Regular meeting of the joint SAU 6 board (Claremont and Unity members), generated from the meeting recording, the six-document posted packet and the minutes. Seven of twelve members worked through the SAU's FY24 budget: two special-education positions and the assistant superintendent's assistant moved from Claremont's budget, a new human resources director of about $130,000, an ESSER-funded curriculum position made permanent, and a 6 percent raise offset by a new 4 percent health-insurance share. On the recording the board then voted to adopt a $2,406,073 budget, three days after the January 1 date RSA 194-C:9 sets; the minutes record the same motion as sending the figure "to a public hearing". A former board member arrived late to argue that the SAU budget needs a public hearing; the chair promised to find out. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Body
SAU 6 Board (the Claremont and Unity school boards sitting as the school administrative unit board)
Date
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Start time
6:30 p.m. per the agenda. The recording opens at the end of the pledge (0:00:07); the minutes give no start time and record "Meeting adjourned at 7:41PM"; the adjournment vote is at 1:10:29. No nonpublic session. Recording runs 1:10:38.
Location
Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont NH (per the agenda; audio broadcast on CCTV Channel 8)
SAU6 1.3.23 Meeting Minutes_, filed in the next SAU 6 folder, "2. SAU Public Hearing FY24 Budget 1.17.23", and approved on January 17 with a correction recording Shannon Popescu absent. Recorded by Chelsea Weatherford, who, the chair explained, takes the minutes from the broadcast. Nothing for this meeting is in the Meeting Minutes share.
Board composition
Twelve members on the agenda masthead: Marjorie Erickson (chair, Unity), Frank Sprague (vice chair), Michael Petrin, Shannon Popescu, Garry Bator, Rocco Ruggeri, Atonya Hart, Steven Horsky, Joshua Lambert, Bonnie Miles, Whitney Skillen, Heather Whitney. Seven present per the minutes as corrected: Erickson, Sprague, Whitney, Petrin, Miles, Lambert, Hart. Absent: Ruggeri, Horsky, Skillen, Bator, Popescu.
Participants
Everyone in the record. Speaker names follow the project's dialogue file (452 rows, 96 of them unidentified); attendance and the movers of motions follow the minutes, which in two places also name a speaker the dialogue file leaves unidentified. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
Name
Role
Participation
Marjorie Erickson
Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity)
Presided. Skipped citizens' comments ("We have no citizens present, so I'm going to skip that part.") and later recognised Patrick Adrian when he arrived. Explained the moved positions ("So it's actually benefits Claremont"; of Unity's share, "it's not actually in our benefit right at the moment to make this change, but we think it's the fair thing to do."). Put the budget question as "adopting this budget as proposed by Frank" at 0:37:06. Promised Adrian at 1:05:31: "We will make sure that what we're doing is legal and change it to what is legal." Named on the recording only in the roll call, as Margaret Harrison; identified by role and content (medium confidence) and named as chair in the minutes.
Frank Sprague
Vice Chair, SAU 6; Claremont member
The board's main questioner: mileage stipends against travel lines, contracted services, a constituent's alarm at "a $500,000 increase", and the wage and benefit breakdown. Moved the budget at 0:33:21, first "to move a budget of $2,406,073 for three public hearing", then, after a voice explained that the SAU budget "is approved by this board", rephrased at 0:34:39: "Let me rephrase that. So I'd like to move that. We approve the six budget of $2,406,073." Asked that the HR job description include non-renewals, and said "technically I think by RSA we're supposed to vote and approve a new administrative position". The dialogue file notes his voice interleaves with the business administrator's in two clusters.
Heather Whitney
SAU 6 member (Claremont)
Pressed for a recognised HR certification in the director's job description ("I'm just afraid that we're going to to, to maybe end up hiring somebody by default"). Seconded the agenda and the budget motion, per the minutes. The dialogue file names her for seven rows; a longer run of questions at 0:20:42 may also be hers and is left unidentified.
Michael Petrin
SAU 6 member; Claremont chair
Present per the minutes, which credit him with moving the agenda and with questions on supply costs and on the district's attorney ("Mike Petrin wonders if we have shopped around to see if there are other options"). The dialogue file attributes no row to him; the voice asking about the attorney at 0:30:39 is left unidentified there. The chair calls on "Mike" at 0:01:38.
Joshua Lambert
SAU 6 member (Claremont)
Present; seconded approval of the December 1 minutes, per the minutes. No attributed row.
Bonnie Miles
SAU 6 member (Claremont)
Present per the minutes; the chair says "Bonnie I couldn't see us" at 0:01:38. No attributed row.
Atonya Hart
SAU 6 member (Unity)
Present per the minutes. No attributed row.
Rocco Ruggeri, Steven Horsky, Whitney Skillen, Garry Bator, Shannon Popescu
SAU 6 members
Absent per the minutes; Popescu's absence was added on January 17. A member says at 0:20:42 "I'm going to channel Steve here for a minute because he's not here."
Michael C. Tempesta
Superintendent of Schools, SAU 6
Presented the two job descriptions (human resources director, "cobbled together some from other districts"; data and student information specialist). On the ESSER-funded curriculum position: "It's going away in in two years." On the attorney: "Drummond's one of the biggest firms in New England." Confirmed the facilitator for the January 26 retreat. Named by the chair when she moved to his items.
Richard Seaman
Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations & HR, SAU 6
Walked through the budget: about $200,000 for "the transfer of the two positions from Claremont", "the HR director position, which I think came out to approximately $130,000", retirement costs he called "Non-negotiable", utilities, and contracted services "as of yet, unidentified". Proposed funding an early HR hire from the $36,000 of this year's unused merit pool: "that's not a motion request." Named by the chair ("Richard").
Jeff Small
Director of Technology, SAU 6
Described the data specialist's work at 0:55:20 ("any of the state reports").
Chelsea Weatherford
Recording secretary
Not present; took the minutes from the broadcast, per the chair: "Oh, she does it from the televised."
Patrick Adrian
Public: Ward 1; former Claremont board member
Arrived after citizens' comments and was recognised at 1:00:18 (Adrian. Fourth one.). Told the board at 1:02:04: "I am very concerned, I guess, about the accuracy of saying that you don't need to do a public hearing for the Saw budget." He cited SAU 70 (Hanover and Norwich) and his own years on the board, while conceding "I don't know what the state law is." The minutes record him as "Very concerned about the accuracy of not having a public hearing for the SAU6 budget."
Unidentified members
Various
Questions on staff training (0:10:00), lighting retrofits (0:27:26), the HR director's backup (0:46:20) and sick days (0:49:38), and a member at 1:09:48: "I'm with Patrick here." Not named in the dialogue file.
Agenda
From the posted agenda, SAU6 1.3.23 Agenda .docx (2).pdf, with dispositions from the minutes. Quoted agenda and minutes wording is marked as such. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
Agenda: "6:30PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance". Minutes: "Meeting called to order by chair, Marjorie Erickson." The recording begins at the end of the pledge.
Read by an unnamed member at the chair's request ("Then would you do the roll call?"). Minutes: present Erickson, Sprague, Whitney, Petrin, Miles, Lambert, Hart; absent Ruggeri, Horsky, Skillen, Bator (Popescu added January 17).
III.a "FY23 SAU 6 Budget" (the FY24 budget); III.b action items for the business administrator
Agenda: "FY23 SAU 6 Budget" and six action items carried from December 1 (model insurance against salary increases, cut business-office contracted services to $5,000, mileage by reimbursement, break down contracted services, a utilities analysis, the data-specialist increase). The item is headed FY23 in both the agenda and the minutes, though the budget under discussion is FY24. Disposition on the recording: "adopting this budget as proposed by Frank", $2,406,073, carried by voice vote at 0:37:06. Minutes: "Frank Sprague makes a motion to move 2 million 4 hundred and 6 thousand and 73 dollars to a public hearing. Seconded by Heather Whitney. All in favor via voice vote." See flags 1 and 2.
Agenda: "Confirm Will Phillips availability for SAU 6 Board Retreat on January 26, 2022" (the agenda's year; the retreat was January 26, 2023). Confirmed, 5:30 p.m.
IV. Future Agenda Items; V. Other Business; VI. Closing Activities
Minutes: "1.26.23 Board Retreat"; "Frank Sprague makes a motion to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Heather Whitney; all in favor via voice vote."
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV (452 rows). Each time is the start of the cited exchange, rendered from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
"Somebody who's taking minutes." "Oh, she does it from the televised. Then would you do the roll call?" Agenda and December 1 minutes approved by voice vote. "We have no citizens present, so I'm going to skip that part."
"You should have all received a budget via email and have a budget in your packet." A member could not find the promised changes ("So those are not on here."); the chair: "They are on there. I just said that."
Sprague: the superintendent's and special-education offices carry mileage "in two different forms. Still, it's got a stipend and travel." Erickson: under the superintendent's contract "the mileage was to cover local travel and the and with his vehicle". Seaman on contracted services: "Contracted services within the superintendent's office are as of yet, unidentified... if it's not used, it just flows to the bottom line as a surplus."
Sprague relayed a constituent's alarm at "a $500,000 increase". Seaman: "It's about 200,000 $200,000 for the transfer of the two positions from Claremont into the south and therefore out of Claremont." [SAU] The assistant superintendent's secretary had always been in Claremont's budget; Seaman: "it's absolutely the right thing to do" to move her. The chair: "So it's actually benefits Claremont."
"the movement of the Dave Cochrane position who does outplacement and the Heidi Sprague position that does Medicare reimbursement for us from Claremont over to the say you." "The primary part of that being the HR director position, which I think came out to approximately $130,000." And "an additional position, which is currently a curriculum position" funded by ESSER. (Cochrane is the transcript's spelling, unverified.) The old HR position becomes the director, with the receptionist as clerical support.
Tempesta: "It's going away in in two years." A member: "So I'm going to channel Steve here for a minute because he's not here. So if we put this as a line item now, we'll, we would have the revenue to cover it from Esser for two years. But by making it a line item, that means that when the Esser goes away, we still carry forward." Tempesta: Yes. A second member at 0:22:33: "So that position is essentially bringing us up to to where we should be".
Retirement: "we're funding 20% of folks salaries" (Erickson), "Non-negotiable" (Seaman). A member's lighting anecdote; Seaman: "The lights are terrible". On the district attorney, a member asked "have we looked at taking a look at the services of the attorneys and if we're getting the best deal"; Tempesta: "Drummond's one of the biggest firms in New England... But it's obviously the board's discretion." The minutes attribute the attorney question to Michael Petrin.
The budget motion: to a hearing, then "we approve"
Sprague: "So I'd like to make a motion to move a budget of $2,406,073 for three public hearing." He had "added 85,000" for the assistant superintendent's assistant. The next row, which the dialogue file attributes to Sprague: "And let's understand this budget doesn't go to a public hearing. We're not at that point. Oh no. This budget is approved by this board." Sprague: "Let me rephrase that. So I'd like to move that. We approve the six budget of $2,406,073." The chair noted the 6 percent raise; Sprague briefly retracted and restored the motion after Seaman explained the 4 percent insurance share. "All those in favor of adopting this budget as proposed by Frank say I." Carried at 0:37:13, no opposition audible.
Tempesta: "I cobbled together some from other districts." Sprague wanted non-renewals and supervision written in; Whitney a named certification: "I'm just afraid that we're going to to, to maybe end up hiring somebody by default". A member asked who covers if the director leaves; Tempesta: several staff can already fingerprint.
Sprague: "technically I think by RSA we're supposed to vote and approve a new administrative position. So but I think that by putting it in the budget, I think that that's probably tacit approval." Tempesta: "I'll follow up on that for the RSA." Seaman: "we don't have this position in this year's budget", but "we do have $36,000 that won't be expended because we're no longer doing any kind of a merit merit pool", so "we can get this posted now". "And that's not a motion request."
Updated by the superintendent; Jeff Small on the role's state reporting and student-information-system duties. Review only: "I think the request was just to to to review it".
Patrick Adrian: does the SAU budget need a hearing?
"I am very concerned, I guess, about the accuracy of saying that you don't need to do a public hearing for the Saw budget." "you've already you've already approved it and you approved it without a public hearing." "I don't know what the state law is." Erickson: "We will make sure that what we're doing is legal and change it to what is legal." A member at 1:09:48: "I'm with Patrick here. How does that work if we haven't yet approved?" The chair: "Did we did approve it. And we're just going to double check to make sure that our process followed."
"No, tomorrow was canceled." The Claremont regular meeting had moved to January 11: "The 11th is a regular school meeting that we, we moved from this week to, to next week." The chair recapped the Claremont public hearing as "on the seventh" [the 17th].
"I make a motion that we adjourn." Minutes: "Meeting adjourned at 7:41PM".
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the state law in force on January 3, 2023; where a provision has since been amended, the flag says which text it uses. 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.
HIGH The SAU's FY24 budget was still being amended on January 3, and the vote to adopt it came after the date RSA 194-C:9, I sets
RSA 194-C:9, I provides (quoted from the statute): "At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget", and "Prior to January 15 in each year, the board shall certify to the chairperson of the school board" of each district its share. On this recording, three days into January, the board was still working through the action items it had set itself on December 1 (insurance modelling, contracted services, mileage, utilities), moved a position of about $85,000 from Claremont's budget into the SAU's on the floor, and then voted at 0:37:06 on "adopting this budget as proposed by Frank", $2,406,073. That figure was itself wrong by $10,000, and the board amended and adopted the budget again at $2,396,000 on January 17 (see the January 17 page). Neither vote was before January 1.
The one gap that could change this: the December 1, 2022 minutes close "Next SAU meeting is scheduled for 12.15.22", and no agenda, minutes or recording of a December 15 meeting has been located; the minutes approved tonight are December 1's. The treatment of the budget as open tonight makes a December adoption unlikely. RSA 194-C:9, III disapplies paragraph I only for districts that have adopted RSA 194-C:9-a, whose alternative procedure (RSA 194-C:9-b) "shall not apply to a school administrative unit that includes a city"; Claremont is a city. Graded HIGH as a missed statutory deadline, consistent with the January 17 and February 16, 2023 pages.
MEDIUM The minutes record the budget vote as sending the figure "to a public hearing"; on the recording the motion was rephrased to approve it, and the chair called it adoption
The minutes: "Frank Sprague makes a motion to move 2 million 4 hundred and 6 thousand and 73 dollars to a public hearing. Seconded by Heather Whitney. All in favor via voice vote." On the recording, Sprague's first wording was "for three public hearing" [for a public hearing], but after a voice (attributed in the dialogue file to Sprague himself, in a cluster the attribution report says interleaves with the business administrator) said "This budget is approved by this board", he restated it at 0:34:39: "Let me rephrase that. So I'd like to move that. We approve the six budget of $2,406,073." The chair put the question as "adopting this budget as proposed by Frank" and told a member at the end of the meeting "Did we did approve it."
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include "a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions" (quoted from the statute). Whether the board adopted a budget on January 3 or merely forwarded a figure matters directly to the RSA 194-C:9 deadline (flag 1), and the minutes and the recording answer it differently. The same minutes omitted one absent member, corrected on January 17, and head the item "FY23 SAU 6 Budget" (as the agenda does) for the FY24 budget. In fairness, the minutes do name a mover and seconder for all four motions, as the same paragraph requires.
MEDIUM The minutes reached the public share on the twelfth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (quoted from the statute): for a Tuesday, January 3 meeting, by Tuesday, January 10. The only located copy, SAU6 1.3.23 Meeting Minutes_, was created in the SAU share on Friday, January 20, 2023 (21:51 UTC), in the folder for the January 17 hearing; counting Monday, January 16 as a holiday, that is the twelfth business day. The board had a draft before it on January 17, so the minutes existed by then, but that too is after the deadline. The minutes exist and the meeting was noticed (the folder holds SAU School Board Public Notice 1.3.23), so this is the MEDIUM limb of the project's records rule; whether a copy was available at the SAU office earlier cannot be tested from here. A resident asked the SAU board on January 17 to post minutes within five days (see the January 17 page).
OBSERVATION A new administrator's post was to be filled before July from this year's unused merit money, by consensus and without a motion
The human resources director is a new position in the FY24 budget. At 0:51:14 the business administrator told the board "we don't have this position in this year's budget" and proposed to fund an early hire from the $36,000 left in a merit pool the board had discontinued: "as long as the board is comfortable, as we start to go down through that, then we can get this posted now". He added: "And that's not a motion request." The chair: "I like that." Frank Sprague said he thought "by RSA we're supposed to vote and approve a new administrative position" and that including it in the budget was "probably tacit approval"; the superintendent undertook to check. The minutes record "Discussion on hiring a human resource director before the start of fiscal year 24" and no vote.
This page has not verified any RSA requiring a board vote to create an SAU administrative position, and does not assert one. RSA 194-C:9, I does say that the board "in adopting the budget shall not add any new service unless a majority" of the districts agree (quoted from the statute); whether an HR director is a new "service" is not settled here. The observation is that spending decisions outside the adopted budget were settled by the board's comfort rather than a recorded vote.
OBSERVATION An ESSER-funded curriculum position moved into the permanent SAU budget, with the funding cliff named at the table
The curriculum position had been paid from federal ESSER relief money. The superintendent said the money was "going away in in two years"; a member, speaking for the absent Steven Horsky, put the consequence plainly at 0:20:42: "by making it a line item, that means that when the Esser goes away, we still carry forward." The superintendent agreed, and the position stayed in the budget. Placing a continuing need in the operating budget ahead of the federal cliff is arguably the prudent course; the observation is only that the recurring cost to both districts was accepted here, in a budget adopted after its statutory date (flag 1) and before any public hearing.
No rule cited: observation.
POSITIVE A late-arriving citizen was heard, and his legal question was taken as an action item; the answer the statute gives is that no hearing is required
The chair skipped citizens' comments when nobody was present, but recognised Patrick Adrian when he arrived, let him speak after finishing the item in hand, and committed the board to check: "We will make sure that what we're doing is legal and change it to what is legal." The minutes carry it as an action item. On the law, RSA 194-C:9 imposes no public-hearing requirement on an SAU budget, so Adrian's recollection of past practice describes a courtesy, not a duty. The board held a hearing anyway on January 17, which is more than the statute asks (see the January 17 page).
Not located: the budget document members received by email and in their packets (it is not among the six posted documents); any record of an SAU 6 meeting on December 15, 2022.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
SAU budget.RSA 194-C:9, I and III (adoption before January 1; certification before January 15; new-service clause; no hearing requirement; 2023 codification, three paragraphs; paragraph IV, added by 2024, 329:1, is not applied). RSA 194-C:9-b (alternative procedure, not available to an SAU that includes a city).
Right-to-Know. RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes content; five business days; mover and seconder from 2018, 244:1, eff. January 1, 2019), read from the 2022 codification (source note ends 2018, 244:1); the 2023, 188:1 amendment (eff. October 3, 2023) post-dates this meeting.