Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and its attribution report; no minutes are online to check spellings against, so non-member spellings are as the transcription heard them and are marked where unverified. About 24% of rows are Unidentified, and several members are never tied to a voice; members are listed first.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presided. Told the snowplow contractor at 0:19:49 that "If you're talking about one of our employees, it's kind of unfair to be telling the stories." and at 0:27:24 "please do not criticize or defame one of our employees."; also said "I don't know anything about the bids." and that the board could schedule the matter as an agenda item. Asked whether the 2012 contract was four or five years. Welcomed Dr. Herzog to the board's practice of working policies as a whole board. The roll call's Brian Brown is this name. |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair (dialogue file: medium confidence) | Asked about the football send-off bus and praised community fundraising. Proposed Tuesday, February 7 for the deliberative session. In the home-school access policy argued that equal is not in the statute, read RSA 193:1-c aloud (1:22:30) and asked that the policy simply defer to the RSA. Rendered Chris Harris in the roll call. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Moved approval of the prior minutes. Asked about the VISTA element of the GEAR UP grant; asked whether the food-service policy would block outsourcing; questioned the fund-drive literature clause; recalled Gideons distributing Bibles outside Stevens High School; argued that removing equal would make the access policy less restrictive rather than more. Moved policies to second read. |
| Patrick Adrian | Board member (dialogue file: medium confidence) | Asked how the strategic action plan would be reviewed after adoption, crediting a forum participant for the idea. Worked on the gift and solicitation policies with the assistant superintendent. Raised special-needs services to non-enrolled pupils under the access policy and agreed that equal opens a question. |
| Dr. Alex Herzog | Board member, appointed November 2, 2016 | Present: the chair addresses him at 0:56:49 ("And Alex, just so you know, we used to have a committee that would deal with policies"). No words are attributed to him in the dialogue file. |
| Michelle Pierce; Brent Ferland | Board members | Neither is placed on a voice by the dialogue file, and the roll call at 0:00:23 is truncated (Brian Brown here. Chris Harris here, right here.), so the recording does not establish whether either attended. A member who is not identified says at 1:24:31 "I apologize, but I am going to have to leave." |
| Marion Lovett | Student representative | Gave the student report: Bluff's Thanksgiving feast, the Stevens football team's place in the Division III championship at UNH, a Key Club UNICEF drive that "nearly raised $700", and a turkey fundraiser. The chair's Barron, you're up is taken by the dialogue file as her first name; the surname is from the dialogue file (medium-high confidence). |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Proposed the agenda changes and the non-meeting; reported the GEAR UP New Hampshire cohort for Claremont Middle School and the RVCC partnership; walked the board through the SB 2 timeline and the deliberative-session window; presented the policies and argued for keeping equal in the access policy. Rendered mr. Goodwin and Middleton, Goodwin. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reported on the October 6 early-childhood community conversation, a November 10 business conversation, and the November 3 strategic-plan forum ("close to 50 people"). Explained the rewritten solicitation, advertising, gift and flier policies and the growth in home-school requests. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 | Answered the snowplow complaint with the bid results and payment history; said the business administrator decides non-educational purchases under board policy; urged setting the deliberative date that night. Rendered Michael Leal, Mike O'Neill and Michael Neil. |
| Norm St. Alban | Public commenter; snowplow contractor | Self-identified at 0:14:22 ("My name is Norm, Saint Alban"), 85 years old, in the plowing business since 1960. Disputed the award of the school plowing contract to Morris Enterprises and said he was the low bidder; described his dealings with named district staff. Surname spelling unverified. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. A written agenda existed: the superintendent refers to its third page and to Roman-numeral items. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:03 | Pledge and roll call | Roll call garbled and incomplete in the transcript. |
| 0:00:45 | Agenda amendments | Superintendent: add Alex Herzog to the list of board members; add a resignation under action; add a non-meeting under RSA 91-A:2 for collective bargaining strategy, after the discussion items; correct the printed FY18 deliberative-session date. Approved by voice vote at 0:03:06; mover and seconder not identified. |
| 0:03:25 | Minutes of the previous meeting | Sprague moved; second not identified; approved by voice vote. |
| 0:03:50 | Student representative report | Informational. |
| 0:06:09 | Superintendent's report | GEAR UP grant; RVCC partnership; the football championship. |
| 0:13:59 | Citizens' comments | One speaker, Norm St. Alban, on the snowplow contract; closed at 0:29:23. |
| 0:29:39 | Discussion: SB 2 towns and schools annual meeting timeline | Deliberative session set by consensus for Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.; no formal vote heard. |
| 0:33:02 | Discussion: community conversation; early childhood coalition asset mapping | Informational report by the assistant superintendent, including the strategic-plan forum. |
| 0:45:37 | Discussion: learning partnership roundtable | Combined with the previous item. |
| 0:47:26 | Non-meeting (collective bargaining strategy) | Board recessed; no vote. Reconvened at 0:49:27. |
| 0:49:33 | Action: policies for third reading | Four policies read by the chair as BDG. R, EEEAA, F I'm d a and JCA (transcript renderings). Approved by voice vote at 0:53:05; mover and seconder not identified. |
| 0:53:27 | Action: KH, KHB, GBEBC, KDC (first read) | Public solicitations, advertising, employee gifts and solicitations, flier distribution. Moved to second read on Sprague's motion at 1:09:16; flier-policy wording held. |
| 1:09:41 | Action: access by non-enrolled pupils; procedural safeguards (first read) | Policies read as J j j and I h be a dash. Moved to second read at 1:26:16 with equal to be revisited; mover not identified. |
| 1:26:39 | Adjournment | Seconded; voice vote. |
| none heard | Action: resignation (added at 0:01:41) | No discussion or vote on a resignation is audible anywhere on the recording, and the resignation is never named. See flag 3. |
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.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:26 | Agenda changes | Superintendent: Herzog left off the member list; "if we could add resignation to action"; a non-meeting "per RSA 91, a two Roman numeral one B strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining" (0:01:49); and at 0:02:32: "The deliberative session needs to occur on February 8th, not the first. The first is too early." | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:54 | Student representative report | Football championship "this Saturday at 11 a.m." (tickets "$8 for adults and $6 for students and senior citizens"); a unified basketball jamboree; class food drive for the soup kitchen; Key Club UNICEF drive and paper-turkey sale ("The number purchased through last year's fundraiser was 110 or 120 turkeys"). | |
| 0:06:13 | Superintendent: GEAR UP grant | Claremont Middle School joins a GEAR UP New Hampshire cohort: "The grant is $1.7 million, and 1 million of that is going to be for scholarships"; the cohort model follows seventh graders "until their first year in college". Sprague asked about the VISTA volunteers; the superintendent had learned of the award second hand. | |
| 0:11:12 | Football championship; community support | Stevens in the Division III final at UNH. Irish: the community "had raised the money in less than two hours" for the soccer team's bus. | |
| 0:14:22 | Citizens' comment: snowplow contract | Norm St. Alban: "I would like to know why Morris heard Morris Enterprises got the bid for the snow plowing of the schools this year." He put the five-year cost at "around $55,000", said he was the low bidder, and said a staff member had told bidders the "low bidder doesn't always get the bid". He then described an encounter with a named district employee; the chair objected at 0:19:49. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:03 | Business administrator's answer | Chair: "I don't know anything about the bids." Asked whether members had the bids, a voice answered No. O'Neill at 0:21:25: "in the school board policy, it allows for the business administrator to make decisions on non educational purposes." At 0:22:38: "Norm did get the job for four years for a cost of about $14,000 a year." and at 0:23:21: "We paid you 122,000 more than the bid. That was my concern." St. Alban answered that the extra came from salting and sanding he was asked to supply. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:26:21 | Chair questions the contractor; comment closed | Chair: "it looks like the original bid was $14,000. And you were getting paid $44,000 a year." After St. Alban criticized the business administrator, the chair at 0:27:24: "please do not criticize or defame one of our employees." and at 0:28:23: "If the board wants to look further into it, we can schedule something as an agenda item." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:49 | Deliberative session date | Superintendent: the SB 2 timeline's parameters "have to be adhered to per RSA"; the deliberative session "needs to be between February 4th through February 11th", so the printed February 1 date must change; February 8 "is a conflict with the Claremont City Council. That's the same night." O'Neill: "there's other postings and other things that are driven by that date." Chair at 0:32:18: "It'll be a 6:00 meeting on Tuesday the seventh." | POSITIVE |
| 0:33:34 | Community conversations and strategic plan | LeClair: the October 6 early-childhood event (supported by New Hampshire Listens) and a November 10 conversation with business members; a follow-up expected January 12; the strategic-plan forum of November 3 facilitated by Mark Dolan. Adrian at 0:38:52 asked how the plan would be reviewed once adopted; the superintendent: "a plan should be alive and living and adjusting accordingly." | |
| 0:43:16 | Partnerships | LeClair: internship credit for students hosted by Red River; talks with River Valley Community College. The superintendent: a preliminary meeting with RVCC about sharing the tech center; "Nothing has been formalized." | |
| 0:47:27 | Non-meeting for collective bargaining strategy | Superintendent: "RSA 91-A colon two A Roman numeral one B. Strategy or negotiation or negotiation with respect to collective bargaining. It's a non meeting." Chair: "It's not a non public correct." Superintendent: "It is not. It's a non meeting." The board recessed; the recording resumes at 0:49:07. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:49:40 | Policies for third reading | Superintendent: six policies (access to minutes and public records, student transportation, video and audio recording, food service management, patriotic exercises, change of school or assignment) "are the result of changes in the law." Sprague wanted to be sure the food-service language "doesn't preclude us from going to, a company that would provide food service as opposed to our own employees"; the superintendent said it does not and that an RFP was rolling out. Four policies approved by voice vote. | |
| 0:54:40 | Solicitation, advertising, gift and flier policies | LeClair: the old wording prevented community partnerships; for example "the policy prevented Napa from handing out footballs". The gift policy's key phrase is "in exchange for doing business". Sprague recalled the Gideons at Stevens; Irish asked that community-related fliers be allowed, citing free Conservation Commission camp memberships. Wording on the flier policy held; the four moved to second read. | |
| 1:09:44 | Access for non-enrolled pupils | Superintendent: if a district bus route passes both a pupil's home and a charter school, "Then we are obligated to provide transportation from the student's home to the charter school, with the understanding that we're not creating another, different route." LeClair: "I think we're well over 100 home school students." Irish asked that the policy say only that the district "will comply with the provisions of RSA 191 colon, 1-C" [193:1-c]. | POSITIVE |
| 1:22:10 | The word equal | Irish, reading the statute: "Does not say equal. In the RSA. It does not say equal." and at 1:22:30: "Nonpublic public charter school or home educated pupil shall have access to curriculum courses and co-curricular programs offered by the school district in which the pupil resides." Superintendent at 1:23:04: students not enrolled "have access. That's the law." and at 1:23:54: "I'm not going to fall in the store for this." At 1:24:11: "We're going to put take equal out for further discussion later next month." | POSITIVE |
| 1:24:38 | Procedural safeguards policy | Sprague asked why a policy is needed when federal law already requires the safeguards; the superintendent: a new policy that "the New Hampshire School Board Association recommended". Both policies moved to second read. | |
| 1:26:39 | Adjournment | Motion seconded; voice vote. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 16, 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 collective-bargaining non-meeting was announced twice under the wrong subparagraph letter
The superintendent twice cited the collective-bargaining exclusion as paragraph I(b) of RSA 91-A:2 (0:01:49 and 0:47:27). In the text in force in 2016, subparagraph (a) is "Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining" and (b) is "Consultation with legal counsel". The substance he named (bargaining strategy) matches (a), and a session within the exclusion is not a meeting, so no motion or roll call was needed and the chair correctly treated it as a recess rather than a nonpublic session. The only defect on the record is the letter, which could mislead a reader of the minutes into thinking the board met with counsel.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a)-(b) (2015 codification, in force until January 1, 2017): the collective-bargaining and legal-counsel exclusions.
OBSERVATION A five-year snowplow contract was awarded administratively; members said they had not seen the bids
A contractor who said he was the low bidder asked why the school plowing contract for the next five years went to Morris Enterprises (0:14:22). The chair answered "I don't know anything about the bids." and, asked whether members had copies, a voice said No. (0:21:03). The business administrator explained that board policy "allows for the business administrator to make decisions on non educational purposes." and justified the choice by the incumbent's history: a four-year bid of "about $14,000 a year" on which the district "paid you 122,000 more than the bid" (0:22:38 to 0:23:21). The contractor answered that the extras were salting and sanding the district asked for.
This page found no New Hampshire statute that requires a school district to award a service contract to the lowest bidder; the governing rule is the district's own purchasing policy, which is not in any available record, so this is an observation. What the record does show is that a multi-year obligation was placed without the board seeing the bid sheet, and that the bid results were handed out only at the meeting. The chair also cut short a citizen's criticism of a named employee (0:19:49, 0:27:24). In mitigation, he let the comment run for about fifteen minutes, questioned the contractor's figures himself, and offered to put the matter on a future agenda (0:28:23).
Sources: No statute identified; the district purchasing policy cited on the recording was not located.
OBSERVATION A resignation was added to the action items and never taken up on the recording
At 0:01:41 the superintendent asked to "add resignation to action", and the amended agenda was approved. No resignation is named, discussed or voted on anywhere in the recording, which runs to the adjournment vote. Whose resignation it was cannot be settled from this recording; the project's attribution report notes that a Brent Ferland resignation was accepted in January 2017, and a staff resignation is also possible. Without the agenda or minutes a reader cannot tell whether the item was withdrawn, handled in a way the recording did not capture, or dropped.
Sources: The recording only; no agenda or minutes located.
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are posted online
MAP.md records that neither district Drive share holds anything before July 2022 (checked 9/26/26), so this page rests on the recording alone. That is a limit of what the district posts online, not by itself evidence that records were never made: members refer to their packet and to the agenda's third page, and the board approved its previous minutes at 0:03:29. 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 that was met cannot be tested from here. The limb of the project's missing-records rule applied is the online-availability observation, because the recording itself shows minutes being kept and approved.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2015 codification, in force until January 1, 2017): minutes open to inspection within 5 business days; Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md section 19.
POSITIVE The administration caught a deliberative-session date outside the statutory window and the board fixed it with months to spare
The printed agenda put the FY18 deliberative session on February 1, 2017. The superintendent flagged that the session "needs to be between February 4th through February 11th" (0:29:49), and the board chose Tuesday, February 7 at 6:00 p.m. to avoid the City Council's February 8 meeting (0:32:18). The window he gave matches the statute: RSA 40:13, III, in the text then in force, places the first session between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January. In 2017 the last Monday in January was January 30, so the window ran from Saturday, February 4 to Saturday, February 11. February 1 would have fallen outside it.
Sources: RSA 40:13, III (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, so the text in force from September 2014 to August 2018): first session between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January.
POSITIVE A member checked a policy draft against the statute's own words and the board held the policy for revision
The draft access policy for non-enrolled pupils promised "equal access". Irish read the statute aloud at 1:22:30 and pointed out that it does not say equal; the superintendent disagreed ("That's the law", 1:23:04) but agreed to take the word out for further discussion (1:24:11). Irish's reading is correct: RSA 193:1-c, I, as amended effective March 26, 2016, reads "Nonpublic, public chartered school, or home educated pupils shall have access to curricular courses and cocurricular programs offered by the school district in which the pupil resides," and the word equal appears nowhere in the section. Testing a draft against the statute before adoption, and holding it rather than voting it through, is good practice.
Sources: RSA 193:1-c, I (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 4:1, eff. March 26, 2016): access to curricular courses and cocurricular programs; without the word equal.
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.
Dialogue/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.CSV (588 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4Input/Transcripts/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/8762 SchoolBoard111616.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 19
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on November 16, 2016. RSA 91-A:2, I and II (exclusions from the definition of meeting; minutes; 2015 codification, the text in force until January 1, 2017). RSA 40:13, III (deliberative-session window; text in force 2014 to 2018). RSA 193:1-c, I (access by non-enrolled pupils; 2016 codification).
- District policy. The purchasing policy the business administrator relied on, and the policies taken up (read on the recording as BDG-R, EEAA, IMDA, JCA, KH, KHB, GBEBC, KDC, JJJ and IHBA-R, transcript renderings), were not located.