| 0:01:15 | Hawkins corrects the agenda: the packet holds FY2020, not FY2021 | Hawkins: "The results of the 2021 of water [audit] that the woman received in… Our packet is FY 20." Whitney accepts on the spot: "Then we'll accept that modification. To the agenda to read results of Fiscal year 2020 audits and update on 22 and 23." The posted agenda item reads "Results of FY 2021 Audit and FY 2022, FY 2023 Audit Progress Update"; the document actually before the board was the FY2020 audit, and Campo's presentation confirms it. | MEDIUM |
| 0:07:20 | Students on the adult reaction to February 11 | Clark: "WMUR TV and what's up, Claremont? There were a bunch of adults saying that we shouldn't feel the way we felt because it was just a toy. And a lot of other comments like that. And one common [comment] in particular, a bunch of us students from Sanchez [Stevens] responded to and we put quite a few of them in the packet to show you how respectful and responsible and, well, soft [thought-out] we all made those comments." | |
| 0:08:35 | Sheehan reads his written account of the lockdown | "I like many of the kids in that class. We all just thought it was a drill or fake, and we didn't really think anything of it until we saw the police pull into the front and, like, sprint to their trucks to put on their vests in. There are their ballistic shields." … "I could see through, like a tiny rip in the paper taped over the closet, window, the police sprinting up and down the hallways with their rifles in hand. I heard the stomping in the radios, and I had my classmates crying. And at that point, I figured it out that it was a real thing." … "Everyone in the community came together in those hours to keep us safe, and those hours afterwards to defend our experiences, despite the fact that we had to be defended at all." | |
| 0:12:15 | Clark answers the chair on police presence | Clark: "we felt safe and comforted by it because there were so many people and it was like 20 against four, and they were all adults, and they just came so fast that we felt like, oh, we're we're gonna be fine. But the thing that really scared us and, some people in my class were, they came in and had their, guns pointed right at us." … "Because it's never like you're never prepared to be told to put your hands in the air with guns pointed at you." Hawkins: "No matter what age you are. You're never prepared for that." Later, at 0:15:25: "One of the kids got detained right outside my classroom door. We heard everything." | |
| 0:21:00 | What the students say would help | Clark: "Doctor Harrington [Herrington] did put in a in place that if you wander the hallway, you're immediately sent home for the night… I also believe that we should think about the phone policy, because we wouldn't have known if someone at the tech center didn't see it online. But yet again, there's also pros and cons to that." Sheehan: "I don't think that there's much else that we can do. Honestly, I think that it's, it's at a spot where all we can do is tweak." | |
| 0:25:46 | Campo introduces himself and the engagement | "I'm Mike Campo. I am the partner in charge of Plastic and Sanderson [Plodzik & Sanderson]. We are the firm performing the audit of Claremont, Unity and Sussex [SAU 6]. In total, we do about 230 audits on an annual basis. And the majority of them don't take multiple years to complete. So I think having this meeting is a good opportunity to kind of get everyone on the same page and, steer the ship in one direction here." … "When I became a partner… One of the first gifts I got was these three engagements. And it's been my life mission to get them caught up… One of the biggest challenges we've had is continuity of management over the years." | MEDIUM |
| 0:26:37 | "the boxes of completed audits were still sealed" | "We had some members of management in the past who were unreceptive, unavailable, or just flat out just weren't that interested in the audit. I won't name specific names. It's not good for anybody to name specific names, but anybody who's been on the board for a number of years know some of the challenges we've had. I can put it even to the point where at one point, working in the the Sussex [SAU 6] offices, I was a little frustrated to find when pulling records that the boxes of completed audits were still sealed in the this person's, cabinet." … "They obviously didn't make it to you because they were still sealed and, and had the box hadn't been opened." … "I did bring it to the assistant superintendents attention at that point. That person wasn't there much longer, but but still, the damage had been done because we were years behind." | MEDIUM |
| 0:28:37 | FY2020 finding: the general ledger was not maintained | "It wasn't maintained. So what does that mean? Your balance sheet wasn't reconciled on a regular basis. I believe your current BA can attest to the fact that cash took a lot of time to get it back into balance for her current year that she's working on, her team worked very hard to do that. I don't know how a school district can operate if they don't know what they have in the bank." The recommendation: "the school district needs to adopt and policies and procedures to standardize the monthly reconciliation of your general ledger, which is your balance sheet, your profit and loss side." | MEDIUM |
| 0:29:23 | "those statements are misstated" | "Additionally, why that's important is if your balance sheet is wrong. Your profit and loss. When you're looking at budget to actual reports, those aren't accurate either, because every entry requires a debit and credit, so you need one on each side. So if you're missing one on the balance sheet, you're missing something on your profit and loss. So those statements are misstated." He is describing the FY2020 condition; he does not extend the word to any later year on this record. | MEDIUM |
| 0:29:43 | Journal entries and stale-dated checks | "Part of the reason that we had issues is during [journal] entries were being recorded, at a very high rate. They weren't being approved, they weren't being reviewed. And often they lacked formal formal documentation to support them. So you'll see this as a comment in your 2020 report as well." On cash: "you at that point in time, had several outstanding checks that were what we would consider stale dated… They were six months or older. This creates a risk because that's often an area where if somebody is trying to do something wrong, steal data [stale-dated] checks are usually part of the default." | MEDIUM |
| 0:30:34 | No credit card policy; reimbursements without evidence of authorization | "Red [Credit] card policy. The school district at the time did not have a credit card policy. Anybody any client I have… if they plan on using a government credit card, purchase card, whatever debit card, there should be very clear terms on how that should be used. It should include what the process is to make sure that your purchasing policy is being followed. That includes purchase orders. Where is the card kept when not in use?" … "what we noticed was that you had members of your staff who were purchasing items on their credit cards personally and then being reimbursed for it, which on the surface is a significant concern." … "The concern becomes that we did not find evidence that these purchases were authorized. So the school district was on the hook or felt they were on the hook to reimburse these people for items that honestly, you didn't know if you had the budget available for, if it was appropriate." | MEDIUM |
| 0:32:41 | "You guys set the tone at the top" | "I'm a big proponent of you, as the school board should be reviewing your financial policies, all of them over a three years… The reason for that is you guys have three year terms. You guys set the tone at the top as the governing body of how the school district is supposed to perform. So I believe that a rotation of having every policy put in front of the board members requires them to understand what the policies are. It also gives you a chance to evaluate. Are they still working? Are they appropriate?" | |
| 0:33:41 | Sprague: were the FY2020 problems fixed by FY2021? | Sprague: "there are things that weren't happening in the 20. Have they been taken care of in the 21?" Campo: "Some have been addressed, but some have not. The problem is with a lot of the order [older] findings were giving them, were giving them like two years after the fact. And that has a lot to do with the fact that our ability to go in, we can't just go into your office and then conduct the audit. We need the assistance of management." … "A big issue we've had is just finding records in a lot of cases, because the people who were there before and stored the records are no longer there." … "the people we spoke to about these issues are no longer there." | MEDIUM |
| 0:35:43 | Crawford: "the report is dated July 21st, 2023. This is March of 25" | Crawford: "First of all, the report is dated July 21st, 2023. This is March of 25… we got the report for the 2020 audit in 23. And now it's taken us almost a year and three quarters to actually get that report." Campo: "the 23 date is when that would have been shipped to you… We don't need two years to ship a report. So we the date we issue it is the day that we get the sign management representation letter… We then nail [mail] hard copies and actually right away when we released a report we'll send a PDF copy as well. And that goes to management. We from management side we can't control when it's district." Crawford later: "I really look forward to your plan for following up, because if we're at 2020 audit and this is March of 25, I really am anxious to hear what your plan is." | MEDIUM |
| 0:38:14 | Who has oversight; lenders and the federal government | Campo: "We don't have a oversight. However, the Department of Education gets your reports. They would have authority oversight." … "Our job as the independent auditor is to basically render an opinion on whether or not the financial statements can be relied upon by users of the financial statements… we're not necessarily crying [trying] to render opinion on your internal controls. However, if we detect areas of concern, we have an obligation to communicate that to the users of financial statements, management and governance." Crawford asked whether a lender would balk at adverse findings; Campo: "Absolutely. That is a legitimate concern you have." And at 0:39:25: "I would also extend that to the federal government as well. You you, as a school district, receive a substantial amount of federal funds being displayed on audits needs to be corrected. That's a legitimate concern." | MEDIUM |
| 0:45:04 | Campo's proposal: a monthly meeting with a designated board member | "I want to get these caught up. I have to explain to my partners at the office why these aren't caught up… which I would like to propose is that the board delegate one individual to do a monthly meeting with myself and your business administrator to do an update on where we stand on these audits, any issues that we're having, anything like that. And then that way we you're being held accountable, held accountable, and management is being held accountable… I think we need something formalized and we need to start moving forward." He set the first meeting for "Tuesday the 18th because that would be after the field work," and warned: "You're either going to love me or hate me because I'm very persistent." | POSITIVE |
| 0:49:15 | Crawford nominated as the board's audit representative | Hawkins: "And I nominate Candace Crawford to be on board." The next voice on the recording says "I second" and the dialogue file attributes it to Heather Whitney; the approved minutes record "Arlene Hawkins nominated Candace Crawford to be the representative, Whitney Skillen seconded the motion." The minutes govern. Neither record shows a vote being taken on the nomination. Hawkins also asked about the SAU audit; Campo: "I'm looking to do all three. I want all three caught up and ready to go." | POSITIVE |
| 0:50:46 | An IRS/ACA matter outside the auditor's purview | Sprague: "there are some things in there that really are not within plot centers [Plodzik & Sanderson's], if I'm saying it correctly, purview that are a concern, one being, an issue with the IRS that's mentioned in there… it was, as Middleton used to say, top of the fold issue around the IRS and the ACA compliance." Henry: "I know right now that is being handled. We've got Patrick involved with it as well. We also have our attorneys involved in it to get that taken care of. It's taking more time. Number one, it's response time, not just from the IRS, is hard to get to somebody to get it taken care of." … "That is something that we inherited and went, oh, great. You know, I mean, we got a letter." | MEDIUM |
| 0:53:21 | Campo on the current administration | "in terms of the the administration you have now, they've been very cooperative… honestly, we just we just had to let a, another client go. They were 18 months behind, and they just didn't care about the price… when management doesn't care about it, we walk away from that… I'm nowhere near that point with your management. And honestly, I do talk to your b a [BA] on a fairly regular basis, at least monthly checking in… I do feel very optimistic with the team you have in there that they're going to help us achieve what we want to do here." Sprague, twice: "this predates this administration." Henry: "We do care. Believe this. This is driving me crazy because I don't have numbers and I can't stand having numbers." | |
| 0:59:17 | YRBS: who presented, and what the 2023 data covers | Blewitt: "So my name is Scott Blewitt… I brought my partners in prevention with me. Kerry Rochford. Hague, representing TLC and turning points. Double duty Jen Gallagher, familiar face… And Hannah Brooks." On the lag: "We were here last year when we were here last year. We were talking about the 2021 data… And then they did another survey in 2023… And then the CDC takes their time to analyze it." On YouthCan: "we are a division of West Central Behavioral Health where a DFC grant. We have a budget of $125,000 a year. Specifically for Newport and Claremont, the Can is an acronym for Claremont and Newport." | |
| 1:01:44 | Alcohol and marijuana trends | "this is 2023, 15.8% of Stevens ninth through 12th graders, had an alcoholic drink at least one day during the last 30 days" — against 32.9% in 2013. "Claremont Pride. You're doing a great job. And there is a decrease. Is 15% too high. Of course it is." Marijuana 30-day use 17.6%, six points lower than a decade earlier; both measures higher among seniors than freshmen and, in these years, higher among female than male respondents. | |
| 1:07:21 | "one more statistic that concerns me the most" | "This is about perception. The percentage students who recall hearing, reading or seeing a public message about avoiding alcohol or other illegal drugs during the past 12 months, and currently, it is 47.8% of the students recall seeing something which is a little bit less than half. And you might think that's pretty good. But if you look ten years ago or even 2015, it was 73%. So to me, that means that I need to do a better job working with partners to get the message out there." Sprague: "My suspicion is that kids are getting their information differently now" than they were a decade ago — "Social media. They weren't watching. Right TV, right." | |
| 1:09:41 | Gallagher on harassment and dating violence | "Turning Points Network serves all of Sullivan County, and we help folks with relationship abuse. So if people are experiencing stalking, sex trafficking, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, bullying, right?" On the data: "the good news is that Stephens [Stevens] is lower than both the region and the state. The last [less] great news is that it's 15%, which I would say is pretty high." And at 1:12:13: "the first question looked at the percent of students who were ever physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they didn't want to. A Stephens was actually higher there than both the region and the state, which is concerning. 13% of students reported that they were forced to have intercourse when they did not want to." Mental-health support: Stevens performed "not quite as well as the state or the region." | |
| 1:16:12 | Hague on TLC and the SHINE curriculum; consent data | "I'm Kerry Rochford, and I am the shine educator at Telsey [TLC]" and, in the segments that follow, "And also a prevention educator" working with Gallagher at Turning Points. On SHINE: "it's an inclusive curriculum. It's developmentally appropriate. It's medically accurate information for young people." At 1:24:46: "the percentage of students who verbally asked for consent the last time they had sexual contact, right. For Stephens, 88%. The county 84, the state 77… we're really encouraged to think that because there is more intentional curriculum around consent used by both turning points and TLC, that we're seeing that positive upward trend." Gallagher noted for viewers at home: "Age of consent in New Hampshire is 16, not 13." | |
| 1:26:02 | Brooks on Getting to Y and survey reliability | "I work at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical center slash greater Sullivan county public health network. And I do a lot of partnering with these folks as well… focuses mostly on youth engagement and a lot of LGBTQ plus support in our community." On Getting to Y: "we really put the data in the hands of youth and say, you're the ones that are taking this. This is also yours to have. What can we do about it? It's very much a student led initiative. Not my decision as an adult." She invited board members to a spring data-analysis retreat. Earlier, on Crawford's question about response bias, Brooks offered a handout on the reliability and validity of the survey. Blewitt closed with the response rate at 1:38:01: "it was 66%, and it was 338 out of 515 students," and noted the survey runs on an opt-out rather than opt-in basis. | |
| 1:44:54 | $4,000 SALT donation accepted | Pratt: "we had a donation of $4,000 to the Salt, which stands for student Athlete Leadership Team… Salt club is such as, trips, community service projects, the NFL flag program at Stevens High School." Crawford: "So move." Whitney: "Miss Crawford makes a motion to accept $4,000 from the, Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation for the Salt program… All in favor of accepting the donation? Say I, I motion passes to accept the donation." | POSITIVE |
| 1:49:18 | The March 17 safety forum announced | Pratt: "This forum will serve as a platform for community members to discuss safety concerns, share insight, and collaborate on initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and well-being of our students and staff. This forum was set up in a direct response to the lockdown gun incident we had that occurred at Stevens High School on February 11th, and we encourage all board members to attend." He added it would have "a panel of administrators, our school SRO and the police chief there, will be presenting." | |
| 1:53:20 | Sprague on the federal English-language executive order | "I was looking at the one that designated, English as the language of the United States. And as I read through that, it looks as if that executive order suspends a Clinton era requirement that schools provide services for non-English speaking students." Pratt: "there's a lot going on at the federal level that does trickle down to the states… right now we're just in the waiting game." Sprague: "I worry about the not not doing the programing but the, the funding that would come along with that from various sources." Separately, O'Hearn accepted Sprague's point on job postings: "I think that's good advice. And I can tweak our job postings to reflect start dates." | |
| 2:01:01 | SHS Safety Specialist proposal | Pratt: "this is a direct response to what we know now based on the situation that took to the high school… I've never been in a high school or middle school with more than 300 kids that didn't have our own individual employee to overlook" the safety of the building. On funding: "I've checked with grants. The money is there. Some of these grants are set up specifically for things like this." On the February 11 sequence: "these particular students were in the hallway for over 40 minutes… as most of you saw, there's not too many people in the halls in between classes." Miles moved to hire; Crawford seconded. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:09:37 | Whitney on the salary and the qualification | "We're looking at an average salary of 67,000 a year for an individual who has a high school diploma or an equivalency, and our teachers aren't starting there, and our chief of police makes only $7,000 more, and our police officers make 52,000, and they work 12 hour shifts in every other weekend. So I had some concerns about the disparity of the salary as it relates to the position." Sprague: "isn't this the equivalent of 1012 [10 to 12] years of experience for a teacher to get up to 70,000 is near the top of the state. That's 20 years." … "I think it's way too much money. Chris." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:16:35 | Accountability, and who watches the cameras | Whitney: "Say this individual creates a safety plan and it's below state standards. Are they accountable for that? … Who's ultimately held accountable? Is it still the principal or the superintendent?" Pratt: "Ultimately it's the superintendent… as guards, [as regards] the safety plans. They're not creating them. They're making sure they're being followed." Then at 2:21:18 — Whitney: "So nobody monitors the camera in the hallway during passing hours?" O'Hearn: "Nope." Pratt: "The only time the cameras are looked at is if an incident takes place. You go back and we review them, and we try to figure out what happened." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:22:17 | Whether to build a position on grant money | Sprague: "it's grant funded this year, but with everything that's going on, the uncertainty of title money, anything coming from the federal government, I think is. I don't I don't dare to count on it." Skillen echoed the concern and asked what else had been considered. Hawkins asked whether the post could be advertised as grant funded. Pratt: "Here would be like title for [Title IV] title for right now. We know we're not maximizing the grants," and O'Hearn confirmed it would not come out of Title I. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:28:18 | Tabled to April 2; the motion withdrawn | Whitney: "a lot of the things that we would like to talk about are really not appropriate to talk about, because we're talking about physicians [positions] and people… That's a nonpublic." … "we haven't been able to talk about and haven't really had a real forensic analysis of what perhaps, administrators in the building felt, kind of getting feedback from the teachers. And if we could hear that, and I think it would be helpful for me to be supportive of this position, in the context of, like, a larger plan." … "If we had this meeting on April 2nd, it would be after the community safety meeting. We would hear what the community said. We would hear what the police chief Wilmot said." Sprague: "It makes it a response instead of a reaction." Miles withdrew the motion at 2:32:51: "I'm comfortable. With drawing. As long I know you're going to, it's going to be addressed." Crawford asked that any revived posting require a four-year degree. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:34:12 | 2025–26 calendar: no snow days built in | Pratt: "the calendar this year, snow days are not built in, but this calendar stays within… the CBA. We have no moose [MOUs]. It is what it is. Is nothing more. Nothing less than what's in the CBA." Sprague worked it aloud: "if you take them, do the math and you do 172 days and they're in school for six hours a day, you come up with a number. And the difference between the two numbers at six hours a day is how many snow days you don't have to make up. Am I close?" and "according to the minimum standards, it was, I believe 994 or 9995 school, 1964 elementary" — the figures are garbled by the transcript. Miles: "there's no state requirement for minimum number or number of school days… Does the state identify number of school days." Pratt: "Hours, hours?" Sprague: "You can choose." Sprague moved approval; Whitney seconded; voice vote in favor. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:40:08 | The Acuity opposition letter, and a split the minutes do not show | Crawford read the letter: "the school board stands in opposition to a proposal to bring a very large toxic waste sorting facility to Claremont, New Hampshire. We take this position because of our concerns for the children of Claremont. While the proposal states that truck traffic will be on the outskirts of Claremont, there are no provisions for monitoring this activity effectively." … "The proposed facility would be located close to the Maple Avenue Elementary School and the neighborhood houses where children live." … "I know we don't take political positions. However, this is an advocacy for our children." Sprague moved to endorse; Miles seconded. Whitney at 2:42:25: "I supported I'm in opposition. Just because I feel very strongly about not engaging in municipal matters, I don't have enough knowledge, quite frankly, to know if this is truly factual… So for me, it's a no," and "I know I'm a minority, so, you know, I'm good with being a minority." Then the vote: "All in favor? Aye, aye. Opposed me." | MEDIUM |
| 2:43:47 | Policy sub-committee: three policies driven by the audit | Hawkins: "Are we okay with suspending our report readouts? Can I just quickly on policy subcommittee because we had a meeting today. At the March 19th meeting, the board will be getting three policies that are prompted by Grant's audit. And so there will be two for updates. One asked to be rescinded. And the the proposed revisions will be in the board packet." She asked members to read them in advance and send comments to the chair "for expediency." | POSITIVE |
| 2:48:54 | Last meeting for Miles and Skillen | Whitney: "Our next. Claire Claremont school board meeting is the 19th. And I want to, with a very, very full and grateful heart. Thank both of you for all your contributions and caring." Skillen: "It has been. It's been it's been such an honor. I feel like I've learned so much and I've gained such a different perspective… I feel like I'm just in a season of my life where I don't have enough time to be a school board member, but I hope one day I'm going to be like, Arlene." Miles: "I'll be back." Neither stood at the March 11 election. | |