Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on this recording. Members are named from the clerk's roll call (garbled in places: "Alex. Rosa.", "Brian. Ralph."); spellings follow the project roster. There are no minutes to check them against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Votes no on the main budget (0:01:41); says he ran the hearing's three-minute rule (0:03:55); takes each special warrant article separately (0:13:33) and calls the votes. |
| Chris Irish | Vice chair | Calls the question and the roll (0:00:52, 0:01:04); proposes that members be free to defend their own positions (0:01:48); moves the security article (0:13:41); says he is not running (0:22:07). His cluster also carries other voices, so some lines rest on content. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Urges residents to attend the deliberative session (0:00:15); asks who set the three-minute limit and proposes five minutes (0:02:59, 0:03:38); seconds the security article (0:13:47) and moves the roofing article (0:19:26). Her roll-call yes is inside the clerk's segment (0:01:28). |
| Alex Herzog, Michael Petrin, Frank Sprague, Rebecca Zullo | Members | Heard here only in the roll call: Herzog No. (0:01:21), Petrin No. (0:01:25), Sprague Yes. (0:01:33), Zullo yes inside the clerk's segment (0:01:36). A member called Becca asks whether the warrant will describe the security work (0:09:19; Zullo or Pierce, unresolved). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Calls the roll (0:01:20 to 0:01:40); says the time limit "was in your information that came with your agenda" (0:03:12); corrects the filing dates printed on the agenda (0:20:58 to 0:21:39). Her filing-period lines were diarized with Pierce and reassigned on content. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of instructional technology, SAU 6 | Explains the 20 percent local match for the state security grant (0:07:08 to 0:12:59). The board calls him Josh (0:06:40); the surname rests on the project roster. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explains the bus lease-purchase (0:15:09) and the middle school roof bid (0:17:43 to 0:19:13). Diarized in the vice chair's cluster and reassigned on content. |
| Cory LeClair (uncertain) | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 | Explains that the moderator runs the deliberative session (0:05:03) and how members have presented warrant articles there (0:09:55); thanked as "Thank you. Corey." (0:05:51). |
| Unidentified | Probably an administrator | Tells the board how the district has publicized warrant articles: facts, not advocacy (0:13:51). |
| Unidentified | Members | The mover and seconder of the school bus article (0:17:13, 0:17:29) and other short remarks. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The clerk says the time limits and filing dates were in the agenda materials (0:03:12, 0:20:58); the list below follows 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 |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Main motion: $31,148,256.95 operating budget to the deliberative session (Irish, seconded by Pierce in part 1) | Question called by Irish (0:00:52). Roll call (0:01:15 to 0:01:41): yes Irish, Pierce, Sprague, Zullo; no Herzog, Petrin, Rapp. Carries 4-3. Irish's Yes. (0:01:15) comes before the first name call the transcript captures; the clerk called him first in both roll calls in part 1. The chair does not announce the result on the recording; the tally is taken from the answers. |
| 0:01:48 | Members' public advocacy on the budget | Irish asks that the ethics-policy expectation of unified support be set aside "for this exercise going into deliberate" (0:02:11). Agreed by apparent consensus; no motion or vote is heard. |
| 0:02:59 | Speaking time at the deliberative session | Pierce proposes five minutes instead of three (0:03:38); referred for a report at the next meeting (0:05:51). No vote. |
| 0:06:03 | Warrant article: security upgrades, $141,000 | Irish moves the article "with board support to the deliberative session" (0:13:41); Pierce seconds (0:13:47). Voice vote called (0:14:55); no dissent is heard. Board recommends. |
| 0:14:59 | Warrant article 4: school bus replacement (lease-purchase) | Moved (0:17:13) and seconded (0:17:29) by members not identifiable, "recommended by the board"; voice vote, Aye. then "Opposed. Perfect. Roofing improvements." (0:17:37, 0:17:39). |
| 0:17:39 | Warrant article: roofing improvements, $100,000 | Pierce moves it to the deliberative session (0:19:26); Irish adds Recommendation. (0:19:37); no seconder is distinctly heard. Voice vote (0:19:43). |
| 0:19:49 | Articles 1 and 2 | Article 1 (election of officers) needs no vote, "And one is just informational." (0:22:20); Article 2 is the operating budget already voted (0:20:09). |
| 0:20:20 | Election filing period | The clerk corrects the agenda's dates: filing opens January 24 and closes "4 p.m. on February 2nd" (0:21:39); three three-year seats and one one-year seat (0:22:00). |
| 0:22:34 | Adjournment | "Motion to adjourn." Second by a voice the clerk cannot place ("The second. Come from.", 0:22:45); voice vote (0:22:42). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9550 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.
Topics in the order discussed
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Before the vote | A member: "So all those that list of of teachers and services that we weren't going to have to cut. Now those are all back on the table." Pierce: "on on February 7th is when you come out and you come out and vote and you come out to deliberate for this new budget." (0:00:15); "there there are things that probably could be done without losing our staff." | |
| 0:00:52 | Roll call on the main budget | Irish: "I'll call the question." The roll is called from 0:01:20; the last answer, the chair's, is transcribed "Ralph. No." (0:01:41). Irish: All right. (0:01:44). | POS |
| 0:01:48 | Setting aside the unified-support rule | "we have a policy that we've talked a lot about prior to tonight that says once the board makes a decision, we all support that decision. That's in our ethics policy." "I don't expect us to necessarily hold true to that particular piece of our policy for this exercise going into deliberate, deliberate. Alex is going to talk to his people. I'm going to talk to my people." (0:02:11); "So we are all good with suspending that rule that things are in this process." (0:02:41). | OBS |
| 0:02:59 | Who set the three-minute limit? | Pierce: "I didn't hear the answer to the question, but who set a time limit today?" Clerk: "It was in your information that came with your agenda." (0:03:12). Pierce: "the City council allows five minutes for per person" (0:03:28). Chair: the limit was "three minutes the first time. And it's it was also posted in the agenda that they get to speak a second time" (0:03:55). | OBS |
| 0:05:03 | Who runs the deliberative session | LeClair: "Deliberative session is run by the moderator. We can set hearing is run by you." "If a previous board had arbitrarily said it, then you can arbitrarily set it at something else." (0:05:25). A voice: "This is the seventh consecutive year we've done it this way." (0:05:29); Pierce: "Well, I'm tired of hearing the seven year done it this way." (0:05:32). Chair: "we're we're out of order." (0:05:41). | OBS |
| 0:06:08 | Security upgrades and the state grant | Malloy: "that 141 would be our portion. 20%. It's through the public infrastructure infrastructure grant through the state" (0:07:08). Irish: "So represents about $720,000 worth of improvements we can do for $141,000." (0:07:34). Malloy: "That would be cameras in all the schools, door access control in the buildings that don't have them, and shades" (0:07:43). No new tax effect, "because we raised 141 last year" (0:09:35). If the article fails, "We lose it." (0:11:05); approval is at the governor's "complete discretion" (0:12:40). | |
| 0:09:55 | How articles are explained to voters | LeClair: "each board member sort of takes one of the Warren articles, and they describe to the public who are in attendance and viewing from home what it means." Irish: "I think it'd be great to get that stuff on the website. Or, you know, the flier you did for tonight was was great." (0:10:47). A speaker: historically it would "be inappropriate to say, vote for it and not vote for it. But it is appropriate to give them the facts" (0:13:51). | POS |
| 0:15:09 | School bus lease-purchase | O'Neill: "The last time you bought busses was five years ago. The oldest busses in the fleet are 20 years old." "My recommendation is we continue with $39,000 a year in the budget for the leases." "They're all lease purchase agreements." (0:15:42). He favors propane buses with an auxiliary tank (0:16:21). On the article's wording: "I'm not going to lie, I stole that from five years ago." (0:17:18). | |
| 0:17:43 | Roofing at the middle school | "We have more of a problem at CMS with the flat roof." The cost "to be about $107,000 at the estimate I received" (0:18:04); "Estimate in this book is $170,000 to do that roof. And I can get a quote for 107." (0:18:41); "we put it out to bid for the for the roofs" (0:18:58). The article stays at $100,000. | |
| 0:20:20 | Offices on the March ballot | Irish: "Every year we elect a moderator, a clerk and a treasurer for one year term." The clerk: "Contrary to the dates on your agenda. It is wrong." (0:20:58); "24th of January is the opening." (0:21:24); "4 p.m. on February 2nd. It's the final time you can get in to do it." (0:21:39). Irish: "I made it pretty clear I'm not running" (0:22:07). | POS |
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. This part of the meeting sent the operating budget and three special articles to the deliberative session, and the recording is now the only public account of those votes; two of the motions have movers or seconders no one can identify from the tape (0:17:13, 0:17:29, 0:22:45). 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". This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the clerk was recording the meeting, and the board took up these minutes 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 The board set aside a provision of its ethics policy by consensus, without a motion or vote
Immediately after the 4-3 vote, the vice chair said the board's ethics policy provides that "once the board makes a decision, we all support that decision", and proposed that members be free to argue their own positions before the deliberative session: "So we are all good with suspending that rule that things are in this process." (0:02:41). No motion, second or vote follows on the recording, and the policy's text is not in the record, so whether it allows suspension, and by what vote, cannot be checked. State law does not stand in the way of the members' advocacy itself: RSA 659:44-a bars electioneering only by a "public employee" as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX, and that definition excludes "Persons elected by popular vote". Herzog had already urged residents to vote the budget down (part 1). The question the flag raises is the board's own governance, not a statute.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a, I (source note ends 2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017); RSA 273-A:1, IX(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2014, 13:1, 2, so the same text governed in 2018)
OBSERVATION The five-minute proposal was deferred; the deliberative session's rules belong to the moderator
Pierce asked who had set the three-minute limit and proposed five minutes per speaker at the deliberative session (0:02:59, 0:03:38). The assistant superintendent answered that the "Deliberative session is run by the moderator" while the hearing "is run by you" (0:05:03), and the item was held for the next meeting (0:05:51). That answer matches the law then in force: RSA 40:13, IV made the first session subject to RSA 40:4, which provided that "The moderator shall preside in the town meetings, regulate the business thereof, decide questions of order" and "may prescribe rules of proceeding", subject to change by the meeting itself. The board could recommend a speaking time but not set one. At the January 31, 2018 meeting the moderator, Tracy Pope, presented the session's rules of procedure to the board (Cablecast show 9586).
Sources: RSA 40:4 (2017 codification; source note ends 1998, 278:1); RSA 40:13, IV (2017 codification)
POSITIVE The board was reminded that district communications on warrant articles should give facts, not advocate a vote
Before the security article vote, a speaker who appears to be an administrator told the board that historically it would "be inappropriate to say, vote for it and not vote for it. But it is appropriate to give them the facts" (0:13:51), and the vice chair asked that article descriptions go on the website or into a flier like the one prepared for the hearing (0:10:47). That line tracks RSA 659:44-a, which provides that "No public employee, as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX, shall electioneer while in the performance of his or her official duties" and defines electioneering as acting "in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office". Stating the rule on the record, and proposing factual materials for voters, is good practice for the staff who prepare them.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a, I and III (source note ends 2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017)
POSITIVE The clerk corrected the agenda's filing dates on the record, and the corrected dates match the statute
The clerk told the board the dates on its agenda were wrong (0:20:58) and gave the filing period as January 24 to 4 p.m. on February 2 (0:21:24, 0:21:39). RSA 669:19, applied to school district elections by RSA 671:19, opens filing on the "seventh Wednesday" before the election and closes it on the "Friday of the following week". For the March 13, 2018 election that is Wednesday, January 24 through Friday, February 2. The 4 p.m. closing hour is not in RSA 669:19 itself, and this page has not verified it. Correcting a printed error on camera, where prospective candidates could hear it, served the public.
Sources: RSA 669:19 (2017 codification; source note ends 2011, 40:1); RSA 671:19 (2017 codification; source 1979, 321:1)
POSITIVE The budget sent to the voters was adopted by roll call, so each member's vote is public
The vice chair asked for a roll call on the main budget motion (0:01:04) and the clerk called each member by name (0:01:20 to 0:01:40): yes Irish, Pierce, Sprague and Zullo; no Herzog, Petrin and Rapp. In 2018, RSA 91-A:2, III(e) required a roll call when a member participated remotely, and none is mentioned here, so a voice vote would have been lawful. One gap remains: the chair does not announce the result on the recording, and the 4-3 tally on this page is read from the members' answers.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2017 codification: roll call when a member participates remotely)
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/9550 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.CSV (257 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9550 SchoolBoard010318.mp4Input/Transcripts/9550 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 56Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9550 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II and III(e), 2017 codification (in force for 2018): minutes content and timing; roll call for remote participation
- RSA 659:44-a (2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017): no electioneering by public employees on duty
- RSA 273-A:1, IX (source note ends 2014, 13:1, 2): public employee excludes persons elected by popular vote
- RSA 40:4, 2017 codification: the moderator presides and may prescribe rules of proceeding
- RSA 40:13, IV, 2017 codification: the first session governed by RSA 40:4
- RSA 669:19 and RSA 671:19, 2017 codification: filing period for school district offices