Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present. Names follow the agenda and approved minutes; where the dialogue file labels a person differently, the label is noted.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | Board chair | Presided; took responsibility for bringing Code Monkey on short notice (“This one’s on me”); gave the history behind the test scores; argued for studying an executive-director model. 398 rows, the most of anyone. |
| Michael Petrin | Vice chair | Moved the SHS Program of Studies; preferred to wait on Code Monkey for grant funding (“my objection is not the program itself or the curriculum”); appointed to the search committee. Rendered “Patron” and “Peterson”. |
| Arlene Hawkins | Board member; Policy Subcommittee chair | Moved Code Monkey and, per the minutes, made the friendly amendment; seconded the SREA motion and withdrew her second; read counsel’s Right-to-Know analysis; moved the search appointments; objected that a new leadership model was being explored before the board discussed it. |
| Candace Crawford | Board member; Finance Subcommittee chair | Amended the agenda to “searches”; moved the SchoolCare authorization, the SREA motion (withdrawn) and adoption of DJ and JJE; called the Ed 306 minimums “barebones”. |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member | Led the metal-detector item; objected to same-night votes; pressed the intern-contract question until a point of order; appointed to the search committee. His dialogue-file label is a merged cluster that also catches Sprague and Herrington. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Asked what happened to the Title IV money; abstained on the 9/17, 10/1, 10/15 and 11/5 minutes (meetings before he returned to the board); per the minutes, said he was uncomfortable receiving information under a live motion. |
| Loren Howard | Board member | Moved most of the prior minutes; seconded the Program of Studies, Code Monkey, SchoolCare and search motions; called reopening the SREA contract “shortsighted”; raised the point of order; called the sequential-communication worry “overblown”. Rendered “Lauren”. |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board clerk | Absent: the chair said she was “unable to be with us this evening” (0:00:30). The minutes are submitted over her name. |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the state assessment designations; asked that grants be tried before local money for Code Monkey; superintendent’s report (evaluations, FY27 SAU chart, grant manager interviews, snow-day process). Her label also catches Melissa Lewis. |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator | Called the roll; finance update (NESDEC report free with $2,585 dues; tax rate $17.45, up 8.25%); opened Code Monkey by saying policy IGA was “bypassed”; sought authority to sign the SchoolCare plan. |
| Chelsea Weatherford | Human Resources Manager | On the agenda masthead; mentioned by Kennedy as correcting compensation data. Not heard. |
| Dr. Michael Herrington | Principal, Stevens High School | Presented the Program of Studies; described the students-with-disabilities improvement plan; on metal detectors: “I did not develop that plan. I was following the plan.” Rendered “Doctor Harrington”. |
| Mimi Rhines | Stevens High School counselor (per the minutes) | Explained summer school as credit recovery; spoke on staff fear after the earlier incident and the reassurance the detector gave. The dialogue file marks her identification uncertain. |
| Christina Swenson | SAU 6 Digital Learning Specialist (per the agenda) | Presented Code Monkey: 600 licenses, 599 filled; an audit finding about 80% of free sites non-compliant with student-data rules; the Title IV committee “disintegrated”. The dialogue file gives no title. |
| Melissa Lewis | Principal, Disnard Elementary | Described Disnard exiting its ATSI designation a year early; “We need the kids there. Get them on time and we need them there.” |
| “Dale” (surname not stated) | Former Bluff Elementary principal | Described rewriting the Bluff CSI plan so “the money follows the students” (1:26:31). Labeled “Unidentified school administrator”. The minutes’ correction to the 9/17 minutes names the Bluff principal as Dale Chenette; this page does not rely on that match. |
| Don Lavalette | Citizens’ comments — Ward 2 | Asked about the finance subcommittee’s SREA recommendation and the room’s sound; offered to be volunteer coordinator at no cost; later urged consistent curriculum programs and called reopening the contract a bad look. Labeled “Unidentified public commenter”; the minutes name him. |
| Michelle Beaton | Citizens’ comments — Ward 2 | Half-year middle-school science and social studies; Ed 306 as a minimum; 15 children without preschool placement; community seats on the search committee. Self-identification rendered “Michelle. Be in”. |
| Greg Adams | Citizens’ comments — Ward 3 | For Claremont Cares: a drive for business donations to schools, coordinated with principals. Attended with Keith Raymond. |
Named but not present: Sherry Williams (transcribed the backlog of minutes), Jeff Small (outgoing technology director), Jason Bonneville (incoming), Paige Jarvis (student services director, per the minutes), counsel Jim O’Shaughnessy, Sarah Freeman (raised the executive-director model), Superintendent’s Advisory Council members.
Agenda
Items as posted in “12.3.25 CSB Agenda (1).pdf”, with the time each was taken up and its disposition from the approved minutes and the recording. The chair moved the informational items to the end.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:01 | I. Call to order; roll call | Agenda: “6:30 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance.” Minutes: “All present”. |
| 0:01:00 | II.a.1 Amendments to the agenda | 8c to read “searches” (Crawford); the curriculum-policy note struck and the preschool item marked FY26 (Hawkins); KFD pulled from second read and GBGBA from withdrawal. Whitney: the posted agenda carried her own notes. |
| 0:04:11 | II.a.2 Minutes of 9/17, 10/1, 10/15, 11/5, 11/19 | Each approved as amended by voice vote. Minutes: Sprague abstained on the first four; Whitney also on 9/17 and 10/15. See flag 3. |
| 0:12:36 | II.a.3 Manifest | Minutes: “no manifest this evening”. |
| 0:13:02 | II.b Citizens’ comments | Lavalette, Beaton, Adams. |
| 0:24:07 | II.c Finance update | NESDEC report; employee self-service portal; FY27 staffing maps for three- and four-school models; tax rate. Report only. |
| 0:27:42 | III.1 SHS Program of Studies (vote) | Moved Petrin, seconded Howard (0:41:54); carried, no opposition, at 0:42:28. |
| 0:42:46 | III.2 CodeMonkey curriculum (vote) | Moved Hawkins at 1:14:24, seconded Howard per the minutes; friendly amendment to fund only after grant options are explored; carried as amended at 1:22:04, no opposition or abstentions. See flags 1 and 2. |
| 1:22:21 | III.3 SchoolCare payment plan (vote) | $868,000 in two installments, interest-free if on time. Moved Crawford (1:23:24), seconded Howard; carried at 1:24:40. |
| 1:24:40 | III.4 SAS scores review (report) | Bluff CSI; CMS additional targeted support; Disnard exited ATSI; Stevens targeted plan for students with disabilities. No vote. |
| 2:02:38 | III.5 JIHC metal detector policy (discussion) | No board-approved procedures exist; administration to gather data. No vote. |
| 2:11:05 | III.6 Follow-up items (report) | Technology director hired; student services director filled (minutes: Paige Jarvis); attendance officer declined; compensation release delayed by inaccurate data; CMS time on learning; intern contracts (point of order at 2:21:26); rubber stamps destroyed. |
| 2:25:06 | III.7 Superintendent’s report | Evaluations; FY27 SAU chart; grant designations and a grant manager; professional development; snow-day process; Advisory Council December 8. |
| 2:34:25 | III.8.a Finance Sub-Committee | Crawford moved to approach the SREA to reopen negotiations (2:36:59), Hawkins seconded; both withdrawn at 2:49:45; a nonpublic discussion to go on a later agenda by consent. See flag 5. |
| 2:53:44 | III.8.b Policy Subcommittee | First read DJ, IKC (pulled, wrong version), JJE; DJ, JJE and BBAA adopted at 3:01:53 (minutes: moved Crawford, seconded Howard); GBEC withdrawn at 3:02:29. |
| 3:03:03 | III.8.c Ad hoc superintendent & business administrator search | Hawkins moved to appoint Madden and Petrin (3:03:27), Howard seconded per the minutes; carried at 3:05:39. Discussion of leadership models followed; a special meeting for counsel’s briefing to be scheduled. See flag 8. |
| 3:32:31 | IV–V. Other business; future dates | Agenda: board 12/17/2025; “Finance Committee Meeting with CCTV Coverage 12/10 & 12/12 9:30-12:30 @ SRVRTC”; board 1/7/2026. Adjourned at 3:33:16. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:04:11 | Five months of minutes | Whitney thanks Sherry Williams for covering the clerk’s leave: “it’s difficult when you’re not at the meeting to then transcribed from the CCTV” (0:04:41). Corrections include “Mary Lewis” to Melissa Lewis and “Mark blood” to Blount; at 0:05:09 a Howard motion: “It should be reflected whether it was or was not seconded?” | MEDIUM |
| 0:13:15 | Citizens’ comments: Lavalette | “I was reading the finance subcommittee minutes from November 12th, and it was a discussion in there about recommending the school board enter a nonpublic to discuss reopening the SRA, a contract.” At 0:14:27: “I’m volunteering to become the volunteer coordinator for our district at no cost.” | |
| 0:17:26 | Citizens’ comments: Beaton | “I strongly feel that we should be looking at at 306 as a minimum, not as what we’re striving for”. At 0:18:19: “We currently have 15 students in our district who are not receiving their placement in a preschool program.” At 0:18:44: concern about “hiring an executive officer next year on our school district, rather than someone who has a background in education.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:38 | Votes moved ahead of reports | Whitney: “there’s been issues with the meeting being cut off on CCTV, and folks haven’t been able to hear what the discussions on items that we are voting on”. Howard at 0:23:56: “Set for four hours now”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:24:07 | A $20,000 estimate turns out free | Angell: “I previously I said it probably would cost $20,000. However, it was free when we paid our dues to, Nasdaq [NESDEC]”; dues “was $2,585.” At 0:26:13: school tax rate “$17.45. That’s combined local and state share. That ended up being an 8.25% increase.” | |
| 0:43:04 | Code Monkey: the policy that was skipped | Angell: policy IGA “requires the superintendent to develop a a committee to evaluate, curriculum”; “That hasn’t happened in this particular case. This is bypassed. The superintendent comes straight to the school board.” At 0:43:41: under DEDB items should reach the superintendent “at least ten days prior to the meeting”, though every member may place items on the agenda. | MEDIUM |
| 0:48:00 | The data-privacy case | Swenson cites “New Hampshire House Bill 1612” (not verified for this page). At 0:48:27: “When I audited the free resources our teachers have been forced to use, I found that it proximately 80% of them were non-compliant.” | |
| 0:57:24 | How the grant was lost | Swenson: “the committee itself has disintegrated. I tried to look into getting Grant, but with the financial situation was very difficult to touch base with anyone who could write the grant for it or approve the grant for it.” At 0:58:13: “I asked for a Po. I didn’t hear back, so I thought it had been paid.” Angell at 0:58:39: “I spoke to Jeff Small about it ... I didn’t hear anything until she came back to me just before the end of November.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:08:58 | “This one’s on me” | Whitney: “It’s on me. This one’s on me. Bringing it to the board this quickly.” Madden at 1:09:12: “I’m very, very concerned that we’re slipping back to the pre Matt Angel[l] days.” At 1:10:21: “At least now we’re out in the public sphere, which is to me, it’s a great step forward. But I want us to hold ourselves accountable to a much higher standard.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:19:56 | The conditional purchase | Petrin: “my objection is not the program itself or the curriculum.” Whitney at 1:20:29: “if we vet it to make sure there’s not a grant option first”. The amendment at 1:20:48: “approve financially only after Grant ... Had been explored”. Whitney: “I would have been a no without the amendment.” Crawford at 1:21:23: “I’m appalled that $3,500 for K through six” “Seems abysmal.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:22:30 | SchoolCare: $868,000 | Angell: “under this agreement, it requires me to obtain authority to sign it”; a third before month-end, the rest before July 15; late payment “ends up being a half a percent per month” (1:22:54). “I’m going to make sure it gets paid on time” (1:23:16). | POSITIVE |
| 1:25:28 | Bluff stays in the lowest 5% | Kennedy: “it is the lowest 5% of all New Hampshire schools for title one schools.” At 1:25:46: “60% of our students from bluff are sitting at Maple Avenue School, 40% are sitting at Disney Art [Disnard] school.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:32:04 | Disnard exits a year early | Lewis: “Disney [Disnard] was identified as an arts [ATSI] school back in 2018”; the notice “didn’t, in this case, trickle down to the principal.” At 1:32:28: “we exited a year early.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:41:50 | Opt-outs | Kennedy: “We’ve had several families that have opted out that have not helped us as a district” (1:41:57). Whitney at 1:42:29: “We can’t we can’t require that they take them”; at 1:42:35: “anything over 5% opt out is a zero”. | |
| 1:47:21 | The chair’s account of the scores | “around roughly 2021, we discovered that there had been no formal review of any Ela, mathematics, science or social studies curriculum in probably a decade.” At 1:52:03: the target is “70% in tier one, 2020 to 5% [20 to 25%] in tier two and 5% in tier three. So we are our pyramid is completely inverted”; “teacher valuations really were not happening.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:57:04 | Poverty tested against growth data | Whitney: “if you have no difference in growth between kids that come from economically disadvantaged homes and kids that come from non-economic, disadvantaged homes, that says something about what what we’re doing and not about our demographics.” Lewis at 1:59:51: “We need the kids there. Get them on time and we need them there.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:01:50 | Lavalette on curriculum churn | “now I see where at Eureka math. That’s three programs in ten years. That didn’t help.” | |
| 2:03:17 | Metal detectors without procedures | Madden reads JIHC: detectors “may be used in accordance with procedures approved by the board.” At 2:04:51: “we don’t have policies. We don’t have a plan, we don’t have a strategy.” Herrington at 2:05:28: “I did not develop that plan. I was following the plan.” Hawkins at 2:06:07: procedures approved by the board are “what we do not have.” Rhines at 2:10:22: “the staff was a little bit relieved at the level of security.” | |
| 2:15:02 | Half a year of science and social studies | Whitney: “we’re back to half a half a year for each science and social studies”, but “we are not violating AD 306 [Ed 306] requirements”. Kennedy at 2:15:54: “No. We rift [RIF’d].” Crawford at 2:16:48: “They are barebones. They are disgusting is my opinion. And to use them as the standard is ridiculous.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:23:08 | Intern benefits; rubber stamps | Angell: interns working enough hours must be offered health insurance and state retirement, “two non-negotiable benefits”. At 2:24:51: “the rubber stamps, there were three of them have been destroyed.” | |
| 2:34:30 | Finance subcommittee minutes not posted | Crawford: “because of the changes that the saw [SAU] office, the minutes haven’t been posted. And so we will include a copy of the minutes of that meeting with these meeting, this meeting agenda.” At 2:36:18: “next week, we have finance committee meetings on Wednesday and Friday at 930. Here in this in this room”, to be aired. | |
| 2:35:22 | Where the bargaining conversation belongs | Whitney: “We have to do that in a nonpublic”. Crawford: “that’s just opening negotiations. That’s not nonpublic. I mean, it’s already in the minutes. So it’s public information.” Howard at 2:37:44: “I think this is shortsighted. Bad optics”. Crawford at 2:42:29: “you have to have a public vote to reopen to approach them”. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:46:33 | Contract terms aired under the motion | Angell on the stipend paid once a year to teachers who decline insurance, and grant work at “$25 an hour. That’s an unreasonable number” (2:47:22). At 2:48:38 (labeled Madden; the minutes attribute it to Sprague): “So I’m very uncomfortable. Because we’re learning” while “we’re right in the middle. Of the motion”. Motion and second withdrawn at 2:49:45. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:52:53 | No public comment at finance sessions | Whitney: “the finance committee meetings are work sessions, so the public is available to attend, but it’s there’s no public comment”. At 2:53:28: “Usually if if we’re going to make a vote on something, then we invite public comment.” | |
| 2:55:49 | Counsel’s Right-to-Know advice | Hawkins reads O’Shaughnessy at 2:56:23: sequential communications “likely violate RSA 91-A because board members, as individuals and the board as a whole, is required by law to deliberate over district matters in public meetings.” At 2:56:56: members “should avoid communicating with each other anywhere other than an A duly noted [noticed] public meeting.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:58:51 | “definitely overblown” | Howard found “little to none” in court cases; at 2:59:08: “our concerns about, like, being on a similar Facebook threat [thread] at each other are definitely overblown. And it’s the result of a lawyer being overly cautious.” BBAA adopted at 3:01:53. | OBSERVATION |
| 3:04:09 | The search committee had already met counsel | Madden: “we had a video conference with Jim Shaughnessy.” At 3:08:39: the choice is a superintendent or “an executive officer who provides superintendent services, and that person would not have to be a licensed superintendent.” At 3:09:30: “it was Sarah Freeman first”. | OBSERVATION |
| 3:07:32 | “It’s already happening” | Hawkins: “we’ve not had a discussion about the type of leadership model. And yet I’ve heard from the CCTV” of models offered; “resources are being tapped into for that model.” At 3:08:14: “it’s already happening before. Before, as far as I know, before there’s been meetings.” At 3:18:05: “sounds to me like you’ve made up your mind.” | OBSERVATION |
| 3:15:31 | The chair’s case for a different model | “in 2016, that’s when we we didn’t get the audits. So either it was an administrative failure or a board failure.” At 3:17:25: “our organization has been a disaster for at least ten years.” Resolved at 3:31:23: “I will schedule a special meeting”; Petrin at 3:31:34: “Bill and I will focus on a superintendent search”. | 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 curriculum purchase was voted the night it was presented, after the district’s review policy was, in the business administrator’s word, “bypassed”
Angell opened the item at 0:43:04 by naming policy IGA, under which the superintendent convenes a curriculum committee and forwards its recommendation: “That hasn’t happened in this particular case. This is bypassed.” He also cited DEDB’s ten-day lead time (0:43:41). The approved minutes record the same: IGA “requires the superintendent to form a committee to look at curriculum and to make recommendations and this has not happened”. Madden objected that items should be presented one meeting and voted the next; the chair took responsibility, citing licenses expiring December 13 (1:08:58). Mitigation: $3,500 for the rest of the year at a 30% discount, the floor amendment conditioning the spending on grant options first, and Angell’s stated condition that any program approved now be re-vetted by a future curriculum director. The departure is from local policy; no state rule requiring a curriculum committee was identified.
Sources: approved minutes, 12/3/25, item III.2; agenda (“Supporting Documents Policy IGA Curriculum Development”); CodeMonkey quote, October 2025.
MEDIUM A federally funded program lapsed because the committee that administered its grant dissolved and a purchase order went unanswered
Code Monkey was piloted from January 2025 with Title IV money, vetted by a Title IV committee. Swenson told the board at 0:57:24 that she and one other person are all that remain of it, and that no one was left “who could write the grant for it or approve the grant for it.” Her purchase order went unanswered (0:58:13); Angell said he raised it with the then technology director and heard nothing until late November (0:58:39), weeks before the licenses expired. Federal awards must be administered under effective internal control, and federal education formula funds remain available for one additional fiscal year, so whether unobligated Title IV money existed is a checkable question the record does not answer. The flag concerns the control failure, not the $3,500; the board’s amendment requires grant options to be explored first.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.303 (internal control over federal awards); 20 U.S.C. §1225(b) (one additional fiscal year of availability); approved minutes, 12/3/25.
MEDIUM Minutes for five meetings, the oldest 77 days back, were corrected and approved in one sitting, including a motion whose missing second had gone unrecorded
The board approved the 9/17, 10/1, 10/15, 11/5 and 11/19 minutes from 0:04:11. The clerk had been on leave and Sherry Williams was transcribing meetings she had not attended from CCTV (0:04:41). The corrections went to matters RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to record: principal Melissa Lewis had been recorded as “Mary Lewis”, and a Howard motion that got no second had to be noted (“It should be reflected whether it was or was not seconded?”, 0:05:09); the 10/15 minutes had dropped the word “audit”. The statute requires minutes to be open for inspection within five business days, not approved, so the approval lag is not itself a breach, and the reason was stated. The October 6 meeting is not in this batch; the project’s earlier review found no minutes for it in any district share. Mitigation: every correction was read and adopted in open session.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (contents of minutes; names of movers and seconders; five business days); approved minutes, 12/3/25, item II.a.2.
MEDIUM The approved minutes of this meeting record no actual start or end time
Since August 22, 2025, RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to include “the start time and end time of the meeting, and name of the person who produced the minutes.” The approved minutes reproduce the agenda’s scheduled times (“6:30 PM Call to Order”, “8:20 PM Other Business”) and record no call-to-order or adjournment time; the recording shows the meeting ran about three and a half hours (0:00:01 to 3:33:16), well past the 8:25 p.m. slot for future dates. They are “Respectfully submitted by Noelle Kronberg”, who was absent; that may be accurate if she prepared them from the recording, but the minutes do not say so. The minutes also attribute the “uncomfortable” remark at 2:48:38 to Sprague where the dialogue file has Madden; this page follows the minutes. Mitigation: the minutes are otherwise detailed and record movers, seconders and abstentions.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); 09. Approved 12.3.25 CSB Minutes.pdf.
OBSERVATION Contract detail was aired under a live motion, then routed to a “nonpublic” the Right-to-Know Law does not provide for bargaining strategy
Crawford moved at 2:36:59 to approach the SREA about reopening negotiations. Over the next twelve minutes the administration described, on the record, what a reopening would address: memoranda of understanding, differentials, the once-a-year stipend for staff who decline insurance, and the $25 grant-work rate (2:46:33–2:47:22). The motion and second were withdrawn at 2:49:45, and the board consented to a later nonpublic discussion (2:51:00). RSA 91-A:2, I(a) excludes “Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining” from the definition of a meeting; the nonpublic grounds in RSA 91-A:3, II contain no collective-bargaining category, and a nonpublic motion must state one of them. Crawford was right at 2:42:29 that the decision to approach the union is public business. Nothing was decided in private; which mechanism the board will use is unresolved.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II (2023, 189:1; text read 2026-09-25); RSA ch. 273-A (chapter only).
OBSERVATION The board adopted counsel’s Right-to-Know policy while a member called the advice “overblown”
Hawkins read counsel’s analysis for policy BBAA at 2:56:23: sequential communications among members “likely violate RSA 91-A”. The statute says so directly: RSA 91-A:2-a, II provides that communications outside a meeting, “including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of a public body, shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter”. The board’s practice is blind copies on all board email (2:57:18). Howard said he had found “little to none” in enforcement cases and called the concern “definitely overblown” (2:59:08); BBAA was then adopted unanimously. The observation is that a policy adopted alongside a statement that its risk is exaggerated may not be observed. The minutes render counsel’s citation “RSA 91A:1(II)”; the recording has “RSA 91, a dash one, dash two”.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, II (2008, 303:4; text read 2026-09-25); approved minutes, 12/3/25, item III.8.b.
OBSERVATION Middle-school science and social studies are back to half a year, defended as meeting the state minimum
Beaton asked the board at 0:17:26 to treat Ed 306 as “a minimum, not as what we’re striving for”. The chair answered at 2:15:02 that CMS has returned to its 2019 staffing matrix and that “until a kiddo gets to high school, there’s no credits required for those two course topics”. Kennedy gave the cause as the reduction in force (2:15:54). Crawford: the minimums “are barebones” (2:16:48). No rule the district is breaching was identified; the instructional-time provisions of Ed 306 were not verified subsection by subsection for this page. The board named it an FY27 budget question.
Sources: Ed 306 (minimum standards; Part page only); approved minutes, 12/3/25, item III.6.
OBSERVATION Work on a different leadership model was under way before the board had discussed it, and a member said so
The board appointed Madden and Petrin to the search committee at 3:05:39. Madden then said the two had already held a video conference with counsel (3:04:09) on the choice between a superintendent and a non-licensed executive officer (3:08:39), an idea first raised by Sarah Freeman (3:09:30). Hawkins objected that the board had not discussed a leadership model, “and yet resources are being tapped into for that model” (3:07:32), and that “it’s already happening” (3:08:14). The minutes record her insistence that it “is not a done deal”. Consultation with legal counsel is excluded from the definition of a meeting (RSA 91-A:2, I(b)), and two members are not a quorum of the board, so no rule was identified as breached. The correction came from the objection: Petrin and Madden will focus on a superintendent search, and the chair will schedule a special meeting for counsel to brief the full board (3:31:23–3:31:34).
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (consultation with legal counsel excluded); approved minutes, 12/3/25, item III.8.c.
POSITIVE An $868,000 payment plan was signed only after a recorded public authorization
Angell brought the SchoolCare installment agreement to the board because it “requires me to obtain authority to sign it” (1:22:30), set out the terms in open session, and committed to paying on time. Crawford moved the authorization at 1:23:24, Howard seconded, and it carried. The treasurer pays out district money only upon orders of the school board or of members it empowers; a recorded vote is what makes the payments orderable. When Hawkins praised the interest-free terms, Angell corrected the record: SchoolCare “extended this to every single customer”.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (treasurer pays only on board orders); SchoolCare Assessment Payment Plan Agreement (11-5-25).
POSITIVE The district presented its worst results in public, designations named, history attached
RSA 189:28 requires districts to file statistical reports with the Department of Education; it does not require a board to explain its results to residents. This board spent over an hour doing so. Kennedy named Bluff’s status as the lowest 5% of Title I schools (1:25:28); CMS and Stevens were named for targeted support; Lewis described Disnard’s early exit and that the 2018 designation never reached her (1:32:04). Whitney set out the board’s own failures (no curriculum review for a decade, an inverted intervention pyramid, evaluations not happening) and used growth data to reject poverty as the explanation (1:57:04).
Sources: RSA 189:28 (statistical reports); the recording at the timestamps above.
POSITIVE Votes were moved ahead of reports so the broadcast would carry them
The chair said at 0:22:38 that CCTV broadcasts had been cutting off before votes, and put the action items ahead of the informational ones; Howard reported the capture had been extended to four hours (0:23:56), and this recording carries the whole meeting. The minutes record both changes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (open meetings; the minimum these practices exceed); approved minutes, 12/3/25.
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