Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file. Members are listed first. Where the dialogue file leaves a voice Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice Chair, Claremont School Board; presiding | Opened the hearing and meeting, ran every item and vote, asked for a cost analysis of bringing food service in-house, and raised a board retreat. Answered present at roll (0:08:35). |
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board | Absent as far as the record shows. Named last in the roll with no audible response (0:08:43); Carolyn Towle says "Frank sent this out" (1:39:57) and the vice chair speaks of touching "base with Frank" (1:56:09). No speech is attributed to him. |
| Jason Benware | Member | Made most motions: agenda, nonpublic session, the seal motion, each of the four contract ratifications and the donations. Pressed on the community eligibility provision and proposed putting universal free meals to the voters. Roll: "Jason Benoit here" (0:08:36). |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Asked for joint review of policy DAF with the state auditor, questioned lunch-account notices, and reported on the NHSBA delegate assembly resolutions. Heard in roll as Carolyn Toll. |
| Heather Whitney | Member | Asked how play-based kindergarten serves boys (0:29:58); flagged a future Capital Improvement Committee report (1:55:28). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member | Named in the roll. Referred to by others as the source of the agenda amendment (0:09:28) and the second on the teachers' contract (1:48:10). No speech is attributed to him by name; the attribution report suggests he may be among the unidentified board voices. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Named in the roll (Michael Pietra, 0:08:36); no response is audible and no speech is attributed to him. Whether he attended cannot be settled from the recording. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the donations, gave the superintendent's report on special-education outplacements and a new parent advisory council, and read the upcoming dates and ballot offices. The dialogue file also gives him the motion to leave nonpublic session (0:49:20); see flag 1. |
| Richard Seaman | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presented the four contracts and their costs, answered on food-service economics and the Abbey Group contract, and reported the audit catch-up. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explained that policy DAF answers a Department of Education compliance finding (0:57:49); spoke on breakfast at Bluff. Identified by the dialogue file from the chair's "So Donna" and her subject matter. |
| Mary Woodman | School District Clerk / recording secretary | Read both roll calls and explained when a roll call is taken at a hearing (0:07:55). |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School | Introduced the kindergarten team and reported the elementary winter program launch. Addressed as Melissa on the recording; the surname comes from the project roster, not this recording. |
| Beth Bonneville | Kindergarten teacher, Disnard | Presented the state's play-based kindergarten requirement and her classroom practice. Named by the principal (0:10:54). |
| Unidentified (two speakers) | Kindergarten teachers, Disnard | The principal names Shelby Klink and Allie Howard as the other two teachers; the dialogue file cannot tell which voice is which, so both are left Unidentified. |
| Heather Leon Bruno (as transcribed) | Art teacher, Disnard | Introduced by the principal in connection with the rock-garden mini grant (0:02:35); not heard speaking. Spelling unverified. |
| Tyler Sullivan | Student representative | Reported on a student leadership summit on social media and mental health, Stevens High School ACT results and student honors. First name on the recording; surname from the dialogue file. |
| Danielle Skinner | Food Program Coordinator, SAU 6 | Self-identified (1:05:18); reported lunch debt, the community eligibility provision at Bluff and the limits on contacting families. |
| Unidentified | Board members (several voices) | Moved policy DAF to second reading (1:03:07), asked about lunch prices and the food-service contract, and questioned the $3.75 price. The dialogue file could not separate these voices by name. |
| No citizens | Citizens' comments | The floor was opened for citizens' comments and closed with no speaker (0:50:31). No member of the public spoke at the donations hearing. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted online. This outline is reconstructed from the presiding officer's transitions on the recording. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:16 | Public hearing: acceptance of donations | Superintendent listed nine donations; one board question on the payee of the $8,500 gift; no public comment. Hearing closed at 0:07:27. |
| 0:08:02 | Regular meeting: roll call, pledge | Roll read at 0:08:36. |
| 0:09:23 | Agenda | Amended to take the student representative's report before the nonpublic session. Motion Benware; the second is attributed to another member (he seconded); voice vote. |
| 0:10:21 | Minutes of previous meeting | Deferred: "we need a little bit more time to review those". |
| 0:10:41 | Disnard Elementary: play-based kindergarten | Presentation and questions; winter program report. |
| 0:36:08 | Student representative's report | Taken up here under the agenda amendment. |
| 0:47:33 | Nonpublic session | Motion Benware citing RSA 91-A:3, II; roll call. Board returned at 0:49:13; motion to seal the nonpublic minutes carried by voice vote at 0:50:15. |
| 0:50:31 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:50:54 | Superintendent's report | Negotiations, special-education program development, parent advisory council. |
| 0:57:10 | Policy DAF, first reading | Moved to second reading (1:03:07), second Benware; voice vote. |
| 1:03:43 | Food service update | Report by the Food Program Coordinator; discussion only. |
| 1:39:43 | NHSBA delegate assembly | Members asked to send views on resolutions before the January 25 assembly. |
| 1:40:48 | Ratification of pending contracts | Four separate motions, all by Benware, all carried by voice vote: teachers (SREA), second by Rob (1:47:36); maintenance (1:48:19); secretaries (1:48:30, no second audible); paraprofessionals (1:48:43). No tallies stated. |
| 1:49:05 | Acceptance of donations | All nine accepted in one motion (Benware), voice vote; no second audible. Two amounts were not known to the mover. |
| 1:51:03 | Future agenda items | Grading system, school safety, head-lice data, needle-exchange update, financial safeguards and the auditor, Medicaid, capital priorities, a board retreat. |
| 1:57:03 | Upcoming dates; other business | Budget meetings, deliberative session, filing period for two board seats; January 9 joint meeting cancelled. Recording ends during the closing motions. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:06 | Why a donations hearing | Superintendent: "the public hearing was for the acceptance of donations at over a certain dollar amount"; the notice "was on the web page. Had to look for a little bit". | POSITIVE |
| 0:01:33 | The donations listed | An anonymous gift for a snowshoe program, "seven, $7,000"; a pre-K contribution, "I don't know that I have a dollar amount on that one"; the Cliff mini grant for the Disnard rock garden; two lunch-debt checks, "One was $50 and one was $100"; Kiwanis $980 for the Full Circle Farm life-skills program; the Byrne Foundation gift for the eighth-grade New York trip ("that one faded in the copy"); two ExxonMobil grants of $500; and "$8,500 from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation" for music and voice programs at Stevens. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:42 | Payee question | A member: the $8,500 check is "written out to Claremont, Cornish and Unity". Superintendent: Cornish is no longer part of it; "the board member caught that I missed." | |
| 0:07:27 | Hearing closed; roll call | Clerk: "The only time you do the roll call at the beginning is a public hearing." Roll at 0:08:36: "Jason Benoit here. Rob Lovett, junior Michael Pietra." then "As a Whitney, Carolyn Toll and Frank Sprague." | |
| 0:10:21 | Minutes deferred | "I think that we need a little bit more time to review those". No minutes were approved at this meeting. | |
| 0:10:54 | Play-based kindergarten | Principal: "the state of New Hampshire has moved to play based kindergarten." Bonneville: "as of 2018. This is the new play based kindergarten law"; "We are still meeting the Common Core Standards for kindergarten" (0:26:25). Benware asked for a comparison of entering first graders "two years down the road" (0:28:19); Whitney asked about boys (0:29:58); Bonneville: "I have ten boys this year in a class of 15." | |
| 0:34:46 | Winter program | "we sent kiddos off to 13 different activities"; "we sent almost 200 students to Arrowhead in the community center today." | |
| 0:36:30 | Student representative | A student leadership summit on social media and mental health; Stevens ACT results, "an average composite score of 28.5" (as transcribed), and "51% of last year's senior class graduated with a 27 credit diploma with distinction" (0:44:10). | |
| 0:47:33 | Motion for nonpublic session | Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to go to nonpublic session per RSA 91 a three, subparagraph two relating to negotiations, a board may enter nonpublic session to consider or act on one consideration of legal advice provided by legal counsel". Roll-call responses follow, partly garbled. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:49:13 | Return and seal | "I make a motion to come out of non public." (attributed to the superintendent in the dialogue file). Benware: "I know it's not a roll call for that." Roll-call responses follow. Then Benware: "I'd like to make a motion to seal the minutes for 87 years." Presiding officer: "All in favor?" | MEDIUM |
| 0:52:54 | Superintendent: negotiations | "all I wanted for Christmas was to stop negotiating." He thanked Richard Seaman for efforts "to really recreate a lot of documents"; "We didn't have a lot to go on, a lot of historical to go on." | |
| 0:53:55 | Superintendent: outplacements | Visited Vermont placements, "the almost two hours, hour and 45 minutes" each way. A parent advisory council meets "January 28th at 530". Placements cost "between 80,000 and $100,000 per placement and transportation"; "we're talking six $700,000 swing" (0:55:51). | |
| 0:57:27 | Policy DAF | Benware: "I read it. 25 pages of it." Magoon: a Department of Education "compliance visit" found the district out of compliance, and "in order for us to be in compliance, here is the policy that you need to adopt". Benware asked whether the food-service company sources "51% or more of the food" domestically. Towle and Zullo asked to review it with the state reviewer; moved to second reading (1:03:07). | |
| 1:05:18 | Lunch debt and CEP | Skinner: despite "attempted payment plans, certified letters and phone calls", debt is accumulating. On the community eligibility provision: "40% is not the ideal number"; the ideal "is 60%"; "Bluff currently is at 49.66%". Benware: "that's not exactly how it was sold to people." Participation "about 70 kids eating, which is roughly about 50%" (1:08:43). | |
| 1:16:33 | Expired benefits; debt totals | "108 students that had benefits at the beginning of the year and then they expired, didn't reapply"; she cannot contact them individually. "there's 142 accounts that owe more than $100"; "Their total of those accounts is $33,070"; accounts cleared by a 2018 donation are "now we're back up to owing $14,000" (1:18:01). | |
| 1:19:52 | Free meals for all? | Benware: "just another unfunded mandate"; asked for the cost of feeding every child and proposed "let's put it on the warrant". Skinner: covering everyone means paying "the $3 lunch price"; budgeting "175 days times roughly 1900 students, times $4.75 a day" (1:23:19). | |
| 1:30:12 | Food-service contract | Seaman: "We renew them each year, and you get to do it for four years without having to go out for another RFP". On lunch debt: "It's an uncollected receivable. We're going to have to write this off at some time"; "The number is currently at 42. We should expect it to go up roughly 5000 a month" (1:36:48). In-house food service in Woodstock meant funding "roughly $300,000 out of the local budget" (1:38:53). | |
| 1:39:57 | NHSBA delegate assembly | Towle: "Frank sent this out to all the board members this week"; the assembly is "on January 25th." | |
| 1:41:04 | Teachers' contract | "It will be a three year agreement"; starting salaries from "the current $36,000, which is noncompetitive up to a $40,000 number over the next three years". Cost: "approximately $680,000"; "in the first year it's a 680. In the second year it's in the 340 000 as it is in the third year" (1:42:09). Turnover "25 to 30%" (1:43:00). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:43:43 | Paras, maintenance, secretaries | Paraprofessionals: "about 80 to 90 pairs"; cost "between 50 and $80,000". Maintenance: two years, grid increase "of of 3%, I believe", cost "approximately $21,000"; secretaries: "a reduction in the cost for the Secretary's negotiating group of $7,000" (1:46:04). Health Trust family plan "over $40,000 a year" against about "$32,000" under the new plan. | |
| 1:47:36 | Ratification votes | "I move that we accept the SREA contract." Seaman: "The contract will be a part of the budget vote. So it will not have its own warrant." Benware: "The other three are separate warrant articles." Four voice votes, no tallies. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:49:18 | Donations accepted | "I'm going to list them individually. But we can vote all at once." For the pre-K contribution, "I do not know the figure"; for the Cliff mini grant, "Do you know the figure on that? Because I don't have that one." Byrne gift read as "$6,000". Voice vote at 1:50:57. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:51:37 | Needle exchange follow-up | Benware asked that Valley Regional report back: "how many people are using it" and whether there are "positive effects"; "not just let it rubber stamp". | |
| 1:53:34 | Financial safeguards; audits | Benware: "who's who's checking them?" Seaman: "Auditor works for the board"; "We're up to 17, start 18. And so we're almost catching up. Let's have them come in and answer your questions and do it in executive session". Superintendent: "We just came in yesterday." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:54:29 | Grading system | A subcommittee on competency-based grading had "three working meetings" and will have a recommendation with the strategy report. | |
| 1:57:08 | Dates and elections | Budget discussion next week, public hearing "on the 21st", deliberative session "on the fifth"; "two board seats available"; moderator, clerk and treasurer on the ballot. Filing "January 22nd through January 31st" (1:57:42). Benware on the seat history: "Rob took over it. And then Rob decided to run for the three year seat" (1:58:37). | |
| 1:59:13 | Joint meeting cancelled | "Tomorrow's meeting was canceled." Benware: "don't come to the joint meeting." | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on January 8, 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. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The nonpublic minutes were sealed by a voice vote with no statutory finding stated on the record
After the nonpublic session, Benware moved "to seal the minutes for 87 years" and the presiding officer called "All in favor?" (0:50:15); no tally, roll call or reason is heard. In force on this date, RSA 91-A:3, III required nonpublic minutes and decisions to be "publicly disclosed within 72 hours of the meeting, unless, by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session, it is determined that divulgence of the information likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself, or render the proposed action ineffective" (or, the third ground, pertain to terrorism preparedness). The record shows neither the determination nor a count that would show two-thirds. The figure 87 years is the transcription and may be garbled; the statute sets no fixed term. Two further irregularities: the motion to leave nonpublic session is attributed in the dialogue file to the superintendent (0:49:20), who is not a member (the attribution may be wrong), and a member is heard objecting "I know it's not a roll call for that" before roll-call responses are taken (0:49:29). Mitigation: the entry into nonpublic session was by roll call as RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires, and the minutes, which are not online, may record the finding and the count. MEDIUM because the gap is one of documentation that the minutes could cure.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and III (2019 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1).
OBSERVATION The nonpublic motion named "negotiations" but read out the legal-advice exemption
The motion at 0:47:33 cites "RSA 91 a three, subparagraph two relating to negotiations" and then reads the text of the exemption for "consideration of legal advice provided by legal counsel". RSA 91-A:3, I(b) required the motion to state the specific paragraph II exemption relied on. RSA 91-A:3, II(l) is the legal-advice exemption and is a valid ground on its face. No paragraph II exemption covers collective bargaining as such: strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining are instead excluded from the definition of a meeting by RSA 91-A:2, I(a), which is a different mechanism with no motion or roll call. The same evening the board ratified four bargaining agreements. Which ground was actually used cannot be told from the recording; the mixed citation is what a reader of the minutes would need to reconcile.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a)-(l) (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, so the same text governed in 2020).
OBSERVATION The FY2017 audit reached the district in January 2020, and the business administrator proposed hearing the auditor in "executive session"
Asked who checks the administration's figures, the business administrator said the audits were "up to 17, start 18. And so we're almost catching up", and the superintendent added that the FY2017 books "just came in yesterday" (1:53:51). A fiscal year ending June 30, 2017 was thus audited roughly two and a half years later. If the district's federal expenditures in that year reached the $750,000 single-audit threshold (2 CFR 200.501(a) as it then stood), 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) required the audit to be completed and submitted "within the earlier of 30 calendar days after receipt of the auditor's report(s), or nine months after the end of the audit period". This recording does not state the district's federal expenditure level, so the rule's application is not established here, and state law treats audit timing permissively. Separately, New Hampshire law has no general "executive session": a board may exclude the public only under a specific RSA 91-A:3, II exemption, and a routine audit presentation does not obviously fit one. The proposal was not acted on at this meeting.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2019 annual edition); 2 CFR 200.501(a) ($750,000 threshold; 2022 annual edition, before the 2024 increase); RSA 91-A:3, II (2019 codification).
OBSERVATION Nine donations were accepted in one vote, two of them with amounts the board did not have
The mover listed each gift but said of the pre-K contribution "I do not know the figure" and of the rock-garden mini grant that he could not find it (1:49:18); the superintendent had said the same at the hearing (0:01:33). The Byrne gift, which "faded in the copy", was read as $6,000 at the vote. No second is audible before the voice vote (1:50:57). RSA 198:20-b lets a school board accept unanticipated money only where the district has adopted the enabling article, requires a prior public hearing for amounts of $5,000 or more, and requires acceptance in public session. The hearing was held (flag 6), but a record of acceptance should show what was accepted. The minutes, not online, may supply the amounts.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1).
OBSERVATION The first-year cost stated for the teachers' contract differs from the figure later disclosed to voters
Presenting the SREA teachers' agreement for ratification, the business administrator said "in the first year it's a 680" and "In the second year it's in the 340 000 as it is in the third year" (1:42:09), and that the contract "will be a part of the budget vote. So it will not have its own warrant" (1:47:47). At the deliberative session later that winter (Cablecast show 10722, about sixteen minutes into that recording), the operating-budget article as read disclosed estimated increases of $421,267 for fiscal 2021, $420,245 for fiscal 2022 and $419,222 for fiscal 2023. The two sets of figures may measure different things (for example, gross cost against increase), and this page does not resolve the difference. RSA 273-A:3, II(b) requires that "Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body" for approval, so the figures the voters receive are the ones that count; the difference is recorded so a reader can reconcile them.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (source note ends 2013, 244:1, in force throughout); the deliberative-session dialogue file Dialogue/10722 SchoolBoardDeliberative020120.mp4.CSV.
POSITIVE Gifts of $5,000 and more were put to a public hearing before acceptance, and the reason was explained to viewers
The meeting opened with a public hearing on the donations (0:00:16), the superintendent explained that it was required for gifts over a threshold and where the notice had been posted (0:01:06), the public was invited to speak (0:06:35), and acceptance followed in public session. RSA 198:20-b, III(a) required a prior public hearing for unanticipated money of $5,000 or more (the $7,000, $6,000 and $8,500 gifts here). A board member also caught that the $8,500 check named towns no longer served by the fund, and the administration checked it before acceptance (0:05:49).
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(a) (2019 codification).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10683, "CLAREMONT SCHOOL BOARD meeting 1/8/20": 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 121, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, minutes, hearing notice, policy DAF text or food-service report was located.
- Related pages: SAU 6 Board, January 2, 2020 and Special District Meeting, December 12, 2019.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II and III (2019 codification): nonpublic motion and roll call; the exemptions, with (l) legal advice; 72-hour disclosure unless sealed by recorded 2/3 vote with a stated determination.
- RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2022 codification; unchanged since 2018, 244:1): collective-bargaining strategy excluded from the definition of a meeting.
- RSA 198:20-b (2019 codification): acceptance of unanticipated funds; hearing at $5,000 or more.
- RSA 273-A:3, II(b): only cost items go to the legislative body.
- 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (2019 edition) and 2 CFR 200.501(a) (2022 edition): single-audit due date and threshold.