Participants
Everyone heard on the recording. Names and titles follow the 12/3/25 agenda masthead. No member of the public is heard.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Candace Crawford | Board member; Finance Subcommittee chair (presiding) | Opening statement on why last year's budget cannot serve as a reference (0:01:04); sets out three models and the budget calendar (0:05:32, 0:07:04); questions Angell on reliability of the enrollment projection, payroll and health insurance; says public input belongs at board meetings (0:05:02, 0:06:36); adjourns (1:14:56). |
| Heather Whitney | Board chair; Finance Subcommittee member | Recalls the 2020 reconfiguration attempt and the community's busing and pick-up objections (0:17:58); asks for preschool space in every model (0:30:43); questions the health-insurance data errors (0:35:53); asks whether a three-school model is feasible next fall, about capacity, mentors, sports and busing (0:54:18, 1:00:11, 1:04:11, 1:06:42). The dialogue file marks her identification as uncertain but consistent throughout. |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presents NESDEC projections (0:09:14), payroll for the four-school model (0:26:00), health-insurance rates and data problems (0:23:58, 0:42:31), the FY26 budget's treatment of vacant positions (0:36:52), his reading of the default-budget rules (0:59:15), and plans for a busing bid and a fire-safety capacity study (0:55:17, 1:07:34). |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Cautions that schools exiting improvement status are not yet proficient (0:22:23); describes a pre-K placeholder classroom in the models (0:31:03); says central-office staff is down by more than half (0:50:52); mentor training (1:01:01); will contact the Newport superintendent (1:12:01). |
| Unidentified | Diarizer artifact | 104 short fragments (mostly Okay, Right, Yeah) that the diarizer split off from the four participants; the dialogue file's role note says they are not a distinct person. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this session was found. The item list is reconstructed from the presiding member's transitions. The only documents announcing the session are the 12/3/25 board agenda (future dates) and the 11/12/25 Finance Subcommittee minutes, which say the goal was "to have a budget ready to be presented to the full Board on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025".
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:05 | Opening statement (Crawford) | Why the FY26 budget and year-to-date spending cannot be the reference; three priorities; three models; no decisions today. |
| 0:08:00 | Enrollment projections (NESDEC) | Report and discussion. |
| 0:23:26 | Payroll and health insurance, four-school model | Report and discussion; health-insurance estimate unfinished. |
| 0:30:43 | Preschool space in the models | Discussion. |
| 0:32:46 | SAU 6 costs after July 1 | Discussion; analysis not yet done. |
| 0:43:34 | Vacant positions; three-school model | Discussion; three-school details deferred to Friday's session. |
| 0:51:14 | Data quality and central-office staffing | Discussion. |
| 0:53:19 | Preparation for Friday: default budget, capacity, mentors, sports, busing | Discussion. |
| 1:14:56 | Adjournment | "We adjourn at 1050" (1:15:05). No motion, vote or roll call at any point. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4.CSV). Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording. Quotations are the transcript's own words, ASR errors included; bracketed words are editorial.
Chronological topics
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:05 | Opening | "This is our first, budget analysis meeting, if you will. And we're having it here at the tech center so it can be broadcast." No roll call or call to order is spoken. | POSITIVE |
| 0:01:04 | Why last year's budget is no guide | Crawford: "references to past budgets aren't going to work. Because their error is significant significant errors in the last year's budget" and "they were incorrect amounts entered in the approved budget." Spending ran significantly over budget; unexpected costs included special education and "additional school care costs of 868,000" (0:01:31); prior-year bills paid from this year's money make current spending "artificially high" (0:02:02). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:36 | Priorities and the three models | Priorities: student achievement, school configuration, the tax rate (0:02:59, 0:03:32). Models: the current four schools (two K-5 elementaries); a grade-aligned four-school model with Disnard K-2 and Maple 3-5; a three-school model with grades 7-12 at Stevens (0:05:32, 0:06:10). "But there will be no, we're not making any decisions here, folks" (0:04:33). | |
| 0:05:02 | Public input | "I'm sure that the public has thoughts and questions regarding that, but the finance committee meetings isn't the place for that discussion. The public meeting, public school board meeting is where those issues will be addressed." Later: "there'll be time for questions from the public about just technical things, but input will take place at regular school board meetings" (0:06:36). No member of the public speaks. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:04 | Calendar | Friday's session; a budget update to the board on December 17; "on January 21st, we will have to have a hearing on the budget" (0:07:29); the board adopts a budget for the hearing on January 7 and finally after the hearing. | |
| 0:08:46 | NESDEC enrollment projection | The report came with dues (Angell first says "Like $858", then "Or is it $2,585?", 0:08:59, 0:09:04). Next school year: "1379 students" (0:09:14); in ten years "1089 students", where "you're really looking at a two school model" (0:10:09, 0:10:39); in five years 1,249 (0:14:12). Budget models use principals' enrollment estimates instead, because they thought NESDEC's numbers wrong (0:09:40). In his last district the projection was off by about 20 students after ten years (0:12:05). | |
| 0:10:48 | Four schools as a step to two | Angell recommends keeping four schools next year so the middle school can later be emptied and rebuilt as an elementary school (0:11:14); asked whether he would be here to do it: "And I said, I'm not okay. It's just not going to happen" (0:12:14). Whitney: keeping four schools is justified only as a step toward two, which the community would have to fund (0:15:42). | |
| 0:17:58 | The 2020 reconfiguration | Whitney recalls a grade-aligned plan abandoned after "a big, outcry from the community about how this was going to impact families" over busing and pick-ups. Crawford: "Our our scores have gone down, our population has gone down and our resources have gone down" (0:19:56). Kennedy: of schools that exited improvement status, "They exited a status but they're not. Still everybody's academically proficient" (0:23:03). | |
| 0:23:26 | Data reconstruction | Angell: "I'm struggling with data and trying to I'm having to recreate a lot of stuff" and "I've been working seven days a week on just the budget" (0:23:36). Of about 270 employees on district health insurance, "I found 44 where I need we need to revisit as a team" (0:24:53); the increase is "I think it was by 11.8%" (0:25:16). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:26:00 | Payroll, four-school model | "just looking at just payroll, it's almost $79,000 increase over the current year", against total payroll Angell puts "closer to 20" million (0:29:04). Positions come out "Only by attrition only" (0:26:42). The current budget assumed five schools; Bluff's positions are removed (0:26:47, 0:27:03). Grade alignment frees classroom positions for interventionists: six in the four-school model (0:17:13). | |
| 0:30:43 | Preschool | Whitney: "I know it's a hot potato" but space must be kept for preschool in every model. Kennedy: at least one preschool classroom is projected, for identified students with possible peer models (0:31:03, 0:31:31). | |
| 0:32:46 | SAU costs after Unity leaves | Angell: the payroll projection "does not include adding back saw employees" [SAU] although from July 1 the superintendent and business administrator positions fall to Claremont. Crawford: Claremont now carries about 90% of SAU costs, Unity about 10% (0:33:09). Angell: the FY26 SAU budget appears to have used tight estimates (0:34:43). | |
| 0:35:53 | Health-insurance errors | Whitney summarizes: the district assumed a larger share of premiums than estimated and "we were also paying full premium for some individuals that he had either retired or left the district" (0:36:25). Angell: "That was in the actual expenditure, but that wasn't in the budget" (0:36:36); the FY26 budget appears to have budgeted "for people that were currently in their positions. So they didn't put in an estimate for vacant positions" (0:36:52), adding "I haven't proven that" (0:37:22). Crawford recalls the board being assured last year that a two-person plan was used for vacancies (0:38:23). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:42:31 | Premium rates and vacancies | Gross annual premiums: "the family plan is $45,036 per year", two-person $33,360, one-person $16,680 (0:42:45, 0:42:51). The district is "down 78 positions" from budget (0:38:52) and has 63 vacancies in the four-school census against a normal 20 to 30 (0:44:08, 0:44:38). Whitney: "I think you have to do the two persons. I agree to be safe" (0:45:03). | |
| 0:45:21 | Three-school model | Angell expects fewer administrative, custodial, nurse and library positions and "like 8 or 10 intervention teachers with a three school model". Whether grades 7 and 8 can move to Stevens by September is left for Friday (0:46:45, 0:47:08). Whitney says portable classrooms failed because "we authorized them to be purchased and the purchase wasn't placed" (0:48:14). Closed buildings must be heated until sold or leased (0:49:27). | |
| 0:50:10 | Central-office capacity | Crawford: "if people call the s a you or even go in, the staff isn't there to open the door or answer the phone" or "to update the web page" (0:50:36). Whitney: "I think it's more than 50% at this point, isn't it?"; Kennedy: "It is. Yeah" (0:50:50, 0:50:52). Angell: "we're operating a manual model with an automated system" (0:51:14); state FTE reporting is rebuilt by hand each year; contracts take four weeks manually against a day electronically (0:52:50). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:18 | Capacity at Stevens | Whitney asks whether the high school can take middle-school grades next year. Angell: "we have engaged a fire engineer" to calculate capacity (0:55:19, 0:55:20). Crawford: course offerings would have to be limited to free classrooms (0:55:54). | |
| 0:58:26 | FY26 position data | Angell: "there were several positions we budgeted for the funding, but the FTE was zero"; "I've identified eight positions like that for last year. So they budgeted for 300 and almost 360 people last year" (0:58:50). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:59:15 | Default budget and moved positions | Angell: "We can move positions around within the, the organization. So, so that we're not eliminating a position as it relates to the default budget." Converting a para position to a teacher is not "one's an elimination and one's a brand new position that doesn't exist under the law. I'm making" the move (0:59:36); "whatever the is left over, that's what's getting removed" (0:59:56). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:00:11 | Mentoring | Whitney asks how mentors fit the models. Kennedy: mentors trained last summer remain, though the new teachers they were to mentor were laid off (1:01:01). Angell floats paying a local college for non-evaluative mentoring (1:03:22). | |
| 1:04:11 | Low-participation sports | Whitney asks for a review of underused sports. Angell: stipends are in the collective bargaining agreement, so he must budget them "whether they're using it or not" (1:04:44); Kennedy: the same holds for chorus and band (1:05:21). | |
| 1:06:42 | Busing | Start times would need staggering (1:07:13). Angell budgets on the district running its own buses and plans to put busing out to bid in January (1:07:34); he suggests before- and after-school care and a shuttle between schools for families with children in two buildings (1:08:19). | |
| 1:10:10 | Grades 7-12 together | Crawford: parents will ask how seventh and eighth graders would be separated from older students. Kennedy reports the superintendent's advisory council asked for a public forum (1:10:35) and will contact Newport's superintendent (1:12:01). Angell: in his last district fourth-grade math reached the 90th percentile after grade alignment (1:14:16). | |
| 1:14:56 | Adjournment | "Okay. Okay. All right. Anything else that we need to bring forth. All right. We'll join the meeting." Then "We adjourn at 1050" (1:15:05); next session Friday at 9:30. | HIGH |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule supports a concern, it is labeled an observation. Severity: HIGH (likely violation of a binding rule or missed statutory deadline), MEDIUM (probable process gap), OBSERVATION (notable, no confirmed rule), POSITIVE (practice beyond the legal minimum).
HIGH No minutes of this subcommittee meeting were found, ten months on
The Finance Subcommittee is a public body: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) reaches "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof". RSA 91-A:2, II requires its minutes, including since August 22, 2025 the start and end time and the name of the person who produced them, to be open to inspection within five business days (here, by December 17, 2025). No minutes were found. Searched: MAP.md's record of the 2025 and FY 2025-2026 meeting-document archives, both candidate year folders of the Meeting Minutes share and keyword searches (verified 2026-08-23); the next two board packets as MAP.md lists them (14. CSB 12.17.25, ten items, and 15. CSB 1.7.26, three items), none of which is a finance minute; the approved 12/17/25 board minutes, which have no Finance Subcommittee report; and Drive full-text and title searches run October 3, 2026 for the date and for Finance files created December 2025 to February 2026, which returned no district file. The district's Claremont Finance Sub Committee folder could not be listed by this run (MAP.md recorded it empty on 2026-08-23). A Drive search can miss files, so this is "not found", not "does not exist". Severity: the project's rule grades an unmitigated absence HIGH. Nothing on this recording or in a later document says minutes exist or are coming; the subcommittee had both members present, so the "no quorum" limb does not apply; and it was announced but not packeted. The comparator cuts the same way: the subcommittee's November 12 minutes were written and filed (late) in the 12/3 board packet, so the subcommittee can produce minutes. Mitigating context: no motion or vote was taken, and the full session is on CCTV.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (subcommittees are public bodies); RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes within 5 business days; contents as amended by 2025, 112:1); Copy of Finance 11.12.25.docx (the comparator); 12.17.25 Approved CSB Meeting Minutes
OBSERVATION No public comment period; whether the 30-minute rule reaches a subcommittee work session is unsettled
The presiding member told viewers that "the finance committee meetings isn't the place for that discussion" and that input belongs at regular board meetings, while allowing technical questions (0:05:02, 0:06:36); the board chair said the same at the December 3 board meeting. No member of the public was heard, and no one is recorded as being turned away. RSA 189:74 requires the opportunity for public comment, of no less than 30 minutes, "at a meeting of the school board held under RSA 91-A:2", with exceptions only for emergency and nonpublic-only meetings. The statute says "school board", not "committee", and this page has found no authority deciding whether it reaches a subcommittee. The board's own policy BEDH, which the project's working notes describe as requiring comment at all board meetings, was not re-read for this page.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (public comment at school board meetings, at least 30 minutes; 2022, 333:1); Claremont policy BEDH (Public Comment and Participation at Board Meetings)
OBSERVATION The administration describes errors in the adopted FY26 budget and in the district's payroll and benefit records
On the record: the presiding member says the approved FY26 budget contained "incorrect amounts" (0:01:04); the business administrator says it appears to have budgeted health insurance only for filled positions, not vacancies (0:36:52), that eight positions were funded with a zero FTE (0:58:50), that 44 of about 270 insured employees' records need correction (0:24:53), and that premiums were paid for people who had left, in actual spending though not in the budget (0:36:25, 0:36:36). He adds that he has not yet proven the vacancy point (0:37:22), and Crawford recalls the board being told last year that vacancies were budgeted at a two-person rate (0:38:23). These are statements of officials at a work session, not audited findings, and no budget document was presented. No rule is cited because none of these statements yet ties to a figure in a filed document; the documents that would settle them are the adopted FY26 budget detail by position, the payroll benefit census, and the FY26 audit.
Sources: recording at the cited times; Copy of Finance 11.12.25.docx (prior session: amount available to offset the deficit "has shrunk to $5.6 million")
OBSERVATION The default-budget statute supports "redefined" positions, but leaves the determination to the governing body
Angell says positions can be moved within the organization so that converting one type of position to another is not an elimination for default-budget purposes; such a conversion "doesn't exist under the law. I'm making" the move, he says (0:59:15, 0:59:36). RSA 40:13, IX(b) defines the default budget as the prior year's operating budget reduced, among other things, "by salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget", and provides that "eliminated positions shall not include vacant positions under recruitment or positions redefined in the proposed operating budget, as determined by the governing body". His reading has textual support. The determination, though, belongs to the governing body (here the school board), not to the business office, and the default-budget form must identify reductions for eliminated positions. With 63 vacancies in the census (0:44:08), how the board classifies them will move the default budget materially. This is a point for the board's later default-budget vote, not a defect at this session.
Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a) (default budget definition; eliminated and redefined positions; in force since 2019, 192:2)
POSITIVE A subcommittee budget work session announced in advance and televised in full
The subcommittee scheduled its budget sessions at the Technical Center specifically so CCTV could carry them (0:00:05), announced the dates in its November 12 minutes, on the December 3 board agenda and on that night's recording, and opened by explaining to viewers what the session would and would not do. RSA 91-A requires notice and minutes, not broadcast. A full recording of a subcommittee's budget deliberations goes beyond the statutory minimum, and in this case it is the only public record of the session.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; no broadcast duty); 12.3.25 CSB Agenda (future dates)
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/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4.CSV (737 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4Input/Transcripts/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 286
Laws and rules cited on this page