Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part, as named in the project's dialogue file. No minutes exist online to check spellings against, so non-members' names are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Board member; presiding | Presided in the chair's absence (she had been elected vice chair in May 2020; the 2021 vice chair is not established in the record). Made the motion to remove Fish Tank and reinstate Reading Wonders, and set out her research on the program at length. |
| Frank Sprague | Chair; participating remotely | Joined by audio from home while ill. Floated capping special education services at 18 or 19; said the Fish Tank situation arose from "subterfuge or incompetence"; voted by roll call; raised whether the vote had been only on calling the question; proposed the chair appoint a timekeeper for public comment. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Moved the agenda, amended to add citizens' comments; said he had re-watched the July 21 meeting and that "This board was lied to"; seconded the per-item comment motion; moved adjournment. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SAU 6 chair | Moved the September 1 minutes; recalled being told Fish Tank "is not the curriculum"; asked about the Newport tech-center agreement and the restructuring timeline; asked to call the question; restated the per-item comment motion. |
| Nicholas Stone | Board member | Supported removing Fish Tank as misrepresented; moved the per-item public comment procedure; asked about the high school flex block. |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Opposed the Fish Tank motion and voted no, saying "We were told it was a tool. No one was lying to us"; objected that he had no time to prepare; said he posts every agenda on Facebook. |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Board member | Named in the roll; no answer or vote is audible. Attendance unclear. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report: COVID-19 dashboard and matrix, enrollment, the restructuring forum, secondary schedules, school opening. Responded on Fish Tank and on agenda wording. |
| Mary Ellen Janeiro | Curriculum administrator, SAU 6 (six weeks in the district) | Presented a plan for curriculum mapping, scope and sequence, and content-area curriculum councils. Addressed as "Doctor Janeiro"; surname spelling from the transcription and unverified (medium). |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk | Called the roll and the roll-call vote. |
| Michael Demers | Citizens' comments, Ward 3 | Asked that significant curriculum changes be handled publicly, and questioned the agenda item "curriculum update". |
| Unidentified | Audience member | Said near the end that finding the agenda had been hard. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the presiding member's transitions on the recording. The agenda existed: a resident quotes its wording and the superintendent reads from it. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:02:18 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Chair remote; Whitney presiding. |
| 0:03:19 | Agenda | Horsky moved; after discussion he amended the motion to "add to our action items under C citizens comments"; Stone seconded; voice vote. |
| 0:05:17 | Minutes of September 1, 2021 | Petrin moved; Horsky seconded; approved by voice vote. |
| 0:05:45 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, Michael Demers (Ward 3). |
| 0:07:32 | Superintendent's report | COVID-19, enrollment, restructuring forum, schedules, opening of schools. |
| 0:44:14 | Curriculum update | Whitney: "I'm going to hijack that from you doctor temporarily" and moved to reinstate Reading Wonders and remove Fish Tank; Horsky seconded; carried on a roll call at 1:25:03. Then the curriculum administrator's presentation. |
| 1:38:37 | C. Discussion about citizens' comments | Stone moved per-item comment with a three-minute limit, temporary until a policy; Horsky seconded; carried by voice vote. |
| 1:46:21 | Other business; adjournment | Agenda wording and posting; policy committee timetable; restructuring update. Horsky moved to adjourn, Stone seconded; voice vote. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:37 | Before the meeting: the remote chair | Whitney: "you guys know I don't do this a lot. So if you could please chime in and, keep me focused and following Robert's Rules." A voice from the ceiling speaker: "I'm up above you somewhere." | HIGH |
| 0:03:19 | Agenda amended; September 1 minutes | Petrin asked that "allowing for public comments after motions are made" be on a coming agenda; Horsky amended his motion to add citizens' comments under C. Voice votes (Aye aye aye.). Clerk: "Can you boys give me what you're saying?" September 1 minutes approved by voice. | HIGH |
| 0:05:54 | Citizens' comments: curriculum transparency | Michael Demers, Ward 3: "I think that any significant changes in curriculum, particularly as it applies to the application of critical race theory, should be very public." On the agenda item curriculum update: "I don't really know what those two words mean tonight". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:08:57 | COVID-19: the governor, the dashboard, no remote option | "Our goal this year and our mission this year, like every year, is to educate all of our students as long as possible in the way they were meant to be face to face". A new Claremont dashboard adapted "right from Fall Mountain". "If there are any districts in New Hampshire where there is a remote and a live version, they're not even talking about that." "There is not there simply isn't a degree of contact tracing." | |
| 0:17:08 | Enrollment up | Stevens "have 571 students", "they're up 35. Every school is up students this year, which is great." | |
| 0:18:11 | Restructuring forum; secondary schedules | The forum "at Stevens High School from 6 to 730 on Monday", with a survey. A secondary schedule with year-long core classes could add "Almost 40%, 40 to 50% more time" in core academics. | |
| 0:35:31 | The chair joins from home | Superintendent: "I think you're muted Frank". Sprague: "if I were running things" he "would be looking at capping, special ed at age 18 or 19." "currently it's through age 21, I believe" and "I know there are federal regulations and such". Later: "I can actually still look up some stuff going on in my throat". | HIGH |
| 0:40:48 | Newport tech-center agreement; timeline | Petrin: the Newport agreement is "coming up quick"; restructuring once aimed at 2022-23 now "looking like we're pushing that to 2324." Superintendent: "Not necessarily know" and it is "full steam ahead". | |
| 0:44:14 | Motion to remove Fish Tank | Whitney: "I'm going to make a motion to temporarily to temporarily reinstate reading wonders as a reading program for Claremont Elementary schools, and to direct the administration to investigate alternate reading programs. And a yes vote would remove fish tank and reinstate reading wonders." A 2021-22 expectations email told teachers "to use Fish Tank as a guide for what to teach during science and social studies"; at the July 21 presentation "the board was told that the Fish tank program was the reading program." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:48:35 | Whitney's case | EdReports reviews favoring Reading Wonders 2020; Fish Tank "does not have foundational skills built into its program". Its units link to social justice and "action standards"; she quoted an article on "the strategy called camouflaging". Conclusion at 0:57:42: "we have in Fish Tank, a program or curriculum that actually has a dual mission." At 1:09:00: "I don't think you could you can put a label of critical race theory on this curriculum." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:59:49 | "This board was lied to" | Horsky, on the September 1 email: "I am profoundly disturbed". Re-watching July 21, "At one hour and 20 minutes approximately. We were told flat out in quotes, this is not the Social Studies in Science program for Elementary education." "So not once, but twice. This board was lied to". Lambert: "We were told it was a tool. No one was lying to us." Petrin: "what we were told that night was, is not even close to what we find here." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:06:24 | Notice to members | Lambert: "did everyone else have time to review everything before tonight's meeting?" and "Well I was working all day. Didn't have time to I guess prepare counterarguments." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:10:35 | Superintendent responds | "I don't think we've had that robust conversation on either side"; "But this needs immediate attention. I completely agree with that." Lambert at 1:15:13: reinstating means buying "an entire new curriculum for a school year that's already started". | |
| 1:17:41 | The remote chair speaks | Sprague: "I still have confidence that the teachers will, will handle this correctly." "we're either in this situation either due to, subterfuge or incompetence." The Curriculum Council route was bypassed: "we were told that, well, it's not the curriculum." | |
| 1:19:28 | Whose politics? | Lambert: "I think the only people making it political were the board." Stone: "it's definitely political. Not because anyone's making it". Whitney: "students actually have a constitutional right to learn things that people are uncomfortable with". | |
| 1:23:57 | Call the question; roll-call vote | Petrin: "So I'd like to call the question and take a vote." Stone: "Second call." Roll call from 1:25:03: Yes.; "Joshua is absent." corrected, then "Yes. No." and "No, he's a no problem."; "Is that absent?"; Petrin Yes.; Yes.; "Right. Spread." Yes.; "And has a Whitney" Yes. Audible result: five yes, Lambert no, Lovett unrecorded. | HIGH |
| 1:26:11 | Curriculum administrator's plan | "As someone who is now six weeks into the district". On how Fish Tank happened: "many of the people that made those decisions are long gone." Curriculum maps first, "hopefully by the 1st November", then scope and sequence and content-area curriculum councils; "we don't have at the elementary levels, some of those solid social studies and science approaches". | |
| 1:38:44 | Public comment on every item | Stone: citizens' comments "strictly for non-agenda items", with comment offered per action item. Sprague: decide it yearly at the retreat; Petrin: "I would actually task maybe the policy committee". Motion at 1:43:39: "So for all action slash discussion items to with a time limit of three minutes. And the chair designates timekeeper for that." Petrin restated it; Horsky: "Temporary until a policy." | POSITIVE |
| 1:44:44 | Voice vote chosen | Whitney: "Can we agree to a voice vote on this?" Sprague: "No. I'm good." A voice: "Roll call, but". Petrin: "Voice vote is okay." Carried by voice. | HIGH |
| 1:45:04 | Was the Fish Tank vote only on calling the question? | Sprague: "the vote you took was the vote to, call the question. You never voted on the actual motion". Petrin: "It was never seconded motion." and "I made the comment that I wanted to call the question, but it was never I never made a motion". Sprague: "Oh okay. All right. Never mind then." (The transcript does record Stone's "Second call." at 1:24:59.) | HIGH |
| 1:46:25 | Agenda wording and posting | Superintendent: agenda items should be "as detailed as we can be to to warn what the content is for those who didn't attend." An audience member: "Finding the agenda was a real interesting puzzle." "I had to call your office twice." Superintendent: the web page "it's clunky, it's awkward". Lambert: "I always post the agenda on Facebook on the Claremont School Board Facebook page before every meeting." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:48:48 | Adjournment | Horsky moved, Stone seconded; voice vote. Stone: "Will call. I don't know if we need." Sprague: "Nobody's going to objected." | HIGH |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on September 15, 2021. Several provisions cited below have since been amended, and each flag cites the text as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
HIGH With the chair participating remotely, the board took four of its five votes by voice, although the law then required every vote to be by roll call
Frank Sprague took part from home by audio link (0:35:31; "I think you're muted Frank"), speaking and voting throughout. Emergency Order #12's relaxation of in-person meeting rules had ended with the state of emergency on June 11, 2021, and a 2021 bill to extend remote meetings (SB 95) did not pass. On this date, therefore, RSA 91-A:2, III governed. It allowed remote participation "only when such attendance is not reasonably practical", required that "Any reason that such attendance is not reasonably practical shall be stated in the minutes of the meeting", required a quorum physically present, and provided: "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote."
Only the Fish Tank motion was decided by roll call (1:25:03). The amended agenda and the September 1 minutes were approved by voice at 0:04:56 and 0:05:34. On the public comment procedure the presiding member asked "Can we agree to a voice vote on this?" and a voice suggested "Roll call, but" before members settled on a voice vote (1:44:44); adjournment followed by voice, with Stone saying "Will call. I don't know if we need." (1:49:02). The recording itself shows these four voice votes with a remote member, which is why this is graded HIGH under the project's rule. Mitigating facts are on the record too: the reason for remote attendance (illness; the chair described symptoms, and on October 20 said he had been at home with COVID-19) would satisfy the practicality test if the minutes stated it; a quorum was physically present; and no voice vote appears contested. Whether the minutes record the reason cannot be checked, because they are not online. The requirement that a remote member "identify the persons present in the location from which the member is participating" is not heard on the tape.
The one roll-call vote carried its own confusion: the chair later said his vote had been on calling the question, members concluded the call had never been seconded (although the transcript records "Second call." at 1:24:59), and on October 20 the chair put his intent on the record (October 20 page, flag 3). A roll call with the motion restated before it is the protection III(e) is meant to give.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (b), (c) and (e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1; in force until October 3, 2023); NHPR, June 10, 2021 (state of emergency to expire June 11, 2021; reporting); NH Municipal Association State House Report, July/August 2021 (SB 95 not passed; reporting).
OBSERVATION A motion reversing the elementary reading program was made without notice under the agenda item "curriculum update"
Before the item was reached, a resident told the board he did not know what the two words on the agenda meant and asked for "a much more public announcement" of significant curriculum changes (0:05:54). At 0:44:14 the presiding member took the curriculum update item from the curriculum administrator ("I'm going to hijack that from you doctor temporarily") and moved to remove Fish Tank and reinstate Reading Wonders, supported by research she had prepared. A member who opposed the motion said he had not had time to prepare (1:06:24), and at the end of the meeting the superintendent agreed that agenda items should be "as detailed as we can be". New Hampshire's Right-to-Know Law in 2021 required notice of the time and place of a meeting, not an itemized agenda, so no statute was breached; the board's own agenda policy was not available to this page. The point is that residents and teachers affected by a mid-year program change had no advance signal from the agenda that it would be voted on.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification; notice of "the time and place of each such meeting").
OBSERVATION Four members said the board had been misled in July about Fish Tank's role in social studies
Whitney read from the district's 2021-22 elementary expectations, which told teachers "to use Fish Tank as a guide for what to teach during science and social studies" (0:45:23), against the July 21 presentation at which "the board was told that the Fish tank program was the reading program." Horsky, having re-watched the July 21 recording, said "This board was lied to" (1:00:52); Petrin and Stone said the same in other words, and Sprague put it as "subterfuge or incompetence" (1:18:03). Lambert disagreed: the expectations also said what teachers would not do, and "No one was lying to us." The new curriculum administrator said "many of the people that made those decisions are long gone". The July 21, 2021 presentation is recording 11776 in this project; members' specific claims about it (timestamps 1:20 and 1:38 into that tape) were not checked for this page. No rule is cited, because the district's curriculum-adoption policy was not available; the motion carried, and a month later the superintendent said "we've rectified it and we, we own it" (October 20 page, flag 4).
Sources: Recording only; members' characterizations, not findings.
OBSERVATION A member of the public said the agenda was hard to find, and the district's own website was called clunky
At 1:46:58 an audience member said "Finding the agenda was a real interesting puzzle." and "I had to call your office twice." The superintendent agreed the web page is "clunky, it's awkward" and said a new site was coming; Lambert said he posts every agenda to the board's Facebook page. RSA 91-A:2, II in 2021 required notice of the time and place "posted in 2 appropriate places one of which may be the public body's Internet website, if such exists", at least 24 hours ahead. Whether that notice was posted cannot be checked from the recording, and no notice or agenda survives online, so this is recorded as an observation about access rather than a notice finding.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md section 151 records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the board approves its September 1 minutes on this recording, and on October 20 it takes up and tables these September 15 minutes with corrections. In 2021, 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". The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation. The minutes matter more than usual here, because they are where RSA 91-A:2, III(a) required the reason for the chair's remote attendance to be stated (flag 1).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 151.
POSITIVE The board opened every discussion and action item to public comment, a year before state law required any comment period
On Stone's motion (1:42:59) the board adopted, temporarily and pending a policy, a three-minute comment opportunity for citizens on each discussion and action item, with a timekeeper named by the chair, while keeping the general citizens' comment period for other matters. Members debated how to make it durable, and the policy committee undertook to draft a policy within 30 days (1:47:38). New Hampshire's first statutory school-board public comment requirement, RSA 189:74, was enacted in 2022, effective September 6, 2022, so in September 2021 this exceeded the legal minimum. The October 20 page records that the procedure was not consistently applied at the next meeting.
Sources: Practice beyond statutory minimums; RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. September 6, 2022) did not apply on this date.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 11886, "School Board live on 9/15/21": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. 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, packet, curriculum expectations email or minutes were located.
- Related pages: September 20, 2021 restructuring forum, Claremont School Board, October 20, 2021 (these minutes tabled; the chair's statement on his vote) and SAU 6 Board, October 21, 2021.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/11886 SchoolBoard091521.mp4.CSV (481 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/11886 SchoolBoard091521.mp4Input/Transcripts/11886 SchoolBoard091521.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/11886 SchoolBoard091521.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 151
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on September 15, 2021. RSA 91-A:2, II and III(a), (b), (c), (e) (notice, minutes, remote participation; 2019 codification, unamended until 2023, 188:1, eff. October 3, 2023).
- Context (reporting, not law). NHPR, June 10, 2021 (end of the COVID-19 state of emergency on June 11, 2021, and with it Emergency Order #12); NHMA, July/August 2021 (SB 95, a remote-meetings extension, not passed).
- Noted as not applicable on this date. RSA 189:74 (school board public comment period), enacted by 2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022.