Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Spellings follow the project's 2015-2023 roster where the transcript garbles a name; there are no minutes to check spellings against. Speaker labels come from the dialogue file and its attribution report.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Sara Lowe | Chair, SAU 6 Board (re-elected); chair, Unity School Board (Unity) | "I'm Sarah Lowe, I'm from unity. I'm the chair there and here." (0:01:00). Nominated by Sprague and elected; runs the meeting; relays citizen emails about the March 14 walkout; explains the open-meeting right on personnel discussions; joins the evaluation subcommittee. |
| Michael Petrin | Vice chair, SAU 6 Board (elected) (Claremont) | Introduces himself ("Michael Patron from Claremont", 0:00:48); seconds Lowe's nomination; elected vice chair; argues the evaluation instrument can be done "in one meeting". Speaking voice assigned by elimination in the attribution report (low-medium confidence). |
| Michelle Pierce | Treasurer, SAU 6 Board (elected) (Claremont) | Accepts the treasurer post after Benware's nomination; questions the superintendent's one-on-one meetings with principals; wanted a nonpublic session; calls the superintendent's handling of a budget directive "unprofessional" (1:57:52). |
| Frank Sprague | Member; chair of the Claremont School Board | Nominates Lowe and Petrin; asks for budget actuals; requested the nonpublic item under "91-832 see" [RSA 91-A:3, II(c)] (1:47:16); states the Claremont board's concerns in general terms. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member; vice chair of the Claremont School Board | Asks how raises and the superintendent's pay are set and for his contract; asks about culture and climate goals; joins the evaluation subcommittee. |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Nominates Pierce for treasurer; asks about fund balance and the timing of the evaluation; says the superintendent's reply "sounded very threatening" (1:55:43). Transcribed "Jason Bedwell". |
| Steven Horsky | Member (Claremont) | Seconds the agenda; reports on his school visits; joins the evaluation subcommittee. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Asks whether the superintendent reports progress on the plan to the board; supports the evaluation work. Transcribed "Told" and "Carolyn. Tall". |
| Marjorie (Marge) Erickson | Member (Unity) | "Marge Erickson, unity school board." (0:01:17). Proposes a subcommittee working from a "straw man" draft; joins it. |
| Prudence McCormick | Member (Unity) | Says the evaluation problem has persisted across her "12 years prior" on the board and urges an early follow-up meeting (1:20:00). |
| Bob McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Absent per the clerk (0:10:48). |
| Craig (surname not established) | Member (Unity) | Absent per the clerk (0:10:48). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Runs the chair election; presents the FY19 budget, the SAU achievement goals and the principals' goals; walks the board through past evaluation attempts; asks that any discussion of his evaluation be public. |
| Michael (Mike) O'Neill | Business administrator | "Mike O'Neill. I think most of you know who I am." (0:01:14). Explains the treasurer's duties, the merit pool, fund balance, indirect-cost revenue and the assessment formula. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Explains the audit liability of having no treasurer, split positions, restructuring and the goals' link to the strategic plan. Voice assigned on content (medium-high confidence). |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (staff) | "Mary Woodman, secretary." (0:01:19); calls the roll. |
| Unidentified | Various | 191 of 914 dialogue rows (20.9%) are short replies, chorus responses and clipped fragments. The chair says one citizen is present for comment (0:12:10); no one speaks. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives, though the superintendent says "everyone has a paper agenda" (0:01:27). The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:17 | Call to order; introductions | Members and staff introduce themselves. |
| 0:01:27 | Election of chair, 2018-19 | Sprague: "I'd like to nominate Sarah, if she's willing." Second by Petrin ("Mike Patron second"); no other nominations; voice vote (0:02:48). |
| 0:03:02 | Election of vice chair | Sprague nominates "Mr. Mike Peterson" [Petrin]; no other nominations; voice vote (0:03:32). |
| 0:04:31 | Election of treasurer | Benware: "I'm nominate Michelle Pierce for this position." The chair asks whether there was a second; none is audible. Voice vote (0:09:10). No secretary is elected on the record. |
| 0:09:36 | Pledge of Allegiance; roll call | Ten present; McDevitt and Craig absent. |
| 0:10:57 | Agenda | "Approve the agenda as presented." (Sprague), second Horsky; approved (0:11:17). |
| 0:11:17 | Minutes of November 2, 2017 | New members to abstain; approved by voice vote (0:12:01). |
| 0:12:10 | Citizens' comments | No citizen speaks. The chair relays emails about the March 14 student walkout. |
| 0:14:02 | SAU 6 budget (FY19, as adopted) | Review for new members; discussion only. |
| 0:33:17 | SAU 6 academic achievement goals; principals' evaluation goals | Discussion only. |
| 0:55:52 | Superintendent evaluation | Subcommittee formed by consensus: "Rebecca, Mike, Marjorie, Sarah and Steven" (1:35:06). No formal motion is heard. |
| 1:36:44 | FY20 budget preparation; meeting calendar | Dates offered: May 10, June 14, August 16 or 23, September 13, October 18, November 8; the superintendent to send them out. |
| 1:46:43 | Nonpublic session | Requested by Sprague under RSA 91-A:3, II(c); the superintendent asks that it be public; the chair notes Pierce's motion to enter nonpublic had no second (1:49:04). Discussion held in public. |
| 2:07:02 | Adjournment | Motion Pierce, second Sprague; "Is adjourned." (2:07:11). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9715 SAU6032918.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Quotations are as transcribed; bracketed words are corrections, with the transcript's wording kept where the correction changes sense.
Chronological topics with the most concrete material first.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:27 | Officer elections | The superintendent opens nominations for "the SA six School Board chair for 1819". Lowe: "I feel like this year is the first year has been a learning curve". Lowe and Petrin are elected by voice vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:47 | A treasurer after years without one | O'Neill: "I think we've been slightly lacking in an estimated treasurer for the past few years." The treasurer signs vouchers and reconciles the cash account. LeClair: "we are catching up on the audit process and without a defined or named treasurer. We will end up with corrective actions." and "we're still talking about a couple of million dollars." O'Neill: "It's got to come from the board". Pierce is elected. | MEDIUM |
| 0:12:38 | Walkout emails | Lowe relays citizens' concern about "the perception that Middleton or other people had supported it or organized that"; she understands administration was there "to, supervise and make sure that people were safe." | |
| 0:14:12 | FY19 SAU budget | One technology integrator position is split 0.5 SAU and 0.5 Claremont; an administrative assistant is split between the superintendent's office and special education. Raises come from a "proposed merit pool" of "about 2% of the total wages" (0:19:40); Lowe says the board set it up "two years ago" instead of across-the-board raises. The superintendent "has a five. year contract" (0:22:00); Zullo asks for copies. Sprague asks for actuals beside the budgets; O'Neill agrees. | |
| 0:25:25 | Fund balance and assessments | Benware sees money left over each year. O'Neill: "this year was we put $75,000 to offset assessments"; fund balance comes mainly from federal-grant indirect-cost revenue, which rose from "23 for 82" to "95 for 20" [figures as transcribed]. Lowe explains the end of rent paid to Claremont for the SAU building. Each district's share is set "by RSA" on half average daily membership and half equalized valuation (0:31:58). | |
| 0:33:22 | Achievement and principal goals | Benware asks why Claremont's elementary reading target is 80% against Unity's 90%; LeClair: each level "were able to define their own goals". The principals' 2017-18 goals follow the Claremont strategic plan's three focus areas. Towle asks for progress reports; the superintendent: "I have not done that." Zullo asks about culture and climate goals. | |
| 0:55:52 | Superintendent evaluation history | Lowe: "The last time we did this was not last year, the two years ago." and "we're sort of out of compliance with the fact that we're supposed to be doing it every year." The superintendent: evaluations for 2011-12 and 2013-14 "never done or finished"; "last year, 1617. There were no goals set and 1718, there were no goals set." His contract: "the six board shall provide. The superintendent attended at least one written evaluation each year." | OBS |
| 1:08:11 | How to evaluate | Erickson cites the AASA white paper and an NSBA checklist and proposes a subcommittee. Lowe: "It's a lack of participation by the members of this board historically." Pierce wants a teacher survey; Lowe says the superintendent directly supervises principals, not teachers. Horsky reports administrators told him "they have a good support system at the sea level" [SAU level]. | |
| 1:17:31 | Nonpublic or public | Zullo prefers a private discussion. Lowe: "if we are going into a nonpublic to discuss a personnel matter, that person has the right to request that it is not a nonpublic and that it is an open meeting. That's an RSA and that's a law." | POS |
| 1:25:49 | No evaluation for this year | The superintendent: "it's next week is April 1st." Pierce wants an evaluation this year against the strategic plan; he answers "We did not mutually establish criteria." Erickson: it "can't be opinion based." | OBS |
| 1:30:00 | Evaluation subcommittee | Lowe asks the rules for a subcommittee's notice and notes. The superintendent: "Board has a quorum. It has to be warned." and "If if there are four of the seven board members in Claremont, that's a quorum." Members settle on Zullo, Petrin, Erickson, Lowe and Horsky, with a draft due at the next meeting. | MEDIUM |
| 1:37:03 | Meeting calendar and budget timing | The superintendent wants FY20 dates locked in so the board has a quorum: "the worst thing that can happen to the six, it's early December, we're running out of time and we don't have the budget." O'Neill: "we do have to have a public hearing within a certain time." and "December 31st." Pierce: "I would like to see budget in October." | OBS |
| 1:46:43 | The nonpublic item, held in public | Lowe reads II(c). The superintendent: "I would request to the RSA be public." and "I haven't been evaluated in two years." Sprague describes concerns raised "during the budget process and during the negotiation process" without specifics. The superintendent: "I had some very serious concerns as well. Regarding the board, regarding how it was done and regarding the law." | POS |
| 1:54:42 | An exchange over consequences | The superintendent: "I'm not going to sit here and have things said to me. That are based on an opinion, but and just absorb it". Benware: "the wording of it sounded very threatening." The superintendent: "I would consult your legal counsel." and "I'm not threatening anyone." Pierce: "It was unprofessional." Lowe answers that a board member's job is "to support the achievement of the students". | |
| 2:01:15 | Moving on | Sprague calls the past year's evaluation "a moot point legally and ethically"; Petrin and Horsky agree there are no agreed goals. Lowe describes Unity's board self-evaluation. Sprague and Lowe recall a year when Cornish's non-attendance left the board unable to reach a quorum: "we could not have a quorum without having not nine people". | |
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 March 29, 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 for this SAU 6 meeting: neither share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The meeting elected the unit's officers and formed a subcommittee, and the recording is now the only public account. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force throughout 2018, 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 superintendent refers to a paper agenda (0:01:27), the board approves the November 2, 2017 minutes on tape (0:11:17), and a recording secretary is present (0:01:19). The project's standing rule that SAU 6 minutes are often filed with later packets cannot be tested for 2018, because no SAU 6 folder from that year survives in the share.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text for all of 2018)
MEDIUM The unit organized before the statutory April 1 to June 1 window, and no secretary was chosen on the record
RSA 194-C:5, I provides that the SAU board "shall meet between April 1 and June 1 in each year" and "shall organize by choosing a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer." This meeting, on March 29, elected the chair and vice chair "for 1819" (0:02:01, 0:03:32) and a treasurer (0:09:10), three days before the window opens. Vice chair is not one of the statutory offices. No secretary was elected; the staff recording secretary introduces herself as "Mary Woodman, secretary." (0:01:19), which is a staff role, not a board office. The record does not show whether the board re-confirmed its officers at the May 10 meeting it scheduled inside the window (1:39:34), and nothing indicates that any act turned on the date. The superintendent himself reminded the board that "next week is April 1st" in another context (1:25:49).
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3, never amended)
MEDIUM The unit had no treasurer "for the past few years", with audit corrective actions expected
The business administrator said the unit had been "slightly lacking in an estimated treasurer for the past few years" (0:05:00), and the chair: "historically I know we haven't had we have not had someone in that role." (0:05:44). The assistant superintendent warned that "without a defined or named treasurer. We will end up with corrective actions" in the audit, describing the gap as "a financial liability" with "a couple of million dollars" at stake (0:06:13, 0:06:30). The treasurer is the person who signs vouchers and reconciles the cash account as a check on the business office (0:05:00, 0:05:15). RSA 194-C:5, I requires the SAU board to organize by choosing a treasurer every year, so the lapse described is a departure from a binding rule in the years before this meeting. The severity is MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the board cured it at this meeting by electing Pierce, and because the record does not say which years were affected or what the auditors found. The audit reports themselves would settle the extent.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, I (2017 codification)
MEDIUM Advice that a subcommittee needs notice only if it holds a quorum of a board
Asked what rules govern the new evaluation subcommittee's meetings and notes, the superintendent answered "Board has a quorum. It has to be warned." (1:32:14) and "If if there are four of the seven board members in Claremont, that's a quorum." (1:32:26). The members then sized the group to avoid a Claremont quorum (1:33:14). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), unchanged since 2008, defines a public body to include a school board or SAU board "or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto". A subcommittee therefore carries its own notice and minutes duties under RSA 91-A:2 whether or not its members form a quorum of either parent board; the quorum question decides only whether the parent board itself is meeting. Three weeks later the New Hampshire School Boards Association's attorney told the Claremont board that a policy committee "is governed by the right to know law in exactly the same way as your school board is" (show 9740 transcript; see the April 18, 2018 meeting page). The record does not show how the subcommittee then met, and the chair's question shows she was trying to get the rules right. The severity is MEDIUM because the advice, as given, would lead a subcommittee to meet without notice.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1, so the text in force in 2018); RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION The statute fixes when the SAU budget is adopted; it does not itself require a hearing
Setting the FY20 calendar, the business administrator said "we do have to have a public hearing within a certain time." and named "December 31st." (1:46:13, 1:46:16). RSA 194-C:9, I, in the 2017 codification, provides: "At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget", apportioned half on average membership and half on equalized valuation. The project's verified reading of that section finds no public-hearing requirement in it. The December 31 date is therefore right as a deadline for adoption; whether a hearing is required would need another source, such as the unit's own policy. The apportionment he described earlier (0:31:58) matches the statute.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1)
OBSERVATION No superintendent evaluation for two years, and no agreed goals for either
The chair said the board was "sort of out of compliance with the fact that we're supposed to be doing it every year" (0:58:52), and the superintendent said no goals were set for 2016-17 or 2017-18 (1:03:00) and read his contract's clause that the board "shall provide" at least one written evaluation each year, related to "written goals and objectives mutually agreed to" (1:03:59). The duty described is contractual; this page has not verified a statute requiring an annual superintendent evaluation, so the point is an observation. The record shows both sides' explanations: the chair attributed past failures to members not returning forms (1:08:55), the superintendent to the instrument used (1:06:13). The board responded by naming a subcommittee to draft criteria (1:35:06). The contract itself is not in the record; members asked for copies (0:22:06, 1:03:33).
Sources: Cablecast: SAU SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 3-29
POSITIVE A nonpublic request named its exemption, and the employee's request for an open meeting was honored
The agenda item for a nonpublic session was identified by its statutory ground: Sprague gave "91-832 see" [RSA 91-A:3, II(c)] and the chair read its text aloud (1:47:16, 1:47:24). The superintendent then asked that the discussion be public (1:47:35), and the board did not go into nonpublic session; Pierce's motion had drawn no second (1:49:04). Earlier the chair had explained the employee's right to an open meeting correctly (1:19:04). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires a nonpublic motion to "state on its face the specific exemption", and both II(a) (an employee's compensation, discipline or the investigation of charges, "unless the employee affected (1) has a right to a meeting and (2) requests that the meeting be open") and II(c) (reputation, "unless such person requests an open meeting") give way to the affected person's request. The board did what the statute requires. Members' unease about what they could say on camera (1:53:54) is the cost of that choice, and the superintendent pointed them to counsel (1:56:37).
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a) and II(c) (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 3-29 (show 9715; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 on 2026-10-02)
- 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/9715 SAU6032918.mp4.CSV (914 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9715 SAU6032918.mp4Input/Transcripts/9715 SAU6032918.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 62Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9715 SAU6032918.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2017 codification (in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018): notice, minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1): committees and subcommittees of a board are public bodies
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(c), 2017 codification: nonpublic motion states its exemption; the affected person may request an open meeting
- RSA 194-C:5, I (1996, 298:3): SAU board meets between April 1 and June 1 and organizes by choosing a chairperson, a secretary and a treasurer
- RSA 194-C:9, I, 2017 codification: SAU budget adopted at a meeting held before January 1; apportionment formula