UPDATE: Gov. Christie Comes to Visit; Superintendent, BOE Kept in Dark

Gov. Chris Christie visited today to meet with eight teachers and Principal Chris Jennings to have “an open and honest dialogue” about education issues.

The governor arrived at 3:40 p.m. and entered the high school through a side door to meet with the teachers behind closed doors presumably to discuss his education reform platform. Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf also attended the meeting, which was closed to the public and press.

The Bloomfield school district website says BHS social studies teacher Ken Ates attended the meeting, but the names of the other seven teachers are unknown. Bloomfield Education Association President John Shanagher, who was also not invited to the meeting, said he hoped the discussion would give teachers insight on current education issues.

"I assume the teachers will focus on (issues in) Bloomfield," said Shanagher. "I'm hoping they have a great discussion."

But Interim Schools Superintendent Catherine Mozak wasn’t happy about this afternoon’s get-together. Mozak, who learned of Christie's visit late last Friday afternoon, said proper protocol was not followed after she was never asked permission to have the meeting.

"There isn't anything that occurs that (the Board of Education and superintendent) don't approve," said Mozak. "And to be totally left out of this particular situation - it just wasn't right."

Mozak chose not to cancel the meeting out of deference to the governor and was told she and the BOE would be given time to speak and take pictures with the governor prior to the meeting.

That never happened, she said. BOE President Joseph Lopez and members Shane Berger, Tony Petrillo, Susan Wolf, Mary Shaughnessy and Bob DeMarino, along with Mayor Raymond McCarthy, were given enough time to shake hands with the governor before he was ushered into the meeting.

"People understand (Christie) has a limited schedule and they would've respected that," said Mozak. "But 10 minutes I don't think would've made a difference. I think it would've brought some good will to the situation."

The Bloomfield school district website posted a picture of Christie smiling with a group of students, including Jacob Wright, who serves as the high school representative at BOE meetings.

"Governor Christie's visit was an effort to create a dialog with educators about (education) reform issues," the website said.

Lopez, who maintained the issue at hand is nothing personal against Christie, said proper chain of command wasn't followed.

"I think it was very disrespectful to the superintendent to not notify her in advance or even get her permission to go ahead with this meeting," said Lopez, who said it is the BOE's obligation to enforce policy.

It is unclear at this time who initiated the meeting. After-hours messages left at Jennings' and Christie's offices were not immediately returned.