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 |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Runs the meeting; asks the attorney about non-meetings and about members posting on a community Facebook page; describes his own rule for public comment. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Asks about non-meetings for bargaining and about email retention; opens the climate and culture discussion; collects board feedback on the climate survey; joins the policy subcommittee. |
| Steven Horsky | Member | Asks about circulating draft policy text; argues against the administrators' request; moves the policy BA and BAA deadlines and the seven policies; joins the policy subcommittee. |
| Jason Benware | Member | Asks about exit-survey data and the climate survey; seconds the calendar, the BA/BAA amendment and the policies; joins the policy subcommittee. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Moves the minutes, the Hannaford gift and the administrators' request (for a roll-call vote); describes members limiting their own posts on community Facebook threads. Speaker label medium confidence per the attribution report. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Raises parents' concerns about competency-based grading; moves the calendar. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Asks the attorney to distinguish a non-meeting from a nonpublic session; describes time limits for public comment from her City Council service; asks for paper instructions on the parent portal. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reports Ben Nester as the recommended SAU 6 director of special education and nine applicants for the middle-school principal post; introduces the attorney; proposes the policy subcommittee; presents the gift, calendar, laptops and administrators' request. |
| Will Phillips | Attorney, New Hampshire School Boards Association | Introduced at 0:14:07 (transcribed "Tierney will Phillips"); presents "school boards, the First Amendment, the right to know law and the digital world" and answers questions for about 75 minutes. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Explains past climate and exit surveys, the System of Care grant, the grading discussion and the 2018-19 calendar. |
| Trinity Dicks (spelling unverified) | Project manager, System of Care grant | Introduced by LeClair (1:43:37); describes the climate survey run through Antioch and the grant's services. She gives her surname as "Dix" (2:16:26); the spelling is not established. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Calls the roll-call vote (3:02:49). |
| Lexi Grenier | Student representative, Stevens High School | Gives the student report (0:02:51); the superintendent names her at 2:48:19. |
| Mimi Rhines | Citizens' comments, Ward 1 | "I think I live in Ward one." She spells her surname "RH I and is" (0:10:31); transcribed "Mimi Ryan's". Speaks for a full-time, benefited communications coordinator. Spelling per the project roster. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of instructional technology | Present; LeClair refers to him (2:40:15). Not heard speaking. |
| Unidentified | Various | 97 of 1,010 dialogue rows (9.6%), including the member who moved to table the preschool handbook and the member who corrected the April 4 minutes. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the superintendent refers to agenda items by Roman numeral and letter (2:44:55, 2:48:54).
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Call to order, Pledge, roll call | Attendance answers at 0:00:55. |
| 0:01:09 | Agenda, as modified | Preschool family handbook tabled at the superintendent's request; approved by voice vote (0:01:41). |
| 0:01:52 | Minutes of April 4, 2018 | Motion Pierce. A member: "It said the meeting ended at 1015. Ended at 915." New motion Pierce "of minutes modified"; approved (0:02:33). |
| 0:02:33 | Student representative's report | Lexi Grenier. |
| 0:08:01 | Superintendent's report | Report only. |
| 0:10:05 | Citizens' comments | Mimi Rhines, Ward 1. Closed at 0:13:54. |
| 0:13:54 | Discussion: NHSBA attorney Will Phillips | Right-to-Know and digital communications. Ends at 1:32:07. |
| 1:32:14 | Discussion: climate and culture | Survey feedback to Zullo by May 2 (1:49:25). |
| 1:57:45 | Discussion: System of Care grant | Presentation by LeClair and Dicks. |
| 2:16:32 | Discussion: grading and reporting | Administration to return in late June (2:39:53). |
| 2:44:55 | Item VI F: school board policy subcommittee; policy questions memo | Horsky, Benware and Zullo volunteer (2:45:54). The 25 policy questions go to the April 22 retreat. |
| 2:48:19 | Action: $1,000 Hannaford donation | Motion Pierce "to accept the $1,000 grant from Hannah. Hannaford with a thank you."; second Horsky; approved by voice vote (2:48:49). |
| 2:48:54 | Action: 2018-19 school calendar | Motion Petrin "Approved the calendar as presented.", second Benware; approved (2:55:28). |
| 2:55:30 | School board use of laptops | Members may take laptops home after signing use documents. No vote. |
| 2:56:36 | Administrators' request on contract course money | Motion Pierce to accept the proposal "given by the administration", second Benware; roll call: every member No. (3:02:49 to 3:03:10). Fails 0-7. |
| 3:03:13 | Policies BA and BAA | Motion Horsky, second Benware; approved by voice vote (3:07:04). |
| 3:07:08 | Seven policies, third read | GBCD, GBI, IHAK, IMDA, JICD, IHAMA and a self-protection policy (transcribed "I am"). Motion Horsky, second Benware; approved (3:08:31). |
| 3:09:44 | Adjournment | Motion Pierce; voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9740 SchoolBoard041818.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:05 | April 4 minutes corrected | "It said the meeting ended at 1015. Ended at 915." The April 4 recording runs 2:18:41, which fits a 9:15 p.m. adjournment after a start near 7:00. | MEDIUM |
| 0:02:51 | Student report | Life-skills students raised "a total of $200" for the Sullivan County Humane Society; Hannaford donated "$1,000"; 34 students and three chaperones leave for Washington, D.C. on April 21; senior events and graduation dates. | |
| 0:08:28 | Superintendent's report | "Mr.. Ben Nester is the recommended candidate for the six director of Special education", to go to the SAU 6 board next month. The middle-school principal search has "approximately nine candidates". | |
| 0:10:40 | Citizens' comments | Rhines, after watching the April 17 joint meeting: the communications coordinator "should be one that is viewed as a necessity in this town and district" and "this job 100% needs deserves to be benefited". | |
| 0:18:02 | Who the law covers | Phillips: "if you have a policy committee, your policy committee is governed by the right to know law in exactly the same way as your school board is. You have to post your minute, your your meetings 24 hours in advance, and you have to keep minutes." And: "you might only have two people, but if the two people are talking about policies and they both happen to be on the policy committee, that's a meeting." | MEDIUM POS |
| 0:22:03 | Sequential communications, straw polls | "next thing you know, we've had a quorum speaking about a jurisdictional matter outside of a meeting. That would be a right to know violation." "There's no such thing as a straw poll." | POS |
| 0:25:27 | Non-meetings and nonpublic sessions | Collective-bargaining strategy and consultation with counsel can be non-meetings; "a nonpublic session can only happen during a public meeting." | |
| 0:32:22 | Email | "never use comments, emails, text to express ideas, concerns, opinions on jurisdictional issues or matters"; no reply-all; use BCC for logistics; use district email addresses. On data: a bill "that's going to require all school districts to create a data privacy plan" by 2019. | OBS |
| 0:50:09 | Public comment and the First Amendment | Sprague: speakers "can't speak specifically about any person." Phillips: "the First Amendment says that you can't engage in viewpoint discrimination" and "There is no constitutional right to speak at a board meeting". Towle describes timed comment from her council service. | |
| 1:01:24 | Social media | A member's own page should disclaim that it is official; on community pages, members posting on the same topic can create a meeting. Sprague asks about "What's Up, Claremont?"; Phillips: "that is a slippery slope, old greased." Pierce: members already hold back once others have posted. Asked about "likes", Phillips: "don't hit the, the, emojis." | |
| 1:20:25 | Nonpublic minutes and sealing | Phillips: the sealing vote must be taken in public with the reason stated; "There's only two reasons you can seal public minutes. I mean nonpublic minutes."; "you need two thirds of the, the persons present to vote on it"; otherwise "the minutes have to be available within three days." | OBS |
| 1:26:49 | Circulating draft policy text | Horsky cites the draft-documents exclusion; Phillips: circulating the typed-up policy "is not a meeting even though you got a quorum", but substantive pushback by email means "You need another meeting." | |
| 1:32:14 | Climate and culture | Zullo: staff feared survey answers "would be traced back to their computer." LeClair: climate surveys ran in 2015 and 2016, none last year; this year's will be collected by Antioch under the System of Care grant. Feedback on the questions to Zullo by May 2. The superintendent: exit surveys go to every departing employee, who may leave the name off. | |
| 1:57:51 | System of Care grant | "approximately 2 million, $2 million over the course of four years", federal SAMHSA money through the NH Department of Education. School-based therapy at three elementary schools since March; a kindergarten social-emotional screen of "39 students" found 15% not yet ready; a wraparound program with "three enrollees". | |
| 2:16:32 | Grading and reporting | Petrin relays parents' confusion over "not yet proficient" mid-quarter. The superintendent: "the ship left the dock too soon. We were not ready to implement competency based programing in the fall of 2012." LeClair's takeaways: parent-portal training, and clearer meaning for each mark; back in late June. | |
| 2:44:55 | A policy subcommittee | The superintendent: "I'm sort of a lone policy man" and "Can't be more than three unless we warn the meeting." Horsky, Benware and Zullo volunteer; he was "planning to have a Saturday morning." | MEDIUM |
| 2:48:19 | Hannaford gift; calendar | The $1,000 Hannaford donation is accepted. The 2018-19 calendar counts hours, builds in storm days, starts after Labor Day and follows the teachers' contract language; LeClair confirms the vacation weeks match Newport's posted calendar. Approved. | |
| 2:56:36 | Administrators' student-loan request | The contract gives each administrator "$2,000 to be used for courses" of which "1000 can be used for paying off student loans"; the request is to use the second $1,000 the same way. Horsky: "It's basically asking for a renegotiation of a section of the contract that we've already agreed and entered into." Zullo asks for a roll call; the result is 0-7. | POS |
| 3:06:17 | Policies BA and BAA | Horsky: "the goal setting to be the second school board meeting of May annually. And for B a the evaluation to be done on the second school board meeting of February." Approved. | |
| 3:08:34 | Next meeting | "your next meeting is Sunday at 10:00 in the morning. Claremont Savings Bank Community Center with district strategic plan." The superintendent will be out of state. | |
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 April 18, 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 meeting: neither district share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The board accepted a gift, approved the school calendar, took a 0-7 roll-call vote and adopted policies at this meeting, 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 board approves and corrects its April 4 minutes on tape (0:01:52, 0:02:05), and the clerk records the roll call (3:02:49). What is missing is any public copy now.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text for all of 2018)
MEDIUM A policy subcommittee formed on the advice that three members need no notice, two hours after counsel said otherwise
Proposing a school board policy subcommittee, the superintendent said: "Can't be more than three unless we warn the meeting." (2:45:43). Horsky, Benware and Zullo volunteered, and he planned a Saturday-morning session (2:45:54, 2:46:08). Earlier the same evening the association's attorney had told the board that a policy committee "is governed by the right to know law in exactly the same way as your school board is", with 24-hour notice and minutes (0:18:56), and that two members of a three-member policy committee discussing policy are a meeting (0:21:27). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), unchanged since 2008, makes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body" of a school board a public body in its own right, so the subcommittee's meetings needed notice and minutes whatever its size; three is simply below a quorum of the full board. The same advice was given to the SAU 6 board on March 29 (see the March 29, 2018 SAU 6 page). The record does not show whether the subcommittee's meetings were later noticed or minuted, which is why this is MEDIUM rather than HIGH.
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 Two details of the training measured against the statutes
On sealing nonpublic minutes, the attorney said "There's only two reasons you can seal public minutes. I mean nonpublic minutes." (1:23:14). RSA 91-A:3, III, as in force in 2018, allows minutes to be withheld only by a "recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session" that determines divulgence would likely affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a board member, would render the proposed action ineffective, or pertains to terrorism: three grounds, not two, though the terrorism ground rarely arises for a school board. His statements that the vote is taken in public with the reason stated and that unsealed minutes are due within 72 hours ("within three days", 1:23:33) match the statute. Separately, his forecast of a bill requiring a district data privacy plan by 2019 (0:46:34) was borne out: RSA 189:66, V, added by 2018, 252:1 (eff. Aug. 11, 2018), required a data and privacy governance plan "presented to the school board for review and approval by June 30, 2019". Neither point is a finding against the board.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; 280:1); RSA 189:66, V (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 252:1, 2, eff. Aug. 11, 2018)
POSITIVE Right-to-Know training held in public, on camera, for a new board
The board gave about 75 minutes of a regular meeting to Right-to-Know and digital-communications training by the association's counsel (0:14:24 to 1:31:30), and the chair asked that it be presented in full because "there are people watching at home as well" (0:15:40). The presentation covered the statutory definition of a meeting, committees as public bodies, sequential communications, non-meetings, email and social media, and members questioned the attorney on their own practices (1:10:20, 1:12:42, 1:26:49). RSA 91-A:2-a requires public bodies to deliberate "only in meetings"; nothing requires a board to train its members on the chapter, and doing it in public lets residents learn the same rules the board is held to.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2016 codification; source note 2008, 303:4, never amended)
POSITIVE A roll-call vote so the administrators would know each member's answer
On the administrators' request to apply a second $1,000 of contract course money to student loans, Zullo asked for a roll call, and the chair agreed that it gives "the exact" count (3:00:17, 3:01:29). The clerk called each member and all seven answered no (3:02:49 to 3:03:10). In 2018 RSA 91-A required a roll call for a motion to enter nonpublic session and for votes taken while a member participates remotely, not for an ordinary open-session vote. Recording each member's vote on a request touching a ratified bargaining agreement is a practice above that minimum.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2017 codification); 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/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.CSV (1,010 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4Input/Transcripts/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 64Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II and III(e), 2017 codification (in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018): minutes content and inspection; roll-call votes when a member participates remotely
- RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2008, 303:4): deliberation only in meetings
- 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) and III, 2017 codification: roll call on nonpublic motions; sealing by recorded two-thirds vote on three grounds
- RSA 189:66, V (2018, 252:1, eff. Aug. 11, 2018): data and privacy governance plan due to the board by June 30, 2019