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 |
|---|
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 vice chair (Unity), presiding | Ran the meeting (identified by content: she calls Claremont "you guys" and says I haven't done this in a while). Asked that the middle-school teacher item go to the Claremont board; seconded the June 4 minutes; asked the superintendent what themes the community raised; proposed September 12 for the next SAU meeting. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Nominated Jeff Small and Donna Magoon; presented the reallocation (a $229,541 reduction, with $205,416 to Claremont and $24,125 to Unity); reported on his entry plan and community forums; introduced the backpack donation. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant superintendent nominee (from assistant principal, Stevens High School) | Spoke briefly on being nominated (Donna McGowan in the superintendent's introduction). |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont board chair; SAU 6 member | Praised both nominees and moved them; raised lead screening at the back-to-school festival; noted the superintendent could hire on his own authority but that moving money was the board's question. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Claremont vice chair; SAU 6 member | Asked whether Magoon's high-school post and the assistant business administrator post would be filled, and for an assistant superintendent job description; said the board was calmer than it had been. |
| Jason Benware | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | Moved the amended agenda, the June 4 minutes, the position cuts, the donation and adjournment; praised shifting money from administration to teachers. The dialogue file rates this identification medium-low (Petrin and Lovett are the other male Claremont voices). |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | Seconded the agenda amendment; raised the two corrections to the June 4 minutes; asked how the donated backpacks would be allocated. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Claremont board member; SAU 6 member | On the minutes: the draft showed him and Whitney voting no where they had voted for. |
| Carolyn Towle | Claremont board member; SAU 6 treasurer (just the treasurer, in her words) | Praised the superintendent's optimism; urged board members to volunteer at the festival; noted the backpacks had run out before. |
| Courtney Porter | School social worker and McKinney-Vento homeless liaison, Claremont School District | Presented the back-to-school festival and the donation of 600 filled backpacks; gave homeless and free-and-reduced-lunch figures; described the new check-in-first distribution. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk (per the dialogue file; not named on this recording) | Called the roll; one remark during the minutes discussion. |
| Michael Petrin; Prudence McCormick; Shannon Popescu; Gary Bader | SAU 6 chair (Claremont); Unity members | Named in the roll. No speech attributed to them; presence not established (see Board composition). |
| Unidentified | Members and audience | Seconds, ayes and short remarks. 72 of 312 rows (23.1%) are Unidentified, including the seconder of the nominations and of adjournment. |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Jeff Small (director of technology nominee); Josh Malloy (departed director of instructional technology); Brynn Kane and Steven Moss (curriculum team); Pat [Barry] (Pat Perry), Stevens High School; Charlene, Porter's lead-screening partner (the attribution report takes her to be Mayor Charlene Lovett; not stated on the recording); donors' contacts Becca Benoit at NFR and Brian Boardman at Wieland (spellings unverified). |
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: "We have an agenda in front of us." Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | Pledge, roll call | See Board composition. |
| 0:00:47 | Agenda | Amended to keep the reallocation of SAU funds and strike the CMS programming (middle-school teacher) part as a Claremont matter. Benware moved at 0:01:47; Whitney seconded; voice vote at 0:02:28, none opposed. |
| 0:02:41 | Final approval of minutes (June 4, 2019) | Two corrections raised by Whitney (the summer permission-to-employ roll call and the roll call to leave nonpublic session). Benware moved "with the amendments" at 0:05:45; Erickson seconded at 0:05:56; voice vote at 0:05:59. See flag 1. |
| 0:06:19 | Nominations | Jeff Small, director of technology; Donna Magoon, assistant superintendent. Sprague moved "these two nominations as presented" at 0:15:05; seconded by an unidentified voice at 0:15:08; voice vote at 0:15:13, none opposed. |
| 0:15:28 | Reallocation of SAU funds | Cut the assistant network administrator and assistant business administrator positions and return the money to the two districts. Benware moved at 0:17:23; no second is audible; voice vote at 0:17:41, none opposed. See flag 2. |
| 0:18:05 | Superintendent's entry plan | Report. Informational. |
| 0:23:20 | Donation: back-to-school festival | 600 filled backpacks from Wheelan and NFR. Benware moved to accept $3,602.09 at 0:34:20; no separate second is audible; voice vote at 0:34:36. See flag 3. |
| 0:34:55 | Future agenda items and meeting dates | Next SAU meeting aimed at September 12; a Claremont board meeting agreed for Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. |
| 0:37:37 | Other business; citizens' comments | The chair noted citizens' comments had not been taken and invited them; none recorded. |
| 0:38:04 | Adjournment | Benware moved; seconded by an unidentified voice; voice vote; adjourned at 0:38:11. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:47 | Teacher item sent to the Claremont board | Erickson: the agenda carried "a question to reallocate money for teachers at the middle school, which I believe is a Claremont issue, not an essay issue." At 0:01:25: "Claremont will have to have a meeting ASAP so we can hire teachers at the middle school." Benware at 0:01:47: "Amending it, to, read a reallocation of six funds and omitting the, CMS programing part of it." | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:03 | June 4 minutes: summer permission roll call | Whitney: "Just be the summer permission to employ the last paragraph. The the in favor and the against votes were switched." Lovett at 0:03:38: "At the very least, it shows Heather and I as saying no. When we voted for four." Erickson at 0:03:56: "All voted for. I thought we all voted for that. We changed the motion wording a couple of times." Whitney at 0:04:23: "I think prudence McCormick from unity all voted against the vote, I don't know." At 0:04:35: "It says six. Affirmative. And five". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:55 | June 4 minutes: vote to leave nonpublic | Whitney: "under two roll call vote to come out of nonpublic. It's again it says Frank, Jason, Carolyn, Mike, Rob, Heather." At 0:05:19: "So I think we all voted to come out of nonpublic as well." Benware at 0:05:45: "I move that we accept the, the minutes for. Tuesday, June 4th, 2019. With the amendments as followed or as as suggested." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:28 | Nominations: Small and Magoon | Tempesta: "Those nominations are for Jeff Small as the director of technology." At 0:06:59: "Josh Malloy resigned, and we're basically not filling one of the positions." At 0:07:27: the aim is to "downsized central staff a little bit so that we can get more teachers in the classroom to support the kids." Magoon is described as "assistant. Principal at the high school who for also for special education". | |
| 0:08:43 | Members on the nominees | Sprague: "To congratulate you, Mr. Tempesta, on your your intuitiveness with with Jeff Small." Magoon at 0:09:50: "I'm looking forward to working with the team and to continue to move our district in a positive direction." | |
| 0:10:03 | Open posts and the audit | Zullo: "Are are we going to be filling Donna's position at the high school?" On the assistant business administrator, Tempesta at 0:10:30: "I really want to see the conclusion of the audit findings". At 0:10:58: "there's a remainder of approximately $50,000 here in the proposal I have before you." At 0:11:33: "They're almost complete with the audit findings, and we expect to hear some positive news soon about the audit findings themselves in the potential for the abatement of the fines from the." (sentence ends there). | |
| 0:12:00 | Assistant superintendent post | Zullo: "I haven't really advocated for an assistant superintendent position." At 0:12:31: "Are we going to have a job description for an assistant superintendent?" Tempesta at 0:12:44: "They're already is a job description. I saw it in there. It was it was posted." Benware at 0:13:44: "sort of paring down administrative staff to add some teachers, is something that I've heard a criticism about in the community for quite some time." | |
| 0:15:05 | Nominations approved | Sprague: "Make a motion to accept these two nominations as presented." Seconded by an unidentified voice at 0:15:08. Voice vote at 0:15:13, none opposed. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:15:58 | Reallocation figures | Tempesta: "we have a total reduction overall. When you look at salary in benefits of 229 541, and what we're proposing to do is to add two teachers". At 0:16:29: "that would mean that there's a 205, $416 allocation that goes back to Claremont in a 24,125, 24,000 125 allocation back to unity." Erickson at 0:17:00: "And then you guys are going to need another meeting to decide on." | |
| 0:17:23 | Two positions cut | Benware at 0:17:28: "Assistant network administrator and the assistant business administrator, and, reallocate that money back to the two districts." Chair at 0:17:41: "All those in favor?" No second is audible. At 0:17:44: "Any opposed? Any abstentions? This is going to be a quick meeting. Yay!" | OBSERVATION |
| 0:18:10 | Entry plan | Tempesta: "so far I think I've interviewed proximately 60 or 80 folks in the community." Recurring themes at 0:20:09: "making sure we have enough for the schools and the students". At 0:20:59: "closing some of the pay inequities so that we don't lose our best and our brightest to go to other places." | |
| 0:21:37 | Members' remarks | Towle: "it's all there's no money involved here. I'm just I'm just the treasurer." Zullo at 0:22:45: "for the last couple of months, I feel like it's the comet it's ever been, and I haven't been stressed out to the max every night, and there's been no drama". | |
| 0:23:38 | Back-to-school festival and donation | Porter: "We have a homeless population that is over 10% of our school population, which at the state of New Hampshire level, when we look at New Hampshire, it's only 4%." At 0:24:04: "Our students who are experiencing free and reduced lunch are at 50%." At 0:24:34: "they are donating 600 filled backpacks to us. The total is over $3,000." At 0:25:22: "Am I allowed to hand out a flier? And does it need to be entered into record?" | OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:59 | Lead screening | Sprague: "I'm part of the lead Free schools lead Free community subcommittee". Porter at 0:30:10: "I worked so closely with Charlene in the past that there will be lead screening there." | |
| 0:31:23 | How backpacks are allocated | Whitney: "How how are the backpacks allocated? Is it first come first serve." Porter at 0:32:01: families will "connect with their school first." At 0:34:09: "Everyone will get a backpack." Towle at 0:34:15: "Except they've run out before." | |
| 0:34:20 | Donation accepted | Benware at 0:34:22: "Generous donation from Wheelan and NFR in the amount of $3,602.09 and say thank you ever so much." Voice vote at 0:34:36. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:55 | Next meetings | Erickson at 0:35:43: "Claremont, I think, will have to get together sooner than their next scheduled meeting just to reallocate funds for teacher hires, which needs to be done quickly." Sprague at 0:36:19: "Let the superintendent exercise his right to hire. But again, if we're moving money around, I'm." Erickson at 0:36:25: "It's moving money around. That's the issue." At 0:37:18: "I think we're having an essay meeting September 12th and a Claremont meeting August 30th." Corrected at 0:37:24 to July 30 at 6 p.m. | POSITIVE |
| 0:37:37 | Citizens' comments; adjournment | Erickson: "We did not. Do citizens comments. Are there any? You've all spoken." Benware at 0:38:04: "I'd like to make a motion to adjourn." Adjourned at 0:38:11. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on July 25, 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 The June 4 minutes were corrected from members' recollection, and the June 4 recording does not clearly support the correction
Whitney said the draft minutes had "the in favor and the against votes" switched on the summer permission-to-employ roll call (0:03:03); Lovett said they showed him and Whitney "as saying no. When we voted for" (0:03:38); Erickson concluded "I thought we all voted for that. We changed the motion wording a couple of times." (0:03:56). The minutes were approved with that amendment (0:05:45). The June 4 recording shows two summer-hiring motions: Zullo's version, which reserved the assistant superintendent post and failed on a roll call in which Lovett, Whitney, Benware, Petrin, Towle, McCormick and Popescu are heard voting no (show 10407, 20 min 49 s to 21 min 43 s), and Lovett's unrestricted version, which then passed on a voice vote with no roll call (show 10407, 21 min 47 s). If the draft's roll call was the one on Zullo's motion, it recorded Lovett and Whitney correctly as voting no, and the correction adopted here would be wrong; if the draft attached the roll call to Lovett's motion, the error was in the motion, not the tallies. The draft and approved texts are not online, so which is the case cannot be checked. The same applies to the second correction, about the roll call to leave nonpublic session (0:04:55): the June 4 recording has one roll call after nonpublic in which McCormick and Zullo are heard voting no (show 10407, 5 min 46 s), and its motion text is not on the tape. Minutes are the legal record of "final decisions", so the accuracy of a corrected roll call matters.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1): minutes include names of members, persons appearing, subject matter and final decisions, and the members who made or seconded each motion; SAU 6 Board, June 4, 2019.
OBSERVATION Two central-office positions were cut on a motion with no audible second, and the seconder of the nominations is unidentified
Benware moved to cut the assistant network administrator and assistant business administrator positions and return the money to the two districts (0:17:28); the chair went straight to "All those in favor?" (0:17:41) and no second is on the recording. The motion names no amount; the superintendent had just described a reduction of 229 541 in salary and benefits and returns of $205,416 to Claremont and $24,125 to Unity (0:15:58, 0:16:29). The nominations were seconded by a voice the transcript cannot identify (0:15:08), as was adjournment. In 2019 RSA 91-A:2, II required the minutes to name "the members who made or seconded each motion". The minutes may supply what the recording lacks, but they are not online. Recorded as an observation because the recording is not the legal record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes must name movers and seconders.
OBSERVATION The SAU board accepted a $3,602.09 donation for Claremont students; which acceptance rule governs an SAU board was not verified
The donation of 600 filled backpacks from Wheelan and NFR was presented by the Claremont School District's McKinney-Vento liaison for a festival serving Claremont's schools (0:23:38, 0:24:34), and the SAU board accepted it at the stated value of $3,602.09 by voice vote (0:34:22, 0:34:36). For a school district, RSA 198:20-b, III(b), as it read in 2019, let the school board accept gifts under $5,000 if it posted "notice of the funds in the agenda" and included notice in the minutes, with acceptance "made in public session of any regular school board meeting", and section 198:20-b rests on the district having adopted the procedure by warrant article. The acceptance here was in public session; whether the gift was listed on the agenda cannot be checked, because the superintendent introduced it without the chair naming an agenda item. Whether that section, or some other rule, governs gifts accepted by an SAU board, and whether the gift should have gone to the Claremont board as the district whose students receive it, was not verified. No agenda or minutes are online to confirm the notice.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1): acceptance of unanticipated funds under $5,000 by a school board.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online, the call to order is not on the recording, and attendance is not established
MAP.md section 105 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 in draft by September 5 and approved on October 10, 2019 (show 10567). The project's missing-records rule is therefore applied on its online-availability limb. From the recording alone: it starts at the end of the pledge (0:00:00), so the call to order and its time are lost; the roll's answers cannot be separated (0:00:17); and whether the SAU chair was present is not stated (see Board composition). The chair also noted near the end that citizens' comments had not been taken (0:37:37). No statute in force in 2019 required a comment period at an SAU board meeting (RSA 189:74 dates from 2022), so that is not flagged.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes open to inspection within 5 business days; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 105.
POSITIVE The SAU board kept a Claremont-only spending decision off its own agenda and left it to the Claremont board, which met five days later
The presiding vice chair, a Unity member, asked the board at the outset to strike the middle-school teacher item because it was "a Claremont issue, not an essay issue" and "needs to be done at a Claremont school board and not here" (0:00:47, 0:01:25), and the board amended its agenda accordingly (0:01:47, 0:02:28). Before adjourning, members set a Claremont meeting for Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. so that board could decide it (0:35:43, 0:37:24), and Sprague noted that while the superintendent could hire, "moving money around" was for the board (0:36:19). The Claremont board did take up the item on July 30. Keeping one district's appropriation decision with that district's own elected board, on a noticed agenda, is sound practice; no specific statute on this point was verified for this page.
Sources: Cablecast show 10463 at the times given; Claremont School Board, July 30, 2019.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10463, "SAU #6 SCHOOL BOARD meeting 7-25-19": 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 or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, June 4, 2019 (the minutes corrected here); Claremont School Board, July 30, 2019 (the teacher item); SAU 6 Board, September 5, 2019 (these minutes put over; grants and accounting position); SAU 6 Board, October 10, 2019 (these minutes approved).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10463 SAU6072519.mp4.CSV (312 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10463 SAU6072519.mp4Input/Transcripts/10463 SAU6072519.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10463 SAU6072519.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 105
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on July 25, 2019. RSA 91-A:2, II (notice, minutes content and availability; 2019 codification). RSA 198:20-b (unanticipated funds; $5,000 threshold before 2023). RSA 189:74 (public comment) is mentioned only to note that it was not yet law.