| 0:02:25 | The financial presentation comes off the agenda | The first act of the meeting is to strike its reason for existing: "allow me to modify the agenda to remove item number three. Mary Henry, business administrator presentation item number four, board discussion on financial update." Consent given. Sheri Williams later, from the podium: "I was very disheartened to see item number three on the agenda being taken off of the agenda." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:04:16 | A recess so the public can hear | A voice from the gym: "Already can't hear you in a gym here. You on that side?" The chair recessed for four minutes while a portable PA was rigged and the Stevens principal worked on the sound; the meeting resumed with "Is that better?" The minutes fix the times at 6:40 and 6:44 p.m. | POSITIVE |
| 0:07:01 | The Commissioner's letter: "largely a local issue" | "Dear school Board, the New Hampshire Department of Education is aware of the serious financial challenges currently affecting the Claremont School District… The Department is actively engaged in supporting your district as it works to address these issues. At this time, this remains largely a local issue for the Claremont School District." The Department's list: "Accounting for all revenues and expenditures in fiscal year 2025. In order to close the books"; reviewing the current year's budget; "Completing all required financial audits"; "Establishing and implementing budget controls"; regular updates, because "Regular updates will promote transparency and build confidence." Signed Caitlin Davis. | HIGH |
| 0:09:44 | The board's own letter | "Much like the abrupt and disruptive nature of the pandemic, this crisis has taken shape suddenly and with wide reaching impact. But unlike the pandemic, we are weathering the storm largely on our own. There will be no influx of emergency funding or broad government support." And the limits set for the night: "Tonight, there will be no votes on appropriations.… No proposals to raise funds, and no discussion of specific cuts… As the financial picture becomes clearer and appropriations are required, every member of this community will have the opportunity to weigh in. That process will happen publicly through hearings, deliberative sessions, and ultimately at the ballot box." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:12:34 | Counsel: cash flow first, and only the board can decide | Two weeks of meetings with the Department of Education, the finance office and the auditors, and "It's not been clear for the auditors. It's not been clear for the board. It's not been clear for the commissioner." Angell — "He's an advisor to the board right now… over the last day and a half. I think he's just done an unbelievable job of trying to scour the records." The question: "is there enough cash or isn't there going to be enough cash?" — and the decision on delaying or opening school "is a decision that only the board is able to make." | HIGH |
| 0:17:31 | The deficit's size is still unknown | "The district is in debt. There is a deficit… Right now, the amount of deficit is not known. Is that will require the district to come first with all of its outstanding audits, closely evaluate the 2024 2025 financials. That is a time consuming, in slow process." And: "We know that it is significant enough to require the district to take some historic steps to become solvent… You folks are facing a financial crisis that has not happened in New Hampshire." | HIGH |
| 0:21:12 | Bankruptcy explored; receivership has no statute | "Our team is on my team in my office is also looking at bankruptcy, and there are other attorneys in the state who are also looking at the option of bankruptcy and whether that's actually a viable option… There are a tremendous amount of downsides to filing for bankruptcy.… So we are trying our hardest to avoid having to do that. That's still on the table." On receivership: "there's no statutory process for a receivership manager for a public entity like a school district or a town. There is no statute.… Legislature has not authored authorize the courts or the state to put a school district or a town into receivership… we're in unchartered territory." The supplemental-appropriation route was judged to have "legal issues," and "asking the taxpayers right now fully fund that deficit doesn't seem like a very good" idea. His conclusion, twice: "It's very likely that the path forward… is going to require action from the state." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:24:02 | The auditor: which years are actually audited | Campo: "We've been working on new audit for a number of years. And part of the challenge we've had is change in management over the years and the inability to get information from management. We, that continues to this day." On the theory that FY22 and FY23 explain everything: "I believe that results need to define that, not just the assumption… If there is a deficit for that year, it's not a significant nature… we're eager to get into fiscal year 2425, where we believe that there are issues with how fast [cash] flow is handled.… I can't prove that." His firm does "230 governmental audits in a year. Our typical turnaround on an audit six months." He had warned board members before the last meeting to "be conservative" with the numbers being presented. | HIGH |
| 0:25:58 | FY22 is heading for a disclaimer of opinion | "We report an opinion on whether or not you can rely on the financial statements that are presented in your annual financial statements. We have had challenges of 22 and the the opinion is not going to be pleasant for that, because the records did not support the numbers that were in the financial statements. And share that you're going to have a disclaimer of opinion.… That is due to the lack of evidence to support the the figures that were present." He had asked the board for help getting records in March: "I need your guys influence. Since then I have got it." | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 0:27:07 | On a forensic audit | "This did not happen in one year. But I also at that same point, I don't think it can be attributable to two years in the past. I think the current and the prior year really need to be investigated and looked at." On the forensic question: "That is completely discretion of the board.… They need to review the facts, discuss it with the attorney and decide if that's the right course of action. I will share with you that a a a forensic audit as time consuming and expensive. And unfortunately, the expense right now is probably not a priority for the school district. Why do you keep the school open? That doesn't mean it shouldn't be given serious consideration at some point." | HIGH |
| 0:28:15 | The moderator sets the rules | Derek Lick: "I was asked yesterday to come and volunteer my time tonight with the public comment portion of the meeting… I am the moderator for the school district, of the school district, the neighboring school district. And we had a we had a very similar meeting in the district in January with a great deal of anxiety from the public and meetings that typically had 40 people showed up at 1600." Three minutes each, podium, name and ward in the clerk's book, the clerk timing with a one-minute warning card. | POSITIVE |
| 0:32:03 | Cogswell: "How is that not a criminal matter?" | Chris Cogswell (Ward 3): "How is that not a criminal matter? To withhold information on the spending of taxpayer dollars?" Counsel: "No evidence that we've encountered a fraud or misappropriation. So it doesn't mean it's not. We don't we haven't seen any evidence of that. It appears that this situation is the result of a lot of different things. Problems with the financial records. And poor management overall." Cogswell pressed with an analogy — a captain asleep when the ship hits the iceberg, a cardholder who never checks the balance: "How is that not criminal negligence?" | MEDIUM |
| 0:35:52 | "Where is the superintendent and Mary Henry?" | Patrick Adrian (Ward 1) asked it first; Sheri Williams (Ward 2) asked whether the comptroller replaces or supplements the business administrator and said the community deserves to know why the two officials were absent. Counsel at 0:40:46: "They are still currently employed… They're employed by SO6 [SAU 6]… That board is not met since we've discovered this information. That board meets tomorrow night." And: "business administrator is not in charge of Claremont School District's finances any longer… the superintendent is still employed by the essay, but he is not here tonight. And that's at the request of the board." | MEDIUM |
| 0:41:51 | The students speak | Nicole Bouchard, rising senior: "I've written my thoughts down as it's an important subject to me… The last three years of my life here at Stevens, I have worked vigorously in my academics in preparation of applying to my highly selective dream school this November." Asher James Williams, rising junior, at 0:58:17: "if we cannot confirm that the school will be able to stay open, then what is the point of opening it even for a month" — and "why would we told about this at an earlier date?" Miles Sheehan, last year's student representative, at 0:47:36: "As a rising senior, being uncertain in what I'm supposed to do with my life the next six months is concerning." | |
| 0:45:49 | Robinson reads the overages aloud | Sean Robinson (Ward 2), from the previous meeting's packet: "The Maple Avenue Elementary salaries were over budget by about $127,000. The middle school salaries were over by 117,000. Stevens High School stipends and extended learning were overspent by double or triple their budget. District wide. We see $50,000 in contract services charge to line that had no budget allocation at all." His conclusion: "principles [principals] aren't monitoring their budgets and that the administration isn't being held accountable either… When the board asks for monthly updates and doesn't get them, that is another problem of failures." And: "If we can't manage the money we already have, we have no business asking for more." | MEDIUM |
| 0:53:12 | An administrator from another district on annual audits | Karin Denholm: "I know that in my district, we have always had a yearly audit, and that is not something that you can't sign off on. It has to be completed every year. So I guess I have questions about accountability for that." She also raised the state's own failure to fund adequately, invoking the Claremont decisions. Jerry Cross, 48 years in the city, framed it as reaching "well beyond the school district"; Michelle Springer Blake asked that cuts "come from the top first." | HIGH |
| 1:12:59 | What the cuts would cost families | Jason Benware (Ward 1, former board member) on sports: "I don't think you have to stop sports in order to cut money" — fall sports other than football are cheap, teams hold their own account money, parents transported children under waivers during Covid, and pay-to-play is available. Emily Charest asked whether athletics survive with seasons already starting; Shaylor Duranleau of Unity spoke for the tech center — "I am where I am because of the text [tech]"; Carolyn Redman offered VLACS as a fallback; Kellie Gaydos reported a student already leaving her class list for homeschooling. | |
| 1:19:07 | Why is the SAU board not meeting tonight? | Jada Johnson (Ward 2): "why is the Saw six board not meeting until tomorrow? This meeting with us is tonight. Was this not important enough for them to maybe, I don't know, call an emergency meeting?… the people who are in charge of and possibly responsible for said crisis should be taking it a little more seriously." Counsel and Hawkins both explained that the SAU is a separate corporation with its own board — the employer of the superintendent and central-office staff — and that it met the following night. | MEDIUM |
| 1:27:26 | "What year, legitimately was the last official signed audit that we had?" | Chris Irish (Ward 3), a former board member, put the evening's sharpest question to the auditor. Campo's answer, across four consecutive segments: "That was 20." "21." "Wrapping." "Up 22. Now." — FY2020 and FY2021 are the last completed audits, with FY22 being wrapped up. Irish had also read out the April board meeting's history: "We ended with a $1 million, $1.4 million surplus. A million was returned to the taxpayers 2022. We ended with a $500,000 in her plus [surplus], but $1.7 million was returned to the taxpayers." | HIGH HIGH |
| 1:28:18 | Lownie: a statement every three days | Ken Lownie, a retired software-implementation executive: "My observation is it's remarkable that came for information and update and understanding. We didn't get that. We heard from two people external to our core process… I know it's not your fault, but when someone dies, you say, I'm sorry for your loss." His request: "would you commit as a board to more transparency in the next few weeks?… You read a statement tonight. How about a statement every three days? And here's where we are now." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:42:36 | The closing exchange: audits and "false pretenses" | "So I got another one for you, Frank. You ready? Why was the last audit done in 2021? I want to know the answer to that. Is it possible to know who is responsible for this catastrophe that you just set us all up for?… You drag these people here or they came here voluntarily, but you got them here under false pretenses that you were going to answer questions." The minutes attribute this to Zack Thomas; the dialogue file merges it into the preceding speaker's cluster (Braden Gassett). Comments closed at 8:21 p.m. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:43:48 | The chair answers: "we don't know" | "Is this anything that comes out of my mouth right now is going to sound like hot garbage. It's going to sound deceptive. It's going to sound untruthful. It's going to sound misleading.… When people say, I don't know, it's usually because they don't want to answer the question. We don't know. We thought about an hour before this meeting that we were going to have a presentation. We thought we were going to have accurate and sustainable numbers or or some modicum of a sustainable number or a target or a direction, and literally up to an hour for this meeting.… We don't know. And so that's what I have to sit here and tell you. Honestly, we don't know." A voice: that's unacceptable. Whitney: "Completely, absolutely, 100% unacceptable." | OBSERVATION |
| 1:45:23 | A board without its own financial capacity | "not one person on this board has the capacity financially to do a financial audit? We don't… Not one person on this board can go into the saw six, look through the records and give you an answer. We are relying on other people to do that activity and that's it." On the new comptroller: "he told us more in one hour. Basically, he has a better handle on things in one hour than we've had for for weeks" — the minutes put it as two days against four years. And on the calendar: "the board has voted on a calendar… the last vote that determine what day of school, the what day school was going to start has already been voted on." | MEDIUM |
| 1:47:09 | Hawkins: whose failure this is, and an apology | "The say you [SAU] is responsible for hiring the superintendent. And then he in turn hires the staff at the central office… The essay itself does not have any schools." And: "This issue is an saw [SAU] issue in that the structure that we oversee and work with, the financials are the issue in Claremont, because this is where the schools are. I don't say that lightly… someone said they did not hear the words, I'm sorry for this board.… We are sorry that we are here. We would rather not be just as you would be." | MEDIUM |
| 1:48:49 | School opens on the 28th — no motion made | "given the information that we have, we are.… Opening school.… On the date that on the 28th of August. The only way that changes is that the member makes a motion to to delay school. If no one makes a motion to delay school, the discussion to the way school has ended and school opens on the 28th. So the question to the board is, does anyone want to make a motion?" No motion came. Asked how long the schools could then stay open: "Honestly, we don't have. We don't know." | HIGH |
| 1:57:05 | Why the audits did not happen | Campo: "I have yet to work with a D, A [BA] and a current year of their work. I've been working with people who weren't around at the time, so when I go and ask them for why this efficiency [deficiency] is here, I get I get blank looks. In some cases, I know that the building was renovated. I think some records actually just went missing at the start.… I had a very tough time doing this. As I said, typical order for us. We do have some very large audience [audits], including the city of Lebanon… We are turnaround. It's not years, months." On the new comptroller: "my firm has worked with Mr. Angel[l] before… I can tell you from what I just talked to him about before I got more from him than I've gotten in the last couple of years. In terms of per records." | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 1:58:56 | "There are laws that require… nonpublic" | Asked why the next night's SAU meeting held only a nonpublic item, the chair answered: "There are laws that require that when you are discussing personnel issues they are done in nonpublic. Unless the personnel request for public hearing. We have got to follow the law… it's not a nice answer for people who want public information. I understand we want public information, but this is the law and we have to follow." The Right-to-Know Law is narrower than that — see flag 4. | MEDIUM |
| 2:01:08 | Rep. Damon: audits, transportation, and 30% of the cost | "There is not a state requirement that audits be done annually. The state statute says they may be done. I will be bringing legislation forward this fall to required to require an annual audit by all school districts that is submitted to the Department of Education, and I will explore… whether there should be a consequence in that statute that you don't get money from the state if you don't file your audit in a timely manner." On funding: "the state is less than 30% of the cost of public schools, the federal government pays less than 10%… 8% of the cost of public schools in New Hampshire comes from the lottery, and that's included in the less than 30%… property taxes and communities throughout the state pay 65 to 70%." And: "We just had another court ruling come out Monday night of this week, finding largely against the state." She also stated the transportation duty for pupils living more than two miles from school — see flag 8. | OBSERVATION OBSERVATION |
| 2:05:14 | Executive Councilor Liot Hill apologizes for the state | "I am sorry that the state of New Hampshire has failed for 35 years to adequately fund public schools in the state of New Hampshire, and that has led to the situation where you are tonight.… I am sorry that generations of students in the city of Claremont have suffered at the hands of an unfair school funding situation." She described daily contact with the Commissioner, said she would give the governor her summary of the meeting, and committed: "if a special session of the legislature is required, that would need to be called for by the governor and then voted on by the Executive Council. I will encourage my colleagues on the Executive Council to vote to support a special session." Rep. Hemingway and Rep. Aron followed; Aron: "I will pledge to work with Representative Damon on this audit issue." | OBSERVATION |
| 2:16:49 | The comptroller, two days in: "no beginning balances" | Matt Angell: "I'm Matt Eagle. I've only been at this… Yesterday afternoon… My first course of action is to try to get the close of the books and get the audit caught up. When I looked in the system, there are no beginning balances. You can't rely on the numbers. For me to do a cash flow, I had to do, you know…" His plan: "get the books of the speed. Get the audit. Moving it. The skate [state] reports moving. Start reporting financial condition to the community, from the accounting system. And it's going to take games evenings, weekends… It's going to take me probably a good, solid month. And I will have something. It's probably going to be decent. It's not going to be at the standard at which I'm used to producing… I'm essentially coming here to get out of whole [a hole]." Counsel, in the fragments the transcript preserves: "To do that work. We need that number to know."… "How big the hole."… "Is."… "And what the cash flow looks like and how much money."… "We're going to need. To borrow." | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 2:20:51 | What families can do, and what happens to the superintendent | Counsel: "if the superintendent status has officially changed any way, the community will know there will be an announcement… the district and the CEO [SAU] needs to have someone designated as superintendent, which could be like sort of temporary." On leaving the district: "While the district is operating the school district, your resident students have an obligation to attend that school district. There is some reassignment options. Under the law, you can demonstrate manifest educational hardship. You can attend charter schools, you can homeschool. There's education freedom accounts… Claremont wouldn't be obligated to pay that tuition right now." | |
| 2:27:10 | The only cost control in place: a freeze | "we have a hiring freeze and a spending freeze in place. That's our biggest cost saving right now. Until we know what we are obligated to cut to meet certain targets, we cannot give any assurances… I'm just going to say no, I can't guarantee you that." And on the data: "when we are given more accurate data, which we haven't been able… We have been operating a no accurate data. Once we can get a handle on what the number is, we can start actually working towards a solution that is meaningful." Five days later, on August 25, the board voted to eliminate 20 positions and to cut non-mandatory extracurricular programs. | HIGH |