Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. There are no minutes to check spellings against; staff first names and surnames are as spoken unless the participation cell says otherwise.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides; asks why growth is stronger in the elementary grades than higher up; thanks the administration for its openness with data, recalling that "as a board member, I had to file 91 A requests to get information" (1:42:06); asks that the strategic planning meeting be posted. |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Proposes student-representative voting power and a local civics course; asks that the tax-rate sheet be published, including a paid newspaper ad; questions why the school district rather than the city leads on lead; seconds adjournment. |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Presses on what i-Ready adds over earlier data, raises civics and voting, asks about the Stevens schedule; serves on the strategic planning committee. |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Member | Moves the Youth and Government trip, the leadership conference, acceptance of the Bluff principal's resignation and adjournment; suggests a student activity fund for trip costs. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Asks why candidates were not invited to speak before the election, as in 2016; moves the three policies on first reading as a group; raises consolidating the elementary schools; announces the Heart of Claremont event. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Absent: "Frank has a family issue that he's tending to" (0:01:01). |
| Seventh member (not established) | Member | Attendance cannot be read from the recording. The project roster places Brent Ferland on the board until a resignation effective March 13, 2017; not confirmed here. |
| Student representative, surname Lovett | Student representative, Stevens High School | Gives the high school report and says "I'm not on roll call" and "I'm not in this packet" (0:15:56). The superintendent calls her Mary Ann Lovett (0:09:44); Irish and Nancy Lewis say Marion. First-name spelling unverified. |
| Dr. Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report on the New Hampshire Listens governance forum and communication; introduces each item; reports the draft lead-screening policy and the Bluff principal search; says the strategic planning committee's meetings have not been posted. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent | Presents the i-Ready mid-year data, corrects how the first presentation categorized students, and describes the strategic planning committee's process. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator | Presents the revised estimated tax rate after the drop in the state education tax rate. |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Presents the NHIAA leadership conference request and the high school's i-Ready testing approach; announces a student conference on the opioid crisis. |
| Nancy Lewis | Social studies teacher and Youth and Government advisor, Stevens High School | Presents the Youth and Government trip; students "pay $200 for the program". |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School | Describes grade-level data meetings every six weeks (the transcript renders the school Disney). |
| Mike Lansing (as heard) | Principal, Bluff Elementary School | Describes Bluff's use of i-Ready; his resignation, effective July 1, 2017, is accepted. Surname spelling unverified. |
| Dan (surname not stated) | Principal, Maple Avenue Elementary School | Says Maple has "really haven't dug deep yet in the data" and few students get the recommended 90 minutes a week. |
| Paulette (surname not stated) | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Describes the middle school's intervention block and its questions for the i-Ready consultant. |
| Unidentified staff member | Staff | Answers the chair's college-fair question (0:06:10). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair and superintendent refer to Roman-numeral items and a packet; the list below follows the order taken up on the recording.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:15 | Call to order; Pledge; attendance | Two answers audible; Sprague absent (0:01:01). |
| 0:01:17 | Agenda | Superintendent asks to move item VI A, the Youth and Government trip, to action and take it first, and to add the NHIAA Student Leadership Conference as VII C. Motion, second and voice vote Aye. (0:02:34); movers not identifiable. |
| 0:02:34 | Minutes of February 1, 2017 | No changes; motion, "I'll second.", voice vote Aye. (0:02:57). |
| 0:03:10 | Student representative report | High school report; questions on the play and a college fair. |
| 0:06:26 | Superintendent's report | New Hampshire Listens governance forum; communication, student voice, state funding. |
| 0:22:20 | Action: Stevens High School Youth and Government delegation trip | Motion Herzog (0:29:40); second unidentified; chair asks for a report back; voice vote Aye (0:30:00). |
| 0:31:10 | Citizens' comments | Opened after the action item; "seeing none", closed. |
| 0:31:36 | Action (VII C): NHIAA Student Leadership Conference overnight | Barry presents; "There is no cost that I am aware of." Motion Herzog (0:33:11); voice vote Aye. (0:33:14). |
| 0:34:55 | Discussion: i-Ready mid-year report | Assistant superintendent and the five building principals. |
| 1:43:02 | Claremont School District estimated tax rate, 2017-18 | O'Neill's revised sheet; the board asks for wide circulation. No vote. |
| 1:50:57 | Lead screening policy update | Draft policy sent to the board and shared with the City Council. No vote. |
| 1:56:19 | Bluff Elementary School principal search | Search process described; strategic planning committee meeting announced for Saturday. |
| 2:01:22 | FY2019 budget schedule; candidates | Superintendent asks the new board for a budget schedule; discussion of inviting candidates. |
| 2:09:13 | Resignation of the Bluff principal | Letter dated February 16, 2017, effective July 1. Motion Herzog "with reluctance"; second heard in the same row; voice vote Aye (2:09:58). |
| 2:10:07 | Policies, first reading | Procedural safeguards and nondiscrimination on the basis of handicap or disability; emergency care and first aid; evaluation requirements for children with specific learning disabilities. Pierce: "A move to accept them as a group."; Herzog seconds; voice vote Aye (2:11:41). |
| 2:11:47 | Future agenda items; announcements | Student activity fund, the tech center plan, elementary consolidation, Heart of Claremont event. |
| 2:21:42 | Joint meeting with the City Council | Penciled for Wednesday, March 29 (2:23:54); the joint meeting recording in this project is dated March 30, 2017. |
| 2:26:24 | Adjournment | Motion Herzog, second Irish; voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/8948 SchoolBoard030117.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 |
|---|
| 0:01:01 | Attendance | Rapp: "Frank has a family issue that he's tending to. So that is why he is not here tonight." | |
| 0:03:15 | Student report | Granite State Respect Week on teen dating violence; a financial aid night on March 21; a mandatory six-week SAT prep for juniors before the April 5 test; the senior play. | |
| 0:06:31 | Governance forum | Superintendent: the board chair and colleagues attended a January forum "sponsored by New Hampshire Listens". Its themes included communication, student voice and "the continued inequities built into the state school funding formula". In October 2013 he had proposed a communications person: "That didn't go very far." | |
| 0:15:56 | Student voice | The student representative: "I'm not on roll call because it doesn't matter if I'm here for you all to run a meeting, I'm not in this packet, even though I've been here longer than some people on this board". Irish: "I'd love to see if there is a way we could give them voting power." and proposes "a local civics course on Claremont Politics". Adrian: "We see less and less people voting". | |
| 0:22:32 | Youth and Government | Nancy Lewis describes the student legislature and the students' bills; "Students pay $200 for the program". Motion by Herzog; approved. | |
| 0:31:10 | Citizens' comments | Rapp: "I guess in my haste to jump around and get to that, I skipped citizens comments." None offered. | |
| 0:31:45 | Leadership conference; opioid conference | NHIAA conference March 16 and 17 in Concord; students, one coach and the athletic director; approved. Barry announces that 40 to 50 high school students will attend a conference on the opioid crisis with the police department's school resource officer. | |
| 0:37:27 | i-Ready growth targets | LeClair: targets are 70% of students meeting growth in math and 80% in reading for grades 1 to 5, 85% for grades 6 to 8, 80% for grades 9 and 10. At mid-year, elementary math is "Anywhere from 57 to 66%"; middle and high school "we're in the 34 to 49% range"; elementary reading "we're in the 50 to 73% range depending on grade level". | POS |
| 0:50:19 | Correction of the first presentation | LeClair: "the numbers I was showing you the very first time included all of those students who are up to one year behind." The data will be shown the same way from now on. | POS |
| 0:52:34 | Transparency | Superintendent: "you'll never hear the Claremont School District shy away from data". | POS |
| 0:53:38 | Elementary schools | Melissa Lewis: grade-level teams meet every six weeks and "we literally go student by student". Lansing: Bluff's third grade scored highest but grew least, so a group was reassigned to a more experienced teacher. Dan (Maple): "we really haven't dug deep yet in the data"; few students get the recommended 90 minutes a week. | |
| 1:06:59 | Middle and high school | Paulette: the middle school surveyed staff, fixed technology issues and has questions for the i-Ready consultant. Barry: all ninth and tenth graders are tested three times whether or not they are in a math or English class, to test the 4x4 schedule; those not taking either were 22% of students. | |
| 1:22:02 | What the data adds | Adrian asks what i-Ready shows that teachers did not know. LeClair: before last year the high school had nothing beyond course assessments to measure growth, and "I hope nobody in this room is comfortable with this data." | |
| 1:38:49 | Board response | Irish: "we've gone from politically and emotionally reactive to educationally proactive." Rapp: "There was a time where even as a board member, I had to file 91 A requests to get information that people didn't want to discuss." | POS |
| 1:43:35 | Revised tax rate | O'Neill: the state education tax rate "actually dropped from 242 to 226, which is a 16 cent for a thousand increase" [as transcribed; the context is a decrease]. "the decrease in the rate projected from the general fund budget passing is $0.63 per thousand." With all warrant articles the rate is still projected to fall, where earlier it showed a 13-cent increase. | OBS |
| 1:45:27 | Publishing the sheet | Irish: "Can we get this this one page just published in the newspaper." and a paid "full page ad out in the Eagle in the Valley News", but "I don't want any editorializing any anything with it". Then "I think to every parent. Here it is. This is what you're voting on." Adrian: "you can you can approve the whole package". The superintendent will send it by the district's system: "Can be sent out tomorrow." No motion is taken. | OBS |
| 1:50:58 | Lead screening policy | Superintendent: "I have a draft policy I sent you." The hospital's medical staff will help edit it, and "I shared it with the City Council". The state's presenter "says we're the first." Irish: "The city should be spearheading this, not the schools." The superintendent calls the city council "partners". | |
| 1:56:28 | Bluff principal search | "Mike Lansing, is relocating to Nevada." Posting closes Friday; a screening committee drawn mostly from the Bluff community. | |
| 1:57:42 | Strategic planning committee | Superintendent: the committee meets Saturday and will "make a presentation to the school board". Rapp: "Could I get something to post online. Just sort of as an advertisement. That's a public meeting." Superintendent: "It's Saturday. It's a public meeting." and "We haven't we haven't posted it because, it it's, it's, it's unlike a board meeting". LeClair: "when the committee was formed, it was an open invitation to anyone". | MED |
| 2:01:22 | FY2019 budget calendar | Superintendent will ask the new board for "Clarity with a budget schedule for fiscal year 19" and to start much sooner. | |
| 2:04:26 | Candidates at the board | Pierce: "Aren't the candidates going to come and talk." Superintendent: "Last year. We did invite those. This year we did not." Irish: "We can't have a whole night just for candidates." Irish recalls Chamber of Commerce candidates' nights that no longer happen. | |
| 2:09:13 | Resignation and policies | Lansing's resignation accepted; three policies pass first reading as a group. | |
| 2:11:51 | Future items | Herzog suggests a student activity fund so cost does not keep students from Youth and Government ("this is not a board sanction request"). Irish asks for the tech center plan in April. Pierce raises "maybe even consolidating all of the grade schools into one". | |
| 2:21:42 | Joint meeting date | Rapp: the joint meeting will include "Tom Kinnear, who was part of the the the Claremont lawsuit". Penciled for the 29th. | |
| 2:24:35 | Stevens schedule | Superintendent: under the agreement with the Sugar River Education Association a committee will develop a new schedule during 2017-18, and "there will be a change schedule in place in the fall of 2018." | |
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 March 1, 2017, 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 took six voice votes besides adjournment (agenda, minutes, two student trips, a resignation, three policies on first reading) 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 board approves the February 1 minutes on tape (0:02:57), so minutes were being kept, and the chair and superintendent work from a numbered agenda and packet (0:01:25). What is missing is any public copy now, and with it the movers, seconders and tallies the recording leaves unclear.
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 Strategic planning committee meetings held without posted notice, by the superintendent's own account
The superintendent said the Claremont School District Strategic Planning Committee would meet that Saturday from 8 to 12 and would "make a presentation to the school board" (1:57:42). Asked by the chair to post it, he answered that it is a public meeting but "We haven't we haven't posted it because, it it's, it's, it's unlike a board meeting" (1:58:47). Two board members take part (the assistant superintendent says "they're part of it as well" of Adrian and Pierce, 2:00:42). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes a public body of any committee of a school district "or advisory committee thereto", and ¶I defines an advisory committee as a body "whose primary purpose is to consider an issue or issues designated by the appointing authority so as to provide such authority with advice or recommendations concerning the formulation of any public policy". RSA 91-A:2, II then requires notice of each meeting at least 24 hours ahead. A committee formed to draft a multi-year plan for the board fits that description on its face. The page grades this MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the record does not show who appointed the committee or on what terms, and the meetings were open to anyone who arrived; the chair's request to post was the right instinct.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, I and VI(d) (2016 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1); RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification)
OBSERVATION Plan to send the tax-rate sheet to every parent before the March 14 vote, with members insisting it stay factual
Members asked that the revised tax-rate sheet go in the newspapers, possibly as a paid full-page ad, and "to every parent" through the district's own channels, and the superintendent said it "Can be sent out tomorrow." (1:49:58, 1:50:44). From January 1, 2017, RSA 659:44-a barred a public employee from electioneering "while in the performance of his or her official duties" or with government property, and defines electioneering as acting "in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question". Irish said repeatedly that the sheet should carry no editorializing (1:47:21), which keeps it on the factual side of that line; Adrian's framing that people should know "you can you can approve the whole package" (1:50:08) is the kind of gloss that would not belong in a district mailing. No vote was taken on the mailing or on spending for an ad. Whether the statute reaches a school board's own decision to circulate is a question for counsel; board members, as elected officials, are outside RSA 273-A:1, IX's definition of public employee. Whatever went out is the document that would settle it.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a, I to III (source note ends 2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017); RSA 273-A:1, IX (2019 codification; source ends 2014, 13:1, 2): elected officials excluded
POSITIVE Unflattering growth data presented in public, school by school, with a correction of an earlier presentation
The assistant superintendent and all five principals presented mid-year growth results that mostly fell short of the district's own targets (0:39:10, 0:40:12, 0:42:49), explained what each building is doing about them, and took members' questions for over an hour. The assistant superintendent told the board that her first presentation had counted students up to a year behind as on grade level and that the data would be shown the same way from now on (0:50:19). The chair contrasted this with a time when "I had to file 91 A requests to get information" (1:42:06). No law requires a board to receive interim assessment data at all, let alone with a correction volunteered; this is practice above the minimum.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 3-1-17
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 3-1-17 (show 8948; 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.
- The February 1, 2017 meeting whose minutes are approved here has no recording or MAP.md section 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/8948 SchoolBoard030117.mp4.CSV (866 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8948 SchoolBoard030117.mp4Input/Transcripts/8948 SchoolBoard030117.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 27Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8948 SchoolBoard030117.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): notice, minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:1-a, I and VI(d), 2016 codification: advisory committee definition; committees and advisory committees of a school district are public bodies
- RSA 659:44-a (eff. Jan. 1, 2017): no electioneering by public employees in the performance of official duties
- RSA 273-A:1, IX, 2019 codification (source ends 2014, 13:1, 2): public employee excludes persons elected by popular vote