Participants
Everyone in the record. Attendance, name spellings, movers and seconders follow the draft minutes. The dialogue file leaves most board voices Unidentified; a remark is credited to a named member here only where the minutes attribute that remark to that member.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Arlene Hawkins | SAU 6 Board Chair; Claremont School Board member | Presided; moved the reduction in force; gave the audit update; cited the unanticipated-funds statute and read Jeff Small’s statement on the cybersecurity grant. The clerk’s second roll call renders her Arlene. Hopkins. |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Vice Chair (Unity) | Present. Per the minutes, moved entry to and exit from nonpublic session, moved acceptance of the grant, and moved adjournment. The dialogue file does not name the voice that makes those motions. Roll call renders him Rocco and Jerry. |
| Darlene Ayotte | Board member (Unity) | Absent, per the minutes; the only member recorded absent. |
| Shannon Popescu | Board member (Unity) | Present; seconded adjournment per the minutes. |
| Atonya Hart | Board member (Unity) | Present; seconded both nonpublic motions per the minutes. Roll calls render her LaTonya. Hart, Hani hurt and Tanya. Hurt. |
| Kristel Davis | Board member (Unity) | Present per the minutes. Roll call renders her We're still Davis. |
| Candace Crawford | Board member; Claremont School Board member | Seconded the reduction in force and the grant motion; asked for a cost comparison of the consultants against the vacated positions; would not let the grant vote proceed until a person was named responsible for receipts and reimbursement; asked for the consultant fees to go into the minutes. Identified in the dialogue file with an “uncertain” tag, from the chair’s call of “Candice”; roll call renders her Darlene Crawford. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; Claremont School Board member | Per the minutes, asked about leaving the curriculum-director position vacant to protect it for the future, and stressed that the audit under discussion was the SAU’s. The recording carries both remarks in an Unidentified cluster (0:09:51, 0:12:37). Roll call renders him Michael petry. |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member; Claremont School Board member | Per the minutes, reported that he and Patrick O’Hearn are drafting the interim-superintendent search plan, and asked whether the award was a 100% grant. Both remarks sit in an Unidentified cluster (0:07:32, 0:15:19). |
| Heather Whitney | Board member; Claremont School Board Chair | Present. Per the minutes, requested the budget impact of the consultant line items; no attributed remark on the recording. |
| Loren Howard | Board member; Claremont School Board member | Present per the minutes; no attributed remark. Roll call renders him Lauren Howard. |
| Patrick O’Hearn | Temporary Acting Superintendent / Director of Human Resources, SAU 6 | Gave the staffing update: resignations of the director of student services and of the curriculum director, two consultants engaged, and a recommendation not to fill the curriculum post. Answered the reimbursement question; the minutes attribute the two-step reimbursement explanation to Mr. Koski, while the dialogue file gives it to O’Hearn (0:17:25). Addressed as Mr. Ahern. |
| Michael Koski | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Agreed the curriculum-director post was not needed now and confirmed his own role in curriculum work (“Not at this point. No.”). Rendered Mr. Kosky. |
| Noelle Kronberg | SAU 6 School Board Clerk | Called the attendance roll and both nonpublic roll-call votes; the minutes are “Respectfully submitted by Noelle Kronberg”. The chair addresses her as Mr. Holmberg; the dialogue file marks the identification uncertain. |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller, SAU 6 (per the agenda) | Not present. The chair: “Matt Angel is the person who gave this to me, and he was going to come tonight in order to present this.” Designated by the board to handle the grant’s receipts and reimbursements. The packet agreement’s signature block names him “Matthew Angell, Business Administrator”. |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Not present. Listed in the minutes as presenter of the grant item; his statement was read by the chair. |
Named but not present: Rick Elliot, the curriculum director whose “abrupt and immediate resignation” the minutes record (spelled Elliot there); Terry Gear, the special-education consultant O’Hearn named; Ken Weekes, the state chief information security officer named in Small’s statement. The minutes’ board roster still lists Frank Sprague, who is on neither roll call and whom the posted agenda omits. The agenda and minutes also list Chris Pratt as Superintendent and Mary Henry as Business Administrator; neither appears on the recording. No citizens spoke.
Agenda
Items as posted in “SAU6 School Board Agenda 9.4.25 (2).pdf”, which prints the text of RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and (c) under item III.1. Its sections run I, II, III, then “V. 8:30 PM Adjournment” with no IV; the minutes add “V. Other Business” for the meeting-dates discussion.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | I. Call to order & Pledge | “6:30PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance” (agenda). The chair: “I'd like to call the SO6 school board meeting of September 7th two.” The date is the transcript’s rendering; the agenda and minutes both read September 4. |
| 0:00:35 | II. Roll call | Minutes: present Crawford, Davis, Hart, Howard, Madden, Petrin, Popescu, Ruggeri, Whitney and Hawkins; absent Ayotte. |
| 0:00:51 | II. Agenda: amendments and final approval | “Are there any amendments to the agenda? Go to final approval.” No amendment, and no vote on the recording or in the minutes. |
| 0:01:00 | II. Minutes of 6/12, 8/21 and 8/26/2025 | A member: “I don't have the meeting minutes.” The chair: “they were sent electronically. There were no paper copies of the agenda of anything for tonight.” Minutes: “Postponed so members can review”. |
| 0:01:27 | II. Citizens’ comments | “Are there any citizens present for citizens? Comments. Seeing none, I'm going to close citizens comments.” Minutes: “none”. |
| 0:01:57 | III.1 Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II (a & c) | Motion as spoken: “I'll make a motion to move into nonpublic meeting session. Per RSA 91A32A and C.” Ruggeri moved and Hart seconded (minutes); roll call by the clerk, all present in favor; in at 6:34 p.m. Exit motion at 0:02:34, same mover and seconder, roll call, out at 7:58 p.m. Nothing reported out; no sealing vote. See flag 1 and flag 7. |
| 0:03:02 | III.2 Staffing update (O’Hearn) | Resignations of the director of student services and the curriculum director; a special-education consultant at “up to around ten hours a week” and a superintendent consultant at “about one day a week”. Rates not in hand; bios promised for the next meeting. |
| 0:07:12 | III.3 Interim superintendent search | The chair: “We really don't have anything to report at this point.” Madden (per the minutes) reported a draft plan and a first consultant contact; the plan is to be shared with the board. |
| 0:08:18 | III.4 Reduction in force (vote) | Hawkins moved to authorize “Mr.. And or Mr. Angel to eliminate that position consistent with what we heard tonight as a resignation”; Crawford seconded. Restated at 0:11:00 as a motion “to authorize administration to eliminate the position of curriculum director”. Voice vote at 0:11:21; no count announced; the minutes record all present in favor. |
| 0:11:28 | III.5 Audit update (Hawkins) | FY23 being finished; FY24 “could probably be done in November”; FY26 “in the fall of 26”. See flag 4. |
| 0:13:01 | III.6 Overwatch Foundation / CrowdStrike cybersecurity services (vote) | Chair read Jeff Small’s statement; motion “to accept the grant and authorize the administration to sign any and all documents related to this grant”, Ruggeri moving and Crawford seconding (minutes). Voice vote at 0:18:52; minutes record all present in favor. Value never stated. See flag 3. |
| 0:18:52 | Other business: meeting dates (not on the agenda) | “I believe the next item on the agenda is the meeting dates. I haven't seen this agenda before today.” Next regular meeting in November; the chair to call a special meeting when consultant information is ready. |
| 0:20:35 | V. Adjournment | Ruggeri moved, Popescu seconded (minutes); voice vote; adjourned 8:16 p.m. |
Discussion timeline
Times are recording times. Because the nonpublic session was cut from the recording, recording time runs about 1 hour 24 minutes behind the clock after 0:02:22.
Chronological topics with the leading material first. Hover or tab to a clipped entry for the full text.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:00 | Three sets of minutes held over | A member: “I didn't see him if they were sent electronically today.” The chair: “Accepting the minutes of June 12th, August 21st and August 26th of 2025 until our next meeting.” The June 12 minutes were then twelve weeks old and unapproved. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:27 | Into nonpublic session | The chair: “I would entertain a motion to go into nonpublic session under RSA 91-A colon, three comma two A and C.” Motion: “Per RSA 91A32A and C.” The clerk called the roll (0:02:08). The chair: “Our meeting will return after the public nonpublic session.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:34 | Out of nonpublic session, nothing reported | “Make a motion to come out of non public meeting for RSA 91 A, three two A and C.” Roll call at 0:02:48. The chair moved straight to the staffing item; no statement of what was discussed or decided, and no motion to seal. | MEDIUM |
| 0:03:08 | Central-office resignations; consultants engaged | O’Hearn: “We had a resignation from our director student services. We also this week had a abrupt resignation from our curriculum director. And as I advised at the Claremont School Board meeting yesterday, we have engaged some, consultants.” The special-education consultant is “working probably up to around ten hours a week”; the superintendent consultant gives “about one day a week of support right now.” | |
| 0:04:41 | Curriculum post: no need to fill | O’Hearn: “I don't think there's an immediate need to fill that position, especially given the, financial distress of the district and our priorities.” | |
| 0:04:59 | What do the consultants cost? | The chair: “How are these folks being compensated?” O’Hearn: hourly for both, “And then if he does full day projects, there's like a per diem rate as well, which I can provide to the board.” Asked for the figure: “I don't have it.” Then (0:05:38): “And roughly 150.” / “An hour.” The chair at once: “115 an hour.” The minutes carry neither number. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:40 | Qualifications to be published | The chair: “the other thing we heard loud and clear from the public and the community was to have the qualifications of consultants made available.” O’Hearn: “So I can prepare for the next six board meeting. Little bio blurb certifications.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:02 | Are the consultants cheaper than the vacancies? | Crawford: “With the abrupt resignation of the just cost analysis of how many hours we would be budget. Yeah. Budget negative instead of budget positive with.” O’Hearn (0:06:44): “Oh so compare the Sped vacancy director vacancy with the costs of.” / “Contracts.” No comparison was produced at this meeting. | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:32 | Interim superintendent search: a draft plan | A member the minutes identify as Madden: “we roughed out a draft of a plan. I've also been in touch with one consultant.” Then (0:08:00): “We mapped out a plan, a rough time table, what we're looking for.” The chair: “And that will be presented to the board.” | |
| 0:08:18 | Motion to eliminate the curriculum-director position | The chair: “since the person who was in the curriculum director's position has resigned, that opens up that position.” A member asked (0:08:52): “What's what would be the difference between just not filling the position or cutting your cutting?” O’Hearn (0:09:07): “So materially if you cut it you didn't have to build it back into the budget next year.” | |
| 0:09:51 | Unity’s exit is already shaping staffing | A member (the minutes attribute the vacancy question to Petrin): “We know that, Mr. Kosky [Koski], the unity is leaving the saw [SAU]. And your plan was to leave at the end of the year.” The chair (0:10:18): “with Unity and Claremont being the only one, is we may have to reconfigure what a position would look like.” And (0:10:48): “To come before the board in order to reinstate it. And it may look different.” | |
| 0:11:21 | The RIF vote | “All those in favor opposed? Abstentions.” No tally announced; the minutes record a unanimous voice vote. | |
| 0:11:28 | SAU audits: FY23 still open | The chair: “I spoke with the audit firm and they are finishing FY23. At this point, it looks like there's a very small fund balance about two. This is at the sea [SAU] level for $200,000, but all the checks haven't been balanced yet.” FY24 (0:11:56) “could probably be done in November”; FY26 “in the fall of 26”, which (0:12:14) “will be after the saw [SAU] has been dissolved as it stands now.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:37 | Not Claremont’s audit | A member the minutes identify as Petrin: “I just want to repeat to make it very clear this is not the Claremont audits.” … “This is an SO6 audit, which is the Sussex [SAU's] budget, which is a very relatively small budget of C [SAU] employees.” The chair: “It's superintendent services at the sea [SAU] level.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:13:20 | The statute the chair cited | “There is an RSA for unanticipated funds. It's RSA 198 colon 20 dash. Be that any grant has to be presented to the board to authorize the spending of the money that the grant brings into the district.” That is RSA 198:20-b, a school-district statute; see flag 3. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:40 | What the award is | Reading Small’s statement: “There is a grant called To Cybersecurity in a box, which is a grant through the state Local Cybersecurity Grant program run by the State of New Hampshire Department of IT, in partnership with the Overwatch Foundation.” Phase one (0:14:09) is “CrowdStrike Falcon Complete managed EDR with continuous real time threat monitoring, detection and response. It's funded for three years.” Then a firewall, and (0:14:36) migration to “a New Hampshire gov email”. The chair (0:15:00): “So that's the proposal. There's no cost.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:15:29 | Who submits the receipts? | Crawford: “who is going to be responsible for submitting the receipts for reimbursement of this grant?” Put again at 0:16:26, 0:16:43 and 0:16:58. O’Hearn (0:16:12): “So there's a state grant system, and it would go in there just like title grants and the idea grant and all those others.” | |
| 0:17:06 | A reimbursement grant in a cash-flow crisis | Crawford: “we have to disperse the funds first. Correct. And if we have a cash flow problem right now.” … “You have to spend the money first and submit the receipts.” … “And we don't know how much the grants for.” O’Hearn (0:17:25): “it's a two step process. Whoever's managing the grant submits it for reimbursement. But then that runs through the business office”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:17:41 | A name for accountability | Crawford: “I don't care who it is. I just want a physician [position] who is responsible.” O’Hearn: “I would say business administrator would be responsible for.” Minutes: “It was discussed and decided that Matt Angell would be in charge of the receipts and reimbursements”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:08 | Deadline in the document | A member: “October 10th. Does that like does that mean the actual, like, grant submission”. The chair: “What this says is that he's applied for the grant and has been accepted.” | |
| 0:18:52 | Grant vote; the chair on the agenda | “So all in favor? Opposed? Abstentions. Okay.” No tally announced. Then: “I haven't seen this agenda before today.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:44 | Consultant fees into the minutes? | Crawford: “Is it possible for us to amend the minutes to put in the consultant fees?” Not answered; the chair returned to scheduling. The chair (0:20:10): “I think anything that pertains to the say [SAU] that would involve Unity's decision should be a meeting.” | OBSERVATION |
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 and the law in force on September 4, 2025; an Observation rests on no confirmed rule.
MEDIUM An 84-minute nonpublic session with no sealing vote on record and no nonpublic minutes located
The board was in nonpublic session from 6:34 to 7:58 p.m., most of a meeting that ran from about 6:32 to 8:16. RSA 91-A:3, III requires minutes of a nonpublic session to be kept and made public within 72 hours unless two-thirds of the members present vote, in public session, to withhold them on one of the statutory findings. Neither the recording (the exit motion at 0:02:34 follows directly on the entry roll call) nor the minutes show a vote to seal or any finding, and no nonpublic minutes were found in a two-stage search: the meeting’s own folder 9. SAU6 9.4.25, the later SAU 6 folders listed in MAP.md (September 11, October 6 and November 13, 2025; April 9 and May 28, 2026), and a full-text Drive search. Under the user’s severity rule this is the mitigated limb: the meeting was noticed and packeted, the public minutes exist, and only the nonpublic minutes are missing. A posted-share search also cannot show whether minutes exist at the SAU office for inspection under RSA 91-A:4.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (nonpublic minutes public within 72 hours unless withheld by a recorded 2/3 vote in public session; 2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; read 2026-09-25); RSA 91-A:4; draft minutes.
MEDIUM The draft minutes do not record when the meeting started
From August 22, 2025, RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include “the start time and end time of the meeting, and name of the person who produced the minutes.” The draft minutes give the end time (8:16 p.m.) and the producer (Noelle Kronberg), but for the start they reproduce only the agenda’s printed times, “6:00 PM” on the cover and “6:30PM Call to Order” in the body. The recording and the minuted 6:34 p.m. nonpublic entry place the actual call to order at about 6:32. Mitigation: the minutes name every mover and seconder, record both roll calls, and a copy was in the public share on the fifth business day.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; read 2026-09-25); 11. DRAFT SAU6 Meeting Minutes 9.4.25.
OBSERVATION The board debated reimbursement for an award its own packet describes as state-paid services, and accepted it without knowing its value or the cost that follows the third year
The board voted to accept the award and authorize administration “to sign any and all documents related to this grant” while Crawford noted “we don't know how much the grants for” (0:17:23), and it spent most of the item deciding who would submit receipts for reimbursement. The packet agreement describes something different. Its section 2 says “The State Contract will provide all compensation for the Services during the Term of this Agreement”, and the Overwatch Foundation delivers the services under its DoIT 2024-014 contract with the State. Third-party licenses are Overwatch’s cost “for the Term of this Agreement, after which point such responsibility transfers to Municipality”, and the configuration exhibits leave blank the line “Estimated yearly ongoing cost to Municipality for licenses”. The chair’s “There's no cost” (0:15:00) holds for the three-year term on the document’s own terms; after it, the license cost is the SAU’s and was not estimated. The statute the chair cited, RSA 198:20-b, lets a school board accept unanticipated money during the year where the district meeting has adopted an enabling article, with a public hearing at $20,000 or more. It is written for school districts and does not name school administrative units, and this award brings services rather than money, so this page does not treat it as the governing rule. The agreement names “Matthew Angell, Business Administrator” as the SAU’s signatory, while the agenda lists him as Senior Comptroller and Mary Henry as Business Administrator. Mitigation: the board fixed responsibility on a named official before voting.
Sources: SAU 6 CrowdStrike … Agreement (1) (1).pdf, sections 1–3 and the configuration exhibits; RSA 198:20-b (school districts; 2023, 38:1, eff. July 18, 2023; read 2026-09-25); draft minutes.
OBSERVATION The SAU’s own audits run two years behind, at a time when no statute required an SAU audit
The chair reported FY23 still being finished in September 2025, FY24 “could probably be done in November”, and FY26 “in the fall of 26” (0:11:56). On September 4, 2025 no New Hampshire statute located by this project required a school administrative unit to be audited: RSA 21-J:19 permits towns, school districts and village districts to hire auditors and does not name SAUs, and RSA 194-C:4, II(a) lists “audits” among the services an SAU provides to its districts. That changed after this meeting. 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026, reenacted RSA 198:4-d so that school administrative units “shall be audited by an independent public accountant” (¶VI), with the report for the last completed fiscal year due “within 9 months of the end of the fiscal year” (¶VIII), which puts the FY26 report at March 31, 2027. The fall-2026 target the chair reported would meet that deadline. The chair and the minutes describe the SAU as “dissolved” after FY26; the mechanism in the record is Unity’s withdrawal under RSA 194-C:2, IV, and later SAU 6 records show the unit continuing with Claremont alone. Petrin’s point that this is the SAU’s audit and not Claremont’s is correct.
Sources: RSA 21-J:19; RSA 194-C:4, II(a); 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026, RSA 198:4-d, VI and VIII; RSA 194-C:2, IV.
OBSERVATION Consultant pay was not known, was stated two ways, and did not reach the minutes
Asked what the two newly engaged consultants are paid, the acting superintendent said “I don't have it” (0:05:35), then “And roughly 150.” / “An hour.”, which the chair restated as “115 an hour” (0:05:40). The two figures cannot both be right, and the transcript cannot settle which was said. The minutes record only that O’Hearn “will provide financial and a bio information for the next meeting”; Crawford’s request to put the fees in the minutes (0:19:44) was not taken up. No consultant agreement is in the two-document packet. No verified rule requires a rate to be stated at the meeting, so this is recorded as a gap in the public record.
Sources: draft minutes; packet folder 9. SAU6 9.4.25.
OBSERVATION Members received the minutes and agenda electronically the same day, and the chair had not seen the agenda
Minutes of June 12, August 21 and August 26 were postponed because members had not reviewed them: “they were sent electronically. There were no paper copies of the agenda of anything for tonight” (0:01:07). Of the agenda the chair said “I haven't seen this agenda before today” (0:18:52). In the district’s public share, the packet folder and both of its files carry a Drive creation date of September 11, 2025, a week after the meeting; that dates the share copies and does not show when the notice was posted. RSA 91-A:2, II sets no deadline for a board to approve minutes, and drafts of all three meetings were later filed in the SAU 6 folders.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; Drive metadata for folder 9. SAU6 9.4.25 (read 2026-09-25).
POSITIVE The nonpublic motions met RSA 91-A:3, I(b), and the agenda printed the exemptions in full
Both motions named the exemption on their face (“Per RSA 91A32A and C” at 0:01:57; “for RSA 91 A, three two A and C” at 0:02:34), and both were decided by a roll call the clerk took in public (0:02:08, 0:02:48), as ¶I(b) requires. The agenda printed the text of subparagraphs (a) and (c) under the item, so the public could see the grounds in advance. Both decisions of the evening were moved, debated and voted in open session after the board returned.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(c); SAU6 School Board Agenda 9.4.25 (2).pdf.
POSITIVE Members pressed for costs, accountability and published qualifications
Crawford asked for the consultants to be costed against the vacated salary lines (0:06:02) and would not let the grant vote proceed until a responsible official was named (0:17:41); the minutes record Angell’s designation. The chair asked that consultant qualifications be made public (0:05:40). Petrin made sure viewers did not confuse the SAU audit with Claremont’s (0:12:37). None of this is required by statute.
Sources: the recording at the times shown; draft minutes.
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/16820 SAU6-090425.mp4.CSV (195 rows)Input/Videos/16820 SAU6-090425.mp4Input/Transcripts/16820 SAU6-090425.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 95
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(c), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:4
- School money and audits: RSA 198:20-b (2023, 38:1); RSA 21-J:19
- School administrative units: RSA 194-C:2, IV; RSA 194-C:4, II(a)
- Session law: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026 (RSA 198:4-d, VI and VIII); postdates this meeting and is cited for what followed