needs to present for that or has anything to add.” Minutes: “No updates”. See flag 12. |
| 1:17:22 | IV. Other Business | Letter to Senator Ward: motion by Sprague at 1:20:07, point of order at 1:21:02, carried to the next agenda (flag 5, flag 14). Shout-out to Chelsea Weatherford (1:23:29). SAU 6 quorum failure (1:23:54; flag 4). |
| Not read | V. Future Dates | Agenda: Claremont board 12.18.24; “Finance Subcommittee Meeting dates: 1-3 PM at SRVRTC John Goodrich Community Room. i) December 18, 2024”; budget hearing 1/2/2025; deliberative session February 1, 2025, snow date February 8. The December 4 Finance date noticed on November 20 is gone. See flag 1. |
| 1:24:59 | VI. Adjournment | “If there’s no objection to a during the meeting, I’d like to adjourn the meeting seeing no objections.” Minutes: “Consent adjournment 7:55pm”. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:04 | Consent list; budget item replaced | “Minutes approval from 10 to 24 and nine 3024 of the Joint City Council. And I myself would like to change one of the items on the on the action items, which is the discussion regarding the finances. We’ll be shifting to, a brief discussion about where we are at in the budgeting process, where we are at with audits currently”. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:43 | No student exhibit expected | “I did speak to Chelsea, and Chelsea said there were no, exhibits to be attached and that they were just going to come up and present.” | |
| 0:02:24 | A letter handed out on paper | Crawford: “I gave a copy to all board members, and it’s, it’s a that talks about the calm down [ConVal], lawsuit that Claremont was a code printed [co-plaintiff]”. Hawkins at 0:02:40: her two items are “Neither of which require a decision.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:54 | Minutes praised | The chair to the clerk: “you do great minutes and yes, yes, it’s it’s really appreciated and we can actually use them.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:18 | Citizens’ comments | “Seeing no citizens comments, I won’t go through the diatribe of what’s expected from citizens.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:41 | PSAT: 37 of about 180 | “37 students took it in grades 9 to 11. I have approximately maybe 180.” Hawkins at 0:06:44: “The color differentiation is difficult for me to determine between achieve no and math meets”. | MEDIUM |
| 0:10:24 | Whole-grade testing | “We had 95 test takers. So the whole 11th grade takes the test.” At 0:10:57: “If they know they’re not going to college, there’s no incentive to try or do. Well.” At 0:14:37: “But when we test the whole grade. We’re coming out below a state average.” | |
| 0:22:18 | Why whole-grade PSAT stopped | “I’m not sure what the decision was in 22 to stop and go to a selective group. But, you can talk to the new administration about that.” | |
| 0:23:43 | Comparisons: iReport | “If you Google I report [iReport] NH and you can compare every schools”. At 0:24:29: “In general, the poorer towns are near the bottom.” | |
| 0:25:49 | Student board members’ report | Fundraising for a Puerto Rico trip, charity drives, a winter pep rally, a junior-class board-game night on December 5; music department at 0:28:37: All-State festival, December 17 concert, a restarted jazz band. | |
| 0:32:29 | Chair asks for the deck to be public | “is there any way this could somehow be given to Chelsea to be incorporated in the minutes so that everybody has an opportunity to have the public access?” The projector could not show it; the students handed out paper copies. | POSITIVE |
| 0:34:17 | Sleep and stress survey | “My name is Sarah Wheeler. This is Malachi. We did our project on sleep and stress.” At 0:34:44: “surveys from 194 students and staff from all four grades.” At 0:39:53: “Out of 194 students and staff, 124 reported to have above average stress stress levels. This means that 63.8% of student and staff attending Stevens High School has higher stress levels than they should.” | |
| 0:42:16 | A teacher’s response on prep time | “Each minute of prep time is prepping for six minutes of class time.” “I have about 100 students this year.” | |
| 0:45:08 | A response the transcript inverts | Transcript: “I can’t hold myself to a high standard than to than to which I’m currently working.” The written response in the packet deck reads “I hold myself to a higher standard than that to which I am currently working”. The transcript’s wording is left as recorded. | |
| 0:48:03 | A student response on graduation | “Our graduation rate was at 79.5 in 2022, and well, last year it went up to 81%. I’m afraid that with this new schedule it would drop again.” At 0:48:43: “Why is admitting during [admin just ignoring] the fact that our students are failing?” (the deck prints “Why is admin just ignoring the fact that our students are failing?”). | |
| 0:49:31 | Conclusion | “many people feel heard and or feel unsupported by Avenue [admin].” The deck reads “many people feel unheard and/or feel unsupported by admin”; the transcript’s dropped negation is not supplied. | |
| 0:50:00 | Board response | “I think the board will digest this and certainly take it into consideration.” Origin of the project at 0:50:50: the teacher noticed students “would have their heads down every day.” | POSITIVE OBSERVATION |
| 0:52:41 | Credits and schedules | “Now there’s the 21 I believe a 23 and then 27.” At 0:53:40: courses at another school mean leaving “my fourth period, ten minutes into class” and returning “halfway through my sixth period”. | |
| 0:55:37 | One guidance counselor | “We have one guidance counselor.” Crawford at 0:56:53: “we are trying actively to to fill those positions. There are there are two open positions and we can’t find teachers.” | |
| 0:57:44 | Why the students came | “We really didn’t come here to like almost attack you guys”. At 0:58:36: “And this will be available to the public. Just so you know, it’s on the website”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:59:01 | Audits | “Audits are going well. Auditors have been in the building”. At 1:00:25: “we should have all of these audits through 24 done by June, I would say.” The chair restates it for the minutes at 1:01:03. FY21 results to the board in January, by Zoom (1:01:50). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:04:50 | Draft policies in a shared file | “I need to sit down and probably meet with you and Chris”; Hawkins: “Well, Whitney is the chair.” At 1:05:12: “I think I’ve dumped them into the file that you guys have or Whitney has out there.” “I just don’t know if they’ve been reviewed yet”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:06:00 | No budget yet | “So we’re getting the budget out to the finance committee by the end of the week.” Crawford at 1:11:21: “We got to get the copy of the budget, which.” | HIGH OBSERVATION |
| 1:07:22 | Finance meetings on December 12 and 13 | “I emailed Frank and asked him if we could get together for just finance Committee on on Thursday.” At 1:08:04: “And then on the 13th, having one that would be here and would be on CCTV.” At 1:09:11: “the first meeting on the 12th is just to do a pre meeting for, the 13th. So we can go over everything within the budget, make sure that we understand what we’re doing before we, come out in public”. | HIGH |
| 1:10:25 | A compressed schedule | Crawford at 1:10:41: “I know last year we spent several meetings going over the budget. And then I thought it was a very clear process. And I think the public responded to that clarity and to have it compacted. I think is unfortunate.” Hawkins at 1:11:46: “I’m not on the finance committee, so I’m just asking for clarification.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:12:58 | Recommend, then hearing | “Recommend and bring it to the hearing. And then after the hearing, you’ll need to make.” Crawford: “The hearing. We can change it.” The chair at 1:13:06: a trial-run presentation on “how we’re aligning the budget to the newly presented strategic plan”. | |
| 1:14:09 | Recommendation in the afternoon, action that night | Crawford: “having the Finance committee make a recommendation on the afternoon for the board to see it that night and, and act on it.” “It is it is expecting a lot of the rest of the board.” | |
| 1:15:07 | Hearing deadline | Sprague: “what does the DRA say about what’s our drop dead on a public hearing”. Henry: “Budget January 14th, I’d have to go look at the schedule.” Hawkins at 1:16:11: “January 2nd. Correct. But that hasn’t been warranted yet. So that if we don’t have that opportunity, we have until the middle of January.” | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:17:22 | The letter to Senator Ward | “they they recommended that the adequacy a be set at a little over 7300” (1:18:05); “Right now, it’s 4100” (1:18:50). The chair: “I personally don’t feel comfortable with that. But there can be a motion made” (1:20:01). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:20:07 | Motion and point of order | “I’ll make the motion.” “We we, endorse the letter.” Hawkins: “He needs a second.” At 1:21:02: “That’s my motion. Good. Kind of a point of order question.” At 1:21:09: “this is not on our agenda. It’s not under the discussion reaction [discussion/action] items. So technically, I’m not sure we can take action in the motion on this item.” Hawkins: “Other business should be non decisive.” | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:21:33 | Carried to the next meeting | The chair: “The option is lay on the table until next meeting. Or we can individually sign”. Crawford: “I would ask that it be transferred to next week for next meeting motion.” At 1:22:27: send it to Chelsea “so it could go in the record” and “be added as an exhibit”. | POSITIVE |
| 1:23:54 | SAU 6 had no quorum on December 3 | “As we know, we did not have a quorum yesterday and we could not meet.” At 1:24:16: “We have legal deadlines we must follow.” At 1:24:39: “And there was illness. There were reasons and I understand”. | MEDIUM |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid, measured against the law and the board’s own rules in force on December 4, 2024. They are not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; an Observation rests on no confirmed rule. By-law quotations are from the adopted by-laws PDF filed as “Exhibit E- Claremont School Board By-Laws” (read 2026-09-25); that copy contains two rules numbered 2.09, so the text is quoted.
HIGH The Finance Sub-Committee building the FY26 budget has no located minutes for any of its meetings, and this meeting arranged a pre-meeting “before we, come out in public”
By-law 1.05 says subcommittees “are meetings open to the public and are subject to New Hampshire’s Right to Know Law”, that notice “must be posted at least 24 hours in advance on the SAU 6 website”, and that “Minutes must be recorded and available for public inspection on the SAU 6 website within 5 days of the meeting.” RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes a school board’s subcommittee a public body, and RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice and minutes within five business days. The committee met, on camera, on November 19, 2024, and no minutes of that meeting or any later one were located in any district share (MAP.md §§62, 68, 69). At this meeting the chair described a December 12 session of the committee with the business administrator as “just to do a pre meeting for, the 13th. So we can go over everything within the budget, make sure that we understand what we’re doing before we, come out in public” (1:09:11); the approved minutes repeat it (“so that the finance committee understands the budget before it is presented to the public”). Two of three members meeting is a quorum of the committee. No notice, minutes or recording of a December 12 meeting was located. Separately, the October 16 and November 20 approved minutes list a Finance meeting for December 4, 1–3 p.m.; this agenda drops that date without comment, and nothing in this meeting refers to it. Graded HIGH on the unmitigated limb: the committee met, no minutes exist in any share, and nothing on the record explains the absence. Mitigation stated on tape: Sprague asked that the meetings be noticed (1:08:28). Whether the December 4 and December 12 sessions took place is not established here, and any record may sit outside the shares this project can read.
Sources: Claremont School Board By-Laws, rule 1.05(b)–(d); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II (2023, 188:1); approved minutes 12.4.24; approved minutes 10.16.24 and 11.20.24, Future Dates; CSB Agenda 12.4.24.
MEDIUM The assistant superintendent’s PSAT and SAT slides were not posted, and a board member could not read them in the room
The by-laws’ agenda rule numbered 2.09 ends: “Any and all presentations by the administration to the board or any committee shall be contained in the agenda and made available to the public in its original format online so the public may download or access the information prior to or during board meetings.” Koski presented about 20 minutes of charts (0:04:15–0:25:28); the agenda names no exhibit and the packet folder holds no deck. At 0:06:44 Hawkins said the chart colors were hard to tell apart. The approved minutes describe the charts in prose, which gives a public reader the subject but not the figures beyond the spoken “37 students” of “approximately maybe 180”. Mitigation: no vote turned on it, and the presenter pointed the public to the state’s iReport data (0:23:43).
Sources: By-Laws, agenda and publication rule numbered 2.09; packet folder 9. CSB 12.4.24; approved minutes 12.4.24, item III.2.
MEDIUM The consent agenda “approved” October 2 minutes that were approved on October 16, repeating a label corrected aloud on November 20, while the November 20 draft in the packet went unnamed
The October 16 approved minutes record “Minutes Approval- 10.2.24” with “Consent approval of all”. On November 20, per that meeting’s approved minutes, “Assistant Superintendent Koski shared that the date for the October minutes was incorrect (read 10.2.24, should read 10.16.24)”. This agenda again reads “Minutes Approval- 10.2.24 & 9.30.24 Joint City Council Meeting”, the chair read it (0:01:04), and the approved minutes record it as approved. The packet holds the November 20 draft, which is not named here and appears on the December 18 agenda (“Minutes Approval- 11.20.24 & 12.4.24”). RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record final decisions; the permanent record of December 4 shows approval of minutes that were not before the board. Mitigation: the joint-meeting minutes were before the board, and the November 20 set was approved two weeks later.
Sources: CSB Agenda 12.4.24; approved minutes 12.4.24; approved minutes 10.16.24; approved minutes 11.20.24; CSB Agenda 12.18.24; RSA 91-A:2, II.
MEDIUM The SAU 6 board failed for want of a quorum on December 3, and this meeting holds the only spoken account of it
Hawkins, who chairs the SAU 6 board: “we did not have a quorum yesterday and we could not meet” (1:23:54); “We have legal deadlines we must follow” (1:24:16); “there was illness” (1:24:39). She asked every member to attend the next SAU meeting. RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU budget to be adopted “At a meeting held before January 1”. The SAU 6 packet folder “4. SAU6 12.3.24” holds an agenda and three budget documents, and no minutes or recording for December 3 exist (MAP.md §65). Graded MEDIUM on the mitigated limb: the body lacked a quorum and transacted nothing, and this recording and the approved minutes explain what happened. Asking members to attend a noticed meeting is not deliberation, and no Right-to-Know concern is raised about it.
Sources: approved minutes 12.4.24, item IV; SAU 6 packet folder 4. SAU6 12.3.24; RSA 194-C:9, I.
OBSERVATION The minutes name a seconder and a withdrawal the recording does not carry
On the recording Sprague moves to endorse the letter (1:20:07–1:20:16); Hawkins says “He needs a second. … So a second.” (1:20:47); no other second is audible; after the point of order the chair offers to table it or to sign individually (1:21:33), and the meeting moves on with no vote and no spoken withdrawal. The approved minutes: “Frank Sprague made a motion to endorse the letter presented by Candace Crawford as the Claremont School Board, Bonnie Miles seconded the motion” and “Frank Sprague withdrew his motion”. The minutes meet RSA 91-A:2, II’s requirement to record the mover and seconder; the recording cannot confirm either the second or the withdrawal. Regraded from MEDIUM on the archived page because no rule is shown to be breached.
Sources: approved minutes 12.4.24, item IV; RSA 91-A:2, II (mover and seconder; 2018, 244:1); By-Laws 2.07.
OBSERVATION The minutes give Miles and Petrin five turns the dialogue file assigns to Hawkins and Sprague
Miles and Petrin were present and have no attributed row. The approved minutes credit Miles with asking “how the project originated” (on the recording at 0:50:44) and whether assessments can be compared across towns (0:23:18), both in the cluster labeled Hawkins; and Petrin with an SAT question, an answer that the college-access program “does still exist”, and the point of order (1:21:02), all in the cluster labeled Sprague. At 1:21:02 a single segment reads “That’s my motion. Good. Kind of a point of order question.”, the mover confirming his motion and then objecting to it, which fits two speakers merged by the diarizer. This page follows the dialogue file’s labels in quotations and names the minutes’ attribution alongside; it changes no label. Regraded from MEDIUM: this is a transcript-attribution question, not a rule.
Sources: approved minutes 12.4.24, items III.1, III.2, IV; the dialogue file.
OBSERVATION The noticed default-budget item and tax-rate tutorial were replaced before the meeting began, and the agenda carries no superintendent’s report
The agenda noticed “Default Budget & Proposed FY26 Budget Summary and Tutorial on School Budgeting, Funding, Tax Impact and Tax Rate Setting”. The chair replaced it with audits and the budget timeline (0:01:04), without objection, as by-law 2.10 allows. RSA 40:13, XI(a) requires the default budget to be presented at the first budget hearing, not at a board meeting, so no rule is engaged. Crawford named the cost to the public at 1:10:41. The item returned word for word on the December 18 agenda with an exhibit. This agenda also has no Superintendent’s Report item, which the November 20 minutes and the December 18 agenda both carry.
Sources: CSB Agenda 12.4.24; CSB Agenda 12.18.24; RSA 40:13, XI(a).
OBSERVATION No district dollar figure was stated, and the ESSER presentation the Finance chair asked for in October did not appear
No budget total, fund balance, percentage or tax rate is spoken; the only dollar figures are the state adequacy rates in the letter (flag 10). The October 16 approved minutes record a surplus of “$497,000, plus an additional $114,000”, “The maximum that can be retained is $469,000”, a vote “to retain up to $350,000 with the stipulation that it be used to offset the 25/26 tax rate”, and “Frank Sprague shared that he would still like to see a presentation on ESSER”. None of these is mentioned here, on the night the FY26 budget process was scheduled. The audit backlog was reported with a date: all audits through FY24 by June 2025 (1:00:25, 1:01:03); RSA 21-J:19 is permissive as to timing, so a backlog is a control weakness rather than a missed statutory deadline.
Sources: the dialogue file; approved minutes 10.16.24; RSA 21-J:19.
OBSERVATION “January 14th” is the notice deadline, not the hearing deadline
Claremont votes by official ballot, so RSA 40:13, II-a sets the calendar: notice of budget hearings by the second Tuesday in January (January 14, 2025) and hearings “on or before the third Tuesday in January” (January 21, 2025). Henry’s “January 14th” (1:15:13) is the notice date and was hedged (“I’d have to go look at the schedule”). Hawkins’ fallback, “we have until the middle of January” (1:16:11), is correct; the December 18 agenda moved the hearing to January 15, 2025. II-a’s “Notwithstanding any other provision of law” governs over RSA 32:5, I’s 25-day rule for such districts, so a mid-January hearing is not a breach.
Sources: RSA 40:13, II-a and III (2019, 192:2); RSA 32:5, I (2023 codification; the 2025, 144:1 amendment not applied); CSB Agenda 12.18.24.
OBSERVATION The letter’s $4,100 baseline is the unadjusted statutory figure; the FY25 rate was $4,182
The letter asks the senator to “Increase the State’s annual base adequacy aid payment from $4,100 to $7,356.01 per pupil.” RSA 198:40-a, II sets $4,100, and RSA 198:40-d adds 2 percent annually from July 1, 2024, giving $4,182 for FY25. On tape the case is described as one where “we were successful with the state Supreme Court” (1:17:22); the letter itself says “the Superior Court ruled”. The approved minutes describe the letter as “regarding the ConVal lawsuit from Senator Ruth Ward”; the letter is addressed to her.
Sources: Exhibit C- Dear Senator Ward (12/18/24 packet); RSA 198:40-a, II and RSA 198:40-d (2023, 79:150 and 79:151; the 2025, 141:223 rewrite not applied).
OBSERVATION Citizens’ comment was opened and closed in one sentence
Policy BEDH §B.3: “The Board Chair will close the public comment period after there is no response to the Board Chair’s vocal invitation to the audience to make a public comment”, and §B.5 then opens “Board Discussion Regarding Citizens Comments.” The whole item was “Seeing no citizens comments, I won’t go through the diatribe of what’s expected from citizens.” (0:03:18). No one was turned away and no one appears to have been waiting, so no violation of RSA 189:74 is asserted.
Sources: Policy BEDH (adopted Sept. 6, 2023); RSA 189:74.
OBSERVATION No subcommittee reported, and the audit-driven policy drafts sit unreviewed in a shared file
By-law 1.05 requires the Finance, Policy and Capital Improvement committees and ad hoc committees each to “report to the full Board monthly”. The item took one sentence (1:16:59); the Finance schedule had been covered under the business item. The Policy chair was absent; Henry said she had written policies arising from the audits and “I just don’t know if they’ve been reviewed yet” (1:05:12). One silent meeting is not a missed monthly report, and December had a second meeting.
Sources: By-Laws 1.05(1)–(4); approved minutes 12.4.24, item III.4.
OBSERVATION The draft minutes reached the public share on the sixth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be “open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting”. The fifth business day was Wednesday, December 11, 2024. The draft’s file was last modified on December 11 (11:09 a.m. Eastern) but created in the public December 18 packet folder on December 12 at 4:03 p.m. Eastern, one business day late. Graded OBSERVATION rather than MEDIUM, as on the archived page: a one-day overrun on a document finished inside the window. The approved copy was created in the Meeting Minutes share on January 7, 2025.
Sources: Drive metadata for 12.4.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes.pdf (read 2026-09-25); RSA 91-A:2, II; RSA 288:1.
POSITIVE A point of order kept the board from acting on an unnoticed item, and it returned two weeks later as a noticed vote with the letter published
The by-laws’ agenda rule numbered 2.09: “Items brought up under new business should be informational, requests for future meetings or agenda items. If an item requiring action is brought up under new business the item must be deemed emergency or time sensitive that cannot be put off until an upcoming meeting.” The point of order at 1:21:02–1:21:09 applied exactly that, against a motion members appeared to support, and the reason was stated: “There may be members that are here that this was not on the agenda.” (1:21:25). The chair asked for the letter to be added as an exhibit (1:22:27); the December 18 agenda carries “NH Senator Letter (Vote) (Exhibit C)”.
Sources: By-Laws, rule numbered 2.09 (agenda); CSB Agenda 12.18.24, item IV.4; Exhibit C.
POSITIVE The students’ presentation was published two days later, and the schedule came back as an agenda item
The chair asked for the student deck to be made public (0:32:29, 0:58:36). “SHS ECH Psychology Class Presentation_0001.pdf” was created in the packet folder on December 6, 2024, although the chair had been told there would be no exhibit (0:01:43). The December 18 agenda carries “High School Schedule Review (Discussion) (Exhibit B) Dr. Michael Herrington, SHS Principal”. The deck’s survey responses are anonymous.
Sources: SHS ECH Psychology Class Presentation_0001.pdf and its Drive metadata; CSB Agenda 12.18.24, item IV.2.
POSITIVE The deliberative session and snow date sit at the two ends of the statutory window
RSA 40:13, III puts the first session “between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January, inclusive of those Saturdays”: in 2025, February 1 to February 8. The agenda sets February 1 with a February 8 snow date, and the January 2 hearing it announced was inside both the 40:13, II-a deadline and RSA 32:5, I’s 25 days.
Sources: CSB Agenda 12.4.24, Future Dates; RSA 40:13, II-a, III.
POSITIVE The clerk was present and the minutes are full
By-law 2.05: “The chair shall commence the meeting at the hour appointed and the clerk shall call the roll.” The clerk was called on at 0:00:28. The approved minutes name every member present, the student presenters, each questioner as the clerk heard them, the survey figures, the audit timetable and the mover and seconder of the one motion, as RSA 91-A:2, II requires.
Sources: By-Laws 2.05; approved minutes 12.4.24; RSA 91-A:2, II.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: School Board Meeting 12/4/24 (show 16192)
- Drive folder: 9. CSB 12.4.24: 4 documents
- _CSB Agenda 12.4.24.pdf
- SHS ECH Psychology Class Presentation_0001.pdf (added December 6, 2024)
- Prior minutes filed here: 11.20.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes.pdf; draft minutes for Joint CSB_City Council meeting 9.30.24.pdf
- Minutes of this meeting: 10. Approved CSB meeting minutes 12.4.24; draft 12.4.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes.pdf in 10. CSB 12.18.24
- Other district documents relied on: Exhibit E- Claremont School Board By-Laws .pdf; BEDH APPROVED Public Comment and Participation 9.6.23; 7. Approved CSB meeting minutes 10.16.24; 9. Approved CSB meeting minutes 11.20.24; CSB Agenda 12.18.24.pdf; Exhibit C- Dear Senator Ward.docx.pdf
- Not located: the PSAT/SAT slide deck; any notice, agenda or minutes of a Finance Sub-Committee meeting on December 4 or December 12, 2024; minutes of any 2024 Finance Sub-Committee meeting.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, November 21, 2024 (strategic plan); Finance Committee, November 19, 2024; SAU 6 Board, December 12, 2024; Finance Committee, December 13, 2024.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II (2023, 188:1; mover/seconder clause 2018, 244:1; the 2025 start-time, end-time and minutes-producer additions are not applied); RSA 288:1
- Budget and meetings: RSA 40:13, II-a, III, XI(a) (2019, 192:2); RSA 32:5, I (2023 codification); RSA 194-C:9, I; RSA 21-J:19
- School boards and funding: RSA 189:74; RSA 198:40-a, II; RSA 198:40-d
- Board rules: Claremont School Board By-Laws 1.05, 2.05, 2.07, 2.09 (agenda rule), 2.10; Policy BEDH §B.3, B.5