Reader says Sheila Brogan has been doing Valley’s bidding since 2002.

Reader says Sheila Brogan has been doing Valley’s bidding since 2002.

Ridgewood BOE and Valley Hospital, hand in hand, a long tainted history together.
(Some of this is a bit hazy so if anyone remembers the details fill in the blanks)

Over the years I have attended many planning board hearings for the Valley Hospital H-Zone. The many memorable meetings at BF and the infamous 2010 meeting at GWMS. I sat through and listened to Village council meetings at the RHS Campus Center. And here we are again at BF listening to more about this ridiculous expansion proposal. Hearing Sheila Brogan’s statement and reading this blog reminded me of the disgraceful and tainted BOE/Valley relationship. Of course, people need to be reminded Sheila Brogan has been a board member for far too long. For newer residents, or those who weren’t in the news loop so many years ago, this is a history lesson.

Many, many years ago, maybe around 2002, Sheila Brogan sat on the BOE along with Mark Bombace, Linda Gilman, Bob Hutton and Charles Reilly. At the time John Porter was superintendent. Valley Hospital had a proposal and was pushing hard to buy part of BF property using the field area for an underground parking lot and subsequently expanding the hospital buildings. If memory serves, the BOE would no longer own the property but the ground level open space could be used as a sports fields. The big offer was Valley would do much for the BF community and offer a state of the art facility IF they were able to purchase the BF property. The Board of Ed, along with John Porter, were positioned to complete the transaction when, unfortunately for them, the residents began to show up at BOE meetings. Over a few short weeks the standing room only crowd mobilized and stopped the infamous Valley/BF land grab.

Because the BOE was anxious to consummate the deal, and Valley was relying on the property for its expansion, it appears a new plan evolved. Within months of the Valley/BF land grab derailment the RHAP program was in the works. Ultimately rolled out in 2004, the program was put together as an effort to buy the BOE and Ridgewood Community. Other less prominent programs were funded by Valley as well. Those too are within our Village schools, internships, summer programs, follow a professional, scoreboard advertising, etc. Some of these programs may have ended or been replaced, however, coupled with the $500,000 the BOE accepted from Valley, it is clear the BOE and Valley are in bed together.

In 2011 Bob Hutton spoke, as a BOE member, in support of the Valley H-zone expansion. His comments were made at Village Council H-Zone hearings at RHS Campus Center. Soon thereafter Hutton was voted off the BOE. Good riddance to him.

Of the original BOE, that was ready to sell BF property to Valley, only Sheila Brogan remains. Don’t ever let Brogan try to convince you she stands for our students or that she opposes this expansion. Brogan fully supports Valley, their massive expansion, and was willing to sell out our kids years ago! As for Valley Hospital, the current H-Zone efforts are the same “idea” without the BF property. Valley’s animus towards Ridgewood and the BF community is palpable.