Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Names follow the speakers' own introductions, the project's 2015-2023 roster and attribution report, and the Valley News report of August 4, 2016; there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides; answers the roll as Ryan / Yes? (1:46:54). Argues for keeping the A/B schedule, says the union "won't even come to the table to talk to us", accuses members of talking to people outside the board (2:04:44), votes no on the second schedule roll call and moves reconsideration; proposes tabling to a special meeting (2:33:50). |
| Chris Irish | Vice chair | Moves not to comply with the labor board ruling (1:04:44); restates it before the roll call (1:46:09). The diarizer merged his voice with the chair's; the attribution report reassigns his rows by context and the Valley News report. |
| Brent Ferland | Member | Addressed as Brant. Moves the resignations (0:34:18) and the appeal (1:47:06, 1:48:02); argues the board must work within the arbitration process, "There are rules. There are rules that have been laid out." |
| Rebecca (Becky) Ferland | Member; SAU 6 board chair (per the project roster) | Recognized as Becky (1:14:16). Asks about scratch cooking and free-lunch participation, and supports appealing "within the confines of the" law. Voted no on Irish's motion (Valley News). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Seconds Irish's motion (1:05:08) and the motion to table (2:34:31); argues "We are not breaking any laws." |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Answers the roll (1:46:52). Argues that "to hang all of this on block schedule is ludicrous"; repeats counsel's advice from a nonpublic session (1:48:55). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Moves the July 6 minutes and the CCTV appointment (0:00:25, 0:32:35); says "I am saying that I favor complying" while favoring an appeal. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gives the report and urges the board "to support continuing the A B schedule" (1:52:04); lists what reverting would undo, including "the 8% additional compensation of $157,000 for our colleagues" (2:00:03). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator | Reports on the Maple Avenue roof re-bid (0:29:46) and the food service request for proposals (0:37:25). |
| Carol Gregory | Food service director | Introduced by the superintendent (transcribed "Kyle Gregory", 0:36:01); answers on scratch cooking, USDA commodities and the milk bid. |
| Patricia (Pat) Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Says Stevens teachers would act for students (1:39:25), explains the program of studies and credit structure, and describes how the scheduling committee's recommendation was handled (2:12:41). |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk (recording secretary) | Calls the roll calls (1:46:37); addressed as Mary (1:48:02). Identification rests on that first name and the project roster. |
| Richard Seaman | Citizens' comments, Ward 3; former board chair | "Richard Seaman, Ward three." (0:13:16). Presents failure rates under the old 4x4 schedule and urges the board and teachers to meet; speaks again during the debate. |
| Unidentified | Various | 139 of 899 dialogue rows (15.5%): roll-call answers, seconds, two unnamed members who discuss Robert's Rules, and crosstalk. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions, which follow his headings of updates, action items and the schedule.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:05 | Minutes of July 6, 2016 | The recording begins here. Motion Adrian (0:00:25); a second is heard inside the chair's row; voice vote (0:00:27). |
| 0:00:27 | Superintendent's report | Grants, the August 9 joint meeting, the new criminal records check, the August 30 staff presentation. |
| 0:13:00 | Citizens' comments | Richard Seaman, Ward 3, on the high school schedule. |
| 0:23:38 | Updates: summer food service program | Information; no action. |
| 0:27:33 | Collective bargaining update | Talks with the teachers' association to start August 23. |
| 0:29:13 | Maple Avenue School roof | Re-bid after the summer request drew few quotes; no action. |
| 0:32:04 | Appointment to the CCTV board | Pauline Pelletier reappointed: "I would take a motion to appoint Pauline Pelletier back onto the CCTV board"; motion Adrian (0:32:35); voice vote (0:32:47). |
| 0:32:55 | Teacher resignations | About ten resignations read by name (0:33:23). Motion Brent Ferland (0:34:18), second unidentified (0:34:22); voice vote (0:35:43). |
| 0:35:53 | Election of staff | "That's going to be mid-August." |
| 0:35:59 | Claremont food service program | Choice between the district program and a private vendor deferred until vendor responses arrive in two weeks (1:02:10). |
| 0:50:22 | Recess | From 0:50:22 to 1:01:02. |
| 1:02:19 | Stevens High School schedule | Irish motion not to comply, second Pierce; failed on roll call (1:46:23). Motion Brent Ferland to appeal; passed by voice vote (1:49:22). Motion to stay with A/B pending a ruling; failed on roll call (1:57:46). Motion to reconsider; failed on roll call (2:23:07). Motion to comply, seconded (2:25:00); recess from 2:25:13 to 2:32:24; schedule question tabled to a special meeting, motion unidentified, second Pierce, voice vote (2:35:43). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8558 SchoolBoard080316.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. PLO, be and PR LP in the transcript are the Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB).
Chronological topics with the most concrete material first.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:41 | Superintendent's report | A competitive McKinney-Vento grant of "$35,000 each of the three years of the funding cycle", and selection for a Nellie Mae Education Foundation program (transcribed "Nail Education Foundation", 0:01:58). The joint meeting with the City Council is "Tuesday, August 9th at 6 p.m." The expanded criminal records check took effect "a few days ago", consistent with 2016, 117:1, effective July 19, 2016 (RSA 189:13-a, source note). | |
| 0:13:16 | Citizens' comments: the schedule | Seaman, chair when the change was made, reads failure rates under the old 4x4 schedule: "22.5% of the students at Stevens High School at that time failed at least one class", "Algebra one 23.5%." and "30.6% of our students failed civics". His advice: "Find a way to get together, have an emergency meeting." | POS |
| 0:23:43 | Summer food service | Free summer lunches at the middle school, Maple Avenue, a family center and the soup kitchen; the superintendent: "A free healthy lunch for every child living in Claremont." | |
| 0:27:35 | Collective bargaining | The superintendent: "But five months later, we do have a date. And the date is August 23rd." The chair: "we've tried for months to get meetings, repeatedly emailed, try to get dates with no response". | |
| 0:29:46 | Maple Avenue roof | Most roofers would not quote a summer job; the work goes back out to bid and will be done after school starts. "The projected cost was was about $75 a square." for 165 squares, with $100,000 set aside. | |
| 0:32:04 | CCTV board appointment | Pauline Pelletier's term had expired and "I believe she is the only application". Reappointed by voice vote. See the method note on CCTV/CCMC. | |
| 0:32:57 | Resignations | The superintendent: some resigning staff "have been here more than a decade", others are first-year; reasons include geography and money. All positions are being replaced (0:35:15). | |
| 0:36:27 | Food service: in-house or a vendor | O'Neill apologizes for the late request for proposals: "I'm disappointed in my own performance on this." A vendor would charge about a $50,000 management fee and any shortfall would come from the general fund (0:48:59, 0:49:55). Gregory: the district's milk bid is "$0.19 a carton" [O'Neill puts it at $0.16, 0:49:55]. Decision deferred two weeks. | |
| 1:02:19 | Irish's motion | Irish: "I don't care what the state says." He moves not to comply (1:04:44). Adrian favors complying while appealing (1:06:27); Brent Ferland: "we we need to work within the system that's been provided"; Becky Ferland: "I have to abide by the law."; Pierce: "We are not breaking any laws." | OBS |
| 1:16:16 | Sprague and the chair | Sprague lists attendance, homelessness, instruction and parents' incarceration as better predictors than the schedule: "to hang all of this on block schedule is ludicrous". The chair: "We know unequivocally that the 4x4 was failing." and, on the arbitrator, "This is not a court order." | OBS |
| 1:35:50 | The principal | Barry: Stevens teachers "wouldn't hamstring their students over this"; a return to 4x4 voids the program of studies the board approved; students have had "three principles in four years". | |
| 1:46:23 | First roll call | Irish's motion fails; answers include "Patrick. Adrian, no." and "Shall pierce. Yes." (4-3, Valley News). | OBS OBS POS |
| 1:47:06 | Appeal | Brent Ferland moves to appeal; Sprague favors it and repeats counsel's advice (1:48:55); the chair: "But that was nonpublic." Passed by voice vote. | OBS OBS |
| 1:49:33 | Stay with A/B pending a ruling | The superintendent: "I urge you at the superintendent of the schools to support continuing the A B schedule" (1:52:04). Seaman asks the board to reach out to the teachers' association within the week (1:52:52). Roll call: the chair votes No.; the motion fails. | OBS |
| 1:59:43 | What reverting would undo | The superintendent lists ending the flex block, advisory and intervention, revising the program of studies and handbook, reverting the bell schedule to 2013-14, and "the 8% additional compensation of $157,000 for our colleagues will be gone". | |
| 2:01:53 | The side letter and the teachers' vote | Brent Ferland: the grievance followed a staff vote against the A/B schedule. The chair: "You're clearly talking to people outside the board who are involved in this, and you shouldn't be." Barry: a 13-member committee recommended A/B unanimously after four months, but at the faculty meeting "there was not a majority of teachers who agreed to go with the A, B schedule". | |
| 2:19:42 | The arbitrator | A speaker labeled the superintendent (the corrections ledger suggests Sprague completing his own sentence, low confidence): "Is not an attorney. He didn't interpret the law correctly." The chair: high school teachers keep their 8% raise if A/B stays (2:21:21). | |
| 2:23:07 | Reconsideration | Roll call; the motion fails. Pierce: "Can we continue doing motions until it passes?" | OBS |
| 2:24:19 | Motion to comply, recess, tabling | A motion to comply is seconded but challenged as too vague (2:25:08); after a recess Barry notes that guidance, nursing and special education staff did not get the 8% (2:32:49), and the chair proposes to "table this discussion and we'll call, call a special meeting to come back to it". Tabled by voice vote (2:35:43). The recording ends at 2:36:10. | OBS |
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 August 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. This meeting decided to appeal a labor board order and voted three times by roll call on the high school schedule; the recording and one newspaper report are now the only public account. The recording shows minutes being kept in the ordinary course: the board opens by approving the July 6 minutes (0:00:05, 0:00:27), and a member asks the clerk to word his motion properly, "you can make it nice in your right, Mary" (1:48:02).
RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force in 2016, required minutes with "names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", open to 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 shows the minutes were being kept; what is missing is a surviving public copy.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; in force through 2016)
OBSERVATION The board was told it could keep the A/B schedule while it appealed; the appeal statute says an appeal does not suspend the order
The labor board had ordered the district to comply with an arbitrator's award against the A/B schedule (Valley News, Aug. 4, 2016, report by Patrick O'Grady on the Stevens schedule dispute). Vice chair Chris Irish moved "that we do not comply with the PLO, be ruling and continue to move forward with the A b scheduling while pursuing an appeal of the ruling" (1:04:44). Arguing for it, the chair said "It's not a court order." (1:22:18) and "part of that system allows us to continue on with the schedule as we have it and continue to appeal" (1:31:57). The motion failed on a roll call, 4-3 as the Valley News reported it (1:46:23); the board then voted to appeal, and a further motion to "stick with a B and till we get a ruling" also failed (1:57:46).
RSA 273-A:14 provides that review of a final labor board order is obtained "in the manner prescribed in RSA 541", and RSA 541:18 provides that "No appeal or other proceedings taken from an order of the commission shall suspend the operation of such order" unless the supreme court orders a suspension. Section 541:18 is written for "the commission" and reaches labor board orders through 273-A:14's incorporation; a reviewer should confirm that reading. On that reading, the chair's account was wrong: an appeal alone did not let the district continue the schedule. Irish's later point that nothing would be violated before the school year began (1:55:48) is a separate argument about timing. The board adopted neither noncompliance motion, so this is an observation about the advice members acted on, not a finding of a violation.
Sources: RSA 273-A:14 (2016 codification; source 1975, 490:2); RSA 541:18 (2016 codification; source note ends 1951, 203:16); Valley News, Aug. 4, 2016, report by Patrick O'Grady on the Stevens schedule dispute (reporting)
OBSERVATION Only one of the three schedule roll calls can be fully read from the recording
On the first roll call (Irish's motion) the answers can be matched to names and agree with the Valley News count: Irish, Pierce and Rapp yes; Adrian, Brent Ferland, Becky Ferland and Sprague no (1:46:34 to 1:46:55). On the second (stay with A/B pending a ruling) the audible answers are two yes and five no, among them the chair's "I'll go. No." (1:58:36), but the clerk's calls are garbled ("Brant. Spread.") and two answers cannot be tied to a member. On the third (reconsideration, which the chair says he moved, 2:11:32) only five answers are audible (2:23:12 to 2:23:36).
The chair's no vote on the second roll call is what allowed him to move reconsideration: a member is heard saying the mover must be on the Winning side (2:23:47). The appeal motion passed by voice vote (1:49:22), reported 7-0 by the Valley News; a later motion to comply with the order was moved and seconded (2:25:00, 2:25:05) and then set aside when the board voted to table the schedule question to a special meeting (2:34:29, 2:35:43). With no minutes surviving, the names on two of the three schedule votes cannot be established from public records. Six days later, in a one-minute session before the joint meeting with the City Council, the board authorized the chair to sign a schedule agreement with the teachers (August 9, 2016 page).
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 8-3-16; Valley News, Aug. 4, 2016, report by Patrick O'Grady on the Stevens schedule dispute (reporting)
OBSERVATION The recording starts mid-meeting, and counsel's advice from a nonpublic session was repeated in public
The recording opens on the July 6 minutes (0:00:05); there is no call to order, roll call or Pledge on tape, and the chair later remarks that "some of us have been here since 530" (0:46:00). During the appeal vote Sprague said "I like the lawyers recommendation that it becomes a a negotiating chip as we move forward with negotiations." and the chair answered "But that was nonpublic." (1:48:55, 1:49:13). When and how that nonpublic session was held is not on this recording.
In 2016, RSA 91-A:2, I(b) excluded "Consultation with legal counsel" from the definition of a meeting, and a nonpublic session required a motion stating the exemption and a roll call in public session under RSA 91-A:3, I(b). Neither the earlier session nor any motion to enter it can be checked here. Repeating privileged advice in public is the board's choice to make, not a statutory violation, but it was done by one member without a decision of the board.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (2015 codification); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2016 codification)
POSITIVE Public comment heard during the deliberation, and roll-call votes on the contested motions
Richard Seaman spoke in citizens' comments (0:13:16) and the chair let him speak again three times during the board's debate (1:22:56, 1:52:49, 1:56:29). The schedule motions were decided by roll call, so the first vote's alignment is on the public record (1:46:23). Neither a public-comment period nor roll calls on ordinary open-session motions were required of a school board in 2016 (the public-comment statute, RSA 189:74, dates from 2022). Both practices exceeded the legal minimum.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 8-3-16; RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not in force in 2016); RSA 91-A:2, II and III (2015 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 8-3-16 (show 8558; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 on 2026-10-02)
- Google Drive: no packet folder, agenda or minutes. MAP.md: "neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (checked 9/26/26)." Not searched again for this page, per the run instructions for meetings with no Drive material.
- Valley News, Aug. 4, 2016, report by Patrick O'Grady on the Stevens schedule dispute: reports the 4-3 vote on Irish's motion with each member's vote, the 7-0 appeal vote, and the tabling (read 2026-10-02)
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8558 SchoolBoard080316.mp4.CSV (899 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8558 SchoolBoard080316.mp4Input/Transcripts/8558 SchoolBoard080316.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 11Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8558 SchoolBoard080316.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)Scripts/csv_corrections_2015_2023.md (corrections ledger; entry for row 794)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I(b) and II, 2015 codification (source note ends 2008, 303:4; in force until Jan. 1, 2017): consultation with legal counsel excluded from the definition of a meeting; minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), 2016 codification: nonpublic-session motion and roll call
- RSA 273-A:14 (source 1975, 490:2): review of labor board orders in the manner of RSA 541
- RSA 541:18 (source note ends 1951, 203:16): an appeal does not suspend the order unless the supreme court orders it
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment at school board meetings; cited only to show it postdates this meeting
- RSA 189:13-a, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 117:1, eff. July 19, 2016): criminal history records checks