Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. There are no minutes to check spellings against, so names follow the recording and the project's 2015-2023 roster; vendor representatives' names are as they introduced themselves and are unverified. Students and faculty named only in passing are described by role.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair, presiding | Calls the meeting to order (0:01:45), runs every item, relays questions from the absent chair (0:37:23, 0:53:16), and moves the CCTV appointment to the next agenda. The superintendent addresses him as Chris (2:02:26). |
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Absent (working; watching on television, 0:02:54). Named as one of two board members on the food-service committee (0:21:50). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member; food-service committee | Speaks in citizens' comments "not as a board member, but as a citizen" (0:16:59). Questions both vendors on free and reduced-price meals, salad bars, summer meals and staffing. Recognized as "Michelle" (0:16:39, 1:05:39). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Thanks the student representative (0:10:46); asks about labor projections and staff retention; says she would not be comfortable voting on the CCTV appointment (2:04:08). Addressed as Becky (2:04:06); identified with Zullo per the project roster (medium confidence). |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Recognized as Frank (1:41:28). Asks about kitchen facilities and participation rates; draws on "lunch duty for eight years of Stephen's [Stevens] High School" (1:58:16). Moves to adjourn (2:09:02). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Asks about curriculum tie-ins, free and reduced-price applications for transfer students, and the meal-charge law; wants the CCTV nominee present (2:03:09). Identified by content (medium-low confidence, per the attribution report). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report; frames the evening and the food-service committee; presents the CCTV board appointment. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explains the request for proposals and its scoring (0:23:06, 0:23:47) and questions both vendors. Surname from the project roster; spelling unverified. |
| Student representative (surname Lovett) | Student representative, Stevens High School | Delivers a farewell address at her last meeting (0:04:48). The dialogue file names her Mary Ann Lovett; the superintendent's words are transcribed "Mary Ann love it" and "Marion Lovett". |
| Scott (surname not given) | Vice president of operations, The Abbey Group | Introduces the Abbey Group proposal (0:25:16) and answers on staffing, charge policy, local purchasing and costs. |
| Nina Hansen | School nutrition specialist, The Abbey Group | Self-identified (0:26:17). |
| Jason Hughes | Food service director, The Abbey Group | Self-identified (0:37:52); currently food service director for Unity Elementary School. |
| Chris Farrow | Director of operations, Fresh Picks Cafe | Self-identified (1:15:12). Presents the Fresh Picks proposal. |
| Chris Cantillon (as transcribed) | District manager, Fresh Picks Cafe | Introduced as "Chris Canton" (1:15:23); the dialogue file uses Cantillon. Spelling unverified. |
| Matt Pearce | Executive chef, Fresh Picks Cafe | Introduced by Farrow (1:15:24); "I've been with the company since February" (1:46:59). |
| Unidentified resident | Citizens' comments | Reminds the board of Stevens alumni weekend (0:20:28). The name is transcribed Gary and the chair replies "Thank you Mary" (0:20:59), so no name is printed. |
| Unidentified | Various | 60 of 701 dialogue rows (8.6%), including a speaker who explains at length how free and reduced-price rates drive Title I and E-Rate funding (0:55:39). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The superintendent refers to "the footnote on page two of your agenda" (2:07:07), so one existed; the items below are reconstructed from the presiding officer's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:01:45 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Quorum confirmed ("We only need four"); the roll call itself is not audible. |
| 0:03:13 | Agenda | Amended to add "appoint representative for the cc TV board of directors" (0:03:22). Motion requested; a second is heard (0:04:05); voice vote (0:04:06). |
| 0:04:06 | Minutes | "We don't have any minutes to approve tonight, do we? Are there okay? Yeah. So we need to approve the minutes." A vote is called (0:04:33); no motion or second is audible and the minutes are not identified. |
| 0:04:36 | Student representative's report | Farewell address. |
| 0:12:08 | Superintendent's report | End-of-year events; graduation June 8; the board's role at graduation. |
| 0:16:39 | Citizens' comments | Michelle Pierce, as a citizen; an unidentified resident on alumni weekend. |
| 0:20:59 | Discussion: food service proposals | Presentations by The Abbey Group (0:25:07) and Fresh Picks Cafe (1:15:12), with questions. No action: "tonight it's not a decision time" (0:22:21). |
| 2:01:13 | Appointment of the district's representative to the CCTV board of directors | Added to the agenda tonight. After questions, the presiding officer: "Not on the next agenda and we'll talk about it. I'll do that." [put it on the next agenda] (2:04:24). No vote. |
| 2:06:56 | Food-service committee process | Confirmed that the committee will meet and report to the full board. |
| 2:08:57 | Adjournment | Sprague: "Motion to adjourn." (2:09:02); second (2:09:03); voice vote (2:09:04). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9128 SchoolBoard053117.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:14 | Quorum and the chair's absence | "We only need four." "Brian is working tonight, so he'll be watching us on television." The vice chair: "He asked me to ask a couple of questions already" (0:03:03). | |
| 0:04:48 | Student representative's farewell address | "Looking back, there are times in which I must express disappointment." (0:05:48). On structure: "a member may speak on a topic as long as they would like" (0:06:50). On preparation: "Two to often I have heard questions ask that minor research or preparation would have answered" (0:07:56). She asks that the student representative be included in nonpublic sessions "more often" and in the roll call (0:09:23, 0:09:39), and says "regular tardiness without a reason is not acceptable of any member" (0:09:58). | OBS |
| 0:10:43 | Response | Zullo: "that took a serious amount of courage" (0:10:46). The superintendent: a strong district "welcomes constructive criticism. It welcomes the student voice" (0:11:12). | |
| 0:12:09 | Superintendent's report and graduation | Stevens spring concert, senior night, graduation June 8. Irish asks how the board can take part in graduation: "I'd love to see us all be there" (0:14:00). | |
| 0:16:59 | Citizens' comments | Pierce, speaking as a citizen, thanks the community for its support after the May 17 discussion of childhood trauma, which she describes as close to her own family. An unidentified resident reminds the board of alumni weekend; the presiding officer asks for name and ward "to make sure the minutes get done right" (0:20:59). | MED |
| 0:21:18 | How the decision will be made | The superintendent: after tonight "a food service committee is going to meet", with Pierce and Rapp for the board and four faculty members; it will "come back with a recommendation. But the final decision will be the school boards" (0:21:50, 0:22:21). | OBS POS |
| 0:23:06 | The request for proposals | O'Neill: "we prepare a 39 page RFP"; on scoring, "The financial budget piece, which is is is the number one item is 20 points. Obviously, that still leaves 80 points out there" (0:23:47). | POS |
| 0:25:07 | The Abbey Group | Hansen: when awarded a contract "the employees become our employees of the Abbey Group" (0:28:05). Scott: "Both of the companies are providing a no cost program" (0:37:06); "We're budgeting around $12,000 more for a director" (0:45:54), shared with Unity and Cornish if awarded there, "a direct reduction in cost of this district of around $15,000" (0:46:21); "a 25,000 position added to the high school" (0:47:50); "we've guaranteed 30,000 to local purchases" (0:49:39). O'Neill: "There's not going to be any employed foodservice director in Claremont." (0:44:29). | |
| 0:39:33 | Unpaid meal charges | An unidentified speaker asks how the vendor handles students without lunch money. Scott: "in no case that we're going to deny kids food without first working with the administration and also the parents" (0:40:07). The superintendent: "There is one that you'll be working on this summer. It's called meal charging. That's in response to a recent law" (0:41:27). O'Neill: the New Hampshire School Boards Association has a model policy (0:42:20). | OBS |
| 0:51:42 | Free and reduced-price meals | Scott: "no matter what the status of the students are free, reduced or paid. It's very confidential." (0:51:57). An unidentified speaker: "one of our elementary schools has a free and reduced lunch rate of 75%. Our district wide rate is only 50%" (0:55:39), and those rates drive "title one money" and "E-Rate money" (0:56:39). | |
| 0:59:10 | Meal costs | O'Neill: "you have lunch at $1.65. Breakfast at 125." [$1.25] (schedule E), and an Abbey Group savings figure transcribed "40,009, 51", "basically 10% of your cost of goods sold" (1:00:07). | |
| 1:15:12 | Fresh Picks Cafe | Farrow: the K-12 division of Cafe Services, serving "60 school districts throughout New Hampshire and Vermont" (1:19:32). A guaranteed return: "Whatever it takes to guarantee that $20,000 return." (1:29:01). Current participation "46.2% participation for lunch and 11.7% participation for breakfast", projected to 51.1% and 13.4% in the first year (1:32:19). Up to $40,000 of equipment, "basically a no interest loan" (1:41:44, 1:42:11). | |
| 1:33:32 | The downtown high school | Sprague: Stevens is "a downtown school with, I think, 14 doors" (1:33:32). Farrow cites competing with the Hanover co-op. On staff: "Probably about 80%" of inherited staff remain after three years (1:38:26). | |
| 2:00:02 | Viewer emails | The superintendent has received emails from viewers and forwarded them: "We're not supposed to communicate by emails, but I thought you'd like to see it after the meeting, and we can discuss it, perhaps at another time." | OBS |
| 2:01:13 | CCTV board of directors | The superintendent asks approval for Joel Schneid (transcribed "Joel Schneider") "to serve on the board of directors of the CCTV" as the technical center's representative (2:01:16). Irish: "I'm honestly kind of at a loss to understand what the point would be" (2:01:44). The superintendent: "He has asked that it'd be tonight" (2:02:39). Adrian wants the nominee present (2:03:09); Zullo: "I wouldn't feel comfortable voting on anything" (2:04:08). Deferred to the next agenda (2:04:24). | POS |
| 2:05:05 | Cell phones and the ordering app | Pierce asks whether students can use a vendor app if phones are not allowed at lunch; a staff voice says there is no board policy on it that they know of (2:06:16). | |
| 2:06:56 | Questions to the committee | Irish plans to email Pierce and Rapp his questions, "as long as we don't get in the back and forth" (2:07:39). Pierce: "Brian and I can receive any questions from the community or teachers" (2:08:02). | OBS |
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 May 31, 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 recording is the only public account of the two vendors' proposals and of the deferred CCTV appointment. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force in 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".
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the presiding officer asks a commenter for name and ward "to make sure the minutes get done right" (0:20:59), and the superintendent refers to a footnote "on page two of your agenda" (2:07:07). Minutes and an agenda were being produced. What is missing is any public copy now. The minutes-approval item on the tape (0:04:06) is itself unclear: no motion is audible and the minutes approved are not named.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, in force for 2017; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)
OBSERVATION The food-service committee that would recommend the vendor may itself be a public body, and no record of its meeting survives
The superintendent said the committee would meet "after tonight's meeting", with two board members and four faculty members, and "come back with a recommendation" to the board, which would decide (0:21:50, 0:22:21, 2:07:34). He formed it by asking "people who would be interested in serving" (2:07:07). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes a public body of a school district board "or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto", and a public body must give notice and keep minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II. Whether a committee convened by the superintendent to advise the board is an "advisory committee thereto" is not settled by anything verified for this page, so this is an observation. If it is a public body, its meeting needed notice and minutes, and none survive. The June 21 page (show 9171) records the committee's recommendation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1, so the text in force in 2017); RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification)
OBSERVATION A written meal-charge policy was federally required by July 1, 2017; the board was told it would work on one "this summer"
Asked how vendors treat students without lunch money, the superintendent told the board "There is one that you'll be working on this summer. It's called meal charging. That's in response to a recent law" (0:41:27). Two rules were in play. RSA 189:11-a, VIII, in force since July 2, 2016, provides that a school lunch meal payment policy implemented by a school board "shall ensure that all students have access to a healthy school lunch" and that "no student will be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal". USDA's memo SP 23-2017 restates that a written meal charge policy "is required for SFAs no later than July 1, 2017", under SP 46-2016. A policy worked on over the summer would come after that date. The June 21 meeting (show 9171) sets the second reading for July 19. This is graded an observation here because the record does not show whether the district already had a written charge procedure in place; the June 21 page carries the scheduling finding.
Sources: RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2017 codification; source 2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016); USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017): written meal charge policy required no later than July 1, 2017
OBSERVATION The departing student representative told the board its procedure and preparation fall short
In a written farewell address, the student representative said that members bring "personal life experiences that do not represent the public" into discussion (0:06:30), that "a member may speak on a topic as long as they would like" (0:06:50), that questions are asked "that minor research or preparation would have answered" (0:07:56), and that "regular tardiness without a reason is not acceptable of any member" (0:09:58). She asked that the student representative be included in the roll call and, more often, in nonpublic sessions (0:09:23, 0:09:39). No rule verified for this page governs these points. They are recorded because they are a specific, on-the-record critique from the board's own student member; the board took up a Rules of Order and Quorum policy three weeks later (show 9171).
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 5-31-17; Dialogue/9128 SchoolBoard053117.mp4.CSV (rows 26 to 38)
OBSERVATION Members planned email contact about the pending vendor decision; the superintendent and the presiding member both named the limit
The superintendent forwarded viewers' emails to members, saying "We're not supposed to communicate by emails, but I thought you'd like to see it after the meeting" (2:00:02). Irish proposed emailing the two committee members his questions, "as long as we don't get in the back and forth" (2:07:39). 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". A one-way question to two members is not deliberation by a quorum, and both speakers stated the line correctly. It is flagged so a reader can see the plan, since the vendor decision came three weeks later.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (2016 codification; source 2008, 303:4)
POSITIVE The board declined to vote on an appointment added that evening until it could hear from the nominee
The CCTV appointment was added to the agenda at the start of the meeting (0:03:22) with a request that it be decided that night (2:02:39). Members asked what the seat does, whether anyone else in the district was interested, and for the nominee to attend; one said she did not know enough to vote (2:04:08). The presiding officer put it on the next agenda (2:04:24). The 2017 Right-to-Know Law required notice of a meeting's time and place, not an itemized agenda, so deferring a same-night addition to a noticed agenda went beyond the statutory minimum. Disclosure: the seat at issue is on the board of Claremont Community Television (CCTV) / Claremont Community Media Center (CCMC), which made this recording and publishes these pages.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification: notice "of the time and place")
POSITIVE Both bidders presented in public session before any recommendation or vote
The two food-service vendors presented their proposals and took questions from members and staff in public session, the business administrator explained the 100-point scoring ("The financial budget piece ... is 20 points", 0:23:47), and the superintendent stated that "the final decision will be the school boards" (0:22:21). Federal procurement rules require competitive procurement for a food service management contract; they do not require bidders to present to the governing body in public. Doing so put the competing offers, including the $20,000 guaranteed return and the no-cost claims, on the public record before the decision.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 5-31-17
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 5-31-17 (show 9128; 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.
- Related meetings: May 17, 2017 (sets this meeting's date) and June 21, 2017 (vendor selection; meal-charge policy).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9128 SchoolBoard053117.mp4.CSV (701 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9128 SchoolBoard053117.mp4Input/Transcripts/9128 SchoolBoard053117.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 34Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9128 SchoolBoard053117.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; the text in force for 2017): notice, minutes content, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1): committees and advisory committees are public bodies
- RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II, 2016 codification (source 2008, 303:4): deliberation only in meetings; communications outside a meeting
- RSA 189:11-a, VIII, 2017 codification (2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016): school lunch meal payment policy
- USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017), restating SP 46-2016: written meal charge policy required by July 1, 2017 (guidance)