Claremont School Board & City Council, Joint Meeting — November 15, 2016
Joint session summary generated from the Claremont Community Television recording and its speaker-attributed transcript; no agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted in the district's online shares, and the city's own records were not inspected. The City Council lacked a quorum from the start, so nothing was voted beyond adjournment. The bodies heard a state lead-poisoning prevention presentation, agreed to seek a December meeting with the legislative delegation on lead screening and on the phase-down of the state stabilization grant (put at $251,312 a year by the business administrator), and traded notes on health-insurance costs, employer rankings and marketing the schools. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
Bodies
Claremont School Board (SAU 6) and Claremont City Council, in joint session. School Board Chair Brian Rapp opened the meeting and ran the citizens' forum; Mayor Charlene Lovett ran the rest.
Date
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Start time
Scheduled time not stated in any available record. The chair opens the meeting at 0:00:18; the mayor calls a ten-minute break at 1:56:13; the adjournment motion is made at 2:33:52. The dialogue file runs to 2:33:57.
Location
Not stated in any available notice or agenda. A councilor says "I'm also a teacher here" and refers to "the director here" of the career and technical education center, which suggests the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center building; not confirmed.
None located in the district's public shares: neither Drive share reaches back before July 2022 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). The city's notice, agenda and minutes, if any, would be in the city clerk's records, which this project did not inspect.
Quorum
School Board: quorum present (five of seven named in the chair's roll: Pierce, Sprague, Rapp, Adrian, Herzog; Brent Ferland absent; Chris Irish expected late). City Council: no quorum, as the city manager noted at 0:01:14 and a resident repeated at 2:14:42. The council has nine members, so five were needed; the council roll call is lost in the transcript except for one name.
Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file; no minutes are online to check spellings, so names of city officials and guests are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. School board members first, then city officials, staff and guests.
Name
Role
Participation
Brian Rapp
Chair, Claremont School Board
Called the meeting to order, read the school board roll and ran the citizens' forum before handing the chair to the mayor. Asked whether programs exist to fund lead screening of young children in the schools. At the close: "The school board. We have a quorum so we can." The mayor's Chair wrap is this name.
Michelle Pierce
School Board member
Asked how lead exposure can be detected in adults and across generations, whether landlords could get renovation training locally, and whether testing could be mobile; reported on her own work on poverty with Southwest Community Services. Recognized by the presenter as Michelle.
Frank Sprague
School Board member
Self-identified at 1:29:37 ("Frank. Frank Sprague, school board."). Said lead history would let special-education teams treat persistent deficits as brain injury rather than behavior.
Patrick Adrian
School Board member (first name only on this recording)
Asked about lead in soil; proposed asking the legislative delegation to pledge support for the lead bill; asked for data on which towns and representatives the aid cut affects.
Dr. Alex Herzog
School Board member, appointed November 2
Welcomed at the roll as Our new member, Alex Herzl here. No words are attributed to him in the dialogue file.
Chris Irish
School Board Vice Chair
Announced at the roll as late because of a meeting at Dartmouth (the transcript reads "Chris Irish won't be coming in later."). Whether he arrived is not established by the recording.
Brent Ferland
School Board member
Absent: "Brant Ferland, not here."
Charlene Lovett
Mayor, City of Claremont
Explained how the lead initiative began, introduced guests and ran the second half; urged both bodies to write to the delegation and to schedule a December meeting; asked that school communications to councilors go through the council clerk; shared a 23.1% city health-insurance increase, the tax rate and the employer list; described a school-positive fact sheet for realtors. Rendered Mayor Leavitt.
Guy Santagate
City Manager (surname as the dialogue file gives it; medium-high confidence)
Noted the missing council quorum at 0:01:14; introduced city staff; described the city's lead service-line replacement and a $500,000 loan application; called the state's school-funding approach "disgraceful" and unconstitutional. Rendered Santiago and Santa gate.
Carolyn Towle
City Councilor (medium confidence)
Asked what case management means for a child who tests positive at kindergarten registration. Recognized as Carolyn.
Victor (surname unverified)
City Councilor
"Yes, my name is Victor." A former house painter; asked why lead-paint enforcement faded after the early 1980s. The roll call's Victor Bertram is the only council name the transcript keeps.
Councilor Pope (first name not on this recording)
City Councilor; teacher at the tech center
Named by the mayor at 2:20:20; reported on the council-school vocational-opportunities group and the tech center's advisory councils.
Unidentified participants
Council-side and board-side voices
A questioner the presenter calls Mary (1:33:48); a former city councilor who asked for data on affected towns (2:09:16); a speaker who described the Zillow ratings of Claremont schools (2:28:55); and the maker of the adjournment motion. The dialogue file leaves these Unidentified.
Middleton McGoodwin
Superintendent, SAU 6
Introduced the stabilization-grant discussion and deferred to the business administrator; said school budgets rose less than 2% a year over five years; closed on the football championship. Rendered Mr. Goodwin and Doctor McGowan.
Michael O'Neill
Business Administrator, SAU 6
Explained the phase-down of Claremont's FY2012 stabilization grant and reported that 178 of 245 towns are affected. Rendered Michael Neal.
Cory LeClair
Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6
Asked how the Claremont lead statistics are counted and whether poverty data correlate; said she saw no need for a separate poverty committee but asked both bodies to recognize poverty's effect on the schools.
Rep. John Cloutier
State Representative, Ward 1 (citizens' forum)
Self-identified ("I'm John, cloudier from ward one"). Reported the bill-filing period "is open yesterday and will go until December 2nd", the Sullivan County delegation's organizational meeting, and his bills including one on the DMV's move from Claremont.
Gail Gans
Health promotion advisor, NH Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
Gave the lead-poisoning presentation and answered questions. Self-identified ("I am Gail Gans").
Peter Wright
CEO, Valley Regional Hospital
Said Medicaid and CHIP pay for the test and the hospital is "100% committed" to a joint screening effort. Introduced as Peter Ryan; the dialogue file reads Wright from the later "Mr. Wright".
Katie (surname not on this recording)
Claremont-Newport Healthy Homes Committee
Pointed out the tenant lead-disclosure form and the need for confidential follow-up when screening.
Bernie Folds
Public commenter, Ward 3 (surname as heard)
Asked whether a bone test for childhood exposure exists; at 2:14:42 objected that a quorum of the council was not present.
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share. The mayor refers to "the agenda" and to "the next item", so a written agenda existed; this list is reconstructed from the transitions on the recording. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
Motion by a voice the dialogue file leaves Unidentified, seconded by Adrian; the chair noted the school board's quorum.
Discussion timeline
Chronological, from the dialogue CSV. Times are the start of the cited exchange, taken from the CSV's own second count. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped cell for the full entry.
City manager: "I want to point out that lacks a quorum." Chair's roll: "Michelle Pierce here. Brant Ferland, not here. Frank Sprague here." Irish late from a Dartmouth meeting; "Our new member, Alex Herzl here. Welcome."
House and Senate sworn in December 7; the bill-filing period "is open yesterday and will go until December 2nd"; the Sullivan County delegation organizes December 12 in Unity. Invited both bodies to bring legislation to the four Claremont representatives and Senator Hennessy; described a bill so that the DMV's move from Claremont "never happens again".
City manager raised a Franklin meeting on school funding; the mayor: "That meeting happened last night." Cloutier: "school funding is going to be another issue."
Mayor: the state environmental agency told the city its water system is not the main lead source; lead paint is. "we want to have 100% screening of children 0 to 6 years of age". Guests introduced: Valley Regional Hospital's CEO, the Healthy Homes Committee, city finance, code, welfare and public-works staff.
Gans: the program is "almost completely funded by the center for Disease Control"; "New Hampshire has between 800 and 1000 poisonings each year" and "that's twice the national average." Claremont "has long since been on New Hampshire's top eight high risk communities". "All children should be tested in Claremont at age one and age two."
"like 99% of the elevated blood leads of the poisoning comes from lead paint"; children under six lack a blood-brain barrier; no outward symptoms; effects on attention, behavior and learning; CDC reference level lowered from 10 to 5 micrograms per deciliter in 2012 while state rules still act at 10.
"37% had had an elevated blood lead" among tested schoolchildren in the 2014 surveillance report; "70% of our two year olds were not tested." Claremont is a universal-testing community. SB 135 set testing targets; draft legislation by Senator Feltes (transcribed Felton, Felts) would make New Hampshire a universal-testing state.
Test children; educate providers and teachers; test homes, schools and child-care centers; check contractors' renovation certification at the building-permit stage; advocate during the 30-day window before the legislation is filed.
City manager: the city has been replacing lead pipes and is "applying for $500,000 loan grant"; private service lines from the property line are the owner's responsibility. A board-side voice at 1:35:55: public works tested the schools' water last spring and found one problem, which it thought was the bubbler.
Pierce, Towle, Adrian and Sprague asked about adult testing, soil, and what case management means. Sprague at 1:29:37: with lead histories "we begin to look at it as instead of a behavior where we're starting to look at it now as actual brain damage." Gans on Claremont at 1:33:59: "You had over 50 children with elevated blood leads" over three of the last five years.
Wright: "Most of the kids that are six and undercover through the Chip program through Medicaid, and they pay for the test." and "I've already told the mayor and the superintendent they were 100% committed to working with the city and the school". Katie: screening needs confidential reporting and follow-up.
Mayor: "I think it would be wise at this point if the school board would start doing the work of, you know, how they want to address this within the school system and policies and all that." Adrian proposed seeking a pledge from the delegation; the mayor proposed a joint letter. Ten-minute break.
Mayor: Franklin and Northfield lead a coalition asking the legislature to freeze the cut. O'Neill at 2:00:42: "Lamont's portion of that stabilization grant was 6,282,807." and "So we take a 4% reduction in that stabilization grant each year, which is $251,312 per year"; "So in four years we're down a million." Superintendent: the change followed a court case in which "Dover was one of the leaders".
"Pick the word disgraceful or unconstitutional. Pick a choice. It's both." He said poorer towns such as Claremont and Franklin pick up the tab while Concord balances its budget. Superintendent at 2:08:16: "over a five year period, the average increase was less than 2%", including the $12.5 million renovation bond.
Mayor: "the next step should be probably in December"; the chair, mayor, superintendent and city manager to work out "possible dates with the delegation". No vote.
Folds: "a quorum of the city council is not present." City manager: "I pointed out earlier, there was no quarrel." A voice: "We won't vote" ... "On anything." O'Neill then reported "178 of them are affected by this reduction. So it's about 72.6% of the state."
Mayor: "I would request because of 91 a issues that it go to our, council clerk, Miss Russell, and she can get it to the council members." Chair: "Typically through Doctor Goodwin."
Mayor: "our health insurance costs for the city side went up 23.1%"; the tax rate "It's $41.41."; on the employer profile "currently our top employer is the school district" and the city is seventh.
Councilor Pope reported on the tech center's advisory councils. Pierce described work with Southwest Community Services. Mayor at 2:24:42: "I don't see a need at this point in time for a committee on poverty"; LeClair asked both bodies to recognize poverty's effect on the school budget.
Mayor: realtors knew little about the schools' positives, so she and the assistant superintendent drafted a fact sheet for them. A speaker on real-estate sites: a listing shows "Stevens High School, you'll see that it has a D in Claremont Middle School has a D minus." Superintendent closed on the football championship.
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 15, 2016. Several provisions cited below were later amended, and each flag cites the text as it then read. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Flags are ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The City Council never had a quorum, so for the council this was not a meeting; the school board did, and took no action beyond adjourning
The city manager said at 0:01:14 that the council "lacks a quorum", and a resident repeated it at 2:14:42; the council side acknowledged it had been noted and said no votes would be taken. Under RSA 91-A:2, I as it then read, a meeting is the convening of a quorum of a public body, so the council members present were not holding a council meeting and could not act for the council. The Claremont City Council has nine members, so its quorum is five. The school board's roll at 0:01:33 shows five of its seven members, a quorum, and the chair relied on it to adjourn (2:33:55). Nothing was voted except adjournment; the December meeting with the delegation and the joint letter were left as consensus for the mayor, chair, superintendent and city manager to arrange (2:14:12).
The practical point for a reader is that nothing said here bound the city. This page does not assess the city's notice or minutes: those would be in the city clerk's records, which were not inspected.
OBSERVATION The business administrator's figures on the stabilization-grant cut match the statute; the causal story told for it is the speakers' own
O'Neill told both bodies that Claremont's FY2012 stabilization grant of $6,282,807 would fall by 4% a year, "$251,312 per year", compounding to about a million dollars in four years (2:00:42 to 2:01:21). The arithmetic is right (4% of $6,282,807 is $251,312) and it matches the law then in force: RSA 198:41, as amended in 2015 and 2016, paid each municipality a percentage of its fiscal year 2012 stabilization grant, and "the percentage shall be 96 percent for fiscal year 2017", falling by four points each year after. The superintendent's account that the reduction followed litigation led by Dover (2:02:53), and the city manager's description of state funding as unconstitutional, are the speakers' characterizations; this page has not verified the litigation history.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted in the district's online shares
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: the mayor refers to the agenda and the presenter to materials "in your packet". In 2016 RSA 91-A:2, II required minutes to be "open to public inspection not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; whether the school board's minutes of this session met that cannot be tested from here, and the city side's records were not inspected. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation, because nothing on the recording shows a lapse.
POSITIVE The mayor routed school-to-council communications through the council clerk, citing the Right-to-Know Law
At 2:16:16 the mayor asked that anything the school district wanted councilors to see go through the council clerk "because of 91 a issues". Sending material to a whole body through its clerk, rather than by chains of messages among members, keeps deliberation where RSA 91-A:2-a puts it: "public bodies shall deliberate on matters only in meetings", and communications outside a meeting, including sequential ones among members, "shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter." That paragraph was unamended from 2008 through the whole period this project covers.
No Drive material: neither the Claremont nor the SAU 6 share holds a year folder older than 2022, and the Meeting Minutes share starts at 2023 (MAP.md, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet, handouts (the presentation, the draft lead legislation, the Franklin coalition letter) or minutes were located. The city clerk's records were not inspected.
New Hampshire statutes, as in force on November 15, 2016.RSA 91-A:2, I and II (meeting defined as a quorum convening; minutes; 2015 codification, the text in force until January 1, 2017). RSA 91-A:2-a (deliberation only in meetings; unamended since 2008). RSA 198:41, IV(d) (stabilization grant phase-down; 2016 codification).