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. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | SAU 6 chair (Claremont) | Presided and took the opening roll. Asked whether the audit was available to the public; undertook to contact Mr. Tempesta about a July meeting date; thanked Cory LeClair on her departure. Voted no on Zullo's motion. |
| Cory LeClair | Acting Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explained summer permission to employ and listed the open SAU posts; described how her assistant superintendent title arose; announced a press release; presented the FY2018 SAU audit and explained audit opinions. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Claremont vice chair; SAU 6 member | Asked that the assistant superintendent post be discussed by the board before being filled; moved to except it from summer hiring authority (failed). Asked for prior-year audits. |
| Jason Benware | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | Moved summer permission to employ, then retracted it; argued the board oversees the superintendent and should not direct hiring; moved the press-release authorization. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | Read the nonpublic exemptions aloud; called restricting the superintendent's hiring a gross overstep; moved unrestricted summer hiring authority (passed) and adjournment. |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont board chair; SAU 6 member | Seconded Zullo's motion; described administrative creep at the SAU since 2006 and said the SAU was top heavy. |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | Asked whether the authority included salary negotiation; argued that some administrative redundancy let LeClair step in as acting superintendent. |
| Carolyn Towle; Marjorie Erickson; Prudence McCormick; Shannon Popescu; Gary Bader | Claremont member (SAU 6 treasurer); Unity members (Erickson SAU 6 vice chair) | Heard in the roll calls only. The dialogue file places one or more of them among the unidentified debate voices but cannot say which. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Arrived after the nonpublic session and called the two later roll calls. |
| Mr. O'Shaughnessy | Counsel (spelling unverified) | Invited into the nonpublic session; not heard in public. |
| Mr. O'Neill | SAU staff (the attribution report takes him to be Michael O'Neill, business administrator; spelling unverified) | Invited into the nonpublic session; not heard in public. |
| Unidentified | Members | 108 of 318 rows (34.0%) are Unidentified, most of them in one catch-all cluster that carries much of the summer-hiring debate, including a member who said I was on the board when the assistant superintendent post was created and a member who called Zullo's motion micromanaging. The attribution report suggests Heather Whitney and Carolyn Towle as possibilities; this page does not adopt either. |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Michael Tempesta, incoming superintendent (from July 1); Middleton (former superintendent Middleton McGoodwin). |
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. A written agenda existed: "So we have an agenda in front of us tonight." The chair's "item. See" and "Letter D" show lettered action items. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:26 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll taken by the chair in the clerk's absence. |
| 0:01:51 | Agenda | Lovett moved to accept it as written; seconded; voice vote at 0:02:01. |
| 0:02:14 | Nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and (c) | Motion with the exemptions read aloud (0:02:22); roll call at 0:03:03, all eleven present voting yes. Counsel, Cory LeClair and Mr. O'Neill invited in. See flag 5. |
| 0:05:18 | Vote after nonpublic session | Motion text not on the recording; roll call at 0:05:46: McCormick and Zullo heard voting no, others yes. See flag 1. |
| 0:06:31 | Summer permission to employ | Benware's motion (0:07:11) retracted (0:09:41). Zullo's motion to except the assistant superintendent post (0:10:38), Sprague second: failed on roll call (0:20:38 to 0:21:43). Lovett's motion for permission "as he sees fit" (0:21:47): passed on voice vote (0:22:02). See flag 3. |
| 0:22:17 | Item C: press release | Chair, legal counsel and Cory LeClair authorized to issue a press release. Benware moved (0:23:13); second credited to Shannon (0:23:23); voice vote at 0:23:32. See flag 1. |
| 0:23:35 | Item D: SAU FY2018 audit | Annual financial audit as of June 30, 2018, presented by LeClair. No action. See flag 2. |
| 0:34:02 | Future agenda items | July meeting date left to the chair and Mr. Tempesta; superintendent evaluation criteria requested. |
| 0:36:13 | Other business | Thanks to Cory LeClair. |
| 0:36:54 | Adjournment | Lovett moved; voice vote at 0:37:23. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:26 | Opening | Chair: "Call the June 4th o six school board meeting to order." At 0:00:52: "Mary's not here, so." The chair calls the roll himself at 0:01:13. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:14 | Into nonpublic session | "I make a motion that we go into nonpublic session. The RSA 91-A colon, three." Lovett at 0:02:22: "Subs, two a the dismissal, promotion or compensation of any public employee or the disciplining of employee". He continues with "RSA 91-A colon three two subparagraph matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself." Roll call at 0:03:03; chair at 0:03:30: "And I am a yes." He will "invite lawyer Mr. O'Shaughnessy in with us." and then "Corey and Mr. O'Neill." | POSITIVE |
| 0:05:18 | Roll call after nonpublic | The tape resumes mid-business: "Jason to have a second point." At 0:05:34: "I forgot Mary's back." Clerk's roll at 0:05:46: "Prudence McCormack. No." and, at 0:05:59, Rebecca. No. No.; every other named member is heard voting yes. The motion itself is not on the recording. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:41 | What summer permission means | LeClair: "it just allows, with the absence of regular, regularly scheduled board meetings throughout the course of the summer and so that he can hire, the vacant positions at the Saw level." "And then those positions would be presented to the board afterward." Benware at 0:07:11: "We give the superintendent summer permission to employ." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:20 | The assistant superintendent post | Zullo: "before he hires an assistant superintendent or whatever his plan is going to be, I think that we need to have a board discussion". Whitney at 0:07:54: "Does this give him free salary negotiation authority as well?" LeClair at 0:07:59: "The board wouldn't have authority over that anyway." and "he would have to construct salaries within the budget that the board approved last fall." At 0:08:27 the open posts are "the director of business and finance, the assistant director of business and finance, HR director and the assistant superintendent". | |
| 0:09:15 | How the post arose | Zullo: "Middleton and the board instructed that there be an assistant superintendent. That's how Corey got her position." Benware at 0:09:41: "So I'm retracting my motion." LeClair at 0:10:07: the post "is advertised based on this board's last discussion." | |
| 0:10:38 | Zullo's motion | "So I would make a motion that we would allow Mike to do the hiring as needed throughout the summer, with the exception of the assistant superintendent position, until the board has a conversation around that." An unidentified member at 0:11:00: "I feel like that's micromanaging the superintendent." Sprague at 0:11:24: "I'll second her motion and then we can get into." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:11:31 | The board's role | Benware: "our job is to oversee the superintendent, to write policies and to make a budget." Lovett at 0:12:37: "It's just a gross overstep of our authority". Zullo at 0:14:05: "But that's that's an important conversation that should be had on camera." An unidentified member at 0:14:27: "Well, I'm telling you, I was on the board and that wasn't the case." | |
| 0:14:37 | LeClair on her own title | "the role and function of my job did not change. Just the title changed." At 0:15:19: "but I believe the budget was neutral." | |
| 0:15:54 | Administrative creep | Sprague: "a phrase that I've used called creep, and I've seen the essay you grow in that period of time". At 0:17:00: "I think we're top heavy." Benware at 0:18:04: "I just want to be very cautious about overstepping our bounds." Whitney at 0:18:35 on redundancy: "Cory was able to pretty much seamlessly step into the position". | |
| 0:20:11 | Vote on Zullo's motion | "I move the question." Chair at 0:20:13: "You just need a voice vote, right? All in favor?" Roll call requested at 0:20:38. Heard: Bader, Sprague and Zullo yes; McCormick, Popescu, Benware, Lovett, Petrin, Whitney and Towle no; one further no at 0:20:49 is unattributed; McDevitt absent. Clerk at 0:21:43: "The Noles definitely have it." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:47 | Unrestricted summer authority | Lovett: "I make a motion that we give Mike Tempesta the permission to employ as he sees fit over the summer." Seconded at 0:21:54; voice vote at 0:22:02, no opposition audible. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:26 | Press release | LeClair: "Will be issuing a press release, in the next day or two." At 0:22:38: "Additional matters that we discovered and, what they are and how we'll be moving forward with that." Benware at 0:23:13: "Motion that we give the board chair legal counsel." (then "Permission to write."). Voice vote at 0:23:32. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:23:54 | FY2018 SAU audit | LeClair: "the saw as its own entity is caught up in current with audits." At 0:24:16: "the areas identified of significant deficiency and material weaknesses". At 0:25:51: "So of the 17 outstanding audits that we had when I, became involved in correcting that, we have five left." At 0:26:16: "You may end up with Claremont 18 unfinished and possibly unity 18 unfinished." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:45 | What an adverse opinion means | LeClair reads an explanation she says someone else wrote: "An unqualified opinion is the best possible audit outcome." At 0:31:08: "An adverse opinion means the auditor finds one or both of the following." At 0:32:10: "it's an adverse opinion which is not what we strive for." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:33:16 | Is the audit public? | Petrin: "Can they get it online or can they get it?" LeClair at 0:33:25: "Yeah. I mean, all of our records are public. I don't have it posted on our website, but I certainly could provide." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:02 | Future agenda | Chair at 0:34:59 will reach out to Mr. Tempesta on a July date. An unidentified member at 0:35:20: "contact the New Hampshire School Board Association and get them involved with helping us develop an evaluation criteria for the incoming superintendent". Chair at 0:35:41: "Yeah, we have subcommittee that put together." | |
| 0:36:16 | Thanks to LeClair; adjournment | Chair: "I personally would like to thank Corey for all the hard work, she has done over the years for this district". Lovett at 0:36:57: "A motion that we adjourn." Voice vote at 0:37:23. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on June 4, 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. Five flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION A split roll-call vote after the nonpublic session, and a press release on "matters that we discovered", are unintelligible from the public recording
When the recording resumes after the nonpublic session, a motion has already been made and seconded ("Jason to have a second point.", 0:05:18) and the clerk calls a roll on it (0:05:46 to 0:06:21): McCormick and Zullo are heard voting no, everyone else yes. What the motion was is not on the tape. Later the acting superintendent announced a press release about "Additional matters that we discovered" (0:22:38), and the board authorized the chair, counsel and LeClair to issue it (0:23:13, 0:23:32) without the matters being described in public. The nonpublic session itself was properly moved (flag 5). In 2019 RSA 91-A:3, III required minutes of a nonpublic session to be publicly disclosed within 72 hours unless the body voted, by a recorded two-thirds vote in public session, to withhold them on a statutory ground; no such vote is on the recording. RSA 91-A:2, II required the public-session minutes to record "final decisions". Those minutes exist (approved July 25, with a correction to this very roll call) but are not online, and no nonpublic minutes or press release were located, so the decision cannot be identified from the public record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1): nonpublic minutes disclosed within 72 hours unless withheld by recorded two-thirds vote with a statutory determination; RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes record final decisions.
OBSERVATION The SAU's FY2018 audit carries an adverse opinion, and SAU 6 entities had 17 audits outstanding
The acting superintendent presented the annual financial audit of SAU 6 as of June 30, 2018 (0:23:54). She said it identifies "significant deficiency and material weaknesses" (0:24:16) and that "it's an adverse opinion which is not what we strive for" (0:32:10). She reported that of "17 outstanding audits" five remained, with Claremont and Unity FY2018 possibly unfinished at her departure (0:25:51, 0:26:16). An adverse opinion means, in her own reading, that the statements do not fairly present the accounts or do not follow generally accepted accounting principles (0:31:08). The figures are the speaker's; the audit report was not located online, and she confirmed it was not on the website but could be provided (0:33:25). No audit-timing rule specific to an SAU in 2019 was verified for this page, and the SAU's federal expenditures, which decide whether the Uniform Guidance single-audit deadline applies, were not established, so no statute is cited. In mitigation, the audit and its opinion were explained in open session in plain terms, and the chair asked on the record how the public could see it.
Sources: Cablecast show 10407 at the times given (speaker's account; audit report not located).
OBSERVATION The board declined to reserve the assistant superintendent decision and gave the incoming superintendent unrestricted summer hiring authority
LeClair described summer permission to employ as letting the superintendent fill "the vacant positions at the Saw level" with the positions "presented to the board afterward" (0:06:41); the open posts were business administrator, assistant business administrator and HR director, and assistant superintendent (0:08:27). Zullo moved to except the assistant superintendent post "until the board has a conversation around that" (0:10:38), saying the question "should be had on camera" (0:14:05). The motion failed on roll call, with only Bader, Sprague and Zullo heard voting yes (0:20:38 to 0:21:43), and Lovett's motion to let Mr. Tempesta employ "as he sees fit over the summer" passed by voice (0:21:47, 0:22:02). On July 25 the new superintendent brought Donna Magoon to the board as assistant superintendent and the board approved her, so the post was filled with a board vote after all. Members' views of the board's authority differed on the record ("gross overstep" at 0:12:37; "micromanaging" at 0:11:00). RSA 189:39, which requires school boards to elect teachers on the superintendent's nomination, concerns teachers; no statute governing appointment of SAU central-office staff was verified for this page, so the delegation is recorded as an observation, not a concern.
Sources: RSA 189:39 (superintendents nominate, school boards elect teachers; source note ends 1971, 371:2); SAU 6 Board, July 25, 2019.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online, and the minutes were later corrected in ways the recording does not clearly bear out
MAP.md section 104 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 by itself evidence that records were never made: these minutes were approved on July 25, 2019, so the project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb. On July 25 members corrected the draft's summer-hiring roll call on the ground that Lovett and Whitney had voted for, not against. This recording shows the only summer-hiring roll call was on Zullo's restricted motion, which Lovett and Whitney voted against (0:21:20, 0:21:28); the unrestricted motion that passed was a voice vote. They also corrected the roll call on leaving nonpublic session; the only post-nonpublic roll call on this recording is the split vote described in flag 1. See the July 25 page. The clerk was absent for the first part of the meeting (0:00:52) and the chair took the roll.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes content and availability within 5 business days; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 104.
POSITIVE The nonpublic motion read both exemptions aloud and was carried on a recorded roll call
The motion to enter nonpublic session cited RSA 91-A:3 and Lovett read the text of paragraph II(a) (employee dismissal, promotion, compensation or discipline) and II(c) (matters likely to affect adversely the reputation of a non-member) into the record (0:02:14, 0:02:22). The roll call followed, each member answering by name (0:03:03, 0:03:30), and the chair named who would be invited in: counsel, the acting superintendent and Mr. O'Neill (0:03:30). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), as it read in 2019, required the motion to state on its face the specific exemption relied on and to be decided by roll call. Reading the exemption text, and saying who will attend, goes beyond citing a paragraph letter.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(a), (c) (2019 codification): motion states the exemption, roll-call vote.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10407, "SAU #6 SCHOOL BOARD meeting of 6-4-19": 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, minutes, audit report or press release for this meeting was located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, May 16, 2019 (LeClair's resignation; open posts); SAU 6 Board, July 25, 2019 (these minutes approved with corrections; Magoon and Small approved).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10407 SAU6060419.mp4.CSV (318 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10407 SAU6060419.mp4Input/Transcripts/10407 SAU6060419.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10407 SAU6060419.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 104
Laws and rules cited on this page