Superintendent responds to social-media posts about student newspaper and clarifies monitor pay and contracts

Superintendent Dr. Champ addressed social-media reposting of a February opinion piece from the high school student newspaper and supplied clarifications about safety monitors, pay increases and the district's use of a contracted security firm during the April 2 Board of Education meeting.

Dr. Champ said the article was an opinion piece that quoted anonymous safety monitors and that district officials had provided factual clarifications both before and after publication: “The article is an opinion piece and it quotes anonymous safety monitors as sources. Prior to the piece's publication, I was asked a series of questions via email and provided those responses to the student reporter.”

Nut graf: the superintendent emphasized the district's role in advising student publications on accuracy and appropriateness while distinguishing fact-checking from censorship.

Dr. Champ said the district has a routine review process for student publications when they are funded by the board and overseen by faculty advisors and administrators, and noted that oversight in the form of fact checks is legally established practice: “There is a routine review of articles, opinions and other content for accuracy, appropriateness of content, given that our audience is our students…That review is expected of our advisors and our administrators.”

On pay and raises, Dr. Champ disputed a social-media post implying she had received a $30,000 raise. She said her increase was “approximately 2%,” which she described as “just over $5,000,” and that safety monitors had, in fact, received raises over the past three years of roughly 2.1%, 3.6% and 3% in various years. She also said the district contracts with a third-party vendor (named in the transcript as "Bridal") to provide supplemental security monitors when needed to cover absences and after-school activities and that the published hourly contract rate is $32.95; she clarified that this contract rate includes company overhead and is not the net hourly pay received by monitors.

Dr. Champ said the district prefers to hire internal staff for monitor positions but had used the contracted firm to assure coverage during staffing shortages, including for after-school and extracurricular activities. “Our preference is always to have internal staff as those positions,” she said, adding the district values monitors and recognizes many have law enforcement backgrounds that contribute to school safety.

The superintendent said she has provided corrections appended to the online article where appropriate and reiterated that administrators and advisors should teach and model journalistic integrity for student journalists.

Ending: Board members heard the clarifications at length and moved on to budget line-item review. The district did not take formal action on the matter at the meeting; the superintendent said the district would continue to provide information and answer questions as needed.