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24. USB DRAFT Meeting MInutes 040826.pdf

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UNITY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING 
DRAFT Meeting Minutes 
April 8, 2026 
5:30 PM 
Unity Elementary School 
 
 
Agenda Item 
Notes 
I 
Call to Order 
Pledge 
 
II 
 
 
 
III. 
 
• Roll Call 
 
 
 
 
 
• Election of 
Board Officers 
o Chair 
 
 
 
o Vice-chair 
Shannon Popescu - here 
Rocco Ruggeri - here 
Atonya Hart - here 
Darlene Ayotte - here 
Kelly Simpson - absent 
 
Superintendent conducted the election of officers. 
 
Shannon was nominated by Rocco with the nomination seconded by 
Atonya.  No one else was nominated.  All approved and Shannon was 
elected Chair. 
 
Rocco was nominated by Shannon to be the Vice Chair.  The 
nomination was seconded by Atonya.  No one else was nominated.  All 
approved and Rocco was elected Vice Chair. 
IV. 
• General Business 
• Agenda – 
Amendments and 
approval 
 
 
• Approval of 
previous minutes 
• 
03/11/26 
 
 
• 
03/14/26 
 
 
• Citizen Comments 
 
 
Sue suggested that the agenda be amended to include addition of a discussion 
and action on the District Treasurer and the addition of action on General 
Assurances.   
Motion made by Rocco to accept agenda as amended.  Atonya seconded.  All 
approved. 
 
 
Rocco made a motion to approve the minutes for the UES Board meeting held 
on 3/11/26 as written. Atonya seconded, all approved. 
 
Rocco made motion to accept the minutes of the Annual School District 
Meeting held on 3/14/26 as written.  Atonya seconded, all approved. 
 
No citizens asked to speak. 
V. 
Discussion/Action 
A. Action Items 
1. Oberkotter 
Fund. Audit 
 
2. Siding – Sue 
 
3. Garage update 
– Sue 
 
 
 
Sue: Nothing new to report 
 
Sue: There is no money for siding so nothing new to report.  
 
Sue is going to have Kurtz come back in to look at grading around 
garage site so it is more stable. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
B. Superintendent 
SAU 109 contract 
(Action) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Marj Erickson 
 
 
Rocco reported that Forrest Ransdell reviewed the draft contract and 
that Rocco had also given it to our lawyers to look at it.  The lawyers 
made quite a few changes (mostly rewording and rearranging).  No 
significant changes other than Rocco had wanted the contract to have 
the Superintendent start prior to July 1, 2026, but the lawyers changed 
it to make it an hourly rate prior to July 1 with the contract to begin July 
1, 2026.  There were several other changes proposed by the district 
lawyers (Drummond and Woodsum).  The meat of the contract has not 
changed.  Bulleted points did not change nor did the proposed 
compensation. 
 
Rocco is asking the board to approve offering Forrest a contract and 
as soon as it’s agreed upon, to sign the contract and hire him.   
 
The contract includes a clause that requires Unity to pay the 
Superintendent if they decide to terminate.  
 
Rocco made a motion to approve offering Forrest Ransdell the 
modified contract once it is cleaned up, and to approve moving 
forward to signatures after the meet-and-greet. Atonya seconded and 
all approved 
 
The Board should consider holding some sort of public meeting for the 
community to meet the superintendent.  This should not be done 
behind closed doors.  Transparency is important to start the new SAU 
on good footing.   
 
Shannon – asked Rocco to ask Forrest whether he would be willing to 
do a meet and greet rather soon.  Next Wednesday the Board is 
holding a meeting so doing the Meet and Greet at that time would 
work.  
 
Matt suggested that we have a QR code the folks can click on to 
provide anonymous comments for the meeting.   
 
There is a PTA meeting at 6:30 next week – perhaps we could 
combine? 
 
C. Personnel Slate 
SY27 (Action) 
 
See attached proposed Personnel Slate for SY27 
 
Atonya made a motion to approve the proposed {Personnel Slate for 
SY 27, Darlene seconded, all approved. 
 
D. Financial 
Update 
1. Year to Date SY 
26 (Expenditures & 
Revenues) 
 
 
 
 
Matt Angell:  
The cash balance in the general ledger as of today is $592,311. The 
cash balance is primarily due to the 4th quarter State Adequacy Aid 
Grant we received for $250,005.77. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. School District 
Meeting 
Documents 
(Action) – 
signatures 
 
3. Vouchers 
 
 
 
4. Audit update  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5. Other – School 
lunch 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Revenues through March 31st were $3,338,675. This leaves a 
budgeted balance remaining to collect of $716,190 or 17.66%. Notable 
revenues for March were the Town's District Assessment payment for 
$243,062.11 and School Building Aid for $74,878.96. 
 
Expenditures through March 31st were $2,752,660, encumbrances 
were $824,987, and the amount remaining in the operating budget 
was $377,217 or 9.54%. 
 
 
Atonya made a motion to approve the MS 22 (report of appropriations 
actually voted by a school district at the Annual School District 
meeting), seconded by Rocco, all approved. 
 
Board members discussed whether to have everyone sign vouchers 
each month or whether to have a smaller subcommittee do it.  There 
was no resolution 
 
Matt will close out books and will prepare the DOE 25 (the School 
District SY 26 Financial report) and will then hand off all information to 
the new BA (SAU109 BA) 
 
All financial information for Unity is with the auditors at this point but 
Matt cannot say when the audits will be done.  When complete the 
audits will current up through SY26 
 
Shannon asked about forensic audits.  
Matt responded that Unity needs to have their own lawyer (separate 
from SAU 6) to represent Unity (against) Claremont if disagreements 
come up.  Matt has identified someone to represent Unity in the 
forensic audit but this is someone who cannot do educational law (she 
is a municipal lawyer) (Laura Spectrum-Morgan) – but if Unity is going 
to hire a law firm specializing in education, they should just use that 
lawyer. 
 
Sue – currently we charge $3 for full lunch.  We haven’t had an 
increase in a while and with prices going up we should consider 
increasing.  With no increase we are looking at a net decrease in 
revenue of approximately $35 K. If lunch prices are increased to 
$3.50/ student lunch the net revenue loss would be closer $27 K which 
is close to the $25K we put in our budget to offset lunch costs.   
 
Sue proposed increasing student lunches from $3.00 to $3.50 and 
adults from $3.50 to $4.10. 
Shannon asked about increasing the adult breakfast price from $1.75 
to $2.25. 
 
Matt – the State is changing how lunches are calculated such that 
Unity will have to change their price anyway. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
District Treasurer 
 
Dawn Kokiel is going to be the new “Chef Patrick” working for Abby 
group.  She will also still stay as bus driver. 
 
Rocco made a motion to increase lunches and breakfasts as 
proposed, Atonya seconded, all approved. 
 
Shannon received an email on April 1st from Kelly Simpson in which 
Kelly resigned from being treasurer so that she could become a school 
board member.  Kelly has now been sworn in as a School Board 
member. 
 
Rocco made a motion to accept Kelly’s resignation, Atonya seconded, 
all approved 
 
Atonya made a motion to approve Marjorie Erickson to be school 
treasurer from now through June 30th, Rocco seconded and all 
approved. 
 
D. Calendar SY 27 
(Action) 
 
 
Sue gave the Board a proposed calendar with several dates that are 
wrong.  She corrected these as follows: 
Feb 22-26 is Feb break 
Spring break is April 26-30 
Memorial Day is the 31st not the 24th.  
 
Sue reviewed everything for the Board noting that Newport and 
Claremont both have the same Christmas, February and Spring 
breaks.   
 
Rocco made the motion to accept the calendar as corrected, Atonya 
seconded and all approved. 
 
E. Policies (Action) 
 
 
 
 
1. DK – 1st read 
 
 
 
 
 
2. DGD – 1st read 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sue provided context for the current slate of policies. We brought 
these policies forward because UES does not have many financial 
policies and with moving forward with getting a credit card and making 
electronic transfers easier we need these policies in place. 
 
Rocco – the first paragraph says that the Board can appoint 2 or more 
Board members to be designated to sign vouchers  
 
Rocco made a motion to make DK a first read, Atonya seconded, all 
approved.   
 
Rocco – the SAU 109 BA will only be very part time position so the 
Board should determine who will be responsible for holding credit 
cards (take wording from policy).   
Sue- the Board should also define the limit on a credit card.  Many 
places no longer take PO’s they will only take cards.   
 
Rocco would like Forrest to weigh in on this. 
 
Rocco made a motion to accept DGD as a first read, Darlene 
seconded, all approved. 

 
 
3. DJ – 1st read 
 
 
 
 
 
4. DJB – 1st read 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5. DAF 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
6. Tuition 
Policy/Letter 
 
 
Sue and Forrest need to agree on how purchases will be made since 
the BA won’t be very involved. 
 
Rocco made a motion to accept policy DJ as a first read, Atonya 
seconded and all approved. 
 
This policy was not included in the School Board packets. Rocco 
suggests again that the Superintendent and Sue get together to 
decide how they want to handle purchases. 
 
Rocco made a motion to accept policy DJB as a first read, Atonya 
seconded, all approved 
 
Rocco made a motion to accept policy DAF as a first read, Darlene 
seconded and all approved. 
 
Sue suggests that we look through all the D policies as UES does not 
have many. 
 
Rocco suggests that Sue and the new Superintendent meet to discuss 
all of these.   
 
Rocco: How do we word our tuition policy that holds the situation like 
Fall Mountains (out of whack tuition) in check without hurting parents?  
 
We need to renegotiate with Claremont as the 2-yr contract is up 
SY27. 
 
Atonya suggests having a meeting with parents to lay out the issue 
with Fall Mountain.  The Fall Mountain price is in the budget for SY27 
so the decision is more for SY28. 
 
Sue suggests asking other districts what they do.  
 
Fall Mountain will give a break in tuition price if Unity guarantees more 
than 20 students but Unity does not want to have to guarantee 
numbers. 
 
Rocco will reach out to the Fall Mountain Board again to see if he can 
continue discussions with them.   
 
Our tuition policy needs to be dynamic since prices increase/change 
between the regional schools every year. 
 
Rocco will talk with Fall Mountain and the Board will discuss the path 
forward more at the next meeting, particularly with regards meeting 
with parents. 
 
Rocco would like feedback or suggestions from the Board regarding 
his matrix.  

 
 
 
F. New SAU 109 
(Discussion/action) 
1.MOU – end of 
year closeout 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. Auditor 
 
 
3. Attorney 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4. Tyler/Visions 
 
 
Sue started building a spreadsheet of tasks and costs that she sent to 
the Board.  
Task Status: 
• We have a domain name www.sau109.org 
• We are going to remain with Parent Square  
• Sue did ERate and got bids for internet access and accepted 
Fidium’s proposed rate (our current provider).  
• Our firewall is with WALLY  
• Started training with ALMA 
• Discussed hiring process, Sullivan CTY Sheriff will do background 
checks (for $50 for fingerprints) 
• Sue wants to stay with TYLER/Visions for accounting for now. 
$18,699/yr) 
• Forrest had some ideas for other companies other than ADP for HR 
that were lower price. 
 
An MOU describing specifics (who does what) for how Unity will 
separate from SAU 6 will be discussed at the SAU 6 meeting 
Thursday April 9.  Sue plans to attend. 
 
Sue doesn’t think Jason can switch us over to a new system before 
June 30th (no time or sufficient personnel) so Sue recommends staying 
with SAU 6 tech center for a bit longer – this should go into the MOU. 
 
Also – Sue believes that Matt needs to close out our books and audits 
and this should go into an MOU. 
 
We need a detailed MOU particularly including what the BA office will 
do to close us out this year. 
 
SAU 109 needs to identify their own auditor.  Sue got the name of 
Newport’s Auditor. 
 
Rocco did call attorneys to gain information regarding services 
provided, & costs.  If we want a relationship with a firm before we need 
legal support most have an agreement that you would sign that you 
agree to work together.  No retainers so only billed when services are 
provided.  Hopefully most law firms would be similar.  Jim 
O’Shaunessy (SAU 6 lawyer) told Rocco that an MOU is very simple.  
Kerry (interim SAU 6 Superintendent), Matt, Claremont Board and 
Unity Board would sit down to figure out what is needed in the MOU 
and then Jim would put it into appropriate terms.  Jim can facilitate an 
MOU. 
 
Rocco believes that the Superintendent needs to lead the charge in 
obtaining a lawyer and writing an MOU with Claremont. 
 
Discussed above 
 

 
 
5. Other 
 
 
G. NEASC update 
Not at this time 
 
H. CSI update 
 
Not at this time 
 
J. General 
Assurances 
Rocco made a motion to accept the General Assurance, Atonya 
seconded and all approved. 
VI. 
Superintendent 
Report 
 
See attached 
SAU 6 Board meeting tomorrow night on separation of Unity from SAU 
6. 
VII. 
Principal Report 
 
No written report 
Water always seems to bring a problem with the septic in the spring.  
Yesterday the smell was very strong.  Paul Moeller came to inspect 
(he is the town building/health inspector).  He asked that the pressure 
for septic be tested.  All seems intact but two gaskets were found to 
need replacement that were allowing septic odors to escape.  They 
were replaced and now the smell is gone.  All caps will be inspected 
this summer and replaced as needed. 
 
Sue reported that the students are doing well.  We lost a few, gained a 
few and total is currently 103.   
 
NHSAS testing cannot be done until April 20th so now all testing needs 
to be crammed into that week and into May due to vacation the week 
of April 27th.. 
 
As part of the evacuation (for the septic smell), the 6th, 7th and 8th 
graders got a tour of the historical society displays in the basement of 
the town hall.  Gary and Linda Ross gave the tours.  Sue asked if the 
Unity Historical Society would be interested in having some of the 
information that SAU 109 receives from SAU 6 – (archived documents 
and information).  There is interest.  Yearbooks, photos, Sue wants to 
get the middle school students into going through and cataloguing the 
information. 
 
Kerry – transfer of archival documents should also be part of the MOU. 
VIII. Future Agenda 
Items 
 
• May Agenda: 8th grade presentation for class trip 
• School Board Retreat – the Board desires retreat meetings.  
Shannon will have Sue send an email to the Board to try to identify 
dates.  Week of April 20th or May 4th.  April 22nd was proposed at 5:00 
PM at Common Man. 
• Teacher presentations on data – Sue hopes to have the information 
for June. 
• Tuition policy 
• 5-year rolling test plan – The data is available that needs to be 
exported to a readable format.  Rocco wants to look, for example, at 
the current 8th graders and their scores over the previous 5 years (as 
a class not individuals).  Move this into Action for next month. 
• Parental Bill of Rights  
VII 
Future Meetings 
 
● School Board Sessions April & May? 
● School Board Meeting – May 13, 2026  

 
 
● SAU 6 School Board Meeting – 4.9.26 @ 6 PM 
● SAU 6 School Board Meeting – 5.14.26 
VIII 
Dates to 
Remember 
● April 6-24 NHSAS Testing for Grades 3-8 
● April 10 – Spring Picture Day 
● April 10 – Middles School Dance – 6:30-8:30 PM 
● April 22 – Images Field Trip -Grade 5 
● April 27 – May 1, 2026 – Spring Break 
● May 1 – Lunch Hero Day (We will celebrate on May 4th) 
● May 4-8 – Staff Appreciation Week 
● May 11 – Field Trip to SCNH – Grade 4 
● May 13 – Science Fair – 4 PM to 6 PM (more info to follow) 
● May 13 – 8th Grade Mandatory Meeting with Parents & Students 
● May 22 – Memorial Day Remembrance @ 11:00 AM 
● May 25 – No School – Memorial Day 
● May 27 – 30 – 8th Grade Class Trip 
● TBD – Summer Beach Day 
● June 9 @ 6 PM – 8th Grade Capstone 
● June 10th @ 7 PM – Graduation w/Reception 
● June 11th – Last Day of School (Half Day) 
 
● KKids: Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:00 PM 
● BUILDERS CLUB: Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:00 PM 
● Science Club: Wednesdays – grades 5-8 3:00 – 4:00PM 
● Unity School Board Meeting: 2nd Wed of every month, 5:30 PM 
● Unity PTA meeting: 3rd Wednesday of every month, 6:30 PM 
IX 
Non-Public 
Meeting RSA 91 
A:3(c) 
 
 
 
 
 
Motion to come out 
of Non-Public 
Meeting 
 
 
 
Rocco made a motion to move into non-public according to RSA 91 
A:3(c), Atonya seconded 
Shannon - yes 
Rocco - yes 
Atonya - yes 
Darlene – yes 
 
 
Rocco made a motion to come out of the non-public meeting at 9:15 
PM.  Roll call vote: 
Shannon - yes 
Rocco - yes 
Atonya - yes 
Darlene - yes 
X 
Motion for 
Adjournment 
Rocco made a motion to adjourn, Atonya seconded. 
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM 
 
 
Respectfully Submitted 
Marjorie Erickson