Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the agenda; where the dialogue file differs, both are shown. Several members' remarks are unidentified in the dialogue file and are described rather than named.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Rocco Ruggeri | Chair (Unity); confirmed by vote at this meeting | Presides. Introduces new members (0:01:06). Explains why no vote is needed on the stipend and payroll items (0:09:07). Raises the TMS human-resources contract the board "never" discussed (0:20:57, 0:26:31). Corrects the claim that SAU 6 is dissolving (0:35:20). Reports counsel's advice that the two boards write a separation MOU (0:39:05). Asks whether the retiree benefit came through the board (1:07:03, 1:07:12). Reports Unity's offer to Forrest Ransdell as SAU 109 superintendent (1:07:29). |
| Candace Crawford | Member (Claremont board chair); elected vice chair | Nominates Ruggeri as chair (0:02:13). Asks for the SAU's opening balance (0:06:48) and about TMS payments (0:14:36, 0:15:33). Proposes that the forensic audit replace the "how this happened" work (0:16:40, 0:17:17) and offers to follow up with TMS (0:23:05). Describes the sealed-minutes review (0:35:39, 0:36:20). |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont) | Nominates Atonya Hart for vice chair (0:02:44). Asks when a stipend comes before the board (0:11:39). Presses for the operational review (0:18:29 to 0:20:55). Asked for the sealed-minutes item and volunteers to review them (0:34:47, 0:36:28). Urges Unity to plan in-house IT support (0:51:38). Asks that counsel be told of the review (1:13:51). |
| Brian Rapp | Member (Claremont; sworn March 18, 2026) | Asks who will build out Unity's systems and whether Unity has prepared (0:46:25, 0:47:30, 0:49:07, 0:49:34); cites Cornish's earlier departure (0:55:38). Proposes 6:00 p.m. for May 14 (1:13:10). |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity) | Volunteers to review the sealed minutes for Unity (0:36:32). |
| Atonya Hart | Member (Unity) | Declines nomination as vice chair: "It's not personal. I just got lot going on." (0:02:52). |
| Kelly Simpson, William Madden, Loren Howard | Members named in the roll | Named in the roll (0:00:52, 0:00:58); no attributed remarks. Ruggeri introduces Simpson as a new member (0:01:06). |
| Donald Lavalette | Member (Claremont); Absent | "not able to make it tonight" (the chair at 0:01:06; transcript: Don Lavallée). |
| Michael Petrin, Darlene Ayotte | Members; attendance not established | Not audible in the roll and not heard on tape. |
| Unidentified member (Unity) | Board member speaking for a "small school" | Objects to learning of the HR contract after the fact: "I think full transparency would have been great for us to know" (0:29:27, 0:29:47); asks whether it is in budget and accepts the answer (0:30:38, 0:30:57). Unidentified in the dialogue file. |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent | Describes the TMS services (0:13:49) and her mentorship (0:15:10, 0:25:58). Notes some seals ran "for like 99 years" (0:36:46). Introduces the technology and student-services directors (0:41:38) and reports on records and HR separation (1:01:33, 1:11:26). |
| Matt Angell | Interim Senior Comptroller / business administrator | Finance update through February (0:05:41). Explains the payroll and AP staffing (0:09:51, 0:10:18). Says he signed the HR mentoring agreement (0:15:49, 0:16:07) and apologizes for not communicating it (0:30:18). Reports on Unity's DOE-25, payroll and runoff claims, including a retiree's health benefit (1:03:31 to 1:07:22). |
| Jason Bonneville | Interim Director of Technology | Lays out the IT separation: internet, Google domain, phones, the student information system, Wi-Fi and device management (0:42:39 to 0:46:25); E-Rate requires the internet cutover by July 1 (1:00:21). |
| Paige Jarvis | Interim Director of Student Services | Introduced as present (0:41:38); not separately heard. |
Agenda
Official agenda items in agenda order. The agenda numbers its sections I, (unnumbered), III, II, IV to VI and gives Discussion/Action a 6:05 p.m. time after General Business at 6:10; the items were taken in the order printed. Agenda wording is quoted from the agenda; dispositions follow the recording.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll by an unidentified reader (0:00:36); quorum announced (0:01:06). |
| 0:01:06 | Organization of the Board | Agenda: "Election of Board Chair for remainder of SY26" and "Election of Board Vice Chair for remainder of SY26". Crawford nominated Ruggeri; seconded (unidentified); the chair called the aye vote on his own election without asking for nays (0:02:13, 0:02:25). For vice chair Whitney nominated Hart, who declined; Ruggeri nominated Crawford; seconded (unidentified); ayes, and the chair then asked for nays, none heard (0:02:57, 0:03:09, 0:03:30). |
| 0:03:30 | Consent agenda | Agenda adopted without amendment on an unidentified motion and second (0:04:26, 0:04:34). "There are no minutes provided and no manifests" (0:04:36); members were asked to sign the manifest book before leaving; minutes owed from an earlier meeting were deferred (0:04:55, 0:05:02). |
| 0:05:02 | Citizens' comments | No citizens. |
| 0:05:41 | Finance update (Matt Angell) | Agenda: "Review SAU SY26 Budget to date". Figures through the end of February; see timeline. |
| 0:07:34 | Follow-up items | None beyond the agenda. |
| 0:07:55 | Vote on stipend; vote on AP/payroll | Agenda: "Vote on Stipend [need updated cost and duration]" and "Vote on AP/payroll [need update and plan with forecast on duration/cost]". No vote; the chair's understanding was that these were executive hiring decisions reported "for transparency" (0:09:07). See flag 3. |
| 0:12:32 | TMS (consulting firm) update | Agenda: "TMS (consulting firm) update, cost/performance to date, and status of the “how this happened” part of the contract". No vote; Crawford to follow up on the operational review, the other services continue (0:31:44). See flag 2. |
| 0:34:21 | Making nonpublic minutes public | Agenda: "Discussion on making non-public meeting minutes public". Whitney (Claremont) and Popescu (Unity) to review all sealed SAU 6 nonpublic minutes with counsel (0:36:35). No vote. See flag 6. |
| 0:38:10 | Separation items (legal expectations; BA plan; IT plan; SAU 109 MOU; Unity update) | Taken together. Counsel advised a separation MOU drafted by the two chairs with the superintendent and business administrator (0:39:05). IT (0:42:39), student-services records (1:01:33), finance and payroll (1:03:31), Unity's superintendent hire (1:07:29) and HR (1:11:26). No vote. |
| 1:12:29 | Other business; future dates | None. SAU 6 meeting kept tentatively for May 14 at 6:00 p.m. (1:13:12); future agenda item "Audit Reports". |
| 1:14:11 | Adjournment | Unidentified motion and second; voice vote (1:14:17). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:32 | Formalizing the chair | Ruggeri: Arlene Hawkins's departure "By default, that allowed or, made me the board chair, but I thought it was good to formalize that with a vote". Crawford on the vice chair term: "It's three months, right?" (0:03:07). | |
| 0:05:41 | SAU 6 finances through February | Angell (as transcribed): "Revenues to date are 1 million. I can't see it so small. $655,172." The transcript does not settle whether that is one figure or two. Sources: "$1.4 million from Claremont and 178,000 from unity"; expenditures "$1,578,471"; encumbrances "$663,000"; remaining operating budget "356,000. Or or just just shy of 14%" (0:06:25). Asked for the SAU's starting balance for the year: "no, I have to do the trial balances for say you six next and push those off"; the auditors have Unity's and Claremont's (0:06:54). | OBS |
| 0:07:55 | Stipend and payroll staffing | The payroll clerk left; the AP clerk was offered a stipend to cover payroll and then also left; a temporary was hired; a former district employee "slid into the position for $58,000" (0:09:51, 0:10:18). The stipend: "There was 3000 offered" for the rest of the year, little of it paid (0:11:12). Whitney: "Under what circumstances would a stipend come before the board for approval?" Angell: "I don't have an answer for you on that." (0:11:39, 0:11:46). | OBS |
| 0:12:45 | TMSolution: what has been delivered | Kennedy: communications pieces through the communications contractor, her own mentoring, a new mentoring contract for the HR manager, and on the review "I don't think we have a full digging into its how it's happened answer yet" (0:13:49, 0:14:15). "I meet weekly with my mentor" (0:15:10). Angell on the HR agreement: "I only seen the agreement come across my desk in the last couple of weeks" (0:15:43); "And then I signed the agreement." (0:16:07). | OBS |
| 0:16:40 | The "how this happened" review | Crawford: the forensic audit now agreed by both districts should take the place of that work (0:17:17); she understood it could not begin until the audits are done (0:19:40). Whitney: "I'm very frustrated that this piece hasn't happened, and I don't think it requires a forensic audit to have started the process." (0:18:57); "I want to be interviewed. I want everybody to be grilled" (0:20:34). | OBS |
| 0:20:57 | A fourth contract nobody discussed | Ruggeri: the September 15 confirmation email covers three signed sections; "This HR section was not part of the original, so I don't know where that came from" (0:21:30); "this was signed on 32726" [March 27, 2026] (0:21:30). Angell: mentoring is important where "we don't have experienced people at the top" (0:26:46); discussed internally "maybe the end of December, beginning of January" (0:28:51). Ruggeri: "I don't recall any conversation adding a contract with TMS for human Resources." (0:29:16). A Unity member: "It gets my feathers a little bit ruffled" (0:29:47). Angell: "if I fail in communicating that information to you, then I, I apologize." (0:30:18); it will not "move the needle" on the budget (0:30:42). A separate special-education mentor contract also exists (0:31:19). | OBS |
| 0:23:25 | Who pays after June 30? | The speaker labeled Ruggeri asks who foots the bill "after the s a you this SO6 is dissolved"; Crawford: work after June 30 would be Claremont's if it continues (0:23:51). Three contracts end June 30, 2026; the operational review has no end date (0:24:32). | OBS |
| 0:34:21 | Sealed nonpublic minutes | Whitney asked for the item "Because the saw is dissolving" (0:34:47); Ruggeri: "It's not. It's not dissolving. Just to clarify." and "It would just be the Claremont board at that point, but it would still be the same. Six." (0:35:20, 0:35:27). Crawford recalls a ten-year review rule and a past Claremont review (0:35:39). Whitney and Popescu volunteer (0:36:28, 0:36:32). Kennedy: some were sealed "for like 99 years or something like that" (0:36:46). A member asks to view some sealed minutes (0:37:15). | POS OBS |
| 0:39:05 | Counsel's advice on the separation | Ruggeri reports Jim O'Shaughnessy's advice: "an MOU would be created. By the Saw board" covering liabilities, assets, support and resources, with counsel facilitating; "I think it would come to vote. I don't really know." (0:40:33). | |
| 0:42:39 | Separating Unity's IT | Bonneville: Unity is "physically wired to the high school"; new internet provider and firewall lined up; Google domain and accounts to migrate; cloud phones; the student information system moves from PowerSchool to Alma (transcript: alma), with access to old data the hard part (0:43:51); "hurry up and wait and then go 9000 miles an hour" (0:45:23). Internet must be cut over by July 1 because of E-Rate (1:00:21). | |
| 0:46:25 | Is Claremont building Unity's systems? | Rapp: "Shouldn't they be doing that. Not us." (0:46:30); "I really think a lot of this stuff should have been already happening." (0:49:07). Ruggeri: Unity cannot secure services without a clear standalone date (0:47:48); delays came from staffing shortages since the March 2025 vote (0:49:15). Kennedy: the MOU could set a rate Unity pays (0:51:13). Rapp cites Cornish's earlier withdrawal (0:55:38). | |
| 1:01:33 | Records and student services | Paper files in the basement and attic; students should not be used to sort protected records (1:02:35); some archival separation may run past July 1 (1:03:11). | |
| 1:03:31 | Unity's finances and a retiree benefit | Angell will prepare Unity's DOE-25, due September 1 for both districts (1:03:55); he has not seen Unity's accounting system ready for July 1 payroll (1:04:46). Ruggeri: a payroll firm will replace ADP (1:05:17). Runoff claims: "a couple of years ago, the SA gave health insurance benefits to an employee upon retirement" for three years (1:06:24, 1:06:50). Ruggeri: "that's not anything the board was made aware of." (1:07:12). | OBS |
| 1:07:29 | Unity's new superintendent | Ruggeri: the Unity board agreed "last night" to offer superintendent services to Forrest Ransdell, now Newport's superintendent, through SAU 109; he will also cover HR part time (1:11:52). Kennedy praises his cooperation (1:09:56). | |
| 1:12:49 | Next meeting; audits | May 14 at 6:00 kept tentatively. "The, the audits won't be done until after the separation, if I understand correctly." (1:13:12). | OBS |
Items flagged for review
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 April 9, 2026, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No minutes of this meeting are publicly reachable; the draft the May 28 agenda links cannot be opened
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes, including the movers and seconders of each motion and, since August 22, 2025, the start and end times and the name of the person who produced them, to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (here, by April 16, 2026). SAU 6's own Policy BBBH-S, §I.5.f, applies the same duty to the joint board. A two-stage search was made: this meeting's packet folder 13. SAU6 4.9.26 holds only the agenda, the notice and the TMS contract document; the next and last SAU 6 folder, 14. SAU6 5.28.26, holds an agenda and a calendar draft (MAP.md sections 300 and 304). The Claremont minutes share has never held an SAU 6 file. The May 28 agenda, created May 22, lists for approval a "4.9.26 DRAFT SAU6 Board Minutes" Google Doc, which shows a draft was written, but that document returns "not found" to this project, and the May 28 meeting itself has no minutes or recording. Graded MEDIUM under the project's rule: the meeting was noticed, packeted and recorded, and only the minutes are missing. At this meeting too the board approved no minutes, with one set from an earlier meeting deferred (0:04:36, 0:04:55). The movers and seconders for the officer elections, the agenda and adjournment are inaudible or unidentified on tape, so the minutes are the only place they could be recorded.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes within 5 business days; movers and seconders; start and end time); 5-28-26 SAU6 Board Agenda (links the 4.9.26 draft); 14. SAU6 5.28.26
OBSERVATION A fourth TMSolution contract was signed by staff without the board's knowledge, and the operational review the board bought in September had not begun
The packet document holds three TMSolution contracts under one DocuSign envelope: superintendent mentorship at $1,500 a month through June 30, 2026, communications at $155 an hour through June 30, and an operational review at $175 an hour "up to a maximum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000)" whose stated goal is "to identify what happened, what went wrong, and how to prevent it from ever happening again" and which carries no end date. On tape the chair read from a fourth section, human-resources mentoring at $1,500 a month, signed March 27, 2026 (0:21:30), which is not in the packet document; he said the board never discussed it (0:21:30, 0:29:16), and the interim business administrator said he signed it after it reached his desk "in the last couple of weeks" (0:15:43, 0:16:07). Separately, the mentorship contract requires the mentor to "Meet with the interim superintendent a minimum of twice per week" (contract text), while the interim superintendent said "I meet weekly with my mentor" (0:15:10). Seven months after signing, members said the review had not started (0:18:00, 0:18:57). No statute or SAU 6 policy on contracting authority was verified for this page, so this is an observation: it records an executed contract the governing board says it never saw, and a paid review that had not begun. The board left the three original services running and asked the vice chair to clarify the review (0:31:44).
Sources: Complete_with_Docusign_20250912-Claremont-CO.pdf (packet copy of the three TMS contracts); Dialogue/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.CSV
OBSERVATION Compensation commitments reached the board after the fact: a stipend, a retiree's health benefit, and no answer to when the board must approve
Two agenda items were printed as votes ("Vote on Stipend", "Vote on AP/payroll"), but the chair ruled them executive decisions reported "for transparency" (0:09:07). A $3,000 stipend had been offered to an employee who left within weeks (0:11:12). Asked "Under what circumstances would a stipend come before the board for approval?", the interim business administrator said "I don't have an answer for you on that" and called it a legal or board question (0:11:39, 0:11:46). Later he disclosed that "a couple of years ago" the SAU granted an employee health insurance for three years after retirement (1:06:24, 1:06:50), and the chair said "that's not anything the board was made aware of" (1:07:12). That obligation runs past June 30 and must now be funded in the separation agreement. No SAU 6 compensation or stipend policy was verified for this page; the Claremont board asked for a future agenda item on stipend policy the week before (see the April 1 page).
Sources: 4.9.26 SAU6 Board Agenda; Dialogue/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.CSV
OBSERVATION Is SAU 6 dissolving? The chair says no, on the record
A member asked for the sealed-minutes item "Because the saw is dissolving" (0:34:47); the chair answered "It's not. It's not dissolving. Just to clarify." and "It would just be the Claremont board at that point" (0:35:20, 0:35:27). Earlier in the meeting the speaker labeled as the chair had used the same word himself (0:23:25), and the Claremont staff report of March 27, 2026, prepared by the interim business administrator, says "It is anticipated at this time that SAU 6 will dissolve as a legal separate entity from the Claremont School District." The only legal mechanism any document in the record identifies is Unity's withdrawal from the SAU under RSA 194-C:2, IV, effective July 1, 2026. This page reports each statement as made and does not adopt either characterization in its own voice.
Sources: RSA 194-C:2, IV (withdrawal of a district from an SAU); Staff Report - Employee Benefits.pdf (March 27, 2026)
OBSERVATION Nine months into the year, SAU 6 had no opening balance and its trial balances had not gone to the auditors
Asked for the SAU's starting number for the fiscal year, the interim business administrator said he still had to prepare SAU 6's trial balances and send them to the auditors, who already had Claremont's and Unity's (0:06:54). The chair expected the audits only "after the separation" (1:13:12). The finance report itself was given orally and does not appear in the packet; its first revenue figure is garbled in the transcript (0:05:41). New Hampshire school districts and SAUs report under GAAP (Rev 1102.03), and audited governmental-fund statements begin from the prior year's ending fund balance; until SAU 6's trial balances reach the auditors, neither the board nor the public has an audited starting position for the SAU's final two-district year. No filing deadline for the SAU's own audit was verified for this date, so the point is recorded as an observation.
Sources: Rev 1102.03 (NH school districts follow GAAP)
POSITIVE The board set two members, one from each district, to review every sealed SAU 6 nonpublic minute for release
At a member's request the board took up the agenda item "Discussion on making non-public meeting minutes public" and named Ms. Whitney and Ms. Popescu to go through all sealed SAU 6 nonpublic minutes with counsel (0:36:35), with the stated aim that "Even if they're redacted on some level. Whatever we can do is what we should do." (0:35:15). RSA 91-A:3, IV, added in 2023, lets a body adopt a review procedure and requires review of a seal no more than ten years after the vote that imposed it, with older unreviewed seals released by operation of law; a voluntary review of every sealed minute before the SAU's membership changes goes beyond that minimum. The interim superintendent's remark that some seals ran "for like 99 years" (0:36:46) is the kind of seal the 2023 amendment targets. No vote was taken, and the outcome is not in this record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III and IV (sealed minutes; review procedure and ten-year review, 2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023)
POSITIVE Officers were confirmed by a recorded vote rather than left to succession by default
The chair seat had passed to the vice chair when the previous chair left her board. Ruggeri put his own continuation and the vice chair to a vote "to formalize that with a vote at a meeting" (0:01:32, 0:02:25, 0:03:09), so the joint board's officers for the last three months of the SAU's two-district form rest on an action taken in open session. The record would be stronger with a call for nays on the first vote and named seconders, which only minutes could now supply (see flag 1).
Sources: Dialogue/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.CSV; 4.9.26 SAU6 Board Agenda (Organization of the Board)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU 6 - Board Meeting 4/9/26 (show 17307)
- Drive folder: 13. SAU6 4.9.26 (3 documents per MAP.md, in the SAU 6 Schoolboard Packets; folder created April 8, 2026):
- Minutes: none reachable. Searched in two stages: this meeting's folder and the later
14. SAU6 5.28.26 folder, plus a Drive search for SAU 6 minutes created after April 9, 2026. The May 28 agenda's link to "4.9.26 DRAFT SAU6 Board Minutes" returned "not found" on 2026-10-03.
- Other documents read:
5-28-26 SAU6 Board Agenda; Staff Report - Employee Benefits.pdf (Claremont 4/1/26 packet).
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, Public Hearing & Meeting, April 1, 2026; Claremont School Board, Superintendent Candidate Interview (Broderick), April 6, 2026.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.CSV (402 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/17307 SAU6040926.mp4Input/Transcripts/17307 SAU6040926.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 300
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II (as amended 2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025): minutes contents and five-business-day availability
- RSA 91-A:3, III and IV (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023): sealed nonpublic minutes and their review
- RSA 194-C:2, IV: withdrawal of a district from an SAU
- Rev 1102.03: GAAP hierarchy for NH school districts
- District rules: SAU 6 Policy BBBH-S, §I.5.f (joint-board minutes under RSA 91-A).