| 0:03:01 | Secretaries' agreement | O'Neill: "So we agreed to pay for snow days." He first says the schedule rose 3.5%, then corrects himself: "It was it was a add step in 2.5% increase." The cost to taxpayers is "$9,803.07." after a health-plan concession. Longevity now starts at five years and adds a 35-year payment; Bob asks whether it is "an annual bonus". | OBS |
| 0:07:48 | Maintenance agreement | Each step raised 5%, with "80% of the population is at the top step", offset by a health concession; net cost first given as 8900. John: "I did a negotiation with this group". Later corrected: "it's 91, not 8900." (2:02:32). | OBS |
| 0:10:07 | Administrators' agreement | A 4% increase in the salary base, a health concession, and freer use of $2,000 per member in professional-development money, including student-loan payments. Cost first stated as "$33,858." then "And I misspoke, the total cost of those 38,000, eight, 90." The superintendent: "Last year, that entire collective bargaining unit was flatlined." Motion: "within the main warrant article." | OBS |
| 0:17:20 | Paraprofessionals' agreement | Health contribution moves from 50/50 to 65/35, costing "42,002. 41." [$42,241]; added days cost 38,206; a step for everyone with no scale increase; "the total cost of that agreement is 143,449." O'Neill: the unit has "missed five years of agreements" in eight or nine. Average wage "right around $14"; the chair: "Compensation for a paraprofessional $16,372 a year." and "This is not a livable wage by any stretch of the imagination." Irish: "There is no absolutely no retroactive pay in any of these whatsoever." Bob: "I think this is a fair contract. I think it's an overdue contract". | |
| 0:29:15 | Explaining contracts to the public | Bob: "I know I'm resigning off the board here on the 19th" and asks for a public session on what the contracts contain. The chair: "72% of our budget is way our wages and benefits." and the contracts are "all online. They're all on the website." | POS |
| 0:32:00 | Budget since January 6 | The superintendent: "The budget was approximately $1 million larger than the current budget." and not sustainable; "On January 19th we're going to have a public budget hearing." The chair explains that expenses do not set the tax rate alone because revenues are uncertain. | |
| 0:39:29 | Special education budget | O'Neill first drops one requested regular-education teaching position at the high school ($73,502). Chris: special education is "net is a is a -4% over where we were last year" despite higher out-of-district costs for students who moved into Claremont already placed; without the high-school alternative program, "those out of district costs would have been up another $210,000 this year." Contracted transport runs "sometimes two $300 per run". | |
| 0:49:45 | Who pays when students move in | LeClair: for special education students "there's no recoup of money once they move to our community"; for homeless students "we are able to recoup 50%" of transportation from the sending district, sometimes with Department of Education help. Irish ties homeless numbers to the state welfare office; the chair cites a homeless rate of "11.9%. The next closest is 5.5% in Newport" and warns against stigmatizing students: "The state of New Hampshire requires an adequate education for every child." He adds "we're spending $7 million out of a $30 million budget on just this one, just this one expense line item." | |
| 1:00:12 | Identification rates | Bob relays parents' complaints about IEPs. Chris: "I think we have an over identification issue here." Claremont is "somewhere between 23 and 25%" against a state average "Somewhere between 13 and 14%." LeClair: "no IEP can be put in place without parental sign off." A Bedford consulting firm is to review the special education program. The mayor: Claremont's rate was "continually double the state average" when she served. | |
| 1:11:02 | The 2.5% retained fund | O'Neill: "we have a 2.5% carryover fund" for tax-rate relief and unbudgeted needs: "And it's $376,000." Later "We can carryover up to 2.5% of our net appropriation" and the balance is "395,321." (2:00:37); the statute cited is transcribed "RSA one 1920". | OBS |
| 1:16:27 | A building for the alternative program | LeClair has looked at the Goodwin Community Center and the junior sports league building: "Based on a court order, the city is required to get $121,000 for the Goodwin Community Center complex". Community Development Block Grant deadlines fall in January and July. Irish: "I will fight with every fiber in my being. To make sure we never use this building is anything but a tech center." Perkins funding for the center is "60, $65,000" (1:27:24). | |
| 1:31:53 | Tapping the retained fund for a building | Irish: "Could we use that 2% if we if we if we ran into that had to, could we tap that if we needed." O'Neill: "It's on the edge. That's a that's an interpretation question." The chair suggests a warrant article tied to a building purchase; Bob: "Buying another piece of property should be the last thing that we do." | OBS |
| 1:37:38 | Budget totals | Proposed operating budget transcribed "31 million hundred $86,992" [about $31,186,992], an increase transcribed "96,372.95%" [read as $296,372, or 0.95%]. Wages and benefits are "about $22 million out of this $32 million budget." (1:57:10). | |
| 1:43:58 | Buildings, utilities and technology | The chair: $245,000 of building improvements is in the budget and utilities account for the rest of a $230,000 increase. Nate reconciles technology: his requests rise from 387,175 to about 404,450, "So again, that puts me up 4.5%." Bob asks for a dedicated maintenance fund; O'Neill: voters must approve funding "each year" (1:45:59). | |
| 1:57:37 | Unused sick and personal payout | O'Neill: the teacher contract pays out unused sick and personal time every year, newly shown on its own line. The chair says Claremont appears to be an outlier among comparable districts. | |
| 2:03:10 | Tax-rate effects | "The operating budget would be $0.43." Administrators' agreement $0.06; secretaries and maintenance under a cent; "Power contract about $0.21." [paraprofessional contract]; "Security upgrades, at 121 would be 18." [cents]. Including all articles, "overall increase of 618, 621, including all warrant articles"; the chair: "The 618,000 equates to 1.8% increase" (2:12:11). | |
| 2:05:25 | Security upgrades: article or budget | The superintendent recalls last year's technology article failed "by a very small margin". Irish wants the $121,000 in the budget rather than "to put it on the warrant, knowing full well it's probably going to fail." Nate outlines a four-year plan starting with phones and intercoms. Bob prefers a separate article; the mayor asks the board to explain it before the February 3 deliberative session (2:11:05). | |
| 2:13:41 | Default budget and further cuts | John asks what happens if the $296,000 increase is defeated. O'Neill on the default budget: "I don't have it today, but I'll have it." The chair: "There are many years where the default budget was lower than the budget that we were recommending." Bob: "we got 20% more employees than any school district their size." Irish: "That arbitrary cut 10% is garbage." The chair asks the superintendent to report on staffing and class sizes. | |
| 2:24:58 | Outsourcing RFPs | The transportation RFP drew no responses last year "because we didn't we didn't properly follow up"; O'Neill hopes for responses by the end of March (2:26:37). Food-service bidders would need about a 30% rise in meals to break even. Maintenance drew one unsuitable response. | |
| 2:37:18 | Early-childhood program feasibility study | The superintendent says the program was designed for high-school students and a recommendation will come January 19. The current program's cost, about $230,000 to $272,000, is in the proposed budget with its revenue (2:41:58). | |
| 2:47:47 | Presidential debate invoices | Bob asks about reports that police may not be paid for a "Trump debate" event. A voice the dialogue file labels as the chair answers that the facility was used under board policy and the campaign is being invoiced: "Do I have the money? I do not." (2:48:40). The content reads like an administrator's. | |
| 2:50:15 | Warrant article list | Roofs again at $100,000 ("I think I can do $160,000 worth of roofs for 100,000."); capital reserve another $100,000; criminal background checks at "$100 per background check, 200 of them" (2:51:50). Bob doubts the board's legal authority; the chair says the state police must still be involved. | |
| 2:52:21 | Background-check legislation | Ray urges the board to get the teachers' union to press the Senate. The mayor: the bill "representative O'Hearn sponsored was HB, I believe, 346"; it passed the House, stalled in the Senate, and SB 152 now carries the issue. | |
| 2:59:44 | Drug testing | John proposes pre-employment drug testing. The chair reports counsel's advice: "By statute we are allowed to do it. We're not required to." Members agree to fund it in the budget and write a policy. | |
| 3:03:14 | Is January 19 enough time? | LeClair asks whether the board can hear public comment, answer today's questions and finalize the budget on the 19th. Bob: at hearings "historically you only get about 2 or 3 members from the public." The January 12 placeholder meeting is dropped. | |
| 3:05:40 | Public comment | Cheryl Jones describes a Maine welfare work requirement. The chair: "Okay, I'm going to cut you off on this one because it actually doesn't really have anything to do necessarily with our budget specifically." | |