Pelham School District Must Inform the Public!

Dear Pelham, NH community,

The Pelham School District, led by Superintendent Chip McGee, recently hired former Newmarket Jr./Sr. High School principal Chris Mazzone to be the interim principal at Pelham Memorial Middle School.

Mr. Mazzone was removed from his principalship in Newmarket by Superintendent Susan Given’s on or about November 1, 2019, and was never returned to that position.

On November 23rd, 2019, The Manchester Union Leader wrote an editorial concerning Newmarket School District’s silence on why Mr. Mazzone was removed, stating the following:

“This is not, as Superintendent Givens put it, people merely being “curious.” Openness in our government is absolutely vital to the public keeping its government in check and keeping itself informed.”

Like many in Newmarket, I completely agree with the Union Leader editorial. The public has the right to know what it’s the government is doing and why.

According to NH RSA 189:31, a school superintendent may only remove an educator, to include a principal, for cause. Why was Mr. Mazzone so removed?

We can all assume that Mr. McGee knows why Mr. Mazzone was removed from his position in Newmarket. For if McGee did not make inquires inro this matter before hiring Mazzone, this would be grossly incompetent on his part. Yet, when asked why Mazzone was removed in Newmarket, McGee refused my inquiry. Citing “personnel matter.”

My message to every Pelham parent and community member is this: before entrusting your students to the care and supervision of Chris Mazzone, you must have a clear and truthful explanation from the school district, or Mazzone himself, as to exactly why he was removed in Newmarket.

Jeffrey Thomas Clay, M.Ed.