| 0:03:52 | Job number one is the central office | “There's some really important work that needs to be done in the central office and with administrators around keeping track of the money and making sure that we're meeting our obligations to taxpayers. And that's probably job number one for your next system leader.” He returned to it at 0:26:06: “It was a lack of systems in the central office that did that.” | |
| 0:06:01 | The title of the post | “You can call me anything you want, and many of you will.” At 0:05:35 he had said a curriculum leader must be “somebody who is not the superintendent or executive director or whatever”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:30 | Revisit the strategic plan | “I understand you have a strategic plan document that exists. I just wonder if, in light of the last 9 or 12 months, it's worth taking a collective moment to look at that together and see if maybe something needs to be added or changed before we just forge ahead as fast as possible.” | |
| 0:10:00 | A questioner reads his letter of application back to him | Kim: “the letter that you wrote, emphasized your strong command of central office and school level operations and the importance of relating every decision to the community's vision of student success.” Those words are from his letter, quoted by a member of the public. Her own point: “we have a lack of clear expectations and holding people accountable.” No copy of the letter is in the district’s shares. | MEDIUM |
| 0:15:39 | Weekly gradebooks, and the union | “I believe that every professional educator should reasonably be expected to update things like grade books. Or if you're a special ed educator, student service logs on a weekly basis.” And: “my experience shows that labor leaders can agree with me on that, generally speaking.” | |
| 0:17:15 | The reconfiguration question, in the submitter’s words | Read by the chair from an online submission: “Some on the board keep talking about changing to three schools, and now there's a committee of the board to do research to to more reconfiguration.” A member of the public’s characterisation, not the chair’s. | MEDIUM |
| 0:18:12 | The answer: no change for twelve months | “One school has closed, and there's going to be a grade level reconfiguration that results in some other movement going into next year. Don't make another change for the next 12 months. Study. Think. Plan.” At 0:18:36: “Give everybody 12 months to catch their breath, please.” | |
| 0:18:57 | My way or the highway | “my answer to that question was, yes, things can be my way or the highway. And I'm always willing to listen.” At 0:21:17: “the areas in which I might be perceived as inflexible are areas in which regulation or law dictates part of what we have to do.” | |
| 0:22:35 | School choice, in an anonymous submitter’s words | Read by the chair; not her view. “You've been very clear in your support of school choice, stating that this is necessary in quotes for a functional system, and that schools should compete in quotes for students. Many would argue that this approach shifts public education away from its core mission, and instead introduces winners and losers among districts.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:25:06 | The answer, and an enrollment figure | “I work in the here and now. I work in a public school system today under the current regulatory and legal scheme.” Then: “roughly 10% of the students enrolled in Claremont schools left.” He attributed it at 0:25:39 to “headlines about a financial crisis, which I would guess scared people out of the system”, and said at 0:26:57 that enrollment has since risen. | |
| 0:26:32 | Where he is from | “I grew up in Warner. I graduated from Kearsarge. We used to play sports against Stevens.” | |
| 0:28:22 | The chair states the March warrant article | “this district, passed a, Warren article in March, that, said that we would pay for zero students to go out of district”. She asked at 0:29:02: “How do you reconcile open enrollment with the fiscal responsibility for a district that, people might not understand the value of the current education?” | |
| 0:29:13 | He has run an open-enrollment program | “the open enrollment law is has not been well understood in New Hampshire since it was passed in 2009, which might be one of the reasons no school system actually operated an open enrollment program until three years ago”. At 0:30:09: “there's no place accepting students under an open enrollment program around here.” The chair: “We'll take 10%. We'd be happy to have students.” He, at 0:30:32: “Well, I do know how to run that program.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:30:36 | A named taxpayer’s question on public money for private options | Read by the chair: “do you support these types of policy proposals that divert public tax dollars to private entities and hurt communities like Claremont Tech?” The candidate at 0:31:28: “I work for a school district. Whatever system it is under the existing legal and regulatory scheme. Those are the conditions under which I work.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:34:13 | Per-pupil spending and state aid | “Claremont last year spent roughly $26,000 per student, not including out of district special ed costs or transportation.” At 0:34:46: “The funding problem here isn't not enough money. It's too much money having to come from a place that it's just not realistic to expect people to be able to pay.” At 0:35:42: “Claremont actually receives the sixth highest per pupil rate of state aid. That could go down potentially.” The figures are his; no document supporting them was before the room. | |
| 0:36:57 | The chair on her role | “I have to tell you, it's so hard to sit here and not say anything.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:37:55 | Class sizes and missing staff, from the floor | Michelle: “there was an example of Maple Avenue, fourth grade classrooms that had 14 students that suddenly went to 28.” At 0:38:42: “That we have buildings without nurses. We have buildings that are under staffed with counseling.” | |
| 0:39:28 | What a day in the schools told him | “I was a little surprised at some of the class sizes in your elementary schools.” At 0:39:47: “not having an actual four day a week, half day preschool program for every student who qualifies for that. To me, that's a serious, probably high priority concern”. At 0:40:16: “I can't second guess the decisions that have been made.” | |
| 0:40:41 | A core belief about staffing | “in Claremont, roughly ten years ago, there were over 1700 students enrolled in the school system.” At 0:41:10: “Right now, there are well under 1500 students”. At 0:42:18: “Instead of paying more people less, you can pay fewer people a little bit better.” | |
| 0:44:07 | Test scores and socioeconomic status | Questioner: scores “they're used as sort of a very strong argument for how bad things are.” Answer at 0:45:44: “there's a researcher at Stanford named Sean Reardon who has done a lot of work around socioeconomic status and expected achievement.” At 0:46:52: “ZIP code really is a proxy for socioeconomic status.” The questioner at 0:48:36: “I'll think I'll give you an A minus.” | |
| 0:49:57 | Priority: a curriculum leader | “you do not currently have a system level curriculum leader has to be a priority, just has to be.” | |
| 0:50:48 | His current post, in his own words | A two-town system that “had had three superintendents when they hired me”; hired “originally on a two year agreement with the school board to help them with some strategic planning and run one of their three schools as a part time superintendent” (0:51:14); “I have 1300 kids” (0:51:58); the boards signed “the Shared Services Memorandum of Agreement, which they signed in 2021 or 22” (0:52:21); “There is less money being spent on central office salaries” (0:52:48); growth “higher than the state average among elementary schools” (0:53:16). All first person. The transcription renders the towns seven different ways (Alderman Bart's, Alton, and Barnes did, Alton and Barnes said, farmsteads, Barnes stead, Barnes dad, Bardstown) and this page does not settle the name. | MEDIUM |
| 0:54:23 | The dissertation | “So principals perceptions of the role of relationships in their practice.” At 0:54:48: principals help staff with “what's called the emotional labor of being an educator”. | |
| 0:55:36 | The board-overreach question, asked in front of the board | Read by the chair from a submission: “many have reported instances of the school board overstepping its operational matters”. A member of the public’s words. The candidate at 0:56:09: “I'm saying this in front of most members of your school board, I think are in the room right now.” At 0:56:59: “there have been times in the last year when the school board has been more involved in operations, when they should than they should be, because you haven't had much choice.” The chair at 0:57:19: “No comment.” | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:57:53 | An embezzlement where he works, and financial controls | “they discovered that a business office employee had actually been stealing from the district, which is not the situation that you're in here.” At 0:58:49: “One of the first things we did was work with the school board to have them adopt 9 or 10 new financial control policies.” | |
| 0:59:09 | Purchase orders and three procurement tiers | “Being an employee of a school district does not give you permission to enter into financial obligations for the school district. A purchase order gives you permission to enter into a specific financial obligation”. Best business practice at “$1,500 or less” (1:00:04); written quotes from three vendors above that; an RFP above “$20,000” (1:00:39). At 1:01:14: “you will never wonder where $5 million one it just won't be possible.” | |
| 1:01:40 | Prior contact with the district’s business office | “I just described it in a written document that I actually think maybe some folks in Claremont have already seen, because I shared it with Mr. Angel a few months ago. I've known Matt Angel for a little while and we've exchanged some information. So prior to me even sending you all a letter.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:02:37 | Where he would live | The chair: “I understand that you live in Maine, about two hours away from Claremont. We have a policy that employees must be physically present at work for all their contracted days.” He at 1:03:13: “if the school board wants to keep talking to me after today, this is one of the things we're going to have to talk about.” At 1:03:32: “we don't intend to relocate permanently to Claremont, but I would certainly need to be sleeping here at least. The majority of the time”. | MEDIUM |
| 1:04:17 | Preschool eligibility, answered within his knowledge | “I need to be really careful when I don't know the detail about what I'm talking about”. At 1:04:36: “I said qualified because I understand that preschool programs are fundamentally special education programs that include non-disabled peers.” The questioner at 1:05:20: “You've done exactly what I was asking you to do.” | |
| 1:05:50 | Recruiting | “Making it easier is not the answer.” At 1:08:17: “Settling for less is the wrong answer, because in the end, you've experienced the worst case scenario.” | |
| 1:12:35 | The tech center building in the evenings | “in a building like this, there could be other things going on, potentially in the evening.” | |
| 1:14:14 | Trust and office hours | The chair: “how do you build trust in the communities that you lead”. He at 1:14:30: “I think it's actually a different answer here than it's been anywhere I've ever worked.” At 1:14:48: “Stop by and have tea with Tim. But I think that might be a good idea here.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:16:35 | Classrooms | “I'd rather go to a class and read to a third grade classroom from a book”. At 1:17:23: “because of what Claremont has just been through, I think it's important to be out in the public just kind of talking to people generally.” | |
| 1:19:02 | The chair closes and points to a resume | “I was remiss in not summarizing, Doctor Broderick's, CV before the before we began the questioning.” At 1:19:35: “his, resume is online, and if anybody would like to take a look at that, they're certainly welcome to look at that.” No resume is in the district’s shares. | MEDIUM |