Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file and the clerk's roll call (0:00:59 to 0:01:27). Members are listed first. Where the dialogue file leaves a voice Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair, SAU 6 board (Claremont) | Presided over the hearing and meeting; summarized the evaluation process (0:32:20). Heard in the roll as Mike. Patron. |
| Marjorie Erickson | Unity member; SAU 6 vice chair | Objected that the policies had not had a real first reading (0:22:12); pressed for goal-setting before any superintendent evaluation. Present though not heard in the roll as transcribed. |
| Gary Bader | Unity member | Spoke on teacher surveys in the evaluation (0:37:34). The chair's recognition is transcribed as Terry. |
| Shannon Popescu | Unity member | Named in the roll (Shannon lopez, 0:00:59); response not audible; no speech attributed. |
| Robert McDevitt, Prudence McCormick | Unity members | Not named in the roll as transcribed and not heard. Attendance cannot be determined from the recording. |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont member; Claremont board chair | Gave the Claremont report and presented the draft SAU policies he edited with the assistant superintendent. His attribution for the block 0:08:18 to about 0:22:29 rests on content, not a named cue (medium confidence). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Claremont member; Claremont vice chair | Discussed the evaluation procedure and staff feedback. |
| Jason Benware | Claremont member | Moved the agenda, the December 5 minutes, the budget to the regular meeting, the policies to second reading, the budget approval and adjournment. |
| Carolyn Towle | Claremont member | Proposed starting the evaluation from the superintendent's entry plan and a data-gathering subcommittee; raised the governor's Medicaid letter (0:56:09). Some lines are hers on the chair's recognition only. |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont member | Noted that setting goals together is "a requirement in the contract" (0:39:42); seconded adjournment. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Claremont member | Named in the roll; no speech attributed. The attribution report leaves open whether the unidentified Capital Improvement Committee update (0:14:13) is his or Whitney's. |
| Unidentified | Roll entry heard as Andre | The clerk reads a name heard as Andre after the chair (0:01:27); unresolved. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | No formal report; explained his entry plan and Massachusetts evaluation practice. |
| Richard Seaman | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presented the final budget figure (0:03:16). |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Read the roll. |
| No members of the public | Public hearing; citizens' comments | "Just for the record, there is no public here" (0:06:00); citizens' comments closed with none (0:10:57). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted online, though members refer to one. This outline is reconstructed from the chair's transitions. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | Call to order; pledge; roll call | "the January 2nd, 2020. C six, actually. Public hearing to order." |
| 0:01:33 | Agenda; minutes of December 5 | Agenda accepted (motion Benware). December 5 minutes approved (0:02:25), motion Benware; voice votes. |
| 0:02:41 | Public hearing: FY2021 SAU budget | Business administrator's summary; no public present. Motion (Benware) to move the budget to the regular meeting for a vote, carried (0:08:39). Hearing closed at 0:08:56. |
| 0:09:09 | Superintendent's report | None formal. |
| 0:10:57 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:10:57 | Claremont update | Negotiations, NHSBA delegate assembly, capital improvements, returned state aid. |
| 0:16:42 | Unity update | Budget and search meetings postponed from December. |
| 0:17:38 | SAU policies | First reading; moved to second reading (motion Benware, 0:23:59); voice vote. |
| 0:24:52 | FY2021 SAU budget approval | Motion Benware to approve $1,727,004 plus the one cent; voice vote, no opposition heard (0:25:29). |
| 0:25:53 | Future agenda; next meeting | Next SAU meeting February 20; policies second reading; superintendent evaluation process discussed at length. |
| 0:55:59 | Closing; adjournment | Governor's Medicaid letter; reminders of upcoming meetings; adjournment (motion Benware, second Whitney). |
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 |
|---|
| 0:03:16 | The budget figure | "the recommendation for the budget for the saw is $1,727,004 and one penny. This is a reduction of 173,534 and $0.76 from the fiscal 20 budget." The only change since December was "to reduce the increase for salaries for next year from 2.5% to 2.0%" (0:04:13); the figure "is the same one that was endorsed by the board at our meeting last month" (0:04:45). | HIGH |
| 0:05:36 | A hearing with no public | Benware: "You probably should still ask if anybody in the public." Petrin: "Just for the record, there is no public here". | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:38 | What happens next | Seaman: "once this board approves the budget, then I'll go through the process of the allocation between Unity and Claremont school districts" (0:07:59). | |
| 0:09:26 | No superintendent's report | "I don't I don't have a formal superintendents report for this evening"; "It's been a really grueling schedule over the, the last couple of months". | |
| 0:11:19 | Claremont negotiations | "We have tentative agreements with the teachers and with custodians." To move bargaining units off Blue Cross Blue Shield "We did have to go higher on some percentages than that" (0:11:37). | |
| 0:14:13 | Capital projects and timing | "it looks like we'll be able to use every penny"; roofs first. Sprague: with everyone getting money at once, "it might be tough to find a roofer"; counsel's advice is that "if a job gets started, the money can be encumbered" (0:14:50). | |
| 0:15:41 | Unity and the state money | Erickson: "no mention has been made at any of our meetings that we're getting a pot of money"; "We have heard nothing about any money from anybody." The amount is given as 38. Thousand six. (0:16:24). Sprague: "It has to be spent this year" (0:16:33). | |
| 0:18:01 | Draft SAU policies | Sprague: from the NHSBA's "optional, recommended and required policies" he struck those about students, teachers and parents, "because I can't think of a context under which this board deals with students or parents or teachers" (0:18:31); "do not rubber stamp this" (0:20:24). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:12 | A first reading without reading time | Erickson: "we really haven't done a first read. I mean, most of us just got them this morning with no opportunity to look at them." Benware: "I saw this for the first time today, but it said it was sent to me on the 31st" (0:23:03). Erickson: "I received it today at 12. At 1120." Moved to second reading (0:23:59). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:06 | Budget adopted | "a motion to approve fiscal year 21, post budget of $1,727,004." Chair: "Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor?" (0:25:29). | HIGH |
| 0:26:21 | Superintendent evaluation | Erickson asked for the evaluation on the agenda before the March elections. On procedure she said "We agreed on the evaluation tool" but not the process (0:27:59), and later: "I'm not sure any of us ever sat down with Mike to set goals to begin with" (0:39:01). Whitney: "Which is actually a requirement in the contract." (0:39:42). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:28 | Should staff rate the superintendent? | Erickson: "I'm not 100% sure that I feel comfortable with teachers evaluating the superintendent". Bader: a teacher survey "is more like a client survey" (0:37:34). | |
| 0:40:22 | The superintendent's view | "the time table is very different than what I'm used to"; "you hadn't really had a process like this on board for any of the previous superintendents and last decade or so" (0:41:32). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:42:29 | Start from the entry plan | Towle: "Mike's entry plan was very specific and clear and very complete." Chair: on February 20 "Mike's going to present his entry plan" (0:46:46). Towle: "I'd like to see a subcommittee" (0:48:32). | |
| 0:56:09 | Medicaid letter | Towle: "we got a letter, updated letter from Chris Sununu today about Medicaid." Superintendent: "It's a big deal. It's about 700 grand." (0:57:29). | |
| 0:58:29 | Hearing notices | Benware: "when we posting our public hearings on our agenda today, we are saying what the public hearings about." Answer: it is on the front page. | POSITIVE |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on January 2, 2020. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag names the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, it is recorded as an observation. Four flags follow, ordered by severity.
HIGH The FY2021 SAU budget was adopted on January 2, 2020, after the statutory January 1 date
RSA 194-C:9, I, in the text in force on this date, provides: "At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget" for the next fiscal year, to be apportioned among the member districts. The board adopted the FY2021 budget tonight (0:25:06), and the business administrator said the allocation between Unity and Claremont would follow that approval (0:07:59). On December 5 the board had chosen this date knowing that the budget is usually finished in December, on the belief that a public hearing was required first; RSA 194-C:9 requires none (December 5 page, flag 1). Mitigation, stated fairly: the dollar figure was fixed by a vote on December 5 (0:04:45), there was no change to it here, the delay was two days, and nothing on the record shows harm to either district's budget process. Nothing on the recording suggests the districts had adopted the alternative procedure of RSA 194-C:9-a, which RSA 194-C:9, III excepts. Graded HIGH because on the face of the record a statutory deadline was missed.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I and III (2019 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1); RSA 194-C:9-a (2019 codification).
OBSERVATION SAU policies were moved to second reading on the day most members first saw them
The draft SAU policies were emailed with a December 31 date but, by members' accounts, arrived the morning of the meeting (0:23:03, 0:23:35). A Unity member objected that "we really haven't done a first read" (0:22:12) and asked for a three-reading process; the board moved the set to second reading anyway, with the understanding that changes could follow (0:23:59). The drafter himself urged members "do not rubber stamp this" (0:20:24). No statute sets a reading procedure for board policies; this concerns the board's own practice. It also matters for later pages: policies adopted from this set would be the SAU's first of its own, so their adoption history starts here.
Sources: No statute applies; board practice only.
OBSERVATION Six months into the superintendent's contract, the board said it had not yet set goals with him
With an evaluation expected before the March elections, members said they had agreed an evaluation tool but no procedure (0:27:59), that nobody had "sat down with Mike to set goals" (0:39:01), and that joint goal-setting "is actually a requirement in the contract" (0:39:42). The superintendent said the board had no such process "for any of the previous superintendents and last decade or so" (0:41:32). The contract was not available to check. The board agreed to hear the entry-plan report on February 20 and to discuss the process further; how the evaluation itself is held is governed by RSA 91-A:3, II(a), which lets a board consider an employee's compensation or discipline in nonpublic session unless the employee requests an open meeting, as a member noted (0:31:53).
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, II(a) (2019 codification); the superintendent's contract was not available.
POSITIVE The SAU board held a public hearing on its budget that the statute does not require, and asked that hearing notices state their subject
RSA 194-C:9 requires the SAU board to adopt a budget but prescribes no public hearing. The board held one anyway, on camera, with the chair noting for the record that no member of the public had come (0:06:00), and a member later confirmed that hearing notices on the agenda now state what each hearing is about (0:58:29). The hearing was also the reason the adoption slipped past January 1 (flag 1); the practice was sound, the scheduling was not.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9 (2019 codification; no hearing requirement).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10675, "SAU#6 SCHOOL BOARD Public Hearing 1-2-20": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. 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 section 120, checked 9/26/26). The hearing notice, agenda, budget binder, draft policies and minutes were not located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, December 5, 2019 (budget presentation and scheduling of this hearing) and Claremont School Board, January 8, 2020.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10675 SAU6010220.mp4.CSV (492 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10675 SAU6010220.mp4Input/Transcripts/10675 SAU6010220.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10675 SAU6010220.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 120
Laws and rules cited on this page