Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Surnames that rest on the project roster or the attribution report rather than on this recording are marked as such; there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Richard Seaman | Chair | Answers the roll as Richard Seaman here. (0:01:21) and is addressed as Richard by the superintendent (0:43:26). Runs the meeting, holds the January 19 minutes over, insists that any class-rank change come "back to the board" first, and calls the warrant-placement vote. |
| Brian Rapp | Member | Credited by the chair with seconding the agenda (0:01:37) and the warrant-placement motion (0:55:19); answers "Brian, do you have something?" (0:23:47). The police chief refers to "Brian" joining the fire department (0:12:06). Surname from the attribution report (medium confidence). |
| Chris Irish | Member | Addressed by the chief as "Mr. Irish" (0:26:12). Asks why the district cannot use the Claremont police for background checks, proposes a class-rank committee with alumni, citizen and student members, and urges wider publicity for the budget before the vote. |
| Brent Ferland | Member | Addressed as Brant (0:44:19; the project roster spells it Brent). Argues that competency grading is pass-fail and leaves no basis for rank, proposes regular joint meetings with the city council, and moves the warrant-placement motion (0:54:59). |
| John (surname not established) | Member | Addressed as John (0:30:29, 0:37:38). Raised the drug-testing item; says alumni scholarships "require class rank", notes the new state SAT for juniors, and praises the SAU 6 board's recent work. |
| Unidentified | Member | Moves "to approve the agenda as written." (0:01:34); not named on the recording. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduces the police chief, reports his call to the state police on background checks, proposes reviewing class rank with the high school principal, reports a climate and culture survey, and proposes inviting school board candidates to speak. |
| Cory LeClair | SAU 6 administrator (not named on this recording) | Speaks on grading and reporting, the state's competency-based requirement and the reauthorized federal law (0:34:09). Identified by voice and content against the March 16, 2016 recording (attribution report, medium-high confidence). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Asked by first name to take the roll (0:00:38); surname from the project roster. Reports that no one filed for moderator, reads the student representative's report in her absence, and explains the warrant-placement motion. The dialogue file labels the student report's reader as the clerk. |
| Alex Scott | Claremont Police Chief, guest presenter | Introduced as "Police Chief Alex Scott" (0:08:31). Presents on pre-employment drug and alcohol screening and on what police and schools can lawfully obtain in a background check. |
| Heather (surname not stated) | Public comment, parent | Addressed by the chair as Heather (0:40:29). Asks the board to weigh dual-enrollment grades in any class-rank change, recounts a guidance counselor's response when she asked about a student's standing (apparently her daughter's), and later suggests the superintendent write a newspaper article on the ballot. |
| Unidentified | Various | 73 of 350 dialogue rows (20.9%) are unidentified: short interjections, group responses, a member who asks about warrant procedure (0:53:00) and the agenda mover. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair says "We have an agenda that was sent out" and the superintendent refers to its item "Roman numeral seven, F"; the list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:21 | Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, roll call | Only the chair's answer to the roll is audible (0:01:21). |
| 0:01:24 | Agenda | "Motion to approve the agenda as written." (unidentified member); "Second by Brian. All in favor, please say aye." No opposition heard. |
| 0:01:37 | Minutes of January 19 | Members find January 6 minutes in their packet instead. The superintendent: "The minute of the sixth and the ninth were approved on January 19th." Approval of the January 19 minutes is held to the next meeting (0:03:11). No vote. |
| 0:03:11 | Take five | The chair thanks the school board candidates and the building leaders who presented earlier, and proposes turning to strategic items after the vote. The clerk reports no candidate for moderator (0:05:02). |
| 0:05:32 | Student representative's report | The student representative is absent; the report is read for her. |
| 0:07:51 | Superintendent's report | Refers back to the building leaders' presentations; no other business. |
| 0:08:15 | Citizens' comments | Opened and closed with no speakers (0:08:24). |
| 0:08:24 | Action item: pre-employment drug screening | Presentation by Police Chief Alex Scott and questions. No motion; the board is to develop a policy with counsel. |
| 0:27:40 | Class rank | The superintendent asks for "your support or lack of support" for working on a recommendation. One citizen comment taken on the topic. Discussion only; no vote. |
| 0:42:42 | Claremont School Board and Claremont City Council 2016 meeting dates | Deferred until the new board is seated after the March election. No vote. |
| 0:47:27 | Climate and culture survey | Superintendent's report on baseline results. No vote. |
| 0:48:44 | Date to introduce Claremont School Board candidates | Consensus: candidates speak during the Take five period on February 17 (0:50:19). No formal vote. |
| 0:50:38 | Fiscal year 2017 budget (placeholder, item VII F) | Discussion of publicizing the budget and the annual report online. |
| 0:53:00 | Placement of warrant articles on the ballot (added from the floor) | Raised by the clerk. Motion, Brent Ferland: "Motion that we place articles one through nine as written and voted upon in the public. Deliberative session" (0:54:59) on "the warrant of March 8th, 2016." (0:55:16); "Seconded by Brian." Voice vote; the chair: "Anyone opposed that passes?" (0:55:28). |
| 0:55:28 | Year-to-date budget report requested | The chair asks that Mike report at the next meeting on spending to date. No vote. |
| 0:56:13 | Late citizen comment | The chair asks the board whether to allow one more speaker; Heather speaks briefly. |
| 0:56:37 | Adjournment | "Entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. And a second." Voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8192 SchoolBoard020316.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Quotations are as transcribed; bracketed words are corrections, with the transcript's wording kept where the correction changes sense.
Chronological topics with the most concrete material first.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:37 | The January 19 minutes | The chair: "I have minutes here that say January 6th." A member: "Oh, but the wrong minutes were printed and given to us. But didn't we get them in our agenda, in our email?" The chair: "Do you mind if we hold on the approval of the of the, January 19th minutes until next meeting." | MED |
| 0:03:11 | Candidates, building leaders, next priorities | The chair thanks the candidates for the open board seats, calls the building leaders' presentations "wonderful to hear", and says the board must choose strategic items for "really 6 or 7 months before we find ourselves back into doing a budget yet again." | |
| 0:05:02 | No candidate for moderator | The clerk: "There is an open spot for moderate. Nobody put in a moderator for the next year." The chair: "It has to be a write in." | |
| 0:05:48 | Student report, read for the absent representative | Students named to a national academic squad (names read aloud and not reproduced here); thanks to "the ExxonMobil here on pleasant and Summer Street for the generous donation of $500." to the high school; an April 15 community service day; and "the first lockdown drill of the year" with Claremont police, after which "now five police officers have SHC swiped cars" [swipe cards] to enter the building. | OBS |
| 0:08:15 | Citizens' comments | "We'll open for citizens comments then. Anyone who would like to come forward." No one does. | POS |
| 0:08:31 | Pre-employment drug screening: the chief's case | The superintendent introduces "Police Chief Alex Scott". The chief, who says he is an attorney but is "not here tonight to to provide legal advice", refers questions of law to "attorney Matt Upton". City lifeguards, librarians, firefighters and public works staff "are all subject to a, you know, criminal background check, as well as pre-employment drug and alcohol screening." He was "taken aback that the people that I send my kids to for the day don't have an equivalent level of screening" and recommends that the district identify itself as "a drug and alcohol free workplace" with, "at a minimum, is pre-employment drug testing". | |
| 0:14:41 | Testing after hire | Most city bargaining agreements "have a reasonable suspicion standard testing protocol in them"; bus drivers and public works staff with commercial licenses "are subject to a random testing pool". The chief later ties the reasonable-suspicion standard to "compliance with Fourth Amendment. Protections under the Constitution." (0:22:41). | |
| 0:17:30 | Could the police run the district's checks? | Irish asks what prevents the district from "partnering with you guys to do background checks for us". The chief: police access is limited to police hiring, "So trying to skirt around those rules by having the police do it wouldn't wouldn't work." The superintendent: "I called the state police last month on this and said if money wasn't an issue, could I get all the information I want? The answer is no. The RSA prevents school superintendents or public schools from accessing that information through. So it's not about money." Irish: "So my hunch is they're skirting if not breaking the intent of the law." An applicant can obtain a New Hampshire-only record for "20 or $25 with a notarized request" (0:21:34). | OBS |
| 0:23:05 | What a policy would need | John: "So this is a matter of us creating policy that says we want to do pre-employment drug screening and making sure that the policies are in place and then having money in the budget just to do them." The city has no citywide policy, the chief says (0:24:14); the chair suggests the School Board Association. | |
| 0:25:15 | The background-check bill | The chair urges members to contact "our local legislators, House and Senate, and get this bill passed", and reports that, "according to Charlene", it "is supposed to go to the Senate floor tomorrow." The chief adds that New Hampshire is "one of the more restrictive states" and does not sell record data to commercial providers (0:26:58). | OBS |
| 0:27:43 | Class rank: the superintendent's proposal | A June 2015 graduate told him she "was bumped down in points" for taking fine arts. "I'd like to work with doctor Pat Barry. Worked with the guidance and come forward with the recommendation. To change our practice on class rank". He wants a system where "students aren't competing against classmates": "education isn't a track race. It it's not a swimming meet." (0:30:29). | |
| 0:31:09 | Scholarships and rank | John: alumni scholarships "are decades old and they require class rank", and some colleges still award merit aid on rank. Irish wants the alumni association approached, because "the middle. Kids tend to be left out in the cold to fend for themselves when it comes to the college money." (0:37:16). | |
| 0:33:08 | Competency grading | Brent Ferland: competency grading "in its truest essence, it's pass fail", so "how do you rank one person passing better than another?" LeClair: "we are required by the state of New Hampshire under current, rules and regulations, to become a competency based district by the end of next school year", while the newly reauthorized federal law may change state requirements; the steering committee favors "hybrid models" (0:36:01). | |
| 0:37:40 | The state SAT | John: the Department of Education has introduced SAT testing for all juniors, "So, in fact, the state of New Hampshire has created a test for ranking every student in the state of New Hampshire." LeClair: "March 2nd is the testing date for." | |
| 0:38:33 | Citizen comment on class rank | The chair asks whether the board objects to taking comment on the topic. Heather asks that dual-enrollment ("Catch the wave") college grades be weighed. Of her daughter's standing: "The guidance counselor said, where does she need to be?" and "I said, well, she needs to be here. Call me back a few minutes. Yeah, we can make that work. Are you serious?" (0:40:06, 0:40:22). | OBS POS |
| 0:40:29 | Bring it back to the board | The chair: in the move to the new grading system "we did it piecemeal. We kept GPA, we kept class rank, we kept A's through F's", and "before we implement anything, we've got to bring it back to the board." (0:41:10). The superintendent: "this is going to be a transparent and careful process." Irish proposes a committee of "an alumni person, with a citizen, with a student, with a school board member" (0:42:10). | POS |
| 0:42:42 | Joint meetings with the city council | The mayor (transcribed "Mayor Leavitt") wants dates in spring or fall; the chair waits for the new board. Brent Ferland proposes meeting "twice a year or on a quarterly basis". John: the SAU 6 board "has really gelled", crediting Becky, who has "been the chair for a couple of years now", and wants joint meetings scheduled "so that we have CCTV time." The chair names homelessness, teenage pregnancy and growth as joint topics (0:46:31). | |
| 0:47:27 | Climate and culture survey | The superintendent calls the results a baseline, with "a comparable survey in the spring", and says "it would be unwise to take this information to start making some specific changes". | |
| 0:48:44 | Candidate introductions | The superintendent proposes inviting the school board candidates to address the board, as "been historically what you've done". The chair: "February 17th is what we'll do" (0:50:19), with a few minutes per candidate in the Take five period. | |
| 0:50:52 | Publicizing the budget | Irish: "We need to get the realities of the tax impact out there." The annual report is to go online; the superintendent: "what does security mean? We know what it means, but do we really know what it means?" and promises more detail on the warrant articles (0:52:10). | |
| 0:53:09 | Placing the articles on the ballot | The clerk: the mover of a warrant article usually "states that, it's being placed on the warrant, such and such a date. And that wasn't done tonight." The chair first proposes "article one through eight"; a voice corrects Is nine. Brent Ferland moves articles one through nine "as written and voted upon in the public. Deliberative session"; seconded by Brian; passes by voice (0:55:28). | OBS |
| 0:55:28 | Year-to-date spending | The chair asks for Mike at the next meeting "to cover us how we're doing year to date. We spent a lot of time on next year." | |
| 0:56:13 | A last comment | The chair: "If you're going to do it, you've got to come up to the microphone so people can hear you." Heather: "I suggest that the superintendent perhaps write an article for the Eagle Times, which discusses this before the March 8th ballot." | POS |
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 February 3, 2016, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The recording is the only public account of the warrant-placement vote and of the drug-screening and class-rank discussions. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force in 2016, required minutes including "names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the chair refers to "an agenda that was sent out" (0:01:24), and the board's handling of minutes shows a working routine (the January 6 and 9 minutes were approved on January 19, per the superintendent at 0:02:56). One point cuts the other way: on February 3, fifteen days after the January 19 meeting, members could not find its minutes in their packet and approval was put off (0:03:11). That does not show the draft was unavailable for inspection within five business days, but nothing on the recording shows it was. The statute required inspection, not online posting, and the shares do not reach back to 2016; what is missing is any public copy now.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 303:4, so in force through 2016)
OBSERVATION A parent's account of a guidance counselor offering to adjust a student's standing drew no response
During comment on class rank, a parent described asking where a student, apparently her daughter, stood and being asked by a guidance counselor "where does she need to be?", then told after a call back, "Yeah, we can make that work." (0:40:06, 0:40:22). If accurate, the account describes a reported class standing set to fit a scholarship requirement rather than computed. The chair answered with the history of the grading change (0:40:29) and nobody on the board or administration asked about the specific episode. The recording does not show whether it was looked into afterward. This is one speaker's unverified account; no rule is cited because the facts are not established. It bears directly on the superintendent's proposal, which turns on the fairness of how rank is computed.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 2-3-16
OBSERVATION The superintendent's account of the background-check law matched the statute then in force, which changed that July
The superintendent told the board that the state police would not give him full records "if money wasn't an issue" because "The RSA prevents school superintendents or public schools from accessing that information" (0:20:28). RSA 189:13-a, III, in the 2015 codification, had the state police check state and FBI records and "report the presence or absence of any such crime", and provided: "Under no circumstances shall the criminal records be released to the school administrative unit, school district, chartered public school, or public academy." His statement was accurate. Irish's suggestion that other districts using third parties were "skirting if not breaking the intent of the law" (0:20:50) is a member's hunch; nothing on the recording tests it. The bill the chair urged members to support (0:25:15) became 2016 N.H. Laws ch. 117 (SB 152), effective July 19, 2016; in the 2016 codification paragraph III has the state police report to the superintendent, who reviews the information for the hiring decision under confidentiality and destruction rules. The 2016 change postdates this meeting.
Sources: RSA 189:13-a, III (2015 codification; source note ends 2014, 55:1, eff. May 27, 2014); RSA 189:13-a, III (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 117:1, eff. July 19, 2016)
OBSERVATION A ballot-placement vote the statute does not require, first proposed for the wrong number of articles
At the clerk's prompting the board voted to place articles one through nine "as written and voted upon in the public. Deliberative session" on the March 8 ballot (0:54:59 to 0:55:28). Under RSA 40:13, VI, as it read in 2016, "All warrant articles shall be placed on the official ballot for a final vote, including warrant articles as amended by the first session." Placement follows from the statute, so the vote could neither add nor remove an article; it records the board's intent and does no harm. The chair first proposed the motion for "article one through eight" until a voice corrected him to nine (0:54:49, 0:54:57), which matches the nine articles the deliberative session sent to the ballot (see that page). The clerk's statement that the mover of an article usually states it is "being placed on the warrant" (0:53:09) describes local practice, not a statutory step.
Sources: RSA 40:13, VI (2015 codification; source note ends 2014, 190:1-3, 8-10, eff. Sept. 9, 2014); February 3, 2016 deliberative session page
OBSERVATION A $500 private donation to the high school was announced with no acceptance vote on this recording
The student report thanked a local ExxonMobil station "for the generous donation of $500." to Stevens High School (0:06:30). RSA 198:20-b lets a school board accept unanticipated money from a private source if the district has adopted the enabling article (¶I); for amounts under $5,000 the board "shall post notice of the funds in the agenda and shall include notice in the minutes", and acceptance "shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting" (¶III(b)). This board accepted gifts by motion and vote on April 6, 2016 (April 6 page). No acceptance of this gift is heard here, and with no agenda or minutes surviving it cannot be shown whether it was accepted at an earlier meeting. Whether Claremont had adopted the ¶I article is not established either.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2016 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
POSITIVE Public comment invited three times, before any statute required it
The chair opened a citizens' comment period (0:08:15), asked the board to allow comment in the middle of the class-rank item and took it (0:38:33), and let a citizen speak again just before adjournment, on the condition that she use the microphone "so people can hear you" (0:56:20). He also committed that no class-rank change would be implemented before it came "back to the board" (0:41:10). New Hampshire did not require a public comment period at school board meetings until RSA 189:74 was enacted by 2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022, so this practice exceeded the legal minimum in 2016.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not law in 2016)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8192 SchoolBoard020316.mp4.CSV (350 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8192 SchoolBoard020316.mp4Input/Transcripts/8192 SchoolBoard020316.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 5Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8192 SchoolBoard020316.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2015 codification (source note ends 2008, 303:4; in force until Jan. 1, 2017): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 189:13-a, III, 2015 codification: state police report only the presence or absence of listed crimes; records not released to the school
- RSA 189:13-a, III, 2016 codification, as amended by 2016, 117:1 (SB 152), eff. July 19, 2016: report to the superintendent for the hiring decision
- RSA 40:13, VI, 2015 codification: all warrant articles, as amended at the first session, go to the official ballot
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b), 2016 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated private funds under $5,000
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment period, cited only to show it was not law in 2016