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, with the corrections recorded in the project's CSV-corrections ledger.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Marjorie (Marge) Erickson | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Presents the self-evaluation tool, adding a budget section ("And quite frankly, I made it up.", 0:06:24); reports the search committee's July 5 screening; runs the salary motion and the roll call. Diarization merges her voice with LeClair's and Lowe's; the attribution report separates them by content. |
| Sara Lowe | Member; chair of the Unity School Board (Unity) | Warns an SAU-wide strategic plan "could be limiting to Claremont" (0:22:55); on an uncertified hire, "there includes an additional cost" (0:41:34). Some rows assigned on content (medium-low confidence). |
| Michael Petrin | Member (Claremont); SAU 6 vice chair, sits on the interim search committee | Moves the agenda and the June 28 minutes; raises "emergency waivers for the certification" (0:39:05); prefers option D. Several rows the dialogue file gives him are the HR staff member's (see Nate). |
| Steven Horsky | Member (Claremont) | Moves the self-evaluation tool and the $120,000 salary motion (1:50:10); seconds adjournment; cautions members not to attend the Newport funding forum "as a forum" [quorum] (2:04:50). |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (Claremont); SAU 6 treasurer | Questions why uncertified applicants were set aside; asks that the whole board take part in the search (0:46:40); votes No on the salary motion (1:53:52); her motion for option D is ruled out of order after the vote. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member; vice chair of the Claremont School Board | Abstains on the June 28 minutes (one of "Craig and Rebecca", 0:02:59); presses LeClair and staff on the salary figures and on insurance. |
| Frank Sprague | Member; chair of the Claremont School Board | Comments on the evaluation tool; asks whether option E is affordable (1:21:02); says the police security item will "kick back to just to Claremont level" (2:00:34). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member (Claremont) | Says she cannot fill out the evaluation, "I've only been here for a few months back on this board." (0:09:21); seconds the tool; asks for a roll call on the salary motion (1:53:25). |
| Prudence McCormick | Member (Unity) | Present at roll; votes on the salary motion (called "Perform it" in the transcript). |
| Bob McDevitt | Member (Unity) | Present at roll ("Bob McDevitt right here."). |
| Craig (surname not established) | Member (Unity) | Abstains on the June 28 minutes (0:02:59); recognized by the chair (1:25:08). |
| Jason Benware | Member (Claremont) | Called at both roll calls; no answer or speech is distinguishable. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent, acting superintendent | Explains the Claremont strategic plan; presents the fund-balance update and the six salary scenarios; says of uncovered days, "It's going to fall to me, let's just be honest." (1:23:12); reports on a Newport school-funding forum, the new SAU website and the July 29 retreat site. |
| Michael (Mike) O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Recalculates the savings from a $120,000 base: "$10,075 to $0.38" on option E (1:51:04). |
| Nate (surname not established) | SAU 6 human resources staff | Reports additional applications (0:38:32) and "alternative pathways to certification" (0:39:13); advises that candidates cannot be asked about insurance needs (1:38:39). The dialogue file labels that advice and two related rows as Michael Petrin; the project ledger corrects them to Nate (see method note). |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary (staff) | Calls the roll on the salary motion (1:53:32 to 1:54:21). |
| Unidentified | Various | 105 of 876 dialogue rows (12.0%), including most roll-call answers. The chair: "There are no citizens" (0:03:11). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda survives, though the chair says "You all have a copy of the agenda." (0:01:31) and refers to a packet. The list below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions; LeClair's "We have not done item five" (2:08:51) refers to the future-meetings item.
| Taken up | Item | What was said and done |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Call to order; Pledge of Allegiance; roll call | See Board composition. |
| 0:01:31 | Agenda | Petrin: "I make a motion. We accept the agenda as presented." (0:01:42); voice vote. |
| 0:01:51 | Minutes of June 28, 2018 | Motion by Petrin (0:02:19); voice vote; "We have two abstentions. Craig and Rebecca." (0:02:59). |
| 0:03:11 | Citizens' comments | "There are no citizens, so I guess we don't need to worry about citizens comments." |
| 0:03:11 | Board self-evaluation tool | Horsky moves "the provided copy by Marjorie with the additional areas of the budget, establishment and oversight" (0:12:47); second Towle (0:13:02); voice vote (0:13:49). Forms due July 26. |
| 0:14:21 | SAU priorities for a strategic plan | Discussion; each member asked to bring "three main goals and objectives" to the July 29 retreat; no motion ("I don't think we need a motion for that.", 0:36:23). |
| 0:36:38 | Interim superintendent search: status | Report only. |
| 0:48:05 | Interim superintendent: full or part time, and compensation | Horsky: "Do a motion to take the base salary of 130 and reduce it to 120,000. And for the interim salary, I would like to add that rate. Move forward with option eat." [option E] (1:50:10); second heard (1:50:27); roll call at Towle's request; "The motion passes." (1:54:24). The chair restates the motion once as "option B" (1:53:14), but the discussion and the business administrator's figures are all for option E. |
| 1:55:53 | Superintendent evaluation process | The straw man is to be reviewed for the next meeting; no action. |
| 2:00:02 | Other business | Police security date (to the Claremont board); school-funding forum in Newport; new SAU website; farewell reception; retreat location. |
| 2:08:51 | Future meetings | Next meeting: the evaluation straw man and "Hopefully a nomination for interim superintendent" (2:09:25). |
| 2:11:50 | Adjournment | Motion and second (Horsky); voice vote. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/9906 SAU6071218.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 |
|---|
| 0:03:11 | Board self-evaluation | The chair took the New Hampshire School Boards Association form "and I've added one more area because we're also responsible for the budget, establishing a budget and oversight of the budget." (0:04:28). She wants it done annually (0:03:46). Towle: new members "don't have the knowledge to fill that out" (0:08:07). Adopted as a starting point for the retreat. | |
| 0:14:53 | Strategic plan or goals | The chair: "I don't think any of the boards actually has a five year strategic plan that's finished." LeClair: the Claremont plan is "still a little bit at the 10,000ft view" (0:15:29) and "is a Claremont plan" (0:27:18). The chair: "it is in the rules, like as one of the A's, that we are supposed to have a strategic plan" (0:32:53) [rule not identified on this page]; "It's my fourth year and we have not had a strategic plan." Members are asked for three goals each. | |
| 0:36:38 | Interim search: screening | "there were 11 online applicants that we received and one that we received by mail, prior to our July 5th meeting." The committee "met on July 5th and reviewed all of the applications, and we chose two that are moving forward to interview" and "these decisions were made based on certification." (0:37:05). Nate: "For more online and one more paper." [four more]. | MEDIUM OBS |
| 0:38:56 | Certification | Petrin: "If they're not certified we can apply and get a waiver." (0:39:05). The chair: "We wanted a New Hampshire certification, a current New Hampshire certification." (0:39:29). Pierce: "you immediately put aside anyone that wasn't certified and then just looked at the certified." (0:42:11). Petrin: "we looked through them fully and put the priority on certification and the experience." Lowe: an uncertified hire "would create a significant amount of work at the sea level" [SAU level] (0:41:34). The chair: "So the risk is very low at this point." though the August 15 start may slip (0:44:27). | OBS |
| 0:46:40 | Who searches | Pierce: "I felt like it should be all of us together working on this" (0:46:40). The chair: "The decision was made at the previous meeting not to move forward in that way." (0:47:26). Community members will be involved in the permanent search, "not for the interim" (0:38:13). | MEDIUM |
| 0:49:31 | Money available | LeClair: the June projection had the SAU "$24,155 in the hole in the red" for FY19 after the leadership change (0:49:45); vacancy savings bring it to "about $318 in in the red" (0:52:37). The superintendent salary line has "about 111,000 remaining" of a budgeted "$130,000" (0:53:31); "the total comp budget of $143,000 and change" (0:54:36), over "44.4 weeks remaining" from August 15 (0:55:36). | OBS |
| 0:56:06 | Six scenarios | A (interim three days, no acting pay): "$70,000 in fund balance at the end of the year" (0:57:00). B (three days plus acting): "approximately 57,000" (0:57:13). C (four days): "22,000 and change"; D (four days plus one acting day): "approximately 15,000" (1:00:31). E (five days at the prorated $111,000): "A deficit of $14,000." F: break-even pay of $98,000, "approximately $115,000" for a full year (1:01:30, 1:02:04). LeClair, on acting pay in B and D: "Since we're talking about me." (0:58:23). | OBS |
| 1:21:02 | Can E be afforded? | Sprague: "do we have the money to take a $14,555?" LeClair: "All of the rest of the money is spoken for." (1:21:17). Towle: heat and electricity are "really look at those as fixed line items" (1:36:46). LeClair: "It's going to fall to me, let's just be honest." and "there should be some benefit or compensation to that." (1:23:12, 1:23:31). | OBS |
| 1:26:22 | What may be asked of candidates | Asked whether a candidate could be offered more pay in place of insurance, the HR staff member (labeled Petrin in the dialogue file) answered "Yeah, yeah. We can't ask that question in that process." (1:38:39) and that a disclosed choice "may not stay the same" (1:38:57). | |
| 1:35:02 | Salary level | Horsky: "we're specifying this at $130,000 a year position for somebody who was seasoned" and "They don't earn a true superintendent pay if Corey is going to do the work." (1:35:27); he suggests "120,000, maybe 125,000". Towle: "Corey, not doing any grant work is not good for us at all." (1:37:43). O'Neill: "Somewhere between D and F" (1:43:38). LeClair: "We could also benefit from having somebody here five days a week." (1:44:50). | |
| 1:50:10 | Motion and roll call | Horsky moves a $120,000 base with option E. O'Neill: savings of "$10,075 to $0.38" (1:51:04); an unidentified voice: "Still technically puts you in the hole for about four grand." (1:51:47). Towle: "Would you want to do a roll call." The clerk calls twelve names; nine Yes answers and Pierce's No are audible, with the McDevitt and Craig calls run together ("I don't love it. And quick. Shoot.", 1:54:17) and no separate answer heard after Benware's name. "The motion passes." (1:54:24). Pierce's follow-up motion for option D is refused because "we've made a decision already" (1:54:39). | POS OBS |
| 1:55:53 | Superintendent evaluation | The chair puts the evaluation straw man on the next agenda: "The reason it's on the agenda is I don't want to forget it." It proposes a vision statement, a mission statement and five focus areas. | |
| 2:00:39 | School-funding forum | LeClair reports a request to host a school-funding presentation in Newport on August 14 by two speakers transcribed as John Tobin and Andrew Valencia, co-sponsored by districts; August 14 is a Unity board night (2:01:40). Horsky: "Just want to make sure that we don't go as a forum." [quorum] and "Wanted to make sure we didn't get in trouble." (2:05:00). Towle: "Discussion only." | |
| 2:05:58 | Website, farewell, retreat | A new SAU website launches Monday (2:05:58); a farewell reception for Superintendent McGoodwin on July 27 at Trinity Episcopal Church (2:06:54); the July 29 retreat at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center (2:08:16), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (2:10:26). | |
| 2:09:07 | Next meeting | LeClair: the next agenda carries the evaluation straw man and "Hopefully a nomination for interim superintendent"; because she is on vacation, edits "won't necessarily meet that seven day ahead reporting requirement." (2:09:46). | |
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 July 12, 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 set the interim superintendent's salary by roll call, and the recording is now the only public account of the vote. 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: members have the agenda and a packet (0:01:31, 0:03:11), the board approves the June 28 minutes on tape and the chair praises them as "very well done" (0:02:33), and a recording secretary calls the roll. Two weeks later the chair said the minutes of this July 12 meeting had been posted online some time before (see the July 26, 2018 meeting page), so minutes were produced and published at the time; it is their survival that fails. No SAU 6 folder from 2018 survives in the share, so the project's later-packet rule cannot be tested.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text in force for all of 2018)
MEDIUM The interim search committee met on July 5 and interviews on July 13, with no record that either session was noticed or minuted
The chair reported that the committee "met on July 5th and reviewed all of the applications, and we chose two that are moving forward to interview", that "we have those interviews scheduled for tomorrow" and that "there will be a meeting after that just to assess the information" (0:37:05); she referred to "the interim superintendent search committee meeting on the fifth" (0:48:05). The committee was created by a vote of this board on June 28, with its membership fixed by motion. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), unchanged since 2008, makes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof" of a school board or SAU board a public body, so its meetings required notice under RSA 91-A:2, II and minutes. Reviewing applicants does not displace that: RSA 91-A:3, II(b) allows nonpublic session for "The hiring of any person as a public employee", but only on a motion stating the exemption and a roll-call vote under RSA 91-A:3, I(b), with minutes. At the June 28 meeting a member advised that notice might not be needed because the committee lacked a quorum (see the June 28, 2018 meeting page). This page grades the gap MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the absence of committee minutes is not specific: no 2018 SAU 6 records of any kind survive in the shares, and nothing on this recording says how the July 5 session was warned. The committee's notices and minutes, if they exist, would settle it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1); RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(b) (2017 codification)
OBSERVATION Certification was applied as a screen, though the board had adopted it as a preference
On June 28 the board adopted criteria giving preference to current New Hampshire certification, and Sprague said he did not want to close the door on a candidate eligible for licensure (June 28 recording, show 9876). On July 12 the chair reported that the committee's choice of two interviewees was "made based on certification" (0:37:05), and when asked whether "anyone who's not certified would be automatically" set aside, she answered "Probably." (0:39:50, 0:39:54). Pierce objected that applicants who could obtain certification were not considered (0:40:19); Petrin said the committee had read every resume and "put the priority on certification and the experience" (0:42:21), and described "kind of an emergency, waiver" (0:40:38). Lowe pointed to the extra cost of certifying a one-year hire (0:41:34). Both candidates interviewed were certified, so the choice was within the June 28 criteria. The page notes the drift from preference to screen because the committee's sessions have no surviving record and this exchange is the only account of how the criteria were applied. The certification and waiver rules themselves were not verified for this page.
Sources: Cablecast: SAU 6 SCHOOL BOARD 7-12
OBSERVATION The salary option adopted was projected to leave the SAU budget a few thousand dollars short, with the remainder "spoken for"
Option E, an interim five days a week, was costed at "A deficit of $14,000." at the budgeted $130,000 base (1:01:30); the business administrator put the saving from a $120,000 base at "$10,075 to $0.38" (1:51:04), and a member noted that this "Still technically puts you in the hole for about four grand." (1:51:47). The assistant superintendent said "All of the rest of the money is spoken for" (1:21:17) and identified possible savings of "3 to 5000" from restructuring a vacant position (1:24:54). RSA 194-C:5, III gives the SAU board the power to fix the salaries of all SAU personnel, and RSA 194-C:9, I makes the adopted SAU budget the unit's spending plan; the record shows the board choosing an option it knew might need offsetting savings, not spending without authority. The presenter of the scenarios was also the employee whose acting pay options B and D would set, and she said so ("Since we're talking about me.", 0:58:23); the board chose the option with no acting days. This is recorded as an observation; the year-end SAU budget-to-actual report would show how the gap was closed.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, III (2017 codification; 1996, 298:3): SAU board fixes SAU salaries; RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification): SAU budget
POSITIVE The interim superintendent's salary was set by a recorded roll-call vote, in public, after the costing was shown
The business office and HR prepared six costed scenarios with benefit loads for each (0:56:31), the board debated them for about an hour in open session, and at Towle's request the vote was taken by roll call (1:53:25 to 1:54:24). RSA 91-A:2, II in 2018 required minutes to record "final decisions" but did not require roll calls or the names of movers. A named, recorded vote on a salary the SAU board fixes under RSA 194-C:5, III goes beyond that minimum and leaves a public record of who supported the figure. The transcript itself is imperfect: some names and answers are run together, as the board-composition note above describes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification); RSA 194-C:5, III (2017 codification)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU 6 SCHOOL BOARD 7-12 (show 9906; 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 packet (self-evaluation forms, fund-balance projection, salary scenarios, comparison salaries, evaluation straw man) was in members' hands at the meeting; none is in the district's online shares.
- Related page: SAU 6 Board, June 28, 2018 (criteria and committee adopted).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9906 SAU6071218.mp4.CSV (876 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9906 SAU6071218.mp4Input/Transcripts/9906 SAU6071218.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 74Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9906 SAU6071218.mp4.md (speaker attribution report)Scripts/csv_corrections_2015_2023.md (ledger entry for rows 456, 511 and 515)
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) and II(b), 2017 codification: nonpublic motion states its exemption, roll call; hiring of a public employee
- RSA 194-C:5, III (1996, 298:3): the SAU board fixes the salaries of all SAU personnel
- RSA 194-C:9, I, 2017 codification: SAU budget adopted before January 1 and apportioned among the districts