Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and its per-meeting attribution report; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Where the recording gives only a first name, the page does too, and surnames that come only from the project roster or from a single ASR rendering are marked. Members are listed first, then staff, then members of the public.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Richard Seaman | Chair | Presided. Addressed only as Richard; surname from the project roster (medium confidence), supported by his references to busing in his own Vermont districts. Urged residents to vote; pushed for a recommended tuition rate; directed that renovation payments be held until March 18. |
| Rebecca (Becky) Ferland | Board member | Moved approval of the February 18 minutes; recalled Cornish students leaving for Windsor's new high school; agreed to serve on the ribbon-cutting committee; thanked the renovation team. |
| Bob | Board member | First name only. The roll call's single audible name is heard as Robert Peacock, a surname the attribution report marks unverified. Abstained on the February 18 minutes; moved acceptance of the principal's resignation; asked for mailed packets and monthly financial statements. |
| John | Board member | First name only. Pointed out the field trip was not on the agenda; raised busing tuition students from Unity and Cornish; calculated that at a $13,000 rate "We need 68 students to pay for our bond." |
| Richard (surname unverified) | Board member; candidate | A second member named Richard. A public commenter calls him Richard Madigan in the ASR (1:07:16); the surname is unverified. Said he had served a one-year term and was running again; argued against paying the renovation contractor early. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the March 2015 annual report and a communications plan; proposed lowering tuition; reported the Bluff principal search timeline; offered to write a short public note on the budget. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Introduced as Michael Neil. Presented two tuition calculations from the DOE-25 figures and enrollment history. |
| Cory LeClair | SAU 6 administrator | Title not stated on this recording. Described how sending towns cap what they pay; suggested the board walk through the high school before the renovation is closed out. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk / recording secretary | Called the roll; surname from the project roster. |
| David Putnam | Former board member; renovation liaison; Ward 2 | Spoke in citizens' comments to endorse candidate Neal Ward; reported on the Stevens High School renovation close-out and proposed a ribbon-cutting committee. |
| Neal Ward | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; school board candidate | Introduced himself as a candidate and retired dentist; spoke again in the candidates' item. First-name spelling unverified. |
| Ruth Ramjet | Citizens' comments; Stevens High School Youth and Government Club | Asked permission for the club's trip to the YMCA Youth and Government program in Concord. Name as the transcription heard it; spelling unverified. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. The chair says "We do have an agenda that was sent out", so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:01 | Call to order; roll call | Roll call not audible by name beyond one garbled name. |
| 0:00:47 | Agenda | Approved as presented by voice vote. |
| 0:01:02 | Minutes of February 18 | Approved (motion Ferland, second Richard); Bob abstained. |
| 0:04:02 | Student representative; superintendent's report | No student representative present. Annual report of March 2015; communications plan; educator effectiveness pilot. |
| 0:12:02 | Citizens' comments | Three speakers: Neal Ward, David Putnam, Ruth Ramjet. The field trip request was deferred to a March 18 action item. |
| 0:20:16 | Action: resignation of the Bluff Elementary principal | Accepted with regret (motion Bob, second Richard), voice vote. |
| 0:21:18 | Action: tuition rates | Discussion only; more information requested for March 18. |
| 1:02:54 | Discussion: school board candidates introduce themselves | Neal Ward and member Richard spoke. |
| 1:08:04 | Discussion: Stevens High School renovation update | Report by David Putnam. Chair directed that payments be held pending a March 18 update; ribbon-cutting committee proposed. |
| 1:27:38 | Discussion: Bluff Elementary principal search timeline | Informational. |
| 1:30:54 | Discussion: 2015-16 budget | Superintendent's proposed public note; no vote. |
| 1:33:09 | Other: board packets and financial statements | Agreed to resume monthly financial statements and to send documents as PDFs. |
| 1:37:31 | Adjournment | Voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:13 | Roll call; agenda; minutes | The roll is heard as Robert Peacock followed by "Present here. Here, here, here." The chair reported that State Rep. Andrew O'Hearn (name as heard) was held in Concord. Agenda approved; February 18 minutes approved, "Bob abstains." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:51 | Election reminder | The chair gave polling places for "next Tuesday" and said: "So please do come out and vote." He noted "a number of candidates that are applying for open seats on the board". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:58 | Superintendent's report | He proposed "an ongoing effort to provide accurate, timely and regularly scheduled release of information", citing "quite a bit of misinformation about our budget": "full day kindergarten did not cause the budget to increase. In fact, our budget next year is a little under $15,000 less than this year." He also reported plans for an educator effectiveness model "per the Elementary Secondary Education Act flexibility waiver". | |
| 0:12:02 | Citizens' comments: candidate and endorsement | Neal Ward: "I'm a candidate for the upcoming election for school board." David Putnam followed: "So I am endorsing Neil, and." and "I urge all of the others. Who vote to consider him." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:08 | Citizens' comments: Youth and Government trip | A student asked "permission to take the youth and government delegation to Concord" (dates corrected to April 10 and 11). The superintendent endorsed it. John: "This isn't on the agenda." The chair: "why don't we look then to to put it on the agenda as an action item for the 18th of March" and "We just need to properly worn it" [warn it]. | POSITIVE |
| 0:20:16 | Bluff principal resigns | The principal (name heard as Aaron Cinco. Manny Cinco) was leaving for a Lebanon elementary school after two years. Accepted with regret. | |
| 0:22:00 | Tuition rate calculations | O'Neill: the current method "mirrors the Doe 25" using FY13-14 high school expenditures; an adjusted method removes costs charged separately (one-to-one aides, transportation, tuitions), which "basically comes out about a 9% reduction". The chair's estimate of the current rate: "17,000 and something"; the superintendent later calls it our 187. | |
| 0:30:50 | Why lower tuition? | Superintendent: "Newport was 15,000. They dropped a 135." A lower rate might bring 10 or 15 students and "the revenue be over $100,000". The chair: "18 seems to be out of the market and hurting us". He modelled "3030 students at 15,000 is going to give us $450,000 of revenue." | |
| 0:52:41 | Demand and enrollment | The superintendent said three parents had asked him for tuition waivers in four years and "I feel our 187 is pushing away." O'Neill: high school enrollment fell from about 697 in 2004-05 to 528 in 2013-14. The chair: "we are receiving $630,000 of tuition. And that is basically a dollar on our tax rate." | |
| 1:02:30 | Bond payment | O'Neill gave the bond payment as 895,000; John: "13,000 tuition rate. We need 68 students to pay for our bond." The chair asked for tuition-student counts for March 18. | |
| 1:02:54 | Candidates introduce themselves | The chair invited Neal Ward, then member Richard: "Richard, I believe you are running and would you like an opportunity to speak?" Richard: "I've had a one year term just about getting my feet wet" and cited the 1983 report he called "Nation at Risk". Ward returned: "I agree a lot with Richard Madigan and what he's saying." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:08:07 | Stevens High School renovation | Putnam relayed the owner's representative's view that about "$104,000 in value left to complete" means "we are 99% done with the project", with about half of a retained 534 [thousand] still to be paid, and "a 100% performance and payment bond with Trumbull Nelson". Richard: "I'm not interested in giving them a dime until the project is the way I want it to be." | POSITIVE |
| 1:17:25 | Payments held | The chair: "I'd like to hold any payments until we get an update at our board meeting on the 18th of March," and asked that the owner's representative attend, so as not to "reduce what, in effect is our leverage". Putnam said the contract's completion date was in April. LeClair suggested members walk the building together first. | POSITIVE |
| 1:26:16 | Ribbon cutting | Putnam proposed a steering committee of 4 to 6 people and said the governor had agreed to attend. Ferland agreed to serve. | |
| 1:27:43 | Bluff principal search | Superintendent: the timeline "It's aggressive. It's ambitious", with parent and faculty forums; board involvement toward the end of April. | |
| 1:30:57 | Budget communication | The superintendent offered a short public note because "there is a perception that the budget is out of control" and said the default budget grows relative to a budget that has been cut over time. The chair agreed. | |
| 1:33:09 | Packets and financial statements | Bob asked for mailed packets and "once a month financial statement, which I only see twice since I've been on the board." The chair: "the last time that we received it consistently was when Alan was the business officer." O'Neill agreed they should be received. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:37:02 | Vote reminder; adjournment | Polls open 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on March 10; adjourned by voice vote. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on March 4, 2015. Several provisions cited below were later amended or enacted later, and each flag says which text applies. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. 5 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Six days before the election, a candidate and an endorsement were heard in citizens' comments and a sitting member campaigned from the table
In citizens' comments (0:12:02) candidate Neal Ward introduced himself, and former member David Putnam, who later presented the renovation report as the district's liaison, said "So I am endorsing Neil, and." The agenda then carried an item for "school board candidates to introduce themselves" (1:02:54), in which the chair invited both Ward and member Richard, who was running for his own seat. The chair also urged residents to vote, without naming anyone. No rule verified for 2015 bars any of this: RSA 659:44-a, which forbids a "public employee, as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX" to electioneer while on duty, took effect only on January 1, 2017, and RSA 273-A:1, IX(a) excludes "Persons elected by popular vote" in any case. The point for a reader is fairness between candidates: the recording does not show whether every candidate for the open seats was told of the opportunity.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a (source note "2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017"; not in force in 2015); RSA 273-A:1, IX (source note ends 2014).
OBSERVATION A member said the board had received monthly financial statements only twice during his tenure
At 1:33:09 Bob asked for "once a month financial statement, which I only see twice since I've been on the board", calling it "my responsibility as a board member". The chair said the last time the board "received it consistently was when Alan was the business officer", and the business administrator agreed the board "should be receiving it" (1:35:33). A governing board that approves the budget and orders payments cannot monitor spending without periodic reports. This page did not verify a New Hampshire statute or state rule setting a frequency for such reports to a school board in 2015, so this is an observation; district policy may set one, and none is available online.
Sources: No statute verified; this is an observation from the recording.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are posted online, and the roll call is not audible
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the board approves its February 18 minutes on this recording (0:01:02), two weeks after that meeting. In 2015, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to include "names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions" and to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". Because the roll call is heard as one garbled name and Here, here, here., who attended is inferred from who speaks; the minutes would settle it. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2008); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 2.
POSITIVE The board declined to act on a request that was not on the agenda and scheduled it as an action item instead
When a student asked in citizens' comments for approval of the Youth and Government trip, the superintendent endorsed it, but a member noted "This isn't on the agenda." (0:18:59) and the chair moved it to "an action item for the 18th of March", telling the student "We just need to properly worn it" [warn it] (0:19:40). The trip was weeks away, so nothing was lost. In 2015 RSA 91-A:2, II required notice of "the time and place" of a meeting, not a subject list, so acting that night would not plainly have breached the statute; keeping action to noticed items is a practice that exceeds the legal minimum and lets the public know in advance what will be decided.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification).
POSITIVE The board held further renovation payments until it could review the punch list in public
The renovation report (1:08:07) said the project was "99% done", that the owner's representative recommended paying down about half of the retained balance, and that a performance and payment bond stood behind the work. Two members objected to releasing money before the punch list was finished, and the chair directed: "I'd like to hold any payments until we get an update at our board meeting on the 18th of March" (1:17:25), asking that the owner's representative attend so members could "ask the questions necessary". Keeping the retainage as leverage until the board has heard the evidence in open session is good control practice. The page does not know what was paid after March 18; that is for the next meeting's record.
Sources: No statute cited; good-governance practice observed on the recording.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 7408, "CLAREMONT SCHOOL BOARD 3/4": Claremont Community TV. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet, tuition worksheet, renovation report or minutes were located.
- Related pages: January 21, 2015 (the previous recorded meeting) and January 9, 2016 (the next recording in the archive).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/7408 SchoolBoard030415.mp4.CSV (563 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/7408 SchoolBoard030415.mp4Input/Transcripts/7408 SchoolBoard030415.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/7408 SchoolBoard030415.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 2
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on March 4, 2015. RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; 2015 codification). RSA 273-A:1, IX (definition of public employee).
- Not in force on this date; cited to show it does not apply. RSA 659:44-a (electioneering by public employees; eff. January 1, 2017).