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. Limited public input to the comment period (0:06:03). Argued that a remote Stevens would free staff "to plug holes elsewhere" (1:05:36), moved to support the administration's proposal (1:24:00), and asked that the item return on January 6 (1:34:15). His opening procedure sits in the superintendent's diarization cluster and was reassigned (medium-high confidence). Rendered Greg. Spray and Greg in the clerk's calls. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Moved approval of the December 2 minutes (0:03:07); seconded the agenda, the minutes as amended and the Stevens motion (1:24:40). Opposed a remote Stevens: "there's no data or statistic to support that" (0:49:12); "43% of students don't log in" in New York City (1:22:12). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member (remote) | Described her three children's uneven remote experiences (0:51:43); asked "what the hangup is" on synchronous teaching (1:12:58); "This whole thing has me really torn" (1:28:18). Her answers on the Stevens roll call and the adjournment roll call are not audible. Rendered Missoula, Becca. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Moved the agenda (0:01:55). Had the December 2 minutes corrected: "The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." (0:03:44). Proposed putting remote students on a live class schedule (0:50:14) and spoke of the social and emotional cost of full remote for high schoolers (1:10:19). Rendered Mike patron, Mr. Patron, Micah. |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Arrived late (0:00:59). Relayed Patrick Adrian's typed question on Goshen (0:24:51). Opposed moving the 52% attending in person to remote: "So let's require it." (1:03:37). Moved to adjourn. Rendered Jason. Benwell, Edwin?. Several of his lines sit in a mixed cluster (medium-high confidence). |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member (remote) | One substantive turn (1:29:31): "I've been sending in notes as we've been discussing, I, you know, I figured everybody was reading them" (flag 2); sided with Zullo. Rendered Tall, Carolyn. Tall. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member (remote; medium-confidence attribution) | As a parent of two cohort C children asked why instructional hours differ (0:58:41). Recognized as Roberson. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Congratulated the student representative on his Dartmouth admission (0:11:50); COVID report (0:13:20); the Goshen tuition agreement (0:22:15); the survey and the Stevens proposal, reporting that remote high school students get about "4.3 hours a week" of asynchronous blocks (0:42:46). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | New quarantine rules: exposure quarantine "revised to now ten days" (0:20:16); gave the Stevens remote figure, "48% of the students, 248 students" (0:41:36). Rendered Donald by the superintendent. |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | The high school life skills program would stay in person; therapies delivered face to face where they do not translate remotely (1:20:37). Rendered Mister Nestor. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Called the attendance roll and the roll-call votes. Her calls and a board member's words share one mixed diarization cluster. |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative | Student report (0:07:42): a new machine at the tech center's machine tool lab bought with Perkins grants, scholarships, Disnard's holiday activities. Described remote classes that sent "what they did in the class without showing any context" (0:54:08). |
| Patrick Adrian | Member of the public (online) | Did not speak. His typed question on whether Goshen voters could reject the tuition agreement was read by Benware (0:24:51). |
| Unidentified | Various | 46 of 418 rows (11.0%), including a board member who says "we've already voted on this" about Goshen (0:30:20) and the member who asks whether staff could be reassigned without union protest (1:25:40). |
Also named but not speaking: Jeff Small (technology director, running the slides), Dr. Steve Chapman of the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (who had toured the schools), attorney Matt Upton (drafting the Goshen agreement), Stevens principal Patricia Barry (who had a commitment that night), and the Goshen superintendent (transcribed Superintendent Minahan; not verified).
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 tonight. Relatively short agenda." (0:01:42), and the superintendent says the Goshen and second-semester items "were tabled for this meeting at the last meeting" (0:22:15). 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, roll | "Jason is going to be late." (0:00:59). |
| 0:01:42 | Agenda approved | Moved by Petrin, seconded by Whitney; roll call (0:02:00), audible answers Yes. |
| 0:02:51 | Minutes of December 2, 2020 | Whitney moves, Petrin seconds, then Petrin asks for a correction under discussion and action items, letter C: the draft says the motion "was defeated, by four against three", and "The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." (0:03:44). New motion to approve "as amended" by Petrin, second Whitney (0:04:47); roll call. |
| 0:06:03 | Citizens' comments | The chair will "limit citizens comments to citizens comments during that, segment of the meeting". None offered (0:07:32). |
| 0:07:42 | Student report | Prescott Herzog. |
| 0:11:11 | Superintendent's report | Congratulations to the student representative; COVID-19 update and new quarantine guidance. |
| 0:22:15 | Goshen tuition agreement (tabled item) | Report only: "we've already voted on this. So this is just informational." (0:30:20). Unity and Goshen boards "voted unanimously" (0:30:35). No action. |
| 0:31:05 | Instructional options for the second semester (tabled item) | Survey extended a week; elementary to add in-person slots; middle school unchanged; Stevens High School to go fully remote for the third quarter. Motion by Sprague (1:24:00), second Whitney (1:24:40). Roll call called at 1:33:04; only the clerk's "Rebecca." is transcribed before the chair speaks again at 1:34:15; the result is not stated (flag 1). |
| 1:34:15 | Direction for January 6 | The chair asks for the item to return with changes: "the ability for students to be in school and also, students who are remote to be part of the same lesson." (1:34:43). |
| 1:36:20 | Adjournment | Moved by Benware, seconded by Whitney; roll call from 1:36:45, interrupted because Zullo could not be heard. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:03:44 | December 2 minutes corrected | Petrin: "Letter C, at the very end of the letter C says the motion was defeated, by four against three. That's the opposite. The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." The chair: "I'll mark it in my minutes, and I'll give it to you at the end of the meeting." (0:04:37). | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:03 | Citizens' comments limited | "it's particularly difficult right now with some people being remote and other people being here"; "I am not going to allow people to give input into our deliberations." "It looks like there's 33 participants." (0:06:32). | |
| 0:07:42 | Student report | "This 36 $0 machine was purchased through the Perkins Federal and State grants." Scholarships, an eighth-grade workshop and holiday activities. | |
| 0:13:20 | COVID-19 update | A visit by "Doctor Steve Chapman from the Dartmouth Chads program"; Sullivan County had "The lowest rate on the 15th in in the state" (0:14:36); "We've yet to have a cluster in the schools, no transmission within the schools." (0:14:56). Magoon: quarantine cut to ten days, with a test option for travel (0:21:08). | |
| 0:22:15 | Goshen anchor-school agreement | Goshen, "a town that has no school", left its Newport agreement and needed an anchor school (0:23:20); Claremont and Unity proposed to serve it. Initial per-pupil tuition figures (0:27:00): the elementary rate is garbled as the 141 in the 153141 (probably about $14,100; not verified) and the secondary rate is "153 $15,300 was the secondary". Expected numbers: "a handful. At Claremont and maybe a dozen or so at unity" (0:28:36). Adrian's relayed question and the answer, "They have school choice." (0:25:18). | |
| 0:24:55 | Handling an online question | Magoon: "I just typing to him that Frank had mentioned that we're not supposed to be answering questions." Benware reads it anyway (0:25:11): "What happens if Goshen residents vote down the tuition agreement on their voting day in March?" | |
| 0:31:05 | Survey results | "We only have a 48.5%, response rates" (0:31:41); the ratio wanting to stay in their current setting "is about 9 to 1"; about 20 or 25 elementary students may return; middle school "about 33% remote" and staying put (0:33:49). | |
| 0:39:28 | Staff roundtable with board members | "we've been having kind of roundtable forums with, with folks, with staff members, and we had board members and in Sprague in on that today". "We can't have the whole board in would be an odd meeting. We can only have three." (0:40:02). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:41:36 | The Stevens proposal | "48% of the students, 248 students at Stevens are remote." In-person students get "a total of 1040 minutes a week" (0:42:21); remote students "only four, 4.3 hours a week" (0:42:46). The goal is "to intervene with the kids who are, who are not made any success at all in this environment" (0:46:41). | |
| 0:47:52 | Members question the case | Whitney: "there's no data or statistic to support that. Even more hours of instruction remotely is better than less hours in school" (0:49:12). Petrin: "Why not give the remote students a synchronous schedule" (0:50:14). Zullo on three children's different experiences (0:51:43). Herzog as a student (0:54:08). Lovett: "why is there still this delineation in instructional hours?" (0:59:09). Benware: "I have a fundamental problem with taking 50% of the kids we seem to know is working" (1:01:59). | |
| 1:04:54 | Chair: freeing staff to cover | "one of the benefits that I see we would get from them would be coverage at the other schools" (1:05:36); "a couple of people mentioned it in the the roundtable today" (1:06:32). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:09:39 | Petrin on high school life | "kids going remote because of their work schedules, that that holds no weight to me"; "sending kids to full remote is going to have a very negative impact on some of these kids in their social emotional development" (1:10:19); "a teacher with a laptop and a camera is better than nothing" (1:10:58). | |
| 1:12:58 | Why not synchronous? | Zullo: "we've been talking about this since March of last year." (1:13:22). Tempesta: broadcasting, Hepa (probably HIPAA or FERPA privacy; the transcript's word is kept), training (1:14:24); "there's a lot of long standing inconsistencies within the district that, that predate Covid" (1:17:39); "we had our 1100 Chromebooks purchased and ready to be shipped before Covid" (1:18:01). Nester on special education (1:20:37). | |
| 1:21:37 | Whitney's summary | "remote learning is suboptimal in the best of circumstances"; "The only compelling argument I've really heard is Frank's argument with being able to utilize staff to plug holes elsewhere" (1:23:07). | |
| 1:24:00 | Motion on the proposal | Sprague: "we support the administration's proposal to." "Specifically, tried to bolster attendance at the elementary level by, finding selective slots for those kids, keeping middle school the same and going remote for third quarter at the high school." (1:24:10). Second, Whitney. A member asks whether "the union's going to get up in protest" at reassignments (1:25:40); Tempesta: "it's a change of assignment" (1:26:04). | |
| 1:28:18 | Zullo and Towle torn | Zullo: "I feel like the high school keeps taking hits". Towle: "I've been sending in notes as we've been discussing, I, you know, I figured everybody was reading them" (1:29:31). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:33:04 | Roll call; no result on tape | "We're going to vote. So Mrs. Woodman, could you do roll call vote please." The clerk: "Rebecca." (1:33:21). Nothing more is transcribed until the chair, 53 seconds later (1:34:15): "That being done being said, I think it would be interesting if this was on the agenda again January 2nd if there were some substantive changes." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:51 | Next meeting; adjournment | "When's our next meeting. The sixth." Benware moves to adjourn; on the roll the clerk says "I'm sorry. Rebecca was speaking. She was. I didn't hear her." (1:37:05); the recording ends as she is called again (1:38:20). | POSITIVE |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on December 16, 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.
OBSERVATION The roll call on moving Stevens High School fully remote is not on the recording, and no result is announced
The chair's motion to support the administration's proposal, "going remote for third quarter at the high school" among its parts (1:24:10), was seconded and debated, and the chair called for a roll call at 1:33:04. The transcript holds only the clerk's "Rebecca." at 1:33:21; the next row, 53 seconds later, is the chair asking that the item return "January 2nd [6th] if there were some substantive changes" (1:34:15). No member's answer and no tally are transcribed, and the chair never says whether the motion passed. The superintendent's reply ("you want the ability to pivot towards a hybrid", 1:35:02) and the January 6 agenda item on instructional options for the second semester, which the chair there calls a continued discussion, do not settle it (see the January 6, 2021 page). For a reader, whether Stevens was moved remote for the third quarter on this vote can only be learned from the minutes, which are not posted online (flag 4). The gap is in the recording or its transcription; nothing indicates the vote itself was irregular.
Sources: no statutory rule is engaged beyond the minutes requirement in flag 4; dialogue rows at 1:33:04, 1:33:21 and 1:34:15; Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.md (open item 1).
OBSERVATION A remote member said she had been sending written notes to the board during the deliberation
Carolyn Towle, taking part remotely, said at 1:29:31: "I've been sending in notes as we've been discussing, I, you know, I figured everybody was reading them". The recording does not show where the notes went (the meeting's public chat, which viewers could see, or messages to members only) or what they said. Written contributions that members read but the public cannot are part of the deliberation the public is entitled to follow: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) as it read in 2020 required that "Each part of a meeting required to be open to the public shall be audible or otherwise discernable to the public at the location specified in the meeting notice", and the same subparagraph provides that "No meeting shall be conducted by electronic mail or any other form of communication that does not permit the public to hear, read, or otherwise discern meeting discussion contemporaneously at the meeting location specified in the meeting notice." If the notes were in the public chat, no issue arises; if they went to members privately, they were not discernible to the public. Neither can be determined from the available records.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(c) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, in force until 2023, 188:1): each part of a public meeting "audible or otherwise discernable to the public"; dialogue row at 1:29:31.
OBSERVATION Board members heard staff at a same-day roundtable capped at three members, and that input shaped the debate
The superintendent reported "roundtable forums with, with folks, with staff members" that afternoon, attended by the chair and other board members, and explained "We can only have three." (0:40:02). The chair (1:06:32), Petrin (1:09:39) and the superintendent (0:46:18) then drew on what was said there. RSA 91-A:2, I defines a meeting as "the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body"; three members of a seven-member board is not a quorum, so on the superintendent's account the roundtable was not a meeting and needed no notice or minutes. The cap shows awareness of the rule. The point for a reader is that the staff views that shaped the Stevens debate were given in a session the public could not attend and that left no public record.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I (2019 codification, in force until 2023, 188:1): "meeting" is the convening of a quorum; dialogue rows at 0:39:28 and 0:40:02.
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 board corrects and approves the December 2 minutes on this recording (0:02:51, fourteen days after that meeting), and these December 16 minutes are approved on January 6, 2021, so minutes were being kept. In 2020, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", recording "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion". Whether either was met cannot be tested, and neither can the public-access notice required by Emergency Order #12. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, so the text in force in 2020); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 135.
POSITIVE A member caught draft minutes that reversed a vote, and the board corrected them before approving
At 0:03:44 Petrin pointed out that the draft December 2 minutes said a motion under discussion and action item C "was defeated, by four against three" when "The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 3." The chair marked the change for the clerk, and the minutes were approved "as amended" on a new motion and roll call (0:04:47). Accurate minutes are the only durable record of a vote; the board's reading of its drafts closely enough to catch a reversed outcome exceeds a bare approval. (What item C was is shown on the December 2, 2020 page.)
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes as the public record of the meeting; text in force in 2020); dialogue rows at 0:03:44 and 0:04:47.
POSITIVE Votes in this hybrid meeting were taken by roll call, and the clerk stopped when a remote member could not be heard
With Zullo, Towle and Lovett taking part remotely, the clerk called the roll on the agenda (0:02:00), the December 2 minutes (0:04:56), the Stevens motion (1:33:04) and the adjournment (1:36:45). When Zullo's answer on the adjournment could not be heard, the clerk said so and the chair had the connection retried (1:38:09). RSA 91-A:2, III(e) as it read in 2020 required that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote" whenever a member participated remotely, and III(c) that members be able to "simultaneously hear each other and speak". Emergency Order #12 waived only the physical-quorum requirement, on public-access conditions. Whether those conditions and III(a)'s statement of reasons in the minutes were met cannot be checked (flag 4).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (c), (e) (2019 codification, in force until 2023, 188:1); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020, under Executive Order 2020-04).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11106, "School Board Meeting live on 12/16/20": 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, Goshen agreement or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: December 2, 2020 (the meeting whose minutes are corrected here), SAU 6 Board, December 10, 2020, and January 6, 2021 (these minutes approved; second-semester options continued).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.CSV (418 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4Input/Transcripts/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11106 SchoolBoard121620.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 135
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on December 16, 2020. RSA 91-A:2, I, II and III (meeting defined as a quorum; minutes; remote participation, public discernibility and roll-call votes; 2019 codification, source note ends 2018, 244:1; the 2022 codification carries the same text).
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020), effective for the duration of the state of emergency, which lapsed at midnight on June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021, reporting).