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. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Opened and closed the public hearing, chaired the meeting, seconded the nonpublic motion, answered the citizen commenter, reported that the ConVal lawsuit question was on hold, and supported a board communications role. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Reported that superintendent contract negotiations had started and that a first draft went to the candidate that day; urged members to join the teachers' negotiating committee; asked about the district climate survey and whether parents may see their children's answers. Part of her negotiation answer sits in a second voice cluster (medium confidence). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SAU 6 chair | Read the Couch Family Foundation figure from the prior minutes; worked out the infrastructure-fund match; moved the nonpublic session; moved approval of the music trip; proposed more board information on Facebook. Identification medium: it rests on the Facebook-page role, and the attribution report notes one roll-call answer in Benware's slot. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Moved the March 20 minutes and noted her name was misspelled; asked who was being invited into the nonpublic session; seconded the $760 donation. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Named in the clerk's roll ("Jason"). His voice is not separated from other unidentified board voices in the dialogue file. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Named in the nonpublic roll call ("Whitney. Yes."). Not otherwise separated in the dialogue file. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Not named on the recording; attendance not established. |
| Jesse (surname not on record) | Student representative, Stevens High School | Gave the student report on school events across the district. The chair's "Mr. Barrel" is an unresolved rendering of his surname. |
| Cory LeClair | Acting superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented both unanticipated-revenue items at the hearing; gave a brief superintendent's report (Dartmouth-sponsored museum trip, kindergarten registration); presented the $760 donation; spoke to the retreat, negotiations committee, future agenda items and a Maple Avenue to Moody Park bridge proposal. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Presented the MS-22 with the FY2020 total appropriation and the budget-versus-actual expenditure report; projected revenue about $59,000 favorable. Surname spelling unverified. |
| Katya (surname not on record) | Band and chorus teacher, Stevens High School | Presented the proposed July 2020 music trip to Berlin, Prague, Krakow and Budapest. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll and the nonpublic roll-call vote; responded on the minutes corrections. |
| Unidentified | Citizens' comments, Ward 3 | Complained that the audience could not hear the board and asked why people do not come to meetings. Name not audible. |
| Unidentified | Board-side voices; group responses | Moved to seal the nonpublic minutes, seconded the music trip, moved the $760 donation, asked when the superintendent contract might be final, asked about posting meeting links, and moved and seconded adjournment. The attribution report suggests these include Benware, Whitney and Lovett but does not separate them. |
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 "an agenda in front of us" and to its lettered discussion and action items. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Public hearing: unanticipated revenue | Couch Family Foundation grant ($21,150 as read from the prior minutes) and Public School Infrastructure Fund money. No citizen spoke on either. No acceptance vote appears on the recording. |
| 0:05:16 | Call to order; pledge; attendance | Roll only partly audible. |
| 0:06:02 | Agenda | Item D, school funding and the ConVal lawsuit, moved to follow the nonpublic session. No vote on the agenda is audible. |
| 0:07:04 | Minutes of March 20, 2019 | Towle moved; seconded; name-spelling corrections noted; carried by voice. |
| 0:08:07 | Student representative report | Jesse, Stevens High School. |
| 0:15:42 | Superintendent's report | Acting Superintendent LeClair; kept brief. |
| 0:17:59 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, Ward 3. |
| 0:21:48 | Nonpublic session | Petrin moved under RSA 91-A:3, II, reading the words of ¶II(j); Sprague seconded; roll call all yes. Session not recorded. Motion to seal the nonpublic minutes "for 99 years" carried by voice at 0:23:59. |
| 0:24:08 | High school music trip | Taken up out of order because the nonpublic ran long. Petrin moved approval; seconded (unidentified); carried by voice. |
| 0:28:12 | School funding / ConVal lawsuit (item D) | Chair: on hold; Zullo: no decision made. |
| 0:28:52 | Acceptance of donations | $760 from American Legion Post 29 auxiliaries for the eighth grade Boston trip; moved (unidentified), seconded by Towle, carried. |
| 0:30:28 | Update on superintendent search | Zullo: contract negotiations started; first draft sent that day. |
| 0:31:46 | MS-22 | FY2020 total appropriation presented for signature. |
| 0:33:17 | Budget versus actual; year-end projection | O'Neill; expenditure projection not ready. |
| 0:36:34 | Future agenda items; board retreat | Retreat set for Sunday April 14, 10 to 1; SAU 6 meeting April 11; joint meeting with the City Council May 6; general assurances, Goshen tuition agreement, E-Rate hearing, Bluff trip. |
| 0:44:09 | Good of the order | Board Facebook communications; climate survey questions. |
| 0:48:46 | Adjournment | Moved and seconded (unidentified); carried by voice. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Public hearing opened | Sprague: "whenever we receive a, a gift over a certain threshold, we have to have open up the opportunity for the public to weigh in on how those funds would be used." "It's a public hearing under RSA 198 colon 20 D" [RSA 198:20-b]. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:00:55 | Couch Family Foundation grant | LeClair: "The first is a grant from the Couch Foundation for a project that was already presented to you", pairing the early childhood center with the building trades program. She first said "approximately $23,000"; Petrin read the figure from the prior minutes: "it's the amount of 2000 or 21,150." LeClair: "Just the couch. Family Foundation donation was over the threshold." "So we are asking that the board, except those funds." [accept]. No citizen commented. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:27 | Public School Infrastructure Fund | LeClair: state grant matching last March's security warrant article, "And I believe the warrant was approximately $141,000, if memory serves correctly." The funds are "above and beyond, what we included in revenue." Petrin: "This wasn't it 8020. So it should be four times what we laid out." then "$564,000." Sprague: "Okay. So it's 470,000." and then 04771. "Seeing none will close citizens comments on the public school infrastructure fund." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:02 | Agenda change | "we're going to be taking item D, which is a school funding slash con lawsuit, and that's going to be moved up, up right immediately after we come out of our nonpublic." [ConVal school funding lawsuit]. LeClair noted the music department had asked to present. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:09 | March 20 minutes | Towle moved; "She spelled my name wrong." Corrections were reported made. Carried by voice. | |
| 0:08:12 | Student representative | Jesse: "Donkey ball turned out to be a huge thing." Honor society inductions April 11, a blood drive, community service day, a district school climate survey, a GEAR UP conference, a visit by Senator Maggie Hassan to the technical center, summer camps, a middle school running club, and state assessment testing at Bluff. | |
| 0:15:48 | Superintendent's report | LeClair thanked a Dartmouth fraternity that hosts elementary students at the museum (transcribed Manchester Museum and Monster Museum; probably the Montshire). April is kindergarten registration: "any child who turns five by September 30th, 2019 is is eligible to register for kindergarten." | |
| 0:18:20 | Citizen: the audience cannot hear | Ward 3 speaker: "We do have an audio visual department here because the only people you're talking to is yourselves." "I can't sit at home and watch you on TV. I don't have that luxury." "I only see maybe a half a dozen people here." Asked for an answer; Sprague: "Typically when it's your turn to talk so we don't talk during citizens comments." and "Well, there's probably about 13,000 different." [reasons]. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:48 | Motion to enter nonpublic | Petrin: "I'd like to make a motion to go in a nonpublic session for RSA 91, a colon, three paragraph two." "Consideration of confidential commercial or financial information that is exempt from public disclosure under RSA 91 a colon, five" [91-A:5, IV] "In a judicial proceeding pursuant to RSA 541 or RSA 541, a thank you." Sprague seconded; roll call, every audible answer yes. Towle: "Question. Who are you inviting in?" | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:23:28 | Sealing the nonpublic minutes | "I would like to make a motion to save the nonpublic minutes for 99 years." [seal]. Sprague: "Now we can say with the voice. Load on this. Right." Petrin: "Thank you for roll. Call it, don't you?" Sprague: "Hard time. We do a voice call for you. Forward on this, or do we have two." Then a voice vote: "All those in favor?" No reason for sealing is stated. | MEDIUM |
| 0:24:08 | Music trip, July 2020 | Sprague: "in nonpublic so long, I'd like to, have our band and chorus teacher Katya come up and present on the music trip." Katya: EF Tours, "But the destinations would be Berlin, Prague, Krakow and Budapest." Petrin: "I'd like to move that we approve this trip." Seconded; carried. | |
| 0:28:12 | School funding lawsuit | Sprague: "We're kind of in a position where we're waiting to see how things unfold legislatively as well as legally in the state." Zullo: "Something make it very clear no decision has been made. It's just a discussion, right?" | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:00 | $760 donation | LeClair: American Legion Post 29 auxiliaries "are donating to us a total of $760." "to support six students whose families are financially struggling and unable to pay the $120 class dues for the eighth grade trip." Motion: "I make a motion that we accept $760 with our heartfelt thanks." Second from Towle; carried. | POSITIVE |
| 0:30:33 | Superintendent contract | Zullo: "Contract. Negotiations have officially started." The first draft "Contract was sent out today with the attachment A." to the candidate (Mike, Michael Tempesta, chosen by the SAU 6 board on March 7). Sprague: "Thank you for your efforts on this because I know it's just you doing that." | |
| 0:32:06 | MS-22 | O'Neill: with the March vote results added, "total appropriation 35524063 should be the number on the bottom of the mass." [MS-22; $35,524,063]. Passed around for signature. | |
| 0:33:27 | Year-end projection | O'Neill: "It looks like we're going to be favorable about 59,000 and printing it now." Unclosed purchase orders "that will result in us recording encumbrance in an expenditure. And that's double recording." "salaries, wages and benefits have significant budget balance and the outside services are not a district tuition have a significant negative balance." "It shows that I think $874,000 was the bottom line number." Petrin: 865. 756. O'Neill: "I can just get all the parts to stop moving for a minute, but I can't." An E-Rate hearing is to be scheduled. | |
| 0:36:48 | Negotiations committee; retreat | LeClair: "some members of the SRA, which is the teachers union" [CEA, Claremont Education Association, uncertain] want a ground-setting meeting in May, so a negotiation subcommittee should be named at the retreat. "We've settled on April 14th", a Sunday, 10 to 1, at the "Claremont Savings Bank community center in the room behind the front desk." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:40:13 | Future agenda items | Federal general assurances for FY2020; "We will be presenting to you a tuition agreement, with Goshen for some students who are attending." the E-Rate hearing; a Bluff fourth-grade trip; sharing retreat outcomes. "We rescheduled the joint City Council school board meeting to May 6th". LeClair proposed a bridge between "Maple Avenue and Moody Park so our students can access Moody Park for outdoor learning and outdoor education". | |
| 0:44:12 | Board communications | Petrin: "Beefing up what gets out on Facebook through the Claremont School Board page." "I put the agendas up, we put the, the video of the meetings up, but I'm just looking to maybe beef that up a little bit more and put more information out." Sprague: "But I don't think it should all be on you to do it." | POSITIVE |
| 0:46:02 | School climate survey | Zullo asked whether the board's questions made it in; LeClair: "And I said you had given me five questions, so I submitted five questions." Zullo, as a parent: "I'd rather do it as a parent than have their teacher do it". An unidentified voice: "So you don't want the confidential survey to be confidential?" | |
| 0:48:46 | Adjournment | Moved and seconded; carried by voice. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on April 3, 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.
MEDIUM Nonpublic minutes sealed "for 99 years" by voice vote, with no statutory reason stated on the record
After the nonpublic session, an unidentified member moved "to save the nonpublic minutes for 99 years" (0:23:31). The chair asked whether a voice vote would do; Petrin suggested a roll call; the chair then took a voice vote (0:23:59). In 2019, RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes and decisions to be disclosed within 72 hours unless, "by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session", the board determined that disclosure would likely affect adversely the reputation of a non-member, render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism. On the tape no determination of any of those three kinds is stated, and only one Aye is audible; whether the vote was recorded member by member, and whether the minutes supply the finding, cannot be checked because no minutes are online. The statute also ties the withholding period to the circumstances rather than to a fixed term; a 99-year seal is a choice the statute does not describe. This is graded MEDIUM as a documentation gap, not a confirmed violation: the minutes may cure it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1).
OBSERVATION The nonpublic motion read the words of RSA 91-A:3, II(j), an exemption for adjudicative proceedings under RSA 541 or 541-A; the session's subject is not on the record
Petrin's motion (0:21:48) named "paragraph two" and then read, in substance, the text of ¶II(j): "Consideration of confidential, commercial, or financial information that is exempt from public disclosure under RSA 91-A:5, IV in an adjudicative proceeding pursuant to RSA 541 or RSA 541-A." RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to state the specific exemption, and reading the exemption's words does that even without the letter. What the recording does not show is the fit. The only item the chair linked to the nonpublic was the school funding / ConVal lawsuit, moved to "right immediately after we come out of our nonpublic" (0:06:02); a school funding suit is a court case, not an RSA 541 or 541-A administrative proceeding, and the exemption for pending litigation is a different paragraph (¶II(e), "pending claims or litigation which has been threatened in writing or filed"). The session may have concerned something else. Afterwards the chair reported "nothing much to share" and Zullo stressed that "no decision has been made" (0:28:46). With the subject unknown, this is an observation only.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(e) and II(j) (2019 codification).
OBSERVATION Unanticipated-funds hearing held, but the infrastructure fund amount was never settled aloud and no acceptance vote is on the tape
RSA 198:20-b, as it read in 2019, let a school board accept unanticipated money during the year only if the district had adopted the enabling article (¶I), and for $5,000 or more required a prior public hearing with newspaper notice of its time, place and subject at least 7 days before (¶III(a)). The board held the hearing, and the March 20 meeting had set it for this date (see the March 20 page). Two points remain open. First, the amount of the Public School Infrastructure Fund money was worked out at the table: $141,000 as the warrant, then "$564,000." on an 80/20 reading, then "470,000" and 04771 (0:04:29 to 0:04:45). A hearing is more useful to the public when the figure is stated. Second, the acting superintendent asked the board to accept the funds (0:02:59), but no motion to accept either the $21,150 grant or the infrastructure money appears in the meeting that follows; acceptance may have come at a later meeting. Newspaper notice and the enabling article cannot be checked from the recording.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1; threshold raised to $20,000 by 2023, 38:1).
OBSERVATION A citizen said the audience could not hear the board
The only public commenter (Ward 3, 0:18:20) said members were speaking to their screens and the room could not follow, and that she could not watch at home. The chair did not respond to the substance; he explained that the board does not answer during citizens' comments. In 2019 RSA 91-A:2, III(c) required audibility to the public only for members participating remotely; no verified rule sets an audibility standard for members present in the room, so this is recorded as an observation. The complaint bears on whether the public can follow an open meeting in practice.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); recording.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting or its hearing are posted online
MAP.md section 97 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 its March 20 minutes here. In 2019 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", and the nonpublic motion, the sealing finding in flag 1 and the hearing notice in flag 3 would appear only in documents that are not online. The April 14 retreat set at this meeting is also a meeting of a quorum; its record is not online either. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 97.
POSITIVE A member publishes agendas and meeting video and proposed plain-language summaries; a small donation was accepted in public session
Petrin said he posts the board's agendas and the meeting videos to its Facebook page and proposed adding an agreed synopsis after each meeting (0:44:12); the chair supported it and suggested members share the work. Neither is required by the 2019 statute. The $760 donation was presented, explained (six students unable to pay $120 class dues) and accepted by public vote under a donations item (0:29:00), consistent with RSA 198:20-b, III(b)'s rule that gifts under $5,000 be accepted "in public session of any regular school board meeting".
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(b) (2019 codification); recording.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10310, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 4-3-19": 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, hearing notice, MS-22, expenditure report or minutes were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, March 20, 2019 (hearing scheduled; minutes approved here) 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/10310 SchoolBoard040319.mp4.CSV (375 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10310 SchoolBoard040319.mp4Input/Transcripts/10310 SchoolBoard040319.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10310 SchoolBoard040319.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 97
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on April 3, 2019. RSA 91-A:2, I, II and III(c) (meetings, minutes, remote audibility; 2019 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(e), II(j) and III (nonpublic sessions; 2019 codification, source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1). RSA 198:20-b, I and III (unanticipated funds, $5,000 hearing threshold; 2019 codification, later amended by 2023, 38:1).