Participants
Everyone in the record, as named in the dialogue CSV, with spellings checked against the district's February 1, 2021 minutes and the project roster. Transcript renderings are given where they differ. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Tracy Pope | School district moderator (presiding) | Called the session to order, read the HB 1129 procedure and the voting arrangements (0:02:00), introduced each article and closed discussion on each. Labeled Mrs. Pope in the dialogue file, which gives no first name; the district's minutes of the February 1 session name her "Tracy Pope, Moderator", and the chair calls her "Mrs. Pope is our school district moderator" at 0:01:30. |
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board | Introduced the district officers and the board members present at 0:01:30. No other speech. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Joined late ("Rob's here."), apologized for his audio, and read Article 1 at 0:06:58. Thanked as "Mr. Leavitt". |
| Jason Benware | Board member | Read Article 2, the operating budget, at 0:07:59, ending "the school board recommends this article." Rendered Jason Ben. Where, Jason Benner and Mr. Ben Mayor. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | The only board member to speak on an article: a statement at 0:09:43 that the budget subcommittee had gone "line by line" through the budget. Rendered Mr. Michael patron, Mike Peter, Mister Patron and Mr. Peterson. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Led the Pledge of Allegiance at 0:00:26. Named present. |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Named present by the chair (Miss Carolyn toll). The moderator briefly asks her to read Article 1 before Lovett is found at 0:06:21. No attributed row. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member (vice chair) | Not named among those present at 0:01:30 and has no attributed row. Whether she attended cannot be told from the recording. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduced the administrative staff at 0:00:55. |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Designated to read voter submissions. Reported at 0:07:29 and 0:09:06: "there are no comments, concerns or requested amendments" for Article 1 and Article 2. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant superintendent of finance, SAU 6 | Introduced by the superintendent; no attributed row. |
| Jeffrey Small | Technology director, SAU 6 | Introduced; no attributed row. |
| Ben Nester | Special education director, SAU 6 | Introduced (Mr. Ben Nestor); no attributed row. |
| Matt Upton | School district attorney | Introduced as "also on the line"; no attributed row. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Named by the chair as the district clerk. Whether she was present is not stated; no attributed row. |
| Melissa Small | SAU 6 administrative staff (received voter submissions) | Named by the moderator at 0:02:25 as the recipient of voter comments by email or at the SAU offices. Not a speaker. |
| Unidentified | Participant acting as a spotter | At 0:09:33 alerts the moderator that Petrin has his hand up ("Crazy Mike Peter and had his hand up."). Four other short unidentified rows are technical checks before the call to order. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this session is posted in any district share; the moderator says at 0:03:54 that "The school district warrant and agendas can be found on the SA six web page." This list is reconstructed from the moderator's transitions. 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 | "Good evening. I'd like to call to order and welcome you to the February 4th virtual deliberative session." Pledge led by Rebecca Zullo. |
| 0:00:41 | Introductions | Superintendent introduces staff; the chair introduces the moderator, the clerk and five board members. |
| 0:02:00 | Procedures under HB 1129 | The moderator reads the procedure: submissions by 4 p.m. that day, "No live comments or questions from registered voters were, or will be allowed", board members to move each article "either as posted or as they are mended by the school board", and the March 9 drive-up vote with the process-approval question. |
| 0:05:53 | Article 1: election of school district officials | Read by Lovett at 0:06:58. No voter submissions (0:07:29); no board member speaks; "This article will be moved to the alternative ballot as posted." (0:07:44) |
| 0:07:44 | Article 2: main budget | Read by Benware at 0:07:59: "totaling $37,785,406. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $37,762,398". No voter submissions (0:09:06). Petrin speaks (0:09:43). Closed and moved "to the alternative ballot as posted" at 0:10:40. |
| 0:10:40 | Voting information; close | Drive-up and walk-through voting March 9, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., by ward; absentee voting; supervisors of the checklist session on February 27. "That concludes tonight's meeting. Good night." (0:12:16) |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited row, 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 |
|---|
| 0:00:01 | Before the call to order | "Yes. Yeah. I'm showing 630." and "Definitely live." (unidentified). | |
| 0:00:55 | Staff introduced | "Madam moderator, I'd like to introduce Assistant Superintendent Magoon. Assistant superintendent of finance, Mr. Richard Seaman. Mr. Jeffrey Small, our tech director. Mr. Ben Nestor, our special ed director. And I think I got everyone in our school attorney. Matt Upton is also on the line." | |
| 0:01:30 | Board and officers introduced | "Mrs. Pope is our school district moderator. Mrs. Mary Woodman is our school district clerk. Present tonight, our Mike, Mr. Michael patron [Petrin], Mrs.. Rebecca zullo. Mr.. Jason Ben. Where [Benware] myself and Miss Carolyn toll [Towle] and I don't see Rob Lovett, so I think that's all of us that are here." Then: "There are five of us present." | |
| 0:02:00 | The HB 1129 procedure read into the record | "This year, the Claremont School District's annual meeting will be conducted in accordance with the requirements of House Bill 1129." Submissions were taken "Between then and 4 p.m. today" by email or at the SAU offices, and "All submissions had to include the name, address and ward of the voter and were verified against checklist for eligibility". "No live comments or questions from registered voters were, or will be allowed at either the February 1st or the February 4th, 2021 virtual meetings." (0:03:02) | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:54 | Public access and in-person viewing | Warrant and agendas on the SAU 6 web page; online link; CCTV channel 8; live stream at the Stevens High School auditorium with "temperature check, hand sanitizing, wearing a face mask, social distancing". | POSITIVE |
| 0:04:25 | March 9 voting | Drive-up voting "between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.", Ward 1 at Stevens High School, Ward 2 at Claremont Middle School, Ward 3 at "Disney [Disnard] Elementary School". "The voters will be asked to approve the process used to conduct the annual meeting. If the process is not approved, the warrant articles shall be deemed disapproved and the school board may either hold another meeting prior to September 1st, 2021, to adopt an operating budget or the school board may deem approved the operating budget adopted at the prior year's meeting" (0:05:19). | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:58 | Article 1 read | "Article one election of school district officials to elect a moderator, district clerk, and district treasurer each for a one year term and three school board members each for a three year term." Magoon: "Madam moderator, there are no comments, concerns or requested amendments for article one." (0:07:29) | |
| 0:07:59 | Article 2 read | "Shall the Claremont School District raise an appropriate as an operating budget? The amount set forth on the budget posted with the warrant or as amended by vote of the first session and second session, for the purposes set forth therein, totaling $37,785,406. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $37,762,398". Magoon: "Madam moderator, there are no comments, concerns or requested amendments for article two." (0:09:06) | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:43 | "Not at all a rubber stamp budget" | Petrin: "I just want to remind everybody that we had a budget subcommittee that met and went line by line through this budget. Spending probably at least ten hours, five different meetings." And (0:10:08): "I'd say over ten hours of time going line by line through this budget, with the administration, with the principals, with the people that put the budget together. So this is, not at all a rubber stamp budget." The moderator thanks "the subcommittee for all their hard work." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:10:40 | Article 2 to the ballot; closing reminders | "move this Attica [article] to the alternative ballot as posted". Walk-through voting "will be allowed in all three voting places" (0:11:16); absentee voting and a supervisors of the checklist session "Saturday, February 27th, 2021, from 11 to 11:30 a.m." (0:11:40). | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the session against the law in force on February 4, 2021, including the 2020 session law under which the district chose to hold its annual meeting. 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. Four flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The first-session debate the voters normally hold was replaced by a board-only session at which no voter spoke and nothing was amended
In an official-ballot district, RSA 40:13, IV provides that the first session "shall consist of explanation, discussion, and debate of each warrant article", at which voters may move amendments. For 2021 the board chose instead, by a 6–1 roll call on January 13 (see the January 13, 2021 page), the optional procedure of 2020 N.H. Laws ch. 8 (HB 1129). As NHMA's guidance summarizes the enacted law, the governing body holds a second live virtual meeting within seven days of an information session "to consider and address comments" and "shall discuss, debate, and be permitted to amend the posted warrant"; whether the sessions take live public comment is left to the district. Claremont chose none: "No live comments or questions from registered voters were, or will be allowed" (0:03:02). The result on the record is thin. The assistant superintendent reported no submissions of any kind on either article (0:07:29, 0:09:06), no board member proposed an amendment, and the $37,785,406 budget went to the ballot as posted after twelve minutes. The safeguard the procedure kept is the first ballot question, whether voters approve the process at all (0:05:19); its outcome on March 9 is not in this record. No rule was breached on the tape; the observation is how little public deliberation the chosen design produced.
Sources: RSA 40:13, IV (2019 codification; source note ends 2019, 192:2, the text in force in 2021): first session of explanation, discussion and debate; 2020 N.H. Laws ch. 8 (HB 1129), approved July 10, 2020 (bill status); NHMA, Guidance on 2021 Annual Meeting (December 4, 2020), summarizing the enacted law. The chaptered text of ch. 8 was not read for this page.
OBSERVATION Five budget subcommittee meetings are cited as the budget's vetting, but no notice or minutes of them are available
Petrin's defense of the budget at 0:09:43 rests on a board subcommittee that "met and went line by line through this budget. Spending probably at least ten hours, five different meetings", with the administration and the principals. On February 1 the superintendent named its members as the chair, Benware and Petrin (see the February 1 page). A subcommittee of a school board is itself a public body under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), whose definition reaches "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof", so its meetings carried the notice and minutes duties of RSA 91-A:2, II. None of that paper is in the district's online shares, which begin in July 2022, so whether the meetings were noticed and minuted cannot be tested here. The accounts of the work also differ: the district's February 1 minutes describe members who "worked mornings for fifteen days", while Petrin said five meetings and at least ten hours. This is recorded under the project's online-availability limb, not as a finding that the meetings were unnoticed.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1); RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; in force until 2023): 24-hour notice; minutes open to inspection within 5 business days; 2.1.21 Minutes from Virtual District Meeting.
OBSERVATION The minutes of this session were approved a year later but are not posted, while the February 1 set surfaced only in a November 2022 packet
The district's February 9, 2022 deliberative session minutes record approval of "previous minutes of 2/4/2021", moved by Benware and seconded by Sprague. At the November 3, 2022 special district meeting the moderator explained that both 2021 sets "should have been approved at the February 9th, 2022 meeting and only the February 4th minute were approved" (show 14693; see the November 3, 2022 page), and the February 1 minutes were then approved from that meeting's packet. The February 4 minutes themselves have not been found in any district share searched for MAP.md. RSA 197:20 requires the clerk to "keep a true record of all the doings of each meeting" and to supply attested copies on request; it sets no posting rule. The record shows minutes were kept and approved, so this is an online-availability observation, not a finding that none exist.
Sources: RSA 197:20 (source note ends 1963, 120:5): the clerk's true record of each meeting; 2.9.22 District Meeting Minutes; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 140.
POSITIVE The session ran on the statutory calendar, and every procedural and voting detail was read into the record twice
The two virtual sessions (Monday February 1 and Thursday February 4) fall inside RSA 40:13, III's first-session window for 2021, the first and second Saturdays after the last Monday in January (January 30 to February 6), and inside the seven days after the information session that NHMA's guidance gives for the second virtual meeting. The vote was set for March 9, 2021, the second Tuesday in March that RSA 40:13, VII names. The moderator read the whole procedure, the consequence of disapproving the process, the three ward polling places, identification at the car window, walk-through and absentee voting, and the checklist session, first at 0:02:00 and again at 0:10:40. Submissions were checked "against checklist for eligibility" (0:02:25). The public could follow online, on CCTV, by live stream in the Stevens auditorium; at the February 1 session the moderator added that a seat in the auditorium could be reserved by telephone.
Sources: RSA 40:13, III and VII (2019 codification; text in force in 2021): first-session window; second session on the second Tuesday in March; NHMA guidance (December 4, 2020) on 2020 N.H. Laws ch. 8.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11281, "Claremont School Board: District Meeting Procedures Part Two of 2/4/21": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material for this session: 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, warrant, notice or minutes for February 4, 2021 were located.
- Related district documents filed later: 2.1.21 Minutes from Virtual District Meeting and 2.9.22 District Meeting Minutes, both in the packet folder 8. CSB Special District Meeting 11.3.22 (the February 1 minutes file was created there on November 3, 2022, per Drive metadata).
- Related pages: January 13, 2021 (budget hearing; HB 1129 adopted), January 27, 2021 (procedure briefed to the board), February 1, 2021 (first virtual session), November 3, 2022 (February 1 minutes approved).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11281 SchoolDistrictMeeting020421.mp4.CSV (48 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11281 SchoolDistrictMeeting020421.mp4Input/Transcripts/11281 SchoolDistrictMeeting020421.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11281 SchoolDistrictMeeting020421.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 140
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on February 4, 2021. RSA 40:13, III, IV and VII (2019 codification; last amended 2019, 192:2). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) and RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; 91-A:2 unamended from 2018, 244:1 until 2023, 188:1). RSA 197:20 (1963, 120:5).
- Session law. 2020 N.H. Laws ch. 8 (HB 1129), approved July 10, 2020 (status page; chaptered text not read), as summarized in NHMA's guidance of December 4, 2020 (secondary source).