Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Identifications the dialogue file marks as uncertain are marked here too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Opened both hearings and the meeting; asked whether E-Rate funds were federal; proposed tabling the Primex item for more data; reported on a Newport school-funding forum and planned Senate testimony; declined to use the board's Facebook page for legislative updates to avoid appearing partisan; described a school finance "sub subcommittee" of himself and Benware. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Asked what happens if no voters attend the ratification meeting; reported on the superintendent contract negotiation she was leading; warned against missing "another deadline" on Primex; asked about System of Care sustainability; seconded the adjournment. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Asked why the E-Rate money was "unanticipated" and what happens if voters do not ratify; moved the agenda, the minutes and the bequest; questioned the Primex 7% cap against historical increases; urged voters to check legislators' voting records. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Asked about the moderator for May 15; seconded the agenda and minutes; added a goal to the retreat minutes; asked for Primex rate history; reported the capital improvement committee's first meeting "is the eighth"; suggested monthly funding updates on the board's Facebook page. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Asked whether the Primex program carried a fee; asked whether the kindergarten social-emotional screener triggers services; added her takeaways from the Newport forum. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Answered the roll. The dialogue file places him in one of two unidentified member clusters (with Rob Lovett Jr.), so none of his remarks are attributed by name. Towle refers to him as running the board's Facebook page. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Answered the roll. Shares the two unidentified member clusters with Michael Petrin; one of them offered the retreat-minutes corrections and moved to adjourn. |
| Cory LeClair | Acting Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the E-Rate funds and the posting defect; explained the ratification meeting; presented the Primex Contribution Assurance Program; introduced the System of Care report; listed upcoming meetings. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Explained how the E-Rate category two money was assigned to buildings and why it will not recur. |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School | Introduced the Merrow family's bequest and asked that the money go into accounts at the high school. Named Miss Berry on the recording. |
| Trinity Early | Program Director, System of Care / Fast Forward grant (surname uncertain) | Reported on the federal System of Care grant, school-based therapy, the Fast Forward wraparound program and sustainability. The dialogue file marks the surname uncertain: the acting superintendent corrected herself for a recent married-name change. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk and recording secretary | Called the roll. |
| Unidentified | Merrow family members | Two relatives of the late Paul Merrow (Paul J. Merrill) spoke about his devotion to Stevens High School and the family's wish to support the band and arts as well as football. |
| Unidentified | Stevens High School football coach | Thanked the family; said the first purchase would be working headsets. |
| Unidentified | Student representative, Stevens High School | Delivered a district-wide report of school events and honors. Name not stated; the acting superintendent later mentions a Jesse in connection with a student report. |
| Unidentified | Others | Short motions, seconds and ayes, and a one-word staff answer. 101 of 502 rows (20.1%) are Unidentified. No member of the public spoke at either hearing or at citizens' comments. |
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 chair refers to item E and "an agenda in front of us"). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:10 | Public hearing 1: unanticipated revenue (RSA 198:20-b) | E-Rate category two reimbursement and a $25,000 bequest to Stevens High School. Citizens invited at 0:11:11; none spoke; closed at 0:11:30. |
| 0:13:35 | Public hearing 2: procedural defect in the 2019-20 budget posting | Explanation of the posting defect and the May 15 ratification meeting. Citizens invited at 0:18:34; none spoke; closed at 0:18:43. |
| 0:19:20 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | All seven members present. |
| 0:20:17 | Agenda | Summer program proposal (item E) and superintendent's report dropped. Benware moved "to accept the agenda, as amended"; Towle seconded; voice vote at 0:20:53. |
| 0:21:04 | Minutes of April 14 (retreat) and April 17 | Corrections offered from the floor; first motion superseded; Benware moved "with corrections" at 0:23:56; Towle seconded; voice vote at 0:24:04. |
| 0:24:07 | Student representative report | District-wide events and honors. |
| 0:34:13 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:34:33 | Acceptance of donation | Benware moved to accept the Merrow donation; seconded by an unidentified member; voice vote at 0:35:23. No separate vote on the E-Rate funds is on the recording. |
| 0:35:34 | Superintendent update | Zullo on the contract negotiation. Information only. |
| 0:36:49 | Primex Contribution Assurance Program | Tabled at 0:49:53 pending rate history and cost information; to return as an action item. |
| 0:50:01 | System of Care / Fast Forward grant update | Presentation and questions. Information only. |
| 1:10:37 | Future agenda items | May 15 procedural defect meeting then regular meeting; Primex returns; school funding; a standing placeholder for committee reports; no June 5 meeting. |
| 1:14:52 | Other business: school funding | Chair's report on the Newport forum and Senate Finance hearings. No vote. |
| 1:26:12 | Adjournment | Moved by an unidentified member; Zullo seconded; voice vote at 1:26:15. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:10 | E-Rate hearing opened | Chair opens "a public hearing for RSA 198 colon 28 be an anticipated revenue" [RSA 198:20-b, unanticipated revenue]. | MEDIUM |
| 0:00:49 | E-Rate category two | LeClair reads $60,720.67 for Bluff, $65,174.46 for Maple, $9,899.10 for the high school and $56.15 district-wide (the four figures sum to $135,850.38; the spoken total is garbled as $133.38), used for teacher laptops, Chromebooks, audiovisual work and a server upgrade. Sprague at 0:02:18: "These are federal funds, correct?" | |
| 0:02:47 | Why a hearing now | LeClair: "We've gotten funds for as long as I can remember." and "This is one of the procedural processes that we are correcting by actually having the public hearing to accept these funds instead of just accepting the revenue." | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:08 | A one-time amount | Malloy: the category two money reimburses 2017 infrastructure spending at a 70 to 80% discount, "So we won't get a chunk like this again." Category one support for phone service is now zero. | |
| 0:07:21 | Merrow bequest | Barry: "Paul made a special bequest in his will of $25,000 to Stevens High School." The family asks that part go to the band and arts (0:08:53); the coach says "one of the first things we're going to do is get some headphones" (0:10:15). Barry at 0:10:57 asks: "Consider having the money put into the accounts that are at Stevens High School"; the recording does not show how that request was resolved. | |
| 0:13:54 | Posting defect explained | LeClair: "I received a notification on April 9th, that there is there was a procedural defect", in which "the school district budget form the miss 26, and the warrant and the default budget were not posted in accordance with RSA 32 colon five" [MS-26; RSA 32:5]. At 0:15:02: "The deadline for that was January 28th". The chair credits the Attorney General's office and the Department of Revenue Administration (0:13:35). | MEDIUM |
| 0:15:48 | Ratification meeting | New warrant posted; procedural defect meeting May 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, run by the moderator with the checklist supervisors. LeClair at 0:17:44: "Nobody can vote the budget up or down or anything like that." Benware at 0:17:17: "What happens if they don't vote to ratify it?" Answer: "a whole nother process" not yet explained by DRA. | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:56 | Start before the posted time | LeClair: "Let me just see how it was warned." then "It says seven in the posting." and "We can sit in awkward silence for nine minutes." The chair calls the meeting to order at 0:19:20. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:17 | Minutes corrected | A member (unidentified) notes the retreat minutes list "board members Heather Whitcomb and Frank Sprague" and a garbled goal. Towle at 0:22:52 asks whether the retreat needed citizens' comments; the chair: "Every every regular meeting." Approved with corrections at 0:24:04. | |
| 0:24:29 | Student representative | Events at every school, including the news that Stevens will host a Fox News program and a Democratic town hall on May 19. | |
| 0:34:52 | Bequest accepted | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to accept the donation by Mr. Merrill Merrow." Seconded; carried at 0:35:23. | MEDIUM |
| 0:35:44 | Superintendent contract | Zullo: "we have been continuing negotiations"; "Mr. Tempesta has been fantastic."; "I'm hoping for it to be wrapped up within the next week or two." | |
| 0:37:05 | Primex CAP | LeClair: the program caps property and liability increases; for FY2021 "It would be a maximum of a 7% increase over fiscal year 20", then 7% for FY2022 and FY2023. Benware at 0:40:03: 7% a year doubles the premium in about ten years. | |
| 0:40:54 | Deadline already passed | Benware: "By April 12th." Towle: "Yeah. We missed it." LeClair at 0:41:00: she received the document from Mr. O'Neill after that date. Zullo at 0:45:04: the board should not "think about it and come back to it, and in the meantime, miss another deadline and then lose something somewhere along the way". Tabled at 0:49:53. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:46:37 | Claims history | Sprague: "not in my tenure on the board in five years" has the board seen claims history. LeClair: "well over 400 employees and about 2000 students", perhaps "Half a dozen" claims a year. | |
| 0:50:49 | System of Care grant | Early: the federal grant "was a $12 million grant" shared among seven New Hampshire districts, about 17 months left. School-based therapy since March has served "over 30 students" (0:58:29); Fast Forward has had "49 referrals" and "16 youth and their families currently enrolled" (1:04:16, 1:04:54). Zullo at 1:07:10: "what happens when the grant is gone". | |
| 1:11:50 | Committee reports | LeClair: "there are subcommittees that have been formed" and asks how the board wants updates. Towle: the capital improvement committee's "First meeting is the eighth". Benware at 1:12:45: policy subcommittee work comes to the board as policies anyway. Chair: a standing placeholder for reports. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:13:44 | Meeting calendar | LeClair: the joint city council meeting on Monday, May 6 at 6:30; the May 15 regular meeting; the May 16 SAU board meeting; an NHSBA orientation on May 9. At 1:14:40: "So no, no, June 5th school board meeting." | |
| 1:15:01 | School funding | Sprague reports a Newport forum; plans to testify at the Senate Finance hearing on May 7; says he was told of "five houses built in Claremont in the last eight years" (1:18:47). Benware at 1:22:37: "look at watch the voting." | |
| 1:24:31 | Board Facebook page | Towle suggests monthly funding updates via Petrin (Mike patron) on the board's Facebook page. Sprague: "I don't want us to become a partizan body." | |
| 1:25:42 | A finance sub-subcommittee | Sprague: "we actually have as part of the budget subcommittee, we have a sub subcommittee of what?" on "School finance, which is at this point, it's pretty much been Jason and me". | OBSERVATION |
| 1:26:12 | Adjournment | An unidentified member moves; Zullo seconds; carried at 1:26:15. | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on May 1, 2019, cited 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. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM By the district's own account, the 2019 warrant, budget and default budget were not posted as the law required by January 28
The acting superintendent reported that on April 9 she was notified of a procedural defect: the MS-26 budget form, the warrant and the default budget "were not posted in accordance with RSA 32 colon five", and "The deadline for that was January 28th" (0:13:54, 0:15:02). The chair credited the Attorney General's office and the Department of Revenue Administration with finding it (0:13:35). The statutes as then in force bear her out. RSA 32:5, VII(a) provided that "The governing body shall post certified copies of the budget with the warrant for the meeting", and VII(b) required official-ballot districts to post the default budget form "with the proposed operating budget and the warrant". RSA 40:13, II-a(d) set the date: warrants "and budgets shall be posted and copies available to the general public on or before the last Monday in January", which in 2019 was January 28. The March 12 vote therefore rested on a warrant whose posting did not meet the statute. Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH on the same basis as the district's later self-reported notice defects (see the December 12, 2019 page): the district disclosed the defect in public and used the statutory cure (flag 7). What the recording does not show is why the posting failed or who was responsible.
Sources: RSA 32:5, VII(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 246:1): post certified copies of the budget and default budget with the warrant; RSA 40:13, II-a(d) (2018 codification, same wording in 2019): warrants and budgets posted on or before the last Monday in January.
MEDIUM The acting superintendent said E-Rate money had long been taken in without the public hearing, and the recorded vote accepted only the bequest
Explaining why E-Rate reimbursements count as unanticipated revenue, the acting superintendent said the district had received them "for as long as I can remember" and that holding a hearing was "one of the procedural processes that we are correcting by actually having the public hearing to accept these funds instead of just accepting the revenue." (0:02:47). Under RSA 198:20-b as it read in 2019, a board could accept unanticipated money only if the district had adopted the enabling article, and for $5,000 or more only after a public hearing with seven days' newspaper notice (¶I, ¶III(a)). The amounts read tonight sum to $135,850.38 in one year. Her statement is an admission that earlier receipts skipped that step; how many years and how much is not on the record. Tonight the hearing was held for both items, but when the board voted (0:34:52) the motion accepted only "the donation by Mr. Merrill Merrow"; no vote accepting the E-Rate funds is on the recording. Graded MEDIUM as a disclosed control gap in the course of being corrected, not HIGH, because the extent of the past practice is unknown and whether the district had adopted the enabling article was not established here.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated money; public hearing at $5,000 or more.
OBSERVATION The Primex rate-cap decision reached the board after its April 12 deadline
The Contribution Assurance Program document gave a response date of April 12; members read it off the first page (0:40:54) and Towle said "Yeah. We missed it." The acting superintendent said she received it from the business administrator, Mr. O'Neill, only after that date (0:41:00). The vice chair's warning that the board should not wait "and in the meantime, miss another deadline" (0:45:04) points to a pattern members perceived. No statute governs the timing of this insurance offer; recorded as an observation about how time-limited business reached the board in the spring of 2019, the same season as the posting defect in flag 1.
Sources: the recording as cited. No statutory rule applies.
OBSERVATION The board's subcommittees, including a two-member school finance "sub subcommittee", are public bodies; no records of them are online
The acting superintendent said "there are subcommittees that have been formed" (1:11:50); members named policy and capital improvement committees, the latter holding its first meeting on May 8, and the chair described "a sub subcommittee" of the budget subcommittee on school finance that "pretty much been Jason and me" (1:25:42). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), in force throughout this period, makes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto" a public body, so each of these needed notice and minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II regardless of its size. None of their records from 2019 are online, which is the district's general online gap (flag 6) and not evidence that they were never kept. In the board's favor, it agreed tonight to carry a standing agenda placeholder for committee reports (1:13:06).
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1): committees and subcommittees are public bodies; RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): notice and minutes.
OBSERVATION The regular meeting appears to have opened about nine minutes before its posted 7:00 start
After the second hearing closed, the acting superintendent checked the notice ("It says seven in the posting.", 0:19:03) and remarked "We can sit in awkward silence for nine minutes." (0:19:08). The chair called the meeting to order twelve recording-seconds later (0:19:20), and the transcript runs on without a gap through the roll, the agenda vote and the minutes. Two readings are possible: the board opened early, or the recording was paused while members waited, which a continuous transcript cannot exclude. RSA 91-A:2, II required notice of "the time and place" of each meeting at least 24 hours ahead; a meeting opened before the noticed time leaves anyone relying on the notice to miss the opening business, here the agenda change and the approval of two sets of minutes. No citizen spoke at the later comment period. Recorded as an observation because the recording alone cannot settle whether the start was early.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1): notice of the time and place of each meeting.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online, and several movers and seconders cannot be identified
MAP.md section 100 records that neither district Drive share holds anything older than 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that records were never made: the board approved two sets of minutes tonight and corrected them line by line (0:21:17). RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes naming "the members who made or seconded each motion". On the recording the seconder of the bequest motion (0:35:03) and the mover of adjournment (1:26:12) are unidentified, and Michael Petrin and Rob Lovett Jr. cannot be told apart. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes content and availability; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 100.
POSITIVE The district explained its posting defect in a public hearing and set the cure on the statutory timetable
Rather than let the defect pass, the district held a hearing at which the reasons were explained (0:13:54 to 0:18:43), posted a new warrant, and set a single-purpose ratification meeting for May 15 at which "Nobody can vote the budget up or down" (0:17:44). RSA 40:16 allows an official-ballot district to call such a meeting "for the exclusive purpose of curing such defect according to RSA 31:5-b", and RSA 31:5-b, II requires a hearing "at which the reasons for the special town meeting shall be explained" not less than seven calendar days before the meeting, and a meeting not less than 21 calendar days after the original vote. May 1 to May 15 is 14 days; March 12 to May 15 is 64. The board also held the RSA 198:20-b hearing for the bequest and E-Rate funds and invited public comment at both hearings.
Sources: RSA 40:16 (2019 codification; source note 1999, 86:4): special meeting to cure a defect in an official-ballot subdivision; RSA 31:5-b, II(b)-(c) (2019 codification; source note 1989, 287:1): hearing at least 7 days before, meeting at least 21 days after the original vote.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10350, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 5-1-19": Claremont Community Television. 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, packet, hearing notice, posted warrant or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, April 17, 2019 (minutes approved here); Joint meeting with the City Council, May 6, 2019; SAU 6 Board, April 11, 2019.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.CSV (502 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4Input/Transcripts/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10350 SchoolBoard050119.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 100
Laws and rules cited on this page