Claremont School Board, January 24, 2017

Participants

Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. There are no minutes to check spellings against; public commenters' names are as transcribed.
Name	Role	Participation
Brian Rapp	Chair	Calls the meeting to order and limits it to one item: "We are only agenda item is budget discussion." (0:03:03). Holds that the January 21 directive covered the operating budget only, argues that deep cuts will raise next year's default budget, and states the restored figure of 31,000,002 83006 [$31,283,006] (1:01:58). Announces that candidate filing opens the next day.
Chris Irish	Vice Chair	Argues the administration's no-tax-impact budget should stand ("This is a good budget. It hurts.", 0:22:14), opposes putting technology on a separate warrant article ("Don't make the voters do our job.", 0:24:31), seconds the $90,000 restoration motion.
Patrick Adrian	Member	Worries that cuts this deep will leave a deficit, cites Bluff salary lines that ran over budget, moves in words to remove the technology warrant and put the $89,200 into the operating budget (1:01:42), and speaks for the arts after public comment.
Dr. Alex Herzog	Member	Asks for the size of the cuts beyond the board's request and moves to "restore 90,000 cuts back to the school administration to, distribute into their lines as they see fit." (1:02:52).
Michelle Pierce	Member	Asks what reinstating the proposed teacher reductions cost, says "Just important asset is the children, actually." (0:59:00), and confirms with the superintendent that no teaching positions are cut.
Frank Sprague	Member (attendance not established)	No rows attributed. Present at the joint meeting that evening; Adrian refers to agreeing "with Frank" (0:27:25). The attribution report suggests some unidentified board-member rows may be his; not confirmed.
Dr. Middleton McGoodwin	Superintendent, SAU 6	Introduces the revised budget, reports $366,000 of additional non-personnel reductions to meet the board's directive, warns that "please don't think this will be an annual event" (0:15:19), and explains the strategic case for the withdrawn staffing reductions. The transcript renders him "Doctor Goodman" and "Doctor Goodwin".
Michael O'Neill	Business Administrator	Presents the warrant totals, revenues and default budget; drafts the warrant for signature at the end. Introduced as "Mr. O'Neill" (0:05:21); surname spelling per the project roster.
Cory LeClair	Assistant Superintendent	Says the team went "through all 1200 lines multiple times" (0:11:51) and forecasts $500,000 to $1 million of fixed-cost increases next year; would restore supplies before the technology request. Named by the superintendent as "Corey Clear" (0:04:39).
Jenny Desert (as transcribed)	Public comment; art teacher, Bluff Elementary School	Describes what a specials teacher does beyond art and argues against reducing the position to a .8. Spelling unverified; students call her Mrs. D.
Nick (surname not stated)	Public comment; Ward 3	Urges the board not to cut the arts and questions folding the technology warrant into the budget. Irish thanks him for staying (1:13:36); he may be the councilor addressed as Nick at the joint meeting, but the recording does not say so.
Rachel Nagler (as transcribed)	Public comment; parent of a kindergarten student	Says she had planned to move because of taxes and is staying because of her daughter's art teacher. Spelling unverified.
Unidentified board members	Members	70 of 511 rows are unidentified, including the roll-call answers, the second on the warrant-article motion and the first motion to adjourn.

Order of business (reconstructed)

No agenda survives. The chair states a single agenda item; the list below is reconstructed from the record.
Taken up	Item	What was said and done
0:02:11	Call to order; Pledge of Allegiance; roll call	Roll call requested at 0:02:45; two answers of Here. are audible.
0:03:03	Budget discussion (fiscal 2018)	Presentation of the revised budget, board discussion of the January 21 directive. Motion by Herzog, second by Irish: "We restore 90,000 cuts back to the school administration to, distribute into their lines as they see fit." (1:02:52, 1:03:04); Irish confirms the technology warrant article comes off; voice vote Aye. (1:03:13); no opposition is audible and no tally is stated. The chair restates the operating budget as 31,000,002 83006 [$31,283,006] (1:01:58). Then the chair's call for "a motion to accept the contract. Maintenance and custodial secretary, security upgrades and roofing improvements." (1:04:43); So moved. by an unidentified member; no second is audible; voice vote Aye. (1:05:00).
1:05:31	Public comment	Three speakers: Jenny Desert, Nick (Ward 3) and Rachel Nagler, with board and superintendent responses.
1:31:47	Announcement; adjournment	Candidate filing opens the next day for three board seats. Motion to adjourn (1:31:53); second; vote called (1:32:05). An earlier motion to adjourn at 1:22:52 was not acted on.

Discussion timeline

Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8899 SchoolBoard012417.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
0:03:32	The directive and the revised budget	Superintendent: after the board's January 21 work "it was made very clear that the board will not consider reductions to teaching staff or programs"; meeting that and the no-tax-impact request meant "an additional $366,000 of reductions", all non-personnel, "with 80% of the budget being personnel".	MED
0:05:45	Warrant totals	O'Neill: "we were at a $92,000 increase at the last meeting. Now, that shows a $242,239 decrease." Cuts came from supplies and equipment; the Bluff specials restored from point eight to 1.0 and the middle school athletic director added back. Operating budget "31,000,001 93006" [$31,193,006], a "reduction of $0.35 in the tax rate". Health insurance budgeted at 10% against a 12% early quote.
0:08:05	Technology warrant; revenues	A new technology equipment warrant article for 892 [$89,200, as O'Neill states it at 0:17:47] would add $0.13. "we are still losing the $212,000 stabilization piece"; each eligible student not signed up for free and reduced lunch costs $1,700.
0:11:51	How the cuts were made	LeClair: "we have gone through all 1200 lines multiple times"; supply lines reduced, not zeroed; "I don't think that we can keep programs intact, next year if we don't look more comprehensively at the budget." O'Neill: "we only cut the supply lines by 5% district wide"; replacement equipment "went down by 15%".
0:14:56	Five-year context	Superintendent: "over the past five years, the budget has on average has increased less than 2%"; "please don't think this will be an annual event."
0:17:31	What did the board ask for?	Rapp: "We wanted the we wanted the, the tax impact to be zero for the operating budget only." Adrian: on Saturday "we were going to settle that if at that time to reduce $125,000". Superintendent: removing personnel cuts meant "it was much more than $92,000." Irish: "Not all." Rapp: "Of us. Well, that's that's what the board decided."	MED
0:20:41	Comfortable or not	Irish: "We asked for X, they came back with X plus more". Rapp: "I disagree, Chris, I don't think that they're comfortable with it." Irish: "Tell that to the people that can't pay their taxes this year." The cuts totaled "334,007, 92." [$334,792, H] against the $366,000 target.
0:21:52	Irish's three statements	Irish: "our goal was and I said it three times, at least publicly, that our goal was to get to this point where the the the tax impact would be zero, including warrant articles". "This is a good budget. It hurts." Rapp: "It's not a good budget."	MED
0:23:56	Warrant article or budget	Irish: "Don't make the voters do our job." Rapp: "It's not making them. It's allowing them to." Rapp says technology was put on warrants for years to "catch us up because we're so drastically behind."
0:29:56	Line-item authority	Irish: "we don't have line item authority"; since the process began "we have eliminated between both sides $794,000". Adrian: the administration went over the request "by about $116,000".
0:36:55	Placeholder money	Irish proposes funding technology in the budget and also on a warrant article that, if it failed, would come out. Superintendent: "that is like padding the budget".
0:38:12	Next year's gap	LeClair: fixed-cost increases have run "anywhere between 600 000 and 1.2 million"; next year "somewhere between 500,000 and $1 million". Superintendent: "The tax rate was going to increase by $0.11 a thousand this fiscal year. A lack of revenue from the state bumped it up another 70 or $0.80 per thousand."
0:41:17	Default budget	Rapp: "the default budget next year is going to be based off of this year's budget"; a later budget with a multi-year teacher contract "It's going to fail." O'Neill: "your default budget is basically you start with last year's budget and then you adjust up or down for one time expenditures or contractually obligated things" (0:44:20).	OBS
0:42:19	Cuts or limits	Irish: "I do not see limiting growth, limiting an increase as a cut." Rapp: "Chris, you're mistaken because they're a line items where libraries are not getting new books."
0:46:08	Budgeted versus actual	Adrian: Bluff regular instruction salaries were proposed at 594,000 and came in at 642, then 688,000 against 714,000; money must move from other lines. He recalls a neighboring district that ended "over $700,000 in deficit"; the superintendent says that was a revenue projection error.
0:55:19	The orange is dry	Superintendent: "fixed cost increases have been much more than $15,000 this fiscal year"; "we've got to a point where the orange is dry and we're squeezing it and nothing's coming out." He would start the next budget in October.
0:57:21	City comparison	Irish: the incoming city manager is "already looking for a 5% decrease for every department." Pierce: "Just important asset is the children, actually."
0:59:41	Restoration	Rapp: "We'd like to be able to put about 90,000 back in the budget." Herzog calls it "a great compromise". Adrian: "to remove the technology equipment warrant article and to, to take that money, the $89,200 and put that back into the main operating budget." Rapp: "31,000,002 83006" [$31,283,006]. A member asks for a report back on where the money goes.	OBS
1:02:52	Motion and vote	Herzog: "We restore 90,000 cuts back to the school administration to, distribute into their lines as they see fit." Irish: "I'll second that." Voice vote, Aye.
1:03:43	Forms and warrant articles	O'Neill will have the forms ready Monday; warrant articles "they've got to be posted by the last day". The board accepts the contract, maintenance and custodial, secretaries, security upgrades and roofing articles on one motion and voice vote.	POS
1:05:02	Default budget figure	O'Neill: "The default budget is 14. Was $14,282 higher than the proposed budget. Now it's going to be $104,282 higher. So the default budgets 31,000,207 288." [$31,207,288]	OBS
1:05:47	Public comment: Jenny Desert	"My name is Jenny Desert. I'm the art teacher at Bluff Elementary School." She teaches art, math and reading intervention, technology and structured recess; "by taking this position and turning it into a .82 percent position. You'll be taking away a lot more than just a few hours of my day." Pierce confirms with the superintendent: "No teaching personnel."	POS
1:13:43	Public comment: Nick, Ward 3	"I would highly encourage you not to do anything that impacts the arts in your schools". On the technology warrant: "did it ever need to be a warrant article to begin with?" and now voters "You don't really have that much of a say."
1:17:02	The word specials	Adrian: "every time I hear the words art and music and P and put it called specials, it makes my heart cry." Superintendent: "The issue is declining enrollment and declining funding."
1:23:04	Desert returns	After a motion to adjourn goes unanswered, Desert says a .8 position means "we would have an amazing turnover in our district". Rapp: "His job is to do what we ask him to do."
1:27:17	Public comment: Rachel Nagler	"I planned on moving because I didn't like the taxes." and "as a mother, I'm not moving because she's here another year."
1:30:13	Board takes responsibility	Irish: "This isn't this isn't on Doctor Goodman or the administration." and "our one sole purpose in life is to create and craft a budget."
1:31:42	Warrant signed; filing	O'Neill: "I just drafted the Warren. I just need you guys to sign it before you leave." Rapp: "Filing begins tomorrow." "We have three positions to fill for the school board. One is. Two of them are three years. One is one year."	POS

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 January 24, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.

MEDIUM No agenda or minutes for this session survive in any district share, and the roll call is inaudible

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 adopted a $90,000 change to the operating budget and its warrant-article recommendations at this session, and the recording is the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force for 2017, 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 inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the chair states an agenda item (0:03:03), the roll is called (0:02:45), and the business administrator says the final figure matters because Mary must have it (1:03:23), which reads as the clerk taking the record. What the recording cannot supply is attendance: only two answers are audible, so who voted is unknown.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017, so the text in force for 2017)

MEDIUM The budget directive came from a January 21 session the corpus does not hold, and members disagreed on tape about what it was

The superintendent dates the board's directive to "your work on January 21st" and says the administration received "Some clarity as to your expectations" on Sunday afternoon (0:03:32); LeClair refers to "a recommendation via the letter" (1:02:14). On the joint-meeting recording (show 8884) the chair calls it a Saturday meeting "where we came up with some directives". No recording, MAP.md section or minutes for a January 21, 2017 session exist in this project's sources. On tape tonight the members dispute its content: the chair says the zero-impact target was "for the operating budget only" (0:19:45), Irish says "Not all." (0:20:37) and that the goal included warrant articles (0:21:52), and Adrian recalls a $125,000 target (0:18:20). RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record "final decisions", and RSA 91-A:2-a, I confines deliberation to meetings held under RSA 91-A:2; a letter carrying out a decision already made is not deliberation, and nothing here shows the letter was more than that. The MEDIUM limb applies because the session is acknowledged on tape and its outcome went to the administration in writing; the gap is that no public record of what was decided can be read, and tonight's dispute is the consequence.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification); RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2016 codification; source 2008, 303:4); January 24, 2017 joint meeting page

OBSERVATION The default-budget comparison stated after the restoration does not reconcile with the figures given

Before the vote the proposed operating budget was 31,000,001 93006 [$31,193,006] (0:06:56); after it, 31,000,002 83006 [$31,283,006] (1:01:58). The business administrator then gave the default budget as 31,000,207 288 [$31,207,288] and said it "Was $14,282 higher than the proposed budget. Now it's going to be $104,282 higher." (1:05:14). The first comparison checks ($31,207,288 less $31,193,006 is $14,282). The second does not: adding $90,000 to the proposed budget puts it about $75,718 above the default, not $104,282 below it. The figures are fused ASR numbers and may be misheard, so this is an observation, not a finding; the posted MS-27 default budget form would settle it. The chair's point that next year's default would be built on this year's budget matches the statute: RSA 40:13, IX(b) defines the default budget as the prior year's appropriations, adjusted for debt service, contracts and other obligations, less one-time expenditures.

Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a) (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, 7:1-4 and 190:1-3, 8-10, so in force until August 2018)

POSITIVE Public comment heard and answered, warrant recommendations voted before the posting deadline, and the filing date announced correctly

The chair told the audience at the outset that anyone wishing to speak would be heard after the presentation (0:03:03), and three residents spoke, with members and the superintendent answering their questions (1:13:11, 1:16:07). No statute in force in 2017 required a public comment period at a school board meeting (RSA 189:74's 30-minute rule dates from 2022). The board voted its warrant-article recommendations and signed the draft warrant that night (1:04:43, 1:31:42), within the RSA 40:13, II-a(d) requirement that warrants and budgets be posted "on or before the last Monday in January" (January 30, 2017). The chair's on-air notice that "Filing begins tomorrow." (1:31:47) is right: under RSA 669:19, applied to school districts by RSA 671:19, filing opens on the seventh Wednesday before the election, which for the March 14, 2017 election was January 25.

Sources: RSA 40:13, II-a(d) (2017 codification); RSA 669:19 (2017 codification; source ends 2011, 40:1); RSA 671:19 (source 1979, 321:1)

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET SESSION 1-24-17 (show 8899; title as given by Cablecast)
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.
Related sessions outside the corpus: the January 21, 2017 Saturday budget session, the February 1, 2017 meeting and the February 8, 2017 deliberative session named on this recording have no MAP.md section or recording in this project.

Project files

Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.

Dialogue/8899 SchoolBoard012417.mp4.CSV (511 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/8899 SchoolBoard012417.mp4
Input/Transcripts/8899 SchoolBoard012417.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 26
Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8899 SchoolBoard012417.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)

Laws and rules cited on this page

RSA 91-A:2, II, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II, 2016 codification: deliberation only in meetings; outside communications not to circumvent
RSA 40:13, II-a(d), IX(b) and XI(a), 2017 codification: warrant posting by the last Monday in January; default budget definition and disclosure
RSA 669:19, 2017 codification, and RSA 671:19: candidate filing period, applied to school districts