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Superintendent rebuts censorship claims, details corrections on student newspaper opinion about safety monitors
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Champ told the board April 2 that a Pell Mill opinion piece republished on social media was an opinion column that quoted anonymous safety monitors and that the district provided factual corrections. She denied any district censorship of the student newspaper and clarified pay and vendor arrangements for safety monitors.
Superintendent Dr. Champ told the Pelham Union Free School District Board of Education on April 2 that an opinion piece originally published in the high school student newspaper, the Pell Mill, had been reposted on local Facebook pages and prompted public questions about district oversight of student journalism and the pay and contracting of safety monitors.
Dr. Champ said the piece was an opinion column that quoted anonymous safety monitors and that the district had provided factual clarifications to the student reporter before and after publication. "Decisions about approving or disapproving articles from the Pell Mill are not made at the district level. Any statement to the contrary is false," she said at the meeting.
The superintendent noted several corrections that she provided to the reporter and that were later added to the online piece. She said she did not receive a $30,000 raise last year; rather, her pay increased by the approximately 2% reflected in the budget documents (about $5,600 as cited in the meeting). On safety monitors’ compensation, Dr. Champ said most monitors had received raises of 2.1%, 3.6% and 3% over the past three years.
Addressing the district’s use of a third‑party vendor for some security coverage, the superintendent said the contracted vendor (referred to in the meeting as Bridal) is paid a published hourly rate that includes overhead for training and insurance, and that the vendor arrangement was implemented to provide reliable coverage during staffing shortages. She listed other nearby districts that use third‑party security vendors.
Dr. Champ framed the district’s review of student publications as part of ordinary oversight by faculty advisors and administrators for accuracy and appropriateness when the audience is students. “While people are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts,” she said.
The board received Dr. Champ’s remarks as part of the superintendent’s regular report; the meeting record shows no formal action on the student newspaper item.
