Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part or being named. 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 |
|---|
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 Board chair (Unity member) | Presided; favored a community-based search committee, citing concern "at the transparency of our board"; signed the NHSBA agreement at the table; corrected the budget hearing date; called the recess. Identified as chair by floor control and by the NHSBA director's reference to "Marjorie chair" (attribution medium-high). |
| Sara Lowe | Board member (Unity) | Supported the contract and following the consultants' recommendations; asked how boards handle a community wanting involvement; read the retreat goals and argued work on them need not wait for a strategic plan. Voted yes on the contract. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member (Claremont School Board chair) | Moved the agenda and the July minutes; called the superintendent choice "the most important role we have"; abstained on tabling the strategic plan. Addressed once as Greg. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member (Claremont) | Seconded the minutes; supported the climate-focused criteria; asked that community, teachers and staff be heard. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member (Claremont) | Asked how many absences a member may have; questioned the 10-cent copy charge and asked for a success rate; worried community members lack budget knowledge; volunteered to promote the budget hearing. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member (Claremont) | Argued the elected board should make the choice without a community committee; asked about extra-day costs; moved to table the strategic plan until January. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member (Claremont) | Seconded the contract; urged the board to follow the consultants' lead; asked for a clear date in the tabling motion. |
| Jason Benware | Board member (Claremont) | Moved to sign the agreement; favored a community forum over appointed community members; seconded the tabling motion. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member (Claremont); arrived late | Said community seats tend to go to "affluent and more powerful people"; proposed two members per town plus administrators; asked for a written fee schedule and abstained on the contract; warned against district staff sitting as community members; moved the nonpublic session. |
| Dr. Keith Pfeifer | Interim Superintendent | Said attendance was a matter for each district board; commented on the interview method; offered help with a strategic plan. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator | Explained the SAU budget calendar under RSA 194-C:9 and that the search fee was in the June fund balance projection. Named only as "Mike"; surname from the roster. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll, the contract vote and the nonpublic vote. |
| Barrett Christina | Executive Director, New Hampshire School Boards Association | Presented the NHSBA search service; recommended a committee of nine at most with a board majority; described the $12,000 fee. Transcribed Baer Christina. |
| Bill (surname unresolved) | NHSBA consultant | Co-founder of a school consulting firm; explained criteria-setting and critical-incident interviewing; quoted $1,000 per extra day. Surname transcribed Brian, unverified. |
| Alan (surname unresolved) | NHSBA consultant | Former head of a state special education administrators' association; described being hired through the method. Surname not recoverable. |
| Unidentified | Board members and others | The seconder of the agenda, several voice-vote and roll answers, and a member who asked about past experience as an interview question. 37 of 849 rows (4.4%) are Unidentified. |
| Citizens | Public comment | None heard. |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Unity members Prudence McCormick, Bob McDevitt and Craig, absent; Dave Putnam, named for survey experience. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions; the business administrator's "I took that off the agenda" and the lettered handouts show a written agenda and packet existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:32 | Pledge (partly recorded), roll call | See Board composition above. |
| 0:01:02 | Agenda | Moved by Sprague at 0:01:15, seconded by an unidentified member; voice vote. |
| 0:01:27 | Minutes of July 26 and July 29, 2018 | Distributed with the packet and by email as Word files. Moved by Sprague at 0:02:54, seconded by Zullo; voice vote. |
| 0:03:20 | Citizens' comments | None heard. |
| 0:03:32 | Member question: attendance | No action; the chair to circulate the attendance policy language. See flag 2. |
| 0:05:27 | Discussion and action: superintendent search (NHSBA) | Presentation by Barrett Christina, Bill and Alan. Benware moved at 1:07:26 to sign the letter of agreement, Petrin seconded; roll call 1:17:07 to 1:17:29: yes Benware, Petrin, Pierce, Sprague, Towle, Zullo, Erickson, Lowe; Horsky abstained; McCormick, McDevitt, Craig absent. Passed 8-0-1. |
| 1:17:51 | Search committee makeup | Discussed; decision put to the September 13 meeting (1:25:14). No vote. |
| 1:32:09 | SAU budget schedule | September 13 first review; October 18 approval for publication; public hearing November 8 (corrected from November 9); adoption by early December. No vote recorded. |
| 1:37:21 | SAU strategic plan | Pierce moved to table at 1:41:01, Benware seconded; recess 1:49:48 to 1:56:31; motion restated at 1:56:41 "until our January meeting"; voice vote counted 5 yes, 3 no, 1 abstention (Sprague) at 1:57:47. |
| 1:58:06 | Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II(a) | Moved by Horsky; roll call 1:58:18 to 1:58:44, all present yes. Not recorded. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:27 | Minutes distributed | Chair: "I hope you've all had a chance to look at the minutes from July 26th and July 29th that were mailed out with the packet on." Towle at 0:02:06: "Can't they be emailed to us to our school board?" Chair at 0:02:13: "They were emailed with the agenda." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:32 | Attendance of members | Towle: "How many times is a board member supposed to be missing from meetings? In my mind, I thought it was three." Chair at 0:03:42: "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar. Do we have a policy, sir?" Pfeifer at 0:04:05: "Sounds like it's more of an individual Claremont Board unity board item to take care of that." Chair at 0:04:42: "we have several members that have not made it to you." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:08 | NHSBA introduces the service | "My name is Barrett Christina. I'm executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association." At 0:08:39: "the number of candidates is shrinking". At 0:08:59: "we're lucky if we get 10 or 15 qualified." At 0:23:52: "you can't draft an advertisement if you don't know what you're looking for." | |
| 0:10:23 | The method | Bill: "I'm the co-founder of the center for Secondary School Redesign." Members offer favorite interview questions; Petrin at 0:28:10: "I want to know why they applied for the job." Bill: "Asking that has no predictive validity in any fashion as to how they will perform." At 0:37:41: "panels are useless actually from a data point of view." | |
| 0:44:35 | Fee and rounds | Chair: "And this contract would carry us through the entire process even if we needed to do a second." Christina at 0:44:44: "the $12,000 fee is for at least two rounds." At 0:45:53: "I won't I won't guarantee the outcome." Bill: "I guarantee the process." | POSITIVE |
| 0:51:07 | Who sits on the search committee | Chair: "My thoughts are it should be a community based committee and not a school board based committee." Christina at 0:52:10: "it's got to be maybe nine at the most. I would also recommend that you maintain a majority of board members on the committee." At 0:53:08: two board members, one or two community members and one or two staff "from each of the towns". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:32 | Members divide | Pierce: "I feel strongly that the community voted us to come here to make these decisions." Chair at 0:55:14: "I've also been approached by folks that are concerned at the transparency of our board, and I think that's a real issue that we're suffering from right now." Towle at 0:56:32: community members "don't have the budgetary knowledge that we have as board members." Horsky at 0:57:12: "the people that are requesting the ability to be on this committee are typically affluent and more powerful people in the community". At 0:58:35: "having the community involved is going to muddy the process." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:01:24 | Follow the experts | Petrin: "we really need to take their expertise and let them lead the way". At 1:02:04: "we need to make that decision because we got a contract." Bill at 1:04:31 on extra services: "It's $1,000 for every day, extra day." | |
| 1:07:26 | Motion to sign | Benware: "I would like to make a motion that we signed this letter of agreement for Superintendent search services". Towle at 1:07:41: "I noticed that you have $0.10 a copy on there." Lowe at 1:10:04: "if we're going to hire someone to do this, that we should follow their recommendations." Sprague at 1:11:24: "this is the most important role we have". | POSITIVE |
| 1:12:53 | Open-ended extra costs | Horsky: "what I would like to see is a dated fee schedule". At 1:13:53: "I'd like to see it in the contractual basis, because today it's $1,000." At 1:14:24: "Tomorrow it could be 1200." Towle at 1:15:33: "Mike, where this puts us budget wise?" O'Neill at 1:15:42: "We looked at this as part of the fund balance projection." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:17:07 | Roll call; contract signed | Benware Been with. Yes.; Horsky at 1:17:15: "I abstain." At 1:17:29 the clerk: "Bob McDevitt and Craig Shooter. Not here." Christina at 1:18:02: "When do you want to sign the contract? Tonight." Chair at 1:18:18: "I think you should just sign it now." | POSITIVE |
| 1:23:44 | Staff on the committee | Lowe asks "is it typical to have administrative staff from the SA or from different schools be part of this committee?" Christina at 1:24:42 on another search: "the staff is picking your next superintendent." Horsky at 1:30:35 on past searches where "somebody who works in the district is also running in the community box." Decision put to September 13 (1:25:14). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:32:25 | SAU budget calendar | O'Neill: "RSA 194 C9. The budget is which covers PSUs. And it says that a meeting held before January 1st, the School Administrative Unit Board adopt the budget". At 1:33:53: "So then we have a public hearing on November 9th, 2018." Chair at 1:34:18: "November 9th is a Friday. So should it be November 8th?" At 1:36:30: "I publish it in the paper between 21 and 14 days before the meeting." | POSITIVE |
| 1:35:51 | Hearing attendance | Towle: "I was really disappointed that a lot of people didn't come." Chair at 1:36:51: "I think last year there was two members from the public." | POSITIVE |
| 1:37:21 | Strategic plan | The suggestion had been "we may want to hold off on a strategic plan for starting the process until we have a new superintendent". Horsky at 1:41:16: "I don't think that means that we need to stall the process as an essay board." Lowe at 1:43:57: "the s a strategic plan is very different from Unity or Claremont School Plan." | |
| 1:48:06 | Motion wording; recess | While the tabling motion's wording was worked out, the mover left the room. Towle: "I'm going to go out and talk to her." Horsky at 1:48:34 notes the board was "one shy of" a quorum (corn). The chair at 1:49:34 proposes a pause; recess voted at 1:49:48; business resumes at 1:56:31. | |
| 1:56:41 | Tabled to January | Pierce: "I would like to make the motion to table the strategic action plan until our January meeting." Count at 1:57:32: "Three people said no." Chair at 1:57:47: "Five. Yes. Three. No. One. Abstention." "So the motion passes." | |
| 1:58:06 | Nonpublic session | Horsky: "I would like to make a motion to go into nonpublic session for RSA 91, a three paragraph, two section a second." At 1:58:44: "Prudence McCormick. McDevitt and Craig are all absent." Chair: "Okay. And we are in nonpublic." | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on August 23, 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. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Whatever search committee the board appoints will itself be a public body
The board debated a board-majority committee of nine at most, as the NHSBA director recommended (0:52:10), against the chair's preference for a community-based committee, which she tied to public concern "at the transparency of our board" (0:55:14); members also raised the risk of district staff taking community seats (1:30:35). The decision was put to September 13. Under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), a public body includes any "committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto", so a search committee appointed by this board, advisory or not, would carry the notice, open-meeting and minutes duties of RSA 91-A, subject to the nonpublic grounds for hiring. Nothing on this recording shows how that would be handled. Recorded as an observation to check against the committee's later record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1, so in force in 2018); RSA 91-A:3, II(b) (2017 codification): hiring as a nonpublic ground.
OBSERVATION Three of Unity's five members were absent, and no one present could say what attendance rule applies
Towle asked how many absences a member may have (0:03:32); the chair was "not familiar" with a policy, the interim superintendent called it a matter for each district's board (0:04:05), and the chair said "we have several members that have not made it" (0:04:42). The clerk recorded McCormick, McDevitt and Craig absent at both roll calls (1:17:29, 1:58:44), so the $12,000 contract was approved with Unity represented by its chair and one other member. With members leaving the room later, Horsky observed the board was one short of a quorum (1:48:34). The SAU board acts by majority of those present unless a weighted vote is demanded, and none was, so the votes were not irregular. The observation is that Unity's share of a joint decision rested on two members, a pattern members were still raising in 2019 (September 5, 2019 page).
Sources: RSA 194-C:8 (weighted votes only on demand of a majority present and voting; 1996, 298:3, unamended).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md section 79 records that neither district Drive share holds anything older than 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that records were never made: members had a packet with lettered NHSBA handouts and a draft agreement, the prior minutes were emailed with the agenda (0:02:13), and the board approved minutes of both its July 26 meeting and its July 29 retreat (0:02:54). RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification) 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" within five business days. The signed NHSBA agreement is a public record not found online. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification, in force through 2018); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 79.
OBSERVATION The search agreement was signed with extra services left open-ended, after a member asked for a written fee schedule
The $12,000 fee covers the timeline's activities and at least two rounds (0:44:44, 1:15:13), but community forums, simulations and other extras were priced orally at "$1,000 for every day, extra day" (1:04:31) and the agreement, as described, provides for other expenses as agreed. Horsky asked for a dated fee schedule in the contract because "today it's $1,000" and "Tomorrow it could be 1200" (1:13:53 to 1:14:24); the motion was not amended, he abstained, and the chair signed the agreement at the table the same evening (1:18:18). The business administrator said the base fee was within the June fund balance projection (1:15:42). No rule was breached; recorded because the final cost of the search depends on terms the public cannot see.
Sources: the recording at 1:04:31, 1:12:53 and 1:18:18.
POSITIVE The search contract was debated in public with its price, and approved by a recorded roll call
The consultants presented their method and fee in open session and took members' questions on price, copying charges, success rates and guarantees (0:44:35 to 1:07:55). The chair then asked for a roll call rather than a voice vote, and the clerk recorded each member's vote, the abstention and the absentees by name (1:17:07 to 1:17:29). In 2018 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to record "final decisions" but not individual votes on an ordinary motion; taking this one by roll call gave the public a named record of who committed SAU money to the search.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification).
POSITIVE The SAU budget calendar was set in public, tied to its statutory deadline, with a public hearing the statute does not require
The business administrator explained that the schedule works back from RSA 194-C:9, which in 2018 provided that "At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget" (1:32:25); the chair caught that the proposed hearing date fell on a Friday and moved it to Thursday, November 8 (1:34:18); and the budget is to be advertised 21 to 14 days ahead (1:36:30). RSA 194-C:9 contains no public hearing requirement, so holding and advertising a hearing goes beyond the statute, and members discussed how to draw more than the two members of the public who came the year before (1:36:51).
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2019 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, so the same text governed 2018).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9974, "SAU #6 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING of 8-23": 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, packet or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, July 26, 2018 (interim superintendent chosen; minutes accepted here); Claremont School Board, August 15, 2018; Joint City Council and School Board, August 9, 2018; SAU 6 Board, September 5, 2019.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9974 SAU6082318.mp4.CSV (849 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9974 SAU6082318.mp4Input/Transcripts/9974 SAU6082318.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9974 SAU6082318.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 79
Laws and rules cited on this page