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 | Ran the meeting and relayed counsel's concern about audibility (0:32:39). Argued that a full reopening would make teachers "frontline workers" (2:23:45) and that it was "unconscionable" to ask that of them (2:24:19). Read three letters into the record (2:40:12). Made the motion that passed: support for the administration "in moving forward in the development of a hybrid schedule" (3:35:38). Rendered Frank spread at roll call. Carried by three diarization clusters, one of which also catches others' onsets (medium confidence). |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (vice chair per the project timeline) | Served on two of the advisory subcommittees and praised their work (1:43:27), then challenged the plan's safety rationale: "what percentage of gain in safety are we going with this model" (1:44:26); argued that the hybrid put "our highest risk kids" at "the bottom of the pile" (2:00:36); pressed for triggers for moving between phases (3:15:31). Voted yes on both roll calls. Much of her speech sits in the assistant superintendent's diarization cluster and is attributed by override. Rendered As a Whitney. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Asked that the board focus on "what is safe as a group for our students" (0:52:00); worried about relying on families (2:08:18) and about staff who are afraid to return (3:11:02); seconded the chair's motion. Voted no, then yes. Rendered Rebecca Zulu. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Moved the agenda and the June 3 minutes; questioned temperature thresholds, mask-and-distance rules and bus spacing; criticised the parent survey's weighting (2:17:08, 2:29:55); moved "a full open option and a remote learning option and not a hybrid option" (3:10:20). Voted yes, then no. Moved to accept the face shields and to adjourn. Rendered Jason Benwell, Jason. Then with. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Asked about reassigning rooms by class size (1:05:14), mask laundering (1:24:57) and parental waivers (1:51:19); cited the survey (about a thousand parents; roughly 450 for reopening, 250 hybrid, 300 remote) (2:14:19); said he works in a long-term care facility (3:26:45). Seconded Benware's motion; voted yes, then no; moved the school calendar. Rendered Michael. Petra, Mr. patrons. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Favored the hybrid as a way to "tiptoe back into that water" (2:09:17); asked what would happen if the teachers' union refused a full opening (2:51:40); supported choice personally but not "a free for all" (3:14:27). Asked to be skipped on the first roll call (3:34:48); voted yes on the second. Rendered Ron, Ralph. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member (by phone) | Could not hear the roll call at first (0:02:36). Spoke once, after help unmuting: "I would rather go in as a hybrid face and then slowly open up to a full time." (2:58:11). Voted no, then yes. Rendered Carolyn. Tall, Carolyn told. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the reopening plan: advisory committee of about 70 (0:10:12), exclusion and testing rules, masks, nine buses and seven drivers (0:56:45), classrooms of 12, sports, $500,000 to $600,000 already spent on equipment (1:23:17). Defended the hybrid on staffing and capacity grounds (2:01:38) and said a return to full time would come "right at the quarter right around Thanksgiving" (3:08:42). Rendered Mr. Dempster. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Explained Dr. Chan's exclusion and testing guidance (0:13:17), homeschool and adequacy aid (0:38:35), parent training (1:32:27), the personalized-learning Wednesday (1:40:17) and the calendar change (3:39:37); said the staff survey favored hybrid (2:30:55). Rendered superintendent McGowan, Donna McGowan. |
| Richard Seaman | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Asked whether teaching in-person and remote students at once would need more staff: "I have a feeling that there is a significant financial ramification of half and half" (3:22:15). Not introduced on the recording; named by others ("Richard's questions"); medium confidence. |
| Matt Upton | District counsel, Drummond Woodsum (remote) | Raised through the chair a concern that the public could not hear (0:32:39). Advised on liability ("discretionary function immunity", 1:48:39) and on waivers, which he said would bind only the signer and could not be required for core education (1:52:03). |
| Patricia Barry | Principal, Stevens High School (by phone) | Explained why the task force landed on hybrid: "We can open and go back to 100%, but we cannot also meet the CDC guidelines." (3:00:21). Rendered Principal Bailey, Patricia Berry. |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 (uncertain) | Ran the phone and remote-audio line ("we have over 30 callers", 0:18:26; "I see somebody with a phone ending three, three.", 2:33:04). The attribution rests on the chair's "Jeff, you can help me with this" and is marked uncertain in the dialogue file. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Called the attendance roll (0:02:14) and both roll-call votes; said of the chair's motion, "I'm going to have to talk to him after the meeting to get the full content of that motion" (3:37:29). |
| Patrick Adrian | Public comment by phone, Ward 1 (former board member) | "I'm going to speak as a parent." (2:33:15). Asked that the Wednesday not become a teacher prep day, how remote students would be served, and for "measurable data" to decide phases (2:36:02). |
| James Ward | Public comment by phone; parent | Spoke for families who could not work under the hybrid schedule (2:37:36) and answered the chair's "frontline workers" point (2:38:08). |
| Letter writers (read by the chair) | Correspondents | Kip Ryan (Ward 2), Mike Demers, and a former board member rendered Steve Ski (the roster suggests Steven Horsky; not verified). The chair paraphrased each and said of the first: "I'm going to give this to Mrs. Woodman and it'll be part of the minutes." (2:40:12 to 2:44:23). |
| Unidentified | Various | 82 of 1,166 rows (7.0%): backchannel, procedural questions during the roll calls, and several of the roll-call answers on the first vote. |
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 "an agenda in front of us" (0:03:08), and after the main vote says "We have other things on the agenda" (3:38:56), so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:01:07 | Call to order, pledge, attendance | "Mrs. Woodman, could you do roll call attendance, please?" (0:01:55). All seven members answer or are marked present; Towle, on the phone, cannot hear the clerk (0:02:36). |
| 0:03:08 | Agenda | Benware moves "that we accept the agenda as presented" (0:03:18); voice vote (0:03:29). |
| 0:03:29 | Minutes of June 3, 2020 | "Jason makes a motion. Heather. Seconds." (0:03:54). Voice vote; Towle asks about her vote and is told "No, not roll call. Because we're all here, Carolyn. Except for you." (0:04:12). See flag 1 and the June 3, 2020 page. |
| 0:04:21 | Superintendent's report: fall 2020 reopening plan | The administration's plan, presented with slides, questions taken as it went (0:04:30 to about 1:57:07). Counsel's advice on liability and waivers at 1:48:13. No action during the presentation. |
| 1:57:07 | Board discussion of the plan | Whitney's challenge to the safety rationale, answers from the superintendent and assistant superintendent, and members' positions, until the chair opens the phones (2:32:45). |
| 2:32:45 | Public comment by phone; letters | Patrick Adrian (Ward 1) and James Ward by phone; the chair then summarizes three letters whose writers "asked that they be, read or put in part of the in the minutes" (2:40:12 to 2:44:23). |
| 2:45:29 | Further board discussion | Whitney, Towle (by phone), Lovett, the chair, Principal Barry (by phone), the superintendent and the business administrator. |
| 3:10:20 | Motion: full in-person or fully remote, no hybrid | Benware: "I make a motion that we recommend that we have a either a full open option and a remote learning option and not a hybrid option." Petrin seconds (3:10:37). Restated before the vote (3:33:40). Roll call (3:34:34 to 3:35:25): Whitney Yes, Zullo No, Benware Yes, Lovett asks to be called last, Petrin Yes, Towle (by phone) No after confusion (3:35:13); the remaining answers are unattributed; no result is announced. The board goes straight to the chair's motion, so the motion evidently failed. See flag 3. |
| 3:35:38 | Motion: support development of a hybrid schedule | The chair: "I make a motion that we that the Claremont School Board support the administration in moving forward in the development of a hybrid schedule that contains," then "Metrics or indicators for, changes in phase space." Zullo seconds (3:36:16, 3:37:14); the chair adds that "a timeline and metrics for changes of of basis" are expected (3:36:51). Roll call (3:37:51 to 3:38:48): Whitney yes, Zullo yes, Benware no, Lovett yes, Petrin no, Towle yes, Sprague yes. Passed 5 to 2 (3:38:56). |
| 3:39:14 | Donated face shields | Benware: "I move that we accept the will and donation of all those really nice face shields." Whitney seconds; voice vote (3:40:17). The shields came from Whalen (1,000 of them, per the superintendent at 0:55:44). |
| 3:39:20 | 2020-21 school calendar | Tentative approval sought before talks with the teachers: three added professional development days, and Friday early releases moved to Wednesdays so the two cohorts stay even; school to start September 3 (3:40:08). Petrin moves (3:40:38); voice vote (3:42:32). |
| 3:42:39 | Adjournment | Benware moves; voice vote (3:42:41). |
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 |
|---|
| 0:02:14 | Roll call; a remote member cannot hear | Clerk: "Rebecca zullo. Jason Benwell here. Rob Lovett. Junior. Here. Michael. Petra. Here. Carolyn. Tall. Is she. She's here." Towle: "I can't hear her at all." The chair: "We just did attendance, Carolyn. And we marked you as here." (0:02:40). On the minutes vote: "No, not roll call. Because we're all here, Carolyn. Except for you." (0:04:12). | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:44 | Letters and the Sunday retreat | The superintendent thanks the public for "many, many letters" and promises to answer each. He explains that the board used the Sunday retreat to hear the plan: "we used Sunday, which was a regularly scheduled to be months ago." (0:06:10), "A retreat so that we could plan school board goals" (0:06:31); "We weren't we weren't on TV. We didn't have any other supports." (0:06:52). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:06 | How the plan was built | An advisory committee broken "into seven subcommittees" (0:09:06), about 70 people including "six students" and staff from Dartmouth-Hitchcock (0:10:12); the main drivers were "the limitations of size" of classrooms and buses (0:10:47). | |
| 0:11:54 | Who is excluded and tested | Benware asks why there are two temperature thresholds. Magoon: a child sent home must have "the Covid test done and the negative test result come back" before returning; refusing a test means "an automatic ten days" (0:13:57). Benware: the rules may "discourage self-reporting" (0:16:12). | |
| 0:28:17 | Can the public hear? | Zullo relays that viewers are "having a challenging time hearing the audio". The chair: "I just heard from Matt Upton. And, you're breaking up and others can't be heard at all. Okay. So his concern is if the public can't hear when, then we can't have the meeting." (0:32:39). Members note the CCTV feed is clear; microphones are rearranged and the meeting continues. | POSITIVE |
| 0:31:57 | The hybrid model | "our proposed hybrid model which is two full days in school in three remote", cohorts A and B on Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday. With 1,800 students, "We can get 12 in a class. That's the driver behind it." (0:36:41). Households kept on the same days (0:37:20). | |
| 0:37:57 | Remote learners and adequacy aid | Benware asks whether remote students would cost the district "our adequacy aid". The superintendent: "you wouldn't lose adequacy." (0:38:28); Magoon: "It's not considered homeschool for for this time period" (0:38:35). | |
| 0:41:17 | Masks all day and six feet | Whitney: "I don't remember that being an advisory task force recommendation." The superintendent: "CDC is is still a solid six feet" (0:44:27). Whitney: "I am getting concerned that the education piece is getting lost." (0:47:00). | |
| 0:56:45 | Buses and drivers | "We have nine busses." "We only have seven drivers. We have right now. We've already lost two drivers." (0:57:14). Seat to seat "It's two feet from mouth to back of head." (0:58:30). Ridership last year 646 (1:00:50). | |
| 1:08:57 | Sports and activities | Possible loss of contact sports; the superintendent is not comfortable "risking our transportation for sports" (1:11:14). Benware: extracurriculars "are things that kids choose to do" and suggests a regional league (1:14:59). | |
| 1:23:17 | Equipment already bought | "Approximately five 500 and $600,000 already on equipment", mostly furniture (1:23:17); 1,000 face shields donated by Whalen (0:55:20); cloth masks for every student and staff member. | |
| 1:43:27 | Whitney challenges the safety rationale | After praising the committees, "what percentage of gain in safety are we going with this model" (1:44:26); transmission in school depends on transmission in the community, and "there there is no cases. There are there are no cases around us." (1:46:56). | |
| 1:48:39 | Counsel on liability and waivers | Upton: "the risk of liability to the district increases each time you are doing something that's contrary to the recommended practices" (1:49:57). A waiver "would not be enforceable against a family member who contracted Covid" (1:52:03), and requiring one to access education, "which Claremont knows is a constitutionally protected right", is a problem (1:52:30). | |
| 1:57:22 | Equity and the hybrid | Whitney: affluent families "have the means and they're going to send them to private school" (2:00:36). The superintendent: "we have to open school" (2:01:38); staff "are the backbone of our operation" (2:02:31). Magoon: the Department of Education recommended a social-emotional start (2:05:20). | |
| 2:09:17 | Members' positions | Lovett: "what we're trying to do is tiptoe back into that water". Petrin on the survey (2:14:19); Benware: "I do believe that the survey was flawed" (2:17:08); the chair: teachers would become "frontline workers" (2:23:45). | |
| 2:33:15 | Public comment by phone | Patrick Adrian (Ward 1): the Wednesday "needs to be a structured school day" (2:33:59) and "There's needs to be some measurable data" for phases (2:36:02). James Ward: families "They're they're getting hit over the head twice." (2:38:42). | POSITIVE |
| 2:40:12 | Letters read | "there were several individuals who had asked that they be, read or put in part of the in the minutes. So I'm going I'm going to honor I told them I would". Kip Ryan (Ward 2), Mike Demers (2:41:51), and "former board member Steve Ski" (2:42:59). | POSITIVE |
| 3:00:08 | Principal Barry on the constraint | "if we go back on September 3rd, 100%, there is no way in any of our buildings that we can maintain the distance." (3:00:50). "that's why the hybrid is where we landed." (3:01:38). | |
| 3:05:47 | When would full time return? | The superintendent: "we would probably go right at the quarter right around Thanksgiving" (3:08:42). Whitney: "I'm not hearing that there's a there is a trigger" (3:16:33). The superintendent: "I don't have a ready plan." (3:17:01). | |
| 3:22:15 | Cost of teaching both ways | Seaman: "I have a feeling that there is a significant financial ramification of half and half". The superintendent: "it could be very, very costly, very fast." (3:25:03). | |
| 3:33:28 | First roll call: choice of full or remote | Motion restated (3:33:40). Answers: Whitney Yes, Zullo No, Benware Yes, Lovett "Come back to me, please.", Petrin Yes; for Towle the clerk's row reads "Yes yes." and then Benware: "She said no." (3:35:13). The rest of the answers are unattributed No fragments; no result is announced. | OBSERVATION MEDIUM |
| 3:35:38 | Second roll call: support the hybrid | The chair's motion, Zullo second. The clerk: "I'm going to have to talk to him after the meeting to get the full content of that motion" (3:37:29). Towle: "I did okay." (3:37:39). Passed 5 to 2; the clerk: "Not all in favor, but favor was the choice." (3:38:50). | OBSERVATION |
| 3:39:14 | Face shields, calendar, adjournment | Three voice votes with Towle still on the phone. Calendar: "all we did was we took any, any. Fridays that were, early released and we brought them to a Wednesday" (3:39:44). | MEDIUM |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on August 5, 2020, including the Governor's COVID-19 emergency orders then in effect. 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.
MEDIUM A member took part by phone, yet five of the seven votes were voice votes, one after the chair expressly declined a roll call
Carolyn Towle attended by phone and at first could not hear the clerk (0:02:36). In 2020, RSA 91-A:2, III required that "Each member participating electronically or otherwise must be able to simultaneously hear each other and speak to each other during the meeting", that the reason remote attendance was "not reasonably practical" be "stated in the minutes", and, in III(e), that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." A quorum was in the room, so Emergency Order #12, which waived only the physical-quorum requirement of III(b), did not displace these rules. The agenda (0:03:29), the June 3 minutes, the face shields (3:40:17), the school calendar (3:42:32) and the adjournment (3:42:41) were voice votes. When Towle asked about her vote on the minutes, the chair answered "No, not roll call. Because we're all here, Carolyn. Except for you." (0:04:12). The two reopening motions, the votes that mattered most, were taken by roll call, and before the second the chair checked that Towle had heard the motion (3:37:36). Graded MEDIUM as a probable process gap on the routine votes, mitigated by the roll calls on the substantive ones; the minutes that would show how the voice votes were recorded are not available (flag 2). The board had a second remote-member meeting four weeks later and handled it the same way (see the September 2, 2020 page).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (c), (e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, unamended until 2023, 188:1): remote participation conditions; members simultaneously hear each other; all votes by roll call; Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020, under Executive Order 2020-04): waives only the physical-quorum requirement of RSA 91-A:2, III(b), on public-access conditions.
OBSERVATION No agenda, notice or minutes for this meeting are posted online, though the recording shows minutes being kept
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. The recording shows the board approving the June 3 minutes (0:03:29), the chair handing letters to the clerk for the minutes (2:40:12), and the clerk planning to confirm a motion's wording for the minutes (3:37:29); the September 2 recording shows this meeting's minutes being drafted and tabled. In 2020, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" and to record "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion". Whether that was met cannot be tested from here. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation, because the recording shows minutes being kept and the absence is explained by where the district's public archive begins.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; in force in 2020): minutes within 5 business days, movers and seconders recorded; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 128.
OBSERVATION The record of the two reopening votes is incomplete: one result was never announced, and the clerk did not have the wording of the motion that passed
On Benware's motion for a choice of full in-person or fully remote school, the roll call (3:34:34 to 3:35:25) records three Yes answers (Whitney, Benware, Petrin) and No from Zullo and, after some confusion, Towle (3:35:13); Lovett asked to be called last, and the remaining No answers are not attributed to anyone. No result was announced before the chair moved his own motion, so the tally (apparently 3 to 4) has to be inferred. On the chair's motion, which passed 5 to 2, the clerk said "I'm going to have to talk to him after the meeting to get the full content of that motion" (3:37:29); its wording on the recording ends with a clarification that the board expects "a timeline and metrics for changes of of basis" (3:36:51), which was never restated as a single motion. RSA 91-A:2, II required the minutes to record final decisions and the names of the movers and seconders. The record that should settle both votes is the minutes, and on September 2 those minutes were tabled after a member said they contained many discrepancies. For the vote that set how Claremont's schools reopened in 2020, a reader today has only the recording.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): minutes to include final decisions and the names of members who made or seconded each motion; September 2, 2020 page, flag 3.
OBSERVATION The plan was first presented to the board at an untelevised Sunday retreat three days earlier
The superintendent explained that the board "used Sunday", a retreat scheduled months before for goal-setting, to receive "an overview of everything", and that "We weren't we weren't on TV." (0:06:10, 0:06:52); Benware later said he had raised his concerns about the survey "on Sunday" (2:17:08). A gathering of a quorum to discuss district business is a meeting under RSA 91-A:2, I, with the notice and minutes duties that follow; nothing in RSA 91-A requires a meeting to be televised. Minutes of the August 2 retreat did exist: the board corrected and approved them on September 2. Whether the retreat was noticed cannot be checked. The point for a reader is that the first public discussion of the reopening plan, and whatever members said there, is known only through those minutes, which are not posted, while tonight's recording repeatedly refers back to it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2019 codification): a meeting is the convening of a quorum; notice and minutes; September 2, 2020 page (retreat minutes amended and approved).
POSITIVE Counsel stopped the meeting to ask whether the public could hear it
About half an hour in, the chair relayed a message from district counsel: "his concern is if the public can't hear when, then we can't have the meeting" (0:32:39). Members confirmed that the CCTV feed was clear, microphones were moved, and the technology director reminded members to unmute "so they can hear your questions" for the more than 30 people calling in (0:18:26). In 2020, RSA 91-A:2, III(c) required each part of a meeting open to the public to be audible or otherwise discernible to the public at the meeting's location, and Emergency Order #12 conditioned its relief on public access. Treating audibility as a condition of continuing, rather than an inconvenience, is the right reading of the statute.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) (2019 codification): meeting audible or discernible to the public; Emergency Order #12: public access conditions.
POSITIVE Callers were heard and three letters were read into the record before the vote
The chair opened the phones before the board voted (2:32:45); two callers spoke, one as a parent and former board member (2:33:15) and one on behalf of working families (2:37:09). He then summarized three letters whose writers had asked for them to be read, and said the letter "it'll be part of the minutes" (2:40:12 to 2:44:23). No statute required a public comment period at a New Hampshire school board meeting in 2020: RSA 189:74 was enacted by 2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022. Taking comment before a decisive vote, and entering written comment in the record, exceeded what the law then required.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): school board public comment period, not in force in 2020.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 10942, SCHOOL BOARD MEETING - 8-5-20 Includes Fall 2020 Back to School Plan: Claremont Community TV. 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, slides, reopening plan document, survey results or minutes for this meeting were located. The superintendent said the full presentation and backup documents were posted on the district website at the time (0:08:21); that 2020 posting is not among the project's files.
- Related pages: June 3, 2020 (minutes approved here) and September 2, 2020 (this meeting's minutes tabled; the state's transition guidance debated). The August 2, 2020 retreat at which the plan was first presented has no recording in the project's corpus.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/10942 SchoolBoard080520.mp4.CSV (1,166 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/10942 SchoolBoard080520.mp4Input/Transcripts/10942 SchoolBoard080520.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/10942 SchoolBoard080520.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 128
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on August 5, 2020. RSA 91-A:2, I, II and III (meeting defined; notice and minutes; remote participation, audibility and roll-call votes; 2019 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1). RSA 189:74 (school board public comment period), cited only to show it post-dates this meeting (2022, 333:1).
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020), effective for the duration of the state of emergency, which was renewed until it lapsed at midnight on June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021, reporting).
- Legal characterizations not verified here. District counsel's statements on discretionary function immunity and on waivers (1:48:39, 1:52:03) are reported as his advice; no statute or case is cited for them on this page.