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Claremont School Board — August 5, 2026

Regular meeting summary generated from the meeting video transcript, the posted packet, and the draft minutes. Centerpieces: the auditor's public Q&A on the FY22/FY23 draft audits, and the treasurer's reconciliation report on unauthorized, backdated, and mis-signed checks.

Body: Claremont School Board (SAU 6)
Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Start time: 6:30 p.m. (nonpublic session 10:12–10:57 p.m.; adjourned 10:57 p.m.)
Location: Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, Claremont NH (broadcast on CCTV Channel 8)
Recording: Cablecast: Claremont School Board - 8/5/26 (3:42:49 — ends at the nonpublic-session roll call)
Minutes: 8.5.26 DRAFT CSB Meeting Minutes

Participants

Board, administration, guests, and citizens'-comment speakers. Name spellings follow the draft minutes where the automatic transcript differs.
Name	Role	Participation
Candace Crawford	Chair	Presided
Don Lavalette	Board member	Present; moved the deputy-treasurer appointment and the nominations list
William "Bill" Madden	Board member	Present; pressed the auditor on professional responsibility and the district on curriculum documentation
Michael Petrin	Vice Chair	Present
Brian Rapp	Board member	Present; moved the Terhune CCTV appointment and the nonpublic motions
Heather Whitney	Board member	Present; put 13 written questions to the auditor
Loren Howard	Board member	Absent
Dr. Tim Broadrick	Superintendent	Superintendent's report: corrective actions, biweekly pay, transportation, grants, hiring
Michael Campo	Auditor, Plodzik & Sanderson (labeled "Mike Campbell" in the dialogue file — see method note)	Answered board questions on the FY22/FY23 draft audits (0:26:45–1:16:30)
Luke Diamond	School District Treasurer	Treasurer's report; nominated the deputy treasurer; account-reconciliation findings
Sherry Watkins	Appointed Deputy Treasurer (volunteer)	Introduced herself; appointed unanimously
Kerry Kennedy	Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment	FY27 grant allocations; "Wit and Wisdom" curriculum report
Courtney Porter	District staff	Read the recognition of Jesse Aiken and Officer Crystal Simonds (July 22 Newbury bus incident)
Noelle Kronberg	School Board Clerk	Roll calls; minutes
Brian Zutter	Citizens' comments — Ward 2	Coach Jason Stone non-renewal and the coaching hiring process (two turns)
Allison St. Aubin	Citizens' comments — Ward 2	Soccer-coach hiring process; support for Jason Stone
Ray Bernard	Citizens' comments — Ward 1	Support for Jason Stone; program history
Sherri Williams	Citizens' comments — Ward 1	Thanks for summer programming; communication and website organization concerns
Dr. Michael Saracino	Citizens' comments — Ward 3	Support for Jason Stone; asked about the new hire's qualifications
Rick Chambers	Citizens' comments — Ward 2	Support for Jason Stone's longevity in Claremont soccer

Agenda

From the posted agenda (CSB Agenda - August 5 2026). Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for full text.

Taken up	Item	Agenda text / disposition
0:00:08	I. Call to Order & Pledge; roll call	Present per the draft minutes: Lavalette, Madden, Petrin, Rapp, Whitney, Crawford; absent: Howard.
0:00:51	II.a. Recognition — Jesse Aiken & Officer Crystal Simonds	"Mr. Aiken and Officer Simonds both showed outstanding presence of mind and professionalism during a frightening bus incident in Newbury on Wednesday, July 22, 2026." Read by Courtney Porter.
0:03:17	II.b. Consent agenda	"1. Amendments and Final Approval of Board Agenda 2. Approval of Minutes: July 21, 2026 Draft Minutes 3. Review of Manifests" — consent approval per the draft minutes.
0:04:38	II.c. Citizens' comments (Policy BEDH)	Seven turns from six residents, nearly all on the non-renewal of varsity boys' soccer coach Jason Stone and what it shows about hiring transparency; Sherri Williams also thanked the district for summer programming and raised website/communication organization. Zutter's second turn: "What troubles me the most is this… pattern" — and he asked what policies govern the hiring process and how the board will ensure transparency and accountability going forward.
0:25:04	III. Discussion — FY22 & FY23 draft audit reports with the auditor	"Michael Campo of Plodzik & Sanderson to answer board questions" on the FY22 and FY23 drafts. "They're not good reports." Full Q&A summarized in the timeline.
1:26:11	IV.1. Treasurer's report — Luke Diamond	Deputy-treasurer appointment (Sherry Watkins, unanimous); account-reconciliation report (rev. 8/4/26) — unauthorized EFTs/checks, prior treasurer's auto-pen signature, backdated checks; "the new treasurer authorizes all manifests and signs all checks beginning with the start of his term."
1:36:19	IV.2. Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment report — Kerry Kennedy	FY27 grant allocations: Perkins $94,851.72; Safe & Supportive Schools $262,308.48; Title I $1,104,604.39; Title II-A $212,877.42; Title IV-A $141,311.40 — total $1,815,953.41; grant money follows former Bluff students (60% Maple Ave / 40% Disnard); "Wit and Wisdom" K-5 program review and possible 6–8 pilot.
2:10:30	IV.3. Finance update	FY26 budget-v.-actual (Budget balance report): excess to close the deficit still ~$4M; Bluff lines left as-is so building lines skew but the bottom line holds; FY27 municipal assessment payment schedule; sample electronic manifests (PandaDoc signing proposal); 2026–27 payroll schedule. "By 3 months into the year, 85% of the budget should be either spent or encumbered."
2:26:56	IV.4. Superintendent's report	Audit corrective actions (procurement procedure to the board by September 2); biweekly pay — 27 pays, last balloon payment moved next to the last day of school; transportation (three buses out: one unsafe, one totaled in the July 22 Newbury tree strike pending Primex determination, one repairable with $1,000 deductible; bus-replacement cycle urged; McKinney-Vento costs to be reported by the new wellness director); FY26 grant reporting ("roughly $2 million unclaimed grant funds from last year"); hiring — 44 hires since July 1, all schools open on time; Finance Director Bob Gonyea started August 3; alternative-certification reliance explained.
3:08:14	V.1. Transportation update — elementary start & bus times	Staggered starts: buses serve Disnard first, then Maple Ave; marked confidential pending an SREA procedural step, so not posted with the packet; board consensus, no formal vote.
3:12:42	V.2. "Recovery Plan" update	Goal-setting sheets hung for public review at the office; not yet digitized.
3:13:00	V.3. CCTV board appointment — Majestic Terhune	Application reviewed; appointed unanimously (Rapp moved, Whitney seconded).
3:14:03	V.4. Personnel report — nominations	"Certified staff are nominated by the superintendent and appointed by the board" — 12 new nominations highlighted; salary-lane and stipend questions; motion to approve failed on a 3–3 voice vote, deferred to nonpublic; after returning to public session the list was approved unanimously. Non-certified staffing report; central-office job descriptions (Director of CIA; Student Wellness Director, ~90% SASS-grant funded) both adopted unanimously.
3:35:49	V.5. Subcommittee reports	SRVRTC met/meets August 10; Capital Improvement needs to schedule before September 2; Finance meets August 12 at 1:00 p.m.; Policy next meets in September.
3:36:11	VI. Other business	Dress codes for CMS/SHS due August 19 with advance materials; annual handbook approvals targeted for September 2; Whitney's request to revive the annual prepopulated agenda so "required policy and compliance items are not missed," to be merged with the NHDOE compliance calendar in development.
3:41:51	VII. Nonpublic session — RSA 91-A:3, II(a, c, e)	Motion Rapp, second Whitney; roll call unanimous; entered 10:12 p.m.; returned 10:57 p.m.; in public session the nominations list was approved unanimously; adjourned 10:57 p.m.

Discussion timeline — auditor Q&A and treasurer's report

Times are from the dialogue transcript (Output/Dialogue/Claremont School Board - 8526.CSV). This meeting's transcript was not speaker-diarized; attributions were reconstructed from context and the draft minutes. Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.

Time	Topic	What was said (leading text; hover/focus for more)	Flags
0:26:45	Auditor's opening	Campo: "You've got both drafts for 22 and 23… they're not good reports… you don't need to wait for the 25 and 26 reports… to start making changes." General-ledger maintenance untimely and unreliable; "one of the big deficiencies… is the management of grants… a lot of these grants are falling out of their period of eligibility and then the general fund is absorbing it. So… you're asking your taxpayers to cover the shortfall of what should be coming from federal tax dollars."	HIGH
0:27:48	Fund balance the district didn't have	"For consecutive years, the school district put up… a fund balance that they didn't have." To audit the grants fund his team pulls what was submitted and reimbursed from the state's own website because the district's ledger can't be relied on; at one point a building/period had no revenue posted at all. Checks were being cut but held — "the business office was holding on to checks and not cashing them" — and without an active third-party treasurer "details like that went unseen."	HIGH HIGH
0:33:40	Whitney's 13 questions	Five school/municipal audit firms in NH; boards engage auditors by directing the superintendent (lapsed FY16, reintroduced FY19); "holding the business administrator accountable for getting the audits done" is what the board could have done differently; the firm has cycled through partners and staff; "the goalpost keeps being moved" on FY25/26 limits: inconsistent administration and no one in charge of the finance department.
0:39:11	Disclaimers and the forensic audit	Getting out of a disclaimer of opinion takes two clean years because opening balances must be reliable — "the district still does not know the starting number for FY27"; the forensic audit's feasibility given disclaimed records is uncertain; if fraud is detected it comes to the board. 23 bank accounts had to be chased down at one point; all now accounted for.	MEDIUM
0:49:16	Manifests: "does not comply with state statutes"	Whitney: since 2016 the lack of board manifest approval has been a finding. Campo: "board members were going in after the fact and signing off on the manifest" — retroactive review "does not comply with state statutes" (draft minutes wording); the board must require manifests come to it before checks go out. Whitney: "Can a check be released without board approval?" Campo: "It shouldn't be, no." Whitney: "But it was, repeatedly." "Yes."	HIGH
0:52:31	Budget-to-actual reports withheld	Whitney was told the GL system couldn't produce budget-to-actual reports: "That's completely inaccurate. They don't make GL software for a municipality that… isn't a function." The overdrawn general fund (~$800,000 in 2023) traced to ledger maintenance and withheld checks — created but not entered.	HIGH
0:53:39	How misreported balances raised the deficit	Business administrators "used a number for unassigned fund balance that they didn't have… you're not raising that number [in taxes], but you're still raising the appropriation, so you're still obligated to spend that money"; grant expenditures were counted as revenue that never came in; spending was never pulled back — Crawford: "They reported an inaccurate balance… they didn't get the funds from grants… and they didn't cut back on expenditures." Campo's word for it: "misrepresentation."	HIGH
1:01:48	Special education follows the same rules	Madden: "Is there any reason that special ed doesn't have to comply with the normal rules and purchase orders?" Campo: "No, there's no reason for that." Madden: "Okay, well, that's not what I was told."
1:02:15	Madden presses the auditor	Sworn in March 2025 with "no inkling in public about the disaster"; asks why the professionals never told the board it was out of compliance with the law; Campo: "the audit reports clearly indicate… you're a high-risk audit," and offers "I'll resign tonight if you want me to." Crawford and Whitney recount that Campo did come to the board in early 2025 and regular meetings were set up; the whole finance office turned over as recently as that week. Rapp asks him not to resign. Later: "According to Mr. Angell, we can't even prosecute anyone because there are no records" — Campo: keep doing both — audits and controls — and don't recreate what can't be found.
1:13:12	Timeline for FY24/25	"We need records… the timeline will depend on the finance department and access to the records." Expenditure testing already done across a three-year window. Context from the chair: on July 8 the business office had one employee with three months' experience; payroll is the first priority and audit requests compound the problem. The forensic auditor requires the annual audits to be done first.	MEDIUM
1:26:11	Deputy treasurer appointed	Diamond nominates Sherry Watkins (volunteer, business-management and accounting background); appointed unanimously — the treasurer appoints a deputy with board approval.	POSITIVE
1:28:14	Reconciliation report: unauthorized and mis-signed payments	Diamond, from bank records (all cleared payments last month): every line in red was a check or EFT "issued this past month that I didn't know about"; a July 2 check for $3,769.50 apparently never on a manifest; "the auto pen of the previous treasurer was used, even though she's no longer the treasurer… he confirmed with our attorneys that this is in fact quite illegal"; manifests he requested arrived 24 days later (initially withheld on a mistaken belief they contained non-public information); "there seems to be a practice of backdating checks… checks 353966 through 353970 were all issued on the 31st [of July], all to Dead River, but they were all dated April 30th… that appears to me to be falsifying public records." He will hand-sign checks going forward.	HIGH
1:36:19	FY27 grant allocations & September 30	Kennedy now owns grants back to FY24; "everything must be submitted [by] November 14th for 24/25 and September of next year for 25/26" filings, with September 30, 2026 the deadline for 2024–25 grant-program activity claims; DOE's Grant Management System portal will produce board reports; Broadrick: "roughly $2 million unclaimed grant funds from last year… with Ms. Kennedy regularly reporting, it will not happen again." All non-competitive, cost-reimbursement grants except the competitive SASS award.	HIGH
2:10:30	FY26 close & finance mechanics	Excess funds to close the deficit gap still ~ $4 million; special-ed tuition encumbrance brought to zero with invoices still processing; footnoted variance explanations to come once the new finance director settles; "the Board can move funds between functions, but never line items" (Broadrick's practice statement); electronic manifest signing via PandaDoc licensed already.
2:39:23	Transportation & buses	Three buses out of service a month before opening (one unsafe, one totaled in the Newbury tree strike — insurance determination pending from Primex, one repairable, $1,000 deductible); wage-and-time analysis begun with the transportation director; "future budgets should include a planned bus-replacement cycle rather than addressing replacements only when a bus becomes unusable"; Madden's McKinney-Vento cost question — the federally required homeless-student transportation will be reported by the proposed wellness director.	OBSERVATION
3:14:03	Nominations, lanes, and a 3–3 vote	Nominations resume the statutory rhythm ("nominated by the superintendent and appointed by the board"); Frontline workflow with HR verification described; salary questions — SRVRTC industry-experience credit counts "the first ten years… 1 to 1"; a certification-eligible hire near $60,000 explained by negotiated lanes; specific-person concerns moved to nonpublic; the initial approval motion failed 3–3 and the list passed unanimously after the nonpublic session.	POSITIVE
3:36:11	Compliance calendar & handbooks	Handbooks require annual approval and lapsed this year except SHS (approved in June); September 2 target; Whitney revives the March 2025 prepopulated agenda "so required policy and compliance items are not missed," to merge with the state compliance calendar being developed by NHDOE and the administrators' association.	OBSERVATION

Items flagged for review

Flags are a reviewer's aid generated by comparing the discussion against current state and federal law. They are not findings of violation, and nothing here is legal advice. Each flag cites the rule it rests on.

HIGH Disbursements outside the statutory treasurer/manifest process — including backdated and auto-pen-signed checks issued in July 2026

The treasurer's statute puts custody of district money in the treasurer, who "shall pay out the same only upon orders of the school board." The auditor told the board that manifest approval has been a finding since 2016, that after-the-fact signing "does not comply with state statutes," and that checks were released without board approval "repeatedly." The treasurer's bank reconciliation showed the problem continuing in July 2026: payments he never authorized, checks bearing the former treasurer's auto-pen signature (district counsel: "quite illegal"), manifests furnished to him 24 days after request, and checks issued July 31 backdated to April 30 — in his words, "that appears to me to be falsifying public records." Administration attributed parts to misunderstanding (prior-fiscal-year expenses; a belief manifests were non-public) and reports corrections; counsel's opinion on the backdating was pending.

Sources: RSA 197:23-a (treasurer's custody; payment only upon school-board orders); 8.5.26 draft minutes; Treasurer's report on account reconciliation (rev. 8/4/26).

HIGH Federal grant reimbursements lapsing to local taxpayers; ~$2 million unclaimed; September 30 cutoff

The auditor identified grant management as a defining deficiency: grants "falling out of their period of eligibility" leave the general fund — local taxes — absorbing costs federal dollars should have covered, and "substantial lost revenues that the district is entitled to." The superintendent estimated roughly $2 million in unclaimed funds from the prior year. FY27 allocations total $1,815,953.41 (Title I $1,104,604.39; Title II-A $212,877.42; Title IV-A $141,311.40; Perkins $94,851.72; SASS $262,308.48). Claims for the 2024–25 programs close September 30, 2026 under the federal carryover rules; November 14 is the stated submission date for 24/25 paperwork. At these expenditure levels the district also owes an annual federal single audit, overdue for the unaudited years.

Sources: 20 U.S.C. §1225(b) (Tydings carryover); 2 CFR 200.501, 2 CFR 200.512(a)(1); Claremont FY'27 Grant Allocations (packet PDF).

HIGH Tax rates set on fund balance the district didn't have

Per the auditor, for consecutive years the district "put up… a fund balance that they didn't have": an overstated unassigned fund balance flowed into the MS-22/MS-24 filings used in rate-setting, taxes weren't raised to match appropriations, grant revenue was booked that never arrived, and spending wasn't pulled back — compounding the deficit ("some of the deficit was money that was never raised but should have been"). He accepted "misrepresentation" as the right word. The 2023 general fund ran overdrawn by roughly $800,000 without detection. These filings are the September 1 reports to the DRA; retained unassigned fund balance is statutorily capped and its reporting drives the tax rate.

Sources: RSA 21-J:34 (reports to DRA; September 1); RSA 198:4-b, II (retained fund balance); Valley News, Jan. 2, 2026 ($1M claimed vs. −$29k actual in the FY22 draft).

MEDIUM Two-year exit from disclaimers; FY27 opening balance unknown; new 6-month statutory deadline

Escaping a disclaimer of opinion requires two consecutive reliably-closed years, so audited certainty arrives around FY28 even on the district's best path; "the district still does not know the starting number for FY27." Meanwhile SB 586 (effective July 1, 2026) requires an annual audit or certified financial report within 6 months of fiscal year end, on pain of withheld state funding — a clock that starts with FY26. The forensic audit cannot proceed until the annual audits catch up, and the board was warned FY24/FY25 "are going to look a lot like" FY22/23.

Sources: SB 586 (2026), Chapter 272; RSA 21-J:19 (independent audits).

OBSERVATION Coach non-renewal: no documented evaluation or appointment process

Six residents spoke about the Jason Stone non-renewal and asked what policies govern coach hiring and how the board will ensure transparency. The superintendent's report answered in part: administration "found little documentation of a consistent annual evaluation or appointment process for coaches"; athletics were consolidated under Mr. Beaupre and a written annual evaluation and hiring process for stipend positions is being implemented, with employment records kept in central personnel files. Stipend positions sit outside the teacher-election statute, so this is a policy-and-documentation gap rather than a statutory one; the board deferred individual-employee discussion to nonpublic session, consistent with RSA 91-A:3, II(a)/(c).

Sources: 8.5.26 draft minutes (superintendent's report §5); RSA 91-A:3, II(a),(c).

OBSERVATION Transportation: three buses down; McKinney-Vento costs unquantified

A month before opening, three buses were unusable (one unsafe, one a total loss from the July 22 Newbury incident pending a Primex insurance determination, one repairable). The district keeps two full-size spares and may return one to route service so only one replacement is needed; an update was due August 19, and the superintendent urged a budgeted replacement cycle. Homeless-student transportation to the school of origin is a federal mandate whose local cost the district could not yet state; the new Student Wellness, Access & Counseling director is to oversee and report it.

Source: 42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(1)(J)(iii) (McKinney-Vento transportation).

POSITIVE Statutory controls being restored: deputy treasurer, hand-signed checks, board election of staff

The treasurer appointed a deputy with board approval and will hand-sign checks pending reliable manifest flow; personnel appointments returned to the nominate-and-elect rhythm the statute prescribes (with the final vote taken in public session after nonpublic deliberation, as the Right-to-Know Law requires for decisions); and the electronic-manifest proposal would give every board member a documented approval trail before disbursement.

Sources: RSA 197:23-a; RSA 189:39; RSA 91-A:3, III.

OBSERVATION Annual-approval items lapsing without a compliance calendar

School handbooks require annual board approval; only the SHS handbook was approved this cycle (June), and the rest were targeted for September 2. Whitney asked the board to revisit the prepopulated annual agenda adopted in March 2025 "so required policy and compliance items are not missed"; the superintendent agreed to merge it with the compliance calendar being developed by NHDOE and the administrators' association. Recurring statutory items (filings, approvals, evaluations) missing their windows is the root pattern behind several audit findings; a standing calendar is the fix in progress.

Source: 8.5.26 draft minutes (Other Business).

Appendix — source files

Official meeting records

Remote video: Claremont School Board - 8/5/26 (Cablecast show 17489)
Packet folder: 3. 8.5.26 — School Board Documents (7 documents)
Minutes: 8.5.26 DRAFT CSB Meeting Minutes

Packet and linked documents

Project files (internal working files; not published online)

Dialogue transcript: Output/Dialogue/Claremont School Board - 8526.CSV
Video file: Input/Videos/Claremont School Board - 8526.mp4
Diarized transcript: Input/Transcripts/Claremont School Board - 8526.json
Meeting/document map: Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md

Laws and rules cited on this page

RSA 197:23-a (treasurer); RSA 189:39 (nomination/election); RSA 198:4-b (fund balance); RSA 21-J:34, RSA 21-J:19 (filings, audits)
RSA 91-A:3 (nonpublic sessions)
2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586)
2 CFR 200.501, 2 CFR 200.512; 20 U.S.C. §1225(b); 42 U.S.C. §11432