Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file. No minutes exist online to check spellings against, so non-members' names are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. Students named in the student report are not listed. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Chaired; commended the policy subcommittee; proposed an April retreat; raised the vending and a la carte question; asked whether the bag-lunch option was lawful. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Gave the superintendent search update; urged removing identifying demographic questions from the staff survey and adding one on support from administrators; asked about the inmates' offenses; relayed complaints about food quality and running out. Part of her search update sits in the acting superintendent's voice cluster (medium confidence). |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved the agenda, minutes, donations, the corrections program, the policies and adjournment; confirmed no students would be in the building; compared Newport's lunch debt. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Corrected the retreat minutes on the NHSBA delegate; asked about last year's survey suggestions and the annual report's cost; proposed asking NHSBA for help on lunch debt; asked for a cost spreadsheet; welcomed Heather Whitney's candidacy. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member (final meeting) | Proposed two-way staff and administrator survey questions; supported the corrections program; asked about costs and summer access; described the food service subcommittee's vendor review; said farewell after three years. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SAU 6 vice chair | Seconded the agenda and minutes; suggested summer programs for 13 to 15 year olds; proposed the bag-lunch "nuclear option"; said he would run the next night's SAU 6 meeting. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Seconded the corrections program; asked about supervision ratios; proposed updating the board's code of conduct, especially on social media. |
| Jesse (surname not on record) | Student representative, Stevens High School senior | Gave the student report; asked for his view, called the food generally improved under the Abbey Group. |
| Cory LeClair | Acting superintendent, SAU 6; a superintendent finalist | Superintendent's report; presented donations, the climate survey, the annual report and the food service contract rules; asked for help designing new-member orientation. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Answered on the annual report proof, a la carte's share of sales and the number of qualified vendors. Not named on this recording; identification medium. |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Presented the county corrections carpentry program and a proposed middle school summer camp. A former board member. |
| Dr. Diane Edwards | Early childhood program director | Presented the preschool program's history, results and grants. |
| Unidentified | Short interjections and group responses | 33 of 623 rows. |
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. An agenda existed: the chair refers to "agenda item h". Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:11 | Call to order; pledge; roll call | Roll not intelligible. |
| 0:01:15 | Agenda | Accepted as written; Benware, Petrin. |
| 0:01:28 | Minutes: February 9 retreat and February 20 | Towle's correction; vote initially skipped, then approved as amended on Benware's motion. |
| 0:03:20 | Student representative report | Jesse. |
| 0:07:53 | Superintendent's report | Student Art Month; March 12 election. |
| 0:11:48 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:12:08 | Acceptance of donations | Office furniture (about $3,000) and $360; Benware moved; carried. |
| 0:14:13 | Update on superintendent search | Zullo; SAU 6 board to decide March 7. |
| 0:16:34 | School climate survey questions | Deferred to March 20. |
| 0:25:06 | Presentation: CTE summer program | Corrections carpentry program approved (Benware, Lovett); middle school camp for information. |
| 0:36:53 | Impact of early childhood education | Dr. Edwards's presentation. |
| 1:01:20 | Policies: second and final reading | Adopted on Benware's motion. |
| 1:05:03 | Claremont School District annual reports | Received; no approval needed under a changed policy. |
| 1:13:07 | Food service contract | Discussion; Abbey Group invited for March 20; decision due about April 1. |
| 1:36:38 | Future agenda items; other business | i-Ready, kindergarten impact, new-member orientation, SAU 6 meeting March 7, code of conduct, NESDEC. |
| 1:48:41 | Adjournment | Benware moved; Pierce seconded. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:51 | Minutes | Towle, on the February 9 retreat minutes: "I was named as a delegate to the delegate assembly. And it's not." The chair moved on to the student report before a vote; Benware pointed it out and the chair: "I'm sorry. We didn't vote." Approved as amended. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:20 | Student representative | Senior play at the Teal Lantern, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey on March 20, technical center lead-paint certification paid by a Habitat for Humanity grant, culinary students catering the superintendent candidates' meet and greet, and school honors. | |
| 0:07:58 | Superintendent's report | Student Art Month and the Maple Avenue show at Valley Regional Hospital. March 12 is election day: "Wards one and two vote at Claremont Middle School, Ward three votes at Disney Art Elementary School." [Disnard]. Posting photos, LeClair said the hospital would check "just to confirm that any of the students represented in the photographs have permission to be photographed". | POSITIVE |
| 0:12:20 | Donations | Office furniture for the accounting program: "The approximate value of the furniture is $3,000." And "the Polish American Citizens Club has donated $360." "This will support three students whose families are financially struggling" to join the eighth-grade Boston trip. Accepted. | POSITIVE |
| 0:14:17 | Superintendent search | Zullo: "We started with 15 candidates. We narrowed that down to five." Then three, then "our two finalists, Cory and Mike, completed 3 to 4 hour storytelling interview." A public meet and greet on Monday; the "superintendent search committee met for four hours" the previous night. "The essay board will decide tomorrow night who, will be" superintendent. [SAU board] | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:37 | Climate survey | Up to five questions may be added to the Antioch survey. Zullo asked that identifying demographic items be dropped "just to make it more anonymous and more comfortable", and for a question on support from administrators; Pierce: "I thought it would be neat to hear both sides". Deferred to March 20. | POSITIVE |
| 0:25:29 | Corrections carpentry program | Herzog: "how do we use our buildings more in the summer?" An evening program with the county Department of Corrections, "We're looking at a six week program and up to 12 inmates", building projects for community groups; "We have discussed an agreed upon price of $7,500". Zullo asked about the inmates' offenses; Herzog: "You can have misdemeanor offenders" in a transitional treatment program. Benware: "There are no students in the building." Herzog: "It's going to be one community corrections officer for the group." Benware: "I'm going to make a motion that we approve this program for the summer with the Department of Correction." Lovett seconded; carried. | POSITIVE |
| 0:30:29 | Middle school summer camp | A one-week culinary and carpentry camp, possibly "we were talking about $25 a student for the week to help cover our supplies." Informational only. | |
| 0:39:12 | Preschool program | Edwards: in 2015-16 "we were one of eight other districts that were flagged by the Department of Education" on social-emotional progress; staffing was rebuilt and a curriculum adopted. "Now our goal for next year is to become a model demonstration school." "Our impact we serve up to 72 children in the center." For the building trades partnership, "So $23,159 was awarded." The inclusion model: "the model requires 50, no more than 50% of identified kids." | |
| 1:01:25 | Policies adopted | LeClair: "This group of policies has gone through the policy subcommittee." Benware: "I would like to make a motion to accept the policies." and read their codes, transcribed as "A CACRACECBI see MDADBDFADFA." and so on. Carried. Sprague: "I just want to commend the policy subcommittee." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:05:08 | Annual report | LeClair: "this is just the annual report about schools with the financials and the articles to be voted on next week." The district would "print 550 hard copies, which is part of the state requirement to have at polling locations." "The 550 copies we talked about today cost about $1,800." On approval: "we actually changed the policy to state that the board didn't need to approve that document, just that the board received the document". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:13:13 | Food service contract rules | LeClair: the contract is "almost completely dictated by USDA federal guidelines"; per the state, "if it's a substantive change, then we potentially would have to redo an RFP." Benware: Newport, with a different vendor, "They have a $12,000 school lunch debt." Pierce described the subcommittee's earlier vendor comparison. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:22:24 | The nuclear option | Petrin: "Think about doing away with the contract." and give bag lunches made centrally: "A nice healthy sandwich, salad, apple, a nice healthy bag lunch. And that's our lunch program." Sprague: "That's the nuclear option." Petrin: "But I think you do away with the debt problem." Sprague, "having done 10,000 lunch duties", would take back vending. LeClair read the state's test: a significant change "then it could be considered a material change". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:27:50 | Student view; vendors | Jesse: "I would say that I was satisfied with the quality of the food." and "I would say it's a definite improvement over the quality of the food." O'Neill: a la carte was "75 out of a total of $655,000 in sales. So it's about 2.6%." "So there's really only five people that are qualified through the state to provide these services." Benware: "So we have to make a decision by April 1st roughly." Zullo: "Would there be anything we wouldn't be allowed to discuss in public?" LeClair: not that she knew of. Abbey Group invited for March 20. LeClair asked that any bag-lunch plan be "not for 1920, but for 2021". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:39:01 | New-member orientation | LeClair asked two members to help design orientation: "Because that's something that we have in our policy. It hasn't been done historically". Towle agreed it gives new members a start, including on the Right-to-Know law. | POSITIVE |
| 1:42:07 | SAU 6 meeting March 7 | Sprague: "We have a board meeting tomorrow night at 630. I think Mike is. Mike, are you running that meeting?" Petrin: "Yeah, apparently." (the SAU 6 chair was to be absent). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:42:28 | Code of conduct | Lovett, after a City Council episode: "we need to take a page or at least learn from that and update our own code of conduct." "specifically in regards to social media." Sprague said NHSBA would help. Set for the April retreat. | POSITIVE |
| 1:45:15 | Farewell | Pierce: "I would just like to say thank you for my three years on the board". Towle on candidate Heather Whitney: "I really got a good feeling about her". LeClair suggested NESDEC enrollment studies for the retreat. | |
| 1:48:41 | Adjournment | Benware moved; Pierce seconded; carried. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on March 6, 2019. Several provisions cited below have since been amended, and each flag cites the text as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The superintendent search committee met the night before, and the SAU 6 board was to choose a superintendent the next night
Zullo reported that "the superintendent search committee met for four hours" on March 5 to review scoring and prepare its presentation, and that the SAU 6 board would decide the next evening (0:15:17, 0:15:59). A committee formed by the SAU 6 board is itself a public body: in 2019 RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) reached "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto", so its sessions carried notice and minutes duties, subject to the nonpublic exemptions for hiring. Whether the committee's March 5 meeting was noticed and minuted cannot be checked from here. What happened next is on the March 28 SAU 6 page: the March 7 vote was taken in nonpublic session, and the SAU chair said counsel later advised it should have been taken in public. The search itself was described in open session in some detail, with a public meet and greet, which is to the board's credit.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1).
OBSERVATION A group of policies was adopted by a spoken list of codes the recording cannot resolve, and the annual report is now received rather than approved
The policies had been through the policy subcommittee and a first reading, and were adopted on a motion that read their codes aloud (1:01:57). The transcript renders the list as an unbroken string of letters, and with no agenda or minutes online a member of the public cannot tell from any available record which policies were adopted on March 6, 2019. The acting superintendent also said the board had changed its policy so that the annual report is received, not approved (1:07:04). No statute requiring board approval of the annual report was verified for this page, so this is recorded as an observation about the record.
Sources: Recording only.
OBSERVATION Food service contract renewal was due within weeks; officials described federal and state limits on changing it
The acting superintendent reported state advice that a change which would have altered vendors' proposals is a "material change" requiring a new RFP, and the business administrator said only five vendors were qualified through the state (1:14:52, 1:30:00). Members said a decision was needed by about April 1. These are officials' characterizations of USDA and NHDOE rules; the federal food service management company provisions (7 CFR 210.16) were not re-verified for their 2019 text for this page, so no rule-based finding is made. The Abbey Group was invited to the March 20 meeting, where the board questioned its managers in public (see the March 20 page).
Sources: Recording; officials' characterization.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md section 94 records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that records were never made: the board approves minutes of its February 9 retreat and February 20 meeting here (a retreat is a meeting of a quorum and was minuted), and these minutes on March 20. In 2019 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 94.
POSITIVE A sensitive facility use was presented and questioned in public before approval; small gifts accepted in public session
The corrections carpentry program was explained in open session, with members asking who the participants would be, whether students would be present and what supervision there would be, before the vote (0:25:29 to 0:30:02). The furniture and the $360 gift were described and accepted by public vote, consistent with RSA 198:20-b, III(b)'s rule that sums under $5,000 be accepted "in public session of any regular school board meeting" (0:12:20). The acting superintendent also noted that student photographs are checked for permission before posting (0:09:50).
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(b) (2019 codification); recording.
POSITIVE Members sought survey anonymity, a code of conduct update and a real orientation for new members
Zullo asked that identifying demographic items be removed so small groups of staff could answer candidly (0:20:49); Lovett proposed updating the board's code of conduct for social media (1:42:28); and the acting superintendent asked members to help build the orientation that board policy calls for but that "hasn't been done historically" (1:39:41). None of these is required beyond statutory minimums.
Sources: Recording; practice beyond statutory minimums.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10274, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting 3-6-19": Claremont Community TV. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, survey packet, policies, preschool handouts, annual report, food service contract or minutes were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, March 20, 2019 and SAU 6 Board, March 28, 2019.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10274 SchoolBoard030619.mp4.CSV (623 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10274 SchoolBoard030619.mp4Input/Transcripts/10274 SchoolBoard030619.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10274 SchoolBoard030619.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 94
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on March 6, 2019. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees are public bodies; 2019 codification). RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes; 2019 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1). RSA 198:20-b, III(b) (gifts under $5,000; 2019 codification, later amended by 2023, 38:1).
- Mentioned, not relied on. 7 CFR 210.16 (food service management companies), not re-verified for its 2019 text.