Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file; no minutes exist online to check spellings against, so spellings of staff and members of the public are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presided over the hearing and the board meeting. Set the comment rules (three minutes, questions on the budget only, a second turn after everyone has spoken). Asked about Owls enrollment and the PE teacher's course load. Called for the nonpublic session "for personnel" and the roll call to seal its minutes, answering his own name with "Self. Yes." |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Described the board's Saturday line-by-line review; said of Owls, "I don't want to mess with it unless we have absolutely no other choice." Described the athletic trainer's role. Put the board's and the administration's reduction totals on the record at 2:09:02 and stated his goal of no tax-rate increase. Keeps the board's working spreadsheet. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Asked why there was an "up in arms" if Owls was not being eliminated; spoke for tightening programs so that voters would support raises for teachers; asked for a fuller explanation of combining adult education with Owls. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Said he created the high school discipline-monitor position and wrote the grant for the original ombudsman program; opposed cutting Owls ("I cannot support that as a board member."). Questioned the $50,000 technology equipment line, the PE reduction set against small core classes, supervision at middle school games, and a school board expense line of about $150,000. |
| Patrick Adrian | Board member | Asked about the Maple library media position, computer replacement cycles, the former alternative-education director position and the paraprofessional behavior positions; urged the board not to change Owls before a replacement plan existed; asked students to say how adult education would feel to them. |
| Alex Herzog | Board member | Raised the $46,000 athletics increase against the Owls reduction; asked for data on athletic participation and on auxiliary revenue. Described himself as new to the board. The roll call renders him Doctor. Alan. Rosa. |
| Brent Ferland | Board member | Asked whether the technology plan would stall, how Owls and adult education fit together, and how many athletic teams the schools field. The dialogue file names him from three garbled cues (Brennan, Brian, French) and rates the identification medium; the seal roll call renders him Brant. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the budget PowerPoint: enrollment decline, adequacy aid, class-size data and the recommended reductions school by school; closed with the tax-rate snapshot. After the hearing, described the prior business administrator's record keeping. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explained the Maple library staffing, the technology replacement schedule and the school approval standards for library media services; mentioned the planned infant care for student parents. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Confirmed the athletic trainer had been left out of an earlier budget by error and moved to the athletics line. The superintendent's Michael Neal is this name. |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Explained the recommended PE and Owls reductions, the alternative-program director stipend and the discipline-monitor reclassification; answered questions and a public commenter's question on where the savings came from. |
| Dan Sherry | Principal, Maple Avenue School (spelling unverified) | Explained the Maple technology request (teacher laptop refresh). Named by the superintendent and by LeClair (Principal cherry). |
| Paulette (surname unverified) | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Answered questions on the library media specialist and the assistant athletic director position. The superintendent's words are transcribed Paula Fitzgerald; the project has not settled the surname. |
| Brian Dillon | Owls program teacher (spelling unverified) | Described how students enter Owls and the program's attendance rules; warned the board to be "careful which which limbs you cut off". |
| Shauna Baird | Owls program teacher (spelling unverified) | Said she does not live in Claremont and has taught in the program seven years; cited a dissertation calling it a model program and said Owls and Ombudsman have served 300 students. |
| Mike | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; retired teacher | Spoke against the PE reduction. Surname not given. |
| Lisa Draper | Citizens' comments, Ward 3 | Works for a social service agency doing outreach with Owls; said adult education is not a substitute for it. The chair's Liza is this name. |
| Michelle Springer | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 | Graduate of the predecessor program; spoke for Owls. |
| Brianne Lawrence | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 | Owls graduate of the prior year; asked whether the superintendent and principal had spent a day in the Owls classrooms. |
| Amanda Mass | Citizens' comments; lives outside Claremont (spelling unverified) | Owls graduate of 2010; asked where the reduction came from. |
| John | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; former board member by his own account | Spoke twice: on the middle school assistant athletic director and the athletic training line, and on library media staffing requirements. Surname not given. |
| Unidentified former Owls student | Citizens' comments | Asked how Owls would work with one fewer teacher. The name is not captured on the recording. |
| Judy Couture | Citizens' comments; retired Stevens PE teacher | Said teachers would bring facts on the PE position before the deliberative session. She gives only "Judy" on this recording; the surname comes from the January 18 recording, per the dialogue file. |
| Veronica Bellair | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 (spelling unverified) | Asked who would teach adaptive physical education and coach the Unified team. |
| Bruce Wilkins | Citizens' comments; parent of an Owls graduate | Spoke for the program his son graduated from. |
| Roll caller (not named) | Staff or clerk | Called the board-meeting roll and the nonpublic roll call. Left unidentified in the dialogue file. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this hearing or meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. The chair refers to "an agenda for tonight", so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:02:15 | Budget hearing opened | Chair: an overview of the budget and warrant articles, then citizens' comments. |
| 0:02:41 | Superintendent's budget presentation | Process, challenges, recommended reductions by school, tax-rate snapshot. Questions from members throughout. |
| 1:24:33 | Citizens' comments on the budget | Eleven speakers on the recording, several twice; board and staff responded. |
| 2:09:02 | Closing remarks by members | Reduction totals and requests for athletics data. |
| 2:14:12 | Hearing closed | Closed by the chair; short break. |
| 2:16:16 | Board meeting: call to order, roll call, agenda | Roll call; agenda accepted by voice vote. Chair: "We have no real need for our action items." |
| 2:17:29 | Nonpublic session | Motion "for nonpublic 91 a for personnel"; roll call, all audible votes yes. Session not recorded. |
| 2:19:00 | Return to public session; minutes sealed | Voice vote to come out; motion to seal the nonpublic minutes by roll call, all audible votes yes. No reason stated on the record. |
| 2:19:47 | Questions for the administration on the budget | Board expense line, the combined spreadsheet, the board's budget goals. |
| 2:28:08 | Adjournment | Motion, second and voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:41 | Hearing, not a meeting | Superintendent: "It's a public hearing. And there is a difference." He put the task at "a increase of over $850,000 to next year's budget compared to this year's budget" and called the recommendations "clearly is not a done deal". | POSITIVE |
| 0:05:42 | Default budget mentioned, not stated | "if the $850 state as part of the budget, there would be a default budget lower then the budget being proposed with $850,000 increase." He added that if voters chose the default, the collective bargaining agreements "would be for not". No default figure is read on the recording. | MEDIUM |
| 0:06:22 | Enrollment and state aid | Enrollment "In the past ten years. It's decreased by over 300 students." On this year's budget: "there was a reduction in adequacy aid, and that was over $430,000 to Claremont as a result. That reduction costs the tax rate to go up $0.63." | |
| 0:10:10 | Class-size data | Counts of classes by size at the elementary schools, the middle school and Stevens; Stevens has about 18 core classes under ten students. "Research has shown that class size is not the major factor on student achievement in the school classroom." | |
| 0:14:40 | Recommendations and the Saturday session | The results include "some of the work that the school board accomplished on January 7th, the Sadie [Saturday] budget work session". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:04 | Maple library media specialist | A requested full-time library media specialist was withdrawn: "That is a withdraw from the budget proposal". LeClair: the library class stays with a paraprofessional supervised by a teacher. | |
| 0:18:27 | Technology equipment | The Maple request is mostly teacher laptops. Sprague: "$50,000 for new equipment, we haven't been involved at all in knowing how how that money is spent." The superintendent proposed a technology presentation; the replacement plan "will be slowed down a bit". | |
| 0:23:50 | Middle school reductions | Transcript: "We are eliminated athletics at the middle school." The principal clarifies at 0:25:12 that the item is the assistant athletic director position, with duties falling to the district athletic director. | |
| 0:25:28 | Stevens: public reaction before the hearing | Superintendent: "I have received some letters. We have calls from the press regarding some of this" and he had asked the media to wait "So the community and the board can hear it". | |
| 0:26:53 | PE position and Owls teacher | Barry: one of two PE positions is not fully PE; students could earn "the 1.0 credit that the state requires for graduation" through extended learning and sports. Owls runs two 2.5-hour sessions, "So with a capacity of 30 between the two sessions". One of the Owls teaching positions is recommended for reduction. | |
| 0:37:49 | Board objections on Owls | Sprague: "I actually created that position." (the discipline monitor) and, on blending Owls with behavioral programs, "I cannot support that as a board member." Barry: "the mixing of those populations is not part of how we would move forward." Adrian at 0:41:16: "It just sounds like right now we're preparing to get rid of and distinct program, but we don't really have that other plan in place." | |
| 0:45:18 | Owls enrollment | Barry: "we hit a high of about 44 year before last" and now "we're at about 23 between the two sessions". Dillon described referral by counselors and the attendance rules. | |
| 0:58:28 | Program history | Sprague traced Owls to a state grant after the compulsory age rose to 18 and called it "100% pure dropout prevention". At 1:02:13: "A 24% drop out rate before homes." (as transcribed; context is before Owls). | |
| 1:00:12 | Pierce on the reaction | "So can you explain to me then why there's an up in arms?" She said the budget had to show the public the district could "get ourselves in line" before asking for raises. | |
| 1:06:43 | Athletics against Owls | Herzog raised "the sacred cow in this community about athletics with an increase in $46,000." Barry defended replacing aged uniforms and helmets. | |
| 1:09:30 | Board's Saturday review | Irish: "we literally went through 67 pages front and back, 1300 plus lines of budget one by one as a group." On Owls: "I don't want to mess with it unless we have absolutely no other choice." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:11:43 | The leak | Superintendent: "the word got out from whatever source and suddenly the Owls program is going to be cut. That was never the intent". | |
| 1:12:41 | PE against small classes | Sprague: low enrollment in core classes but a reduction in PE, "So I find that to be kind of a non sequitur of sorts". The PE teacher also co-teaches fitness and nutrition and child care courses, which would be absorbed. | |
| 1:20:29 | Tax-rate snapshot | "if this was March 14th, the main budget is less than this year's budget." Of the default: "the fall budget to be announced. But I can tell you it's going to be less than article two." Staff pay is "anywhere from six to over $20,000 behind in other districts with pay scale". Total: "what we've done represents 16 cent increase on the thousand." | MEDIUM |
| 1:24:33 | Comment rules | "only questions directly relating to the budget will be heard." "Three minutes only", with a second turn once everyone has spoken. | POSITIVE |
| 1:25:33 | Mike, Ward 1 | "32 years of experience has told me any time you cut any personnel in any position, the kids suffer somehow." One teacher would serve "the 500 plus students". | |
| 1:28:08 | Lisa Draper, Ward 3 | Adult education is not a substitute for Owls: "a 17 year old is not an adult". | |
| 1:30:51 | Owls graduates | Michelle Springer: "I graduated from the Cat program, which is the original program." Brianne Lawrence at 1:32:12: "without it, I would probably be a high school dropout." Amanda Mass at 1:33:48: "I was pregnant when I came to the program" and asked whether the savings came from teacher positions; Barry at 1:35:52: "Part of it is from the teacher salaries." | |
| 1:37:19 | John, Ward 1: athletics lines | "The board in the city has been down this road of cutting that position at least once, maybe twice". He noted "a $44,000 increase for athletic training services". Superintendent: the trainer "was by error not budgeted in fiscal year 16"; O'Neill: "That's correct." Superintendent at 1:40:49: "you're going to be able to find a loophole in any recommendation." | |
| 1:43:52 | Former Owls student | "if owls is working so well, why are you going to cut one teacher away?" Irish: "It's not about the money for us." | |
| 1:47:44 | PE position | Judy Couture: "I feel that recommendation is ill conceived and perhaps Pennywise and pound foolish." Veronica Bellair at 1:49:24 asked who would teach adaptive PE and "how one physical teacher can sustain 540 children." | |
| 1:51:02 | Owls teacher and parent | Shauna Baird: "They literally said that our program is a model program" and "we've serviced 300 students." Bruce Wilkins at 1:54:37: his son "graduated this year." | |
| 1:55:19 | Adult education explained | Barry described using the adult education coordinator's resources for individual plans; the $8,000 adult high school tuition line would fund "four core teachers to provide for core competency or credit recovery opportunities". At 2:00:02: "none of us got into the business to dismantle anything or tear anything down". | |
| 2:02:13 | Library media requirements | John asked "what are the legal requirements for that position now, and how are they being met?" LeClair: "There are school approval standards that govern what we have to have for positions in each of our schools." and "we do meet school approval standards". | |
| 2:09:02 | Reduction totals | Irish gave $897,254 and 850,293, then corrected the attribution: "Other way around. Yeah, we had 897. They had 850." (the board's Saturday list against the administration's). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:11:08 | Athletics data requested | Brent Ferland asked how many teams each school fields; Herzog asked how many students go on to college sports. The superintendent promised answers within a week. | |
| 2:14:12 | Hearing closed | "I'm going to close the budget hearing." | |
| 2:16:16 | Board meeting opened | "Call the board meeting board to order." Roll call and agenda by voice vote. | |
| 2:17:29 | Nonpublic session | Chair: "I'd like a motion for nonpublic 91 a for personnel." Roll call; mover and seconder not audible. The recording resumes at 2:19:00; a voice on the tape says 945 at 2:19:13. | MEDIUM |
| 2:19:15 | Minutes sealed | "Motion to seal. Minutes." Chair: "No, I'm saying roll call to seal." Names called by the chair; the audible answers are yes, ending "Self. Yes." No reason for sealing is stated. | MEDIUM |
| 2:19:56 | Board expense line | Sprague on the school board line: "It's a it's 150,000." Rapp suggested elections are part of it; the superintendent mentioned NHSBA dues and offered an accounting. | |
| 2:22:17 | Budget history | Sprague: "five of us were here Saturday" and found gaps between budgeted and actual spending. Superintendent: "The problem was the prior BA didn't have a handle on expenses, and as a result, every fall for a couple of years, there was a freeze". | OBSERVATION |
| 2:25:39 | Board goals | Irish: cuts to things, not people, and "My goal is that the tax rate doesn't go up at all". Adrian: "That's my goal too." | |
| 2:28:08 | Adjournment | Motion, second and voice vote. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on January 11, 2017. Several provisions cited below were later amended, and each flag cites the text as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. 5 flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The default budget amount was not stated at the budget hearing; the superintendent called it "to be announced"
Claremont adopts its budget by official ballot, with a deliberative session on February 8. In an official-ballot district the default budget had to be disclosed at the first budget hearing: RSA 40:13, XI(a), as it read in January 2017, says "The default budget shall be disclosed at the first budget hearing held pursuant to RSA 32:5 or RSA 197:6." At 0:05:42 the superintendent said only that there "would be a default budget lower then the budget being proposed", and in his closing snapshot at 1:21:19 the transcript reads "the fall budget to be announced. But I can tell you it's going to be less than article two." (fall is most likely the ASR's rendering of "default"). No default budget figure is read aloud anywhere on the recording.
This is graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH for three reasons: the PowerPoint and handouts are not available and may have carried a figure the speaker did not read; this page cannot confirm that January 11 was the district's first budget hearing, although the December 21 and January 4 recordings both describe the January 11 session as the public hearing; and the statute's disclosure duty may have been met in a posted document this project cannot see.
Sources: RSA 40:13, XI(a) (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, eff. Sept. 9, 2014, so the text in force in January 2017): default budget disclosed at the first budget hearing.
MEDIUM Nonpublic session entered "for personnel" with no statutory exemption named, and its minutes sealed with no stated reason
At 2:17:29 the chair asked for "a motion for nonpublic 91 a for personnel." In January 2017 RSA 91-A:3, I(b) required that "Any motion to enter nonpublic session shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II." Personnel is not one of the paragraph II grounds; the employee-specific grounds are II(a) (dismissal, promotion, compensation, discipline) and II(b) (hiring), and II(c) covers reputation. The roll call was taken, which the same paragraph requires, and all audible answers were yes.
On return, the board voted by roll call to seal the minutes (2:19:15). RSA 91-A:3, III allowed nonpublic minutes to be withheld beyond 72 hours only if, "by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session", the body determined that disclosure would likely affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a member, render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism. The vote itself appears to meet the two-thirds requirement (seven members, no audible no), but no determination is stated on the recording. Whether the minutes recite one cannot be checked, because they are not online.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a)-(c) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017, so the text in force on this date).
OBSERVATION The board's Saturday, January 7 budget work session shaped these figures but has no recording or minutes available online
Five members met on Saturday, January 7 to go through the budget line by line (Sprague at 2:22:17: "five of us were here Saturday"; Irish at 1:09:51: "67 pages front and back, 1300 plus lines"). Five of seven is a quorum, so under RSA 91-A:2, I that session was a meeting, with the notice and minutes duties of RSA 91-A:2, II. The superintendent folded "some of the work that the school board accomplished on January 7th" into tonight's recommendations (0:14:40), and Irish put the board's resulting reduction total, $897,254, on the record at 2:09:02. The session was set up in public on January 4 (see the January 4 page), where posting it was discussed.
No Cablecast recording of January 7 is listed in MAP.md, and the district's online shares begin in July 2022, so neither its minutes nor its notice can be inspected from here. Under the project's missing-records rule this is graded as an observation about online availability: the absence is explained by the archive's start date, not shown to be a failure to keep minutes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017, so the text in force in 2017): meeting of a quorum; notice and minutes.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet, budget presentation or minutes for this hearing and meeting are posted online
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. The PowerPoint, the budget document handed to members that night and the warrant articles the superintendent described are not available, which is why the class-size figures and reduction lines above are given only as spoken. In 2017, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". Whether that was met cannot be tested from here. The limb of the missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, in force for calendar 2017): minutes within 5 business days; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 23.
POSITIVE The hearing met the statutory calendar, and the board heard every speaker, answered questions on the spot and offered second turns
RSA 32:5, I (as in force in 2017) required the budget hearing "not later than 25 days before" the meeting; January 11 is 28 days before the February 8 deliberative session. RSA 40:13, II-a required official-ballot budget hearings "on or before the third Tuesday in January", which in 2017 was January 17. The seven days' notice the statute also requires cannot be checked from here.
The hearing format itself went beyond what the law required. The chair set neutral rules (1:24:33), promised a second turn to anyone who wanted one, and let principals, teachers and the business administrator answer speakers' questions directly. Eleven people spoke from the floor, including an Owls teacher and four former Owls students; one traveled about an hour. The superintendent had declined to give the press details before this hearing "So the community and the board can hear it" at once (0:26:19). A statutory public comment period for school boards (RSA 189:74) did not exist until 2022.
Sources: RSA 32:5, I (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, 190:7, eff. Sept. 9, 2014): hearing at least 25 days before the meeting; RSA 40:13, II-a (2017 codification): hearings on or before the third Tuesday in January; RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): not in force in 2017.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 8873, "SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET SESSION 1-11-17": Claremont Community TV. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, notice, budget document, PowerPoint or minutes for this hearing or meeting were located.
- Related pages: January 4, 2017 (budget update; Saturday session scheduled), December 21, 2016 (first look at the FY18 budget), December 7, 2016.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/8873 SchoolBoard011117.mp4.CSV (701 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8873 SchoolBoard011117.mp4Input/Transcripts/8873 SchoolBoard011117.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8873 SchoolBoard011117.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 23
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on January 11, 2017. RSA 40:13, II-a and XI(a) (official ballot; hearing date; default budget disclosure; 2017 codification). RSA 32:5, I (budget hearing timing; 2017 codification). RSA 91-A:2, I and II (meeting; notice; minutes; 2016 codification, in force from January 1, 2017). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II and III (nonpublic sessions; 2017 codification). RSA 189:74 (school board public comment period), cited only to show it post-dates this meeting (2022, 333:1).