| 0:00:11 | Forum opens | The chair says the board "thought it would be helpful to have a forum. An information forum about HB 1300." and that she has "received questions from the public about trying to understand what the vote means". She has asked the superintendent for slides; board comments come first, then the public (0:00:46). | |
| 0:01:20 | Superintendent's explainer | Calls his task "challenging but strictly factual". The question would cap growth of the school tax levy "for the next two years" and limit central-office spending; it needs a 3/5 vote (0:02:37). On the wording: "It is dictated by the RSA. So this language, the language of the ballot question, is not up to somebody either associated with the school department or in the city to decide how to phrase". Formula: last year's levy plus Northeast CPI plus net new construction (0:03:44); the capital lease and bond are excluded (0:06:45); central office capped at 6 percent, where Claremont is at "roughly 5.5% is my estimate". Health care is "$7.2 million. I think it is against a $42 million budget"; electricity is "up a modest 26%". A budget above the cap would need a 3/5 vote (0:10:23). | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:11:09 | Chair's added information | It is "two questions in one statement": a yes vote is yes to both (0:12:10). Payroll totals 377 people (0:13:08); she lists the SAU office's staffing, including one HR person who "hired 75 people this summer". Of about $750,000 for energy, "about 330,000 is electricity", which is going up; the transcript renders the percentage 2,020% (0:15:55). The education share of her own tax bill is 53% (0:17:09; transcript: "and you can see it's 50, 53%"). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:18:16 | Board members defer | Asked for board comments, a member replies "It's on the meeting agenda." and another says "I'm more interested in hearing." The chair opens the floor with three-minute turns (0:18:35). | |
| 0:19:12 | Chris Cogswell (Ward 3) | Proposes raising taxes on "the very wealthy and corporations who right now only pay 16% of the total taxes raised in New Hampshire". Removing the whole SAU administrative budget "would be about $1.72 million", while health insurance increases added "$1.22 million in spending" last cycle. | |
| 0:22:48 | Kevin Tyson (Ward 2) | Says he reviewed "314 of your recorded meetings" and the packets against state and federal rules: "The good news is you're not bad, you're inept". "We need HB 1300 because you guys need guardrails." Says the organization "is basically operating as an oligarchy". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:26:04 | Rep. John Cloutier (Ward 1) | Asks "how would the district meet its legally mandated special education obligations if these costs increased substantially. But revenues are constrained by the cap." Federal special education funding was promised at 40 percent (0:27:04). | |
| 0:28:21 | Mark Chamberlain (Ward 1) | "$40 million times 3.6% is $1.4 million"; about $8 million of costs at 15 percent growth is "1.2 million of basically uncontrollable costs", so a 3 percent teacher raise of about $400,000 puts the budget over the cap (0:29:56, 0:30:22). | |
| 0:30:52 | Sam Deering | From his Navy diesel maintenance work: "the longer you put off maintenance, the more expensive it gets"; "I think this puts a lot of that at risk". | |
| 0:32:02 | Benjamin Nelson (Ward 2) | "We show up, we check your work, and we approve it or we disapprove it." He opposes bundling: "I believe in a system where it had one question, one vote." | |
| 0:33:43 | Rep. Wayne Hemingway (Ward 1) | Says the chair called to ask whether he voted for HB 1300: "I told her, yes, I did." He speaks "in support of the local control and the right of citizens of Claremont to make this decision for themselves", and of the district's information: "which I think you did a fair job about". | |
| 0:36:55 | Gary Merchant (Ward 2) | Gives reasons to vote no. Claremont voters rejected a cap last March "1345 to 560, 70 to 30"; "The formula is confusing. The ballot language is difficult to understand." County taxes rose "about 48%" over five years. Asks how much of the budget comes from state and federal funding (0:39:58). | |
| 0:40:51 | Emily Sandblade (Ward 3) | October census fell "from 1923 students to just 1338 students"; "That comes out to 32,063 per student." Fifteen years ago it was "$15,111 per student". Of past administrations: "most of them were fired for incompetence or dishonesty". The cap is a way "to prevent the spectacular crash and burn that we saw last year". | |
| 0:44:03 | Tom Luther (Ward 1) | "we might not be the dumpster fire that we've been witnessing" had a cap existed 10 to 15 years ago; "we need guardrails on this so that we don't make this mistake again". | |
| 0:46:33 | Rep. Hope Damon | Sits on the House Education Funding Committee, where the bill was heard (0:47:00). It is "perplexing, to say the least, to have two questions with only an opportunity to give one answer". "There is also a sentence in the mandatory language to go on the Warren article that was not included in the slide here, which says that there will not be classroom effects from this." In her view, "There are almost certainly going to be classroom effects." The November vote comes before next year's budget exists (0:49:30). | MEDIUM |
| 0:50:32 | Second round: Tyson | Says the March warrant article was posted "as an image PDF" and its item four "was gibberish": "So you guys signed a legally binding document that you didn't read." The chair answers that the article "was submitted by a member of the public. It was not put forth by the school board." | |
| 0:52:35 | Second round: Merchant | Asks about the revenue side if state or federal funding falls (0:53:07); worries that sports, band and electives are what is left to cut (0:53:57, 0:54:21). | |
| 0:54:50 | Second round: Cogswell | Of New Hampshire GDP, "It's gone way up 25%"; of Sullivan County real income, "it's gone down $17,000 a household". Asks the board for "our list of items to cut from the school budget" before the vote. | |
| 0:57:08 | Second round: Damon | New Hampshire is "the only state in the country that funds our public education system, 70% from local property taxes"; "This measure doesn't lower property taxes." | |
| 0:59:37 | Call to order and roll call | Pledge at 0:59:56. Roll call at 1:00:59: six members answer; Howard's name gets no answer. | |
| 1:01:09 | Minutes of September 16 and October 7 | Lavalette asks the clerk to replace "Navy with Army", to add that Mrs. Morris manages Frontline (1:01:52), and to fix the attribution of a Howard question (1:02:14); he says the September 2 minutes still lack earlier changes (1:02:49). Approved "with the changes" without a motion or vote. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:03:11 | Manifests out of the binders | The chair asks whether manifests belong in the printed packet, since "People see them in the packet and then they go into the saw office and to sign". Madden wants them "distributed electronically", the signed cover sheet afterward, and "a reasonable amount of time before we need to write checks so that we can ask meaningful questions". Electronic signatures are in development with no target date (1:05:12 to 1:05:34). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:06:08 | Citizens' comment: Rachel Nagler (Ward 2) | A mental health clinician and parent, she asks the board not to place "children with neurological processing disabilities" in the same category as behaviorally non-compliant students, and objects to a member's remark at the last meeting (1:07:34): "behavior is communication to them. You cannot lump them together." She asks to submit a written letter (1:09:25). | |
| 1:09:40 | Citizens' comment: Tom Luther | As a Riverview charter school board member, thanks the superintendent: special education support "has made a difference in their operation of running the school". | |
| 1:10:51 | Student report | Homecoming and pep rally; the SATs "got moved due to lack of proctors"; class fundraisers, theater, band, fall sports records and clubs (1:11:53 to 1:13:25). Lavalette suggests a board representative on the student side (1:14:13). | |
| 1:14:46 | Treasurer's report | Diamond met with the business administrator about "these electronic payments that are going through that are not being seen by the board. They're not being seen by me." "And so she's going to address that." | MEDIUM |
| 1:15:22 | First-quarter budget-to-actual report | Taylor's one-page summary by function carries comments on variances; a line-by-line detail follows (1:17:09, 1:17:59). Whitney: "I can't count how many years we have been begging for something as simple as this." The superintendent cautions that early-year figures understate spending: "we are not going to end the year $7.9 million under budget." He says the board "has received really good advice to not trust things that are produced in Excel" and will get reports run from the iVisions accounting system (1:23:43). Madden asks to see what changes from one report to the next, and why (1:27:34 to 1:28:01). | POSITIVE |
| 1:28:27 | FY26 year-end and DOE-25 | Taylor met the Department of Education that morning, and "the auditors have provided enough of a starting trial balance for me to go ahead and go ahead and start building that". An update is hoped for at the next meeting (1:29:23). | MEDIUM |
| 1:29:43 | Curriculum and enrollment | October 1 enrollment data will be certified, "I'm supposed to certify it by Friday", with a ten-year enrollment history to follow (1:30:10). Lavalette asks whether enrollment is down six from 1,338 (1:31:07). | |
| 1:32:51 | Special education staffing | Five or six staff reassignments; a second life skills classroom at Maple Avenue for over-enrolled programs (1:32:51, 1:33:29); categorical licensing to be aligned so programs can be approved by June under the state's due diligence review (1:34:18, 1:34:43). A December 2 Parent Information Center workshop on progress monitoring, "because we are aware that we're struggling to meet all of our kids" service requirements (1:35:06, 1:35:43). | HIGH |
| 1:36:22 | HB 1099, auditor payments, Unity IT | Attaches the HB 1099 committee's final report (1:36:22); a "20 or 21 year history of every payment that's been made" to the auditors, rendered "Plaza and Sanderson"; and an update from Jason Bonneville on "the status of the IT services separation from unity". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:37:16 | Holiday cards; Right-to-Know follow-up | Cards for the Department of Education's military holiday challenge, due by November 15 (1:37:35); the Right-to-Know questions "I think I've answered those with my report tonight". | POSITIVE |
| 1:39:30 | Web pages and the athletics site | Lavalette finds the Unity site's McKinney-Vento link "takes me to a page with Courtney Porter", a Claremont employee; a Disnard handbook link shows "file removed"; the athletics link goes to a site "not part of the saw six organization" that sells spirit gear (1:41:49). The superintendent says the NHIAA requires the platform (1:43:40). Whitney's motion for a letter to the NHIAA carries unanimously (1:46:35). | |
| 1:46:40 | Lavalette's requests | A census of paraprofessionals, exit-interview questions, bus driver counts and starting pay (1:46:40, 1:47:14); the superintendent describes a "makeshift, backwards engineered" transportation wage scale and promises board-approved scales (1:48:19, 1:48:56). Proposes notifying parents each time a classroom is evacuated and reporting "loss learning time each month" to the board (1:49:30, 1:50:55). | |
| 1:51:32 | Board visits to schools | Madden asks to visit without being "run through the school"; the superintendent: "Call the principal, make an appointment. Have at it." | |
| 1:52:51 | Audit history and audit policy | Whitney, on the auditor-payment spreadsheet: "there were lots of invoices for years where audits were not done", "for instance, we didn't have audits done from 16 to 15, 16, 17, 18." She asks the Policy Subcommittee to consider a public vote on the engagement letter, a nine-month target for the audit, rotating auditors "every 3 to 5 years", and draft audits to the board (1:54:50 to 1:56:38). The superintendent: "I actually think that the submitted to the Department of Education within nine months is is actually in a law." Taylor: "we have to have it by June of the next year". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:58:54 | HB 1300 discussion: Whitney | Sees the cap as "a mechanism by which we can create guardrails"; "we've gone through four Bas in four superintendents". Recounts the FY23 budget, where the board cut $1 million and "$1 million was put back in the budget" at the deliberative session. Says the district "did not submit for reimbursement for millions of dollars in revenue". | OBSERVATION |
| 2:05:15 | Lavalette | Faults the federal delegation over IDEA funding (2:05:36, 2:06:07); "I'm not afraid of this tax cap." "So I trust the voters." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:07:05 | Crawford | "I don't think this vote is necessary." Voters already review the budget each year; "I think that's misleading." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:08:34 | Unidentified board member | "It's very dangerous to just put a blanket cap in"; "Concord needs to start funding education like the Supreme Court rulings have said that they need to". | OBSERVATION |
| 2:12:06 | Madden | "I didn't hear anybody speaking for the taxpayers." "And we had corrupt administrators." "So I think we need these guardrails." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:13:21 | Electricity contract | "a school district should not be purchasing electricity a month before its rate expires. This this is supposed to have happened about one year ago right now." The recommended price is "12.4 $0.02 per kilowatt hour" [12.42 cents] for 24 months, "26.23% more than the previous rate". A 12-month rate of 12.24 was offered (2:16:07). Moved by Lavalette (2:15:35). | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 2:16:55 | Disnard parking expansion | "Our threshold now is $20,000." Specs went to three contractors; the Disnard repair budget for the year is $40,000 (2:17:02). After a first estimate of about ten thousand and a price of 40, "The low quote we have here is $23,400." Awarded unanimously (2:19:06). The superintendent: "So what you just experienced is what should happen in school board meetings when we're procuring things like that." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:19:25 | Purchasing policies adopted | Howard absent; the chair asks whether all six could be taken together, and they are taken individually (2:20:08). Adopted: DJB with DJB-R, DJC with DJC-R, DJD, DJF and DJG (2:20:43 to 2:22:17). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:22:32 | Teacher nominations | "So the law and district policy both require that the superintendent nominate certified educators, and then the board elects or appoints." The sheet's lane, step and salary figures are "wrong in this case inadvertently"; corrected salaries "$69,477" and "66062". Approved (2:24:37). | POSITIVE |
| 2:24:42 | Emergency plans; subcommittees | Emergency operations plans go to nonpublic. Madden: the district "is way behind" on facilities; the superintendent corrects that only one inventory is done (2:26:43). Whitney asks about an end-of-life facilities plan and "a capital reserve fund" (2:26:58, 2:28:11). | |
| 2:28:56 | Nonpublic session | Roll call: Donna [Don], a garbled madam that may be Madden, then Michael, Ryan [Brian] and Heather Whitney, each answered Yes (2:29:28 to 2:29:35). The recording ends at 2:30:06. | OBSERVATION |