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 |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Called the meeting to order; added public comment to the agenda; supplied budget history ("We reduced the tax rate went up"); cautioned members against saying the administration had not told them about restructuring (0:53:12); called the break and the nonpublic motion. |
| Chris Irish | Vice Chair | Kept the working spreadsheet of questions by account number and undertook to circulate it and send it to the business administrator; argued the board's role is to set the total, not micromanage (0:52:06); raised internet and electricity costs and consolidation. |
| Michelle Pierce | Board member | Kept the tally of errors; found the duplicated truant-officer line (0:32:25); raised consolidating the elementary schools, athletics lines and unspent maintenance budgets; moved to enter nonpublic session. |
| Frank Sprague | Board member | Led the line review from his experience as Stevens High School principal; found the duplicated paraprofessional line (0:27:03); proposed reducing assistant principals' work years; asked about new and restructured positions. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Board member | Moved the agenda amendment adding a nonpublic session; asked about positions filled without board approval (0:49:09); raised athletics, textbooks and transparency. |
| Michael Petrin | Board member (low-confidence attribution) | Four short rows only, including "No, no" to a direct question; the dialogue file's identification is low confidence. |
| Alex Herzog | Board member | Addressed by name ("Well, Alex, to Frank's point", 0:50:12; "Jump Alex, Mike.", 1:32:30). No speech is attributed to him; two unidentified member clusters may be his or Petrin's. |
| Unidentified | Board members and fragments | 155 of 1,981 rows (7.8%), including a member who explained a tax-sheltered annuity line and one who offered to make copies. |
| Citizens' comments | None | Opened at 0:02:08; no one spoke; closed at 0:02:34. |
| Named, not present | Administration | Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin ("Doctor Goodwin") and the business administrator, referred to throughout as Mike (Michael O'Neill per roster), whose answers the board's questions await ("Mike, I hope you're watching this", 1:44:37). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in the district's online shares. The chair refers to "our agenda" (0:01:00); this order of business is reconstructed from the recording.
Items in the order the recording takes them up.
| Taken up | Item | What was done |
|---|
| 0:00:14 | Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, roll | "Everybody's here." (0:00:54) |
| 0:01:00 | Agenda amendments | Zullo asked to add a nonpublic session at the end, stating "RSA 9183 personnel" (0:01:23); the chair said no motion was needed. The chair added public comment ("it isn't there, but I'm going to add public comment", 0:01:33). Agenda approved as amended on motion (Pierce), second, voice vote (0:01:58). |
| 0:02:08 | Public comment | None; closed at 0:02:34. |
| 0:02:34 | FY2019 budget review | Process discussion, then line-by-line review: Stevens High School from 0:54:52; special education paraprofessionals from 1:22:40; middle school and athletics; Bluff from 1:59:21; break at 2:06:51; Maple Avenue from 2:16:32; district-wide and technology lines; wrap-up at 2:45:03. No votes on the budget. |
| 2:47:28 | Nonpublic session | Rapp: "With that I need a motion for nonpublic." Pierce moved; Rapp: "For personnel." (2:47:35); a second is reported (2:47:41). No roll call is audible before the recording ends. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:01:00 | Nonpublic added to the agenda | Zullo: "I'd like to make a motion to, have a non public at the end of our budget work." Asked what it was for: "RSA 9183 personnel." [as transcribed] (0:01:23). | MEDIUM |
| 0:01:33 | Public comment added | Rapp adds public comment though it was not on the agenda; none is offered. | POSITIVE |
| 0:02:42 | How to review the budget | Sprague proposes starting with the high school and asks for class-capacity (saturation) reports; Rapp: "Discussion is just discussion." (0:10:32). Irish recalls last year's process: "we had our Saturday session, we came up with our thoughts" (0:11:57). | |
| 0:17:39 | The directive and what came back | Pierce: "you guys had a meeting and Brian and I unfortunately were not part of that" and the administration "came back with a 1.7 million increase" (0:18:02). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:22:57 | Consolidating the elementary schools | Pierce estimates "$5 million less a year if we consolidated" (0:23:11); Irish: "The only way you're going to see real, legitimate tax relief is to somehow consolidate and be more efficient" (0:23:57). | |
| 0:27:03 | Duplicated paraprofessional line | Sprague: "does anybody else see Cynthia Roberts there twice" (0:27:03). Pierce: "we just found $16,584.75 in a typo error of a double on a paraprofessional" (0:27:53). | POSITIVE |
| 0:30:36 | Truant officer line duplicated | Pierce: Terry Casey is shown at 39,000 "and then right underneath it again, it shows a duplicate" (0:32:25); "Nine $39,802." (0:32:57). | POSITIVE |
| 0:38:49 | Summer work years for administrators | Sprague proposes reducing assistant principals to 220 days and staggering them (0:39:29); discussion of full-year support staff. | |
| 0:48:35 | Who approves new positions? | Zullo: "sometimes there's been people hired since I've been on the board that we haven't approved well, even known about" (0:49:09). Rapp: "We approved the hiring." Irish: "But we don't have to." Irish later: "a lot of it happened restructuring wise without the board's involvement" (0:50:12). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:52:06 | The board's role | Irish: "All we get to say is you get $31 million, period" and "Our job is not to micromanage." (0:52:57). Rapp: "I think it's unfair to say that stuff hasn't, hasn't been discussed" (0:53:33). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:54:52 | Stevens High School lines | Extended learning, textbooks, copiers, computers, principal's office ("From 1800 to 10,000"), contracted maintenance, athletic transportation budgeted at $30,000 with none spent (1:13:07). | POSITIVE |
| 1:22:40 | Special education paraprofessionals | Irish: "Just middle school alone is almost $300,000 in Paris" [paras] (1:28:04). | |
| 1:35:13 | Athletics | Zullo asks how many coaches the $46,526 in athletic salaries covers (1:35:13); Pierce lists athletics lines budgeted but unspent. | |
| 1:40:45 | Internet and electricity | Irish: "That's $13,000 just for this school to have internet" despite a city fiber hub (1:40:45); Pierce asks whether the schools share the city's electricity rate (1:41:37). | |
| 1:59:21 | Bluff School | Administrative lines, maintenance budgets well above actual spending; Rapp: "we cut it to zero" on lines cut last year. | |
| 2:06:51 | Break | Five-minute break. | |
| 2:16:32 | Maple Avenue and district-wide lines | Supplies, testing, furniture; information management services: "budgeting it for the proposed 173,000" (2:20:28); technology equipment proposed at 158,000 (2:21:04). | |
| 2:37:55 | Tech center transportation and other lines | Sprague on SRVRTC transportation; Irish questions PowerSchool training in Salt Lake City (2:42:58) and telephone maintenance. | |
| 2:45:03 | Sending the questions; the joint meeting | Irish will circulate the spreadsheet, collect additions, and "once I get everybody's blessing" send it to the business administrator (2:46:25); the joint meeting with the City Council is cancelled until the budget is done (2:46:20). | OBSERVATION |
| 2:47:28 | Nonpublic motion | Pierce: "I'd like to make a motion to go into nonpublic." Rapp: "For personnel." Then: "Just tell him to shut off. Yeah, he just shut off." (2:47:51). | MEDIUM |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on November 29, 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. 6 flags follow, ordered by severity.
MEDIUM The nonpublic motion said only "personnel", and no roll call is on the recording
At the start Zullo asked to add a nonpublic session for "RSA 9183 personnel" [as transcribed] (0:01:23); at the end Pierce moved "to go into nonpublic" and the chair added "For personnel." (2:47:35). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) as it read in 2017 required that the motion "shall state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II" and be decided by roll call. Personnel is not an exemption: paragraph II separately covers (a) an employee's dismissal, promotion, compensation or discipline, (b) hiring, and (c) matters affecting a non-member's reputation, and I(c) confines the session to the matters set out in the motion. The earlier 9183 may be a garble of 91-A:3, but no paragraph is audible. A second is reported (2:47:41); the operator is told to shut off (2:47:51) and no roll call is heard, so the vote itself may have happened off the recording. Graded MEDIUM as a probable process gap rather than HIGH because the recording ends before the vote and no minutes are available to confirm how it was taken.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017).
OBSERVATION The question list was to be assembled by email with every member's "blessing" before going to the administration
Irish said he would send the spreadsheet to all members, take additions by email, and "Everybody says, okay, I'll send it's strictly informational and then I'll send it to Mike once I get everybody's blessing", adding "Just don't go back and forth" (2:46:25, 2:46:50). RSA 91-A:2-a (in force since 2008) requires public bodies to "deliberate on matters only in meetings" and bars communications outside a meeting, including sequential communications among members, from being used to circumvent the chapter. Much of the list was built in this public session, and Irish expressly tried to keep email one-way; but collecting each member's approval of the final list by email sits close to the line the statute draws. Recorded as an observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (source note 2008, 303:4 only, so in force in 2017).
OBSERVATION Members were unsure which hires need board approval
Zullo said people had been hired "that we haven't approved well, even known about" (0:49:09); Rapp said the board approves a hiring list; Irish replied "But we don't have to" (0:49:05) and later that restructuring had happened "without the board's involvement" (0:50:12). RSA 189:39, unchanged since 1971, provides that "Superintendents shall nominate and school boards elect all teachers". The positions discussed here were mostly non-teaching (secretaries, curriculum and program roles), for which this page verified no comparable statute, so no finding is made; the exchange is recorded because the board's own understanding of its approval role was unsettled on the record.
Sources: RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2; unchanged since).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes are online; the September 30 session is referenced again
MAP.md section 48 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. RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2017 required 24 hours' notice and minutes open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting"; the superintendent undertook on November 15 to post notice of this session. The nonpublic session's minutes were subject to 72-hour disclosure under RSA 91-A:3, III unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote. Pierce's remark that "you guys had a meeting and Brian and I unfortunately were not part of that" (0:17:39) refers to the September 30 Saturday session discussed on the November 15 page; no record of it is in the corpus.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017); RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017).
POSITIVE A public, line-by-line review found apparent duplicate salary entries worth over $56,000
Working in open session without staff, members identified a paraprofessional listed twice ("$16,584.75 in a typo error of a double on a paraprofessional", 0:27:53) and the truant officer's salary carried twice (Nine $39,802., 0:32:57), and flagged many lines budgeted well above past actual spending (for example athletic transportation budgeted at $30,000 with none spent, 1:13:07). Members were careful to frame these as questions for the business administrator rather than conclusions ("we're not going to have the answers to these questions", 0:45:27). Doing this work on camera lets the public see exactly how the board arrived at its questions.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
POSITIVE The chair added public comment to a work session whose agenda did not include it
The chair: "it isn't there, but I'm going to add public comment" (0:01:33), and opened it before any business (0:02:08). No statute required a public comment period in 2017 (the 30-minute rule of RSA 189:74 dates from 2022). No one spoke.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9470, "SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 11-29-17": 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 48, checked 9/26/26). No notice, agenda, first-draft budget, question spreadsheet or minutes for this session were located.
- Related meetings in the corpus (pages named by recording): Claremont School Board, November 15, 2017 (show 9442, where this session was scheduled and the first draft distributed); Claremont School Board, December 6, 2017 (shows 9495 to 9497, where the directed budget was due).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9470 SchoolBoard112917.mp4.CSV (1,981 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9470 SchoolBoard112917.mp4Input/Transcripts/9470 SchoolBoard112917.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9470 SchoolBoard112917.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 48
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on November 29, 2017. RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2016 codification, in force for all of 2017) (notice and minutes). RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (source note 2008, 303:4 only, so in force in 2017) (deliberation only in meetings). RSA 91-A:3, I(b), I(c), II and III (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017) (nonpublic sessions). RSA 189:39 (source note ends 1971, 371:2; unchanged since) (board election of teachers).