| 0:00:00 | A spliced opening line | “I have no gavel, so I'm going to use my knocker today.” This is the first sentence of the whole meeting, at second 0 of show 16951; the dialogue file’s role column records it as a cold open spliced ahead of the vacancy item. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:00:04 | The item opens | “Next, the vacant school board seat. Two meetings ago we had a failed vacancy appointment.” The chair says she sent counsel’s correspondence to the board: “I sent the emails, correspondence that was shared between myself and. And his cell and him with the with the board.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:00:35 | Counsel’s advice, read into the record | “he said the lorry [law] directs the board to fill the vacancy and he provided the RSA, which is RSA 671 colon 331 [671:33]. It states that the school board shall feel [fill] vacancies occurring on the school board. The law also empowers the selectmen on the town to appoint, whenever the remaining members are unable, by a majority vote, to agree upon and point de [an appointment].” A close paraphrase of RSA 671:33, II(a). | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:07 | Fill it now, or the city council may | “If the board does not feel the fill the vacancy at its next meeting, there is a risk that the City Council votes to fill it.” At 0:01:28: “There are more than five months until the election in March, and that is too long to leave the post vacant. He also said that the law that he cited is not a controlling law.” November 5, 2025 to the March 10, 2026 election is 125 days, about four months; whether the error is counsel’s, the reading’s or the transcriber’s cannot be told, because the advice was not published. | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:47 | How the letter arrived, first version | “Over the weekend, Mr. Sprague and I had a conversation, and he submitted a letter to the board, which I forwarded out to the board”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:16 | Frank Sprague’s letter | “I am writing to formally request reinstatement to the Claremont School Board.” At 0:03:01: “While the circumstances that led to my departure are complex, I have taken time to reflect and I feel I have much to offer in the remainder of my elected term, and perhaps beyond.” At 0:03:29: “I am not interested in a competitive process, as I have been chosen overwhelmingly by my constituents in multiple city elections”. The letter is in no packet. | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:20 | First reinstatement motion, then set aside | Petrin: “So I would make a motion to reinstate Frank Sprague, to the Claremont School Board.” At 0:04:32, in a segment the dialogue file marks as merged with Hawkins: “I'm all second. Am I going to open discussion because the motion fails?” The minutes: “Motion deferred”. No vote to defer. | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:42 | Hawkins: the board is circumventing its own process | “We are circumventing our own process.” At 0:05:08: “I'm asking that we reopen the process and allow other people who might be interested to also have the opportunity to be appointed.” | |
| 0:05:31 | Howard: vote tonight | “I think opening it up at this point feels a little bit like of a time waster.” At 0:05:51: “And if we get a seven person, that's great. Or if it goes to the city, that's great.” | |
| 0:06:29 | Madden: how it looks | “people have spoken to me and they intimated that it looks like a back room, cigar filled smoke.” | |
| 0:07:32 | The chair: defer to the voters | “My my support of Mr. Sprague was simply because he's elected.” At 0:11:12: “I would say this even if I had unbelievable disagreements with this individual to defer to the voters because I find this appointment process a dirty process.” | |
| 0:08:55 | No policy on vacancies | Whitney: “We unfortunately, we have never had a policy related to this. We set a process for we tried to follow the process that we used with Miss Crawford to be consistent. That process failed.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:09:28 | Forty-five days | A merged segment: “I think we have 45 days from when the most believe that's for municipal purposes.” Neither RSA 671:33 nor RSA 197:26 contains any time limit; the city council’s power turns on the board’s failure to agree. | MEDIUM |
| 0:10:16 | Why the chair asked counsel | “So that's why I consulted with our attorney and shared it with the board before this meeting.” At 0:10:45: “So everybody knew what the legal advice was or the guidance and what the risks were.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:12:13 | “Did Mr. Sprague volunteer?” | A merged segment: Crawford’s question, then the chair: “I called Mr. Sprague personally, and I asked him, do you know of any candidate that you would think that would be appropriate to come up because we're going to be having this discussion again? He said, I can't think of anybody. And I said kind of offhandedly, would do there any chance that you would do it?” At 0:12:34: “And he said he would consider it. And then he sent me a letter.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:47 | Crawford: leave it empty until March | “I was disappointed in Mr. Sprague for resigning at the time that he did”. At 0:13:58: “we are within 90 days of somebody actually filing for the school board seat.” Filing opened January 21, 2026, 77 days later. At 0:14:44: “I would recommend that we do nothing and, and wait until the voters vote”. | |
| 0:16:14 | “You have a motion on the floor” | Crawford: “Well, you have a motion on the floor.” The chair at 0:16:06: “I deferred that, and I was going to wait for the folks to speak”. Nothing is put to a vote. | MEDIUM |
| 0:16:32 | Command or guidance? | Hawkins: “the statute is not you will or else it's guidance.” At 0:16:43: “it's our attorney said it is guidance.” The statute says the board “shall fill” vacancies; it provides no penalty. | MEDIUM |
| 0:17:22 | Hawkins on how the letter arrived | “Jumping to immediately voting on the person who stepped forward, when the person was asked if they knew anybody who would be interested”. The chair at 0:18:08: “But the board has the option to say no.” | |
| 0:21:08 | Comment opened on the item | The chair invites the public to speak; six residents do. This is in addition to the eight who spoke at citizens’ comments earlier. | POSITIVE |
| 0:21:35 | An applicant corrects the chair | The chair had said at 0:19:36 she had “yet to see any board member who was left the board for, for any reason, asked to come back”. Lavalette: “some years ago, Mr. Pope was the mayor of the city of Claremont, and he resigned his post during a meeting.” The chair at 0:21:54: “I defer. You're correct.” The city history is the speaker’s and is not verified here. | POSITIVE |
| 0:21:57 | “Either decide to fill it with Mr. Tyson me, or don't fill it” | Lavalette: “You had a process. You went through the process. That's fine if you're deadlocked.” At 0:22:30: “So either decide to fill it with Mr. Tyson me, or don't fill it.” | |
| 0:23:03 | Residents object | Matt Bean: “do I just get to write a letter and say, oh, I get to come back and have this job back?” At 0:23:33: “That is very unfair to both people.” Camron Lownie at 0:28:10: “I think that deviating from the plan via a personally solicited getting someone to come back in is the wrong play.” Speakers’ characterizations. | |
| 0:29:10 | The other applicant speaks | Kevin Tyson, at 0:29:32: “Seemed like a backroom deal as it was going down, but I stuck with the process.” At 0:30:24: “We are not in the business of getting people out of schools. We are in the business of getting information to parents.” This speaker maintains this project; see the footer. | |
| 0:32:03 | Choose between the two | Sherry Williams: “you were faced with a decision of two highly qualified individuals”. At 0:32:36: “I beg you to set aside their political leanings and your own political leanings”. | |
| 0:34:20 | Motion to appoint Don Lavalette | Howard: “I'd like to make a motion to appoint Don to the school board.” Hawkins seconds. Howard at 0:36:03: “I think that website is less neutral than they make themselves out to be.” Hawkins at 0:37:24: “I did not see public schools in their goals”. The chair against, at 0:39:10: “being the president of the union is it is is a biased position to have come from.” | |
| 0:40:05 | A tie declared before the noes | “All in favor of appointing Mr. Laval? Let this evening to the Claremont School Board. Raise your hands. A we have a tie.” The failure is declared at 0:41:19; Crawford at 0:41:12: “Let's close out the motion that we have on.” The opposing hands are raised at 0:41:54. Per the minutes: for Howard, Hawkins, Crawford; against Madden, Petrin, Whitney. | MEDIUM |
| 0:40:59 | The second applicant, never put to a vote | “if somebody brought forth a motion for Mr.. For Mr. Tyson, it is clear from that vote that Mr.. Tyson would not be appointed to the board this evening, am I correct?” No motion followed. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:42:02 | Motion to reopen applications | Crawford: “we need to open it to other candidates to come forward and present themselves at the next school board meeting.” Called at 0:42:36; the result is not stated on the recording. Minutes: 3–3, “The motion does not pass”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:42:52 | Reinstatement moved again | Petrin: “Not of any sort of backroom deal or any sort of solicitation.” At 0:43:21: “There is no set process to to assigning someone to the vacant school board seat we have. The process needs to be better in the future.” Seconded by the chair at 0:43:41. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:43:46 | The abstention | “All in favor of reinstating Frank Spey [Sprague] to the Claremont School Board. Raise your hand.” Howard at 0:43:53: “I'm going to abstain doing that.” | |
| 0:44:04 | May a member abstain? | The chair: “Abstentions can only really be made if you have an objection.” Hawkins, as transcribed at 0:44:15: “No member can abstain at any time.” and at 0:45:15: “A person, a member can vote to abstain at any time.” The two renderings contradict each other; both are quoted as they stand. The chair at 0:44:59: “you can use an abstention to throw a vote.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:46:03 | Carried three to two | The chair: “That's what our bylaws are present and voting.” At 0:46:14: “But then you're a non vote.” Crawford at 0:46:22: “So that means that the motion passes 3 to 2.” At 0:46:31: “By me I mean dissenting. But that was the rules.” Per the minutes: for Madden, Petrin, Whitney; against Crawford, Hawkins; Howard abstaining. | MEDIUM |
| 0:47:02 | The by-law, read from the website | Hawkins: “a motion blah blah blah shall be adopted by a majority of the votes. No, no proxy or absentee votes shall be allowed.” and “Abstentions are counted, but have no bearing on the outcome of the vote.” The adopted by-law 2.07 gives this very case as its example: “For example: 7 members present, 2 abstain , 2 vote no, 3 vote yes the motion passes.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:47:58 | A resident asks for the next sentence | Lownie: “The next sentence in that I law should be read.” Hawkins reads it at 0:48:41: “Abstaining in an effort to avoid public accountability for such decisions or to force a tie vote, is counter to members public duty.” Not in the draft minutes. | POSITIVE MEDIUM |