Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present, and members recorded absent. Names follow the approved minutes; where the transcript renders a name differently, the rendering is noted. Central-office administrators listed on the minutes’ masthead who neither spoke nor were recorded present are omitted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Board chair | Presided; read the consent agenda aloud, including the $10,000 donation; moved to recess for the non-meeting with counsel and to return to nonpublic (per the nonpublic minutes); moved to come out of nonpublic; moved the rest of the agenda to the next meeting for time. |
| Michael Petrin | Vice chair | Absent (approved minutes). |
| Arlene Hawkins | Board member; Policy Subcommittee chair | Seconded the nonpublic motion and the non-meeting recess (per the minutes; on the recording the words “I’ll second the motion” fall inside the chair’s segment); announced policies for the next packet. Rendered “Arlene Hopkins” at the roll call. |
| Candace Crawford | Board member | Reported what she had learned about the lapsed adult-education grant; questioned the Director of Student Services on the special-education shortfall and contracted services; seconded the return to public session. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member; Finance Subcommittee chair | Moved the nonpublic session; pressed on the quality, cost and process of out-of-district placements. |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member | Present at roll call; no questions when the chair asked at 0:39:02. |
| Loren Howard | Board member | Present at roll call (rendered “Lauren Howard”); no questions when asked. |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | Called the roll and the nonpublic roll calls (the chair calls her “Miss Noel” and “Miss Cromer”); recorded both sets of minutes. |
| Lilly Clark | Student board member | Student report: spring sports, Music in the Parks, the senior play, the April 26 trunk sale, the principal’s advisory committee, the senior trip, the Puerto Rico trip and prom. Labeled “Lily Clark” in the dialogue file. |
| Miles Sheehan | Student board member | Absent: “Miles Sheehan unavailable, Noel Beauchaine representing instead” (approved minutes). |
| Noel Beauchaine | Stevens High School junior, substituting for Sheehan | Described the new student newspaper (introduced as “Noel Hussain” in the transcript). |
| Christopher Pratt | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Answered on out-of-district placement processes; announced a two-hour delay for the next morning; present in nonpublic session (nonpublic minutes). |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Reported the in-year deficit, the encumbrances and the spending freeze; said she would circulate the MS-22 before asking the board to sign it. |
| Mike McCosker | Director of Student Services, SAU 6 | Explained the special-education shortfall and the previous director’s unfunded request for about $1 million (rendered “McCusker” by the chair and the business administrator). |
| Patrick O’Hearn | Human Resources Director, SAU 6 | Listed as present in the nonpublic session (the scanned form reads “Patrick O’lkam”). Not heard on the recording. |
| Matt Upton | District counsel | Listed as present in the nonpublic session and named in the approved minutes as the attorney for the non-meeting. Not on the recording. See flag 9. |
| Karen Ladd (as the scanned form reads) | Union representative, per the nonpublic minutes | Listed as present in the nonpublic session, in which a grievance was decided. Not on the recording. |
| Kevin Tyson | Citizens’ comments | Proposed a single authoritative source for board policy, a glossary, and the IETF RFC 2119 requirement keywords; reported broken links on the district site. Kevin Tyson maintains this project; see the footer. |
| Mimi Rhines | Citizens’ comments, Ward 1 (Stevens High School counselor, senior-trip co-director) | Thanked the board for the senior-trip donation, then spoke against closing the Adult Ed HiSET program. Rendered “Mimi Ryan’s” in the transcript. |
| Wayne Hemingway | Citizens’ comments, Ward 1; state representative and city councilor (self-identified; confirmed by the minutes) | School-to-community communication and voter turnout; an apology for a social-media comment about teachers; the conduct of the March 19 meeting; Unity’s separation. |
| Hillary Walsh | Citizens’ comments, Ward 1 (adult-education teacher who had just left the program) | Asked whether there is a plan to bring the program back. Rendered “Hilary Walch” in the transcript. |
Agenda
Items as posted in “CSB Agenda 4.2.25 (2).pdf”, with the time each was taken up and its disposition from the recording and the approved minutes.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:18 | I. Call to order and Pledge | “I would like to call to order the April 2nd, 2025 Claremont School Board meeting.” Scheduled 6:30 p.m. |
| 0:00:44 | II. Roll call | Minutes: present Crawford, Hawkins, Howard, Madden, Sprague, Whitney; absent Petrin. The transcript runs the calls and answers together: “Board attendance here. Arlene Hopkins here. Lauren Howard here. William Madden here.” |
| 0:01:20 | II.a Consent agenda | Agenda: “Amendments and Final Approval of board agenda 2. Minutes Approval- 3.19.25 3. SHS Senior Class Trip Donation (Exhibit A & B)”. The chair read the donation aloud, then at 0:01:50: “Is there any objections to any of the items on the consent agenda, including approval of the minutes? Seeing none. Consent agenda is approved.” See flag 8. |
| 0:02:31 | II.b Citizens’ comments (policy BEDH) | Tyson, Rhines, Hemingway and Walsh spoke; Crawford made a statement on adult education between them. The chair’s standing rule, as transcribed: “it’s three minute limitation and we know expectation of comment from the board” (“know” for “no”). |
| 0:13:17 | II.c Student board member report | Lilly Clark reported; Noel Beauchaine substituted for Miles Sheehan and presented the student newspaper. |
| 0:19:37 | III.1 Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II | Moved by Sprague at 0:20:00; seconded by Hawkins per the minutes; roll call at 0:20:33. Minutes: motion “under RSA 91-A:3, II (a (1, 2), c, i)”, entered 6:50 p.m.; recess 7:55 p.m. “for the purpose of a non-meeting with attorney Matt Upton”; back in nonpublic 8:17 p.m.; public session 8:20 p.m. The nonpublic minutes record: “Grievance hearing unanimously denied by the Board” and “Personnel matter discussed, no action taken.” Recording resumes at 0:21:04. See flag 1, flag 7, flag 9. |
| 0:21:22 | III.2 Business Administration Update: 2021 Audit and Out-of-District Education Costs | Announced as “Business Administration update. Roughly 2021 audit and out of district education costs.” Discussion only. The out-of-district half took about eighteen minutes; the FY2021 audit was not discussed. See flag 2. |
| | III.3 Strategic Plan Update | Not reached. Minutes: “Agenda items moved forward to next meeting due to time”. |
| 0:39:31 | III.4 Teacher Appreciation Week Planning (Exhibit C) | Reduced to a date: “Teacher Appreciation Week is May 1st through fifth. Usually the first week in May.” Crawford offered to help. Planning and the $1,500 vote came on April 16. |
| | III.5 Subcommittee reports | Not reached. The agenda listed Capital Improvement, Finance (“Ms. Crawford to present meeting notes from meeting with Mr. Campo (Exhibit to be provided on the day of the meeting)”), Policy, Curriculum and SRVRTC. See flag 6. |
| 0:40:53 | VI. Other business | Hawkins: policies “coming in the next packet for the next meeting. People should please read through those.” Whitney asked members to send questions on agenda items to staff in advance. Pratt announced a two-hour delay at 0:41:10. |
| 0:39:59 | VII. Future dates and agenda items | Agenda: SAU 6 board 4/10/25; Claremont board 4/16/25 “*NHSAS results send specific questions generated by exhibit to Chelsea”. On the recording the chair previews the next meeting at 0:40:12: “Michelle Harrington [Herrington] is going to be there”. |
| | VIII. Adjournment | Minutes: “Consent adjournment 8:43pm”. Not on the recording. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction, and an ellipsis joins rows the diarizer split.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:20 | A $10,000 gift read into the record | The chair read the item in full: “the acceptance of a very generous donation from the Jack and Dorothy Burns [Byrnes] Foundation of $10,000 for the Stephens [Stevens] High School trip, and this trip is to launch in Woburn, Massachusetts, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, Boston, Boston Aquarium, and then on to a City Scapes Cruise.” Approved by consent thirty seconds later. The donor letter and trip itinerary are Exhibits A and B in the public packet. | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:31 | Tyson: a single source of truth for policy | The policy manual reaches the public through “a Google Drive HTML file that contains over 300 links to other Google Drive PDF files.” “Several of the links in that document are broken”; “As an aside, the entire site contains 14 broken links.” The purpose: “equitable access for all citizens of Claremont, including those who are neither employed by the SA nor have children enrolled in one of our schools.” He described the board’s three-month policy review as “a stretch goal, given the disparate sources you’ll need to consult and the fact that you are unpaid volunteers.” | |
| 0:04:15 | Tyson: eight policies, a glossary, RFC 2119 | “It took me approximately 45 seconds to identify the eight problematic policies.” A glossary with “a term, its definition as used in our policy documents, and optionally links to related terms.” At 0:04:45: “the adoption of what is affectionately known as IETF RFC 2119 or, in plain English, Key words to indicate requirements levels.” The transcript garbles his list of keywords (“must not require a child” for MUST NOT, REQUIRED). No board response. | |
| 0:06:09 | Rhines: the Adult Ed HiSET closure | “The closure of the Adult Ed high set [HiSET] program is a decision that I am deeply disappointed in this board for making. I paid close attention during budget season, and never once did I hear the adult Ed was on the chopping block”. On graduation: “getting rid of a program that directly helps that rate seems short sighted.” Her proposals: share it with the city, or “downsize but not eliminate the program”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:47 | Hemingway: signage, turnout, an apology | “Currently, the sign at CMS says March 11th. No school now is a voting day. No mention of voting day for school board of Budget.” At 0:09:08: “Voting turnout is poor for the school 15% this year and barely 9% last year.” He retracted a social-media comment: “I attacked the teachers and our record. I apologize for my comment.” On the March 19 meeting, at 0:10:38: “I would hope that those individuals would show the same commitment to come here and apologize for their actions to this board.” And “unity is separating from the system. I would hope that we look at the side to see where we can make cuts.” | |
| 0:11:17 | Crawford: the adult-education grant that lapsed | “I discovered a former business administrator chose not to renew the contract for Delta education, which we did not know. He did that, and we have to wait three years before we can renew the contract.” Sprague: “If you mean the grant application.” Crawford: Yes. Walsh at 0:12:31: “The grant has been gone for two years, and it has been non funded from a grant for two years.” The chair at 0:13:08: “We are having a finance meeting. So we’ll address this at the finance.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:26 | Student report | Spring sports under way; Music in the Parks on May 9 in Agawam; the senior play; a trunk-sale fundraiser on April 26; a new principal’s advisory committee (the transcript says “Doctor Hamilton”; the minutes say “Dr. Harrington”, the Stevens principal); a Puerto Rico trip leaving Easter morning; prom on May 10. | |
| 0:18:32 | Beauchaine: a student newspaper | “I transferred to Stephens [Stevens] this year. I’m a junior.” She was pointed to “Miss Walsh, who worked for the Eagle for coming years, 25, 25 years”. Motive: “I’m just really passionate about the community knowing about all of the things that are going on in Stevens”. | |
| 0:20:00 | The nonpublic motion | Sprague: “I’d like to make a motion to go to the non public under RSA 91-8 [91-A:3] colon, three comma Roman numeral two.” Whitney at 0:20:10: “And there’s multiple subsets in the agenda for those that are interested.” Sprague: “Okay. A yes.” Whitney at 0:20:17: “Right. A and then there’s one to see. I there’s multiple things that we’re going to be discussing. Unrelated items.” Roll call at 0:20:33. Coming out at 0:21:09: “We do need to do a roll call. Miss Cromer [Kronberg]?” | MEDIUM POSITIVE POSITIVE |
| 0:21:40 | Henry: the deficit | Across nine short rows: “So I’m going to start off … By saying … That, currently … According to our … Bottom line, that I … Have. About one … Point 4 million … In a deficit … For this year”. The approved minutes say “roughly at $1.5 million deficit”. At 0:21:53: “that has a lot to do with encumbrances as well” and “We’re about a million over in tuition and about 700,000 over in contracted services.” Offsetting: “We have about 300,000 sitting in, salaries because we didn’t hire.” Controls: “we have a freeze on all spending currently, unless it’s necessity”, and at 0:22:44, “I review every purchase order and discuss it with every person, even if it’s for pencils.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:23:13 | Special education and the fund balances | “Unfortunately, Special Ed is its own beast. We have to fund it.” “we got some really heavy hitters that are not cheap, $300,000 a year.” The only mention of the auditors, at 0:23:35: “I’m looking at fund balances from the past with the auditors to see where we’re at carrying forward. To see how that adds to or takes away from that 1.4 million.” At 0:24:23: “We’re not the only district in a deficit right now currently.” At 0:24:43: “But I don’t want panic. Let’s put it that way.” | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:24:56 | Crawford: “How did we get here?” | “Mary, it’s not unusual. It’s March to April. I’ve been on the board before, and I have seen there have been years that the freeze has hit in December.” “I really don’t care about next year’s students.” At 0:25:27: “I just want. How did we get here? Now.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:37 | McCosker: a $1 million request and the cancelled meetings | “Heather encouraged me to be totally honest and transparent.” “I was told that the previous director had asked for an extra million dollars because of projected out of district that was not included in the budget.” At 0:26:25: “We had that meeting in July, every subcommittee meeting from that point until we got to budget Committee got canceled. So we never dealt with that issue. I went through all the numbers. I looked through everything. The number was right. We were short 900,000 somewhere around there.” At 0:27:21: “I began July 1st.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:28:10 | Contracted services for unfilled posts | Crawford asked whether hard-to-fill positions were again being covered by contractors. McCosker, across split rows at 0:29:04: “Services 700 … Thousand had to fill positions through contracted services.” “I can’t tell you exactly how much more it would cost to plug someone in through contracted services versus our own hire. It is more.” On postings at 0:29:45: “Some of them have dropped off because of time limits and stuff like that. We’ve got to refresh stuff.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:30:04 | Sprague on placement quality | He had heard radio reporting on “a program in Brattleboro, called the Inspire School. We have the kids there.” McCosker: “I cannot answer that question.” Sprague at 0:30:20: Vermont found “they’re consistently overcharging districts”, with a rate “capped at 98,000”. At 0:31:35: “they may be getting worse services there than we would be giving them ourselves.” McCosker at 0:31:57: “Jessica McCloud, my assistant, spends a lot of time doing site visits, checking the quality of programs that our students are getting.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:32:51 | “There wasn’t a processes in place” | Sprague: “I worked in the public schools for almost 30 years and I have never, in my experience, seen anything resembling the amount of placements that exists.” Pratt at 0:33:23: “do we have processes in place? We do now. And I think that was part of the problem before”. At 0:33:42: “there was an uptick during Covid.” “There wasn’t a processes in place.” Sprague at 0:34:09: “It would be great to see for the board to to … See what those processes are.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:35:35 | Bringing students back | Pratt: “the reason behind starting the academy program is that right now we’re sending kids out that aren’t high level, they just struggling learners, and we send them out.” McCosker at 0:37:22: “I’m looking at three for next year coming back. That’s somewhere. Five one half $1 million.” (The figure is garbled; the minutes record only that “3 students are coming back next year and there are students aging out”.) At 0:37:35: “We brought kids back this year that have saved the district some big money.” Sprague at 0:38:04 recalled that when “Stephanie Hurst was still here” the board heard “the number one problem that we have in this district or had at that time is just tier one, just general instruction.” | |
| 0:39:12 | The agenda is cut for time | Whitney: “Given that we’re at quarter of nine. Is there any objection to us moving the remainder agenda items to the next agenda? I don’t think there’s anything critical on here.” Sprague: “We have to approve some money or something.” Whitney: “We already did that.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:39:45 | The MS-22, circulated before signing | Henry: “For the next meeting, I’ll be bringing forward the miss 22 [MS-22] for you to sign. But I will email it ahead of time so that you guys can look it over. It’s basically that you voted on your budget and so we can get that uploaded to the Drey [DRA].” | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid. 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.
MEDIUM The nonpublic motion named only the paragraph; the subparagraphs came afterward, and one of them matches nothing the minutes record
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to enter nonpublic session to “state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II”, with the vote by roll call. The motion at 0:20:00 named only paragraph II: “a motion to go to the non public under RSA 91-8 [91-A:3] colon, three comma Roman numeral two.” The subparagraphs were supplied in the exchange that followed: the chair said “there’s multiple subsets in the agenda for those that are interested”, the mover answered “Okay. A yes”, and the chair added “A and then there’s one to see.” The approved minutes record the motion as “under RSA 91-A:3, II (a (1, 2), c, i)”, and the agenda prints the text of (a), (c) and (i). Mitigation: the grounds were on the posted agenda and in the minutes, and roll calls were taken entering (0:20:33) and leaving (0:21:09). A second point: the nonpublic minutes describe only a grievance decision and a personnel matter. Neither is described as an emergency-functions matter under II(i). Paragraph I(c) confines the session to the matters in the motion; it does not forbid citing a ground that goes unused, but naming (i) tells the public an emergency-preparedness matter was on the table when the minutes record none.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(c), II(i) (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); approved 4.2.25 minutes, item III.1; nonpublic minutes of 4/2/25.
MEDIUM The FY2021 audit was on the agenda and was not discussed; it concerned a year that had closed almost four years earlier
Item III.2 was noticed as “Business Administration Update 2021 Audit and Out-of-District Education Costs” and announced that way at 0:21:22. The eighteen minutes that followed covered the deficit and out-of-district placements. The only reference to the audit was the business administrator’s aside at 0:23:35: “I’m looking at fund balances from the past with the auditors”. The approved minutes carry no audit content under the item, and the Finance Subcommittee report that would have carried Crawford’s notes of her meeting with the auditor was deferred. RSA 21-J:19 lets a school board hire an accountant “to conduct such an audit within one year after the close of the municipality’s fiscal year”; the section is permissive, so a late audit is a control weakness rather than a missed statutory deadline. FY2021 closed on June 30, 2021. Mitigation: at the April 16 meeting the approved minutes record that “Ms. Henry shared that she has reviewed and approved the FY21 audit report”, and Crawford reported on her meeting with the auditor. At the SAU 6 board eight days later the auditor called the same period “four years ago” (see the April 10, 2025 SAU 6 page).
Sources: RSA 21-J:19 (permissive; “may hire”; 2008, 174:1; text read 2026-09-25); approved 4.2.25 minutes, items III.2 and III.5(b); approved 4.16.25 minutes, Finance Subcommittee report.
OBSERVATION A seven-figure in-year deficit was reported orally, with no financial document in the packet, and the recording and the minutes give different figures
The business administrator reported “About one … Point 4 million … In a deficit … For this year” (0:21:46) and repeated “that 1.4 million” at 0:23:35. She attributed about $1 million to tuition and $700,000 to contracted services, offset by about $300,000 of unspent salary, and described a spending freeze with purchase-order review. The approved minutes record “roughly at $1.5 million deficit”. Neither figure is supported by a document: the packet holds the agenda, the March 19 draft minutes and Exhibits A to C (senior trip and teacher appreciation), and no budget-to-actual report. No verified rule requires a written in-year variance report. RSA 198:4-b, II governs year-end retained fund balance and is cited for context only. The record shows the figure being disclosed in public session, and the business administrator said she was reviewing prior fund balances with the auditors to see how they would affect it.
Sources: approved 4.2.25 minutes, item III.2; RSA 198:4-b, II (retained year-end fund balance; context only; 2020, 38:25); packet folder 18. CSB 4.2.25 (5 documents).
OBSERVATION A special-education shortfall of about $1 million traced to a request the board never took up
Asked “How did we get here?”, the Director of Student Services said the previous director had asked for about $1 million more for unbudgeted out-of-district placements, and that after the July subcommittee meeting “every subcommittee meeting from that point until we got to budget Committee got canceled. So we never dealt with that issue.” He put the gap at “900,000 somewhere around there” and noted he started July 1. Another $700,000 was running through contracted services for positions the district could not fill. Members asked about quality as well as cost: Sprague relayed Vermont’s finding that one placement program was “consistently overcharging districts”, and the superintendent said written placement processes now exist where “There wasn’t a processes in place” before. The board asked to see those processes. The account of cancelled meetings is the director’s own and is not documented here. No verified rule requires a board to act on a mid-year budget request. The district’s duty to provide special education, and the state’s share of high-cost placements above 3½ times the state average per-pupil cost, are why these costs cannot be deferred once incurred.
Sources: RSA ch. 186-C; RSA 186-C:18, III (special-education aid above 3½ times the state average; 2023, 79:141, 142, eff. July 1, 2023; context only); approved 4.2.25 minutes, item III.2.
OBSERVATION The adult-education HiSET program closed without residents hearing it discussed in budget season, after a grant a former administrator did not renew
A resident who follows the budget said she “never once” heard the program was at risk, and the program’s teacher said the grant had been gone for two years. A board member stated at 0:11:17 that “a former business administrator chose not to renew the contract for Delta education, which we did not know”, with a three-year wait before reapplying; this is her account, offered without a document, and the approved minutes record it as such. The chair referred the question to the Finance Subcommittee. No verified rule governs the renewal of an adult-education grant or requires notice that a specific program is being cut. Claremont votes its operating budget by official ballot under RSA 40:13, so individual programs are not separate warrant articles.
Sources: RSA 40:13 (official-ballot process; context only); approved 4.2.25 minutes, citizens’ comments.
OBSERVATION Half the agenda was deferred, including the exhibit promised on the auditor meeting
At 0:39:12 the chair moved the rest of the agenda to the next meeting, and the minutes record “Agenda items moved forward to next meeting due to time.” Deferred: the strategic plan update, teacher-appreciation planning (reduced to a date) and all five subcommittee reports. The Finance item carried the agenda’s only exhibit on the audit, “Ms. Crawford to present meeting notes from meeting with Mr. Campo (Exhibit to be provided on the day of the meeting)”; that exhibit is not in the packet folder. Deferring items for time is within the chair’s discretion. Mitigation: the April 16 approved minutes record the Finance report and that Crawford “shared minutes from that meeting to be included with the Board minutes”. RSA 91-A:4 governs access to records that exist; it does not require an exhibit to be produced.
Sources: RSA 91-A:4; packet folder 18. CSB 4.2.25; approved 4.16.25 minutes.
POSITIVE Complete nonpublic minutes, created the next morning, though filed under the wrong date
RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes to be kept and disclosed within 72 hours unless two-thirds of members present, by recorded vote taken in public session, find a statutory ground to withhold them. No sealing vote was taken. The district’s nonpublic form for this session, dated “4/2/25”, records the members present, the mover and seconder, the exemptions checked, the others present (the superintendent, the HR director, counsel, a union representative and the clerk), the decisions (“Grievance hearing unanimously denied by the Board”; “Personnel matter discussed, no action taken”), the recess and return with their times, and the reconvening at 8:20. Its Drive creation stamp is 10:18 a.m. on April 3, 2025, within the 72 hours; it now sits in the district’s Unsealed Minutes share, though the metadata does not show when it was placed there. The file is named “4.3.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed”. No April 3 meeting exists, and the date in the name kept this project’s map from matching the file to this meeting until this rebuild. A reader searching by meeting date would miss it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); 4.3.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed (Drive metadata read 2026-09-25).
POSITIVE The $10,000 senior-trip donation was noticed and minuted as the statute asks for a gift under $20,000
RSA 198:20-b, III(b) provides that for unanticipated funds under $20,000 the “school board shall post notice in agenda and include notice in meeting minutes.” The gift from the Jack & Dorothy Byrnes Foundation was item II.a.3 on the posted agenda with two exhibits, read aloud with donor, amount, purpose and itinerary at 0:01:20, and recorded with the same particulars in the approved minutes. Paragraph I conditions the board’s authority on a district article adopting the statute; this page has not verified Claremont’s article.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2023, 38:1, eff. July 18, 2023); Exhibit A- Donation Letter (1).pdf; Exhibit B- SHS Senior Trip (1).pdf.
POSITIVE The consultation with counsel was kept separate from the nonpublic session, with a motion and roll call at each change
RSA 91-A:2, I(b) excludes consultation with legal counsel from the definition of a meeting. The minutes record that “Heather Whitney made a motion to recess from non-public for the purpose of a non-meeting with attorney Matt Upton”, seconded, roll-called, recessed at 7:55 p.m., with a further motion and roll call to return to nonpublic session at 8:17 p.m. and a third to return to public session at 8:20 p.m. The nonpublic form records the same transitions. Keeping the two states distinct, with times, lets a reader see how the ninety minutes were divided even though none of it was recorded.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (2023, 188:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); approved 4.2.25 minutes, item III.1.
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.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (2023, 188:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(c), II(i), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:4
- School money and audits: RSA 198:20-b (2023, 38:1); RSA 198:4-b, II (2020, 38:25); RSA 21-J:19; RSA 40:13
- Special education: RSA ch. 186-C; RSA 186-C:18, III (2023, 79:141, 142)