Participants
Everyone heard or addressed on the recording. Names follow the speakers' own introductions, forms of address on the recording, the project's 2015-2023 roster and the attribution report for this recording; there are no minutes to check spellings against.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Charlene Lovett | Mayor; presides for the council | Takes the chair after the minutes (0:01:48); reports on SB 247's lead-in-water testing (0:01:53); presents the clock to the superintendent (0:04:01); runs the communications, legislative and transition items and the next steps (0:17:16, 0:59:36, 1:45:58). Recalls that she once served on the school board (0:58:30). Answers the roll as transcribed, "Yeah, I love it here" (0:00:53). |
| Frank Sprague | School Board chair; presides for the board | Calls the meeting to order (0:00:02) and asks the city clerk, "Miss Russell", and the district clerk for the rolls (0:00:36); urges candidates be pressed on school funding and says he has written to the gubernatorial candidates (1:08:09, 1:08:55). |
| Allen Damren | Assistant Mayor | Says the timing is short for a 2019-20 position because district budget hearings begin in early January (0:41:18, 0:41:49); proposes a separate meeting (0:46:15) and the August 9 date (0:59:11); urges legislation on the state's share of retirement costs (1:25:20). The transcript renders his name "Damron". |
| Abigail Kier | City Councilor | "we're already behind the curve" on marketing and the position should be fast-tracked (0:29:50, 0:30:11); prefers to keep the position within Claremont (0:49:42). The transcript renders her name "Council cares", "councilor gear" and "Mrs. Chiara". |
| Pope (first name not stated) | City Councilor | "schools are now competing for revenue. They're competing for students." (0:26:36); cites a June 8, 2018 New Hampshire Business Review article on stabilization-grant losses (1:23:14). |
| Jonathan Stone | City Councilor | Answers the roll (0:00:45); supports an August meeting once figures are ready (0:53:01). |
| Ryan McNutt | City Manager | Would support the communications position in the FY20 city budget but is "in a holding pattern" until new school leadership is known (0:23:24); proposes sharing with the Newport district (0:48:32); offers the city's HR staff to gather data (0:56:49); reports the $17.3 million FY19 city budget (1:41:14). The transcript renders his name "Mr. McKnight" (0:23:16). |
| Jason Benware | School Board member | Asks the representatives whether the smaller towns can win on school funding: "Can you really accomplish anything down there?" (1:05:45); prefers keeping the position within Claremont (0:50:48). |
| Steven Horsky | School Board member | Moves to adjourn, as the mayor notes (1:48:25). The dialogue file also attributes to him, at the attribution report's lowest confidence, the complaint that the information requested on April 17 was never produced (0:33:04) and an offer to research the position himself (0:51:53). |
| Michelle Pierce | School Board member | Asks whether citizens could apply for a communications subcommittee (0:30:37) and whether the Chamber of Commerce could help (0:34:17, 0:52:18). |
| Carolyn Towle | School Board member | Suggests a joint subcommittee on the position (0:28:33); reports on the board's school funding subcommittee and a Pittsfield workshop (1:06:44); asks that figures come seven days before the August meeting (0:53:19, 0:53:58). |
| Michael Petrin; Rebecca Zullo | School Board members | Named in the clerk's roll (0:00:53, 0:01:10); neither answer nor any remark is audible, so attendance is not established. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Asked by the chair to call the School Board roll (0:00:36). |
| Miss Russell (first name not stated) | City clerk | Asked by the chair to call the council roll (0:00:36). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 (leaving June 30) | Receives the clock (0:08:13); argues for the communications position, saying "It's going to cost us more to not communicate than to communicate." (0:23:03); describes the needs of 19 K-5 children with behavioral needs (1:30:42); distributes the June 28 SAU 6 agenda and an excerpt of the June 14 minutes (1:35:30). |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 board chair (Unity) | From the audience, says she was just elected SAU 6 chair and that the search will include all stakeholders (0:13:03, 0:13:27); later outlines a one-year succession plan (1:36:39-1:40:19). The superintendent calls her "doctor Audrey Erickson" (1:35:30); the project roster lists no doctorate. |
| David Putnam | Former School Board member; speaking on the communications item | Named by the superintendent (0:08:13). Supports the position and describes a joint image campaign by three agencies (0:36:46, 0:37:18); suggests inviting Lebanon's communications officer and cautions that a board member doing administrative work "can sometimes be viewed as a conflict of interest" (0:55:51, 0:56:25). |
| Unidentified resident, Ward 2 | Citizens' forum; member of the Racial Healing Working Group | Thanks the superintendent and asks that community members outside the schools sit on the superintendent selection committee, as they did for the city manager search (0:10:57, 0:11:38). The name is not recoverable from the transcript. |
| Walt Stapleton | Citizens' forum, Ward 3 | Announces his candidacy for the New Hampshire House and says he is "especially interested in education" funding (0:14:29, 0:16:08). |
| Representative Gauthier (first name not stated) | State Representative | Proposes sports betting and Keno revenue for the Education Trust Fund (1:02:20); describes the HB 356 study committee (1:02:57); repeats a State House "rule of thumb" on non-teaching staff (1:20:00); asks for a fact sheet (1:22:26). |
| State Representative labeled Cloutier | State Representative | Came "mainly to listen" (1:04:32); urges inviting all gubernatorial candidates (1:12:44); recounts HB 413, which "failed by just one vote" (1:26:14), and agrees to refile it (1:27:46). The mayor introduces him as "Representative Currier" (1:00:11) and calls him "Representative Claudia" (1:04:25); the dialogue file's surname is unverified. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives in the district's shares. The list below follows the presiding officers' transitions on the recording, including the headings the mayor reads (old business, new business items A to C); wording in quotation marks is the transcript's.
Items in the order taken up, with dispositions heard on the recording.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | Call to order, pledge, roll calls | "Like to call this meeting order of Joint City Council Claremont School Board. Thursday, June 21st, 2018." (0:00:02). Council roll by the city clerk, School Board roll by the district clerk (0:00:36). |
| 0:01:16 | Minutes of the last joint meeting, "April 17th" | Motion by an unidentified member (0:01:25); second heard as Pierce's (0:01:30); approved by voice vote (0:01:30). |
| 0:01:48 | Mayor's remarks; recognition of the superintendent | SB 247 lead testing update; State House clock presented to the superintendent (0:07:06). No action. |
| 0:10:28 | Citizens' forum | Two residents speak; the SAU 6 chair responds from the audience. Closed at 0:17:06. |
| 0:17:16 | Old business: public information officer (communications) position | Consensus that the city manager and school side return with full-time, part-time and contracted options and possible funding (0:45:33, 0:55:21); city HR to begin gathering data (0:56:49); a separate joint meeting on this one topic set for August 9 at 6:30 (0:59:11, 1:46:18). No vote. |
| 0:59:36 | New business A: legislative focus for the 2019 session | Consensus that education funding is the bodies' "number one priority" (1:15:27, 1:16:28); the mayor to invite the gubernatorial candidates (1:17:59); the representatives to work for lost education revenue and refile HB 413 (1:28:31, 1:29:12); a New Futures presentation on children's behavioral health to be arranged (1:32:30). No vote. |
| 1:35:11 | New business B: update on the superintendent transition | Report by the SAU 6 chair. No action. |
| 1:40:43 | New business C: municipal budget goals and their effect on the community | Report by the city manager. No action. |
| 1:45:58 | Next steps and adjournment | August 9 meeting confirmed; minutes requested "sometime in July" (1:46:27). Motion to adjourn by Horsky (1:48:25); the second is unclear on tape; approved by voice vote (1:48:39). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Topics in the order discussed.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:16 | Minutes of the "April 17th" joint meeting | "could we have a motion on the minutes from our last joint meeting on April 17th?" (0:01:16). The superintendent and a board member also refer to "the minutes from the April 17th meeting" (0:18:36, 0:34:01). | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:53 | Lead in school drinking water | The mayor: under SB 247, "upon the effective date, the section of the law is July 1st, 2019, and within every five year period thereafter, public and private schools and licensed 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); "you may want to decide to work on policy with regard to that" (0:03:05). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:01 | Clock for the superintendent | The mayor credits his State House testimony on the criminal background check law for school hires, which "took two years" (0:05:08, 0:05:47), on the lead bill and on education funding, where the House Education Committee called him "the frequent flier" (0:06:33). He: "very proud to have been here seven years." (0:08:13). | |
| 0:10:48 | Citizens' forum | A Ward 2 resident: "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). Erickson: "We have not formed a committee." (0:13:03) and "They're all posted on the SA website." (0:13:56). Walt Stapleton announces his candidacy for the state House (0:14:29). | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:05 | Communications position: the superintendent's case | He first urged a communications person in October 2013 (0:18:05); the April minutes show "it's basically admiring the problem" (0:18:36). "Is superintendent blindsided by new board members? That's what makes the press." (0:19:05); "After I was notified by the school board in May 22nd that my employment was no longer desired." he did no further work on the draft (0:19:05, 0:19:42). | |
| 0:23:24 | Communications position: discussion | McNutt would back it "in the FY20 budget" (0:23:24). Councilor Pope: "we're just hollering into a paper bag" without one voice (0:27:56). Kier: "we're already behind the curve" (0:29:50). A board member says the April request for full-time or part-time options "was very clear" and the information was not produced (0:33:04). The mayor allows public comment on agenda items for five minutes (0:36:17); David Putnam supports the position (0:36:46). | POSITIVE |
| 0:41:18 | Timing, scope and who does the work | Damren: district budget "public hearings that have to begin in early January", so a 2019-20 position needs a decision by November (0:41:49). Lebanon has a full-time position and Newport a part-time one (0:44:30). McNutt floats sharing with Newport (0:48:55); Kier, Pope and Benware prefer Claremont alone (0:49:42, 0:50:18, 0:50:48). With the superintendent gone in "A week from tomorrow." (0:46:59) and the acting superintendent stretched (0:47:18), a board member offers to do the research (0:51:53); Putnam cautions about "a conflict of interest" (0:56:25). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:56:49 | City HR to gather data; August 9 | McNutt: "I could easily ask Betty to begin work on this." (0:56:49). The superintendent: "We are looking at over 80 positions to be filled in the Claremont School District." (0:57:23). Damren proposes August 9 (0:59:11) and notes that salary data for public employees is easy to obtain (0:59:22). | |
| 1:01:07 | Legislative focus: the representatives | Rep. Gauthier: the state constitution requires the state to pay for its mandates (his reading), and new sports betting and Keno revenue could go to the Education Trust Fund (1:01:07, 1:02:20). Benware: "It sounds like it's a loaded game to me." (1:05:45); Gauthier: "I'm not here to debate" (1:06:03). The other representative urges inviting all gubernatorial candidates and says the Claremont lawsuits were "a step backwards public relations wise" (1:14:40). | |
| 1:06:44 | School funding subcommittee and the chair's remarks | Towle: a Pittsfield workshop had "over 100 participants" (1:07:23). The chair has contacted both gubernatorial candidates and says catastrophic aid is being cut back: "this year we're only paying 60% of above 55,000" (1:09:52). Consensus: education funding is the "number one priority" and the candidates will be invited (1:15:27); the primary is September 11 (1:16:30). | |
| 1:20:00 | Fact sheet and the "playing field" | Gauthier cites a State House rule of thumb about non-teaching staff above 50% (1:20:00). The mayor wants a fact sheet showing the high school renovation "was all on our own dime" (1:20:38). The superintendent: Lebanon's "budget is more than $14 million larger than Claremont" (1:21:46); a teacher who left gained $24,000 in pay (1:22:14). Pope: "there's 104 communities losing aid" per the June 8 article (1:23:37). | |
| 1:25:20 | HB 413 and the retirement system | Damren: every district gains from state participation in the New Hampshire Retirement System (1:25:20). HB 413 "failed by just one vote" (1:26:14). The mayor: "right now the state is not contributing anything into it" (1:27:53). Direction: "resurrect 413 and resubmit it as a new LSR for the 2019 session" and "freeze that 4% reduction" in stabilization aid (1:28:31, 1:29:12). | |
| 1:30:42 | Children's behavioral health | The superintendent: administrators identified 19 very disruptive K-5 children, 16 of them in kindergarten and grade 1 (1:31:10); "It's not the child's fault" (1:31:41). The mayor will invite New Futures to present (1:32:30, 1:33:15). | |
| 1:35:30 | Superintendent transition | The superintendent hands out the June 28 SAU 6 agenda and "cut and pasted the specific meeting minutes of the June 14th" (1:35:30). Erickson: "We anticipate this process being approximately a year long." (1:36:56); questionnaires in July, a retreat July 29, NHSBA in August, a search in the fall and a hire by spring (1:37:36, 1:38:57, 1:39:32). | |
| 1:41:14 | City budget | "on June 13th, the city council passed a $17.3 million budget", including "$100,000 to begin the planning process" for Pleasant Street (1:41:14), about 120 new parking spaces (1:42:02) and "$300,000 this year for paving" (1:43:07); East Street culvert and sidewalks from September (1:44:04). The mayor: a two-year revaluation cycle to recapture valuation lost when the tax rate "shot our tax rate up over $5 overnight" (1:45:12). | |
| 1:45:58 | Next steps | August 9 at 6:30 (1:46:18); "if we could get the minutes be, sometime in July, that would help us" (1:46:27); candidates, HB 413 and New Futures as action items (1:46:52, 1:47:45). Adjourned (1:48:39). | |
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 June 21, 2018, or is labeled an observation where no verified rule applies. A joint meeting is two public bodies; the city's records were not inspected, so nothing here is a finding about the council's paperwork.
MEDIUM No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting survive in the school district's shares, and the prior meeting's date is in doubt
MAP.md records no Drive material for this meeting: the district's shares hold no year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023. The city's own notice, agenda and minutes would be kept by the city clerk and were not inspected here, so this page does not say they are missing. On the school side, the recording is the only public account of a meeting that set the bodies' legislative priorities and a joint process for a new position.
RSA 91-A:2, II, in the text in force throughout 2018, required minutes with "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 five business days after the meeting. This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record shows minutes being kept: the bodies approved the minutes of their previous joint meeting (0:01:16, 0:01:30), and the mayor asked for this meeting's minutes "sometime in July" (1:46:27).
One data point for the project's own records: members call the previous joint meeting "April 17th" three times (0:01:16, 0:18:36, 0:34:01). That matches the Cablecast title of show 9734 as MAP.md records it, JOINT MEETING- COUNCIL & SCHOOL BOARD 4-17,, while MAP.md section 65 dates that recording April 24, 2018 from its eventDate and file name. The minutes approved here would settle which date is right.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; text in force Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018)
OBSERVATION A new duty for the district: test school drinking water for lead from July 1, 2019
The mayor told the board that SB 247 requires schools and licensed child care facilities to test their drinking water for lead from July 1, 2019 and every five years after, and suggested the board consider a testing policy (0:02:39, 0:03:05). Her description matches the statute. SB 247 was enacted as 2018 N.H. Laws ch. 4, approved February 8, 2018; its section 18, effective July 1, 2019, created RSA 485:17-a, which as first codified provided that "Upon the effective date of this section, and within every 5-year period thereafter", schools and licensed child care facilities "that have not sampled in the prior 2 years shall test". No board action followed on tape. Whether the district tested, and when, is a question for its later records. The section was rewritten by 2022, 325:1, so later meetings need the later text.
Sources: RSA 485:17-a (2019 codification; source 2018, 4:18, eff. July 1, 2019); SB 247 (2018) status: chapter 4, signed Feb. 8, 2018 (LegiScan status page; chaptered text not read); RSA 485:17-a, current text (amended 2022, 325:1)
OBSERVATION A board member offered to do staff research on a position the board would later vote to fund
With the superintendent leaving and the acting superintendent's time limited (0:47:18), the chair asked whether a board member could stand in for the administration (0:51:11), and a member offered: "I don't mind donating my time to try to get this moving" (0:51:53). David Putnam, a former board member, cautioned that "the idea of having a school board member doing administrative work can sometimes be viewed as a conflict of interest, because that because the board member has to vote on the position." (0:56:25). The chair deferred the question to the board's next meeting (0:52:11), and the city manager then offered city HR staff to do the research (0:56:49). This page cites no rule because none was verified for it; the point for a reviewer is who did the research that came back on August 9.
Sources: Cablecast: COUNCIL / SCHOOL BOARD JOINT MEETING 6-21 (the recording; no rule cited)
POSITIVE The public could speak on agenda items as well as in the citizens' forum, and the SAU 6 chair invited the public into the superintendent search
Besides the citizens' forum (0:10:28), the mayor asked the school board to adopt the council's practice of letting the public "speak for five minutes on an agenda item" (0:36:17); a former board member then spoke on the communications position (0:36:46) and was heard again later (0:55:51). When a resident asked that community members be included in choosing the next superintendent, the new SAU 6 chair answered from the floor that "We have every intention of including all state holders in this process" and invited the public to the SAU's posted meetings (0:13:27, 0:13:56). In 2018 no statute required a comment period at all; RSA 189:74's 30-minute minimum for school boards dates from 2022. These practices went beyond the legal minimum.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not in force in 2018); RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: COUNCIL / SCHOOL BOARD JOINT MEETING 6-21 (show 9849; the Cablecast API returned 403 to this environment on 2026-10-02, so the run time is taken from the last dialogue row, 1:48:42)
- 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.
- City of Claremont records (notice, agenda, council minutes): not inspected for this page.
- City of Claremont, City Council page (nine council seats; read for the project 2026-09-26) and the Claremont City Charter (copy of undetermined date; sections 16 and 21, council of nine and a majority quorum)
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.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, sections 72 and 65Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9849 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint062118.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md (board, council and staff roster)
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:2, II, 2017 codification (source note ends 2017, 165:1 and 234:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2018; next amended 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019): minutes content and five-business-day inspection
- RSA 485:17-a, 2019 codification (2018, 4:18, eff. July 1, 2019): lead testing of drinking water in schools and licensed child care facilities; enacted by 2018 N.H. Laws ch. 4 (SB 247), approved Feb. 8, 2018
- RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment at school board meetings; cited only to show it postdates this meeting
- Claremont City Charter, sections 16 and 21 (copy of undetermined date): council of nine; majority quorum