Wayne Board of Education Sends ‘Cease-and-Desist’ Notice to Fellow Trustee Regarding Wife’s Social Media Posts

WAYNE, NJ - The Wayne Board of Education has sent a cease-and-desist notice, to trustee Ryan Battershill with a stern warning.

“A member of (his) family” was posting inflammatory, inaccurate statements and misinformation” on social media, the cease-and-desist said, in part.

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Battershill told TAPinto Wayne the cease-and-desist refers to his wife, Jennifer. She was “shocked” when it was received, and denied everything in the notice, saying, it’s all a “plot to get Ryan off the board.”

“Sending a message from the president of the board to a board member to control the free speech of a private citizen is seriously wrong,” Ryan Battershill said. “Effectively what they are doing is telling me to tell my wife to shut up. This is not the 1950s; I am not a man of the 1950s. I have a partnership with my wife.”

All eight other members of the Wayne Board of Education supported the cease-and-desist notice, which said some social media posts were, in part “potentially slanderous or defamatory.” In addition, the document, signed by Board of Education President Donald Pavlak, says, in part, “such harassing and insinuative statements about District personnel and board members, as well as the dissemination of purposefully misleading information regarding Board and administrative actions, will not be tolerated,” and warned of potential legal from “the Board, and/or its members and employees,” if it continued.

Wayne Board of Education attorney John Geppert explained that this notice “is not a legal action.”

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“This is a caution, or warning to a board member about his potential liability for ethical violations regarding confidentiality and other issues; the school ethics Commission handles such matters,” said Geppert. “The district would like to return to addressing school district business.”

But Trustee Ryan Battershill was not happy with this “warning.”

“Sending a message from the president of the board to a board member to control the free speech of a private citizen is seriously wrong,” Ryan Battershill said. “Effectively what they are doing is telling me to tell my wife to shut up. This is not the 1950s; I am not a man of the 1950s. I have a partnership with my wife.”

He said the notice had “no basis,” and added that he thought Pavlak hadn’t “actually reviewed any information,” saying that he was “pressured” to send the notice by “some of the women” on the board.

“He now has us drawn into exactly the same kind of gang-stalking information,” said Ryan Battershill.  “And my concern is that this puts the board itself in a very precarious position to be sued or have legal action against it from private citizens who they are trying to control. So, I am incredibly worried about what that cease-and-desist letter does for the reputation of the board and for the potential financial impact of the district.”

TAPinto asked if there was a lawsuit planned against the Board of Ed.

“It is possible that there could be a lawsuit based on what is there,” he answered. “I do not know if one will happen or not.”

Pavlak told TAPinto in his interview that the reason for the notice was simply to move on.

“I was hoping that we could just put everything that has occurred in the past, and put it to bed, and move on to why people elected us here - to help maintain the best school district in the state,” he said.

Refuting Social Media Posts

Ryan Battershill said that he “reviewed” all his family’s social media accounts, “in case something's going on Instagram or something from the kids, and I will tell you now, there is no mention of district personnel from my family at all. Jennifer does not mention district personnel at all and there is no false information. Therefore, no slanderous comments based on the definition of slanderous comments of public and private citizens.”

However, Wayne School Board member Matt Giordano said he saw a post “three or four weeks ago” that he “believes” was on Jennifer Battershill’s personal Facebook page that mentioned the names of two board members.

“I saw her statement with Barbara's name on it and Evie's name on it, and said, ‘Oh no, this is not good,’” Giordano said. “I try to stay out of these things, but when it comes to the point of naming names, then that’s got to stop.”

Here are three additional posts sent to TAPinto Wayne from Wayne Board of Ed Trustees attributed to Jennifer Battershill:

• “We will never forgive BofE members Evie Wentink & Barbara Rigoglioso for purposely and knowingly causing anguish and trauma to our son at graduation! The “Children first” Slogan is Forever Dead!”
• “My husband, Ryan Battershill, had a valid reason for skipping last night's BofEd meeting. The utter lack of professionalism never ceases to amaze us!! Wayne BofEd is the Titanic purposely ramming the iceberg!”
• “The universe works in mysterious ways. It's a good thing I cleaned everything up yesterday because the women on the Board of Ed have gone to the local press! Ryan and I gave statements this morning. They can try to paint us as evil, but it will fail. Everything will continue to backfire on them. #karma” Since we started interviews with the Battershills last week, this would’ve been a recent post.

But Jennifer Battershill believes that this all is “part of the plot,” led by a group of parents called the Wayne Education Restoration Parents Association (WERPA).

A screenshot from a social media site attributed to Jennifer Battershill, who says it's been "fabricated." Photo Credits: Evie Wentink

WERPA came to prominence in 2020 during the covid masking and vaccination debates at Wayne school board meetings and have been instrumental in completely changing the face of the Wayne Board of Education. Over the last three years, seven WERPA-backed candidates won seats on the board, including Wentink, Harry Prassakos (the current board Vice President), Ryan Battershill, Barbara Rigoglioso, Mark Faber, Wendy Limandri and Mike Fattal (who is no longer on the board and now a town councilman). The three other current board members are President Don Pavlak and Trustees Matt Giordano and Ryan Paul - who received the nomination to fill Fattal’s vacant seat.

TAPinto asked what Mrs. Battershill meant when she said they must’ve been "fabricated” regarding the Facebook posts that TAPinto would receive: “You're saying that they used Photoshop, or whatever to create the images of these posts?”

“Yeah exactly,” Jennifer Battershill replied. “I don't have it. I'm not friends with them. I don't deal with them. I don't speak to them. I haven't spoken to them in like two years, and I keep to myself.”

Battershills Claim “Flirtation” Led to a Seating Change

According to the Battershills, even before he (and running mate Barbara Rigoglioso) were elected in 2022, they were harassed in person, online and by text message, with it “gaining momentum at various different times.” They named Wentink, Rigoglioso, Wendy Limandri and WERPA.

Things were pushed into the public view just after Ryan Battershill’s second meeting as a board member in late January 2023 at the BOE Administrative Offices on Nellis Drive in Wayne.

A screenshot from a social media site attributed to Jennifer Battershill, who says it's been "fabricated." Photo Credits: Barbara Rigoglioso

An incident occurred where Wayne Township police officers were called to calm Jennifer Battershill after she seemed to be in a heated argument with her husband in the parking lot - as seen on security camera footage.

According to her husband, she was not happy with how BOE Trustee Evie Wentink, who was sitting next to Ryan Battershill during that meeting, had been flirting with him.

“That second board meeting at Nellis, I think was an exposure to the public where Evie had been flirting with me during the board meeting in front of my wife in the audience for an hour-and-a-half,” Ryan Battershill said.

When asked how she was flirting with him, he said, “Flirting with sending notes, smiling, whispering, those kinds of things.”

Wentink flatly denies the accusations. She said she didn’t treat him any differently than anyone else on the board, “male or female.”

“That was nearly two years ago,” Wentink said in response to an inquiry about her memories of that night. “I remember being friendly - as I am to all the board members when they are close to me; it’s the same relationship. Like right now I sit next to Mr. Giordano, and we have a friendly, cordial kind of demeanor towards one another.”

From that point on, Ryan Battershill was seated on the other side of the dais from Wentink.  And it was Barbara Rigoglioso who helped to make the seating change happen.

But the problems continued.

According to Rigoglioso, Ryan Battershill “can no longer sit next to board members, he can’t eat with board members, he can’t go to retreats with board members.”

A social media post attributed to Jennifer Battershill and is the speech she delivered during a Wayne school board meeting in 2023 Photo Credits: Evie Wentink

She talked about her and Ryan Battershill’s campaign events when they had been running for office together. One was a Halloween event with several people with disabilities invited. “Ryan told me I should cancel the event because Jennifer didn't think it was a good idea,” she explained. “But I didn't because the tickets were sold, and it was only two hours until it started. He did wind up coming, but it always has to be about Jennifer. No matter what we do, if it's not about his wife, then it's not a good idea. Or if she doesn't think it's going to work … So, I don't know what else to do. I don't.”

“The issue is that he was unreachable and unreasonable,” Wentink said at one point. “How are we supposed to communicate with him, because of her? Ryan wanted me to talk to him through Harry, which I am not doing.”

“They're full of lies. For two years I've experienced just lies coming out of him and her about what there is or there isn't,” continued Wentink. “And if it's not going in their direction, they attack people. TYhat's just their M.O. They're so narcissistic in their views that they don't see that they're the ones creating the problems.”

Tension Builds Heading into the Wayne Valley High School Graduation

Frustrations built on both sides, with some yelling at times and three separate police reports filed – two that Rigoglioso and Wentink filed against the Battershills, claiming threats and harassment, and one filed by the Battershills against Wentink’s husband, Gavin Wentink, who Ryan Battershill felt had been intimidating him.

The Battershills explained that this negativity had spilled onto their oldest son Kyle, who just graduated from Wayne Valley High School this past June. They told TAPinto that Kyle was “anxious” about having Rigoglioso and Wentink on the stage at his graduation and said they asked the two board members to switch to the Wayne Hills ceremony so as not to impact “the mental health of a child.”

“It was not about me or my wife. It was about a student,” Ryan Battershill explained.

Wentink said that the Battershills didn’t ask, “they demanded,” even going so far as to file an Harassment Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) case with the Wayne schools against her and Rigoglioso.

Just days before the graduation, at the Township’s Community Drug Forum, Jennifer Battershill, according to both Wentink and Rigoglioso, “screamed at” Rigoglioso, calling her “the b-word and the c-word,” and saying, “There will be consequences for this.”

So, the two women did not feel inclined to cooperate, according to Wentink.

However, a deal was arranged, with BOE President Pavlak and the school administration that the two board members would remain off stage, until the Battershill’s son received his diploma, then the Battershills would slip away and allow Wentink and Rigoglioso to come on stage and finish the ceremony, handing out diplomas.

But Wentink said that they never were told about any deal and arrived at the ceremony to find their chairs behind the stage. They believed the Battershills had purposely moved them back there and were insulted.

For the Battershills it was not the experience they wanted for their son’s graduation.

“They stood by the bottom of the stairs where the students are going up and continued to intimidate him going across,” Ryan Battershill said. “We keep him calm throughout that period of time, but I can tell you he broke down when we got home; my wife broke down when we got home. That is a memory that we will never be able to get back that has been impacted by two selfish board of Ed members who chose to intimidate a child.”

Changing the Seating Back Leads to Stalemate

Just before this past school board meeting on July 11, a “retreat” with the board of education was held which included a talk from a consultant from the New Jersey School Board Association. The rift between the board members was to be discussed.

In his conversation with the consultant beforehand, Pavlak was advised that the seating configuration on the board did not have the right optics with all males on one side and all females on the other, so the president switched Battershill back to his appropriate spot, seated as all the others according to length of time on the board.

But this put him right back next to Wentink, and Ryan Battershill would have none of it. He did not attend that meeting and said that there would be “a zero percent chance” that he would ever sit next to her, stating that in his talk with police about his intimidation report, they advised he keep his distance from the Wentinks.

“I will not be attending board meetings, live while I am sat next to the person who is targeting and impacting and destroying my family now,” Ryan Battershill said. “That may mean that I remain virtual; that may mean that we take turns with different people being virtual; that may mean revising the seating; that may mean talking about the conduct and the dress code of the board. But all of the things that are being ignored and swept under the carpet, I think we need to resolve those. And if Pavlak is not capable of being able to do that I will find a way of being able to do that for him.”

But Pavlak said no seat change would be coming. “We’re all adults here,” he said. “We were elected to do a job and we are all professional people and professional people should be able to sit next to someone for two hours a day.”

On this subject, Ryan Battershill also said, “I do not know why Don made that specific seat change. To put the two of us together… it seems like the worst leadership idea ever.”

Wentink said that the Battershill’s “marital problems have seeped into board business,” and that she wasn’t exactly looking forward to sitting next to Battershill but said “she would do what the board asks her to do,” and that “there is no reason why two adults are not able to sit next to each other and be professional.”

Jennifer Battershill believes the seat change is part of “the plot to get Ryan off the board, to make him uncomfortable, so he quits,” specifically naming (WERPA) as “the problem.” She thinks that since Ryan Battershill is “not falling inline” with the wishes of this group, they are eager to oust him and replace him “with someone they can control.”

Mark Faber, one of the latest WERPA-supported candidates, disagrees.

“The view of having to control his vote isn't accurate because honestly we're all independent people,” Faber said. “Everybody makes their own decisions. Now, do we tend to feel the same way about a lot of the same issues? Yes, I believe that's why we were all put on the board because we represent the sentiments of the majority of people in the town. So I don't think it's by accident that those of us who share a lot of the same perspectives are there. But the reality is his vote isn't something that we need to control.”

“If he doesn't agree then he has every right to vote however his conscience tells him to; so does everybody else,” Faber added. “Whether or not we vote the same way on a specific topic doesn't create a problem for me if somebody has a different perspective. I don't believe it causes a problem for anybody on the board either.”

“The whole thing is nonsense,” said newly-nominated BOE Trustee Ryan Paul. “Listen whatever [the Battershills] are doing is not board business. They’re taking up board time and it needs to stop. That's my opinion. It needs to stop, they need to grow up, they need to act like adults, and they need to let us do things that have to do with the school and not their personal feelings.”

When asked what the ideal result for Ryan Battershill would be in the end, he said that it would be for everyone to “leave his wife alone,” and he believes that President Pavlak should issue a public apology “for the situation that has been caused through the board in an effort to ensure that there is a de-escalation of these issues.”

The next Board of Education meeting is August 15, 2024 – 7:30pm at the council chambers in town hall. It will be interesting to note who will be attending and who will be sitting next to who.

Wentink has told TAPinto that “for personal reasons” she does not plan to run for re-election in this November’s election. Harry Prassakos said that he has filed for re-election, and Ryan Paul and Ahab Hussein are likely candidates.

Three Board of Education seats are up for grabs in this November’s election. The deadline to file and get on the ballot is fast approaching: this Monday, July 29th at 4:00pm. If anyone has an intention of running they can visit the Passaic County Election & Voting Information - Candidates page, here.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net