Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board (called the meeting to order) | Opened the meeting and ran the minutes and citizens' comments; spoke on school funding, catastrophic special education aid and his contacts with gubernatorial candidates; proposed a board member stand in on the communications work. |
| Charlene Lovett | Mayor (ran most of the agenda) | Briefed on SB 247 (lead in school drinking water); presented a State House clock to McGoodwin; led the communications officer and legislative items; undertook to invite gubernatorial candidates and a New Futures presentation. |
| Allen Damren | Assistant mayor | Warned that a FY20 school position must be costed by the January budget hearing; proposed a dedicated August 9 meeting; urged the state retirement contribution bill. |
| Ryan McNutt | City manager | Would support the communications position in the FY20 city budget; offered city HR to research it; floated sharing costs with Newport; summarized the city's $17.3 million FY19 budget. |
| Abigail Kier | City councilor | Urged fast-tracking the communications position and keeping it to Claremont. The transcript renders her name as "councilor gear" and "Mrs. Chiara". |
| Pope | City councilor (first name not established) | Argued that schools and cities now compete through marketing; cited a New Hampshire Business Review article on stabilization grant losses. |
| Jonathan Stone | City councilor | Summarized consensus for an August meeting. |
| Carolyn Towle | School board member | Proposed a joint subcommittee on communications; led the education funding item and distributed material on the board's funding subcommittee. |
| Steven Horsky | School board member (lowest-confidence attribution) | Said the information requested on April 17 had not been produced; volunteered to work with the city on the communications research. No on-record cue names this voice; it could be Petrin. |
| Michelle Pierce | School board member | Seconded the April 17 minutes; asked whether the Chamber of Commerce could help promote the city and schools. |
| Jason Benware | School board member | Asked whether small-town representatives can prevail against larger districts in Concord; favored keeping the communications position to Claremont. |
| Michael [Petrin]; Rebecca [Zullo] | School board members | Called at roll; no speech attributed. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 (leaving "a week from tomorrow") | Accepted the clock; urged the bodies to fund a communications person and said he stopped work on it after being told on May 22 his employment "was no longer desired"; gave examples of unmet student needs for the legislators. |
| Marjorie Erickson | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Spoke from the floor in citizens' comments to answer the call for community members in the superintendent search; later outlined the year-long transition plan. |
| Gauthier | State representative (first name not stated) | Proposed sports betting and Keno revenue for the education trust fund; described the HB 356 study committee; asked the city for a list of its own investments. |
| Cloutier | State representative (spelling from the attribution report; transcript "Currier", "Claudia") | Came "mainly to listen"; urged the bodies to question all gubernatorial candidates on school funding; offered to refile the state retirement contribution bill (HB 413). |
| Unidentified | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 (Racial Healing Working Group) | Thanked McGoodwin and asked that community members be admitted to the superintendent selection process. Name not recoverable from the transcript. |
| Walt Stapleton | Citizens' comments, Ward 3 | Announced his candidacy for the state House. |
| David Putnam | Speaker on an agenda item; former school board member | Supported a communications professional; described a three-agency image campaign; suggested inviting Lebanon's communications officer; cautioned that a board member doing administrative work could be seen as a conflict of interest. McGoodwin names him in the audience. |
| Unidentified | Others | The roll responses, seconds and short remarks. |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Miss Russell, city clerk (called the council roll); Mrs. [Mary] Woodman, school district clerk; Betty, city HR; Cory LeClair, assistant superintendent; Representative O'Connor and the district's state senator (invited, absent); Chief Scott; Nancy Merrill, economic development; Governor Sununu and candidates Molly Kelly and Steve Marchand; Representative Cushing; "outgoing representative Ray Gannon" (as transcribed). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, and the city's copy was not inspected, so this list is reconstructed from the presiding officers' transitions ("old business", "new business" item B). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | Call to order, pledge, roll calls | Council roll by the city clerk, then the school board's. See Board composition. |
| 0:01:16 | Minutes of the April 17 joint meeting | Moved "as read" by an unidentified member (0:01:25); Pierce seconded; voice vote at 0:01:30. |
| 0:01:48 | Mayor's notes | SB 247 (lead in school drinking water); presentation to Superintendent McGoodwin. Informational. |
| 0:10:28 | Citizens' forum | Three speakers; closed at 0:17:06. |
| 0:17:16 | Old business: PIO / communications position | Consensus direction to the administrations to research full-time, part-time and contracted options with funding sources, and to hold a separate joint meeting on August 9 (0:59:11, 1:45:58). No formal motion. |
| 0:59:36 | New business: legislative focus for the 2019 session | Consensus that education funding is the top priority; the mayor to invite gubernatorial candidates; representatives asked to refile HB 413 (1:28:31); New Futures presentation to be arranged. |
| 1:35:11 | New business B: update on the superintendent transition | McGoodwin's handout of the June 28 SAU agenda and June 14 minutes; Erickson's outline. Informational. |
| 1:40:43 | New business: municipal budgetary goals | City manager's summary of the FY19 city budget passed June 13. Informational. |
| 1:45:58 | Next steps and adjournment | August 9 meeting confirmed. Adjournment moved; the mayor's attempt to name mover and seconder is garbled (Horse, Pierce, Ben); voice vote at 1:48:39. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:16 | April 17 minutes | Sprague: "could we have a motion on the minutes from our last joint meeting on April 17th?" Moved and seconded; approved by voice. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:53 | Lead testing law | Mayor on SB 247, "signed into law": schools and child care facilities "that have not sampled in the prior two years shall test for the presence of lead and drinking water" (0:02:39), effective, as she read it, "July 1st, 2019". | |
| 0:04:01 | Clock for the superintendent | Mayor credits McGoodwin's State House testimony, including the law letting superintendents "receive a full background check on potential hires" (0:05:08). McGoodwin at 0:08:13: "very, very proud to have been here seven years." | |
| 0:10:57 | Citizen: open the search | Ward 2 speaker for the Racial Healing Working Group: "I understand that there has already been a process established to select the new superintendent that does not include community members outside the school." (0:11:38); asks the bodies to "consider opening the membership of this selection process" (0:12:15). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:03 | SAU 6 chair responds | Erickson: "I was just pointed or elected to as chairwoman of the Saw six board"; "We're just starting the process of looking for a superintendent. We have not formed a committee." At 0:13:27: "We have every intention of including all state holders in this process." At 0:13:56: "we will be forming committees that that are not just the school board but are made up of the greater community." | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:14:29 | Candidate announcement | Walt Stapleton, Ward 3: "I wanted to announce my candidacy for the Ward three district five House representative". | |
| 0:18:05 | Communications position | McGoodwin: "In October. 2013, I approached the Claremont School Board urging them to have a communications person." At 0:19:05: "After I was notified by the school board in May 22nd that my employment was no longer desired." At 0:23:03: "It's going to cost us more to not communicate than to communicate." | |
| 0:23:24 | City position | McNutt: a draft job description exists and "the city, you know, I would be prepared to support that in the FY20 budget. But I'm kind of in a holding pattern at the moment." | |
| 0:26:36 | Members' views | Pope: "schools are now competing for revenue. They're competing for students." Towle at 0:28:33: "I think there should be developed a. Subcommittee". Kier at 0:30:29: "I think we need to fast track this." | |
| 0:32:59 | Information not produced | Horsky: "the request was very clear less research. The position is full time, part time benefited, not benefited. We're here today and we don't have that information." At 0:34:01: "since April 17th, there's been really no new developments". | |
| 0:36:17 | Comment on the agenda item | Mayor: "Normally what we do with the City Council is if people would like to speak on an agenda item, we allow them to speak for five minutes". Putnam at 0:37:18: three agencies "are collaborating, planning, working together to start a campaign addressing the image of Claremont". | POSITIVE |
| 0:41:18 | Timing for FY20 | Damren: "there's 5 or 6 months to reach a conclusion"; at 0:42:21: "If you didn't discuss it in January, I doubt very much you could put it on the ballot to be voted upon." At 0:46:15: schedule a meeting "devoted simply to that topic". | |
| 0:47:18 | Who does the research | McGoodwin: "We have to be very careful with her because of not having a superintendent for a couple of months". Sprague at 0:51:11: "I'm wondering if a representative from the school board could be a suitable stand in". Horsky at 0:51:53: "I don't mind donating my time". Putnam at 0:56:25: "having a school board member doing administrative work can sometimes be viewed as a conflict of interest". | |
| 0:56:49 | City HR offered | McNutt: "I could easily ask Betty to begin work on this." McGoodwin at 0:57:23: "We are looking at over 80 positions to be filled in the Claremont School District." Damren at 0:59:11: "Can I throw out the date of August 9th?" | |
| 1:01:07 | Legislators on funding | Gauthier: new sports gambling revenue "could be a brand new revenue, even much better than Keno" for "the Education Trust Fund" (1:02:20). Benware at 1:05:45: "Can you really accomplish anything down there?" Gauthier at 1:06:05: "I'm not here to debate number one." | |
| 1:08:09 | Board chair on funding and catastrophic aid | Sprague: "personally, I've already contacted the two gubernatorial candidates" (1:08:55). At 1:09:52: "we talked about, catastrophic aid for our special ed kids"; "this year we're only paying 60% of above 55,000." At 1:10:24: "We have to pay the first 50,000." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:11:32 | Advice from Cloutier | Urges the bodies to talk with all major gubernatorial candidates (1:13:13); on a possible new suit: "The school districts like Claremont may have to go back to court." (1:14:15). | |
| 1:15:27 | Top priority agreed | Mayor: "if we agree tonight that our number one priority to address as a collective governing body is education funding, then that's what we spend our time on." Cloutier at 1:16:30: the gubernatorial primary "is September 11th". | |
| 1:20:00 | Staffing ratios and inequity | Gauthier's "rule of thumb" on non-teaching staff above 50%. McGoodwin at 1:21:46: Lebanon's "budget is more than $14 million larger than Claremont"; at 1:22:14: a teacher who left gained "$24,000". | |
| 1:25:20 | State retirement contributions | Damren on the New Hampshire Retirement System; Cloutier at 1:26:14 on HB 413, "which failed by just one vote". Mayor at 1:28:31: "we would like to resurrect 413 and resubmit it as a new LSR for the 2019 session." | |
| 1:30:42 | Students in trauma | McGoodwin: the administration "identified 19 children, K to five, who are very disruptive, whose needs aren't being met consistently" (1:31:10). Mayor at 1:32:30: a New Futures presentation on children's behavioral health. | |
| 1:36:39 | Transition outline | Erickson: "We anticipate this process being approximately a year long." At 1:38:05: the July 29 retreat, where "any public, certainly that are willing to attend that meeting could have some input". At 1:38:57: NHSBA in August on "how to conduct a search"; "I suspect we'll be hiring consultants to help us with that search." | POSITIVE |
| 1:41:14 | City budget | McNutt: "the city council passed a $17.3 million budget. This includes $100,000 to begin the planning process towards the revitalization of Pleasant Street." At 1:43:07: "we've budgeted $300,000 this year for paving". Mayor at 1:45:12: an earlier revaluation "shot our tax rate up over $5 overnight." | |
| 1:45:58 | Next steps | "August 9th. Thursday 630. Same place, same time." Mayor at 1:46:27: "if we could get the minutes be, sometime in July, that would help us in our preparation". | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on June 21, 2018, cited as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. 4 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Two public bodies met; neither body's quorum is fully established from the recording, and the district posts no record of the meeting
A joint meeting is two bodies, each with its own quorum and its own duty to keep minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018 (minutes naming members and "persons appearing before the public bodies", open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"). The school board's roll is audible in part (0:00:53); the City Council's is not, beyond Councilor Stone, the mayor and Councilor Pope, so the council's quorum cannot be confirmed from the tape. The district's Drive shares hold nothing older than 2022 (MAP.md section 72); the city's notice, agenda and minutes live with the city clerk and were not inspected, so this page makes no city-side negative. Minutes of the previous joint meeting were approved here two months after it (0:01:16), and the mayor asked for this meeting's minutes "sometime in July" to prepare for August (1:46:27); draft minutes may have been available sooner, and nothing on the recording shows a lapse. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2017 codification, in force throughout 2018).
OBSERVATION The board chair's account of shrinking catastrophic special education aid describes proration the statute then allowed
Sprague told the legislators that the state was "only paying 60% of above 55,000" and that the district must "pay the first 50,000" (1:09:52, 1:10:24); the two figures are his and do not agree with each other. As RSA 186-C:18, III read in 2018 (source note ending with 2017 amendments effective July 1, 2017), the state was liable for 80 percent of a pupil's special education costs above 3 1/2 times the estimated state average expenditure per pupil, and when the appropriation fell short payments were "prorated proportionally", with no floor (the 80-percent-of-entitlement floor dates only from 2025). A share below 80% therefore reflects proration within the statute, not a breach of it; the chair's point that costs were being shifted to the district is a policy argument, recorded here as his characterization.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2017, 156:96-100, eff. July 1, 2017, so the text in force in June 2018).
OBSERVATION The SAU 6 chair promised community members a place in the superintendent search; a week later the interim search committee was formed of officers and staff only
A Ward 2 speaker asked that the selection process be opened to "concerned community members" (0:12:15). The new SAU 6 chair answered from the floor that the board had "not formed a committee" and "will be forming committees that that are not just the school board but are made up of the greater community" (0:13:03, 0:13:56). On June 28 the SAU 6 board formed the interim search committee from the board chairs and three administrators (show 9876), and on July 12 the chair distinguished the interim search from the permanent one, where, she said, the community would be involved far more broadly (show 9906). No statute governs who sits on a search committee. The observation is that the promise, as made here, was fulfilled if at all only for the permanent search, which is outside this page's record.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; the SAU 6 recordings of June 28 and July 12, 2018 (shows 9876 and 9906).
POSITIVE Public comment was taken twice, including on an agenda item, and the transition was explained in public
The meeting opened a citizens' forum with three speakers (0:10:28), and the mayor, with the school board's assent, then allowed members of the public five minutes on the communications agenda item (0:36:17). The SAU 6 chair answered a citizen's concern on the record the same evening and later set out the transition timetable, inviting the public to the board's July 29 retreat (0:13:03, 1:38:05). No statute then required either body to take public comment (the school board duty in RSA 189:74 dates from September 6, 2022).
Sources: RSA 189:74 (public comment at school board meetings), in force only from September 6, 2022, per the project's verified anchor catalog; current text.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9849, "COUNCIL / SCHOOL BOARD JOINT MEETING 6-21": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, handout or minutes for this meeting were located in the district's shares. The City of Claremont's own records (city clerk) were not inspected.
- Related meetings in the corpus (pages named by recording): the previous joint meeting (show 9734, which MAP.md section 65 dates April 24, 2018; this meeting twice calls it the April 17 meeting, matching that show's Cablecast title); Claremont School Board, June 20, 2018 (show 9850, the "board meeting" Sprague refers to as last night); SAU 6 Board, June 28 and July 12, 2018 (shows 9876 and 9906); the joint meeting of August 9, 2018 (show 9953).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4.CSV (487 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4Input/Transcripts/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 72
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on June 21, 2018. RSA 91-A:2, I-II (meetings, notice and minutes; 2017 codification). RSA 186-C:18, III (catastrophic special education aid; text as amended effective July 1, 2017; no proration floor before 2025). RSA 189:74 (public comment; not in force until September 6, 2022, cited only to show it did not apply).