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 | Opened and closed the public hearing (0:04:40), asked whether counsel had approved adding the grant (0:03:49), and amended the agenda to add citizens' comments (0:06:31). Asked why the board was still voting by roll call (0:07:47) and moved it back to voice votes. Proposed finishing the Stevens High School ventilation work with CARES money (0:34:00) and gift-card incentives for the summer program. Rendered Jeff. Frank speck in the roll call. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member | Moved acceptance of the library donation (0:54:52). Questioned the business administrator on how the CARES allocations work ("if we don't use it, we lose it", 0:27:11); asked whether the summer program was reaching high-need students (0:47:05); explained the roll-call practice (0:08:00). |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Moved approval of the amended agenda (0:07:15) and the March 17 minutes (0:08:38). Pressed for the return of drama, choir and band (0:38:27): "those kids need a voice to." Rendered Mike. Patron, Michael. Petra and Mr.. Peters. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Seconded the grant acceptance (0:57:48). Moved to revoke the needle exchange permission (1:00:37). Raised school realignment for the retreat (1:08:40). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Moved acceptance of the technology grant (0:57:41): "I would like to make a motion that we accept the restaurant [Russ grant] and the amount of $451,832." Medium-confidence attribution. |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Answered the roll; asked about the retreat date (1:02:56). |
| Carolyn Towle | Board member | Absent (0:06:12: "She's absent."). Named by the chair as a likely volunteer for the capital improvement work. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Asked the board to add the technology grant to the public hearing (0:01:49); reported reopening numbers for April 12 and the CARES allocations; described the summer program and end-of-year plans; explained the grant before the vote (0:55:34). |
| Richard Seaman | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Introduced by the superintendent as "my esteemed business manager". Explained the new "approximately $2.9 million" in CARES money (0:23:25) and that the allocation followed the Title I formula (0:32:47). |
| Donna Magoon | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reported what the needle exchange coordinator had told her (0:58:19): the program left the hospital on March 24, 2020. Answered on clubs and summer pre-registration ("about 98 children", 0:50:04). Medium-confidence attribution. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Called the attendance roll and the roll-call vote on the agenda. |
| Prescott Herzog | Student representative | Gave the student report (0:09:11) and explained why many clubs still met online (0:42:25). Not named on this recording; the identification rests on the May 5, 2021 recording and is marked medium confidence in the dialogue file. |
| (none) | Public | No member of the public spoke at the hearing (0:04:40) or under citizens' comments (0:53:53: "I don't see any citizens, so we'll pass."). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda or notice for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions. The superintendent refers to "the other item that we posted the meeting for", and the chair to "an agenda in front of us" with lettered discussion items, so a written notice and agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:15 | Public hearing: gifts and grants | Posted, per the superintendent, for the $11,160.92 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation gift to the Stevens High School Library Fund. At his request the technology grant ($451,832) was added on the night. No public comment; hearing closed at 0:04:40. See flag 1. |
| 0:05:15 | Pledge; roll call | Horsky, Lambert, Petrin, Lovett, Whitney and Sprague present; Towle absent. |
| 0:06:31 | Agenda amended and approved | Chair adds citizens' comments after the superintendent's report ("I missed that") and the technology grant under discussion item A. Petrin moves; second unidentified; approved by roll call (0:07:22), all present voting Yes. |
| 0:07:47 | Voting method | Board agrees to return to voice votes now that every member present is in the room. See flag 4. |
| 0:08:27 | Minutes of March 17, 2021 | Petrin moves, Whitney seconds; approved by voice vote ("We haven't done this in a while."). |
| 0:09:04 | Student representative report | Tech-center summer programs, quarter three ending April 9, local scholarship packet due April 20. |
| 0:12:43 | Superintendent's report | Reopening on April 12, CARES allocations (with the business administrator), clubs, summer program, end-of-year events. |
| 0:53:53 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:54:03 | A. Gifts and grants: acceptance | NH Charitable Foundation gift of $11,160.92 accepted: Whitney moves (0:54:52), second unidentified, voice vote. Technology grant of $451,832 accepted: Lovett moves (0:57:41), Horsky seconds, voice vote (0:57:55). |
| 0:58:19 | Needle exchange program | Horsky moves "to revoke the current permissions to run a needle exchange program at Valley Regional Hospital until it's represented to the board, when it is, in fact, active again" (1:01:40); second not audible; voice vote. |
| 1:02:03 | Retreat and future agenda items | Food for the April 18 retreat; for May: clubs, strategic plan, committee assignments, grading proposal, pay-to-play, students failing due to remote learning; Horsky adds school realignment. |
| 1:12:36 | Adjournment | "is there anything else for the good of the order?" then a voice vote; no motion or second is audible. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:49 | Grant added to the hearing | Superintendent: "last meeting we had just received been awarded the Russ grant, a technology grant. With federal monies." Claremont's share "450,000 that's coming to us with a 15% match, which is already in the budget. Of of 80,000." "what we should have done that that night is ask for that because asked to formally approve us pursuing that grant money". He asks to add it "Tonight, along with the other item that we posted the meeting for, for the, the $11,000 over the $10,000 threshold." Chair: "I believe you've talked to legal counsel". Superintendent (0:03:55): "Legal counsel has met up and has okayed it." ... "We didn't know that that requirement was there. We would have done it sooner." | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:40 | Hearing opened and closed | "So this is a public hearing. This is a public hearing. Are there any citizens here that would like to speak specifically on either the Russ donation or the donation from the New Hampshire Charitable?" ... "Seeing none. I will close the public hearing". | MEDIUM |
| 0:06:31 | Agenda amended | "I would like to add citizens comments after this report. I missed that, and I appreciate it." The grant is added under discussion A. Approved by roll call. | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:47 | Why roll calls? | Chair: "So we do roll call votes. Are we doing that because we have numbers that are absent." Whitney: "It was because we were online and we didn't have all our members were not present. So once they become president [present], you don't have to do so." Chair (0:08:09): "So can we do voice? Voice voting?" | POSITIVE |
| 0:09:11 | Student report | Five tech-center summer programs for middle schoolers; eighth graders from Claremont and Unity to visit April 19; "Quarter three will be ending this Friday, April 9th." Senior scholarship packet "is worth more than $100,000". | |
| 0:13:21 | Class of 1971 | Sprague: "This is my, believe it or not, my 50th graduation year." The 150th graduating class from Stevens. | |
| 0:15:08 | Reopening April 12 | "with the governor's announcement before about the April 19th to be back in person" districts were scrambling; Claremont's September plan always targeted the last quarter. Percentages back in person by school: "Maple does have the bragging rights at 94%" (0:17:06), "70% at Stevens". "this is our really our fourth first day on April 12th". | |
| 0:19:40 | CARES money: three allocations | Superintendent: a first allocation of "around 760,000", some to private schools. Seaman (0:23:25): new money "approximately $2.9 million"; "anything that's related that you could tie anywhere into Covid is basically allowed", with reimbursement-based drawdown and a deadline he believes is 2023; possibly "up to three times that number" from the latest federal bill (0:25:26). Superintendent (0:30:47): "about $10 million over the next 2 or 3 years". Seaman (0:32:47): the allocation uses the Title I formula, "which means for the first time, we're receiving the lion's share". | |
| 0:33:37 | Using CARES money on buildings | Sprague: the Stevens renovation left items undone "because of unexpected hazardous waste costs", "probably 700,000"; "It would be great to finish the ventilation system for the common area, the gym and the auditorium." Seaman had tied building use to indoor air quality and the capital committee (0:25:06). | |
| 0:38:27 | Arts and clubs | Petrin: "the smaller after school groups, the smaller drama groups, the course, the, band" are "lagging behind"; "those kids need a voice to." Magoon: space for distancing. The student representative (0:42:25): club leadership is disproportionately remote, so meetings stay online. | |
| 0:47:05 | Summer program outreach | Whitney asks whether high-need students are being targeted. Superintendent: "we know those students"; fees can be waived. Sprague suggests "a $50 gift card to Hannaford" for completers (0:49:20). Magoon: "We had about 98 children that pre-registered". | |
| 0:53:53 | Citizens' comments | "I don't see any citizens, so we'll pass." | POSITIVE |
| 0:54:36 | Gift and grant accepted | Whitney: "I'd like to make a motion to accept the donation from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for the Stevens High School Library Fund for the amount of $11,160.92." Voice vote. Superintendent on the grant (0:55:34): "we hired a third party outfit out of new Jersey to to write this grant", "the only recipient in New Hampshire of this federal money"; the match "is $80,000" at "a 8515 ratio", "already budgeted"; "it really is just accepting that, getting it in the minutes that it has the blessing of the board". Lovett moves, Horsky seconds, voice vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:58:19 | Needle exchange permission revoked | Magoon: the coordinator told her "on March 24th of 2020, because of Covid, there protocols changed. So they are no longer in the hospital." ... "So that program ended March 24th of 2020." Past quarterly figures covered "Sullivan and Grafton County", not Claremont. Sprague: the board was involved only because of "the proximity of the hospital to one of our one of our school buildings". Horsky's motion (1:00:37) to revoke until it is presented again; voice vote (1:01:52). | OBSERVATION |
| 1:02:03 | Retreat food and future items | Assignments for the April 18 retreat breakfast. Seaman: three contracts negotiated for two years, so "we'll start negotiating next year for the following" (1:05:02). Items for May listed back by Magoon (1:08:27). | |
| 1:08:40 | School realignment | Horsky asks to keep realignment moving. Superintendent (1:09:08): "that doesn't mean that we're looking to move schools around"; the aim is class-size balance where "you might have a class size of seven and maybe you've had a class size of of 21". Agreed for the retreat. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on April 7, 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. Four flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM A $451,832 federal grant was added on the night to a public hearing noticed only for a smaller gift, and the threshold the board was given was not the statute's
At 0:01:49 the superintendent asked the board to add the technology grant to "the other item that we posted the meeting for, for the, the $11,000 over the $10,000 threshold", saying counsel had "okayed it" and "We didn't know that that requirement was there." The chair opened a combined hearing at 0:04:40, no one spoke, and the grant was accepted at 0:57:55 on Lovett's motion and Horsky's second.
RSA 198:20-b, as it read in 2021, lets a district that has adopted the section by warrant article authorize its board to accept and spend unanticipated money "from a state, federal or other governmental unit or a private source". Paragraph III(a) then states: "For unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more, the school board shall hold a prior public hearing on the action to be taken", and "Notice of the time, place, and subject of such hearing shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the relevant municipality at least 7 days before the meeting is held." The statute allows a board to set a notice amount lower than $5,000, not higher. Two gaps follow. The grant was not in any notice, so it could not have had seven days' published notice of its subject. And the "$10,000 threshold" stated on the record is not the statutory figure; the $5,000 figure was not raised until 2023, 38:1 (to $20,000). Mitigation, stated on the record: counsel's advice, the grant's discussion at the March 17 meeting (see the March 17 page), and a hearing at which the public could have spoken. What cannot be checked from here: whether Claremont had adopted RSA 198:20-b, I, what the posted notice said, and whether the library gift's notice was published in a newspaper. This is graded MEDIUM as a probable process gap, not a finding.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1, so this is the text in force in 2021): $5,000 prior-hearing threshold, 7 days' newspaper notice of the hearing's subject, board may set a lower amount; RSA 198:20-b, current text (2023, 38:1, eff. July 18, 2023), cited only for the later $20,000 figure.
OBSERVATION No notice, agenda or minutes for this meeting are posted online, and several seconds are not identifiable on the recording
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26). The recording shows minutes being kept: the March 17 minutes are approved at 0:08:27 and these minutes on May 5. In 2021, RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting" and provided that "The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes." On the recording the seconds to the agenda (0:07:18) and to the library gift (0:55:04) are unidentified voices, the needle exchange motion has no audible second, and the meeting ends on a voice vote with no audible motion. Only the minutes can show whether those names were recorded. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation, because the recording shows minutes being kept and approved.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; text in force in 2021); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 142.
OBSERVATION The board learned only now that the needle exchange had left the hospital site in March 2020
At 0:58:19 the assistant superintendent reported the coordinator's account that "on March 24th of 2020, because of Covid, there protocols changed", that the program would not return to the hospital, and that its past quarterly figures were for "Sullivan and Grafton County" rather than Claremont. The board had approved the program's use of the hospital site in 2018 and, as the March 17 recording shows, had not received the promised quarterly updates. Horsky moved to revoke the permission until the program is presented again (1:00:37); the chair noted it was probably moot and passed it on a voice vote. The chair also said the only reason the board was involved was "the proximity of the hospital to one of our one of our school buildings". No statute governs the arrangement; the point is that the board's condition went unmonitored for a year after the program had moved.
Sources: no statutory rule; dialogue rows at 0:58:19 and 1:00:37; March 17, 2021 page, flag 4.
POSITIVE The board tied its voting method to the remote-participation rule, and restored a citizens' comment period it had left off the agenda
After a roll-call vote on the agenda, the chair asked why the board was still voting that way (0:07:47); Whitney explained that roll calls had been used "because we were online and we didn't have all our members were not present", and the board returned to voice votes with every member present in the room. That matches RSA 91-A:2, III(e) as it read in 2021, which requires roll-call votes only where a member participates other than in person: "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote." Earlier, the chair added citizens' comments to the agenda on his own motion ("I missed that", 0:06:31), and both the public hearing and the comment period were opened even though no member of the public came forward. No statute required a comment period in 2021; RSA 189:74 took effect September 6, 2022.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(e) (2022 codification; text in force in 2021): roll-call votes when a member participates remotely; Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020): waives only the physical-quorum requirement of RSA 91-A:2, III(b); RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): not in force in 2021.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11444, "Claremont School Board Meeting of 4/7/21": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- Cablecast show 11527, "VOD School Board of 4-7-21": a second copy of the same meeting (MAP.md section 143 records its Cablecast event date as 4/15/21). Its own page: 11527 SchoolBoard041521.
- 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 notice, agenda, slides, quarterly reports or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related pages: March 17, 2021 (grant first announced; needle exchange reports raised) and May 5, 2021 (these 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/11444 SchoolBoard040721.mp4.CSV (436 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11444 SchoolBoard040721.mp4Input/Transcripts/11444 SchoolBoard040721.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11444 SchoolBoard040721.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, sections 142 and 143
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on April 7, 2021. RSA 198:20-b, I and III(a) (unanticipated funds; 2019 codification, unamended until 2023, 38:1). RSA 91-A:2, II and III(e) (minutes; roll-call votes; 2022 codification, text in force in 2021). RSA 189:74, cited only to show it post-dates this meeting.
- Emergency orders. Emergency Order #12 (March 23, 2020), in force for the state of emergency, which lapsed at midnight on June 11, 2021 (NHPR, June 10, 2021, reporting).