Claremont School Board & City Council, Joint Meeting — June 22, 2017

Participants

Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes are online to check spellings against. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
Name	Role	Participation
Brian Rapp	Chair, Claremont School Board (co-presided; transcript `Chair Wrap`)	Opened the meeting, ran citizens' comments, asked whether the latest lead case came from increased screening, announced the break, spoke to i-Ready growth data and called the adjournment vote.
Charlene Lovett	Mayor, City of Claremont (co-presided)	Gave the lead-initiative announcements and the council's June 14 budget passage; answered Benware; asked the Green Dot presenter about policy; ran the scheduling of the September joint meeting; proposed a three-step plan on childhood poverty and undertook to map it out.
Rebecca Zullo	School board member (transcript `Missoula` for Miss Zullo)	Thanked Benware for his comment; asked how Green Dot reaches children and whether its information could go on the district website; asked for action and sustainability on poverty: "I just want to start doing and stop talking."
Patrick Adrian	School board member	Told Benware he did not feel the council's budget vote put the board under pressure; asked about mandated bystander training and about changing published school data; spoke on poverty and prosperity from his experience in Washington, D.C. Attribution medium-high.
Unidentified	Woman on the school board side (dialogue file Role); not named on this recording	Proposed i-Ready growth data for the September agenda, referring to the board's discussion the night before; later spoke of raising a grandson and of her own past experience of homelessness, and urged people who are struggling to speak to their representatives.
Chris Irish, Michelle Pierce, Frank Sprague, Michael Petrin	School board members (2017 roster)	Not identified on the recording. The roll call was not transcribed, so their presence or absence cannot be established from this file. The unidentified school-board-side woman above is probably Pierce (see the method note).
Allen Damren	City councilor (transcript `Councilor Damron`)	Asked that sustainability be added to the mayor's plan, recalling district programs of the late 1990s that ended when grants and budgets ran out.
Unidentified	City councilor and restaurant and bar owner (dialogue file: addressed as `Nicole` and `Councilor philosophy`; identity uncertain)	Described state liquor-license trainings; called this one of the most important meetings he had attended; asked whether the district can connect families to outside resources; said the community's poverty numbers are higher than reported.
Unidentified	City councilor recognized only as `counselor`	Asked the city manager, given his housing experience, for a future report on workforce housing.
Unidentified	Council-side speaker responding to the mayor's plan	Described being shocked by a newspaper article on child poverty, supported a strategic plan and asked how kindergarten teachers recognize a child who needs help.
Ryan McNutt	City manager	Asked whether people adjudicated for violence could be required to take bystander training; proposed a city web page on homelessness and the solutions generated.
Middleton McGoodwin	Superintendent, SAU 6 (transcript `Mick Goodwin`)	On kindergarten screening timing; tied Green Dot to student safety; described meeting real estate agents; said the budget will have to break from the norm for children's needs; described state support for full-day kindergarten; said child poverty is the district's job too.
Cory LeClair	Assistant superintendent, SAU 6	On kindergarten lead screening; one of the Green Dot trainers; presented the homelessness film and district data on housing wages, free and reduced lunch rates, 156 homeless students, parental incarceration, student mobility and special education.
Kristen Parks	Vice president of programs, Green Dot, etc., Inc.	Gave the Green Dot presentation and answered questions on why Claremont was chosen, youth programs, policy and mandated training.
Deb	Director, Turning Points Network (surname garbled in the transcript as `I, Lawson`)	Described SAU 6 and Turning Points Network as the coordinating agencies for Green Dot, the training schedule and the goal of reaching every adult in Claremont.
Jack	Judge, guest presenter (first name from the dialogue file; surname not on the recording)	Spoke on childhood poverty in Claremont and asked both bodies to put a regular childhood-poverty report on their agendas; spoke on the working poor.
Melanie Williams	Staff, TLC (introduced by the judge)	Said 78% of the families TLC serves struggle financially and that she has hope for the community; left early.
Maggie (surname heard as `Monroe Castle`)	Director, TLC (introduced by the judge)	Introduced as present; no speech is attributed to her.
Jason Benware	Citizens' comments, ward not given (self-identified as `Jason. Ben. Where?`; later a school board member)	Criticized the wording of the district's lead-screening letter and criticized councilors who voted for the city budget against the manager's recommendation.
Bernie Fulton	Citizens' comments, Ward 3 (surname spelling uncertain; transcript `Bernie Falta`)	Commented that in Claremont a crowd at a meeting can usually trigger action; later asked which other communities take part in the Green Dot study.
Unidentified	Audience member (man) questioning the Green Dot presenter	Argued that bystander norms should be taught to children, as car-seat and drinking-and-driving norms were. The dialogue file notes he may be Benware; he is not named on the tape.
Unidentified	Voices in the screened film on youth homelessness	Young people and parents describing homelessness. This page reproduces no name from the film.

Order of business (reconstructed)

No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, and the city's copy was not inspected, so this list is reconstructed from the presiding officers' transitions (the mayor refers to "Next on the agenda item" at 0:21:39, so a written agenda existed). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.

Taken up	Item	Agenda text / disposition
0:00:00	Call to order, pledge, roll call	Rapp asks for a roll call at 0:00:06; the roll itself is not transcribed. See Board composition.
0:01:09	Announcements	Mayor Lovett: lead surveillance report, a new case of a lead-poisoned child, training dates, a state panel request, and the council's June 14 budget. Informational.
0:09:50	Citizens' comments	Jason Benware and Bernie Fulton (Ward 3) spoke; the mayor, Zullo and Adrian responded. No action.
0:21:39	Green Dot presentation	Kristen Parks of Green Dot, etc., then questions (from 0:55:11) answered by Parks, Deb of Turning Points Network and LeClair. Informational.
1:17:51	Break	Five-minute break announced by Rapp.
1:18:13	Scheduling of the next joint meeting	By consensus: Thursday, September 28 (confirmed at 2:45:52 as 6:00); agenda to include a school update on kindergarten lead screening, the lead initiative, and i-Ready growth data and how school data are reported. No vote.
1:24:50	Homelessness and childhood poverty	LeClair introduced a film on youth homelessness (from about 1:27:05 to 1:45:30); Judge Jack spoke on childhood poverty; LeClair presented district data; open discussion; the mayor proposed a plan she would map out with the city manager, board chair and superintendent. No vote.
2:45:26	Closing and adjournment	Rapp: "Grab a motion to adjourn." The mover, seconder and tally are not audible; the transcript renders the call as "All in favor? I posed tonight."

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
0:00:06	Roll call	Rapp: "Please get a roll call here." The next transcribed word is Here. at 0:01:03; the names in between are not in the transcript.	OBSERVATION
0:02:03	Lead: new case	Lovett: "We were notified this morning from the state that we have yet another child who has been poisoned by lead in our city". A lead renovation certification class on July 7 and a community training on July 19 about 5:30 p.m. are announced.
0:04:44	Lead: state panel	Lovett: the state asked Claremont for a panel at the October 24 Healthy Homes conference "because from the state's perspective, we are the community leading the state in this initiative"; panelists named include the mayor, "chair, Rap", the city manager and the superintendent. A November 1 New England conference has asked for the same panel.
0:05:49	City budget	Lovett: "the City Council did pass the budget on June 14th, and it does have a 17 cent increase on the tax rate."
0:06:03	Kindergarten lead screening	Rapp asks whether the latest case followed increased screening; Lovett: "We don't know yet." She asks how the city can help the district's screening and says some organizations may buy "another lead test unit" for the school. LeClair (0:07:26): kindergarten screening starts the Tuesday after Labor Day; as an incoming kindergarten parent, her own child's immunization records did not list the lead screening.
0:10:02	Citizens' comments: lead letter	Jason Benware: the last paragraph of the district's lead policy letter "is very poorly written"; he reads it at 0:18:07: "The high levels of special education, crime and mental health. It should be mental health issues in Claremont suggests there has not been enough lead screening assessments of children at an early age." His objection: "to say that the person who is using drugs at 20 years old is doing it because they had lead poisoning, that doesn't add up."	POSITIVE
0:13:12	Citizens' comments: city budget	Benware to the council: the manager made a budget recommendation "and you decided not to follow it"; "You increased our tax rate" and "you put all the tough decisions on the school board".
0:15:22	Citizens' comments: Ward 3	Bernie Fulton, Ward 3, on the council's recent budget and library appropriation: "If you want to change something in Claremont, get a group of people in, pile into a city council meeting, pile into a school board meeting, and your chances are pretty good."	POSITIVE
0:17:15	Responses	Lovett offers Benware the lead material: "I don't think anybody meant to imply that some of the issues that you see in adulthood are definitely caused by this". Zullo (0:19:09): "I do appreciate you taking the time to come in and express your concerns". Adrian (0:20:03): "I don't feel that I was a school board member feeling thrown under the bus or under pressure by how the city council vote voted on a budget."	POSITIVE
0:22:51	Green Dot presentation	Kristen Parks, vice president of programs of Green Dot, etc., a national nonprofit based in D.C., presents bystander intervention for sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking: direct, delegate and distract responses, and proactive norm-setting. "Policy alone does not" change culture.
0:55:28	Why Claremont	Parks: "They actually applied." Claremont and Keene were chosen as the two pilot communities because they were geographically and demographically similar.
0:55:56	Reaching children	Zullo asks how the program connects to children. LeClair (0:56:54): "The Turning Points Network and the Claremont School District are partners"; she is one of the trainers, and "although we are not directly training our children in this model, we are training the adults who work directly with our children".
0:59:45	Audience question	An unidentified man argues that, as with drinking and driving, norms taught to children stick; Parks describes high school, middle school and a developing K-5 program.
1:02:36	Policy question	Lovett asks whether communities changed policy; Parks: in Alaska, policies were "born out of reaction from the community". Deb (1:07:33): Turning Points will ask businesses, the city and the school district "to maybe consider a policy that says that every year there folks will be trained in bystander intervention."
1:04:04	Coordinating agencies	Deb, Turning Points Network director: "saw six and Turning Points Network are the ones that are bringing this to the community"; one-hour overviews weekly, five-hour bystander trainings monthly; the goal "is to get to every adult in Claremont."
1:08:11	Other communities	Fulton asks which other communities take part; Parks: "In this study, there's no other communities. It's just these two."
1:10:50	District website	Zullo: "Is it possible to put this on the school district website?" LeClair: "I'm not noticing anything boldly on our website at the moment, but I'm sure we can."
1:14:43	Mandated training	McNutt asks whether people adjudicated for violence could be mandated to take the training. Parks: "It violates green dot policy"; a state can mandate bystander training but not Green Dot specifically.
1:18:13	Next joint meeting	After a break, Lovett: "We want to follow our schedule of quarterly meetings." At 1:19:43: "What looks like the September 28th might be it." She asks for a school update "on how the screening went".	OBSERVATION
1:20:24	i-Ready data	An unidentified woman on the school board side: "I know we talked last night about the evaluations"; she proposes showing i-Ready growth numbers. Rapp (1:21:21): the i-Ready data "does show what we've been doing as far as student growth." A speaker (1:22:12) notes that GreatSchools and Zillow ratings use standardized-test snapshots.
1:23:16	Realtors and data	LeClair proposes a joint-meeting topic on "how is our data selected, how is our data reported, how are our schools rated", with realtors invited. McGoodwin (1:24:04): agents "walked out very, very surprised and pleased by the data", but "it was very clear that we don't communicate well enough."
1:26:01	Homelessness: grant and film	LeClair: "the Claremont School District is one of six recipients of a McKinney Vento sub grant". The film, by a filmmaker transcribed as `Diane Nylon`, runs from about 1:28:17 to 1:45:30 and shows young people describing homelessness; LeClair: "Some of those students, some of those families are ours."
1:48:48	Judge: childhood poverty	Judge Jack: "30 years ago, we had the second highest level of childhood poverty"; after "millions, if not tens of millions of dollars on economic development", "30 years later, we have the second highest level of childhood poverty in the state." At 1:51:35: "I cannot remember once at a council meeting, not once" anyone asking the manager for the childhood poverty rate.
1:57:40	Request to both bodies	Judge Jack asks them to consider "Getting on your agenda on a regular basis. Childhood poverty and a report on childhood poverty"; "I'm not asking for money". He cites a Washington Post article on a "nurse in every home" program in Appalachia (1:56:48).
1:58:57	District data: wages and lunch	LeClair: the state housing wage is $43,865; a Claremont teacher "would have to be on step nine" to exceed it ("Step nine is $43,932"). Free and reduced lunch "district wide rate tends to average around 50%"; at 1:59:44 "bluff elementary, 70%" and "Stevens High School 40%", which she attributes to stigma as students age.	POSITIVE
2:00:19	Point of sale	LeClair links the board's food-service vendor choice "last night" to "a point of sale, system in place that allows for greater anonymity for our students".
2:00:53	Homeless count	LeClair: "156 of them were identified as homeless" out of "about 1753 students"; lower than before "primarily because in December of 2016, December 10th to be exact, and McKinney Vento law changed", so students awaiting foster care are no longer counted.	POSITIVE
2:03:43	Other indicators	LeClair: "last year's calculation was around 10% of our population" had one or more parents or guardians incarcerated; more parental deaths this year (2:03:37); "50% of our fifth graders did not, start with us" (2:08:43); identified special education rate "runs about 25%. It's about double the state average" (2:09:42).	POSITIVE
2:12:58	Superintendent	McGoodwin: "when we develop the budget, we're going to have to break from the norm because our clientele need that adjustment and how we spend our funds."
2:14:03	Personal testimony	An unidentified woman (the school-board-side voice) thanks the judge, describes raising a grandson, and urges those struggling to "Talk to your representatives, your school board, your city council."
2:17:06	Adrian	Adrian contrasts poverty and prosperity he saw in Washington, D.C. and Harrisonburg, Virginia, and says residents must be engaged when affordable housing is proposed.
2:20:26	Elected officials	An unidentified speaker: "I'd like to encourage our, state and local reps to come to some of these meetings"; cutting programs such as TLC and Turning Points puts them "in jeopardy".
2:21:56	Mayor's plan	Lovett: step one "is to understand the problem"; then "identify the barriers that prevent from rising out of poverty"; then "create some action plans". She asks that the statistics be shared "with the two governing bodies".	OBSERVATION
2:28:31	Connecting families	An unidentified councilor: "This is probably one of the most important ones" he has attended; asks whether the district can direct people to other resources. LeClair: "I don't know that it's always enough."
2:31:21	Full-day kindergarten	McGoodwin: "I just learned this afternoon that in Concord, the the budget includes, supporting full day kindergarten, 80% of the cost" (speaker's characterization, not verified here); on whose job child poverty is, "my response is to that is simply it's our job" (2:32:16).
2:32:33	Barriers	The councilor: "I can identify one of the barriers immediately, and it's connecting people with services"; the numbers are "much higher than what you have reported." Judge Jack (2:34:08) on the working poor: people earning "$10 an hour" cannot pay "$1,400 a month rent".
2:36:34	TLC	Melanie Williams: "78% of the families that we're serving right now are struggling with finances in some way"; she leaves early, having understood the meeting would end at 845.
2:38:01	Sustainability	Councilor Damren recalls programs such as Parents as Teachers: "we are going to be so successful with parents as teachers that it's going to grow and the school will never cut it. And that was wrong because the school over time did cut it."
2:40:02	Housing	An unidentified councilor asks City Manager McNutt, drawing on his housing experience, to report at some point on workforce housing.
2:41:02	Communication and action	Zullo asks that the resource websites go on the SAU website and in the superintendent's parent emails, and: "I just want to start doing and stop talking."
2:42:27	City web page	McNutt asks whether to put "what does homelessness look like on our city web page" with the solutions generated.
2:45:26	Closing	Lovett: "I'll work on mapping some things out, sending it to the city manager, chair, rep, and the superintendent." Next meeting "September 28th, 6:00 here." Rapp calls for adjournment at 2:46:06.	OBSERVATION

Items flagged for review

Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on June 22, 2017, cited 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. 4 flags follow, ordered by severity.

OBSERVATION Two public bodies met; the roll call was not captured, and the district posts no record of the meeting

A joint meeting is two bodies, each with its own quorum and its own duty under RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 to keep minutes naming members and "persons appearing before the public bodies", open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The chair asks for a roll call (0:00:06), but the transcript holds only a single Here. (0:01:03), so neither body's attendance or quorum can be read from the recording: three school board members (Rapp, Zullo, Adrian) and one unidentified school-side voice are heard, and on the council side the mayor, Councilor Damren and at least two unnamed councilors. The district's Drive shares hold nothing older than 2022 (MAP.md section 36); the city's notice, agenda and minutes are kept by the city clerk and were not inspected, so this page makes no city-side negative. Nothing on the recording shows a lapse; the project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb, and the grade is OBSERVATION because the absence reflects what the district posts online, not proof that minutes were never kept.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, the text in force for all of 2017).

OBSERVATION The next meeting, its agenda and a joint follow-up plan were settled by consensus; the only vote is an adjournment whose mover is not audible

The bodies fixed September 28 as the next joint meeting and its agenda items (a school update on kindergarten lead screening, the lead initiative, i-Ready growth data and school-data reporting) by going around the table (1:18:13 to 1:24:38), and accepted the mayor's offer to map a childhood-poverty plan and send it to the city manager, the board chair and the superintendent (2:21:56, 2:45:26). No motion was made on any of these. The adjournment is called with "Grab a motion to adjourn" (2:46:06); the mover, the seconder and the tally are not audible. RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 required minutes to record "final decisions" but did not yet require the names of movers and seconders (that sentence took effect January 1, 2019). No rule verified for this page requires a formal vote for scheduling or for a staff-level follow-up; the observation is that the record of what the two bodies committed to exists only on this tape.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; no mover/seconder clause before 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019).

POSITIVE Citizens' comments were taken early, a pointed criticism of the district was heard in full, and members responded to it on the record

Citizens' comments came before any presentation (0:09:50). Jason Benware criticized the wording of the district's own lead-screening letter and then the council's budget vote (0:10:02 to 0:14:18); Bernie Fulton of Ward 3 followed (0:15:22). Neither was cut off. The mayor answered Benware's reading of the letter (0:17:38), Zullo thanked him for raising it (0:19:09) and Adrian gave his own view of the budget point (0:20:03). Fulton was also allowed a question during the Green Dot discussion (1:08:11). No statute then required a school board or a city council to take public comment: the school board comment-period statute, RSA 189:74, dates from September 6, 2022, and is cited here only to show it did not apply.

Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 189:74 (current text; source note "2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022").

POSITIVE The district put its own poverty and homelessness indicators in front of both bodies, in aggregate form, and stated the 2016 change in the federal homeless definition accurately

The assistant superintendent gave district-wide and school-by-school free and reduced lunch rates (1:58:57, 1:59:44), the count of 156 students identified as homeless out of about 1,753 (2:00:53), an estimate of students with an incarcerated parent (2:03:43), mobility and special education rates (2:08:43, 2:09:42), and was candid about what the district does not track. Every figure was an aggregate; no student was identified. Her explanation that the homeless count fell "primarily because in December of 2016, December 10th to be exact, and McKinney Vento law changed" so that children awaiting foster care are no longer counted (2:01:21) matches the U.S. Department of Education's guidance: the Every Student Succeeds Act, section 9105(b), removed "awaiting foster care placement" from the McKinney-Vento definition effective December 10, 2016, for States other than the few covered States with their own statutory definition (for which the date was a year later). Whether New Hampshire was a covered State was not checked for this page. The mayor then asked that the statistics be shared with both governing bodies (2:21:56).

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Education for Homeless Children and Youths Program Non-Regulatory Guidance (July 27, 2016, updated August 2018): ESSA sec. 9105(b); effective December 10, 2016, for non-covered States.

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast show 9170, "CITY COUNCIL & SCHOOL BOARD MEETING - 6-22": Claremont Community Television. 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 section 36, checked 9/26/26). The City of Claremont's own records (city clerk) were not inspected.
Related recordings (pages named by recording): the school board meeting the night before, June 21, 2017 (show 9171), at which the food-service vendor mentioned here was chosen; the May 31, 2017 board meeting with the food-service presentations (show 9128).

Project files

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

Dialogue/9170 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062217.mp4.CSV (665 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/9170 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062217.mp4
Input/Transcripts/9170 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062217.mp4.json
Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9170 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062217.mp4.md
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 36

Laws and rules cited on this page

New Hampshire statutes, as in force on June 22, 2017. RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; 2016 codification). RSA 189:74 (public comment; not in force until September 6, 2022, cited only to show it did not apply).
Federal. McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act definition as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act, sec. 9105(b), per the U.S. Department of Education's non-regulatory guidance.