Claremont School Board & City Council, Joint Meeting, September 28, 2017 | Lead, early childhood and the August incident

Participants

Everyone heard or named on the recording. Names follow the project roster and attribution report; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Where a name rests on a single cue, the participation cell says so.
Name	Role	Participation
Charlene Lovett	Mayor, City of Claremont; presides	Runs the agenda, reports on the September 15 legislative strategy workshop and the city's new legislative web page, gives the city's lead-screening update (0:22:06), frames the response to the August incident as “a cultural change in which violence, racism, discrimination is not tolerated” (2:03:45) and sets the next joint meeting for December 14.
Allen Damren	Assistant Mayor (spelling per project roster)	Reports on the legislative workshop (0:03:08) and announces a November 13 public forum with Department of Revenue Administration officials on current use (0:10:43).
Carolyn Towle	City Councilor (role per the roll call and the project roster, which records this as unverified)	Recognized by the superintendent (0:48:20); asks the current attendance rate (0:48:29).
Scott Pope	City Councilor; instructor at the technical center	Addressed as “Councilor Pope.” (1:27:51). Reports on Congresswoman Kuster's workforce panel (1:20:36), answers Bernie Falter on automation (1:27:52) and proposes inviting the adult learning director to the next meeting (1:36:36). The roll call's “Scott. Keith.” may be his name and another; it is not resolved here.
Nicholas (surname not established)	City Councilor	Called in the roll as “Nicholas. Here.”; recognized as Nick (2:03:20). Describes hiring in the restaurant business (1:43:00) and gives the Facebook listing for the October 5 community event (2:03:23).
Abigail; Bruce Temple; John Simonds (spelling unverified)	City Councilors named in the roll call	Heard only in the roll call (0:00:53). The project roster records an at-large councilor Abigail Kier and councilors Bruce Temple and John Simonds in 2016-17; none is otherwise heard tonight.
Patrick Adrian	School Board member	Asks Representative Cottier whether the lead bill's child-care provisions would reach schools (0:39:30), discusses soft skills and smartphone use (1:45:28) and announces the October 5 anti-bullying “community chain” (2:00:39).
Michelle Pierce	School Board member (attribution low confidence)	The dialogue file labels her for remarks on the food program (0:21:56), a graduating student parent (1:17:30), adult job training (1:32:52) and curriculum change (1:44:24). The attribution report rates this voice low confidence; it could be another member. A voice calling for a second at adjournment says “Was Michelle Pierce looking for a second.” (2:17:49).
Rebecca Zullo	School Board member	Recognized as Rebecca (1:38:57); speaks on soft skills and students' use of technology (1:38:59).
Frank Sprague; Michael Petrin; Chris Irish; Brian Rapp	School Board members named in the roll call	Called in the roll (0:00:53). The attribution report places none of them securely in the recording; Brian Rapp, the board chair, is named by the superintendent as a panelist at the November 1 lead conference (0:41:56).
Middleton McGoodwin	Superintendent, SAU 6	Lead-screening policy update (0:12:37), the district's five-year goals and Gear Up New Hampshire (0:43:03), and an account of the district's response to the August incident (1:51:05).
Cory LeClair	Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6	Presents the One for All space (0:49:57), the back-to-school festival, the summer children's community lunch, the district's free and reduced lunch share (1:04:14) and the early childhood program (1:07:01).
John Cottier	State Representative; Ward 1 resident	Arrives late (0:33:55); self-identified “John Cottier, Ward one.” (0:34:01). Reports on the House Finance Division III work session on SB 247, the lead-poisoning bill. Spelling of the surname is unverified.
Jason Benware	Public commenter, Ward 1	Self-identified, transcribed “Jason Bender, Ward one again.” (1:31:02); the project roster gives the spelling Benware. Comments on lead-testing statistics (0:30:53), housing quality and the workforce (1:31:02) and the October 5 event (2:01:58).
Bernie Falter	Public commenter, Ward 3 (spelling unverified)	Self-identified, transcribed “Bernie, falter. One, three.” (1:24:33); the mayor calls him “Mr. Falta”. Speaks on automation and the future of work (1:24:36).
Unidentified	Various	57 of 475 dialogue rows (12.0%), including the roll call, the pledge, several members' questions and the adjournment motion.

Order of business (reconstructed)

No agenda survives. The mayor refers to the agenda and its order (0:01:52, 1:19:46); the items below are reconstructed from her transitions.
Taken up	Item	What was said and done
0:00:20	Pledge of Allegiance; attendance	“Attendance, please.” The joint roll call is transcribed as a single run of names (0:00:53).
0:01:23	Approval of minutes	Tabled by announcement: the mayor says “I've been told that we will be tabling the approval of minutes.” No motion or vote is heard, and the minutes in question are not identified.
0:01:23	Citizens Forum	“Comments on a non agenda item on non-agenda items limited to five minutes per person.” No one comes forward (0:01:47).
0:02:17	New business: legislative update	Legislative strategy workshop of September 15; city legislative web page; education-funding committee; SB 247 (lead poisoning) in House Finance; DRA forum on current use, November 13.
0:12:18	Lead screening and prevention update	School policy, city resources and screening results; State Representative Cottier on the SB 247 work session.
0:41:14	City and school initiatives with community impact	New England lead conference; Gear Up New Hampshire; One for All space; back-to-school festival; children's community lunch; early childhood program.
1:19:46	Workforce development	Councilor Pope on Congresswoman Kuster's visit; public comment; adult training; soft skills. Inviting the adult learning center's director is put on the next agenda.
1:50:05	Response to the August incident	Superintendent's account; the October 5 community event; the mayor's summary that both bodies are seeking a cultural change.
2:08:23	Poverty	Not reached: “it's going to have to be on the next agenda”. Members are asked to send their top three contributors to poverty.
2:11:52	Other: mental health coalition; dates	National mayoral coalition on mental health and substance use; Healthy Homes Conference October 24; lead conference November 1.
2:14:49	Next meeting	Set for Thursday, December 14 (2:16:30). A member asks that updates move to memos so the meeting can be used for discussion (2:16:34).
2:17:43	Adjournment	Motion by an unidentified voice; “Was Michelle Pierce looking for a second. Second.” Voice vote, Aye (2:17:54).

Discussion timeline

Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.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
0:01:52	Why the bodies meet jointly	The mayor: one reason is “to ensure that both governing bodies have access equally to the information”. The first hour is updates, the second “more in depth conversation”.	POS
0:02:48	Legislative strategy workshop	Three of the four state representatives and “Senator Martha Hennessy” met the mayor and assistant mayor on September 15. Damren: the plan is “a web page that would keep track of bills of interest to the community”. The mayor reports the page is already built, under the mayor and city council section of the city website (0:04:52).
0:05:55	Education funding and SB 247	A committee created by law to study education funding meets the following Monday at 10 a.m. On October 5 at 1 p.m. the House Finance Committee continues work on SB 247, the childhood lead-poisoning bill, which carried a fiscal note: “I believe the amount was $3 million” (0:07:49). A member asks that bill summaries be “distilled down so that people would understand” (0:08:53).
0:10:43	Current use forum	Damren announces a November 13 forum with two Department of Revenue Administration officials: “70% of it is current use. Of the 70%, 50% of that is owned by out of state owners.” The figures are his characterization of the city's land base.
0:12:37	School lead-screening policy	The superintendent: the policy “was approved this past April”; one parent at the last school board meeting saw it as “an invasion in their privacy”, and “the school board is going to revisit the lead policy”, perhaps with “an opt out phrase” (0:16:55). He also reports that under the new food service company “Approximately 90% of our former food service employees are working with us still” (0:17:24).
0:22:06	City screening results	The mayor reports free screenings at the back-to-school festival: “We screened over 40 children.” (0:22:46). For July and August she reports results transcribed as “those children tested at VRH3 were between 5 and 9 micrograms per deciliter” [probably three children tested at Valley Regional Hospital], and “But unfortunately two were above the ten microgram deciliter.”, and the community has been “averaging every month as a community, 3 to 4 children being poisoned” at the state's threshold of ten (0:24:53).
0:25:30	City lead resources	City Manager McNutt is absent. The mayor describes a planning department web page, USDA Rural Development home-repair grants and loans, an October council presentation, and a city lead policy assigned to the council's policy committee (0:27:33). Lead-safe renovation training is planned for technical center students and staff (0:28:36).
0:29:45	How many children test high?	A member asks the percentage. LeClair: “Talking about 36 kids a year in a student body of 1800”; another voice notes the screening is of a specific age group (0:30:22). The mayor: the state figures predate the local push, with screening of “less than, 50% of one year olds and less than 30% of two year olds” (0:31:10).
0:30:53	Public comment: Jason Benware	Benware expects new cases to fall once the existing ones are found, and asks whether children live in apartments or single-family homes. The mayor: “84.1% of our housing stock in Claremont is built prior to 1978” (0:33:32).	POS
0:34:01	Representative Cottier on SB 247	The bill is in House Finance Division III; the full committee has until November 16. Ideas under discussion, which he says may not survive: owners of pre-1978 rental property to determine lead status by July 1, 2020, and no rental of such property after “January 1st, 2023” unless certified lead safe; similar rules for child-care facilities; and notice to parents at a blood lead level of “three micrograms per deciliter or higher” (0:36:53). This is a description of a retained bill under amendment, not of enacted law; this page does not verify what was later enacted.
0:39:30	Would the bill reach schools?	Adrian asks whether child-care facilities include schools. Cottier: “It doesn't mention anything about specifically the bill's language about schools.”
0:41:29	Lead conference panel	The superintendent announces a November 1 New England lead conference in Nashua with a Claremont panel and says the district was “the first school district in the state that had a lead screening policy”. That claim is his characterization; this page does not verify it.
0:43:03	District goals and Gear Up	Five-year goal of measurable growth in reading, writing and mathematics: “100% of our students will demonstrate measurable growth.” Attendance goal “minimum of 93%”. Gear Up follows two cohorts from grades seven and eight. “40% of our students graduating from high school went right into work.” (0:46:44)
0:48:29	Attendance	Towle asks the current rate. The superintendent: “this past year has been 91%, which is an increase from prior years”.
0:50:04	One for All space	LeClair: at 169 Main Street since November 2015, “over 250 different families and approximately 400 different children”. The space is also a licensed child-care facility for high school students who are parents, works with Jobs for America's Graduates and Hope for Recovery, and is “all grant funded” (1:16:12). She described the student-parent child-care cohort in detail; this page does not repeat those details (see the flag).	OBS
1:01:21	Festival and summer lunch	The back-to-school festival moved to Barnes Park because of parking and had about 38 vendors (1:02:42). The summer children's community lunch ran with the New Hampshire Food Bank and Catholic Charities, and this year also fed accompanying adults (1:04:53).
1:04:14	Free and reduced lunch	LeClair: “we have 55% free and reduced lunch across our district, so we have 1812 total students”.
1:07:01	Early childhood program	New director Dr. Diane Edwards; 52 children ages three and four, “We project to have 77 preschool children by the end of the school year.” Currently 34 students without disabilities and 18 with (1:08:31); the district is “the first district in the state offering transportation for our preschool program” (1:09:33). Some kindergarten classes are “as high as 23” (1:12:50).
1:15:09	Measurable outcomes	The mayor asks for an update at the next quarterly meeting with measurable outcomes for full-day kindergarten and the One for All space.
1:19:46	Workforce development	The mayor: Claremont does not lack jobs but people with the skill sets. Pope reports Congresswoman Kuster's panel; entry jobs “starting about 12 to $15 an hour” (1:22:18); her initiative includes “$5,000 helping companies start apprenticeships” per trainee (1:23:08).
1:24:36	Public comment: Bernie Falter	Falter on automation and artificial intelligence: “we're all under threat, not just our kids”. Pope answers that one manufacturing department grew by 20 people because of robotics (1:29:29).	POS
1:31:02	Public comment: housing	Benware: “there's very little decent, affordable housing for people to come and move into” to fill skilled jobs.
1:32:52	Adult training	Pierce describes night training that led her to a shipbuilding job and proposes adult courses at the technical center. Pope suggests inviting the adult learning center's director, transcribed “this Amy Hood”; the mayor puts it on the next agenda (1:37:21).
1:38:59	Soft skills	Zullo: technology is “robbing our kids of the soft skills needed”. Pope describes the Wieland manufacturing program; Nicholas asks how the message reaches all students (1:43:00); Adrian raises smartphone dependence (1:46:35).
1:48:26	The mayor redirects	“we have to remember that this is a joint level meeting”; the poverty item will not be reached (1:49:12).
1:50:05	Response to the August incident	The mayor turns to “a very difficult month for Claremont”. The superintendent recounts learning of the August 28 injury of a child from a newspaper correspondent on August 29 (1:51:05), a September 11 phone message to the community, a September 12 vigil and a September 21 meeting at Trinity Episcopal Church (1:52:33), and national coverage. “I believe what has occurred does deal with race.” He will ask the school board next week to review its conduct policies (1:56:04). This page names no child.
2:00:39	October 5 community event	Adrian and Benware describe a sign-holding anti-bullying event on Broad and Pleasant Streets from 2 to 3 p.m. on October 5 as students walk home (2:01:58). (On October 4 the school board heard the high school principal oppose that plan; see the October 4, 2017 page.)
2:03:45	A shared commitment	The mayor proposes policies that “promote what you want, not just address the negatives” and asks whether the governing bodies are “representative of the population in our community”. On lead: “We have changed state law.” (her characterization; not verified here).
2:08:43	Poverty for the next meeting	Members are to send their “three top contributors to poverty” to the city (2:11:15), within about a week.
2:11:52	Mental health coalition	The mayor describes a national mayoral coalition on mental health and substance use, 188 communities, and a December 4-5 conference.
2:15:53	Scheduling and format	Next meeting December 14 (2:16:30). A member asks that updates be “provided in a memo for updates” so the time together goes to discussion; the mayor says she will need help with the supporting documentation (2:17:22).

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 September 28, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.

MEDIUM No agenda, minutes or packet for this joint meeting survive in the district's shares, and the recording cannot show who attended

MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The recording is the only district-side account. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force for calendar 2017, required minutes that include the names of members and persons appearing and a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, open to public inspection not more than five business days after the meeting. That matters more than usual here: the joint roll call (0:00:53) is transcribed as one run of names with few audible answers, so neither body's attendance or quorum can be established from the tape.

This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap. The mayor's announcement that “we will be tabling the approval of minutes” (0:01:23) shows that minutes of these joint meetings were being produced, though the tabling itself was announced rather than moved and voted. A joint meeting is two public bodies, and the city's notices, agendas and minutes are kept by the city clerk; they were not inspected for this page, so nothing here is a finding about the city's records. The 2017 statute required minutes to be open to inspection, not posted online; what is missing is any public copy in the district's shares now.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; text in force for calendar 2017)

OBSERVATION Personal details of a small group of student parents and their infants were described on camera

Presenting the One for All child-care program for high school students who are parents (0:51:35), the assistant superintendent gave the number of infants enrolled, their ages, how many student parents were expected to enroll in which months, how many parents were recent graduates, and health and family circumstances of the infants' births (0:52:03, 0:52:37). A board member then described a recent graduate who had a baby and crossed the stage at graduation (1:17:30). This page does not repeat those details.

In a district of about 1,800 students, a combination of facts about a small group of infants and their student parents may let people in the school community recognize individuals. FERPA's regulations define personally identifiable information to include information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student so that a reasonable person in the school community could identify the student with reasonable certainty, and define disclosure as release or other communication of information from education records by any means. Whether these remarks drew on education records, and whether anyone was identifiable, cannot be determined from the recording. The speakers' purpose was to show the program's value; the point for review is how much individual detail a public presentation needs. No finding of violation is made.

Sources: 34 CFR 99.3 (definitions of disclosure and personally identifiable information); Dialogue/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.mp4.CSV (rows 188 to 190 and 252)

POSITIVE Two governing bodies met to share information in public, and residents were heard on agenda items

The mayor described the joint meeting's purpose as giving both governing bodies equal access to information about the other (0:01:52). Beyond the Citizens Forum for non-agenda items (0:01:23), the chair recognized members of the public during agenda items: Jason Benware on lead testing (0:30:53) and housing (1:31:02), and Bernie Falter on automation (1:24:33). No statute in force in 2017 required either body to take public comment; New Hampshire's school-board public-comment statute, RSA 189:74, dates from 2022 and does not reach a city council. When a member asked that routine updates go out by memo so meeting time could go to discussion (2:16:34), the mayor agreed and asked for help preparing the supporting documents (2:17:22).

Sources: Cablecast: CITY COUNCIL / SCHOOL BOARD JOINT MEETING 9-28-17

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: CITY COUNCIL / SCHOOL BOARD JOINT MEETING 9-28-17 (show 9357; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API and show page returned 403 to the fetcher 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.
City of Claremont council records (city clerk): not inspected for this page.

Project files

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

Dialogue/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.mp4.CSV (475 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.mp4
Input/Transcripts/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 41
Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9357 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint092817.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 calendar 2017): meeting notice, minutes content, five-business-day inspection
RSA 189:74 (school board public comment), named only to note that it was enacted in 2022 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022) and did not apply in 2017
34 CFR 99.3 (FERPA regulations): definitions of disclosure and personally identifiable information (current eCFR text; the definitions were last amended at 76 FR 75641, Dec. 2, 2011)