Participants
Every masthead seat, central-office administrators and the clerk. Attendance comes from the opening roll and three roll-call votes, since this meeting’s minutes are unavailable. Names follow the agenda masthead.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Arlene Hawkins | SAU 6 chair; Claremont member; Policy Subcommittee | Presided. Thanked the clerk and Chelsea Weatherford (0:00:35); added the superintendent-evaluation update to the agenda (0:01:41); corrected the November 9 minutes (0:02:25). Read the caucus policy and called the recess (0:24:18); moved the nonpublic session and restated it with two exemptions (0:27:07). Voted No on the 99-year seal (0:30:20). Reported the caucus outcome (0:30:47) and the November 28 policy subcommittee (0:33:55). Rendered Arlene Hopkins and Eileen. |
| Rocco Ruggeri | SAU 6 vice chair; Unity member | Answered yes in the three roll-call votes. Moved approval of these minutes on December 14 (December 14 draft minutes). Rendered Jerry by the clerk. |
| Marjorie Erickson | Unity board chair; SAU 6 member | Abstained on entering nonpublic session (0:27:58) and on the 99-year seal (0:30:26); yes on returning to public session (0:29:38). The clerk’s “Or three years” at 0:30:25 is her name, not a seal duration. |
| Kelly Simpson | Unity member; Policy Subcommittee | Seconded the first nonpublic motion (0:26:20); named by the chair as seconder of the agenda (“Kelly”, 0:02:20). Rendered Billy Simpson in one roll. |
| Atonya Hart | Unity member; Superintendent Evaluation Subcommittee chair (November 9 minutes) | Her yes votes are inside the clerk’s segments (“Tanya. Hart. Yes.”, 0:30:28). No speaking segment is attributed to her. |
| Shannon Popescu | Unity member | No identifiable answer in any roll call and no speaking segment; recorded absent in the project’s roster notes. Present December 14 per that meeting’s minutes. |
| Frank Sprague | Claremont vice chair; SAU 6 member | Moved the amended agenda (0:02:14) and the return to public session (0:29:21); seconded the 99-year seal (0:30:10) and the budget motion (0:33:28). On a reclassified post: “That is not the same pay” (0:11:45). Asked about ESSER-funded positions (0:22:01). |
| Bonnie Miles | Claremont member; SAU 6 treasurer (elected August 17, 2023) | Present at the opening roll (0:01:31); yes on returning to public session (0:29:47). Her answer on the seal is not separable in the transcript. |
| Whitney Skillen | Claremont member; Superintendent Evaluation Subcommittee | Moved $2,497,924 to the public hearing (0:32:57). Asked about equipment lines budgeted but unspent (0:22:58). Set the evaluation subcommittee’s start time from the floor (0:38:47). |
| Candace Crawford | Claremont member; Policy Subcommittee | Asked for the Claremont caucus (0:24:03) and declined to make it a motion (0:24:49). Asked what the $133,254 increase contained (0:12:46) and the SAU’s share of health-insurance cost (0:21:33). |
| Jennifer Gallagher | Claremont member | Answered “present” at the opening roll and yes in the later rolls (0:29:50, 0:30:41). |
| Heather Whitney | Claremont chair — Absent | Her name is the last read at the opening roll (“Heather wisdom.”, 0:01:31) with no answer, and she answers none of the three votes. |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Presented the revised FY25 budget from 0:06:08: raises modelled at 3.75%, the superintendent at 3% “per his contract” (0:09:23); her department’s increase cut “from the increase being 176,915 to 112,303” (0:17:20); a staff accountant requested (0:18:32). On an ESSER-funded post: “I can’t I can’t discuss it publicly” (0:22:48). |
| Noelle Kronberg | SAU 6 School Board Clerk (appointed November 9, 2023) | Read all four roll calls. On the uncorrected October 12 minutes: “I don’t have access to the 12 minutes, so I’ll email Chelsea” (0:04:29). Called Noel on the recording. |
| Jeff Small | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Explained the $7,500 staff-training line, including PowerSchool training (0:20:27). |
| Michael C. Tempesta | Superintendent, SAU 6 | On the masthead; no attributed segment. Named in the evaluation update: he “has agreed to get us a spreadsheet outlining his benchmarks and responsibilities” (0:37:04). Whether he was in the room is not established; Henry’s “How do I say that, Mike?” (0:22:42) could address him or the assistant superintendent. |
| Michael Koski; Ben Nester; Angela Vivian | SAU 6 central office (masthead) | No attributed segments. Koski and Vivian are named as attendees of the November 28 policy subcommittee (0:33:55). The caucus asked for a 5% raise and a one-time $3,000 payment for “The assistant superintendent” (0:30:47). |
| Chelsea Weatherford | SAU 6 administrative assistant | Not heard. Thanked “for recording and transcribing minutes through all of this time in a timely manner” (0:00:35). |
| Unidentified | — | 25 rows. Includes the member who raised the unposted October 12 corrections (0:03:46), the mover of the 99-year seal (0:30:04) and the voice delivering the evaluation-subcommittee update (0:37:04). This page names none of them. |
| Citizens’ comments | — | None: “I don’t see any citizens present, so I’m going to close citizens comments” (0:05:40). |
Agenda
Items as posted in “SAU 6 School Board Agenda 12.7.23.docx (1).pdf” (headed “Regular Meeting”; created in Drive December 1, 2023), with dispositions from the recording. The caucus recess and the nonpublic session were not on the agenda.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:00 | I. Call to order and Pledge | Agenda: “6:00 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance”. |
| 0:01:09 | II. Secretary roll call | Read by the clerk at 0:01:21. Whitney and Popescu give no identifiable answer. |
| 0:01:41 | II. Agenda: amendments and approval | The chair added the superintendent-evaluation subcommittee update under III.2. Sprague moved at 0:02:14; the chair named “Kelly” as seconder; voice vote, no count. |
| 0:02:25 | II. Minutes approval, 11.9.23 | The chair’s correction: “the vote was to suspend the superintendent evaluation policy.” A member asked why the October 12 corrections were not posted (0:03:46). Adopted as amended by voice vote at 0:05:39; no mover or seconder heard. See flag 6 and flag 18. |
| 0:05:40 | II. Citizens comments | No citizens present. See flag 11. |
| 0:06:08 | III.1 SAU FY25 Budget (Discussion) | Henry presented a revised version not in the packet (0:06:42). Questions on a reclassified post, new positions, training, insurance share and equipment. Caucus recess (0:24:56), nonpublic session (0:27:07), caucus report (0:30:47). Skillen moved “$2,497,924” to the public hearing at 0:32:57; Sprague seconded; “Motion passes” at 0:33:31, no count. See flag 4 and flag 10. |
| 0:24:56 | Not on the agenda: recess for a Claremont caucus | Requested by Crawford, not moved. “Ten minutes. It is now 625. We will resume at 635.” See flag 3. |
| 0:27:07 | Not on the agenda: nonpublic session, RSA 91-A:3, II(b) and II(a) | Moved by the chair; roll call at 0:27:49, Erickson abstaining. Return moved at 0:29:21 (Sprague; Skillen seconding), roll call. Seal “for 99 years” moved at 0:30:04, Sprague seconding; roll call at 0:30:14, Hawkins no, Erickson abstaining; no tally announced. See flag 2. |
| 0:33:55 | III.2.a Policies: Sub-Committee Update | Report of the November 28 meeting; policy BGAA to December 14 for first read. See flag 5. |
| 0:37:04 | III.2 (added) Superintendent Evaluation Subcommittee | Next meeting December 14 at 5:30; a spreadsheet of benchmarks promised by the superintendent. See flag 5. |
| 0:37:44 | IV. Future dates / agenda items | December 14 hearing and meeting, preceded by “a non meeting with legal counsel beginning at 6:00”; policy BGAA first read. |
| 0:39:04 | V. Other business; VI. Closing | Nothing raised. Sprague moved to adjourn, Skillen seconded; “meeting is adjourned” at 0:39:15. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction. Quotations from the agenda, minutes or budget documents are attributed to them.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:35 | Thanks for the minute-takers | Hawkins thanks “Noel” for “recording and transcribing of last month’s meetings” and Chelsea Weatherford “for recording and transcribing minutes through all of this time in a timely manner”. At 0:01:09: “So thank you to Chelsea Secretary. Roll call the attendance, please”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:25 | A one-word correction | “I believe the word policy at the end of that sentence was either inadvertently left off, but the vote was to suspend the superintendent evaluation policy.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:03:46 | October 12 corrections never posted | A member: “there were several changes that had been suggested for the October 12th minutes. But when I went to look at the October 12th minutes, none of those changes had been made yet. The ones that are posted online.” Hawkins at 0:03:29: “Chelsea usually takes care of that so I’m not sure.” Kronberg at 0:04:29: “I don’t have access to the 12 minutes, so I’ll email Chelsea.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:40 | No citizens present | “I don’t see any citizens present, so I’m going to close citizens comments.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:26 | A revised budget | Henry: raises changed to “3.7. 5%”. At 0:06:39: “It’ll say 12 1 to 1231”; “That’s the updated version. The other one is the previous version.” At 0:07:47 a member asks: “Can I request that they be emailed when they’re corrected?” At 0:08:28: “It’s probably not in the packet.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:09:23 | Wage increases | “I put in 3.75% and then the superintendent just has 3% per his contract”. At 0:09:57: raises total “$48,254”; the total increase over actual is “133,000”, including a special-education change and an additional business-office person. | |
| 0:11:12 | “That is not the same pay” | Sprague on the accounting and payroll specialist: “how how is it that the budget was for 20 of 24 is 49? 630 in the actual 63.” Henry: “it was not accounting payroll specialist. It was payroll clerk, I believe”. Sprague at 0:11:45: “somebody said it’s negligible. It’s about the same pay. That is not the same pay.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:14:43 | Insurance and business-office cuts | Henry: “I am going to take a gamble that they’re going to be a two person instead of a family.” At 0:15:47: contracted services “was 25,000. I brought it down to 5000 because I’d rather have the person than the services”; the auditors back to “10,000”. At 0:16:20: an $8,000 copier line removed. At 0:17:20: “I brought my total overall budget down from the increase being 176,915 to 112,303.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:32 | A staff accountant | “that’s why I’m looking for a staff accountant, because they have more of that ability. Someone with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance.” At 0:19:10: the raise percentage “is just a placeholder. It’s not a definite. It is up to the board”. | |
| 0:19:56 | Technology training | Henry explains the $7,500 line; Small at 0:20:27: “So power school since Covid has done also virtual trainings.” | |
| 0:21:33 | Health-insurance share | Crawford: “Not the increase. What is the portion that the.” Henry at 0:21:52: “We pay. I think it’s 4%.” | |
| 0:22:01 | ESSER-funded positions | Sprague: “one of the things that that I’m not seeing here are positions that we currently have that current year that are Esser funded. There are several.” Henry at 0:22:35: “I can’t talk about it, I can’t discuss.” At 0:22:42: “How do I say that, Mike?” Hawkins: “we may need to have a different a different location for a discussion.” Henry at 0:22:48: “I can’t I can’t discuss it publicly.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:22:58 | Unspent equipment lines | Skillen: “Under superintendents, office equipment and business office equipment, the actual spend in 2122 and 2223 was zero.” The packet budget shows $0.00 actual in both years for both lines, against $2,500 and $2,000 budgeted for FY24. | POSITIVE |
| 0:24:03 | The Claremont caucus | Crawford: “I would like the opportunity for the Claremont board. The caucus. Is that possible?” Hawkins at 0:24:18: “The policy does say that a caucus of reasonable duration may be called by any one of the member school boards.” Crawford at 0:24:49: “I’m just asking for a caucus.” Hawkins at 0:25:04: “It is now 625. We will resume at 635.” Back at 0:25:49. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:59 | Into nonpublic session | Hawkins: “I understand we should probably go into a nonpublic session at this point to discuss what you said you couldn’t discuss in public.” At 0:26:27: “Why? We need the RSA.” At 0:27:07: “I move that we go into nonpublic session under RSA 91-A colon three two B the hiring of any person as a public employee.” At 0:27:27: “And I’m going to add 91-A colon three comma two a.” Roll call at 0:27:49. | POSITIVE |
| 0:28:20 | The session, as the recording has it | About 55 seconds of the room reassembling (“Did you guys leave the door open?”), then the motion to return at 0:29:21. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:30:04 | Sealed for 99 years | “I’ll make a motion to seal the minutes for 99 years.” Sprague: “I’ll second.” Roll at 0:30:14: Hawkins “No.” (0:30:20); Erickson “Abstain.” (0:30:26); the rest yes where audible. No tally announced, no ground stated. | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:30:47 | The caucus position, reported | Hawkins: “We’re coming forward with accepting the 3.75% increase in salaries”; the assistant superintendent to “receive a 5% pay raise and a one time $3,000 bump.” At 0:31:34: SAU share of health insurance “from 4% to 5%”. At 0:31:51: “that new position in place”; “that would increase the Saw budget total of $101,923, for a 4.25% increase.” | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:32:57 | The budget motion | Skillen: “I’d like to make a motion to move the following amount of budget to the public hearing for the budget year of fiscal year 2024, 2025. And that amount is $2,497,924.” Sprague seconds at 0:33:28; “Motion passes” at 0:33:31. | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:33:55 | Policy subcommittee report | “The policy subcommittee did meet on November 28th.” Attendees: Hawkins, Simpson, Crawford and staff Tempesta, Koski, Weatherford, Vivian; “The meeting was called to order at 1:00. There were no public comments.” At 0:34:59: “Policies identified by New Hampshire School Board Association as priority but missing from our Saw policies were also highlighted.” At 0:35:42: “we would continue to add the relative RSA at the bottom of the policy”. At 0:36:39: BGAA to the December 14 meeting; “the meeting adjourned at 150.” | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:37:04 | Superintendent evaluation update | “Superintendent Evaluation Committee is scheduled to meet on December 14th at 530.” “Mr. Tempesta has agreed to get us a spreadsheet outlining his benchmarks and responsibilities with dates and times and a timeline”. At 0:38:47, Skillen: “Our committee does starting at five five.” Sprague: “5 to 6 and then 6 to 630.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:37:44 | Future dates | “We are going to be having a non meeting with legal counsel beginning at 6:00 I believe.” Then the December 14 hearing and meeting. | POSITIVE |
| 0:39:04 | Adjournment | “Do I have a motion to adjourn?” Adjourned at 0:39:15. | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer’s aid. They are not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on, as that rule stood on December 7, 2023; an Observation rests on no confirmed rule.
HIGH This meeting’s minutes were written, corrected and approved a week later, and are in no public share
The December 14, 2023 draft minutes record “Approval of Minutes 12.7.23”, a chair’s correction that “page 2 under non-public, in the vote on the motion to seal minutes there was an abstention from Marjorie Erickson” (the abstention is audible at 0:30:26), and “Rocco Ruggeri moved to approve the minutes as amended, Atonya Hart seconded; unanimously approved”. The document therefore existed. MAP.md §35 records a two-stage search, verified 2026-08-29: this meeting’s folder, every one of the 19 later SAU 6 folders through 14. SAU6 5.28.26, the packets-share root, and the Claremont Meeting Minutes share’s 2023 and 2024 folders. No copy was found. The neighbouring meetings’ minutes were all filed in later packet folders (November 9 in this meeting’s folder; December 14 in 1. SAU 1.11.24), so December 7 is the one break in the chain.
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be “open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting”, and RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) names school administrative units as public bodies. This is the unmitigated limb of the project’s severity rule: the body met, the minutes exist, and nothing on the record explains why they were never posted. The minutes of the nonpublic session are a separate document, sealed (flag 2).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2023, 188:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; text read 2026-09-25); RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); draft minutes of SAU6 Budget Public Hearing 12.14.23.pdf.
MEDIUM A budget question about ESSER-funded positions went into a nonpublic session sealed for 99 years, with no statutory ground stated and no tally announced
Sprague asked at 0:22:01 about positions “that are Esser funded”. The business administrator answered that she could not discuss it publicly (0:22:48), and the board entered nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3, II(b), hiring, and II(a), compensation (0:27:07). Those grounds fit a discussion of a specific employee’s post. The seal is the concern. RSA 91-A:3, III permits withholding only where, “by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session”, it is determined that disclosure “likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself, or render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism”. No one stated a ground. The roll at 0:30:14 shows at least seven yes votes among ten present, enough for two-thirds, but no tally was announced. RSA 91-A:3, IV, in force since October 3, 2023, requires sealed minutes to be reviewed no more than 10 years after the vote to seal; a 99-year term does not displace that. The public question, how many positions in the budget depend on money that was ending, was not answered in public.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(b), III, IV (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; text read 2026-09-25).
MEDIUM A quorum of the Claremont School Board caucused off the record for about ten minutes and returned with a budget position; the Right-to-Know caucus exception does not reach a non-partisan board
Six of the seven Claremont members were present, a quorum of that board. Crawford asked for the caucus (0:24:03); the chair read the SAU board’s policy allowing one and recessed (0:25:04). What came back (0:30:47) was a set of positions on raises, the assistant superintendent’s pay, the insurance share and a new position. RSA 91-A:2, I defines a meeting as “the convening of a quorum of the membership of a public body” to discuss or act on matters within its jurisdiction, and excludes “A caucus consisting of elected members of a public body of the same political party who were elected on a partisan basis”. RSA 671:30 requires school districts to elect officers on a non-partisan ballot, so that exception is not available. Mitigation: the caucus was requested and timed in public, authorised by a written policy, and its result was reported and voted in public. Whether members of one board conferring during another board’s recess is a meeting of the first board is a fair question; this page records the facts.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I and I(c); RSA 671:30 (non-partisan ballot; 1979, 321:1, never amended).
MEDIUM The budget in the public packet was not the one the board worked from, and the figure voted appears in no posted document for this meeting
The packet’s “SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF” is printed “11/30/2023 9:27:09 AM” and totals $2,590,674.91 against an FY24 budget of $2,396,000.00, an increase of $194,674.91 (8.12%). Henry directed members to a different version (“That’s the updated version. The other one is the previous version”, 0:06:42); one member asked for corrected pages by email and another said a page was “probably not in the packet” (0:08:28). The figures discussed, including the business-office increase of 112,303 and the $2,497,924 moved, come from the unposted version or from the caucus. No statute requires a packet, so this is a gap between what the public could read and what the board decided, not a violation.
Sources: SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF; RSA 91-A:2, II (notice of meetings).
MEDIUM Two SAU 6 subcommittees reported meetings and schedules, with no notice, agenda or minutes located for either
The policy subcommittee, created November 9 with three members, met on November 28 with all three and four staff, from 1:00 to 1:50 (0:33:55, 0:36:39). The superintendent evaluation subcommittee announced a December 14 meeting at 5:30, and its start time was changed on the floor (0:38:47). RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes “any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body” of a school administrative unit a public body, owing 24-hour notice and minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II. Drive title searches on 2026-09-25 found no notice, agenda or minutes for either subcommittee; API searches are an incomplete basis for a negative, so this rests also on the project’s folder enumeration of 2026-08-29. Graded on the mitigated limb: the policy report read into the record names every attendee, the times and the outcome, and the evaluation subcommittee’s meeting was announced in public.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II; draft SAU6 Meeting Minutes 11.9.23 (the subcommittee’s creation; “Supt. Evaluation Subcommittee - Atonya Hart, Chair”).
MEDIUM A member reported that the approved corrections to the October 12 minutes had not been made in the posted copy
At 0:03:46 a member said that the October 12 minutes “posted online” did not carry the changes the board had approved on November 9. The chair did not know the process, and the clerk said she lacked access and would email the administrative assistant (0:04:29). RSA 91-A:2, II makes minutes open to public inspection; the approved text is the record. Graded on the mitigated limb: the defect was raised in public and assigned to a named person.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; draft SAU6 Meeting Minutes 11.9.23 (the approved corrections).
OBSERVATION A reclassified business-office post costs more than the board had been told
Sprague said at 0:11:45 that he had been told the change was “negligible” and that “That is not the same pay”, citing a budget of 49,630 against an actual of about 63,000 (0:11:12). The business administrator said the post had been a payroll clerk and that she did not make the decision. RSA 194-C:5, III gives this board the duty to “fix the salaries of all school administrative unit personnel”. No record of a board action on the change appears in this meeting’s documents.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, III (1996, 298:3; text read 2026-09-25).
OBSERVATION No vote at this meeting was counted aloud, and the minutes-approval vote has no mover or seconder on the recording
The agenda (0:02:20), the November 9 minutes (0:05:39), the budget motion (0:33:31) and the adjournment passed on voice votes with no count; the three roll calls ended without a tally. No provision requires a voice vote to be counted, and RSA 194-C:8 weighted voting applies only “upon the demand of a majority” of members present and voting. RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record “The names of the members who made or seconded each motion”; whether this meeting’s minutes did so cannot be checked (flag 1).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; RSA 194-C:8.
OBSERVATION The reported increase and the moved amount differ by one dollar, and a week later the adopted figure was lower
The chair reported an increase of “$101,923, for a 4.25% increase” (0:31:51). The motion was $2,497,924 (0:32:57). Against the FY24 budget of $2,396,000.00, that is $101,924, or 4.254%. On December 14 the board adopted $2,489,151.03, which that meeting’s minutes describe as “roughly $8,000 less than voted on last week” (the difference is $8,772.97) and as “Total increase $93,151.03 (3.89%)”.
Sources: SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF (FY24 $2,396,000.00); draft minutes of 12.14.23.
OBSERVATION The public documents describe this meeting differently from what happened
The November 9 minutes list it as “SAU#6 Special Meeting: 12/7/2023 (added)”; its agenda heads it “Regular Meeting”. The budget item is labelled “SAU FY25 Budget (Discussion)”, yet the board took a binding vote on it, and the caucus, nonpublic session and seal appear nowhere on the agenda. RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice of time and place, not an agenda, so nothing here breaches it; a reader deciding from the agenda whether to attend would not have known a vote was coming.
Sources: SAU 6 School Board Agenda 12.7.23; draft SAU6 Meeting Minutes 11.9.23; RSA 91-A:2, II.
OBSERVATION No member of the public attended
Citizens’ comments closed at 0:05:40 for want of citizens, and the December 14 hearing likewise recorded “No citizens were present for public hearing, hearing closed”. RSA 189:74 requires school boards to “provide the opportunity for the public to comment on school district matters at a meeting” for “no less than 30 minutes”. Whether it reaches an SAU board, and whether the 30 minutes applies when no one is present, are unsettled; no violation is asserted.
Sources: RSA 189:74 (2022, 333:1); draft minutes of 12.14.23.
OBSERVATION The masthead names no secretary, one of the three officers RSA 194-C:5, I requires, while the budget adds a secretary wage line
RSA 194-C:5, I requires the SAU board to “organize by choosing a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer.” The masthead lists “Arlene Hawkins-Chair, Rocco Ruggeri- Vice Chair” and “SAU#6 School Board Clerk- Noelle Kronberg”. The agenda still calls for a “Secretary Roll Call”, which the clerk read. The packet budget creates a School Board function with “Wages School Board Secretary” of $3,600.00, not discussed on the record. The clerk may be serving the secretary’s function; this record does not say whether the board chose her as its secretary. Graded as an observation, not the HIGH the earlier version of this page gave it, because the record does not show the office unfilled.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, I (1996, 298:3; text read 2026-09-25); SAU 6 School Board Agenda 12.7.23; SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF, function 2310.
OBSERVATION No apportionment of the SAU budget between Claremont and Unity appears in this record
RSA 194-C:9, I requires the SAU board to adopt a budget “At a meeting held before January 1”, apportioned half on average membership and half on equalized valuation, and to certify each district’s share to that district’s school board chair before January 15. The budget documents give a single total with no district columns, and no apportionment was mentioned at this meeting or in the December 14 minutes. The certification may exist elsewhere.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2023 codification; paragraphs I–III only); RSA 194-C:5, III.
OBSERVATION The published recording is edited: about ten minutes of recess and the nonpublic session are cut
The chair recessed at 0:25:04 (“It is now 625. We will resume at 635”) and reconvened at 0:25:49, 45 seconds later in the recording. The nonpublic session spans 0:28:20 to 0:29:21, about 55 seconds of the room reassembling. The transcript shows no silence at either point. Continuous audio with ten minutes of wall-clock time missing is a spliced broadcast. Neither cut is improper; nothing in RSA 91-A requires a meeting to be recorded. Recording positions after 0:25:04 are not clock times, and the minutes that would give the times are missing (flag 1).
Sources: the dialogue transcript; RSA 91-A:3 (nonpublic sessions); RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes, not a recording, are the required record).
POSITIVE The packet was posted six days ahead
All three packet documents were created in Drive on December 1, 2023 at about 11:21 a.m. Eastern, six days before the meeting. RSA 91-A:2, II requires notice “at least 24 hours, excluding Sundays and legal holidays” before a meeting and requires no packet. (The budget in it was superseded; see flag 4.)
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; Drive metadata for the 15. SAU6 12.7.23 documents, read 2026-09-25.
POSITIVE The chair stopped to find the exemption and stated both grounds, and announced the following week’s session with counsel
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires a nonpublic motion to “state on its face the specific exemption”. The chair noticed the gap herself (“We need the RSA”, 0:26:27), worked through the list aloud, and restated the motion citing II(b) and II(a) (0:27:07, 0:27:27) before a roll-call vote. She also announced the December 14 “non meeting with legal counsel” (0:37:44), which RSA 91-A:2, I(b) excludes from the definition of a meeting; the December 14 agenda printed it as item I.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b); RSA 91-A:2, I(b); draft minutes of 12.14.23.
POSITIVE The budget went to a public hearing the statute does not require, and was adopted eighteen days before the deadline
RSA 194-C:9, I requires only adoption at a meeting before January 1 and no hearing. The board moved its figure to a public hearing (0:32:57), held it on December 14, and adopted $2,489,151.03 that night (December 14 draft minutes). December 14 to January 1 is eighteen days.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2023 codification); draft minutes of 12.14.23.
POSITIVE The chair’s one-word correction to the November 9 minutes is borne out by the document
The November 9 draft reads that Erickson wished the minutes to note “a discussion pertaining to a vote to suspend the superintendent evaluation.” The chair restored “policy” at 0:02:25. Suspending an evaluation and suspending the policy that governs it are different acts.
Sources: draft SAU6 Meeting Minutes 11.9.23 (2).pdf.
POSITIVE The business administrator cut her own department’s proposed increase before the board asked
The packet budget proposed a Business Office increase of $176,915.33 (28.23%), including contracted services at $25,000, auditors at $15,000 and print management at $8,000. Henry reported contracted services cut to $5,000, auditors to $10,000 after asking the firm, and the copier line removed as a contract the SAU no longer has (0:15:47, 0:16:20), for an increase of 112,303 (0:17:20). She flagged her insurance assumption as “a gamble” (0:14:43) and left the raise percentage to the board (0:19:10).
Sources: SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF, function 2520.
POSITIVE The chair voted against sealing her own board’s nonpublic minutes for 99 years
When the clerk opened the roll with her name, Hawkins answered “No.” (0:30:20); Erickson abstained. The motion carried, but the dissent is on the record, and the chair later corrected the minutes to add Erickson’s abstention.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III; draft minutes of 12.14.23.
POSITIVE Members asked line-item questions the documents bear out, and the policy subcommittee began a systematic audit
Skillen’s question on unspent equipment lines (0:22:58) matches the packet: $0.00 actual in FY21–22 and FY22–23 against $2,500 and $2,000 budgeted for FY24. Crawford separated the insurance increase from the SAU’s share (0:21:33), and the share came back from the caucus as a proposed change. The policy subcommittee mapped SAU policies against the NHSBA priority list and adopted a convention of citing “the relative RSA at the bottom of the policy” (0:35:42); BGAA reached the board on December 14 as promised.
Sources: SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF; draft minutes of 12.14.23.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: SAU 6 Board Meeting 12/7/23 (show 15455)
- Drive folder: 15. SAU6 12.7.23 (SAU 6 Schoolboard Packets) — 3 documents, created December 1, 2023:
SAU 6 School Board Agenda 12.7.23.docx (1).pdf double space is the district’s;
SAU6 FY25 Proposed Budget (1).PDF (printed 11/30/2023; superseded at the meeting);
draft SAU6 Meeting Minutes 11.9.23 (2).pdf
- Next meeting’s minutes, which record approval of this meeting’s minutes: draft minutes of SAU6 Budget Public Hearing 12.14.23.pdf (filed in
1. SAU 1.11.24)
- Not located: this meeting’s minutes, draft or approved (two-stage search per MAP.md §35, verified 2026-08-29); minutes of the nonpublic session (sealed 99 years); the revised budget used at the meeting; notice, agenda or minutes of the November 28 policy subcommittee or of the superintendent evaluation subcommittee.
- Adjacent pages: SAU 6 Board — November 9, 2023; Claremont School Board — December 6, 2023; SAU 6 Board, FY25 Budget Public Hearing — December 14, 2023.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/15455 SAU6120723.mp4.CSV (298 rows, ending 0:39:21)Input/Videos/15455 SAU6120723.mp4Input/Transcripts/15455 SAU6120723.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 35
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, I, I(b), I(c), II (2023, 188:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; mover/seconder clause 2018, 244:1); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(b), III, IV (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023)
- School administrative units: RSA 194-C:5, I and III; RSA 194-C:8; RSA 194-C:9, I (2023 codification; ¶IV added 2024 is not applied)
- Elections and schools: RSA 671:30; RSA 189:74
- Not applied, for vintage: the start-time, end-time and minutes-producer clauses added to RSA 91-A:2, II by 2025, 112:1 (eff. Aug. 22, 2025).