Bloomfield Kids First Upset Over Exclusion From Forum

Gildalina “Maribel” Morales, Ellen Rogers, Alimamy “Ali” Kamara and Ruth Hidalgo, a team of board of education candidates calling themselves “Bloomfield Kids First” have sent a letter to the Bloomfield Home and School Council notifying it that as of October 17, they were not officially invited to participate in the Candidates Forum scheduled for October 22 at Bloomfield High School at 7:00 p.m.

The team of candidates points out that BOE president Shane Berger designated himself as the person who was supposed to invite all candidates to the forum but did not invite any of their team as of the date of the letter (attached) they sent to Mayra Pastore, president of the Home and School Council, the organizers of the forum.

Morales, Rogers, Kamara and Hidalgo believe that Berger is playing politics and should have never injected himself into the process, given the fact that he is openly campaigning for at least one candidate, Catzell Bumpus. The group says that Berger has a personal interest in the outcome of the election because he wants to continue to be board president, which will be decided by a vote of all of the BOE members after the Nov. 4 election.

“We are not placing blame on Mayra or the Home and School Council who we believe have the utmost integrity,” said Rogers. “Apparently, Shane Berger used his influence to inject himself into the candidates forum process, a clear conflict of interest in view of that fact that his re-election as president of the Board depends on who wins the Nov. 4 election.”

“We also understand that Mr. Berger is involved in formulating the questions that will be asked of our team members during the forum,” said Morales. “This is very disconcerting.”

“The strategy implemented by Mr. Berger was to keep Bloomfield Kids First in the dark for as long as possible, hoping that we would be unprepared for the forum,” said Hidalgo.

“The day after my running mate Ellen Rogers contacted the Home and School Council to complain that we were not notified, Shane Berger called me and stated that the reason he had not invited any of our team was because the Essex County Clerk’s office would not provide him with our contact information,” said Kamara. “We subsequently spoke with Essex County Clerk, Chris Durkin who stated that his office never received a request for our contact information from Berger or anyone else. He further stated that had his staff received such a request, it would never be denied because it is public information and readily available.”

The letter that Morales, Rogers, Kamara and Hidalgo sent to the Home and School Council was also sent to The NJ School Boards Association Ethics Committee; Superintendent of Schools, Salvatore Goncalves and Durkin.

Information courtesy of Bloomfield Board of Ed candidates, Bloomfield Kids First, image screenshot of Bloomfield School District website.