| 0:01:15 | The agenda names the wrong audit year | Hawkins: “The results of the 2021 of water [audit] that the woman received in.” “Our packet is FY 20.” Whitney at 0:01:21: “Then we’ll accept that modification. To the agenda to read results of Fiscal year 2020 audits and update on 22 and 23.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:05:12 | Band rehearsal time | Sheehan: when classes moved to year-long, “bands time was cut in half” and “we lost roughly 96 hours of rehearsal time.” At 0:06:05: “consider making band a double block next year.” Miles returns to it under other business at 2:47:03. | |
| 0:07:20 | Students on the adult reaction to February 11 | Clark: “There were a bunch of adults saying that we shouldn’t feel the way we felt because it was just a toy.” Students’ replies were put “in the packet to show you how respectful and responsible and, well, soft [thought-out] we all made those comments.” | |
| 0:08:12 | Sheehan reads his account | At 0:08:35: “We all just thought it was a drill or fake, and we didn’t really think anything of it until we saw the police pull into the front.” At 0:08:58: “I could see through, like a tiny rip in the paper taped over the closet, window, the police sprinting up and down the hallways with their rifles in hand.” At 0:10:16: “Everyone in the community came together in those hours to keep us safe, and those hours afterwards to defend our experiences, despite the fact that we had to be defended at all.” | |
| 0:12:04 | Police presence | The chair asks whether police in the building now frighten students. Clark at 0:12:15: “we felt safe and comforted by it because there were so many people”; “some people in my class were, they came in and had their, guns pointed right at us.” At 0:12:49: “you’re never prepared to be told to put your hands in the air with guns pointed at you.” At 0:15:25: “One of the kids got detained right outside my classroom door. We heard everything.” | |
| 0:21:00 | What the students say would help | Clark: “if you wander the hallway, you’re immediately sent home for the night.” At 0:21:24: “we should think about the phone policy, because we wouldn’t have known if someone at the tech center didn’t see it online.” Sheehan at 0:23:41: “it’s at a spot where all we can do is tweak.” | |
| 0:25:46 | Campo on the engagement | “We are the firm performing the audit of Claremont, Unity and Sussex [SAU 6]. In total, we do about 230 audits on an annual basis. And the majority of them don’t take multiple years to complete.” At 0:26:18: “One of the biggest challenges we’ve had is continuity of management over the years.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:26:37 | “the boxes of completed audits were still sealed” | “We had some members of management in the past who were unreceptive, unavailable, or just flat out just weren’t that interested in the audit.” “working in the the Sussex [SAU 6] offices, I was a little frustrated to find when pulling records that the boxes of completed audits were still sealed in the this person’s, cabinet.” At 0:27:16: “They obviously didn’t make it to you.” At 0:27:37: “I did bring it to the assistant superintendents attention at that point.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:28:16 | FY2020: general ledger not maintained | “One of the biggest issues is the General Electric [general ledger] maintenance.” At 0:28:37: “It wasn’t maintained. So what does that mean? Your balance sheet wasn’t reconciled on a regular basis.” “I don’t know how a school district can operate if they don’t know what they have in the bank.” At 0:29:23: “When you’re looking at budget to actual reports, those aren’t accurate either”; “So those statements are misstated.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:29:43 | Journal entries and stale-dated checks | “during [journal] entries were being recorded, at a very high rate. They weren’t being approved, they weren’t being reviewed. And often they lacked formal formal documentation to support them.” Several outstanding checks were stale-dated; at 0:30:16: “They were six months or older.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:30:34 | No credit card policy; unauthorized reimbursements | “Red [Credit] card policy. The school district at the time did not have a credit card policy.” At 0:31:21: staff were “purchasing items on their credit cards personally and then being reimbursed for it.” At 0:31:50: “we did not find evidence that these purchases were authorized.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:32:13 | “You guys set the tone at the top” | The board “should be reviewing your financial policies, all of them over a three years.” At 0:32:41: “You guys set the tone at the top as the governing body of how the school district is supposed to perform.” | |
| 0:33:32 | Were the FY2020 problems fixed by FY2021? | Sprague: “Have they been taken care of in the 21?” Campo at 0:33:41: “Some have been addressed, but some have not.” “we can’t just go into your office and then conduct the audit. We need the assistance of management.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:35:43 | “the report is dated July 21st, 2023” | Crawford: “First of all, the report is dated July 21st, 2023. This is March of 25.” Campo at 0:36:43: “the 23 date is when that would have been shipped to you.” “We don’t need two years to ship a report.” At 0:37:08: “We from management side we can’t control when it’s district.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:38:14 | Who has oversight | Campo: “We don’t have a oversight. However, the Department of Education gets your reports. They would have authority oversight.” On lenders, at 0:39:18: “Absolutely. That is a legitimate concern you have.” At 0:39:25: “You you, as a school district, receive a substantial amount of federal funds.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:43:36 | Policy versus procedure | Henry: “there’s a difference between a policy and a procedure.” Campo at 0:44:37: “I don’t think it’s a bad idea though, to include the board in that discussion.” “they’re responsible for the financial statements.” | |
| 0:45:04 | A monthly audit meeting proposed | “I would like to propose is that the board delegate one individual to do a monthly meeting with myself and your business administrator to do an update on where we stand on these audits.” At 0:48:40: “You’re either going to love me or hate me because I’m very persistent.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:49:15 | Crawford nominated as liaison | Hawkins: “And I nominate Candace Crawford to be on board.” The “I second” at 0:49:18 is labeled Heather Whitney; the minutes record Whitney Skillen. No vote follows. Campo at 0:49:23: “I’d like to do Tuesday the 18th because that would be after the field work.” On the SAU audit, at 0:50:12: “I’m looking to do all three.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:50:46 | An IRS/ACA matter | Sprague: “an issue with the IRS that’s mentioned in there.” At 0:51:13: “top of the fold issue around the IRS and the ACA compliance.” Henry at 0:51:43: “We also have our attorneys involved in it to get that taken care of.” At 0:52:06: “That is something that we inherited.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:52:45 | The current administration | Henry: “we had to go back several years just to get our cash to a place where it was.” At 0:53:05: “journal entries are not done that way anymore. There’s backup for a journal entry.” Campo at 0:53:21: “in terms of the the administration you have now, they’ve been very cooperative.” At 0:54:04: “I do talk to your b a on a fairly regular basis, at least monthly checking in.” | |
| 0:59:17 | YRBS: presenters and timing | Blewitt introduces the presenters. At 0:59:43: the survey was completed in 2023, “And then the CDC takes their time to analyze it.” At 1:00:50: YouthCan has “a budget of $125,000 a year.” At 1:38:01: response rate “66%, and it was 338 out of 515 students.” | |
| 1:02:50 | Alcohol and marijuana trends | “back in 2013, 32.9% of the students had alcohol within 30 days.” At 1:03:10: “Is 15% too high. Of course it is.” At 1:05:37: marijuana 30-day use 17.6%, “ten years ago it was six points higher.” | |
| 1:07:21 | Prevention messages reach fewer students | “it is 47.8% of the students recall seeing something.” At 1:08:00: “if you look ten years ago or even 2015, it was 73%.” Sprague at 1:08:40: “My suspicion is that kids are getting their information differently now.” | |
| 1:11:44 | Harassment and dating violence | Gallagher: “Stephens [Stevens] is lower than both the region and the state.” “it’s 15%, which I would say is pretty high.” At 1:12:13: “13% of students reported that they were forced to have intercourse when they did not want to,” higher than region and state. | |
| 1:24:46 | Consent data | Hague: “For Stephens [Stevens], 88%. The county 84, the state 77.” Gallagher at 1:24:10: “Age of consent in New Hampshire is 16, not 13.” | |
| 1:27:12 | Getting to Y | Brooks: “we really put the data in the hands of youth.” “It’s very much a student led initiative.” | |
| 1:43:54 | Resequencing a dense agenda | Whitney: “a lot of things got bumped because of pressing items on the agenda.” At 1:44:39: “We already passed five. That was a unanimous vote.” The posted agenda has no item 5, and no vote had yet been taken. | |
| 1:44:54 | $4,000 SALT donation | Pratt: “we had a donation of $4,000 to the Salt, which stands for student Athlete Leadership Team.” Crawford at 1:45:58: “So move.” At 1:45:59: “Miss Crawford makes a motion to accept $4,000 from the, Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation for the Salt program.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:48:36 | Safety forum; truancy officer | A school safety forum March 17, 6–8 p.m., Stevens auditorium; at 1:49:18: “This forum was set up in a direct response to the lockdown gun incident we had that occurred at Stevens High School on February 11th.” At 1:50:43: Scott Maple introduced “as the nutrition [truancy] officer.” | |
| 1:53:20 | English-language executive order; job postings | Sprague: the order “suspends a Clinton era requirement that schools provide services for non-English speaking students.” Pratt at 1:54:29: “if they’re here, we’re going to support them and we’re going to provide them their education.” O’Hearn at 1:56:46: “I can tweak our job postings to reflect start dates.” | |
| 1:58:03 | Achievement data to April | Whitney asks to “take half of the agenda for the first meeting in April and dedicated to talking about achievement data.” Hawkins agrees at 2:00:41. | |
| 2:01:01 | Safety specialist proposed | Pratt: “this is a direct response to what we know now based on the situation that took to the high school.” At 2:04:28: “I’ve checked with grants. The money is there.” At 2:04:56: “these particular students were in the hallway for over 40 minutes.” At 2:05:39: “any any new job description has to be approved by the board before it can be filled.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:09:37 | Salary and qualifications | Whitney: “We’re looking at an average salary of 67,000 a year for an individual who has a high school diploma or an equivalency, and our teachers aren’t starting there.” Pratt at 2:12:36: “I want at least a bachelor’s degree.” Sprague at 2:28:03: “I think it’s way too much money. Chris.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:16:35 | Accountability; cameras | Whitney: “Who’s ultimately held accountable?” Pratt at 2:17:16: “Ultimately it’s the superintendent.” Whitney at 2:21:18: “So nobody monitors the camera in the hallway during passing hours?” O’Hearn: Nope. Pratt at 2:21:25: “The only time the cameras are looked at is if an incident takes place.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:22:17 | Grant durability | Sprague: “the uncertainty of title money, anything coming from the federal government, I think is. I don’t I don’t dare to count on it.” Skillen at 2:23:14 proposes a one-year contract with a safety-plan deliverable. Pratt at 2:26:52: “Here would be like title for [Title IV] title for right now. We know we’re not maximizing the grants.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:28:18 | Deferred to April 2; motion withdrawn | Whitney: “we would be talking about positions and people within that are currently employees here.” “That’s a nonpublic.” At 2:31:15: “If we had this meeting on April 2nd, it would be after the community safety meeting.” Sprague at 2:31:32: “It makes it a response instead of a reaction.” Miles at 2:32:54: “With drawing. As long I know you’re going to, it’s going to be addressed.” Whitney at 2:33:47: “we’ll do a non public for April 2nd.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:34:12 | 2025–26 calendar: no snow days built in | Pratt: “snow days are not built in, but this calendar stays within” the CBA; “We have no moose [MOUs].” Sprague at 2:34:50: “if we have to do 990 at the high school, 990 hours.” At 2:35:36 he cites the minimum standards as “994 or 9995 school, 1964 elementary” (garbled). Miles at 2:35:53: “Does the state identify number of school days.” Pratt: “Hours, hours?” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:39:35 | The Acuity letter | Crawford: “at our last school board meeting, we had a couple of people from the community come and inform us.” At 2:40:08: “the school board stands in opposition to a proposal to bring a very large toxic waste sorting facility to Claremont, New Hampshire.” At 2:41:44: “I know we don’t take political positions. However, this is an advocacy for our children.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:42:25 | The chair votes no | Whitney: “I feel very strongly about not engaging in municipal matters.” “So for me, it’s a no.” At 2:42:42: “I know I’m a minority.” The vote at 2:42:49: “All in favor? Aye, aye. Opposed me.” | MEDIUM |
| 2:43:47 | Audit-driven policies | Hawkins: “At the March 19th meeting, the board will be getting three policies that are prompted by Grant’s audit.” “there will be two for updates. One asked to be rescinded.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:45:30 | Other business | Miles thanks Pratt for his statement on “Ice coming into the schools.” At 2:46:15: offers a piano. Hawkins at 2:51:09: a fair-funding petition; at 2:51:34: “it’s individual. It’s not board.” | |
| 2:48:54 | Departing members thanked | Whitney: “Thank both of you for all your contributions and caring.” Skillen at 2:50:40: “I’m just in a season of my life where I don’t have enough time to be a school board member.” | |