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 |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Addressed as Brian by the superintendent (0:05:34). Runs the agenda and votes, calls one-time money for raises "typically bad practice", sums up the bargaining priorities, and asks for the nonpublic motion. |
| Chris Irish | Vice chair | Credited by the business administrator with estimating a 16-cent tax effect (1:41:20). Argues for returning the $110,000 rebate to taxpayers and joins the custodial bargaining team and the communications effort. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Addressed as Frank (0:21:27). Proposes letting employees take insurance savings as pay, asks for cost scenarios before bargaining, presses for disclosure of drug testing in job postings, moves the nominations and the gifts. |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Recognized as Patrick (0:24:41). Asks about the class-rank committee, the professional development committee, and whether starting pay affects hiring; joins the paraprofessionals' bargaining team. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Thanked as Michel after volunteering for the custodial team (1:42:18). Proposes using part of the rebate for signing bonuses or thank-you gifts, asks how change-of-school decisions are made, and urges outreach to realtors. |
| Brent Ferland | Member | Addressed as Brant (0:38:04; the project roster spells it Brent). Asks about kindergarten benchmarks, argues for uniform benefit splits, seconds the trip and the gifts, and moves adoption of the drug-testing policy. |
| Rebecca "Becky" Ferland | Member | Recognized as Becky (0:32:10). Moves the Bluff trip, seconds the nominations and the nonpublic motion, reports that "19 out of those 24 hires were first year teachers", and asks for an agenda item on online school ratings. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the strategic-plan and class-rank updates, the bargaining letter, the drug-testing and physical-examination policies, the change-of-school request, nominations and gifts. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduced by the superintendent as "Corey LeClaire" (0:09:34). Reports on curriculum work, committees, the CLiF award and the AmeriCorps VISTA position. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | The superintendent asks members to "pass that to Mike O'Neill" (1:36:38). Explains bargaining research, the $110,000 rebate, and the MS-22 report. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | The chair says Get that Mary. of the minutes (1:26:55); a voice labeled as the clerk calls the nonpublic roll (2:02:40). Surname from the project roster; attribution low-medium confidence. |
| Kindergarten teachers (not named) | Presenters | Finish the full-day kindergarten report at the start of the recording; one is referred to by first name only (0:04:07). |
| Unidentified | Various | 87 of 644 dialogue rows (13.5%) are unidentified: the presenting teachers, votes and seconds, and crosstalk. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair calls items by their agenda titles and members refer to a packet; the list below is reconstructed from those transitions. Items before the kindergarten report are not on the recording.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:01 | Full-day kindergarten report (in progress) | Teachers and LeClair; questions from members. No vote. |
| 0:08:56 | Update on district-wide agreement in math, reading and writing | LeClair's preliminary report. No vote. |
| 0:18:05 | School district strategic plan | Progress report on a consultant recommended by the New Hampshire School Board Association. No vote. |
| 0:22:06 | Class rank progress report | No change expected this year. No vote. |
| 0:26:15 | Action items: Claremont School Board members' collective bargaining priorities | Discussion; the chair: "So it sounds to me like priorities are salary and insurance benefits." (1:08:08). No vote. |
| 1:09:03 | Bluff School fourth grade overnight trip | Motion, Becky Ferland: "I move that we approve the Bluff Elementary School fourth grade overnight." Second, Brent Ferland. Voice vote; no opposition heard (1:10:07). |
| 1:10:15 | Policy: pre-employment drug testing, second reading | Motion, Brent Ferland, for "second reading and adoption" (1:13:34); a second is heard inside the chair's row; voice vote; the superintendent: "For clarification, you have approved this." (1:13:57). |
| 1:14:02 | Policy JLCA: physical examinations of students, first reading | "Of motion to accept for first reading." "So moved. Second." (1:17:39); voice vote (1:21:35). Returns for second reading. |
| 1:21:53 | Policy JCA: change of school assignment | The superintendent asks for license to decide requests and report afterward. No motion; recorded as board consensus (1:26:45 to 1:26:58). |
| 1:27:06 | Teacher and administrator nominations for 2016-17 | Corrections: a spelling, an omitted principal added, a retiring teacher removed. Motion, Sprague: "I'll make the motion that we accept the administrators nominations and the teacher nominations with the corrections that Doctor Goodwin just made." Second, Becky Ferland. Voice vote; no opposition heard (1:28:38). |
| 1:28:47 | Donations | $500 from TomTom for STEM Fest; $5,000 from the Children's Fund for middle-school cross country; the Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF) award to Maple Avenue, added at the meeting. Motion, Sprague (1:32:45); second, Brent Ferland; voice vote (1:33:08). |
| 1:33:14 | Grant report: New Hampshire Lessons and AmeriCorps VISTA | Information only. |
| 1:36:38 | MS-22 report of appropriations voted | Presented by the business administrator and signed by members at the table. No separate vote heard. |
| 1:41:53 | Committee and bargaining assignments; policy process; communications; capital improvement | Assignments confirmed (1:48:14); policies to be discussed at board meetings rather than in a subcommittee (1:44:46). No vote. |
| 1:49:03 | Future agenda items | Calendar, presentations, and a request for an item on online school ratings. |
| 2:02:18 | Nonpublic session | "Get a motion to go into nonpublic." Second, Becky Ferland (2:02:29); roll call begins (2:02:32). The recording ends during the roll call. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8313 SchoolBoard040616.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 |
|---|
| 0:00:01 | Full-day kindergarten | The recording opens mid-presentation. Brent Ferland notes that at the end of 2015 "there's only two thirds of the kindergarten students were meeting the grade level benchmark" (0:02:07); a teacher expects "most likely in the 90%, 80, or 90%." this year. LeClair: Title I teachers, special educators and paraprofessionals were pushed into kindergarten during intervention time (0:04:07). The superintendent expects special-education referrals and costs to fall (0:05:34). | MED |
| 0:09:46 | Curriculum alignment | K-12 teams in writing, reading, math and now science; "in the budget that's approved for fiscal year 17, we have included money to pay teachers to work during the summer on curriculum." Writing lessons are posted on the curriculum website (0:11:54). | |
| 0:18:08 | Strategic plan | The superintendent meets an NHSBA-recommended consultant who "in 2004, he helped the Claremont School District with a strategic plan", and wants board, faculty and community members on the committee; "the goal is not to create this, a thick document" (0:19:11). | |
| 0:22:07 | Class rank | After meeting high school guidance on scholarships tied to rank: "I do not anticipate, changing that this year." (0:24:14). Adrian recalls the proposed representative committee; the superintendent: "this is not going to be a closed door process." (0:25:38). | |
| 0:26:22 | Bargaining priorities in public | The superintendent gave the Sugar River Education Association a letter of intent to bargain on March 24 and wants "a public discussion as to what are the priorities of the school board"; "We can't really talk about strategy" (0:26:47). His own priority: salaries "way off the mark in comparison to other local districts. As much as $6,000." (0:27:23), to be addressed through health insurance. | POS |
| 0:29:40 | Members' priorities | Sprague: a family plan costs "around $28,000"; let young teachers take part of it as salary. Becky Ferland: every unit should have "access to the exact same plan". Brent Ferland: district shares range from "a 65, 35 split up to a 955 split" [95/5] (0:36:13). The chair: the pools are HealthTrust, Interlocal Trust and SchoolCare (0:34:42). | POS |
| 0:40:45 | The $110,000 rebate | The superintendent: "A rebate of $110,000 because of our biomass middle school." Pierce proposes signing bonuses; the chair: "It's it's typically bad practice to use one time money for ongoing expenses." (0:41:25). O'Neill: "we could have a public hearing and accept them under RSA 198 20 be it's anticipated revenues and then we could spend them. My feeling is that we should give them back to the city" (0:52:04). Irish: returning it all is "about a 16th century effect on the tax rate" [16-cent] (1:01:39). | MED |
| 0:46:06 | Retention | Becky Ferland: of summer 2014 hires, "19 out of those 24 hires were first year teachers." The chair: "We, we tend to to to be a bit of a stepping stone." (0:45:33). O'Neill: "Unless we save money, it's going to be difficult to fund." (0:47:43). | |
| 1:05:40 | Thanks from the board | After Brent Ferland argues that recognition runs through the administration, the chair: "There's nothing stopping any board member from sending any thank you notes out." The chair sums up: "priorities are salary and insurance benefits." (1:08:08). | |
| 1:09:06 | Bluff fourth-grade trip | An almost annual White Mountain trip in June 2016, with costs in the packet. Approved. | |
| 1:10:15 | Drug-testing policy adopted | Edited since March 16; developed with the city's human resources office because "I could not find other districts who have a policy comparable to this". Sprague asks where successful applicants will be told; the superintendent: "We are going to drug test those. Go through this procedure, those who are going to be appointed" and employment is conditional on passing (1:12:41). Adopted on second reading (1:13:57). | |
| 1:14:02 | Physical examinations policy | Replaces the policy "approved in December 2000 and." Seven.; a physician's note lets a student play "for a period of no more than 14 days" until the annual physical (1:15:04). Students with financial challenges "are provided assistance to have access to that exam." (1:21:17). Accepted for first reading. | |
| 1:21:53 | Change of school assignment | The superintendent: "This new RSA requires me to come to you and seek approval." He asks, "may I make these decisions in the best interest of the student and not have to wait two weeks to come to you?" (1:22:31). Pierce asks what rules he would follow; the chair points to the policy. Brent Ferland: "We have to do a motion on this, or we just say, that's cool." The superintendent: "I just think it's our it's our agreement." The chair: Get that Mary. (1:26:55). | MED |
| 1:27:06 | Nominations | Corrections read in: a misspelled name, "Please add Michael Lansing, principal, Bluff Elementary School." and removal of a retiring performing-arts teacher. Approved. | |
| 1:28:49 | Gifts | "Tom. Tom, a company that we are all familiar with is donated $500 to the Stem Fest event"; the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley offers "a donation of $5,000" for a middle-school cross-country program. LeClair adds the CLiF award, which "hasn't come forward to the board": nine schools awarded "$25,000 each in literacy program support and new books." (1:29:51), in books and services rather than cash (1:31:34). Accepted by one motion. | MED |
| 1:37:32 | MS-22 report signed | O'Neill: "In front of you as the miss 22, which is the report of a appropriations actually voted? This is a document that we must approve and sign." He reads the March 8 results and a total transcribed "34, 629, 45" and "34,000,006 2945" (1:39:10) [the article amounts read at the deliberative session sum to $34,620,945, which fits]. Members sign three copies at the table (1:39:39). | HIGH |
| 1:41:53 | Assignments and policy process | Bargaining teams: Brent Ferland secretaries; Sprague and the chair teachers; Becky Ferland and Adrian paraprofessionals; Pierce and Irish custodians and maintenance. The superintendent offers a policy subcommittee or open discussion; Brent Ferland prefers policies "in the public forum" (1:43:55), and the superintendent: "It'll be public discussion as well. And the public can weigh in as well." (1:45:50). | POS |
| 1:49:49 | Online school ratings | Becky Ferland: "Stevens High School rates 61 of 77 right now on School Digger". LeClair: one rating counted too few AP courses because a box "in an online system that hadn't been done." (1:57:49). | |
| 2:02:18 | Into nonpublic session | The chair: "Did we need a non public for." The superintendent: "We do just for a brief minute please. Okay I think we need a roll call." The chair: "Get a motion to go into nonpublic." Becky Ferland: "Public I'll second that." The clerk calls "Frank spread." [Sprague]; several Yes. answers follow and the recording ends at 2:02:52. No exemption is heard. | MED |
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 April 6, 2016, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH The MS-22 certifying the March 8 appropriations was signed 29 days after the vote; the statute allows 20
The business administrator presented the MS-22, "the report of a appropriations actually voted", as "a document that we must approve and sign", noting that its signature page is the one filing the state still requires in hard copy (1:37:32), and members signed it at the table (1:39:39). RSA 21-J:34, II requires the report by which a school district's governing body "shall certify the appropriations voted by the meeting of the appropriate legislative body" and provides: "This report shall be filed within 20 days of the close of the meeting." Claremont's annual meeting closed with the official-ballot vote on March 8, 2016, so the report was due by March 28; it could not have been filed with these signatures before April 6, the twenty-ninth day. The 2015 text has no extension clause for this paragraph. Two points in mitigation: the business administrator said the rest of the filing is electronic, so other parts may have been submitted earlier, and the statute attaches no penalty to this paragraph. The certification itself, which is what the paragraph requires, was nine days late on this record.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2007, 182:2, eff. April 1, 2007)
MEDIUM The motion to enter nonpublic session, as recorded, names no exemption
The chair asked for "a motion to go into nonpublic"; a member seconded and the clerk began a roll call (2:02:25 to 2:02:50). The superintendent asked for the session "just for a brief minute" (2:02:19). Nothing on the recording states which ground in RSA 91-A:3, II the board relied on. RSA 91-A:3, I(b), in the text in force in April 2016, provides: "Any motion to enter nonpublic session shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II", and requires a recorded roll-call vote. The roll call is consistent with the statute; the missing exemption is not. This page grades it MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the mover's words are not captured (only the chair's request and the second are), so an exemption may have been stated and lost from the transcript, and with no minutes surviving the motion's text cannot be checked. The subject of the session, and whether any decision was made in it, are not on the record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2015 codification; source note ends 2015, 19:1; 49:1; 105:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2016; 270:2)
MEDIUM A $5,000 gift was accepted at a regular meeting with no public hearing mentioned, on the night the business administrator described the hearing rule
The board accepted, by one motion and voice vote, $500 from TomTom, "a donation of $5,000" from the Children's Fund for a middle-school cross-country program, and the CLiF literacy award to Maple Avenue, which was added at the meeting because it "hasn't come forward to the board" (1:28:49 to 1:33:08). RSA 198:20-b, in the 2016 codification, lets a school board accept unanticipated money from a private source if the district has adopted the enabling article (¶I); for $5,000 or more, ¶III(a) requires a prior public hearing with newspaper notice of its time, place and subject at least 7 days ahead, and for smaller sums ¶III(b) requires notice in the agenda and the minutes. Earlier the same evening the business administrator described exactly that route for the $110,000 energy rebate: "we could have a public hearing and accept them under RSA 198 20 be" (0:52:04). No hearing on the $5,000 gift is mentioned. With no agenda, notice or minutes surviving, it cannot be shown whether a hearing was held or the gift was noticed, or whether Claremont had adopted the ¶I article, so this is a probable process gap rather than an established violation. The CLiF award is books and services rather than money, by LeClair's account (1:31:34), and may fall outside the section.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a)-(b) (2016 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes survive, and the recording omits the start of the meeting
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 begins in the middle of the kindergarten presentation (0:00:01), so the call to order, attendance, approval of the agenda and of earlier minutes, and any citizens' comments are not on it. 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: members refer to a packet throughout, the chair directs the clerk to record the board's consensus (1:26:55), and the May 4 meeting approved the April 6 minutes (see the May 4 page). The minutes existed; what is missing is any public copy now, and with it the only account of the first part of the meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 303:4, so in force through 2016)
MEDIUM By consensus and without a vote, the board let the superintendent decide school reassignments that the statute required the board to vote on
The superintendent told the board that "This new RSA requires me to come to you and seek approval" when a child who moves within Claremont is allowed to stay at the old school, and asked for license to decide such requests himself and report afterward (1:22:31, 1:23:33). A member asked whether a motion was needed; the superintendent said "I just think it's our it's our agreement", and the chair asked the clerk to record the consensus (1:26:42 to 1:26:58). RSA 193:3, III, as amended by 2015, 125:1 (effective August 8, 2015) and in force on this date, requires each school board's change-of-school-assignment policy to require "a vote of the school board to reassign a pupil from the public school to which he or she is currently assigned", with the superintendent's role being to "recommend reassignment" to another school in the same district. An informal agreement that the superintendent will decide first and inform the board later does not supply that vote. The superintendent's purpose, avoiding a two-week wait that forces a mid-year move, is stated on the record, and no reassignment was decided at this meeting. The section was amended again effective July 2, 2016 (2016, 44:1), which this page does not evaluate.
Sources: RSA 193:3, III (2015 codification; 2015, 125:1, eff. Aug. 8, 2015)
POSITIVE Bargaining priorities and future policy work were taken into public session
RSA 91-A:2, I(a), in the 2016 text, excludes "Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining" from the definition of a meeting, so the board could have set its bargaining priorities in private. The superintendent instead asked for "a public discussion as to what are the priorities of the school board" while keeping strategy out of it (0:26:22, 0:26:47), and members debated salary gaps, plan costs and contribution splits on camera for more than forty minutes (0:27:23 to 1:08:08). The board also chose to review policies at its meetings rather than in a subcommittee, on the superintendent's assurance that "the public can weigh in as well" (1:45:50). Both choices go beyond what the law required in 2016.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2015 codification; in force through 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/8313 SchoolBoard040616.mp4.CSV (644 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8313 SchoolBoard040616.mp4Input/Transcripts/8313 SchoolBoard040616.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 7Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8313 SchoolBoard040616.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 21-J:34, II, 2015 codification (source note ends 2007, 182:2): report certifying appropriations voted, filed within 20 days of the close of the meeting
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), 2015 codification: nonpublic motion states the specific exemption; roll call
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III, 2016 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): unanticipated private funds; hearing at $5,000 or more
- RSA 91-A:2, I(a) and II, 2015 codification (source note ends 2008, 303:4; in force until Jan. 1, 2017): collective-bargaining exclusion; minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 193:3, III, 2015 codification (2015, 125:1, eff. Aug. 8, 2015): board vote required to reassign a pupil