Claremont School Board, September 2, 2026: Athletics handbooks
A 22-minute Cablecast show that carries only the board's handling of the two athletics handbooks at its September 2, 2026 meeting. The players' handbook motion was withdrawn and the handbook sent back for revision; the coaches' handbook was voted down; the superintendent disclosed an athletics checking account holding over $20,000 that he plans to change. The same passage sits inside the full-meeting recording (show 17566), which has its own page. Built from this show's dialogue transcript, the agenda, the draft minutes and the two handbook drafts in the packet. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording of this excerpt.
Body
Claremont School Board (Claremont School District, SAU 6)
Date
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Start time
Agenda: 6:30 p.m. for the meeting; the handbooks were agenda item V.3, scheduled within the 7:30 p.m. discussion block. This excerpt begins 2 hours 18 minutes into the full recording (show 17566): every aligned row pair across the two transcripts sits about 8,296 seconds apart. The full recording begins at the call to order and reaches the nonpublic roll call 3 hours 13 minutes in, which the minutes time at 9:43 p.m.; on that arithmetic this passage ran from about 8:48 p.m. to about 9:11 p.m.
Location
Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont (agenda and minutes). Audio carried on CCTV Channel 8.
Recording
Cablecast: Claremont School Board -Athlete's Handbook Discussion - 9/2/26 (show 17575, title reproduced as the gallery gives it). The Cablecast API refuses this environment, so the extent is taken from the last dialogue row, which ends at 0:22:42; MAP.md records the show as 22:44. It opens on Loren Howard's motion and ends on the coaches' handbook vote.
Minutes
Draft only: 9.2.26 DRAFT CSB Minutes.docx (2027 Meeting Minutes folder, created September 9, 2026); PDF copy 9.2.26 DRAFT CSB Minutes.docx.pdf in the September 16 packet. No approved version had been located as of 2026-10-03. Update (2026-10-23): the same file is now titled 9.2.26 Approved CSB Minutes.docx in the 2027 Meeting Minutes folder (open); the approved text was not re-read for this page.
Board composition
Seven members, all present per the nonpublic-session minutes of the same night: Candace Crawford (chair), Michael Petrin (vice chair), Loren Howard, Don Lavalette, William Madden, Brian Rapp, Heather Whitney. Madden is not heard in this excerpt.
Participants
Everyone heard in this excerpt, plus members present but silent. Spellings follow the agenda and draft minutes. Where the dialogue file's label differs from the minutes, the row says so.
Name
Role
Participation
Candace Crawford
Chair
Calls for seconds and runs both items. Asks whether it is "fair to say the consensus of the board that this needs a lot more work" on the players' handbook (0:10:09), asks members to send their notes to the superintendent (0:11:17), and calls the coaches' handbook vote (0:22:20).
Loren Howard
Member; Policy Subcommittee chair
Moves the players' handbook, asking that it "is not in Comic Sans next time" (0:00:00, 0:00:21); withdraws the motion after Lavalette's critique, calling the omission of Unified sports "very disrespectful" (0:06:22, 0:10:07).
Michael Petrin
Vice chair
Seconds the players' handbook motion (0:00:34) and, per the minutes, withdraws the second. The full-meeting transcript (show 17566) labels the same Second as Brian Rapp; the minutes name Petrin, and this page follows the minutes.
Don Lavalette
Member; Policy Subcommittee
Reads a section-by-section critique of the players' handbook (0:00:44 to 0:09:08) and of the coaches' handbook (0:13:31 to 0:19:31); seconds the coaches' handbook motion "just so I can go through my list" (0:12:21); offers to help the athletic director revise both (0:22:05).
Brian Rapp
Member
Questions the handbook's mouth-guard rule against the state athletic association's requirements (0:09:22); says "No need to pile on" when the chair asks for more corrections (0:19:57).
Heather Whitney
Member
Asks for a leadership component and uniform criteria in choosing team captains (0:10:28, 0:10:54); moves the coaches' handbook (0:12:14) and lists three gaps: no coach evaluation process, no statement of what coaches can expect of the athletic director, and the athletic director's reporting line (0:12:37, 0:13:02).
Dr. Timothy Broadrick
Superintendent, SAU 6
Discloses, ahead of a fuller report, that principals hold their own checking accounts and that an athletics checking account with a balance "over $20,000 at the beginning of the year to pay game officials" has the athletic director, the Stevens principal and assistant principals as signatories; says he will change it (0:19:59 to 0:21:44).
William Madden
Member
Present per the nonpublic-session minutes; not heard in this excerpt.
Noelle Kronberg
School Board Clerk
Present (named in the minutes); not heard in this excerpt.
Unidentified
Board member at the table
One short remark, "No, I think why?" (0:19:55); the full-meeting transcript labels it Michael Petrin, which the recording alone does not settle.
Agenda
The two agenda items this excerpt covers, from the posted agenda (item V.3, "Handbooks"). The rest of the meeting is on the full-meeting page.
Agenda: "Athletics Handbook - Players". Howard moved approval (0:00:21); Petrin seconded (0:00:34, named in the minutes). After critiques from Lavalette, Rapp and Whitney, Howard withdrew the motion (0:06:22, confirmed at 0:10:07) and the second was withdrawn (0:10:09). No vote. The minutes record "Board consent to send this back for further work" (minutes text).
Agenda: "Athletics Handbook - Coaches". Whitney moved approval of "the coaching handbook for 2627" (0:12:14); Lavalette seconded (0:12:21). Voice vote at 0:22:20: the chair calls for ayes, then nays, and hears "nay, nay, nay. I think that is overwhelming." The minutes record "Voice vote taken, all present voting in opposition" and that the motion failed (minutes text).
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from this show's dialogue transcript (Dialogue/17575 SchoolBoardAthleticsHandbook090226.mp4.CSV) and link into this excerpt's recording. Add about 2 hours 18 minutes (8,296 seconds) to find the same moment in the full recording.
Howard: "I'd like to make a motion to approve the athletics handbook for player and coaches." At Lavalette's request the two are taken separately, players first (0:00:21); the chair asks for a second "for discussion" (0:00:29).
Lavalette: "Yet there's no mention of unified sports. Why." (0:01:08). He notes the eligibility rules speak of quarters although the middle school "doesn't use quarters" (0:01:41), and that several sections name only Stevens. The handbook's sports list (packet copy) names no Unified team.
On the handbook's statement that team limits result from factors including tradition: "When you say tradition, use plays a part in the selection of athletes. That's to me that's a red flag" (0:03:02, 0:03:21). He asks whether a booster club exists (0:03:43, 0:04:10).
He finds a reference to "a violation of the code" with no code named, and "an appeals committee" he cannot identify: "I'm on a school board and I have no idea." (0:05:10, 0:05:33). He asks that community-service hours be set so they are equitable, and that bullying consequences "should mirror our bullying policy period" (0:06:53, 0:07:26).
Howard: "I'm going to withdraw my motion. I think I think these are great notes that should really be sent to them and really corrected." He calls the Unified omission "very disrespectful".
Lavalette: "unified athletes should get a letter. And if you're against that, tell me why." He notes the injury data cite 1985 to 1994 and asks for current figures with a source (0:08:47), and reports the Final Forms link "broken for Stevens" (0:09:08).
Rapp reads the handbook's rule that, "in accordance with NHIAA by-laws," athletes in soccer, football, field hockey, lacrosse and basketball must wear mouth guards (handbook text), and says "NHL [NHIAA] does not have a requirement for soccer. It's recommended. I believe basketball as well."
Chair: "is it fair to say the consensus of the board that this needs a lot more work". Whitney asks for a leadership component and a common method of choosing captains (0:10:28, 0:10:54); members are to send notes to the superintendent (0:11:17).
Whitney moves; Lavalette seconds "just so I can go through my list" (0:12:21). Whitney: "There's no information at all about how coaches are evaluated when they are and whether or not there's a rubric to evaluate." (0:12:37); she asks who the athletic director reports to (0:13:02).
He notes the foreword names only Stevens, a list of "14 legal duties of a coach" with no source (0:13:31, 0:13:54), an incomplete emergency phone number (0:15:18), a travel dress code for athletes (0:15:47, 0:16:10), and a sentence that "many times this transportation cost must come from student activity funds" (0:16:30), which he calls "a red flag".
On overnight travel approved by the athletic director: "there's nothing in here that the school board has to approve an overnight trip". He says the school-rules section "comes across as district policy" with no matching policy (0:17:55, 0:18:23), asks that the harassment and bullying policy be referenced, and points to inconsistent letter-award rules (0:18:45, 0:19:13).
Broadrick, tying it to the audit corrective actions: student activity funds "are fine" but need rules; "Each principal also has a checking account, a principals account. That's probably going to have to go away" (0:20:30). "there is an athletics checking account that the athletic director, the principal at Stevens and the assistant principals at Stevens have been signatories on. And that checking account carries a five figure balance. Five over $20,000 at the beginning of the year to pay game officials." (0:20:53). "This is not how most schools do this anymore, so I'm going to be changing it." He adds that the account is why he could recall the policy line "about members of the same immediate family so quickly, because actually, that is the case right now." (0:21:21).
Chair: "all those opposed say nay, nay, nay. I think that is overwhelming." No aye is audible on this transcript. The draft minutes record the motion as failed with all present opposed.
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 September 2, 2026, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM An athletics checking account of over $20,000, signed on by school staff, sits outside the treasurer's books
At 0:20:53 the superintendent described an athletics checking account, used to pay game officials, holding more than $20,000 at the start of the year, with the athletic director, the Stevens principal and the Stevens assistant principals as signatories, plus a separate checking account held by each principal (0:20:30). He linked it to a policy line on members of the same immediate family handling parts of one purchasing action and said "that is the case right now" (0:21:21). Paying game officials is an ordinary district expense. If the account holds district money, RSA 197:23-a puts all money belonging to the district in the treasurer's custody, paid out only on the school board's orders or those of two or more members the board empowers; an account drawn on by building staff sits outside that chain. If instead the account holds student-raised money, GASB 84 still treats funds the district controls as district (governmental) activity, not fiduciary money held for others, so it belongs in the district's books either way. The district's own draft FY22 corrective-action plan lists finding 2022-012, "Student Activity Fund Maintenance (Material Weakness)", and promises a policy by June 30, 2027 (packet document). Mitigation stated on tape: the superintendent raised the account himself, said he will change it and will report in detail; he said he does not plan to act immediately this year. The record does not show the account's funding source, its bank, or the family relationship he alluded to. That is what a reviewer would need.
OBSERVATION The coaches' handbook vote is recorded only as a chorus of nays
At 0:22:20 the chair calls the ayes and the nays together in one breath and closes with "I think that is overwhelming." No aye and no count is audible, and the chair never announces that the motion failed. The draft minutes fill the gap: "Voice vote taken, all present voting in opposition" (minutes text). The outcome is not in doubt, but the recording alone would not let a viewer say what the board decided. A stated result (the motion fails, with the count) is the cheap fix. No statute requires a chair to announce a result aloud; RSA 91-A:2, II requires final decisions to be in the minutes, and here they are.
OBSERVATION Both handbook drafts stated rules the board could not trace to policy or to the governing body's rules
Members found statements in the drafts that cite no source or conflict with board policy: a mouth-guard rule attributed to "NHIAA by-laws" for soccer and basketball, which Rapp says the association only recommends (0:09:22); no Unified sports team in the sports list (0:01:08); an unnamed "appeals committee" (0:05:33); overnight trips approved by the athletic director with no board approval (0:17:32); a school-rules section that "comes across as district policy" with no policy behind it (0:17:55); and transportation to non-playing events charged to student activity funds (0:16:30). The packet copy of the players' handbook carries the mouth-guard sentence as Rapp read it and lists no Unified team. This page did not verify the association's by-laws or the board's field-trip policy; whether each statement is wrong is for the revision to settle. The board did not adopt either document, so none of these took effect through this meeting.
POSITIVE The board read both handbooks line by line in public and declined to approve them as drafted
Rather than approving the documents on a motion, members put written critiques on the record (0:00:44 to 0:09:08, 0:12:37, 0:13:31 to 0:19:31), the mover withdrew the players' motion on the merits (0:06:22), and the board voted the coaches' handbook down (0:22:20). Lavalette offered to help the athletic director with the rewrite (0:22:05), and the superintendent volunteered a control problem in the athletics accounts before he had full information (0:19:59), saying he should "disclose things to you as I learn about them" (0:21:44). No law requires a board to approve handbooks at all; the point here is practice, not compliance.