Participants
Names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and attribution report; no minutes exist to confirm spellings or attendance.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Sara Lowe (probable) | SAU 6 chair (Unity) | Presides over the hearing and the meeting. She speaks from the Unity side (“in unity I know because we see this in our budget”) but is never named on the recording; the roster places Lowe in the SAU 6 chair from October 2017. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member (Claremont) | Asks most of the line-item questions: software, professional development spending against budget, the health plan, maintenance contracting, the merit pool. |
| Brian Rapp | Member (Claremont board chair) | Asks about the fund-balance draw (1:03:26); moves the October 12 minutes, the budget and the nonpublic session. |
| Robert McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Asks about the apportionment percentages (0:22:18), teachers' technology skills and grant applications. The roll caller renders the name "Robert de". |
| Bruce Howard | Member (Unity) | Answers the roll call (1:07:21); no other attributed speech. |
| Chris Irish | Member (Claremont) | Absent. A member asks a question “on behalf of Chris because he's not here”. |
| Unidentified | Member (Claremont) | Asks the Irish question and several budget questions; not Rapp, Zullo or Irish. The attribution report suggests Petrin or Sprague; neither is named. |
| Dr. Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduces the revised budget, defers a citizen to the comment period (0:10:04), speaks to professional development and grants. |
| Michael O'Neill (spelling unverified) | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Presents the apportionment and every budget section and the post-hearing changes. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Explains the contracted grants manager and the use of grant funds for professional development. |
| Josh Malloy | Technology director, SAU 6 | Explains the software and technology training lines and the computer replacement request (0:24:36). |
| Nathan (surname not stated) | SAU 6 business office (formerly technology) | Explains why technology staff are employed by Claremont rather than SAU 6 (0:17:37). |
| Chris (surname not resolved) | Student services administrator | Describes the student services administrative assistant's duties (0:46:22). |
| Craig (surname not resolved) | Citizen | Comes forward during the board's review at 0:09:51 and is asked to wait for citizens' comments; when that period opens the superintendent asks “Mr.. Shoot, are you sure? Okay.” and no comment follows. The roster lists a Unity member named Craig in 2018; whether this is the same person is not established. |
| Unidentified | Roll caller | Calls the roll at 1:07:21 and in the nonpublic roll call. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair refers to "the agenda" (1:07:55); the items below follow her transitions.
Items in the order taken up, with dispositions heard on the recording
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:09 | Public hearing: proposed FY2018-19 SAU 6 budget | Opened before the recording begins. The business administrator walks the board and public through the hearing version, which is the budget “that was posted in the newspaper” (0:05:20). |
| 1:05:12 | Citizens' comments on the budget | No comment taken. |
| 1:05:48 | Hearing closed; meeting called to order | Hearing closed at 7:11 p.m.; SAU 6 board meeting called to order at 7:12 p.m. |
| 1:06:35 | Pledge; roll call | Roll call garbled (1:07:21). |
| 1:07:55 | Agenda | “Should we accept the agenda as presented?” Seconded; voice vote, no opposition heard. |
| 1:08:16 | Minutes of October 12, 2017 | Rapp moves (1:08:25); seconded; voice vote, no opposition heard. |
| 1:08:52 | Citizens' comments | Called; none. |
| 1:08:55 | Board action on the SAU 6 budget | Post-hearing changes presented; Rapp moves “that we approve the budget”, the chair seconds; voice vote with no tally announced: “Motion is passed.” (flag 2) |
| 1:16:12 | Nonpublic session | The chair announces a nonpublic session “under RSA 91-A32C” [RSA 91-A:3, II(c)]; Rapp moves “As stated.” Seconded; Rapp reminds the chair it “Must be roll call”, and a roll call follows with only Yes. answers heard. Recording ends. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in order; hover or focus a summary to expand it
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:46 | Recap of changes | The chair: “Last time we met, we had asked Mike to make some adjustments. Specifically, retaining 55,000 from the fund balance.” The business administrator holds post-hearing changes back: “I didn't want to make changes until after we had the public discussion.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:04:08 | Apportionment formula | Each district's share rests half on average daily membership and half on equalized valuation. Updated membership figures put “$1,287 more in district assessment for Claremont and $4,420 less for unit” [Unity] in the hearing version. | |
| 0:06:32 | Software and technology lines | Malloy explains that the software line covers district-wide systems such as the student information system, maintenance tickets and family messaging. A PowerSchool line was moved back from Claremont to SAU 6 because both districts use it (0:14:33). | |
| 0:09:51 | A citizen comes forward | The chair stops for a citizen's comment; the superintendent: “This initial part of the meeting is for the school board, and then we'll get into citizens comments”. | |
| 0:12:55 | Technology training money used elsewhere | The $9,000 training line was mostly spent fixing problems: “it was kind of an emergency situation. And so, having issues with our power school server”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:15 | Who employs technology staff | Nathan: “we've had several years where we tried to get, technology staff into the budget and it was declined. So we went to the next best thing, which was Claremont”. Zullo notes she served Unity as a Claremont employee; the chair explains Unity is billed for such services. | |
| 0:22:18 | Unity's share | McDevitt asks why Unity's share is 10% rather than its 6% of membership. O'Neill: “Claremont was at 85.76 and unity was at 14.24” of equalized valuation, so “Unity ends up paying 10.26% of the overall budget.” | |
| 0:24:08 | Computer prices and replacement | Asked on Irish's behalf about $1,000 desktops and $1,400 laptops, Malloy argues for durable devices given uncertain replacement funding, says last year the board cut “somewhere in the range of $400,000 from our replacement cycle”, and that “generally I look to a competitive bid”. The chair: “I think we need to put it out to a competitive bid and get the best price.” | |
| 0:41:10 | Superintendent's office | Salaries up 3,392, health insurance up 17,323; contracted services are mainly legal. Staff development: “the budget last year was the same as this year at 34,000. District wide we spent 26,000.” The unspent remainder “goes back to the fund balance”. | |
| 0:43:42 | Health plan | SAU 6 staff were moved to the lower-cost plan first; the chair: “Move for them before we asked any school staff to make that move.” and “it was a big savings.” | |
| 0:47:11 | Business office and grants | A grants-management employee was replaced by a contracted provider, which LeClair says costs less and brings in “more revenue from proper management of those funds” than it costs. | |
| 0:52:06 | Business office training overrun | Training 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”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:57:24 | Maintenance and building rent | Building rent reduced to $4,000; O'Neill is “Still working on locating the the contract for that. And if not, I'll have to draft another one.” The chair wants a contract that keeps Claremont “legally responsible for outside maintenance of that building”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:02:19 | Budget total and merit pool | “So the overall proposed budget, 1,955,000 for 2272, or an increase of 9366.93 over the adopted 1718 budget.” [The exact total is garbled.] Raises come from a merit pool rather than “2% across the board”. | |
| 1:04:10 | Are these the best cuts? | Zullo asks whether these are the best cuts available; LeClair: “we have to talk about this now and talk about the rest soon.” | |
| 1:05:12 | Citizens' comments; hearing closed | No comment is taken. Hearing closed 7:11 p.m.; meeting opened 7:12 p.m. (1:05:48). | |
| 1:10:26 | Post-hearing changes | Health insurance re-estimated at about 3% instead of 10%, “a decrease of 21,591 for insurance”; a $12,000 software line restored; net “reduction of $224.07”. Under the new apportionment “Claremont's share went down by $7,320 and unity share went down by $5,404.” | |
| 1:14:10 | Fund-balance sheet error | A member notices a 75,000 offset; 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.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:15:17 | Budget adopted | Rapp moves; the chair seconds; “All those against any abstainers.” No count is announced. | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:16:12 | Nonpublic session | The exemption is named in the chair's announcement and adopted by the motion (1:16:44); roll call taken (1:17:00). Recording ends at the start of the session. | |
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 November 2, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this hearing and meeting survive in any district share
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: neither the district share nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The recording is the only public account of the hearing and of the vote that set each district's SAU 6 assessment for 2018-19, and it stops at the start of the nonpublic session, so the session's outcome and the adjournment are unrecorded. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force for 2017, required minutes including "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes and decisions to be disclosed within 72 hours unless sealed by a two-thirds recorded vote. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approves its October 12 minutes on tape (1:08:16), and members work from a packet. The 2017 statute required minutes to be open to inspection, not posted online, so their absence from today's shares does not show they were never available. The project's two-stage SAU 6 minutes search was not run, because no SAU 6 folder from 2017 exists to search.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017); RSA 91-A:3, III (2016 codification)
OBSERVATION The budget vote and the attendance behind it cannot be read from the recording
The SAU 6 budget was adopted on a voice vote: “Any further discussion? All those in favor?”, “All those against any abstainers. Okay.”, “Motion is passed.” (1:15:43 to 1:16:03). No count is heard. The roll call at 1:07:21 is garbled (“Chris Irish, Michael. Patrick, grumpy. Ryan. You're right here. Rebecca Zullo here. Robert de here. I treat absent here. Bruce Howard here.”), so which members of the two boards were present cannot be established either. RSA 194-C:8 provides that weighted votes "shall only be used upon the demand of a majority of the members of any board"; no demand is heard, so a simple voice vote was permissible. The point is that a vote fixing both districts' assessments has no recoverable tally and no surviving minutes (flag 1).
Sources: RSA 194-C:8 (weighted voting; source note 1996, 298:3, unamended); RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification)
OBSERVATION The budget papers before the board carried two different fund-balance figures
Moments before the vote, a member pointed to a 75,000 offset on one sheet where the board had agreed to use 55,000 of fund balance (1:14:10). The business administrator: “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). The revenue sheet showed “55,000 in fund balance” (1:13:12). The board then adopted “the budget” without stating which sheet governed or directing a correction. The discrepancy is small and was explained on the record, but the adopted document, as described, was internally inconsistent. No rule is cited; whether a corrected budget was issued cannot be checked without the SAU's files.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-2-17; Dialogue/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.CSV (rows 484 to 502)
OBSERVATION No lease could be located for the SAU 6 building
SAU 6 rents its building from the Claremont School District. The business administrator reduced the budgeted rent to $4,000 and said he was “Still working on locating the the contract for that. And if not, I'll have to draft another one.” (0:57:24). The chair asked for a contract stating that Claremont remains “legally responsible for outside maintenance of that building”, because “without that contract, it it's not clear as to who who would be paying for any of that maintenance” (0:58:44). An arrangement between two public bodies, with Unity taxpayers paying a share, was running without a located written agreement. No statute requiring a written lease was verified for this page, so this is an observation.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-2-17
OBSERVATION Two budget lines were overspent and covered from other lines
Business office training was budgeted at 6,000 and “So we spent $15,000 in that line last year because of that.” (0:52:51), with the difference taken “out of the other PD” (0:53:11). The technology training line was used for a PowerSchool server repair described as “kind of an emergency situation” (0:13:36). Both are explained, and the overrun was disclosed in answer to a member's question. Whether the SAU board approved these transfers, and under what authority an SAU budget may be moved between lines, was not established on the recording, and no statute on SAU line transfers was verified for this page.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-2-17
POSITIVE A public hearing on a newspaper-posted budget, two months before the deadline
RSA 194-C:9, I, as codified in 2017, requires the SAU board to adopt its budget "At a meeting held before January 1" and imposes no hearing or notice requirement. The board held a public hearing on the version “that was posted in the newspaper” (0:05:20), kept post-hearing revisions separate so that the hearing matched what the public had seen (0:05:07, 0:14:54), presented the changes before voting, and adopted the budget on November 2. The hearing drew no public comment, and the chair asked staff to avoid acronyms for newer members and the public (0:03:33). The nonpublic session that followed was entered on a motion adopting a named exemption and a roll call (1:16:12 to 1:17:00), as RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2016 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-2-17 (show 9431)
- 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/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.CSV (531 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9431 SAU6110217.mp4Input/Transcripts/9431 SAU6110217.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 46Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9431 SAU6110217.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): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III, 2016 codification (source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017): nonpublic motion and roll call; 72-hour disclosure
- RSA 194-C:9, I, 2017 codification: SAU budget adopted at a meeting before January 1; apportionment half on average membership, half on equalized valuation
- RSA 194-C:8 (1996, 298:3, unamended): weighted voting only on demand of a majority of the members of any board