Participants
Names follow the project's 2015-2023 roster and attribution report; no minutes exist to confirm spellings or attendance. Students who presented are described by role, not named.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Chris Irish | Vice chair, presiding | Runs the meeting from the agenda change onward; presses the superintendent on the directive; sets the November 29 budget study session. |
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Absent (probable). Not heard, and Irish refers to “where Brian had the argument” in the third person. On November 29 Rapp said he had not been present when that session was scheduled, which happened at this meeting (November 29 page). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Seconds the agenda motions; speaks at the citizens' forum as “Michelle Pierce, Ward one” about the city's holiday decorations; presses the superintendent to follow the directive. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moves the agenda amendments; questions the technology presentation's framing; volunteers to sign vouchers. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Questions the draft budget and asks about the process to the deliberative session. A student presenter shares her surname; she remarks “I know I'm always playing with hats”. |
| Michael Petrin | Member (attribution uncertain) | Confirms the November 29 date (2:20:42); named by the superintendent as a voucher volunteer (1:02:18). |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Member | Addressed by name during scheduling (2:19:38); no speech is attributed to him. |
| Dr. Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Answers the class-size comment, gives the superintendent's report, presents the first-draft budget, and asks the board to vote again on its directive. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Presents a comparison spreadsheet of similar districts (2:06:42). |
| Michael O'Neill (spelling unverified) | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Answers on last year's surplus and on cut accounts; gives January 16 as the deadline (2:04:19). |
| Josh Malloy | Technology director | Presents on technology staffing, workload and equipment replacement (1:07:33). |
| Christine Downing | Curriculum specialist, Stevens High School | Presents the extended learning opportunity (ELO) program (0:21:43). |
| Joel Snyder (as transcribed) | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Waited “three hours” to present; the board deferred him (1:45:40). |
| Lexi | Student representative | Gives the schools report (0:51:45) and speaks briefly on class sizes and ELOs. |
| Four Stevens High School students | ELO presenters | Each describes an ELO (baking, information technology, web design, plumbing and heating), 0:22:31 to 0:31:11. |
| Shelly Avery (as transcribed) | Stevens art teacher and parent | Describes ELOs she has run and her daughters' experience (0:25:11). |
| Karen Doucet (as transcribed) | ELO mentor, local restaurant owner | Describes mentoring a student (0:24:05). |
| Mary (surname not stated) | Parent, Ward 3 | Describes her children's ELO projects (0:46:53). |
| Jason Benware | Citizens' forum, Ward 1 | Objects to the agenda change (0:01:00); commends the breakfast program, questions flat budgets, and asks why Bluff kindergarten classes have 23 pupils while other schools have about 15 (0:08:23). He was a candidate for the board on November 1. |
| Unidentified | Board member | Moves to adjourn (2:27:06); the CSV labels this row as the superintendent (see footer). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives, and the recording begins after the meeting had started. The items below follow the presiding officer's transitions from that point.
Items in the order taken up on the recording, with dispositions heard
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | Agenda change | A motion to take the ELO presentation and student report early; Sprague: “Agenda as the superintendent has suggested.” Pierce seconds; voice vote. After Benware objects, Sprague moves “that we amend, and have the citizens comments go before the student reps report.” (0:01:51); seconded; voice vote. |
| 0:02:00 | Minutes of November 1, 2017 | Moved by Pierce; seconded; voice vote (0:02:31). |
| 0:02:31 | Citizens' comments | Jason Benware (Ward 1); Michelle Pierce (Ward 1). |
| 0:21:12 | Extended learning opportunities presentation | Taken ahead of the student report at Lexi's request; no action. |
| 0:51:27 | Student representative's report | Report only. |
| 1:01:50 | Superintendent's report | Report only; vouchers (flag 2). |
| 1:04:44 | Action items: School District [FY20]19 budget first draft | Technology department presentation first (1:06:19); the tech center director deferred (1:45:40); first-draft budget distributed (1:46:12) and debated; no vote taken. |
| 2:05:49 | Comparison data | Assistant superintendent's spreadsheet of comparable districts; no action. |
| 2:17:27 | Scheduling | Budget study session set for Wednesday, November 29 at 6:30 (2:25:01). |
| 2:27:06 | Adjournment | Motion, Pierce seconds, voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in order; hover or focus a summary to expand it
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Citizens' comments restored to the front | Pierce asks “Will that cut out the citizens comments?” Benware: “So you changing your agenda is going to seriously affect my ability to speak to you folks tonight.” Irish asks the board's will and the agenda is amended again. | POSITIVE OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:50 | Benware: breakfast and flat budgets | Commends a breakfast program; on flat budgets: “just simply because a budget doesn't increase doesn't necessarily mean there isn't things in the budget that may not need to” be there. The superintendent: fixed-cost and bargaining increases are “close to three quarters of $1 million” a year. | |
| 0:08:23 | Benware: Bluff kindergarten | “There were two classes of kindergarten, 23 per class” at Bluff, against classes of about 15 elsewhere; about 68% of Bluff pupils qualify for free or reduced lunch. He asks for class sizes, teachers and paraprofessionals at the three elementary schools and for the classrooms to be measured. | |
| 0:11:44 | "We don't follow the Board of education" | Asked about the state's minimum classroom size, the superintendent: “We don't follow the Board of education. We follow the state fire marshal and the Claremont Fire Department.” and “it's called local control.” Benware cites a state rule of “1000ft² minimum for a kindergarten classroom or 50ft² per child”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:23 | A correction planned in nonpublic | The superintendent: “We were going to be presenting to the school board and nonpublic a resolution to this matter.” and “We haven't made it public”. The fix will come “by early January or late December” “if the school board approves, because it's going to cost some dollars”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:11 | Pierce at the citizens' forum | Speaking as a Ward 1 resident, Pierce says the city's Parks and Recreation department told her she could have “nothing to do with Christmas” this year, and apologizes to the public. | |
| 0:21:43 | Extended learning opportunities | Four students describe ELOs in baking, information technology, web design and plumbing and heating, with a mentor and a parent. Downing: ELO policies date from the state's minimum school approval standards; stipend costs over two fiscal cycles total $17,650, of which “our only actual expenditures are 11,950”. About 70 “percent of our ellos are our high end kids”, seeking the 27-credit diploma. | |
| 0:51:45 | Student report | Stevens and elementary school news, a talent show, honors choir at Dartmouth, Veterans Day programs and fall sports. | |
| 1:01:51 | Vouchers | The superintendent shows “a box full of vouchers”: “we need to have our Bouchier signed by board members. It is a requirement. We are behind.” Three members volunteer; at the end he names “Frank, Michelle and Mike patron” [Petrin]. | MEDIUM |
| 1:07:33 | Technology department | Malloy answers the question whether the department duplicates services: “So that my answer is no.” He reports 1,085 devices for about two technicians (1:18:06) and 79 tickets per technician per month (1:20:34), and says skipped replacement “We didn't just save 300, $300,000 last year. We we we moved that $300,000 to this year.” | |
| 1:09:41 | Ransomware on the student information system | “Did you hear about the power school server and how was attacked in our data? Was held ransom.” “We were attacked. We lost about three hours.” Staff rebuilt the server from a backup and patched it; “There was nothing in the news.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:34:57 | Questions are not accusations | Sprague: “These are not accusations. These are not, these are questions people have asked inquiring of the administration for more information.” Pierce and Zullo thank the department while saying the questions remain. | |
| 1:43:08 | Tech center director deferred | The superintendent: Snyder has “been waiting three hours”. Irish: “it's almost 930 at night.” The board takes the budget instead. | |
| 1:47:52 | The draft does not meet the directive | Pierce: “Now is this with the proposed cut.” The superintendent: “No it's not.” and “this budget does not include a $1.2 million reduction below this fiscal year”, because meeting it would mean cuts of “1.7 $1.8 million”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:49:32 | Last year's surplus | Pierce asks about a “$600,000 surplus last year”; O'Neill: “That was money that was carried over from a previous year. Last year we actually had no surplus.” | |
| 1:49:50 | The directive argued | Irish: “So you're telling us that a 3.8% reduction in budgets going to destroy the district?” Pierce: “And I'm sorry, Doctor Goodwin, but you're in the wrong.” The superintendent asks the board to vote again; Irish: “We don't have to vote again. We already did.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:55:57 | "You had a clue" | The superintendent: “With all due respect, you had a clue what you're asking for.” [The context reads as "had no clue".] He commits to bring a budget at the directive by December 6 (1:59:33). | |
| 2:00:39 | Where the $1.2 million came from | Irish: “it was a combination of everybody there with ideas that we were throwing out in. The number just escalated from level funding.” The aim was to “lower the tax rate by $1.74”. Instructional staff are excluded: “no reduction in educational staff or instructional staff”. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:04:06 | Deadline for the deliberative budget | Irish asks for the “drop dead date for having a budget to go to deliberative session”; O'Neill: “But January 16th”. January 16, 2018 was the third Tuesday in January, the last day RSA 40:13, II-a(c) allowed for the budget hearing. | |
| 2:05:49 | Comparison districts | LeClair compares districts within 300 pupils of Claremont's enrollment and geographic neighbors; she could not obtain administrator counts without calling each district. Asked what share of the budget is special education: “About 25% in our district.” Irish: “about 7.1 million”. | |
| 2:13:59 | "Top heavy" | The superintendent asks whether the board thinks the district is “top heavy and administration”; Zullo says these are questions heard in the community. | |
| 2:17:27 | Scheduling the study session | The board picks Wednesday, November 29 at 6:30 as a work session without administrators, and Irish proposes using the December 14 joint meeting with the City Council for budget work instead (2:20:16). The superintendent: “So I'll post that meeting.” | |
| 2:25:49 | Information by email | Irish: staff may email information between meetings, “As long as we don't get into a dialog”. | |
| 2:27:06 | Adjournment | “A motion to adjourn.” (a board member; the CSV labels the superintendent), Pierce seconds, Aye. | |
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 15, 2017, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in any district share
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 gap matters more than usual here, because the recording also misses the start of the meeting (flag 3), so no surviving record shows the call to order, the attendance or what was done in the first hour. 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". This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the board approves the November 1 minutes on tape (0:02:00), and the superintendent refers to a memo “that's in your packet” (2:25:23), so the board was producing these documents. 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.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)
MEDIUM Voucher signatures still behind two weeks after the superintendent raised it
On November 1 the superintendent told the board that the weekly voucher signatures had lapsed and needed catching up. Two weeks later he brought “a box full of vouchers” and said only one member had come forward: “The second board member has yet to step up, but we need to have our Bouchier signed by board members. It is a requirement. We are behind.” (1:02:35). Three members volunteered. RSA 197:23-a provides that the treasurer "shall pay out the same only upon orders of the school board or upon orders of the 2 or more members of the school board empowered by the school board as a whole to authorize payments." A backlog of unsigned vouchers suggests payments preceding the orders the statute requires, though the recording does not say whether the vouchers were already paid or awaiting payment. No vote empowering particular members is heard at either meeting. A probable control gap; the treasurer's records would settle it.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (2017 codification; source note ends 2015, 272:45, eff. Oct. 1, 2015); November 1, 2017 page, flag 3
OBSERVATION The first hour or more of the meeting is not on the recording
The recording opens on a motion to reorder the agenda (0:00:03). A citizen says he has “sat here for over an hour now” (0:01:00); the presiding officer says “It's been a long night already.” (0:02:31); the tech center director had been “waiting three hours” at 1:43:08. On the spoken clock times (facts panel), recording began at roughly 7:35 to 7:45 p.m. Whatever the board did before that, which may have included the call to order, a roll call and other agenda items, is not in the public record, and no minutes survive to supply it (flag 1). No statute required the meeting to be recorded, so this is a gap, not a breach.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-15
OBSERVATION "We don't follow the Board of education"
Asked whether Bluff's kindergarten rooms meet the state's minimum size, the superintendent answered “We don't follow the Board of education. We follow the state fire marshal and the Claremont Fire Department.” and “it's called local control.” (0:12:11, 0:12:27). As a general statement this is inaccurate. RSA 186:8 directs that "The state board of education shall adopt rules, pursuant to RSA 541-A, relative to" among other things "Minimum standards for public school approval for all grades of the public schools" (¶II). Those are the Ed 306 rules, which bind the district. Whether Bluff's classes or rooms met the class-size and space provisions in force in 2017 was not verified for this page: the citizen's figure of “1000ft² minimum for a kindergarten classroom or 50ft² per child” is his characterization, and the Ed 306 text of that date was not retrieved. The superintendent's broader point, that class size alone does not measure instruction, is a separate matter of judgment.
Sources: RSA 186:8, II (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 84:1, eff. July 18, 2016); N.H. Admin. Rules, Ed 306 (minimum standards for school approval; cited as a part, without subsection numbers, because the 2017 numbering was not verified)
OBSERVATION A class-size fix was to be taken to the board in nonpublic session
The superintendent said the administration had studied the Bluff kindergarten for three weeks and “We were going to be presenting to the school board and nonpublic a resolution to this matter.”, adding “We haven't made it public” (0:14:04); the fix would cost money and needs board approval (0:18:34). RSA 91-A:3, II limits nonpublic sessions to listed grounds, among them personnel matters under II(a) and II(b) and reputation under II(c). A decision to add a class or staff, with a budget effect, is not on that list unless it is discussed in terms of particular employees. Whether a nonpublic session was ever held on this, and on what ground, is not on any record this project holds. The superintendent did describe the issue and the planned correction publicly here, in answer to the citizen.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)
OBSERVATION A ransomware attack on the student information system, first mentioned in a staff presentation
The technology director told the board, as an example of his staff's work, that the PowerSchool server “was attacked in our data? Was held ransom.” through “an Apache Struts vulnerability”, that “We lost about three hours”, and that the server was rebuilt from a backup and patched overnight (1:09:41 to 1:10:39). He added “You may not have heard this” and “There was nothing in the news.” The recording does not say when the attack happened, whether student or staff records were copied as well as encrypted, or whether families were told. The student information system holds education records. No breach-notification rule binding a school district on this date was verified for this page, so this is an observation; the question it leaves is whether anyone assessed and reported the exposure.
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-15; Dialogue/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.CSV (rows 350 to 353)
OBSERVATION The board's directive rests on a vote no public record shows
The superintendent's first draft did not include the board's $1.2 million reduction (1:48:36), and he asked the board to vote again on it (1:54:56). Irish declined: “We don't have to vote again. We already did.” and “100% of the board members present at that meeting said, this is what we want to start with. There's legally we can't reconsider. It was done.” (1:55:19). The vote he describes was taken at the September 30 budget study session, which has no recording or document in the corpus (see the November 1 page, flag 6). So the instruction that governed the FY2019 budget is known only from members' later accounts, and Irish's own account of its origin is that “The number just escalated from level funding.” His statement that the board legally cannot reconsider is his characterization; no rule barring a board from revisiting its own direction was identified. No new vote was taken on November 15, and the superintendent agreed to bring a budget at the directive by December 6 (1:59:33).
Sources: Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-15; Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (October 18, when the board took up the minutes of the September 30 session)
POSITIVE The board reordered its agenda to protect a citizen's chance to speak
In 2017 no statute required a school board to hold a public comment period at all; RSA 189:74's 30-minute rule dates from 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022. When a resident objected that moving presentations forward would cost him his chance to speak (0:01:00), the presiding officer asked “What's the will of the board?”, and the board amended the agenda again on Sprague's motion to put citizens' comments first (0:01:51). Pierce had raised the same concern before the first vote (0:00:17). The resident then spoke at length, received answers from the superintendent and members, and was invited to the budget meetings. Later, the presiding officer kept staff email to the board to information only, “As long as we don't get into a dialog” (2:25:49), which is the line RSA 91-A:2-a, II draws against using communications outside a meeting to circumvent the law.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not law on this date); RSA 91-A:2-a, II (2016 codification; source note 2008, 303:4)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-15 (show 9442)
- 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/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.CSV (973 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Dialogue/9385 SchoolBoard101817.mp4.CSV (October 18, 2017; cited in flag 7)Input/Videos/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4Input/Transcripts/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 47Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.md (speaker attribution report); Scripts/csv_corrections_2015_2023.md (row 968 correction)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2016 codification (the text in force for calendar 2017): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:2-a, II, 2016 codification: communications outside a meeting not to circumvent the chapter
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II, 2016 codification: nonpublic sessions only on listed grounds
- RSA 197:23-a, 2017 codification: treasurer pays only on orders of the board or of two or more empowered members
- RSA 186:8, II, 2017 codification: state board rules on minimum standards for public school approval
- N.H. Admin. Rules, Ed 306: minimum standards for school approval (part cited; 2017 subsection text not verified)
- RSA 40:13, II-a(c), 2017 codification (source note ends 2014): budget hearings "on or before the third Tuesday in January"
- Context only: RSA 189:74, public comment period, enacted 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022, so not law on this date