the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, once again the Ridgewood School district is accused of playing favorites . Parents have long feared that any dissent with the great and powerful school board leads to their ostracisation and their children being bullied by teachers and administrators.
Long time residents have often accused the school system of playing favorites , promoting pet projects and sharing Ridgewood School public mailing lists ,with favored private interests.
So once again here we are , with what appears to be the Ridgewood Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein have been caught promoting the private group ‘Ridgewood Walks ” .
Ridgewood Walks is actively promoting election candidates and the owner of Ridgewood Walks is a registered campaign manager for a council candidate as per the forms filed with NJ ELEC. The BOE is once again affording free advertising to one their favorites and there by attempting once again to interfere with the Village Council election .
Clearly and legally taxpayer funded platforms and taxpayer funded employees should not be promoting private private organizations and should not be used to promote election candidates.
BOE candidate Saurabh Dani pointed out in an email to Dr. Fishbein, “Ridgewood walks is 100% owned by one person and I reported this to you last year too when you included their advertising in the RHS newsletter. This time around it’s more serious because they are actively promoting village council election candidates – and as I noted in my email below, the owner is registered with NJ ELEC as campaign manager of a council candidate. You have included links to Facebook groups, which are promoting council candidates and are run by this campaign manager.”
Also added , ” a council candidate sent out a mailchimp mail a few weeks ago, and two of the recipients were able to positively connect their emails used for this blast with Ridgewood Walk. They never signed up for campaign emails.”
This is just the latest incident in a series ,where the Ridgewood Board of Education disregards the public interest and promotes their favored special interests.
The Fish should be fired.
I was more surprised to see a link to a t-shirt selling website with no names associated with it and Fishbein claimed it to be a valley hospital affiliated site. I know for a fact that it’s not affiliated with Valley. Someone is making money using tax payer funded mass marketing.
there is so much scammy stuff going on , what about the money for the restaurants ???? who is getting it, who decides ???
thanks to Mr. Dani for informing us all of these underhanded hidden efforts by the board of ed..
This is a ridiculous claim. For one, the owner of Ridgewood Walks has worked very closely with the RPS with other campaigns including Stop, Look and Wave. Maybe people need to stop micromanaging everything other people do and consider the circumstances we’re in. How do we know that Ridgewood Walks isn’t offering some sort of programming to help students get outside and cope with being away from their friends for what is about to be multiple months? People need to stop finding the bad in everything.
Few people always had such a clout over Dr. F; Siobhan, Jeanne, the whole High Density group (Zero Impact on schools) that it clouds his judgement of right vs wrong completely
I am a “somebody” rules don’t apply to me
Anonymous it’s not about finding bad in everything. Bottomline is that school and tax payer resources should NOT be used to promote private organizations. It’s ILLEGAL.
very entitled
Ridgewood Walks has worked very closely with the RPS – Not the only one!! There are other organizations and individuals who do a lot more and never find a mention, people are finding bad in this since its really bad to favor few over everyone else. His favor is political.
for the self entitled wannabes it’s ILLEGAL
Isn’t this the same person who felt she was entitled to break the line and could get ahead of children because she was a board member of another self centered organization?
So, let me see if I have this correctly.
A resident runs a program that is free. That resident is also coordinating programs during this time that support healthcare workers. That resident is also managing a political campaign for a local election. Where is the conflict? Is that resident promoting the candidate through the programs that benefit the healthcare workers? Is that resident commingling funds? Is the candidate a threat to the status quo at village hall? Who’s the candidate? He or she has my vote on the last point alone.
Anonymous to answer your question – what’s the proof that the resident is NOT commingling funds? Its not a registered organization. Where is the accounting? Who owns the tshirt selling company? How many front line workers are being fed for 100K?? Thats a lot of lunches. As I understand – the police department refused to accept those lunches. Where is the 100K money is going?
What’s the criteria to publish private business names in school letter?? If you know Dan, you can buy your way??
“Is the candidate a threat to the status quo at village hall? Who’s the candidate? He or she has my vote on the last point alone.”
Are you one of those HD supporters who are upset that downtown is not being sold anymore, that schools are not under threat from any new Apartments apart from the one 3 Amigos approved, and more being done to keep the seniors in the village by keeping a check on tax rates?
If yes, this candidate is the perfect choice for you, she is right there with the developer interest group taking priority over residents
My grandmother told me to NEVER trust a man with a beard.
Just watched a Facebook video with Scott Leif and Mayor Ramon Hache promoting Feed the Frontline and thanking the people who are behind this project to help keep local restaurants working and feed the hospital hero’s along with the RPD and RFD.
Hmm…
Someone’s going after the Mayor by attacking others?
https://theridgewoodblog.net/iis-the-village-of-ridgewood-mayor-taking-credit-for-valley-food-drive/
anonemousse – this is not about going after the Mayor. 100K is ton of money for lunches to hospitals without accounting. As I said, the police department is NOT accepting those free meals.
Dr Fishbein should not be using tax payer funded resources to promote these sleazy businesses.
https://theridgewoodblog.net/iis-the-village-of-ridgewood-mayor-taking-credit-for-valley-food-drive/