Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present, and the absences that shaped the meeting. Names follow the agenda and the draft minutes; where the dialogue file labels a person differently, the label is noted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Candace Crawford | Board chair; Finance Subcommittee chair | Presided; called every vote; reported the August 12 finance subcommittee meeting; took responsibility for four policies missing from the agenda; signed the nonpublic minutes. Added to the SREA negotiation team in nonpublic session, per those minutes. |
| Michael Petrin | Vice chair; SRVRTC Committee chair | Reported the August 10 tech-center committee meeting (3:11:05); noted the procurement item was being taken ahead of its place on the agenda. His roll-call answer is not legible in the transcript. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member; Ad Hoc Reconfiguration chair; Finance Subcommittee | Seconded the procurement motion (on the recording); moved the bus-quote authorization and the police antenna; line-by-line critique of the dress-code language and a no vote on it; raised the FY28 aid warning and the March assignment of board roles. The draft minutes name her as mover of the nonpublic motion. |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member; Capital Improvement Subcommittee chair | Pressed on manifest access, auditor independence, dress-code enforcement and HR procedures; questioned continuing the forensic audit; seconded the negotiation-team motion in nonpublic session, per those minutes. |
| Loren Howard | Board member; Policy Subcommittee chair | Policy report (six or seven policies for September 2); voted against the dress code; moved, in nonpublic session, to add two members to the SREA negotiation team and to return to public session, per those minutes. The draft minutes also name him seconder of the procurement and antenna motions. |
| Donald “Don” Lavalette | Board member; Policy and Finance Subcommittees | Moved adoption of the procurement corrective action; seconded the dress-code motion and voted for it; per the draft minutes, read the corrections to the August 5 minutes (the dialogue file assigns those rows to Luke Diamond and marks the attribution uncertain). Added to the SREA negotiation team in nonpublic session. |
| Brian Rapp | Board member; Capital Improvement and Policy Subcommittees | Moved the dress code and voted for it; moved the nominations; raised petty cash and proprietary fire-alarm procurement; backed continuing the forensic audit. The draft minutes name him seconder of the nonpublic motion. |
| Dr. Timothy Broadrick | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Read the Richmond recognition; finance, transportation, facilities, grants, special education and personnel reports; covering the vacant business administrator and special education director posts. The transcript renders the name “Broderick”. |
| Kerry Kennedy | Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment | Read the roll call in the clerk’s absence; new-staff orientation, summer programs and enrollment report. |
| Luke Diamond | School District Treasurer | July 2026 treasurer’s report; identified two unsigned August payments; asked for itemized direct deposits and notice of incoming paper checks. |
| Nicole Boynton | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Stood in on the joint SHS/CMS dress-code proposal in Dr. Herrington’s absence; gave middle-school staffing counts. |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | Absent (ill). The draft minutes are nonetheless “Respectfully submitted by Noelle Kronberg, school district clerk.” |
| Dr. Michael Herrington | Principal, Stevens High School | Absent (family emergency). Wrote the Richmond recognition, which the superintendent read; answered a program-space question by text during the meeting. The draft minutes spell the name “Harrington”; the agenda spells it Herrington. |
| Michelle Herrington | Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Absent (family emergency); her tech-center hiring update was relayed in the SRVRTC committee report. |
| (none) | Citizens’ comments | No member of the public spoke; the chair called for comments at 0:08:32 and recorded none. |
Named on the record but not present: Michael F. Richmond (recognized posthumously), Jason Bonneville (technology director, who found the 1999 CCTV lease), Amy Savage (HR director, on the agenda), the auditor “Mike” (Michael Campo of Plodzik & Sanderson; the transcript has “Mr. Campos” and “Mike Campbell”), former interim business administrator Matt Angell (“Matt Angel” in the transcript), Unity Superintendent Ramsdell, grant bookkeeper Katie Bullock, Courtney Porter (director of wellness, access and counseling), Brianne Edmonds (out-of-district coordinator, appointed that night), Alison Campbell (resigning CMS music teacher), and bus driver Ray Peck. Forty-two rows of the dialogue file are labeled Unidentified, most of them crosstalk, seconds and voice-vote responses.
Agenda
Items as posted in “CSB Agenda - August 19 2026” (the file was named “CSB Agenda DRAFT” until at least August 25), with the time each was taken up and its disposition. The procurement item was taken during the superintendent’s report, ahead of its place.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | I. Call to order & Pledge | Agenda: “6:30 PM Call to Order & Pledge of Allegiance.” The chair called the meeting to order “for August 19th” and led the Pledge. |
| 0:00:37 | II. Roll call | Agenda: “Secretary Roll Call of Attendance of Board Members.” The clerk was out sick, so Kerry Kennedy read the roll at the chair’s request. Howard, Lavalette, Rapp, Madden, Whitney and Crawford are audible; Petrin’s answer is a bare “Here.” in the transcript. Draft minutes: “All present.” |
| 0:01:21 | Recognition: Michael F. Richmond, 1962–2026 | Scheduled for Dr. Herrington, who was called away by a family emergency; the superintendent read his text: “The loss of Mike Richmond leaves a profound void in the halls, classrooms and the city of Claremont.” |
| 0:03:04 | Consent agenda: agenda; August 5 draft minutes; manifests | Corrections to the August 5 minutes were read (naming the forensic-audit firm; correcting the finance director’s name) and the chair said “We will make those corrections” (0:04:46); no motion or vote on the minutes is on the recording or in the draft minutes. Manifests since August 5 were circulated in a binder as already-processed copies. |
| 0:08:32 | Citizens’ comments (Policy BEDH) | None offered. |
| 0:08:49 | III.1 Treasurer’s report | Three attachments (Treas-July2026, Treas-July2026TR, Treas-Aug2026). July payments of $2,977,682.46 tied to the bank statements; items in red lacked vouchers; two August 6 payments marked as issued without board or treasurer signature. No board action. |
| 0:22:43 | III.2 Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment report | Over 35 new staff; 24-plus mentors; convocation August 27; students return August 31, kindergarten September 9. Enrollment 1,359. |
| 0:35:14 | III.3 Finance report | Agenda: “FY26 Budget v Actual report (attached)”, “DOE-25 End-of-Year reporting”, “FY27 Revenue Planning”. About half a million dollars of stale encumbrances closed; the report’s near-$5 million surplus disclaimed as a year-end figure; FY25 year-end reports still due for Claremont and Unity. |
| 1:05:58 | III.4 Superintendent’s report | Eight sub-items: audit corrective action (acted on here, see V.2), transportation (bus replacement; two-quote waiver voted at 1:24:54), facilities (nine of 27 summer projects incomplete), grant reporting, special-education aid and Medicaid data, the SAP grant, the 1999 CCTV room lease, and hiring. |
| 1:56:00 | V.1 SHS & CMS Dress Code Proposal (discussion & action) | Rapp moved adoption at 2:15:00, Lavalette seconded. Failed 2–4 at 2:20:23; the chair did not vote and said she “would vote in favor, but it’s a moot point.” Draft minutes: two in favor (Lavalette, Rapp), four against, not named. Returned to administration, to come back with the handbooks on September 2. |
| 1:10:36 | V.2 Proposed audit corrective action: procurement & purchasing policies & procedures | Taken during the superintendent’s report. Lavalette moved; the recording’s second, at 1:11:03, is labeled Whitney (the draft minutes name Howard). Adopted unanimously at 1:18:05. Policy alignment referred to the Policy Subcommittee. At 2:24:04 the chair noted the item had already been acted on. |
| 2:32:39 | V.3 “Recovery Plan” update | SWOT analysis with principals about half done across nine areas; community input by survey rather than a standing committee. The chair asked for an update at the next meeting. |
| 2:35:43 | V.4 Special education staffing & operations plans | Conceptual 2026–27 plan: core evaluation team, case-management team, and instruction teachers. Information only. |
| 2:50:14 | V.5 Special education DDR & program approvals by NHEd | Department of Education due diligence review; 11 programs approved in September 2024, none last year; two Stevens programs to be described in a letter to families. Information only. |
| 3:01:47 | V.6 Police Department request to place antenna at CMS | Whitney moved at 3:02:14; a second is acknowledged but not attributed on the recording (the draft minutes name Howard). Carried unanimously at 3:03:08. |
| 3:03:08 | V.7 Personnel report | Rapp moved the nominations at 3:03:23; the second is unattributed (the draft minutes name Lavalette). Carried unanimously at 3:05:42. Resignation of Alison Campbell (CMS music). Org chart: business administrator and special education director vacant. Draft job descriptions for Director of Athletics and Director of Information Technology. |
| 3:10:44 | V.8 Subcommittee reports | SRVRTC (Petrin): August 10 meeting, four hires. Ad hoc reconfiguration (Whitney): summer hiatus. Capital Improvement (Madden): mid-September meeting on the missing five-year capital plan. Finance (Crawford): met August 12, next meeting September 15. Policy (Howard): four policies missed the agenda; six or seven for September 2. |
| 3:14:49 | VI. Other business | Whitney raised the assignment of officers and roles made in March; the chair deferred it to the nonpublic session. Madden asked to keep board visits to schools as a future item. Howard announced the Back to School festival, August 22 at Barnes Park. |
| 3:16:15 | VII. Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II (a, c & e) | Agenda purposes: “Personnel” and “Negotiations Planning - SREA, Custodians, Secretaries, CAA”. Roll call at 3:16:40. Per the nonpublic minutes, the board voted unanimously by roll call to add Lavalette and Crawford to the SREA negotiation team, then discussed personnel and returned to public session at 10:39 p.m. |
| 8:30 p.m. | VIII–IX. Future dates; adjournment | Not on the recording. The draft minutes list September 2 items (adult education status, board by-laws feedback, the student/parent, staff and athletics handbooks, the field use agreement) and record adjournment at 10:40 p.m. |
Discussion timeline
Times are from the dialogue transcript. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording. Hover over, or Tab to, a clipped entry for the full text.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:21 | Recognition: Michael F. Richmond | Broadrick, reading Dr. Herrington’s words: “I, I did not know Mike Richmond, obviously, and I apologize for that. And yet I respect anybody who devotes their professional life to to serving public schools and serving kids.” The tribute describes a 1980 Stevens graduate, Cornell alumnus, Army veteran and American Legion leader, “a truly exceptional math teacher, patient, compassionate, and deeply connected to his students.” | |
| 0:03:45 | Corrections to the August 5 minutes | “Forensic audit signed in May. I’d like to have the name of the firm placed into the minutes where it says. It just says has not been cash.” The speaker also asked that “Mr. Gonyea. Name was just misspelled under finance director” be corrected, and offered to send the changes to the clerk. The dialogue file assigns these rows to the treasurer and marks the attribution uncertain; the draft minutes attribute them to Lavalette and render the name as “Mr. Daniels’s”. The chair: “We will make those corrections.” No vote was taken. | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:07 | Manifests: already processed | Broadrick: “these are copies of every manifest since your meeting August 5th. They’ve been approved and processed because they have to.” Madden: “How will we see them before you wish you the checks?” The goal is electronic review “by the end of September”; until then, “Apparently the same way you have been for the last ten months”: the office looks for two available members, “and you may never be aware of this happening because we need two signatures before the treasurer can come in and sign checks.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:07:24 | How the two signers were chosen | Crawford: “I’ll take the responsibility. Doctor Broderick called me Monday.” “Think that Brian Rabbit [Rapp] and Don Lovell [Lavalette] were in town and available. So I called them because I got two. I stopped calling and didn’t call everyone to come.” Vouchers used to be emailed in advance; Broadrick: that has “Stopped happening.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:09:26 | Treasurer’s report: accounts and deposits | Diamond explained the checking and sweep accounts (“each day the checking account closes at 50,000”), then: “Under deposits, I’m still not in the loop when it comes to deposits.” He asked for a list of paper checks, “because the treasurer is supposed to account for where all money comes from and where all it where it all goes.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:11:23 | Outstanding checks and the July total | “just because you know, the balance in your bank, it doesn’t mean you have that available to spend.” At 0:12:19: “the total $2,977,682.46 adds up to the same amount that you see under payments for the month of July.” Items in red are those “I do not yet have vouchers for.” The draft minutes record the July figure as $77,682.46. | MEDIUM |
| 0:14:14 | Direct deposits as one lump sum | “the direct deposits are not being itemized. They’re just showing as one big lump.” “I know he was putting the payroll stuff on the manifest after the fact.” “it doesn’t make much sense to say, oh, I see $640,000. Okay. And you sign it.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:15:45 | Two August payments issued with no signature | “Two payments went in that were not signed. I found the vouchers. They were, but nobody signed them, so they were just put in.” Asked by the chair whether he meant the school district payroll, Diamond named it and the “Iris [IRS] USA tax payment”: “Neither of those were signed okay by anyone. So anyway, that’s that’s kind of a practice that we’re hoping to get away from. That was cited in, in our audit.” | HIGH |
| 0:17:01 | Monthly summary instead? | Crawford proposed a monthly summary. Diamond agreed that is the goal, but: “The reason I’ve been providing these details is because right now they’re not available to the public, and they should be”; “There shouldn’t be such entries. The treasurer should always sign for every payment that goes out.” “the reason I’m still itemizing them is because they’re still there.” | HIGH POSITIVE |
| 0:19:04 | What is blocking a working system | Whitney: “What are the barriers that you see right now to getting a system in place? I know that we’re very short staffed in the Dow”. Diamond: “I think those probably are some of the biggest stumbling back bucks [blocks] that you just identified.” “Things are definitely improving.” | |
| 0:19:59 | A draft-audit line about postdated vouchers is being deleted | Broadrick: “I called Mike about that. I think that was in the fiscal 22 audit report.” “They were repeating something that they had been told from within the SA [SAU], not something that they had seen documented. So because that report is still draft, he’s deleting the line.” “It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” Diamond at 0:21:14: “very first day I met, I talked to Matt. He admitted to me that that was part of his practice.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:20:48 | A forgery question for the forensic auditors | Madden: “it’s my understanding to a man and woman that no board members ever signed bouncers [vouchers] in the past until Matt Angel came here. That’s something that’s got to be looked at.” Whitney: “my concern was, is that there was fraudulent or forgery occurring.” “that nobody ever signed those vouchers.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:43 | New-staff orientation and the calendar | Kennedy: over 35 new staff, hosted by Claremont Savings Bank; mentors; a bus tour; convocation August 27; students return August 31; kindergarten September 9 because of the September 8 voting day. Summer program staff named individually. | |
| 0:29:24 | Enrollment: 1,359 | “So we are right now at 1359 students total in the district.” Kennedy undertook to bring the multi-year comparison Whitney asked for to the next meeting. | |
| 0:31:05 | Curriculum time for new teachers; Great Minds cost unknown | Lavalette asked where new teachers get time with the curriculum. On the Great Minds quotes, split between grant and district funding, Madden: “Why would information from the vendor be affected by whether it’s a grant or or budget.” Kennedy: the total is “Not at the moment” known. | |
| 0:35:59 | Half a million in stale encumbrances closed | “It was almost half $1 million. So that’s that’s money that was encumbered in last year’s budget but never actually spent.” “the number on your report is nearly $5 million of surplus. And that is not going to be our end of year position for fiscal 26”; a SchoolCare assessment encumbrance “was over $800,000” and “two thirds of that remains to be paid.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:39:34 | Why the audits still matter: “zero corrective actions” | Madden: “I’d rather see it spent on improving the quality of the school rather than counting beans.” Broadrick: “until the fiscal 24 audit is done, the fiscal 25 audit is done. We can’t do the fiscal 26 audit.” “as of right now, zero corrective actions have been adopted by the board”. | MEDIUM |
| 0:43:10 | Auditor independence | Madden: “I have a problem with the guy who is here for nine years and didn’t catch the 5 or $10 million bust”; “I didn’t say him.” Crawford: “An auditor is supposed to be an independent party.” Lavalette: “short of indicting somebody for fraud, the auditors would be at the very bottom of my list.” Whitney: “They were engaged since 2019”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:50:09 | Year-end reporting for two districts | Claremont must see both districts’ FY25 reports submitted under the Unity separation agreement. “We don’t have a good starting point. We’re not going to have 100% solid ending point. Because remember, fiscal 26 started with Matt Angel’s best guess.” “typically we sign in a test [attest] that these are accurate to the best of our knowledge.” “And in this case, we know these are our best guesses.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:51:32 | Tuition agreements hard to find | “it’s difficult to find those written documents. My best luck has come by asking other school districts to send them to me. The initial evidence I have is that the base tuition rate hasn’t been increased to reflect inflation or any other budget increases since 2223.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:52:49 | Four weeks to close the year | “we need that data in order to close out the year.” “so we’ve got about four weeks.” Adequacy is paid “20%, September 1st, 20% November 1st, 30% January 1st, and then 30% April 1st”. Whitney recalled Angell’s warning of a seven-figure aid loss for FY28; the first FY28 estimate arrives “Around November.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:02:37 | Free and reduced lunch forms drive differentiated aid | Crawford: the forms have “a direct impact on how much we receive in differentiated aid.” Broadrick: a higher income threshold this year “reduces differentiated aid.” Whitney: “Every kid gets it. We don’t turn any kid away for food.” | |
| 1:07:13 | Procurement corrective action | “it establishes three standards for procurement”: up to $5,000, $5,001 to $20,000, and above $20,000 through the business office only. “Those numbers are my recommendations. They don’t exist in state law.” “I’ve just seen too many examples in a very short period of time of I bought this, now I need a Po that’s backwards.” “This is the first and most important corrective action we will ever adopt.” Carried unanimously at 1:18:05. | POSITIVE |
| 1:12:30 | Petty cash and proprietary bids | Rapp: “The city did away with petty cash because of audit report discussing how it’s difficult to keep track.” Broadrick: “each principal has a checking account. I. I don’t like it, but I like the principals”. Rapp on proprietary fire alarms: “Some companies, it’s a minimum $1,800, $2,000 just to get them out, plus the hourly rate plus parts.” Bid specifications to follow as later corrective actions. | POSITIVE |
| 1:23:31 | Bus replacement: waiving a two-minute-old rule | Insurer’s value “$127,500”; replacement “between 100 and $150,000.” “two minutes ago, you adopted new requirements that would make me go out to bid.” “You also have the ability to waive those requirements. Let us get two quotes as fast as we can and buy a bus.” Whitney moved at 1:24:39; carried unanimously at 1:24:54. The draft minutes do not record this motion or vote. | POSITIVE MEDIUM |
| 1:26:59 | Facilities: nine of 27 summer projects unfinished | “There were I think 27 items. And as of a few days ago, nine of them are not complete yet.” “there appears to be an internal tradition of trying to do these jobs ourselves”. On capital planning, a self-assessment instead of engineering reviews at “about $35,000” a building. Howard: a recent assessment of the tech center exists; Broadrick at 1:32:33: two staff told him they did not have it. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:16 | Grants moving; Medicaid | Grant reports are “getting turned around and approved pretty quickly, and that means that there is money coming in.” On Medicaid: “What has been lacking is a certified administrator who understands the program”. | |
| 1:39:28 | Special education aid: 13 students, $2.6 million | Lavalette: “So the 13 children cost us over 2.6 million.” Broadrick: “It has gone as low as about two thirds.” Madden: a bill “which is now statute” means “It can’t be prorated less than 90%.” Broadrick at 1:45:00: the threshold “is three times the previous year’s average per pupil cost. Statewide, roughly $70,000 for fiscal 26.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:46:25 | Placements the district did not make | “at least six students who are placed out of district from Claremont.” “Our IEP teams did not place.” “Department of Health and Human Services employees and judges, family court judges placed them out of district and in some cases out of state. We still get these bills.” “If it’s ten kids, that’s $700,000 in tax bills.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:50:18 | Two teachers lost; a 1999 lease found | “We’ve lost two teachers in the last week.” Jason Bonneville found “the 1999 lease agreement between the Claremont School District and the CCTV board of directors to lease this room for CTV’s use during certain hours for consideration of $1.” “I would hire six people tomorrow if I could.” | |
| 1:53:59 | Middle-school staffing at the minimum | Boynton: “math three science, three social studies and three Ela.” Broadrick: “with three certified educators in each of those content areas, we can function and be a school.” “four would be better.” Lavalette reported over 300 special-education job postings in New Hampshire. | MEDIUM |
| 1:58:37 | Dress code: what prompted it | Madden: “I would characterize it as a very extreme and odd interpretation to dress code.” On a school visit, “10 to 20% of the students wearing hats”; a student in a hood with earbuds, “and nobody seemed to have any issue with it.” Does the proposal fix it? “No it doesn’t.” | |
| 2:02:45 | Whitney’s line-by-line rewrite | “The word hostile has legally it is attached to like a, an expectation of violence.” “there are Constitution, constitutional protections for free speech that’s related to expression.” She proposed replacement wording on headphones, head coverings (with religious, medical and similar exceptions), coverage, hemlines and footwear. | POSITIVE |
| 2:06:24 | Howard’s example; the superintendent’s one contribution | Howard offered a slogan he wrote on his shoe in high school as a test case: “hostile itself feels a little subjective.” Broadrick at 2:13:37: “nobody has unreviewed discretion.” “Disciplinary decision by a principal may be appealed by a parent or guardian and student to me, and my decision may then be appealed to a school board.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:18:02 | Dress code fails 2–4 | Whitney: “we’ve got this deadline, and if we don’t whip this out or if we don’t approve it, then the kids are going to go without or we’re not going to get the handbook to print.” Broadrick: the handbooks come on September 2 “anyway”. Crawford at 2:20:12: “we have two yeses”; “we have four against.” “I would vote in favor, but it’s a moot point.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:24:33 | Forensic audit: the firm was sold and never cashed the check | “I’m waiting to hear back from Ernestine. Sure. [Bernstein Shur] About what’s happening with CBI’s [CBIZ], the firm that was engaged to do the forensic audit”; “you sent them a $10,000 check as a deposit toward the forensic audit.” Madden: “The the records were just too bad.” Crawford: the State Police advised finishing the audits first. Rapp: “I think the public was pretty clear that they wanted this looked into.” | |
| 2:35:08 | “I work for you” | After Madden recalled an earlier advisory committee where “Nothing happened. Meetings were canceled at the last minute.”, Broadrick: “I have not done anything about that since July 1st and before someone has a chance to ask me to, I work for you.” He proposed a survey instead. | |
| 2:43:46 | A caseload of 75 | “Had a case load I think of 75.” “If a special education teacher is running meetings, writing IEPs, and providing services for 75 kids, something did not happen.” At 2:46:59: “the idea that I am the special ed director for the coming year should scare the hell out of you.” | MEDIUM |
| 2:50:37 | Department of Education due diligence review | “whether the board has been aware of it or not. The district has been responding to a due diligence review by the Europe [Bureau of] Special Education, for several months.” “This schedule has been submitted to and accepted by the Department of Education.” Crawford at 2:59:20: “So the Academy program wasn’t approved last year.” Broadrick: “Nothing was approved.” | MEDIUM |
| 3:02:14 | Police antenna at CMS | Whitney moved to allow the antenna “Per the memorandum provided to the board and any further review that the superintendent feels necessary.” Broadrick: “it’s like a repeater”. Carried unanimously. | |
| 3:03:28 | Personnel: nominations and two vacancies | Madden asked to review HR procedures: “connections were paramount in hiring some people”. Broadrick: “Do you want to sit on teacher interviews?” “That’s. I don’t know any of these people.” Carried unanimously at 3:05:42. Org chart: “These are the two hardest positions to fill in the central office after a superintendent.” “But it’s two. It’s not five”. | POSITIVE |
| 3:08:59 | Job descriptions; an undated athletics handbook | “The last dated copy of an athletic program handbook I could find in Claremont was from 20 1718, and the one available on our website was undated”. Lavalette asked when coaches would be evaluated; Broadrick: “within a reasonable interval of weeks after each season.” | OBSERVATION |
| 3:12:54 | Finance subcommittee report | Crawford: “The finance subcommittee met on August 12th and it was recorded. And it is on, CCTV.” “And we have a meeting on September 15th.” | HIGH |
| 3:13:33 | Policies missed the agenda | Howard: “I had sent for [four] policies a week ago, but I think they flew under the radar because they are not in our agenda tonight.” “We’ve passed 11 since March that need to be updated on the website.” Crawford: “I will take responsibility for not getting those on. The agenda for tonight.” | OBSERVATION |
| 3:15:10 | Board roles deferred to nonpublic | Whitney: “when we assigned officers and roles in March of this year.” Crawford: “That’s going to be a nonprofit [nonpublic].” | MEDIUM |
| 3:16:15 | Nonpublic session | Crawford: “I would entertain a motion to go into nonpublic under RSA 91 a three part two A, C and E summary.” An unidentified “Second.” follows; no separate mover is audible. The roll call at 3:16:40 is a string of “Yes.” responses. The recording ends at 3:17:18. | 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 Two August 6 payments, the district payroll and a federal tax payment, went out with no board or treasurer signature
The treasurer reported that two payments “went in that were not signed. I found the vouchers. They were, but nobody signed them, so they were just put in” (0:15:45). His report marks them “Payment issued without board or treasurer” (0:16:01); asked by the chair, he confirmed they were the school district payroll and the IRS tax payment: “Neither of those were signed okay by anyone” (0:16:22). The treasurer “shall pay out the same only upon orders of the school board or upon orders of the 2 or more members of the school board empowered by the school board as a whole to authorize payments.” (RSA 197:23-a.) Neither kind of order existed for these payments. He said the practice “was cited in, in our audit”, and that he keeps itemizing “because they’re still there” (0:18:31). The draft minutes confirm the two August 6 payments. Mitigation on the record: the business administrator post is vacant, the treasurer and superintendent agreed the practice must end, and both described the process as improving.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (payment only upon orders of the board or of two or more empowered members); 2 CFR 200.303 (internal control over federal awards); draft minutes, Treasurer’s Report.
HIGH The August 12 finance subcommittee meeting has no minutes in any district share, six weeks on
The chair reported that “The finance subcommittee met on August 12th and it was recorded. And it is on, CCTV” (3:12:54); the draft minutes repeat that. A subcommittee is a public body: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) reaches any board of a school district “or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto.” RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes “open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting”. The project’s Drive map records no agenda, packet or minutes for August 12 in any district share, re-confirmed on September 24, 2026, about 30 business days after the meeting. This page applies the unmitigated limb of the project’s severity rule: the body met and nothing on the record explains the missing minutes. A video recording is not minutes; the statute requires minutes with the elements listed in ¶II. The same gap exists for the June 19, 2026 finance subcommittee meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (subcommittees are public bodies); RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes within 5 business days; 2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); page for the August 12, 2026 finance subcommittee meeting.
MEDIUM The September 1 financial reports were being assembled from what the superintendent called “best guesses”, with the audit backlog now under a withholding statute
The annual financial report (DOE-25) is due “on or before September 1 of each year”, and each statistical report carries the chair’s certification “under the pains and penalties of perjury” (RSA 198:4-d, III). Thirteen days before that date the superintendent put the remaining close-out work at “about four weeks” (0:52:49) and said of the numbers: “typically we sign in a test [attest] that these are accurate to the best of our knowledge.” “And in this case, we know these are our best guesses” (0:50:46–0:51:10). Claremont must also see Unity’s FY25 reports submitted. The audits stand behind this: the FY22 report is in draft, FY24 and FY25 must be finished before FY26 (0:40:09), and “as of right now, zero corrective actions have been adopted by the board” (0:41:09), which changed later that evening (flag 14). Since July 1, 2026, 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”, and “The commissioner shall withhold state grant funding, not including RSA 198:40-a funding” from a non-compliant district until the report is filed and questions are answered. For FY26 that is March 31, 2027; the department “may grant extensions as needed to address any disputed items.” No deadline had passed on August 19, which is why this is graded MEDIUM; the superintendent disclosed the limits of the numbers in public and said the district was working with the Department of Education on how to report them.
Sources: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026, repealing and reenacting RSA 198:4-d: ¶III September 1 financial report and chair’s certification; ¶VIII audit report within 9 months, withholding of state grant funding other than RSA 198:40-a funding (chaptered text); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (single-audit report due nine months after period end).
Corrected 2026-09-25. An earlier version of this flag was graded HIGH, rested on RSA 21-J:34, V and RSA 189:28, and gave a six-month audit deadline with withholding of all state funding. The six-month and all-funding terms came from the Senate-passed text of SB 586 (amendment 2026-0772s), not the enacted law; the chaptered text sets 9 months and excludes RSA 198:40-a funding. RSA 189:28 governs statistical enrollment reports, and the September 1 financial report and its perjury certification are in RSA 198:4-d, III, which predates SB 586 and is not a term of the audit filing. See Data Quality Report C1.156.
MEDIUM Manifests are signed by whichever two members can be reached, after payment, without the vouchers
The manifests in the binder were copies of payments already made: “They’ve been approved and processed because they have to” (0:05:07). The standing practice is to find two available members, “and you may never be aware of this happening” (0:06:31); the chair called until she had two and “stopped calling” (0:07:39). Vouchers used to be emailed ahead and no longer are (0:07:51–0:08:02). Direct deposits reach the manifest as one lump: “it doesn’t make much sense to say, oh, I see $640,000. Okay. And you sign it” (0:15:07). RSA 197:23-a allows payment on the orders of two or more members “empowered by the school board as a whole to authorize payments”; the recording does not show how the board empowered the members who sign, and a signature on a lump sum without vouchers documents little. The administration committed to electronic manifests by the end of September, and the draft minutes record the board’s request for continued access to vouchers in the meantime.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a; 2 CFR 200.303 (internal control).
MEDIUM The nonpublic session cited the litigation exemption for bargaining planning, and a board vote on its negotiating team appears in no public minutes
The motion named RSA 91-A:3, II(a), (c) and (e) and was taken by roll call (3:16:15–3:16:40). The agenda gave the purposes as “Personnel” and “Negotiations Planning - SREA, Custodians, Secretaries, CAA”. II(e) covers “Consideration or negotiation of pending claims or litigation which has been threatened in writing or filed by or against the public body”, not union bargaining; “Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining” is instead excluded from the definition of a meeting by RSA 91-A:2, I(a). The nonpublic minutes, filed only in the September 2 packet folder, show the session “focused on upcoming negotiations with SREA” and that “the Board voted unanimously by roll call to add Don Lavalette and Candace Crawford to the SREA negotiation team.” Who represents the board is a question Whitney had raised in public (3:15:10) and the chair moved into nonpublic (3:15:24); it is a board assignment, and none of II(a), II(c) or II(e) plainly covers it. RSA 91-A:3, I(c) confines decisions to “the matters set out in the motion”. The public draft minutes record only the votes to enter and leave. Mitigation: the nonpublic minutes were not sealed, record the motion, seconder and roll-call vote, and are public in the district’s Drive; when they were first posted is not known.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(c), II(e), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; text read 2026-09-25); RSA 91-A:2, I(a); CSB Non-public minutes - Aug 19 2026.pdf; agenda item VII.
MEDIUM The draft minutes omit the bus-quote vote and misstate other items against the recording
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include “a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions” and that “The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes.” Against the recording, the draft minutes: (1) omit the board’s vote authorizing two quotes for a replacement bus, moved by Whitney and carried unanimously (1:24:39–1:24:54), describing only the superintendent’s proposal; (2) record July payments of “$77,682.46” where the treasurer said $2,977,682.46 (0:12:19); (3) name Howard as seconder of the procurement motion, where the recording’s “I’ll second that.” is labeled Whitney (1:11:03); (4) name the finance director in the August 5 correction as “Mr. Daniels’s”, where the transcript has “Mr. Gonyea” (0:04:22); (5) record no vote approving the August 5 minutes, and none is on the recording; and (6) give the start only as the agenda’s 6:30 PM. They do record an end time (10:40 p.m.) and name the clerk, who was absent, as the person who submitted them. The minutes appear to have been prepared on time: Drive dates the document to August 24, within the five business days. These are drafts and can be corrected on approval.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); 8.19.26 DRAFT CSB Minutes.
MEDIUM Special-education program approvals lapsed for a year, under a state due diligence review
The district “has been responding to a due diligence review by the Europe [Bureau of] Special Education, for several months”, centred on the former Academy program and extending to every substantially separate program (2:50:37–2:51:00). Eleven programs were approved in September 2024; asked whether the Academy program was approved last year, the superintendent said “Nothing was approved” (2:59:24). He also noted that programs in the same school were listed as serving the same needs (2:56:41). One special educator carried a caseload “of 75” (2:43:46), and the special education director post is vacant, with the superintendent covering it: “the idea that I am the special ed director for the coming year should scare the hell out of you” (2:46:59). Mitigation on the record: a consultant drafted the action plan, “This schedule has been submitted to and accepted by the Department of Education” (2:51:37), and the board heard this before school opened. The approval rules themselves were not verified for this page and are not cited by section.
Sources: DDR Action Plan (linked from the agenda); RSA ch. 186-C (special education); N.H. Code Admin. R. Ed 300 (part page).
OBSERVATION Two figures stated about special-education aid do not match the statute in force
The superintendent described the threshold as “three times the previous year’s average per pupil cost” (1:45:00). Madden said a recent bill (the transcript has “Until 15” / “63”; this page does not identify it) means “It can’t be prorated less than 90%” (1:41:38), and the chair accepted it. RSA 186-C:18, III, as amended through 2025, 138:1, 2 (eff. Aug. 24, 2025), sets the threshold at costs that “exceed 3 and 1/2 times the most current state average expenditure per pupil” and requires the department to “distribute to the school district not less than 80 percent of the district’s entitlement in the fiscal year”. The superintendent’s statement that proration “has gone as low as about two thirds” (1:41:09) is consistent with years before that floor. No decision turned on these figures, but on $2.6 million of qualifying cost the gap between an 80 and a 90 percent floor is material to FY28 planning.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (text read 2026-09-25).
OBSERVATION A packet report shows “nearly $5 million of surplus” that is not a year-end surplus
About half a million dollars of encumbrances with no invoices behind them, some tied to the closed Bluff School, were removed (0:35:59). The superintendent then declined to treat the resulting figure as a result: “that is not going to be our end of year position for fiscal 26” (0:36:37), with a large payables run under way and two-thirds of an $800,000-plus SchoolCare assessment unpaid (0:37:02–0:37:32). The caution was correct. A reader of the packet document without the audio would see a figure far above what RSA 198:4-b, II lets a district retain at year end.
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, II (retention of year-end unassigned funds); Expenditure Report (1).pdf.
OBSERVATION At least six out-of-district placements were made by state agencies and courts, not by the district’s IEP teams
“at least six students who are placed out of district from Claremont.” “Our IEP teams did not place.” “Department of Health and Human Services employees and judges, family court judges placed them out of district and in some cases out of state. We still get these bills” (1:46:25–1:46:55). With the district carrying costs below the aid threshold, “If it’s ten kids, that’s $700,000 in tax bills” (1:47:55). The chair: “these placements are out of our control” (1:48:18). This records a cost driver outside the board’s control, not a concern about district conduct.
Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (district share below the threshold).
OBSERVATION Tuition agreements, aid submissions, an athletics handbook and a building assessment could not be found inside the district
Tuition agreements are “difficult to find”, and the superintendent’s “best luck has come by asking other school districts to send them to me” (0:51:32). Five years of special-education aid data meant finding submissions by three different employees (0:53:58; 1:43:08). The last dated athletics handbook is from 2017–18 and the website copy is undated (3:08:59). Two staff told him a tech-center assessment did not exist; a board member had it (1:32:05–1:32:33). Records the district cannot find are records it cannot produce on request, and the pattern matches the control weaknesses the audits describe.
Sources: RSA 91-A:4 (access to governmental records); RSA 194:22 (district tuition contracts); 2 CFR 200.303.
OBSERVATION A draft-audit line about after-the-fact signatures is being removed, while the treasurer describes the practice on the record
The auditor found that the FY22 draft’s statement about postdated vouchers repeated “something that they had been told from within the SA [SAU], not something that they had seen documented”, so “he’s deleting the line”; the superintendent added, “It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen” (0:20:13–0:20:36). Removing an unevidenced sentence is ordinary audit practice. But the treasurer then said the former interim business administrator “admitted to me that that was part of his practice” and “was putting payroll amounts in in your manifest that you were signing after the after they had already been paid” (0:21:14), and two members want the forensic auditors to examine whether signatures were forged (0:20:48–0:22:04). Once the line is gone, no audit document will carry the question; the board may wish to record where it now sits. Madden separately questioned the auditor’s independence (0:43:10); other members disagreed.
Sources: RSA 21-J:19 (audits by independent public accountants); the recording at the timestamps above.
OBSERVATION Packet documents reached the meeting folder weeks late, and four policies never reached the agenda
When the project checked on August 25, the packet folder held only the draft agenda; the supporting documents were reachable only through links in the agenda. By September 24 the folder held 22 documents, including the treasurer’s reports, the expenditure report, the procurement guide and the dress-code proposal, added at some point after August 25. The meeting’s nonpublic minutes are filed only in the September 2 packet folder. Separately, the policy chair’s four policies “flew under the radar because they are not in our agenda tonight”, and the chair took responsibility (3:13:33–3:14:49). No statute requires a district to post packets, so this is not a violation; a reader following the meeting from the folder in August would have found one document.
Sources: packet folder “4. 8.19.26 -- School Board Documents”; RSA 91-A:2, II (notice of the meeting, not of a packet).
POSITIVE The first audit corrective action, procurement thresholds and purchase orders, was adopted unanimously
Less than 40 minutes after the superintendent said “zero corrective actions have been adopted”, the board adopted one (1:18:05). It sets three tiers (up to $5,000; $5,001 to $20,000; above $20,000 through the business office) and makes the purchase order the permission to spend: “I bought this, now I need a Po that’s backwards” (1:09:01). The superintendent said plainly the thresholds are local choices (1:07:56), and promised bid-specification rules and re-competition of long-standing vendors “every 3 to 5 years” (1:22:46). Federal procurement standards call for documented, competitive purchasing of this kind.
Sources: Procurement & Purchasing Guide - SAU 6 DRAFT.pdf; 2 CFR 200.318 (general procurement standards).
POSITIVE The treasurer keeps independent books and reports what they show
The treasurer’s report reconciles both bank accounts to the payments, lists items with no voucher, and marks payments issued without signature, “because right now they’re not available to the public, and they should be” (0:17:35). He asked to be told of incoming paper checks (0:10:53) and for direct deposits to be itemized on the manifests (0:14:40). That is the statutory custody role performed, and it produced this meeting’s most serious finding.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a.
POSITIVE The new bid rule was waived by an explicit vote, with a report back
Minutes after adopting the procurement rules, the superintendent needed a bus and said so: “two minutes ago, you adopted new requirements that would make me go out to bid. You also have the ability to waive those requirements” (1:23:31–1:24:06). He committed to bring two quotes and to say where the gap above the insurance payment would be found. The board voted the authorization as a motion (1:24:39–1:24:54) rather than ignoring the new rule. The draft minutes omit that vote (flag 6).
Sources: the recording at the timestamps above; 2 CFR 200.318.
POSITIVE A rule touching student expression was sent back for definition rather than passed under deadline pressure
Members read the dress-code proposal line by line in public (2:02:45–2:15:09): which terms are enforceable, which are subjective, and where a school rule meets protected expression. The superintendent’s one intervention, that discipline is appealable to him and then to the board (2:13:46), answered much of the concern. He confirmed no deadline forced a vote before the handbooks arrive September 2 (2:19:05), and the motion failed 2–4. Lavalette proposed involving the incoming student representatives, “the ones that are going to be most affected” (2:17:32).
Sources: Dress Code Proposal - August 2026 (2).pdf; the recording at the timestamps above.
POSITIVE Hiring followed the statutory route: nominated by the superintendent, elected by the board
“Superintendents shall nominate and school boards elect all teachers” (RSA 189:39). The nominations, including three certified special educators and an out-of-district coordinator, came on a nomination report and were approved by motion and vote (3:03:23–3:05:42). When Madden asked to see HR paperwork in advance, the superintendent offered board members a seat on teacher interviews (3:03:55).
Sources: RSA 189:39; Nominations_8.19.2026.pdf.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: Claremont School Board 8/19/26 (show 17529)
- Drive folder: 4. 8.19.26 -- School Board Documents: one document on August 25, 2026; 22 documents on September 24, 2026
- CSB Agenda - August 19 2026 named “CSB Agenda DRAFT” until at least August 25
- Minutes: 8.19.26 DRAFT CSB Minutes (2027 Meeting Minutes folder); PDF copy 8.19.26 DRAFT CSB Minutes.pdf in the September 2 packet folder
- Nonpublic minutes: CSB Non-public minutes - Aug 19 2026.pdf and a second copy, CSB Non-public minutes - Aug 19 2026.pdf, both in the September 2 packet folder; none in the Meeting Minutes share
- Treasurer: CSB Treas - July2026.pdf; CSB Treas - July26TR.pdf; CSB Treas - August2026.pdf
- Finance: Expenditure Report (1).pdf; Claremon FY 2027 Assessment Schedule.pdf file name as posted; fy-2027-adequacy-grant-explained-november-2025.pdf; Procurement & Purchasing Guide - SAU 6 DRAFT.pdf; SpEd Aid & Medicaid Claims, FY22-26.pdf
- Reports and facilities: CIA Director Report-August ’26.pdf; Summer Projects 2026_8.14.2026.pdf; Copy of Barnstead SAU 86 Capital Plan - 8_2023 (1).xlsx (the sample self-assessment); Tech Center CCTV Lease 1999.pdf
- Action items: Dress Code Proposal - August 2026 (2).pdf; Police Department request to place antenna at CMS (linked from the agenda)
- Special education: DDR Plan Claremont .pdf; DDR Action Plan (agenda link); SpEd Org Interim Plan 26-27 - Aug 19 2026.pdf
- Personnel: Nominations_8.19.2026.pdf; Personnel - Resignations - 8.19.2026.pdf; Org Chart update 8.19.2026.pdf; Job Desc_ Director of Athletics 2026.pdf; Job Desc_ Director of IT 2026 - DRAFT.pdf
- For the September 2 meeting, filed here: Signed License Agreement SAU 6 Fields.pdf
- Referenced: August 5, 2026 Draft Minutes; Policy BEDH
- Same date, separate meeting: 5. 8.19.2026 -- Policy Subcommittee
- Not located: agenda, packet or minutes for the August 12, 2026 finance subcommittee meeting (per the project’s Drive map, re-confirmed September 24, 2026).
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:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, I(a) and II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(c), II(e), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:4
- School money and officers: RSA 197:23-a; RSA 198:4-b, II; RSA 21-J:19; RSA 189:39; RSA 194:22
- Special education: RSA 186-C:18, III (2025, 138:1, 2, eff. Aug. 24, 2025); RSA ch. 186-C; Ed 300
- Session law: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026, repealing and reenacting RSA 198:4-d: ¶III September 1 financial report and chair’s certification; ¶VI independent audits of chartered public schools, SAUs, and cities or school districts not audited under RSA 671:5; ¶VIII audit report within 9 months, extensions for disputed items, withholding of state grant funding other than RSA 198:40-a funding
- Federal: 2 CFR 200.303; 2 CFR 200.318; 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1)