Participants
Everyone heard on the recording. Names follow the project roster and attribution report; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Two attribution corrections from the project's ledger are applied and noted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Runs the meeting; says he has raised the Sinton Street traffic problem with the police chief (0:11:51); questions whether the $1.2 million directive is workable (1:07:11) and says a member could move to reconsider (1:08:46). The dialogue file labels the “Aye. Opposed?” after his call for the lead-policy vote for Petrin; the call for opposition is probably the chair's (1:03:19). |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Argues that the September 30 directive cannot legally be reconsidered (1:07:55); questions the technical center's direction (1:44:21); moves acceptance of the grants (2:25:17). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Moves approval of the October 4 minutes (0:03:23) and the Title I teacher nomination (2:26:07); calls the directive a goal: “So I think it's a goal.” (1:12:49). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Seconds the lead-policy, fund-balance and donation motions; moves the conduct policies to second reading (2:27:00); asks for special education transportation and out-of-district costs (1:34:48). |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moves the lead-policy rewrite (1:01:24) and the fund-balance motion (2:05:57); asks how preschool students are selected (0:43:18; the dialogue file splits the question across the superintendent, Petrin and Sprague, and this page attributes it to Sprague, who finishes it); questions staffing growth (1:16:15) and the student conduct policy (2:27:16). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Supports response-to-intervention and the sensory room (0:39:59); asks for administrative staffing over time (1:33:04) and a breakdown of cost per pupil (2:33:39). |
| Patrick Adrian | Former member | Resigned before this meeting; his term ends March 2018 (0:56:42). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Adds items to the agenda (0:01:05); responds to the Sinton Street residents (0:13:13); reports on the community conversation (0:48:03) and the vacancy process (0:56:42); asks the board to reconsider the September 30 directive (1:03:48). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the three grants (2:13:33); explains limits on using technical center space (1:41:01). |
| Michael O'Neill | Director of Business and Finance, SAU 6 (spelling per project roster) | Presents the FY17 year-end report, fund balance and the projected tax-rate effect (1:53:07). |
| Diane Edwards | Director, Early Childhood Program | Introduced by the superintendent as “Doctor Diane Edwards” (0:19:40); presents the program (0:25:35). |
| Chris (surname not on record) | SAU 6 special education administrator (inferred) | Labeled Chris in the dialogue file, distinct from Chris Irish; the superintendent's “Chris Bezos” is the transcript's rendering of the surname, unverified. Describes the preschool restructuring (0:20:16) and talks with the Brattleboro Retreat (1:39:46). |
| Lexi | Student representative, Stevens High School | Gives the student report (0:03:39); corrects the policy's grammar (1:02:35). The October 4 recording gives her surname as Grenier, spelling unverified. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 (attribution low confidence) | Named as a robotics mentor (2:19:43); the dialogue file labels him for an explanation of average daily membership (2:35:07) on a single cue. |
| Sinton Street and Canterbury Street residents | Citizens' comments (names not on the recording) | Several residents describe speeding and blocked driveways during school drop-off near Maple Avenue School (0:08:49). A member asks “Did you get the names for Mary?”, so the names were taken for the minutes. |
| Unidentified | Various | 197 of 1111 dialogue rows (17.7%), including the residents, the roll-call answers and several seconds. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The superintendent refers to its numbering (“Roman numeral seven”, at 0:01:20); the items below are reconstructed from the chair's transitions and the amendments made at the start of the meeting.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:12 | Pledge; roll call | All six members answer (0:00:48, 0:00:52). |
| 0:00:58 | Agenda | The superintendent adds acceptance of a donation, three grants and a nomination (0:01:05) and strikes “not new positions” from the budget item; O'Neill adds the year-end report “so that we can set the tax rate that I finished today”. Approved by voice vote (0:02:57). |
| 0:02:57 | Minutes of October 4 | Petrin: “Motion to approve the minutes.” Voice vote (0:03:27). |
| 0:03:27 | Student representative's report | Fire-safety visits, band events, sports, the Stevens open house, the first late-start day and a $1,000 grant for a teen nutrition class. |
| 0:08:03 | Superintendent's report | Deferred: “We are one hour into our meeting time and we have a full agenda.” |
| 0:08:22 | Citizens' comments | Sinton Street residents on drop-off traffic; Pierce announces Christmas in Claremont. |
| 0:19:38 | Discussion: school district early childhood program | Presentation by Dr. Edwards and the special education administrator. |
| 0:47:59 | Discussion: school district community conversation | Survey responses, a diversity consultant, bullying. |
| 0:56:40 | Discussion: school board vacancy | Applications due at month's end; candidates and the board's choice on November 1. “There's no need to take any action.” |
| 1:00:19 | Action item: school district lead policy | Sprague moves the rewrite (1:01:24), Pierce seconds (1:01:32); after a wording change, Sprague: “I make a motion. We move forward with the policy as amended.” Pierce seconds (1:03:14); voice vote (1:03:18). |
| 1:03:42 | Consideration of the September 30 FY19 budget study session | Superintendent asks the board to reconsider the $1.2 million directive; dispute over whether that is possible; no motion. He confirms he will “proceed with the minutes of the September 30th meeting”. |
| 1:30:00 | FY19 budget discussion | Saturation study, new positions, staff lists; requests for job descriptions, grant funding, special education and out-of-district costs. |
| 1:52:31 | Year-end report and fund balance (moved to action items by consent) | Sprague: “Use the 326329 to reduce taxes and retain. 197765 in the fund balance.” Pierce seconds (2:06:08); voice vote, Aye (2:06:17). |
| 2:12:04 | Acceptance of a donation | Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, “A donation of $13,320.” Pierce moves (2:12:44), Sprague seconds (2:12:58); voice vote (2:13:04). |
| 2:13:11 | Acceptance of grants | New Hampshire Intel Mathematics grant and two robotics grants. Irish: “Accept except grants as presented” [accept the grants]; a second (2:25:24); voice vote (2:25:32). |
| 2:25:38 | Nomination | Title I teacher, transcribed “Mrs. Sean Herzog, a title one teacher replacing a miss Bailey.” Petrin moves acceptance (2:26:07); the chair calls the vote (2:26:15); no second or ayes are audible. |
| 2:26:23 | Policies involving conduct and behavior (first read) | Five policies. Pierce moves all to second reading (2:27:00), Irish seconds (2:27:10); wording of the student conduct policy to be revised; voice vote (2:33:27). |
| Not recorded | Remaining items; adjournment | The recording ends at 2:38:54 during questions about cost per pupil. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.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. The Rapp and Sprague attributions noted in the participants table follow the project's correction ledger.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:05 | Items added at the table | The superintendent adds the acceptance of a donation, of three grants and of a nomination to the action items; none appears on the agenda as printed (0:01:05, 0:01:15, 0:01:20). | HIGH |
| 0:08:49 | Sinton Street traffic | Residents: drivers dropping off and picking up children are “speeding, not watching out for children blocking driveways”; “So it's a 30 mile an hour speed limit.” One describes a near head-on collision. Rapp has raised it with the police chief (0:11:51). The superintendent: “I will contact chief Chase tomorrow.” Irish: “it's got to go through traffic in the city”. | |
| 0:19:40 | Early childhood program | The special education administrator: in his first year the state's data showed preschool “social emotional indicators” that “scored very, very low”, leading to a Department of Education process coach and “we're in our third year of restructuring”. Dr. Edwards: all three classrooms are now early childhood rooms, with no more than half the children on an IEP (0:25:40); “56% of our children have never been in preschool before”; transportation and meals are now offered to all (0:28:28). | |
| 0:34:40 | Sensory room | A grant obtained by Dr. Edwards will pay for sensory-room materials (0:35:44); the special education administrator: “Diane said, I'll take care of it myself.” This appears to be the Byrne Foundation donation accepted later in the meeting (2:12:19). | HIGH |
| 0:43:18 | Enrollment | Sprague asks how students are selected. Dr. Edwards: “It's open enrollment.” The program has “52 children”, seven in referral, and a wait list (0:43:44). LeClair: each dollar spent on a three-year-old returns “7 to $17”, her figure. Pierce, of a vote she cast after joining the board two years ago: it “was a a vote that I hated to do” but has “definitely shown to be the right vote”. | |
| 0:48:03 | Community conversation | The superintendent: “We have collected almost 70 responses from students, parents, residents” to the October 13 letter; a consultant with 25 years' experience will propose a plan (0:48:33). Rapp has been in touch with “Mothers United for Social Change”. Pierce asks that bullying, including adults' conduct, be part of it (0:51:16); the board asks for a presentation on how schools handle bullying (0:53:47). | |
| 0:56:42 | Vacancy | The superintendent: “one of our members, Patrick Adrian, resigned.” Parents and local media are notified; applications close at month's end; on November 1 candidates will introduce themselves, “And then the board will go into a nonpublic session and elect who that next man or woman will be”. Rapp: the appointee “would serve until the next election, which would be in March”. | OBS POS |
| 1:00:38 | Lead policy adopted with an opt-out | The rewrite adds that “parents or guardians may choose to opt out from the requirement of submitting documentation that their child has been tested”. Sprague: the superintendent did a nice job of “softening that language”. After the student representative points out a grammatical error, the superintendent: “For the record, the superintendent has been corrected by a senior with Stevens.” Adopted as amended (1:03:18). | |
| 1:04:00 | Reconsidering the $1.2 million directive | The superintendent, citing the business director and an email from a resident, asks the board “to bring this forward again for reconsideration”: the budget has risen “about $64,000” over two years despite fixed-cost increases and state-aid cuts. Rapp: “I don't think there's 1.2 million without major staffing cuts.” | OBS |
| 1:07:55 | Can the board reconsider? | Irish: “We can't reconsider that motion. There's no legal process that we can take to open it back up again.” Rapp: “Even if somebody wanted to make a motion to reconsider, they could.” The exchange escalates: “You need to you need to be quiet.”; “you know you're wrong, Brian.” No member moves to reconsider or rescind. | OBS |
| 1:12:02 | Goal or directive | Petrin: “we came up with a goal and a number to go with that goal”. Rapp: “a goal is one thing, but what came across was a directive”. Irish: saying it cannot be done “that's what got us into the tax problem”. Zullo: consolidating the elementary schools should be explored (1:15:47). Sprague: “Claremont's insolvent”, his word for the district's position. | |
| 1:22:17 | Outcome | The superintendent: “Please proceed with the minutes of the September 30th meeting and come back to the board with what that would mean”; Pierce: “I believe that that's appropriate.” Rapp: that the district is in crisis is “an opinion” (1:25:55). | OBS |
| 1:30:03 | Staffing data | The superintendent: the saturation study and lists of new hires, with “I think there were like six of them” new positions. Zullo asks for administrative positions over five years; O'Neill: his system reaches back to “2005 six”. At the elementary level “There are two classes in the elementary that had 13 students in them.”, against “55 classes that have 13 or less” at the high school (1:43:11). | |
| 1:35:06 | Out-of-district placements | The superintendent recounts a 2014 plan to buy a house for an in-district program that fell through, and remodeling estimates of “200 to $400,000”. The special education administrator has asked the Brattleboro Retreat to consider its own building for a local program (1:39:46). | |
| 1:41:01 | Technical center | LeClair: technical center space can be used for other programs only without displacing a career and technical program (1:41:30). Irish: “we only have four programs left” and he questions other programs “under the tutelage of a director making upwards of $90,000 a year”. The superintendent: “there's no plan to close the sugar River Valley Regional Tech Center”; the board chairs of Claremont and Newport may meet about the regional agreement, which ends in “2022 okay.” Irish: “the board chairs don't have the authority to move on that without a vote of us anyway”. | |
| 1:53:52 | Fund balance | O'Neill: last year the board held over “$388,714”; “Ever since 2012, we're allowed to carry over some money.” Adding this year's operating result, “The total amount is 524 00094.” [$524,094]. He recommends returning $326,329, the same as last year, to reduce taxes. | OBS |
| 1:56:57 | State revenue | Catastrophic aid: “the amount of the catastrophic aid that we are entitled to this year in Claremont is $400,000. They're going to pay us 280.” (later “the reduced amount of 277,500”). Lower revenue adds about 21 cents to the tax rate (1:57:49), and the overall effect is “a projected tax rate impact if we approve it at this level of $0.36”. O'Neill: the budget itself was “a five cent reduction in taxes”. These figures are his projections. | |
| 2:04:25 | Why not return it all? | O'Neill: “If we return the whole $524,000, you just dig digging a bigger hole for next year”. Sprague moves to use $326,329 and retain $197,765 (2:05:57); carried (2:06:17). | OBS |
| 2:07:50 | Cost per student | O'Neill: average daily membership is down; cost per student rises about 2%. Irish: “our average cost per student is 16,842”. Members ask for the components (2:09:47). | |
| 2:12:19 | Donation and grants accepted | “The Jack Dorothy Byrne Foundation for the sensory. Room at the Early Childhood program. A donation of $13,320.” LeClair: the Intel math grant is “through title two funds and the Department of Education”, and “I believe our award is for $100,000.” The robotics grants are “$1,250 for the elementary team” and “a total of 2250” for the middle school. All accepted by voice vote (2:13:04, 2:25:32). | HIGH |
| 2:25:39 | Teacher nomination | The board accepts the superintendent's nomination of a Title I teacher replacing a teacher who moved to a classroom position (2:25:50). | |
| 2:26:26 | Conduct policies to second reading | Five policies, one new. Sprague finds two student-conduct paragraphs on special education suspensions redundant (2:27:24); the superintendent will change “an informal evaluation” to a reentry meeting, with members suggesting it be optional. Moved to second reading (2:33:27). | |
| 2:33:39 | Recording ends | Zullo asks how cost per pupil is computed; LeClair and Malloy explain average daily membership (2:35:41, 2:35:07). The recording stops at 2:38:54. | |
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 October 18, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
HIGH A $13,320 donation and a $100,000 grant were accepted the night they were added to the agenda, with no prior public hearing in the record
At the start of the meeting the superintendent added to the action items “acceptance of a donation” and the “Acceptance of three grants” (0:01:05). Later that evening the board accepted, by voice votes, a donation from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation of $13,320 for the early childhood sensory room (2:12:19, vote 2:13:04) and three grants: a New Hampshire Intel Mathematics professional learning grant of Title II funds, which the assistant superintendent believed to be $100,000, and two robotics grants of $1,250 and $2,250 (2:17:29, 2:21:03, vote 2:25:32). The Intel award was known at least six days earlier: at the SAU 6 board on October 12 the assistant superintendent said it would be coming to the Claremont board soon (see the October 12, 2017 page).
RSA 198:20-b, as in force in 2017, lets a district authorize its board to accept unanticipated money from a governmental unit or a private source, and provides that for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more the board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken, with notice in a newspaper at least seven days before; for amounts under $5,000 the board must post notice of the funds in the agenda and record them in the minutes. The donation and the Intel grant are each over $5,000. Nothing on the recording refers to a hearing or to a notice of one, and the items were added to the agenda only that night. The robotics grants, under $5,000, were likewise not on the agenda as printed.
This is graded HIGH because the binding rule is clear and the record points to it not being followed. Two things could change that and cannot be checked here: whether a hearing was held at the earlier meeting the chair mentions at the start (0:00:18), and whether the district had adopted the enabling article that RSA 198:20-b, I requires (without it, the board could not accept such funds on its own authority at all). The minutes, which are not available, would show both.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2017 codification; prior public hearing for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more); Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (rows 6 to 8, 865 to 935)
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes survive, and the recording stops before the end of the meeting
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 ends at 2:38:54 without an adjournment, so any later business is unrecorded. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force for calendar 2017, required minutes including the names of members and persons appearing and a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, open to public inspection within five business days.
This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approved its October 4 minutes tonight (0:03:23), and a member checked that the residents' names had been taken for the clerk (0:17:05), so minutes were being kept. What is missing is any public copy now. The minutes would also settle the agenda as printed, the names of the residents who spoke, and whether the meeting transacted business after the recording stops.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; text in force for calendar 2017)
OBSERVATION The board retained $197,765 of year-end fund balance; the record does not show the cap it must stay under
The board voted to use $326,329 of $524,094 in unassigned fund balance to reduce the tax rate and to retain $197,765 (2:05:57). O'Neill explained that “Ever since 2012, we're allowed to carry over some money.” RSA 198:4-b, II, in the text in force in 2017, allows a district's legislative body to authorize retention of year-end unassigned general funds not to exceed 2.5 percent of the current fiscal year's net assessment, for emergency expenditures and overexpenditures or to reduce the tax rate; the 5 percent ceiling and the hearing requirement came only with 2020, 38:25. The authorization O'Neill describes would be the voters' 2012 vote, which is not in the record, and the district's net assessment is not stated on the tape, so this page cannot check the $197,765 against the 2.5 percent ceiling. The prior year's retained $388,714 is the figure that most needs that check. O'Neill's own figure for the amount carried forward, about $194,000 (2:05:14), differs slightly from the motion; the motion's numbers add up ($326,329 plus $197,765 is $524,094).
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, II (2017 codification; retention up to 2.5 percent of net assessment); Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (rows 703 to 790)
OBSERVATION The superintendent said the board would choose the new member in nonpublic session
Describing the process to fill Patrick Adrian's seat, the superintendent said that after the candidates introduce themselves on November 1 “the board will go into a nonpublic session and elect who that next man or woman will be” (0:57:14). RSA 671:33, II(a) requires the board to fill the vacancy, the appointee serving until the next district election. RSA 91-A:3 allows a nonpublic session only for a ground listed in paragraph II, stated in the motion, and confines the discussion to it. The grounds include the hiring of any person as a public employee, and matters likely to affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a member of the body; choosing a member of the elected board fits neither cleanly. This is a statement of intent, not something done tonight; the November 1 recording would show what the board actually did and under which ground.
Sources: RSA 671:33, II(a) (2017 codification; the board fills vacancies); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(b), II(c) (2016 codification; text in force for 2017)
OBSERVATION The $1.2 million directive stands on a session the public cannot see, and the board did not vote on it tonight
The superintendent asked the board to reconsider the reduction directive adopted at its unrecorded September 30 budget session (1:04:00). The vice chair said there was “no legal process” to reopen it because too much time had passed; the chair said a member could move to reconsider (1:08:46). Neither view was tested: no one moved to reconsider, rescind or amend the directive, and the board's rules of procedure are not in the record. The meeting ended the item with the superintendent agreeing to proceed under the September 30 minutes (1:23:49). The result is that a directive shaping the FY19 budget rests on minutes of a session with no recording in the archive (see the October 4, 2017 page), and the exchange, including the chair telling the vice chair “You need to you need to be quiet.”, is the only public account of the board's disagreement about it.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 10-18-17; Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (rows 393 to 556)
POSITIVE The vacancy was advertised to every district parent and the local media, with candidates to be heard in public
The superintendent reported that all Claremont parents had been notified electronically, that the vacancy was being posted in local media, that applicants would be presented to the board in advance, and that candidates would introduce themselves and take questions at the November 1 meeting (0:56:42, 0:57:43). RSA 671:33, II(a) requires only that the board fill the vacancy; it prescribes no application process or public introduction. Inviting applications from the whole district goes beyond that minimum.
Sources: RSA 671:33, II(a) (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 10-18-17 (show 9385; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API and show pages 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.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (1111 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4Input/Transcripts/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 44Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)Scripts/csv_corrections_2015_2023.md (two entries for this meeting, applied on this page)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 198:20-b, I and III, 2017 codification (source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated funds; prior public hearing with seven days' newspaper notice at $5,000 or more; agenda notice below $5,000
- RSA 198:4-b, II, 2017 codification (source note ends 2014, 190:6): retention of year-end unassigned funds up to 2.5 percent of net assessment, if authorized by the legislative body
- RSA 671:33, II(a), 2017 codification (source note ends 2017, 3:2, eff. May 30, 2017): school board fills vacancies; appointee serves until the next district election
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(b), II(c), 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1, eff. June 21, 2016): nonpublic sessions
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017): minutes content and inspection