| 0:02:48 | Broadcast and time limits | The chair: "apparently channel eight is having some issues"; three-minute limit for citizens' comments. | |
| 0:03:58 | Citizens' comments: Jesse Burrill, Stevens junior | Invites board members to follow students through a school day and to preview performances of The Miracle Worker on January 16 and 17. For the student group: "In short, we don't want to see any cuts to the current budget proposal." | |
| 0:05:59 | Citizens' comments: Prescott Herzog, student | On the foreign language program and the English department: "60% of our students are below reading level" in the freshman class, so cutting an English position is "quite a surprise to me". | |
| 0:08:09 | Citizens' comments: Lexi Grenier, student representative | "I'm here to talk about the crisis counselor and the social worker position." She cites national statistics on teen depression and suicide, Sullivan County teen pregnancy, and says "10% of people in the district do not have access to a computer or internet at home". She will email her citations (0:12:28). | |
| 0:14:01 | Students on staff turnover | Burrill on having the same vice principals for three years; Chelsea, a senior: "This is the first year that I've had the same guidance counselor two years in a row."; Grenier recalls four vice principals in three years of middle school (0:14:53). | |
| 0:17:17 | Citizens' comments: Matt Bean, Ward 2 | A special education paraprofessional and football coach in the district: "every single person that would lose their job because of the one $1.3 million budget cut affects this community in a negative way"; the crisis counselor "saves lives point blank". | |
| 0:19:23 | Citizens' comments: Gary Collison, Stevens world languages | "I'm not a citizen of Claremont. I'm an employee." After nearly 18 years he has "been designated as expendable"; the department "has been singled out largely on the basis of numbers from saturation studies", and schedule changes "decimated our enrollments". | |
| 0:24:07 | Citizens' comments: Joyce Heinsberg, Ward 2 | A former substitute coordinator ("I was the sub coordinator for 23 years") questions the $3,000 coordinator stipend and the $90-a-day commitment rate; the superintendent says substitutes who miss the commitment "wouldn't pay it back". She puts the ASAP saving at "only like $3,700 and not the 7000". Paraprofessionals covering classes get "$9.80 per hour in addition to their hourly wage"; Chris (special education): pulling a para means "you're actually pulling that student from a special education student". | MEDIUM |
| 0:33:25 | Citizens' comments: Tom Rock, Ward 2 | "the total tax burden in New Hampshire is lower than 45 other states", and Claremont homeowners pay a lower bill than "35% of the other 234 communities". | |
| 0:38:07 | Interruption and recess | Irish answers Rock from the table on median income; the chair: "This is citizens time. We're not. We're not exchanging." and, after further exchange, calls a five-minute recess (0:38:45). On return the chair says members should be recognized before speaking (0:39:56) and that board members "are not supposed to be engaging in citizens. Comments." | |
| 0:40:53 | Citizens' comments: Jonathan Young, Ward 1 | On the crisis counselor, SRO and social worker: "I believe this is an incredible misplacement of priorities." | |
| 0:42:50 | Citizens' comments: Andy, Ward 3 | On tax burden against income: "Claremont's number one. I mean, you can't deny it. The tax bill hurts here." Buyers check school ratings online: the "Zillow effect". | |
| 0:46:34 | Citizens' comments: Rod Beaton, Ward 2 | "So I'm just like to speak in against the proposed cuts". | |
| 0:47:41 | Grants accepted | LeClair: "three grants this evening evening totaling of $2,000". Melissa Lewis: Disnard's ExxonMobil grant "has to be funneled to math and science efforts". | MEDIUM |
| 0:51:12 | Questions from November 29: fund balance, Johnson Controls, dues | Fund balance returned for 2016: "It's 326,000 329." O'Neill: the Johnson Controls report shows savings "over the guaranteed amount by 299,503 through three years". Guidance dues and fees were budgeted at $3,750 against about $750 spent (0:55:37). | |
| 0:57:42 | Bus drivers' hours | O'Neill: drivers have a midday break and "If they're not working, they punch out." | |
| 0:59:21 | Paraprofessionals, IEPs and Medicaid | Chris: "So you're essentially going into noncompliance. So that happens a lot". Sprague: "it sounds like we're leaving money out there"; Medicaid capture was "like 700,000 or something", and Petrin: "So 10% 70 grand." Zullo: "Which is illegal, by the way, isn't it?" | MEDIUM |
| 1:03:10 | Electronic timesheets | The superintendent: logging paraprofessional timesheets once took "one adult 3 to 4 days"; now it is electronic, and SAU office staff "has actually been reduced". | |
| 1:05:59 | Substitute costs and absence data | The superintendent cites "$350,000 in substitute costs". LeClair: "There's 2300 days that are one of the three categories sick personal, professional development. And then the other 1000 days are extra help." | |
| 1:10:13 | Special education paraprofessionals and caseload | Chris: "There are approximately 98 special ed powers." [paras]; identification runs about 23 to 24% (1:10:55); LeClair: "432 identified students". | |
| 1:12:05 | One-time costs | O'Neill: a CMS fire pump of "about $100,000", needed because the new community center reduced water pressure (1:13:10). | |
| 1:14:23 | Transfers between lines | O'Neill: "It's really the administration moving."; "It's a bottom line budget." | OBS |
| 1:15:52 | Elementary consolidation and the alternative program | O'Neill on bonding capacity (1:16:18); the superintendent: a feasibility study is under way, "there are no definitive plans to do anything with any schools", and any plan would be for fiscal year 2020. He describes the search for a site for an in-district alternative program (1:18:53 to 1:20:26); about 20 students are placed out of district (1:20:58). | |
| 1:24:06 | Out-of-district costs | Chris puts Granite Hill tuition at about $60,000 (1:24:06). Pierce cites "Brattleboro Retreat, is between 87,000 and 116,000". Petrin urges action before the opportunity is lost (1:26:21). | |
| 1:26:35 | Athletics revenue; vouchers and new revenue | O'Neill: athletics generates "Not a lot of revenue". LeClair: under voucher proposals the district can "Either have an opportunity to be a destination for those monies, or we have an opportunity for our students to go elsewhere with their money." | |
| 1:35:16 | How to proceed | Sprague proposes going through the administration's list. The superintendent: the hearing must be held "no later than the 16th of January". The chair would put most positions back (1:36:57). | |
| 1:40:16 | Buses | O'Neill: $39,000 stays in for two new leased buses and $20,000 comes out of repairs (1:40:35, 1:40:50). | |
| 1:42:20 | Three Stevens teaching positions | The chair: "I'd want all three back." Sprague: the world language data are not clean; "in my mind, irrefutable that we have extra staff for English"; he would cut only the English position (1:44:02). | |
| 1:44:53 | Irish: a bottom-line budget | Irish does not want to manage line by line "because one, we legally can't"; the district returned "$2.3 million" in fund balance over four years, so a $328,000 reduction is achievable "without affecting a child". The chair: much of that was health insurance money (1:48:25); O'Neill: 2014's return was $1,268,460 (1:48:37). | |
| 1:49:37 | Board roles | Herzog reads from a New Hampshire School Boards Association training document listing "Budget preparation, limitation of expenditures, transfer appropriations". | OBS |
| 1:50:52 | Purpose of the review | Zullo: "I do not understand what the point of going through this whole nightmare was, if we're just going to put it exactly where we started". The chair: the board is "also a policy board". | |
| 1:55:02 | Crisis counselor, kindergarten aid, SB 193 | Petrin is concerned about losing the crisis counselor and asks about full-day kindergarten aid. The superintendent: "the real scary piece is Senate Bill 193 with the vouchers". | |
| 1:57:12 | Level funding | The chair: "I'd like to see it level funded". O'Neill: with a quarter-million loss of adequacy aid that means about "$0.45 increase". LeClair: level funding still requires cuts, because fixed costs rise (2:02:13, 2:04:12); O'Neill puts current-services growth at "about $500,000 up". | |
| 2:01:46 | Pending bargaining agreements | Herzog asks about agreements not yet in the budget; LeClair names the teachers' and administrators' units (2:01:57); O'Neill: "we're going to talk about that in nonpublic". | OBS |
| 2:05:11 | Budgets flat, taxes up | The superintendent: "The budget is either equal or less than the previous year, and the taxes still go up because it's not about the school budget." | |
| 2:06:35 | Were items listed to frighten? | Petrin suggests some items are listed "because they're scary things"; the superintendent: "the last thing I would ever do was to put items here to get attention". | |
| 2:09:02 | Irish: confidence in the $328,000 | "What what I would like to see us do in a minimum is get to the to the $328,000 cut", with no list attached (2:14:22). | |
| 2:11:03 | School psychologist by contract | Zullo: a contracted psychologist would be "quite a savings to the district". Chris: "We can make it work. It it it will, it will, it will hurt though." | |
| 2:13:42 | Sorting out the options | Sprague restates level funding as about a $500,000 cut and Irish's position as about $800,000 (2:14:45); LeClair explains why level funding means cuts (2:15:14, 2:16:25). | |
| 2:16:45 | Saturday follow-up discussion | Sprague: "in our follow up discussion on Saturday" members floated reductions not on the list; LeClair says she watched the tape (2:17:48). | OBS |
| 2:19:33 | Who asked for the cuts | The chair: the administrators "have to get by, but it's still going to hurt". Pierce: the superintendent "came back with a lovely little list of everything that chop off". The chair: "I think that's really disingenuous." Irish to the chair: "You weren't at that meeting. You weren't at the other meeting". Herzog asks for a break (2:21:55). | |
| 2:22:38 | Main motion | Sprague: "go with a reduction of $328,980.05"; Herzog: "I'll second that." Sprague calls it "a significant, concession by the board on the original number". | OBS |
| 2:25:18 | Proposed amendment to $31.3 million | Herzog asks Sprague to amend to "31,300,000", about $150,000 more (2:25:34); Sprague offers "I'll second that so that we can discuss it" and then declines to change his motion (2:26:40). Irish calls the question (2:26:53). | OBS |
| 2:26:55 | Petrin and Herzog explain | Petrin: on the $1.2 million target, "it would be detrimental"; he leans toward level funding (2:27:42). Herzog wants $150,000 more for flexibility and the unfinished bargaining agreements (2:28:54). | |
| 2:30:41 | Purchasing | O'Neill: the district buys from W.B. Mason, which "will match all the prices if you ask them". | |
| 2:32:38 | Amendment fails | The clerk, Mary Woodman: "Before you do that, you have to vote on the amendment." The board treats it as failed "For lack of a second." | OBS |
| 2:33:06 | Vote to call the question | The chair explains it (2:34:21). Roll call (2:34:35 to 2:35:16): four yes (Irish, Pierce, Sprague, Zullo), three no (a no after Irish, presumably Herzog's; Petrin; the chair). Count transcribed "Boy. Yes. Three. No." | OBS |
| 2:35:29 | Vote on the main motion | The chair restates "31,000,001 4825695" [$31,148,256.95]. After confusion over whether the first roll call decided the motion (2:36:11), the clerk calls the roll (2:36:45 to 2:37:14): Irish yes, Herzog no, Petrin no, Pierce yes, Sprague yes, then "Rebecca. Yes and no.", which may hold Zullo's yes and the chair's no. The count is transcribed "One. Three." | OBS |
| 2:37:33 | Public hearing | The superintendent: "We must have a public hearing no later than January 16th." LeClair offers childcare (2:39:12); the superintendent proposes the Stevens auditorium so the hearing can be televised (2:39:44); LeClair: the board can still adjust after the hearing (2:40:36). | POSITIVE |
| 2:41:01 | Nonpublic session | Citation as transcribed "Over, say 91 a two Roman numeral one, a."; Herzog seconds; roll call; the recording ends (2:42:11). | OBS |