Participants
Everyone heard or recorded present. Spellings follow the agenda and approved minutes; where the dialogue file's label or the transcript's rendering differs, that is noted. Unidentified voices stay unidentified.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Chair, presiding; Finance Committee | Presides. Explains the vote moves the budget only to the hearing (0:37:47). Calls the 2.82% figure "a deceptive number" (1:02:29). Presents the committee's preschool reasoning (1:20:22) and answers Hawkins that IEP services continue (1:39:13). Moves policies KCD and the JRA withdrawal; seconds several motions. |
| Frank Sprague | Vice chair; chair, Finance Committee | Moves ratification of the paraprofessionals' agreement (0:12:26). Introduces the committee's work from "an 11% increase" (1:13:50) and the data behind the preschool decision (1:17:26). Seconds the budget motion (1:32:55). |
| Candace Crawford | Member; Finance Committee; board representative, paraprofessionals' negotiations | Questions the state representative on catastrophic aid (0:06:35). Presents the paraprofessionals' agreement: starting pay "moves to over 19" an hour (0:11:32). Moves ratification of the administrators' agreement (0:14:20) and acceptance of the ski donation (0:17:27). On state funding: New Hampshire is 50th (1:59:50). |
| Arlene Hawkins | Member; board representative, CAA negotiations | Presents the administrators' (CAA) agreement (0:12:55) and three of the four policies. Reads a written dissent: "I cannot support the elimination of the Claremont School Department pre-K program." (1:34:07). |
| Whitney Skillen | Member; chair, Policy subcommittee | Moves policies GBEAA and JFABD; seconds others. Praises the budget process as "100% transparency" (1:41:10) and asks for a commitment to a preschool plan and a needs assessment (1:53:48, 2:05:27). The transcript renders her surname Gilman, Gillan and Gillam. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member | Questions the McKinney-Vento policy's wording on "trailer parks" and "migratory children" (0:30:22, 0:34:44); proposes a preschool subcommittee and a small reserve (1:55:44). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Seconds policy GBEAA (0:26:33); moves the budget to the public hearing (1:32:29). The chair calls him "Mister patron". |
| Noelle Kronberg | School board clerk | Present; calls the roll (not audible on tape) and records the nonpublic roll calls, per the minutes. |
| Christopher Pratt | Superintendent | Ties the budget to the strategic plan's five goals (0:39:27). Reads a statement supporting the preschool cut as a pause: "I don't think any of us want to say or eliminating pre-K permanently." (1:50:26). |
| Mary Henry | Business administrator | Budget presentation by school (0:43:55 to 1:08:15): preschool removed at $430,104 (1:00:54); health insurance up 15% and dental 10% (1:01:40); $350,330 after revenues (1:03:36); adequacy aid up $1.9 million (1:04:26). |
| Patrick O'Hearn | Human resource director | Staffing impact: "five teacher FTE adjustments and right around four para adjustments" against five teaching, three counselor and two or more para vacancies (1:09:44). |
| Hope Damon | State representative; citizens' comments | Self-identified as "one of Claremont's five state reps" (0:02:11); legislative update; explains catastrophic-aid proration (0:07:17); at the board's invitation explains that the McKinney-Vento wording is federal (0:33:26). Her House district is not stated on tape and is not given here. |
| Mike McCosker | Director of Student Services | Two brief lines on related services in the preschool discussion (1:27:09); the dialogue file marks the attribution uncertain. |
| Unidentified / Multiple | Roll-call answers and voice votes | Roll answers (0:00:35 to 0:00:42) and voice-vote ayes; one unidentified voice prompts "Vote on the motion." (2:08:43). |
Agenda
The posted agenda (CSB Agenda 1.7.25, uploaded January 6, 2025 at 2:28 p.m.) with the point at which the recording takes up each item and the disposition recorded in the approved minutes. Agenda and minutes wording is quoted from those documents.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:06 | I. Call to order; roll | Minutes: "Present: Candace Crawford, Arlene Hawkins, Bonnie Miles, Michael Petrin, Whitney Skillen, Frank Sprague, Heather Whitney"; "Absent: none". |
| 0:00:44 | II.a Consent agenda | "This evening we have no minutes to approve." Nonpublic session added at the administration's request; the chair describes it as "one related to compensation and one related to purchase of property" (0:01:36). Minutes: "Minutes Approval-none". |
| 0:02:10 | II.b Citizens' comments | State Representative Hope Damon. Minutes record her bills as HB 0471 (minimum-standards rules) and HB 0431 (meal-balance shaming). |
| 0:08:49 | III.1 Paraprofessionals' contract | Ratified by voice vote (0:12:48). Minutes: "Frank Sprague made a motion to ratify the agreement between the Claremont School Board and the Claremont Paraprofessionals as presented, Heather Whitney seconded the motion". |
| 0:12:55 | III.2 CAA contract | Ratified by voice vote (0:14:35). Minutes: "Candace Crawford made a motion to ratify this contract as presented, Whitney Skillen seconded the motion". On tape the second is a run of Second. in the chair's row (0:14:23). |
| 0:15:09 | III.3 Board evaluation meeting | Set by consent for February 13 at 5:00, before the SAU 6 meeting (0:16:34). |
| 0:16:57 | III.4 Mt. Sunapee Ski Club donation (Exhibit A) | Agenda: "$3000.00 to Claremont Middle School Ski Program". Accepted by voice vote (0:18:55). Minutes: Crawford moved, Whitney seconded. See flag 3 and flag 4. |
| 0:19:05 | III.5(c) Policy subcommittee (Exhibits B–E) | KCD revised and adopted (0:21:13); JRA withdrawn and replaced (0:23:15, 0:25:01); GBEAA, listed as "(First Read)", adopted (0:28:33); JFABD withdrawn and replaced (0:29:35, 0:36:59). All voice votes. See flag 8. |
| 0:37:19 | III.6 Finance Subcommittee budget presentation | Agenda: "(Discussion/Vote to move Budget to Public Hearing)". Petrin moves "to move this budget as presented to the public hearing" (1:32:29); Sprague seconds (1:32:55); voice vote with no opposition audible (2:08:45). Minutes: "Voice vote taken, all present voting in favor, the motion passes". |
| 2:08:45 | Nonpublic session (added) | Not on the recording. Minutes: motion by Whitney under "RSA 91-A:3, II (a) & (d)", Petrin seconded, roll call all in favor, entered 8:41 p.m.; exit 8:57 p.m.; "Whitney Skillen made a motion to seal the minutes for 6 months", roll call all in favor. See flag 1. |
| 8:58 p.m. | IV–VI. Other business; future dates; adjournment | Minutes list future dates: budget hearing 1.15.2025, board meeting 1.21.25 to move the budget to the deliberative session, deliberative session February 1, 2025. "Consent adjournment at 8:58pm". |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4.CSV). Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:44 | No minutes; nonpublic added | "This evening we have no minutes to approve." The December 18 minutes were not yet in any packet. Nonpublic added "related to compensation and one related to purchase of property" (0:01:36). | MED |
| 0:02:11 | State representative's update | Damon: deputy ranking member on the House Education Funding Committee; prime sponsor of bills on the minimum-standards rules and on meal-balance shaming; a "significant state revenue shortfall" expected (0:04:23). | |
| 0:06:35 | Catastrophic aid | Crawford: "the law says that it will reimburse at 95% anything over 70,000" and the commissioner paid 67%. Damon: "if not enough money was appropriated, then the amount that districts requested will be prorated." (0:07:17). | OBS |
| 0:09:07 | Paraprofessionals' agreement | Three-year agreement, front-loaded, "The second and third year is a 2.5% increase." (0:09:49); about 21 steps reduced; starting pay from 1677 to over 19 (0:11:32); pay gaps over vacations addressed (0:11:43). Ratified (0:12:48). | POS |
| 0:12:55 | Administrators' (CAA) agreement | Hawkins: base salary moved "from a formula that included many different components" to "three different ranges. Based on the position, not based on the school." (0:13:29). Ratified (0:14:35). Crawford: both agreements will be separate warrant articles (0:14:58). | POS |
| 0:16:57 | Ski donation | "the donation from the Mount Ski Club for the amount of $3,000"; rentals covered (0:18:35). Accepted (0:18:55). | MED OBS |
| 0:19:27 | Policy KCD, gifts | Under $2,500 no board action; $2,500 to $19,999 board approval; over $20,000 a public hearing (0:20:02). Sprague: "These are unanticipated." Adopted (0:21:13). | OBS |
| 0:21:18 | Policies JRA and GBEAA | JRA (2007) withdrawn and replaced with the NHSBA sample, with two dates to be filled in: Skillen's amendment adopts it "with the two small suggested revisions" that "They're just not typed in here at the moment." (0:23:36). GBEAA, new, adopted the same night (0:28:33). | OBS |
| 0:28:48 | Policy JFABD, homeless students | Miles objects to "trailer parks" and asks what "migratory" means (0:31:01, 0:34:44); Damon: "It's the federal language of the McKinney Vento Act" (0:33:26). Adopted as the 2019 NHSBA sample (0:36:59). | |
| 0:37:19 | Budget: purpose of the vote | Whitney: "The vote tonight will be to move the budget to a public hearing. It is not the it is not a vote to accept the budget in its entirety." Pratt ties the budget to the strategic plan (0:39:27). | |
| 0:43:55 | Budget by school | Henry: Maple up $588,860 (0:44:18); Bluff $421,857 (0:45:06); out-of-district placements cut by $150,000 at CMS and $350,000 at Stevens on expected changes (0:50:07, 0:53:14); "We had over $600,000 in out of district placements that were funded by Esser." (0:53:40); SRVRTC up $42,000 with the new course inside it (0:55:54); SAU 6 assessment down $91,855 (0:59:50). | OBS |
| 1:00:54 | Preschool removed | Henry: "we have taken out all of that amount of money for $430,104." "This is two teachers and benefits and 4.35 and benefits." (1:01:18). | OBS |
| 1:01:40 | Drivers and totals | "health insurance increases, which was 15%, and dental was 10% for roughly $1.2 million increase." Original request 11%; now 2.82% (1:02:22); Whitney: "That's a deceptive number." Overall "2.4 million, which is 6.74%" before revenues (1:03:14); "$350,330 just on the general budget" after them (1:03:36); with the teachers' first year, 4.9 (1:04:19). | OBS |
| 1:04:26 | Revenues | Adequacy aid up "1.9 million" from the extraordinary-need grant; hold-harmless grant cut 10% a year; investment income up after moving balances to a money-market sweep (1:06:37); vocational tuition revenue up $15,000 (1:07:50). | |
| 1:09:44 | Staffing impact | O'Hearn: five teacher and about four para adjustments; turnover of about 40 a year; "I am confident that, there are positions that exist in the district" to absorb affected staff (1:12:22). | POS |
| 1:17:26 | Why preschool | Sprague: data from 2023 showed the program "does not show substantive gains" and model students "Scoring lower." (1:18:19). Whitney: lottery access, local funding only, "almost a half $1 million serving 23 students strictly out of local dollars" (1:23:43); the alternative was cutting instructional coaches and the curriculum director (1:24:13). | OBS |
| 1:32:29 | Motion to move the budget | Petrin moves; Sprague seconds (1:32:55). Crawford: "I thought we were going to approve the budget next week." Whitney restates the sequence (1:33:12). | OBS |
| 1:34:07 | Hawkins's dissent | "I cannot support the elimination of the Claremont School Department pre-K program." "Providing special education services through IEPs is required by law." (1:34:31). "I believe eliminating the pre-K is short sighted." (1:36:21). Whitney: "there would be no reduction in mandated services" (1:39:13). | OBS |
| 1:40:48 | Commitment to revisit | Skillen asks for "verbal confirmation" of a subcommittee and plan (1:53:48); Whitney points to the March retreat (1:54:53); Miles proposes a preschool subcommittee and "a little bit of money in the piggy bank" (1:55:50). Sprague: "That's not part of the motion." (2:06:39); Whitney: "we don't vote on a commitment" (2:06:44). | OBS |
| 2:08:45 | Vote; nonpublic | "Motion to move the budget to the public hearing in the past." Then: "Next, we're going to be moving into a banana public." [nonpublic]. The recording ends. | MED |
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 January 7, 2025, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM A $255,000 property purchase was authorized in nonpublic session and sealed, and the public minutes do not mention the decision
On tape the chair described the added nonpublic session as "one related to compensation and one related to purchase of property" (0:01:36); the motion, the roll call and the session itself came after the recording ends (2:08:45). The public minutes record a motion under "RSA 91-A:3, II (a) & (d)", roll calls in and out, and "a motion to seal the minutes for 6 months" on a roll call, all in favor. The nonpublic minutes, since unsealed, record the only business: "permission for Superintendent Chris Pratt to purchase property at 40 Maple Ave in Claremont" for "the district alternative program in the amount of $255,000", moved by Whitney, seconded by Sprague, "voice vote taken: all voting in favor." Three points need checking. First, RSA 91-A:3, III allows minutes to be withheld only on a two-thirds recorded vote that also determines that disclosure would likely harm a person's reputation, render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism; the public minutes record the vote without any determination, and the text of the nonpublic form does not show which ground was marked. Second, power "To build, purchase, rent, repair, or remove schoolhouses" and to procure land is given to school districts by RSA 194:3, I–II, and RSA 32:8 bars a school board from incurring a liability for any purpose without an appropriation; nothing in this meeting's record shows the appropriation or voter authorization the purchase rests on. Third, no compensation decision is recorded although compensation was one of the two stated subjects. Graded MEDIUM: the statute permits property negotiations in nonpublic under II(d), the seal was voted by more than two-thirds, and the authority question may be answered by a document outside this record (a warrant article, a reserve fund, or a later district vote).
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(d), III (nonpublic motion, property exemption, sealing with a determination); RSA 194:3, I–II (district powers over land and buildings; 1979, 459:4); RSA 32:8 (no liability without appropriation); 1.7.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed
MEDIUM No draft of these minutes was posted; the approved minutes appeared on the tenth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting". From Tuesday, January 7, 2025, the fifth business day was Tuesday, January 14. No draft of the January 7 public minutes was found in the January 15 hearing packet (which carries the December 18 draft), in the February 5 packet (which carries the January 15 and January 21 drafts), or for January 21, which had no packet folder. The approved minutes were created January 22, 2025, the tenth business day, counting the January 20 holiday. The nonpublic minutes were created January 14, inside the window, but were sealed. Drive dates show when a document reached the public share, not when it was written. Graded MEDIUM under the project's severity rule: the meeting was noticed and packeted and the minutes exist with movers and seconders; only their timeliness is in question.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2024 codification; five business days; business day defined); 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25
MEDIUM The packet publishes an image of the donor's check with its bank routing and account line
Exhibit A includes Exhibit A-Mt Sunapee Ski Club Check (1).pdf, a scan of the club's check to the middle school. Its text layer carries the bank's name, the check number and the full machine-readable line that holds the routing and account numbers. This page reproduces none of them. RSA 91-A:5, IV lets a public body withhold "confidential, commercial, or financial information"; it permits redaction rather than requiring it, so publishing is not itself a violation, but a donor's account details serve no public purpose in a meeting packet. Earlier packets published donor checks the same way (April 17 and September 4, 2024), so this is a recurring control gap rather than a one-off.
Sources: RSA 91-A:5, IV (exempt records; 2022, 122:3); Exhibit A-Mt Sunapee Ski Club Check (1).pdf
OBSERVATION The board accepted $3,000; the text of the check image reads $3,315
The agenda, the motion and the minutes all say $3,000 (0:16:57). The text layer of the check scan reads $3,315 in figures and "Three thousand-Three hundred fiftee" in words, dated 12/12/24; the club's letter leaves its amount handwritten and unreadable as text. Text extraction can misread a scan, so this needs a look at the image itself. RSA 198:20-b, III(b), as amended in 2023, requires a gift under $20,000 accepted by the board to be noticed in the agenda and the minutes, which was done; if the check is $3,315, the amount noticed and accepted is $315 short of what was received.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III (unanticipated funds; $20,000 threshold from 2023, 38:1); CSB Agenda 1.7.25 (item III.4)
OBSERVATION The budget was moved "as presented" before the budget documents were public, and the headline percentage was carried over from an earlier version
The board voted to move "this budget as presented" to the hearing (1:32:29). The documents presented, Claremont School District FY26 Proposed Budget Summary.pdf and the 65-page Claremont FY 26 Proposed Budget, were uploaded to the meeting's folder on January 8 at 10:39 and 10:41 a.m., the morning after the vote; the summary's own footer is a print time of 6:31 p.m. on January 7, one minute after the scheduled call to order. Viewers watching the broadcast had no document to follow. The summary gives the general fund as $36,493,052 (FY25) and $38,953,728 (FY26), up $2,460,675 or 6.74%, less $2,110,345 of new revenue, leaving "$350,330" before the agreements, labeled 2.82%. The previous day the Finance Committee read the same 2.82% against $490,062 (January 6 page); the percentage did not change when the figure fell by $139,732. The chair herself called it "a deceptive number" (1:02:29). No rule requires the documents at this meeting; posting duties for the hearing run under RSA 40:13, II-a. Recorded so the hearing documents can be compared.
Sources: Claremont School District FY26 Proposed Budget Summary.pdf; RSA 40:13, II-a (budget-hearing calendar; 2019, 192:2)
OBSERVATION Preschool was eliminated with two different cost figures on the record and no vote on the promised follow-up
Henry's slide removed "$430,104" for preschool (1:00:54); Whitney described "almost a half $1 million serving 23 students" (1:23:43), and the approved minutes print "nearly $500,000". The approved minutes also record Whitney's assurance that "there will be no reduction in services embedded in IEPs"; federal rules still require a continuum of placements and placement in the least restrictive appropriate setting decided with the parents (34 CFR 300.115(a), 300.116), and Hawkins's dissent raises exactly that: "how long will we provide services offsite?" and the loss of typical peers (1:38:35). Removing the program's positions also engages RSA 40:13, IX(b), which reduces the default budget "by salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget"; the default was not discussed at this meeting. Members asked for a commitment to rebuild a program; the chair answered "we don't vote on a commitment" (2:06:44), and the minutes record the discussion but no action. Recorded as an observation: the decision is within the board's discretion. Hawkins said she accepted moving the budget to the hearing (2:07:42), and the voice vote is minuted as unanimous.
Sources: 34 CFR 300.115(a) (continuum of placements); 34 CFR 300.116 (placements); RSA 40:13, IX(b) (default budget; eliminated positions); 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25
OBSERVATION A member's description of the catastrophic-aid statute does not match its text; the representative's answer does
Crawford said "the law says that it will reimburse at 95% anything over 70,000" and asked how the state could pay 67% (0:06:35). RSA 186-C:18, III, as in force in FY2025 (2023, 79:141, 142), makes the state liable for 80 percent of a child's costs between 3½ and 10 times the state average expenditure per pupil and for all costs above 10 times; no 95 percent figure and no $70,000 figure appear in it. The paragraph also provides for proration when the appropriation is insufficient, with no minimum share at that time; Damon's answer (0:07:17) matches it. A floor of 80 percent of entitlement was added later, by 2025 N.H. HB 2 §137, and does not apply to FY2025. Recorded as a speaker's characterization corrected on the record.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (2024 codification; last amended 2023, 79:141, 142); 2025 N.H. HB 2, §137 (later floor; not in force in FY2025)
OBSERVATION Policies were adopted on first appearance, one with revisions not yet written, and two seconders differ between tape and minutes
The agenda listed GBEAA as "(First Read)", and the board adopted it that night (0:28:33). JRA was adopted with Skillen's amendment adding two dates that "They're just not typed in here at the moment." (0:23:36), so the adopted text was not in front of the board. Hawkins said the NHSBA notes are removed "when the policy is posted" (0:37:05). No statute requires two readings; whether the board's own policy does was not checked for this page. On seconders: for KCD the tape has Sprague, "I'll second you moving it for." (0:20:53), while the minutes name Candace Crawford; for the CAA agreement the minutes name Whitney Skillen, while the tape has only repeated Second. in the chair's row (0:14:23). RSA 91-A:2, II requires the minutes to name movers and seconders, and they do; which name is right cannot be settled from the recording.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (movers and seconders); CSB Agenda 1.7.25 (policy items)
POSITIVE Contracts ratified in public with their terms explained, staffing effects disclosed, and a dissent read into the record
Both bargaining agreements were presented in open session with their main terms: the paraprofessionals' new starting rate, step reduction and pay-gap fix (0:09:07 to 0:12:00) and the administrators' move to position-based ranges (0:13:29), with the cost items going to the voters as separate warrant articles, as RSA 273-A:3, II(b) requires for cost items (0:14:58). The HR director stated how many positions the budget affects and how vacancies could absorb them (1:09:44). Hawkins read a prepared dissent on preschool (1:34:07) and the minutes summarize it. The ski donation was noticed on the agenda and in the minutes as RSA 198:20-b, III(b) requires.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (cost items to the legislative body; 2013, 244:1); RSA 198:20-b, III(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/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4.CSV (652 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4Input/Transcripts/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 252
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2024 codification: minutes within five business days; movers and seconders
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(d), III (2023, 189:1): nonpublic motions, property exemption, sealing
- RSA 91-A:5, IV (2022, 122:3): records that may be withheld
- RSA 194:3, I–II (1979, 459:4): district powers over land and buildings
- RSA 32:8 (1993, 332:1): no liability without appropriation
- RSA 40:13, II-a and IX(b) (2019, 192:2): budget-hearing calendar; default budget
- RSA 198:20-b, III (2023, 38:1): gifts and unanticipated funds
- RSA 186-C:18, III, 2024 codification: catastrophic special-education aid; 2025 N.H. HB 2, §137 (later floor)
- RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (2013, 244:1): cost items to the legislative body
- 34 CFR 300.115(a) and 34 CFR 300.116, 2023 annual edition