Participants
Everyone heard or recorded as present. Board and staff names follow the agenda masthead and the approved minutes; where the dialogue file renders a name differently, the rendering is noted. No member of the public spoke.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Candace Crawford | Board chair; Finance Subcommittee chair | Presided; read the alumni association citation; announced the bank’s check; explained the audit backlog; denied town rumors of board members meeting city councilors; thanked the interim superintendent at the close. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member; SRVRTC Committee chair | Answered the roll calls; one attributed word in the dialogue file. |
| Heather Whitney | Board member; Ad Hoc Exploratory Reconfiguration Subcommittee chair | Had her request for staffing metrics entered as a correction to the June 3 minutes; pressed on grant-compliant time cards; moved the Rapp appointment, the nonpublic session and the seal (per the minutes); reported the posted agenda’s second page carried the wrong date. |
| Donald Lavalette | Board member | Dictated four corrections to the June 3 minutes; asked about exit-interview questions, “coordinator” titles, a parent’s report that students were told the middle school would close, the forensic audit, paraprofessional-to-teacher ratios and a departed principal’s stipends; moved the Bluff fund closure; will coordinate volunteer painting at CMS. |
| Brian Rapp | Board member | Appointed to the maintenance negotiation team; asked whether the unclaimed grant money bears on the deficit; seconded the fund closure, the nonpublic motion, the return to public session and the painting motion (per the minutes). |
| William “Bill” Madden | Board member; Capital Improvement Subcommittee chair | Answered the roll calls; two attributed words in the dialogue file. |
| Loren Howard | Board member; Policy Subcommittee chair | Asked what McKinney-Vento driver certification requires; asked for a progress chart on the three open audits; moved the return to public session (per the minutes) and the painting motion; will set up a conference camera for subcommittee meetings. |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | Called the roll; asked whether a second nonpublic session was being added; took the corrections; signed the minutes. |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent | Gave the end-of-year report: summer program dates, graduations, scholarships, staff departures, exit interviews; thanked by the chair in her last meeting as interim superintendent. |
| Dr. Timothy Broadrick | Incoming Superintendent (takes office July 1, 2026) | Reported from his written memo: central-office summer hours, three summer programs with a funding source for each, about $2 million in federal grant money still to be claimed, hiring, and a new logo under “SAU separation from Unity”. Rendered “Broderick” on the tape; his own memo spells Broadrick. |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator | Gave the Burbee Fund distribution, the May finance figures and the forensic-audit retainer; explained the departed principal’s payments; presented the Bluff student activity fund closure. Addressed as “Mr. Angel” in the transcript. |
| Carolyn (surname not stated) | Officer, Stevens High School Alumni Association | Spoke from the podium about handling the donated student-activity money through the year. Addressed by the chair as Carolyn and once as Carol; the minutes name no officer, so this page prints no surname. |
| Paige Jarvis; Jason Bonneville | Interim Student Services Director; Interim Technology Director (agenda masthead) | No remarks recorded. Jarvis is leaving for Cornish/Plainfield per Kennedy; Howard will work with Bonneville on the subcommittee camera. |
| Miles Sheehan; Lilliana Clark | Student board members (agenda: “Lily Clark”) | Not heard on the recording; recognized in Kennedy’s report per the minutes. |
Named on the record but not present: Amy Savage (human resources director, named by Broadrick at 0:21:02), Mr. Holt (facilities), Jessica Macleod (student services), Ellie Girard (student, U.S. Presidential Scholars nominee). The dialogue file labels 61 rows Unidentified, most of them the Pledge, roll-call answers and voice votes. Citizens’ comments were opened at 0:12:51; nobody spoke, and the minutes record none.
Agenda
Items as posted in “6.17.26 CSB Meeting Agenda”, with the time each was taken up; dispositions follow the recording and the approved minutes. The agenda’s printed clock times are scheduled times.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | 1. Call to order & Pledge | Agenda: “6:30 PM Call to Order & Pledge of Allegiance”. |
| 0:00:37 | 2. Recognition | Agenda: “6:35 PM Recognition”, sub-items “SHS Alumni Association” and “Claremont Savings Bank”. Citation read at 0:01:40; the bank’s $10,563.11 check announced at 0:03:54. No motion. See flag 8. |
| 0:07:31 | 3. Roll call | The clerk calls seven names; answers are not separable by member in the transcript. The minutes record all present. |
| 0:07:42 | Consent agenda | Agenda: amendments and final approval of the agenda; “Approval of Minutes: 6.3.26 DRAFT CSB Meeting Minutes”; “Approval of Manifest:” with nothing after it. Floor amendment: the by-laws update moves to July and is replaced by the appointment of Brian Rapp to the maintenance negotiations. Five corrections to the June 3 minutes (0:09:06–0:11:54). Accepted by general consent at 0:12:51 (“Is there any objection to accepting the consent agenda?”); no motion or vote. |
| 0:12:51 | Citizens’ comments | “It’s a quiet crowd.” Minutes: none. |
| 0:13:17 | Superintendent’s report: interim superintendent | Agenda: “Graduation/End of Year Update”. Report; no action. |
| 0:20:10 | Superintendent’s report: incoming superintendent | Agenda: truant officer job description; summer school/credit recovery staffing; SAU office summer hours; hiring. Broadrick follows his written memo instead, which adds grant administration and “SAU separation from Unity”. Report; no action. |
| 0:52:17 | Finance update | Agenda: report with the two May 31 spreadsheets and “Burbee Fund update”. Report; no action. |
| 1:06:11 | Follow-up item | “Bus aides between runs”: deferred to July. |
| 1:06:11 | Closure of Bluff School Student Activities Fund (vote) | Staff report in the packet. Motion by Lavalette at 1:09:20; no second audible; the minutes record Rapp. Voice vote at 1:09:26, no opposition heard; minutes: “all present voting in favor”. See flag 3. |
| 1:09:43 | Administration Contract (discussion/vote) | No material; nobody present could say what it was. The chair: “I’m going to pass on this one and just table.” The minutes strike the heading through. See flag 9. |
| 1:09:55 | Board By-Laws Update, replaced by appointment of Brian Rapp | Appointment of Rapp to the maintenance negotiation team. Minutes: moved by Whitney, seconded by Lavalette. Voice vote at 1:10:32, no opposition heard. |
| 1:10:38 | Non-Public Meeting | Agenda: “Non-Public Meeting: Negotiations RSA 91-A:3, II(a&c)”, with the text of II(a) printed beneath. Minutes: Whitney/Rapp, roll call, all in favor, in at 7:41 p.m.; Howard/Rapp to return, roll call, out at 8:43 p.m.; Whitney/Howard to seal the minutes until July 1, 2026, roll call, all in favor. See flag 2. |
| 1:12:49 | Subcommittee reports | Dispensed with; referred to the July 29 goal-setting meeting. |
| 1:13:22 | Other business | Volunteer painting at CMS: motion by Howard at 1:13:57, seconded by Rapp, voice vote at 1:15:33, “Motion carries”; the minutes omit the vote (flag 1). A PhD candidate’s study request; NHSBA resolutions; artwork from the vandalized makerspace (to July); a camera for subcommittee meetings. |
| 1:18:13 | Future dates / future agenda items | June 19 Finance Subcommittee, July 21 regular meeting, July 29 goal setting (printed “Annual Goad-Setting Meeting”). Whitney reports the posted agenda’s second page is dated June 3 (1:18:44). |
| 8:30 p.m. (scheduled) | Adjournment | Motion to adjourn entertained at 1:20:30; the recording ends there. Minutes: 8:52. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:40 | Citation for the alumni association | Crawford reads: the board “recognizes and thanks the Stevens High School Alumni Association for its dedication to the community by stepping up this year and providing the services of accepting, raising and distributing donations from many for many of the important and often award winning activities that were part of the Claremont Schools this year.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:54 | The bank returns the loan interest | “the Claremont Savings Bank issued a check to the Claremont School District in the amount of $10,563.11.” At 0:04:23: “The exact amount of money that the district paid in interest on the multimillion dollar loan … The Community Banks loan of $4 million to the school district helped cover the deficit … Donating this money, this interest back to the community makes the loan effectively interest free.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:16 | $100,000 to the alumni fund | “$100,000 to the alumni fund to be used for extracurricular activities, sports, the arts, etc.” The money went to the association, not the district. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:01 | The association’s account of the year | Carolyn: the people of Claremont would “take their money and donate it to us and expect us to take care of those funds and take care of the students throughout the year.” At 0:06:23: “There were no events. There were no supplies that went negative. Everyone got what they needed all year long.” At 0:07:03: “And we had no discrepancies. None whatsoever.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:08:39 | A second nonpublic? | Kronberg: “Request to add a nonpublic.” Crawford: “We have a nonpublic on number four.” Kronberg: “But I think we’re adding another.” Crawford: “It’s for A and C right. We will note.” The minutes record one session. | MEDIUM |
| 0:09:06 | Corrections to the June 3 minutes | Lavalette at 0:10:16: “if it’s not in the minutes, it didn’t happen”. He enters a bus aide’s pay, “$42,130.02, plus $24,522.04. The benefit package, for a total compensation of $66,652.06” (0:10:28), and at 0:11:06 the departed principal’s “$8,461.53, and then another $9,230.76 in moving expenses as a stipend. And there was nothing in the minutes that I could locate about that.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:11:54 | Staffing metrics requested for July 21 | Whitney: the July 21 staffing figures should come with “the metrics that would be used to determine what staffing levels would be considered safe … and how we could provide state mandated educational opportunities like the 306 minimum standards”. | POSITIVE |
| 0:13:35 | End of year | Kennedy: extended school year services July 7–30, Tuesdays to Thursdays; summer camp from July 6. Graduations, scholarships and the alumni parade. Whitney at 0:19:16: “We had a projected enrollment of 120, and the number of graduates was in the 80s.” Crawford: “I think it was 88 graduates.” | |
| 0:21:21 | Summer programs and how each is paid for | Camp at the Tech Center is “funded entirely by a federal grant, the Perkins five grant”. Extended school year is in the fiscal 27 budget “For a total of just over well of $120,866.65” (0:22:08); with summer evaluations the encumbrance is “121,497 and $0.59, which is about a half a percent over the total in those budget lines” (0:23:23). Credit recovery: a Title IV-A activity approved “for up to a total of $58,661 over the two years combined” (0:25:49). At 0:26:34: “not only what we’re doing and why, but how we’re paying for it.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:27:21 | Grant-compliant time cards | Broadrick: the language “being added to the time card system right now”. Whitney at 0:28:09: “that has been a reoccurring finding from when we’ve had the fiscal monitoring reports”; at 0:28:24: “we’ve been assured that it’s been done”. Broadrick at 0:29:15: “You fire me if we don’t get this right that’s how it works.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:29:32 | About $2 million in federal grants to claim | “the Claremont School District has not successfully claimed and received all of those federal funds to which it was entitled.” At 0:30:04: “There are about $2 million in available grant funds that need to be claimed between now and next fall.” The Department of Education office “is extremely short staffed” (0:30:47); reports are approved one month at a time (0:31:46). Goal: “by the 1st of August, we are only submitting monthly reports and getting reimbursements” (0:32:10). | MEDIUM |
| 0:33:00 | Does it touch the deficit? | Rapp asks. Broadrick: “these are funds that we will receive against fiscal 26 spending”. Angell at 0:34:53: “it’s not a deficit in the sense of the $5 million deficit. It’s just a cash flow.” Whitney at 0:36:34: “part of our issue is, is that we were counting revenues that we weren’t receiving.” Angell at 0:37:01: “the state has actually requested me to try to rebuild all the grants from 2021 to the present. And that is a monumental task.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:37:29 | How the shortfall happened | Broadrick’s made-up example of a grant-funded hire: “What Claremont didn’t always do in the past was write the grant activity right, get it approved and receive the $100,000.” At 0:38:04: “if you spend the money against an anticipated revenue and then you don’t get the revenue, you overspend your.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:38:46 | Hiring and lost records | Six principal and assistant-principal candidates; about ten in process for the middle school. At 0:41:44: “whatever institutional knowledge was there at one time, much of it really has been lost.” At 0:44:17: “We are going into July looking for a certified director of special education and a certified business administrator”; “We’re going to hold out for certified, qualified, experience candidates.” | |
| 0:45:43 | “Separation” and the logo | “Regarding your separation of the saw [SAU], that’s really not my domain. But you are. We are going to need to start using a logo on letterhead and the website and things like that, that that doesn’t say unity anymore.” At 0:46:01: “So we’ll start using this logo July 1st if you’re good with it.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:47:07 | McKinney-Vento driver training | Howard: “I tried to look it up and it was impossible to find specifics or where training classes were or who could take them.” Broadrick at 0:47:41: he will tour transportation next Thursday; “I think we can do the training right here.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:48:42 | What students heard about the middle school | Lavalette: a parent reported that “a teacher actually was talking to them about the middle school. Was probably going to close.” Broadrick at 0:49:29: “you had about 20 employees who had been hired who never got to start.” At 0:50:29: “I will be trying to find a way to let you keep the status quo so that we can spend a year really talking to each other and planning for the future.” | |
| 0:51:03 | Rumors of meetings with city councilors | Crawford: rumors of school board members meeting city council members are “totally false”; “people need to look at school board meetings and ask school board people and come to school board meetings if they have questions and not rely on hearsay.” | |
| 0:52:31 | Burbee Fund paid out in $2 bills | “in 1921. And Bergey [Burbee] gave the city. $32,000”; the remainder goes to the district “to be paid to elementary and middle school students based upon their attend their attendance.” At 0:52:58: “we’ve taken out the kids who are technically truant. And the remaining remaining kids, were to split, $8,204.” At 0:53:32: “each student got between 3 and 6, $2 bills. And their payouts ranged between $11 and $65 for attendance.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:55 | May figures and the year-end estimate | Inflation 4.2%; “Cash balance as of this morning was 3,537,000.” Revenues through May 39,095,000, 1.56% left to collect (0:55:20); expenditures “30,070,000” in the transcript ($30,020,932.89 in the minutes). At 0:55:54: “Encumbrances remaining are 5,459,000, and the amount of appropriation remaining is 4,234,000, or 10.66%”; the deficit carried forward is “probably going to be less than $1 million.” | POSITIVE |
| 0:56:54 | Forensic audit retainer | Angell: “They want $10,000 up front. That’s going to be on a manifest that I’m going to make. I’m hoping it’s in the manifest here.” They will work “on a month to month basis” (0:57:25). Crawford: “Didn’t we authorize up to 50,000?” Angell: “I forgot.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:58:45 | The departed principal’s payments | Lavalette: two moving payments and “on top of his $90,453.60 salary as administrator, he got another stipend for $4,365.39”; “are there any other contracts out there that will put us on the hook to pay for them after they leave the district?” (0:59:19). Angell at 1:00:37: “in their contract, if they had worked the whole year, there was a $20,000 moving. Right. Statement.” Asked if the board approved it, Crawford: “It was not because.” (1:00:59). One other such contract exists (1:01:08). | MEDIUM |
| 1:01:20 | Three years of audits at once | Howard asks for “some sort of chart that says, like, we’re at 50% here, 75% here.” At 1:01:40: “The last audit report that we got for 20 year 22 was in September.” Crawford at 1:02:36: “the audits have taken longer because just finding the darn documentation for it has been difficult.” At 1:03:33: “We want the number what is a verified beginning balance for the beginning of of July 1st 2025.” Lavalette asks for a standing agenda item (1:05:42). | MEDIUM |
| 1:06:39 | Bluff student activity fund | “This goes into a separate bank account held by the building principal.” (1:07:00). The records “didn’t contain, the information by grade level” (1:07:30); a closure policy: “I couldn’t find one specifically to point on this.” (1:07:57). Split by pupils transferred: Disnard “$2,295”, Maple “$4,272. So the total amount to be allocated is $6,567.” (1:09:02). | MEDIUM |
| 1:09:43 | An item nobody could identify | “The second one is administration contract.” “What is the information? I don’t have any information on this.” Angell: “One is not mine.” Crawford: “I’m going to pass on this one and just table. Just eliminate that. No follow up.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:10:38 | Into nonpublic session | “That gets us to the non public meeting which is negotiations. RSA 91-A3 part two A and C.” Roll call 1:11:03–1:11:10. The recording then carries about a minute of table talk before the cut; the motion to come out is at 1:12:10. | MEDIUM |
| 1:12:32 | Minutes sealed | Whitney: “The motion to seal the minutes until July 1st, 2026.” Howard seconds; Kronberg: “Who was the second?” Roll call to 1:12:49. No ground for sealing is stated. | MEDIUM |
| 1:13:22 | Volunteer painting at CMS | Lavalette asks for help with labor and paint. Howard at 1:13:57: “I’ll make a motion. For Don. Love [Lavalette] to work with Matt Angel on a volunteer, painting of CMS.” Crawford adds “And solicit for contributions as necessary.” Vote at 1:15:24: “All those in favor say aye.” “Opposed? Nay. Motion carries.” | MEDIUM |
| 1:16:47 | Makerspace vandalism | Lavalette proposes inviting the affected artists to display work in the schools, “just to send a message to the vandals that they’re not going to win this battle there.” To the July meeting. | |
| 1:18:01 | A camera for subcommittee meetings | Howard: “We’ll have an owl in the room, we’ll film them and we’ll give them the CCTV so that those can be aired after.” Crawford: one is set up for Friday’s finance subcommittee meeting. | POSITIVE |
| 1:18:44 | Wrong date on the posted agenda | Whitney: “one of these agendas was on the website as being June 3rd.” At 1:19:02: “not the first page, but the second page has June 3rd.” | POSITIVE |
| 1:19:13 | Thanks to the interim superintendent | Crawford: “She stepped up when no one would do it, and it was a horrible situation.” Kennedy at 1:19:57: “I’m excited to look forward to July 1st. We shift over.” Crawford at 1:20:11: “this is our last meeting for the fiscal year.” | |
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 minutes document was created 27 days after the meeting, and it omits the vote on the painting motion
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be “open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting”, a business day excluding national and state holidays. With Juneteenth (June 19) excluded, that ran to Thursday, June 25. Drive records the approved minutes document as created July 14, 2026, about the seventeenth business day. The 2026 Claremont minutes documents examined elsewhere in this project were created at or near the call to order, which makes the gap unusual; a creation date cannot rule out a draft kept in another file, and none was located. Separately, the painting motion appears in the minutes with its mover, its seconder and three lines of discussion, and then stops. The recording carries the vote at 1:15:24–1:15:34 (“Opposed? Nay. Motion carries.”). The statute requires minutes to record “final decisions”. Graded MEDIUM on the mitigated limb: the minutes exist, record movers and seconders for every other motion, give the 8:52 adjournment and name the clerk who submitted them.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (5 business days; business day defined; final decisions; movers and seconders; 2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025; text read 2026-09-25); 6.17.26 Approved CSB Meeting Minutes (Drive created 2026-07-14).
MEDIUM A 62-minute session labeled “Negotiations” was held under the personnel and reputation grounds, and its minutes were sealed with no stated determination
The agenda heads the item “Non-Public Meeting: Negotiations RSA 91-A:3, II(a&c)”, and the chair repeated both grounds before the vote (1:10:38), which satisfies the requirement that the motion state its exemption. Collective-bargaining strategy is handled differently: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) excludes “Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining” from the definition of a meeting. The board held a recorded nonpublic session instead, which leaves a record the exclusion would not. What is reviewable is the seal. RSA 91-A:3, III requires nonpublic minutes to be disclosed within 72 hours unless two-thirds of members present determine, by recorded vote in public session, that disclosure would likely affect a person’s reputation adversely, render a proposed action ineffective, or concern emergency preparedness. The vote at 1:12:32 states only a term, “until July 1st, 2026”, and the minutes record no determination. The clerk’s earlier remark that “we’re adding another” nonpublic (0:08:45) is not resolved in the record. Mitigation: the seal was short, and the minuted times reconcile with the recording: 7:41 p.m. against the roll call ending at 1:11:10, and 8:43 p.m. carried forward to the chair’s last words at about 8:51, against a minuted 8:52.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(c), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023; text read 2026-09-25); RSA 91-A:2, I(a); 6.17.26 CSB Meeting Agenda; approved minutes.
MEDIUM A closed school’s student activity fund was split by headcount because no ledger and no closure policy exist, and the minuted figures are 44 cents short
The staff report says the fund “has a separate bank account from the District and is managed by the Building Principal”, that “a ledger of how the funds were allocated (ie, by grade level) was not provided”, and that “Usually there is a policy that discusses this process; however, I could not find one in this instance.” It names policies JJE and JJF as governing such funds. It gives a balance of $6,567.44, split $2,295.93 to Disnard (43 pupils) and $4,271.51 to Maple (80), which sums exactly. Aloud (1:09:02) and in the minutes the figures are $2,295, $4,272 and $6,567. The motion authorizes closure and allocation “as recommended” (minutes), so the report’s figures presumably govern, but the public minutes carry the rounded ones. A fund with no ledger and no closure rule is a control weakness. Mitigation: the business administrator disclosed every gap in writing before the vote, and the money stays in principals’ accounts for pupils.
Sources: Staff Report - Bluff Elementary School SAFs.pdf; approved minutes; RSA 197:23-a (treasurer’s custody of all moneys belonging to the district), which may not reach pupil-raised activity funds; policies JJE and JJF were not in the packet and were not read.
MEDIUM The manifest line is blank on the agenda and in the minutes, while a $10,000 retainer and a $20,000 contract term the board did not approve were discussed
RSA 197:23-a lets the treasurer pay district money “only upon orders of the school board or upon orders of the 2 or more members of the school board empowered by the school board as a whole to authorize payments”. The manifest is that order. The agenda and the minutes both print “Approval of Manifest:” with nothing after it. At 0:56:54 the forensic auditors’ $10,000 retainer was to go on a manifest, “I’m hoping it’s in the manifest here”; the public record does not show the manifest’s amount or contents. At 1:00:37 the business administrator described a departed principal’s contract with a $20,000 moving term; the minutes record the chair’s answer that “it was unique and it was not Board approved”, and that one more such contract exists, to be discussed in nonpublic session. Mitigation: members asked, the administrator answered directly, and the two-signature mechanism was described correctly.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a; RSA 91-A:2, II (subject matter and final decisions); agenda and approved minutes.
MEDIUM About $2 million in 2025–26 federal grant money could not yet be claimed, and prior years’ grants must be rebuilt from 2021
The incoming superintendent’s memo says “for several years the school district has not successfully claimed all the federal funds to which it was entitled” and that “Claremont has about $2 million available for 2025-2026 that can not yet be claimed”. On tape he explains the mechanism: spending against a grant activity that was never written or approved (0:37:48). Angell reports the state has asked him to rebuild the grants from 2021 on, and that the older records are a “disaster” (0:36:19, 0:37:01). Whitney notes grant-compliant time cards were a recurring monitoring finding the board was told had been fixed (0:28:09). Federal rules require effective internal control over federal awards. Mitigation: the money is still claimable (costs can be incurred “through September 30th”, 0:33:00), formula funds carry over one additional year, and a dated plan was stated.
Sources: Claremont SB report - June 17 2026.pdf, section 3; 2 CFR 200.303 (internal control over federal awards); 20 U.S.C. §1225(b) (one additional fiscal year of availability).
MEDIUM Fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025 remain unaudited, so their federal single-audit deadlines have passed
Howard: the last audit report, for fiscal 2022, arrived in September, leaving “three years of them to catch up on” (1:01:40). Crawford: the firm is working 2023, 2024 and 2025 simultaneously to produce a verified July 1, 2025 balance first, with the findings reports later (1:03:05–1:04:41). A district that spends $750,000 or more of federal awards in a year must submit a single audit within nine months of year end; for fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025 those dates were March 31 of 2024, 2025 and 2026. The meeting did not state the district’s annual federal expenditure; this page infers it is above the threshold from the incoming superintendent’s figure of about $2 million still to be claimed for 2025–26 alone. Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH because that threshold is inferred and because the record shows the backlog under active remediation. Howard’s request for a progress chart and Lavalette’s for a standing agenda item (1:05:42) are the right questions.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.501 ($750,000 threshold for these years); 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (nine months after year end); approved minutes.
OBSERVATION Unity’s withdrawal from SAU 6 takes effect July 1, and this meeting’s whole written trace of it is a paragraph about a logo
Section 5 of the incoming superintendent’s memo is headed “SAU separation from Unity” and reads in full that the central office will use a new logo from July 1 and that the facilities director will price “changing the sign in front of the Dow building”. On tape he calls it “your separation of the saw [SAU], that’s really not my domain” (0:45:43); the minutes file it under “Separation of SAU”. The legal mechanism the records identify is Unity’s withdrawal under RSA 194-C:2, IV; the SAU continues with Claremont as its one district. That statute puts the planning committee, the plan, the hearing and the 3/5 vote in the withdrawing district, so no duty on this board is shown unmet. The agenda’s mission statement still reads “every student in Claremont and Unity”. A signed agreement arrives later: the July 21 packet carries a “Unity_Claremont Board Approved (7-22-26) Withdrawal Agreement”. Records custody is the practical question for Claremont: RSA 189:29-a makes the school board responsible for the district’s records retention schedule, and the incoming superintendent reports that “Last year’s contracts are absent from many personnel files” (minutes).
Sources: RSA 194-C:2, IV (withdrawal; note ends 2024, 250:1, 2, eff. July 1, 2024); RSA 189:29-a (1983, 94:1); Claremont SB report - June 17 2026.pdf, section 5; Withdrawal Agreement, July 21 packet.
OBSERVATION The bank’s $10,563.11 check was announced and minuted, but no motion accepted it
RSA 198:20-b lets a board accept unanticipated money from a private source under a district enabling article; for sums under $20,000, III(b) requires notice in the agenda and in the minutes. The minutes record the amount and its character. The agenda names “Claremont Savings Bank” under Recognition, with no amount. No motion to accept was made (0:03:54–0:05:16). A refund of loan interest may not be a gift at all, in which case the section is not engaged; the chair described it as “Donating this money, this interest back to the community”. The record does not identify an enabling article, and this page found no rule requiring a separate accepting vote.
Sources: RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2023, 38:1, eff. July 18, 2023); agenda; approved minutes.
OBSERVATION Of four items the June 3 agenda promised for this meeting, one was transacted, one arrived with no material, one never appeared and one was deferred
The June 3 agenda listed for June 17: closure of the Bluff student activity funds, “Administration Contract”, “Communications Proposal” and “Board By-Laws Update”. The fund closure was voted. The administration contract was noticed for “discussion/vote” with nothing attached, and no one could identify it (1:09:49); the minutes strike the heading through. The communications proposal is absent from this agenda and the minutes. The by-laws went to July. A related thread: the certification that a truant officer would need to drive McKinney-Vento students was still unnamed (0:47:07). No rule is shown broken; the board declined to act on a document it did not have.
Sources: 6.3.26 CSB Meeting Agenda; 6.17.26 agenda; approved minutes.
OBSERVATION The year’s student activities ran on donations handled by a private association, outside the district’s books
The citation thanks the association for “accepting, raising and distributing donations” for school activities (0:01:40), and the chair reports the bank gave “$100,000 to the alumni fund” (0:05:16). The association’s officer described an order-and-authorize process with teachers and “no discrepancies” (0:06:45–0:07:03). Money given to a private association does not pass through the district treasurer, the unanticipated-funds procedure or the district’s audits, so its only public accounting is what the association chooses to give. No rule is engaged and nothing suggests impropriety.
Sources: the recording at the timestamps above; approved minutes; RSA 198:20-b and RSA 197:23-a, cited for what they do not reach.
OBSERVATION The Burbee Fund was paid to pupils in cash on an attendance test, and the stated figures do not reconcile
Pupils “technically truant” were excluded and the rest split $8,204 (0:52:58). The district must define a half day for truancy purposes (RSA 189:35-a, III) and an excused absence (RSA 189:34, II(a)); which definitions were applied was not stated. Kennedy: “there are reasons, legitimate reasons why somebody might be out” (0:54:19). The minutes say payouts were “for perfect attendance”, which is not what was said aloud. The figures do not fit together: 1,000 two-dollar bills make $2,000 of an $8,204 distribution, and three to six $2 bills ($6–$12) do not match payouts of $11–$65 (0:53:32). The minutes record that one manifest is for the fund. No receipting process was described.
Sources: RSA 189:35-a, II and III (2010, 9:2); RSA 189:34, II(a) (2013, 249:14); approved minutes.
POSITIVE The year-end figures tie out to the cent, and every summer program was reported with its funding source
The minutes give expenditures of $30,020,932.89, encumbrances of $5,459,619.74 and appropriation remaining of $4,234,011.37, a total of $39,714,564.00; revenues of $39,095,391.31 plus $619,172.69 still to collect give the same $39,714,564.00. The stated 10.66% and 1.56% check. Encumbering the summer contracts before June 30 keeps them from lapsing under RSA 32:7, I. The incoming superintendent named the source for each summer program: Perkins for the camp, the fiscal 2027 operating budget for extended school year, and the 2024–25 Title IV-A activity for credit recovery ($58,661.40 approved, $19,295.63 spent, per his memo). The extended-school-year encumbrance ($121,497.59 against $120,866.65) is $630.94 over; under RSA 32:10 a transfer to cover it must leave records showing the lines moved to and from, and none were described.
Sources: approved minutes; Claremont SB report - June 17 2026.pdf, section 2; RSA 32:7, I (2017, 127:3); RSA 32:10, I(d) and II (2017, 127:4).
POSITIVE Members corrected the record in public and moved to record subcommittee meetings
Lavalette dictated four corrections to the June 3 minutes so that figures would survive (“maybe five years from now, some board might be looking at what was spent on those positions”, 0:10:54), and Whitney had her staffing-metrics request entered as a fifth; the approved minutes of this meeting list all five. Whitney caught the misdated second page of the posted agenda (1:18:44); Drive shows the agenda last modified at 8:50 p.m. that night, consistent with a correction during the meeting. Howard undertook to have subcommittee meetings filmed and aired (1:18:01), and the June 19 finance subcommittee meeting was recorded.
Sources: approved minutes; Drive metadata for the 6.17.26 CSB Meeting Agenda (modified 2026-06-18 00:50 UTC); June 19 finance subcommittee page.
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
- Right-to-Know: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) and II (2025, 112:1, eff. Aug. 22, 2025); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), II(a), II(c), III (2023, 189:1, eff. Oct. 3, 2023)
- School money: RSA 197:23-a; RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2023, 38:1); RSA 32:7, I; RSA 32:10, I(d) and II
- SAU and records: RSA 194-C:2, IV; RSA 189:29-a
- Attendance: RSA 189:34, II(a); RSA 189:35-a, II and III
- Federal: 2 CFR 200.303; 2 CFR 200.501; 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1); 20 U.S.C. §1225(b)