Paige: Still getting paid

MANCHESTER, NH  October 6, 2025–Despite the actions of the Timberlane Regional School District and a recent ruling from the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Manchester School District Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel still refuses to answer questions regarding the investigation into Memorial High School history teacher Jason Paige.  Paige condemned Kirk and celebrated his murder in several of his history classes.

Since bringing this to the district’s attention on September 11, Girard at Large has repeatedly requested information about the investigation, including the following:

  1. Who is conducting the investigation?
  2. Who is being interviewed as part of the investigation?
  3. What questions are being asked?
  4. When do you expect it to be completed?
  5. What will you release to the public?

Claiming it’s a personnel matter, the district has refused to answer these or any other questions.

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Late last week, Girard at Large obtained a social media post from the Timberlane Regional School District.  In the post, Timberlane announced that, after an investigation into teacher Ed Tinney, who posted “I”m glad [Kirk’s] dead” on sicial media, it had met with Tinney and that he had resigned, effective September 25, 2025.  The notice to the public was dated and posted on September 26.  Timberlane’s investigation was concluded, with personnel desicions made, within two weeks of his post.

In addition, Girard at Large was sent a recent decision from the NH Supreme Court regarding the state’s Right to Know law.   In the lawsuit, the Keene Sentinel sued the Fall Mountain Regional School District to obtain the results of an investigation into a teacher accused of sexual harrassment.  In its ruling, the court said, among other relevant things:

…given that these documents would provide substantial information about what the government is “up to” — the governmental interest in nondisclosure no longer tips the balance in favor of nondisclosure. Instead, the balance weighs in favor of disclosure. Therefore, the records that the trial court deemed exempt pursuant to RSA 91- A:5, IV — including the Settlement Agreement — are subject to disclosure with appropriate redactions.

Here, the court specified redactions to protect the witnesses who gave testimony against the teacher, not the teacher.  So egregious was the school district’s refusal to provide the information that the Supreme Court ordered the case back to the trial court to assess how much of the legal fees it would have to pay to the Keene Sentinel.

Chmiel: Still won’t answer questions

In response to this information, Chmiel sent the following in an email to Girard at Large at 4:05 on Friday afternoon:

Good afternoon Rich-

I have reviewed your request and materials and received a legal opinion.
At this time this is an ongoing personnel matter and as such we are not able to provide a response to your five questions.
We do anticipate our process will be completed by the end of October and at that time we will evaluate your request.
Sincerely,
Jenn
If the district concludes the investigation by Octber 31, it will have taken eight weeks.  Meanwhile, Paige, according to other news reports, remains on paid administrative leave, collecting his pay and benefits while the district pays for a substitute teacher in his classroom.