Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. There are no minutes to check spellings or attendance against; names follow the project roster where the recording gives only a first name, and the participation cell says when a name rests on the roster rather than this recording.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides; addressed as Brian (1:22:13). Amends the agenda to add a grant acceptance (0:04:32), asks whether the roof price includes drip edge and decking, questions the weekday custodial fee, and objects to the clause allowing a records check of "any employee at any time" (1:45:13). |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Seconds the handbook motion, argues for fee waivers for youth coaches and adult leagues using gyms (1:15:29), raises the athletics question on the transgender policy (1:10:43), and supports retaining a records-check power before agreeing to remove it. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moves the elementary handbooks, the program of studies, the parent manual and the roof contract; defines LADC for the assistant superintendent (2:04:26); asks to expedite Claremont Middle School enrichment classes (2:12:01). |
| Rebecca (Becky) Ferland | Member; SAU 6 chair | Asks about the policies missing from her emailed packet (1:02:59), presses for hourly rental rates (1:24:52), and asks when paraprofessional bargaining will restart, saying she sat on that committee (2:02:41). Her SAU 6 chair role is from the project roster (Valley News, October 6, 2016). |
| Brent Ferland | Member | Labeled Brent Ferland in the dialogue file; the attribution report rates that label low to medium confidence because no name cue is heard on this recording. The voice moves the agenda (0:05:15), proposes a portal link in the handbook (0:27:46), asks about coding instruction (0:35:33) and athletics under the transgender policy (1:08:27), and moves the background-check first read (2:00:34). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Recognized as Michelle (1:34:27). Opposes renting the culinary classroom during the school year (1:34:53) and asks how a records check of existing employees would work (1:49:15). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Recognized by others ("to Patrick's point", 1:47:43). Offers the case of an employee charged but not yet tried as a reason to keep the records-check power (1:46:59). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Addressed as Doctor Goodwin in the transcript. Gives the superintendent's report, reads the staff nominations (0:59:24), presents the transgender, building-rental, background-check and volunteer policies, and relays an attorney's advice on felony records (1:40:59). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent | Transcribed as "Corey Leclerc". Describes new-teacher orientation, building use by youth basketball programs (1:17:20), the Department of Health and Human Services substance-misuse grant (2:03:45) and the McKinney-Vento award (2:09:09). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator | Addressed as Mike (0:47:29); surname from the project roster, which marks its spelling unverified. Recommends keeping food service in-house (0:47:33) and presents the Maple Avenue roof bids (0:50:21). |
| Patricia (Pat) Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Presents the program-of-studies changes for the return to the 4x4 block (0:29:38) and the student-parent manual; reports on Playworks training and the accreditation visit; describes a signing in the governor's office (0:43:26). |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School | Presents the emergency operations plan with the Bluff principal (0:16:00) and the elementary handbooks (0:23:50). |
| Mike Lansing (as transcribed) | Principal, Bluff Elementary School | Introduced as Mike Lansing from bluff (0:13:17); the surname is ASR and unverified. Describes the revised emergency operations plan (0:14:08). |
| Unidentified voices | Members and staff | Short responses, seconds and vote answers that the dialogue file cannot tie to a person (9.7% of rows per the attribution report), including the roll-call answers and one speaker who describes past catering use of a kitchen. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda was posted to any surviving district share. The items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. The chair refers to Roman numeral sections and a lettered item list, so a written agenda existed; its wording is not available. Dispositions are by voice vote unless noted; no recorded vote in this meeting has an audible dissent.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:03:44 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll call answers are not audible by name (0:04:18). |
| 0:04:32 | Agenda | Chair adds "Acceptance of Grant" to action items and corrects future agenda item D to "fiscal year 18 budget". Moved (0:05:15), seconded by the chair (0:05:17); approved. |
| 0:05:17 | Minutes of August 3, 2016 | The chair notes “older minutes that we've already approved”; the August 3 minutes are moved and approved (0:05:50). |
| 0:06:05 | Superintendent's report | Grant awards, school-based dental program, flu clinics. No action. |
| 0:12:16 | Citizens' comments | Floor opened (0:12:23); no speaker comes forward. |
| 0:12:27 | Discussion: emergency operations management plan | Presented by the Disnard and Bluff principals. No action; the superintendent says the plans do not require board approval. |
| 0:19:42 | Discussion: SAU 6 new teacher orientation day | Information only. |
| 0:23:11 | Action: elementary student handbooks | Moved by Sprague (0:28:46), seconded by Irish (0:28:49); approved (0:28:50). |
| 0:29:00 | Action: Stevens High School program of studies (faculty and student schedules) | Changes for the return to the 4x4 block. Moved by Sprague (0:36:52); approved (0:36:55). |
| 0:37:03 | Action: Stevens student-parent manual | Moved by Sprague (0:44:50); approved (0:44:52). |
| 0:46:56 | Food service program | Business administrator recommends continuing the in-house program; no motion taken (0:49:03). |
| 0:50:17 | Maple Avenue roof project | Contract to the lower bidder at $109,500 against a $100,000 warrant article. Moved by Sprague (0:55:21); approved (0:58:32). See flag 3. |
| 0:58:44 | Nominations of new staff | Nine nominations read by the superintendent; moved and approved (1:02:31). |
| 1:02:47 | Policy, first read: transgender and gender nonconforming students | Moved and seconded with no audible names (1:05:55); passed to second read (1:11:20). |
| 1:11:29 | Policy, first read: procedure for building rental (revision) | Passed to second read with hourly-rate and kitchen edits to come (1:39:37). |
| 1:39:47 | Policy, first read: background investigations and criminal history records check (revision) | First read with the "any employee at any time" paragraph redacted; motion by Brent Ferland (2:00:34); approved (2:00:41). See flag 4. |
| 2:00:46 | Policy, first read: volunteers | Legal reference updated to the new RSA; approved for first read (2:01:25). |
| 2:01:32 | Budget schedule; paraprofessional contract | Budget timeline deferred to the next meeting; the superintendent reports the chair signed the paraprofessional contract that evening (2:02:00). |
| 2:03:40 | Action (added): acceptance of a grant | Department of Health and Human Services substance-misuse grant, about "mid 30,000"; approved (2:07:51). See flag 2. |
| 2:11:54 | Future agenda items; adjournment | Sprague asks for the CMS enrichment classes; adjournment motion (2:13:28) and vote (2:13:36). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8577 SchoolBoard081716.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:04:32 | Agenda amended | Chair: “If we could add to action items” and “Future agenda items D should be fiscal year 18 budget”. The grant is added the same night it is voted on. | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:17 | Minutes approved | “And we have our minutes from August 3rd. We also have older minutes that we've already approved. So we only need to do August 3rd” The minutes are approved by voice vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:06:10 | Grant awards | The superintendent reports New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Wellborn Ecology Fund awards, including “Nature Institute of $5,000 to provide nature program at Maple Avenue Elementary School”. A second figure in the same sentence is garbled in the transcript and is not repeated here. | |
| 0:08:45 | School dental program | The superintendent reads an announcement that the dental program will add silver diamine fluoride treatment and lists cleaning, varnish, sealants and temporary fillings; flu clinics are set for “October 6th and October 21st at respective schools”. | |
| 0:12:39 | Emergency operations plans | Plans were updated with the Department of Education and Homeland Security. The Bluff principal: “it's almost 80 pages”. The superintendent: “we do not distribute copies of this because there is information in it that is confidential”. | |
| 0:21:09 | Teacher retention and pay | Superintendent: “we have to become more competitive with with salaries. And I hope through collective bargaining we can do that. And I've said publicly the goal isn't to put it on the back of the taxpayer”. | |
| 0:25:05 | Elementary handbooks | Report cards are electronic unless a parent asks for paper; teachers can see parent portal logins (0:25:27). Members ask for a portal link and board email addresses in the handbook. Approved. | |
| 0:30:09 | Program of studies, return to the 4x4 block | Barry: photography is dropped because the darkroom silver disposal “was actually, violating some EPA regulations”; computer programming and senior project are dropped for low sign-ups (“In senior Project we had seven students”); a section of honors 9 English and Read 180 are added. Spanish 3 and 4 await a hire (0:33:16). Approved. | |
| 0:42:07 | Accreditation visit | Barry announces a community gala “the night of Sunday, October 3rd”, corrected moments later to “Sunday, October 23rd”. Sprague: “it's pretty common for the board to be there”. | |
| 0:43:26 | Signing of SB 152 | Barry: “I had the privilege of being a part of a private signing this afternoon in the governor's office when Bill 152 was passed”. The statute's source note dates the enacted chapter to 2016, 117:1, eff. July 19, 2016, so the signing she describes was not the date the law took effect. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:45:02 | 4x4 schedule and faculty meeting | The chair reports meeting the teachers' association and faculty: “everybody seemed to be in agreement that the flex was very beneficial to the students”. | |
| 0:47:33 | Food service RFP missed | O'Neill: “I didn't get my RFP out early enough to allow for the minimum 21 day turn time”, so he recommends keeping the in-house program; the transcript gives the year as “for the 1516 school year”, which by context is 2016-17. He plans an RFP in October for the FY18 budget. | |
| 0:50:21 | Maple Avenue roof bids | “estimated the cost to to repair the roof at Maple to be $167,000”; “We put a warrant out for 100,000”. Bids: “$129,889, and one from a Lansing company for 109,500” (the second is Melanson, the transcript's "a Lansing company"). “So I would recommend that that the board approved the contract with the Melanson Company for 109,500. There is a warrant article we did for 100,000.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:59:24 | Staff nominations | The superintendent reads nine names with the positions they fill; Sprague notes one nominee is “a former New Hampshire teacher of the year”. Approved by voice vote. | POSITIVE |
| 1:03:38 | Transgender policy, first read | Superintendent: “Students who are transgender or gender nonconforming have rights. Very clear rights, as listed on the legal references”; “I did not write this policy. It comes with the recommendations of a New Hampshire School Board association”. Becky Ferland notes the policies were not in her emailed packet (1:02:59). | |
| 1:08:27 | Athletics under the transgender policy | Brent Ferland asks whether the policy could “disqualify our teams from participation in tournament”; the superintendent: “I'd like to connect with the New Hampshire” and promises to report back (1:11:10). The chair notes Sanborn Regional defers to interscholastic guidelines (1:10:04). | |
| 1:11:32 | Building rental procedure | Custodial charges per hour are now listed so fees cover custodians. O'Neill: “That's what the CBA calls for us and be paid to Brian's point, a minimum of two hours”. Members ask for hourly room rates, a waiver path for youth coaches, and no school-year use of the culinary classroom. Pierce: “This is a school room”. | |
| 1:40:59 | Felony records | The superintendent relays an attorney's advice on the draft sentence “Candidates for employment who have committed the felony may be considered for employment at the discretion of the superintendent”: “She recommended candidates for employment who have committed a felony will not be considered”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:45:13 | Checks of existing employees | Chair: “superintendent may require a criminal records check of any employee at any time”; “This was supposed to be for all new employees, all new hires”. Superintendent: “I have no problem with redacting additional criminal record checks” and “Unless I can find it in the law”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:53:56 | Board role in personnel matters | Superintendent: “this is a personnel matter. School board should not be involved”; members who hear complaints about staff before an appeal “You've been tainted”. | |
| 1:57:10 | Applicant pays for the check | Chair asks whether the prospective employee pays; superintendent: “Yeah, person does pay. Not not medical, not medical. But for this. Yes.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:00:34 | Background check first read | Brent Ferland: “First read with the changes as discussed”. Approved. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:02:00 | Paraprofessional contract signed | Superintendent: “Brian Rapp earlier this evening signed the contract”. Becky Ferland asks that bargaining start earlier so the board has “numbers when we come to the to do our budgeting”. | |
| 2:03:45 | DHHS substance-misuse grant | LeClair: the Department of Health and Human Services grant pays for a licensed alcohol and drug counselor at the high school and Project Alert in grade 7; “they require that, you take a vote agreeing to enter into this grant relationship with them”; “It's it's some funds from them to the tune of mid 30,000”. Approved by voice vote (2:07:51). | MEDIUM |
| 2:09:09 | McKinney-Vento award | LeClair: “So we receive a $35,000 grant every year for three years”, awarded competitively, and press interest from Vermont Public Radio and the Valley News. | |
| 2:12:01 | Future agenda items | Sprague asks to expedite the Claremont Middle School enrichment classes; Pierce reports the joint city meeting “came up with three subcommittees”. | |
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 17, 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 a roof contract, nine staff elections, a grant acceptance and five policy readings. 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" and made them "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (statute text).
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approves the August 3 minutes on tape and says it has already approved older sets (0:05:17), the superintendent refers to a packet (0:19:45) and the chair to numbered agenda sections (0:04:51), so the board was keeping minutes and agendas at the time. The statute required inspection, not online posting; 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)
MEDIUM A grant of about $35,000 accepted the night it was added to the agenda, with no public hearing on the record
The chair added “Acceptance of Grant” to the agenda at the start of the meeting (0:04:32). The assistant superintendent described a Department of Health and Human Services award “to the tune of mid 30,000” and asked that the board accept it (2:06:19); the board did so by voice vote (2:07:51). She called it “a different funding source than I've worked with in the past”, so it does not read as money already in the adopted budget.
RSA 198:20-b lets a board accept unanticipated money from a governmental unit only where the district has adopted the enabling article, and for "unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken", with newspaper notice at least 7 days before (statute text). No hearing is mentioned on the recording, and the item's addition to the agenda that night makes a noticed hearing at this meeting unlikely. MEDIUM because the facts point to a process gap but the record does not exclude a hearing held elsewhere or an acceptance under some other authority; the notice of hearing, if any, and the district's RSA 198:20-b warrant article would settle it.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (2016 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1)
OBSERVATION Roof contract approved at $9,500 above the warrant article, with no funding source stated
The business administrator told the board “There is a warrant article we did for 100,000” and recommended the $109,500 bid (0:52:14); the board approved it by voice vote (0:58:32). Nobody on the recording says where the other $9,500 comes from. RSA 32:8 bars a school board from agreeing to pay "for any purpose in excess of the amount appropriated by the legislative body for that purpose" except as RSA 32:9 to 32:11 allow (statute text). RSA 32:10 lets the governing body transfer unexpended balances into an appropriation, but its paragraph I(d) says an amount appropriated under a special warrant article "may be used only for the purpose specified in that article and shall not be transferred" (statute text), and paragraph I(b) requires records showing what was transferred.
The contract is lawful if a transfer from another line covered the difference, so this is an observation, not a finding. The documents that would settle it are the 2016 warrant article (to see whether it was a special warrant article and how it was worded) and the FY2017 transfer records.
Sources: RSA 32:8 (2016 codification; 1993, 332:1); RSA 32:10, I(a), I(b), I(d) (2016 codification; source note ends 2004, 113:1)
OBSERVATION Background-check questions raised at first read, checked against the statute's text
The board debated a draft policy written to the July 2016 amendment of RSA 189:13-a and removed one paragraph pending a check of the law (1:56:35). The enacted text, read for this page, bears on three points raised. First, the statute requires a check of "every selected applicant for employment" before "a final offer of employment" and contains no provision for re-checking current employees, which matches the superintendent's “I don't think it is” and supports the redaction. Second, the district "may require the selected applicant for employment or designated volunteer to pay the actual costs" of the check, so the applicant-pays practice the chair asked about (1:57:10) is authorized. Third, the statute itself gives discretion: "The superintendent ... may deny a selected applicant a final offer of employment if such person has been convicted of any crime in addition to those listed" (statute text, ellipsis marks the omitted words). The attorney's advice relayed at 1:42:11 would make the policy stricter than the statute; that is a policy choice open to the board, not a legal requirement.
On timing: Barry describes a signing in the governor's office “this afternoon”, while the statute's source note dates the amendment to 2016, 117:1, effective July 19, 2016, the date the superintendent gives (1:39:50). The afternoon event was presumably ceremonial; the record does not say.
Sources: RSA 189:13-a (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 117:1, eff. July 19, 2016)
POSITIVE Each staff nominee read by name in open session before the board voted
The superintendent read every nominee with the position and the person replaced (0:59:24 to 1:00:41), and members commented on two of them before voting (1:01:33, 1:02:01). RSA 189:39 requires that "Superintendents shall nominate and school boards elect all teachers" (statute text); it does not require that the names be read aloud. Doing so puts each election on the public record, which is the only record of it that survives.
Sources: RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2; stable for the whole corpus)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 8-17-16 (show 8577; 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.
- Press used for one role: Valley News, October 6, 2016 (Patrick O'Grady), on Rebecca Ferland as SAU 6 chair, cited through the project roster.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8577 SchoolBoard081716.mp4.CSV (777 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8577 SchoolBoard081716.mp4Input/Transcripts/8577 SchoolBoard081716.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 13Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8577 SchoolBoard081716.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 32:8, 2016 codification (1993, 332:1): no agreement to pay in excess of the amount appropriated, except under RSA 32:9 to 32:11
- RSA 32:10, I, 2016 codification (source note ends 2004, 113:1): transfers between appropriations; I(d) special warrant article amounts not transferable
- RSA 198:20-b, 2016 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated money; prior public hearing at $5,000 or more
- RSA 189:13-a, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 117:1, eff. July 19, 2016): criminal history records checks of selected applicants; applicant may be required to pay; superintendent discretion for unlisted crimes
- RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2): superintendents nominate, school boards elect teachers