Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes exist online to check spellings against. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Sara Lowe | Chair, SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Self-identified ("I'm Sarah Lowe, a chair", 0:03:57). Presided; seconded the agenda amendment and moved the Professional Growth Master Plan herself; pressed for a written agreement on building repairs; framed the budget timetable around leaving room for public comment; raised district communications and the superintendent's evaluation. Adjourned the meeting. |
| Frank Sprague | Vice Chair, SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Self-identified ("Frank Sprague, vice chair", 0:04:06). Moved the agenda amendment and the November 2016 minutes; seconded the Primex resolution; questioned professional development and travel costs, computer prices and fuel oil; raised the superintendent's evaluation. |
| Chris Irish | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Moved the Primex resolution; tested larger fund-balance draws; argued computers should cost $600 to $700; questioned paying CCTV for meetings that fail for lack of a quorum; asked for last year's superintendent-evaluation framework. |
| Rebecca Zullo | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Asked about SAU salaries and positions, software renewals, conference costs and the purpose of the evening's budget review. Identification rests on one name cue in the transcript (medium confidence per the attribution report). |
| Brian Rapp | SAU 6 Board (Claremont; Claremont School Board chair) | Proposed holding the November 2 hearing and adopting afterwards if ready; said a quorum was now much more likely without Cornish. Roll response not audible. |
| Michael Petrin | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Answered the roll ("Michael. Peter. Here."); one introduction line, "Veteran, new to the Claremont School Board", is assigned to him by the dialogue file as a hypothesis. |
| Robert (Bob) McDevitt | SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Asked who is responsible for repairs to the rented SAU building and about Unity's share; preferred to wait before approving the budget; described Kiwanis bell-ringing and scholarships. The later Kiwanis remarks are a low-confidence attribution. |
| Michelle Pierce | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Called on the roll; her response is not audible and she has no attributed speech. Attendance not established. |
| Patrick Adrian | SAU 6 Board (Claremont) | Absent (0:00:48). |
| Marjorie Erickson | SAU 6 Board (Unity; new member) | Absent; introduced in absence by the chair as the new Unity member (0:03:24). |
| Bruce Howard | SAU 6 Board (Unity) | Absent per the roll (0:01:11). |
| Unidentified | SAU 6 Board member | Moved the budget to be carried forward to the hearing ("I'll make that motion.", 1:34:42). The attribution report names Petrin or Pierce as the unplaced Claremont members; not established. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Asked to postpone the Movement toward Excellence report; introduced the budget as being on "a very fast track"; spoke on the importance of communication and of the superintendent's evaluation; described sending attendance reminders. |
| Michael O'Neill | Director of Business and Finance, SAU 6 | Self-identified as "Michael Neal, director of business and finance" [O'Neill] (0:04:19). Presented the Primex resolution, the line-by-line budget, the apportionment and the fund-balance projection, and the hearing timetable. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the Professional Growth Master Plan; explained the technology integrator's role, contractual professional development and travel, a new $100,000 math grant, the Communications Club and the district Facebook page. Several of her segments are reassigned from the chair's cluster in the dialogue file. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Technology, SAU 6 | Introduced by O'Neill; explained the three-year firewall and content-filter renewal and computer repurposing and pricing. |
| Mary Woodman | Recording secretary | Called the roll. Her cluster also absorbs short remarks by others (medium-low confidence). |
| Citizens' comments | None recorded | The chair asked for citizens' comments at 0:03:09; none ("No citizens.", 0:03:17). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in the district's online shares, so this order of business is reconstructed from the chair's transitions on the recording. Speakers refer to an agenda with lettered items and a packet ("On the back of your agenda", 1:35:11; "in your packet of information", 0:05:43), and the superintendent says he sent the agenda to members on Friday, October 6 (1:41:01).
Items in the order the recording takes them up.
| Taken up | Item | What was done |
|---|
| 0:00:04 | Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, roll call | Pledge at 0:00:04; attendance at 0:00:40. See Board composition above. |
| 0:01:21 | Amendments to the agenda | The superintendent asked to put off the Movement toward Excellence report, scheduled "for the new board members back in April. But we haven't met so." (0:01:37). Sprague: "I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda as suggested by the administration." (0:02:15); the chair seconded (0:02:21); voice vote, Aye (0:02:25). |
| 0:02:25 | Minutes of November 14, 2016 | Irish: "I thought it was a typo." The chair: "We haven't had a quorum for three meetings." (0:02:42). Sprague moved acceptance (0:02:55); a second is heard (the dialogue file assigns it to O'Neill, a staff member, which is probably a cluster error); voice vote; "Minutes are accepted." (0:03:09). |
| 0:03:09 | Citizens' comments | None. |
| 0:03:24 | Introduction of SAU 6 board members | New Unity member Marjorie Erickson introduced in absence; members introduce themselves. |
| 0:04:30 | Primex Property and Liability Contribution Assurance Program | Memo dated March 27, 2017. O'Neill read the resolution (0:07:42). Irish moved "the resolution as read" (0:08:28); Sprague seconded (0:08:39); the chair: "Chris made the motion. And Frank second." (0:08:44); voice vote (0:08:53), no audible opposition. |
| 0:09:21 | SAU 6 Professional Growth Master Plan | Presented by LeClair. The chair: "I will make a motion that we approve this, plan officially." (0:21:05); seconded by an unidentified member (0:21:10); "Motion passes unanimously." (0:21:22). |
| 0:21:22 | FY2018-19 SAU budget | Line-by-line review, apportionment and fund balance. Consensus to use $55,000 of fund balance. O'Neill framed the motion as "a motion to carry forward the budget of $1,955,423 for posting for the public hearing on November 2nd." (1:34:24). An unidentified member moved (1:34:42); a second is heard (the dialogue file assigns it to the superintendent, probably a cluster error); voice vote (1:34:53), no audible opposition. |
| 1:35:11 | Communication items carried from earlier agendas | CCTV coverage and quorum reminders; sharing district news; the Communications Club and Facebook page. Discussion only. |
| 1:52:23 | Future agenda items | Public hearing confirmed for November 2 at 6:00 (1:52:42); superintendent's evaluation raised (1:52:56). Discussion only. |
| 1:58:25 | Adjournment | Motion to adjourn raised by Sprague; the chair: "Adjourned at." ... Oh one (1:58:37). |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics from the dialogue file. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording. Quotations are the transcript as recorded, ASR errors included.
Topics by start time.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:01:21 | Board has not met since the spring | The superintendent: the Movement toward Excellence report was meant "for the new board members back in April. But we haven't met so." (0:01:37). On the November 2016 minutes, the chair: "We haven't had a quorum for three meetings." (0:02:42). | MEDIUM |
| 0:04:59 | Primex rate-cap program missed for 2017-18 | O'Neill: the three-year program covers 2018-19 through 2020-21, and "We are not participating for 1718 only because we didn't have a meeting in the time frame that we needed to get it signed and sent back." (0:05:18). Asked whether rates rose, he says they went up about 10% and the program caps increases at 7% a year (0:06:28). The SAU pays about 7,000 against Claremont's roughly 100,000 (0:07:20). Resolution adopted (0:08:53). | MEDIUM |
| 0:09:36 | Professional Growth Master Plan, approved by the State ten months earlier | LeClair: the plan "is a requirement of the Department of Education", runs July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021, and governs certified staff (0:09:36). "This has already been approved by the New Hampshire Department of Education on December 15th of 2016. And we've been waiting for Saw board approval since then, but we haven't had the meeting. So we are almost a year later." In its absence "we have been operating under this plan" for a second school year (0:10:54). Sprague confirms it is consistent with the bargaining agreements; the chair asks about related service providers (0:15:56). Approved unanimously (0:21:22). | MEDIUM |
| 0:21:35 | Budget introduced on a fast track | McGoodwin: "we're on a very fast track. And in the perfect world, we would have had this discussion in June." O'Neill: last year's budget "went down by 117,000 587" after Cornish's exit removed two positions, yet still raised Claremont's and Unity's shares because Cornish had paid "in the $210,000 range" (0:22:43). | MEDIUM |
| 0:25:36 | Line items and the total | On the building charge: "we're raising it as taxation in Claremont to give it to the South so we can give it back to Claremont" [SAU] (0:25:36). Merit pool left at 175; "So the total budget is 1,955,423, an increase of $9,367, or 0.48%." (0:26:22). Fixed costs leave "only means about 6% of the budget" controllable (0:27:13). | |
| 0:31:03 | Who repairs the SAU building? | The chair: the SAU rented the building "with the understanding that Claremont would do those repairs. Who pays for those repairs now if something happens?" (0:31:03). O'Neill: "I don't know what the agreement was based on in the beginning because because I wasn't here for that." (0:31:38); proposes to "use the same rental agreement, just not charge rent" (0:34:44). The chair: "I feel five years from now, if nobody at this table is still at this table, somebody needs to know." (0:35:26). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:37:47 | SAU salaries and positions | Zullo walks through Attachment C; O'Neill explains the business-office restructuring that eliminated positions effective July 1, 2017, and introduces the new technology director, Josh Malloy (0:42:54). LeClair describes the half-time technology integrator. | |
| 0:47:35 | Apportionment between Claremont and Unity | O'Neill: "The apportionment is based upon taking one half of the average daily membership and attendance at the end of the previous school year, and one half of the most recently published equalized valuation" (0:47:35). Equalized valuation 85.76% Claremont, 14.24% Unity; membership 93.52% and 6.48% (0:47:58). "Claremont would be 1,622,719." (0:48:30). | POSITIVE |
| 0:49:28 | Revenues and fund balance | Last year the SAU used $50,000 of fund balance (0:49:55); revenues equal expenditures at the proposed 1,955,423 (0:51:09). Fund balance projection: surplus of about $143,000 at June 30, 2016, grown to about $202,000 at June 30, 2017 (0:58:00, 0:58:24), and projected at about $150,000 at June 30, 2018 (0:59:04). | |
| 1:06:47 | How much fund balance to use | O'Neill: "I'm okay at 55, I wouldn't want to go 100", recalling that when Claremont returned $1.8 million "it's hard to explain to people why their taxes went up so much when the budget went down" (1:06:47); "I stress tax savings, a one year tax savings" (1:07:41). The chair's summary: "So Claremont goes down by $478 and unity goes down by $2,655." (1:11:08). | |
| 1:07:59 | Timetable: November 2 or December 7 hearing | O'Neill: adopting tonight carries the budget to the November 2 hearing, otherwise a December 7 hearing (1:08:07); the budget must be adopted "by December 31st" and the year before he started "it was December 29th" (1:08:44); a hearing "requires me to post two weeks in advance, put in the newspaper" (1:09:17, his description). | POSITIVE |
| 1:13:46 | Professional development and travel | LeClair: "in my contract there's an amount spelled out for professional development for me as part of my benefit" (1:14:25); O'Neill estimates 50% is contractual (1:14:49). Zullo suggests "more frugal" conference choices (1:16:28). O'Neill: "We budgeted 37 3 in 1617. We spent 29059." (1:18:48). | |
| 1:19:38 | Computer replacement and prices | Sprague: "So we're still paying $1,000." (1:21:59). Irish: at "$700 for the PCs and 1200 for laptops, you could save 2400 right there" (1:26:39). Zullo: "there is $14,700 built in for new replacement equipment" (1:26:49). | |
| 1:27:47 | What the board is being asked to do | Zullo: "Are we just reviewing these numbers or are we supposed to what." The chair: the budget must be done "so that it can be passed, and then it can go to Claremont and Unity" (1:29:08). Last year's hearing drew no one (1:30:21, 1:30:35). Irish: "the public hearing for the Saw is not the same as" a deliberative session; "They can't make any changes" (1:31:18). Rapp: hold the hearing, then adopt if ready (1:32:47). | POSITIVE |
| 1:34:24 | Budget carried forward to the hearing | Motion "to carry forward the budget of $1,955,423 for posting for the public hearing on November 2nd" (1:34:24); moved by an unidentified member (1:34:42); voice vote (1:34:53). | |
| 1:35:43 | CCTV coverage and quorum | The chair: the item was on the agenda "to make sure that the CCTV folks were here all the time" after "a handful of meetings where they weren't" (1:35:43). Irish: failed meetings "we still paid for" (1:36:02); "there's no requirement to have to have CCTV here. I mean it's a good thing" (1:36:37); "If we're not sure we're going to have a quorum. CCTV does not need to be here." (1:38:35). The chair: "we got together a number of times and needed nine and had eight" while Cornish was leaving (1:37:28). The superintendent now sends attendance reminders (1:38:44). | OBSERVATION MEDIUM |
| 1:41:44 | Sharing district news | A student Communications Club formed that day to cover "print internet, social media and social media and TV and video" (1:43:00); the Claremont School District Facebook page has been live "for almost a year" (1:43:57). McDevitt describes Kiwanis bell-ringing with Key Club members (1:48:05). | |
| 1:52:56 | Superintendent's evaluation | Sprague raises it; the chair asks whether a full evaluation or an update on the five-year plan is needed (1:53:21). McGoodwin: "the evaluation should be based on some concrete, measurable expectations" (1:53:49). Zullo is "surprised that it's not annual anyway" (1:54:59); Irish asks for the framework "Becky developed" (1:55:08). | |
| 1:58:25 | Adjournment | Adjourned at 8:01 p.m. by the chair's statement (1:58:37). | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on October 12, 2017, cited 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. 5 flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The SAU 6 board went eleven months without a quorate meeting, missing its spring organizational window and delaying business with real costs
The minutes approved tonight were those of November 14, 2016; the chair explained "We haven't had a quorum for three meetings." (0:02:42). Staff described three consequences on the record: the Primex rate-cap program was not joined for 2017-18 "because we didn't have a meeting in the time frame" while rates rose about 10% against a 7% cap (0:05:18, 0:06:28); the Professional Growth Master Plan, approved by the Department of Education on December 15, 2016, waited "almost a year" for board approval while staff operated under it (0:10:54); and the budget came to the board on "a very fast track" (0:21:35). RSA 194-C:5, I, unchanged since 1996, provides that the SAU board "shall meet between April 1 and June 1" and "shall organize by choosing a chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer." The recording shows a board in April that did not meet ("back in April. But we haven't met", 0:01:37), and does not show whether the 2017 organization ever happened; Lowe and Sprague still introduce themselves as chair and vice chair (0:03:57, 0:04:06). Graded MEDIUM rather than HIGH because the record mitigates it: members did convene and fell one short ("needed nine and had eight", 1:37:28) while Cornish's withdrawal was pending, and they discussed attendance reminders to prevent a repeat (1:38:44).
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3, eff. Aug. 9, 1996).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting is online
MAP.md section 43 records that neither district Drive share holds anything older than 2022 (checked 9/26/26). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that records were never made: speakers refer to a lettered agenda and a packet (0:05:43, 1:35:11), the superintendent says the agenda went out October 6 (1:41:01), the board approved earlier minutes tonight, and the November 2, 2017 recording shows this meeting's minutes being approved. RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 required minutes naming members and "persons appearing before the public bodies", with a brief description of the subject matter and final decisions, open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; the mover-and-seconder requirement did not exist until January 1, 2019. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2016 codification; source note ends 2016, 29:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017, so in force for all of 2017).
OBSERVATION Members proposed making television coverage of SAU meetings depend on a confirmed quorum
The item was on the agenda because CCTV had been absent from "a handful of meetings" (1:35:43). Irish objected to paying CCTV for meetings that failed for lack of a quorum and proposed that "If we're not sure we're going to have a quorum. CCTV does not need to be here." (1:38:35), adding that "there's no requirement to have to have CCTV here" (1:36:37). No rule verified for this page requires a public body to televise its meetings, so this is not a compliance question. It is recorded because, for this period, the CCTV recording is the only public account of what the board said: no agenda or minutes are online (see flag 2), and the proposal as stated would leave no recording of any gathering whose quorum was in doubt on the day. No decision was taken; members agreed to watch attendance first (1:38:16).
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
OBSERVATION Responsibility for repairs to the SAU's rented building was not documented, and staff could not state its basis
The chair asked who pays for exterior repairs now that the rent arrangement had changed (0:31:03); the business administrator said "I don't know what the agreement was based on in the beginning" (0:31:38) and proposed reusing the rental agreement without the rent (0:34:44). Members asked that responsibility be put in writing (0:35:26). This page verified no rule on inter-district facility agreements, so it is an observation about documentation. The request for a written agreement is a sound control; whether one was produced is not shown in the corpus.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
POSITIVE The SAU budget was explained in plain terms, apportioned by the statutory formula, and scheduled for a public hearing the statute does not require
RSA 194-C:9, I, unchanged since 2003, requires the SAU board to adopt a budget "At a meeting held before January 1", apportioned "1/2 on the average membership in attendance for the previous school year and 1/2 on the most recently available equalized valuation", and requires no public hearing. The business administrator described the apportionment in the same terms (0:47:35) and showed each district's percentages (0:47:58). The board adopted a proposed budget in October to carry to a November 2 hearing, and the chair's stated reason was to leave time to act on public comment rather than finalize on the hearing night (1:30:43, 1:31:12). The November 2 page records the hearing held and the budget adopted that night.
Sources: RSA 194-C:9, I (2017 codification; source note 1996, 298:3; 2003, 279:1, eff. Sept. 16, 2003).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9386, "SAU #6 BOARD MEETING 10-12-17": Claremont Community Television. Every timestamp on this page links into this recording.
- 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 section 43, checked 9/26/26). No notice, agenda, packet, Primex memo, Professional Growth Master Plan, budget document or minutes for this meeting were located.
- Related meeting pages: SAU 6 Board, November 2, 2017 (budget hearing; approves this meeting's minutes).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.CSV (961 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9386 SAU6101217.mp4Input/Transcripts/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9386 SAU6101217.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 43
Laws and rules cited on this page