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 |
|---|
| Frank Sprague | Chair, Claremont School Board (called the meeting to order) | Ran the roll calls, citizens' forum and minutes; argued the communications position is about how online ratings shape where families move; proposed sending the position to a subcommittee; called for adjournment. |
| Charlene Lovett | Mayor (ran most of the agenda) | Announcements; introduced the Scouting and Turning Points Network items; argued the city must broaden its tax base and that school perception drives growth; proposed a letter supporting Medicaid expansion for both bodies to sign; set the June 21 meeting. |
| Allen Damren | Assistant mayor (transcript "Damron") | Said benefit costs would be similar whether the city or district employed the coordinator; asked who keeps a central city calendar; moved adjournment. |
| Scott Pope | City councilor (first name from cross-reference in the attribution report) | Read the proposed $45,000 salary and $33,000 benefits aloud; said the two bodies struggle to form a unified message; asked the administrators to bring the proposal back to each board. |
| Abigail Kier | City councilor (transcript "Council care", "Councilor Keir") | Supported a full-time position and said the salary was on par with the national average for the title; opposed a further subcommittee. |
| Nick | City councilor (surname not on the record) | Asked about Explorer posts and donations; recounted the council's earlier handling of a similar position; warned he would not support funding without school board interest; suggested police dispatch access to school camera feeds. |
| Jonathan Stone | City councilor (attribution rests on one recognition and a topic match) | Proposed a joint subcommittee to develop full-time, part-time and other options; asked whether more school resource officers were planned. |
| Rebecca Zullo | School board vice chair and city councilor | Opposed the communications position as presented; asked that the security upgrades be described as technology upgrades; asked whether lockdown protocols were being revisited. |
| Michelle Pierce | School board member | Asked how to register children in Scouting; questioned whether a full-time position is needed and suggested volunteers; described frustration with communication. The mayor names her as seconding adjournment. |
| Jason Benware | School board member | Asked whether anyone had estimated the position's return; asked for measurable goals. |
| Carolyn Towle | School board member (named as the Good Scout luncheon honoree) | Favored a subcommittee on marketing; asked about police-led intruder training after the Parkland shootings. |
| Steven Horsky | School board member | Questioned the benefits cost, including $23,000 for health insurance on an $80,000 total. |
| Michael Petrin | School board member | Called at roll; no identifiable speaking turn. The chair's And then Mike during the minutes motion may credit him with the second. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Presented the draft communications job description prepared with City Manager Ryan McNutt; described the warrant-funded security upgrades and emergency operation plans; said camera recordings would not be for public viewing. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 (medium-confidence attribution) | Explained Affordable Care Act constraints on offering a position without benefits; described active-shooter drills with the police. |
| Terry Tolle | Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America (presenter) | Presented Scouting, Exploring and camp programs; offered to follow up on an Explorer post with the police department. |
| Deborah Mostyn | Turning Points Network (presenter; name as transcribed, spelling unverified; the mayor calls her "Miss Mason") | Described the Child Advocacy Center, school violence-prevention programs, Green Dot and the agency's budget; urged support for Marsy's Law; announced the May 5 Stepping Up fundraiser. |
| Russell | City clerk (first name not on the record) | Called the council roll. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Called the school board roll. |
| Unidentified | Others | Roll responses, the minutes motion and second, chorus votes and short remarks (88 of 543 dialogue rows). |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Mr. Putnam of Healthy Vibrant Claremont (absent; announcement read by the mayor); City Manager Ryan McNutt (co-author of the draft; presence not established); Josh Malloy of the SAU technology staff (named as part of the drafting team); Officer Simons, school resource officer; Alex Herzog, an Eagle Scout (not the former board member); Congresswoman Kuster; Representatives Gagnon and Cloutier and Senator Hennessey (to be invited in June). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, and the city's copy was not inspected, so this list is reconstructed from the presiding officers' transitions. The members had a written agenda and packet (the chair notes an item "missing from your agenda"; the superintendent refers to "your packet"). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for the full text.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Call to order, pledge, roll calls | Council roll by the city clerk, then the school board's. See Board composition. |
| 0:01:18 | Citizens' forum | No one spoke; closed at 0:01:27. |
| 0:01:27 | Minutes of the January 30, 2018 joint meeting (added from the floor) | The chair: "Your missing from your agenda is approval of the minutes from our January 30th meeting." Motion credited to Michelle [Pierce] by an unidentified voice (0:01:50); second unclear; voice vote at 0:01:58. |
| 0:02:06 | Announcements | Mayor: lead paint task force, Child Abuse Prevention Month, community cleanup events, Congresswoman Kuster's visit. Informational. |
| 0:05:34 | New business: Boy Scouts of America programming presentation | Presentation by Terry Tolle; questions to 0:36:33. Informational. |
| 0:36:48 | Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Turning Points Network | Presentation by the TPN speaker; questions to 0:58:56. Informational. |
| 0:59:05 | Strategic Communications Plan presentation (communications coordinator) | Draft job description presented; no motion. Consensus to return it to the superintendent and city manager for options and a second visit (1:47:44, 2:10:41). |
| 1:49:25 | Security updates and response procedures to threats | Superintendent's overview of warrant-funded technology upgrades and emergency operation plans; questions. Informational. |
| 2:04:51 | Action steps | Medicaid expansion letter to be drafted by the mayor for sign-off (2:05:04); next joint meeting set for Thursday, June 21 with legislators invited (2:09:54); communications proposal to return (2:10:41); lead-testing pet clinics; joint team for the May 5 fundraiser. No votes. |
| 2:13:30 | Adjournment | "The motion was made by Mayor Damron and seconded by school member Pearce." Voice vote at 2:13:42. |
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 |
|---|
| 0:00:07 | Call to order | Sprague: "I'd like to call this joint session of their joint meeting of the Claremont School Board and City Council to order, please." | |
| 0:00:49 | Council roll | City clerk: "Assistant mayor Damron here. Councilor Zullo here. Councilor Kier here. Councilor. Here. Councilor. Pope here. Mayor Lovett here." | |
| 0:01:27 | January 30 minutes | Sprague adds the item from the floor: "Your missing from your agenda is approval of the minutes from our January 30th meeting." Approved by voice. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:06 | Announcements and dates | Mayor on a Healthy Vibrant Claremont task force on lead paint laws; cleanup work with "several projects scheduled on April 21st." At 0:05:00: "Congresswoman Kuster will be in Claremont on April 23rd". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:34 | Scouting | Mayor introduces the Boy Scouts item as "a follow up to the information that was disseminated during the Good Scout Award luncheon last Wednesday". Tolle at 0:12:23: "We serve over 11,000 Scouts"; at 0:19:28 Carolyn [Towle] named the luncheon honoree. | |
| 0:29:08 | Explorer posts | Councilor Nick: "Closest explorer post to us." Tolle: "There's one in the works right now with the police department." | |
| 0:33:19 | Partnerships | McGoodwin on working with Scouting and citing full-day kindergarten: "And a year later we have full day kindergarten." | |
| 0:36:48 | Turning Points Network | TPN speaker: "We're about nine full time equivalents and a core of 45 volunteers"; at 0:46:26: "our annual budgets, about about $750,000"; at 0:46:59: "we have to raise about $250,000 ourselves." | |
| 0:54:46 | Marsy's Law | "it's an opportunity in the state of New Hampshire to embed victims rights into the Constitution." At 0:56:26: "I think I heard it was the 18th. So maybe tomorrow". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:57:04 | Routing information to the board | Mayor offers the council clerk; Sprague at 0:57:17: "Things go through Middleton. He communicates with the board." McGoodwin: "Send it to me. And I poured it to the board." | |
| 0:59:05 | Communications position presented | Mayor: "when we last met in January, on January 30th." McGoodwin at 1:01:16: "Now the salary is almost $80,000." and at 1:01:43: "just before you is considered to be a draft." | |
| 1:02:17 | Return on the cost | Benware: "Has there been any research done on the potential monetary gain?" Sprague at 1:02:50 ties the position to how outsiders judge the schools online. | |
| 1:05:02 | An earlier attempt | Pierce: "three years ago nobody wanted to talk about it, and now it seems like it's urgency to have it." Mayor at 1:08:10: "we have to broaden the tax base." | |
| 1:08:45 | Support for a full FTE | Kier at 1:09:58: "So there's no doubt to me that you need a full FTE for this, without a doubt." | |
| 1:10:44 | Council history | Nick at 1:10:52: "it wasn't shot down, I was actually part of that original citizens group." At 1:14:07: "It was it was brought to us as a fully city funded position". | |
| 1:19:04 | Opposition on cost | Zullo at 1:19:08: "$40,000 for each of us when we're all saying we don't have money for textbooks". | |
| 1:20:38 | Figures read aloud | Pope at 1:22:02: "The proposed salary is 45,000 benefits package, $33,000". At 1:23:05: "We have a hard time forming a unified message as a city council and a school board." The superintendent's "salary is almost $80,000" and Pope's $45,000 salary plus $33,000 benefits are not reconciled on the record; Horsky later speaks of a "total budget of 80 grand." | |
| 1:24:56 | Volunteers instead | Pierce: "Could this be something that could be a volunteer thing". | |
| 1:28:18 | Subcommittee idea | Towle at 1:29:37: "I would be in favor of having a subcommittee work on this". | |
| 1:30:11 | Benefits cost | Horsky at 1:30:59: "$23,000 just in health insurance." LeClair at 1:31:26 on the Affordable Care Act: the district must keep benefits affordable across "say roughly 400 people." | |
| 1:33:11 | City comparison and calendar | Damren: costs would be about the same whichever body employs the person; at 1:36:54: "there is nobody, now that I'm aware of, that keeps that central calendar for city activities." | |
| 1:39:21 | What to do with it | Mayor at 1:40:11: "in my opinion, they're the subcommittee." Nick at 1:40:37: "For me, this issue right now dies in this room." Sprague at 1:41:47: "I don't think anybody's thinking about approving funding for it." Zullo at 1:42:17: "I would not support this as it is right now". Stone at 1:42:30: "I'd like to see it go to a subcommittee." | |
| 1:47:44 | Direction given | Mayor: "They've got our input." Pope at 1:48:21: "I don't want to see this kicked five more years." Nick at 1:48:41: "We're talking now a position that will be in a future budget, but won't be this year." No motion or vote. | |
| 1:49:25 | School security | McGoodwin at 1:50:20: "we'll have a little over $700,000 in security upgrades costing this community 141,000." Zullo at 1:52:35: "So just to be clear on that, this is technology upgrades." | POSITIVE |
| 1:53:29 | Drills | Towle asks about police-led intruder training; LeClair at 1:55:04: "I think we've done two active shooter drills now in the schools." | |
| 1:59:22 | Cameras and staffing | McGoodwin at 2:00:53: "So they will not be it won't be public viewing of these of these recordings". Stone at 2:04:24 asks about more school resource officers; McGoodwin: "we do not have any immediate plan where we're going to be adding personnel for security at this time." | |
| 2:05:04 | Medicaid expansion letter | Mayor at 2:05:31: "would you, once you have seen the content of that letter, want to sign off as both a school board and superintendent, as well as the city council and city manager?" The only answer on the record is an unidentified "I think that's okay." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:07:37 | Next joint meeting | Mayor: "Our first one was in January. We didn't do March." McGoodwin at 2:09:54: "I would propose June 21st. Thursday." | |
| 2:11:05 | Pet lead clinics | Mayor: "One will be in Lebanon this Saturday"; the second date is corrected to the 28th at 2:12:10. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:13:30 | Adjournment | "The motion was made by Mayor Damron and seconded by school member Pearce." | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force in April 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 recording dates this meeting April 17, 2018; the project map, the file name and the Cablecast event date say April 24
Every internal clue points to Tuesday, April 17. The mayor lists cleanup projects "scheduled on April 21st", a Grissom Lane pickup on April 22 and Congresswoman Kuster's visit "on April 23rd" as future events (0:03:14, 0:04:01, 0:05:00); the Turning Points Network speaker expects a House committee vote on "the 18th. So maybe tomorrow" (0:56:26); a pet clinic is "this Saturday" and a second is later corrected to the 28th (2:11:26, 2:12:10), so "this Saturday" was April 21. Outside this recording, CCTV titled the show 4-17; a public commenter at the April 18 school board meeting (show 9740) said she had watched this joint meeting the night before; and the June 21 joint meeting (show 9849) twice calls this the April 17 meeting. MAP.md section 65 records the conflict and follows the file name and eventDate. No rule is at stake; the point is that a reader searching the public record for an April 24 joint meeting, or for the minutes of one, will be looking for the wrong date.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; the Cablecast show title; the April 18, 2018 school board page (show 9740) and the June 21, 2018 joint meeting page (show 9849).
OBSERVATION Two public bodies met with quorums; the district posts no record of the meeting, and the city's records were not inspected
A joint meeting is two bodies, each with its own quorum and its own duty to keep minutes under RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018: minutes that include "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", open to public inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting" (2017 codification, in force for all of 2018). Six council members answered the roll against a nine-member council with a majority quorum, and six of seven school board members speak on the tape (see Board composition). The bodies approved the January 30 joint minutes here (0:01:27), which shows joint minutes were being kept. The district's Drive shares hold nothing older than 2022 (MAP.md section 65), and the city's notice, agenda and minutes live with the city clerk, so this page makes no city-side negative and no finding that minutes were never produced. The project's missing-records rule is applied on its online-availability limb, as an observation.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I-II (2017 codification; source note ends 2017, 165:1 and 234:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2018, so in force throughout 2018); Claremont City Charter secs. 16 and 21 (copy of undetermined date; nine councilors, majority quorum).
OBSERVATION Both bodies' names were offered for a legislative letter on Medicaid expansion without a motion or vote by either body
The mayor asked whether, once the members had seen her draft, they would "sign off as both a school board and superintendent, as well as the city council and city manager" on a letter to the House Finance Committee supporting Medicaid expansion, to be drafted the next day because the committee would meet "on Thursday" (2:05:31, 2:06:55, 2:07:16). The only response on the record is an unidentified "I think that's okay." (2:07:34), and the meeting moved on. No verified rule requires a formal vote before a board's name goes on a letter, and the plan was for members to see the text first. But a letter written in the name of a public body is a decision of that body; if one was sent in the school board's name, the record of who authorized it would be in minutes that are not available online (flag 2). RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to describe "final decisions".
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification).
POSITIVE A citizens' forum was offered, and the security upgrades were explained in public with their local cost
The chair opened a citizens' forum before any business (0:01:18); no one spoke. No statute then required either body to take public comment (the school board duty in RSA 189:74 dates from September 6, 2022). The superintendent gave the public the funding picture for the voter-approved security article, "a little over $700,000 in security upgrades costing this community 141,000" (1:50:20), a board member clarified on the record that these were technology upgrades rather than armed staff or hardened windows (1:52:13), and the administration explained its drill program and camera-recording policy in answer to council questions (1:55:04, 2:00:53).
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 189:74 (public comment at school board meetings), in force only from September 6, 2022 (2022, 333:1), cited only to show it did not apply; current text.
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9734, "JOINT MEETING- COUNCIL & SCHOOL BOARD 4-17": 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, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were located in the district's shares. The City of Claremont's own records (city clerk) were not inspected.
- Related meetings in the corpus: the Claremont School Board meeting of April 18, 2018 (show 9740), whose citizens' comment refers to this meeting as held the night before; the joint meeting of June 21, 2018 (show 9849), set at this meeting, which approved this meeting's minutes as those of April 17.
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/9734 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint042418.mp4.CSV (543 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9734 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint042418.mp4Input/Transcripts/9734 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint042418.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9734 SchoolBoardCityCouncilJoint042418.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 65
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force in April 2018. RSA 91-A:2, I-II (meetings, notice and minutes; 2017 codification, in force for all of 2018; the mover-and-seconder sentence was added only by 2018, 244:1, effective January 1, 2019, and is not applied here). RSA 189:74 (public comment; not in force until September 6, 2022, cited only to show it did not apply; current text).
- Municipal charter. Claremont City Charter secs. 16 and 21 (council of nine; majority quorum; copy of undetermined date).