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. Nominees and departing staff are described by position; a student mentioned in discussion is not named.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Answers the roll as "Brian Rath" [Rapp] (0:00:41); runs every item; abstains on the minutes because "I missed that meeting" (0:02:17). Reports the food-service committee's scoring as a committee member (1:19:17). |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Arrives after the roll call (0:00:49). Seconds the vendor award (1:38:59); objects to the Rules of Order policy (1:54:02) and to remote participation; supports the conflict-of-interest policy. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | "What page was that, Frank?" (0:12:26). Moves the minutes (0:02:06); questions the vendor budgets and two nominees' credentials; seconds the nominations (1:47:41); moves to adjourn (2:13:03). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Recognized as Rebecca (1:24:58). Questions classroom averages in the i-Ready data; reports a student's question about food waste. |
| Patrick Adrian | Member | Recognized as Patrick (0:35:29). Moves the nonpublic session (1:18:24) and the resignation (1:43:41); questions what i-Ready growth points mean. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member; food-service committee | Answers the roll (0:00:41). Speaks for the committee's choice of the Abbey Group (1:27:02); moves to come out of nonpublic (1:19:10), the nominations (1:47:31) and the meal-charge second reading (2:12:46); seconds the resignation and the adjournment. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Recognized as Mike (1:14:16). Suggests summer use of i-Ready; moves the food-service award (1:38:53). Attribution medium-high per the report. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report; summer schedule and hiring authority; nominations and resignation; presents the four policy first reads. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the year-end i-Ready growth data (0:16:31); suggests vendor-neutral wording for the meal-charge policy (2:10:33). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explains the vendor budgets, the contract term and the rules on food-service surpluses. Surname from the project roster; addressed as Mike (1:36:57). |
| Paula Fitzgerald | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Introduced by the superintendent (0:09:32); presents the 2017-18 handbook and the middle-school i-Ready data. |
| Patricia (Pat) Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Presents the high-school i-Ready results (1:05:49); receives the immunization award on the school's behalf. |
| Dan (surname not stated) | Elementary principal | "Do you want to start Dan." (0:24:35); presents the elementary i-Ready experience. School not stated; a member's question suggests Maple Avenue (0:40:08). |
| Unidentified teacher | Food-service committee member | Speaks briefly on i-Ready in class (0:38:32) and for the committee's unanimous choice (1:32:36). |
| Unidentified | Various | 176 of 922 dialogue rows (19.1%): seconds, aye votes, roll-call answers and crosstalk. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair refers to the packet and to a two-sided supplement (0:00:49); the items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions, in the order taken.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Partial roll call (0:00:41). |
| 0:00:49 | Agenda | Two nominations added by supplement; a nonpublic session added ("RSA 91832 C" [RSA 91-A:3, II(c)]) after the middle-school handbook (0:01:32). An unidentified member: "Can I make a motion to accept?" (0:01:45); second; voice vote (0:01:48). |
| 0:01:48 | Minutes of the previous meeting | Sprague: "Motion to approve the minutes from last meeting." (0:02:06). Voice vote; the chair abstains (0:02:17). |
| 0:02:23 | Superintendent's report | Immunization award; lead and behavior; end of the school year. |
| 0:06:31 | Citizens' comments | No speakers; closed at 0:06:39. |
| 0:06:39 | Discussion: academic achievement goals (i-Ready growth) | Introduced by the superintendent; with the presenter delayed, the board takes the handbook first and returns to this item at 0:15:46. Presentations by the assistant superintendent and three principals. No action. |
| 0:09:32 | Claremont Middle School handbook, 2017-18 | Reviewed by the principal. Sprague: "Do we need a motion to approve this?" (0:14:57). The chair calls the vote without a motion or second being heard (0:15:02). |
| 1:18:06 | Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II(c) | Chair: "I'll need a motion to go to nonpublic RSA 91 a three two. See." Adrian: "So moved." (1:18:24); "I have a second. We need a roll call." (1:18:24); roll call, Yes answers (1:18:31 to 1:18:44). Pierce moves to come back (1:19:10); voice vote (1:19:14). |
| 1:19:17 | Action: food service vendor selection | Committee recommends The Abbey Group (unanimous, 1:33:07). Petrin moves "We accept the committee's proposal of Gabby Brewer" [Abbey Group] (1:38:53); Irish: "I'll second that." (1:38:59); the chair restates the motion as approving "the recommendation of the committee to award the RFP to Abby Group" (1:39:01). Voice vote; no opposition heard (1:39:20). |
| 1:40:19 | Summer 2017 meeting schedule | No meeting on July 5. Motion to authorize the superintendent to offer contracts to new hires during the summer: an unidentified mover (1:42:22) and seconder (1:42:23); voice vote (1:42:25). |
| 1:42:41 | Action: resignation | A Claremont Middle School teacher who has taken a position elsewhere. Adrian: "Motion to accept." (1:43:41); Pierce: Second. (1:43:43); voice vote. |
| 1:43:50 | Action: nominations | Six nominations: a business teacher, an assistant principal for CMS, a grade 3 teacher, a guidance position, a grade 5 teacher and an English teacher. Pierce moves (1:47:31); Sprague: "Okay. I'll second." (1:47:41); voice vote (1:47:44). |
| 1:51:00 | Policies, first read | Rules of Order: set aside (1:58:00). Quorum: set aside (2:03:04). Board Member Conflict of Interest: moved to second read (Pierce and Zullo, voice vote, 2:05:25). School lunch program meal charges: Pierce moves "to move to second" (2:12:46), Sprague seconds; voice vote; back on July 19 (2:12:19). |
| 2:13:03 | Adjournment | Sprague moves (2:13:03); Pierce seconds (2:13:05); voice vote (2:13:31). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9171 SchoolBoard062117.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:26 | Immunization award | Stevens High School recognized by the New Hampshire immunization program: "Your schools percentage of up to date students 98.91. State of New Hampshire's percentage. Up to date students 97.29." (0:06:11). | |
| 0:03:22 | Lead and behavior | The superintendent circulated an article on "School suspensions, test scores and lead poisoning"; "we have a policy and we're increasing the awareness of lead poisoning". A lead educator will meet district staff about federal funding for trades education (0:04:41). | |
| 0:09:51 | Middle-school handbook | Few changes: tardiness after 7:45, bags kept in lockers, updated dates; Sprague catches a date typo. Enrollment "about 389" (0:12:52). Rapp asks about the one-month medication limit and inhalers. Approved by voice vote with no motion heard (0:15:02). | OBS |
| 0:16:31 | i-Ready: district growth targets | LeClair: goals set by the administrative team in "a five year plan" (0:18:19); math target "70% of our students would meet their growth target" in K-5, reading 80% (0:18:39). "in grades one and two, we have already exceeded our five year goal of 7,070% [70%]" (0:20:25). Grade 1 on or above grade level in math: "only 13%" in the fall and 72% by year end (0:22:34); in reading, 14% to 67% (0:23:16). | |
| 0:24:42 | Elementary experience | Dan: i-Ready expects 45 minutes a week each in reading and math, "a pretty big cultural change" (0:25:09); early findings point to phonics gaps. "Don't underestimate full day kindergarten two." (0:32:25). | |
| 0:35:32 | What the numbers mean | Adrian: "I guess I don't really understand what the numbers mean". Zullo and Sprague on classroom averages; Sprague contrasts growth measures with the state test, where the same students would show zero (0:46:17). | |
| 0:49:14 | Middle school | Fitzgerald: test-administration problems affected "the validity of our scores" (0:50:26); the online component caps at a grade level; the intervention block grows to 60 minutes. | |
| 1:05:49 | High school | Barry: grades 9 and 10 "kind of flatlined in both math and reading"; semester scheduling and library testing complicate the data. | |
| 1:18:06 | Nonpublic session | Motion citing RSA 91-A:3, II(c), roll call, and return; no purpose is stated on the record beyond the citation. | MED |
| 1:19:17 | Food-service committee recommendation | Rapp: "We we met before this meeting"; scoring on assigned point values; "Cafe services. The the return was just a little bit, a little bit higher"; "Innovation, marketing promo cafe services was five. Abby Group was ten." (1:20:02); "the point totals are 90 to 93" (1:21:27). | OBS |
| 1:22:32 | The budgets | O'Neill: "cafe services was looking at a surplus of 20,771. Abby was looking at a surplus of around 10,000"; "there's no cost to the taxpayers of this program" (1:22:56). "The agreement becomes a up to a five year agreement with one year renewal" (1:24:47). | POS |
| 1:25:50 | Irish's case for the guarantee | "I think this is a win win." The guaranteed surplus is "100,000 bucks in a five year contract" (1:26:54). | |
| 1:27:02 | Pierce's case for the Abbey Group | Cornish has chosen the Abbey Group; committee members "went to these places" and "saw the processed food to the Whole Foods" (1:27:33). Rapp: "there was actually a lot of frozen food with the the fresh cafe services schools" (1:29:09). Pierce on the presentations: "it was short notice and Middleton even apologized for that" (1:31:08). | OBS |
| 1:29:27 | Surpluses stay in food service | O'Neill: "under the federal regulations, that money cannot be used for anything but food service. So there would not be a tax impact"; "I can't use it as revenue offset taxes" (1:29:57). Recent years needed "a small transfer" of "10 to $20,000" from the general fund (1:37:04, 1:37:15). On the guarantee: "the management fees $45,000" (1:30:26). | POS |
| 1:32:36 | A committee member | An unidentified teacher on the committee: "The the goal is to provide the healthiest food"; "that was our decision. And it was unanimous." | |
| 1:38:53 | Award to the Abbey Group | Motion by Petrin, second by Irish, voice vote. The business administrator notes the district used an outside provider for three years about a decade earlier (1:38:02). | |
| 1:40:24 | Summer schedule and hiring authority | No July 5 meeting. Rapp: "there has been a need to give contracts to, staff that would be coming in and the board would approve it at a later date" (1:40:58). The superintendent: "Authority to to provide contracts to the, the the employees during the summer", and the board "would receive this information. At every board meeting" (1:41:54). | OBS |
| 1:43:50 | Nominations | Sprague questions two credentials. Of one nominee's "beginning educator certificate" listing, the superintendent says "that certification is incorrect" (1:45:28). Of another: "Is going to be receiving her license next month"; "It would be very unfortunate to be black and white and wait until I see the license." (1:46:10, 1:46:30). All six approved. | OBS |
| 1:47:50 | Openings and salaries | Irish asks about open positions and whether the March salary changes have helped retention; the superintendent: the district trains staff who then leave for higher pay (1:49:15). Pierce asks to bring back "the lace policy" (as transcribed) at a later meeting (1:48:11). | |
| 1:51:06 | Policy first reads | Three model policies from the New Hampshire School Boards Association and a meal-charge policy. Irish on Rules of Order: "everything in that is in Robert's Rules of Order" (1:54:02); "anything that has anything to do with us and how we conduct our business should come through us from us first and foremost" (1:54:29). Set aside. | |
| 1:58:14 | Quorum policy and remote participation | The superintendent: revised for changes to the Right-to-Know Law (transcribed "RSA chapter 19 A"); the current policy "of 13 years ago is one sentence" (1:58:57). Rapp: "Do we have to allow that?" A voice: No, no. (1:59:44), which matches RSA 91-A:2, III: a public body "may, but is not required to" allow remote participation. Irish and Pierce oppose it: "if you're going to be voted in, you need to be here" (2:00:35). Set aside. | |
| 2:03:07 | Conflict of interest | Revised "to incorporate the restrictions imposed by RSA 951" (as transcribed; the statute is not identified here) and to cover conflicts between the superintendent and a prospective employee. Irish: "they actually covered nepotism" (2:04:41). Moved to second read. | |
| 2:05:31 | Meal-charge policy | The superintendent: "Districts are required now by the United States Department of Agriculture regulation to have a policy in place on meal charges"; in Claremont "It's been an ongoing practice, but it's not in writing" (2:05:53). Earlier: "that comes from, federal law that goes into effect July 1st" and "We're okay because we'll be long prepared for that" (1:51:34, 1:51:49); "some districts have a policy like this in place. We do not" (1:53:46). The board may "go from first read to approval" (2:11:50) but moves it to a second read on July 19 (2:12:19). | MED |
| 2:13:10 | Joint meeting tomorrow | Members note the joint school board and city council meeting the next evening at 6:00; "The agenda is in your packet." (2:13:23). | |
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 June 21, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet, minutes or nonpublic 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 food-service award, the six nominations and the four policy first reads, and it carries no record of the nonpublic session, whose purpose is stated only by citation (1:18:06). 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"; RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes to be disclosed "within 72 hours of the meeting" unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote, and no such vote is heard.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approves its previous minutes on tape (0:02:06), the chair checks a motion with the recording secretary ("Do you have that, Mary?", 2:05:20), and members work from a packet (0:00:49). What is missing is any public copy now.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, in force for 2017); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III (2016 codification: roll call; 72-hour disclosure)
MEDIUM The written meal-charge policy due by July 1, 2017 was put off to a July 19 second reading
USDA memo SP 23-2017 states that a written meal charge policy "is required for SFAs no later than July 1, 2017", under SP 46-2016. The superintendent told the board the requirement "goes into effect July 1st" (1:51:34), that the district's practice "it's not in writing" (2:05:53), and that "some districts have a policy like this in place. We do not" (1:53:46). He also told the board it "may skip some readings" and "go from first read to approval" (2:11:50). The board moved the policy to a second reading on July 19 (2:12:19, 2:12:46), eighteen days after the date. The state's own requirement, RSA 189:11-a, VIII (in force since July 2, 2016), covers what such a policy must ensure, including that "no student will be subject to different treatment from the standard school lunch meal", which the superintendent read to the board (2:06:21).
Mitigation on the record: the superintendent said the practice already met the substance ("We don't stigmatize", 1:52:10), members wanted time to study a long model policy, and the policy had blanks that depended on the new vendor (2:08:51, 2:10:01). This is graded MEDIUM, a probable process gap against a federal program deadline set by guidance rather than a statute; the July 19 record, if any survives, would show when the policy was adopted. The May 31 page (show 9128) records the first mention.
Sources: USDA FNS memo SP 23-2017 (Mar. 23, 2017): written meal charge policy required no later than July 1, 2017; RSA 189:11-a, VIII (2017 codification; 2016, 48:1, eff. July 2, 2016)
OBSERVATION The food-service committee met before this meeting to score the bids; whether it was a public body is unresolved and no record of its meeting survives
The chair reported that the committee "met before this meeting" and scored the proposals on assigned point values, 90 to 93 (1:19:17, 1:21:27). It had two board members, the chair and Pierce, and faculty members (1:27:02, 1:32:36). 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 post notice and keep minutes. The committee was convened by the superintendent (show 9128) to advise the board, so its status is not settled by anything verified for this page. Its scores and reasons survive only as described aloud tonight. The board's own vote was taken in public after an open discussion of both bids.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1); RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification)
OBSERVATION Summer hiring authority and a nominee whose license was pending, under the statute that has school boards elect teachers
RSA 189:39 provides that "Superintendents shall nominate and school boards elect all teachers employed in the schools in their school administrative unit, providing such teachers hold a valid educational credential issued by the state board of education." Two items tonight touch it. First, the board authorized the superintendent to offer contracts to new hires over the summer (1:41:54, 1:42:25); the chair described the practice as staff being given contracts and "the board would approve it at a later date" (1:40:58). If each hire is later elected by the board, the statute's division of roles is kept, only out of sequence; the record does not show how the later approvals were made. Second, the board elected a nominee who was "going to be receiving her license next month" (1:46:10), after the superintendent said waiting for the license would be "black and white" (1:46:30). The statute ties election to holding a valid credential. Whether a credential issued before the employee starts satisfies it is not settled by anything verified for this page, so both points are observations.
Sources: RSA 189:39 (1971, 371:2, eff. Aug. 27, 1971; unamended)
OBSERVATION The middle-school handbook was approved by a vote called without a motion
After the principal's review, Sprague asked "Do we need a motion to approve this?" (0:14:57) and the chair called "All in favor? Aye. Opposed?" without a motion or second being heard (0:15:02). The board follows Robert's Rules of Order, as members said later that evening (1:54:02, 1:55:53), and those rules require a motion before a vote. No statute verified for this page governs it, and the handbook changes were minor. It is recorded because the action exists only on the tape.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-21-17; Dialogue/9171 SchoolBoard062117.mp4.CSV (rows 69 and 70)
POSITIVE The business administrator told viewers plainly that a food-service surplus cannot lower taxes
Asked what a guaranteed surplus meant for taxpayers, the business administrator said "that money cannot be used for anything but food service. So there would not be a tax impact" (1:29:27) and "I can't use it as revenue offset taxes" (1:29:57), while noting that a shortfall "does come from the general fund" (1:37:15). That matches the federal rule that school food service revenues are to be used only for the operation or improvement of the food service. He also described the contract as up to five years with yearly renewal (1:24:47), consistent with the federal limit of a one-year contract renewable for no more than four additional years. Correcting a misconception against the board's own interest in a selling point is worth recording.
Sources: 7 CFR 210.14(a) (2017 edition: food service revenues used only for the program); 7 CFR 210.16(d) (2017 edition: contract term and renewals)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-21-17 (show 9171; 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 31, 2017 (the two vendors' presentations) and June 22, 2017 (joint meeting with the city council).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9171 SchoolBoard062117.mp4.CSV (922 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9171 SchoolBoard062117.mp4Input/Transcripts/9171 SchoolBoard062117.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 35Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9171 SchoolBoard062117.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II and III, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017): notice, minutes, five-business-day inspection; remote participation optional
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1; 280:1): nonpublic motion and roll call; 72-hour disclosure
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1): committees and advisory committees are public bodies
- RSA 189:39 (1971, 371:2): superintendents nominate and school boards elect teachers holding a valid credential
- 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 by July 1, 2017 (guidance)
- 7 CFR 210.14(a) and 7 CFR 210.16(d), 2017 annual CFR edition: use of food service revenue; food service management contract term