Participants
Board members and every citizens’-comment speaker. Names and attendance follow the approved minutes; where the dialogue file labels a person differently, the label is noted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Board chair | Presided; put the consent agenda, read the public-comment rules, opened and closed citizens’ comments and announced the nonpublic session. Moved to seal the nonpublic minutes (per the minutes). The only board voice the transcript separates. |
| Frank Sprague | Vice chair | Present per the minutes; moved to leave nonpublic session and seconded the sealing motion. Not separately identified in the transcript. |
| Candace Crawford | Board member | Present per the minutes. Not separately identified in the transcript. |
| Arlene Hawkins | Board member | Present per the minutes; seconded the motions to enter and to leave nonpublic session. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member | Present per the minutes; moved to enter nonpublic session under RSA 91-A:3, II(a). The mover’s voice at 0:13:06 is labeled Unidentified in the dialogue file. |
| Bonnie Miles | Board member | Absent (per the minutes) |
| Whitney Skillen | Board member | Absent (per the minutes) |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | Took the attendance roll and all three roll-call votes, per the minutes, and submitted the minutes. Her reading of the names is not in the transcript; only the responses are. |
| Seth Melcher | Citizens’ comments | First speaker (0:01:55); spoke of “a situation in this town” without naming it and asked for accountability. Minutes: “spoke to express his concern with recent events and how they were handled.” |
| Joseph Audette | Citizens’ comments | Second speaker (0:03:49); asked what the school and superintendent knew about a teacher recently fired. Gave only “Joseph” at the podium and is labeled “Joseph” in the dialogue file; the minutes supply the surname. |
| Kyle Messier | Citizens’ comments | Third speaker (0:04:53); opposed the proposed Acuity construction-and-demolition facility near Maple Avenue School and urged attendance at a March 6 state meeting. The minutes spell the name Messier (“Ms. Messier”); the podium self-introduction is transcribed “Kyle Mercier,” which is the dialogue file’s label. |
| Gary Merchant | Citizens’ comments | Fourth speaker (0:08:04); commended the board, then asked it to take a position against the facility. He does not state his name on the recording and is labeled “Unidentified public commenter”; the minutes name him and summarize these remarks. |
| Charlene Lovett | Citizens’ comments | Fifth speaker (0:10:23); spoke on lead poisoning and the community’s 2017–18 lead-prevention work. The minutes give no title; the dialogue file’s Role column calls her a former mayor, which this page does not adopt. |
Named in the minutes’ standing masthead but not heard on the recording: student board members Miles Sheehan and Lilly Clark, and SAU 6 administrators Christopher Pratt, Michael Koski, Michael McCosker, Jeff Small, Patrick O’Hearn and Mary Henry. The masthead is identical on every 2025 set of minutes and is not an attendance record.
Agenda
Items as posted in “CSB Agenda 2.19.25 (1).pdf”, with the time each was taken up and its disposition from the recording and the approved minutes. Items after the nonpublic session are not on the recording.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | I. Call to order & Pledge | Agenda: “6:30 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance.” Whitney: “I would like to call to order the February 19th, 2025 meeting of the Claremont School Board.” |
| 0:00:29 | II. Roll call | Minutes: present Candace Crawford, Arlene Hawkins, Michael Petrin, Frank Sprague, Heather Whitney; absent Bonnie Miles, Whitney Skillen. |
| 0:00:42 | II.a Consent agenda | Agenda: “Amendments and Final Approval of board agenda 2. Minutes Approval- 2.5.25.” Whitney: “If there is no objection, I would like to approve the agenda items as written and approve the 20, the two, five, 25 minutes. So any objections?” At 0:01:11: “Seeing none.” Minutes: “Consent approval.” |
| 0:01:11 | II.b Citizens’ comments (Policy BEDH) | Five speakers; three-minute limit. The minutes name all five and summarize each. Comments closed at 0:12:42. |
| 0:12:42 | III.1 Nonpublic session | The agenda prints both RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and II(c). Whitney announces “a non public session per RSA 91-A colon three two a”; the motion at 0:13:06 is for II(a) only. Minutes: Petrin moved, Hawkins seconded, roll call by Kronberg, all present in favor; entered 6:43 p.m. Afterwards, per the minutes: Sprague/Hawkins to leave nonpublic, roll call, all in favor; public session resumed 9:54 p.m.; Whitney/Sprague to “seal the minutes for 10 years,” roll call, all in favor. See flag 1. |
| 7:00 p.m. (scheduled) | III.2 Schedule School Board Evaluation Meeting (Exhibit B) | Agenda: “(Discussion/Vote) (Exhibit B) Heather Whitney, Chair.” The minutes record nothing under this heading, and Exhibit B is not in the packet. See flag 4. |
| 8:20 p.m. (scheduled) | IV. Other business | The agenda and the minutes carry the same line: “Volunteers needed for the NH Listens event and selecting a contact person from the board.” Neither names a volunteer or contact. |
| 8:25 p.m. (scheduled) | V. Future dates | SAU 6 board February 13, 2025 (already past); NH Listens candidate forum March 4 at SRVRTC; board meeting March 5; voting day March 11. |
| 8:30 p.m. (scheduled) | VI. Adjournment | Not on the recording. Minutes: “Consent adjournment at 9:56pm.” |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics. Quotations are from the dialogue transcript as transcribed; bracketed text is an insertion or correction. Eight days after the February 11 lockdown at Stevens High School, no speaker names it; two raise a recent personnel matter and three the Acuity proposal.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:11 | Public-comment rules | Whitney: “Board members are without the authority to answer spontaneously on behalf of the board. Board response, if any, will be deferring pending a full board consideration.” At 0:01:36: “we allow each speaker three minutes.” | |
| 0:01:55 | Seth Melcher: “something fell apart” | “I think we all know there was a situation in this town. And I’ve come here today to express my concerns.” At 0:02:15: “I don’t believe there’s enough action that was taken.” At 0:03:06: “I think accountability needs to be taken. Those responsible need to be held accountable.” At 0:03:28: “I don’t know what the situation is and I don’t ask any questions. I just wanted to voice my opinion.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:49 | Joseph Audette: what the district knew | “I really have some questions about what the school knew, what the superintendent knew going into that. Because the reports by the New Hampshire Journal make it pretty clear that the, the town police had informed the school that they were still investigating the the matter with the teacher, and she was reinstated.” At 0:04:24: “the ball was dropped somewhere.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:53 | Kyle Messier: the Acuity proposal | “I’m here tonight to speak about the proposed construction and demolition facility located near Maple Avenue School.” At 0:05:17, thanks to the district “for moving the date of the school safety meeting” so it would not conflict with the state’s meeting. At 0:05:47: “They have already been told no twice by Clermont [Claremont]. Now acuity is appealing.” “acuity proposal would bring 70 trucks a day carrying materials such as lead, asbestos and mercury over our roads, by our schools and through our neighborhoods.” At 0:06:17: “over 312 million pounds of imported toxic waste would be brought to their site near 400 homes and the Maple Avenue Elementary School.” | |
| 0:07:14 | The March 6 state meeting; time called | “Attending the meeting at the opera House March 6th at six will be. Being there matters.” Whitney at 0:07:48: “Close to time.” At 0:07:54 the chair begins to close comments (“Seeing no one approach you. Oh. I’m sorry.”) as the fourth speaker comes forward. | |
| 0:08:04 | Gary Merchant: asks the board to take a position | At 0:08:08: “I want to take this opportunity to recognize the hard work you’ve been doing as a school board. The budget for transparency is phenomenal.” At 0:09:00: “The real concern I have is the safety of our students. Think of these large trucks going down Bradstreet past Stevens.” At 0:09:50: “hopefully somewhere along the way the school board may take a position to oppose it.” The board did so on March 5. | |
| 0:10:23 | Charlene Lovett: lead exposure | At 0:10:27: “back in 2018, 2017, I think it was this community, the school board, the city council, major stakeholders in the community all made the prevention of lead poisoning a community wide priority.” At 0:11:32: “There’s articles about it of a 40% correlation between children that have been poisoned by lead with special education needs.” At 0:12:08: “Please, please make the time to come on March 6th.” The minutes describe March 6 as “a march in opposition”; on the recording both speakers call it a meeting. | |
| 0:12:42 | Comments closed; motion into nonpublic session | Whitney: “I’m sorry, I, I made that cut off a little bit too soon last time.” Then: “Our first item on the agenda is a non public session per RSA 91-A colon three two a I need a motion.” At 0:13:06: “We go into nonpublic for RSA 91-832A [91-A:3, II(a)] second.” At 0:13:13: “We need roll call to go in and.” Yes responses follow to 0:13:26; the chair’s “Thank you” at 0:13:31 is the last line. | POSITIVE 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 The nonpublic minutes were sealed for ten years with no statutory determination recorded
The approved minutes record the sealing vote in full as: “Heather Whitney made a motion to seal the minutes for 10 years, Frank Sprague seconded the motion; roll call vote taken by Noelle Kronberg, all present voting in favor.” Under RSA 91-A:3, III, minutes of a nonpublic session “shall be publicly disclosed within 72 hours” unless, “by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session, it is determined that divulgence” of the information “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.” The vote was by roll call, in public session, and unanimous among the five present, so the two-thirds requirement is met on its face. What the minutes do not record is the determination itself, or which of the three grounds it rests on. The ten-year term is consistent with RSA 91-A:3, IV (in force since October 3, 2023), which, where a board has adopted no review procedure of its own, requires sealed minutes to be reviewed no more than ten years after the last vote to withhold them; the statute’s own test for release is when “the aforesaid circumstances no longer apply,” not a fixed date. The sealing vote came after the recording ends; the minutes are the only record of it. MEDIUM: a probable process gap in the record, not an unmitigated absence.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III and IV (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; text read 2026-09-25); Approved CSB meeting minutes 2.19.25.
OBSERVATION A 13-minute recording of a meeting that ran to 9:56 p.m.
The Cablecast recording runs 13:32. It ends seconds after the roll call to enter nonpublic session (0:13:31), which the minutes place at 6:43 p.m. Per the minutes the board then sat in nonpublic for about three hours and eleven minutes, returned to public session at 9:54 p.m., voted to seal, and adjourned by consent at 9:56 p.m. That closing public segment is not recorded. Nor is agenda item III.2, for which the minutes record no discussion or action. Nothing in the Right-to-Know Law requires a public body to record or broadcast a meeting, so this is not a violation; it is noted because the recording is the only contemporaneous public account, and for this date it covers the comment period and nothing after it.
Sources: Cablecast show 16351; Approved CSB meeting minutes 2.19.25; RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes are the required record).
OBSERVATION Two residents raised a personnel and student-safety question that the public record does not answer
Seth Melcher (0:01:55) spoke of “a situation in this town” without naming it and asked that “Those responsible need to be held accountable.” Joseph Audette (0:03:49) asked “what the school knew, what the superintendent knew” about a teacher who had been fired, citing New Hampshire Journal reporting that police had told the school they were still investigating when “she was reinstated.” Under the rules the chair read at 0:01:11, board members could not answer on the spot, and none did. The minutes summarize both comments and record no reply; the board then went into a three-hour nonpublic session under the personnel exemption, whose minutes are sealed. This page takes no position on the underlying facts, which the record it draws on does not establish, and no verified rule creates a duty to answer a public comment.
Sources: Approved CSB meeting minutes 2.19.25 (Citizens Comments); Policy BEDH, Public Comment and Participation at Board Meetings.
OBSERVATION The agenda’s Exhibit B is not in the two-document packet, and the item it supports has no recorded outcome
The Drive packet folder holds two files: the agenda and the February 5 draft minutes (filed as “2.5.25 DRAFT CSB meeting mintues.pdf”, the district’s spelling). Agenda item III.2, “Schedule School Board Evaluation Meeting (Discussion/Vote) (Exhibit B)”, cites an exhibit that is not posted, and the approved minutes print the heading with nothing beneath it. No statute requires supporting exhibits to be posted in advance; RSA 91-A:4 makes them available on request. This is a documentation gap, not a violation.
Sources: Drive folder “15. CSB 2.19.25” (2 documents); RSA 91-A:4 (governmental records open to inspection).
POSITIVE The nonpublic motion named its exemption on the record and was taken by roll call
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires the motion to enter nonpublic session to “state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II” and the vote to be by roll call. Both are on the recording: the chair names “RSA 91-A colon three two a” at 0:12:42, the mover repeats it at 0:13:06 (transcribed “RSA 91-832A”), and the chair calls the roll at 0:13:13. The minutes name the mover and seconder of each of the three nonpublic-related motions, as RSA 91-A:2, II requires, and the times of entry and return.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a); RSA 91-A:2, II (mover and seconder recorded; 2018, 244:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2019); Approved minutes 2.19.25.
POSITIVE The minutes name every person who spoke, including one the recording never names
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include the names of “persons appearing before the public bodies.” The approved minutes name all five citizens’-comment speakers and summarize each, which is what identifies the fourth speaker (labeled “Unidentified public commenter” in the dialogue file) as Gary Merchant and supplies Joseph Audette’s surname. The approved minutes were in the district’s Drive share by March 7, 2025, two days after the next meeting.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II; Approved CSB meeting minutes 2.19.25.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
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