Interesting Facts About Ridgewood, NJ

Answers to Questions the Community Had about Our Business Administrator’s new District.

One question we’ve heard asked in the community – does Ridgewood have an information source similar to BHCW? This question came up in the community discussion surrounding news (that we broke) of the Business Administrator’s acceptance of employment in Ridgewood.

The answer is yes- sort of.

There are other interesting similarities.

The first is that Ridgewood employs the same Law Firm as our District. So it shouldn’t surprise you that at least two BOE members in Ridgewood are facing substantiated ethics complaints, as did the prior Superintendent. Nor should the controversy surrounding the former Ridgewood Business Administrator’s resignation.

In the past year, in our District, there have been questions about suspect transfers, suspect requests for increases to line items and large discrepancies between the proposed budget and actuals in connection to legal fees within what has been the most secretive Budget process in this District’s history for the past two years.

We are also investigating issues connected to reports the Public received on courtesy bussing during the budget meetings and what was actually reported to the state – this is all occurring as the Berkeley Heights School District has already had the GRC push back on improper redactions and is facing yet another decision in Superior Court on OPRA violations. – the Business Administrator needs to appear in court on these matters in the near future

Ah, the variance in legal fees- another similarity between Berkeley Heights and Ridgewood that’s developed since getting our Attorney on Board.

You read the part where both Districts share the same attorney, right?

In any case, we submitted an OPRA request for the Business Administrators letter and expect it to be nothing more than a response to Ms. Corely-Hands resignation – it will likely say wonderful things about the Superintendent and blame the community for the District’s leadership issues.

With everything said, we wish the Business Administrator well in Ridgewood and hope this is a fresh start. We also hope to get a fresh start in Berkeley Heights so that things can return to normal.

This article should also ease everyone’s mind about whether we can find another Business Administrator -Ridgewood is very much like Berkeley Heights it appears (only bigger)- and they just hired ours. That isn’t the important question -Business Administrators with the right connections can play musical chairs all day.

The critical question is how involved the community will be in the selection process.

More Articles About the 2023 Budget

More Articles About OPRA

More Articles About the 2022 Budget

More Articles About Ethics