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 |
|---|
| Marjorie (Marge) Erickson | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Calls the meeting to order and reads an opening statement: "our decision making process must be deliberate, principled, transparent and conducted fully in the public domain." (0:03:00). Presents the succession plan and the press release, both her drafts ("a straw man"); runs every vote; names herself as the Unity member of the interim search committee. |
| Sara Lowe | Member; chair of the Unity School Board (Unity) | Confirms the board has asked the New Hampshire School Boards Association to help with the superintendent search: "A contract, but we have said to them that we would like them to help with that." (0:15:36). Adds the evaluation-tool steps to the plan. Transcribed "Sarah Low". |
| Steven Horsky | Member (Claremont) | Asks that the evaluation subcommittee's work be finished before the interim starts; drafts the interim term language; moves the search-committee membership and the press release; argues against time limits. |
| Michael Petrin | Member (Claremont); SAU 6 vice chair per the project roster | Proposes "preference given to those with current New Hampshire certification" (1:09:17). Voice assigned in the attribution report on one cross-reference (medium-low confidence). Transcribed "Michael. Patron" at roll. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (Claremont); SAU 6 treasurer, elected March 29, 2018 | Asks whether the acting superintendent would stay on; volunteers for the search committee; objects after the committee vote: "I didn't know that was and very confused." (1:25:49). |
| Frank Sprague | Member; chair of the Claremont School Board | Notes the interim could become the permanent superintendent; supports "preference" wording so as not to "close the door" on a candidate eligible for licensure (1:12:13). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Volunteers for the search committee; asks to wait on the certification question; asks for a standing "for the good of the order" agenda item (1:41:58). Transcribed "Carolyn. Doll" at roll. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member; vice chair of the Claremont School Board | Called at roll; no answer and no speech attributed to her; probably absent (see Board composition). |
| Prudence McCormick | Member (Unity) | Answers the roll; no speech attributed. |
| Bob McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Called at roll ("Rob McDevitt"); no answer captured. |
| Craig (surname not established) | Member (Unity) | Called at roll ("Craig shoe"); no answer captured; probably absent (see Board composition). |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Not called at roll and not heard. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent; acting superintendent from the following week | Walks the board through the interim criteria; says certificates are taking "4 to 6 months" (1:03:19); holds New Hampshire superintendent certification and will check the rules with the Department of Education's credentialing office; warns grant writing and summer planning will slow; will distribute the press release. Several rows are assigned to her by content inside the chair's cluster (attribution report). |
| Michael (Mike) O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Arrives after the succession plan (0:20:49); explains a revenue entry missed in the fund-balance projection, the Cornish withdrawal-plan refund, the superintendent buyout costs and the unit's spending authority. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of instructional technology, SAU 6 | Explains why the draft barred the interim from applying for the permanent post (0:47:58). |
| Nate (surname not established) | SAU 6 human resources staff | Advises against barring the interim from applying, "on the Department of Labor rules and discrimination" (0:51:13), and suggests a term ending June 30. |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (staff) | Calls the roll (0:01:39). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 (departing) | Not present on the recording. LeClair: the certified signer for Department of Education documents is still "Middleton" until she takes over the next week. |
| Unidentified | Various | 162 of 773 dialogue rows (21.0%) are short replies, seconds, chorus votes and fragments. No citizen speaks during citizens' comments (0:06:59). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives, though the chair refers to "the agenda you all have in front of you" (0:04:17). The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions, including the order change she made while waiting for the business administrator.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:44 | Call to order; Pledge of Allegiance; roll call | Roll called by the recording secretary; see Board composition. |
| 0:02:35 | Chair's opening statement | Statement on board conduct and preparation; no action. |
| 0:04:43 | Agenda | The chair adds a discussion of the draft press release "as the new item" and moves the meeting-time-limit discussion to item F. A motion and "Agenda. Second." are heard (0:05:31); voice vote; "The agenda is accepted." (0:05:36). |
| 0:05:36 | Minutes of June 14, 2018 | Typographical corrections only. Motion "Approved the amended vignettes as presented." [minutes] (0:06:30), second; voice vote; "Minutes are accepted." (0:06:42). |
| 0:06:50 | Citizens' comments | No one comes forward. |
| 0:07:22 | Succession plan (taken ahead of the budget item) | Amended on the floor: contract with the New Hampshire School Boards Association, evaluation-tool review added for July 12, strategic-plan step reworded. Chair's motion to approve "as amended", second heard (0:20:21); voice vote; "We have a succession plan." (0:20:40). |
| 0:21:13 | Review of FY19 budget appropriations | Business administrator's fund-balance and buyout report; discussion only. The chair asks whether the buyout cost needs approval and is told No. (0:33:33). |
| 0:43:12 | Interim superintendent position description and hiring criteria | Amended: the bar on the interim applying for the permanent job removed; term "from higher date to June 30th, 2019, with the option to extend" (1:05:14); experience as a New Hampshire superintendent; preference for current New Hampshire certification. Motion "We accept the superintendent." / "Criteria as amended." (1:13:32, 1:13:34); voice vote, "Any opposed? Good." (1:13:44). |
| 1:13:52 | Interim search committee | Horsky moves that the committee be the SAU 6 chair and vice chair, the Unity and Claremont chairs, and the three SAU staff (1:23:47); second heard (1:24:49); voice vote, no tally announced (1:24:51). The Claremont board is to name its representative in an open meeting. |
| 1:27:11 | Press release on the leadership transition | Edited on the floor; Horsky: "I make a motion to accept the press release as amended." (1:33:35); voice vote (1:35:07). |
| 1:36:25 | Meeting time limits | Discussion only; no limits adopted. |
| 1:40:08 | Attendance and quorum notice | Members asked to tell the chair or the acting superintendent in advance when they will miss a meeting. |
| 1:41:58 | Future agenda items | Towle asks for a standing open item; the chair describes Unity's "other items" practice. |
| 1:43:36 | Adjournment | Motion and second heard; voice vote; "Any abstentions. Good." (1:43:50). |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9876 SAU6062818.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 |
|---|
| 0:02:35 | Chair's statement | "Our conduct must be above reproach, and thus our decision making process must be deliberate, principled, transparent and conducted fully in the public domain." Members should "attend each meeting fully prepared"; she will "promote that consensus thing". | POS |
| 0:07:22 | Succession plan | The chair's draft runs from appointing an acting superintendent through the interim hire, a board self-evaluation, an SAU strategic plan ("the only strategic plan that's up there is Claremont", 0:11:32) and the permanent search. Horsky wants the evaluation subcommittee's tool finished first: "we the subcommittee did their job well." (0:13:56). Lowe on the School Boards Association: "A contract, but we have said to them that we would like them to help with that." Approved as amended. | |
| 0:21:23 | A missed revenue entry | O'Neill: the June 14 fund-balance projection "included an understatement of revenues for 1617. This related to indirect costs revenue from Claremont that was paid to the saw on July 17th, 2017." (0:32:39). The entry was posted to the 2017-18 database but "the revenue is not recorded in the 1617 accounts" and "we don't reconcile every single balance sheet account month." (0:32:59). Correcting it raised 2016-17 revenue by $44,000 (0:24:08). | OBS |
| 0:24:29 | Cornish refund | Under the Cornish withdrawal plan accepted by the Department of Education, the transition committee was to calculate the FY17 fund balance and its disposition at 11.4%; O'Neill puts the estimated return to Cornish at "24,000 to 1637" [figure as transcribed]. | |
| 0:28:34 | Audit status | LeClair: "we actually got the final audit for the saw for, this year. Today" and "we were behind and audits. We've gotten caught up." O'Neill: "No, we just we just finished the 1617." and "one year behind because we're doing 17 now." (0:29:02, 0:29:08). The auditors' only adjustment "was to move one expense from one year to another" (0:29:20). | OBS |
| 0:30:38 | Projected fund balance and buyout | Projected remaining fund balance at June 30, 2018: "85,000 8796" [about $85,000, as transcribed], after 55,000 approved to offset the FY19 appropriation (0:31:00). Buyout, accrued vacation and payroll taxes "85 or 43, 50"; search costs projected at 25,000 (0:31:45, 0:32:15). On authority to spend: "I can't spend a dime until you people tell me I can." (0:34:24); unspent past appropriations cover the buyout. O'Neill: "I'm concerned that we're not going to have any fund balance at all" (0:35:08). Savings of "26,000 637" from two vacancies (0:36:59). | OBS |
| 0:38:09 | Capacity of the SAU office | LeClair: "pursuing new grant revenue sources will not happen for a period of time yet to be determined" and rebuilding fund balance is "a multi-year process". There is "a little bit over 5 million in grants that we already have that needs to be managed." (0:39:00). Her prediction: "we will be more status quo next year than moving forward." (0:41:33). | |
| 0:43:39 | Interim criteria | LeClair: the interim's role "is very different than the role and purpose of the superintendent". Horsky asks about item ten, a "neutral third party" not able to apply for the permanent job (0:46:52); Malloy took it from other job descriptions. Nate: "you would not be able to prevent them from applying to the full time superintendent position." (0:50:47). | |
| 1:02:21 | Certification | The chair wants "an experienced New Hampshire superintendent". LeClair: "it's taking 4 to 6 months for certificates to be issued" (1:03:19) and "I can't speak to whether or not certification is required for an interim. However, I can speak to the fact that we are required to have a superintendent who is certified in order to sign off on on these things" (1:03:42). Pierce had read that an interim "didn't necessarily need the certification" (1:08:01). Petrin's "preference" wording is adopted. | OBS |
| 1:13:52 | Who sits on the search committee | The chair expected the Claremont board to have chosen its member: "It's Claremont board decision decision that you guys were supposed to do in your last board meeting." (1:16:15). Sprague: "I'll get something out through the email." (1:16:28). Pierce: "What are you saying, Frank? That you're going to make a choice without." The chair: "Yeah, you have to do that in an open meeting." (1:16:46). | POS |
| 1:19:25 | The June 14 decision revisited | Reading the June 14 minutes, the chair notes the committee "Corey, Nate, Josh, plus one member from each board" and that "the chairs of the of each board" should sit on it (1:21:15). Horsky's motion sets chair and vice chair of SAU 6, the Unity and Claremont chairs and three staff, "So that would be seven." (1:24:38). Afterward Pierce: "I didn't know that was and very confused." The chair: "we had a motion on the table that was seconded and we discussed it. Nobody discussed and now it's passed." (1:26:03). | OBS |
| 1:26:26 | Will the committee be noticed? | The chair: "we'll need to define whether or not we have to warn those." Horsky: "Well, you don't have a quorum at those, so I don't know if you'd necessarily need to warn it." (1:26:44). The chair: "it's a hiring committee. And we would be looking at people's resumes." (1:26:49). | MEDIUM |
| 1:27:11 | Press release | Approved text as read: "All aspects of the succession plan will be followed in sequence and open meetings where citizen comments and feedback will be welcomed." (1:34:44). LeClair will send it to the Valley News and Eagle Times, an online paper, the school messenger system and the city's listserv (1:35:46). The chair: "I just don't want to come into any more public meetings and have the community say they don't know what we're doing" (1:36:25). | POS |
| 1:36:25 | Time limits and attendance | Horsky: "I'm not going to stop a budget debate at 830 because it's 830 and not get the budget done." (1:37:45). The chair: "We we've had difficulty getting a quorum for some summer meetings" (1:40:08); Horsky would give "seven days in advance at minimum" notice of an absence. | |
| 1:41:58 | An open agenda item | Towle asks for "an agenda item that says for the good of the order". An unidentified voice: "if a topic comes up and the board wants discuss it and make a vote, you need to warn it." (1:42:51). | |
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 28, 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 board approved a succession plan, hiring criteria, a committee and a press release, 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". (The 2018 text has no mover-and-seconder requirement; that sentence took effect January 1, 2019.) This page applies the MEDIUM limb of the project's severity rule because the record mitigates the gap: the chair refers to an agenda in members' hands (0:04:17), the board approves the June 14 minutes with corrections on tape (0:05:36), and a recording secretary is present (0:01:39). The project's 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 in force for all of 2018)
MEDIUM The interim search committee was formed without settling whether it must meet in noticed public meetings
The board voted the committee's membership (1:23:47 to 1:24:51): the SAU 6 chair and vice chair, the Unity and Claremont board chairs, and three SAU staff. Asked whether its meetings must be noticed, the chair said "we'll need to define whether or not we have to warn those." (1:26:26); Horsky answered "you don't have a quorum at those, so I don't know if you'd necessarily need to warn it." (1:26:44); the chair added that "it's a hiring committee" reviewing resumes (1:26:49). 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 committee whose members the board fixed by vote falls within that text whether or not its members form a quorum of a parent board, and RSA 91-A:2, II then requires notice and minutes. Reviewing applicants is not a reason to skip notice: RSA 91-A:3, II(b) lets a public body go into nonpublic session for "The hiring of any person as a public employee", but only on a motion that states the exemption and a roll-call vote under RSA 91-A:3, I(b), with minutes. The record does not show how the committee met. The chair's own instinct was toward openness ("I think that we want open meetings. We probably should.", 1:26:33), which is why this is MEDIUM rather than higher; the advice given on the floor, if followed, would have let the committee 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); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(b) (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION A revenue entry missing from the books changed the fund-balance projection, and the 2016-17 audit arrived a year after year-end
The business administrator said the fund-balance projection given to the board on June 14 understated 2016-17 revenue because indirect-cost revenue from Claremont, paid July 17, 2017, was recorded in the 2017-18 database but not in the 2016-17 accounts (0:32:39, 0:32:59); he found it while "rolling forward balances from the 2016 audit and preparing for the 17 audit", and said "we don't reconcile every single balance sheet account month." The correction was put at $44,000 (0:24:08). The unit received the final audit for 2016-17 on the day of the meeting (0:28:34, 0:29:02), about twelve months after that fiscal year ended, and the assistant superintendent described the office as having been behind on audits (0:28:49). RSA 194-C:4, II(a) lists audits among the services each SAU must provide, but the project has located no New Hampshire statute that sets a deadline for an SAU audit (RSA 21-J:19 is permissive and does not name SAUs). Whether the federal single-audit deadline of nine months after year-end applied depends on whether the unit itself spent $750,000 or more in federal awards that year, which this record does not establish; the "5 million in grants" LeClair mentioned may be the member districts' awards that the SAU office manages. The point is recorded as an observation. The 2016-17 audit report and its management letter would show whether the auditors noted the reconciliation practice.
Sources: RSA 194-C:4, II(a) (audits among required SAU services; 1996, 298:3; 2010, 5:2); Cablecast: S.A.U. #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-28
OBSERVATION Certification for the interim was left as a preference while its legal status was unresolved
The board adopted criteria giving "preference" to candidates with current New Hampshire superintendent certification (1:09:17, 1:12:34) after the assistant superintendent said she could not say "whether or not certification is required for an interim" but that the unit must have "a superintendent who is certified in order to sign off" on state documents (1:03:42). She undertook to ask the Department of Education's credentialing office the following Monday (1:10:21). This page has not verified the Department of Education certification rules in force in June 2018, so it makes no finding on whether an uncertified interim could lawfully serve. The board's wording kept the question open rather than deciding it, and Sprague gave the reason: a candidate "that might be eligible for licensure" ({r(489)}). The July 12 and July 26 meetings show how the answer came back.
Sources: Cablecast: S.A.U. #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-28
OBSERVATION The search committee's membership changed from what the June 14 minutes recorded, on a voice vote one member said she did not follow
The chair read from the June 14 minutes that the committee was to be three staff "plus one member from each board", with the board chairs also mentioned (1:21:15), and said the Claremont board had been asked to choose its member (1:18:13). Horsky's motion instead seated four officers and three staff (1:23:47, 1:24:38); there was a call for discussion, a voice vote and no announced tally (1:24:51). Pierce then said "I didn't know that was and very confused." (1:25:49) and that some longer-serving members had been passed over; the chair replied that the motion had been seconded and discussion invited (1:26:03). No rule was broken on the record: a body may change an earlier decision by a later vote. The point is that the composition of a hiring committee was settled in about two minutes of floor time, and one member's objection came only after the vote.
Sources: Cablecast: S.A.U. #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-28
POSITIVE The chair insisted that Claremont choose its committee member in an open meeting, not by email
When Sprague offered to "get something out through the email" (1:16:28) and Pierce asked whether he meant to choose without a meeting, the chair said "you have to do that in an open meeting." (1:16:46) and reminded members they were "not in a warranted Claremont board meeting" (1:17:43). Her opening statement had committed the board to decisions "conducted fully in the public domain" (0:03:00). RSA 91-A:2-a, I requires public bodies to deliberate "only in meetings", and 91-A:2-a, II bars communications outside a meeting, including sequential ones, from being "used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter". The chair's direction applied that rule to the Claremont board's choice.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I and II (2016 codification; source 2008, 303:4, never amended)
POSITIVE The board published its transition plan and promised the search would run in open meetings
The approved press release states that the succession plan was approved "At a public meeting held June 28th." and that "All aspects of the succession plan will be followed in sequence and open meetings where citizen comments and feedback will be welcomed." (1:34:08, 1:34:44). The acting superintendent undertook to send it to two newspapers, an online paper, all families through the school messenger system and the city's listserv (1:35:46). No statute requires a press release; this is practice beyond the legal minimum, and it gives the public a dated statement against which the later search can be measured.
Sources: Cablecast: S.A.U. #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-28
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: S.A.U. #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 6-28 (show 9876; run time from the Cablecast API not retrieved, the API returned 403 to the build environment 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.
- The draft succession plan, interim criteria, press release and the business administrator's three fund-balance packets were in members' hands at the meeting; none is in the district's online shares.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9876 SAU6062818.mp4.CSV (773 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9876 SAU6062818.mp4Input/Transcripts/9876 SAU6062818.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 73Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9876 SAU6062818.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:2-a, I and II (2008, 303:4): deliberation only in meetings; outside communications may not circumvent the chapter
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(b), 2017 codification: nonpublic motion states its exemption, roll call; hiring of a public employee
- RSA 194-C:4, II(a) (1996, 298:3; 2010, 5:2): audits among the services an SAU must provide