Participants
Everyone in the record. Names follow the dialogue file; where the minutes spell or identify someone differently, both are given and neither is silently preferred.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair, elected this meeting | Nominated by Sprague and elected on a voice vote at 0:03:33; thanked Sprague "for your years of service." Ran the hearing and meeting. On ESSER: "How am I going to pay for that Cadillac after my my stimulus money's gone?" Answered a resident that the academic centers target "all kids." Set the May 1 retreat. Rendered Mr. Michael Patron, cheer patron, Mr. Pedro. |
| Heather Whitney | Vice Chair, elected this meeting | Nominated by Sprague; elected at 0:04:01. First and most persistent questioner on ESSER sustainability: "We're going to have to sustain that with future budgets." "we need a plan to transition before we even implement this." Objected to $100,000 for the visioning committee. Asked for the federal fiscal monitoring final report on the next agenda. |
| Frank Sprague | Member; outgoing chair | Administered the clerk's oath. Nominated Petrin and Whitney. "I want to be able to participate instead. Of facilitate." Asked about benefits on ESSER salaries (answer: "about 45% additional", paid from ESSER), students lost during COVID, the social worker, ventilation, and whether counselor positions were "the money that the taxpayers put back into the budget at the deliberative session." Requested a preschool-outcomes analysis. |
| Steven Horsky | Member | Point of order on the length of the report. Asked for the total cost of the positions ("roughly 1.2 million") and "the expected return on investment." Moved the Youth in Government trip, the calendar and the donation, and adjournment. Rendered Mr. Hauschka. |
| Whitney Skillen | Member | Asked why a part-time campus-aide post carried a full-time salary ("It's just a miss"), asked for evaluation metrics and "some kind of documentation" of the plan's assumptions, and asked for bullying policy on the next agenda. Rendered Whitney. Skilling in the roll. |
| Joshua Lambert | Member | Moved the three principal nominations. Drew on his work in a Charlestown school: "I don't see this not helping at all." Asked to review staff credentials. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member | Asked about the bowling team's seniors; on ESSER suggested talking to other SAUs facing the same cliff. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Called the meeting to order, ran the officer elections and the hearing's opening, and presented the ESSER III plan for about an hour: 196 survey responses, "20% minimally of the Esser money has to be used to address specific learning losses," staff turnover "of about 20% or more", and "It is a gift was the. So why wouldn't we go all in?" Introduced three principal nominees. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Sworn in at 0:01:31 by Frank Sprague; called the roll. Thanked from the floor by a state representative. |
| Frank Romeo | Principal, Claremont Middle School | Presented the academic-center model: "they have not had a full year of school since they were sixth grade." Rendered Mr. Narrow and Mr. Romney. |
| Christopher Pratt | Assistant principal, Stevens High School; nominated as principal | Presented the high-school side: "creating these programs without the taxpayers having to flip the bill." Elected principal at this meeting. The superintendent's introduction says he "was a superintendent of schools in Bellows Falls, Vermont": that is his earlier Vermont post, not a Claremont role. |
| Christine Baker; Mark Blount | Principal nominees (Bluff School; Maple Avenue School) | Introduced by the superintendent at 0:23:33; elected with Pratt at 1:18:44. Not heard speaking. |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Director, Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center | Described eighth-grade exploratory quarter courses (carpentry, drones, home repair, intro to health) and the visioning committee to be led by "Mr. Pope". |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education | Reported a likely $300,000, three-year grant from "Legacy by Gersh, which is what was formerly called Crotchet Mountain" for transition services to age 22. |
| Unidentified (the minutes say Dr. Mary Ellen Janeiro) | SAU 6 curriculum administrator | The dialogue file leaves this voice unidentified. The minutes attribute to "Mary Ellen Janeiro" (Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum on the masthead) the remarks at 1:46:35, the answer to Horsky's return-on-investment question at 1:59:22 ("It's the $6 million Man approach") and the Teach United grant announcement at 2:25:53, and the special-education director opens with "Mary Ellen" at 2:27:16. The attribution to her rests on the minutes. |
| Joshua (the minutes: Joshua Reyes) | Citizens' comments, Ward 3 | Asked why there was no student representative ("isn't there supposed to be a student representative at these meetings?"), and later how many students the academic centers could serve and how the positions would be recruited. |
| Candace Crawford | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 | Asked for a visioning-committee update and whether the technical-center director's post would be fully funded after the deliberative session added the money. Later: exit interviews, summer-school recruitment, and agreement that $100,000 for visioning was not needed. |
| Patrick Adrian | Citizens' comments, Ward 1; former board member | Asked the board to take public comment during agenda items, described a self-contained program he had worked in, and asked "who are the kids that we're talking about?" |
| Norm Blue (the minutes: Mr. Blouin) | Resident, Ward 3 | Self-identified as Norm blue in Ward three; asked what share of seniors go to college (answer "About 50%") and urged trade-school pathways starting in eighth grade. |
| Jill Thorsten (the minutes: Jill Chastenay) | Social studies teacher and Youth in Government advisor, Stevens High School | Presented the Youth in Government trip. The chair introduced her as Miss Chastity; the dialogue file's spelling is uncertain and the minutes' differs. |
| Gary Merchant | Resident; NH State Representative | Thanked returning and new members and the clerk; offered help "between Concord and Claremont." |
| Unidentified | Citizens' comment at the public hearing (Ward 2, per the dialogue file's role note) | Asked the purpose of the donation; answered by the superintendent. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted online; the chair refers to "an agenda in front of us". This list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions and checked against the minutes, whose wording is quoted as the minutes'. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | What happened |
|---|
| 0:00:48 | Call to order; Pledge | By the superintendent. |
| 0:01:31 | Clerk sworn in | Mary Woodman sworn by Frank Sprague. New members had been sworn at the office ("the Dow Building", per the minutes). |
| 0:02:54 | Election of officers | Minutes: "Frank Sprague nominated Mike Petrin as Board Chair, Steven Horsky seconded, all in favor via voice vote" and the same for Heather Whitney as vice chair. On the recording the superintendent conducts both votes. |
| 0:04:50 | Public hearing: $8,000 donation | Four $2,000 gifts to Stevens High School scholarship funds from Margaret Cooney. One question from the floor. Hearing closed at 0:06:42. See flag 4. |
| 0:06:42 | Regular meeting: roll; agenda; minutes | Roll per the minutes: all seven present. Agenda approved (Sprague, Horsky second, per the minutes). "Minutes. I don't believe we have minutes at this point." Minutes: "No minutes". |
| 0:09:04 | Citizens' comments | Joshua (Ward 3), Candace Crawford (Ward 2). |
| 0:11:58 | Superintendent's report | ESSER III allocation and survey; three new administrators; SEL consultant; academic centers, deans and campus aides; schedule and eighth-grade exploratory courses; visioning committee. |
| 1:11:32 | 1. Recognition: Stevens bowling team | Second consecutive state championship. |
| 1:13:29 | 2. Youth in Government | Approved: Horsky motion; the minutes record Lambert as seconder. |
| 1:17:15 | 3. Principal nominations | Baker, Blount, Pratt approved on Lambert's motion (Whitney second, per the minutes). |
| 1:19:17 | 4. ESSER funds | Discussion for about fifty minutes; no vote recorded on the recording or in the minutes. |
| 2:10:10 | 5. 2022–23 school calendar | Adopted: Horsky motion, Whitney second. |
| 2:12:43 | 6. Acceptance of donations | $8,000 accepted: Horsky motion, second "by Whitney" on the recording and "Whitney Skillen" in the minutes. A $1,600 materials gift to the technical center recognized. |
| 2:16:32 | 7. School board retreat | Set for Sunday, May 1, 2022, 10 a.m. to about noon. See flag 2. |
| 2:19:58 | Other business; adjournment | Future agenda requests; grant announcements; Horsky motion to adjourn, Lambert second. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Each time is the start of the cited row, 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 |
|---|
| 0:01:31 | Clerk's oath; officers | Sprague swears in the clerk. Tempesta: "the new board members have already been sworn in. We did a we did that in the office." Sprague nominates "Mr. Michael Patron" and "Mrs. Heather Whitney"; both elected on voice votes. Petrin: "Frank, I'd like to thank you for your years of service." | |
| 0:05:09 | Donation hearing | "we have an $8,000 donation, from Margaret Cooney" for four Stevens scholarship funds. A resident asks its purpose; Tempesta: "to fund those specific scholarship funds for graduates of Stevens High School." | POSITIVE |
| 0:08:56 | No minutes; citizens' comments | "Minutes. I don't believe we have minutes at this point." Joshua (Ward 3) asks about a student representative; the superintendent: "We're looking for another student." Crawford asks whether the technical-center director's post will be fully funded after the deliberative session added the money; deferred to the report. | |
| 0:11:58 | ESSER III: allocation and survey | "we submitted our SR three money" and "This is the actual submission to the state that we did last month." "we had 196 responses", favoring social-emotional support, additional staff and facilities. "20% minimally of the Esser money has to be used to address specific learning losses." He also mentions performance bonuses "for the other bargaining groups" among the allocations. | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:34 | Sustainability, first round | Whitney: "if this is one time money. How are we going to do some of these things sustainably?" Tempesta: a "historical turnover rate of about 20% or more of staff", so "the incoming staff will, will, will be there for the for the short term." Skillen agrees with Whitney. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:23:33 | New administrators; SEL consultant | Christine Baker (Bluff), Mark Blount (Maple Avenue) and Christopher Pratt (Stevens) introduced. Consultant Charlie Applestein, as the minutes spell him ("Mister Charlie apple" on the recording), author of "No Such Thing as a Bad Kid." | |
| 0:30:48 | Positions and cost | Campus aides, deans of students, academic centers and an alternative program; teachers budgeted "Conservatively at 55,000", campus aides lower, "with benefits, which is substantial, usually between 40 to 45%." Skillen: why does the part-time campus-aide post carry the full-time salary? Tempesta: "It's just a miss." | |
| 0:36:26 | Middle school academic centers | Romeo: "we've seen the gap widening with a lot of our students." Eighth graders "have not had a full year of school since they were sixth grade." Horsky's point of order at 0:48:19 on the length of the discussion. | |
| 0:49:33 | Resident: public comment during items | Adrian: "don't forget about the asking if the public wants to make comments during the agenda items." Then: "Are we talking kind of three separate classrooms or one program?" | POSITIVE |
| 0:56:04 | High school programs | Pratt: "what is that going to mean when the ESA funds are out?" and "creating these programs without the taxpayers having to flip the bill." | |
| 1:03:32 | Eighth-grade exploratory; visioning | Exploratory classes "for the eighth graders to begin this fall at the Tech Center." Herzog: quarter courses, "about 30 students and two classes per quarter"; Mr. Pope to lead the visioning committee. | |
| 1:11:32 | Bowling; Youth in Government; principals | Bowling team's second straight state title. Youth in Government trip approved on Horsky's motion. Principals: Sprague, "So I'm assuming everyone is certified as a principal in New Hampshire." Tempesta: "Everyone is." Nominations approved. | |
| 1:19:17 | ESSER action item | "All of the document is posted online right now for the public to review as well as they have to be." Sprague: are benefits in the local budget? Tempesta: "No no no that's all that's all Esser." Sprague on students lost during COVID: "I don't see anywhere in the planning for recapture of those kids that we've lost." | POSITIVE |
| 1:23:33 | Resident: trades | Blue asks what percentage of seniors go to college; Tempesta: "About 50%." Blue: "We need to get this trade school moving." | POSITIVE |
| 1:29:45 | Totals | Horsky: "that added up to roughly 1.2 million" before benefits, and "I'm seeing 3 million". Joshua (Ward 3) asks how many students can be served and how staff will be recruited: "we can't put 900 students in one academic." | |
| 1:37:35 | The cliff | Petrin: "if I take the stimulus money that I've received from the government and buy myself a Cadillac" and "we're going to be asking the the public and the citizens of Clermont, you know, for more money." Whitney: "we need a plan to transition before we even implement this." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:48:53 | Assumptions and targets | Skillen asks for the plan's assumptions in writing; Tempesta: "We can add that to this." Adrian: "who are the kids that we're talking about?" Petrin: "all kids." Miles suggests comparing notes with other SAUs. | |
| 1:55:23 | Going all in | Tempesta: "we get the most money in the region." "We're confident that we can taper them off." "It is a gift was the. So why wouldn't we go all in?" Lambert: "I don't see this not helping at all." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:58:28 | Return on investment | Horsky: "What is the expected return on investment". Unidentified curriculum administrator (Janeiro, per the minutes): "It's the $6 million Man approach, right?" and "I'm not expecting a 50% increase. I really want 100% increase." | |
| 2:07:20 | Deliberative-session money | Sprague asks whether the counselor positions are "the money that the taxpayers put back into the budget at the deliberative session." Tempesta: "that's our intention to put that in the local budget. So that's sustainable after this." Crawford: exit interviews, summer-school recruitment, and "I don't think $100,000 is needed" for visioning. | |
| 2:10:10 | Calendar; donations | Calendar adopted. $8,000 accepted "for the scholarships of Stephen High School students." Tempesta: "the public hearings for over the 5000. So that that's why we had the public hearing." A $1,600 materials gift from "Steve Fishkill" (the minutes: Steven Fiskio) recognized. | POSITIVE |
| 2:16:32 | Retreat | Petrin: "we usually take the community room across the street, and we we bring our own food." Set for Sunday May 1, "Ten to noon", to "plan our school board goals." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:20:06 | Other business | Next SAU 6 meeting April 21. Sprague's preschool-outcomes request. Whitney: "the federal fiscal monitoring final report of the Claremont School District that was emailed to members today." Skillen: bullying policy. Lambert: staff credentials. Teach United grant; Nester's transition grant; Merchant's thanks. | |
| 2:29:51 | Adjournment | Horsky moves, Lambert seconds. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state and federal law in force on April 6, 2022. Where a provision has since been amended, the flag cites the text that governed on that date. 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. Six flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The minutes exist and record movers and seconders, but their masthead lists the outgoing board and several names differ from the recording
The minutes' header lists "Chair Frank Sprague, Vice Chair Heather Whitney, Steven Horsky, Joshua Lambert, Rob Lovett Jr., Michael Petrin, & Nicholas Stone": the board as it stood before the March election. The body of the same document records Petrin elected chair and a roll of the new seven, so the masthead contradicts its own contents. The minutes spell several speakers differently from the dialogue file (Joshua Reyes, Mr. Blouin, Jill Chastenay, Steven Fiskio) and credit the second on the donation to "Whitney Skillen" where the chair says "seconded by Whitney". On the other side of the ledger, they record a mover and seconder for each motion, as RSA 91-A:2, II required ("The names of the members who made or seconded each motion shall be recorded in the minutes").
The file was created in Drive on 2022-07-21, in the packet folder for July 20, 2022, the first folder of the district's online archive. That date shows when this copy reached the public share, not when the minutes were written or first open to inspection, so no timeliness finding is drawn from it.
Sources: Minutes of April 6, 2022; RSA 91-A:2, II (2019 codification, in force on this date).
OBSERVATION The board scheduled a Sunday goal-setting retreat of the full board, which is a meeting under the Right-to-Know Law; no notice, minutes or recording of it is in the record
At 2:16:32 the chair set the retreat for Sunday, May 1, 2022, "Ten to noon", in "the community room across the street", to "plan our school board goals." A convening of a quorum of the board to discuss matters within its jurisdiction is a meeting: RSA 91-A:2, I (2019 codification) defines "meeting" as "the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body", in person or otherwise, to discuss or act upon matters over which it has supervision or control. A retreat is therefore subject to notice and minutes like any other meeting. The corpus holds no recording, notice or minutes for May 1, 2022, and MAP.md has no section for it. The district's online archive begins in July 2022, so this is recorded as an observation about what can be checked, not a finding that the retreat went unnoticed or unminuted.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and II (2019 codification).
OBSERVATION New positions were built on one-time federal money on the strength of an attrition assumption the board asked to see in writing
Three board members and several residents asked the same question. The administration's answers were that historical staff turnover "of about 20% or more" would let ESSER-funded staff be absorbed (0:20:14), that "We're confident that we can taper them off" (1:55:40), and, for the counselor positions, that "that's our intention to put that in the local budget" (2:07:35). Skillen asked for the assumptions to be documented; the superintendent said they could be added. No vote on the plan was taken at this meeting. The federal deadline that framed the plan is stated in the Department of Education's own guidance: ARP ESSER funds "must be obligated by September 30, 2024". Recorded as an observation because the sustainability claims are the speakers' own and no rule governs them.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, ARP ESSER and EANS obligation deadlines memo (June 2024).
POSITIVE The $8,000 donation was taken to a public hearing before it was accepted, as the $5,000 threshold then in force required
RSA 198:20-b, III, in the text in force on this date, provided: "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," with notice "published in a newspaper of general circulation in the relevant municipality at least 7 days before the meeting is held." The board opened the evening with that hearing (0:04:50), took a question from the floor, and voted acceptance later (2:13:33); the superintendent explained the distinction at 2:16:19: "the public hearings for over the 5000." The smaller $1,600 materials gift was handled as a recognition. Whether the newspaper notice ran cannot be checked from the record. (The threshold was raised to $20,000 by 2023, 38:1, effective July 18, 2023; the $5,000 figure is the one that applied here.)
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1).
POSITIVE The ESSER III plan was built on a public survey, posted online, and described to the board in public with the 20% learning-loss reservation stated correctly
The federal interim final requirements for ARP ESSER required each district to "engage in meaningful consultation" with students, families and staff, to "provide the public the opportunity to provide input", to make its plan "publicly available on the LEA's website", and to reserve "at least 20 percent of the funds to measure and address the academic impact of lost instructional time." On the recording the superintendent reports "196 responses" to the district's survey (0:12:48), says the plan is posted "online right now for the public to review as well as they have to be" (1:20:33), and states the 20% reservation (0:13:27). The presentation then took roughly two hours of public questioning from members and residents.
Sources: 86 FR 21195 (April 22, 2021), ARP ESSER interim final requirements.
POSITIVE Residents were heard during the ESSER item, not only in the opening comment period, before any statute required a comment period at all
The chair took questions from four residents in the middle of the ESSER discussion (Adrian at 0:49:33 and 1:50:35, Blue at 1:23:33 and 2:02:46, Joshua at 1:31:23, Crawford at 2:08:28), after Adrian asked the board not to "forget about the asking if the public wants to make comments during the agenda items." New Hampshire's school-board public-comment statute, RSA 189:74, was enacted by 2022, 333:1 and took effect September 6, 2022, five months after this meeting; before then no statute required any public comment period. The practice therefore exceeded the legal minimum.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not in force on this date).
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
Project files (the dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the pages)
Dialogue/12315 SchoolBoard040622.mp4.CSV: dialogue file, 853 rows.Input/Videos/12315 SchoolBoard040622.mp4; Input/Transcripts/12315 SchoolBoard040622.mp4.json.Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 164.Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12315 SchoolBoard040622.mp4.md; Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md.
Laws and rules cited on this page