Participants
Names and roles follow the draft minutes of 10/1/25. Where the dialogue file's speaker label differs, the label is noted in parentheses. Wards are as each speaker stated them at the microphone.
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Heather Whitney | School Board Chair | Presided; read all three intent-to-serve letters aloud; voted for Kevin Tyson; moved to lay the appointment on the table until November; read the special-legislation resolution and the full donation list into the record; moved the calendar change and the custodial reallocation. |
| Michael Petrin | School Board Vice Chair | Seconded the Tyson nomination and voted for him; opposed tabling — "the longer we wait, the less we need to fill the spot"; named the Claremont Savings Bank and Mascoma Bank donations from the floor (rendered "Mr. Peterson" and "Mr. Patron" in the dialogue file). |
| Arlene Hawkins | School Board Member; Policy Subcommittee Chair; SAU 6 Board Chair | Seconded the LaVallee nomination and voted for him; seconded the tabling motion and the special-legislation resolution; pressed on the state's interest rate and on board sign-off before any draw; carried the three special-education policies (rendered "Hopkins" in the roll call). |
| Candace Crawford | School Board Member; Finance Subcommittee Chair | Moved the LaVallee nomination and voted for him; moved to authorise the management representation letter and the billing-specialist reallocation; called the proposed revolving loan "a payday loan" and said she would vote for it "because I don't have a choice." |
| William "Bill" Madden | School Board Member | Moved the Tyson nomination and voted for him; opposed tabling; seconded the management representation letter; demanded an executive summary in front of every document that comes to the board; pressed on whether the whistleblower policy had been distributed. |
| Loren Howard | School Board Member | Voted for LaVallee, citing his commitment to run in March; voted to table; reported his own at-large appointment to the CCTV board of directors; introduced the NHSBA delegate-assembly resolutions for a vote at the next meeting. |
| Noelle Kronberg | School Board Clerk | Absent — on maternity leave. No clerk's minutes were produced from this meeting; the draft that exists was filed six weeks later in another packet. |
| Kerry Kennedy | Interim Superintendent, SAU 6 | Amended the agenda to add the Bluff staff reallocation; gave the superintendent's report; requested the four-day calendar closure and board support for the SREA memorandum of agreement; presented both staff reallocations (rendered "Carrie Kennedy" in places). |
| Matt Angell | Senior Comptroller / Interim Business Administrator | Presented the financial update and the FY2022 draft audit; stated the DOE-25 and MS-25 were still to be filed; asked for the special-legislation resolution and for authority to sign the management representation letter with a disclaimer (rendered "Matt Angel" throughout the dialogue file). |
| Patrick O'Hearn | Human Resources Director, SAU 6 | Called the roll in the clerk's absence and was named in the resolution's certification block as acting clerk; presented the SchoolCare Membership Council invitation; confirmed the whistleblower poster is in every employee break room. |
| James O'Shaughnessy | District legal counsel, Drummond Woodsum | Advised from the floor that RSA 671:33 gives the board the appointment and that failure to appoint moves it to the city council; explained the proposed Adequacy Revolving Loan Fund and the cash-flow problem; warned against unpaid volunteers doing paid work (spelled "O'Shaughnessey" in the draft minutes). |
| Michael Campo | Partner in charge of the audit, Plodzik & Sanderson | Told the board the FY2022 report is a draft pending the legal letter; described the plan to close out FY2023–FY2025; explained the SchoolCare assessment and the pension-liability exhibit (introduces himself as "Mike Campos … Anderson" in the ASR; "Plodzik" is rendered "plastic"/"Classic" throughout). |
| Don LaVallee | Applicant for the vacant seat — Ward 2 | Read and answered the board's written questions; confirmed he would run in March; "The school board has one employee." Received three votes (labeled "Don Lavalette" in the dialogue file). |
| David Putnam | Applicant for the vacant seat — Ward 2 | Withdrew during his own presentation, saying he had put his name in only in case no one else did, and endorsed LaVallee. |
| Kevin Tyson | Applicant for the vacant seat | Read and answered the board's written questions; described co-founding Education Options; answered the chair's relay of community emails questioning his commitment to public education — "Nothing could be further from the truth." Received three votes. Mr. Tyson maintains the Government Transparency Project that produces these pages; this page was generated from his project's inputs and describes a meeting in which he was a candidate. |
| Gary Merchant | Citizens' comments — Ward 2 | Urged the board to work with the state on a forensic audit; asked who the business administrator was during FY2022; put a point of order from the floor asking whether the board must appoint at all. |
| Eric Abbey | Citizens' comments — Ward 3 | Asked what safety nets follow the Bluff closure, challenged the framing of special education as the source of the deficit, and asked whether contracts were being renegotiated (labeled "Eric Abbey"; renders as "Abby" in places). |
| Derek Ellerkamp | Citizens' comments — Ward 2 | Challenged the board's authority to appoint an elected seat and asked why the public could not question the candidates; later asked that financial reports be posted online as worksheets before the meeting (labeled "Derek Eller camp" in the ASR). |
| Leslie Peabody | Citizens' comments — Ward 1 | Asked whether free lunch follows her daughter from Bluff to Disnard and who is doing the Medicaid billing; returned to say families need transition information now, to plan. |
| Nick Koloski | Citizens' comments — Ward 3 | Asked for a chance to respond to presentations rather than only to speak before them; asked for an accounting of the 52 Maple Avenue purchase and how many students it has brought back in district. |
| Sherry Williams | Citizens' comments — Ward 2 | Asked the board to return to a regular schedule and to show the community the underlying numbers behind the $5.1 million figure. |
| Chris Cogswell | Citizens' comments — Ward 3 | Spoke to the community rather than the board about what students face outside school: "I'm frankly tired of just hearing bad news. We have a lot to celebrate in Claremont." |
| Rebecca | Citizens' comments — Ward 1; teacher at Claremont Middle School | Reported her 65 science students sprouting black beans; asked that emergency meetings continue and stay open, and that agenda items get their own comment time (surname not stated on the record). |
| Camron Lownie | Citizens' comments — Ward 2; teacher at Disnard Elementary | Told the board that "order of operations is a fourth grade standard" and that a third consecutive meeting promising a return to normalcy without a route there does not add up. |
| Bradley Moulton | Citizens' comments — Ward 3 | Raised the one-bus-stop-per-child rule as it affects divorced parents with shared custody; was asked to sit down when he ran past the time limit. |
| Hope Damon | Citizens' comments — NH State Representative, Sullivan District 8 | Urged families to file free-and-reduced-lunch applications regardless of the community-eligibility question, and offered to verify whether Disnard or Maple Avenue could qualify for school-wide free meals. |
Agenda
Items follow the agenda reproduced in the draft minutes. Item 9 was added from the floor at the start of the meeting.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 6:30 p.m. | Call to order; roll; consent agenda | "I. 6:30 PM Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance." All six members present, none absent. O'Hearn called the roll in the clerk's absence. Kennedy asked to add staff reallocation at Bluff; the chair placed it as item 9. No minutes were available to approve; the manifest was not taken up at this point. Consent agenda approved without objection. |
| 0:04:19 | Citizens' comments | "Please reference CSB Policy BEDH — Public Comment & Participation at Board Meetings." Opened for a minimum of 30 minutes and ran to 0:38:18. Eleven speakers plus a state representative. Counsel answered a challenge to the board's appointment authority from the floor at 0:09:03; Hawkins told the room the SAU 6 board also holds public meetings with comment time. |
| 0:38:18 | Interim Superintendent's report | Kennedy on middle-school staffing and a possible outside agency for the nurse post; the Bluff move; meetings with Commissioner Davis, the community college chancellor and Senator Shaheen; policy GBEB and the NH Code of Conduct for Educators in answer to the social-media question; a coming public posting of every employee's salary. Board questions on the psychology interns were deferred to a presentation on 10/15. |
| 0:47:50 | 1. Appointment of new board member (Discussion/Vote) | Exhibits A (board questions) and B (appointment process). Three letters of intent read aloud by the chair. LaVallee at 0:54:07, Putnam withdrawing at 1:11:10, Tyson at 1:15:02. Crawford moved LaVallee (Hawkins second); Madden moved Tyson (Petrin second). Show of hands 3–3 at 1:35:50 — LaVallee: Crawford, Hawkins, Howard; Tyson: Whitney, Petrin, Madden. Whitney's motion to lay it on the table until the first meeting in November carried 4–2 at 1:49:16, Madden and Petrin opposed. |
| 1:49:39 | 2. Calendar change due to Bluff closure; MOA with SREA | Exhibits G (2025-26 calendar) and H (SREA Bluff Closure MOA, 9.25.25). One motion covering both: close all elementary schools October 7–8 and all schools including CMS and SHS October 9–10, and approve the MOA negotiated between the SREA and the interim superintendent. Whitney moved, Petrin seconded, all present in favour at 2:00:44. Administration must still present the lost-learning-time waiver to NHDOE. |
| 2:01:57 | 3. Donation acceptance (Discussion) | Policy KCD, Public Gifts/Donations. The full SRVRTC donation list — 24 entries from 8/29/25 to 9/16/25 — read aloud by the chair. None met the $20,000 threshold for a public hearing and no cash donation exceeded $2,500, so no formal acceptance vote was required. Petrin added Claremont Savings Bank's $17,000 to Claremont Middle School (split $10,000 sports, $7,000 music, art, theatre and extracurriculars) and Mascoma Savings Bank's $15,000. |
| 2:08:43 | 4. CCTV Board of Directors (Discussion/Vote) | Exhibit I. Howard reported he had put his own name forward and had been appointed to the CCTV board, and the approval had been forwarded to this board. Whitney confirmed the seat is at-large and not a school board designee, so no vote was needed. No vote taken. |
| 2:09:42 | 5. FY2022 draft audit report / financial update (Discussion) | Exhibit C, the revised draft FY2022 audit dated 9-30-25. Angell's financial update, then the special-legislation resolution (adopted unanimously at 2:41:41), then the audit itself from 2:49:38, then authority to sign the management representation letter with a disclaimer — Crawford moved, Madden seconded, carried with none opposed at 3:14:39. |
| 3:19:16 | 6. Selecting SchoolCare Membership Council representative | O'Hearn set out the role: one meeting, November 3 in Manchester, advising SchoolCare on behalf of the employer. The response had been due September 30 and was extended. Crawford moved Madden as the district's representative, Whitney seconded, all in favour at 3:23:48. |
| 3:24:08 | 7. 2025 NHSBA Delegate Assembly (Discussion) | Exhibits D (continuing resolutions), E (2025 proposed resolutions) and F (NHSBA policies, resolutions and statements-of-belief manual). Howard asked members to read the packet and vote at the 10/15 meeting, noting the documents show whether NHSBA's own board supports each item, and reported Claremont's own resolution can be submitted next year. No vote taken. |
| 3:27:58 | 8. Subcommittee reports | Capital Improvement, Curriculum and SRVRTC: no meetings to report. Finance: first meeting scheduled. Policy: the NH Educators' Code of Conduct is already on the district's policy list, and volunteer-confidentiality form IJOC was presented. Three special-education policies moved from first read straight to adoption on an amended single motion — IHBAB, IHBAA and IHBAM — with none opposed at 3:32:18. |
| 3:33:18 | 9. Reallocation of existing staff added from the floor | Two Bluff positions. A secretary post reopened as a billing specialist with a job description written to capture revenue beyond Medicaid — Crawford moved pending board review of the description, Petrin seconded, carried at 3:37:24. The Bluff custodian post split into 0.5 Disnard and 0.5 Maple Avenue, one FTE job-shared under the collective bargaining agreement — carried at 3:40:35. Both stated on the record as budget neutral, with no one losing a position. |
| 3:43:18 | Other business; future dates; adjournment | Madden asked whether the whistleblower policy had been distributed; O'Hearn said it had not, and confirmed a whistleblower poster hangs in every employee break room. Madden asked for action items carried forward until closed. Petrin asked that the Stevens High School metal detector reach an agenda; the chair committed to before the end of December. Hawkins reminded the room of the Monday SAU 6 meeting with the NHSBA attorney. Adjourned without objection at 3:44:38. |
Discussion timeline
Chronological topics with the moment each is taken up. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:08:23 |
A resident challenges the appointment itself |
Ellerkamp: "Are you appointing a member of the school board tonight? … Isn't that an elected position? … What gives you the authority to point when it's elected positions?" Counsel, from his seat at 0:09:03: "Yeah. I mean six hours. 67133 [RSA 671:33]. The board is, responsible for appointing people if there's a vacancy on the board." Ellerkamp asked whether the seat should instead wait for March; the chair said the appointment runs only until the election. |
OBSERVATION POSITIVE |
| 0:29:14 |
A call for a forensic audit; repeat findings back to 2016 |
Merchant: "the auditor statements are disheartening, especially since this is an audit of the 2022 school year … I urge the school board to collaborate with the state of New Hampshire to carry out a forensic audit." Whitney at 0:30:17: "we did have audits back to 2016. And there are repeat findings even as far back as 2016." She described a policy already adopted requiring the auditor, not the administration, to present to the board. |
HIGH |
| 0:47:50 |
Three candidates, in public, in alphabetical order |
The chair explained the process before anyone spoke: letters read aloud, ten minutes each, board questions in the open, nomination by motion, and if two are nominated, a vote in alphabetical order. She read all three intent-to-serve letters herself. Board questions came from Crawford, Howard, Hawkins and Whitney for LaVallee, and from Howard, Hawkins and Crawford for Tyson. |
POSITIVE |
| 1:11:10 |
Putnam withdraws mid-presentation |
"I've been a resident of Claremont since 1970 … I decided I'd better put my name in so that you would have a person in case no one else did put their name in." Asked directly by Crawford at 1:13:36 whether he was withdrawing, he confirmed he was, and endorsed LaVallee: "he did his homework and his presentation was great." |
|
| 1:27:53 |
The chair puts the community's emails to Tyson directly |
Whitney: "I've also received numerous, emails from community members concerned with your, your position at … Education options. And it has been relayed that that seems to be an absolute contradiction to, public education and that, there is a concern that you the purpose of you joining the board would be to disrupt public education." Tyson: "Nothing could be further from the truth. At the site that we maintain. We list all kinds of public educators, private educators, every education provider that we can find." |
POSITIVE |
| 1:35:50 |
3–3 |
"Raise your hand. Three. We have a tie vote." LaVallee: Crawford, Hawkins, Howard. Tyson: Whitney, Petrin, Madden. Howard explained his vote turned on LaVallee's commitment to run in March; Madden said the district "need[s] fresh blood from the private sector"; Whitney said Tyson "putting his money where his mouth is" as a volunteer was commendable. No member changed position on a second offer of a revote. |
OBSERVATION |
| 1:44:14 |
Counsel: the board has failed to appoint |
O'Shaughnessy: "at this point the board has failed to appoint somebody. So neither appointment passes. And under the … state statute it's RSA 67133 [671:33]. If the board fails to, appoint someone to fill a vacancy, then the decision is made … with the Select board and a town, but I think it's transferable to a city council." Asked whether a special election was possible: "there's no authorization in state law to hold a special election." |
OBSERVATION |
| 1:47:48 |
Tabled to November instead |
Whitney moved to lay the appointment on the table until the first meeting in November; Hawkins seconded. Petrin objected — "I personally like to see it move to the city council for, for there to help make our decision … the longer we wait, the less we need to fill the spot." Counsel had already told the room at 1:46:35 that the statute "doesn't provide guidance on process … what would happen if you didn't … not much." Carried 4–2. |
OBSERVATION |
| 2:11:47 |
The size of the hole |
Angell: "at the top, I put the $5.8 million is available in appropriations for this year. The $5,011,000. So they calculated last week. And then the school care assessment, the differential, the health insurance." Substitute teachers alone are assumed at $250,000 and are currently frozen. At 2:12:38: "I'm trying to work this $5 million down to 1.9 million by the end of the year." |
OBSERVATION |
| 2:15:28 |
Year-end state filings still outstanding on October 1 |
Angell: "I need to file the end of your [year] reports to the state. The Doe 25 and the miss 25. That is the first document that actually starts to set your tax rate … it's the miss 24 is the estimated revenues." At 2:15:52: "I need to get that to the Dre [DRA] really in the next week or two. And so that the city can set your tax rate timely." |
HIGH |
| 2:23:43 |
Resolution to request special legislation |
Whitney reading: "Whereas the Claremont School District faces an immediate and extraordinary financial crisis … be it resolved that the Claremont School Board formally requests the General Court to assist the district through the establishment of a Claremont School District Adequacy Revolving Loan Fund … to make cash available to the district in anticipation of state adequacy payments as provided in RSA 198, colon 41 and 42." Hawkins seconded. Angell put the ceiling at roughly the first state aid payment, "about 3.3 million." |
OBSERVATION |
| 2:25:39 |
"I mean, it is a payday loan" |
Crawford, pressing: the district would be borrowing against itself, and money used this year cannot be used next. Angell: the Claremont Savings Bank loan "is going to expire on April 17th … Currently, there's no mechanism to carry debt beyond the end of the fiscal year." O'Shaughnessy separated the two problems: "The concern is not about carrying a deficit. It's about not … cash flow," and the aim is to avoid an August 15 conversation about whether school can open. Crawford voted for it anyway: "I don't have a choice." |
OBSERVATION |
| 2:49:38 |
The FY2022 statements, "four years behind" |
Angell: "These are going to be the fiscal year 2022 financial statements. And yes, they are with four years behind … They've completed the the 2022 financial statement. I will begin years 2023 through 25 as soon as I send them information needed to start." Campo at 2:50:19: "We are waiting on the legal letter to finalize it. So. So what you see is a draft. I don't see any material changes going forward in this draft." |
HIGH |
| 2:51:15 |
Sixteen pages of findings, summarised in seven headings |
Angell: "For the public, it's about 16 pages of findings … Board management oversight gaps"; "Cash handling, weaknesses, cash activities not consistently monitor or reconciled in a timely manner, creating risks of misappropriation errors or undetected shortages"; failure to perform regular reconciliations; "Inadequate record retention"; unsubstantiated balances; "repeated requests for information"; and grant reporting gaps — "Reimbursement submissions to the State of New Hampshire Department of Education were not traceable to the general ledger or grant funds." At 2:53:02: "the findings that are contained in this report are not favorable for concern." |
HIGH |
| 2:58:44 |
Three more years of the same expected |
Angell: "please expect similar comments in fiscal years 23 through 25, because those people are no longer here." Campo described the plan: capture everything through November–December, then "put stamps on when the period" for each balance, and finish "well before" the point at which the district needs a clean cut-off. He told the board Plodzik & Sanderson does 230 audits a year and has "a very small pocket of clients that aren't done." |
HIGH |
| 3:00:38 |
A $1.2 million surplus that was not there |
Angell: "In the audit, it's showing us a deficit of $198,888. Now, this is fiscal year 22. I do want to give a comparison of what was put down for your tax rate for a surplus. Available, $1.2 million was returned to the taxpayers." At 3:01:39: "The estimated revenues used to set the tax rate were overestimated … your revenue estimates used to set the tax rate artificially lowered your tax rate. Right. If you want to know where your deficit started it's those two places." |
MEDIUM |
| 3:03:12 |
How a board is supposed to catch it |
Petrin asked how the board was to know when the business administrator presented the figures. Campo: "one of the biggest defaults that I've seen here is that there hasn't been monthly reporting"; take a three-year sample of each revenue line and apply "the common sense test." He added that some districts hand boards Excel spreadsheets instead of source data and recommended reports straight out of the accounting software "because that can't be manipulated." Whitney: "We were getting Excel documents." |
MEDIUM |
| 3:12:57 |
The management representation letter, and the disclaimer |
Angell: "I have to sign a document for the auditor. So this is called the management representation letter. And this document sets the date of the audit report. And we can't issue a final report until I sign this document." His added line, read aloud at 3:13:45: "this letter signed by Matt Angel[l] … under the authority of the Claremont School Board, Mr. Angel[l] did not prepare in preparation or maintenance of the accounting records for the period under [audit]." Hawkins: "As long as you keep that disclaimer in there." Carried with none opposed. |
MEDIUM |
| 2:01:57 |
The donation list, read out in full |
Twenty-four donations to the technical centre read aloud one by one — from three hospital beds and a $50 Home Depot card to $12,000 of food from North Country Smokehouse and $5,000 for all programmes. The chair stated the rule as she went: none reached the $20,000 public-hearing threshold and no cash gift exceeded $2,500, so no acceptance vote was required. Petrin then named the bank gifts from the floor and asked the community to keep going. |
POSITIVE |
| 3:33:18 |
Two Bluff staff reallocations, on the record as budget neutral |
A secretary post reopened as a billing specialist — Hawkins: "Having the opportunity to receive additional special education funds in is really paramount at this point"; Kennedy: "looking at every option for revenue gain." The Bluff custodian split 0.5/0.5 between Disnard and Maple Avenue, job-shared under the collective bargaining agreement, three days at one and two at the other on alternating weeks. Petrin asked for the budget-neutral finding to be stated "on the record"; Hawkins confirmed "no one's losing a position through this." |
|
Items flagged for review
These are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each rule-based flag names the provision it rests on and links to the primary source; where no verified rule applies, the item is labelled an observation. Verify against the recording and the primary sources before relying on any of it.
HIGH A draft FY2022 audit presented more than three years after the fiscal year closed, with FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025 not yet begun
Claremont's fiscal year 2022 ended June 30, 2022. On October 1, 2025 the board received that year's financial statements for the first time, and they were still a draft: "what you see is a draft," Campo told the board at 2:50:19, because the firm was waiting on the district's legal letter — which Angell said had only just been requested from counsel. Angell's own description at 2:49:38 was that the statements were "four years behind," and that FY2023 through FY2025 could not start until he sent the firm information it did not yet have. Where a district expends $750,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year — the threshold that applies to a year of FY2022's vintage, before the $1,000,000 threshold took effect for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024 — a single audit is required, and the reporting package is due the earlier of 30 days after receipt of the auditor's report or nine months after the end of the audit period. For a period ending June 30, 2022, nine months is March 31, 2023. The packet document is titled "FY 22 Financial Statement and Single Audit Update," and among the seven summarised findings read aloud at 2:52:21 is that "reimbursement submissions to the State of New Hampshire Department of Education were not traceable to the general ledger or grant funds" — so federal pass-through money is squarely in scope. This page has not independently confirmed the district's federal expenditure total for FY2022, which is what would settle whether the single-audit clock applied; if it did, the deadline was missed by roughly two and a half years and three further years remain unaudited. Two mitigations belong in the record: the auditor said he did not expect material changes to the draft, and he set out a specific plan to close FY2023–FY2025, telling the board his firm had decided to stop waiting for records and to audit on the basis that what was not produced "didn't exist at all."
Sources: 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1) (reporting package due the earlier of 30 days after receipt of the auditor's report or nine months after the end of the audit period); 2 CFR 200.501 (single audit required at $750,000 in federal expenditures; $1,000,000 only for fiscal years beginning on or after 2024-10-01); RSA 21-J:19 (audits by independent public accountants); Exhibit C- 9-30-25 CSD Revised Draft FY2022 Audit report; FY 22 Financial Statement and Single Audit Update.pdf; draft minutes, 10/1/25.
HIGH The MS-25 was still unfiled on October 1, a month after its statutory due date
At 2:15:28 the interim business administrator listed what he still had to send the state: "I need to file the end of your [year] reports to the state. The Doe 25 and the miss 25. That is the first document that actually starts to set your tax rate." At 2:15:52 he put the timeline at "really in the next week or two," so that the city could set the tax rate on time. RSA 21-J:34, V requires the school district financial report — the MS-25 — to reach the Department of Revenue Administration by September 1. On the evening of this meeting it was a month overdue and, on the officer's own account, not yet ready. The consequence he identified is the one the statute exists to prevent: the municipal tax rate cannot be set until the district's numbers arrive. Nothing in the record suggests concealment — the disclosure was volunteered in open session, unprompted, by the officer responsible — and the district was two months into rebuilding its books with a comptroller who had not held the office during the period being reported. The DOE-25 named alongside it is filed with the Department of Education on deadlines the department sets under RSA 189:28; this page has not verified the FY2025 DOE-25 date, so no conclusion is drawn about that filing beyond the fact that it too was outstanding.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34, V (school district financial report due to DRA by September 1); RSA 189:28 (statistical reports to NHDOE on department-set deadlines; aid withheld until complete and accurate information is submitted); Financial Update 10.01.2025.pdf.
MEDIUM The management representation letter was signed with a disclaimer by the one officer who did not hold office during the audited period
A management representation letter is the document in which a district's management asserts, to its auditor, that the financial statements are its own and that the records behind them are complete. It is also what dates the audit report: "we can't issue a final report until I sign this document," Angell said at 3:12:57. The problem he raised is that he arrived after the fact, so he added his own line to the bottom, read aloud at 3:13:45: signing "under the authority of the Claremont School Board," he "did not prepare in preparation or maintenance of the accounting records for the period under [audit]." Crawford moved to authorise it, Madden seconded, and it carried with none opposed at 3:14:39, Hawkins conditioning her support on the disclaimer staying in. The flag is not that the disclaimer is improper — it is candid, and the board was right to insist on it. The flag is what the disclaimer records: the district has no officer able to affirm the completeness of its own accounting records for FY2022, which is the same condition the audit findings describe (unreconciled balance sheet accounts, missing supporting documentation, unsubstantiated balances, grant reimbursements not traceable to the general ledger). For federal awards, 2 CFR 200.303 requires a recipient to establish and maintain internal control that provides reasonable assurance it is managing the award in compliance — and records nobody can vouch for are the absence of that assurance, not merely a personnel gap. The board should expect the same disclaimer, for the same reason, on FY2023 through FY2025.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.303 (effective internal control over federal awards); RSA 21-J:19 (audits by independent public accountants); CSD Revised Rep Ltr.pdf; draft minutes, 10/1/25. No verified rule governs who may sign a management representation letter or in what terms; the citation above is to the control condition the disclaimer evidences, not to a rule about the letter itself.
MEDIUM Revenue estimates used to set the FY2022 tax rate were overstated, and $1.2 million was returned to taxpayers as a surplus the audit does not show
The FY2022 draft audit puts the year at a deficit of $198,888. Against that, Angell told the board at 3:00:38, "$1.2 million was returned to the taxpayers" as available surplus — so, in his words at 3:01:04, "your tax bill was artificially reduced." The schedule he put on screen showed negative variances across the revenue lines: "The estimated revenues used to set the tax rate were overestimated … If you want to know where your deficit started it's those two places." Crawford worked a single line aloud — an estimate of $790,000 in tuition revenue against what actually came in. Campo said his firm had seen the same pattern elsewhere, districts overshooting estimates "to try to keep the tax rate favorable," and that a condition of this kind had persisted in Claremont "going back to the teens." Estimated revenues reach the state on the MS-24 and the year's actuals on the MS-25 under RSA 21-J:34; figures that do not survive audit are how a district's reported position and its real one part company, and the mechanism by which the deficit compounded. This is recorded as a probable control failure rather than a confirmed violation: the estimates were made by officials no longer in post, the underlying filings for FY2022 were not obtained for this page, and whether any individual estimate was unreasonable when made is not something the recording settles. Two corrections were placed on the record — monthly budget-to-actual reporting, absent before, and the auditor's advice to take reports directly out of the accounting system rather than as spreadsheets, "because that can't be manipulated."
Sources: RSA 21-J:34 (school district financial reporting to DRA); RSA 21-J:19 (audits by independent public accountants); Exhibit C- 9-30-25 CSD Revised Draft FY2022 Audit report; BVA 10.1.2025.pdf.
OBSERVATION The 3–3 deadlock passed the appointment to the city council under RSA 671:33 — and the board then tabled it anyway
RSA 671:33 provides that a school board fills its own vacancy, and that where the entire board has vacated its offices or the remaining members "cannot agree by majority vote," the appointment falls to the selectmen — in a city, the city council. A 3–3 tie on a six-member board is the second of those conditions, so counsel's advice at 1:44:14 — that the board had failed to appoint and the decision now sat with the council — tracks the statute as written. His further point at 1:46:02 is equally accurate: the statute says the remaining members "shall" appoint, but "it doesn't provide guidance on process. It doesn't provide any guidance on the mechanics," and vacancies do in practice remain unfilled until an election. That is the gap this observation records. Having been told the appointment had passed out of its hands, the board voted 4–2 to lay the matter on the table until November and try again — Petrin objecting that he would rather it go to the council now. No verified provision sets a deadline for the board's decision or bars it from revisiting a failed vote, and none states at what moment the council's authority attaches; the practical answer counsel gave when pressed on what happens if nobody acts was "not much." A reader should note what the tie did not do: it did not create a vacancy — the seat had been vacant since Frank Sprague's September resignation — and the board continued to sit and vote as six through October. The seat was ultimately filled on November 5 by Sprague's own reinstatement, not by either candidate here and not by the city council.
Sources: RSA 671:33 (school board vacancies; selectmen appoint if the board cannot agree by majority vote); draft minutes, 10/1/25; Exhibit B- Candidate Process.pdf. No verified rule sets a deadline for filling a school board vacancy or governs the tabling of a failed appointment vote.
OBSERVATION The district asked the legislature for a cash-flow instrument because none exists, while carrying a deficit into the next fiscal year
The resolution adopted unanimously at 2:41:41 asks the General Court to create a Claremont School District Adequacy Revolving Loan Fund, advancing cash against state adequacy payments — a ceiling Angell put at roughly the first payment, "about 3.3 million." Two facts drove it. The Claremont Savings Bank loan expires April 17, and, as Angell put it at 2:26:12, "there's no mechanism to carry debt beyond the end of the fiscal year." O'Shaughnessy separated the deficit from the cash-flow problem — the district could manage a deficit; what it could not do was reach August 15 without knowing whether it could open schools. Crawford's objection is on the record and worth preserving: "I mean, it is a payday loan," money borrowed from next year that then cannot be borrowed again, and she voted for it saying "I don't have a choice." Howard asked whether the district might simply return to the bank, which had also given $100,000; Angell said the relationship was good but the special legislation was the surer route, and counsel reported that building aid offered no relief worth pursuing. This is recorded as an observation because no verified provision was identified that governs a school district's borrowing against future adequacy aid, sets a limit on a year-end deficit, or was breached by asking the legislature for a statute. RSA 198:4-b, II — the closest verified anchor, permitting retention of up to 5% of the net assessment as unassigned general fund balance — addresses a surplus, which is the opposite of the district's position, and is noted only to show that the verified anchors do not reach this transaction. The mechanism the resolution names, RSA 198:41 and :42, was read from the chair's script and has not been verified for this page.
Sources: RSA 198:4-b, II (year-end unassigned general fund balance retention; cited to show the limits of the verified anchors, not as a rule breached); Financial Update 10.01.2025.pdf; draft minutes, 10/1/25. No verified rule was identified governing borrowing against future adequacy payments; the RSA 198 sections named in the resolution are quoted from the chair's reading and were not verified.
POSITIVE Every step of filling the seat happened in front of the room, including the parts that were uncomfortable
A board appointing one of its own members has an easy path available: interview privately, appear with a name. This board took none of it. All three intent-to-serve letters were read aloud in full by the chair before anyone spoke. Written questions had been circulated to the candidates in advance and published with the packet as Exhibit A, and each candidate answered them at the podium while the public listened. Board members then questioned the candidates directly, in the open. The chair put the difficult material on the record rather than weighing it privately: she disclosed that she had received a letter of support for one candidate from a former board member, and at 1:27:53 she read out the substance of community emails opposing him — "there is a concern that you the purpose of you joining the board would be to disrupt public education" — and let him answer. When a resident challenged the board's legal authority to appoint at all, counsel answered him on the spot and by statute rather than deferring the question. The nominations were made by motion and second, the vote was taken by show of hands so each member's position was visible, and the reasons were stated aloud before the vote by every member who voted. The one restriction — no questions from the public to the candidates — was explained rather than merely imposed. RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes recording members present, persons appearing and final decisions; what happened here went considerably beyond that floor.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes record members present, persons appearing, subject matter and final decisions); RSA 671:33 (school board vacancies); Exhibit A- 10.1.25 New Candidate Questions-Claremont School Board (1).pdf; Intent to Serve Letters.
POSITIVE The donation list was read into the record in full, including the gifts no rule required the board to touch
Under the district's policy KCD the board's involvement is triggered by size: a public hearing at $20,000, formal acceptance for cash gifts over $2,500. Every donation on this list fell below both lines, so the board could lawfully have said nothing. Instead the chair read all twenty-four entries aloud at 2:01:57 — donor, programme and amount, from a $50 Home Depot gift card and a set of hospital beds through to $12,000 of food for the culinary programme — and stated the thresholds as she went, so a listener could hear both what came in and why no vote followed. Petrin then added from the floor the larger gifts that had reached him outside the list, naming Claremont Savings Bank's $17,000 to the middle school with its split between sports and the arts, and Mascoma Savings Bank's $15,000. Reading small gifts into the record is exactly the practice that makes later, larger ones checkable: it puts the donor, the recipient programme and the date in the public record at the moment of receipt rather than in a reconciliation years afterwards — which, given the audit findings this same meeting heard on unsubstantiated balances and missing supporting documentation, is not a small thing.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (the treasurer pays out district money only upon orders of the school board); draft minutes, 10/1/25, with the SRVRTC donation schedule attached. The $2,500 and $20,000 thresholds are the district's own policy KCD, not a statutory requirement; no verified rule compelled the board to read the list aloud.
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