Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file; no minutes exist online to check spellings against, so unverified spellings are marked. Members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair | Presided. Reported the bargaining status, compared Claremont and Newport administrator pay from his own experience, described his lunch with John Lambert about career and technical education and his reading of the Region 10 agreement, volunteered for a principal search committee, and asked about a February retreat. |
| Heather Whitney | Member | Seconded the agenda. Asked what the administration wants in the new principals and whether inflation had "wiped out" teachers' raises; relayed parents' concerns about work for students out on COVID protocol; reported the Capital Improvement committee's Zoom meeting; volunteered for the principal searches; proposed the February retreat. Identified in the dialogue file by elimination (medium confidence). |
| Steven Horsky | Member | Seconded the minutes and moved adjournment. Reported the secretaries' negotiations as "very, very close" and the policy committee's draft pay-to-play policy for out-of-district players; as a former flooring installer, suggested pressing the contractor or adhesive maker on the Stevens floors; argued that the tech center serves Claremont's students. |
| Joshua Lambert | Member, online | Attended online ("Josh is online."). No attributed speech; when the chair asked whether he could hear and had anything to say, a member answered "He's trying." (flag 1). |
| Rob Lovett Jr. | Member | Moved the agenda; thanked the Boston Bruins Foundation and Red River charitable foundation for the middle school project, in which he had a role. |
| Michael Petrin | Member (SAU 6 Board chair) | Asked that band, choir and drama performances get audience rules comparable to those for basketball; asked whether the Stevens flooring defect could be recovered from the renovation; gave scheduling constraints for budget sessions. Roll reading Michael. Patron. |
| Nicholas Stone | Member | Gave his availability for budget committee sessions; seconded adjournment. |
| Unidentified member | Member | Moved approval of the November 3 minutes at 0:01:52; the voice is merged with the superintendent's cluster and not identified. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Superintendent's report: middle school ribbon cutting with the Bruins Foundation and Red River, interim-principal searches at Bluff and Maple, COVID trends, and winter-sports rules. Answered questions on the searches and on the Region 10 discussion; noted a donated piano. |
| Unidentified administrator | Administrator | Spoke at 0:11:10 on what the district seeks in principals ("We have a lot of academic initiatives that we want to move forward"). Possibly the curriculum administrator named by the superintendent as Mary Ellen; not identified in the dialogue file. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant Superintendent for Finance, SAU 6 | Scheduled budget committee sessions for Monday and Tuesday, December 13 and 14, mornings from about 9:00 to noon. |
| Mary Woodman | Clerk and recording secretary | Called the roll (the chair's request is heard as This is Woodman). |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Named as present by the superintendent at 0:27:41 ("Doctor Herzog, who's here"); no attributed speech. |
| Citizens' comments | None | The chair opened citizens' comments at 0:02:04 and closed them with no speakers. |
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 on the recording. The chair refers to "an agenda in front of us tonight". Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | All seven members present, Lambert online. |
| 0:01:12 | Agenda | No amendments. Motion Lovett, second Whitney; voice vote. |
| 0:01:24 | Minutes of November 3 | Motion by an unidentified member at 0:01:52, second Horsky; approved by voice vote at 0:02:04. |
| 0:02:04 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:02:17 | Superintendent's report and questions | Report from 0:02:25; questions from 0:09:34. No student representative report (0:16:39). |
| 0:16:39 | Discussion and action: negotiations | Secretaries close to agreement; custodial and maintenance tentative agreement reached, ratification planned for the next meeting; paraprofessionals and administrators at an early stage. No vote. |
| 0:19:31 | Subcommittee reports | Capital Improvement committee (Whitney); policy committee (Horsky). |
| 0:23:00 | Other business | Chair's report on career and technical education and Region 10; principal search committees; donated piano; next meeting and budget committee dates; February retreat. |
| 0:35:13 | Good of the order; adjournment | Lovett's thanks to the donors. Motion Horsky, second Stone; voice vote at 0:35:56. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Call to order and roll | "It's December 1st, 2021, and I'd like to call this meeting of the Claremont School Board to order." During the roll the chair noted "Josh? Josh is online." | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:12 | Agenda and minutes | Agenda approved (Lovett, Whitney). November 3 minutes: "They were emailed to us." Approved on a motion from an unidentified member, second Horsky, by voice vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:02:04 | Citizens' comments | None came forward; the chair closed the period. | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:25 | Superintendent's report | Thanksgiving activities; the Claremont Middle School ribbon cutting with the Bruins Foundation and Red River. Searches for the Bluff and Maple principalships, "two interim positions because of the resignations late in the year", with community surveys and about 12 people per search; board representation invited. | |
| 0:06:04 | COVID and winter sports | Sullivan County was on a New York Times watch list; Claremont cases fell from over 200 to 147. Masking indoors except on the courts, no concessions, limited tickets per family: "it's easier to, to relax it than it is to reel it in later." | |
| 0:09:40 | Questions: principals and pay | Whitney worried that "with inflation the way it is, I almost think that we've wiped out the races that we gave our teachers" [raises] and that administrator pay would not be competitive. Sprague, who worked as an administrator in Newport and Claremont, said Claremont's administrator scale is "substantially higher". | |
| 0:13:34 | Arts performances | Petrin: if visitors are allowed at basketball, "we should be able to look at something similar for concerts and performances." The superintendent said performances would also be broadcast. | |
| 0:15:17 | Work for students in quarantine | Whitney relayed parents' reports that elementary students out on protocol were not getting work at home; Horsky said the same happened at the middle and high school for his family. The superintendent said he would follow up. | |
| 0:16:39 | Negotiations | Horsky: secretaries' negotiations "very, very close". Chair: the custodial and maintenance unit (heard as Kim C) has reached agreement; members will get a copy "that way we can vote on it and you can see exactly what what you're voting on at the next meeting". He planned to discuss it "in nonpublic and then, come back and vote in public." Paraprofessionals: ground rules only; administrators still to go. | |
| 0:19:38 | Capital Improvement committee | Whitney: "The Capital Improvement committee met over zoom last night". High school roof only partly replaced during the renovation; paving; bathroom flooring at Stevens where tiles and subfloor were not properly secured; LED lighting at Disnard and Bluff, "budget neutral because it's ratepayer funded". A warrant article is possible "but we're hoping not." | MEDIUM |
| 0:21:12 | Stevens flooring | Petrin asked whether the cost could be recovered from the renovation; Whitney relayed the facilities director's answer: "He said it's a no go. Because it had been expected inspected at the time." Horsky: likely "the wrong adhesive was used" in a wet area; check the manufacturer's warranty. The general contractor was named as Trumbull Nelson. | |
| 0:22:34 | Policy committee | A draft pay-to-play policy for out-of-district players; possibly more policies by the next meeting. | |
| 0:23:06 | Chair's lunch on CTE and Region 10 | The chair said he had lunch with John Lambert, of Lambert Auto, about career and technical education, "sort of, separating fact from fiction from my point of view", and forwarded success letters to members. On the Region 10 agreement: "I don't see where it says that", that is, a bar on competing programs, which he attributed to the state instead. The superintendent said the discussion was "just for discussion sake"; Horsky said his earlier comment about CTE had "created some stir". | |
| 0:29:46 | Remote member | Chair: "Josh, you've been I don't know if you can hear me. Do you have anything to say? You're good." Whitney: "He's trying." | MEDIUM |
| 0:30:02 | Principal search committees | Whitney volunteered and the chair offered to serve too; the superintendent described about 15 hours over six meetings, most at 5:30. | |
| 0:30:56 | Donated piano | A piano donated to Stevens High School by the family of teacher Fred Hill, worth "probably, you know, several thousand dollars" by the superintendent's estimate. | |
| 0:31:29 | Next meeting; budget committee sessions | No second December board meeting expected. Seaman: budget committee meetings would start soon, mornings from nine till noon; after the members' conflicts, Monday and Tuesday the 13th and 14th were set. The budget would come to the board "early in January for the presentation." | OBS |
| 0:34:10 | February retreat | Whitney asked to schedule the yearly retreat; the chair proposed that the February meeting be the retreat, possibly on a day other than Wednesday. | OBS |
| 0:35:26 | Thanks; adjournment | Lovett thanked the Boston Bruins Foundation and Red River. Horsky moved to adjourn, Stone seconded; voice vote at 0:35:56. | MEDIUM |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on December 1, 2021. 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. Five flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM A member attended online but apparently could not take part, and every vote was a voice vote
Joshua Lambert attended online (0:00:52: "Josh? Josh is online."). He has no attributed speech. When the chair turned to him at 0:29:46 ("Josh, you've been I don't know if you can hear me. Do you have anything to say? You're good."), a member answered "He's trying." RSA 91-A:2, III(c), as in force in 2021, required that "Each member participating electronically or otherwise must be able to simultaneously hear each other and speak to each other during the meeting, and shall be audible or otherwise discernable to the public in attendance". III(e) required that "All votes taken during such a meeting shall be by roll call vote"; the agenda, the November 3 minutes and adjournment were all voice votes (0:01:24, 0:02:04, 0:35:56). III(a) required the reason for remote attendance to be stated in the minutes, which are not available.
Mitigation: a quorum of six was physically present, as III(b) requires, and the chair checked on the remote member twice (0:29:46 and 0:34:58). No business turned on his vote. The COVID-19 state of emergency, under which Emergency Order #12 had relaxed these rules, expired June 11, 2021. Graded MEDIUM: the connection problem is audible on the tape, but its extent cannot be measured from the transcript.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, III(a), (b), (c), (e) (2019 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1, so the text in force in 2021); New Hampshire Public Radio, June 10, 2021 (reporting): state of emergency to expire June 11, 2021.
MEDIUM The Capital Improvement committee met entirely over Zoom, outside the state of emergency
Whitney reported at 0:19:38: "The Capital Improvement committee met over zoom last night", that is, November 30, 2021, with the facilities director presenting. A committee of the school board, or an advisory committee to it, is itself a public body under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d), which reaches "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto." RSA 91-A:2, III(b) required that "Except in an emergency, a quorum of the public body shall be physically present at the location specified in the meeting notice", with any emergency declared by the chair and its facts recorded in the minutes. A meeting held over Zoom has no physical quorum unless members gathered somewhere, which the report does not suggest, and no emergency is described.
Graded MEDIUM because the process gap is probable rather than certain: the committee's membership, its notice and whether any members met in person are not in any available record, and no minutes of the committee are posted. By December 2021 the Governor's emergency order that had allowed fully remote meetings had lapsed with the state of emergency on June 11, 2021.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, so in force in 2021): committees and advisory committees are public bodies; RSA 91-A:2, III(b) (2019 codification): quorum physically present except in an emergency; NHPR, June 10, 2021 (reporting).
OBSERVATION Budget committee sessions on December 13 and 14 and a February retreat were scheduled; none has a recording or record online
At 0:32:14 Seaman scheduled budget committee meetings, and the members settled on Monday and Tuesday, December 13 and 14, from about nine to noon (0:33:35). At 0:34:34 the chair proposed that the February board meeting be the annual retreat. Each is a meeting of a public body (the budget committee as a board committee under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); the retreat as a meeting of the board), requiring notice and minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II. The corpus holds no recording of either December budget committee session; it has regular board recordings for February 2 and February 16, 2022, but none titled as a retreat, and whether the retreat was held is not settled here. MAP.md lists no Drive material for any of these sessions. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that notice or minutes were lacking. The same budget process is the one the budget subcommittee whose first meeting was reported on November 3 (see the November 3 page).
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification); RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification): notice and minutes; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md sections 157 to 162.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
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. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the recording shows a written agenda and shows the board approving the November 3 minutes, which members had received by email. The tentative agreements that the chair said would be distributed before ratification are not posted either. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation.
Sources: Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 157; RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification).
POSITIVE A citizens' comment period was on the agenda before any statute required one, and the prior minutes were circulated and approved at the next meeting
The chair opened citizens' comments at 0:02:04, right after the minutes. No statute required a school board to hold a public comment period in 2021: RSA 189:74 was enacted by 2022, 333:1, effective September 6, 2022. The November 3 minutes were emailed to members and approved at this next regular meeting (0:01:42), and the chair also undertook that members would see the text of the custodial agreement before being asked to ratify it.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (source: 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022): public comment period, not in force in 2021.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 12056, "Claremont School Board of 12/1/21": Claremont Community Television. 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, tentative agreement, committee minutes or board minutes were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, November 3, 2021; SAU 6 Board, November 18, 2021; SAU 6 Board, December 16, 2021.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12056 SchoolBoard120121.mp4.CSV (193 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12056 SchoolBoard120121.mp4Input/Transcripts/12056 SchoolBoard120121.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12056 SchoolBoard120121.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 157
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on December 1, 2021. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (public bodies include committees; 2019 codification). RSA 91-A:2, II and III(a), (b), (c), (e) (notice and minutes; remote participation; 2019 codification, unchanged through 2022). RSA 189:74 (school board public comment), cited only to show it post-dates this meeting (2022, 333:1).
- Emergency orders. The COVID-19 state of emergency expired June 11, 2021 (NHPR reporting).