SAU 6 Board, June 12, 2025

OBSERVATION A former board member was still the signer on the SAU account two years after leaving the board, and no one was signing checks

Reporting on the auditor's April advice, the chair said "we were told that it cannot be a member of the board who signs the checks. So we don't have anybody currently signing the check." (0:15:16). Candace Crawford, elected SAU treasurer on April 10, 2025, then reported that a former board member "was the signer on the account still", that "he was signing on the checks, and I was told as a board member I can't sign the check." and that "he hasn't been on the board for two years, and he's still his signature is what's on the checks and on the account, and that needs to be straightened out." (0:15:53). She added "But I haven't gotten any update." The chair asked for an update by September (0:16:29). The surname is transcribed by the ASR and is not confirmed by any document reviewed, so it is not printed here. The draft minutes reduce this to "Candace Crawford noted that the previous treasurer and the electronic signature is a former Board member" (minutes text).

RSA 194-C:5, I requires each SAU board to organize "by choosing a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer" (statute text). No verified statute or rule tells an SAU who may hold signature authority on its accounts, so this is an observation. What the record supports is narrower: on June 12, 2025 the signature on the SAU's checks and account belonged, by the treasurer's account, to a person who had left the board about two years earlier, and the board itself said no current signer existed. The same item records that Madden and Ruggeri had been approved to review manifests and vouchers and were still waiting for direction on how (0:16:52, 0:17:01).

The April 10, 2025 draft minutes, posted in this meeting's packet, set out what was intended: the auditor said "the treasurer should review the check register"; the business administrator said "whoever is on the account should be the electronic signature and the one to review the check register and it will be the treasurer"; and the board elected Crawford treasurer and named Ruggeri and Madden "to review and sign vouchers" (April 10 minutes text). Two months later the account had not been changed to match.

Sources: RSA 194-C:5, I (SAU board chooses a chairperson, secretary and treasurer); Draft minutes 6.12.25 (item 2); Draft minutes 4.10.25 (treasurer and voucher signers elected)

OBSERVATION The administration does not make the line-item transfers that policy DBJ contemplates, and the FY25 report shows large line overruns inside a positive bottom line

The agenda item was "Transfers/Encumbrances FY25 budget per policy DBJ" (agenda text). The superintendent: "we don't have any transfers from line item to line item." (0:02:21); "as of right now, Mary said, you haven't been transferred between line items." (0:02:46). Crawford advised against changing the policy and said a departure can be addressed in public, adding "we're not following this policy" (0:08:03, 0:08:20). Asked how purchase orders were coded in the past, Pratt said items had been coded to lines with money left; the chair: "That's inappropriate." (0:13:04, 0:13:49).

The packet's SAU6 Financials June 2025_0001.pdf shows estimated FY25 totals of $2,489,151.00 budgeted, $2,212,190.26 spent, $148,090.18 encumbered and $128,870.56 remaining (document text; the remainder checks). Several lines are well over budget, among them Superintendent's Office health insurance ($60,746.00 budgeted, $110,223.98 spent), Human Resources salaries ($140,369.60 against $157,585.74) and Business Office health insurance ($105,144.48 against $118,457.19). Policy DBJ itself was not in the packet and was not read for this page, so the page does not say what it requires; the observation is that the board heard its own policy described as not followed and left it in place.

Sources: SAU6 Financials June 2025_0001.pdf; SAU#6 School Board Agenda 6.12.25 (item III.1, policy DBJ)

OBSERVATION The chair described the SAU as "being dissolved" on July 1, 2026; the mechanism the record identifies is Unity's withdrawal

Setting the 2025-26 calendar, the chair said "We have a budget so we don't have to do any budget work because the saw is being dissolved as of July 1st of 26." (0:18:46), and the draft minutes repeat "since the SAU is dissolving" (minutes text). The withdrawal process for a member district is RSA 194-C:2, IV, and Unity is the district withdrawing: the April 10, 2025 draft minutes record that Unity's town vote to withdraw passed and give "Last day will be June 30, 2026 and first day of separation will be July 1, 2026" (April 10 minutes text). The Unity member's update describes an RFP for the services Unity will need (0:21:25, 0:21:53). Later district records state both readings, and this page does not decide whether the unit itself ends; it records what was said. The board agreed to meet in November, January and May on the second Thursday (0:21:06). A May meeting falls within the April 1 to June 1 window in which RSA 194-C:5, I requires an SAU board to meet and organize (statute text: "shall meet between April 1 and June 1 in each year").

Sources: RSA 194-C:2, IV (withdrawal from an SAU); Draft minutes 4.10.25 (Unity town vote and timeline); RSA 194-C:5, I (annual meeting between April 1 and June 1); Draft minutes 6.12.25 (Other Business)