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Claremont School Board Finance — August 12, 2026
Finance Subcommittee work session — FY26 close-out, the September 1 state filings, business-office staffing, audit corrective actions (procurement guide), budget-calendar planning, and negotiations logistics. Summary generated from the meeting video transcript; the district posted no packet or minutes for this meeting.
- Body
- Finance Subcommittee of the Claremont School Board
- Date
- Wednesday, August 12, 2026
- Start time
- 1:00 p.m. (as scheduled at the 6/19 meeting and on the 8/5 board agenda)
- Location
- SAU 6 Central Office / Dow conference room (per the committee's scheduling statements)
- Recording
- Cablecast: Claremont School Board Finance - 8/12/26 — the recording cuts off mid-sentence at 1:10:07; the end of the meeting is not captured
- Minutes
- None located in the district's public Drive shares as of 2026-08-19 (the chair prepares subcommittee minutes herself)
Participants
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|---|---|
| Candace Crawford | School Board Chair; Finance Subcommittee Chair | Presided; 195 speaking segments |
| Heather Whitney | Board member; Finance Subcommittee | 65 segments; policy references, negotiations-representation question |
| Don Lavalette | Board member; Finance Subcommittee | 12 segments; procurement-guide details ("our number four says approved by the business administrator") |
| Dr. Tim Broadrick | Superintendent (acting as his own business administrator) | 259 segments; presented nearly every item |
| Tammy Cody | Central-office assistant | 23 segments; staffing and scheduling details |
Agenda
No agenda was posted to the district's shared folders for this meeting; the structure below is reconstructed from the chair's transitions in the dialogue. Hover over (or Tab to) a clipped entry for full text.
| Taken up | Item | Leading text from the dialogue |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00:01 | Call to order; attendance | "Okay, let's call the meeting to order… Present: [Don Lavalette], Heather Whitney, Candace Crawford, Dr. Tim Broadrick and Tammy Cody." (The recognizer rendered Lavalette as "our level.") |
| 0:00:23 | Old business: end of FY26; state filings | "Let's go to old business. Please give us any updates on the end of fiscal year 26." — Crawford. DOE-25 due September 1 with extension to the end of September; meeting with NHDOE/DRA being arranged. |
| 0:08:46 | Business administrator search; business-office staffing | "I would love to hire a qualified business administrator, because the scary answer is mine. Because I'm the one right now." — Broadrick. Candidate conversations, the ~110-position statewide BA market, and a possible build-our-own path; role-by-role staffing walkthrough. |
| 0:19:03 | Grants recovery; forensic audit status | 2024–25 grant claims recoverable only until September 30; FY26 funds recoverable for about a year; forensic-audit contract in limbo after the firm's acquisition — the $10,000 deposit check from May remains uncashed. |
| 0:24:39 | Tuition agreements & receivables | Only the Croydon agreement in hand so far; Unity withdrawal changes tuition flows; CTE tuition obligations for out-of-district vocational students ("districts under New Hampshire law must pay, not may — shall pay"). |
| 0:32:37 | Audit corrective actions: procurement guide | "This next one seems like a biggie to me. Corrective actions." — Crawford. Broadrick's written purchasing/procurement guide shared with the committee for comment; five corrective-action areas identified. |
| 0:57:47 | Budget development calendar (SB 2 cycle) | "When do you propose your budget here? Do we really follow [SB] 2 rules and not city rules?" — Broadrick; policy DB's month-by-month expectations; proposal by early November, approval by the first meeting in January ahead of the deliberative session. |
| 1:02:31 | SREA negotiations & finance-committee overlap | Representation question — Whitney: "I was nominated as the SREA representative… I want a nomination process"; cost items of a tentative agreement go on the ballot as a separate warrant article, so the budget is built with no salary increases shown. |
| 1:07:24 | Capital plan committee; future items | Broadrick to bring Madden's Capital Improvement Subcommittee a schedule and action plan; facilities needs list must gain costs and priorities; SREA ground-rules meeting scheduling — the recording ends here mid-sentence. |
Discussion timeline
Times are from the dialogue transcript (Output/Dialogue/Claremont School Board Finance - 81226.CSV). Timestamps link to the same moment in the Cablecast recording.
| Time | Topic | What was said (leading text; hover/focus for more) | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00:23 | FY26 close & the state's September 1 filings | Broadrick spoke with auditor Michael Campo ("Mike Campbell from [Plodzik &] Sanderson" in the transcript) and with Nate Greene of NHDOE — "the division director who supervises Marc Manganiello"; DOE and DRA "need end-of-the-year financial statements… it goes to setting the tax rate for the city"; "DOE-25 is due September 1st. And any district that asks can get [to] the end of September. So our time frame is… six weeks"; the meeting with the department and commissioner's office is being scheduled, with Campo attending. "Normally if I filed a false [DOE-]25 report, I would be like, oh, you have to fire me now" — the numbers must be defensible despite unreliable opening balances. | HIGH |
| 0:05:03 | Held checks continued into FY26 | "The old practice of holding checks did continue to occur during 2025, 2026." The four checks the treasurer flagged in July "weren't held intentionally — Corey was waiting for the business administrator or director of finance to help her with a process she didn't know how to execute… it took them until the end of June." | HIGH |
| 0:06:18 | The $868,000 SchoolCare mid-year assessment | "The mid-year assessment from SchoolCare that nobody budgeted for… it was 868 [thousand]." After the board voted in December to pay it, Angell negotiated thirds — one third paid, the full amount encumbered; "when we pay it, it's really a cash management issue… not a balance sheet issue." | MEDIUM |
| 0:07:36 | Surplus on paper vs. cash in the bank | "We've got a $4 million surplus for fiscal 26. Congratulations, everybody. Right. But if we don't have the money in the bank to meet obligations, then…" — cash position must be established before releasing held checks; the city's first assessment payment is "like a triple payment," then about $1 million a month. | |
| 0:08:46 | Acting business administrator; BA search | Broadrick is acting as his own BA — "the scary answer is mine… which means I am including Mike Campo in everything I do… when it comes to decision making in the business office." One candidate from another district in talks; statewide market ~110 BA positions; fallback: "build our own" with an experienced mentor. "I don't think I can be the BA for the year." | MEDIUM |
| 0:17:45 | Revenues possibly unbilled or uncollected | "So I am now working on figuring out if [billing and collecting revenues has] been done for the last two years, or the degree to which that's been happening… That's a revenue issue." Otherwise those costs land on the bottom line. | MEDIUM |
| 0:19:03 | Grant claims: September 30 first | "There are 24, 25 grants that can only be [claimed until September 30]… We actually have a year to recover the fiscal 26 funds. But I need to know when we submit this [DOE-]25… that our estimate of what we're going to get is correct. Because otherwise this is one of the things that used to happen here" — revenue booked for reports never submitted. Crawford: "So the 24-25, you've got until September 30th… that's the first priority." | HIGH |
| 0:20:06 | Forensic audit contract in limbo | Attorney Naomi Butterfield (Bernstein Shur) is on long-term medical leave — an associate has taken it over; the firm hired for the forensic audit was acquired, and the May $10,000 deposit check is uncashed: "are they going to come say, since we were acquired by a new company that charges more, we're going to give you a new quote…? I just want to figure out what the status of the deal is." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:21:18 | Business-office staffing map | Director of Finance Bob Gonyea (started Aug. 3) reconciles and problem-solves; Katie learning the "extremely complicated" grants-claiming process; Corey on payables and payroll (the AP+payroll consolidation from last year's budget "didn't occur" with planning and training — "with respect to my friend Matt… capacity building has been missing for years"); Tracy supports student services; Heidi does Medicaid reimbursement and special-ed billing; receivables historically had no dedicated owner. | MEDIUM |
| 0:24:39 | Tuition agreements; CTE tuition | Only the Croydon tuition agreement located so far ("I went to [them]… I would just like clarity"); base-tuition guarantees matter if a sending district redirects students; Unity's withdrawal changes the largest flow ("that was an agreement with Unity for their students to come"); on a Sunapee student at the tech center: "districts under New Hampshire law must pay — not may, shall pay — vocational training [tuition]" where the program isn't offered at their center of record. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:32:37 | Corrective action #1: the procurement guide | "I wrote this personally. I wrote this in 2019 for a district that had just suffered embezzling. The important thing… is the part in red: there is no purchasing without a purchase order. A purchase order represents permission to buy." Every employee reads and signs off at beginning-of-year training; under $20,000: split purchases prohibited ("you broke the rules"), three solicited quotes above $5,000 with identical specs; $20,000 and over: RFQ/RFP; petty cash capped at $50; no district credit cards for now; the superintendent signs POs and "will not have my own account in the accounting system… because I oversee it"; the payables bookkeeper may not approve POs; out-of-district special-ed vendors now must supply contracts, W-9s, certificates of insurance, and service logs with every invoice ("otherwise I can't [verify]… we've just been sent bills"). Whitney ties it to accompanying policies; policy references will be re-pointed from Alton-Barnstead to Claremont codes; five corrective-action areas total, capital-asset management next. | POSITIVE |
| 0:53:45 | Policy housekeeping: bank accounts, reference documents | Whitney: opening of bank accounts was "a huge" past problem (23 accounts surfaced in the audits); "there's no real reference document" tying policies, procedures, and board actions together — new members "just rubber stamp the manifest because they don't know"; she offers her reference list and the prepopulated agenda for the next meeting's materials. | |
| 0:57:47 | Budget calendar under SB 2 | Claremont runs an official-ballot (SB 2) budget cycle — "it's funny, you're a city, but you do SB 2" (7/29); policy DB sets month-by-month expectations starting no later than the last meeting in August; proposal by early November ("I think more about time management right now"); board approval needed by the first meeting in January for the deliberative session; the finance committee develops the budget with the superintendent and presents it to the full board; budget-season meetings televised by CCTV, though roundtable formats frustrated public listening ("you can't really hear what the conversations are. And for public transparency…" — Whitney). | |
| 1:02:31 | Negotiations representation & cost items | Whitney: "I was nominated as the SREA representative… nominated in March" — she disputes the assumption that the whole finance committee is the negotiating team and wants the full board to select representatives; Crawford agrees to bring it to the board. Broadrick: "the cost impact of a tentative agreement has to be listed as a separate warrant article on the ballot. We will develop a budget that shows no salary increases" — three bargaining units are up this year (teachers, custodial/maintenance, and one more). A ground-rules meeting with the SREA is being scheduled; the recording cuts off during this note. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:07:24 | Capital planning restart | Broadrick will give the Capital Improvement Subcommittee (Madden) "a schedule and an action plan"; the facilities needs list still lacks costs — "we've got to get… costs so that we can start to think about actual action planning [and] financial impact," run out over five years with reserve-fund questions ahead. |
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 September deadlines converge: DOE-25/MS-25 due September 1, grant claims die September 30, on unreliable opening balances
The DOE-25 is due September 1 (extension to the end of September available on request), and the DRA financial report shares the September 1 date by statute; the filings feed the city's tax-rate setting. The district must file while "we're not quite sure" of its true position — the superintendent is arranging a meeting with NHDOE, the commissioner's office, and the auditor to agree on a defensible filing, and invoked the seriousness of a false report. Simultaneously, 2024–25 federal grant claims are recoverable only through September 30, and the revenue estimated in the DOE-25 must match what is actually claimed — booking grant revenue and never submitting the reports "is one of the things that used to happen here." Under SB 586 (effective July 1, 2026), the annual filing now carries a perjury-attested certification and state-funding withholding for non-compliance.
Sources: RSA 21-J:34 (September 1 reports to DRA); 20 U.S.C. §1225(b) (Tydings carryover); SB 586 (2026), Chapter 272.
HIGH Check-holding persisted through FY26; disbursement controls still stabilizing
The practice of cutting checks and holding them — a core mechanism behind the misstated balances in the FY22/FY23 audits — "did continue to occur during 2025, 2026," most recently because a lone bookkeeper waited months for sign-off help that didn't exist after the business administrator's departure. Checks the district has issued but not released misstate its apparent cash position, and payments outside a board-approved manifest bypass the treasurer statute. Mitigations in motion: establishing the cash position before releasing checks, the treasurer's hand-signing, and the manifest reforms begun August 5.
Sources: RSA 197:23-a (payment only upon school-board orders); auditor's statements at the August 5 meeting.
MEDIUM $868,000 unbudgeted insurance assessment still two-thirds unpaid
The SchoolCare mid-year assessment "that nobody budgeted for" ($868,000) was committed by a December board vote and structured into thirds; one third is paid and the full amount encumbered in FY26, with the remaining two-thirds a cash-management item. An unbudgeted six-figure liability absorbed mid-year is exactly the "plan and budget for the unexpected" gap the board's own goal-setting flagged; how the encumbrance is presented in the September filings is worth watching.
Context: committee dialogue (0:06:18–0:07:15); RSA 21-J:34 (year-end reporting).
MEDIUM Superintendent serving as his own business administrator — concentrated duties
With the interim business administrator's abrupt July resignation, the superintendent is performing the BA function while also running the district: "the scary answer is mine." Concentrating authorization, oversight, and execution in one office weakens segregation of duties — a named root cause in the audits. Stated mitigations: the auditor is consulted "in everything I do" in business-office decision-making, the superintendent keeps no account of his own in the accounting system, the payables bookkeeper cannot approve purchase orders, the independent treasurer now reviews all disbursements, and a new finance director started August 3. The BA market is thin (~110 positions statewide); the committee should track how long the acting arrangement lasts.
Sources: Valley News, July 27, 2026 (business administrator's abrupt resignation); internal-control framework at 2 CFR 200.303 (for federally funded activity).
MEDIUM Revenues possibly unbilled or uncollected for two years
The superintendent is investigating "if [billing and collecting revenues] has been done for the last two years, or the degree to which that's been happening" — tuition, Medicaid, and other receivables have had no dedicated owner. Only one tuition agreement (Croydon) has been located; Unity's withdrawal changes the largest tuition relationship. Unbilled revenue shifts costs to Claremont taxpayers the same way unclaimed grants do.
Context: committee dialogue (0:17:45–0:26:36); tuition framework at RSA ch. 194 and CTE tuition at RSA 188-E:9.
OBSERVATION Forensic audit stalled: firm acquired, deposit uncashed, counsel changed
The forensic-audit agreement signed in May (deposit $10,000 of an authorized $50,000) is in limbo: the firm was acquired, the deposit check remains uncashed, and the original attorney is on long-term leave. The superintendent warned on August 5 that $50,000 is unlikely to cover the work. Whether the successor firm honors the signed terms — or re-quotes — is a contract question now with Bernstein Shur; the annual audits it depends on are themselves behind.
Context: committee dialogue (0:20:06–0:21:17) and the August 5 superintendent's report.
OBSERVATION Mandatory CTE tuition obligations cut both ways
The superintendent stated that districts "must pay — not may, shall pay" vocational-education tuition when a student's program isn't offered at their center of record, and conversely Claremont's tech center collects from sending districts (the pending Sunapee plumbing student). The regional CTE statute governs tuition and transportation payment mechanics, with state reimbursement contingent on timely cost submissions — an administrative deadline (September 30 annual cost filing) the business office should not miss while short-staffed.
Source: RSA 188-E:9 (payment of tuition and transportation funds).
POSITIVE Written procurement guide directly answers the audits' internal-control findings
The purchasing guide brought to the committee — no purchase without a purchase order, anti-splitting rule, three solicited quotes above $5,000, RFQ/RFP at $20,000 and above, $50 petty-cash cap, no district credit cards, mandatory annual sign-off by every employee, documentation retained for auditors, and vendor files (contract, W-9, certificate of insurance, service logs) for special-education placements — is the corrective action for the procurement and documentation findings in the FY22/FY23 audits, and its thresholds are stricter than the federal simplified-acquisition floors. Policy alignment is being run in parallel with the Policy Subcommittee, with board review targeted for September 2.
Sources: 2 CFR 200.318–200.327 (federal procurement standards the guide exceeds); auditor findings summarized at Valley News, Jan. 2, 2026.
OBSERVATION Negotiating-team selection unsettled; subcommittee minutes still not publicly posted
Whitney challenged the assumption that the three finance-committee members are the SREA negotiating team — she alone was nominated in March — and asked that the full board select representatives; the chair agreed to bring it back to the board. Separately, this meeting again has no minutes in the district's public shares; as a subcommittee of the school board the committee's minutes must be open to inspection within 5 business days (wherever they are kept), and the recording — the fullest public record — cuts off mid-meeting. On bargaining transparency, cost items of any tentative agreement will appear as a separate warrant article for voters, per the superintendent's description of the SB 2 process.
Sources: RSA 91-A:1-a, VI(d); RSA 91-A:2, II; cost-item ratification framework in RSA ch. 273-A.
Appendix — source files
Official and public sources
- Remote video: Claremont School Board Finance - 8/12/26 (Cablecast show 17530) — ends mid-meeting at 1:10:07
- No packet, agenda, or minutes for this meeting exist in [Packets - Posted to website] or Meeting Minutes (verified 2026-08-19); the next board packet, 4. 8.19.26 — School Board Documents, holds no 8/12 material either
- Scheduling references: 8/5 agenda ("Finance… meets August 12, 1:00 p.m."); 6/19 draft minutes ("Wednesday, August 12, at 1 pm at the Central Office/Dow Conference Room")
Project files (internal working files; not published online)
- Dialogue transcript: Output/Dialogue/Claremont School Board Finance - 81226.CSV
- Video file: Input/Videos/Claremont School Board Finance - 81226.mp4
- Diarized transcript: Input/Transcripts/Claremont School Board Finance - 81226.json
- Meeting/document map: Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md
- Related pages: June 19 finance meeting · August 5 board meeting
Laws and rules cited on this page
- RSA 91-A:1-a, RSA 91-A:2 (Right-to-Know Law)
- RSA 197:23-a (treasurer); RSA 21-J:34 (Sept. 1 filings); RSA 188-E:9 (CTE tuition); RSA ch. 273-A (public-employee bargaining)
- 2026 N.H. Laws ch. 272 (SB 586)
- 2 CFR 200.303, 2 CFR 200.318–.327; 20 U.S.C. §1225(b)