Orange Board of Education Member Wingfield Accused Of Sharing Confidential Information

Orange Board of Education Member Wingfield Accused Of Sharing Confidential Information

            “Local Talk” recently interviewed Orange School Board Member Tyrone Tarver about the state of education affairs in Orange. During the conversation, he told us that Board Member Jeffrey Wingfield Violated Four Counts By Revealing Confidential Information To Mayor, Councilwoman And City Attorney.

            Here now are brief but detailed highlights from the interview. All the information provided is from Mr. Tarver.

TYRONE TARVER’S INTERVIEW ABOUT SCHOOL ETHICS BY BOARD MEMBERS.

1. Tyrone Tarver made a complaint on or about December 24, 2021.
2. Back in August of 2020, Tyrone: “I found out somebody shared some confidential email with Mayor Warren.
3. “The Board Attorney admitted that it was confidential and wrote to Mayor Warren to delete the email August 2020. He replied that he deleted it.”
4. Tarver found out that Jeffrey Wingfield sent a confidential email to Mayor Warren on or about August 2020.
5. On or about September 2020, Wingfield sent another confidential email to Mayor Warren, Councilwoman Wooten and City Attorney Avram White.
6. The Board Attorney sent an email on September 28, 2020 to Councilwoman Wooten that the email was confidential and should not be shared by any board member.
7. Tyrone Tarver first filed an ethics complaint to the New Jersey School Ethics commission on April 1, 2021.
8. The School Ethics Commission said that Tarver filed the complaint late (not within 180 days) so they could not make any ruling. The Commission wrote that it was late, but appears that Wingfield’s emails “appeared to be both deliberative and confidential.”
9. Due to the late filing of the complaint, the decision was not given, but they instructed to the board that if confidentiality was breached, appropriate action should be taken to ensure it does not occur in the future.
10. During the process, the sharing continued, even after Mr. Wingfield knew that the board attorney twice stated that confidential email should not be shared.
11. Mr. Tarver found out that Mr. Wingfield was copying confidential emails and sending the text via email to Mayor Warren, Councilwoman Wooten and City Attorney Mr. White. The confidential copied text via emails came from his Montclair State University work email address.
12. On December 24, 2021, Mr. Tarver filed a second complaint to the Schools Ethics commission about more confidential emails being shared. Although Wingfield’s attorney argued that the 2nd complaint again was late, the School Ethics Commission did not rule this as a late complaint.
13. After the School Ethics Commission’s initial ruling, the commission sent six counts of the 2nd complaint to the office of administrative law of the State of New Jersey for further review.
14. During the administrative law ruling, the judge ruled in favor of Wingfield and recommended dismissing the six counts against Wingfield.
15. Once the NJ Schools Ethics Commission reviewed the office of administrative law recommendations, they found Mr. Wingfield committed four counts of ethics violations on October 17, 2023.
16. NJ’s Schools Ethics Commission has given a reprimand per the violations.
17. NJ Commissioner of Education will decide the final penalty. The Commissioner cannot change the violations but can change the penalty.

“Local Talk” contacted Mr. Wingfield via email for his side of the story. However, he did not reply as of press time.

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