Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Names follow the speaker attribution in the dialogue file and the project's 2015-2023 roster; where a name rests on weak evidence, the participation cell says so. There are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides; questions the snowplow contractor's past billing and asks him to wrap up (0:26:21, 0:28:23); explains to Herzog that the board now works on policies as a whole (0:56:49). The roll call renders him "Brian Brown". |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Asks about a send-off bus for the football team, argues against the word equal in the access policy and reads RSA 193:1-c aloud (1:22:30). The dialogue file's attribution of this voice is rated medium confidence. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moves the prior minutes (0:03:29); asks about the Gear Up grant, whether the food service policy would bar an outside vendor (0:51:52), the fund-drive language, and why a procedural safeguards policy is needed when federal law already requires notice (1:25:07). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Proposes building a periodic review into the strategic action plan, crediting a forum participant (0:38:52); worked with LeClair on the gifts policy wording (0:59:09). Attribution rated medium confidence. |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Member (first meeting after appointment) | Added to the board list at the superintendent's request (0:01:26) and addressed by the chair (0:56:49). No speech is attributed to him; several unplaced board voices may include his. |
| Marion Lovett | Student representative | Called on as "Barron, you're up" (0:03:50); reports the football championship game, a unified basketball jamboree, a food drive and Key Club fundraising. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Requests agenda changes, reports the Gear Up New Hampshire grant (0:06:45), explains the deliberative-session window (0:29:49), announces the non-meeting and presents the policies. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Addressed as "Assistant Superintendent LeClaire" (0:10:48). Reports on the October 6 community conversation and November forums (0:33:34) and explains the redrafted solicitation, advertising, gifts and flier policies (0:54:40). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explains the snowplow award and the prior contractor's billing (0:21:25 to 0:25:24); urges setting the deliberative date at once (0:31:25). |
| Norm St. Alban | Citizens' comment; snowplow contractor | "My name is Norm, Saint Alban." (0:14:22); in construction and snowplowing since 1960, "85 years old now". Disputes the award of the school snowplow contract to Morris Enterprises. Surname spelling unverified. |
| Unidentified | Various | 142 of 588 dialogue rows (24.1%), including the roll caller, most seconds and votes, a board member who comments on the flier policy and one who leaves early (1:24:31). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The superintendent refers to its Roman-numeral items and to "the third page" (0:02:32); the list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Roll call | Garbled and incomplete (0:00:23). |
| 0:00:45 | Agenda changes | Add Alex Herzog to the board list; "if we could add resignation to action" (0:01:41); add a non-meeting on collective bargaining strategy; correct the deliberative session date from February 1 to February 8. So moved., second, voice vote (0:03:09). No resignation is acted on later in the recording. |
| 0:03:25 | Minutes of the last meeting | "Motion to approve the minutes from last meeting." (Sprague); second; approved by voice vote (0:03:39). |
| 0:03:50 | Student representative's report | Marion Lovett. |
| 0:06:09 | Superintendent's report | Gear Up New Hampshire cohort for Claremont Middle School; the football championship. |
| 0:13:59 | Citizens' comments | Norm St. Alban on the snowplow contract; the business administrator responds. Closed at 0:29:23. |
| 0:29:39 | Discussion: SB 2 annual meeting timeline | Deliberative session set for Tuesday, February 7, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. (0:32:18), by consensus. |
| 0:33:02 | Discussion: community conversation; early childhood asset mapping; learning partnership roundtable | LeClair's report on the October 6 and November forums. No action. |
| 0:47:26 | Non-meeting: collective bargaining strategy | Announced as "RSA 91-A colon two A Roman numeral one B"; recess, not recorded; meeting called back to order at 0:49:27. |
| 0:49:33 | Action: policies for third reading | The chair's motion, as transcribed across four rows: BDG. R. E e. EEEAA. F I'm d a and JCA for third reading. (0:51:35 to 0:51:40). Approved by voice vote (0:53:05). |
| 0:53:27 | Action: KH, KHB, GBEBC, KDC (first reading) | Public solicitation, advertising, employee gifts and solicitations, flier distribution. Wording on the flier policy held; Sprague moves the "Policies to second read status second." (1:09:16); voice vote (1:09:27). |
| 1:09:44 | Action: access for nonpublic, charter and home-educated pupils; procedural safeguards | Transcribed "J j j and I h be a dash". Moved to second reading with equal to be revisited (1:24:11, 1:26:16); voice vote (1:26:24). |
| 1:26:29 | Adjournment | Moved, seconded, voice vote (1:26:43). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8762 SchoolBoard111616.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 |
|---|
| 0:01:49 | Agenda additions | The superintendent: "we also could go into a non meeting per RSA 91, a two Roman numeral one B strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining." He also corrects the agenda's third page: "The deliberative session needs to occur on February 8th, not the first. The first is too early." (0:02:32). | OBS POS |
| 0:03:54 | Student representative's report | Stevens beat Monadnock to reach the Division III championship game "this Saturday at 11 a.m." [at UNH]; a unified basketball jamboree on December 10; a Thanksgiving food drive for the soup kitchen; the Key Club "nearly raised $700 over Halloween via Unicef". | |
| 0:06:45 | Gear Up New Hampshire | Claremont Middle School joins a Gear Up cohort: "The grant is $1.7 million, and 1 million of that is going to be for scholarships". It follows the current seventh grade through the first year of college (class of 2022, corrected at 0:08:18). Sprague asks about the VISTA cash match; the superintendent will learn the details. | |
| 0:10:48 | The championship game | The superintendent announces the Division III final at UNH at 11:00 Saturday. Irish: the community raised the money for the soccer team's coach bus "in less than two hours" (0:13:02). | |
| 0:14:22 | Citizens' comment: the snowplow contract | Norm St. Alban asks "why Morris heard Morris Enterprises got the bid for the snow plowing of the schools this year." He says the winning bid "will be nearly $11,000 per year" and "around $55,000" over five years, that he was the low bidder and had plowed the schools for four years "never been late", and that his calls to the business office after the November 8 bid opening went unreturned. He begins an anecdote about a named district employee; the chair stops it: "If you're talking about one of our employees, it's kind of unfair to be telling the stories." (0:19:49). | OBS |
| 0:21:25 | The business administrator's answer | "Basically, in the school board policy, it allows for the business administrator to make decisions on non educational purposes." Asked whether members have the bids, a voice answers No. (0:21:12). O'Neill: six bidders; St. Alban's prior contract was "about $14,000 a year" but he billed "$178,110" over the period; "We felt it was time to to make a change and to go back to Morris Enterprises". "We paid you 122,000 more than the bid. That was my concern." (0:23:21). St. Alban says the extras were salting and sanding requested by district staff and work added by the Stevens and Maple Avenue projects. | OBS |
| 0:26:21 | The chair's response | "to me, it looks like the original bid was $14,000. And you were getting paid $44,000 a year." When St. Alban says "Mike is not doing things the right way.", the chair: "Please, please do not please do not criticize or defame one of our employees." (0:27:24). "I think the board has a lot of faith in the way Mike has done business. I, for one, support him." and "If the board wants to look further into it, we can schedule something as an agenda item." (0:28:23). | OBS |
| 0:29:49 | Deliberative session date | The superintendent: "the deliberative session, which is the fourth box from the bottom, needs to be between February 4th through February 11th." February 8 conflicts with the City Council: "We work pretty hard to avoid conflicting with our city Council colleagues". O'Neill: "there's other postings and other things that are driven by that date." Agreed: "It'll be a 6:00 meeting on Tuesday the seventh." (0:32:18). | POS |
| 0:33:34 | Community conversations | LeClair: the October 6 early childhood conversation, supported by New Hampshire Listens, a November 10 session with invited employers, and the November 3 strategic plan forum with "close to 50 people"; summaries will go on the website; a follow-up is planned for January 12. | |
| 0:38:52 | Reviewing the strategic plan | Adrian: "This is my big question to the board." He proposes an annual review so the plan is not "put up in the shelf"; the chair: "You can create that in the plan itself." The superintendent: "a plan should be be alive and living and adjusting accordingly." (0:40:48). | |
| 0:46:19 | "The ship is starting to turn" | Irish relays a former critic's remark at the soccer game: "You got the right people. It's starting to happen." and thanks the administration: "You're doing a hell of a job." | |
| 0:47:27 | Non-meeting | "If we could enter a non meeting RSA 91-A colon two A Roman numeral one B. Strategy or negotiation or negotiation with respect to collective bargaining. It's a non meeting." The chair confirms "It's not a non public correct." and the board recesses. | OBS |
| 0:49:40 | Policies changed by law | The superintendent lists access to minutes and public records, student transportation, video and audio recording on school property, food service management, patriotic exercises and change of school assignment: "These six policies, by the way, are the result of changes in the law." Sprague asks that the food service language not bar an outside vendor; the superintendent says it does not and an RFP "is rolling out" (0:52:36). | |
| 0:54:40 | Solicitation, advertising, gifts, fliers | LeClair: the old language "prevented Napa from handing out footballs, toy footballs at one of our football games". On gifts the aim is to avoid what is "For lack of a better descriptive bribery"; "in exchange for doing business" is the key phrase. Sprague recalls the Gideons distributing Bibles outside Stevens (1:03:56); the superintendent consults counsel on such requests "And it can it can't have any bias at all." Irish wants community activities such as Conservation Commission camp scholarships covered; the flier wording is put on hold (1:09:09). | |
| 1:10:07 | Charter school transportation | The superintendent, relaying a law conference: where an existing bus route passes a Claremont student's home and the charter school, "we are obligated to provide transportation from the student's home to the charter school, with the understanding that we're not creating another, different route." (The page did not verify the statute behind this.) | |
| 1:11:03 | Home-educated pupils and "equal access" | LeClair: "we're well over 100 home school students" and requests are increasingly atypical, especially K-5. Irish: "Equal means if it gets that class, mica gets that class no matter what." The superintendent: "I would I would discourage taking out equal because you're you're you're wordsmithing the RSA." (1:20:25). Irish reads the statute: "Does not say equal. In the RSA. It does not say equal." (1:22:17). Outcome: "take take equal out for further discussion later next month" (1:24:11). | OBS |
| 1:24:38 | Procedural safeguards | A new NHSBA-recommended policy restating the procedural safeguards owed to children with disabilities; Sprague asks why it is needed when parents already sign for the notice; the chair calls it "a safeguard for the board in case it doesn't get done". Moved to second reading. | |
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 November 16, 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 board approved policies and set the date of the annual deliberative session at this meeting, and the recording is now the only public account. 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 board approved the previous meeting's minutes (0:03:29), and the superintendent refers to a printed agenda and packet by page (0:02:32, 0:29:49), so minutes and agendas were being kept. The recording also leaves one item unresolved that minutes would settle: a resignation was added to the action items (0:01:41) and is not acted on during the recording.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 303:4, so in force through 2016)
OBSERVATION The collective bargaining non-meeting was cited to paragraph I(b), which in the 2016 text is the legal counsel exclusion
The superintendent twice cited "RSA 91, a two Roman numeral one B" for "strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining" (0:01:49, 0:47:27). In RSA 91-A:2, I as it read in 2016, the exclusions from the definition of a meeting were "(a) Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining", "(b) Consultation with legal counsel", and (c) a party caucus. The words spoken match I(a); the letter matches I(b). The substance was within the exclusion and the chair confirmed it was a recess, not a nonpublic session (0:47:43), so nothing turns on it; whether the agenda carried the same letter is unknown.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a)-(c) (2015 codification; source note ends 2008, 303:4)
OBSERVATION A five-year snowplow contract was awarded by staff to a bidder other than the low bidder, after the prior contract ran $122,000 over its bid, and the board had not seen the bids
The business administrator said board policy lets him decide non-educational purchases (0:21:25), and that he chose Morris Enterprises over the prior contractor because the prior four-year contract, bid at about $14,000 a year, had been billed $122,000 above the bid (0:22:38, 0:23:21). The prior contractor said the extras were salting, sanding and added areas requested by district staff (0:23:35). When he asked whether members had the bids, a voice answered No. (0:21:12). No state statute verified for this page requires a school district to award a service contract to the low bidder, and the policy the business administrator cited is not in the record, so no rule is engaged. Two points remain for a reviewer: the board learned of a five-year award, and of roughly tripled payments under the previous contract, only because a citizen complained; and the chair defended the award ("I, for one, support him.", 0:28:01) before members had seen the bid sheet that was passed around during the exchange (0:22:07). The chair offered to put the matter on a future agenda.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING of 11-16
OBSERVATION "Equal access": the statute as amended in 2016 does not use the word, but it does bar a more restrictive policy
The superintendent described RSA 193:1-c as one "which basically talks about equal access" and warned that removing equal would be "wordsmithing the RSA" (1:15:43, 1:20:25); the vice chair read the statute and said it "does not say equal" (1:22:17). RSA 193:1-c, I, as amended effective March 26, 2016, provides that "Nonpublic, public chartered school, or home educated pupils shall have access to curricular courses and cocurricular programs offered by the school district in which the pupil resides", and that district policy "shall not be more restrictive for non-public, public chartered school, or home educated pupils than the policy" for its own pupils. The vice chair's reading of the text is correct: the word equal does not appear. The superintendent's underlying point, that access may not be narrower than for enrolled pupils, has support in the second clause. The board deferred the wording (1:24:11).
Sources: RSA 193:1-c, I-II (2016 codification; source note "2002, 202:1 ... 2016, 4:1, eff. March 26, 2016")
POSITIVE Deliberative session date corrected into the statutory window and moved off a City Council night
The superintendent caught that the agenda's February 1 date for the deliberative session was too early (0:02:32) and told the board the session must fall "between February 4th through February 11th" (0:29:49). RSA 40:13, III, as it read in 2016-17, required the first session of an official-ballot annual meeting to be held "between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January, inclusive of those Saturdays". The last Monday in January 2017 was January 30, so the window ran from Saturday, February 4 to Saturday, February 11, as he said. The board then chose Tuesday, February 7 instead of February 8 because the latter was a City Council night (0:30:36, 0:32:18). Keeping the date clear of the council's schedule is a step beyond the statute toward letting residents attend both.
Sources: RSA 40:13, III (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, 7:1-4 and 190:1-3, 8-10, eff. Sept. 9, 2014, so the text in force in 2016-17)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING of 11-16 (show 8762; 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.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.CSV (588 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4Input/Transcripts/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 19Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I(a)-(c) and II, 2015 codification (in force until Jan. 1, 2017): exclusions from the definition of a meeting; minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 193:1-c, I-II, 2016 codification: access to curricular courses and cocurricular programs for nonpublic, chartered and home-educated pupils; policy not more restrictive
- RSA 40:13, III, 2017 codification (text in force 2014 to 2018): window for the first (deliberative) session