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 |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided. Noted citizens' comments were missing from the agenda again; raised the CCTV reappointment; brought Rep. Merchant forward; asked whether the $20,000 gift needed a public hearing; set the budget retreat; took Benware's place at the 4:00 negotiating sessions; reported on the legislative budget hearings. Worked with Rep. Merchant, his "friend and classmate". |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved the agenda, the handbooks, the discipline policy and adjournment; did the arithmetic on the state budget figures; asked to step back from the negotiating committees because of time; spoke on the state tax structure. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Pointed out the missing citizens' comments item; asked for plainer handbook language; asked about credit recovery eligibility and the policy changes; asked for continuing reports on the audits and the swipe cards; spoke on seniors' property taxes from her own experience; raised NHSBA workshops and their cost. Transcribed Carolyn. Tall in the roll. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Answered the roll. The dialogue file suggests he or Heather Whitney is the unidentified member who reported for the policy committee. |
| Michael [Petrin] | Board member; SAU 6 Board chair | Named in the roll as Michael; surname from the roster. No speech attributed to him. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Answered the roll; the chair names "Heather." as she seconds adjournment (1:02:46). See the policy-committee note above. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member, Absent | Not called in the roll; mentioned as a policy committee member and as serving on a negotiating committee. |
| Gary Merchant | NH State Representative, Claremont Ward 2 (guest) | Invited by the chair during the superintendent's report to explain the vetoed state budget and the governor's counterproposal; estimated the effect on Claremont; urged viewers to call the governor and attend the Sullivan County delegation hearing on September 10. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Opening-of-school report; summer credit-recovery numbers; his testimony with Sprague at the legislative ad hoc committee; the IRS letter and audits; the negotiations calendar and Richard Seaman's October 2 start. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduced the discipline policy for second reading (one row, after the chair's "You're on. Donna."). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Agreed to report on the new program on October 2 rather than September 18. |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Status of the student ID badges and swipe cards. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll. |
| Unidentified | Board member (policy committee) | Reported the policy committee's work on the discipline policy ("There was a lot of conversations specifically relating to time frames more than verbiage."). Heather Whitney or Rob Lovett, uncertain, per the dialogue file. |
| Unidentified | Staff member; board members | A staff member explaining the broader credit-recovery eligibility; the member who moved Pelletier's reappointment and its seconder; short interjections. 47 of 458 rows (10.3%) are Unidentified. |
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 tonight."). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:01:17 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Six members present; see Board composition. |
| 0:02:10 | Agenda | No amendments. Approved "As written."; voice vote at 0:02:26. |
| 0:02:26 | Minutes of August 21, 2019 | Motion and second run together in the chair's row of the transcript; voice vote at 0:03:05. |
| 0:03:19 | Citizens' comments (not on the printed agenda) | Opened after Towle pointed out the omission; no speakers (0:03:43). |
| 0:03:59 | Approval of all school handbooks | Elementary (one book for three schools), middle and high school. Benware moved; seconded; voice vote at 0:07:29. |
| 0:07:32 | Reappointment of Pauline Pelletier to CCTV | Moved by an unidentified member at 0:08:56, seconded; voice vote at 0:09:05. |
| 0:09:08 | Superintendent's report, with Rep. Gary Merchant | Opening of school; credit recovery; legislative hearing; state budget impasse. Informational. |
| 0:27:25 | Second read: student discipline policy and due process; safe school zone | Benware moved second and final reading; seconded; voice vote at 0:29:39. |
| 0:29:52 | Donation: Byrne Foundation, $20,000 | Deferred to a public hearing at the start of the September 18 meeting; no vote. |
| 0:31:57 | Future agenda items | Budget retreat Sunday, October 20, 10 to 1, community center; special education program report October 2; negotiations as a standing report; capital improvement report date to be set. |
| 0:37:34 | Committee reports: negotiating committees | Benware stepped back; Sprague and another member volunteered for the 4:00 and 6:00 sessions. |
| 0:47:15 | Other business | Audit and swipe-card follow-up; Sprague's report on the legislative hearings; NHSBA workshops. |
| 1:02:42 | Adjournment | Benware moved; Whitney seconded per the chair; voice vote at 1:02:46. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:02:39 | August 21 minutes | "I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. As presented from August 21st, 2018, 2019. I second that comments." Towle at 0:02:53: "I thought it was very well put together this time." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:19 | Citizens' comments missing again | Chair: "Wait a minute. Citizen comments." Towle at 0:03:36: "It's not on there. So that's the problem." "Just missed it twice." Chair at 0:03:43: "Well I submit it put it that it should be and it's not on there." "Citizens comments. Seeing none, I will close citizens comments." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:59 | Handbooks approved | Chair: "We had the opportunity of two weeks to look at those." Towle at 0:04:26: "I believe they may not be written in language. For the population that were meant for", citing "85% of our population reads below the eighth grade level." Chair at 0:05:31: "it would be nice to get those, you know, earlier to look at rather than the day of." Superintendent at 0:06:10: "they're usually reviewed by the attorneys as well." | |
| 0:07:32 | CCTV reappointment | Chair at 0:07:46: "my impression is that we would nominate someone who's a school employee to be. And she no longer is, but he was insistent that, that we nominate her to the board". At 0:08:45: "I don't think it would hurt to, to appoint her you know, bless her being on there. But I'm not sure that we need to." Motion at 0:08:56: "I move that we reappoint Pauline Pelletier to the CCTV Board of directors." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:25 | Opening of school | "we made a commitment to spend, 3 or 4 hours a day in the schools every, every day of the year." At 0:10:42: "We're still short a few instructional assistants, as is the case every year". | |
| 0:11:30 | Summer credit recovery | "They're up another 20 for a total of 76 this summer." At 0:11:58: "35 were in English. 41 were in math classes"; tutors are "paid for for from gear up money as well." A staff member at 0:14:05 explained that eligibility had been opened to more students. | |
| 0:15:06 | Legislative hearing, August 29 | The superintendent and Sprague testified to the "joint House and Senate AD hoc committee". At 0:16:03: "We still don't have enough teachers, and kids don't have full schedules". | |
| 0:17:21 | Rep. Merchant introduced | Chair: "my friend and classmate and representative Gary Merchant", brought in "to kind of explain to the public and to us, the differences between what the Senate and House approved and what the what the governor is countered with" (0:17:39). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:18:24 | What Claremont stood to receive | Merchant: "the public education Claremont in the budget would have received or would have received $4.5 million over two years". At 0:18:58: "The best I can calculate." "We would probably lose about 3 million of that." At 0:19:31 he questioned whether one-time capital aid would come "through a matching grant." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:19:52 | Advocacy | Merchant: "Do we want to support Wall Street or do we want to support Main Street?" At 0:20:11: "Less than 1% of the corporations in this state received 70% of that benefit." At 0:24:17: "Call the governor's office and ask him to support a budget that we passed in the House, in the Senate." At 0:25:54 on the governor's vetoes: "he is now up to 53 bills." (his figures, not verified here). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:04 | County delegation hearing | Merchant: "There's a meeting next Tuesday, September 10th in Newport at the probate court." Chair at 0:26:24: the board would again "invite candidates to come". | |
| 0:21:53 | Benware's arithmetic | "We'd be $350,000 in the hole rather than 1.1 million. However, we'd still be in the hole." A voice at 0:22:43: "Seems like hush money." Chair at 0:23:06: "This is the most important thing on the agenda." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:27:38 | Discipline policy, second read | Magoon: "Policy committee over any changes that were necessary to move this forward to the second reading." Benware at 0:27:59: "Second and final read. I need to say the policy policy J." A committee member at 0:28:26: "There was a lot of conversations specifically relating to time frames more than verbiage." At 0:29:22: "So we just removed some of the weaker words to make it a more a stronger statement". Adopted by voice vote at 0:29:39. | POSITIVE |
| 0:30:04 | Byrne Foundation gift | Superintendent: the gift is $20,000, and "I, 15,000 they gave 15,000" the year before (0:30:11). Chair at 0:30:53: "So is this above the threshold, though, where we would have to have a public hearing to accept this amount of money?" At 0:31:08: "We'd have to warn this as a as a public hearing." "Then after we have the hearing, we can accept it." At 0:31:48: "So we get to appreciate it twice." | POSITIVE |
| 0:31:57 | Budget retreat | Chair: "The top one. I'll start. Normally I don't, but I will is the budget." Benware at 0:33:07: last year the board set goals first, "rather than just them chucking a budget at us". Retreat set for October 20 at 0:34:53. | |
| 0:37:45 | Negotiating committees | Chair: "so we can report out progress on on negotiations with the the bargaining units." Superintendent at 0:39:13: "we have four contracts, you know, all all going at once." Benware at 0:40:15: "I'd really like to step back from negotiations". At 0:41:11: "our our our lawyer, Matt Upton, tends to do most of the heavy lifting." Unit names are garbled in the transcript (the aria, pears, Paris). | |
| 0:44:53 | Audits and swipe cards | Towle: "I wanted to make sure that we kept up on what the audits, how the audits were coming". Superintendent at 0:45:16: "We weren't sighted on up to the 16." and "with, with no follow up from the IRS that they're going after the money, as was reported in the Valley News." Small at 0:46:54: "We kind of have some temporary, badges that teachers have laminated". | |
| 0:47:19 | Sprague on the legislative hearings | Newport "replaced 37 teachers this year." At 0:48:20: "we don't really have a property tax problem. We have a a funding problem". At 0:51:17: "funding it totally with property taxes is a very archaic system." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:42 | Seniors and property taxes | Towle: "I'm going to put my senior hat on for a minute." At 0:55:42: "There's a lot more seniors out there that are facing the fact that they might have to lose their homes." Chair at 0:59:52: "So those are the those of you who are listening at home, call the governor, let them know how you feel." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:00:01 | NHSBA workshops | Towle on "Setting the Foundation An Introduction to Education Funding in New Hampshire." At 1:01:55: "last year we ended up paying the total amount at one time for all these workshops". | |
| 1:02:42 | Adjournment | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to adjourn." Chair: "Heather. Discussion. All those in favor?" | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on September 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. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION Citizens' comments were left off the printed agenda for a second meeting running
The chair began to move past the item, then stopped: "Wait a minute. Citizen comments." (0:03:19). Towle: "It's not on there. So that's the problem." and "Just missed it twice." The chair said he had asked that it be included (0:03:43), then opened and closed comments with no speakers. The same omission was caught on August 21. No statute in force in 2019 required a public comment period at a school board meeting (RSA 189:74 dates from 2022), so this is an observation about agenda preparation. In the board's favor, both times the chair opened the item anyway.
Sources: the recording as cited. No statutory rule applies for this date.
OBSERVATION A state representative presented one side of the state budget impasse during the superintendent's report, and viewers were urged to call the governor
The chair brought Rep. Gary Merchant forward "to kind of explain to the public and to us" the difference between the legislature's budget and the governor's counterproposal (0:17:39). His figures were his own estimates ("The best I can calculate.", 0:18:58): about $4.5 million to Claremont over two years under the legislature's budget, of which Claremont "would probably lose about 3 million". He framed the choice as "Wall Street or ... Main Street" and asked viewers to "Call the governor's office" (0:24:17); the chair closed the topic with the same request (0:59:52). No one presented the governor's position. The figures matter to the district's budget, and the board was entitled to hear its representative. No rule identified restricts a school board from hearing legislators or taking a position on state funding. Recorded as an observation so a reader knows the dollar figures on this recording are one legislator's estimate during a live dispute, not a state calculation.
Sources: the recording as cited. No statutory rule identified.
OBSERVATION The district's second CCTV board seat was filled two weeks after the board was told the incumbent had resigned, with the chair unsure the vote was needed
On August 21 the chair said Pauline Pelletier had resigned from the CCTV board and the board appointed Alex Herzog. On July 30 a member speaking for CCTV had said she had reapplied (see the July 30 page). Here the chair said his "impression" was that the district's seat should go to a school employee, which she no longer was, but that CCTV "was insistent" she be nominated, and "I'm not sure that we need to." (0:07:46, 0:08:45). The board reappointed her by voice vote (0:09:05). The recording does not show what CCTV's governing documents say about district seats, whether a district appointment was required, or what term she was appointed to. No rule was identified; recorded as an observation because the three meetings give an unclear record of who holds the district's seats and on what basis.
Sources: the recordings as cited. CCTV's by-laws were not located.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md section 108 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: the board had an agenda and approved its August 21 minutes, which Towle called "very well put together this time" (0:02:53). RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes naming "the members who made or seconded each motion"; on this recording the minutes motion and its second run together in the chair's row (0:02:39), and the mover and seconder of Pelletier's reappointment are unidentified. 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 108.
POSITIVE The board held a $20,000 gift until it could hold the public hearing the statute requires
Presented with a $20,000 Byrne Foundation donation to the tech center, the chair asked whether it was "above the threshold" for a public hearing (0:30:53); members confirmed the $5,000 figure and the board deferred acceptance to a hearing at the start of the September 18 meeting instead of voting that night (0:31:08). RSA 198:20-b, III(a), as it read in 2019, provided: "For unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken", with notice of the time, place and subject published in a newspaper at least 7 days before. The chair also laid out the sequence correctly: hearing first, acceptance afterward on the agenda. (The threshold rose to $20,000 only in 2023; the $5,000 figure the board used was the law on this date.) Whether the hearing was noticed as required is for the September 18 page.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1): prior public hearing for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more.
POSITIVE The student discipline policy was adopted on a second reading after committee review, to bring it in line with state law
On August 21 the administration told the board that its existing discipline policy gave less than state law provides and said nothing about due process (see the August 21 page). The policy committee reviewed it between readings, working on "time frames more than verbiage" (0:28:26), and the board adopted it on second and final reading (0:29:39). RSA 193:13, I, as it read in 2019, authorized the superintendent or a written designee to suspend "for a period not to exceed 10 school days", and the school board or its written designee, "following a hearing", to continue a suspension beyond 10 days. The adopted text is not online and was not reviewed for this page, so this flag credits the process (two readings, committee review, a stated aim of conforming to the statute) rather than the wording.
Sources: RSA 193:13, I(a)-(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2017, 12:1): suspension up to 10 days; continuation by the board or its designee after a hearing.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10521, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting 9-4-19": 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, policy text or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, July 30, 2019; Claremont School Board, August 21, 2019 (first reading of the discipline policy; handbooks provisionally approved); SAU 6 Board, September 5, 2019.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10521 SchoolBoard090419.mp4.CSV (458 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10521 SchoolBoard090419.mp4Input/Transcripts/10521 SchoolBoard090419.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10521 SchoolBoard090419.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 108
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on September 4, 2019. RSA 198:20-b, III(a) (public hearing for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more). RSA 193:13, I (suspension). RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes; 2019 codification). RSA 189:74 (public comment) is mentioned only to note that it did not exist until 2022.