Procedures With Gravity: Michels’s Iron Law Meets Claremont
How agendas, expertise, and crisis routines concentrate power in SAU 6; and practical guardrails to pull it back.
Robert Michels’s “iron law of oligarchy” says that organizations founded on democratic participation tend to concentrate power in the hands of a few. The cause isn’t malice; it’s machinery, specialization, agenda control, and information bottlenecks that favor insiders. As routines harden, leaders entrench, and everyone else nods along. Claremont’s school-board crisis, deficit, resignations, and emergency borrowing offer a local, timestamped tour of that drift.
What Michels Meant
Michels argued that large, complex groups need experts and predictable procedures; those who control the expertise and procedures quietly control the group. The drift is structural, not accusatory.
Agenda control: Whoever decides what gets decided (and when) shapes the real menu of choices.
Staff expertise: Technical knowledge (budgeting, policy drafting) outruns generalist oversight.
Information monopoly: If data must pass through one gatekeeper, that gatekeeper curates the narrative.
Procedural inertia: Once created, processes (subcommittees, first/second readings) privilege those fluent in them.
Crisis centralization: Emergencies compress deliberation and concentrate discretion.
Claremont Case Files
Fixing “the number” (agenda control). On Sept. 25, 2025, district leaders announced that, after internal review, the operating deficit was $5.01 million, a figure that anchored subsequent plans and public discussion. Working inference: fixing a single “official” number frames the option set that follows (cuts, loans, closures), a classic exercise of agenda control. (NH Journal)
Emergency borrowing resolution and cash-flow peril (crisis centralization). At its Oct. 1, 2025, meeting, the School Board voted 6–0 for a resolution titled “Claremont School District Adequacy Revolving Loan Fund,” while the interim business administrator and counsel pressed for enabling state legislation to borrow against future adequacy aid due to dangerously low cash (reported under $200,000 for a ~$39 million budget). Working inference: crisis compresses deliberation, elevating a small circle (board officers, interim finance lead, legal counsel) who can move paper fast. (Valley News)
Layoffs and administrative leaves (leadership entrenchment via bottlenecks). As the deficit emerged, the board terminated 19 teacher contracts on Aug. 24, 2025, placed Superintendent Chris Pratt on paid administrative leave on Aug. 28, and later accepted his resignation on Sept. 12. These moves recentralized operational decision-rights in an interim finance structure and the board chair during triage weeks. Working inference: personnel shocks narrow the locus of authority to the actors still empowered to sign and certify. (NH Journal)
Policy funnels (procedural inertia + staff expertise). SAU 6 documents show policy changes move through first and second readings before adoption, routinized checkpoints that channel what reaches the floor and when. The district also maintains a standing Policy Subcommittee, a formal gate for screening and staging drafts. Working inference: structured funnels reward those fluent in timing, redlines, and statutory hooks. (Core Docs)
Timing power: meeting postponement to reset the docket (agenda control). On Sept. 24, 2025, SAU 6 postponed a meeting to align with “accurate financial numbers” and broader participation at the next regular session. Working inference: when leadership controls the calendar, it controls the frame for public deliberation. (sau6.org)
Single-channel communications norm (information monopoly). NHSBA governance guidance, standard in New Hampshire, states that the board’s only employee is the superintendent and that requests of staff flow through that office. In practice, this makes the superintendent the primary conduit during normal times and a conspicuous chokepoint during crises or vacancies. Working inference: when one role is the official lane for information, whoever fills (or vacates) it exerts outsized narrative control. (nhsba.org)
External templates and expert dependence (staff expertise). New Hampshire boards widely rely on the NHSBA Policy Service for sample policies and legal updates; SAU 6 publicly links to its policy pages while running an active Policy Subcommittee schedule. Working inference: template and expertise dependence can professionalize policy, but also shift authorship away from lay oversight into expert channels. (nhsba.org)
Why It’s ‘Iron’, and How to Bend It
Timestamped transparency. Require that all finance memos, draft resolutions, and backup spreadsheets be posted 48 hours before any vote, with a one-page “what changed since last draft” note from the preparer. This keeps speed but dilutes insiders’ advantage in agenda-setting. (Local vehicle: SAU 6’s board document portal and “Meeting Documents” feeds already exist; tighten timelines and add the change note.) (sau6.org)
Agenda “pull” rule. Allow any two board members (or a fixed citizen threshold) to “pull” a non-routine item from a consent or same-night vote to a timed debate at the next meeting, unless a supermajority declares a bona fide emergency. The aim is friction, of the healthy, deliberative sort.
Policy authorship disclosure. For every policy action, publish a provenance sheet: drafter (subcommittee/staff/NHSBA sample), exact redlines, and statutory citations. This makes the funnel legible to the public and reduces quiet gatekeeping. (NHSBA already tracks statutory hooks; surface them locally on adoption.) (nhsba.org)
Crisis dashboards. During fiscal emergencies, publish a weekly dashboard: cash on hand, payables aging, loan drawdowns, variance to plan, and upcoming statutory deadlines. This preserves necessary centralization while preventing informational blackout. (Valley News’s report on cash under $200,000 shows the kind of metric that belongs on the dashboard.) (Valley News)
Conclusion
Michels’s warning is not that democracy fails because people are venal, but because procedures, left to their own gravity, tilt toward the few. Claremont’s crisis shows how numbers, calendars, and chokepoints can quietly outrun public control. The remedy is not outrage but design: guardrails that preserve expertise, limit agenda monopolies, and keep the many in the loop even when the roof is leaking.
Inline Sources (selected key facts within sections):
Deficit set at $5.01M (Sept. 25, 2025) (NHJournal). (NH Journal)
Loan-fund resolution 6–0 and cash under $200k (Oct. 1–2, 2025) (Valley News). (Valley News)
Layoffs (19 teachers, Aug. 24, 2025) and superintendent paid leave (Aug. 28, 2025) (NHJournal); resignation (Sept. 12, 2025) (WMUR). (NH Journal)
Policy readings documented in SAU 6 handbooks; active Policy Subcommittee on SAU 6 calendar. (Core Docs)
Meeting postponement rationale (Sept. 24, 2025) (SAU 6 news post). (sau6.org)
NHSBA guidance states that the superintendent is the board’s only employee; requests flow through that office. (nhsba.org)
NHSBA Policy Service and sample-policy dependence (statewide resource). (nhsba.org)