The Public’s Equity and Diversity Blueprint for Ridgewood Schools

The most important partisan partnership in the state is currently the agreement between Ridgewood Public Schools and the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs Law Firm.

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the partisan partnership between members of Ridgewood’s Board of Education, District administrators, and Bergen County and State Democratic Party leaders is beginning to emerge from the shadows. Community coalitions are questioning if Cottage Place is advocating for Ridgewood taxpayer interests or if local officials are prioritizing the policies of state and county Democratic Party and special interest groups.

An investigation into the connections between the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs LLC Law Firm, state politicians, national consulting firms, and Ridgewood front office leaders has led to questions of how law firm and political interference is influencing local decisions. Questions have been percolating among stakeholders after the District celebrated its Vision 2030 plan. Residents have reviewed the plans which appear more aligned with Democratic policymakers’ preferences than with community expectations.

Ridgewood School District has approved the services of the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, LLC law firm at a rate not to exceed $340,000 for the school year. They have received no bid contracts for several years. Matthew Giacobbe, managing partner at the firm, established the practice after separating from his previous partner, Joseph Ferraro, who was sentenced in 2015 for operating a racketeering scheme as the Bergen County Democratic County Chairman.

The Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, LLC Law Firm has recently hired Ms. Esther Suarez, who resigned from her Hudson County Prosecutor role. She joined the firm after having been passed over by President Biden for New Jersey’s representative as U.S. Attorney in 2020. Ms. Esther Suarez served as Bergen County Counsel when Joseph Ferraro presided over Bergen County’s Democratic Party.

Mr. Giacobbe has built his firm on the back of Mr. Joseph Lagana who was hired in September 2019, shortly after securing the Senate seat of the 38th Legislative District, covering Bergen County municipalities, in 2018. Prior to moving over to the Senate, Mr. Lagana served as Assemblyman from 2014 through 2018. According to reports, Senator Lagana’s campaign is largely funded by the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), among other special interest groups outside of his jurisdiction.

Senator Lagana served in the Assembly alongside Mr. Benjie Wimberly and now the two collaborate as state Senators with Senator Wimberly serving the 35th Legislative District covering Bergen County towns and Paterson. Senator Wimberly has been employed within the Paterson Schools District and has served the community over two decades as the City’s recreation director. Their close connections neutralize Senator Kristin Corrado’s ability to effectively challenge progressive Democratic ideology that is manufactured within the Senate Education Committee.

Senator Lagana sits in the catbird seat on the Senate floor, flanked by all Democratic senators that participate in the Senate Education Committee. Senator Vin Gopal, Education Committee Chair, sits to the direct left. Senator M. Teresa Ruiz, former Education Committee Chair, is seated two seats to the front left. Senator Shirley Turner, Education Committee Vice-Chair, sits in front of and two seats to the right. Seated directly behind Mr. Lagana is Senator Angela McKnight who participates in both the Joint Committee on Public Schools and within the Senate Education Committee. Sitting on the Assembly education committee is District 38 representative Lisa Swain.

Senator Lagana’s partnership with Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, LLC is paramount to the firm’s contracts with Boards of Education across the state, especially in Democrat leaning towns such as Montclair, Berkeley Heights, and Ridgewood. The firm also represents the Madison Schools Board of Education, the district where Dr. Mark Schwarz was employed as Superintendent prior to joining Ridgewood in March 2023.

Shortly after hiring Dr. Mark Schwarz, Ridgewood hired Mr. Richard Matthews in July 2024 to serve as the District’s Business Administrator. Mr. Richard Matthews, a colleague of Dr. Mark Schwarz in Morris County’s Rockaway Boro, was brought in to facilitate Ridgewood’s systems change after having worked in Paterson where he collaborated with Assemblyman Benji Wimberly.

During his seven year tenure in Paterson, Mr. Matthews was instrumental in negotiating the return of control to Paterson schools from the State Department of Education. In exchange for releasing state oversight, Paterson Schools agreed to implement the Democratic Party’s preferred model of public school education: the Full Scale Community School. Ridgewood Blog reported on this immediately. 

The Full Scale Community School model of public schools is the primary educational objective for New Jersey Democrats. It is Governor Murphy who has shared his desire for making New Jersey the east coast California, where lawmakers invested $4.1 Billion dollars to create the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) in 2021. This model of education was an initiative former President Biden wanted; however, website links are no longer operational on the federal Department of Education website.

Williamson M. Evers highlights the reality that community schools are “a clever new effort to use the public’s long-time attachment to public education to expand welfare-state services, promote critical race theory, and change school governance from oversight by elected school boards to rule by teachers’ unions and select community members.” Ridgewood, it appears, is exploiting public apathy to pursue school reform via politically partisan methods and is doing so with the law firms, politicians, and national educational consulting firms that stand to profit from an educational structure that has its origins in panopticon theory. The very structure that Ridgewood Schools is pursuing under its Vision 2030 plans.

During the midst of Paterson’s transformation into a Community School, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates was hired to lead the search for the City’s next Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Richard Matthews, having approved the consulting firm in Paterson, again approved HYA’s Vice President Dr. William Adams-a former New Jersey Superintendent, to create the blueprints for Ridgewood Public Schools that follow Paterson’s “promising tomorrow” five year strategic plan.

Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates is a search firm connected with the Education Research and Development Institute (ERDI). Dr. Mark Schwarz accepted ERDI’s invitation to attend a four day Winter 2025 Research and Development summit. The district expensed $280 for his field trip and ERDI routinely provides participation incentives by covering the costs for travel and transportation, lodging, and meals.

The Education Research and Development Institute and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates are subsidiary companies of the ECRA Group. While Mr. Matthews reviews the terms of agreement with all existing vendors, residents are waiting on the Director of Curriculum to make a decision regarding purchases impacting student learning. Vendors are scheduled to meet with the Curriculum team soon. ECRA Group conveniently has companies that sell educational products to “visionary educational eaders” and “innovation solution providers,” the same people that attend their multi-day summits.

Discerning residents are now questioning the Board’s decisions of hiring Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to help with the District’s rebran at a rate of $40,000 when administrator salaries exceed over one million. Paterson’s Community School template is available online for free. Similarly, Community School playbooks are available online via the Partnership for the Future of Learning, the Institute for Educational Leadership, and the Collaborative Communications Group. The processes and pillars are available as free resources but are now proving costly to the district. Ridgewood also recently hired Ms. Alicia Pavone as the district’s new Director of Special Programs. Ms. Pavone was previously employed within the Paterson School District and has the knowledge and experience necessary for coordinating efforts between district programs, West Bergen Mental Health agendas, and the Special Education Parent Advisory Group’s (SEPAG) advocacy.

Julie Borst, the Executive Director of Save Our Schools New Jersey Community Organizing and the Board President for the New Jersey Community Schools Coalition, was invited to provide testimony in front of the state’s Joint Committee on the Public Schools. In the presence of Committee members, including Senator Wimberly, the organization advocates for a “systems change” to public education. In her testimony, Ms. Borst commented on the success the City of Orange has had with assistance from Montclair State University. Ridgewood Schools is also in a $25,000 partnership with Montclair State University. Montclair State University was selected after the Board of Education considered bids from two other New Jersey universities. Montclair State University did not produce the lowest bid.

The Ridgewood Schools District is moving forward with the Community School model of education despite its socioeconomic status, tradition of academic excellence, and strong home-school relationships within each unique school, not aligning with the intended purposes of such a program. Ms. Brogan, President of Ridgewood’s Board of Education, is allowing this pursuit as a result of the connections that Ridgewood has with the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, and Jacobs Law Firm and the relationships with Democratic leaders in Bergen County and throughout the state of New Jersey. The allure is that the district returns control over to its residents; however, the choices are limited by a design that preys on an unassuming populace.

State Senator Wimberly was present when Ms. Borst gave testimony, even commenting that legislatures need to consider a “holistic approach” for addressing systemic issues that have plagued the United States for “403 years” . Ms. Borst urges the committee to act with urgency by enthusiastically sharing that Community Schools can be implemented immediately without legislation or by Court order. Ridgewood’s Board of Education is willfully engaged in that pursuit by going so far as to rebrand the district’s “tradition of excellence.”

Ridgewood Blog has previously reported on State Senators Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex and Hudson) and Shirley Turner (D- Hunterdon and Mercer) introducing the partisan Bill 2243, which establishes a five year Community Schools Pilot Program. It is a primary goal of the Democratic Party to pass this legislation and Ridgewood leaders are allowing the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs law firm to influence the District’s decisions. To establish this Community School Pilot Program, one district per county, at minimum, partners with a state university. Ms. Brogan’s succession plan is transferring Ridgewood Schools directly into the hands of the Democratic Party, special interest groups, and municipal leaders. That transfer of power should be checked by residents who offer diverse and inclusive alternatives.

The Ridgewood Board of Education is allowing its political connections and partnerships with Montclair State University and the Hazard, Young, Attea Consulting firm to run its schools as a test case for refining the Democratic Party efforts of establishing a statewide system of school and selective community partnerships. This, according to Evers’ article, is a “direct transfer of power to teachers’ unions. They are using this power to hire ideologically aligned groups to offer school programs and to design classroom curriculum infused with divisive critical-race and liberation theory, and to avoid heated public board meetings and reluctant school boards and principals.” Ridgewood Schools, by allowing its political allies to dictate the direction of Ridgewood Schools, is turning its local control over to the state and merging its independent responsibilities into the hands of the Village Manager. In addition, Ridgewood has permitted select special interest groups to establish roots throughout Village schools before ordinary taxpayers realize that their elected leaders have manipulated their trust and involvement.

This is not an isolated incident for the progressive and politically connected law firm. Lodi, a Bergen County municipality within Senator Lagana’s District #38, raised conflict of interest concerns with the state ethics board years ago. It has been reported by local Lodi news sites that the Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs has been operating in the same questionable and politically connected manner which now plagues Ridgewood Schools. Berkeley Heights news organizations also maintain current news stories shining light on this law firm’s usurping of public schools.

Matthew Giacobbe, a modern day Cosimo De Medici for the critical legal theories movement, is running a firm that is no more sophisticated than “The Monkey and the Cat” fable. Dr. Mark Schwarz is Ms. Brogan’s cat’s paw, who is a cat’s paw for the clever non-player, Matthew Giacobbe, who is Senator Lagana’s cat’s paw for the Monkey Mikie Sherrill, who represents New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District that includes the municipalities of Parsippany-Troy Hills, Rockaway Boro, and Madison, towns in which Ridgewood leaders have been previously employed. Ms. Sherrill also keeps close association with the Village of Ridgewood’s Manager Keith Kazmark, who keeps open and direct lines of communication with Dr. Mark Schwarz.

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