Claremont School Board Finance Committee — December 10, 2025

Participants

Everyone in the record. No minutes exist, so names and roles come from the recording, the committee’s November 12, 2025 minutes (which list the same four people as present) and the December 3 board minutes. No citizens’ comment period was held.
Name	Role	Participation
Candace Crawford	School Board member; Finance Sub-Committee chair	Presided. Opened with a prepared statement: why last year’s budget cannot be the baseline, three priorities, three configuration models, and the calendar to the January 21 hearing. Directed several explanations “for the public”. 181 rows.
Heather Whitney	School Board chair; Finance Sub-Committee member	Pressed on whether the four-school model makes sense only as a step to two schools, on building capacity and scheduling, on mentors and interventionists, and on low-participation athletics. The dialogue file marks her identification uncertain; the November 12 minutes list her as one of the two members. 171 rows.
Matt Angell	Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator, SAU 6	Presented the NESDEC enrollment projection, the four-school payroll comparison, health-plan costs and the vacancy count; described rebuilding the district’s payroll and benefits data by hand; stated his reading of the default-budget rule. Rendered “Matt Angel” in places. 176 rows.
Kerry Kennedy	Interim Superintendent, SAU 6	Spoke to pre-K classroom space, school-improvement status, mentor training, CBA stipends and the Superintendent’s Advisory Council’s request for a public forum. 105 rows.

Named but not present: Superintendent Ransdell of Newport (Kennedy offered to call him), Melissa Lewis and Paige Jarvis (who ran the summer mentor training). The dialogue file labels 104 rows (14%) Unidentified; its own note calls them sub-second crosstalk fragments shed by the four participants, and nothing on this page rests on them.

Agenda

No agenda for this meeting has been located. The item list is reconstructed from the chair’s opening statement and her transitions.
Taken up	Item	Reconstructed from the recording
0:00:05	1. Call to order	“Today is Wednesday, December 10th, and this is the meeting of the Claremont School Board Finance Committee meeting. This is our first, budget analysis meeting, if you will.”
0:00:39	2. Why last year’s budget cannot be the reference point	Three reasons: errors in the approved budget, spending over budget, and unforeseen costs (special education, the SchoolCare assessment of “868,000”, health-care variances), plus prior-year bills paid from this year’s money. See flag 3.
0:02:36	3. Priorities	Student achievement; school configuration and population; the property tax rate. “Those are three consecutive concentric circles that we we focus on.”
0:05:32	4. The three configuration models	(1) four schools as they are: two K–5 elementaries, CMS 6–8, Stevens 9–12; (2) four schools realigned: Disnard K–2, Maple 3–5, CMS 6–8, Stevens 9–12; (3) three schools, spoken at 0:06:10 as elementary K–3, middle school 4–6, Stevens 7–12. The committee’s November 12 minutes record the third model as “K-2, Grades 3-6, SHS with grades 7-12”. No decisions: “we’re not making any decisions here, folks.”
0:07:04	5. Calendar	Friday December 12 (this committee), December 17 (budget update to the full board), January 7 (board adopts a budget for the hearing), January 21 (hearing, then final adoption).
0:08:00	6. Enrollment projections (NESDEC)	Ten-year projection included with membership dues. NESDEC is rendered “Nasdaq” throughout.
0:23:26	7. Payroll and benefits data; the four-school payroll figure	Health-insurance census, the payroll comparison, SAU costs, vacancies and plan costs. See flag 2.
0:45:21	8. The three-school model, first thoughts	Staffing effects; which elementary school; closed-building costs. Detailed discussion deferred to Friday.
0:53:24	9. Friday’s deliverables; capacity; default budget	Both models and a default budget on the four-school model; a fire-protection engineer engaged on building capacity. See flag 4.
1:01:01	10. Other matters from the table	Mentors and interventionists; athletics and arts stipends; transportation and the bus bid; the Superintendent’s Advisory Council’s forum request.
1:15:09	11. Adjournment	“We adjourn at 1050.” Next meeting Friday at 9:30 (1:09:36).

Discussion timeline

Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction.
Time	Topic	What was said	Flags
0:00:05	Why the room was chosen	“we’re having it here at the tech center so it can be broadcast. For folks who might not be able to make it here in the building”.	POSITIVE
0:01:04	Last year’s budget is unusable as a baseline	Crawford: “references to past budgets aren’t going to work. Because their error is significant significant errors in the last year’s budget. So to use that as a reference point is, is ridiculous. And that’s because they were incorrect amounts entered in the approved budget.” At 0:02:02: “we have had prior year bills that we’ve had to pay this year that really weren’t part of this year’s budget”, so current spending is “artificially high”.	OBSERVATION
0:05:02	Where public input belongs	“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.” At 0:06:36: “there’ll be time for questions from the public about just technical things, but input will take place at regular school board meetings.”	OBSERVATION
0:09:14	NESDEC projection: 1,379 next year, 1,089 in ten	The projection came “Included as part of those dues”: 1,379 students next school year. At 0:09:40: the budget models use the principals’ numbers instead, “Because they felt that the numbers that Nasdaq [NESDEC] was projecting was incorrect.” At 0:10:09: in ten years “k 12 to be 1089 students”, which means “you’re really looking at a two school model.”
0:10:48	Four schools as a staging post to two	Angell recommends “trying to keep a for [four] school model open for next year” so the middle school can be emptied: “move the middle school to the high school and then rehab the middle school into an elementary school.” Whitney at 0:12:30: the wisdom of keeping four schools “is predicated on the functional rationale that we would be then going to a two school model.” Five-year projection at 0:14:12: 1,249, but “the middle school isn’t set up for an elementary school.”
0:12:14	“I’m not”	Angell: “I’ve had communications with other school board members about the two school model, about rehabbing the middle school, and they asked if I’m going to be here to do it. And I said, I’m not okay. It’s just not going to happen.”
0:16:44	What will move test scores	“There are three things that I’ve been trying to propose for the school board. One is intervention.” Then evaluation with targeted PD, and at 0:17:13 “a good mentorship program”. “with the two K-5 schools you can’t get intervention teachers”; the realigned four-school model yields six.
0:17:58	The same model was proposed in 2020	Whitney: “I was on the board when we tried to move forward with the very model that you’re talking about”; at 0:18:35 “There was a lot of resistance to that very model, because of making it inconvenient for our parents to pick up from multiple different.” Crawford at 0:19:56: “Our our scores have gone down, our population has gone down and our resources have gone down.”
0:23:26	Rebuilding the data	Angell: “I’m struggling with data and trying to I’m having to recreate a lot of stuff.” At 0:23:36: “I’ve been working seven days a week on just the budget.” Crawford at 0:24:14: in a system of 500 employees, “what you found is the information that was put in the system is incorrect.”	MEDIUM
0:24:53	44 of about 270 health records to rework	“it’s about like 270 that are on the health insurance. Okay. And I found 44 where I need we need to revisit as a team.” The planned shortcut, current premiums times an increase of “11.8%”, has to wait.	MEDIUM
0:26:00	Four-school payroll up about $79,000	“I anticipated that, the budget was going to be flat or lower than the current year”; “just looking at just payroll, it’s almost $79,000 increase over the current year.” Crawford at 0:29:06: “So $79,000 variance on 20 million is marginal.” Angell at 0:29:12: without the model changes “the budget would not actually increase because all the bargaining groups move up one step”; it is tight “because we’ve eliminated one school and we’re realigning.”
0:32:46	SAU positions not yet in the payroll figure	“it does not include adding back saw [SAU] employees”; from July 1 “the superintendent, business administrator, you’re going to have those positions for Claremont.” Crawford at 0:33:09: Claremont now carries about 90% of SAU costs, so the change “might be a wash.” Angell at 0:33:52: “I haven’t done that analysis yet.”
0:36:52	Vacancies budgeted without benefits	“it looks like what they did is they budgeted for people that were currently in their positions. So they didn’t put in an estimate for vacant positions.” At 0:37:22: “Gosh I haven’t proven that.” Crawford at 0:38:23: last year the committee was “assured that that was what was in the budget.” Angell at 0:38:52: “We freed up about 600,000 in health insurance. Okay. And the numbers don’t add up, right?”	OBSERVATION
0:42:31	What a plan costs	Gross annual cost, employer and employee shares combined: “the family plan is $45,036 per year”; two-person $33,360 (0:42:45); one-person $16,680 (0:42:51). Whitney at 0:45:03: “I think you have to do the two persons. I agree to be safe.”
0:43:42	Vacancies: 78 and 63	Crawford: “There are 78 vacant positions this year compared to last year.” Angell at 0:44:08: “what’s vacant in my census data is for for the for school model 63. Okay. That does not include the saw.” At 0:44:38: a normal year has “about 20 to 30 vacancies.”
0:45:21	The three-school model, first thoughts	“you’re going to be going down. Administrative, custodial. A nurse. Okay. Probably another librarian”, with 8 to 10 intervention teachers instead of six. Crawford at 0:47:20: “The feasibility must be more than 50%.” Angell at 0:48:25: “I’m modeling maple ... So it’s going to be a school board vote.”
0:49:27	A closed building still costs money	“with any close. Cool [closed school]. I’m putting in the operating budget money to heat the buildings until they.” Sold or leased, “because we got to maintain it”.
0:50:10	The SAU office cannot answer the phone	Crawford: “The saw [SAU] office is working on extremely low staff”; “if people call the s a you or even go in, the staff isn’t there to open the door or answer the phone.” At 0:50:36: “or to respond to emails or to update the web page.” Kennedy at 0:50:53: the backlog is “extra tasks that should have been done under other positions.”
0:51:14	“a manual model with an automated system”	Angell: “a lot of data gets recreated each and every year, like the state reporting of the FT-SE [FTEs] is manually recreated each and every year. And they’re not utilizing the system. Right. The system has the field for it, but the field isn’t accurate or it’s empty in most cases.” Whitney at 0:52:07: “the district was provided the resources. They just were not using them.” Contracts at 0:52:50: four weeks by hand against “a day’s worth of work” in the system.	MEDIUM
0:53:50	Friday’s deliverables	“I’ll have the, the three school model and the four school model. I can probably get a default budget done for the four school model, right? But then if the if the school board decides the three school model, I’ll have to redo the default budget.”	OBSERVATION
0:54:30	Building capacity not yet known	Whitney does not want time spent on a model “if it’s not even feasible.” Angell at 0:55:20: “we have engaged a fire engineer” who “he’s going to calculate what the capacity is”.
0:58:26	Positions funded with no FTE	“there were several positions we budgeted for the funding, but the FTE was zero.” At 0:58:50: “I’ve identified eight positions like that for last year.”	OBSERVATION
0:59:15	A legal reading of the default budget	“to legally, we can and this is this is a conversation for the default budget. Okay. We can move positions around within the, the organization.” At 0:59:36: “There are some who think that if you make a move, say, from a para to a teacher, that that one’s an elimination and one’s a brand new position that doesn’t exist under the law.” At 0:59:56: “the school program is just one big giant pool, and I’m moving within that.”	OBSERVATION
1:01:01	Mentors trained, mentees cut	Kennedy: “this summer, we did some mentor training. It was excellent.” “the existing, new folks we rift [RIF’d]”. Crawford at 1:01:45: “Existing staff need mentors.” Angell at 1:03:22: “a brainstorming idea”, to “team up with a local college”.
1:04:11	Athletics and arts stipends	Whitney asks about “low participation, high cost sports”. Angell at 1:04:44: “a lot of the stipends are in the CBA agreement. With this budget money in there whether they’re using it or not.” Kennedy at 1:05:21: “they’re stipends for chorus bands things like that too.” Whitney at 1:05:44: “I’m just I’m asking for the investigation.”	OBSERVATION
1:07:35	Transportation	“I’m budgeting based upon us maintaining our own bus company”, while “we are looking at going out to bid for, for bussing services” in January. At 1:08:19: parents worried about two drop-offs should use the buses, with before- and after-school programs.
1:10:35	The Advisory Council asks for a forum	Kennedy: the council “wanted to have like a discussion”; at 1:10:53 they floated December 18 and asked for “a school forum, you know, open public more than just during the board meeting”. Whitney at 1:12:55: “They don’t care what happens in Arkansas that I read about. They want to know what happens down the road”. Kennedy will call Newport’s superintendent (1:12:02).	OBSERVATION
1:15:09	Adjournment	“We adjourn at 1050.” The committee met again on Friday, December 12 (December 12 page).

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.

HIGH A noticed, televised meeting of a public body with no minutes in any district share

A committee or subcommittee of a school board 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 minutes to be “promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting,” and, for meetings from August 22, 2025, to include the start and end time and the name of the person who produced them. This meeting was noticed twice (the committee’s November 12 minutes and the December 3 board agenda), announced on camera by the chair on December 3, held and broadcast. No minutes have been located in the Meeting Documents archives, the Meeting Minutes share or the district’s own Claremont Finance Sub Committee folder (MAP.md, verified 2026-08-23; a Drive search on 2026-09-25 found nothing new). Nothing on this recording says minutes exist or are coming. That is the unmitigated limb of the project’s rule, so the flag is graded HIGH.

Context, not mitigation for this meeting: the committee does keep minutes. The chair’s November 12 minutes reached the December 3 board packet, after she told that meeting they “haven’t been posted” because of changes at the SAU office and would be filed with the agenda. On November 19 (show 16982) she had told the board “The minutes are on the website.” RSA 91-A requires availability for inspection, not web posting, and this review has no record of a request to inspect. Production of dated minutes for December 10 would clear the flag.

Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees and subcommittees are public bodies); RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); Copy of Finance 11.12.25.docx; 12.3.25 CSB Agenda (1).pdf; December 3, 2025 board page; November 19, 2025 board page.

MEDIUM By the business administrator’s account, state staffing reports are rebuilt by hand each year from fields left empty or wrong

Angell at 0:51:14: “the state reporting of the FT-SE [FTEs] is manually recreated each and every year”, and in the system “the field isn’t accurate or it’s empty in most cases.” The same session put 44 of about 270 health-insurance records in need of rework (0:24:53) and described contracts taking four weeks by hand (0:52:50). RSA 189:28 requires districts to file statistical reports, including staffing data, by the department’s deadlines, and lets the commissioner withhold state and federal aid until complete reports are submitted. Reports assembled by hand from empty or inaccurate source fields are at risk of error, and the same data drives the budget. Mitigation: this describes a condition being remediated; nothing on the recording says a report was late or rejected.

Sources: RSA 189:28 (statistical reports; aid may be withheld until complete reports are submitted; text read 2026-09-25).

OBSERVATION The committee chair describes the adopted FY2025–26 budget as containing significant errors, with prior-year bills paid from current-year money

Crawford’s opening statement (0:01:04–0:02:02) told the public the approved budget had “incorrect amounts entered”, spending ran significantly over budget, and prior-year bills were paid from this year’s money. Angell added that vacancies appear to have been budgeted without benefits (0:36:52, “I haven’t proven that”) and that eight positions carried funding with an FTE of zero (0:58:50). No verified rule makes estimation errors of this kind a violation on their face. They bear on auditability: RSA 21-J:19 lets a school district hire independent auditors. This is the district’s own officers’ account of their books, not a finding.

Sources: RSA 21-J:19 (districts may hire independent public accountants); the recording at the timestamps above.

OBSERVATION Staff described how the default budget will treat moved positions; the statute leaves that call to the board

Claremont votes its budget under the official-ballot (SB 2) procedure, so a defeated budget is replaced by the default budget. RSA 40:13, IX(b) reduces the default by “salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget”, but “eliminated positions shall not include vacant positions under recruitment or positions redefined in the proposed operating budget, as determined by the governing body.” Angell’s reading at 0:59:15–0:59:56, that moving a position from para to teacher is not an elimination, fits the “positions redefined” language. The statute makes that a determination of the governing body, the school board. Here it was stated by staff to a two-member committee with no minutes, and he said at 0:53:50 that the default budget would be built on the four-school model first. When the default budget is adopted, the record should show the board making that determination.

Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) (default budget; positions redefined, as determined by the governing body; text read 2026-09-25).

OBSERVATION The configuration models were built where the public could watch but not speak

Crawford said at 0:05:02 that public input belongs at the board meeting, and at 0:06:36 that there would be time only for “technical” questions. That is lawful: RSA 91-A:2, II opens meetings to the public and says nothing of a right to speak at a committee. It is recorded because the comparison of the four-school and three-school models happened in this session and the next, and reached a meeting open to comment on December 17. Kennedy reported at 1:10:53 that the Superintendent’s Advisory Council had already asked for a public forum beyond the board meeting.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (meetings open to the public); December 17, 2025 board page.

OBSERVATION Athletics and arts stipends are fixed by the collective bargaining agreements

Asked about low-participation, high-cost programs, Angell answered that “a lot of the stipends are in the CBA agreement” (1:04:44); Kennedy added chorus and band (1:05:21); Crawford replied that the money need not be spent unless the program is offered. On December 12 (show 17037) Angell said the agreement “specifically says which teams have to be funded”. Terms of a ratified agreement are governed by RSA chapter 273-A. No rule is breached; it explains why the athletics line resists trimming.

Sources: RSA ch. 273-A (public employee labor relations; chapter only).

POSITIVE Noticed in advance, moved to be televised, and candid about what the numbers did not yet show

The meeting was noticed in two published documents a week or more ahead, with time and place, and the chair announced it on camera on December 3. The venue was chosen “so it can be broadcast” (0:00:05); nothing in RSA 91-A requires a public body to record or televise a meeting. The chair set out the calendar to the January 21 hearing before any figure was discussed (0:07:04). The officers stated the limits of their own numbers on camera: the principals dispute the enrollment projection (0:09:40), the health-insurance model is unfinished (0:24:53), the SAU positions are not yet in the payroll figure (0:32:46), and building capacity is still with an engineer (0:55:20).

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (the open-meeting and notice minimum); 12.3.25 CSB Agenda (1).pdf.

Appendix — source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: Claremont School Board - Finance Committee - 12/10/25 (show 17029)
No agenda, packet or minutes located: 2025 Meeting Documents and FY 2025-2026 Meeting Documents archives, both candidate year folders of the Meeting Minutes share, and Drive keyword searches (MAP.md, verified 2026-08-23); Drive title search for the dotted date, 2026-09-25.
Claremont Finance Sub Committee folder (owner sau6webmaster, modified 2025-12-01): empty as of 2026-08-23; its contents could not be listed through the Drive API on 2026-09-25.
Notices of this meeting: Copy of Finance 11.12.25.docx (the committee’s minutes, filed in the December 3 board packet: “Wednesday, Dec. 10 @ 9:30 am @ Tech Center with CCTV coverage”) and 12.3.25 CSB Agenda (1).pdf (“Finance Committee Meeting with CCTV Coverage 12/10 & 12/12”).
Where the models surfaced next: 4-School Model - FY 26-27 Operating Budget 12.16.2026.pdf and 3-School Model - FY 26-27 Operating Budget 12.16.2026.pdf the 2026 in the file names is the district’s typo, in the December 17 board packet.
Related pages: Finance Committee, December 12, 2025; School Board, December 3, 2025; School Board, December 17, 2025; School Board, November 19, 2025.

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 rows)
Input/Videos/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4
Input/Transcripts/17029 SchoolBoardFinance121025.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 106

Laws and rules cited on this page

Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025)
School reporting and audit: RSA 189:28; RSA 21-J:19
Budget: RSA 40:13, IX(b) (source note ends 2019, 192:2)
Labor relations: RSA ch. 273-A (chapter only)