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. Opened the $5,000 gift hearing (0:00:07); as a member of the budget subcommittee endorsed the administration's budget (0:36:59) and told viewers "the board doesn't cut positions. We we approve a budget" (1:09:19). Moved to support the remote pivot (2:08:25) after saying he now saw evidence that conditions in the schools were deteriorating (1:42:42). Reported a virtual meeting with the mayor and city manager on broadband (2:12:56). Rendered Frank. Sweat, Frank spread, Frank's right in the clerk's calls. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (vice chair per the project's governance timeline, elected May 6, 2020; not stated on this recording) | Moved approval of the December 16 minutes (0:04:56). Argued at length against going remote: "We have not had a cluster" (0:24:44) and "we're not following an algorithm here" (1:51:04); pressed for the threshold that would bring students back (1:57:52). Asked whether the $400,000 from the special education expendable trust was being used as promised (1:09:47). Raised home-school curricula for cohort C families (2:20:53). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Remote. Asked why the administration chose remote over a hybrid model (1:32:43); described her own school in Lebanon (1:34:46) and supported the pivot as "a proactive measure". Answered Whitney at 2:06:07. Caught that the new-student return date was a typo (2:11:02). Her answer on the remote-pivot roll call is not audible (flag 4). Rendered Rebecca Zulu. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; budget subcommittee | Moved approval of the agenda (0:03:27); seconded the minutes. Said "I really see both sides of the argument" (1:36:48) and noted "I don't have the option of going remote in my field" (1:59:50); voted yes on the pivot. Questioned how quickly two out-of-town athletes were stopped from playing (2:29:48). Rendered Mike patron, My teacher, Michael. Patrick, Like the future. |
| Jason Benware | Board member; budget subcommittee | Absent at the roll call; joined online on a borrowed device (0:34:42). Moved acceptance of the $5,000 gift and moved the proposed budget to the public hearing (1:14:28). Opposed the remote pivot ("I don't think a ten day break is going to change much of anything", 1:30:12) and voted No (2:09:23). Announced he would not seek re-election (2:36:31). Rendered Jason Benoit, Jason. Dunlap, David?, Jason. Bethlehem. Then live. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Apparently remote. Seconded the gift acceptance, the budget motion (1:14:41) and the remote-pivot motion (2:08:41); "my vote would be to shut down" (2:05:37). Corrected the record that Zullo, not Whitney, had seconded the agenda (0:04:23). Raised House Bill 1129 and a remote deliberative session (2:38:56). Rendered Carolyn Toll, Carolyn. Tall, Carolyn. Paul, Carolyn 12. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Echoed Whitney's concern about leaving the reopening matrix: "if we're straying from the metric that we built, what's the new metric that we're following?" (2:02:37); voted Yes on the pivot (2:09:32). Rendered For our beloved junior in a roll call. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report (0:08:12 on): two $500 donations, COVID-19 case data, the contact-tracing response at the middle school that day, the recommendation "to recommend that we go to remote learning until the 19th" (0:13:51), survey results and staffing. Explained the eight position reductions (1:03:50 onward) and the out-of-town athletes question (2:26:28). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Gave quarantine counts: "approximately 13 staff members out" and "26 students in three staff members just from today, from the middle school" (0:17:45); rebutted Whitney at 1:53:15. Introduced the elementary remote plan. Rendered superintendent McGowan by the superintendent. |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator / assistant superintendent for finance, SAU 6 | Presented the four-page budget summary (0:40:49): $392,000 adequacy-aid reduction, eight further position cuts, $400,000 from the special education expendable trust as revenue, appropriation of "37,785,000" (0:52:02), local rate up about $0.60 net. Spoke for the building leaders' strain (1:43:39). His budget passage sits in the chair's diarization cluster and was reassigned by override (high confidence per the attribution report). |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Described the anonymous $5,000 gift and its handwritten letter (0:00:41); answered on catastrophic aid, estimated at "around 600,000" (1:02:58). |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Ran the slides ("Mr. Small"); one line (0:09:34). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk and recording secretary | Called the attendance roll and every roll-call vote; gave the school board filing period, January 20 to 29 (2:40:05). |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative (medium-confidence attribution; surname from the project roster) | Brief report despite "technical difficulties": Stevens High School "received an ExxonMobil Educational Alliance grant" (0:07:30). |
| Frank Romeo | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Remote. Described sending about 300 students home that day and the strain on staff: "the question for us right now is not the can we do it because we can and we are doing it. It's the should we" (1:21:22). Spoke again at 1:38:00. Self-identified as Frank Bromley in the transcript. |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary | Remote (1:24:53, Disney Art). Echoed Romeo on staff strain and proactive measures. |
| Dale Chenette | Principal, Bluff Elementary (low-to-medium confidence: identified by elimination; the self-identification is garbled) | Remote (1:27:23): "It's really a question of should we be doing it? The vaccine is right around the corner. And so to me, it's like an ethical decision." |
| Kathleen Bunnell | Principal, Maple Avenue Elementary (first name on the record; surname from the project roster) | Remote (1:47:53). Described the elementary remote day: "moving to a much more synchronous model". |
| Alex Herzog | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Remote (1:28:34): "teaching plumbing or machine tool remotely. That's really hard", but supported the pause for safety. |
| Unidentified | Various | 99 of 816 rows (12.1%), mostly room audio, roll-call answers and one-word interjections in two mixed diarization clusters. |
Citizens' comments were opened at 0:06:08 and closed at 0:07:06 with no speakers. Mayor Charlene Lovett is mentioned (a mayors' letter on adequacy aid, 0:38:11) but does not appear.
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" (0:03:13), 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 | Public hearing: $5,000 gift to special education | "whenever we see receive a donation of this size, we are required by statute to have a public hearing on that." Nester describes the anonymous gift; no member of the public speaks; hearing closed at 0:01:45. |
| 0:01:55 | Pledge; attendance roll | Roll at 0:02:20: "Jason is absent." Six members answer. |
| 0:03:13 | Agenda approved | Moved by Petrin; the chair names Whitney as seconder, and Towle corrects that it was Zullo (0:04:23). Roll call; audible answers Yes. |
| 0:04:39 | Minutes of December 16, 2020 | Moved by Whitney, seconded by Petrin; roll call (0:05:29), every audible answer Yes. |
| 0:06:08 | Citizens' comments | "It is not my preference that we would invite public comment during our actual deliberations", so comment on any item was invited now. None. |
| 0:07:21 | Student representative's report | One item: the ExxonMobil grant to Stevens. |
| 0:08:02 | Superintendent's report | Two $500 donations "I didn't have them expressly on on the agenda" (flag 1); COVID-19 data and the recommendation to go remote until January 19; survey results; staffing. Questions deferred to the discussion item. |
| 0:34:56 | Acceptance of the $5,000 gift | Motion by Benware, second by Towle (0:35:34); roll call, every audible answer Yes. |
| 0:36:26 | Budget discussion, fiscal year 2021–22 | Sprague for the budget subcommittee, then Seaman's summary. Motion by Benware "that we move the proposed 2022 budget to the public hearing" (1:14:28), second by Towle; roll call (1:14:53), every audible answer Yes. |
| 1:16:15 | Instructional options for second semester | The chair splits the administration's two requests: remote from January 8 to 19, and delaying new in-person students to February 1. Principals heard. Motion by Sprague to "support the administration in, pivoting to remote from one eight of 21 to through 119 of 21" (2:08:25), second Towle; roll call (2:08:49); "The motion passes." (2:09:57). The second request was then "Bypassed" (2:11:36) without a vote (flag 4). |
| 2:11:46 | Broadband in Claremont | Report of the chair's and superintendent's virtual meeting with the mayor and city manager. No action. |
| 2:14:05 | Money for learning loss and mental health support | The chair's item on federal relief funding. No action. |
| 2:17:16 | Remote learning updates | Superintendent and assistant superintendent; questions from Whitney and Zullo. No action. |
| 2:26:20 | Claremont Middle School athletic policy | Out-of-town students on middle school teams; referred to the policy committee without a motion (flag 5). |
| 2:35:36 | Future agenda; school board filings | Filing period January 20 to 29; Benware will not run; Towle on an NHSBA webinar and HB 1129. |
| 2:41:53 | Adjournment | Motion and second, roll call from 2:42:10. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Public hearing on a $5,000 gift | Sprague: "we have received a donation that for special education, which is $5,000. And as is typical, whenever we see receive a donation of this size, we are required by statute to have a public hearing on that." Nester: the donor wrote a handwritten letter and "wishes to remain anonymous"; the gift is "To support kids and the work that our teachers do" (0:00:56). No public speaker; closed at 0:01:45. | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:20 | Roll, agenda and minutes | "Jason is absent." Agenda moved by Petrin; Towle: "It was Rebecca that second did not have the Whitney." (0:04:23). December 16 minutes moved by Whitney ("I would like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from January 2nd in December 15th. December 16th December 16th."), seconded by Petrin, roll call. | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:08 | Citizens' comments | "if anyone in the listening or viewing audience would like to comment at this time about anything we might be discussing tonight, now would be the time." ... "Seeing no citizens." | |
| 0:08:12 | Two $500 donations | Tempesta: "we have a couple other smaller donations that I'd like to to mention that are below the $5,000 threshold, but they're substantial. They're $500 a night. I didn't have them expressly on on the agenda." One "From Exxon Mobil for Stevens for $500 in for dinner [Disnard?], for $500" and a "music department donation for Claremont and Unity for $500 as well. And that is from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. So I would like to accept those" (0:08:40). No motion or vote follows. | MEDIUM |
| 0:09:37 | COVID-19 spike and the day's incident | "There's obviously been a spike of, Covid 19 in Sullivan County and in Claremont. That is very significant." Slides from December 14 ("65 new cases in New Hampshire and only 17 in Sullivan County") to January 4 ("62 active cases in Claremont", 0:12:29). Recommendation "to recommend that we go to remote learning until the 19th" (0:13:51) and to delay the new group of returning students (0:14:46). | |
| 0:17:45 | Quarantine counts | Magoon: "approximately 13 staff members out, on quarantine" and "26 students in three staff members just from today, from the middle school"; "over 50 students out right now being quarantined throughout our district" (0:18:12). | |
| 0:21:28 | Whitney: no clusters in school | "We have yet to have a cluster." After microphone trouble (0:22:19 to 0:23:20): "children are getting infected in the community. They're not getting infected in school" (0:24:22); "Our protocols, work or safety procedures work" (0:25:33). The chair defers debate to the agenda item. | |
| 0:26:28 | Survey and returning students | About a 45% response rate, rising to 50%; an increase to about 10% wanting to return; "approximately 25 or 30 or so wanting to come back to Stevens and, about 15 or so, I believe at, at the middle school" (0:28:11). Returning students "may have they may have to join another school" (0:32:08). | |
| 0:34:14 | Benware joins online | "Jason Benoit is online now as well." Chair: "Are you here at the meeting? Are you official?" Benware: "Yeah. I didn't want to miss." | |
| 0:34:56 | $5,000 gift accepted | "So I think Jason made the motion in. Carolyn seconded it." (0:35:34); roll call; Towle: "Yes. And thank you very much." | POSITIVE |
| 0:36:59 | Budget subcommittee's account | Sprague: "Jason. Ben, where [Benware] Mike patron [Petrin] and I have been on the budget subcommittee"; "Our overall goal was to come as close to a zero tax impact as we could." Adequacy-aid cut; the mayor's letter with other mayors (0:38:11). "We met, I don't know how many meetings we had. 4 or 5. And we met again this morning and, gave our final marching orders to the administration" (0:38:37). Seaman: "our meetings on Wednesday morning" (0:40:16). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:40:49 | Budget summary | Seaman: last year's one-time state money of $2.58 million; a further adequacy reduction of $392,000 (0:41:48); an autism program costing $190,000 to bring back three out-placed students costing $270,000 (0:42:59); two residential placements anticipated at $500,000 (0:45:22); three contingency placements at "$90,000 apiece" (0:46:19). The subcommittee's direction was to bring an increase of "$2 on the tax rate" below $1 (0:48:31), so "we determined today to reduce an additional eight positions" (0:49:05); "The positions haven't been identified" (0:49:51). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:50:12 | Trust money and totals | "hundred thousand dollars [$400,000] from the Special Education expendable trust" as revenue; paraprofessional contingency cut "from nine down to four" (0:50:48). Last year's budget "a 38,202,006 61 budget" (0:51:36) plus "$1,133,000 of warrant articles"; this year no warrant articles and "appropriation of 37,785,000" (0:52:02). "net to be raised by taxes of 17,038,000 to 44" (0:53:13); the local rate "up $0.70" but net "up by approximately $0.60" after the state rate change (0:53:48). | |
| 1:02:28 | Board questions on the budget | Catastrophic aid estimated at "around 600,000" (Nester, 1:02:58); Seaman had not added the two new placements to it (1:03:24). The eight positions are "a mixture" of retirements and consolidations (Tempesta, 1:04:26). Sprague: "the board doesn't cut positions. We we approve a budget." (1:09:19). Whitney on the trust's promised use (1:09:47); Tempesta: "You're using exactly as we said that we would" (1:10:52). | |
| 1:14:05 | Budget sent to public hearing | Benware: "I move that. We move the proposed 2022 budget to the delivered session." then "Let me rephrase that. They strike that person, a move that we move the proposed 2022 budget to the public hearing." Towle seconds; roll call from 1:14:53. | POSITIVE |
| 1:16:15 | Second-semester options: two requests split | Chair: "One is a switch to remote from one 821 to 1 1921, and the other is delay new in person students till two one of 21. And when we come to a vote on this, I would like to separate those two." Tempesta invites the principals (1:17:43). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:19:26 | Principals on strain | Romeo: "Should we be having all of our administrators covering classes and not be out on the floor for discipline, for social emotional support?" (1:21:22); "I don't want to have another day like we had today, to have to sit back and say to 300 students, you have to go home." (1:22:49). Lewis agrees (1:24:53); Chenette: "to me, it's like an ethical decision" (1:27:23); Herzog for the tech center (1:28:34). | |
| 1:29:21 | Board debate | Benware: "if we're sitting around waiting for the vaccine to save us, we got a long time before that's coming." Zullo: "for me, it's a no brainer" (1:35:12). Petrin: vaccines are "months. We're not talking weeks." (1:36:03). Sprague: "are we education or are we daycare?" (1:41:44) and "I am going to support the administration in this recommendation" (1:43:07). Seaman for the building leaders: "Open up the pressure valve for a little bit" (1:46:37). | |
| 1:47:23 | What remote will look like | Magoon: "we are talking live teaching." Bunnell: "moving to a much more synchronous model where teachers will be live and in person with their class on the computer" (1:48:17); lessons also recorded. | |
| 1:49:23 | Whitney: when do students return? | "So if our cases do not fall in two weeks, what's our plan?" (1:50:38). Magoon: "I sent home.", "26 kids today that could potentially have Covid." (1:53:15). Tempesta: "Right now today we're at 371." (1:56:51) and "We don't want to extend it. Absolutely not." (1:57:42). Whitney: "We should know right now whether we're going to come back in two weeks" (1:57:53). | |
| 1:59:25 | Petrin, Lovett, Towle, Zullo | Petrin: "how do we decide when it's time to go back?" (2:01:06). Lovett: "if every time popular opinion changes stray from that model, we're now losing the support of the community that helped us put this together." (2:01:36). Towle: "my vote would be to shut down." (2:05:37). Zullo to Whitney: "you want specifics because you're very black and white." (2:06:50). | |
| 2:08:19 | Motion to pivot to remote | Benware: "Why doesn't somebody who supports this make a motion, please?" Sprague moves; Towle seconds. Roll call (2:08:49): a first answer No (labeled for the clerk in the dialogue file), no audible answer after "Rebecca. Zulu.", Benware No, Lovett "Yes. Yes.", Petrin Yes, Towle "I'm coming. Yes.", Sprague Yes. "Okay. The motion passes." (2:09:57). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:10:01 | Delaying new in-person students | Tempesta gives the rationale; Zullo: "I was under the impression that the cohort C kids weren't going back until February 2nd." (2:11:02); Tempesta: "so that that's just a typo." Sprague: "Bypassed that move to the next item." (2:11:36). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:11:46 | Broadband | Sprague reports that "the mayor and I, we met with, virtually with the mayor and with the city manager" and that the city manager "is working with, with Comcast to get Ahold of some of these CARES funds" (2:13:31). | |
| 2:14:05 | Federal relief money | Sprague: "I had sent something out to the board, to which I probably shouldn't have done, but it was vacation" (2:14:23), from the mayor, about "the latest CARES proposal that came through Congress" (2:15:13); he asks to be kept informed on what the district applies for. | |
| 2:17:16 | Remote learning updates | Tempesta: "we're not satisfied with with the degree and the scope of how we're doing the remote learning" (2:17:59). Whitney raises home-school curricula (2:20:53); Zullo on equity for cohort C families; Magoon on elementary synchronous time. | |
| 2:26:20 | Out-of-town middle school athletes | Tempesta: students "from other towns may be participating in our athletic or athletic programs at the middle school" and "we put a stop to it" (2:26:55); a possible fee; referral to the policy committee (2:29:04). Petrin: "I have concerns about how, I guess quickly that came about" (2:29:48). Whitney and Zullo: no sports while remote; Tempesta: "It's a no go." Sprague: have the policy committee meet with the athletic director (2:33:22). No motion. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:35:39 | Filings; Benware stepping down | Benware: "when my term runs out in March, I will not be seeking another term." (2:36:31). Woodman: filings "from of January 20th to the 29th" (2:40:05); Sprague: "bring your dollar. It costs a dollar in cash." | |
| 2:38:23 | Towle: webinar and HB 1129 | An NHSBA webinar on January 26; "I'm referring to House Bill 1129. That has all the parameters for, deliberative session having to go remote if it should have to." (2:38:56). The bill's content is the speaker's characterization and is not verified here. | |
| 2:41:14 | Clarification of school dates | Petrin: "CMS will not be in school tomorrow or Friday until the 19th"; everyone else "fully remote Friday the eighth until the 19th" (2:41:32). | |
| 2:41:53 | Adjournment | Motion and second from the room; roll call. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on January 6, 2021, 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. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM Two $500 donations were announced as not on the agenda, and no vote to accept them is on the recording
At 0:08:12 the superintendent said he had "a couple other smaller donations" below the $5,000 threshold and "I didn't have them expressly on on the agenda"; at 0:08:40 he described a $500 ExxonMobil donation for STEM (with a second $500 amount whose recipient the transcript renders "for dinner", possibly Disnard) and a $500 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation donation to the Claremont and Unity music departments, and said "So I would like to accept those". The meeting moved on without a motion. For unanticipated funds of less than $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b) as it read in 2021 required that "the school board shall post notice of the funds in the agenda and shall include notice in the minutes", and that "The acceptance of unanticipated funds under this subparagraph shall be made in public session of any regular school board meeting." The superintendent's own statement is evidence that the first condition was not met, and no board acceptance is audible. Mitigation: the amounts were disclosed openly in public session, and the unposted minutes may record an acceptance the recording does not. Whether the district had adopted the enabling article required by paragraph I cannot be checked from the available records. MEDIUM because it is a probable process gap on the speaker's own account, not a confirmed violation.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1, unamended until 2023, 38:1): funds under $5,000 noticed in the agenda and minutes, accepted in public session; dialogue rows at 0:08:12 and 0:08:40.
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 December 16, 2020 minutes at 0:04:39, three weeks after that meeting, so minutes were being kept and circulated. In 2021, RSA 91-A:2, II required that minutes be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" and that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes." Whether either was met here cannot be tested, and neither can the public-access notice that Emergency Order #12 required for a meeting with remote participation. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation: the gap is in what the district posts online, and nothing on the recording shows a statutory lapse.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, so this is the text in force in 2021): minutes within 5 business days, movers and seconders recorded; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 136.
OBSERVATION The budget subcommittee met four or five times, set the tax-rate target and prompted eight position cuts, and none of its sessions has a public record online
Sprague said the three-member budget subcommittee (himself, Benware and Petrin) held 4 or 5 meetings "And we met again this morning and, gave our final marching orders to the administration" (0:38:37); Seaman described "our meetings on Wednesday morning" (0:40:16) and said that at that morning's session the subcommittee directed that a $2 rate increase be brought below $1, as a result of which "we determined today to reduce an additional eight positions" (0:49:05). A committee or subcommittee of a school board is itself a public body under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), with its own notice and minutes duties under RSA 91-A:2. No notice, agenda or minutes for any of these sessions is in the district's online shares, but those shares begin in July 2022, so this is recorded as an observation about online availability, not as proof that the sessions were unnoticed or unminuted. The point for a reader is that the decisive budget choices were made in these sessions, and the board then moved the resulting figure to its public hearing without amendment.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (source note ends 2008, 354:1, in force throughout): "public body" includes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto"; RSA 91-A:2, II (text in force in 2021).
OBSERVATION The remote-pivot vote passed, but two answers on the roll are uncertain and the companion request was never voted
The roll call on the motion to support the remote pivot from January 8 to January 19 ran from 2:08:49. Four answers are clearly Yes (Lovett, Petrin, Towle, Sprague) and one clearly No (Benware, 2:09:23). The first answer on the roll, No at 2:09:03, is labeled for the clerk in the dialogue file; the clerk's order in every other roll call this evening begins with Whitney, and Whitney had argued against the pivot, so it is probably her vote, but the recording does not say so. After the clerk calls "Rebecca. Zulu." (2:09:06) no answer is transcribed. The motion carried on any reading. Separately, the chair had said he wanted the administration's second request, delaying new in-person students to February 1, voted on its own (1:16:15); after Zullo pointed out a date error and the superintendent called it "just a typo", the chair said "Bypassed that move to the next item." (2:11:36) and no vote was taken. Only the unposted minutes could show how either was recorded.
Sources: no statutory rule is engaged beyond the minutes requirement in flag 2; dialogue rows at 2:08:49 to 2:09:57 and 2:11:02 to 2:11:36.
OBSERVATION Non-resident students were stopped from middle school teams by administrative decision, with no written policy
The superintendent told the board at 2:26:28 that students from other towns had been playing on Claremont Middle School teams, that this had long been allowed informally, and "what we did was we we put a stop to it" for two students (2:26:55). He proposed a possible fee and a referral to the policy committee. Petrin said he had "concerns about how, I guess quickly that came about" because the students had already made the teams (2:29:48). The board agreed that sports would not continue during the remote period and asked the policy committee to work with the athletic director; no motion was made. No statute is identified as governing the question; the point is that a participation rule was applied to named students before any written policy existed.
Sources: no verified statutory rule; dialogue rows at 2:26:28, 2:29:48 and 2:33:22.
POSITIVE The $5,000 gift got its statutory public hearing before the board voted to accept it
The chair opened the meeting with a public hearing on the anonymous $5,000 special education gift, saying the board is "required by statute to have a public hearing on that" (0:00:07), invited public comment (0:01:21), closed the hearing, and only later took a motion and roll-call vote to accept it (0:34:56 to 0:36:25). RSA 198:20-b, III(a) as it read in 2021 required "a prior public hearing on the action to be taken" for unanticipated funds of $5,000 or more, with newspaper notice at least 7 days before; the order of events on this recording matches that sequence. Whether the newspaper notice ran cannot be checked from the available records.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(a) (2019 codification; unamended until 2023, 38:1): prior public hearing and 7-day newspaper notice for $5,000 or more.
POSITIVE Every vote in this hybrid meeting was taken by roll call
With Benware, Zullo and Towle taking part remotely, the clerk called the roll on the agenda, the December 16 minutes (0:05:29), the gift (0:35:34), the budget motion (1:14:53), the remote pivot (2:08:49) and the adjournment (2:42:10). When any member participates other than in person, RSA 91-A:2, III(e) as it read in 2021 required that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." Emergency Order #12, in force for the whole state of emergency, waived only the physical-quorum requirement of RSA 91-A:2, III(b), on conditions about public telephone access and notice; it did not waive the roll-call rule. Whether the minutes stated the reason for remote attendance (III(a)), and whether the order's public-access conditions were met, cannot be checked (flag 2).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (b), (e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, in force until 2023, 188:1); Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020, under Executive Order 2020-04): physical-quorum requirement waived for the duration of the state of emergency, subject to public-access conditions.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11175, "School Board Meeting live on 1/6/21": 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, budget handout or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: December 16, 2020 (minutes approved here) and December 2, 2020 (reopening matrix discussion). The January 13, 2021 budget meeting (MAP.md section 137) is in the corpus.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11175 SchoolBoard010621.mp4.CSV (816 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11175 SchoolBoard010621.mp4Input/Transcripts/11175 SchoolBoard010621.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11175 SchoolBoard010621.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 136
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on January 6, 2021. RSA 198:20-b, I and III (unanticipated funds; 2019 codification, unamended until 2023, 38:1). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees as public bodies; source note ends 2008). RSA 91-A:2, II and III (minutes; remote participation and roll-call votes; source note ends 2018, 244:1).
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04 (March 23, 2020), effective for the duration of the state of emergency, which lapsed at midnight on June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021, reporting).