Participants
Everyone in the record, as named in the dialogue CSV. No agenda or minutes are available to confirm spellings; spellings follow the project roster, and the transcript's renderings are given where they differ. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided and called every roll himself. Moved the graduation update ahead on the agenda; read corrections into the May 6 minutes (0:06:08); spoke from "having coordinated eight graduations at Stevens High School myself" on why parents do not take stage photos (0:36:10); asked about possible state aid cuts (0:49:53); proposed an in-person August retreat (1:29:35). |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair | Proposed dropping the capital improvement item (0:03:56); seconded the amended agenda and moved the corrected May 6 minutes (0:07:18); asked what the COVID relief money could buy (0:43:38); volunteered for the Abbey Group working group; asked for a budget-surplus estimate and a count of high school students at risk of failing to be put on the next agenda (1:37:07). Rendered Heather Whitman once. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Asked about the NH DOE graduation guidance (0:22:47), the reopening surveys (0:52:02) and home internet for students with satellite service (0:56:33); recalled drafting the head-lice policy (1:26:52); asked for failing-student data before August (1:40:15). Rendered Rebecca Sula and Rebecca Zulu in roll calls. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Moved the agenda, then the amended agenda (0:04:30); moved to adjourn (1:45:15). Thanked by the superintendent for his push on the Boston Bruins STEM lab award (0:58:36). His cluster carries many one-word interjections that may belong to others (attribution report). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Answered roll noting that his screen label read Joshua (0:01:57); said he liked the grab-and-go meal model and asked whether the surplus came from the changed reimbursement (1:15:11). Rendered Mike patron throughout; the chair calls on him once as "Mike. I mean Joshua." |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Moved the February 23 retreat minutes (0:05:27) and seconded the May 6 minutes and adjournment. Lost audio during the attorney's briefing (0:18:18 to 0:19:48, "Call my landline.") and later said she "lost internet connection" until the student report ended (0:34:48). Asked about meal waste (1:13:09); asked that the capital improvement plan return to the agenda (1:38:28). Rendered Carolyn Toll and Tom. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Absent ("Jason. Ben was not present.", 0:01:31). Credited by the chair with catching the errors in the May 6 minutes, and volunteered in his absence for the Abbey Group working group (1:12:16). |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report (0:38:32): reopening most likely hybrid, one-to-one Chromebooks, federal COVID relief money "following the title one allocation"; told the board "We had a very good budget year anyway" (0:50:46); announced the STEM lab award, the Mask Up New Hampshire distribution and the New England Center for Children partnership classroom; reported the grading committee's plan to separate competencies from grades (1:21:01). Rendered Mr. Pesto and Mr. Pre in the transcript. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Described the running list of families needing Wi-Fi and Chromebook-only hotspots (0:57:36); reported the school nurses' request to revise the head-lice policy (1:24:14); reported River Valley's request to postpone its needle-exchange update (1:33:33); kept the list of future agenda items (1:39:16). |
| Richard Seaman | Business Administrator, SAU 6 (called "Assistant Superintendent Seaman" by the superintendent) | Food service report (1:06:30): 450 to 500 lunches and breakfasts a day by bus and delivery; summer waiver expected through August 31; "a surplus of about $25,000 per month" and an estimated "$60,000 surplus" for the fiscal year (1:10:27); recommended renewing the Abbey Group contract and asked for a board group to work on it (1:10:58). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Related services covered by a remote-instruction grant; social work planning; an extended school year offered remotely to any interested special education student at "no impact on the budget" (1:05:21). Rendered Mr. Nestor. |
| Matt Upton | School district attorney (Drummond Woodsum, per the project roster) | Briefed the board on Emergency Order 16's ten-person limit and its extension by Emergency Order 49 through June 15 (0:17:02, 0:21:45), warning that "the governor's office could actually shut down the proceedings" (0:18:24); described the Franklin and Conway graduation models. |
| Tyler | Student representative, Stevens High School class of 2020 | Last report as student representative (0:09:01): thanks to the Claremont Home Depot team, cap-and-gown pickup, the eighth-grade celebration; a farewell reflection on the spring closure (0:12:51); pressed for graduates to be photographed from the family car (0:24:24). Surname not stated on this recording; the May 6, 2020 dialogue file names him Tyler Sullivan. |
| Unidentified | Remote-meeting host | Opened the call ("And Frank, we can start the meeting.", 0:00:04). Seven rows (1.4%) are Unidentified. |
| (none) | Public | No citizens' comment period is called on the recording and no member of the public speaks. See flag 1. |
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. The chair refers to "article four item update on graduation" and to lettered discussion items A to C, so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Call to order, pledge, attendance roll | The chair asks members to stay muted, then calls the roll himself (0:01:31): six present, Benware not present. |
| 0:02:49 | Agenda amended and approved | Graduation update moved up beside the superintendent's report (chair); capital improvement item removed (Whitney, 0:03:56). Lovett withdrew his first motion and moved "the newly appointed amended agenda" (0:04:30); Whitney seconded; roll call, all six in favor (0:04:55). |
| 0:04:55 | Minutes of the February 23, 2020 retreat | Towle: "Make a motion. We accept the minutes for February 23rd as read." (0:05:27). Lovett said "I second" but the chair ruled "I got Heather first"; roll call, all six in favor. These minutes had been tabled on March 4 and again on May 6. |
| 0:06:08 | Minutes of May 6, 2020, with corrections | Chair's corrections: "Jason nominated Rebecca. Rebecca then nominated Heather. And then it was a unanimous vote"; "The last day of school is the fifth, not the sixth"; and "the vote was not unanimous. If I recall correctly, Rob and Rebecca voted no on that." Whitney moved with the changes (0:07:18), Towle seconded; roll call, all six in favor. See flag 6. |
| 0:07:57 | Attestation that each member is alone | Raised by an unidentified participant after three votes had been taken; the chair repeats the roll and each member states that no one is with them. |
| 0:08:52 | Student representative report | Tyler's final report and farewell; tributes from the chair, Magoon and Zullo. |
| 0:15:48 | Update on graduation (moved up) | Attorney Upton on Emergency Orders 16 and 49; questions from Whitney, Zullo, Tyler, Towle; the superintendent and chair on the drive-through ceremony. No vote. |
| 0:37:50 | Superintendent's report | Reopening planning, relief funds, STEM lab award, masks, special education update from Nester. No vote. |
| 1:06:30 | A. Contract with the Abbey Group; lunch program | Seaman's food-service report and request for a board working group; the chair names Benware (absent), Whitney and himself (1:12:16). No vote. |
| 1:18:48 | B. Lunch at the high school | Building-level ideas to raise participation. No vote. |
| 1:20:00 | C. Teacher nominations | "We don't have any tonight." (1:20:18). |
| 1:20:26 | Committee recommendations | Superintendent: committees to roll forward; the grading committee plans to separate competencies from grades. No vote. |
| 1:23:59 | Head-lice policy | Nurses' suggestions to go to the policy committee. No vote. |
| 1:29:35 | Date for the goal-setting retreat; future agenda items | Retreat set for Sunday, August 9, in place of the tentative August 5 meeting (1:32:14, 1:32:58); no July meeting. Items for the retreat agenda: budget surplus, high school students failing because of remote learning, teacher nominations, capital improvement plan, 2021 goals (1:39:16). |
| 1:45:08 | Good of the order; adjournment | Lovett moved (1:45:15); the chair: "Rob Lovett made a motion to adjourn, and Carolyn has seconded." Roll call, all in favor. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:41 | Remote-meeting housekeeping and roll | The chair asks members to mute, "because that was the distraction last time", then calls the roll. Petrin: "for some reason, say Joshua for whatever reason. But it is me." Towle asks "How do I mute mine?" (0:02:14). | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:08 | May 6 minutes corrected | "the vote was not unanimous. If I recall correctly, Rob and Rebecca voted no on that. It was not a unanimous vote. Is that true? That's correct." The chair credits Benware: "Jason contacted me. He had noticed that." The May 6 recording shows the last-day-of-school vote passing 5 to 2, Zullo and Lovett voting nay. | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:57 | Alone-in-the-room attestation | "Before we get too far, we have to attest that we're in a room by ourselves." The chair: "You just need to indicate if there's anybody with you." Answers: "I'm alone with no humans" (Whitney), "I'm by myself for once" (Zullo), "Sadly. I'm alone" (Towle). | POSITIVE |
| 0:12:51 | Student representative's farewell | "Within 24 hours, schools were canceled"; "last Friday was my last day of school being remote and I was not able to say goodbye to my teachers face and face to face." He has reapplied to the district as a paraprofessional. Zullo (0:15:38): "You've come a long way. Nice work." | |
| 0:16:22 | Attorney: the ten-person limit applies to graduation spectators | "Emergency Order 16 placed a ten person limit on" scheduled gatherings, and "the governor's office has consistently said that it would be a violation of the emergency orders to have more than ten people assembled" (0:17:02); "the governor's office could actually shut down the proceedings. They would do this through our police department" (0:18:24); "emergency order number 16 has been extended by emergency order 49 through June 15th" (0:21:45). During this briefing Towle's audio fails (0:18:18). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:47 | DOE guidance and the car photo | Zullo reads DOE guidance on "school sanctioned year end physical gatherings"; Upton: "I read the Doe guidance this afternoon, and I'm a little confused by it" (0:23:24). Tyler asks why graduates cannot step out for a picture; Upton describes the Franklin model (0:32:15). Sprague (0:36:10): professional photos replaced parent photos years ago, "It was a nightmare." | |
| 0:38:32 | Reopening and relief money | "we know that it's highly unlikely it's going to be a traditional opening"; "Most likely in what we're planning for is a hybrid opening" with a committee of "approximately 10 or 15 people" (0:38:58). Relief money: if the money follows the Title I allocations, "we should have a chunk of money" (0:40:08); "It's not title one money per se, but it's following the title one allocation" (0:43:56). | |
| 0:49:53 | State aid cuts? | The chair relays Newport acquaintances' fears of "impending cuts to education aid". Superintendent (0:50:46): "I'm proud to say for us. We had a very good budget year anyway"; "the Covid relief money that's scheduled to come in is, is substantial" (0:51:11); "We're in good shape right now." | |
| 0:56:33 | Internet access for remote learners | Zullo: "it took nine minutes to load one six minute video"; who do satellite families call? Magoon (0:57:36): parents contact the principal, "I have a, a running document"; hotspots "connected to the student's Chromebook". | |
| 0:58:36 | STEM lab, masks, special education | The middle school won the Boston Bruins STEM lab challenge; masks given out "Friday and Saturday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Stevens High" (1:01:48); the New England Center for Children partnership classroom "is moving on" (1:03:02). Nester (1:05:53): extended school year expansion offset by the special education grant, "So again, no impact on the budget." | |
| 1:06:55 | Food service surplus and Abbey Group renewal | "We're doing about 500, 450 to 500 lunches and 450 to 500 breakfast per day" (1:07:23); "It is a no cost contract guaranteed to Claremont"; "a surplus of about $25,000 per month"; "something in the range of a $60,000 surplus on our food program" (1:10:27). Petrin: the surplus exists "because the payment is different than a normal school year" (1:15:11); Seaman agrees: "a one time structure" (1:17:28). The chair names Benware, Whitney and himself to meet Seaman "next Monday or next Tuesday", by "zoom meeting" or at the SAU (1:12:43). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:21:01 | Grading committee | the grading committee: "they they are looking to change the grading, for all grades"; "We're not abandoning all the hard work that went into the competencies. We can't. It's a mandate as well" (1:22:06). The chair worries about reprogramming PowerSchool if the decision comes late (1:23:17). | |
| 1:24:14 | Head-lice policy | Nurses "don't have enough time to check every single child, every single month" and suggest checks twice a year; Zullo (1:26:52) recalls drafting the policy and that complaints fell. | |
| 1:29:35 | An in-person retreat in August | "I'm wondering if we could tentatively schedule an actual face to face retreat, maybe in in August if we did it at the community center"; "It's really what's made this board what it is" (1:30:28). Set for Sunday, August 9, replacing the August 5 meeting; there is no July meeting (1:39:05). The needle-exchange update is postponed at River Valley's request (1:33:33). | |
| 1:37:07 | Surplus and failing students on the next agenda | Whitney asks for "a sense of how much of a savings we're going to have or a surplus in the budget" and "how many high school students are at risk". Towle wants the capital improvement plan back (1:38:28); the chair proposes a capital improvement committee meeting before the next board meeting (1:38:46); Lovett: "How about Tuesday?" Zullo asks for failing-student data before August (1:40:15); superintendent: "a week, maybe ten days before we meet" (1:43:09). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:45:19 | Adjournment | Roll-call vote to adjourn; "Thank you everyone. Have a good night." (1:45:38). | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on June 3, 2020, including the Governor's COVID-19 emergency orders. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION A fully remote meeting with no public comment period, and nothing on the recording about how the public could listen in
Every member joined by video conference. Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020), which let public bodies meet without a physically present quorum during the state of emergency, conditioned that relief on the body giving the public telephone or other electronic access, publishing how to reach the meeting, providing a way to report access problems, and adjourning if the public could not get in. This recording contains none of that: no announcement of a call-in number, no check that the public could hear, and no citizens' comment period at any point between the call to order (0:00:07) and adjournment (1:45:19). By contrast, on May 6 the chair asked the technology director whether anyone on the phone lines wished to speak and took a caller's questions. The notice for this meeting is not available, so whether it carried the access information cannot be tested from here, and the CCTV broadcast itself was a form of listening access. A public comment period was not a statutory requirement in 2020 (RSA 189:74 dates from 2022), so its absence is noted only as practice.
Sources: Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020): remote-meeting conditions, for the duration of the state of emergency; RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): not in force in 2020.
OBSERVATION A member lost the connection through the attorney's briefing and the graduation discussion
At 0:18:18 Carolyn Towle asked "Hello?", then "Anybody hear me?" and "I can't hear anybody." (0:19:31) while the attorney was explaining the gathering limits, and at 0:19:48 asked to be called on her landline. At 0:34:48 she said she "lost internet connection" and "never could pick it up until Tyler had completely finished his discussion". RSA 91-A:2, III(c), as in force in 2020, required that a member participating remotely and the members in the meeting be able to hear each other and speak simultaneously; Emergency Order #12 relaxed the physical-quorum requirement, not that one. No vote was taken while she was disconnected, the briefing was informational, and she said she had "picked up enough of what's been said". The flag records a limit of the remote format rather than a defect in any decision.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, so the text in force in 2020); Emergency Order #12.
OBSERVATION Two board working groups were arranged on the floor with no word about notice or minutes
At 1:10:58 the business administrator asked for "a group from the board that I can work with" on the Abbey Group renewal, to meet "next Monday or next Tuesday" by "zoom meeting" or at the SAU (1:12:43). The chair named Jason Benware (absent), Heather Whitney and himself: "it'll either be 2 or 3 of us there." Later the chair proposed a capital improvement committee meeting "so that we can have a discussion prior to next board meeting" (1:38:46), and Lovett suggested "How about Tuesday?" RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), in force throughout 2020, makes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body" of a school board a public body in its own right, with the same notice and minutes duties as the board. Whether either group met, and whether it was noticed and minuted, is not in any record available here. Three of seven members is not a quorum of the board, so the question is whether the groups were committees of the board, not whether the board itself met.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1; in force for the whole 2015 to 2022 period); RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): notice and minutes.
OBSERVATION No agenda, notice or minutes for this meeting are posted online; the February 23 retreat minutes were approved 101 days after the retreat
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26). The recording shows minutes being kept: the board approves the February 23 retreat minutes (0:05:27) and corrects and approves the May 6 minutes (0:06:08). The retreat minutes had been tabled on March 4, when a member said on that recording that the notes were incomplete, and again on May 6; their approval here comes 101 days after the retreat. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force in 2020, required minutes to include "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", and to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (drafts suffice; approval has no statutory deadline). Whether the draft was available on time cannot be tested from here. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation, because the recording itself shows the minutes existed.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; text in force in 2020): minutes contents and five business days; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 127.
POSITIVE Every vote was a roll call, and members stated on the record that no one was with them
Each of the four motions (amended agenda, two sets of minutes, adjournment) was decided by a roll call read by the chair, beginning at 0:04:48. At 0:07:57 a participant raised the need to "attest that we're in a room by ourselves", and each member answered in turn. RSA 91-A:2, III(c) and (e), as in force in 2020, required a remotely participating member to "identify the persons present in the location from which the member is participating" and required "All votes taken during such a meeting" to be roll-call votes. The attestation came after the first three votes rather than before them, which is a small gap in sequence, but the practice is the one the statute describes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) and (e) (2019 codification; text in force in 2020).
POSITIVE The May 6 minutes were corrected to show a split vote, and movers and seconders were named aloud
At 0:06:08 the chair read three corrections into the May 6 minutes, including that the last-day-of-school vote "was not unanimous" because "Rob and Rebecca voted no", and credited an absent member for catching the errors. The May 6 recording confirms it: that roll call passed 5 to 2 with Zullo and Lovett voting nay. Correcting a record to show dissent is the purpose of approving minutes. The chair also named the mover and seconder of every motion on the recording ("Rob made the motion. Heather. Seconded.", 0:04:40; "Heather made the motion.", 0:07:28), which RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force in 2020, required the minutes to record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes."; related page: May 6, 2020.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10876, "SCHOOL BOARD meeting 6/3/20": 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, notice, presentation or minutes for this meeting were located.
- The February 23, 2020 retreat, whose minutes are approved here, has no recording in the project's corpus.
- Related pages: March 4, 2020 (retreat minutes first tabled) and May 6, 2020 (minutes corrected here).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10876 SchoolBoard060320.mp4.CSV (498 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10876 SchoolBoard060320.mp4Input/Transcripts/10876 SchoolBoard060320.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10876 SchoolBoard060320.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 127
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on June 3, 2020. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees are public bodies). RSA 91-A:2, II and III(c), (e) (minutes; remote participation; 2019 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1). RSA 189:74, cited only to show it post-dates this meeting.
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020). Emergency Orders 16 and 49, described by the attorney, are his characterization and were not verified for this page.