Participants
Everyone in the record. Attendance and board-name spellings follow the approved minutes; roles follow the agenda masthead and its subcommittee list. Segment and word counts are from the dialogue file (346 rows, 8,738 words). Board members are rarely named aloud on this recording, so several attributions rest on the chair’s recognitions and on the previous day’s televised Finance Subcommittee session, where the same people introduced themselves.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Chair, presiding; named by herself as one of the board’s SREA negotiators | 81 segments, 1,749 words (20.0 per cent). Called the meeting to order (0:00:05), ran the consent agenda and the citizens’ comment period, reordered the agenda around the attorney’s late arrival, explained the SREA settlement from 0:45:09, and put the only recorded vote. Told viewers why she would be checking her phone (0:12:46). |
| Frank Sprague | Vice chair; chair, Finance Subcommittee; SREA negotiator | 41 segments, 789 words (9.0 per cent). Reported the Finance Subcommittee budget session of November 19 from 0:39:14, reported the superintendent-evaluation meeting held that day (0:44:04), seconded the ratification motion (0:52:31), and explained the new distinction between mentoring experienced and new hires (0:47:12). |
| Candace Crawford | Member; chair, Capital Improvement Committee; Finance Subcommittee | 34 segments, 599 words (6.9 per cent). Reported that Capital Improvement is “working on scheduling” (0:38:30); asked whether the SREA agreement’s language could accommodate a change of health-insurance carrier (0:48:13); moved ratification (0:52:23, restated at 0:52:27). |
| Bonnie Miles | Member; SRVRTC Committee | 25 segments, 422 words (4.8 per cent). Reported the veterans’-card project (0:09:46); moved to leave nonpublic session (0:12:29, where the recognizer renders her name “smiles”); moved to adjourn (0:56:34). |
| Arlene Hawkins | Member; Curriculum Committee representative | 16 segments, 227 words (2.6 per cent). Questioned the distribution of coaching across grades (0:18:18) and the elementary coach’s time split (0:33:50), and asked whether the State must pass a federal grant through once awarded (0:36:52). The minutes name her as seconder of the motion into nonpublic session; on the recording that voice is unidentified (0:11:43). |
| Michael Petrin | Member; chair, Ad Hoc Communications Committee (per the agenda) | 8 segments, 162 words (1.9 per cent). Moved the nonpublic session (0:11:36) and seconded the motion out of it (0:12:32). Asked whether the teachers who do not seek coaching are the ones who need it, and whether coaching will ever be assigned (0:22:38). |
| Whitney Skillen | Member; chair, Policy Subcommittee; named by the chair as an SREA negotiator. Absent | No rows. The minutes list her as the only absent member. The chair names the bargaining team as “Mr. Sprague, myself and Miss Gillan” (0:45:09), “Miss Gillan” being the recognizer’s rendering of Skillen. The given name Whitney (Skillen) and the surname Whitney (the chair) are two different people. |
| Chris Pratt | Superintendent, SAU 6 | 49 segments, 2,525 words (28.9 per cent, the largest share). Read the November superintendent’s report school by school (0:02:03 to 0:09:22), gave the grant update from 0:34:34, and closed with an appeal to attend the strategic-plan roll-out the next evening (0:54:58). |
| Mike Koski | Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, Innovation and Assessment | 62 segments, 2,052 words (23.5 per cent). Presented the instructional-coaching update (0:13:33 to 0:34:08) and the keyboard disposal (0:37:21). At 0:50:24 he pointed out that the consent agenda had approved minutes under the wrong October date: “I’m only being nitpicky because I have to send this set of minutes to the state for a report.” |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | 7 segments, 92 words (1.1 per cent). On when the board would see a draft budget: “That’s my job for tomorrow.” (0:40:32); “Hopefully we’ll get out over Thanksgiving. Okay. Is the plan. Okay.” (0:40:40). Answered the health-insurance question (0:48:54). The minutes record her noting that the agreement “does specifically say SchoolCare”. |
| Matt Upton | District counsel; named on the agenda as presenter of the SREA item | 2 segments, 32 words. Joined by Zoom at 0:53:24, after the vote: “I think it’s a really fair contract. And I think it accomplished a lot that we wanted to, to achieve. And I hope it was approved by the board.” |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | No attributed rows. Called at 0:00:31, 0:11:45 and 0:12:36 to take the attendance roll and both nonpublic roll calls; the roll-call answers are captured only as merged segments, so no individual vote can be read from the recording. She signed the minutes. |
| Michael McCosker, Jeff Small, Patrick O’Hearn | Director of Student Services; Director of Technology; Human Resource Director | On the agenda masthead. None speaks on the recording. |
| Miles Sheehan and Lilly Clark | Student board members (masthead) | No rows, and not recorded present or absent. The agenda has no student report item (flag 12). |
| Unidentified and multiple voices | | 14 Unidentified rows (44 words) and 7 “Multiple” rows (45 words): the Pledge, roll-call answers, the ayes, a seconder (0:11:43) and short interjections. Nothing on this page rests on them except the unnamed seconder, reported beside the minutes’ attribution. |
| The public | | Nobody spoke. The chair: “Our next item is citizens comment. Seeing no citizens to comment.” (0:01:48) |
Agenda
The posted agenda, CSB Agenda 11.20.24 (3) (1).pdf, reached the packet folder on November 18. The chair took the nonpublic session first, skipped the SREA item while waiting for the attorney, and took it last. Times in the left column are the agenda’s own where it gives one; the links go to the moment the item was reached. Quotations in the third column are from the agenda or the minutes where so labelled, and otherwise from the recording.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
6:30 p.m.
0:00:05 | I. Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance | On the recording: “I’d like to call to order the November 20th, 2024 meeting of the Claremont School Board. All in attendance. Please rise and join me in the pleasant Regency.” (“the pleasant Regency” is the recognizer’s rendering of the Pledge of Allegiance, which follows at 0:00:16.) The minutes give no call-to-order time. |
6:35 p.m.
0:00:31 | II. General Business: roll call | The clerk calls the roll; the answers are one merged segment (0:00:37). Minutes: “Present: Candace Crawford, Arlene Hawkins, Bonnie Miles, Michael Petrin, Frank Sprague, Heather Whitney”; “Absent: Whitney Skillen”. |
| 0:00:44 | II.a Consent Agenda (vote required): agenda approval; “Minutes Approval- 10.2.24 & 11.14.24” (agenda wording) | The chair reads the items as “minutes approval from the meetings of 10 to 24 and 11, 1424”, notes that the SREA item may move because Mr. Upton is in another meeting, and asks “Do we have any objections to the consent agenda or the modification of the order of the items?” (0:01:18). Crawford asks “Still have a non public meeting?” (0:01:45); then “Seeing no opposition. We’re going to accept the items on the consent agenda.” (0:01:48) Disposed of by absence of objection, as by-law 2.10 provides for consent items. The minutes record the October date corrected to 10.16.24 on Koski’s later note (flag 3). |
| 0:01:48 | II.b Citizens Comments | “Our next item is citizens comment. Seeing no citizens to comment. We will move forward to this superintendents report.” Nobody asked to speak. |
6:40 p.m.
0:02:03 | III. Superintendent’s Report | Pratt summarises the written November report (in the packet) school by school to 0:09:22; Bonnie Miles’s veterans’-card item follows to 0:11:14. Minutes: the superintendent’s advisory committee “had 30 applicants”, and site updates are “available on the website”. |
7:00 p.m.
0:11:16 | IV.1 Non-Public Meeting Session RSA 91-A: 3 (agenda prints the text of exemption (a)) | Chair: “Our first item this evening as a nonpublic session for RSA 91-8 colon three, item a, a motion to.” Petrin: “Make a motion to go into nonpublic prayer. RSA nine one. Dash a colon three.” (0:11:36). Second by an unidentified voice (0:11:43; Hawkins per the minutes); roll call (0:11:45). Return: Miles moves (0:12:29), Petrin seconds, roll call (0:12:36). Minutes: “No need to seal the minutes”. No minutes of the session were found (flag 1; citation form at flag 5). |
| 0:12:46 | IV.3 Update on Utilization of Instructional Coaches (Discussion), taken out of order | “So we’re just going to skip over item two to the update of utilization of instructional coaches within the district.” Koski presents from 0:13:33 to 0:34:08 using Instructional Coaching Impact Nov. 24.pdf, which reached the packet folder at about 2:17 p.m. that day. Discussion only. |
| 0:34:23 | IV.4 Grant Award to Improve Social Outreach and Services (Discussion) | Pratt: a federal grant passed through the State, “it’s a four year grant. And I think it’s I think we’re about at $115,000 over 4 or 5 years.” (0:34:34), not yet released. Minutes: “Due to political situations, they are still waiting to see if they will actually receive the grant or not”. Discussion only. |
| 0:37:08 | Instrument Disposal (Discussion/Vote), printed without its own number under item 4 | Chair: “This agenda was, modified multiple times, so the number did not get there.” Koski: the Maple Avenue keyboard “no longer has replacement parts produced for it, and we’ve replaced it with Esser funds.” (0:37:21). Taken by absence of objection (0:37:53); minutes: “Consent agreement” (flag 10). |
| 0:38:18 | IV.5 Sub-Committees (Discussion): six listed | Capital Improvement: “We are working on scheduling.” (0:38:30). Finance: Sprague reports the November 19 session (0:39:14). Ad Hoc Communications: reported by Sprague (0:44:04). Policy, Curriculum and SRVRTC are not called: “Policy committee, you know, curriculum committee. Now, I think that’s essentially it.” (0:43:53) (flag 7). |
| 0:44:52 | IV.2 SREA Contract Ratification (Discussion and Vote) (Exhibit A), taken last | The chair opens it while waiting for Mr. Upton and describes the settlement from 0:45:09. Motion by Crawford (0:52:23), second by Sprague (0:52:31), voice vote (0:52:35): “The agreement between the SRE and Claremont School Board, documented October 30th, 2024, has been ratified.” (0:52:38) Minutes: “voice vote taken all present voting in favor; the motion passed”. Exhibit A is not in the packet (flag 2). |
| 8:20 p.m. | V. Other Business | Not reached aloud; the minutes print the heading only. |
8:25 p.m.
0:52:56 | VI. Future Dates / Future Agenda Items | Agenda: board meetings 12.4.24 and 12.18.24; “Finance Subcommittee Budget Meeting dates: 1-3 PM at SRVRTC John Goodrich Community Room.” December 4 and December 18; FY26 budget public hearing 1/2/2025; deliberative session February 1, 2025. The chair: “Our next Claremont school board meeting is December 4th, followed by December 8th.” The minutes add the strategic-plan roll-out of 11.21.24 as future date (a). |
8:30 p.m.
0:56:31 | VII. Adjournment | Chair: “If there’s no objection, I’d like to adjourn.” Miles: “Motion to adjourn.” (0:56:34) Minutes: “Consent adjournment at 7:41pm”. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue file. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording; they are positions in the recording, not clock times (flag 8). Hover over or Tab to a cell to read the full text. Quotations from the agenda, minutes, a packet document, the by-laws or a statute are labelled as such.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:00:05 | Call to order and roll | “I’d like to call to order the November 20th, 2024 meeting of the Claremont School Board.” The clerk calls the roll at 0:00:31; answers are merged. Six members present and Skillen absent, per the minutes. | |
| 0:00:44 | Consent agenda, with the October date misprinted | “The items on this evening’s consent agenda includes a final approval of the board agenda, and minutes approval from the meetings of 10 to 24 and 11, 1424.” (“10 to 24” is the agenda’s printed 10.2.24; “11, 1424” is 11.14.24.) The reordering and the minutes carry on one absence of objection at 0:01:48. | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:48 | Citizens’ comment: nobody present to speak | “Seeing no citizens to comment. We will move forward to this superintendents report.” | |
| 0:03:35 | Superintendent’s report: HR and substitutes | “Human resources, we welcome the an assistant for HR starting on December 2nd. Currently, the HR director is working on a a season requiring staff to update demographics and information.” (“a a season” is ACA season, as the written report calls it.) The written report names the new employee; this page does not. | |
| 0:06:49 | Middle-school figures, one of which differs from the written report | “the middle school is at 334. Discipline is a little on the high side. 26 out of school suspensions of OSS. 17 bullying. Harassment incidents investigated.” The written report gives 334 and 26, and “Bullying,Harassment, Physical- 7 investigated incidents”, “2 incidents found/5 unfounded incidents”. A transcription error on one digit is as likely as a misstatement. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:30 | Disnard goals, garbled as “Does not” | “Does not 75% of students to achieve grade level reading?” The written report reads “By May 2025, 75% of all Disnard students will be at or above grade level in reading as measured by DIBELS”; “Does not” is Disnard, and the sentence states a goal, not a result. Enrolments read aloud (Disnard 257, Maple 263, Bluff 168, Unity 91, Stevens 477) match the written report. | |
| 0:09:22 | Open counselling posts | “We still have mental health counselor elementary school counselors for Bluff and Maple.” The written report: the mental-health counselor post “remains open as our candidate rescinded their application”, the elementary counselor post “remains open for Bluff and Maple”. No member asks about them here; later the chair reports the budget session heard “a repeated echo of more social workers at the elementary school.” (0:42:57) | |
| 0:09:46 | Veterans’ cards | Miles: “could we have some veterans children make veterans cards and we can handsome out to the veterans.” (“Mr. Blue” in this row is Mark Blount, the Maple Avenue principal.) At 0:10:34: “perhaps next year, even if I’m not here, I think I would like to see that happen again.” Pratt offers to make it district-wide (0:10:50). | |
| 0:11:16 | Into nonpublic session | Chair: “a nonpublic session for RSA 91-8 colon three, item a”. Petrin: “Make a motion to go into nonpublic prayer. RSA nine one. Dash a colon three.” (0:11:36) “I’ll second.” (0:11:43, unidentified; Hawkins per the minutes). Roll call at 0:11:45. The minutes: “Michael Petrin made a motion to move into non-public under RSA 91-A:3(a), Arlene Hawkins seconded the motion; roll call vote taken by Noelle Kronberg, all present voting in favor”. | MEDIUM |
| 0:11:59 | The recording across the closed session | One 25-second segment holding only Yes yes. separates the roll call in from the return. The next voices are Koski’s “I was going to say it’s hard.” (0:12:24) and the chair’s “To come out of nonpublic. Please.” (0:12:26). No gap between consecutive rows anywhere in the file exceeds 0.84 seconds, so the closed session is not on the recording. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:29 | Out of nonpublic session; no seal vote | Miles: “I’ll make a motion. We come out of nonpublic smiles.” (“smiles” is Miles.) Petrin seconds (0:12:32); roll call (0:12:36). Nothing is said about the closed session and no motion to seal is made. Minutes: “No need to seal the minutes”. | HIGH |
| 0:12:46 | The chair explains her phone to viewers | “Just so people know, I’m just gonna be checking my phone to make sure that map. So I’m not being distracted or watching Netflix.” She is waiting for the attorney’s text, and reorders the agenda on the record. | POSITIVE |
| 0:13:33 | Instructional coaching: three coaches, one part-time | “So we have an elementary coach, Katlyn McLaughlin, who is also our curriculum instructor and curriculum instruction and assessment. Director, curriculum director. She is working part time in K to five as a coach.” (The packet document prints “Catlin McLaughlin” and the minutes “Cat McLaughlin”.) At 0:14:33: “five, five minutes through 612 students adds up to a good amount of time.” The packet document: “Assessed 612 K-2 students with Title teachers on Math Concepts”. | |
| 0:22:22 | The elementary coaching post was not filled | “We also were not able to hire for that this year. We didn’t have any qualified applicants. And so we felt it was important enough to kind of divide up cats position to make part time in the coaching role.” At 0:33:57 the split is given as “0.6 curriculum director 0.4. Elementary coach.” | |
| 0:23:12 | Will coaching be assigned? Data to be made public | Petrin (0:22:38): “sometimes the people that don’t seek it out are the ones that need it.” Koski: “We won’t have us coaches assigned to people. There will be, I think, just a greater felt need for a coach. It will be as we collect data, it will become more and more obvious who’s performing well and who’s not. And and we will make that data public and and transparent.” The transcript’s wording is kept; the minutes render the answer as “it is more effective to work with teachers who are willing”. | |
| 0:31:04 | The chair’s concern: the part-time coach covers the most children | “our part time coach is servicing 612 kids, and our full time coaches are serving small, far fewer, kids or classrooms and teachers.” At 0:31:31: “my fear is, is that our elementary school teachers tend to be the younger teachers and the newer teachers.” Koski: “So it would be interesting to get that data. I’m not sure if that’s the case.” (0:31:42) | |
| 0:34:15 | A clock reference | “Mr. Upton will be available in roughly 15 minutes.” Read with the chair’s later “At 719. He said in 15 minutes.” (0:51:14), this places the remark at about 7:19 p.m. (flag 8). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:34:34 | A federal social-services grant, awarded and not yet released | “I think we were one out of the 6 or 8 districts to get the federal grant that filters through the state in regards to, improving the social outreach and services for Sussex.” (“Sussex” is SAU 6.) “it’s a four year grant. And I think it’s I think we’re about at $115,000 over 4 or 5 years.” At 0:34:59: “we’re still waiting to see if they’re going to if the feds are taken back that grant.” Asked the agency, Crawford suggests “Department of Education?” (0:36:19) and Koski says “Have been health and human services.” (0:36:25). No grant document is in the packet. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:37:21 | Keyboard disposal, the one mention of ESSER | “So we have a an old electronic keyboard at Maple that, no longer has replacement parts produced for it, and we’ve replaced it with Esser funds. So the new instrument is there. And we just need permission to dispose of it.” Chair (0:37:53): “We can easily do this as consent if there is no one that would object to us disposing that”; then “Dispose away.” (0:38:04) | OBSERVATION |
| 0:39:14 | Finance Subcommittee: the November 19 budget session | Sprague: “We had our first meeting yesterday.” He lists the administrators who attended, and at 0:39:36: “It’s televised. It was televised. So if anyone wants to watch it, they can.” No minutes of that session were found; the missing minutes are graded on the November 19 page. | MEDIUM |
| 0:40:05 | No draft budget yet | Sprague: “We have not we’re hoping that we’ll be getting an actual hard budget soon.” Henry: “That’s my job for tomorrow.” (0:40:32); “Have it before your next meeting.” (0:40:36). The FY26 budget hearing is noticed on this agenda for January 2, 2025. | |
| 0:42:57 | What the budget session asked for | Chair: “There was a repeated echo of more social workers at the elementary school.” At 0:43:07: “Full time substitutes, which may be a budget neutral move, but just codifying it in a full time position because we’re already paying for substitute teachers as it is.” At 0:43:31: “Because pennies turn into dollars.” | |
| 0:43:53 | Three subcommittees not called | “Policy committee, you know, curriculum committee. Now, I think that’s essentially it.” Policy, Curriculum and SRVRTC give no report; the minutes print their headings with nothing beneath. The Policy chair was absent. | MEDIUM |
| 0:44:04 | Ad hoc communications, and the superintendent’s goals meeting | Sprague: “Well, I’ll jump in on the ad hoc communication. Okay. Yeah, I’ve I’m going to be finishing that up.” He reports meeting the superintendent that day, with “Rocco and Roger from unity” (the minutes name Rocco Ruggeri), “to go over his progress on his goals.” | |
| 0:44:52 | SREA item opened while waiting for counsel | “I think while we’re waiting for Mr. Upton. So I just don’t have a lot of dead air. Maybe we could do a little chatting about what changes were made in the contract or what we have to.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:45:09 | The settlement as the chair describes it | “Mr. Sprague, myself and Miss Gillan has been in concert with the administrative team negotiating with the Sri. There was some language cleanup within the contract just to make clarity. We’ve increased some additional duty pay, which was extremely outdated.” (“Miss Gillan” is Whitney Skillen; “the Sri” is the SREA.) At 0:45:45: “And the cola this year is going to be for this for 25 and 26 and 26 to 27. It’s two and a half. Two and a half.” Paraprofessional pay is the board’s stated priority (0:45:57); the minutes record the chair’s statement that “the focus on increases for contracts was on paraprofessional pay”. | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:47:12 | Mentoring: experienced and new hires treated differently | Sprague: “a an experienced person coming in will get a half of your half a year of mentoring, really to help them acclimate to, to the new building”; at 0:47:51: “We never made that distinction before.” | |
| 0:48:13 | Health insurance and the contract’s carrier language | Crawford: “My question is, is the language in the current in this contract flexible enough to address any of the changes that we might consider?” Henry (0:48:54): “that’s that’s a hurdle.” Minutes: “Mary Henry noted that it does specifically say SchoolCare”; the superintendent said the union is “typically open to an amendment” when a change lowers cost. | |
| 0:50:24 | The wrong October date is caught | Koski: “There’s an error in the date of minutes that are being approved tonight. And I’m only being nitpicky because I have to send this set of minutes to the state for a report. So it says 10 to 2024, and it needs to think to be 1016.” Sprague: “Good catch.” (0:50:55). The minutes record the correction. | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:51:14 | The second clock reference | “I asked him if he’s available soon. At 719. He said in 15 minutes.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:51:27 | Each member asked whether to wait for counsel | Chair: “unless other unless people of the board would like to wait. Which, please don’t feel shy with saying yes.” Crawford (0:51:38): “I think the two of you have done a good job explaining it to us.” Petrin (0:52:15): “I do not have any questions.” Miles (0:52:18): “Yes, I read it this afternoon and I have no questions.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:52:23 | Ratification | Crawford: “So I’ll make the motion to accept the.” A voice: “To ratify that.” (0:52:26). Crawford: “Ratify the contract negotiated by the team.” (0:52:27). Sprague: “I’ll second.” (0:52:31). “All in favor, say aye.” (0:52:35); “Any opposed? Seeing no opposition.” (0:52:38). No count is announced; the minutes name mover and seconder and record “all present voting in favor”. | |
| 0:53:16 | Counsel joins after the vote | Chair: “We’ve done it without you. We don’t need you anymore.” Upton (0:53:24): “I think it’s a really fair contract.” Miles: “It was. It was.” (0:53:31) | |
| 0:53:39 | Budget hearing and the strategic plan | Chair: “We’re having our budget proposed budget hearing on the 2nd of January.” She hopes to present the strategic plan before the deliberative session. Pratt urges attendance at the roll-out the next evening (0:54:58). | |
| 0:56:31 | Adjournment | “If there’s no objection, I’d like to adjourn.” Miles: “Motion to adjourn.” (0:56:34). Minutes: “Consent adjournment at 7:41pm”. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer’s aid, produced by reading the recording and the packet against the New Hampshire and federal law in force on November 20, 2024 and against the board’s own by-laws. They are not findings of violation and they are not legal advice. Each card names the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the card is graded OBSERVATION. By-laws are the board’s own rules, not statutes, and the cards say which is which. For missing records, HIGH marks an absence nothing on the record mitigates and MEDIUM marks one the record mitigates; each card says which applies.
HIGH No minutes found for this meeting’s nonpublic session, which the board chose not to seal, or for the nonpublic session of November 14
The board entered nonpublic session on Petrin’s motion (0:11:36) and returned on Miles’s (0:12:29). No motion to seal was made on the recording, and the approved minutes record the outcome as “No need to seal the minutes”. RSA 91-A:3, III requires that minutes of nonpublic sessions be kept and that “Minutes and decisions reached in nonpublic session shall be publicly disclosed within 72 hours” of the meeting unless the body votes, by two-thirds of members present in public session, to withhold them on one of the stated grounds. With no such vote, the 72-hour period ran without qualification. The board’s by-laws say the same thing in their Appendix D: “The law requires minutes of non-public sessions be made publicly available within 72 hours of the meeting, unless the CSB votes to seal the minutes of the non-public session.”
The minutes of the special meeting of November 14, 2024, approved by consent at this meeting, record a second nonpublic session (“Move into non-public at 8:19pm”; “Return to public meeting at 8:59pm”) and no vote to seal. No nonpublic minutes for either date were found in this meeting’s packet folder or in the district’s Meeting Minutes share. That share’s Unsealed Minutes folder was created on January 13, 2025 and holds folders for 2025, 2026 and 2027 only (checked 2026-09-25).
Severity. The unmitigated limb: the body met in nonpublic session, declined to seal, and nothing on the recording or in the minutes says the nonpublic minutes exist elsewhere or are coming. Drive listings in these shares have omitted files before, so this is a finding that the minutes were not found in the public shares, not proof that none were written. The subject of the session (a personnel matter under II(a), per the agenda) is not known and nothing here suggests it was improper.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (nonpublic minutes kept; disclosure within 72 hours unless withheld by recorded two-thirds vote); approved minutes 11.20.24, item IV.1; draft CSB Meeting Minutes 11.14.24; by-laws, Appendix D.
MEDIUM The SREA agreement ratified at this meeting is Exhibit A on the agenda and is not in the public packet
Item IV.2 reads, in the agenda, “SREA Contract Ratification (Discussion and Vote) (Exhibit A)”. The packet folder 8. CSB 11.20.24 holds six documents (the agenda, the superintendent’s report, the coaching slides and three sets of draft minutes) and no Exhibit A. What the public can learn of the agreement comes from the chair’s description (0:45:09, 0:45:45): language cleanup, higher additional-duty pay, a 2.5 per cent cost-of-living adjustment in each of 2025–26 and 2026–27, a larger mentor stipend, and, per the minutes, a named health-insurance carrier. Members had the document: “Yes, I read it this afternoon and I have no questions.” (0:52:18)
The board’s by-laws require posting. By-law 4.03(d) assigns the executive assistant to “Post online any and all agenda materials not-exempt from public dissemination by RSA 91-A in conjunction with the posting of any board or committee agendas.” The second rule numbered 2.09 provides that “Any and all presentations by the administration to the board or any committee shall be contained in the agenda and made available to the public in its original format online”. Under RSA 91-A:4, I any citizen may inspect governmental records on request; no statute located requires a ratified agreement to be posted with the agenda.
Severity. MEDIUM, a process gap against the board’s own rule. The archived version of this page graded it HIGH; it is regraded because the rule breached is a by-law rather than a statute, the document remains available on request under RSA 91-A:4, and this page has not established whether the district treated the pre-ratification text as exempt. The agreement was not found elsewhere in the district’s shares by title search.
Sources: CSB Agenda 11.20.24, item IV.2; packet folder 8. CSB 11.20.24; by-laws 2.09 and 4.03(d); RSA 91-A:4 (inspection of governmental records).
MEDIUM The consent agenda approved minutes of an unrecorded November 14 special meeting whose notice was not found and whose minutes misletter an exemption
The agenda’s consent item reads “Minutes Approval- 10.2.24 & 11.14.24”; both were carried by absence of objection at 0:01:48, which by-law 2.10 permits for minutes. The October date was wrong and Koski corrected it at 0:50:24. The November 14 minutes, draft CSB Meeting Minutes 11.14.24.pdf, record a Thursday meeting called to order at 8:16 p.m. with five members present (Miles and Skillen absent), a nonpublic session from 8:19 to 8:59 p.m., and consent adjournment. They are the only record of that meeting found: no recording (the corpus has none), no packet folder, and no posted notice located. November 14 was not a regular meeting day under by-law 2.01, so it was a special meeting, for which by-law 2.02 provides that “only matters contained in the notice shall be considered”.
The minutes cite “RSA 91-A: 3, II (a & d)” and then print two exemption texts lettered (a) and (b). The text lettered (b), “Consideration of the acquisition, sale, or lease of real or personal property”, is subparagraph (d) of RSA 91-A:3, II; (b) is the hiring exemption. The (a) text is paraphrased (“The dismissal, promotion,compensation, disciplining or investigation or changes of a public employee”). The board approved these minutes without discussion.
Severity. MEDIUM. The archived page graded the approval HIGH; it is regraded because approving minutes by consent is permitted, the minutes exist and record members present and the motions, and the missing nonpublic minutes are carried separately at flag 1. What remains is a public record with a citation error and a special meeting whose notice this project could not locate; the SAU 6 website as it stood in November 2024 cannot be inspected, so no finding is made that notice was not posted.
Sources: CSB Agenda 11.20.24, item II.a; draft CSB Meeting Minutes 11.14.24; RSA 91-A:3, II(a), (b), (d); RSA 91-A:2, II (notice and minutes); by-laws 2.01, 2.02, 2.10; companion page SAU 6 Board, November 14, 2024.
MEDIUM The first-Wednesday regular meeting of November 6 was not held, and no cancellation was found
By-law 2.01: “The regular meetings of the CSB shall be held on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.” The October 16 agenda listed “Claremont Board Meeting 11/6/2024” among future dates, and a packet folder 7. CSB 11.6.24 is recorded in the project’s map. This meeting’s consent agenda approved minutes for October 16 and November 14 only, and the November 14 minutes describe a special meeting with a nonpublic session as its only business, not a rescheduled regular meeting. No recording and no minutes of a November 6 meeting exist in the corpus, and no one at this meeting refers to it.
Severity. MEDIUM, the mitigated limb. A gathering that did not convene is not a meeting under RSA 91-A:2, I, so no minutes were owed. What is missing is a public cancellation and the regular meeting the board’s own by-law schedules. The contents of the November 6 folder have not been read, so whether an agenda was posted for it is not known.
Sources: by-law 2.01; CSB Agenda 10.16.24, future dates; approved minutes 11.20.24, item II.a; RSA 91-A:2, I.
MEDIUM The motion into nonpublic session names no paragraph of RSA 91-A:3
RSA 91-A:3, I(b): “Any motion to enter nonpublic session shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II which is relied upon”. The motion was “Make a motion to go into nonpublic prayer. RSA nine one. Dash a colon three.” (0:11:36), with no paragraph or subparagraph. The chair’s introduction (0:11:16) did say “item a”, and the agenda printed the full text of exemption II(a). The minutes record the motion as “under RSA 91-A:3(a)”, a citation to a paragraph that does not exist.
Severity. MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the record mitigates it: the agenda stated the ground in full before the meeting, the chair named subparagraph (a) aloud, and both roll-call votes were taken in public session with mover and seconder recorded. The defect is in the form of the motion and the citation in the minutes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II(a); CSB Agenda 11.20.24, item IV.1; approved minutes 11.20.24, item IV.1.
MEDIUM The earliest copy of these minutes found reached the public share on the eighth business day
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be “open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the public meeting”. Excluding the RSA 288:1 holidays (Thanksgiving fell on November 28), the fifth business day after November 20, 2024 was November 27. The earliest copy of 11.20.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes.pdf found in the district’s shares was created on December 3, 2024 in the December 4 packet folder, the eighth business day; a second copy followed on December 12, and the approved minutes on January 7, 2025. The start-time, end-time and minutes-producer clauses of ¶II took effect August 22, 2025 and are not applied here.
These are Drive creation dates, which show when a copy became visible in the public share. The statute is satisfied by availability for inspection, which a district can provide at its office; nothing here shows a request refused. For comparison, the November 14 draft minutes were filed on November 20, the fourth business day after that meeting.
Severity. MEDIUM, the mitigated limb: the minutes exist, record members present, subject matter, decisions and the mover and seconder of each motion, and were published; the defect is timing.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (five business days; mover and seconder); RSA 288:1 (legal holidays); Drive metadata, read 2026-09-25, for 11.20.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes, 9. Approved CSB meeting minutes 11.20.24 and draft CSB Meeting Minutes 11.14.24.
MEDIUM Subcommittee reporting: the Finance session was reported orally, and three subcommittees gave no report
By-law 1.05 makes subcommittees subject to the Right-to-Know Law and requires that minutes “be recorded and available for public inspection on the SAU 6 website within 5 days of the meeting.” It requires the Finance, Policy and Capital Improvement committees each to “report to the full Board monthly”. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) makes a school board subcommittee a public body in its own right.
Sprague reported the Finance Subcommittee budget session of November 19 (0:39:14) and pointed viewers to its broadcast: “It’s televised. It was televised. So if anyone wants to watch it, they can.” (0:39:36) That session had been listed, with time and room, among the future dates on the October 16 agenda. No minutes of it were found; the minutes question is graded on the November 19 page and not counted again here. Capital Improvement reported that it was still scheduling a meeting (0:38:30). Policy, Curriculum and SRVRTC were not called (0:43:53) and the minutes print their headings with nothing beneath; the Policy chair was absent.
Severity. MEDIUM, a process gap against by-law 1.05’s monthly-report rule. The Curriculum representative’s by-law cycle is quarterly, so that silence is not a gap.
Sources: by-laws 1.05 and 1.11; RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (“or any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto”); CSB Agenda 10.16.24, future dates; approved minutes 11.20.24, item IV.6.
OBSERVATION The recording is about fourteen and a half minutes shorter than the meeting, and the minutes give no times for the nonpublic session
The agenda schedules a 6:30 p.m. start; the minutes record adjournment at 7:41 p.m. and no start time. That is 71 minutes; the dialogue on the recording ends at 0:56:38. No gap between consecutive rows of the dialogue file exceeds 0.84 seconds, and the closed session occupies a single 25-second segment (0:11:59), so the break is not audible on the recording. The chair gives two clock references: “Mr. Upton will be available in roughly 15 minutes.” (0:34:15) and, later, “I asked him if he’s available soon. At 719. He said in 15 minutes.” (0:51:14). If the first remark was made at about 7:19 p.m., the recording from that point to adjournment (22 minutes 19 seconds) matches the clock (22 minutes), and about fourteen and a half minutes before 0:34:15 are not on the recording.
Two readings fit: the closed session was edited out of a meeting that began at 6:30, or the meeting began about fourteen minutes late. A nonpublic session of 25 seconds is implausible, which favours the first, but the record does not settle it. Pausing a broadcast during a lawful closed session is ordinary practice and is not flagged. The by-laws’ Appendix D lists “(2) time and place of the non- public session” among the minimum contents of nonpublic minutes; the November 14 minutes give those times and the November 20 minutes do not.
Sources: the dialogue file at the timestamps above; approved minutes 11.20.24; by-laws, Appendix D. No rule is asserted to be breached.
OBSERVATION The by-laws’ Appendix D counts the nonpublic grounds inconsistently
By-law 2.14 routes members to Appendix D for nonpublic sessions. Appendix D says “RSA 91 -A:3 sets forth eight grounds”, then enumerates nine, then refers to “the nine statutory bases cited above”; its compliance guidelines refer to “eight statutory reasons”, and its checklist letters six grounds (a) to (f), fusing the property, litigation and emergency-functions grounds into one item, before continuing the same letters for procedural steps (g) to (o). RSA 91-A:3, II as in force on this date has more grounds than any of these counts. Appendix D states the 72-hour disclosure rule accurately. The by-laws also contain two different rules numbered 2.09.
Sources: Claremont School Board By-Laws, 2.09, 2.14 and Appendix D; RSA 91-A:3, II.
OBSERVATION An item noticed for a vote was taken by consent, and the agenda’s numbering was incomplete
Instrument Disposal appears on the agenda as “(Discussion/Vote)” without its own number, under item 4. The chair noted the defect (“This agenda was, modified multiple times, so the number did not get there.”, 0:37:08) and disposed of the item by absence of objection (0:37:53); the minutes record “Consent agreement” and renumber the items. By-law 2.07 lets the chair adopt a motion by absence of objection when the board is in obvious agreement, so no rule is asserted to be breached; the item was routine and the replacement had already been bought (0:38:05).
Sources: CSB Agenda 11.20.24; approved minutes 11.20.24; by-laws 2.07 and 2.10.
OBSERVATION The cost of the ratified agreement was not stated
Under RSA 273-A:1, IV a “cost item” is “any benefit acquired through collective bargaining whose implementation requires an appropriation”, and RSA 273-A:3, II(b) provides that “Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body” for approval at the next annual meeting. The cost-of-living adjustment and duty-pay increases are cost items that go to the voters. No one at this meeting stated what the agreement costs in FY26 or how it would reach the warrant. Nothing required that at ratification, and the FY26 budget hearing was noticed for January 2, 2025; the observation is only that the public record of this meeting carries no figure.
Sources: RSA 273-A:1, IV; RSA 273-A:3, II(b).
OBSERVATION Both student board members are on the masthead and neither is recorded present or absent
The agenda and minutes print “Student Board Members- Miles Sheehan & Lilly Clark”. Neither is in the roll, neither speaks, and the agenda has no student report item (the October 16 agenda had one). RSA 189:1-c requires “at least one nonvoting student member from each public high school”, and RSA 194:23-f, IV(a) (as amended by 2024, 69:1, eff. Aug. 13, 2024) lists attending school board meetings among the student member’s duties. By-law 2.16 gives student members “all the rights of a regular school board member regarding school board business except the right to vote.” Whether RSA 91-A:2, II requires the minutes to record a nonvoting student member’s attendance is not settled by its text, and no violation is asserted.
Sources: CSB Agenda 11.20.24; RSA 189:1-c; RSA 194:23-f, IV(a); by-law 2.16.
OBSERVATION The published superintendent’s report names middle-school students by name and grade; lawful as directory information if notice was given
The November Superintendent’s Report, filed in the public packet and, per the superintendent, “pushed out to family members in the community” (0:02:03), lists twelve Claremont Middle School students by full name and grade under student-of-the-month, unified-arts, library-media and athletics headings. This page reproduces none of them. 34 CFR 99.3 allows a district to designate name, grade level, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, and “honors and awards received” as directory information, which 34 CFR 99.37(a) permits disclosing after public notice of the designated categories and of the right to opt out. Whether that notice was given for 2024–25 is not established here. The report’s other figures are whole-school totals.
Sources: November Superintendent’s Report; 34 CFR 99.3 (directory information); 34 CFR 99.37(a) (notice condition).
OBSERVATION Smaller points for a reader tracing the record
- One spoken figure differs from the written report. Pratt reads “17 bullying. Harassment incidents investigated” at the middle school (0:06:49); the report says seven investigated, two founded and five unfounded. The other figures he reads match the report.
- The retention ceiling in the October 16 minutes. The minutes approved tonight state “The maximum that can be retained is $469,000”. On the October 16 recording the business administrator first computed “the most you can retain is the $466,664. And $0.43” and then used 469 throughout the discussion. The minutes record the figure used in the discussion. The board voted to retain up to $350,000, inside either figure.
- Finance dates. The agenda and minutes list Finance Subcommittee budget meetings for December 4 and December 18; the chair said aloud “December 4th, followed by December 8th” (0:52:56). The corpus holds Finance recordings for December 13 and December 18, 2024 and none for December 4.
- ESSER. The only mention is the keyboard bought “with Esser funds” (0:37:21). No ESSER accounting is on this agenda; at the October 16 meeting Sprague had said he “would still like to see a presentation on ESSER” (October 16 minutes).
- The social-services grant has no paper in the packet. The superintendent described a four-year federal award passed through the State, not yet released (0:34:34, 0:34:59); no application, award letter or budget is in the packet.
Sources: November Superintendent’s Report; 10.16.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes; approved minutes 11.20.24; companion page October 16, 2024. No rule is asserted to be breached.
POSITIVE A correction made on the record, a board polled before proceeding without counsel, and complete motion records
- The consent-agenda error was caught and recorded. Koski raised the wrong October date on camera (0:50:24) because the minutes go to the State, and the approved minutes carry the correction and name him.
- Each member was asked whether to wait for counsel. “please don’t feel shy with saying yes” (0:51:27); Crawford, Petrin and Miles answered on the record (0:51:38, 0:52:15, 0:52:18).
- The minutes name the mover and seconder of every motion, as RSA 91-A:2, II requires, including the seconder the recording cannot identify.
- The chair explained her own conduct to the broadcast audience (0:12:46) and announced the change of agenda order before making it (0:01:18).
- The superintendent’s written report was in the packet and its school-level enrolment figures match what was read aloud.
Sources: the recording at the timestamps above; approved minutes 11.20.24; RSA 91-A:2, II.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast: School Board Meeting 11/20/24 (show 16157)
- Drive folder: 8. CSB 11.20.24: 6 documents, all read; folder created November 14, 2024.
- Minutes: 9. Approved CSB meeting minutes 11.20.24; drafts filed later: 11.20.24 DRAFT CSB meeting minutes.pdf (December 4 packet) and a second copy (December 18 packet)
- By-laws in force:
Exhibit E- Claremont School Board By-Laws .pdf, filed with the June 5, 2024 packet
- Neighbouring documents:
CSB Agenda 10.16.24.pdf (future dates, including the November 6 meeting and the November Finance sessions); approved minutes of December 4, 2024
- The district’s Meeting Minutes share and its Unsealed Minutes folder (created January 13, 2025; subfolders for 2025, 2026 and 2027 only; checked 2026-09-25)
- Not found: Exhibit A (the SREA agreement); minutes of the nonpublic sessions of November 14 and November 20; any notice of the November 14 special meeting; minutes of the November 19 Finance Subcommittee session; any document on the social-services grant. Drive listings in these shares have omitted files before, so these are recorded as not found.
- Companion pages: Finance Committee, November 19, 2024; October 16, 2024; SAU 6 Board, November 14, 2024; SAU 6 strategic-plan presentation, November 21, 2024; December 4, 2024
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Laws and rules cited on this page
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, I and II (in the text in force before 2025, 112:1; the mover/seconder and five-business-day provisions apply); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II and III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:4, I; RSA 288:1 (legal holidays)
- Collective bargaining: RSA 273-A:1, IV; RSA 273-A:3, II(b)
- Student board members: RSA 189:1-c; RSA 194:23-f, IV(a) (2024, 69:1, eff. Aug. 13, 2024)
- Federal: 34 CFR 99.3; 34 CFR 99.37(a)
- Board rules (not law): Claremont School Board By-Laws 1.05, 1.11, 2.01, 2.02, 2.07, 2.09 (both rules of that number), 2.10, 2.14, 2.16, 4.03(d) and Appendix D