Claremont School Board — January 7, 2025 | Contracts, policies, and the FY26 budget to public hearing

Participants

Everyone heard or recorded as present. Attendance and name spellings follow the approved minutes (“Absent: none”); the roll call on the recording is unattributed. Segment counts are dialogue-file rows.
Name	Role	Participation
Heather Whitney	Board chair	183 rows. Presided; moved policy KCD and the JRA revocation; set out what the budget vote did and did not do; argued the equity case against the pre-K program; moved the nonpublic session and, inside it, the property purchase (per the nonpublic minutes).
Frank Sprague	Vice chair; Finance Subcommittee chair	55 rows. Moved the paraprofessionals’ ratification; introduced the finance presentation; warned that the extraordinary grant is “very much of a year to year thing”; seconded the budget motion and the property purchase.
Candace Crawford	Board member; board representative, paraprofessional negotiations	67 rows. Presented the paraprofessionals’ contract; moved the CAA ratification and the ski-club donation; questioned Rep. Damon on special-education aid; presented the SRVRTC program; seconded the motion to exit nonpublic session.
Arlene Hawkins	Board member; board representative, CAA negotiations	67 rows. Presented the CAA contract and the JRA, GBEAA and JFABD policies; read a prepared statement opposing elimination of pre-K; moved to exit nonpublic session; seconded the sealing motion. Several budget-question rows are marked uncertain in the dialogue file.
Whitney Skillen	Board member; Policy Subcommittee chair	37 rows. Seconded the CAA ratification; amended the JRA motion on the floor; moved GBEAA and JFABD; asked for a commitment to study pre-K; moved to seal the nonpublic minutes. The ASR renders her name “Gillam” and “Gilman”.
Bonnie Miles	Board member	30 rows. Questioned the JFABD wording (“abandoned in hospitals”, “trailer parks”, migratory children); proposed a pre-K subcommittee and a small reserve; said “I’m not going to be here next year.”
Michael Petrin	Board member	5 rows. Seconded GBEAA and the nonpublic motion; moved the budget to public hearing. Rendered “patron” by the ASR.
Noelle Kronberg	School Board clerk	Took the roll calls and recorded both sets of minutes; addressed as “Noel” at 0:16:57. Not separately identified in the dialogue file.
Miles Sheehan; Lilly Clark	Student board members	Listed on the minutes’ cover page; neither is heard.
Chris Pratt	Superintendent, SAU 6	58 rows. Framed the budget against the strategic plan; read a prepared statement on pre-K; present in nonpublic session, where the board authorized him to buy 40 Maple Ave.
Mary Henry	Business Administrator, SAU 6	94 rows. Presented the budget building by building and the revenue changes; present in nonpublic session.
Patrick O’Hearn	Human Resource Director, SAU 6	23 rows. Vacancies, hiring and turnover; committed to getting relevant policies to new hires.
Michael McCosker	Director of Student Services, SAU 6	2 rows, both marked uncertain (sparse merged cluster): the related services now provided to pre-K pupils.
Hope Damon	Citizens’ comments — State Representative (Claremont)	20 rows. Legislative update; answered Crawford on special-education aid proration and Miles on the McKinney-Vento wording.
Unidentified; Multiple	Roll-call and voice-vote responses	5 Unidentified and 6 Multiple rows: Here, Present, and chorus votes; no names were caught on the microphone.

Listed on the minutes’ cover page and not identified as speaking: Michael Koski (Assistant Superintendent) and Jeff Small (Director of Technology); Henry thanks “Jeff” for the microphone at 0:43:55. Heather Whitney (chair) and Whitney Skillen (member) are different people.

Agenda

Items as posted in “CSB Agenda 1.7.25 (1).pdf”, with the time each was taken up and its disposition. Motions, seconds and tallies follow the approved minutes.
Taken up	Item	Agenda text / disposition
0:00:06	I. Call to order & Pledge	Agenda: “6:30 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance”. Whitney: “I’d like to call to order the January 7th, 2025 meeting of the Claremont School Board.”
0:00:30	II. Roll call	Minutes: present Crawford, Hawkins, Miles, Petrin, Skillen, Sprague, Whitney; “Absent: none”.
0:00:44	II.a Consent agenda	Minutes: “Request from administration to add non-public session to the end of the meeting”; “Minutes Approval-none”. No objection. Whitney at 0:01:36: “It’s going to be one related to compensation and one related to purchase of property.”
0:01:36	II.b Citizens’ comments (Policy BEDH)	One speaker, Rep. Hope Damon. The minutes give her bills as HB 0471 and HB 0431.
0:08:49	III.1 Ratification, paraprofessionals’ contract	Motion Sprague, second Whitney; no discussion; voice vote, all present in favor.
0:12:55	III.2 Ratification, CAA contract	Motion Crawford, second Skillen; voice vote, all present in favor.
0:15:09	III.3 Set board evaluation meeting	Set for February 13 at 5:00 p.m., before the SAU meeting; no vote.
0:16:57	III.4 Mt. Sunapee Ski Club donation, $3,000	Motion Crawford, second Whitney; voice vote, all present in favor.
0:19:05	III.5 Subcommittee reports; Policy: KCD, JRA, GBEAA, JFABD	KCD adopted as revised (Whitney, Crawford). JRA revoked (Whitney, Skillen) and the new JRA adopted with Skillen’s friendly amendment (Hawkins, Skillen). GBEAA adopted (Skillen, Petrin). JFABD withdrawn (Crawford, Skillen) and the 2019 NHSBA version adopted (Skillen, Whitney). All voice votes, all present in favor. No other subcommittee reported.
0:37:19	III.6 Finance Subcommittee budget presentation (vote to move budget to public hearing)	Minutes: “Michael Petrin made a motion to move the budget as presented forward to the public hearing, Frank Sprague seconded the motion”; “Voice vote taken, all present voting in favor, the motion passes” (vote at 2:08:45).
8:41 p.m.	Non-public session (added by consent)	Minutes: “RSA 91-A:3, II (a) & (d)”, motion Whitney, second Petrin, roll call, all present in favor; exit at 8:57 p.m. (Hawkins, Crawford); seal for six months (Skillen, Hawkins), roll call, all present in favor. Nonpublic minutes: authorization to buy 40 Maple Ave for $255,000. Not on the recording; see flag 1.
8:20 p.m.	IV. Other business	No business recorded in the minutes.
8:25 p.m.	V. Future dates	Agenda: budget public hearing 1.15.2025; “Claremont School Board Meeting 1.21.25 Vote to Move Budget to Deliberative Session”; deliberative session Saturday, February 1, 2025, snow date February 8.
8:58 p.m.	VI. Adjournment	Minutes: “Consent adjournment at 8:58pm.” Not on the recording.

Discussion timeline

Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction.
Time	Topic	What was said	Flags
0:00:44	Nonpublic session added; subjects stated	Whitney: “there is a request from the administrative team to add a nonpublic at the end of the meeting.” Asked under which RSA section, she will “read it at the time”, then: “It’s going to be one related to compensation and one related to purchase of property.”	MEDIUM
0:02:11	Rep. Damon’s legislative update	“I’m state rep hope Damon one of Claremont’s five state reps.” Prime sponsor of a bill to “establish a commission to review the draft rules related to the minimum standards for public school approval”, and of one that “would prohibit school districts from shaming students who have unpaid school meal balances.” On funding: “we are expecting a significant state revenue shortfall.”
0:06:35	Special-education aid: 95% or 67%?	Crawford: “the catastrophic aid, the law says that it will reimburse at 95% anything over 70,000”; “How does the state get away with only reimbursing the local school districts, who have put out the money only at 67%?” Damon: “It’s because the state law also says that if not enough money was appropriated, then the amount that districts requested will be prorated.”	OBSERVATION
0:09:07	Paraprofessionals: $16.77 to over $19	Crawford: a three-year contract, “The second and third year is a 2.5% increase”, steps reduced from about 21. Starting pay: “1677. And it moves to over 19.” Sprague: the paraprofessionals had raised “vacations and long periods of time without pay”, now addressed. Ratified at 0:12:36.
0:12:55	CAA contract	Hawkins: the goal was “competitive wages, benefits, opportunities for administrators”; the salary schedule moved to “three different ranges. Based on the position, not based on the school.” Crawford at 0:14:58: “these two negotiations will be separate. More [warrant] articles”.	POSITIVE
0:16:57	$3,000 ski-club donation	Whitney: “we do need to have a vote to accept this money.” Pratt: rentals are covered, “So it also gives the option for people who have their own skis as well.” Accepted.	POSITIVE
0:19:29	KCD: gift thresholds	Whitney: “if it’s less than 2500, there’s no board action that the board just should be informed”; “If it’s greater than 2500 to 19,000 999, the board needs to approve it. But we do not need a public hearing. And if it’s over 20,000, we would need a public hearing”. Sprague: “These are unanticipated.” The dialogue file marks her as presenter with uncertainty.	POSITIVE
0:21:18	JRA (FERPA) replaced	Hawkins: “We currently have a policy in our manual from 2007”; directory information to go out “within the first three weeks of school.” Skillen at 0:23:36: “Can I modify your motion to move it to adoption with the two small suggested revisions that you mentioned?”	POSITIVE
0:25:07	GBEAA: confidential student information	Hawkins: “this is a new policy. We do not currently have this policy.” O’Hearn at 0:27:34: “what I can do to your point, Frank, is ensure that each group, for new hires, has a every relevant policy for their job”. Pratt confirms medical information is covered.	POSITIVE
0:28:48	JFABD: “trailer parks”	Hawkins: “required by law and it’s an update for the McKinney Vento Act.” Miles objects to “abandoned in hospitals” and: “So I think mobile home parks would be more adequate than trailer parks.” Damon at 0:33:26: “It’s the federal language of the McKinney Vento Act, right? The legal experts didn’t think there was a way for us to change it.” Whitney: “this is kind of an in-house document”. Adopted as written.	POSITIVE
0:36:07	Transporting homeless students	Pratt: “It’s usually going back and forth between the two districts.” Whitney: “Liaison for McKinney, Vento liaison. So we do have someone who monitors and understands the process.”	POSITIVE
0:37:47	What tonight’s budget vote is	Whitney: “The vote tonight will be to move the budget to a public hearing. It is not the it is not a vote to accept the budget in its entirety.” Then “we will come back on another day to vote, to move it to the deliberative session”.	POSITIVE
0:38:32	The finance committee’s process	Sprague: “We met with the administration several times, lengthy meetings”. Henry at 0:42:44 thanks the committee for “really grilling us”.
0:44:18	Maple and Bluff	Henry: “Overall total increase for Maple was $588,860”; then “the overall increase was $421,857 in both Maple and Bluff.” The two figures are not reconciled on the recording. Turnover at Maple brought “teachers that cost us more than we had before.”
0:50:07	CMS: $944,488.58 in adjustments	“we took out $150,000 off of that to bring it down.” Tech-ed positions are reported under function 1300, so “these positions would be moved into regular Ed”; “So those positions were not limited [eliminated].” One social worker stays in the budget pending a grant; Pratt: “between 125 and $175,000 a year for four years”. Total: “$944,488.58.”
0:53:14	Out-of-district costs leave ESSER	Stevens was “1.4 million over originally”, less 350,000. “We had over $600,000 in out of district placements that were funded by Esser [ESSER]. Now we are absorbing that as well.” Pratt: “it was masked before because we were able to use Esser funds to, defray the costs”.	OBSERVATION
0:55:31	SRVRTC teacher education	Crawford: “The total increase is only 42,000.” Whitney and Crawford recalled 125,000; Crawford at 0:56:21: “Yesterday the 125 was in”, and at 0:56:06 refers to Friday. Henry: insurance changes brought the net down. Crawford: an intro teacher-training course feeding years one and two at Newport, “And down the road we hope to add year three”.
0:59:50	District-wide	“the SA [SAU] costs decrease by $91,855”, from Unity’s assessment catching up; “The debt payments decreased by 32,751”; “the total decrease in district wide was $637,133.”
1:01:40	Two drivers; 11% down to 2.82%	“the health insurance increases, which was 15%, and dental was 10% for roughly $1.2 million increase.” “The out of district placement was 1.4.” Original ask: “11%. It was 11%. Yep. And right now it’s. Yeah, 2.82%.” Whitney: “That’s a deceptive number. I really want to clarify.”	POSITIVE
1:03:36	$350,330, then 4.9% with the teachers	“after revenues, though, the total increase is $350,330 just on the general budget, that does not include the teachers contract”. Whitney: “But that’s one warrant article, right? Cannot be separated.” Henry: “2.15, which is 4.9.” “Our target was 5%.” On January 6 the committee’s figure had been $490,062 before the teachers’ agreement.
1:04:26	Revenue: $2.1 million	“adequacy eight [aid] increase by 1.9 million. That was due to the extraordinary grant”; “It was based on $8,500 per student on a sliding scale based on your assessed value. So this year they increase that number to 11,500.” Hold-harmless grant: “10% every year. So next year will be at 20%.” Investment income up after moving to “a money market”; “We were lucky if we made 30,000.” “So the total increase was 2.1 million in our revenues”.	OBSERVATION
1:09:44	O’Hearn: staffing	“we’re currently looking at five teacher FTE adjustments and right around four para adjustments.” “we currently have five teaching vacancies right now”, “three counselor vacancies and at least two paraprofessional vacancies.” He expects about 20 teacher turnovers and is “confident that, there are positions that exist in the district” for affected staff.
1:13:50	Sprague: the grant is not durable	“the finance committee was faced with the daunting task of looking at an 11% increase”. The extraordinary grant “is very much of a year to year thing”; “there’s no guarantee at all that that would happen in the years to come.” He calls it “an artificial, increase.”	OBSERVATION
1:17:26	The case against the pre-K program	Sprague: data showed the program “does not show substantive gains for any of the participants”; the model peers were “Scoring lower.” His standard: “it has to be a quality intervention. It needs to be pedagogically driven.” Whitney at 1:20:22: the state had required “a typical student for every special education student”; “the program exists for 23 students”; “almost a half $1 million serving 23 students strictly out of local dollars”. The alternative was cutting “The instructional coaches, which we put in, and the curriculum director.”	OBSERVATION
1:22:37	“no school district is required”	Whitney: “In the state of the New Hampshire, no school district is required to provide preschool student services to either special education or to typical students.” Sprague at 1:26:36: “this does not in any way, alleviate our responsibility to provide services to those special ed kids. We still have to do that.” McCosker: “Speech ot a part time PT, we had a little trickle of vision and hearing.”	OBSERVATION
1:27:45	Crawford points the public to the finance recordings	“Our finance committee meetings were televised on CCTV, and they can be accessed.” No minutes of the January 6 committee meeting have been located. “$7,000 for an elementary library is nothing.”
1:32:29	The motion	Petrin: “I also like to make a motion to move this budget as presented to the public hearing.” Hawkins: “I would like to comment before we make a motion.” Sprague seconds.
1:34:07	Hawkins’s written dissent	“I cannot support the elimination of the Claremont School Department pre-K program.” “We’re also required by law to include what is called, like peers to be role models for our most at risk youngest children.” “It’s not acceptable. It’s not a quality program.” “When will we revisit bringing a high quality pre-K back to our Claremont Public Schools?”	OBSERVATION
1:39:13	Only the classroom program goes	Whitney: “So everything else we are mandated by law to provide them. They are not part of the reduction.” Hawkins: “So because we have not had a quality program, we’re eliminating it rather than fixing it”.	OBSERVATION
1:40:48	Skillen	“I would like to echo Miss Hawkins’s sentiments.” She commends “what I believe is 100% transparency across this entire process”, and says improving pre-K “should be at the forefront of our mind before we even whisper about eliminating it.”
1:42:53	Whitney: universal access	“That would be my dream, would be a universal pre-K. What I can’t personally support is a pre-K program that does not provide that universal access”. “And that lack of equity is really difficult for me to swallow.”	OBSERVATION
1:47:03	Pratt’s statement	The program “is not meeting the outcomes we need to justify its significant investment.” The alternatives: “eliminate other areas, such as the Director of Special programs. The new program at the Tech Center drastically reduce athletics across the district, and possibly even looking at a multi grade, teaching model.” Pre-K “needs to be in the schools”; on a return, “I don’t think we should move forward without the public giving us that direction.”
1:53:48	Skillen and Miles ask for a commitment	Skillen: “It would make me feel a lot better supporting the motion if I knew that” the board would “make meaningful effort to continue to monitor, evaluate and assess the feasibility of restarting a pre-K program”. Whitney: “I think that could be part of the retreat in March”. Miles at 1:55:44: “Let’s add in a pre K subcommittee. And I’m not going to be here next year.”
2:06:36	“Do we have a commitment”	Hawkins: “Do we have a commitment to revisiting the preschool?” Sprague: “That’s not part of the motion.” Whitney: “we don’t vote on a commitment”; Skillen: “Competition [composition] is going to change in six weeks.” Petrin: “I’ve heard the commitment from this, from this current board and this current administration.”	OBSERVATION
2:08:45	The vote; recording ends	Whitney: “Motion to move the budget to the public hearing in the past [passed]. Next, we’re going to be moving into a banana public [a nonpublic].” The recording ends seconds later; the nonpublic session and adjournment are known only from the minutes.	MEDIUM OBSERVATION

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; an Observation rests on no confirmed rule.

MEDIUM A $255,000 purchase decided in nonpublic session; the compensation matter is not recorded, and the seal states no ground in the public minutes

The approved minutes record the motion to enter nonpublic session “under RSA 91-A:3, II (a) & (d)” with a roll call, which meets RSA 91-A:3, I(b)’s requirements that the motion state the exemption and be taken by roll call; the chair had also named both subjects at the start (0:01:36). The unsealed minutes record one decision: “permission for Superintendent Chris Pratt to purchase property at 40 Maple Ave in Claremont” for “the district alternative program in the amount of $255,000”, moved by Whitney, seconded by Sprague, voice vote. Acquisition of real property that would benefit an adverse party if discussed in public is ground II(d). Three points remain. (1) The chair announced a compensation matter and the motion cited II(a), but the nonpublic minutes describe no compensation discussion or decision; either none occurred or it is unrecorded, and RSA 91-A:3, III requires minutes of nonpublic proceedings to be kept. (2) RSA 91-A:3, III requires disclosure within 72 hours unless 2/3 of members present, by recorded vote “taken in public session”, determine that disclosure would likely harm a person’s reputation, render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism. The public minutes record only “Whitney Skillen made a motion to seal the minutes for 6 months” and a unanimous roll call, with no ground; the form’s three ground boxes cannot be read in the scanned copy. (3) The statute lets information be withheld until the circumstances no longer apply; a fixed six-month term is the board’s choice, not the statute’s test. Mitigation: the exemption was named, the votes were by roll call, the seal was time-limited, and the minutes have since been released.

Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(d), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023); 1.7.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed; 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25.

OBSERVATION No record names the appropriation for the $255,000 purchase

The nonpublic minutes authorize the superintendent to buy 40 Maple Ave “on behalf of the Claremont School District” for $255,000. Neither set of minutes, the budget presentation the same evening, nor any packet document says which appropriation or fund would pay for it. RSA 32:8 bars a school board from paying or incurring liability “for any purpose for which no appropriation has been made”, except as RSA 32:9 to 32:11 allow. The district may have had a lawful source, such as an existing appropriation or a reserve; the record available does not show it, so this is an observation.

Sources: RSA 32:8 (limitation on expenditures; 1993, 332:1); 1.7.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed.

OBSERVATION The recording stops at the nonpublic transition, and the roll call is unattributed

The recording runs 2:09:08 and ends as the chair announces the move into nonpublic session (2:08:45). The nonpublic roll call, the session from 8:41 to 8:57 p.m., the sealing vote and the 8:58 p.m. adjournment are known only from the minutes. The opening roll call is captured only as unattributed responses (Here, Present), so attendance on this page comes from the minutes. This is the expected pattern and is recorded so a viewer does not conclude the meeting simply stopped.

Sources: Cablecast show 16253; 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25.

OBSERVATION Conflicting dates in district records, and a January 2 meeting that was announced and not held

The agenda, the approved minutes, the packet folder 11. CSB 1.7.25 and the chair’s call to order all give January 7, 2025, a Tuesday. The Cablecast gallery titles the show “School Board Meeting - 1/7/24”; MAP.md records the Cablecast API’s event date as 2025-01-06; the unsealed nonpublic minutes are headed “Date: 17.2025”. Separately, on December 18, 2024 the chair told the finance committee “There is a school board meeting on January 2nd” and Hawkins told the board the policies would come “at the January 2nd meeting”. No January 2 meeting took place: this meeting’s consent line reads “Minutes Approval-none”, and the four policies promised for January 2 were taken up here. The business moved; no cancellation notice was located. On December 18 the chair also described this meeting as an “emergency meeting”; it was noticed with a full agenda and took citizens’ comment.

Sources: Cablecast show 16253; CSB Agenda 1.7.25 (1).pdf; 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25; Dialogue/16222 SchoolBoard121824.mp4.CSV and Dialogue/16226 SchoolBoardFinance121824.mp4.CSV.

OBSERVATION A budget closed with revenue the board itself called temporary; the special-education aid figures as stated do not match the statute

The FY26 budget reached 4.9% because revenue rose about $2.1 million, most of it the extraordinary grant. Henry’s account matches the statute: RSA 198:40-f set the maximum grant at $8,500 per eligible pupil through June 30, 2025 and $11,500 from July 1, 2025 (2023, 79:153 and 79:154). Sprague called it “very much of a year to year thing” and “an artificial, increase”; the hold-harmless grant is stepping down “10% every year” (Henry; not checked here); and more than $600,000 of out-of-district cost has moved off ESSER. On state aid, Crawford said the law requires reimbursement “at 95% anything over 70,000”. The RSA 186-C:18, III text in force in January 2025 contains no 95% figure: the State is liable for 80% of costs between 3½ and 10 times the state average expenditure per pupil, and when the appropriation falls short it is prorated by entitlement, with no floor. Damon’s answer, that the law provides for proration, matches that text. The 80%-of-entitlement floor in today’s statute came later (2025 N.H. HB 2 §137) and does not apply here. The board named the revenue risk on the record, which is why this is an observation.

Sources: RSA 186-C:18, III (2024 codification; 2023, 79:141, 142); RSA 198:40-f (2023 codification: $8,500, then $11,500 from July 1, 2025); Claremont School District FY26 Proposed Budget Summary.pdf.

OBSERVATION Pre-K removed on a unanimous voice vote after a written dissent; continuing costs not quantified; two legal statements made in passing

The largest program change in the budget, removing roughly $500,000 of pre-K classroom staffing for 23 identified children and about 20 typical peers, drew a written dissent from Hawkins, agreement from Skillen, and a request from Miles for a subcommittee and a reserve. The motion then carried by voice vote, recorded as “all present voting in favor”, so the minutes show no individual position on it. No rule requires a roll call on this motion. The board said services to identified children continue, and the minutes record Sprague’s clarification that those costs “are already embedded in the budget”; the cost of delivering them outside a district classroom was not quantified here or at the January 6 committee meeting, so $500,000 is a gross figure. Two statements need care. Whitney said “no school district is required to provide preschool student services to either special education or to typical students”; as spoken, the special-education half conflicts with the federal requirement that a free appropriate public education be available from age 3, and with the board’s own statements minutes later, so it is best read as referring to the classroom program. Hawkins said the district is “required by law to include” peer models; federal rules require education with nondisabled children “to the maximum extent appropriate”, which is not a rule that a district must run a peer-model classroom, and Whitney attributed the peer ratio to a state program review this page could not check. The commitment sought was not voted on and was deferred to the March retreat.

Sources: 34 CFR 300.101(a); 34 CFR 300.114(a)(2) (least restrictive environment); 12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25.

POSITIVE Four policies brought into line with the statutes they implement, and the $3,000 gift handled by the book

KCD, as revised, lets the superintendent accept gifts of $2,500 or less, requires a board vote above that, and a public hearing at $20,000 or more; for gifts under $20,000 it has the board post notice in the agenda and in the minutes. That tracks RSA 198:20-b, III(a) and (b) as amended in 2023, and the $3,000 ski-club gift followed it: listed on the agenda, voted in public, recorded in the minutes. JRA replaced a 2007 records policy with a FERPA-aligned model, amended on the floor so the adopted text carried the two fill-ins. GBEAA added a confidentiality policy the district lacked, with the HR director committing to get it to staff. JFABD adopted the McKinney-Vento admission policy. Miles objected to “trailer parks” and “abandoned in hospitals”; both phrases are the federal definition’s own words, as Damon told the board, and the board confirmed on the record that it has the local liaison federal law requires.

Sources: RSA 198:20-b, III(a)–(b) (2023, 38:1, eff. July 18, 2023; read 2026-09-25); 42 U.S.C. §11434a(2)(B)(i) (definition, read 2026-09-25); 42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(1)(J)(ii)–(iii) (liaison; transportation); Exhibit B-Policy KCD_ Public Gifts_Donations (2).docx (1).pdf.

POSITIVE The chair explained the budget sequence and corrected a misleading percentage on the spot

The chair told the board and viewers exactly what the vote did: “It is not the it is not a vote to accept the budget in its entirety.” The dates announced fit RSA 40:13, II-a and III for a March-voting district: public hearing January 15, before the third Tuesday (January 21); deliberative session Saturday, February 1, the first day of the 2025 window. When the budget was presented as up “2.82%”, the chair interrupted, “That’s a deceptive number”, and the figure was restated as 4.9% with the teachers’ agreement. Crawford also told viewers that the paraprofessional and administrator agreements would go to voters as separate warrant articles, consistent with RSA 273-A:3, II(b)’s rule that cost items go to the legislative body.

Sources: RSA 40:13, II-a, III (2019, 192:2); RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (cost items submitted to the legislative body).

Appendix — source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: School Board Meeting - 1/7/24 (show 16253) the “1/7/24” year is the district’s error
Drive folder: 11. CSB 1.7.25 — 12 documents
CSB Agenda 1.7.25 (1).pdf
12. Approved CSB minutes 1.7.25; 1.7.25 CSB nonpublic minutes Unsealed (scanned form; roll-call marks and sealing-ground boxes not legible)
Contracts: Claremont Paras Tentative Agreement 1.7.25.pdf; CAA Tentative Agreement 1.7.25.pdf
Budget: Claremont School District FY26 Proposed Budget Summary.pdf; Claremont FY 26 Proposed Budget
Donation: Exhibit A- Mt Sunapee Ski Club Letter (1).pdf; Exhibit A-Mt Sunapee Ski Club Check (1).pdf; Exhibit A- CMS Ski Program Proposal (1).pdf
Policies: Exhibit B-Policy KCD_ Public Gifts_Donations (2).docx (1).pdf; Exhibit C- NHSBA JRA Student Records and Access (FERPA) (1).pdf; Exhibit D- Policy GBEAA_ Confidential Student Information (1).pdf; Exhibit E- NHSBA JFABD_ Admission of Homeless Children and Unaccompanied Youth (1).pdf file names verbatim, including the district’s doubled extensions
Related pages: Finance Committee — January 6, 2025 (no minutes located); Claremont School Board — December 18, 2024.
Not located: a cancellation notice for the January 2, 2025 meeting; any record of the appropriation for the 40 Maple Ave purchase.

Project files

Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.

Dialogue/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4.CSV (652 rows)
Input/Videos/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4
Input/Transcripts/16253 SchoolBoard010725.mp4.json
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 72

Laws and rules cited on this page

Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II(a), II(d), III (2023, 189:1)
School money: RSA 32:8; RSA 198:20-b, III (2023, 38:1); RSA 198:40-f (2023 codification); RSA 186-C:18, III (2024 codification, before 2025 HB 2 §137)
Budget calendar and bargaining: RSA 40:13, II-a, III; RSA 273-A:3, II(b)
Federal: 34 CFR 300.101(a); 34 CFR 300.114(a)(2); 42 U.S.C. §11434a(2)(B)(i); 42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(1)(J)(ii)–(iii)