Participants
Everyone in the record. Names follow the dialogue CSV; where the CSV says Unidentified, this page says unidentified. ASR renderings are shown in code. No minutes were available to check spellings.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Ran the meeting; added the CMS Chromebook proposal to the agenda; asked for the audit findings to reach the policy committee; disclosed that his daughter works for the district and asked that policy BCB be revisited. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair; superintendent search committee | Reported the search: a meet and greet targeted for March 4 at the tech center. Pressed for remedial measures on the audits; suggested Donors Choose for the Chromebook drive. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved most items: three trips, the donations, the IDN certificate, the return of policy BCB to subcommittee, the policy second reads and adjournment. Asked how audit fees are billed. Rendered Jason Bentley at roll. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Seconded the January minutes and the class trip; moved the youth and government trip; asked what the 2015 audit cost. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Asked about grant sources for the Chromebooks; spoke on the food service contract; raised a historical-society flyer and a candidates' night. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member (attribution uncertain in the CSV) | The CSV assigns him mostly short interjections, a second on the donations and adjournment, a question whether removing a la carte purchases had helped, and a question about missing pages in the audit report. The label rests on the chair's "piggybacking on Rob's comment". |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Answers the roll (Michael. Here.); the chair's "Mike. Seconds." at 1:11:49 suggests he seconded the IDN motion. No row is attributed to him. |
| Unidentified board member (female) | Board member; voice not separable among Towle, Zullo and Pierce | Welcomed the student council's plan at 0:18:57. |
| Unidentified board member | Board member moving the minutes | At 0:01:50. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 (Acting Superintendent in the CSV) | Superintendent's report; school lunch debt update; donations; IDN Region 1 certificate; audit status; policies; future agenda. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | On the audits: "when I started, they had just issued 12 and I started in 15"; the fiscal 2016 interim bill; the food service contract's renewal date. |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative, Stevens High School | Student report; youth and government trip; the GoFundMe fee. |
| Nancy Lewis | Teacher and student council advisor, Stevens High School | Presented the LEAD conference trip (Chicago) and youth and government. |
| Kara Gilson | English teacher, Stevens High School (spelling uncertain) | Chaperone for the Chicago trip. |
| Leah McCarthy | Senior; student council secretary and senior class president (ASR also liane) | Spoke for the LEAD conference and the student leadership conference. |
| Audrey Paxton; Emily Perez | Seniors; student council officers | Spoke for the LEAD conference. |
| Jennifer Ferland | Registrar, cheer coach and senior class advisor, Stevens High School | Presented the class of 2019 overnight trip to Hyannis. |
| Unidentified student | Youth and government participant | Described two bills at 0:29:47. |
| Susan Taylor | School counselor, Claremont Middle School (introduced as Sue Taylor; ASR self-ID sutler) | Proposed a 48-peak hiking fundraiser for about 200 Chromebooks, "I put down for $85,000". |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. The board had a written agenda ("We have an agenda in front of us"). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Call to order, Pledge, roll call | Roll at 0:00:39; only some names are audible. |
| 0:00:55 | Agenda | Amended to insert Susan Taylor's CMS proposal after the field trip requests; voice vote. |
| 0:01:26 | Minutes of January 2 and January 16 | Approved on a voice vote; the mover is unidentified and Towle seconded ("1616. I'll second." at 0:02:03). |
| 0:02:15 | Student representative's report | Informational. |
| 0:04:41 | Superintendent's report | Given by LeClair. Informational. |
| 0:08:57 | Citizens' comments | Opened; no speakers (0:09:11). |
| 0:09:23 | Field trip requests (four) | LEAD conference, Chicago: Benware motion, second attributed by the chair to Ron [Rob], voice vote (0:19:50). Student leadership conference: Benware motion, Towle second (0:23:32). Class of 2019 overnight trip: Benware motion, Towle second (0:27:40). Youth and government, April 5 and 6: Towle motion, Benware second (0:30:54). All carried on voice votes. |
| 0:32:27 | CMS Chromebook fundraising proposal | No vote; the chair: "I think you do have the the tacit support of the board to proceed" (0:48:35). |
| 0:50:50 | Update on the superintendent search | Informational. |
| 0:52:27 | School lunch debt update | Informational; food service contract to be reviewed before the renewal decision. |
| 1:05:15 | Acceptance of donations | $7,500 and $2,000 from the Byrne Foundation and $750 from Hannaford, accepted in one voice vote on Benware's motion (1:07:46). See flag 1. |
| 1:08:37 | IDN Region 1 certificate of vote | Benware motion, second recorded as "Mike"; voice vote (1:11:39). See flag 5. |
| 1:15:14 | Financial audit update | Informational. See flag 2. |
| 1:28:22 | Policies: review group, first-read group | Policy BCB (board member conflict of interest, nepotism) returned to the policy subcommittee on Benware's motion (1:35:32); the remaining first-read policies moved to second and final read on Benware's motion (1:36:19); voice votes. |
| 1:37:52 | Future agenda items | Candidates' presentations discussed; left to depend on whether the March 5 forum is televised. |
| 1:43:34 | Other business; adjournment | SAU 6 board meeting the next night; next Claremont meeting March 6; adjourned at 1:44:49. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Each time is the start of the cited row, from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:55 | Agenda amended | "We have Sue Taylor here tonight, and she's going to be talking to us about a CMS proposal. And I would like to insert that, right after Mrs. Lewis does the field trip request." | |
| 0:01:26 | Minutes | "Okay. Moving forward, we have minutes from January 2nd through January 16th." Approved on a voice vote; the mover's voice is unidentified. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:42 | Student report | Six Stevens members elected to youth and government leadership posts: "We were the biggest delegation, which is quite a change from the past couple of years." The chair congratulates the state-champion bowling team, which he once coached (0:04:41). | |
| 0:06:01 | Superintendent's report | "We had a PD day last week on Wednesday and the focus across the district was safety." "Some of the drills had never been practiced before." The afternoon was on trauma; the middle and high schools viewed Paper Tigers (0:07:10). | |
| 0:08:57 | Citizens' comments | "If anyone would like to speak to the board, approach the podium with your name and your word." "Seeing none. I will close citizens comments." | POSITIVE |
| 0:12:28 | LEAD conference, Chicago | Lewis: "The lead conference in Chicago is on March 24th." Costs of rooms and fees paid from student council fundraising; students pay travel (0:16:54). Five or six students with Ms. Gilson (0:18:02). Approved at 0:20:01. | |
| 0:22:33 | Student leadership conference | LeClair: "prior boards have supported and approved this particular conference." "it could not wait until the March 6th board meeting." Approved. | |
| 0:24:16 | Senior class trip | One night, May 20 to 21, Hyannis; "a rate of $36 per student" (0:24:58); paid from class fundraising and dues; 53 students signed up, chaperones named (0:26:33). Approved at 0:27:40. | |
| 0:29:06 | Youth and government | April 5 and 6 at the State House; about 33 students. Benware, seconding: "if anybody wanted to throw a bill out there, one might ask for more funding for education." The chair wore an SOS pin "in solidarity with the Berlin school district" (0:31:12). | |
| 0:32:27 | Chromebooks for every CMS student | Taylor: "we have 400, about 400 Chromebooks at our school, 400 students at our school, and we have approximately 200 Chromebooks." Hiking "the 484000 footers" [48 4,000-footers] for pledges; "I put down for $85,000" (0:35:24). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:36:42 | Who owns crowd-funded equipment? | LeClair: the concern is "when an individual is raising money for their cause under the global name of Claremont School District, who owns that property". Past cases: "In another case, the items departed before, anyone was able to know that they were gone." (0:37:38). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:48:08 | A precedent | Chair: "this is sort of new territory for us. And so we are setting a precedent." "I'd like to get it right the first time." Then: "I think you do have the the tacit support of the board to proceed." No motion. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:50:50 | Superintendent search | Zullo: "Our targeted date for a meet and greet is March 4th." Two finalists hoped for; the board is "listening to Bill, who is the fellow that we hired to help us through this process" (0:51:33). | |
| 0:52:27 | Lunch debt | Payment plans; duplicate accounts found; online payments taking "as much as seven days or more" to post (0:53:26). "Our total negative debt has not increased substantially from last time, but unfortunately it has not decreased substantially either" (0:54:42). Benware: "79% of those people who still haven't paid are not people who qualify for free and reduced lunch" (0:56:00). | |
| 0:57:37 | Food service contract | Chair wants to "dig into that contract" before renewal. O'Neill: "you have to decide 90 days prior to the end of the year" (1:03:42), "by April 1st" (1:04:00). Pierce on the change of vendor: "Not all of it was our fault." (1:04:46). | |
| 1:05:15 | Donations | Byrne Foundation "$7,500 for the eighth graders at Claremont Middle School"; Byrne "$2,000 for the annual bluff trip to the White Mountains" (1:06:05); Hannaford $750 for preschool nutrition (1:07:11). Benware: "We're going to accept these one at a time where all at the same time." Chair: "We'll do them on mass, I think." Accepted in one voice vote (1:08:13). | MEDIUM |
| 1:08:37 | IDN Region 1 | LeClair reads the certificate: "We're certifying that saw six is a member of region one integrated delivery network" (1:09:57); purpose, grant access for Medicaid-eligible students' behavioral and mental health (1:10:22). No dues (1:14:15). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:15:14 | Audit status | "We just recently got the final, copy of our 2015 fiscal year audit." "So we are close to finishing the Claremont 16 audit." (1:15:40). Four entities: "Claremont, unity, Cornish and the saw" (1:16:57). | MEDIUM |
| 1:18:09 | Why so far behind | O'Neill: "I'm not really sure how we got so far behind". "when I started, they had just issued 12 and I started in 15. So with three years behind" (1:18:24). "The goal is by June to have them all up to date" (1:18:40). | MEDIUM |
| 1:18:50 | What late audits cost | Benware: "when we have late audits like this, I expect costing our taxpayers more money than it ought to." O'Neill: fiscal 2016 "$21,000 for the interim billing", against about "22,000 for a normal audit" (1:20:03, 1:20:12); the grant funds require "a governmental audit as well". | MEDIUM |
| 1:22:17 | Audit findings to policy | Chair: "there's some policy work that needs to be done as a result"; asks for "a conduit for that information to get to that committee" and to see "which ones have been remediated" (1:24:26). | POSITIVE |
| 1:25:53 | Remedial steps | O'Neill: invoices for fiscal 2014 and 2015 were "really a struggle" (1:25:02); preparing schedules in-house. LeClair: cross-training after "the vacuum left behind when institutional knowledge leaves" (1:26:57). | MEDIUM |
| 1:29:49 | Policy BCB and the chair's disclosure | "I'm going to be full disclosure, my daughter works at the district. And according to this policy, that is not allowed." "We have someone who's running for school board whose wife works for the district". Reading: "The board will not employ any teacher or other employee. If the teacher or other employee is the father, mother, brother, wife, sister, son, and daughter." (1:31:19). | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 1:33:57 | SAU-level gap | LeClair: the SAU "does not have its own policies at this time", so SAU matters defer to district policies (1:34:13). Chair: "that policy has not been enforced in the past" (1:35:06). Returned to subcommittee (1:35:32). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:57 | Policies to second and final read | LeClair: "That's required by statute to have at least two reads." Benware lists the policies by code (1:36:19). DFA, DFAR and DAI "require annual review under our auditing guidelines" (1:37:28). | |
| 1:38:16 | Candidates at a board meeting? | A candidate forum on March 5, "the intention is for it to be televised" (1:38:42). Benware: "three people right here running for two seats" (1:23:46). LeClair: "I don't believe they actually were able to televise our last regularly scheduled board meeting" (1:40:42). | |
| 1:43:34 | Closing | SAU 6 board meets the next night; superintendent candidates' meet and greet March 4 "at the tech center in the teal lantern room" (1:44:13). Adjourned. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state and federal rules in force on February 20, 2019. They are not findings of violation and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity. No HIGH flag was found.
MEDIUM A $7,500 gift was accepted with no public hearing on the record
The acting superintendent presented three gifts: $7,500 from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation for the eighth-grade trip to Boston, $2,000 from the same foundation for the Bluff fourth-grade trip, and $750 from Hannaford (1:05:15, 1:06:05, 1:07:11). The board accepted all three in one voice vote (1:07:46, 1:08:13). No public hearing was opened on the recording. RSA 198:20-b, as codified in 2019 and unchanged since 2005, provides that "For unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken", with notice of its time, place and subject published in a newspaper at least 7 days before; for smaller amounts the board posts notice in the agenda and the minutes and accepts in public session. The $7,500 gift crossed the threshold. Later in 2019 this board did hold such hearings (see the September 4, 2019 page, where the chair asked whether a gift was "above the threshold"). Mitigation and limits: the section applies only where the district has adopted it by warrant article, which this page could not verify; a hearing could have been held at another session not on this recording; and acceptance was in public session with each gift named. Graded MEDIUM as a probable process gap, consistent with the April 7, 2021 page on similar facts.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1; threshold raised to $20,000 only by 2023, 38:1).
MEDIUM The district's fiscal 2015 audit had only just been finalized, and fiscal 2016 was still in draft, in February 2019
LeClair reported "We just recently got the final, copy of our 2015 fiscal year audit" and that the district was "close to finishing the Claremont 16 audit", with auditors blocking the week of March 11 to push toward fiscal 2018 (1:15:14, 1:15:40, 1:16:05). The business administrator said that when he arrived in 2015 the district "had just issued 12", "three years behind" (1:18:24), and that the invoices for fiscal 2014 and 2015 were "really a struggle" to find (1:25:02). He also said Claremont's grant volume requires "a governmental audit as well of the grant funds" (1:20:12).
Under the Uniform Guidance, Subpart F applies "to audits of fiscal years beginning on or after December 26, 2014", so it governs Claremont's fiscal 2016 (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016). A non-federal entity that expends $750,000 or more in federal awards must have a single audit, due "within the earlier of 30 calendar days after receipt of the auditor's report(s), or nine months after the end of the audit period": for fiscal 2016, March 31, 2017. If Claremont met the threshold, as the business administrator's remark implies but this page did not verify, the fiscal 2016 audit was about 23 months past that date and still unfinished. Fiscal 2015 fell under the predecessor OMB Circular A-133, which this page did not verify and does not cite. Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH, consistent with the August 21, 2019 page, because the threshold is not established from federal data and the board's receipt of a report is not its submission date. In the district's favor: the delay was explained in open session, members asked about cost and remedies (1:18:50, 1:25:53), and the administration described cross-training and in-house schedules (1:26:57). State law sets no audit deadline: RSA 21-J:19 is permissive.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.110(b) (2019 edition): Subpart F applies to audits of fiscal years beginning on or after December 26, 2014; 2 CFR 200.501(a) (2019 edition): $750,000 threshold; 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2019 edition): nine months after period end.
OBSERVATION The chair said the district's nepotism policy "has not been enforced in the past"
Reviewing policy BCB (board member conflict of interest), the chair disclosed that his daughter works for the district as a paraprofessional and that a board candidate's wife is a district employee (1:29:49, 1:30:26). He read the policy's first sentence, "The board will not employ any teacher or other employee" related to a member in the listed degrees (1:31:19), said "I know it's happened at least two incidences in the last six years" (1:32:52), and "that policy has not been enforced in the past" (1:35:06). He proposed softening it to allow superintendent discretion with recusal. LeClair noted that the SAU "does not have its own policies at this time" and defers to each district's (1:33:57). The board returned BCB to the policy subcommittee (1:35:32). This page verified no state statute on the point and cites none; the observation is that the board's own written policy, by the chair's account, was not being followed, and the board chose to revisit the text rather than the practice. The outcome belongs on the pages that follow.
Sources: the recording at the times linked above. No verified rule applies.
OBSERVATION No minutes are online, and this was one of the first meetings under the mover-and-seconder rule
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes with the names of members, persons appearing, a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, open to inspection within five business days. A sentence added by 2018, 244:1, effective January 1, 2019, also requires that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes." That rule was seven weeks old on this date, and the recording alone does not always supply the names: the January minutes were moved by an unidentified voice (0:01:50); the Chicago trip's second was credited to Ron (0:20:01); the donations' second produced "Tie between Rob and Michelle" (1:08:10); the IDN second is recorded only as "Mike. Seconds." (1:11:49); and the BCB motion's second is unattributed (1:35:36). None of this meeting's minutes are in the district's public shares, which begin in 2022; that is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that minutes were never kept. The board approved its January 2 and January 16 minutes at this meeting (0:01:26), which shows minutes were being produced. Graded an observation under the project's rule for missing records.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (source note ends 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019).
OBSERVATION The IDN certificate names SAU 6, but the Claremont board voted it
The certificate read into the record begins "We're certifying that saw six is a member of region one integrated delivery network" and authorizes the region's administrative lead "to enter into contracts, receive and distribute funds" (1:09:57). LeClair then described the purpose as allowing "the Claremont School District to be a partner" (1:10:22) and said the certificate needed "just the signature of Frank and myself" (1:11:20), Sprague being the Claremont chair. The SAU 6 board met the next evening (1:43:34). Whether the certificate should have come from the SAU board, from each district, or from both is not something the recording settles; the text read and the body voting do not match on their face. No dues were involved (1:14:15). No verified rule is cited.
Sources: the recording at the times linked above. No verified rule applies.
OBSERVATION An $85,000 public fundraiser in the district's name went forward on "tacit support", with ownership of the equipment unresolved
A counselor proposed raising about $85,000 for Chromebooks through a GoFundMe page (0:32:27, 0:35:24). LeClair explained the district's recurring problem: who owns items bought with money raised "under the global name of Claremont School District", and in one past case "the items departed before, anyone was able to know that they were gone" (0:36:42, 0:37:38). The chair asked whether any "policy or any law" prevented it (0:36:32), called it "new territory" and "setting a precedent" (0:48:08), and closed without a vote: "you do have the the tacit support of the board to proceed" (0:48:35). No written terms, account or ownership rule was adopted on the record. The drive went ahead: on March 4, 2020 the board held a hearing on "$11,947.39, specifically for Chromebooks" raised by the same counselor (Cablecast show 10768; see the March 4, 2020 page). No verified rule is cited; the point is that the board identified a control gap and proceeded without closing it.
Sources: the recording at the times linked above. No verified rule applies.
POSITIVE A conflict disclosed on the record, the audit backlog discussed in public, and a comment period offered
The chair volunteered his own family connection before asking the board to revisit the nepotism policy, and described recusing himself from the paraprofessionals' negotiations (1:29:49, 1:30:26). The audit backlog, a subject an administration could have left to a written memo, was explained in open session with its causes and cost, and the chair asked for the audit's recommendations to be tracked to remediation through the policy committee (1:22:17, 1:24:26). The citizens' comment period was opened and closed only after no one came forward (0:08:57); in 2019 no statute required one. The policy work also documented annual review of the federal-program policies the auditors look for (1:37:28).
Sources: the recording at the times linked above.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10252, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 2-20-19": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No packet folder, agenda, audit report, policy text or minutes for this meeting is in the district's public Drive shares, whose year folders begin in 2022 (MAP.md section 93, checked 9/26/26). The board had a packet on the night (the audit summary, the lunch debt report and policies are referred to as "in your packet").
- Related pages: the February 6, 2019 deliberative session; the January 2, 2019 budget hearing; March 4, 2020 (the Chromebook donation hearing).
Project files (the dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the pages)
Dialogue/10252 SchoolBoard022019.mp4.CSV: dialogue file, 638 rows.Input/Videos/10252 SchoolBoard022019.mp4; Input/Transcripts/10252 SchoolBoard022019.mp4.json.Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 93.Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10252 SchoolBoard022019.mp4.md; Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md.
Laws and rules cited on this page