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 |
|---|
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair, presiding | Ran the meeting; accepted a citizen's request to reorder the agenda; questioned the ELO program; told the superintendent the board's directive had been "deliberately ignored" (1:51:45); set the November 29 budget study session; set limits on emailing information between meetings. Some opening chair lines were split across clusters and assigned to him by floor-control continuity (medium confidence). |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Spoke first at the citizens' forum as "Michelle Pierce, Ward one" about the city's Christmas trees (0:19:11); as a member, pressed the superintendent on the $1.2 million directive and on grants. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Moved to put citizens' comments before the student report; asked about physical education ELOs; told the technology director the board's questions were not accusations (1:35:02); asked where the $1.2 million figure came from. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Thanked the public commenter; asked whether anything in the budget was lower than last year and whether unspent lines could be cut (1:56:43, 1:58:27); asked about the budget timeline. Addressed as Becky in the transcript (the dialogue file treats this as Becca, not Becky Ferland). A second cluster assigned to her is marked lower confidence. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member (attribution low-medium confidence) | Short interjections; agreed to November 29 ("I think so", 2:20:42). Named by the superintendent as a volunteer to sign Gear Up vouchers ("Mike patron", 1:02:18). |
| Alex Herzog | Board member | Addressed by name at 2:01:43 and 2:19:38; no speech is attributed to him in the dialogue file. |
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Not placed in the room; referred to in the third person ("that's where Brian had the argument", 1:55:19). Attendance not established. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Answered the Bluff kindergarten complaint; gave his report (Gear Up vouchers, a diversity book study, the Bluff breakfast trial); introduced the technology presentation; distributed a first-draft budget without the directed $1.2 million reduction and later committed to bring that budget on December 6. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Said there was no surplus last year (1:49:43), described which accounts were already cut, and gave January 16 as the deadline for a deliberative-session budget (2:04:19). |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented a comparison spreadsheet of districts within 300 students of Claremont and geographically or demographically similar districts (2:07:09); said administrator ratios could not be found online. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology | Presented the technology department's staffing, a PowerSchool ransomware recovery, service metrics and equipment age; said "It seems like the board doesn't have a lot of confidence in the technology department" (1:34:41). |
| Christine Downing | Curriculum specialist, Stevens High School | Presented the extended learning opportunity (ELO) program, its process, stipend costs and credits. |
| Lexi (surname not established) | Student representative | Gave the student report (0:51:45); deferred it so ELO presenters could leave, and spoke about her own tap-dance ELO. |
| Clara Avery; Jesse Burrill; Alyssa Ellison; Chandler Zullo | Students, Stevens High School | Described their ELOs (baking and pastry arts, a technology internship, web page design, plumbing and heating with green energy). |
| Karen Doucet | ELO mentor (restaurant owner) | Described mentoring a baking ELO. |
| Shelly Avery | Stevens High School art teacher and parent | Described her daughter's ELO and running art ELOs. |
| Mary (surname not given) | Parent, Ward 3 | Described her children's ELOs (a sugar house; showing working steers). |
| Joel Snyder | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center (spelling from ASR) | Waited to present and was not heard; said his documents were prepared (1:45:40). |
| Jason Benware | Citizens' comments, Ward 1 | Objected when the agenda change pushed back citizens' comments; commended the Bluff breakfast program; argued a flat budget may still hold unneeded costs; asked why Bluff kindergarten classes had 23 pupils while other schools had 14 to 15; made "a formal request for information on all of the class sizes, the amount of teachers, and the amount of paras" (0:11:13). (Later a board member, sworn in March 2018 per the roster.) |
| Unidentified | Several | Opening procedural lines (presiding officer or superintendent), a board member possibly Herzog, an administrator with special education handouts, and cross-talk. 111 of 973 rows (11.4%). |
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 presiding officer's transitions on the recording. Items taken before the recording began are unknown.
Items in the order the recording takes them up.
| Taken up | Item | What was done |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | Agenda amendment | Motion to take the ELO presentation and student report first; seconded; voice vote (0:00:54). After a citizen objected, Sprague moved "that we amend, and have the citizens comments go before the student reps report" (0:01:51); seconded; carried. |
| 0:02:00 | Approval of minutes | Minutes of November 1 approved on motion (Pierce) and second; voice vote (0:02:31). |
| 0:02:31 | Citizens' comments | Jason Benware (Ward 1) and Michelle Pierce (Ward 1). |
| 0:21:27 | Extended learning opportunities presentation | Downing with students, a mentor, a teacher-parent and a parent. |
| 0:51:45 | Student representative's report | Lexi. |
| 1:01:50 | Superintendent's report | Gear Up vouchers, a book study, food service; brief. |
| 1:04:44 | Action items: School District FY19 budget first draft | Presiding officer: "On to action items on School District 519 budget first draft." At the superintendent's request the technology department presented first (1:06:19); the first-draft budget was then distributed (1:46:12). No vote. |
| 2:05:49 | Assistant superintendent's comparison data | LeClair's district comparison spreadsheet; no vote. |
| 2:17:27 | Scheduling | Budget study session set for Wednesday November 29 at 6:30 p.m. (2:22:41); joint meeting with the City Council noted for December 14 (2:20:12). |
| 2:27:06 | Adjournment | Motion, second, voice vote. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:00 | Citizen objects to the agenda change | Benware: "I hate to interrupt. I've sat here for over an hour now." and "So you changing your agenda is going to seriously affect my ability to speak to you folks tonight." Irish: "What's the will of the board?" The board reorders so citizens' comments come first; Irish thanks him "for speaking up" (0:01:45). | POSITIVE OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:50 | Citizens' comments: flat budgets and Bluff kindergarten | Benware: a flat budget "doesn't necessarily mean there isn't things in the budget that may not need to be there" (0:05:48); two Bluff kindergarten classes of 23 against four of about 15 at Maple Avenue; 68% of Bluff pupils qualify for free or reduced lunch; formal request for class-size, teacher and para data (0:11:13); asks about minimum classroom size. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:01 | "We don't follow the Board of education" | McGoodwin: "We don't follow the Board of education. We follow the state fire marshal and the Claremont Fire Department." and "Sir, it's called local control." Benware cites a state standard of "1000ft² minimum for a kindergarten classroom or 50ft² per child" (0:12:29). McGoodwin: "We were going to be presenting to the school board and nonpublic a resolution to this matter" (0:14:04), to be corrected "by early January or late December" with board approval "because it's going to cost some dollars" (0:18:34). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:11 | Pierce at the citizens' forum | Speaking as "Michelle Pierce, Ward one": Parks and Recreation told her "that I could have nothing to do with Christmas"; she apologizes that she cannot help with the children's trees this year (0:20:00). | |
| 0:21:43 | Extended learning opportunities | Students describe ELOs; Downing explains the application process, stipend costs ("the total cost is $17,650" over two fiscal cycles, "our only actual expenditures are 11,950", 0:38:55) and that ELOs are required under the state minimum standards (her characterization, 0:35:09). | |
| 0:51:45 | Student representative's report | Lexi reports school events, the honors choir, sports, and a regional economic-profile meeting students will attend. | |
| 1:01:51 | Superintendent's report | Gear Up vouchers need board members' signatures, "It is a requirement. We are behind" (1:02:35); a staff book study on diversity; the Bluff breakfast trial. | |
| 1:04:44 | Technology department presentation | Malloy on a PowerSchool server attack ("We lost about three hours", 1:10:01), 1,085 devices for about two technicians, Windows XP machines, and replacement costs. Sprague: "These are not accusations" (1:35:02); Pierce and Zullo thank the staff. | |
| 1:43:08 | Tech center director not heard | McGoodwin: "Joel Snyder, director of Tech Center's been waiting three hours." Irish: "We haven't seen a budget yet" (1:43:43); the board takes the budget instead. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:47:52 | First-draft budget omits the directive | Pierce: "Now is this with the proposed cut." McGoodwin: "No it's not." and "this budget does not include a $1.2 million reduction below this fiscal year" (1:48:36). He says following the "September 30th directive" would mean "taking apart the district" (1:48:57). | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 1:49:50 | "Deliberately ignored" | Irish: "I'm frustrated that we gave a directive that has been deliberately ignored" (1:51:45). Pierce: "You did not follow the directive" (1:54:19). McGoodwin asks the board to vote again; Irish: "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" (1:55:19). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:56:09 | Superintendent commits to December 6 | McGoodwin: "if the board wishes to pursue that board, I will come back December 6th and you will see what that looks like" (1:56:09). Zullo asks whether anything was cut; O'Neill: "There's a lot of things that are less than last year" (1:57:21). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:00:39 | Where the $1.2 million came from | Irish: "When we did what we did Saturday, we wanted to see what it looked like if we got there" and "We want to try to lower the tax rate by $1.74" (2:00:59); "Our job is budget. Our job is not to educate kids" (2:01:19). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:04:06 | Deadline for the deliberative budget | O'Neill: "But January 16th, if we had line for that." Zullo notes that leaves about a month (2:04:22). | |
| 2:05:49 | Comparison data | LeClair's spreadsheet of comparable districts; special education "About 25% in our district" (2:09:02); administrator ratios not available online. | |
| 2:13:59 | Top-heavy administration? | McGoodwin asks whether the board thinks administration is top heavy; Zullo: "it's questions that you hear all the time in the community" (2:14:12). | |
| 2:18:45 | Scheduling a budget study session | Board settles on Wednesday November 29 at 6:30 as a working session without administrators; Irish proposes using the December 14 joint-meeting night for budget work (2:20:16). | POSITIVE |
| 2:23:51 | No teacher cuts | Irish: "we have said very clear no reduction in educational staff or instructional staff" (2:24:36). | |
| 2:25:01 | Posting the session; email between meetings | McGoodwin: "Okay. So I'll post that meeting." Irish: send information by email, "As long as we don't get into a dialog" (2:25:49). | POSITIVE |
| 2:27:06 | Adjournment | Motion, second, Aye. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 15, 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. 7 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The first hour or more of the evening is not on the recording
The recording opens on an agenda amendment already in progress (0:00:03). The presiding member says "It's been a long night already" at 0:02:31, a citizen says he has "sat here for over an hour now" (0:01:00), and the superintendent says at 1:43:08 that the tech center director has "been waiting three hours". Spoken clock times fix the recording's start at roughly 7:36 to 7:44 p.m. ("it's almost 930 at night" at 1:46:03; 10:00. at 2:23:37). What happened before, including the call to order, roll call and any earlier session, is not in the public record available here. No rule requiring a recording was in force; the point is what a citizen can and cannot verify. The Cablecast API that would show neighbouring show records returned 403 on 2026-09-26, so this page could not check for a separate recording of the first part; the corpus holds none.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
OBSERVATION The September 30 Saturday board session that produced the budget directives is not in the corpus
The superintendent refers to "your September 30th directive" (1:48:57), and Irish to "what we did Saturday" (2:00:59); September 30, 2017 was a Saturday. On November 29 Pierce says she and Brian [Rapp] were not part of that meeting (show 9470, not linked from this page). If a quorum of the board convened there to discuss the budget, it was a meeting under RSA 91-A:2, I ("convening of a quorum"), requiring 24 hours' notice and minutes open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017). This page cannot tell whether that session was noticed or minuted: there is no recording of it in the Cablecast set mapped by MAP.md, and no district records before 2022 are online. It is graded an observation on the online-availability limb of the project's missing-records rule.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017).
OBSERVATION The superintendent presented a first-draft budget that did not follow the board's directive
Asked whether the draft reflected the directed cut, the superintendent said "No it's not" and that the budget "does not include a $1.2 million reduction below this fiscal year" (1:48:36); he explained he wanted "to attempt to convince you that you were making a mistake" (1:47:59). Members said the directive had been voted by all members present (Irish, 1:55:19) and "deliberately ignored" (1:51:45); the superintendent committed to bring a directed budget on December 6 (1:56:09). The business administrator gave January 16 as the deadline for a deliberative-session budget (2:04:19). This page verified no statute defining the superintendent's duty to prepare a budget to a board directive, so it records the exchange as a governance observation. Irish's statement that "legally we can't reconsider" is his characterization and was not checked against the board's rules.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
OBSERVATION A class-size remedy was to go to the board in nonpublic session, and the superintendent said the district does not follow the state board
Responding to the Bluff kindergarten complaint, the superintendent said a resolution would be presented "to the school board and nonpublic" (0:14:04) and would cost money (0:18:34); he cited not wanting to stigmatize "a group of children" (0:18:12). RSA 91-A:3, II as it read in 2017 allows nonpublic sessions only for listed matters, such as (a) an employee's dismissal, promotion, compensation or discipline, (b) "The hiring of any person as a public employee", and (c) matters likely to affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a member; the motion must state the exemption and pass by roll call (I(b)). A staffing change that spends district money is ordinarily public business, though a discussion of identifiable pupils could fit II(c). Whether any such session occurred, and on what motion, is not on this recording. The superintendent also said "We don't follow the Board of education. We follow the state fire marshal" (0:12:11). The citizen's square-footage figure and any State Board classroom-size rule were not verified for this page, so the statement is recorded, not assessed.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(a)-(c) (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online
MAP.md section 47 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 evidence that records were never made: this meeting approved the November 1 minutes (0:02:27), and members refer to a packet with a November 15 memo (2:25:23). RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 required minutes with the names of members, persons appearing, and a brief description of subjects and final decisions, open to inspection within five business days; the mover and seconder requirement began only on January 1, 2019. The citizen's formal request for class-size data (0:11:13) has no recorded answer here.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017).
POSITIVE The board reordered its agenda so a waiting citizen could speak first
When the board moved presentations ahead of citizens' comments, Jason Benware objected that he had waited over an hour (0:01:00). The student representative offered to go after him, the presiding member thanked him "for speaking up", and the board amended its agenda again by motion so citizens' comments came first (0:01:51). Later the student representative deferred her own report so ELO presenters could go home (0:21:16). No statute required a public comment period in 2017 (the 30-minute rule of RSA 189:74 dates from 2022).
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
POSITIVE The board arranged notice for its work session and limited email between meetings to one-way information
Setting the November 29 budget study session, members made clear it was a board working session, and the superintendent said "So I'll post that meeting" (2:25:01), consistent with the 24-hour notice rule of RSA 91-A:2, II. On questions between meetings, Irish said information may be sent by email "As long as we don't get into a dialog" and "then we meet and we process" (2:25:49, 2:26:11). That tracks RSA 91-A:2-a, which requires public bodies to deliberate "only in meetings" and bars communications outside a meeting, "including sequential communications among members", from being used to circumvent the chapter.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017); RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (source note 2008, 303:4 only, so in force in 2017).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9442, "SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-15": 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 47, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet, superintendent's memo, first-draft budget or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related meetings in the corpus (pages named by recording): Claremont School Board, November 1, 2017 (show 9406; its minutes approved here); SAU 6 Board, November 2, 2017 (show 9431); Claremont School Board budget study session, November 29, 2017 (show 9470, the session scheduled here); Claremont School Board, December 6, 2017 (shows 9495 to 9497). The September 30, 2017 session has no recording in the MAP.md set.
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)Input/Videos/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4Input/Transcripts/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9442 SchoolBoard111517.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 47
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on November 15, 2017. RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017) (meeting definition, notice and minutes). RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (source note 2008, 303:4 only, so in force in 2017) (deliberation only in meetings). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(a)-(c) (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017) (nonpublic sessions).