Who is Benjamin Olagadeyo? Or, for that matter, Samuel Taye Olagadeyo? Or Mary Olagadeyo? Or Bematolas Environmental Consulting, LLC? Bematolas appears to be an artificial name created out of the personal names–BEnjamin, MAry , Taye, and OLAgadeyo. Don’t you love a mystery–especially when it has something to do with the way Newark schools superintendent Cami Anderson spends public money? Help me find out the answers and I will post the results here.
What we do know is that, according to trustworthy sources, Benjmain Olagadeyo showed up at the Hawthorne Avenue school Thursday with a key to the building. He was the leader of a delegation of people who descended on the school without notice.
Those people are all in one way or another essential to Anderson’s plan to take the Hawthorne Avenue School away from the people of the city and give it–via lease, apparently–to TEAM Academy Charter schools. It’s part of Anderson’s “One Newark” plan to close neighborhood public schools and help charters like TEAM and Uncommon Schools (Northstar) increase their enrollment and polish up their brand.
TEAM Academy is run by Tim Carden of Montclair, a former business partner of Christopher Cerf who, in turn, is the former New Jersey education commissioner and a close associate of Cami Anderson who once helped run Cory Booker’s campaigns. And mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries was a founding trustee board member of TEAM Academy. Oh, it all gets so confusing and financially and politically incestuous that it’s almost impossible to follow. But Carden, Cerf, and Anderson all are tied up with the Christie Administration’s plan to make Newark either an educational colony run by rich white b’wanas or an educational experiment (or both) by destroying neighborhood public schools and helping charters to grow and make money. See my earlier articles on Pink Hula Hoop.
Back to Benjamin Olagadeyo: So he shows up with all these people to conduct an inspection tour. He seems to be a Newark employee and, in fact, on some of the social media sites, he is described as working for the facilities management division of NPS. He also is listed as a “head custodian.” This is taken from Linked-In:
“V. President
Bematolas Environmental Consulting, LLC
newark, new jersey
Asbestos inspection and survey. IAQ Expert. Asbestos projects monitoring, HAZWOPER Expert, Integrated Pest Management. Facilities Management
Environmental/Regulatory Compliance (Facilities Management)
The Newark Public Schools
Similar sites link him to Samuel Taye Olagadeyo and Mary Olagadeyo and Bematolas Environmental Consulting, Inc. Oh, and one of the companies with which he has linked himself is Uncommon Schools. That’s Northstar.
Curious minds want to know: Who is he? Why did he have a key to the Hawthorne Avenue School? Is he both a consultant and an employee of the Newark Public Schools? Have his relatives been hired by the schools? How does that work?
I don’t know whether anything illegal is going on. But I’d like to know more about the Olagadeyos and Bematolas Enviornmental Consulting, LLC–wouldn’t you?
WOW! Someone needs to contact the legislators…
what about TEAM’s relationship to mayoral candidate and Cami underling shavries??
Bob Braun: You’re right. He was a founding trustee member of TEAM Academy.
Bob – I check the Nj State Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRP) database, and could not find him or his firm listed, see:
http://www.lsrpa.org/
If he’s legit and doing the kind of asbestos and environmental consulting and remediation work described, he should be a license LSRP.
I smell scam.
Bob Braun: Me, too. His firm only opened last month.
Neither he nor his company nor anyone named “Olagadeyo” seems to have a NJ pest applicator or operator license, necessary for anyone doing IPM.
According to his Facebook page, Samuel Taye Olagadeyo lives in Nigeria, is 43 and owns a construction company there. Benjamin Olagadeyo’s middle name is Taye. He says he graduated from Montclair State in 2012, and by the looks of the photos on his facebook page is a young man and father of 1 or 2 daughters. Samuel may be his father?
Bob Braun: Thanks.
Consulting on asbestos, eh? Perhaps this is a metaphorical environmental consulting group: asbestos can poison you slowly if undetected and unremoved and the negative results, the very significant and serious damage, often does not show up for years. Meanwhile, the surface seems fine, well put together, strategically and meticulously planned, all signs of trouble explained away or hidden. Sound familiar? A growing cancer in the works, building up to choke the life out of those who are caught unawares . . .
Bob Braun: Whoever you are, I love your devotion to metaphor and I hope I hear from you again.
blindnoise.wordpress.com
I link your articles often. I appreciate what you are doing.
Bob Braun: Thanks.
Over the years, I’ve had several inspectors from state agencies inspect various rooms I’ve been assigned for asbestos. Since when do they hire a private agency?
[…] It seems that the S-L finds loud community dissent to be offensive. Instead of engaging in “raucous shouting matches,” the parents and students in Newark should just shut up and deal with the school closures that will disrupt their lives, I suppose. They should just shut up and deal with the rift the Two Newarks One Newark plan is causing in the community. And they should just shut up and deal with outsiders buying up taxpayer property and barging in to schools during instructional days. […]
Bob Braun: Don’t forget The Star-Ledger also called dissenters “shrieking.” As our mutual friend Mark Weber has pointed out, such allusions often are aimed at stirring up white fears of black stereotypes. Stupidity, cluelessness–these are forgivable. Not racism.
Mr. Braun,
I am saddened by this article. I am an employee of the NPS and respected your perspective; however, you have definitely shared false information with your readers and since you asked for clarification, I am, without fear, forced to do so. Mr. Olagadeyo is an employee of the NPS – yes, he works in the Facilities Department – yes, this company you discussed has no connection with the Superintendent – no, Mr. Olagadeyo was here long before the Superintendent came to NPS – yes and is not a part of any consulting firm connected to the Superintendent – no. Mr. Olagadeyo does work in a unit of NPS Facilities Mgmt. that is responsible for environmental issues in any building owned and/or operated by NPS and is licensed to do so. It is his job to ensure that no child in the city of Newark, will walk in a building that is ridden with asbestos and/or any other hazardous material and as a parent in Newark, I would hope this would be regardless of whether the building is operated by a charter or public school as you seem not to be concerned with. Mr. Braun I give this true information to you with full knowledge of Ben’s position with the NPS and I should know because I sit within five (5) feet of him daily. He is a not only an employee of NPS, but a parent, a warrior for truth, a man of the Most High God and I am disgusted that you have brought such ugliness to his door. He is traumatized by your vilifying his character and honestly, put him jeopardy with his employment, because you state “your facts” with such strange and twisted assurance. It appears that as usual, those of you who have the ability to share true information, fight for those of us who may not be able to fight for ourselves, ultimately, do what you accuse your “target of the moment” of doing – destroy innocent people along the way. I’ve witnessed such behavior first hand and yes, it is appalling. I hope you rectify this article and apologize to Mr. Olagadeyo and his family, because once the ugly and false rumor is out, it has a way of sticking like glue. I as many who know Ben Olagadeyo are very disappointed in this article, but I unlike them have no fear of any retribution. Someone must stand for the truth and set your very inaccurate record straight.
Bob Braun: As I stated in my article, I obtained most of the information from Mr. Olagadeyo’s own social media sites. I also said I was unaware of any wrongdoing on his part. But I would like to know the nature of the business–Bematolas Environmental Consulting, LLC–he serves as vice president and about which he also posted on social media sites. Also, I would like to know why he led a delegation of persons, including TEAM Academy representatives, on a tour of at least the Hawthorne Avenue school. If his job is asbestos abatement, which you say, why did he or the NPS wait until April to check on asbestos. I, too, toured the Hawthorne Avenue School and was appalled by the conditions there. Parents told me they had tried for months to get leaks repaired, cracked walls and ceilings fixed. Why now has facilities management shown an interest in Hawthorne–is it because it will be handed over to a private charter school management company? Perhaps you can enlighten me and my readers by answering all these questions. I have read your post carefully and I see no reference to anything that is
inaccurate.” If you point that out to me and it turns out I was in fact inaccurate, I will, of course, correct the record.
Mr. Braun,
How could an experienced writer and attorney like you use such trickery and for the purpose of my employment, I am not going to indulge so much. What I will say is, Mr. Olagadeyo’s job is not to abate asbestos and I never said that. Additionally, his company has never been hired by the NPS and honestly has never been hired by anyone. We all try something sometimes that does not work out and this wasn’t reported, but the mere inference of some connection reads well to a reader and has the ability to destroy the target. Mr. Olagadeyo performs a job and if he was sent to Hawthorne Avenue School, same is what he must do. We all have jobs to do here and if we want to keep our job, we must do them regardless of our personal opinions, feelings or what is perceived by those skeptical of what we do. Be assured, the Superintendent did not send Ben Olagadeyo and “the delegation” to Hawthorne Avenue School, there is no conspiracy here and if you were really concerned about the truth, you should have contacted Mr. Olagadeyo before releasing this article and asked him the questions. Seems reasonable to me!?! I read your Facebook post yesterday and you state “A delegation of more than a score of Newark public school employees, private building appraisers, consultants, and representatives of TEAM charter schools – the Pink Hula Hoop crowd – descended on the Hawthorne Avenue School, apparently to determine how it could be most easily and expeditiously taken from the community and handed over to the corporate school hustlers.” Mr. Braun, that was a lie – period and while it was a well written lie and sounds profoundly true, you reported information that was not. Again, the LLC you keep referring to has never been hired by anyone. A dream of a young man to own something, but did not work out has actually come back to haunt him, because you made a connection, procured some information and did not contact him to confirm, is just disheartening. Especially, as we have watched so many of our co-workers lose their jobs and in jeopardy of losing ours, the stress of what you have written is unbearable and would be to anyone, including yourself. The Superintendent you are fighting has never, ever met Benjamin Olagadeyo, nor have any of these other people you mention. Finally and the most important point for me is, because I know what you are trying to infer is not true and you stand by it, I have the right to be skeptical and question the legitimacy of anything you have written and what a tragedy that is.
I hope now that you know the private information that the LLC Mr. Olagadeyo is the Vice President of has never done any business at all, you would apologize to Mr. Olagadeyo and his family.
Bob Braun: As I have said before, Mr. Olagadeyo’s firm and his employment were revealed in his social media sites. You say his consulting firm hasn’t had any work–but he only joined or started it last month. I have no way of knowing how much work it has had. His job last Thursday, as the picture on my FB shows, was to lead a delegation made up of TEAM Academy representatives and others around the Hawthorne Avenue school. He allowed the outsiders in. TEAM Academy will be leasing the Hawthorne Avenue school from the NPS. I am not trying to imply anything. I am stating what happened. I think the TEAM Academy crowd are corporate hustlers–that is my opinion and it has nothing to do with Mr. Olagadeyo. I have accused him of nothing. You may disagree with my conclusions but you have not shown I stated anything inaccurate.
I am a very close friend of the Olagadeyo family here in Nigeria, Samuel Taye Olagadeyo is one of Benjamin Taye Olagadeyo’s elder brothers. Benjamin resides in Newark, USA with his family. He is a God-fearing man that can never indulge in any shady deal. I’m so confident he’ll be vindicated at the end of the whole show, because God will never allow His own to be mocked.
Bob Braun
You need to get your facts right and stop slandering someone (in this case Benjamin Olagadeyo) who you know nothing about; aside from pieces of tales you pick up here and there. He is a man of God, who has nothing to do with the lies and stupid stuff you keep publishing. If you don’t want the Lord to deal with you, then you need to stop this nonsense and stop spreading tales all over the media. Have you even sat with Mr Olagadeyo to ask him questions of things you’ll like to know instead of picking pieces of puzzles of lies all over social media? I don’t want to insult you but only a fool does what you have been doing. You can go all over social media and dig about me too, I have nothing to hide!!