Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording, plus the absent member. There are no minutes to check spellings or attendance against; names follow the project roster and the attribution report for this show.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides; adds the vacancy-interview process to the agenda (0:02:19); warns members about email and RSA 91-A (1:10:50); explains sealing of nonpublic minutes (1:42:03). |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Answers the roll (0:01:35); proposes clearer wording for the bus-transportation policy (1:38:27); raises the DAR Good Citizen award (1:44:50). |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Answers the roll as Ranks right in the transcript (0:01:37). Adds the calendar item (0:01:58), moves the minutes (0:04:15), the early-release day (1:25:08), the policies to third read (1:44:29) and adjournment (1:47:32); asks how to handle an email from an applicant (1:15:27). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Asks that candidates give opening statements (0:16:08) and that the bus policy allow for parents in two households and emergencies (1:34:33); seconds adjournment (1:47:34). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Transcribed as Parker gave you in the roll (0:01:37). Explains, on the record, emails he sent to members (1:12:40); asks how open-meeting rules apply to committees (1:17:04) and about access to nonpublic minutes (1:41:00). |
| Brent Ferland | Member | Absent by inference: named in the roll with no answer (0:01:37) and not heard again. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gives the superintendent's report, including a CCTV proposal (0:12:07); presents policy BHE as a reminder (1:09:23), the early-release calendar change (1:20:47) and six policies on second read (1:26:25). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent | Presents the first i-Ready baseline results (0:30:42); describes the community forums and the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop (1:46:03). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk (identification low confidence) | The dialogue file labels the roll-call reader Mary Woodman (0:01:37); she is not named on this recording and the attribution report rates the label low confidence. |
| Unidentified voices | Members and staff | Pre-meeting chatter, seconds and vote answers the dialogue file cannot tie to a person (9.7% of rows per the attribution report). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda was posted to any surviving district share. The items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions. Dispositions are by voice vote unless noted; no recorded vote in this meeting has an audible dissent.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:55 | Call to order; Pledge; roll call | Roll 0:01:35 to 0:01:37; quorum declared (0:01:50). |
| 0:01:50 | Agenda | Additions: 2016-17 school calendar under action (0:01:58) and steps in the process for the next meeting's interviews (0:02:19). Moved by Sprague (0:02:38); approved (0:02:40). |
| 0:02:40 | Student representative | Not present (field hockey playoff). |
| 0:04:09 | Minutes of October 5, 2016 | Moved by Sprague (0:04:15), seconded by Adrian (0:04:24); approved (0:04:31). |
| 0:04:38 | Superintendent's report | Nellie Mae Foundation training, vacancy applications, food drive, bargaining teams, CCTV interviews. No action. |
| 0:13:52 | Citizens' comments | Opened and closed with no speakers. |
| 0:14:05 | Discussion (added): steps for the vacancy interviews | Opening statement plus the same prepared questions for each candidate; questions sent individually to the superintendent. No vote. |
| 0:23:02 | Strategic action plan update | November 3 community conversation. No action. |
| 0:29:40 | i-Ready program | Baseline results presented by the assistant superintendent. No action. |
| 1:06:17 | Action (moved up): school calendar, early release November 3 | Moved by Sprague (1:25:08); approved (1:26:19). |
| 1:06:40 | Stevens on-site accreditation visit | Reminder of the October 23 opening. |
| 1:09:19 | School board policy BHE (electronic communications) | Reminder after a member's emails; discussion. No action. See flags 2, 3 and 4. |
| 1:26:25 | Policies, second read: six policies | Access to minutes and public records, student transportation, video and audio recording, food service management, patriotic exercises, change of school assignment. Edits noted; moved to third read by Sprague (1:44:29), seconded by Adrian (1:44:38); approved (1:44:40). |
| 1:44:50 | Future agenda items; announcements; adjournment | DAR Good Citizen award; Bridges Out of Poverty workshop. Adjournment moved by Sprague (1:47:32), seconded by Pierce (1:47:34); approved (1:47:35). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8706 SchoolBoard101916.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:37 | Roll call | Transcribed: “Parker gave you here. Brant. Berlin. Michelle Pierce here. Ranks right here. And Brian right here.” Chair: “We have a quorum”. | |
| 0:04:15 | Minutes approved | Sprague: “I move to approve the minutes of our meeting on October 5th”. Approved by voice vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:21 | Nellie Mae Foundation grant | Superintendent: “we received a three year grant from the Nellie May Foundation”; the first year trains staff in community engagement, “not just those who come to a meeting”. | |
| 0:08:53 | Vacancy applications | Superintendent: “To date, I have received two applications”; the window closes October 21 and interviews are set for November 2. | POSITIVE |
| 0:10:04 | Food drive | The Newport game food drive delivered to the Claremont Soup Kitchen “between 125 and 150 pounds of food”. | |
| 0:10:45 | Bargaining team seat | Superintendent: a board member is wanted for the paraprofessionals; “Becky Ferland was the former school board representative for that”. | |
| 0:12:07 | CCTV interviews | Superintendent: “I had a visit with CCTV today”; CCTV asked whether he would be “periodically interviewed to talk about the Claremont School District and have that telecast”. See the maintainer note in the footer. | |
| 0:14:05 | Interview format | Chair: “Typically, we would ask all the same sorts of questions”. Members agree to send questions to the superintendent one by one; superintendent: “It wouldn't be appropriate. With the open meeting law to do any kind of business between board members.” Pierce asks for opening statements (0:16:08); Adrian: “The public is not allowed to ask questions.” Chair: “Right. No.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:33 | Public or nonpublic deliberation | Chair: “we can find more out about this, about deliberations whether to have those in nonpublic or if those are are required to be in public”. The question is left open for November 2. | |
| 0:23:33 | Community conversation | Superintendent: “A light dinner will be served. Free childcare will be provided, and even transportation is available upon request.” | |
| 0:40:51 | i-Ready baseline | LeClair: “Across Claremont, we have 90% of our kids on level” in first-grade math; “in reading, we have 94% of our first graders on level”, which she ties to full-day kindergarten (0:41:30); fewer students are on level in the upper grades (0:41:37). | |
| 1:04:25 | Board on the new assessment | Chair: “we've moved away from these assessments or the these standardized tests that is just there to basically test a snapshot in time”. | |
| 1:21:55 | Early release for i-Ready training | Superintendent recommends release on November 3 and says “We still are in compliance with, the the minimum expected instructional time for the school year”; LeClair: the calendar has no fall professional development day (1:23:42). Approved. | |
| 1:09:23 | Policy BHE reminder | Superintendent: “Patrick, you had done some emailing”; “the contents of the electric communication will be publicly disclosed and included in the minutes of the next regularly scheduled board meeting” (his reading of the policy). | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:10:50 | Chair on RSA 91-A | “it's more than just a policy. It's it's law”; sending the same email to members one at a time “would be looked at as, as purposely attempting to circumvent it”. He cites a recent case involving Sandwich and “$207,000” (his figure, not verified for this page). | POSITIVE |
| 1:12:40 | Member explains | Adrian: “if I've done that with quorum of the members, that. Yeah, that that's a violation policy becomes public record”; “it was a mistake”. | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:15:27 | Applicant's email | Sprague says he recirculated a request from “Mrs. Zullo” [an applicant] to all members; chair: “That it probably isn't the best way to do it either”. | POSITIVE |
| 1:17:15 | Committees and open meetings | Superintendent: “committees with board members are open to the public”. Chair: “A quorum of your committee is a quorum for purposes of of open meeting”. Superintendent: “But if we don't have a quorum, we have two board members on a subcommittee, and there are seven of you. We don't have to warn that.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:18:23 | Perception | Superintendent recalls a resident who sought a member's emails after “a resident watching CCTV saw a board member on their phone”. | |
| 1:30:05 | Public records policy edits | Chair: the reviewer of released records should read “Superintendent or designee”; superintendent: “If a board member receives a request for document, the board member will forward the request of the superintendent”. | |
| 1:31:30 | Bus transportation policy | Sprague flags a stray sentence; superintendent: “We're not obligated, however, to be a taxi service or a bus service”. Pierce asks that the policy allow for split households and emergencies (1:34:33). Wording to be fixed for a third read. | |
| 1:41:00 | Nonpublic minutes | Adrian asks whether nonpublic minutes are public; chair: “If they're, if they're sealed the to seal the minutes. You have to make that in public session.” | |
| 1:44:02 | Third read kept | Superintendent: “we generally go three reads”. The six policies move to third read. | |
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 October 19, 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 for this meeting. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the 2016 text, 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 public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (statute text). Here the gap matters twice: the board's own policy, as the superintendent read it, required the content of a member's emails to be placed in the minutes of the next regular meeting (flag 3), and no minutes survive to show that it was.
MEDIUM under the project's severity rule, because the record mitigates the gap: the October 5 minutes are moved and approved on tape (0:04:15), so minutes were being kept. No public copy survives.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 303:4, so in force through 2016)
MEDIUM Board told that a subcommittee with fewer than a quorum of board members need not be noticed
Asked how the open-meeting law applies to committees (1:17:04), the chair answered correctly that “A quorum of your committee is a quorum for purposes of of open meeting”. The superintendent then told the board: “But if we don't have a quorum, we have two board members on a subcommittee, and there are seven of you. We don't have to warn that.” (1:17:37). Nobody corrected him.
RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) defines a public body to include "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto" (statute text), and RSA 91-A:2, II requires "a notice of the time and place of each such meeting" (statute text). A board subcommittee is a public body in its own right, and a convening of a quorum of its own members is a meeting that must be noticed, whatever share of the full board it contains. MEDIUM: advice on the record that, if followed, would leave subcommittee meetings unnoticed. The recording does not show that any subcommittee went unnoticed as a result.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1); RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification)
OBSERVATION Policy BHE required a member's emails to be read into the next minutes; the recording does not show their content
The superintendent put policy BHE on the agenda because a member's emails had reached a quorum (1:09:23), and read that under the policy “the contents of the electric communication will be publicly disclosed and included in the minutes of the next regularly scheduled board meeting” (1:10:09). The member described the emails as an attempt to be transparent about questions he was sending the chair (1:12:40). Their content is not read into the recording, and no minutes survive to show it was disclosed. The policy itself is not available; this page relies on the superintendent's reading of it. RSA 91-A:2-a, II provides that "Communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of a public body, shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter" (statute text). Nothing on the recording suggests a decision was made by email, so this is an observation about documentation, not a finding of a violation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, II (2016 codification; source note 2008, 303:4)
POSITIVE An email lapse aired and explained in public session
Rather than handle the matter privately, the superintendent raised the emails on the agenda (1:09:23), the chair explained reply-all and one-at-a-time emails as risks under RSA 91-A (1:11:17), the member gave his account on the record (1:12:40), and a second member asked in public how to answer an applicant's email to all members (1:16:18). Public discussion of a possible open-meeting lapse, with guidance given on the record, goes beyond what RSA 91-A:2-a requires and lets residents see how the board polices itself.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2016 codification)
POSITIVE Vacancy candidates to answer the same prepared questions in a public interview
RSA 197:26 requires only that the board fill the vacancy until the next annual meeting. The board set a process in which each candidate gives an opening statement and answers “all the same sorts of questions”, with members' questions routed to the superintendent individually rather than circulated among members (0:15:59), and the interviews held at a regular meeting on November 2 (0:08:53). A uniform, public interview is a fairer process than the statute requires. The chair left open whether deliberation would be public (0:18:33); the November 2 recording will show how that was resolved.
Sources: RSA 197:26 (2016 codification; source note ends RL 139:25)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 10-19-16 (show 8706; 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.
- Neighboring meeting page: October 5, 2016 (resignation and vacancy).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8706 SchoolBoard101916.mp4.CSV (610 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8706 SchoolBoard101916.mp4Input/Transcripts/8706 SchoolBoard101916.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 16Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8706 SchoolBoard101916.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): notice of the time and place of each meeting; minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), 2015 codification (source note ends 2008, 354:1): public body includes any committee, subcommittee or subordinate body
- RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II, 2016 codification (2008, 303:4): deliberation only in meetings; outside communications not to circumvent the chapter
- RSA 197:26, 2016 codification (source note ends RL 139:25): board fills vacancies until the next annual meeting