Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on this recording. Members are named from the clerk's roll calls, which the transcript garbles ("Michael. Patrick.", "Rebecca. Silva.", "Brian wrap"); spellings follow the project roster. There are no minutes to check them against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presides and calls each vote. Says three members thought the December 20 number was too low (0:28:52) and asks the majority for a non-salary example of savings (0:49:24). Votes no on calling the question and yes on the amendment. |
| Chris Irish | Vice chair | Moves to drop the discussion items from the agenda (0:01:28), argues for holding the December 20 figure so voters see a tax decrease, and moves $31,148,256.95 to the deliberative session (1:04:40). Votes yes on calling the question, no on the amendment. |
| Alex Herzog | Member | Seconds the reconsideration (0:11:58) and moves to amend the budget to include the teachers' contract (0:23:43). Votes yes on both roll calls; urges voters to reject the lower budget (1:05:00). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Says he understood the contract would sit "on top of that budget" (0:17:21); moves to call the question (1:02:09). Votes yes on both roll calls. Answers the roll as "Michael. Patrick." in the transcript. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Says the cut was too much only "for three of you" (0:29:52) and calls the administration's presentation "a scare tactic" (0:31:33); questions the staff-development line; seconds the main budget motion (1:04:49). Votes yes on calling the question, no on the amendment. Her agenda-amendment lines at the start rest on content. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moves to approve the December 20 minutes (0:04:09) and to reconsider the budget (0:11:30); seconds Herzog's amendment (0:24:23) but votes against it. "I don't want to talk about cuts. That's the wrong terminology." (0:27:16). |
| Rebecca Zullo (uncertain in places) | Member | Recognized by name (0:22:30) and asks how much the deliberative session can change the budget. The line-item questions from 0:35:17 are attributed to her on content (Pierce: "Rebecca tried multiple times", 0:30:43), not by voice. Votes yes on calling the question, no on the amendment. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk (recording secretary) | Asks members to speak up so she can record motions ("Like usual, you know, you guys don't speak up.", 0:06:18) and calls both roll calls (1:02:58, 1:04:07). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduces the grant and the donation; responds to the "scare tactics" charge (0:49:31). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explains why the teachers' contract is in the operating budget (0:13:19), the tax effects, the deliberative-session steps (0:23:05) and the default budget (0:25:04, 0:25:26); answers line-item questions. Several of his segments were diarized with members and reassigned on content. |
| Cory LeClair (uncertain) | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 | An administrator who explains how the contract came to the board (0:12:51), the fixed-cost effect of cuts (0:19:04) and the staff-development line (0:39:02 to 0:48:39). Not named on this recording; the attribution rests on content and on "Thank you. Corey." in part 2. |
| Prescott Herzog | Stevens High School student | Presents the New England Dairy and Food Council grant he wrote with two teachers (0:08:22); named by the superintendent (0:08:04). |
| Unidentified | Members and staff | Short procedural responses, the mover and seconder of the grant (0:09:31), the member who calls herself or himself "the newbie" (0:14:31; Petrin or Zullo, unresolved), and a correction on state revenue (0:15:54; the chair or the business administrator). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The chair reads its items aloud while the board amends it (0:01:53 to 0:02:19); the list below follows those readings and the chair's transitions. Votes were by voice unless a roll call is noted.
Items in the order taken up, with dispositions
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | Come out of nonpublic session | "Need a motion to come out of nonpublic, which we had before our budget hearing." Moved and seconded by voices not identified; voice vote (0:00:28). |
| 0:00:34 | Agenda amendments | Irish moves "to amend the agenda to dispense with the discussion items and go to action items" (0:01:28). Removed: "a review of citizens comments from the public hearing" (0:01:53), the budget review (0:02:09) and the "discussion of deliberative session date. Wednesday, February 7th." (0:02:19). The chair adds the New England Dairy and Food Council grant (0:03:01). Approved by voice vote (0:03:43). |
| 0:03:59 | Minutes of December 20, 2017 | Sprague moves, Irish seconds (0:04:09, 0:04:24). Corrected on the floor so that "Chris Irish made the motion to call the motion. It's the last paragraph." (0:07:13), not Herzog. Approved by voice vote (0:07:42). |
| 0:07:57 | New England Dairy and Food Council grant | "a total, I believe, of $2,977." (0:09:31) for a grab-and-go breakfast cart at Stevens. Mover and seconder not identifiable. Approved by voice vote (0:10:22). |
| 0:10:31 | $2,000 anonymous donation, Bluff Elementary fourth-grade White Mountains trip | Herzog moves; "I did it, and Michelle did a second." (0:11:03). Approved by voice vote (0:11:09). |
| 0:11:16 | Fiscal 2018-19 budget: reconsideration | Sprague: "I'll make a motion to reconsider the budget at this time." (0:11:30), the December 20 figure of "$31,148,256.95" (0:11:44); Herzog seconds (0:11:58). Voice vote; no opposition is heard (0:11:59). |
| 0:23:43 | Amendment: add the teachers' contract | Herzog moves "to amend that budget to 31 million for 55 to 56" [$31,455,410 in the business administrator's figures], adding $307,153 for the contract (0:24:08); Sprague seconds (0:24:23). Petrin calls the question (1:02:09); roll call on calling the question carries 6-1, Rapp opposed (1:03:23 to 1:03:39). Roll call on the amendment (1:04:07 to 1:04:36): yes Herzog, Petrin, Rapp; no Irish, Pierce, Sprague, Zullo. Fails 3-4. The result is not announced on the recording; the tally is taken from the answers. |
| 1:04:40 | Main motion: $31,148,256.95 to the deliberative session | Irish moves "31,000,001 48 to 5695" [$31,148,256.95]; Pierce seconds (1:04:49). Debate continues into part 2, where the motion carries 4-3 on a roll call. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | Out of nonpublic | The nonpublic session took place before the hearing and is not on any recording; its subject is not stated. | OBS |
| 0:01:28 | Discussion items dropped | Irish: "We've been through everything else a thousand times." The board removes its scheduled review of the hearing testimony and goes straight to action items. The chair adds: "We also should speak loudly just so CCTV can pick us up." (0:03:01). | OBS |
| 0:04:46 | Correcting the December 20 minutes | Irish asks members to read the passage "under section five discussion item down towards the bottom where we talked about the motion that was made about the budget". Herzog: "Wanted amend the budget, but I wanted to mend the motion on the budget." (0:05:41). The clerk: "Like usual, you know, you guys don't speak up." (0:06:18). | |
| 0:08:22 | Student grant | Prescott Herzog: "me and two teachers from Keaton's high school [Stevens High School] wrote a grant for about $3,000"; the Dairy Council grant covers "the grab and go breakfast cart that we needed." | |
| 0:10:43 | Anonymous donation | "Would like to donate $2,000 to support the Bluff Elementary School fourth grade students who take their annual trip this spring for the White Mountains." | |
| 0:12:08 | Why reconsider: the contract | After the December 20 budget vote "we approved a contract for the teachers" (0:12:30). The administrator: the association "were able to take it to their membership and ratify that. And then it came to you in a non public meeting after the last board meeting that was held at the tech Center, we went over into the other room, and that was one of two items discussed in that." (0:12:51). | OBS |
| 0:13:19 | Contract in the operating budget | O'Neill: "We're one of the only, if not the only district that is required to put SRE or our teachers contract in the made [main] budget." With it, "it brings the budget up to 31 for 55. Ten for ten." (0:13:48). A member: "Just because I'm the newbie. What? Why do. Why are we the only ones?" (0:14:31). Chair: "There was a court decision years ago and it it was a Supreme Court decision." (0:14:39). | OBS |
| 0:15:27 | Fold it in or hold the number? | Irish: "we either have to change that number. The 31148256 to match the 31455 or we hold firm". Sprague: "I was surprised when I saw that tonight that it was folded in." (0:16:26). Petrin understood the contract "would be on top of that budget" (0:17:21); Irish says "we were all under the impression that if SR was approved, it meant there was going to be more of a cut to the budget." (0:17:33). | |
| 0:18:15 | Tax effect | Irish: "If. We stick with the original number, we're back to about our 4347 cent tax reduction. If we go with the new number we're now at a three cent." (0:18:45). The administrator: "The cutting is actually larger than that because of the fixed cost increases" (0:19:04). | |
| 0:20:54 | Irish: let the voters decide | "I wish everybody hadn't left, and I wish we'd talk more about this during the public hearing." "Here's a 47 cent tax decrease. And if the voters want it, they can say, yep." (0:21:17); "I'm going to stick firm to the 31148" (0:22:12). | OBS |
| 0:22:31 | What the deliberative session can do | Zullo asks whether "if 500 people got together and they said, we want to add 7 million into the budget, then that could get voted in". O'Neill: "If they cut $7 million or cut $2 million, you default budget is still an option." "Again, it's a process of steps to go to a public hearing, to go to a deliberative session, to go to the ballot." (0:23:05); the ballot vote is "on March 13th" (0:23:36). | |
| 0:23:43 | Herzog moves to add the contract | "I'm going to want to support teachers because I want our teachers to be good." "So, I'd like to make a motion to amend that budget to 31 million for 55 to 56, and let the voters decide if that's too high." Sprague seconds (0:24:23). | |
| 0:24:49 | Default budget figure | Sprague: "my only concern there is that the default budget becomes attractive". O'Neill: "It's 35,111,787. Okay. It's approximately $300,000 more than the main budget, but $200,000 more." (0:25:04), then "It's right now it's 191, 377 more than the operating budget." (0:25:26). | OBS |
| 0:25:42 | Irish and Sprague hold firm | Irish: "we started out with $1.70. We ended up with 47." (0:26:00). Sprague: "Patrick is not on the board anymore." (0:26:57); "I don't want to talk about cuts. That's the wrong terminology. I think this is about management." (0:27:16); he would bring tuitioned students back in-district (0:28:11). | |
| 0:28:41 | Chair: the cut was already too deep | "There was a number given two weeks ago, and it was painful." "now, because we've approved the teacher contract, we're looking at going back and cutting $307,000 more in the budget." (0:29:29). | |
| 0:29:52 | Pierce: "a scare tactic" | "I don't think it was too much for everybody. I think it was too much for three of you." "And those ones Rebecca tried multiple times to have a dress and she was shot down." (0:30:43); "I just have to say that the I felt like it was a scare tactic." (0:31:33); "having three psychologists on board and taking one out, that's $100,000 right there using contract services." (0:33:06). | |
| 0:35:17 | Line-item questions | "I don't think anybody is skimming anybody." Maintenance trucks: "Those were actually budgeted." (0:36:06); textbooks came from Title I grants and "a surplus of additional moneys at the end of last year" (0:36:39), "about $200,000" (0:36:51). A line "where the actual has never been higher than 34,000, and it's estimated at 42,000." (0:37:44). | |
| 0:38:41 | Staff development line | "the highest we've ever spent for that is 99,000. And then for the 1819 year we have 133,000." The administrator: the contract's benefit "if it was fully utilized, is over $800,000" (0:39:07); "the board at the time added $59,000 and put in that line." (0:39:59); at fiscal year end "we flip flopped money, and we're able to pay the teachers in June for the work that they did with the budgeted money here, but then used the other money in the next year to pay for something else." (0:40:42). Certification costs "$130 roughly every three years" (0:48:39). | |
| 0:49:00 | Chair: name a non-salary saving | "Can you give us an example of cost savings you have found in a line on them that is not a salary and is not something that we have presented to you already." (0:49:24). Superintendent: "I was publicly accused of putting up scare tactics" (0:49:31); "I went through my budget. I came up with chump change. I had to go into staffing." (0:50:02). Zullo: "I can let me just I will get back to you on that one." (0:50:43). | |
| 0:51:40 | Herzog: support the strategic plan | "I want to support our teachers. I want to keep good teachers, and I want them to stay here." (0:52:52). | |
| 0:53:38 | Irish: a bottom line, not line items | "this is exactly the reason why we don't have the authority, nor should we, to try to micromanage all these line items"; "let's go through this again 1700 lines, line by line by line. Again, this is a fool's errand." (0:55:14); "$328,000 is not Armageddon in that big of a budget" (0:55:43); "every meeting we came to expecting that conversation, we were given another sales pitch and another distraction and another diversion." (0:58:18). | |
| 0:57:17 | Chair: waste or need? | "Is is every dollar necessary that they're telling us they need it, that it's going to affect what happens in our schools? Or is it that there's waste and they can be better managed." (0:57:31). | |
| 0:59:24 | Pierce on the administration | "Doctor Goodwin was aggressive. Doctor McGowan was disrespectful at times about us even knowing what we were doing." (1:00:29). | |
| 1:02:09 | Question called; roll calls | Petrin: "Alex made a motion. I'd like to make a motion to call the motion." The clerk: "Well, I can't write and listen." (1:02:34). Calling the question carries 6-1 ("Carries. So we have our motion.", 1:03:39); the amendment then fails 3-4 (1:04:07 to 1:04:36). | POS |
| 1:04:40 | Main motion and debate | Irish moves the December 20 figure to the deliberative session; Pierce seconds. Herzog: "I think we're short changing. I think that puts up 700,000 a hole." "So I hope that people will come out and vote against it." (1:05:00). Irish: "instead of the $329,000 in cuts, we're looking at over $650,000 now." (1:05:47). Continued in part 2. | |
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 January 3, 2018, 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: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The board amended the agenda on the floor (0:01:28 to 0:03:43) and accepted two gifts and reconsidered its budget, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force for all of 2018, required minutes that "shall include 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". (The requirement to record who moved and seconded each motion took effect January 1, 2019, and does not apply to this meeting.) This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the clerk was taking minutes (0:06:18, 1:02:34), and the board took up the minutes of this regular meeting on January 31, 2018 (Cablecast show 9586). What is missing is any public copy now.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018)
OBSERVATION A nonpublic session held before the hearing is on no recording, and its basis cannot be checked
The chair opens this recording with "Need a motion to come out of nonpublic, which we had before our budget hearing." (0:00:08) and notes the roll call was taken "when we opened the meeting earlier" (0:00:34). That earlier portion was not recorded. RSA 91-A:3, I(b), as it read in 2018, required that "Any motion to enter nonpublic session shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II" and be decided by roll call; RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes to be disclosed within 72 hours unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote taken in public session. None of the motion, the exemption cited, the roll call, a sealing vote or the nonpublic minutes can be seen from here, and the subject of the session is never stated on tape. Nothing on the recording suggests the session was improper; the gap is that nothing public lets a reader confirm it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1)
OBSERVATION The teachers' agreement came to the board in nonpublic session, and its ratification vote is on no recording
The superintendent told the hearing the board "approved and ratified" the agreement on December 20 (part 1 of the hearing), and the business administrator puts its 2018-19 cost at $307,153. Here an administrator says the agreement "came to you in a non public meeting after the last board meeting that was held at the tech Center, we went over into the other room, and that was one of two items discussed in that." (0:12:51). The collective-bargaining exclusion from the definition of a meeting, RSA 91-A:2, I(a) in the 2018 text, reaches only "Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining", and RSA 91-A:3, II lists no exemption for ratifying a bargaining agreement, so the ratification vote belonged in public session. The December 20 recording (Cablecast show 9507) ends at the roll call to enter nonpublic, so whether the board returned to public session and voted there cannot be determined from the recordings, and the minutes that would settle it are not public. The ratification's cost is the reason the board reconsidered its budget at this meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2017 codification, in force for 2018); RSA 91-A:3, II (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION The contract's cost items go to voters inside the operating budget, on the strength of an unidentified court decision
The business administrator said Claremont is "one of the only, if not the only district that is required to put SRE or our teachers contract in the made [main] budget" (0:13:19), and the chair attributed this to "a Supreme Court decision" (0:14:39); neither identified it, and this page has not located it. RSA 273-A:3, II(b) provides that "Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body of the public employer for approval at the next annual meeting of the legislative body". Placing the $307,153 inside the operating-budget article means voters cannot approve or reject the contract's cost separately, and the board's choice tonight was whether to absorb it within the December 20 total (a deeper cut elsewhere) or raise the total. Whether that placement satisfies RSA 273-A:3, II(b) is a legal question this page cannot settle. The board's decision after the hearing to finalize a figure is itself consistent with RSA 32:5, I, which directs the governing body "after the conclusion of public testimony" to "finalize the budget".
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (source note ends 2013, 244:1, eff. Sept. 22, 2013); RSA 32:5, I (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION The default budget figure is garbled in the transcript; the speaker's own comparison puts it near $31.65 million
The business administrator's figure is transcribed "It's 35,111,787" (0:25:04). That cannot be right as transcribed: it would sit about $3.7 million above the operating budget, yet seconds later he says the default is "191, 377 more than the operating budget" (0:25:26). Added to the $31,455,410 operating figure he had just given, $191,377 yields $31,646,787, which shares the transcript's last three digits; the transcription probably misheard the leading digits. This is the page's arithmetic, not a figure stated on tape. A default budget above the proposed operating budget is lawful: RSA 40:13, IX(b), as it read in 2018, built the default from the prior year's appropriations adjusted for debt service, contracts and other obligations, less one-time expenditures, and the superintendent explained at the hearing why Claremont's ran higher. The consequence Sprague names (0:24:49) is real: if voters rejected the lower operating budget, the higher default would be the fallback, as O'Neill had just said (0:23:05).
Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) (2017 codification; in force until August 2018)
OBSERVATION The board struck its scheduled review of the hearing testimony before voting on the budget
The agenda carried "a review of citizens comments from the public hearing" (0:01:53), which the board removed on the vice chair's motion (0:01:28) minutes after roughly two dozen people had testified. The vice chair himself later said "I wish we'd talk more about this during the public hearing." (0:20:54). No rule required a separate review: RSA 32:5, I required the hearing and then that the governing body "finalize the budget" after testimony closed. Members did refer to the testimony in the budget debate that followed (the chair at 0:49:00; Irish at 0:21:56). The flag records that the structured item was dropped, not a breach.
Sources: RSA 32:5, I (2017 codification)
POSITIVE Each member's vote on adding the contract cost is on the public record by roll call
The chair put both the motion to call the question and Herzog's amendment to a roll call (1:02:46, 1:04:02), and the clerk called each member by name. In 2018, RSA 91-A required roll calls when a member participated remotely (RSA 91-A:2, III(e)) and to enter nonpublic session (RSA 91-A:3, I(b)); an in-person budget vote could be taken by voice. Recording each member's position on the $307,153 question, on a 3-4 vote, goes beyond the minimum and lets voters see who stood where before the deliberative session.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2017 codification: roll call when a member participates remotely); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.CSV (505 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4Input/Transcripts/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 55Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)- Context read for this page: the dialogue transcripts of the December 20, 2017 meeting (Cablecast show 9507, for where it ends) and the January 31, 2018 meeting (show 9586, for the minutes approval)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, I(a), II and III(e), 2017 codification (in force for 2018): collective-bargaining strategy excluded from the definition of a meeting; minutes content and timing; roll call for remote participation
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II and III, 2017 codification: nonpublic motion and roll call; exemptions; 72-hour disclosure
- RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (2013, 244:1): only cost items go to the legislative body
- RSA 32:5, I, 2017 codification: finalize the budget after public testimony
- RSA 40:13, IX(b), 2017 codification: default budget definition