PWP supports school board on Champ’s new contract, calls opponents’ behavior ‘undemocratic and offensive to the entire community’
Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Progressive Women of Pelham. The Pelham Examiner publishes press releases in the form received as a service to the community.
June 16, 2022, Pelham, NY: Progressive Women of Pelham, representing over 250 members, supports the work the Pelham Union Free School District’s Board of Education has done toward ensuring the renewal of an employment contract for our Superintendent. Their work was timely, in the ordinary course of business for Superintendent employment, and preserved uninterrupted leadership and stability for our District’s teachers, staff, and students – at a time of ongoing recovery from the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.
PWP opposes attempts by a subset of our community to subvert this work. The Board of Education is an elected public body; the democratic process requires that its members be allowed to fulfill the roles for which they were duly elected.
We grow concerned when a minority of the electorate presumes it has the authority to obstruct a publicly-elected body’s mandated work in order to achieve political aims. It harms the democratic process and public education more broadly. When tactics such as these escalate, which they did at last night’s meeting, resulting in the police being dispatched, it degrades a process that is meant to be inclusive of everyone. Even more detrimental was the participation of a jeering crowd, who egged on the outbursts of one community member, further disrupting the official business the Board was attempting to carry out.
As a non-party affiliated organization, we stand for protecting democratic norms and support this Board in discharging its duty to ensure that our District has a contract in place for a Superintendent. The Board was obligated to undertake this process, which was carried out transparently. It had every authority to conclude that process with last night’s vote on the renewal of Superintendent Dr. Champ’s contract. Despite the accusation that its vote was not cognizant of the will of voters, it was in fact cognizant of the will of the voters who elected them and whom they continue to serve without interruption until their terms have come to an end.
Attempts to obstruct the work of Pelham’s Board of Education by delaying it until new members are installed is reminiscent of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) efforts to undermine the work of Congress in the year before an election so that no Supreme Court justices, or even judges, could be approved at the time the seats were vacant. This behavior is undemocratic and offensive to the entire community, which the Board is duty-bound to serve.
As a community we are bound to have diverse views. Advocacy, civil discourse, and even civil disobedience are all legitimate avenues for change. We embrace free expression, so long as that expression does not erode democratic values or harm others’ rights to express their views in turn.
Linda Purvis • Jun 20, 2022 at 10:52 am
This letter makes a very important points.
As a former senior school administrator who participated in literally hundreds of school board meetings, I can attest to the fact that a superintendent’s performance is routinely evaluated by an outgoing Board of Education as one of its final actions of the year. Why would you want an incoming board—with new members who know little about the superintendent’s performance in challenging situations— to do that work? The superintendent’s job is complex, and involves so much more than what is visible at board meetings.
Additionally, the question of whether newly elected board members should participate in executive session is not open and shut. Some districts do it, and some don’t. Those that do generally have a strict rule: incoming members do not comment during the executive session of the current board. They are there to observe, not to participate. Until they are sworn in as board members at the reorganization meeting, they are not entitled to participate in deliberations.
And lastly, folks need to understand that replacing a superintendent is a costly and arduous task. If a superintendent requests a contract extension before his/her contract expires (and nearly all do), the board must carefully consider that request. Otherwise the superintendent will walk. That may be the desired outcome; it is pretty much the inevitable one. And there are serious ramifications to that, not the least of which is that prospective candidates who learn that a board was not supportive of its superintendent (absent a serious rationale) is not a board you want to work for.
I have been part of situations where the removal of the superintendent was justified. Unless I am very mistaken, this is not one of them. The Pelham Board of Education did the right thing.
Carrie Liaskos • Jun 19, 2022 at 10:00 pm
Why did the Examiner just reprint their Press Release? That’s basically a free advertisement. Huh?
Emily Pauley • Jun 20, 2022 at 5:47 am
This is a common occurrence. I’d say many “articles” are actually press releases. Please don’t forget this is a student run site and they have regents and other year end commitments.
Rich Zahradnik • Jun 20, 2022 at 11:34 am
All press releases that might be of interest to the Pelham community run in the “Announcing…” section and are labeled as press releases at the top of the release so readers know they are releases and not news articles.
Tom Kleinberger • Jun 20, 2022 at 7:36 am
Maybe because it accurately reflected what occurred that night.