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 | Ran the meeting; described the board's public-comment rule; asked counsel about members posting on a community Facebook group; routed survey feedback to Zullo; voted No on the administrators' request. |
| Rebecca Zullo | Vice chair | Raised staff turnover and survey anonymity; received the board's survey feedback; asked for the roll-call vote on the administrators' request; described difficulty using PowerSchool as a parent. |
| Michelle Pierce | Member (medium-confidence attribution: one address cue plus elimination) | Moved the April 4 minutes, the Hannaford donation, the administrators' request and adjournment; said only two or three members respond on the community Facebook page. |
| Jason Benware | Member | Asked how survey data would be organized; suggested a not-yet-proficient-but-on-track marker; opposed the administrators' request; seconded the calendar, BA/BAA and policy motions; volunteered for the policy subcommittee. |
| Steven Horsky | Member | Asked counsel about the draft-documents exception; proposed goal-setting and evaluation deadlines in policies BA and BAA; called the administrators' request a renegotiation; moved the seven policies; volunteered for the policy subcommittee. |
| Carolyn Towle | Member | Asked the difference between a non-meeting and a nonpublic session; described time limits for public comment from her earlier council service; pressed for paper report cards for families without internet access. |
| Michael Petrin | Member | Raised parent and student concerns about proficiency grading and GPA; moved the 2018-19 calendar. |
| Lexi Grenier | Student representative (spelling unverified) | Gave the Stevens High School report, including the $1,000 Hannaford donation and a Washington trip on April 21. |
| Middleton McGoodwin | Superintendent, SAU 6 | Reported Ben Nester as the recommended SAU 6 special education director and a middle school principal search; introduced the training; proposed and staffed a policy subcommittee; apologized for the 2012 rollout of competency-based grading; presented the action items. |
| Cory LeClair | Assistant superintendent, SAU 6 | Described past surveys and the Antioch-administered climate survey; introduced the System of Care grant; led the grading and reporting discussion; presented the 2018-19 calendar. |
| Will Phillips | Attorney, New Hampshire School Boards Association | Gave Right-to-Know training: public bodies and committees, quorums, non-meetings, nonpublic sessions, e-mail and records retention, public comment and social media. |
| Trinity Dicks | Project manager, System of Care grant (spelling unverified; she spells Dix at 2:16:26) | Described the Antioch climate survey and the grant's school-based therapy, anxiety coaching and wraparound programs. |
| Mimi Ryan's | Citizens' comments, Ward 1 (as she first stated; she was unsure between Wards 1 and 3; surname as transcribed, spelled aloud as RH I and is) | Urged the board to support a full-time, benefited communications coordinator after watching the joint meeting the night before. |
| Mary Woodman | School district clerk | Took the roll-call vote and explained the procedure. |
| Unidentified | Others | Roll responses, the motion to table the preschool handbook, the April 4 minutes correction, seconds and chorus votes (97 of 1,010 dialogue rows). |
| Named, not speaking | Others | Ben Nester (recommended SAU 6 special education director); Diane Edwards (preschool director, presentation postponed); Miss Berry, cited in the student report (the roster's Pat Barry, Stevens High School principal); Josh, of the technology department (roster: Josh Malloy); Amanda Aarons, writing consultant (as transcribed). |
Order of business (reconstructed)
No agenda for this meeting is posted in any district share, so this list is reconstructed from the chair's and superintendent's transitions. The members had a written agenda and packet (the superintendent cites Roman numeral six F and a memo dated April 18). 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 call | Attendance roll by the clerk; answers partly audible. |
| 0:01:09 | Approval of the agenda | Preschool family handbook tabled at the superintendent's request; unidentified motion (0:01:29) and second (0:01:38); approved by voice at 0:01:41. |
| 0:01:52 | Minutes of April 4, 2018 | Pierce moved (0:01:58), unidentified second. An unidentified member corrected the ending time (0:02:05); Pierce moved the minutes as modified (0:02:25); no second is audible; approved by voice at 0:02:33. |
| 0:02:33 | Student representative's report | Lexi Grenier. Informational. |
| 0:07:54 | Superintendent's report | Preschool presentation postponed; Ben Nester recommended for SAU 6 special education director; Claremont Middle School principal search. Informational. |
| 0:10:05 | Citizens' comments | One speaker; closed at 0:13:54. |
| 0:13:54 | Discussion: Right-to-Know training | Attorney Will Phillips, NHSBA; to 1:32:07. |
| 1:32:07 | Discussion: climate and culture | Survey questions to be sent to members; feedback to Zullo by May 2 (1:49:25). |
| 1:57:45 | Discussion: System of Care grant overview | Informational. |
| 2:16:32 | Discussion: grading and reporting system | Administration to report back; the chair suggested late June (2:39:53). |
| 2:44:55 | School board policy subcommittee (item VI F) | Horsky, Benware and Zullo volunteer (2:45:54). The 25-item policy questions memo is deferred to the April 22 retreat (2:48:06). |
| 2:48:19 | Action item A: $1,000 Hannaford donation | Pierce moved (2:48:38), Horsky seconded (2:48:46); accepted by voice at 2:48:46. |
| 2:48:54 | Action item: 2018-19 school calendar (item B skipped) | Petrin moved (2:55:20), Benware seconded (2:55:21); approved by voice at 2:55:26. |
| 2:55:30 | Board members' use of laptops | Members may take laptops home after signing use documents. No vote. |
| 2:56:36 | Administrators' request: course money toward student loans | Motion to accept (Pierce, 3:00:34; Benware second, 3:00:55). Failed 0-7 on roll call (3:02:49 to 3:03:10): Benware, Horsky, Petrin, Pierce, Towle, Zullo and Sprague all No. |
| 3:03:13 | Policies BA and BAA: deadlines for board goals and evaluation | Horsky moved (3:06:17), Benware seconded (3:06:46); passed by voice at 3:07:03. |
| 3:07:08 | Seven policies, third reading and adoption | GBCD, GBI, IHAK, IMDA, JICD and the alcohol-drugs-tobacco and self-protection policies. Horsky moved (3:07:51), Benware seconded (3:08:22); adopted by voice at 3:08:30. |
| 3:09:39 | Adjournment | Pierce moved (3:09:44), unidentified second; voice vote at 3:09:46. |
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 bring our meeting to order." | |
| 0:01:09 | Agenda | Sprague: "Doctor Goodwin has already asked me to table, the preschool handbook". Approved as modified. | |
| 0:02:05 | April 4 minutes corrected | Unidentified member: "It said the meeting ended at 1015. Ended at 915." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:02:33 | Student report | Grenier at 0:03:15: "Stevens would like to thank Hannaford Supermarket for their generous donation of $1,000." At 0:04:48: "A total of 34 students in three Chaperons will be leaving for Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 21st." | |
| 0:08:01 | Superintendent's report | McGoodwin at 0:08:28: "Ben Nester is the recommended candidate for the six director of Special education." At 0:09:25: "we now have approximately nine candidates who have submitted applications for that position." | |
| 0:10:19 | Citizens' comment | Mimi Ryan's, Ward 1: "I decided to speak tonight after watching the joint meeting held between you all and City Council last night." At 0:13:07: "If you make this position a full time benefited position, you're far more likely to find someone". | |
| 0:14:07 | Right-to-Know training begins | McGoodwin introduces "Tierney will Phillips from New Hampshire School Board Association." Phillips at 0:18:56: "So if you have a policy committee, your policy committee is governed by the right to know law in exactly the same way as your school board is." "You have to post your minute, your your meetings 24 hours in advance, and you have to keep minutes." | OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:21:27 | Quorums and committees | Phillips: "you might only have two people, but if the two people are talking about policies and they both happen to be on the policy committee, that's a meeting." At 0:24:53: "There's no such thing as a straw poll." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:22 | Non-meetings | Sprague asks about non-meetings; Phillips at 0:26:01 names collective bargaining strategy and, at 0:27:23, "the second primary one is consultation with council." | |
| 0:31:35 | Nonpublic sessions and e-mail | Phillips on opening a meeting before going nonpublic, and on e-mail to a quorum; at 0:40:21: "So just use BCC when you can." | |
| 0:41:51 | Records retention | Phillips at 0:42:53: "The statute of limitations is three years." (his characterization); LeClair at 0:45:02 on the district's Google storage period: "But we can certainly look into that and get back to you." | |
| 0:50:09 | Public comment rules | Phillips: "How do you have any rules that pertain to your public comments or anything?" Sprague at 0:50:16: "they can't speak specifically about any person. They speak in generalities." Asked whether praise and criticism of teachers would be handled differently, at 0:50:59: "I probably would, yes, in all honesty." Phillips at 0:51:02: "So the First Amendment says that you can't engage in viewpoint discrimination." At 0:51:12: "You can limit the content but not the viewpoint." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:53:01 | Members respond | Zullo: "citizens should be able to communicate their feelings whether I agree with it or not." Towle at 0:55:55 on time limits enforced with cards. LeClair at 0:57:19: comments naming individuals come up "particularly when certain positions are being discussed for potential elimination." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:58:37 | Changing the rules | Phillips: "you don't want to get to the controversial topic that has 48 people all lined up ready to talk and decide that that's when you want to have rules." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:01:24 | Social media | Phillips: "You can't pull comments down because you don't like them." Sprague at 1:10:20: "a number of board members, past and present, engage the community with good intentions." At 1:11:53: "Would be the school budget, right. There was a lot of discussion about that." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:12:02 | A slippery slope | Phillips: "That, that is that is a slippery slope, old greased." Pierce at 1:12:42: "there's only like 2 or 3 people who respond." LeClair at 1:16:39 and Phillips at 1:18:00 on emoji reactions: "don't hit the, the, emojis." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:18:31 | Non-meeting versus nonpublic session | Towle asks the difference; Phillips at 1:20:41: "the session has to be part of the meeting." At 1:23:14: "the ceiling of the minutes, that has to happen in public session now". | |
| 1:26:49 | Draft documents | Horsky: "It's 91, a two paragraph one, subsection D, circulation of draft documents". Phillips at 1:27:35 confirms circulating the typed-up text of a decision already made is not a meeting, but warns against reopening it by e-mail. | |
| 1:32:14 | Climate and culture | Zullo at 1:33:00: "There's a lot of people who left who are, vocal about the fact that it hasn't been about money." LeClair at 1:43:18: "We did not do it in 17. We did conduct it in 16 and 15." | |
| 1:43:30 | Survey feedback | LeClair at 1:46:30: "we would need feedback finalized on May 2nd." Sprague at 1:49:25: "I'm going to ask that the feedback go to Rebecca if that's appropriate." | |
| 1:49:53 | Exit interviews | McGoodwin at 1:50:40: "The employee has the option of putting your name down or sending it back anonymously." | |
| 1:57:51 | System of Care grant | LeClair at 1:58:18: "we have approximately 2 million, $2 million over the course of four years." Dicks at 2:01:45: "we now have school based therapy at bluff, Dessner and Maple." At 2:07:19: "Right now we have three enrollees." | |
| 2:16:32 | Grading and reporting | Petrin at 2:18:10: "how do I judge if my child is not yet proficient?" McGoodwin at 2:25:43: "And I apologize to the community because the ship left the dock too soon." "We were not ready to implement competency based programing in the fall of 2012." | |
| 2:36:14 | Takeaways | LeClair: access to the online portal, and what the proficiency marks mean. Benware at 2:37:50: "Be awesome if there was a way to signify not yet proficient, but on track." | |
| 2:44:55 | Policy subcommittee | McGoodwin: "I wanted to know if any of you would like to be a member of a policy subcommittee." At 2:45:43: "Can't be more than three unless we warn the meeting." At 2:45:54: "I saw Steven and and Jason and Rebecca." At 2:46:08: "Actually, I was planning to have a Saturday morning." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:46:13 | Policy questions memo | McGoodwin: "this represents 25 policy question and discussion items that were collected last month from you." Deferred to the retreat: "So you will you will discuss this on the 22nd." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:48:19 | Hannaford donation | McGoodwin: "I am asking for your acceptance of this $1,000 donation." Pierce at 2:48:38: "make a motion to accept the $1,000 grant from Hannah. Hannaford with a thank you." Accepted by voice. | POSITIVE |
| 2:48:54 | 2018-19 calendar | LeClair at 2:51:06: "The board negotiated with the SRA, and language related to the calendar is included in there, and this meets and satisfies that language". Petrin at 2:55:20: "Approved the calendar as presented." Approved by voice. | POSITIVE |
| 2:56:36 | Administrators' request | McGoodwin: the contract "Provides $2,000 to be used for courses to be in approved academic program, of which 1000 can be used for paying off student loans." Horsky at 2:59:07: "It's basically asking for a renegotiation of a section of the contract that we've already agreed and entered into." | POSITIVE |
| 3:00:17 | Roll call requested | Zullo asks for a roll call; Towle agrees. The clerk at 3:01:32: "Except we're doing a roll call vote." Roll call 3:02:49 to 3:03:10: seven No votes. | POSITIVE |
| 3:03:13 | Goal and evaluation deadlines | Horsky at 3:06:17: "I would like to make a motion to amend policy B a and BAA setting hard deadlines" for goals by the second May meeting and evaluation by the second February meeting. Passed by voice. | |
| 3:07:08 | Seven policies adopted | Horsky at 3:07:51: "GBCD background investigation, criminal records check GBI staff participation in political activities IHAK character and citizenship education" and the rest, "To move forward final approval." Adopted by voice. | POSITIVE |
| 3:08:34 | Next meeting | McGoodwin: "So your next meeting is Sunday at 10:00 in the morning. Claremont Savings Bank Community Center with district strategic plan." "I will be out of state on this day and will not be able to attend." | OBSERVATION |
| 3:09:39 | Adjournment | Pierce: "Let's make a motion to adjourn." Voice vote. | |
Items flagged for review
Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the meeting against the law in force on April 18, 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. 7 flags follow, ordered by severity.
OBSERVATION A policy subcommittee was formed on the understanding that it "can't be more than three unless we warn the meeting", an hour after counsel told the board a policy committee must be noticed and minuted like the board itself
At 0:18:56 the association's attorney told the board that a policy committee "is governed by the right to know law in exactly the same way as your school board is", with meetings posted "24 hours in advance" and minutes kept, and at 0:21:27 that two members of such a committee discussing policy is a meeting. Near the end of the evening the superintendent invited volunteers for a policy subcommittee that would "establish a meeting date late afternoon evening" and draft policies, adding "Can't be more than three unless we warn the meeting" (2:44:55, 2:45:43); three members volunteered (2:45:54), and he mentioned a Saturday morning (2:46:08). The remark has an innocent reading: that more than three board members would be a quorum of the seven-member board and turn the session into a board meeting. But as a statement of when notice is needed it is incomplete. Under RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) a "public body" includes "any committee, subcommittee, or subordinate body thereof, or advisory committee thereto", so the subcommittee itself needed notice under RSA 91-A:2, II and minutes regardless of size. Nothing on this recording shows how the subcommittee's meetings were later noticed or minuted, and no subcommittee records from 2018 are online.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (2019 codification; source note ends 2008, 354:1, so in force in 2018); RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification, in force for all of 2018).
OBSERVATION The chair described a public-comment rule barring comment about named individuals and said he would probably treat praise and criticism of staff differently; counsel advised that would be viewpoint discrimination
Asked about the board's rules, the chair said the main rule is that speakers "can't speak specifically about any person" and that his role is to stop people "abusing board members, administration or staff that's not present" (0:50:16). Asked whether a speaker praising one teacher and another criticizing a different teacher would be handled differently, he answered "I probably would, yes, in all honesty." (0:50:59). The attorney responded that "the First Amendment says that you can't engage in viewpoint discrimination" and that a board "can limit the content but not the viewpoint" (0:51:02, 0:51:12); the assistant superintendent noted that comments about individuals had arisen mostly when positions were proposed for elimination in the budget (0:57:19). The page records counsel's advice as given on the tape; no court decision was verified for this page, so the constitutional point is counsel's statement, not a finding. No New Hampshire statute then required a public comment period at a school board meeting (RSA 189:74 dates from September 6, 2022). The board said it would take up comment parameters itself (0:57:05).
Sources: the recording at the times cited (counsel's advice); RSA 189:74, in force only from September 6, 2022 (2022, 333:1), cited only to show it did not apply; current text.
OBSERVATION Members described board members commenting on a community Facebook group during the budget debate; counsel called it "a slippery slope"
The chair told counsel that "a number of board members, past and present" engage on the private community group and gave the school budget as the example (1:10:20, 1:11:53). Counsel answered that if board members "are getting into a discussion about the budget" there, "you've got a problem" once a quorum is involved (1:12:02, 1:12:33). A member said "there's only like 2 or 3 people who respond" and that she refrains when others have posted (1:12:42). RSA 91-A:2-a, in force unamended since 2008, requires public bodies to deliberate "only in meetings" and bars communications outside a meeting, including sequential ones, from being used to circumvent the chapter. Nothing on the tape establishes that a quorum of sitting members deliberated online, and the board's discussion here was itself a step toward compliance; the observation is that the practice was described and not settled.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 91-A:2-a, I-II (2008, 303:4; unamended, so the current text governs 2018).
OBSERVATION No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting are online, and the April 22 board retreat it scheduled has no record in the corpus
RSA 91-A:2, II as it read in 2018 required minutes including "the names of members, persons appearing before the public bodies, and a brief description of the subject matter discussed and final decisions", open to inspection "not more than 5 business days after the meeting". The board approved its April 4 minutes here with a correction (0:01:52, 0:02:05), which shows minutes were kept; their absence online reflects the district's Drive archive starting in 2022 (MAP.md section 64), not proof that none were produced. The superintendent announced the board's next meeting as a Sunday 10:00 a.m. strategic-plan retreat at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center (3:08:34), and the 25-item policy memo was deferred to it (2:48:06). That session is a meeting of the board if a quorum attends. It has no recording and no section in MAP.md, and no notice or minutes for it are online. No law requires a recording. 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); MAP.md sections 64 to 66.
POSITIVE The board took an hour of Right-to-Know training in open, televised session
The superintendent had arranged the training "for a couple of months" (0:14:07), and the attorney covered public bodies and committees, quorums, straw polls, non-meetings, nonpublic sessions and sealing, e-mail and records retention, public comment and social media (0:17:38 to 1:31:59), with members asking specific questions about their own practices (1:12:42, 1:26:49). Holding it on camera let the public see the standard the board was told to meet. No statute required it.
Sources: the recording at the times cited.
POSITIVE The $1,000 Hannaford donation was listed as an action item and accepted in public session at a regular meeting
The student representative announced the gift (0:03:15), and the superintendent brought it as an action item on the agenda "Under action items" (2:48:19); the board accepted it by motion and voice vote (2:48:38 to 2:48:49). For unanticipated funds under $5,000, RSA 198:20-b, III(b) as it then read required the board to "post notice of the funds in the agenda" and "include notice in the minutes", with acceptance "made in public session of any regular school board meeting". The agenda listing and public acceptance match that procedure. Two points could not be checked: whether the minutes carried the notice (they are not online), and whether the district had adopted RSA 198:20-b by warrant article, which ¶I makes a condition of the board's authority.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (2019 codification; source note ends 2005, 188:1, so in force in 2018; the $5,000 threshold was raised to $20,000 only by 2023, 38:1).
POSITIVE Members asked for a roll call on a contract request so each vote was on the record; policies were adopted only after a third reading
On the administrators' request to apply course money to student loans, the vice chair asked for a roll call, and the chair agreed it gives the superintendent an exact count for his reply (3:00:17, 3:01:29); each member's No is on the tape (3:02:49 to 3:03:10). Two members explained on the record that the request amounted to renegotiating a settled contract term (2:58:18, 2:59:07). The seven policies were adopted at their third reading (3:07:08), and the calendar was presented as meeting the negotiated contract's calendar language (2:51:06). No 2018 statute required a roll call on this vote (the 2018 text of RSA 91-A:2, II had no mover-and-seconder or roll-call requirement for an in-person meeting); the practice exceeds the minimum.
Sources: the recording at the times cited; RSA 91-A:2, II (2017 codification).
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
- Cablecast show 9740, "SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 4-18": 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, checked 9/26/26). No agenda, packet or minutes for this meeting were located in the district's shares.
- Related meeting: the joint meeting of the school board and City Council (show 9734; MAP.md dates it April 24, 2018, but the recording and this meeting's citizens' comment place it the night before, 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/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.CSV (1,010 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4Input/Transcripts/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.jsonScripts/attribution_reports_2015_2023/9740 SchoolBoard041818.mp4.mdInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 64
Laws and rules cited on this page
- New Hampshire statutes, as in force on April 18, 2018. RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d) (committees and subcommittees are public bodies; unamended since 2008). RSA 91-A:2, I-II (meetings, notice and minutes; 2017 codification, in force for all of 2018; the mover-and-seconder sentence dates only from January 1, 2019). RSA 91-A:2-a (deliberation only in meetings; sequential communications; unamended since 2008). RSA 198:20-b, I and III(b) (unanticipated funds; $5,000 threshold before July 18, 2023). RSA 189:74 (public comment; not in force until September 6, 2022, cited only to show it did not apply; current text).