Meeting of the joint SAU 6 board (Claremont and Unity) nine days after it placed the superintendent on paid leave. The board went into an 84-minute nonpublic session on personnel and reputation grounds, then heard a staffing update from the temporary acting superintendent, voted unanimously to eliminate the vacant curriculum director position, heard an SAU audit update, and accepted a state-funded cybersecurity grant. The page is built from the CCTV recording's dialogue transcript, the agenda, the grant agreement and the draft minutes. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 Board (joint board of the Claremont and Unity school boards)
Date
Thursday, September 4, 2025 (the chair's opening date is garbled in the transcript)
Start time
The agenda gives both "6:30PM Call to Order" and a "6:00 - 8:00 PM" heading (agenda text); the draft minutes are headed 6:00 PM. The chair calls the meeting to order at 0:00:02. The minutes record the nonpublic session from 6:34 p.m. to 7:58 p.m. and adjournment at 8:16 p.m. The recording shows the board leaving public session at 0:02:22 and returning at 0:02:33, eleven seconds of tape for 84 minutes of meeting; counting the 2:22 of tape before the session back from 6:34 p.m. places the call to order at about 6:32 p.m., and the 18:07 of tape after it forward from 7:58 p.m. gives 8:16 p.m., matching the minutes.
Location
Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont (agenda masthead and minutes); the agenda's second page names the Goodrich Community Room. Audio carried on CCTV Channel 8.
Recording
Cablecast: SAU 6 Board Meeting - 9/4/25 (show 16820; public session only; the Cablecast API refuses this environment, so the extent is taken from the last dialogue row, which ends at 0:20:41)
Minutes
Draft only, in two copies, both first posted November 12, 2025: 11. DRAFT SAU6 Meeting Minutes 9.4.25 (Google Doc, filed in the 10. SAU6 9.11.25 packet folder) and DRAFT SAU6 Meeting Minutes 9.4.25.pdf (filed in the 12. SAU6 11.13.25 packet folder). Submitted by Noelle Kronberg, SAU6 Board Clerk. No nonpublic-session minutes were located; see flag 1.
Board composition
The agenda lists eleven members: Arlene Hawkins (chair), Rocco Ruggeri (vice chair), Darlene Ayotte, Shannon Popescu, Atonya Hart and Kristel Davis (Unity side, per the project's roster notes for Ruggeri, Ayotte, Popescu and Hart), and Candace Crawford, Michael Petrin, Heather Whitney, William Madden and Loren Howard (Claremont). The minutes' masthead still lists Frank Sprague, whose resignation from the Claremont board was announced the night before. Present per the minutes: ten; absent: Darlene Ayotte.
Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording, plus members recorded absent. Spellings follow the agenda and draft minutes. Where the minutes credit a remark to a member whom the dialogue file leaves unidentified or labels differently, the row says so. Unidentified voices stay unidentified.
Name
Role
Participation
Arlene Hawkins
Chair (Claremont)
Presides. Notes "There were no paper copies of the agenda of anything for tonight" (0:01:07) and postpones the minutes (0:01:27). Calls for the nonpublic motion (0:01:27). Moves to eliminate the curriculum director position (0:08:18). Gives the SAU audit update (0:11:28). Reads the technology director's grant statement (0:13:40). "I haven't seen this agenda before today." (0:18:52).
Rocco Ruggeri
Vice chair (Unity)
Per the minutes, moves to enter and leave nonpublic session, to accept the cybersecurity grant, and to adjourn. The movers are not identified in the dialogue file (0:01:57, 0:02:33, 0:15:15).
Atonya Hart
Member (Unity)
Seconds both nonpublic motions per the minutes. Votes in both roll calls (0:02:08, 0:02:48).
Shannon Popescu
Member (Unity)
Seconds adjournment per the minutes. Votes in both roll calls.
Kristel Davis
Member (Unity)
Votes in both roll calls (transcript: Davis, 0:02:08). No other attributed speech.
Darlene Ayotte
Member (Unity)
Absent (minutes).
Candace Crawford
Member (Claremont)
Seconds the position motion (0:08:47) and the grant motion (0:15:29). Asks who will be responsible for submitting the grant's receipts: "I just want a physician [position] who is responsible." (0:17:41). The dialogue file also gives her the request at 0:05:58 for a cost comparison of consultants against the vacant director salaries, which the minutes attribute to Heather Whitney.
Michael Petrin
Member (Claremont)
Per the minutes, asks whether the position could be left vacant rather than cut (0:08:52) and stresses that the audit is the SAU's, not Claremont's (0:12:37); the dialogue file leaves both unidentified.
Heather Whitney
Member (Claremont)
Per the minutes, requests the budget impact of the consultants; see Crawford's row. Votes in both roll calls.
William Madden
Member (Claremont)
Per the minutes, reports that he and O'Hearn drafted a plan for the interim superintendent search (0:07:32) and asks whether the grant is 100% funded (0:15:19); the dialogue file leaves both unidentified.
Loren Howard
Member (Claremont)
Votes in both roll calls. No other attributed speech.
Temporary Acting Superintendent / HR Director (agenda)
Reports the resignations of the student-services director and, "this week", the curriculum director (0:03:08); a special-education consultant at "up to around ten hours a week" (0:03:39) and a superintendent consultant about one day a week (0:03:39). On the curriculum director post: "I don't think there's an immediate need to fill that position" (0:04:41). Consultant rate: "And roughly 150." then An hour. (0:05:38). Explains grant reimbursement (0:17:25; the minutes attribute this to Mr. Koski).
Mike Koski
Assistant Superintendent
Agrees the curriculum director position is not needed this year (0:09:29, 0:09:40).
Rick Elliot
Curriculum director (resigned)
Not present. Named in the minutes as having resigned "abrupt and immediate" (minutes text).
Matt Angell
Business Administrator
Not present; the chair says he "was going to come tonight" to present the grant (0:17:50). Named in the minutes as responsible for the grant's receipts.
Jeff Small
Director of Technology
Not present; his written statement on the grant is read by the chair (0:13:40).
Agenda
The agenda as posted to the packet folder (SAU6 School Board Agenda 9.4.25 (2).pdf, uploaded September 11, 2025, a week after the meeting), with dispositions from the recording and the draft minutes.
II. General business: roll call; agenda amendments and final approval; minutes of 6/12/2025, 8/21/2025 and 8/26/2025; citizens' comments
Roll call (0:00:35); ten present, Ayotte absent (minutes). No agenda amendment is heard. Minutes postponed because members had not seen them: "they were sent electronically. There were no paper copies of the agenda of anything for tonight." (0:01:07, 0:01:27). Citizens' comments: "Seeing none" (0:01:27).
The agenda prints the text of both exemptions. Motion "to move into nonpublic meeting session. Per RSA 91A32A and C." (0:01:57; Ruggeri, Hart second, per the minutes); roll call, all yes (0:02:08); in at 6:34 p.m. Motion to come out (0:02:33); roll call, all yes (0:02:48); out at 7:58 p.m. No decision is announced on return and no vote to seal is heard or minuted. See flag 1.
Hawkins moves to authorize O'Hearn and/or Angell to eliminate the curriculum director position; Crawford seconds (0:08:47). Discussion of cutting versus leaving it vacant. Voice vote at 0:11:21; unanimous per the minutes.
III.6 The Overwatch Foundation CrowdStrike municipal cybersecurity and cyber defense services (discussion/vote)
The chair reads Jeff Small's statement. Motion "to accept the grant and authorize the administration to sign any and all documents related to this grant" (chair, 0:15:00); moved (0:15:15; Ruggeri per the minutes), seconded by Crawford (0:15:29). Voice vote at 0:18:52; unanimous per the minutes. See flag 4.
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." The June 12, August 21 and August 26 minutes are put off to the next meeting (0:01:27).
The chair asks for a motion "to go into nonpublic session under RSA 91-A colon, three comma two A and C." Roll call (0:02:08); "Our meeting will return after the public nonpublic session." (0:02:22). On tape the return follows eleven seconds later (0:02:33); the minutes put it 84 minutes later.
O'Hearn: the director of student services resigned, and "this week had a abrupt resignation from our curriculum director." A special-education consultant works "up to around ten hours a week" (0:03:39); a superintendent consultant "about one day a week" (0:03:39). Rates: O'Hearn, "And roughly 150." then An hour.; the chair repeats "115 an hour" (0:05:38, 0:05:40). Bios and qualifications promised for the next meeting (0:05:49).
A member (Crawford in the dialogue file, Whitney in the minutes) asks for a comparison of consultant costs with the budgeted salary and benefits of the vacant positions "so if we know we're ahead or behind" (0:06:49).
The chair: "We really don't have anything to report at this point." A member (Madden per the minutes): "we roughed out a draft of a plan" and has spoken with one consultant (0:07:32).
Hawkins moves to authorize O'Hearn "And or Mr. Angel to eliminate that position consistent with what we heard tonight as a resignation." A member asks the difference between cutting and leaving vacant (0:08:52); O'Hearn: "if you cut it you didn't have to build it back into the budget next year." (0:09:07). A member notes Unity is leaving and the assistant superintendent plans to leave at year's end (0:09:51); the chair: the role "may look different" and would have to come back to the board (0:10:48). Voice vote (0:11:21).
The chair: the auditors are "finishing FY23", with "a very small fund balance" at the SAU level; FY2024 "could probably be done in November"; the last audit would come "after the saw has been dissolved as it stands now" (0:12:14). A member: "this is not the Claremont audits." (0:12:37). On the chair's word: what the record supports is Unity's withdrawal from SAU 6 under RSA 194-C:2, IV, not a dissolution of the unit; the project's notes record the SAU 6 chair correcting the same word on tape in April 2026.
The chair cites "RSA 198 colon 20 dash. Be" for presenting grants to the board (0:13:20) and reads Small's statement: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete endpoint monitoring "funded for three years", then a firewall, then migration to a New Hampshire .gov email (0:14:09, 0:14:36). "There's no cost." (0:15:00). A member asks whether it is a 100% grant (0:15:19); Crawford asks who will submit receipts for reimbursement (0:15:29, 0:17:06); O'Hearn: the business administrator (0:17:46). Vote at 0:18:52.
The chair: "I haven't seen this agenda before today." Next meeting in November; Crawford asks to have the consultant fees put in the minutes (0:19:44); a special meeting will be called when there is information (0:20:10).
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 September 4, 2025, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH No minutes of the 84-minute nonpublic session were located, and no vote to seal them was taken in public session
RSA 91-A:3, III requires that "Minutes and decisions reached in nonpublic session shall be publicly disclosed within 72 hours of the meeting, unless, by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session" (statute text), the body finds that disclosure would harm one of the interests the paragraph lists. The board's own policy BBBH-S, §I.5.f, says SAU minutes "shall be prepared and disclosed or sealed in accordance with RSA 91-A:2, II & III, and 91-A:3, III" (policy text). The board met in nonpublic session from 6:34 to 7:58 p.m. on employee and reputation grounds (0:01:27 to 0:02:33), nine days after the SAU 6 board placed the superintendent on paid leave. On return no decision was announced and no vote to seal was taken: the recording moves straight to the staffing update (0:03:02), and the public minutes record none. Because a sealing vote must be taken in public session, the nonpublic minutes were due to be public by September 7, 2025. A two-stage search found none: the meeting's own packet folder holds the agenda and the grant agreement; MAP.md's inventories of every later SAU 6 packet folder through May 2026 list none; and the Meeting Minutes share's 2025 Non-Public folder holds no SAU 6 file (the share has never held one). Graded HIGH under the project's rule for an unmitigated absence: nothing on the record explains it. The negative is "not found", not "does not exist"; the grade should fall if the district produces nonpublic minutes or a recorded public sealing vote.
MEDIUM The public minutes reached the district's share 69 days after the meeting, and omit the time the meeting was called to order
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (statute text), which for a Thursday meeting is the following Thursday, September 11, 2025. Both copies of the draft were created in the SAU 6 packet share on November 12, 2025 (Drive creation times 3:16 and 3:17 p.m. Eastern), one in the 10. SAU6 9.11.25 folder, which itself was created on September 11. Since August 22, 2025, the same paragraph has also required "the start time and end time of the meeting, and name of the person who produced the minutes" (statute text). The draft gives the end time (8:16 p.m.) and its author, but its only start time is the 6:00 PM in its heading, which conflicts with the agenda's 6:30 call to order; the arithmetic in the facts panel puts the actual call to order at about 6:32 p.m. The same meeting postponed approval of the June 12 minutes, by then twelve weeks old, because members had not received them (0:01:07). Mitigation: the statute requires that minutes be open to inspection, not posted online, so a Drive date proves when the public could see them online, not when they first existed; nothing in the record shows whether they were available at the SAU office sooner.
OBSERVATION The agenda reached the public packet share a week after the meeting, gives two start times and two rooms, and was new to the chair that day
The packet folder 9. SAU6 9.4.25 was created on September 11, 2025, and the agenda and grant agreement were uploaded into it that morning (Drive creation times), a week after the meeting. The statutory notice under RSA 91-A:2, II may have been posted elsewhere, which this page cannot check, so no notice defect is asserted. The agenda itself prints "6:30PM Call to Order" beneath a "6:00 - 8:00 PM" heading, and names the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center on its first page and the Goodrich Community Room on its second (agenda text). At the meeting the chair said "There were no paper copies of the agenda of anything for tonight" (0:01:07) and, of the meeting-dates item, "I haven't seen this agenda before today." (0:18:52). Policy BBBH-S, §I.5.c, calls for an agenda to be prepared "for each Board member prior to the meeting" (policy text); an agenda the chair first saw that day meets the letter of that sentence but not its evident purpose.
OBSERVATION The board accepted a grant whose value it did not know and authorized signing an agreement with a blank license-cost line and a $1,000,000 indemnity cap
The motion authorized the administration "to sign any and all documents related to this grant" (0:15:00). The chair described it as costing nothing (0:15:00), and the minutes record that "It is unknown how much the grant is for" (minutes text). The agreement in the packet (posted a week after the vote; flag 3) runs three years from its effective date, carries readiness-audit forms with a line for "Estimated yearly ongoing cost to Municipality for licenses" left blank, and in its CrowdStrike acknowledgement provides that the end user's "defense and indemnification of Overwatch shall not exceed $1,000,000 in total" (agreement text). None of this was discussed. The chair cited RSA 198:20-b as the reason grants come to the board (0:13:20). That statute is written for school districts: its ¶I lets "any school district at an annual meeting" authorize its school board to accept unanticipated money (statute text). Whether and how it reaches an SAU board was not explained. The grant is state-administered and the services are delivered in kind, so the immediate cash risk Crawford raised about reimbursement (0:17:06) may not arise; the cost after year three is the open question.
OBSERVATION Consultants were engaged and a position eliminated without a cost figure before the board
O'Hearn reported two consultants already engaged (0:03:39). Asked their rate, he said he did not have it, then "roughly 150" an hour; the chair repeated "115 an hour" (0:05:38, 0:05:40). No contract or rate sheet is in the packet; the minutes defer "financial and a bio information" to the next meeting (minutes text), which by the board's own schedule would be November. Members asked for a comparison against the vacant directors' budgeted salaries (0:05:58). The curriculum director position was then eliminated with no dollar figure stated for its savings (0:08:18 to 0:11:21). RSA 194-C:5 makes salaries of SAU personnel a matter for the SAU board, which is the authority members were exercising; the observation is about the information before them, not their power to act.
POSITIVE The nonpublic session was entered and left by the book, and the minutes' clock times reconcile with the recording
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires a motion stating the specific exemption and a roll-call vote. The agenda printed the full text of II(a) and II(c) in advance; the motion named both (0:01:57); the clerk took a roll call going in (0:02:08) and coming out (0:02:48); and the minutes record the mover, seconder and both clock times. Those times fit the recording exactly: 2:22 of tape before the session and 18:07 after it, around 84 minutes of excised nonpublic time, give a call to order at about 6:32 p.m. and adjournment at 8:16 p.m., the minuted time. Read with flag 1 on the nonpublic minutes themselves.
Nonpublic-session minutes: not found (two-stage search, 2026-10-03: this meeting's folder; MAP.md inventories of the later SAU 6 folders 10. SAU6 9.11.25, 11. SAU6 10.6.25, 12. SAU6 11.13.25 and the 2026 folders; the Meeting Minutes share's 2025 Non-Public folder).