Participants
Everyone the recording shows taking part. Names follow the project's dialogue file and the 2015 to 2023 roster; no minutes are online to check spellings against. Where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Brian Rapp | Chair | Presided; said three members had found the December 20 figure too low and that excluding the teachers' contract meant $307,000 more in cuts; pressed members for a specific non-salary saving; voted for the amendment and against calling the question. |
| Chris Irish | Vice chair | Moved to drop the discussion items and go to the budget; argued for holding at $31,148,256.95 so voters would see a tax cut; said the board's wishes had been "ignored, delayed, distracted"; moved the budget to the deliberative session. |
| Alex Herzog | Member (one-year seat) | Corrected the December 20 minutes on who called the question; seconded the reconsideration; moved to amend the budget to include the $307,153 contract so voters could decide. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Said he understood the contract would sit on top of the voted budget; called the question. Attribution medium-high. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Said the administration's cut lists felt like "a scare tactic" and that line items were inflated; asked how staff development is split between benefit and certification; seconded Irish's motion. The dialogue file marks her agenda-amendment lines as uncertain. |
| Frank Sprague | Member | Moved the December 20 minutes and the reconsideration; said he was surprised the contract had been folded in; spoke of "management" rather than cuts. Attribution medium (mixed cluster). |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member | Asked how the deliberative session can change the budget and questioned the source of last year's truck and textbook money and several line items. Attribution medium-low (the dialogue file marks some of these rows uncertain). |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk / recording secretary | Called both roll calls; asked members to speak up so she could record motions and seconds. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduced the donations; answered the charge of "scare tactics" and asked members to name the line items with savings. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Explained why the contract is carried in the operating budget, the tax-rate effects and the $35,111,787 default budget; answered line-item questions. Several of his rows are marked uncertain in the dialogue file. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent (attribution uncertain) | Explained how the teachers' agreement reached the board and the staff development line. She is not named in this file; the dialogue file assigns these rows to her on content, with an uncertainty note. |
| Prescott Herzog | Stevens High School student, grant presenter | Presented the New England Dairy and Food Council grant for a breakfast cart and walking and running clubs. |
| Unidentified | Various | Seconds, short answers, a staff speaker on state revenue (0:15:54), and the member who asks as "the newbie" (0:14:31), whom the dialogue file leaves unresolved between Petrin and Zullo. 56 of 505 rows (11.1 percent). |
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. The chair's reading of the agenda shows it listed a review of citizens' comments from the hearing, a principals' review of the budget and the deliberative session date as discussion items, which the board struck. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | Return from nonpublic session | Motion "to come out of nonpublic, which we had before our budget hearing"; moved and seconded (the dialogue file hears "Frank" and "Alex"); voice vote at 0:00:28. |
| 0:00:34 | Agenda amendments | Irish moved to dispense with the discussion items and go to the action items (0:01:28); an unidentified member seconded; approved by voice at 0:03:43. |
| 0:03:59 | Minutes of December 20, 2017 | Sprague moved, Irish seconded (0:04:24); clarified that Irish, not Herzog, called the question on December 20 (0:07:13); approved by voice at 0:07:42. |
| 0:07:57 | New England Dairy and Food Council grant | $2,977 as stated at 0:09:31; moved by an unidentified speaker; approved by voice at 0:10:22. |
| 0:10:31 | Anonymous $2,000 donation, Bluff fourth-grade White Mountains trip | Herzog moved to accept; Pierce seconded (0:11:03); approved by voice at 0:11:09. |
| 0:11:30 | Reconsideration of the FY19 budget | Sprague moved to reconsider the December 20 figure of $31,148,256.95; Herzog seconded (0:11:58); carried by voice at 0:11:59. |
| 0:23:43 | Herzog amendment to include the teachers' contract | To $31,455,410 (heard as "31 million for 55 to 56"); Sprague seconded (0:24:23). Petrin called the question (1:02:09); roll call to close debate carried 6-1, Rapp opposed (1:02:58). Roll call on the amendment (1:04:02): Herzog, Petrin, Rapp yes; Irish, Pierce, Sprague, Zullo no. Failed 3-4. |
| 1:04:40 | Motion to send $31,148,256.95 to the deliberative session | Irish moved; Pierce seconded (1:04:49); debate continues past the end of this recording. The roll call (4-3) is in part 2, show 9550. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:08 | Out of nonpublic | Rapp: "Need a motion to come out of nonpublic, which we had before our budget hearing." The motion that opened that session is not on this recording. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:01:28 | Straight to the budget | Irish: "Can we just go right to the action item of approval of the 20 1819 budget? We've been through everything else a thousand times." | |
| 0:04:46 | December 20 minutes | Irish asks members to check the minutes' account of the budget motion. Woodman at 0:06:18: "Like usual, you know, you guys don't speak up." Sprague at 0:06:33: "That was Chris that made the call. Chris called the motion. Correct." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:08:22 | Student grant | Prescott Herzog: "me and two teachers from Keaton's high school [Stevens High School] wrote a grant for about $3,000" for a grab-and-go breakfast cart and walking and running clubs. At 0:10:11: "So I've raised $5,000 for Stevens." | |
| 0:11:30 | Reconsideration moved | Sprague: "I'll make a motion to reconsider the budget at this time." At 0:11:44, the figure: "$31,148,256.95." | |
| 0:12:51 | How the contract reached the board | LeClair (attribution uncertain): the association ratified the agreement, and "it came to you in a non public meeting after" the last board meeting at the tech center: "we went over into the other room, and that was one of two items discussed in that." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:13:19 | Why the contract is in the budget | O'Neill: "We're one of the only, if not the only district that is required to put SRE" [the teachers' association] contract in the operating budget, which "brings the budget up to 31 for 55. Ten for ten" [$31,455,410]. Rapp at 0:14:39: "There was a court decision years ago and it was a Supreme Court decision." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:16:26 | Why reconsider | Sprague: "I was surprised when I saw that tonight that it was folded in." Petrin at 0:17:15: the contract "would be on top of that budget. So I was of that understanding." | |
| 0:18:45 | Tax-rate effect | Irish: "If we go with the new number we're now at a three cent. So we basically have eliminated pretty much all of our tax cut." LeClair (uncertain) at 0:19:04: the real cuts are larger than $328,000 or $600,000 because of fixed-cost increases. | |
| 0:20:54 | Let the voters decide | Irish: "Here's a 47 cent tax decrease." "But the voters will have the final say, not us." O'Neill at 0:23:05: at the deliberative session "There's no decision made"; the ballot vote is "on March 13th". | |
| 0:23:43 | Herzog's amendment | Herzog: "I'm going to want to support teachers because I want our teachers to be good." He moves the higher figure and to "let the voters decide if that's too high". O'Neill at 0:25:04 gives the default budget: "It's 35,111,787." | |
| 0:25:42 | Holding the line | Irish: "And we started out with $1.70. We ended up with 47." Sprague at 0:26:57: "I don't want to talk about cuts. That's the wrong terminology. I think this is about management." He refers to a Saturday budget meeting of the board; "Patrick is not on the board anymore." | |
| 0:28:41 | Chair on the cuts | Rapp: "There was a number given two weeks ago, and it was painful." Without the contract, "we're looking at going back and cutting $307,000 more in the budget". | |
| 0:29:52 | Line items and "scare tactics" | Pierce: "I felt like it was a scare tactic." Zullo at 0:35:17: "I don't think anybody is skimming anybody." O'Neill at 0:36:51: the prior year's end-of-year surplus "was about $200,000". | |
| 0:39:02 | Staff development line | LeClair (uncertain): the teachers' contract, "if it was fully utilized, is over $800,000"; the line also carries $59,000 the board added for curriculum work. | |
| 0:49:00 | Name a saving | Rapp: "Can you give us an example of cost savings you have found in a line on them that is not a salary and is not something that we have presented to you already." McGoodwin at 0:49:31: "I was publicly accused of putting up scare tactics"; "Where in what line items are these funds available? I need to know that because I couldn't find them." | |
| 0:53:38 | Board role | Irish: "we don't have the authority, nor should we, to try to micromanage all these line items". At 0:55:43: "that $328,000 is not Armageddon in that big of a budget". At 0:58:18: "the board's wishes were ignored, delayed, distracted." | |
| 1:00:29 | Pierce on the administration | Pierce: "Doctor Goodwin was aggressive. Doctor McGowan was disrespectful at times" [both renderings of McGoodwin]. | |
| 1:02:09 | Question called, amendment fails | Petrin calls the question; roll call carries 6-1 (Rapp no, 1:03:36). Amendment roll call from 1:04:02: Irish no, Herzog yes, Petrin yes, Pierce no, Sprague no, Zullo no, Rapp yes. Fails 3-4; the result is not announced on tape. | POSITIVE |
| 1:04:40 | Budget to the deliberative session | Irish moves the $31,148,256.95 figure (garbled in the transcript); Pierce seconds. Herzog at 1:04:58: "I think that puts up 700,000 a hole." Irish at 1:05:47: "we're looking at over $650,000 now". Continues in part 2. | POSITIVE |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on January 3, 2018, 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.
OBSERVATION The teachers' contract was taken up in a closed session on December 20, and no recording shows where the ratification vote was taken
The speaker the dialogue file takes to be LeClair says the agreement "came to you in a non public meeting" after the December 20 board meeting and was "one of two items discussed in that" (0:12:51). The December 20 recording (show 9507) ends with a roll-call vote to leave public session in which the superintendent's citation is transcribed as 91 a two Roman numeral one, a, that is RSA 91-A:2, I(a); at the budget hearing (show 9547) the superintendent said the board approved and ratified the agreement on December 20. RSA 91-A:2, I(a), as it read in 2018, takes only "Strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining" outside the definition of a meeting, and RSA 91-A:3, II lists no collective-bargaining ground for a nonpublic session. A vote to ratify is neither strategy nor negotiation, so it belongs in public session. Nothing on any recording shows the vote itself: the board may have returned to public session and voted after the December 20 recording stopped. The December 20 minutes, approved at 0:07:42, would settle it but are not online. Recorded as an observation because the record is incomplete, not because a lapse is shown.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(a) (2017 codification; source note ends 2017, 165:1 and 234:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2018); RSA 91-A:3, I(b)-(c), II (2017 codification; source note ends 2016, 30:1 and 280:1); the Claremont School Board recordings of December 20, 2017 and the January 3, 2018 hearing (shows 9507 and 9547).
OBSERVATION Officials said a court decision requires Claremont to carry the teachers' contract inside the operating budget; the decision is not identified
O'Neill told the board the district is "one of the only, if not the only district" required to put the teachers' contract in the operating budget, and Rapp attributed this to "a Supreme Court decision" (0:13:19, 0:14:39). That is why the hearing figure rose by $307,153 and why the board had to choose between absorbing the contract and adding it. RSA 273-A:3, II(b), unchanged since 2013, provides that "Only cost items shall be submitted to the legislative body" for approval; the statute requires the voters to approve the cost items, and this recording does not show how Claremont's placement of them inside the operating-budget article squares with the usual separate-article practice, or which court decision officials meant. This page does not verify either claim. Readers comparing Claremont's budget votes with other districts' should know that, by the officials' own account, the bargained raise and the operating budget rise or fall together here.
Sources: RSA 273-A:3, II(b) (current text; source note shows the paragraph last amended 2013, 244:1, eff. Sept. 22, 2013, so the same text governed in 2018).
OBSERVATION The nonpublic session held before the hearing is not on the recordings: its motion, stated exemption and roll call cannot be checked
The chair opens this recording by asking for "a motion to come out of nonpublic, which we had before our budget hearing" (0:00:08), and the exit passes by voice. The motion that opened the session is on neither this recording nor the hearing recording (show 9547 begins at the hearing's call to order). In 2018 RSA 91-A:3, I(b) required the motion to "state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II" and a roll-call vote, and 91-A:3, III required the minutes and decisions of the session to be disclosed within 72 hours unless sealed by a recorded two-thirds vote. None of that can be tested from the district's online record; the minutes of this meeting were kept (approved January 31) but are not posted.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b), III (2017 codification; in force for all of 2018).
OBSERVATION Minutes were kept and corrected on the record, but none for this period are online
The board approved its December 20 minutes after correcting who called the question (0:07:13, 0:07:42), and on January 31 approved this meeting's minutes with a correction. RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018 required minutes naming members and "persons appearing before the public bodies", with "a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (the mover-and-seconder requirement came only on January 1, 2019). The recording shows the minutes existed, so nothing here suggests a lapse; but neither district Drive share reaches back before 2022, and the minutes for this meeting could not be located online (MAP.md section 55). Graded on the project's online-availability limb. The clerk's repeated difficulty hearing motions (0:06:18, 1:02:34) is noted because it bears on the accuracy of those minutes.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification; the text in force for all of 2018).
POSITIVE The budget was revisited in public after the hearing, and each member's vote was recorded by roll call
RSA 32:5, I, as it read in January 2018, required the governing body to hold its hearing and "after the conclusion of public testimony shall finalize the budget to be submitted to the legislative body"; paragraph II barred inserting an amount or purpose not disclosed at the hearing. The board did exactly the first: it reopened the figure by a public motion to reconsider (0:11:30), debated it for most of an hour, and took roll calls on closing debate and on the amendment (1:02:58, 1:04:02), so every member's position is on the record. The only proposed increase, the $307,153 contract, had been presented at the hearing, as O'Neill notes at 0:13:19. Whatever one thinks of the outcome, the process met and exceeded the statute's minimum.
Sources: RSA 32:5, I-II (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, 190:7, in force until Aug. 11, 2018).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9549, "Part 1 of 2 - SCHOOL BOARD MEETING of 1-3-18": 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 55, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were located online.
- Related recordings (pages named by recording): the budget public hearing the same evening (shows 9547 and 9548); part 2 of this meeting (show 9550); the December 20, 2017 meeting (show 9507); the January 31, 2018 meeting that approved these minutes (show 9586).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.CSV (505 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4Input/Transcripts/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9549 SchoolBoard010318.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 55
Laws and rules cited on this page