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. Most floor speakers' names are lost in the transcript; where the dialogue file says Unidentified, this page does too.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Tracy Pope (dialogue-file label) | School district moderator | Presided; read the rules; ran the two secret ballots and the voice votes. She is addressed as Tracy on the recording; the surname comes from the project roster, which confirms Tracy Pope as moderator in later years, and is not heard here. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Introduced the administrative team; gave the budget presentation; answered enrollment and tax-rate questions; spoke for the technology amendment. |
| Frank Sprague | Chair, school board | Introduced the board; presented Article 2; moved to restrict reconsideration; spoke on the budget process and on cameras and school climate. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair, school board | Led the pledge. Her name is the first read among the signers of the secret-ballot petition. No speech of hers is identified on the recording. |
| Chris Irish | School board member (Ward 3) | Disputed the "cut" figures; presented Article 3 (security upgrades); warned voters to weigh the default budget. |
| Michelle Pierce | School board member | Spoke on the budget process; presented Article 4 (bus lease-purchase). |
| Brian Rapp | School board member | Presented Article 5 (middle school roof). |
| Michael O'Neill | Business Administrator, SAU 6 (surname per roster) | Answered tax-rate and default-budget questions and the roof-bid question. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant Superintendent | Answered a voter's question on the curriculum and teaching positions cut from the budget. |
| Josh Malloy | Director of Instructional Technology | Answered questions on the security article, camera placement and cloud storage. |
| Jason Benware | Voter, Ward 1 (elected to the board March 13) | Named as a vote counter and among the petition signers; asked the tax effect of the $307,153 amendment; spoke against the technology amendment and for Article 3. |
| Lois Cahill | Voter, Ward 2 | Spoke for the $307,153 amendment. |
| George (surname not on the record) | Voter | Spoke on the $307,153 amendment and against the technology amendment; raised a point of information about moving the question. |
| David Putnam | Voter, Ward 2 | Spoke for the technology amendment and, as a former member of the high school renovation committee, for Article 3. |
| Cynthia Howard | Voter, Ward 2 | Asked about privacy safeguards and cloud storage for security cameras. |
| Unidentified (about sixteen speakers) | Voters | Each has a descriptive role in the dialogue file, including the mover of the $307,153 amendment, a Ward 3 former board member who moved the $175,000 amendment, a middle school technology staff member, and a staff member who described an incident that afternoon. |
| Unidentified | Adviser to the moderator | Explained the effect of restricting reconsideration (1:17:28): "I'm not the moderator". The superintendent had introduced an attorney from Drummond Woodsum as "the attorney for this evening" (0:02:43); whether this is that attorney is not established. |
| Unidentified | Various | 153 of 468 rows (32.7%) are Unidentified, mostly floor speakers whose names the transcript lost. |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No warrant or agenda for this session is posted in any district share, so this list follows the moderator's transitions and the article texts as read aloud. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:52 | Call to order; pledge; introductions | Administrators introduced at 0:02:11; board at 0:03:37. |
| 0:04:33 | Rules of procedure | Read by the moderator from a handout. |
| 0:06:24 | Minutes of the February 8, 2017 session | Moved, seconded; voice vote at 0:06:46. |
| 0:06:58 | Budget presentation | Superintendent, to 0:29:45. |
| 0:30:33 | Article 1: election of officers | Read as notice of the March 13 election. No action. |
| 0:31:06 | Article 2: operating budget | As read: "totaling $34,613,257. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $35,111,787". Secret-ballot petition read at 0:34:12. Amendment to add $307,153 (0:35:14) passed by secret ballot, 99 to 43 (1:16:10). Amendment to add $175,000 for technology (1:19:45) failed by secret ballot, 66 to 67 (1:38:49). Declared to the ballot at $34,920,410 (1:39:17); reconsideration restricted by voice vote (1:39:57). |
| 1:40:04 | Article 3: security upgrades, $141,000 | Presented by Irish. Voice vote at 1:54:20; moderator: Passes. |
| 1:54:59 | Article 4: school bus lease-purchase, $190,000 | Presented by Pierce. Voice vote at 1:57:28. |
| 1:57:55 | Article 5: middle school roof repair, $100,000 | Presented by Rapp. Voice vote at 2:03:23; result not stated in the transcript. |
| 2:03:41 | Close of session | Moderator: "That concludes tonight's meeting." |
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 |
|---|
| 0:04:33 | Rules | "These are the rules of tonight's meeting". At 0:05:05: "The promise [proponent] of an article will speak first and will be given five minutes to speak. They will then be limited to two minutes per speaker." At 0:05:25: "Amendments must be in writing, presented to the moderator". | POSITIVE |
| 0:06:24 | Last year's minutes | "Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 8th, 2017 seconds [session]?" Approved by voice vote at 0:06:46. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:10:13 | A state bill | The superintendent raises Senate Bill 193, "even though it's not part of the warrant articles", saying the board had unanimously taken a position on it. | |
| 0:11:09 | Budget presentation | "The budget on January 3rd, 2018, was approved by the majority of the school board, $31,148,257." At 0:12:00: "They did not want to do the 307 000 collective bargaining agreement with the teachers in the budget." At 0:12:25: "So the budget really was reduced more than $2 million." At 0:17:16: "article two is not $31 million is $34,600,000", the difference being food service and "$2.8 million in grants". | |
| 0:31:22 | Article 2 as read | Sprague: "totaling $34,613,257. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $35,111,787". At 0:33:05: "With the highest property tax rate in the state of New Hampshire". The default is higher than the proposed budget. | |
| 0:34:12 | Secret-ballot petition | Moderator reads a request from registered voters for "a secret ballot for article one [two] and all related amendments"; five signers present. | POSITIVE |
| 0:35:14 | Amendment: +$307,153 | "I move to amend article to the main budget by creasing the total dollar amount by three 307,150 300 from $34,613,257 to $34,920,410." Cahill at 0:37:52: "I support this amendment to increase the school budget in order to retain jobs". Enrollment at 0:40:53: "Was 1787, this year 1804." LeClair at 0:42:13 on the curriculum position. | |
| 0:58:12 | Amending an amendment | A Ward 3 voter asks whether an amendment can be amended; the moderator at 0:58:25 answers no: "that has to be brought up separately." | |
| 1:07:46 | Two accounts of the "cut" | Irish, a board member: "There is no $1.7 million cut." At 1:08:30: "That is not a cut." At 1:08:58: "That's not going to give you positions. That's going to pay for the collective bargaining agreement." Against the superintendent's "reduced more than $2 million" (0:12:25). | |
| 1:09:41 | Tax effect | Benware: "it makes us, increase our tax rate by about $0.11. Am I close?" O'Neill at 1:10:22: "You are correct." | |
| 1:15:21 | First secret ballot | Moderator: "So will be to amend article two to the amount of $34,613,257 would be adding $307,153 to the budget." Result at 1:16:10: "The result of the secret ballot to amend article two the main budget two $34,613,257 passes 99 in favor, 43 against." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:16:35 | Restricting reconsideration, first attempt | Sprague moves to restrict reconsideration; the moderator at 1:17:24: "It's amended and as amended it will go to the warrant." An adviser at 1:17:28 explains that further amendments may still be offered ("I'm not the moderator"), and the floor reopens. | |
| 1:19:45 | Amendment: +$175,000 technology | Moved by a Ward 3 voter who had served on the board. Moderator at 1:21:23: "which brings the total budget to $35,095,410." Superintendent at 1:25:14: "Your answer to the question regarding tax rate is $0.25." At 1:26:12: "we can save money by not investing just like that." A middle school staff member at 1:29:33: "I work at the middle school". Irish at 1:33:03 urges voters to weigh the default budget. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:36:01 | Default comparison | O'Neill: "The current default is 35,111,077." Moderator at 1:36:38: "We would still be slightly less than the default project." | |
| 1:38:49 | Second secret ballot | Moderator: "Several times. Not just twice, but several. There was a one vote difference." At 1:39:05: 66 in favor, 67 against (transcribed "6066 in favor, 67 against"). At 1:39:17: "with the bottom line being $34,920,410." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:40:19 | Article 3: security upgrades | Irish: the state grant would cover 80% of planned upgrades; at 1:42:01: "So for $141,000, we get 561,000." Howard at 1:47:57: "What are the safeguards for perceptions of. Invasion of privacy?" Malloy at 1:48:16: "We would be very careful in the placement of cameras". A staff member at 1:51:56 refers to a threat that afternoon. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:55:24 | Article 4: buses | Pierce presents a $190,000 five-year lease-purchase of two buses. Voice vote at 1:57:28. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:58:09 | Article 5: roof | Rapp: "Since Mike O'Neill got here, he's had a pretty outstanding plan for updating the rooms [roofs] at all the schools." O'Neill at 2:02:38: "We haven't put it out to bid yet." At 2:03:11: "that money gets returned to the taxpayers." | OBSERVATION |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the session against the state law in force on February 8, 2018. A deliberative session is a meeting of the voters, so school-board rules (public-comment periods, nonpublic sessions, board roll calls) do not apply to it; RSA chapter 40 as extended to school districts does. They are not findings of violation and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on; where no verified rule applies, the flag says so and is recorded as an observation. Six flags follow, ordered by severity. No HIGH or MEDIUM flag was found.
OBSERVATION No minutes, warrant or rules sheet for this session are online
RSA 197:20 makes the district clerk keep "a true record of all the doings of each meeting". The district's public Drive shares begin in 2022 and hold nothing for this session (MAP.md section 59, checked September 26, 2026). That is a limit of what the district posts online, not evidence that no record was kept: at this session the voters approved the minutes of the 2017 session (0:06:24 to 0:06:46), and the 2019 session approved these (see the February 6, 2019 page). The warrant, the default budget form and the rules handout the moderator read from (0:04:33) are also not online, so the article texts and figures on this page are as read aloud and transcribed. Graded an observation under the project's rule for missing records, consistent with the 2019 page.
Sources: RSA 197:20 (1963, 120:5; unamended).
OBSERVATION The first secret ballot was put and declared using the unamended figure
The amendment on the floor would raise Article 2 "from $34,613,257 to $34,920,410" (0:35:14). When the moderator put it to the secret ballot she described it as a vote "to amend article two to the amount of $34,613,257", adding that it "would be adding $307,153 to the budget" (1:15:21), and she declared the result the same way: "to amend article two the main budget two $34,613,257 passes 99 in favor, 43 against" (1:16:10). $34,613,257 is the figure the article already carried. The stated effect, adding $307,153, was right, and the moderator later declared Article 2 to the ballot at the correct amended total of $34,920,410 (1:39:17), so voters who followed the whole session were not misled about the outcome. A ballot question that names the wrong total is still worth noting, because the question on the paper, which is not online, is what each voter answered. No statute is relied on; the transcript may also have garbled the figure.
Sources: the recording at 0:35:14, 1:15:21, 1:16:10 and 1:39:17. No statute relied on.
OBSERVATION The technology amendment failed by one vote after repeated counts
The $175,000 amendment failed 66 to 67 on a secret ballot (1:38:49, 1:39:05); the moderator said the ballots were counted "Several times. Not just twice, but several." RSA 40:4-a, which RSA 40:13, IV makes applicable to the first session, sets the secret-ballot procedure used here and also provides for a recount on the request of 5 voters when the margin is 10 percent or less; a one-vote margin qualifies. No recount request is heard, and the moderator moved directly to the article's final figure (1:39:17). The repeated counting is to the moderator's credit; the point recorded here is only that the statutory recount route existed and was not used, and whether anyone was told of it is not on the recording.
Sources: RSA 40:4-a (secret ballot and recount; source note ends 2006, 117:1, so the current text was in force in 2018); RSA 40:13, IV (2017 codification).
OBSERVATION Voice votes were taken on Articles 3 to 5, though every article goes to the ballot regardless
The moderator's opening statement of the rules said articles do not require a motion and are "automatically presented" to the ballot as written or amended (0:04:33). RSA 40:13, VI, as then in force, provides: "All warrant articles shall be placed on the official ballot for a final vote, including warrant articles as amended by the first session." She nonetheless called voice votes on Articles 3, 4 and 5 and declared Article 3 Passes. (1:54:20, 1:54:55, 1:57:28, 2:03:23). No amendment was offered to those articles, so nothing turned on the votes, but a voter could take them as having some effect. The same practice appears on the 2019 page. Noted only.
Sources: RSA 40:13, VI (2017 codification; source note ends 2014, so the text in force on this date).
OBSERVATION The superintendent and district staff spoke in favor of the technology amendment
After answering a tax-rate question (1:25:14), the superintendent argued for the $175,000 amendment: "My concern is that you don't keep you to reinvest, invest in technology" (1:25:30) and "we can save money by not investing just like that" (1:26:12). A middle school staff member also spoke in favor, saying "I work at the middle school" (1:29:33). RSA 659:44-a, in force from January 1, 2017, provides that "No public employee, as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX, shall electioneer while in the performance of his or her official duties", and defines electioneering as acting "in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office". Two things cut against applying it. RSA 40:13, IV makes the first session one of "explanation, discussion, and debate of each warrant article", and the superintendent was there in that role; and the staff member spoke from the floor as a voter. Whether any of these remarks was "in the performance of" official duties and "specifically designed to influence the vote" rather than to explain it is not settled by the record or by any source this page verified. Elected board members presenting their articles fall outside the statute (RSA 273-A:1, IX(a)). Recorded for the reader, as on the 2019 page, not as a finding.
Sources: RSA 659:44-a, I and III (source note ends 2016, 176:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017); RSA 40:13, IV (2017 codification).
POSITIVE A voters' secret-ballot petition was honored, rules were read, last year's minutes approved, reconsideration restricted, and the session held inside its window
The moderator read the rules, including written amendments and time limits (0:04:33 to 0:06:17), and put the 2017 session's minutes to the voters (0:06:24). A written request from five registered voters for secret ballots on Article 2 and its amendments was read at 0:34:12 and honored for both amendments (1:14:34, 1:37:11); RSA 40:4-a lets 5 voters present require a secret yes-no ballot by a written request made before the vote, and RSA 40:13, IV applies it to the first session. Reconsideration of Article 2 was restricted by vote once amendments were finished (1:39:57); RSA 40:10, I allows a meeting "at any time during a meeting, and without notice in the warrant" to "restrict reconsideration of any one or more votes previously taken at that meeting", and ¶V applies it to school district meetings. An earlier attempt at 1:16:35 was set aside when an adviser pointed out that further amendments could still be offered, which protected the voters' right to amend. RSA 40:13, III, as then in force, placed the first session "between the first and second Saturdays following the last Monday in January, inclusive of those Saturdays"; with January 29 the last Monday, the window was February 3 to 10, and February 8 falls inside it.
Sources: RSA 40:4-a (source note ends 2006, 117:1); RSA 40:10, I and V (1996, 64:1; unamended); RSA 40:13, III and IV (2017 codification).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files (the dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the pages)
Dialogue/9602 SchoolBoardDeliberative020818.mp4.CSV: dialogue file, 468 rows.Input/Videos/9602 SchoolBoardDeliberative020818.mp4; Input/Transcripts/9602 SchoolBoardDeliberative020818.mp4.json.Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 59.Scripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9602 SchoolBoardDeliberative020818.mp4.md; Scripts/roster_2015_2023.md.
Laws and rules cited on this page