Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present. Names and attendance follow the draft minutes ("Present: Don Lavalette, Heather Whitney, Kerry Kennedy, Matt Angell, Candace Crawford. Participating by phone: Tim Broadrick.", minutes text). The incoming superintendent's surname follows his own signed reports (Broadrick); the draft minutes spell it both Broadrick and "Boardrick". All 508 dialogue rows carry a named speaker.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Candace Crawford | Subcommittee chair; board chair | Presides and writes the minutes herself: "I prefer to do the minutes myself" (0:07:41). Will synthesize the purpose statements after Policy Committee input (0:04:04, 0:04:57). "We do have the procedures for the policies and procedures in place. We don't have compliance." (0:24:31). Recounts her call with a Valley News reporter (0:33:56). Adds the audits as "a non agenda item" (1:01:26) and says "I'm pretty sure we authorized up to 50,000" for the forensic audit (1:03:38). |
| Heather Whitney | Member | Asks whether the clerk could take minutes now that meetings are recorded (0:07:30). Says 2023 fiscal-monitoring documents show the safeguards existed and "there's not direct report oversight" (0:23:08, 0:23:38). Cites policy DB's budget timeline (0:51:22). Reports on an NHSBA and NHDOE school-finance webinar (1:05:53, 1:06:53) and offers a ten-point summary; urges a budget book modeled on Hanover's (1:12:31, 1:15:17). |
| Donald Lavalette | Member | Reports the purpose statements went to the Policy Committee (0:01:08). Recalls a purchasing policy whose etc. let others sign for the district (0:27:29). Asks about the technical-center van (0:29:08). Asks whether the proposed budget roundtables would be recorded (0:54:04). Will lead volunteer painting at the middle school (0:46:25). |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator | Year-end estimate "under $1 million" (0:08:45, 0:09:19); "positive net income" this year (0:14:40, 0:15:11). Van engine about $19,000, partly under warranty (0:30:02). Volunteer painting scheduled; no volunteer form yet (0:44:45, 0:45:06). Budget calendar (0:48:40 to 0:55:38); the DOE-25 "It's due September 1st", "I may be late" (0:50:42). Forensic auditors need "a $10,000 check" (1:03:36). |
| Dr. Timothy Broadrick | Incoming Superintendent (starts July 1, 2026); by phone | The $2 million in federal grants: "If if we were to close out the year today, we would not receive that money." (0:10:37). Liabilities incurred without purchase orders or contracts (0:11:29, 0:11:56); pay without signed documentation (0:12:57); the Constellations behavioral-services contract (0:20:41, 0:21:08, 0:26:00). Facilities list to become a five-year plan (0:40:48). Hired "five middle school teachers yesterday" (0:33:29). |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent | Present per the draft minutes; no speech is attributed to her in the dialogue file. Angell asks for a copy to be given to her at 0:39:11. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda was located. Items are reconstructed from the chair's transitions on tape, which refer to a numbered agenda, and checked against the headings of the draft minutes.
| Taken up | Item | What happened |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Pledge | No roll call; the three members are present throughout. |
| 0:00:39 | 1. Committee purpose and schedule statement | Deferred until the Policy Committee responds; the members to agree a statement before the July 29 goal-setting meeting (0:08:05). No vote. |
| 0:08:05 | 2. Budget update (FY2026) | Year-end deficit estimate under $1 million; grants; spending controls. No vote. |
| 0:31:49 | 3. Staffing budget for the coming year | Deferred to the superintendent's July 21 report (0:31:56). |
| 0:38:37 | 4. Capital improvements plan | Facilities director's list: "a needs list, not a capital plan" to be turned into a five-year plan in 3 to 6 months (0:41:33). Volunteer painting. |
| 0:48:20 | 5. Budget calendar for 2026–27 (the FY2028 budget) | Angell's draft reviewed; to return to the committee in August (0:59:53). |
| 1:01:26 | Added by the chair: audits, including the forensic audit | "This is a non agenda item." The auditor to be asked to attend July 21 (1:02:09); the forensic auditors to outline their schedule (1:03:38). |
| 1:05:43 | Other: NHSBA finance webinar; budget-book format | Whitney to prepare a ten-point summary for goal setting (1:09:52). |
| 1:16:21 | Next meeting; adjournment | Tentatively August 12 at 1 p.m. (1:17:12). Adjourned by consent (1:17:29); 2:15 p.m. per the draft minutes. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/School Board Finance Committee - 61926.CSV) and link into the recording.
Chronological topics. Quotations are the transcript as recorded.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:39 | Purpose statement | Crawford: "I am not ready to accept all of Heather's edits" (0:02:03); "I think it's up to this committee to decide what our purpose statement is" (0:04:04). Whitney wants duties with deadlines because the district "couldn't seem to, with fidelity, manage to execute specific duties within a set time stamp" (0:06:16). | |
| 0:07:30 | Who writes the minutes | Whitney: "Can Noel do the minutes so you don't have to do them?" Crawford: "I prefer to do the minutes myself, and so that's fine." (0:07:41). | MEDIUM |
| 0:08:45 | Year-end estimate | "at the last school board meeting, I gave, year to date expenditures through May 31st. As a 32,849,000 encumbrances were 2,582,000. And remaining appropriation was 4,283,000." "So we worked a $5 million deficit down to less than 1 million." Revenues expected above budget (0:09:19). Inflation for May 4.2% (0:09:59). | OBS |
| 0:10:37 | Federal grants not yet claimed | Broadrick: about $2 million in federal entitlement grants; "If if we were to close out the year today, we would not receive that money. The good news is the deadline is not today." | |
| 0:11:29 | Liabilities incurred outside the system | "they incur liabilities without necessarily, having purchase orders or contracts in place." A liability "incurred last fall" surfaced "within the last four days" (0:11:56). "every dollar any employee is paid ever has to have a corresponding document in their personnel file with my signature and the employees signature on it. Yeah, that is absolutely not the case today." (0:12:57). "It's it's unacceptable that that hasn't been the case." (0:13:21). | MEDIUM |
| 0:14:06 | What a $1 million deficit means | Crawford: "We've spent $1 million more than we've taken in this year" but "what we don't know is what the starting balance is." Angell: the $5 million deficit in "retained earnings" reduced "to just under $1 million" by "positive net income" (0:14:40, 0:15:11). | |
| 0:17:16 | Level-funded FY2027 budget | Broadrick: "we're not out of the woods yet" (0:18:02). Whitney: about ten interventionist FTEs were removed from the draft budget (0:18:54). Crawford: next year's budget "was built on the current budget, which is already in fact not been used by up to $4 million" (0:19:56). | |
| 0:20:41 | The Constellations contract | A behavioral-services contract: "I'm talking about a 350 to $400,000 liability, and they did not know" where the funding came from (0:21:08). "If there were contracts that had been signed by people who weren't. Matt." (0:21:33). He refused to sign next year's $350,000 contract until a negotiation; staff said the services are "in a kid's IEP" (0:26:00, 0:26:33); "there's a special and complaint process. We can provide compensatory services in the future." (0:27:01). | MEDIUM OBS |
| 0:23:08 | Were the safeguards ever in place? | Whitney: 2023 fiscal-monitoring documentation shows "we were compliant with all of these policies and procedures in place"; the problem is that "there's not direct report oversight" (0:23:38) and "a massive amounts of information is being concealed from decision makers" (0:24:07). Broadrick: "Nobody signs a contract on behalf of the school district whose title is in business administrator or superintendent." (0:25:00). Lavalette: a purchasing policy listed signers ending in etc. (0:27:29). | MEDIUM |
| 0:29:08 | Technical-center van | Crawford: "It was bought second hand even though they were told it was a brand new right." (0:29:18). Engine about $19,000; warranty claim depends on maintenance records (0:29:24, 0:30:02); vehicles to be kept at the bus garage (0:30:30). | |
| 0:32:12 | Staffing | Contracts "difficult to rationalize" against neighboring districts (0:32:39); "we did hire five middle school teachers yesterday" (0:33:29). A press release on "Nicole Blanton" [the new middle-school principal] (0:36:45). | |
| 0:33:56 | The chair's press call | Crawford relays what she told a Valley News reporter about middle-school staffing, the new HR director, and the district's "reputation" (0:34:28 to 0:36:16). | |
| 0:39:17 | Facilities needs list | The facilities director's list includes replacing the middle-school kitchen floor, whose "special tile" needs "specialized removal" (0:39:46); Crawford calls it asbestos (0:40:28). Broadrick: "a work list" to become "a five year plus beyond plan" (0:40:48). Whitney: "we really don't know what our facilities costs are" (0:42:55). | |
| 0:44:45 | Volunteer painting | Two weeks scheduled; "there needs to be some sort of volunteer form" and "I'm not aware that Claremont has something" (0:45:06). | |
| 0:48:40 | Budget calendar | The calendar must be "approved by our attorney before the calendar is approved by the school board" (0:49:33). DOE-25: "It's due September 1st. I've never been late. Okay. Here. I may be late." (0:50:42). Goal: a proposed budget approved "by Christmas" (0:51:51). Whitney cites policy DB (0:51:22). | OBS |
| 0:53:03 | Proposed budget roundtables | "Two teams of two school board members and one team of three school board members" rotating through administrative teams in "20 minute round robin discussions" (0:53:27). Lavalette: "So this is not recorded?" (0:54:04). Crawford: "That would be that would be a school board meeting. Kind of." Angell: "You're kind of ending the meeting and then you're having the decision." (0:54:17). | OBS |
| 0:56:13 | Role of the Finance Committee | Crawford welcomes a full-board process; Whitney recalls televised principal-by-principal budget sessions (0:57:56); Crawford: some thought "the finance committee was manipulating some of it, even though it was public and it was at aired" (0:59:09). | |
| 1:01:26 | Audits and the forensic audit | The auditor (Michael Campo; transcript "my campus") is still working, with the bank supplying records (1:01:53); the chair wants him at the July 21 meeting "to explain why it is taking so long" (1:02:09). Forensic audit: "I need to get them a $10,000 check." "I'm pretty sure we authorized up to 50,000." (1:03:36, 1:03:38). Whitney: the regular audits "in our circumstances, their best guess estimates" (1:04:33). | OBS |
| 1:05:53 | NHSBA school-finance webinar | Whitney: NHDOE's school-finance lead spoke about "lack of systems in place, the state level to provide support for the districts" (1:07:12); asked how a board can know the tax rate is set correctly, "there's a lot of dead air" (1:10:48); advice that budget data handed over only in Excel is a red flag (1:11:08). | |
| 1:12:31 | A budget book like Hanover's | Whitney has asked every superintendent and business administrator for one; "I don't think that this has ever been a baseline for Claremont during the budget season" (1:15:17). Angell: it would be created "for the first time" (1:14:53). | |
| 1:17:12 | Next meeting; adjournment | August 12 at 1 p.m., tentatively; "I'll turn 215." (1:17:32). | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid. They are not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each names the rule it rests on and links to the primary source; where no verified rule supports a concern, the flag is an Observation.
MEDIUM No agenda or minutes for this subcommittee meeting in any district share searched; a draft surfaces only in the maintainer's copy
The Finance Subcommittee is a public body: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) reaches any school district board "or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto." RSA 91-A:2, II requires posted notice at least 24 hours ahead and minutes open to public inspection within five business days. MAP.md records no material for this meeting after checking the board packet share, all 36 meeting folders of the FY 2025-2026 archive, and keyword searches; no finance-committee folder has been posted to that share. The chair works from a numbered agenda on tape (0:00:39, 0:48:20) that was not found. The minutes: the chair said she would write them herself (0:07:41). The only text this project could read is a document headed DRAFT, in a copy held in the project maintainer's own Google Drive, titled Copy of Finance Sub-Committee June 19, 2026.docx and created July 10, 2026 at 11:26 a.m. Eastern, twenty-one seconds after the maintainer's account last opened the district's Finance Subcommittee website folder 2025-2026, which Drive dates to July 2, 2026 (the folder's contents could not be listed through the API). If the draft first appeared in that folder, it was public no earlier than July 2, the ninth business day after the meeting. Severity follows the project rule for a meeting that was noticed and recorded and whose minutes exist but were not found where the public looks (MEDIUM rather than HIGH): the meeting was announced at two televised board meetings and on both board agendas, it was recorded, and a draft exists. Whether a posted notice and a timely public draft existed elsewhere, for example on the SAU 6 website, cannot be checked from here.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (subcommittees are public bodies); RSA 91-A:2, II (24-hour notice; minutes within five business days).
MEDIUM The incoming superintendent describes contracts signed and liabilities incurred outside the business office, including a $350,000-plus services contract with no known funding
Dr. Broadrick told the committee that schools "incur liabilities without necessarily, having purchase orders or contracts in place" (0:11:29), that one incurred last fall reached the business office "within the last four days" (0:11:56), and that pay is not always backed by a signed document in the personnel file: "that is absolutely not the case today" (0:12:57). Special-education staff could not say how "a 350 to $400,000 liability" with the behavioral-services provider Constellations would be paid (0:21:08), and administrators, coordinators and principals "have never been told that they're not allowed to sign contracts" (0:25:24). Lavalette recalled a purchasing policy whose list of permitted signers ended in etc. (0:27:29). The district's treasurer may pay "only upon orders of the school board or upon orders of 2 or more members of the school board empowered by the school board as a whole" (RSA 197:23-a), so a commitment made by staff outside that chain reaches the board only as a bill already owed. Where the spending is charged to federal awards, such as special-education services, the district must keep effective internal control over those awards (2 CFR 200.303). The committee agreed with the remedy stated on tape and in the draft minutes ("No one but the Superintendent and/or the Business Administrator signs a contract", minutes text). MEDIUM: a control weakness reported by the district's own incoming chief executive, without a total.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (payments only on orders of the board or empowered members); 2 CFR 200.303 (internal controls over federal awards).
OBSERVATION A behavioral-services contract tied to students' IEPs held back for negotiation, with compensatory services named as the fallback
Dr. Broadrick said he declined to sign next year's Constellations contract ("$350,000 worth of work") until the provider met him to negotiate, after staff told him the services were needed "because they're in a kid's IEP" (0:26:00, 0:26:33). He added: "there's a special and complaint process. We can provide compensatory services in the future." (0:27:01). Federal rules require that, at the start of each school year, each public agency have an IEP in effect for each child with a disability, and that "special education and related services are made available to the child in accordance with the child's IEP" as soon as possible after it is developed (34 CFR 300.323(a), (c)(2)). Negotiating price before signing is ordinary contract practice, and the contract was for the following school year, so nothing on this record shows a lapse in services. The point to watch is that the negotiation finishes before services under those IEPs are due; compensatory services remedy a denial after the fact rather than satisfying the rule.
Sources: 34 CFR 300.323(a) and (c)(2) (IEP in effect; services as soon as possible).
OBSERVATION The May 31 figures restated here do not match the report given to the board two days earlier
Angell opened by recalling the figures he gave at "the last school board meeting": year-to-date expenditures through May 31 of 32,849,000, encumbrances of 2,582,000 and remaining appropriation of 4,283,000 (0:08:45), and said the remaining appropriation was unchanged in reports through June 30 (0:09:19). The expenditure report in the June 17 board packet (CSD 05.31.2026 Expenditures.xlsx), summed by this project across its 1,063 general-fund lines, shows a budget of $39,714,564.00, year-to-date expenditures of $30,020,932.89, encumbrances of $5,459,619.74 and a final balance of $4,234,011.37, the figures the June 17 approved minutes record. The two sets share the same total appropriation but split it differently, and the remaining balance differs by about $49,000. The recording does not show whether the June 19 numbers came from a later run of the ledger or were misread. The year-end deficit estimate ("less than 1 million") rests on the remaining-appropriation figure, so the committee should know which report it is using.
Sources: CSD 05.31.2026 Expenditures.xlsx (June 17 packet); 6.17.26 Approved CSB Meeting Minutes; see also the June 17, 2026 page.
OBSERVATION Proposed budget "roundtables" would split the board into sub-quorum teams, unrecorded
For the FY2028 budget Angell proposed "Two teams of two school board members and one team of three school board members" rotating through administrator teams in 20-minute discussions (0:53:27). Asked "So this is not recorded?" (0:54:04), the chair answered "That would be that would be a school board meeting. Kind of." and Angell "You're kind of ending the meeting and then you're having the decision." (0:54:14, 0:54:17). None of the teams would be a quorum of the seven-member board, but RSA 91-A:2-a, II provides that "Communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of a public body, shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter." Rotating every member through the same budget questions outside a noticed, minuted meeting is the pattern that provision addresses. This was a proposal only; holding the roundtables as a noticed, recorded board work session would avoid the question.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, II (no circumvention through communications outside a meeting); RSA 91-A:2, I (definition of a meeting).
OBSERVATION The business administrator warns the DOE-25 may be late; the audits remain behind
"It's due September 1st. I've never been late. Okay. Here. I may be late." (0:50:42). RSA 198:4-d, ¶III, as reenacted by 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586; approved July 2, 2026, effective July 1, 2026), requires the annual financial report "on or before September 1 of each year" with no extension provision. The same law's ¶VIII requires the audit report for the last completed fiscal year within nine months of year end (March 31, 2027 for FY2026) and directs the commissioner to withhold "state grant funding, not including RSA 198:40-a funding" from non-compliant districts. On this record the FY2023 to FY2025 audits are still in progress, the chair wants the auditor to explain the delay on July 21 (1:02:09), and the forensic audit awaits a $10,000 retainer, with the authorized ceiling stated only as "I'm pretty sure we authorized up to 50,000" (1:03:38).
Sources: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), RSA 198:4-d, ¶III and ¶VIII.
POSITIVE A subcommittee meeting recorded and published for the public
RSA 91-A requires notice and minutes for a subcommittee, not a recording. This meeting was recorded on the district's camera (0:00:00) and carried by Claremont Community Television (CCTV) / Claremont Community Media Center (CCMC), following the board's June 3 and June 17 discussions of filming subcommittees. Whitney observed that earlier televised budget sessions "helped with scattered attendance" (0:57:56). For a body whose agenda and minutes could not be found, the recording is the public's only complete account of the meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes; no recording requirement); Cablecast show 17431.
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.
Dialogue/School Board Finance Committee - 61926.CSV (508 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/School Board Finance Committee - 61926.mp4Input/Transcripts/School Board Finance Committee - 61926.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 307- Draft minutes, read from the maintainer's own Drive:
Copy of Finance Sub-Committee June 19, 2026.docx (created 2026-07-10) and a derivative Finance Sub-Committee 2026-06-19 - Minutes with video links.docx with the same text; not district publications and not linked here.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- State: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (read 2026-10-03); RSA 91-A:2, I and II (read 2026-10-03); RSA 91-A:2-a, II (read 2026-10-03; 2008, 303:4, never amended); RSA 197:23-a
- Session law: 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586), approved July 2, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026
- Federal: 34 CFR 300.323(a), (c)(2) (read 2026-10-03); 2 CFR 200.303