Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present. Attendance follows the roll call printed in the agenda and the draft minutes. The dialogue file labels 123 of 1,195 rows Unidentified.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Candace Crawford | Board chair | Wrote goals on the chart paper and kept time; raised catastrophic aid, food service, unified public messaging and homeschool reentry; recounted the audit gap from 2016. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Read each sheet of post-its aloud; pressed on teacher evaluation, board orientation, fiscal-policy priorities, the website, truancy, the treasurer’s role and a Hanover-style budget presentation; asked how to prepare questions for the auditor. |
| Donald Lavalette | Board member | Read parts of Howard’s letter; spoke on special education, teacher trust, professional reading, a district master-teacher program, math-program churn and procedures for the treasurer’s office. |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member | Asked for unscripted school visits; raised the unenforced 2005 dress code, discipline and the lapsed GED program; asked what professionals and the state had done for ten years. |
| Brian Rapp | Board member | Short remarks on HR history, board authority under the RSAs and school visits. |
| Loren Howard | Board member; Absent | Sent written feedback that the superintendent and Lavalette read into the session (“giving Lauren a voice”), including the audit goal and a position against AI in schools. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; Absent | Recorded absent in the agenda’s roll call. |
| Dr. Timothy Broadrick | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Facilitated; 395 rows in the dialogue file. Explained court and DHHS placements, teacher-evaluation law as he understands it, discipline, the SASS grant, truancy, homeschooling, contracting and the plan to turn the session into a dated recovery plan. |
| Tammy Cote | Executive Assistant | Listed on the agenda (“Tammy Cote”). The superintendent forwards Howard’s letter to “Tammy” to print at 0:00:45; not otherwise identified in the dialogue file. |
Named but not present: auditor Michael Campo, district counsel Jim O’Shaughnessy, special-education consultant Tara Gear, Commissioner Caitlin Davis and Nate Greene of the Department of Education, and the treasurer. Citizens’ comments: “None.” per the draft minutes.
Agenda
Items as posted in “CSB Agenda - July 29 2026”. The agenda document has been annotated after the meeting with the roll call and workshop notes; scheduled clock times stay plain.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 6:00 p.m. (scheduled) | I. Call to order & Pledge | Not on the recording. Roll call per the annotated agenda: “Present: Candace Crawford, Bill Madden, Heather Whitney, Brian Rapp, Don Lavalette”; “Absent: Loren Howard, Mike Petrin.” |
| 6:05 p.m. (scheduled) | II. Citizens’ comments | Not on the recording. Draft minutes: “None.” Ten minutes were allotted before the workshop. See flag 6. |
| 0:00:45 | III.1 Feedback on the “Build a Foundation” presentation | Annotated agenda: “Loren Howard provided written feedback on the superintendent’s July 21 presentation.” Members “agreed to do so” (follow the framework). Broadrick at 0:08:47: “So you can’t solve every problem in one school year.” |
| — | III.2 Brainstorming: what do we need in each domain? | Post-its on chart paper for the nine domains; the minutes say it “lasted about 25 minutes.” Largely before the recording begins. |
| 0:11:08 | III.3 Group review: synthesis and action items | Whitney read each sheet. Draft minutes record two items from Howard (timelines; “All audits must be completed by July of 2027.”), the special-education hiring goal, then break off at “In School Operations, …..” No votes were taken on the recording. |
| 2:39:40 | IV. Nonpublic meeting (9:00 p.m. scheduled) | Agenda: “RSA 91-A:3, II (a, c, & e).” The recording ends at the break before it. No motion, roll call, times or outcome appear in any record located. See flag 2. |
| 9:30 p.m. (scheduled) | V. Adjournment | Not on the recording; the draft minutes carry only the heading. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics. The recording begins mid-session. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:45 | Howard’s written feedback | Read by Broadrick: “An easy measure for Lauren, he writes, is if by July of next year, we are not up to date on audits.” “Something is seriously wrong.” Broadrick at 0:01:55: “He wrote by July. And I will. When I talked with Mike camp [Campo] today, we want to beat that one.” Also: “We have to plan and budget for the unexpected”; “We learned a valuable lesson about tactics folks will use to withhold information” (0:03:26). | HIGH |
| 0:04:12 | Howard on special education and buildings | “Without capable in-house services, we spend insane amounts on placements and he is 100% right.” At 0:05:01: if Bluff does not sell, put it back on next year’s ballot; “has the Masonic Lodge sold?” | |
| 0:08:56 | Framing | “There’s a lot of chasing shiny objects or there was going on.” Crawford at 0:10:23: “It’s the urgent versus the important.” | |
| 0:11:17 | Special education: the Academy | “we’re under what’s called a due diligence review, a doctor by the Department of Education relating to that program at Stevens High School.” Lavalette at 0:14:48: paraprofessionals versus certified staff “just appears out of whack.” Whitney at 0:18:03: “Need to hire only certified Sped staff.” | |
| 0:18:50 | Court and DHHS placements; catastrophic aid | “right now we have four children placed outside of the city on what are called episodes of treatment.” “No local control in that cost.” “It’s a form of local tax based on demographics.” Crawford at 0:21:24: “the law that they were supposed to pay 95% of anything over 70,000.” Broadrick: “for a long time cat aid or special aid aid was fully funded. But in the last 5 to 7 years we’ve slipped.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:57 | A certified special-education director | “We need a certified director of special education.” At 0:23:47: the only person holding the administrator certification next year was hired that day as out-of-district coordinator. | |
| 0:24:36 | Athletics | “Follow the money. Audits and fundraising under athletics.” Broadrick at 0:24:56: “Did you know we don’t have cross-country?” | |
| 0:25:41 | Food service and the wellness committee | “we outsource food service right now, and it looks like a little bit of a gray area to me so far about who’s taking … real responsibility for the program.” Every third year “you do a wellness plan, policy review”; the committee is “supposed to meet at least annually, and she just hasn’t been able to get administration to do it.” Crawford at 0:26:57: “We have one more year, but their ability to continue is questionable.” | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:27:39 | Teacher observation and evaluation | Whitney: “we haven’t been able to, move people along that haven’t met what we consider quality educator standards because there have been no evaluations in the place.” Lavalette at 0:30:10: “you’re not going to get buy in with the hammer.” Broadrick at 0:33:32: “So the law requires school boards in New Hampshire to adopt a teacher evaluation process.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:36:06 | Technology and the website | “compliance with data and privacy laws”; a tech audit; less elementary screen time. The audits went online two days after July 21 (0:39:35); Whitney at 0:40:19: “Our website is horrible.” | |
| 0:40:59 | Howard on AI | Read by Lavalette: “We need to set a precedent and prove you not need AI integration to have success in schools.” | |
| 0:41:55 | Consultants and contracts | Only the PR service kept. Services without “a signed contract and the purchase order number” are stopped; one relationship ended the day before: “$17,000 a year for the last ten years, was paying somebody to do something that the Department of Ed will do for free, or we’re responsible for doing” (0:44:30). | POSITIVE |
| 0:48:15 | Professional reading; administrators’ retreat | A three-day administrative retreat with a grant-funded speaker; Fullan’s “Leading in a culture of change” for everyone (0:49:07). | |
| 0:52:28 | Board roles and orientation | Whitney: “The administration exists to facilitate those that govern, not the other way around.” At 0:55:09: “Nobody told me anything. There was no mentorship, there was no guidance.” | |
| 0:58:43 | A state compliance calendar | The Department of Education has drafted “a month by month annual calendar of school district responsibilities,” expected “in the next month.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:01:30 | Policy priorities | “we didn’t know we were so deficient in many areas of our fiscal management policies” (1:02:09). Procedures to be attached to policies; the procurement guide carries nine policy references (1:03:25). | |
| 1:04:55 | A clean FY27 audit | “I want to give you a clean fiscal 27 audit.” At 1:28:48: “if we don’t have fiscal 26 and all the corrective actions done in one year, I’ll give you your money back.” | HIGH |
| 1:07:18 | Board members in schools | “You’re going to get kind of a dog and pony show.” Whitney at 1:09:16: “fly on the wall, sit me in a classroom in the back.” | |
| 1:07:45 | Dress code | Madden: “there’s one set of rules for the girls and one set of rules for the boys” (1:08:12); “the dress code was passed in 2005” (1:15:28). Broadrick at 1:12:18: “The board establishes a dress code. We will comply with the board’s decision.” | |
| 1:18:29 | Discipline | “Those first ten days, a principal has the authority to assess.” At 1:19:21: “after ten days by the principal, I can assess another ten days”; then “schedule an expulsion hearing before the school board.” Lavalette at 1:20:26: “Learning time for the other 20 souls.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:24:33 | Business administration | Cross-training, professional development, “Never to accept an Excel spreadsheet.” (1:29:58); who opens the mail and checks (1:31:04); “Checkbook and manifest online visual summary. One slide at each meeting” (1:32:25). Broadrick at 1:32:57: “I’m totally on board with this. I want to do it at one of your August meetings.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:34:35 | Competitive quotes | “We sent it to five vendors. We got two responses. This was the low price. We signed a contract.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:36:22 | The treasurer | Whitney: “welcome the treasurer into the into our process”; the superintendent and treasurer meet “about once a week”; Lavalette at 1:38:22: “create a set of best practices.” | |
| 1:41:36 | Curriculum and instruction | Lavalette: “I’d like us to develop our own master teacher program.” At 1:42:39: “the cost of buying a math program for this district is enormous.” Whitney at 1:50:30: “$150,000 a year for zero.” Kennedy to present Wit and Wisdom at the next meeting (1:50:52). | |
| 1:56:19 | Student wellness director and the SASS grant | A director split from student services, charged about 90% to the grant (“it’s going to cost us $13,000 out of the budget”, 2:03:26), plus a full-time West Central Behavioral Health clinician under an MOU. | |
| 1:58:25 | JROTC | “Department of defense will pay for it” if about 50 students enroll (1:58:43). | |
| 2:06:38 | Truancy and homeschooling | Whitney: truancy “affects our ADM, which affects our ability to get money from the state”; “truancy of ten, 15, 20%.” Broadrick at 2:07:54: “They don’t even.” … “To tell us anymore.” The truancy officer resigned; his data were home visits and mileage, not attendance (2:08:04). At 2:10:38: staff are “to not behave any differently with regards to homeschoolers.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:11:47 | The lapsed GED program | Madden: “We didn’t seek reimbursement on the grants.” Broadrick: the application “had to be submitted to the Department of Education by the superintendent. We missed the deadline.” “I understand they’re giving it to Lebanon now” (2:12:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:14:24 | Human resources | “Require all staff evaluations in writing”; separate school-level personnel files: “That is a no no, you can’t do that” (2:14:39). “Every contract that’s not that doesn’t exist under a collective bargaining agreement. I want to bring you to approve” (2:16:17); “there’s somebody working 185 days, making 20,000 more than me” (2:16:49). | POSITIVE |
| 2:17:22 | Facilities and capital planning | Five-year plan and capital budgeting. Broadrick at 2:17:50: “I don’t think you have money in any reserve funds.” | |
| 2:21:38 | Next steps | “We turn this into a real actionable plan with dates, objectives, deadlines.” Report to the State Board of Education “in January” (2:22:17). An update, “No decisions”, at the August 5 meeting (2:27:18). | |
| 2:22:42 | The budget process | Whitney: the district should present its budget as Hanover does; “The budget preparation process … has essentially been no process” (2:24:01). Broadrick at 2:24:28: “the law says that the superintendent recommends a budget to the school board, and the school board proposes a budget to the community.” | |
| 2:32:26 | Preparing for the auditor | Questions to go ahead of the August 5 meeting: “Email Tammy and me” (2:33:23). “24 and 25 are going to look a lot like what you’re looking” (2:34:40); “All the more reason to just start writing corrective actions right now.” | HIGH |
| 2:35:42 | Audit history | Broadrick: “You haven’t had an audit since 21?” Crawford: “we didn’t have an audit from since 2016”; Whitney: “No it’s 2019” (2:36:27). The speakers do not agree on the dates. | |
| 2:36:54 | The state’s oversight | Whitney: the Department refers board members “back to your superintendent and your business administrator, period”; on unfinished corrective-action plans, “the response is we’ll cite them again” (2:37:34). | |
| 2:39:40 | Break before nonpublic session | “we we’re going to have a five minute break and then we will come back into nonpublic.” The recording ends. | MEDIUM |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid. They are not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; an Observation rests on no confirmed rule.
HIGH The board’s goal of finishing all audits by July 2027 is later than the new state deadline for the FY26 audit, and the federal deadlines for FY22 to FY25 have passed
Howard’s letter set the measure “if by July of next year, we are not up to date on audits” (0:01:06); the draft minutes record it as “All audits must be completed by July of 2027.” The superintendent said “we want to beat that one” (0:01:55) and promised a clean FY27 audit (1:04:55). Since July 1, 2026, the reenacted RSA 198:4-d, VIII has required that “The audit report for the last completed fiscal year shall be submitted to the department within 9 months of the end of the fiscal year,” which makes the FY26 audit due March 31, 2027, and provides that “The commissioner shall withhold state grant funding, not including RSA 198:40-a funding” from a non-compliant district until it is filed. A July 2027 finish would miss that date by three months. Separately, the federal single-audit deadline is nine months after year end: March 31, 2023 for FY22, 2024 for FY23, 2025 for FY24 and 2026 for FY25. None of those audits was final on this date, and FY24 and FY25 were expected “by Thanksgiving” (July 21 page). Mitigation: the superintendent aims to finish sooner, and corrective actions are being written before the reports arrive (2:34:46).
Sources: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026: RSA 198:4-d, VIII (chaptered text); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (single audit due within nine months); 7.29.26 DRAFT CSB Meeting Minutes.
Corrected 2026-09-25. An earlier version of this flag gave a six-month filing deadline and withholding of all state funding. Those terms came from the Senate-passed text of SB 586 (amendment 2026-0772s), not the enacted law. The chaptered text sets the deadline at 9 months in RSA 198:4-d, VIII and excludes RSA 198:40-a funding from withholding. See Data Quality Report C1.156. The chair’s certification “under the pains and penalties of perjury” is in RSA 198:4-d, III; it attaches to the statistical reports, including the September 1 financial report, was in the section before SB 586, and is not a term of the audit filing.
MEDIUM No record shows how the nonpublic session was entered or what it decided, and the public minutes are unfinished
The agenda noticed a nonpublic session under “RSA 91-A:3, II (a, c, & e),” and the recording ends with the chair calling a break “and then we will come back into nonpublic” (2:39:40). Entry requires a motion that states the specific exemption and a roll-call vote; nonpublic minutes must be kept and disclosed within 72 hours unless sealed by a two-thirds vote taken in public. No nonpublic minutes for July 29 were located, and the draft public minutes record no motion, roll call, entry time, return, adjournment or any mover or seconder. They stop mid-list at “In School Operations, …..”, give only scheduled times, and do not name who produced them; since August 22, 2025, RSA 91-A:2, II requires the start and end time and the name of the person who produced the minutes. This is graded MEDIUM, not HIGH, because the meeting was noticed and packeted and draft minutes were posted within two days (created July 31); what is missing is their completion and the nonpublic record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); 7.29.26 DRAFT CSB Meeting Minutes.
MEDIUM The federally required wellness-policy review had not been convened
The superintendent reported that the staff member who handles federal food-service reporting told him the wellness committee is “supposed to meet at least annually, and she just hasn’t been able to get administration to do it” (0:26:14); he described the review as something done “every third year.” A district in the school lunch program must “At least once every three years, assess schools’ compliance with the local school wellness policy” and must let parents, students, staff, the school board and the public take part in its periodic review. Mitigation: he has scheduled the committee for the afternoon of opening day.
Sources: 7 CFR 210.31(d)(1), (e)(2) (local school wellness policy; triennial assessment; 81 FR 51069; text read 2026-09-25).
OBSERVATION Members say there is no approved teacher-evaluation model
Whitney said people have not been moved along “because there have been no evaluations in the place” (0:28:04) and that the district has no approved model (0:34:29). The superintendent said “the law requires school boards in New Hampshire to adopt a teacher evaluation process” (0:33:32) and that a board without one “has the authority to impose one,” which could prompt impact bargaining (0:34:12). This page has not verified the provision he described, so the point stands as his characterization. Evaluations are to be written and specific, with a right to respond (0:33:21–0:33:26).
Sources: the recording at the timestamps above.
OBSERVATION Court and DHHS placements: the catastrophic-aid figures stated do not match the statute
The superintendent described four children placed out of district by courts or DHHS, billed to the district with “No local control in that cost” (0:20:05). The chair said the State was “supposed to pay 95% of anything over 70,000” (0:21:24). RSA 186-C:18, III makes the department liable for 80 percent of the cost between 3½ and 10 times the state average expenditure per pupil and for all cost above 10 times; the appropriation is prorated when short, and since 2025 the department must pay “not less than 80 percent of the district’s entitlement in the fiscal year.” No 95 percent figure appears in the section. The superintendent’s “in the last 5 to 7 years we’ve slipped” (0:21:38) fits the years of proration before that floor. An accurate placement count was still being assembled.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (source note ends 2025, 138:1, 2; 141:276, 278; text read 2026-09-25).
OBSERVATION Discipline, attendance, homeschooling and the adult-education grant, as described
Discipline. The superintendent described ten days by a principal, then “I can assess another ten days” (1:19:21), then an expulsion hearing. RSA 193:13, I(a) lets the superintendent or “a representative designated in writing” suspend for up to 10 days; I(b) lets “The school board … or a representative designated in writing” extend it by up to 10 more days “following a hearing.” His account fits the statute if the board has designated him in writing and a hearing is held. Homeschooling. Asked whether families must notify the district, he said “They don’t even.” … “To tell us anymore” (2:07:54–2:07:55), and another voice added “You don’t even you don’t have to tell the school” (2:07:56). RSA 193-A:5 as codified on gc.nh.gov (source note ending 2022) still requires notice within 5 business days. The General Court lists HB 1268 as enacted in 2026 as chapter 297, but this page could not read the chaptered text, so the change he describes is unverified here. Attendance and GED. The truancy officer was not replaced pending evidence the post raised attendance (2:08:04). The adult-education grant lapsed because the application “had to be submitted to the Department of Education by the superintendent. We missed the deadline” (2:11:58), under a prior administration.
Sources: RSA 193:13, I(a)–(b) (text read 2026-09-25); RSA 193-A:5 (as codified, read 2026-09-25); RSA 189:74 (see the note below).
Note on public comment: the agenda allotted ten minutes to citizens’ comments and the minutes record none. RSA 189:74 calls for a comment period of “no less than 30 minutes”; because no one appears to have been turned away, this page does not treat the shorter slot as a violation.
OBSERVATION The food-service company’s future is in doubt, with one contract year left
The chair: “We have one more year, but their ability to continue is questionable” (0:26:57); the superintendent: “the future of that company is in question” and “Maybe we do an RFP for a 3 or 5 year contract to start after this year” (0:27:08). A food service management company contract may run no longer than one year, with renewals not exceeding four additional years, so a multi-year arrangement has to be written as a one-year contract with renewals. If the vendor fails mid-year, the district needs a contingency.
Sources: 7 CFR 210.16(d) (one-year term; renewals up to four additional years).
POSITIVE Contracting and disclosure practices beyond the legal minimum
The session produced specific commitments: no service without a signed contract and purchase order, with a $17,000-a-year certification consultant ended (0:43:28–0:44:30); competitive quotes sent to five vendors for work previously awarded by habit (1:34:35–1:35:23); every contract outside a collective bargaining agreement to come to the board (2:16:17); the checkbook and manifests posted online with a one-slide summary at each meeting (1:32:25–1:32:57); weekly meetings with the independent treasurer and written procedures for the office (1:36:22–1:38:22); and a state month-by-month compliance calendar to be brought to the board (0:59:06–1:00:15). The treasurer pays out district money “only upon orders of the school board”; posting the checkbook lets the public see those orders without a records request.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a; RSA 91-A:4 (public records open to inspection).
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III (2023, 189:1); RSA 91-A:4
- Education statutes: RSA 186-C:18, III; RSA 193:13; RSA 193-A:5; RSA 189:74; RSA 197:23-a
- Session law: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026 (RSA 198:4-d, III and VIII)
- Federal: 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1); 7 CFR 210.16(d); 7 CFR 210.31