Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file; where it says Unidentified, so does this table. No minutes exist online to check spellings against. Members first, then staff, then the public.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Michael Petrin | Chair | Presided. Added the lunch program update to the agenda; disclosed that the new student representative is his daughter; invited public comment during agenda items at 0:53:36; asked about the pace of restorative practices and whether the food service surplus could go into a trust. Rendered Patron in the roll. |
| Heather Whitney | Vice chair | Asked at 0:40:22 how restorative practices work when a victim does not want to take part. The chair names her as seconder of adjournment. The attribution report places three of her remarks by override. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Questioned the aggressor and victim distinction in restorative practices; asked how many students are in each special education program and about parents who refuse an in-district placement; recalled past lunch-debt problems at 2:04:03. Several of his remarks sit inside other speakers' voice clusters and were reassigned. |
| Steven Horsky | Board member | Moved the amended agenda and adjournment; asked how student panels would avoid becoming a full-time job; described his own family's experience with the incoming principal; urged the administration to contest placement refusals; asked for quarterly principal presentations and for surplus plans including a trust. |
| Whitney Skillen | Board member | Asked for the visioning committee's plans for its budget at 0:15:36 and how a victim is supported when the aggressor declines the panel. Placed with medium confidence. |
| Bonnie Miles | Board member | Asked at 2:01:44 how many students go unfed over the weekend and about backpack food programs: "I just can't bear that thought of." |
| Joshua Lambert | Board member | Asked for a June graduation update. |
| Unidentified board member | Board member | Asked what happens to special education students at the middle school (1:53:57) and whether the PRIDE program is reducing the need for services (1:56:14). The attribution report suggests Heather Whitney or Joshua Lambert, low confidence. |
| Hannah | Student representative | Newly seated. Reported school events at 0:06:19. The chair stated that she is his daughter and was chosen by staff from student council candidates. |
| Michael Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reported on the technical center visioning committee, the career day and the parent group on bullying; answered on the donation. |
| Richard Seaman | Assistant superintendent for finance, SAU 6 | Lunch program update from 1:59:18: end of universal free meals, the food service RFP, the weekend hunger gap, meal-charge debt and an estimated surplus of about $300,000. |
| Chris Pratt | Incoming principal, Stevens High School | Presented the restorative practices plan from 0:19:57 and answered questions until 0:53:01. |
| Baker | Principal, Bluff Elementary School | Family involvement report. First name not stated on the recording. |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary School | Year-end report (Dessner and Disney in the transcript are Disnard). First name from the project roster only. |
| Nicole Boynton | Student services coordinator, Disnard | Described the weekly recognition program and the test pep assembly; medium confidence on the boundary with Lewis. |
| Unidentified | Principal, Maple Avenue Elementary School | Year-end report from 1:24:50. Name never stated on the recording; the roster's Kathleen Bunnell (December 2020) is not confirmed for 2022. |
| Ben Nester | Director of Special Education, SAU 6 | Presented the cost of the three in-district programs from 1:39:59 and corrected his own figure. |
| Melissa Small | Administrative assistant (roll call) | Read the roll. |
| Candace Crawford | Citizens' comments, Ward 2 | Spoke at 0:03:04 ("Candy Crawford for two."): asked for a visioning committee update, noted the technical center building is not fully used, and asked for a report on graduation and college-going rates. |
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 numbers the discussion and action items one to five, so a written agenda existed. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | Call to order, pledge, roll call | Roll call read by Melissa Small; only partly audible. |
| 0:01:19 | Agenda changes; previous minutes | Lunch program update added as item 5; approval of the previous minutes put off. Horsky moved the amended agenda; seconded (seconder unidentified); approved by voice vote. |
| 0:02:34 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, Candace Crawford (Ward 2). |
| 0:05:10 | Student representative report | New representative seated and reported. |
| 0:09:06 | Superintendent's report | Visioning committee and career day. |
| 0:16:12 | Item 1: bullying parent group update | Includes the incoming principal's restorative practices presentation. No vote. |
| 0:53:59 | Item 2: elementary school end-of-year presentations | Bluff, Disnard and Maple Avenue. No vote. |
| 1:39:59 | Item 3: special education programs update | Cost summary of three programs. No vote. |
| 1:57:27 | Item 4: Exxon Mobil / Summit Distribution donation | $500 for STEM acknowledged; the chair said no vote was needed because of the amount. |
| 1:58:47 | Item 5: lunch program | Update only; the vendor decision is to come in June. |
| 2:13:44 | Other business; future items; closing | Graduation update requested; superintendent's senior luncheon moved to May 26. |
| 2:16:12 | Adjournment | Horsky moved; Heather Whitney seconded (per the chair); 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 |
|---|
| 0:01:19 | Agenda; minutes put off | The chair added a lunch update: "It looks like that money is going away at the end of this current year." Horsky at 0:02:02: "We can probably move on until we full for fleshed out version of those." The chair: "So the sketch in the previous minutes." Agenda approved. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:34 | Citizens' comments | The chair: "This is the time to speak on items outside of the agenda items." and "When we get to the items that are on the agenda, citizens will also have an opportunity to speak at that point." Crawford: "However, there are only four programs"; "It was originally set up for eight plus programs." and "the building isn't fully utilized." She asked "what percentage of students are graduating" and going on to further education. | POSITIVE OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:10 | New student representative | The chair: "Hannah as my daughter. But it has nothing to do with me being on the school board." The principal went to the student council and "Got some, I think three candidates that were able to do it and willing to do it."; staff "chose and selected one person." | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:19 | Student representative report | Middle school play, sixth grade parent night; at the high school the music groups "brought home three trophies", honor society inductions, prom, and "the high school and tech center had a career day last week". Technical center summer camp: "The camp runs July 11th through the 15th". | |
| 0:09:09 | Visioning committee; career day | The technical center visioning committee met with about 15 members, with Alex Herzog elected co-chair; "We started talking about some of the things that we would have to navigate." and "we shared a Google folder with some documents". The career day was "one of the most spectacular single days that I've seen."; "How to get hired kids showed up with five resumes." At 0:15:36 Skillen asked for "any plans that have been discussed for how to use the budget set aside for the Visioning Committee." The superintendent: "We can also have summaries in kind of minutes of, of, of deliverables to talk about that." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:01 | Career day attendance | Horsky: "Could we get rough numbers of the percentages of the student bodies from each school that attended?" | |
| 0:16:22 | Parent group on bullying | District staff met twice with parents concerned about bullying; "The goal of the group was to try to work together collectively". The superintendent raised "the school counselors that we hope to get back up, that have been a part of the strategic plan that never really happened." At the second meeting "I think we had more administrators there than parents there." | |
| 0:19:57 | Restorative practices plan | Pratt: "Restorative practices is something I've been doing probably over 20 years now." A published discipline matrix so that "Students, parents, the community know exactly how administration is going to respond when something goes wrong." "We're looking at having a student panel, which is really a student restorative circle." On suspensions: "I strongly believe that only time we should use school suspensions, if a lot [a law] has been broken outside of the school". A two-minute demonstration video played from 0:30:44. Suspension days may be held "in abeyance": "We'll put a certain amount of those days in abeyance." | |
| 0:40:17 | Victims and the panel | Whitney asked "Is the restorative approach implemented when a victim doesn't want to participate", fearing "the burden of healing would be placed on victim to accept an apology that they don't want to accept". Pratt: "The victim never has to participate." | |
| 0:42:15 | Workload and fairness of panels | Horsky: "it sounds like that could become a full time job pretty quick." and asked how to "make sure it's an even playing field, not just top performers in the school?" Pratt, of a 5,000-student school: "I think we average maybe three a week." | |
| 0:44:32 | Aggressor or victim | Sprague: sometimes "the victim then becomes also an aggressor in in the case of self-defense"; at 0:46:29: "I've got to jump through all these hoops now because somebody jumped me in the hall." Pratt: participation is never forced and ordinary discipline stays. At 0:48:22: "We had 450 days of out-of-school suspension" before the program elsewhere; "It takes about at least three years to change the culture". | |
| 0:50:21 | Timeline | Training "it takes about probably two days to train staff in the process."; the middle school "at least another year, I think, before it trickles down to the, to the middle school." Skillen asked at 0:52:22 how a victim is helped to "restore a sense of security and safety". | |
| 0:53:01 | A member's own experience | Horsky: "the first time I met Mr. Brad [Mr. Pratt] was dealing with a, with a issue"; "my student was the victim."; "I'm pretty pretty darn supportive of this program." | |
| 0:53:36 | Public invited to comment | The chair: "So if anybody in the public has a comment or question, feel free to wave at me and I'll acknowledge you." No one spoke. | POSITIVE |
| 0:54:43 | Bluff Elementary report | Principal Baker: virtual open house with "71% of our families sign up for the conferences."; math night "at count we had 180 people attend this event."; "our PTO multiplied by six, so we're up to 12 members instead of two." "I challenged them to read 60,000 minutes in a month, and if they did, I would kiss a pig." The literacy night drew "64% of our students". | |
| 1:06:31 | Disnard report | Lewis: "our theme this year was all around together we All shine." Tiered support teams, the weekly recognition program, the Winter Olympics and a math carnival ("Huge, huge thanks to our title one department for this."). | |
| 1:24:50 | Maple Avenue report | "Our theme this year was amazing together." "First grade seems to be one of the groups that was challenged most by that he Covid learning loss." Fourth graders "went to the state House yesterday". | |
| 1:39:01 | Principals' reports welcomed | Horsky: "I think that this board should request them quarterly". | |
| 1:40:45 | Special education programs: cost | Nester: three in-district programs, including "what we call the pride program". "I tallied this as 17 total students"; "The total operational costs for all three programs, right around 686,000."; "a figure of about 1.8 million to serve those 17 kiddos" if placed out; with state aid "at a 68%, which is what historically the state is giving us."; savings "of around 623,000." Then: "I recognized an error in my calculation." At 1:46:45: "That would bring the the truer total savings and cost avoidance to around 585,000." | POSITIVE |
| 1:47:39 | Keeping students close to home | The chair: "we always knew, I think, that this was going to be a cost of ordnance [cost avoidance] and not a, not a revenue source." | |
| 1:48:46 | Parents who refuse an in-district placement | Nester: "90% of the time they're agreeable to, to coming back"; in two cases "we've not fought that from a legal perspective." Horsky at 1:51:23: "we shouldn't just lay down and continue to cost taxpayers tuition." and "If they want to do it, then write the check." | |
| 1:52:30 | Tuition students | Nester said he was "billing fall mountain for each of those two students" at 41,000 to 46,000; the first figure counted them twice: "In layman's terms I double dipped." (1:53:48) | POSITIVE |
| 1:54:02 | Middle school gap | Nester: "The the black hole that exists is behavior programing at the middle school level." Granite Hill in Newport: "they're the cheapest game in town by far." and "They they run about 60 grand, roughly speaking." At 1:56:41: "between 3 and 5 kids over the last three years that have been able to go back to mainstream". | |
| 1:57:27 | $500 donation | Exxon Mobil and Summit Distribution for STEM. The chair at 1:58:31: "because of the dollar amount, we do not need to vote to approve this." and "It's just a it's just a thank you to Summit Distribution and Exxon Mobil." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:59:18 | End of universal free meals; RFP | Seaman: "the free program as a result of the pandemic does end on June 30th." "we're in the midst right now of an RFP for our food management service every five years where required to go out"; two responses, "one of them being fresh picks, the other one being the Abbey Group who were currently with." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:00:56 | The weekend gap | "We have a 68 hour period, which I believe goes from lunchtime on Friday till breakfast time on Monday morning." Miles: "How many students are there that are not fed during the weekend?" Seaman: "We really don't know the answer to that." | |
| 2:04:03 | Meal debt | Sprague recalled press over unpaid lunch money. Seaman: "we are not going to decline a child a meal."; otherwise "we'll give you a baloney sandwich or a cheese sandwich over here."; proposes to "get out of offering what is basically a la carte." | |
| 2:07:10 | Food service surplus | Seaman: "I estimate will probably have a surplus on food service here this year of about $300,000." and "The money that we received this surplus needs to be spent on food related, something." Kitchen equipment and the middle school cafeteria layout. "it's a one time game" [gain]. The chair at 2:08:48: "can we put that money into a trust to." Horsky: "I would like to see a few plans, including a trust of how to spend it." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:10:10 | Vendor decision in June | The chair: "because that's a that's a board approval of which company. Right?" Seaman: in place for July 1. | |
| 2:10:25 | Who pays for unpaid meals | Miles: "being new to this group, the students who can't afford to pay for their food, do we pay for it." At the weekend gap: "I just can't bear that thought of." The chair: "the stigma of going to the soup kitchen to get a meal is still there." | |
| 2:13:44 | Other business; closing | Lambert: "graduation updates in June." At 2:15:34: "the superintendent luncheon is. It was moved to the 26th." | |
| 2:16:12 | Adjournment | Horsky: "I would like to make a motion to adjourn this school board meeting." The chair: "Did you get that motion by Steven? Second by Heather." | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on May 18, 2022, cited as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag is recorded as an observation. Seven flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The May 4 minutes were not ready for approval, and neither the May 4 nor the May 18 minutes are posted online
At 0:02:02 Horsky proposed putting off the previous minutes "until we full for fleshed out version of those", and the chair referred to "the sketch in the previous minutes". So a draft existed two weeks after the May 4 meeting but was not in final form; board approval is a separate step from the statute's timing rule. RSA 91-A:2, II, as in force in 2022, requires that minutes "be promptly recorded and open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting", and drafts satisfy it.
What is online: the 1. CSB 7.20.22 packet holds the district's minutes of April 6 and June 15, 2022, but not those of May 4 or May 18 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). That contrast is notable, but it is a limit of what the district posts online and not by itself evidence that the minutes were never kept. The limb applied is the online-availability observation. The clerk, Mary Woodman, was absent on May 4 and her resignation was announced effective June 1, 2022, per the project's governance timeline.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1); Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md sections 164, 166, 167 and 169.
OBSERVATION The technical center visioning committee has a budget and shared documents, but its public-body status and minutes are not established
The superintendent reported at 0:09:09 that the visioning committee met with about 15 members, including business leaders, elected Alex Herzog co-chair, and "shared a Google folder with some documents". Skillen asked at 0:15:36 about "the budget set aside for the Visioning Committee", and the superintendent offered "summaries in kind of minutes". Two weeks earlier (May 4) Dr. Herzog said board members Bonnie Miles and Frank Sprague were on it. A citizen asked for an update in public comment.
If the committee was created by the board or the SAU to advise it, RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes it a public body in its own right (the definition reaches "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto"), with notice and minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II. The recording does not say who created it or on what terms, so this page records the question rather than a finding. No notice, agenda or minutes of the committee were located.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (unamended since 2008); RSA 91-A:2, II (2022 codification).
OBSERVATION A food service surplus of about $300,000 must stay in the school food program, which limits the trust idea
Seaman estimated at 2:07:10 a food service surplus "of about $300,000" and said it "needs to be spent on food related, something", suggesting kitchen equipment and the middle school serving area. The chair asked at 2:08:48 whether the money could go "into a trust" to cover future deficits, and Horsky asked for plans "including a trust". Seaman's account matches the federal rule in force in 2022: 7 CFR 210.14(a) requires that revenues of the nonprofit school food service "be used only for the operation or improvement of such food service", and 210.14(b) limits net cash resources to three months' average expenditures unless the state agency approves more. A reserve for future food service deficits would have to remain within the program; a general district trust would not satisfy the rule.
Seaman's statement at 1:59:18 that the district must go out to bid "every five years" is also consistent with 7 CFR 210.16(d): a food service management company contract runs no longer than one year, with no more than four yearly renewals. The vendor choice was put to the June meeting for a board vote.
Sources: 7 CFR 210.14(a) and (b) (2022 CFR edition); 7 CFR 210.16(d) (2022 CFR edition).
OBSERVATION A $500 donation was acknowledged without a vote
The chair said at 1:58:31 that "because of the dollar amount, we do not need to vote to approve this." As in force in 2022, RSA 198:20-b let a school board "apply for, accept and expend" unanticipated money without further district action if the district meeting had adopted an enabling article, and required a prior public hearing only "For unanticipated funds in the amount of $5,000 or more". Whether Claremont had adopted the article, and whether a board acceptance vote was otherwise expected by district policy, is not in the record. The item was on the agenda, which gave public notice of it. The rule requiring agenda and minutes notice for smaller sums came later (2023, 38:1) and does not apply to this meeting.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III (2022 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1).
POSITIVE The chair disclosed that the new student representative is his daughter and explained how she was chosen
At 0:05:10 the chair said plainly: "Hannah as my daughter. But it has nothing to do with me being on the school board." He described the process: the superintendent asked the incoming principal, who went to the student council and found three willing candidates, and staff "chose and selected one person." Stating a family relationship on the record, and the process that avoided the member's involvement, is the practice a reader would hope for. This page did not verify a statute or district policy governing student representative selection.
Sources: No statute relied on; practice, reported from the recording.
POSITIVE The chair invited public comment on agenda items as well as off-agenda items, before any statute required a comment period
Opening citizens' comments at 0:02:34, the chair told the room that "When we get to the items that are on the agenda, citizens will also have an opportunity to speak at that point.", and he did so during the restorative practices item at 0:53:36. In May 2022 no New Hampshire statute required a school board to hold a public comment period; RSA 189:74, which requires one of at least 30 minutes on school district matters, took effect on September 6, 2022.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022; not in force at this meeting).
POSITIVE The special education director corrected his own cost-avoidance figure in public
Nester presented about $686,000 in operating cost for three in-district programs serving 17 students against about $1.8 million in estimated out-of-district cost, less state aid he put "at a 68%", for savings of about $623,000. Before questions he said "I recognized an error in my calculation." (1:45:45): two tuition students from Fall Mountain had been counted inside the 17, and the truer figure was about $585,000 (1:46:45). Asked by Horsky, he put it plainly: "In layman's terms I double dipped." Volunteering a correction that weakens one's own case is good practice. The figures are his estimates from a sheet not posted online; the 68% state aid rate is his characterization of historical special education aid and was not verified here.
Sources: No statute relied on; figures are the presenter's estimates.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 12399, "School Board Meeting live on 5/18/22": Claremont Community TV, CLAREMONT SCHOOLS gallery. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- No Drive material for this meeting: the Claremont
2022 Meeting Documents archive begins with 1. CSB 7.20.22 and no Meeting Minutes year folder predates 2023 (MAP.md section 167, checked 9/26/26). That July packet carries the April 6 and June 15, 2022 minutes (MAP.md sections 164 and 169) but not this meeting's. No agenda, special education cost sheet, presentations or minutes were located.
- Related pages: Claremont School Board, May 4, 2022; SAU 6 Board, May 19, 2022.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.CSV (597 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4Input/Transcripts/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/12399 SchoolBoard051822.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 167
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on May 18, 2022. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (public bodies include committees and advisory committees; source note ends 2008). RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes within 5 business days; 2022 codification). RSA 198:20-b (unanticipated money; hearing at $5,000 or more; 2022 codification). RSA 189:74 (public comment period; in force only from September 6, 2022, cited for contrast).
- Federal regulations, 2022 CFR edition. 7 CFR 210.14(a) and (b) (use of food service revenue; net cash resources). 7 CFR 210.16(d) (food service management company contract duration).