Participants
Members, absences and staff on the recording. Names follow the project roster and attribution report; there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Sara Lowe | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity School Board member) | Self-identified “I'm Sarah Lowe, a chair.” (0:03:57); spelling Sara per the project roster. Runs the meeting, presses for a written agreement on building repairs (0:35:22) and explains the budget timetable to new members (1:28:51). |
| Frank Sprague | Vice Chair (Claremont) | Self-identified “Frank Sprague, vice chair.” (0:04:06). Moves the agenda amendment (0:02:15) and the November 2016 minutes (0:02:55); seconds the Primex resolution (0:08:39); questions professional development spending (1:13:46). |
| Chris Irish | Member (Claremont) | Moves the Primex resolution (0:08:28); asks who is responsible if the building fails (0:34:07); raises CCTV costs for meetings that fail for lack of a quorum (1:36:02). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member (Claremont; attribution medium confidence) | Answers the roll (0:01:05). The dialogue file labels her for questions about staffing and software (0:37:47, 0:52:46); the attribution report rests the label on one name cue (1:12:31). |
| Michael Petrin | Member (Claremont) | Answers the roll, transcribed “Michael. Peter. Here.”. The introduction transcribed “Veteran, new to the Claremont School Board.” (0:04:13) is probably his; the project roster places his swearing-in in March 2017, as a hypothesis. |
| Brian Rapp | Member (Claremont; Claremont School Board chair) | Speaks on quorums now that Cornish has left (1:37:03) and on scheduling the budget hearing (1:32:47). |
| Robert McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Answers the roll, transcribed “Bob. De. Yeah.”; asks about the building lease (0:30:16) and would rather wait to adopt the budget (1:08:20); describes Kiwanis-affiliated student clubs (1:46:55). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (Claremont) | Called in the roll (0:00:48); no answer is audible and no remarks are attributed to her. |
| Patrick Adrian | Member (Claremont) | Absent: “Patrick. Adrian! No, not here.” |
| Marjorie Erickson | Member (Unity), new | Absent (0:01:11). The chair introduces her as the new Unity member, an engineer and business owner (0:03:24). |
| Bruce Howard | Member (Unity) | Absent (0:01:11). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Asks to postpone the Movement toward Excellence report (0:01:30); speaks on quorum reminders (1:38:44) and his evaluation (1:53:49). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presents the Professional Growth Master Plan (0:09:36); explains contracted professional development (1:14:19) and the district Facebook page (1:43:22). Many of her remarks sit in the chair's diarized cluster and were reassigned in review; a few rows still mix the two voices. |
| Michael O'Neill | Director of Business and Finance, SAU 6 (spelling per project roster) | Self-identified, transcribed “Michael Neal, director of business and finance” (0:04:19). Presents the Primex program (0:05:18), the FY19 budget (0:22:20) and the fund-balance projection (0:56:16). |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Introduced by O'Neill (0:42:42); explains the firewall renewal (0:53:11) and computer replacement costs (1:22:36). |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (name per project roster) | Calls the roll (0:00:48); asked by O'Neill whether she recorded the budget motion (1:34:44). The dialogue file also gives her cluster some short table remarks that may be other voices. |
| Unidentified | Various | 111 of 961 dialogue rows (11.6%), including the member who moved the budget (1:34:42). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair reads items by letter (0:04:30, 0:09:21), and the superintendent refers to topics “On the back of your agenda”; the items below are reconstructed from her transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Opening; Pledge of Allegiance; attendance | Roll call by the recording secretary (0:00:48). |
| 0:01:21 | Agenda amendments | The Movement toward Excellence report, scheduled since April, is postponed so the meeting can focus on the budget (0:01:37). Sprague: “I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda as suggested by the administration.” Second by the chair (0:02:21); voice vote (0:02:25). |
| 0:02:25 | Approval of minutes of November 14, 2016 | Sprague: “I make a motion. We accept the minutes from November 14th, 2016.” A second is heard (0:03:03; the dialogue file labels it for the business director, who is not a member). Voice vote; “Minutes are accepted.” |
| 0:03:09 | Citizens' comments | “No citizens.” |
| 0:03:24 | Introduction of members | Erickson (absent) introduced as the new Unity member; members introduce themselves. |
| 0:04:30 | Primex Property and Liability Contribution Assurance Program | Irish: “I'll move the resolution as read.” Sprague seconds (0:08:39); voice vote, none against (0:08:58). The chair signs the resolution. |
| 0:09:21 | SAU 6 Professional Growth Master Plan, 2016-2021 | Motion “that we approve this, plan officially” (labeled for the chair); second unidentified (0:21:10); “Motion passes unanimously.” |
| 0:21:22 | FY19 SAU budget | Preliminary review. Consensus to apply $55,000 of fund balance (1:12:54). Motion by an unidentified member, as framed by O'Neill: “make a motion to carry forward the budget of $1,955,423 for posting for the public hearing on November 2nd.” Second heard (1:34:43; labeled for the superintendent, who is not a member); voice vote, no tally announced (1:34:53). |
| 1:35:11 | Communication topics carried from earlier agendas | CCTV coverage, quorum reminders, sharing district news, Facebook, the new student communications club. |
| 1:52:23 | Future agenda items | Public hearing November 2 at 6:00 (1:52:42); superintendent's evaluation framework. |
| 1:58:25 | Adjournment | “Motion to adjourn.” The chair adjourns the meeting at 8:01 p.m. by her statement (1:58:35). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9386 SAU6101217.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. Several dollar figures are fused or garbled in the transcript; bracketed figures are this page's reconstruction from the speaker's own arithmetic.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:37 | The board had not met | The superintendent: the postponed report “was for the new board members back in April. But we haven't met so.” The chair: “We haven't had a quorum for three meetings.” The minutes being approved are from November 14, 2016. | OBS |
| 0:05:18 | Primex cap lapsed for a year | O'Neill: the program limits annual contribution increases; “We are not participating for 1718 only because we didn't have a meeting in the time frame that we needed to get it signed and sent back.” Asked whether rates rose: “did go up about 10%? And I believe this caps 7% per year.” The SAU pays about $7,000 a year, against about $100,000 for Claremont (0:07:20). The new term covers 2018-19 through 2020-21. | OBS |
| 0:09:36 | Professional Growth Master Plan | LeClair: “The professional growth plan is a requirement of the Department of Education.” It runs July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021 and moves toward job-embedded professional learning. “This has already been approved by the New Hampshire Department of Education on December 15th of 2016.” and “this is the second school year we've operated under this plan” without SAU board approval. Asked by Sprague, she says “It does not violate any of the CBA's.” Approved unanimously (0:21:22). | OBS |
| 0:21:35 | Budget on a fast track | The superintendent: “in the perfect world, we would have had this discussion in June”. O'Neill: last year's budget fell by “117,000 587” with Cornish's departure and two positions eliminated, but assessments still rose because Cornish had paid about $210,000. | |
| 0:23:16 | Line items | Health insurance assumed up 10% pending rates; information technology up for software and computers; building rent changes (below). Total: “So the total budget is 1,955,423, an increase of $9,367, or 0.48%.” Wages and benefits are “84.92% of the budget”. | POS |
| 0:25:08 | Rent to the Claremont district | O'Neill: the Claremont School District charges the SAU “the $39,592 for rent”; with only Unity left, “we're raising it as taxation in Claremont to give it to the South so we can give it back to Claremont” [SAU]. He proposes billing Unity about $4,000 instead. Remodeling the building to code would cost “7 or $800,000 minimum”. | OBS |
| 0:28:08 | Grant administration pays its way | O'Neill: the contracted grants manager is “generating about $100,000 in indirect costs for that 55 or $60,000 budget line item”. | |
| 0:30:40 | Who repairs the building? | The chair asks who pays for exterior repairs if the SAU no longer pays rent; Irish: “Who's basically on the hook for the building?” The chair: “Yeah, I would like it in writing.” O'Neill will rework the existing agreement (0:37:19). | OBS |
| 0:38:19 | Staffing | O'Neill lists SAU positions by department (0:38:19) and two reductions in force last year (0:40:18); both departing employees left the district (0:40:50). Josh Malloy is introduced as director of technology (0:42:54). | |
| 0:47:58 | Apportionment | Half on average daily membership and half on equalized valuation: valuation “85.76% Claremont, 14.24% unity”, membership “93.52% Claremont 6.48% unity”. Claremont's share “Claremont would be 1,622,719. Unity would be 1.91954.” [$191,954 on the arithmetic]: Unity down $2,137, Claremont up $4,004, or 1.25% (0:48:30). | |
| 0:56:16 | Fund balance | O'Neill: “the resulting fund balance 2016 of 143,000 413”; FY17 “revenues in 2016 17 were 2,033,472. The expenditures were 1,000,009 76618.” [$1,976,618], so “the fund balance available at June 30th, 2017 would be 202 6705” [$200,267 on that arithmetic]. With $50,000 already applied to FY18, he projects about $150,267 at June 30, 2018 and recommends using $50,000 again, explaining “we don't spend 1% of the budget either” and that indirect costs exceed budget. | OBS |
| 1:01:05 | How much fund balance to use | Irish asks about $60,000; O'Neill: “I could wipe out Claremont's increase at 55,000”. At $55,000, “Claremont's allocation goes down by 478 and unity goes down by 2655”. He cautions against using $100,000: “when we return $1.8 million, it's hard to explain to people why their taxes went up so much when the budget went down”. Irish: “So we in agreement tonight though to to go to the 55”; the chair: “I think that makes perfect sense.” No vote is taken on the revenue side. | OBS |
| 1:07:59 | Hearing date | O'Neill: for a November 2 hearing, “the budget would need to be adopted tonight to carry forward to that public hearing”; the deadline is adoption “by December 31st”, and the hearing “requires me to post two weeks in advance, put in the newspaper”. The chair recalls that last year “our public hearing had” “Zero zero.” attendees (1:30:35). The board keeps November 2 so there is time to respond to public comment (1:30:43). | POS |
| 1:13:46 | Professional development and travel | Sprague: “I added up in those 33,000 in professional development costs”. LeClair: some “is contractually obligated”; O'Neill estimates half (1:14:49). FY17: travel “8000. We spent $6,272.”; professional development budgeted $37,300 and “We spent 29059.” | |
| 1:19:38 | Computers | Malloy, counting software and warranty: “roughly about $1,000 to deploy a device”. Irish: “You shouldn't be spending any more than $700 for those systems.” Zullo totals “$14,700 built in for new replacement equipment”. | |
| 1:35:43 | CCTV coverage and quorums | The chair: the topic was on the agenda because “we were wanting to make sure that the CCTV folks were here all the time”. Irish: “all those meetings we didn't have in the last year, we still paid for because they get paid even if we don't have a meeting”; “If we're not sure we're going to have a quorum. CCTV does not need to be here.” Rapp: a quorum is likelier “Now that Corniche is no longer.” [Cornish]. The chair: with Cornish still a member, “we got together a number of times and needed nine and had eight”. | OBS |
| 1:38:44 | Attendance reminders | The superintendent now sends reminders; tonight one member's absence was known only “like five hours ago”. Zullo asks members to give notice a few days ahead (1:40:37). | |
| 1:41:44 | Sharing district news | The chair asks the SAU to share more good news with Unity families. LeClair: the Claremont district Facebook page has run for almost a year (1:43:57), and a student communications and media club met for the first time that day (1:43:00). McDevitt describes Kiwanis-affiliated student clubs and scholarships (1:48:35). | |
| 1:52:56 | Superintendent's evaluation | Sprague asks whether the board will evaluate the superintendent this year. Zullo is “surprised that it's not annual”; Irish: “We went through the process and then we extended the contract.” He asks for the framework a former member developed (1:55:08), to be taken up after the budget cycle (1:55:34). | |
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 12, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this SAU 6 meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: neither the Claremont share nor the SAU 6 Schoolboard Packets share holds a folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The SAU 6 habit of filing minutes in a later meeting's packet cannot be tested for this period, because no later SAU 6 folder of that age survives either. 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 the minutes of its previous meeting, November 14, 2016, tonight (0:02:55), and the business director checked that the recording secretary had recorded the budget motion (1:34:44), so minutes were being kept. What is missing is any public copy now. The minutes would also settle three things the recording leaves open: who seconded the budget and minutes motions (both seconds are labeled in the dialogue file for staff who are not members), whether Michelle Pierce and Brian Rapp were present at the roll, and the exact budget figures that the transcript garbles.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; text in force for calendar 2017)
OBSERVATION The SAU 6 board went eleven months without a quorum, and the record shows what that cost
The minutes approved tonight were from November 14, 2016, and the chair said “We haven't had a quorum for three meetings.” (0:02:42). The recording ties specific consequences to the gap. The SAU did not join the Primex contribution-cap program for 2017-18 because there was no meeting to sign it (0:05:18), and its property and liability contribution rose about 10% against the 7% cap (0:06:28); on a contribution of about $7,000 the difference is small, but it was avoidable. The Professional Growth Master Plan, which the assistant superintendent described as required by the Department of Education and which the Department approved on December 15, 2016, governed certified staff for a school year and a half before the board approved it tonight (0:10:54). And the FY19 SAU budget, which the superintendent said should have been discussed in June, reached the board in October (0:21:35).
The members gave the reason: while Cornish was still formally a member but had stopped attending, the board needed nine members present and repeatedly had eight (1:37:28). With Cornish gone, six are needed. RSA 194-C:9 requires the SAU board to adopt its budget at a meeting held before January 1 and to certify each district's share before January 15; tonight's schedule, with a November 2 hearing, leaves room to meet that. The members also noted that the SAU paid CCTV for meetings that failed for want of a quorum (1:36:02) and discussed releasing the crew when no quorum is confirmed (1:38:35); for the public, a meeting held without CCTV present would also leave no recording. No rule verified for this page sets a meeting frequency for an SAU board, so this is an observation about governance continuity.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2017 codification; budget adopted before January 1, apportionment, certification before January 15); Dialogue/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.CSV (rows 14 to 136 and 777 to 829)
OBSERVATION The decision to apply $55,000 of fund balance was made by consensus, and the recording garbles the figures behind it
The motion the board voted carried forward the expenditure total of $1,955,423 for the November 2 hearing (1:34:24); O'Neill said the fund-balance choice affects “my revenue sources but not the budget”. That choice, $55,000 of accumulated fund balance to bring Claremont's assessment roughly flat and reduce Unity's, was settled by the chair's question “Is there a logical reason why we would not do it at at 55?” and general agreement (1:12:54), not by a vote. The SAU's fund balance, by O'Neill's account, came from indirect-cost revenue above budget and from spending less than budgeted; his figures are fused in the transcript, and this page reconstructs the June 30, 2017 balance as about $200,267 from his own revenue and expenditure totals.
Applying fund balance changes what each district is assessed, which is the figure the districts must raise. With no minutes available, a reader cannot confirm the amount the board ultimately applied or how it was recorded. No rule verified for this page requires a separate vote on revenue sources for an SAU budget, so this is an observation about the clarity of the record.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2017 codification: apportionment and certification of district shares); Dialogue/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.CSV (rows 397 to 568 and 765)
OBSERVATION The SAU's office lease and repair responsibility were to be rewritten, with no written terms in the record
The Claremont School District charges the SAU $39,592 a year in rent (0:25:08), which with Cornish gone mostly moves Claremont tax money in a circle. O'Neill proposed dropping it and billing Unity about $4,000. The chair and members asked who would then be responsible for exterior repairs or a failure of the building, and asked for the answer in writing (0:35:22); O'Neill said the existing agreement assigns general repairs and maintenance to the SAU (0:32:16) and that he would rework it (0:37:19). Whether a revised agreement was executed, and who now bears the risk of a building that O'Neill said would cost $700,000 to $800,000 to bring to code (0:28:39), cannot be determined from this record.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU #6 BOARD MEETING 10-12-17; Dialogue/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.CSV (rows 151 to 256)
POSITIVE A detailed public budget presentation, and a hearing set early enough to act on what the public says
O'Neill walked the board through the FY19 budget line by line, separated the costs the board can control from wages, benefits and contracts (0:26:53), showed the apportionment formula and each district's share (0:47:58), and handed out a fund-balance projection with its history (0:56:16). The formula he described matches RSA 194-C:9, which bases the apportionment half on average membership in attendance and half on equalized valuation. The board then chose a November 2 hearing over December 7 so that it would still have time to change the budget after hearing from residents (1:30:43), although last year's hearing drew no one (1:30:35). RSA 194-C:9 requires only adoption before January 1.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU #6 BOARD MEETING 10-12-17 (show 9386; 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/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.CSV (961 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9386 SAU6101217.mp4Input/Transcripts/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 43Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9386 SAU6101217.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): notice, minutes content, five-business-day inspection
- RSA 194-C:9, 2017 codification (source note ends 2003, 279:1, eff. Sept. 16, 2003; later amended 2024, 329:1): SAU budget adopted at a meeting before January 1, apportioned half on average membership in attendance and half on equalized valuation, certified to each district before January 15