| 0:00:35 | The clerk is absent and the minutes are already a problem | The chair, in the meeting's second sentence: "So, not going to be here today. So we'll need somebody to help with the, minutes as we go along. She offered to, create the minutes based on the video. So I think for the public session, that's what we'll do that soon. And for, when we go in, a nonpublic will have to get a volunteer." (The subject of the first clause is clipped by the transcript; from context it is clerk Noelle Kronberg.) No volunteer minute-taker is subsequently named on the recording, and no minutes of either the public or the nonpublic session were ever posted. | HIGH HIGH |
| 0:01:38 | Four sets of minutes tabled, unopenable | "the minutes that were sent out for review, some of them, the formatting… I wasn't able to open them. I was only able to open the minutes from, Let's see. 826." The board tabled review of the June 12, August 21, August 26 and September 4 minutes — the second consecutive meeting at which minutes could not be taken up. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:03:24 | Into nonpublic — exemption on the face of the motion, roll call caught in time | "Motion to move into non public meeting for under RSA 91-8 colon three comma two A and C." The chair began to take it as a voice vote and corrected herself mid-sentence: "All those in. Oh we need a roll call if you don't mind, sir." Koski then called eight members plus the chair, all yes. The exit at 0:04:24 followed the same form. | POSITIVE |
| 0:04:48 | Superintendent Pratt's resignation accepted — in about twenty-five seconds | "I would like to make a motion to accept Superintendent Chris Pratt's resignation. Second. Second." One remark in discussion. "All those in favor of accepting Mr. Pratt's resignation? Signify by saying aye." — "Aye." — "Okay." No terms of separation were read, no severance figure was stated, no effective date was given, no opposed or abstention call was made, and there are no minutes. Everything substantive about the separation had happened in the unrecorded nonpublic session. | HIGH MEDIUM |
| 0:05:57 | Kerry Kennedy offered the interim superintendency | "I'd like to make a motion to offer the position of interim superintendent to Miss Carrie [Kerry] Kennedy." Seconded; the chair asked "Any discussion?" and there was none; voice vote with "Any opposed?" put and no count announced. The candidate interview is referred to only in passing later, by Madden: "We just had an extensive interview with our new candidate that was just voted on it, Miss Carrie Kennedy. She told us all about her background." | MEDIUM OBSERVATION |
| 0:06:34 | The consulting proposal, described only aloud | "there was a consulting firm, that has offered services at the support services at the administrative level. Teams [TMS] consulting… they have provided a proposal to offer consultation regarded to leadership." Three sections, each with a 30-day cancellation: superintendent support, communications, and an operational review. The proposal document itself is not in the meeting's posted packet, so the chair's spoken summary is the only public description of what the board voted to "accept… as written." | MEDIUM |
| 0:10:31 | $1,500 a month, running to June 30, 2026 unless cancelled | "They have proposed a rate of $1,500 a month for those services." … "with a 30 day notice to end and through agreement, it could be extended if needed. And that will continue unless canceled. That will continue through June 30th, 2026." Superintendent support includes meeting the interim "twice a week if needed," email and phone availability, "leadership advice if needed on day to day," mentorship on action plans and guidance "through crisis situations." Six references were provided and four were called. | |
| 0:11:46 | Communications at $155 an hour | "They have offered that service as an hourly service as needed. Build [billed] monthly at $155 an hour to be canceled with 30 day notice, and unless canceled, will be available and in place until June 30th, 2026." Scope: messaging "that can be used by all members of the school community to communicate about the current state of the schools," a general communication plan and crisis communication protocol, and consultation with "Saw [SAU] and community leadership on messaging." | |
| 0:12:30 | The operational review: $175 an hour, capped at $25,000 | "the goal of the operational review and report is, in summary, to identify what happened, what went wrong, and how to prevent it from ever happening again. They will dive into any systemic problems that resulted in gross financial mismanagement, any errors made by leadership, lack of tight controls, and any failure of oversight." … "They have offered this service at $175 an hour, with a cap of $25,000." Deliverables include "new job descriptions, new processes and procedures, manual for leadership and the essay [SAU] board… that include robust budget processes and financial reporting." A member's summary: "Best practice, not past practice." | |
| 0:14:32 | What is the board actually committing to? | "if we don't cancel them in the 30 days, the first one, we're locked into having them until June 30th, 1500. Monthly" — the chair: "Correct. That's the way it's written." A member ran the arithmetic aloud at 0:15:07: "that's like a minimum of 15,000 ish. If we're expecting ten months, October ish to June 30th." Another put the all-in figure at 0:26:18: "if we did ten months and be around $54,000. And that's assuming we would use about 100 hours of their communications." | MEDIUM |
| 0:15:44 | Madden: "a consultant is someone you hire… and then they tell you the time" | "You know, there's the quip that a consultant is someone you hire, you, give you a watch to them, and then they tell you the time." On the superintendent-support component he pointed to the candidate the board had just chosen: "She seems like an extremely strong candidate with a very expensive [extensive] network of colleagues in the industry that she could rely on." On the review: "They're going to come in there going to look, I'm going to say, well, you have to do audits every year and not let it linger for five years… You're going to propose controls. I can tell you from what I've seen. We don't have controls anywhere on anything." | |
| 0:18:33 | "I think it's premature" | "I don't see a need at this point in time to hire a consultant to tell us to do that. So for those reasons, I think it's premature. I think little bit further down the road, we should hire a consultant to get all our controls in place and up to the industry standards." | |
| 0:19:01 | Whitney: "I felt there were no systems when I started on the board" | "my whole position on the board has been… my desire is, was to create systems because I felt there were no systems when I started on the board, and I felt the entire time that I was running in mud and I was calling everybody and asking for help on all the right places and consulting with all the right people, making all the right phone calls, all the right emails." … "I don't feel that I have the resources at my disposal with a skeleton crew at the say [SAU], with an interim superintendent that we're putting in for crisis control." | |
| 0:21:17 | "those foundational administrative procedures were not done, period" | "And they were getting through the day. And those those foundational administrative procedures were not done, period. It was just coming in and getting through the day. I don't know that to be the case, but if I am looking at individuals with good faith over the last 15 years, I have to assume that's what happened." Her answer to Madden's objection was a 30-day test: "If the if we find out in 30 days, this is a completely waste of time… I say in 30 days, they're gone." And: "Even if we did the best we thought we could, we're here. And I feel there's a moral imperative to do everything in our power to provide protections for the district." | POSITIVE |
| 0:22:40 | Madden: the controls exist; nobody follows them | "in many, maybe most, maybe all circumstances, you have the controls there. But these guys are not following the controls." His example, from his own inspection: "You have the computer as software system, but I'm told that individuals come in at eight, nine, 10:00, but they're in their car at 4:00. They have a system where on the time sheets, the supervisor is supposed to check the time charges for those moments. I looked at it. In most cases, the supervisors do not check it off in many cases." He was careful to bound the claim: "this is just a cursory review. So I'm not saying I've been an in-depth study." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:25:14 | The case for buying the review anyway | "It's it's relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. And, you know, to everybody else's point, if it's 30 days and it doesn't work… we can throw it by the wayside." On the review: "if that's the first step to something being uncovered that can be turned over to law enforcement, I think it's worth the money that is before us." A Unity member framed it around the split: "I think it will help us unity move forward as as you separate from this su [SAU]… with some ideas of what maybe staffing at the sub [SAU] should look like after the separation." | |
| 0:27:44 | The TMS vote — passed, margin unknown | "Ready for the vote. All those in favor of hiring TMS consulting services, per the agreement on the contract. Signify by saying aye. Any opposed?" Then: "And. Okay. All right. That passes." Madden had just spoken against it twice. No count was announced, no roll was called, and no minutes record who voted which way — so the margin on the district's response to its own financial crisis is not recoverable from any public record. | HIGH |
| 0:28:22 | An item asked for in advance that did not reach the agenda | Madden: "We're going to discuss this. The whistleblower." Chair: "No, that wasn't on the agenda." Madden: "It wasn't an agenda. But I even asked that we discussed it tonight." Chair: "Speak to it at other business if you want… I didn't I didn't see that it was asked." She then set the limit — the transcript is garbled here, but the sense is that the board could take the item up without taking action on it. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:29:16 | Whistleblowers, and no policy to receive them | "I've been contacted by the intermediary who says he has a number of whistleblowers dynamic come forward. I tried to hire an attorney to give me counsel. But I was conflicted on it… So we discussed this briefly, and Patrick was going to give me what the internal procedures are. But he left in the morning. And there's no policy" — followed by a proposal that "the policy committee" consider "adopting the suggested policy from the New Hampshire" school boards association. Asked for the statute, at 0:30:42: "Two seven, five, eight. I'll give you a continuity." The chair: "I just wanted to make it easier for anybody to find it." | OBSERVATION |