Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Sara Lowe (uncertain) | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Presided over the hearing and the meeting; recapped the $55,000 fund-balance decision; urged competitive bidding for computers; explained the SAU staff move to a lower-cost health plan and the reduced building rent; seconded the budget motion herself; called the nonpublic vote. Never named on the recording: the dialogue file identifies her by floor control, her Unity-side remarks ("in unity we have a line for contracted services") and the roster's SAU chair for 2017. |
| Rebecca Zullo | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Asked the most questions: software, technology training, staff development overspending, health insurance, contracted maintenance and the merit pool; asked whether these were "the best cuts that you can do" (1:04:10). Answered the roll call. |
| Brian Rapp | SAU 6 Board (Claremont; Claremont School Board chair) | Asked about the fund-balance change and the in-house technician; moved the October 12 minutes, the budget and the nonpublic session, and reminded the chair that the nonpublic vote "Must be roll call" (1:16:49). |
| Robert (Bob) McDevitt | SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Asked why Unity's share rose from about 6% by membership to 10% of the budget, about grant writing, and about teachers' technology use. Answered the roll as "Robert de here". |
| Bruce Howard | SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Answered the roll ("Bruce Howard here"); no separable speech. |
| Unidentified | Claremont member of the SAU 6 board | Asked the computer-price question on behalf of the absent Chris Irish, the contracted-services and staff-development questions, moved to accept the agenda and seconded the nonpublic motion. The dialogue file suggests Michael Petrin or Frank Sprague; not established. |
| Chris Irish | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Absent (0:24:08). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Opened the budget review; told a citizen that the first part of the hearing was for the board; spoke on computer replacement, the health-plan change and professional development through the NH School Administrators Association. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 (surname from roster) | Presented the apportionment formula and each budget section, the post-hearing insurance and software changes, and the fund-balance revenue. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Described the renegotiated grant-management contract (about $20,000 a year saved), grant-funded professional development and her unreliable computer. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Explained the technology software and training lines and the case for replacing computers on a five-year cycle. |
| Nathan | SAU 6 business office (surname not on the recording) | Spoke on shared technology staff, the in-house computer technician and business-office training. The dialogue file's Nathan cluster also carries short fragments of others. |
| Chris | Student services administrator (surname not on the recording) | Described the student services administrative assistant's duties and Medicaid billing. |
| Unidentified | Recording secretary (roll caller) | Called the roll and the names in the nonpublic roll call. Not named on this recording. |
| Craig ("Mr. Shoot" in the transcript) | Member of the public | Rose to comment during the board's question period and was asked by the superintendent to wait (0:10:04); when comment opened, the superintendent's "Mr.. Shoot, are you sure? Okay." (1:05:20) suggests he declined. No comment from him is on the record. The roster lists a later Unity member named Craig; whether this is the same person is not established. |
| Citizens' comments | None recorded | The chair opened the proposed budget to comment at 1:05:12 and asked again at 1:05:27; no member of the public spoke. At the meeting's own comment item (1:08:52) there were none. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in the district's online shares, so this order of business is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording.
Items in the order the recording takes them up.
| Taken up | Item | What was done |
|---|
| 0:00:09 | Public hearing on the proposed FY2018-19 SAU 6 budget | Hearing already open. Section-by-section review by staff with board questions (0:05:23 onward); opened to citizens' comments at 1:05:12; none. Closed at 7:11 p.m. by the chair (1:05:48). |
| 1:05:48 | Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance | Meeting called to order "at 712"; pledge at 1:06:35. |
| 1:07:21 | Roll call | Garbled: "Chris Irish, Michael. Patrick, grumpy. Ryan. You're right here. Rebecca Zullo here. Robert de here. I treat absent here. Bruce Howard here." Irish's absence is stated elsewhere on the record. |
| 1:07:55 | Agenda | "Should we accept the agenda as presented?"; seconded; voice vote, Aye. |
| 1:08:16 | Minutes of October 12 | Rapp: "Motion to approve the minutes as presented for October call." Seconded; voice vote. |
| 1:08:52 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 1:08:55 | Board action on the SAU budget | O'Neill reported the post-hearing changes: health insurance cut by $21,591 (a 3% rather than 10% increase) and $12,000 added for PowerSchool software, a net reduction of $224.07 (1:11:10). Rapp moved approval (1:15:17); the chair seconded (1:15:23); voice vote, no audible opposition; "Motion is passed" (1:16:03). |
| 1:16:12 | Nonpublic session | Chair: "move to a nonpublic meeting under RSA 91-A32C" [91-A:3, II(c)]. Rapp moved "As stated"; seconded; the chair began a voice vote, Rapp said "Must be roll call" and a roll call followed (1:16:50 to 1:17:16). The recording ends. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics from the dialogue file. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording. Quotations are the transcript as recorded, ASR errors included.
Topics by start time.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:09 | Budget review begins | The chair notes the hearing is open while staff bring the revised budget. McGoodwin: "We're very sensitive about the budget we spent" and says the numbers from the last board meeting have been updated (0:00:22). | |
| 0:02:46 | Fund balance and apportionment | Chair: "we had asked Mike to make some adjustments. Specifically, retaining 55,000 from the fund balance." O'Neill explains the formula (one half average daily membership, one half equalized valuation) and that updated ADM figures put "$1,287 more in district assessment for Claremont and $4,420 less for unit" (0:04:35). He notes the package handed out is the budget adopted for the hearing, the one "posted in the newspaper" (0:05:20). | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:44 | Technology software and training | Malloy explains the district-wide technology software lines and the training line. Asked whether last year's $9,000 was used, he says some was used "to fix some problems" and, when Zullo observes money was moved between lines: "I don't like doing that. But, in that instance, it was it was kind of an emergency situation" (0:13:36). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:51 | Citizen asks to speak | The chair: "Hang on one second. We have a citizens comment." The superintendent: "I believe in all due respect, Craig. This initial part of the meeting is for the school board, and then we'll get into citizens comments" (0:10:04). | |
| 0:16:15 | Technology staff shared by the two districts | Questions on which technicians are SAU employees and which are Claremont's; Lowe explains how Unity buys services by contract. Rapp asks about the full-time technician hired to replace contracted services (0:21:16). | |
| 0:22:18 | Unity's share of the budget | McDevitt asks why Unity is 6% by membership but 10% of the apportionment. O'Neill: Claremont was at 85.76 and Unity at 14.24 of equalized valuation, averaged with membership, so "Unity ends up paying 10.26% of the overall budget" (0:24:02). | |
| 0:24:08 | Computer prices and replacement cycle | A Claremont member asks, for the absent Chris Irish, why computers cost about $1,000 to $1,400 each. Malloy: "uncertainty is expensive" (0:24:36); seven- and eight-year-old machines, Windows XP security problems, a proposed shift to cheaper endpoints. Lowe tells the board she favors competitive bidding: "I think we need to put it out to a competitive bid and get the best price" (0:33:42). | |
| 0:41:10 | Superintendent's office | O'Neill: salaries up 3,392, health insurance up; "Total superintendent office is up 26, eight, 60, 50" [as transcribed] (0:41:38); contracted services "is mainly legal" (0:42:00). | |
| 0:43:42 | SAU staff move to the lower-cost health plan | Lowe: the board had the superintendent's office and SAU employees move to that plan first because "We know this is coming" for teachers (0:44:21). LeClair says as a user she noticed no difference. | POSITIVE |
| 0:45:35 | Special education administration | O'Neill describes cutting an assistant from 1.0 to 0.5 FTE and splitting it with the superintendent's office (0:45:40); Chris describes the administrative assistant's duties. | |
| 0:47:11 | Business office and grant management | LeClair: renegotiated the grants contract directly with the provider "at a significant cost savings, about $20,000 a year" (0:48:15); "right now, we have $5.8 million in grants for both districts" (0:49:13); indirect costs cover the consultant. | |
| 0:52:06 | Business office staff development overspent | O'Neill: a software-vendor consultant trained two new employees, "So we spent $15,000 in that line last year because of that." Zullo: "You spent 15,000 on that line last year, but it was you had budgeted 6000." O'Neill: "we take the money out of the other PD" (0:53:11). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:57:24 | Maintenance and building rent | O'Neill: building rent reduced to $4,000 and he is "Still working on locating the the contract for that" (0:57:24). Lowe asks that any contract keep Claremont "legally responsible for outside maintenance of that building" (0:58:44). | |
| 1:02:19 | Total proposed budget | O'Neill: "the overall proposed budget, 1,955,000 for 2272, or an increase of 9366.93 over the adopted 1718 budget" [as transcribed; the dollar figure is garbled] (1:02:19). Rapp asks about the fund balance; O'Neill: "We did Brian" (1:03:36). | |
| 1:04:10 | Are these the best cuts? | Zullo asks; LeClair says more thinking is to come; McGoodwin: "We don't ever stop thinking about the impact on residents of Unity and Claremont" (1:04:42). | |
| 1:05:12 | Hearing opened to the public, then closed | No citizen spoke. The chair closes the hearing and opens the board meeting at 7:12 p.m. (1:05:48). | POSITIVE |
| 1:08:55 | Budget adopted with late changes | O'Neill: insurance reduced "which resulted in a decrease of 21,591 for insurance" (1:10:38); $12,000 added for software; "the net impact is to reduce the overall budget to show a reduction of $224.07" (1:11:10); Claremont's share down $7,320 and Unity's down $5,404 (1:12:19). A member points to a sheet still showing "The 75,000 proposed offset" (1:14:10); O'Neill: "I didn't update it to the to the on both sheets that still show 75,000 okay. But it's correct on the other one" (1:14:30). Motion (Rapp), seconded by the chair, passed (1:16:03). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:16:12 | Nonpublic session by roll call | Motion under "RSA 91-A32C"; Rapp: "Must be roll call." The chair: "Oh, sorry. You're right. Roll call." (1:16:50). Several Yes responses follow; names are not separable. Recording ends at 1:18:17. | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 2, 2017, cited as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. 5 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The budget was adopted while part of the handout still showed the superseded $75,000 fund-balance figure
The board had decided to use $55,000 of fund balance as revenue (0:02:46). When a member pointed to a sheet still showing "The 75,000 proposed offset" (1:14:10), the business administrator said he had not updated it "on both sheets" but it was "correct on the other one" (1:14:30). Rapp moved approval about 45 seconds later (1:15:17) and the chair seconded. The revenue page showed "55,000 in fund balance" and revenues equal to expenses (1:13:12). Nothing on the recording shows the corrected sheet was reissued before the vote. This page verified no rule that turns this into a defect; it is recorded because the adopted document and the handout disagreed at the moment of the vote. RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU board to "adopt a budget" at a meeting before January 1 and says nothing about the form of the supporting schedules.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, so unchanged in 2017)
OBSERVATION Staff described spending beyond two budget lines and covering the difference from other lines
The business administrator said the business office spent "$15,000 in that line last year" on training for two new employees; a member noted the budget had been 6,000, and he answered "we take the money out of the other PD" (0:52:51 to 0:53:11). The technology director described moving training money to fix a PowerSchool server problem: "I don't like doing that. But, in that instance, it was it was kind of an emergency situation" (0:13:36). Both explanations are given openly, which is to the staff's credit. This page did not verify a statute governing line-item transfers within an SAU budget (RSA 32:10 addresses municipal and school district governing bodies, and its application to an SAU board was not checked), so this is recorded as an observation about budget control, not a finding.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet, minutes or hearing notice is online
MAP.md section 46 records that neither district Drive share holds anything older than 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: this meeting approved the October 12 minutes (1:08:25), and the business administrator said the proposed budget was "posted in the newspaper" (0:05:20). RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 required minutes naming members and "persons appearing before the public bodies", with a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; the mover and seconder requirement did not exist until January 1, 2019. The nonpublic session's minutes were subject to the 72-hour disclosure rule of RSA 91-A:3, III unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote; the recording ends before any such vote could be heard. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(c) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017).
POSITIVE The SAU held a public hearing on its budget, published the budget, and adopted it well before the statutory date
RSA 194-C:9, I (unchanged since 2003) requires the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1" and apportion it one half on average membership and one half on equalized valuation; it requires no public hearing. SAU 6 held one anyway, walked board members and the public through each section, explained the apportionment formula in plain terms at a member's request (0:03:33, 0:04:08), and adopted the budget on November 2, nearly two months early. The chair also explained the SAU's decision to move its own staff to the lower-cost health plan before asking the same of school staff (0:44:21). The hearing drew no public comment.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, so unchanged in 2017)
POSITIVE The nonpublic motion cited a specific exemption and was taken by roll call after a member's reminder
The chair moved the board toward "a nonpublic meeting under RSA 91-A32C" (1:16:12), which reads as RSA 91-A:3, II(c) (matters likely to affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a member). When she began a voice vote, Rapp said "Must be roll call" (1:16:49) and the chair corrected course. RSA 91-A:3, I(b) as it read in 2017 required both a motion stating the specific exemption and a roll-call vote. The subject is not stated, so whether II(c) fit cannot be assessed from the recording, and the individual votes are not separable in the transcript.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(c) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9431, "SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-2-17": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md section 46, checked 9/26/26). No hearing notice, agenda, budget packet or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related meetings in the corpus (pages named by recording): SAU 6 Board, October 12, 2017 (show 9386; its minutes approved here); Claremont School Board, November 1, 2017 (show 9406) and November 15, 2017 (show 9442).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.CSV (531 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9431 SAU6110217.mp4Input/Transcripts/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 46
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on November 2, 2017. RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017) (notice and minutes). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(c) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017) (nonpublic sessions). RSA 194-C:9, I (source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, so unchanged in 2017) (SAU budget adoption and apportionment).