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 |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair (presiding throughout the recording) | Ran the agenda and votes; corrected the hearing minutes; volunteered to present the main budget at the deliberative session; asked the superintendent to report the SB 193 vote as unanimous. |
| Brian Rapp | Member; outgoing chair | Moved to oppose SB 193, the retirements, the ice hockey co-op, the youth and government trip and the policies; asked whether audio recording on buses is lawful; volunteered for the roofing article. |
| Chris Irish | Member; outgoing vice chair | Volunteered to present the security article, then left for an hour. Two rows only. |
| Alex Herzog | Member | Asked that the moderator be heard early; suggested taping off nonvoter seating; described his Stevens visit and urged restoring technology; asked about gift limits; thanked Irish and Rapp for their service as officers. Attribution medium-high (cluster mixes Irish). |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Said many earlier "doom and gloom" cuts had disappeared; asked about the default budget and about approaching the governor on SB 193. Attribution medium-high. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member | Questioned retirements and line-item allocations; asked about technology grants; volunteered for the bus article; seconded several motions. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Member; vice chair from this meeting (per the press) | Asked about the elementary teaching cut, technical-education lines and what happens when grants end. Attribution by elimination only (low-medium). |
| Tracy Pope | School district moderator | Presented the deliberative session agenda and rules of procedure: no floor motions on articles, restricting reconsideration, voter cards, standing counted votes, secret-ballot slips, an accessible microphone, and a moderator pro tem. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk / recording secretary | Explained how officers are sworn in after the election. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the amendments, the I Am College Bound report, attendance figures, the reductions list, SB 193, the head lice forum, the action items and five policies. |
| Michael O'Neill | Business administrator, SAU 6 | Walked through the reductions line by line, the warrant articles and the revenue changes. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent | Raised assigning article presenters; reported the live-feed test; proposed the seating plan (attribution uncertain for that exchange; the chair then says "Thank you Pat", see method note); explained grant limits; reminded viewers of the filing deadline. |
| Lexi | Student representative, Stevens High School (surname not on the record) | Gave the student report and described I Am College Bound day. |
| Unidentified | SAU 6 administrator, non-voter | Asked where administrators should sit at the deliberative session (0:34:27). |
| Unidentified | Others | Seconds, ayes and short remarks. 69 of 630 rows (11.0 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. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:18 | Agenda amendments | Four action items added (retirees, youth and government delegation, a $500 grant, ice hockey co-op) and the moderator moved up; Herzog moved; approved by voice at 0:02:16. |
| 0:02:32 | Minutes of January 3 (regular meeting and public hearing) | Moved and seconded; Sprague's correction to a hearing speaker's name and town (0:02:53); approved by voice at 0:03:24. |
| 0:03:29 | Student representative's report | Informational. |
| 0:14:39 | Deliberative session: moderator | Tracy Pope on the session's agenda and rules of procedure. Informational; the board declined to vote on her agenda ("It's your meeting", 0:31:29). |
| 0:34:19 | Superintendent's report | I Am College Bound; Black History Month; letters on German; attendance. Informational. |
| 0:46:38 | Citizens' comments | None; closed at 0:46:44. |
| 0:46:53 | Discussion items: school visits; student voice | Members' reports; the student voice presentation moved off the deliberative session (0:51:30). |
| 0:51:56 | FY19 budget reductions | List of $1,761,356 in reductions presented. Informational. |
| 1:19:34 | Review of warrant articles | Articles reviewed; presenters assigned (1:26:07). No vote. |
| 1:36:10 | Senate Bill 193 | Rapp moved that the board oppose it; Herzog seconded; carried by voice at 1:41:46, reported by the chair as unanimous. |
| 1:42:01 | Head lice | Superintendent to hold a community forum after the deliberative session. Informational. Break at 1:43:50. |
| 1:44:37 | Action items | Retirements approved with No. 5 removed (Rapp moved, 1:45:02); Claremont Board of Realtors $500 grant to Maple Avenue for emergency backpacks (Herzog moved, Pierce seconded, 1:46:00); ice hockey co-op with Lebanon (Rapp moved, Pierce seconded, 1:48:14); youth and government trip, April 6-7 (Rapp moved, Pierce seconded, 1:51:13). All by voice. |
| 1:51:57 | Policies, first reading | Advanced coursework / dual enrollment; emergency care and first aid; relations with police authorities; audio and video surveillance on school buses; public gifts and donations. Rapp moved all five to second reading (1:56:49); carried by voice at 1:58:37. |
| 1:58:58 | Closing remarks and adjournment | Herzog's thanks to the outgoing officers; filing reminder; deliberative session notice. Pierce moved to adjourn; voice vote at 2:00:18. |
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 | Recording begins | An unidentified voice: Yes. Yes. Yes. Sprague at 0:00:18: "The agenda for tonight. Any amendments to that?" No roll call and no change of officers is on the tape. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:53 | Hearing minutes corrected | Sprague: "It's listed as Patty Arison from Ward three. That is actually Patty Harrison of Wethersfield, Vermont that spoke." | |
| 0:15:17 | Moderator's training | Pope: a New Hampshire Municipal Association conference for moderators, "approximately 57 of us there". At 0:16:27: "we've always had a motion from the floor on each of the articles, which is made by a school board member"; the lawyers were "strongly, strongly suggesting that that not be done." At 0:17:01: a warrant article "automatically goes to the ballot unless it's amended." | POSITIVE |
| 0:18:41 | Restricting reconsideration | Pope: after debate the proponent should "make a motion to restrict reconsideration of a warrant article", so that late amendments cannot reopen it once people leave. | |
| 0:20:55 | Voters and counting | Pope: colored squares for registered voters; "I'm going to ask for a standing vote" on the main budget, with four counters. At 0:23:06: secret-ballot slips in two colors "just in case there are more than one secret ballots". At 0:23:31: a portable microphone "for anyone who's handicapped". | POSITIVE |
| 0:24:34 | Moderator pro tem | Pope: "there be a moderator pro tem appointed by the school board clerk"; "I am married to a teacher." At 0:25:01: on a teacher-contract article "I would have to recluse myself for that one article." At 0:32:28: "It's the clerk of the school board appoints one" (as transcribed). | OBSERVATION |
| 0:26:59 | Conduct and nonvoters | Pope: "Nonvoters may not speak at the meeting without the permission of the moderator"; nonresident officials and consultants will be allowed. At 0:28:59: "the default budget can not be amended." | |
| 0:30:25 | Security and broadcast | McGoodwin: "I will be sure we have a police officer and also the school board legal counsel will be present." LeClair at 0:31:46: CCTV was testing the auditorium live feed. | |
| 0:37:47 | Seating | LeClair (uncertain): "all the voters simply set whether all the way, just the center section was all voters, and then the two side sections were left for Nonvoters". Sprague at 0:38:26: "let's just like that idea. Thank you Pat." | |
| 0:38:44 | College applications | McGoodwin: application fees waived; "42 students participated and 106 applications" were submitted. At 0:45:11: "And as of January 2018. The attendance is 94%." against a 93% goal. | |
| 0:46:38 | Citizens' comments | Sprague: "Citizens comments. Anyone here for that?" "Seeing none." | |
| 0:52:06 | Reductions list | McGoodwin: a document that took "about 50 hours to finalize. Also have copies for the for the for the people in the audience." At 0:52:46: "Personnel reductions $542,028. Technology reductions $850,660." At 0:53:48: "the collective bargaining agreement with the our dedicated teachers of $307,153 was not included in the budget". At 0:54:57: "I know the press and others have been looking for this list. We didn't keep it from them. It was not a finished product until this afternoon." | POSITIVE |
| 0:56:17 | Line by line | O'Neill: "we sat in office for about 47 hours looking at every single line item". Cuts include the assistant athletic director (0:59:34), two high school teachers offset by an English-learner coordinator (1:00:40), a psychologist replaced by contracted services (1:05:46). At 1:07:05: "total reductions 1761356." | |
| 1:07:45 | Fallout | McGoodwin: "we are now seeing a certain number of staff, I think, about 5 or 6, who have asked for letters of recommendation." O'Neill at 1:09:57 on the 12 retirees: "All those positions will be refilled." | |
| 1:11:23 | "Doom and gloom" | Petrin: "a lot of those things that were the the doom and gloom type cuts that you were recommended are not here anymore." Rapp at 1:18:02: "There is more revenue coming in since since the third." | |
| 1:20:52 | Warrant articles | O'Neill: the main article totals "$34,613,257" with revenue-neutral items; default budget at 1:21:45: "35111787". At 1:21:59: article two "talks about the teacher contract for 307153". At 1:25:01: the special articles are "a reduction of 289, 990 or $0.41 on the tax rate". | |
| 1:26:07 | Presenters | Sprague: "Michelle's the school bus. Brian's doing roofing repairs. Chris is doing security updates, and I'm doing the mean budget." | |
| 1:26:51 | Kindergarten aid | O'Neill: the state will give "a minimum of $1,100 per student" for full-day kindergarten, tied to Keno. McGoodwin at 1:28:08: "That's a $1.4 million reduction in technology and personnel." | |
| 1:29:24 | Grants | LeClair: the security grant is "not for the replacement and operation of existing equipment". McGoodwin at 1:30:57: "It's called supplanting. It's not appropriate." LeClair at 1:33:52: when grant money runs out, "whatever it was, funding is done." | |
| 1:36:24 | SB 193 | McGoodwin: "the child's zip code has a major impact on educational opportunity." At 1:38:32: "I'm going to ask you as a board, if you would vote to oppose Senate Bill 193 tonight." Rapp at 1:39:13: "I'll make a motion that the school board come out against Senate Bill 193." Sprague at 1:41:51: "Could you please, Middleton, say that it was a unanimous vote?" | |
| 1:42:02 | Head lice forum | McGoodwin: a community forum on the 2013 head lice policy; "I want to keep it open and transparent". | |
| 1:55:35 | Audio on buses | Rapp: "it's against state law to record audio without permission." McGoodwin at 1:56:02: "I would have to do some homework on that." Herzog at 1:56:55 on gifts; McGoodwin at 1:57:12: "The statute says 500." All five policies advance at 1:58:37. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:58:58 | Thanks to outgoing officers | Herzog: "I wanted to extend a thank you to Chris and Brian and put that on the minutes for their active role as assistant chair and chair of the board for a number of years." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:59:46 | Deliberative session notice | Sprague: the deliberative session "is 37th at. 630 at the Stevens High School auditorium" (as transcribed; February 7 per the January 30 joint meeting). | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on January 31, 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. 4 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION The board replaced its chair and vice chair in a vote that is not on the recording, and no minutes are online to show it
The recording opens at 0:00:08 with Sprague presiding and no roll call; the only on-tape trace of the change is Herzog's thanks to "Chris and Brian" for their service as "assistant chair and chair" (1:58:58). The Valley News reported that the board "voted, 5-2, on Wednesday night" to make Frank Sprague chair (and Rebecca Zullo vice chair, on Irish's motion), "just before the board entered a non-public session", and that the vote "was not recorded on public access television"; it names Rapp and Herzog as opposed. No law required the meeting to be televised. The vote had to be recorded in the minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018 (members present and "final decisions"), and the nonpublic session required a motion stating its exemption and a roll call under RSA 91-A:3, I(b). None of this can be checked: the minutes exist only offline (neither district Drive share reaches back before 2022, MAP.md section 58), and the recording starts after both events. Graded as an observation on the project's online-availability limb; the account of the vote is the newspaper's, not the district's.
Sources: Valley News, February 2, 2018, Patrick O'Grady (reporting, not law); RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification, in force for all of 2018); RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (2017 codification).
OBSERVATION The moderator told the board the clerk appoints a moderator pro tem; the statute says only that one "shall be chosen"
Pope said the lawyers at her training advised that "there be a moderator pro tem appointed by the school board clerk", to step in if she could not attend or had to recuse herself on a teacher-contract article because she is married to a teacher (0:24:34, 0:32:28). RSA 197:20, unchanged since 1964, provides that the district clerk "shall act as moderator of any meeting until a moderator pro tempore shall be chosen, if the moderator is absent or the office has become vacant"; it does not itself say who chooses. The clerk-appointment rule the moderator described may come from another provision or from the training materials; this page has not verified it for 2018. The planning itself, naming a stand-in in advance and disclosing a possible conflict, is sound. Recorded because later meetings in this corpus turn on who may preside at a deliberative session.
Sources: RSA 197:20 (source note ends 1963, 120:5; stable throughout the corpus).
OBSERVATION A member's doubt about audio recording on buses was left open; state law then expressly allowed it with board authorization
Rapp said "it's against state law to record audio without permission" and the superintendent undertook to check (1:55:35, 1:56:02); the policy went to second reading with the question open. RSA 570-A:2, II(k), in force from January 1, 2017, provides that "It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for" a school bus owner or operator to make "an audio recording in conjunction with a video recording of the interior of the school bus" when the school board authorizes it, and forbids keeping the recording "longer than 10 school days" unless it is relevant to a disciplinary proceeding or a court orders otherwise. So the concern was fair, the answer is in the statute, and adopting the policy is the authorization the statute contemplates. The superintendent's statement that for gifts "The statute says 500" (1:57:12) was not verified for this page.
Sources: RSA 570-A:2, II(k) (source note ends 2016, 169:1 and 322:2, eff. Jan. 1, 2017; the 2017 codification agrees).
POSITIVE The reductions list was handed to the audience and read line by line, and the moderator planned a transparent, accessible deliberative session
The superintendent brought copies of the $1,761,356 reductions list for the audience and said it had been withheld from no one, only unfinished until that afternoon (0:52:06, 0:54:57); the business administrator then read the affected lines aloud (0:56:17). The moderator came with training, published her rules in advance, planned counted standing votes and two-color secret-ballot slips, asked for an accessible microphone and a live broadcast, and disclosed a possible conflict of interest (0:15:17 to 0:25:01). None of this is required by a statute verified for this page; it is practice above the minimum.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9586, "SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 1-31": 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 58, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were located online.
- Valley News, February 2, 2018: report of the officer change (press, read 2026-09-26).
- Related recordings (pages named by recording): the joint meeting the night before (show 9592); the January 3 meeting whose minutes were approved here (show 9549, show 9550) and hearing (shows 9547 and 9548); the deliberative session, dated February 8 in MAP.md section 59 (show 9602).
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9586 SchoolBoard013118.mp4.CSV (630 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9586 SchoolBoard013118.mp4Input/Transcripts/9586 SchoolBoard013118.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9586 SchoolBoard013118.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 58
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on January 31, 2018. RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes; 2017 codification). RSA 91-A:3, I(b) (nonpublic sessions; 2017 codification). RSA 197:20 (district clerk; moderator pro tempore; unchanged since 1964). RSA 570-A:2, II(k) (school bus audio recording; in force from Jan. 1, 2017).