| 0:01:24 | Music grant hearing | Kennedy: CMS students “have not had band or chorus or music music instruction since October 31st.” The motion would authorize applying and, “if granted, to accept the needed funds … this amount is not to exceed the $49,775.” “this is totally no cost to anybody in Claremont.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:04:16 | Public questions on the grant | Demars/Myers asks about future years; Kennedy at 0:05:19: “So we have a plan.” Beauchaine on what music gave her; Williams on grant versus donation. Linke at 0:10:13 introduces himself as the WCCMA teacher taking over band. | |
| 0:12:10 | Supplement or supplant? | A board member (Sprague, per the minutes): grants he knew required that they “supplement but not supplant.” Reply: that “only applies really” “To federal funds.” | |
| 0:15:02 | Agenda additions | Hawkins adds “a discussion on the see a negotiating contract”. Kennedy at 0:15:32: a nonpublic session “to address an emergent situation”, RSA 91-A:3, II “as related to litigation, something that just recently came up today.” A music-teacher ratification added at 0:17:18. | MEDIUM |
| 0:20:33 | Stipend transparency | Demars/Myers: “there needs to be more public transparency about who’s getting stipends for what, who approved the stipend?” Angell at 0:22:12: stipends follow the collective bargaining agreement. Kennedy at 0:23:48: some were “Not contractually obligated.” | |
| 0:26:32 | Forensic audit: firms declined | Ellerkamp: “Are they declined? Who declined? The two. The two from auditors.” Angell at 0:27:09: “I don’t really think it’s appropriate for me to go into it at this point in time.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:28:09 | Motion to enter nonpublic session | Kennedy reads the grounds: “RSA 91 A on three Roman numeral two as related to litigation, and then RSA 91 a colon to the numeral. I mean one excuse me, letter A as related to contact [contract] negotiations and see a these administrators.” Whitney: “I would like to move that motion.” Petrin seconds; roll call at 0:28:34. Return motion and roll call at 0:29:43. | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:30:16 | Finance update | “I do see a path forward with wiping out the deficit.” “I’m going to make a recommendation to the board not to have a deficit warrant article.” Cash “just over $5 billion [million]” after paying the loan “down to zero.” At 0:31:36: “March is going to be tough.” At 0:33:02: a state lending law has conditions that “make it unpalatable.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:39:10 | How the models will move | Whitney: the board will not vote on a budget at the January 20 hearing; tonight’s votes only choose what is presented there, with the decision at the January 21 meeting. | |
| 0:45:01 | Enrollment and objectives | Kennedy: “we are currently at 1500 students. 1509, I believe, today”, possibly “down to 1000 students” within several years. | |
| 0:46:04 | Three models priced | Three-school aligned $44,022,085 (1.95%); four-school aligned $44,844,373 (3.86%); at 0:46:45 four-school current configuration “$46,211,951, or $3,032,387, or 7.02%.” Angell: “I did make a recommendation to the to the school board of almost $1 million, but the current config model can’t, reach the same level of savings.” Reopening Bluff at 0:47:51: “$46,831,034 or, a $3.6 million increase or 8.4% increase.” | |
| 0:48:24 | Tax rates | $0.08 per $100,000 of budget. At 0:48:55: current “$17.45”; three-school “$18.14”; four-school aligned “$18.80”; current configuration “$19.91.” At 0:49:23: the hold-harmless grant “is going to kick in”; Crawford confirms the adequacy drop hits FY28, not FY27. | |
| 0:52:10 | Interventionists and attrition | “the three school nine [aligned] model has ten interventionists above what we already have for title one”; four-school aligned six; current configuration zero. Attrition at 0:54:31: 27 staff left in 2024, 35 this year. | |
| 0:55:28 | Warrant articles planned | An administrators’ collective bargaining article; special-education and building reserves funded from surplus; permission to sell or lease Bluff and the Masonic Temple; “at this time, we’re not recommending an appropriation. I mean, a deficit appropriation.” | |
| 1:00:06 | Why the hearing is January 20 | Crawford: “The hearing has to be accomplished by January 20th. That’s why we’re not waiting until the 21st”; “the general courts, calendar of when stuff has to be done.” January 20, 2026 was the third Tuesday in January, the SB 2 deadline for budget hearings. | |
| 1:09:25 | Health insurance | Crawford: “An average of 95% is paid by the district.” Angell at 1:10:26: 23 vacant positions budgeted at $1 for health insurance, “because a normal school district would have, at any given moment, 23 vacancies.” Crawford at 1:12:39 on ending the year in the black: “it’s still a crapshoot.” | |
| 1:15:48 | Class-size standard | Hawkins: under the new Ed 306 language “it is the average class size per educator that includes a teacher and a para.” (Not verified for this page.) | |
| 1:25:52 | Public comment on the models | Lowney: interventions “are like definitely currently happening”; research on consolidation paints “a very different direction.” Angell at 1:28:30: “there’s $1 million that I could recommend to take off in any of the other models.” Edwards/Evans at 1:29:17: “this one has fewer positions and it costs less. That doesn’t make sense to me.” | |
| 1:32:30 | Teachers’ letters and testimony | Holtz reads her letter. Simino/Simoneau at 1:36:00: “I have been approached by 25 teachers since your budget came out on the website.” Gage at 1:39:40: “Kids who are in need of additional academic support are not in compliance for those services in any school.” | |
| 1:40:59 | Taxpayers on the increase | Myers/Demars: “a 7% increase, for the current configuration is dead on arrival with the taxpayers.” Zullo at 1:43:08: “somebody needs to sharpen their pencil and start making some more cuts.” Angell at 1:45:30: “I’m sorry for letting go those 39 people. That was my responsibility.” | |
| 1:46:00 | Default budget question | Abbey (per the minutes): if the budget fails, what model applies? Angell: “the default budget hasn’t been calculated yet because, I don’t know which model to pick”; it will follow the chosen model. At 1:50:21: “can I make payroll? … Right now, I’m pretty comfortable that I can meet payroll.” | |
| 1:51:15 | Comment clock and extension | Kronberg: “I paused it when Mr. Angel [Angell] … Was speaking.” Whitney: “we’re at the 30 minute mark.” Howard at 1:51:44: “I’ll make a motion to extend the time. 10 minutes or 9 minutes.” The chair counts “One. Two. Three. Four. Motion passes.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:52:24 | Rapp and Laurie | Rapp: “We need a couple of years of stability. It’s called triage.” Laurie/Lowry at 1:55:09: “My taxes went up 26%.” | |
| 1:58:34 | Motion 1: current configuration | Howard moves model three to the January 20 hearing; Hawkins seconds “for discussion” (1:59:12). Howard at 2:01:42: “$50 a month doesn’t sound that bad.” Whitney at 2:07:20: “taxes are levied on people, on families, on households, and those taxes have consequences.” Madden at 2:11:43: he did not know of the budget problems “until it started blowing up in April and then in July.” Hawkins at 2:16:21: “My biggest question is the number of ifs.” | |
| 2:23:31 | Vote 1 by show of hands | “the motion to move the number three, school configuration with a budget of 46,211 951. I guess we can do it by hand. Vote. Raise your hand.” The chair counts four; no count of the other side is heard. “That’s going forward.” Minutes: for Howard, Sprague, Crawford, Hawkins; against Petrin, Madden, Whitney. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:24:17 | Motion 2: four-school aligned | Sprague: “We have an instructional issue.” Crawford at 2:28:23: “I do not support, a three school model at all.” Petrin at 2:29:34: reaching a two-school model would need “more money from the taxpayers to remodel the middle school.” Whitney at 2:35:26: she objects to the idea “that we would deliberately, willingly and knowingly, waste money.” | |
| 2:36:49 | Vote 2 | Restated at “$44,844,373.” Voice vote; the chair: “For 4 to 3.” An unidentified voice at 2:37:25: “Who were the four?” The approved minutes list only “In favor: Loren, Frank, Candace, Arlene”. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 2:37:32 | Motion 3: three-school, amended | Whitney: remove four vacant interventionist posts (leaving six) and two vacant instructional-coach posts, add two guidance FTE (1.75 at a new middle/high school, 0.25 at the upper elementary), “resulting in a net reduction of 622,521.” At 2:38:38: “So the new operating budget would be 43,179,564. That is a .51 percent increase.” Madden seconds at 2:39:21. Sprague at 2:51:02: “I’m a no” without a real plan for Stevens. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:55:22 | Vote 3 fails | “All in favor of moving the three school aligned model with a modified budget that would have a zero tax increase and a 0.051% increase in the budget”; “Three all opposed model does not move forward to the public hearing.” Minutes: for Whitney, Madden, Petrin; against Howard, Sprague, Hawkins, Crawford. | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 2:57:16 | Leadership search | Hawkins: “Could it be a two pronged search?” for an executive director or a superintendent, since “all of our policies say, superintendent.” | |
| 2:58:40 | CAA agreement ratified | Hawkins moves to ratify the tentative agreement with the “Claremont Administrative Association”; “that group came to negotiations without a request for a pay raise for next year.” At 3:01:19: “We’re ratifying the Claremont Administrator’s Association. Tentative agreement.” Unanimous. | MEDIUM |
| 3:01:53 | Music teacher | A part-time applicant for the post vacant since October. At 3:02:41: “step 17, a master’s plus 15, which is the annual rate of 71,831”; the 3/5 amount is given on tape as “$33,099” [the minutes: $43,099], prorated January to June. | |
| 3:04:10 | Filming permissions | A Department of Education technical advisory restricts filming; the district’s release “covered filming, whereas most other districts did not.” Families may redo permissions; a family that declines filming may limit a student’s participation in filmed activities. | |