CLAREMONT — The School Board is changing the qualifications it requires for the district’s next top administrator after the last three superintendents, going back to 2011, have either been fired or asked to resign.
The School Board committee is advertising for a “superintendent/executive director” to run SAU 6, which as of July 1 will only serve Claremont as Unity becomes its own SAU.
The board hopes to attract a wider pool of candidates by adding the executive director to the job qualifications, School Board member William Madden said.
“It frees us from the requirement of having a licensed superintendent,” said Madden, the chairman of the committee conducting the search. “We hope that will open up the pool (of candidates) a bit.”
The posting for the position includes New Hampshire Department of Education Superintendent certification as a qualification but not a requirement.
The board also has the flexibility to consider “advance degree in administration or equivalent study” or alternatives the board “may find appropriate and acceptable,” the posting states.
“We are getting the word out that if you are an executive at a nonprofit or if you were a municipal manager and have had budgets, employees and schedules, that kind of experience is important and would be considered for the position of executive director,” Madden said, adding that the job posting will remain up until someone is hired.
Madden also said when it comes time to sign a contract he is pushing for a no-buyout clause if the person is forced out.
“It is another thing we are looking at, but it hasn’t been decided,” Madden said. “If the waters get poisoned and we have a vote of no confidence, it is just goodbye and good luck.”
SAU 6 hired former Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin in 2011, before firing him in 2018, and paying him $65,000 in severance along with one year of health insurance.
The SAU next hired Michael Tempesta in 2019. When the SAU fired Tempesta in early 2024, the SAU paid him about $70,000 in severance and gave him health insurance for six months.
Not long after the district announced last August that it had a budget deficit of $5 million, the district placed Superintendent Chris Pratt, appointed superintendent in May 2024, on leave. He subsequently agreed to resign under a separation agreement with the School Board. The SAU paid him almost $40,000 with three months of health insurance.
Moving forward, the board also will be responsible for hiring a business administrator, which had been the superintendent’s responsibility, Madden said.
The district’s finances have been in disarray for several years. Annual audits were not done on a timely basis for 2016, 2017 and 2018 and when they were completed for 2020 and 2021, the combined deficit was about $2 million. Audits for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2023, 2024 and 2025 have not been completed.
Just before the start of the school year, the administration said there was a $5 million budget deficit. That resulted in an immediate cut of $3 million, including funding for all sports and extracurricular activities as well as additional reductions during the year and obtaining a $4 million loan from the Claremont Savings Bank to help with cash flow. Interim Business Administrator Matt Angell has told the board he anticipates eliminating the deficit by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
At the last School Board meeting, Angell said school officials are negotiating a contract with a forensic auditor to review the district’s past finances and determine what happened that led to the deficit.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.