001Mhm? All right. Good evening. Um This is a and What What is this? The operations committee meeting. I'm so sorry. Uh today is April 1st, 2026 and it is 5:37. Um I'm Jennifer Perez, chair of the committee. You have committee members online, Mrs. Estremara Jimenez and Joanne Bergstedts. Uh we don't have board members online. Uh we're Benny Hengarhales. In person, we have Ralph Trabold and Joe Sokolovic. All right, we're going to start with the approval of the meeting minutes from March 4th, 2026. Is there a motion? So moved. I'll second it. I need to vote on that. Anyone all in favor say I. Oh, I do have a change. Um Um the change is my name at the top where all the board members are or attendees. Um So yeah, just update my name. Everything
002else looked well. Um All in favor of the meeting minutes as amended say I. I. I. I. Uh referral to the full board on the proposed permit policy for 2026 and 2020 8 through 2031. And that's Mr. Garcia. Good evening. Yes, good evening. Good evening. So this evening we have in front of you um the fee schedule for uh school outside usage of our facilities. So the way that this is calculated is there's an escalator for 3% every year, year after year. Um there are two changes to this year's document. Um one is we've added parking lots to the fee schedule. And we've also added IT support services to the fee schedule based on some of the new requests for usage of facilities. Want to make sure we capture um all aspects of that usage
003and have it in our our fee schedule. Um this is still Everything is done online through FMX. So uh you know, we've we've moved from a paper system to a online system. It's working very well. Any questions on this? Committee members? That's true. Yeah, I mean It was called a book. You got Uh yeah, this I don't have it in front of me. I apologize. This is This is the same thing. Thank you. Are there exclusions on this one? Um no, it's it's uh we're holding the same language that we've had. Um only changes to the policy will be the the parking lots and the IT services fee. So will we still giving a couple hundred thousand dollars in free services to the city of Bridgeport out of our operating budget to maintain the buildings
004and take care of them? So yes, currently the the fee uh for Lighthouse, which sort of resides outside of the policy cuz that was uh structured through the board. Um that fee is $75,000 a year currently. I think that's probably something we need to look at again. We don't We can't afford money going out the doors. If you get that number updated to the possible number we might have to look at that. We're looking for ways to balance the book to increase revenue which I would much rather do who sits arguing with the floor money than had a service to someone else. Uh and we we we got that number handy somewhere from last from last time we discussed this what the number is. Uh when we sent out on a I think number 400
005list of $1,000 or something like that. George, we're hearing a feedback in your um I don't know what it's like. It is. Good. Sorry. Yeah, so so we just might we just might want to look at it um before we go ahead and approve the new fee schedule since it's the same exact document that it's on. We might want to look at um Charity begins at home. Charity begins at home. So what we can do is we can um generate that that total for the amount of usage based on um based on the current usage and get that back through the chair to you guys over the next day or two. And you guys you guys got that calculator where you approved a while back where you can just feed it into it, right? I
006guess uh Yeah, we'll just update it with the latest numbers and and fold it over. Thank you. Any further questions? Uh Mrs. Estremara Jimenez? Yeah, I had a quick clarifying question. As I was reviewing the information, I noticed that specifically for IT, if someone is requesting IT, their time would be charged to that specific like project. Is that Is that Is that correct? He's muted. You're on mute, George. Okay. Sorry. Uh In some instances, IT may have to come in uh you know, for mixing board or for some uh support with a with a smart board or something. And then that's how we will pick up those hours. Um so it's kind of ala carte depending on the event and the need of that event. Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion to move this
007to the full board? Um motion to refer to the full board of the proposed permit Oh. proposed permit policy for 2026 through 2031. Second it. Any further uh debate on it? Seeing none. All in favor say I. I. I. We're doing um opposed Any abstentions? Okay, that's good. Thank you everyone. Thanks, George. Any debate? Next item, referral to the full board of the request of proposals for absence management and staffing services for the period July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. Dr. Cialo. Thank you. Um so we have an opportunity to uh put out to bid for absence management services. The contracts expire June 30th. So with your approval and then the full board's approval, we can go through the city process to bid out for comprehensive uh staffing services for the district. So including
008substitutes, paraprofessionals, other related services that we might need coverage for. Um one of the things that Dr. Avery wanted very strongly in the RFP and also the subsequent contract is a training piece. So that whatever staffing agencies we decide to go with would be responsible for training their staff in compliance prior to them coming to Bridgeport Public Schools. So that's in both the RFP and that'll be in the contract um once that process gets So the goal is to um with your approval to get the RFP out and uh go through the process according to the city uh bidding process and then present you um you know, prior to July 1st um an option for approval for contracted services going forward. Okay. Good evening. I think the other piece is that we we've listened to
009principals, you know, because we're getting in teachers and we're getting Kelly and Delta staff coming into the district where they don't have the skill set to deal with you know, uh the conditions of our schools being not being equipped with behavioral, you know, support, you know, uh it's social emotional support. Uh and so in coordination with us, we can work with them on giving certain types of training things, CPI, um social emotional learning. So that when they're coming into the classrooms, they are equipped with how to deal with things. And so I think that's that's a huge part of what this RFP is going to be about cuz I uh we can't go through this year because we we we hired a lot of uh Kelly and Delta subs, but they did just didn't really
010have the skill set to to to work with our our kids the way we felt we needed them to to work with them. So I think it's a great opportunity to to revise all that. And I think the market out there is is very competitive now. Uh so I think we should be able to get a better rate in uh utilizing uh those substitute services as well. So they're they're two of the largest, you know, uh you know, services that provide staffing to districts across Connecticut. Uh but I think some other ones that might be a little bit of in play to kind of give a better rate so that they can kind of come down a little bit. So that's that's what we're looking for right now. So Um Mrs. Estremara Jimenez, do you
011have any questions? I did have a clarifying question. I did go through the documents um last night. But it Can you confirm that these temporary workers are also it they would be required do everything that an employee of Bridgeport Public Schools would would be required to do. So, like background screening, drug screening, all of that stuff. Mr. Chairman. Yes. So, the agency services certify that they do background checks on their employees. Bridgeport does not have to do that. Um and then the agency would provide training as we requested. So, like Dr. Eady said, CPI is a restraint and de-escalation training that we would ask the agencies, whichever agencies we go with, to provide that training. So, they um and a mandated reporter training. But, that those aren't things that Bridgeport would need to provide. We
012would have the service that we contract with certify that they provide the background checks and all that training. Perfect. Thank you. Is Representative feeling questions? No. Any other board representative's questions? Mr. Colberg. Yes. Um So, vacancy fill rate factor. See, I see we got that on. I've been looking for that for telling you who I guess I forgot about it. I guess um Where where are we You know, we we are currently in the debt and what exactly would be the penalty for not meeting that fill rate factor? Cuz I see I see that is a consideration on the contract itself. And We got We got to be realistic. If they're not meeting it, then we're not going to penalize. And It's got It's got to be written into it that this is actually a
013specific penalty, not that they'll be assessed later. I know for adults. 70% And fill rate fill rate was always only 80% But, again, fill rate is all dependent on the number the number >> [clears throat] >> of assignment we give Yeah. Our assignments have gone up very much. Up or down the percentages in 2012? That's why we use a percentage instead of a raw number. Right. So, if they're not hitting the 78 out of 100 people, they're not hitting the 78% of the 1,000 people. It's still the same effect. Mr. Chairman. So, in the RFP, we leave it up to the proposal to to propose what monetary giveback they'll give us if they don't meet those fill rates. Each proposal would bid on that, how much >> Yeah. incentive there would be for them to
014hit the the fill rate. Right. And And the reason I asked the percentage now to re-emphasize is it I don't remember the percentage that was on there now, but it seems to be either 90 95 So, say it's first it was 78. And when I'm talking about in company of firms, they're hitting a 78. That might be because cuz it's going to it might have an effect on the price structure. If we are too high, we're going to not Let me rephrase it for the fill rate. If you gave them assignments less than 24 hours the likelihood of them filling that assignment is less. If If you give them 4 days notice or 5 days notice, their fill rate was about 95%. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get it. I'm just I just got to get
015That's That's just one of the concerns about increase cuz I've said this before about RFPs, we need to be as vague and general as possible to draw a big applicant. Another question is um as far as the trainings, we know that if we're if we're asking for additional trainings they're not going to absorb those costs. It'll be written into the contract and it might increase the costs as well. So, we got to be cognizant of that when we do that. That's all right. Mr. Chairman. >> [clears throat] >> I think a lot of things that we're doing now, Mr. Colberg, is that we've got to be, you know, clear about those things and making sure as we look at those those contracts that are they meeting the the needs of the district? And if they're
016not, then what what what consequence are we going to have for not meeting it? So, everything we do moving forward is all about efficiency and and and being able to make sure that we get the our bang for the buck. Yeah, one I'm sorry. I said say that was the last thing, but there's the fill rate one that popped up on we still talking about that. Changing diapers. That has been a perennial thing that people talk about behind the scenes with the Well, actually somebody actually came to the microphone finally and actually said out loud was being said quietly for a while that the substitutes were not actually changing diapers. It was pulling our regular staff away from needing to do these. That their service duties to take care of the duties that the subs
017were not taking care of. And from what I understand, they're supposed to be carrying out the same duties as people in the substitute employees. Is there Is there any exclusion that can someone do certain things? Or they they're supposed to be doing the same regardless? Mr. Chairman, I think it's more of the training aspect of it. Cuz when you when you if you if you go into a classroom that's just a regular mode K-12 classroom, you do a a different job. If you go into a self-contained special ed classroom, depending on what the the the disability that that that particular class service, you have to train for that particular class. Some of the classrooms are not, you know, you you're not going to be able to really pinpoint. Sometimes the job is open and you
018don't really know what you're getting as a sub and you just pick a job and then you get into it and you're like, "Okay, this is not for me." And sometimes they if it's multiple days, they're like, "I'm not going to come back. I'm not going to you know, I'm not going to I don't want to take that job." So, it's all about educating, you know, the agency about the environment and certain types of classrooms that we have. So, it's one of those things that we have to do a better job of making sure that you know, hey, you know, if you want a sub, your your positions is a sub and the sub can do all these different, you know, tasks when you get into the position. And so, but some people are coming
019straight out of whatever and they don't really know They're shocked because they didn't know they had to do such such a such a task. I can't. That's all right. Mr. Chairman. That's inevitable, but the situation you're referring to will be reduced or non-existent if we That situation may not occur anymore. That situation was created by the conundrum dilemma we had this year with kindergarten. Kindergarten not special ed. >> [clears throat] >> Uh and that was created by the high percentage of children being put into kindergarten that shouldn't have been there. I'm sorry. The high need of children um and the refusal on the part of the subs to deal with the problem. So, that situation has will not occur to the degree it has in the past in the future because the change in age
020requirement now by state law that, you know, the address. So, that's a I was a unique situation that occurred that it should be unless in the past. I heard in the proposal that each each bidder will be offering us their percentage and [clears throat] we will evaluate their bids on the basis of their percentage, not setting a figure for them, but on the basis of percentage they offer. Um and we have it instituted training protocols that we expect that people that they'll be giving us for referral. All of which makes a lot more sense. Um so, uh and obviously training you know, as well uh pre-K, kindergarten, special ed. At certain class levels, they should be expected to change diapers um as part of their duties. Um and if they can't do that, then we're
021not interested in having them um because that may may occur. Hopefully less at certain levels than it did in the past few years, but it it shouldn't happen the same. Um so, I I I like the fact that you have introduced that putting the burden on them to provide us competent people um in these bids. Um and I like the fact that you have put the burden on them to tell us what their, you know, rate um and if they don't meet it, what the penalty will be, what the cost will be, if they will reimburse us. Um so, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Yeah, but um Think of us. wager No, it was it it was more aligned in to making sure that uh We can I'm I'm We can add the types of tasks
022that we're looking for them to do or to be trained on in the in the RFP as well. You know, you know, changing diapers, one-to-one assistance to children, helping teacher I mean, giving some examples of the types of things that they may be doing like such as that. Just as as You know, like I'm not popping this right. Okay. I am I was going to say just as I would assume that we are doing subs for certain um grade levels or subject matters, we're going to have different requirements for that. We're not going to hire a sub to go teach high school chemistry uh who has an elementary background. Um so, I would assume we're I'm to distinguish or differentiate at some level, uh you know, >> they go into that depth and then because
023I think the subs can choose the subject areas or the grade levels that they want to, you know, pursue. So, you know, I was a high school teacher, but but it was easy for me to go down and do, you know, um I know a fourth grade, fifth grade class, you know, so and although I didn't have experience in in elementary, I could have done it. Um or or middle school or whatever, so >> It's my line, my profession. Exactly. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay, let me take one more. Um as far as the the new state statute that just recently passed where they got they require a certain amount of training hours for special education paraprofessionals and all the paraprofessionals, or is that just a random number in my head? Do the substitutes have
024to meet that as well, or is it just for Those Those are actually employees of the district. You know, So, so there's an additional training required for them. Yes. And and 60 credits for the parapro or passing parapro test. Right. And the substitutes would not be required to Got it. Thanks. Just filling in the warm body. One One little added fact to that. There is a bill out there that's that's that's going to be requiring all paraprofessionals to make $45,000 a year. And it's going to kill the middle one. And then it kills the district. So, we have to kind of advocate for them not to pass that bill. I don't have the bill number in front of me, but it was it was pro- I just found out today, you know, by Representative Leaper
025that we needed to call our our state legis- state senators to to lift the bill. So, I'll find that out and we'll we'll do some things on our end cuz there's no way financially we could even afford that. Uh and so, but it's out there for consideration. Well, we will leave that at that cuz it's not on the agenda, so Surely. That's a whole 'nother discussion. Any other uh questions from meeting members? If none, um is there a referral for the full board? Motion to full board? Motion to refer to the full board of the request for proposals for absence management and staffing services for the period July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. Second that. Um seeing no further debate, so all in favor say I. I. Um I'm sorry, I forgot to announce
026Mr. Watson joining the meeting online. Next, we have uh budget update from Dr. Erian and Mr. Wool. Yes. All right. Okay. I think we provided um a hard copy of this document uh for Do you Do you have it in online, too? It was sent, yeah. >> Yeah, it's online now. Uh one of the things the board has been asking is is looking at potential cost-saving measures. Uh so, we wanted to kind of go through briefly to kind of give you kind of where we are just preliminary uh and also looking at tier one, tier two, and we need tier three solutions for the board to consider. These are not exclusive. Uh if there's additional things that you want us to consider or clarity that you need on something, we'll we'll be able to provide
027that for you. But, we wanted to kind of give you, you know, kind of as to where we are with with with our current budget so you can, you know, follow along based on funding, based on, you know, uh we've been through an an exercise with the state uh technical assistance teams and and try to look at efficiencies as we work through the 34 recommendations. Uh and we found cost-saving measures uh that total up about about $6 million. Uh if you uh were on the meeting that if you watched the state of education meeting, I think uh Dr. Hughes mentioned that. Uh so, we want to give you guys an update as to what that number is uh and where we are with our total deficit and where we see it now between Nestro and
028the team. Uh and so, Nestro, if you can kind of walk us through briefly um where we are and dive into your documents you you provided. Sure. Uh for a moment here, if you look on page one, the very first page, it basically still leaves you is what we talked about based on the superintendent's recommended budget to the board, which is basically 61 61.6 million dollars initial gap deficit or whatever you want to call it, projected deficit. Plus 15.6 million dollars. Scroll up a little bit. 16 16.6 16.9 million dollars solutions that we applied in the back of the superintendent's recommended budget, plus the other number seven and number eight, that brings us down to $44 million gap. That was the superintendent's recommended budget for this year. Then we work with From there, we go
029to page two, which is now we're tearing it up. If you remember the way we did my fresh sheet, tier one solution is somewhat of kind of comfortable zone, guaranteed, most likely yeah, achievable. Tier two here, some of them are kind of certain. We know the city is giving us $5 million additional funding dollars, that we know. The mayor announced it for for next year. Then the district for the first time went into um billing for in-district excess costs. So, based on the billing or based on the compilation of the expenses, we will be getting $529,000 next year reimbursement for in-district excess cost reimbursement. That's total revenue increase on tier two is 5.5 million. Then we get into expenditure reduction. Where you see review bus routes, review in-district sped, review out-of-district sped transportation, all those
030categories plus graduating existing 12th grade students. Combination of four those items gives you projected $5.4 million saving next year. So, we have to do all of them in order to attain the $5.4 million projected next year. Then we have $600,000 review self-contained plus room size compared to the adult ratio, meaning parent or adults in the classroom. We feel we can scale it down or downsize it down to proportionately resize the adult ratio. That's going to save about $600,000 next year. Basically, we're going to look at the old adult ratio to students in the classroom. So, try to do things more efficiently. Redesign agency substitute teachers in backfilling protocol. Uh that's going to save about $1.1 million. Um if anybody needs full detail or more backfilling detail. Decrease professional learning program, that's one of the programs
031the city is going to be decreasing um in the next year budget, so um 26-27 class size optimization. Here, we're going to really kind of try to match our regular class size as much as we can. Um the the savings is going to come by not using agency parents so everybody will understand it. Basically, when we when we optimize class size, it's meaning matching it out to to the best per contract, what it means we're going to have teachers covering qualified teachers. Well, sorry. Teachers in-district teachers teaching those classes, then we're not going to be using Kelly backfill. So, that's what that means pretty much. Then state CMARS, we talked about the CMARS. Um the steady increase the pension employer contribution for regular employees from 20% 20.78% to 21.93%. I had brought it up in
032the last board meeting. The numbers came in and that's effective July 1st, to cost the district an additional $485,000 that that increase alone. I just want to I don't want to put the back in history, but like I said before, in 2023 2013, the CMARS employer contribution rate for active employees was about 13%. It kept increasing until it hit Now, it's hitting almost 22%. That's a $4 million annual increase every year to infinity. So, people wonder where did the brick fall Well, what however, where did the brick fall how many hard times? Indirectly, we're paying $4 million increase just on pension contribution alone. That including direct contribution percentage. So, that's how the money kind of dwindles down on the state. So, is it what what I'm trying to express here? But, these are kind of
033hidden costs that nobody really thinks of. I just want to bring it up. terrible tonight. Special program contract review. We're going to review all these special contract programs. And uh we feel we can comfortably the program based on the student size or residing in the student class with the number of students in those programs to save $1.4 million. So, the total impact of revenue gap closing solutions in tier two and expenditure reductions is $14.9 million. If you scroll up a little bit, um if you take the $14.9 million out of the $44 million that the superintendent recommended as the remaining gap, you're going to have a $29 $29.1 million remaining gap assuming the board adopts all tier two solutions that have been proposed. Mr. Mayor, I mean, is everybody fine? Yes. Good. Okay. Then, we'll
034go to tier three. The The The higher the number of the tiers, I know I that's the way I kind of structure it. The higher the number of tiers, the more difficult the more harder decisions are making the cuts. I mean, so tier three, these are additional expenditure reductions. Eliminate two um two to one kindergarten teachers that that we had set in. So, that will save $1.3 million. Uh extend school walking distance um elementary school from 1 mile to 1.5 mile and high school from 2 miles to 1.5 miles. That's a million 1.7 million a million 730,000. It's potential saving. Uh consolidate schools of school closures, consolidation of schools, whichever word whichever word you feel comfortable with. We are We are uh We're using approximately 1.8 million depending on the number of schools that the
035board and has decided to be closed. That number could be higher or consolidated. So, if we do all that, tier three options that's there, that's $4.8 million potential reduction in expenditure, which when it gets applied against the $29 million remaining gap in tier two, that will leave you with a $24.2 million dollar gap after we do all these tier one, tier two, tier three options. But, [clears throat] all those uh line items in tier one, two, tier three have to materialize. Mr. I want to want to add the uh Okay. Yes. Um well, one thing I didn't put there because one thing I resist to I don't like to do once you put a number as a potential savings, people just run to the bottom and say Bridgeport in the city That's why I'm I
036didn't put it here. If you all remember, there is $5 million that allocated to Bridgeport from the state. And we said We So, that We could put it there, but I don't know where it stands. I just don't want to plug in numbers, but it's a talking point. I mean, I could put it at the bottom next time I put afterwards still This one uh Let's put it there. Yeah. Yeah, and That's why I didn't put it there because people would just take it and run and say, "Oops, down to Bridgeport is down to $5 million less, down to $19 million." That's not true. And to the chair, we just finalized the second request through the city to the IMPACT committee uh in Hartford last week. We finalized it. So, they have it now. We're
037just waiting for a response from them to see if that's going to be feasible in the end with the $10 million, right? Uh and so uh and then um Deputy Commissioner Hughes is also going around from the state side to put a little pressure to see what we can do to get that meeting or get those dollars allocated. So, don't know if that's going to happen, but I've done my due diligence to make sure that we we get a chance to to get those dollars. And so, That's what you're Mr. Chair, if I may, just for clarity, in case the media is out there, the Bridgeport next year deficit of monetary need is not $24 million. It is Get to the $24 million, all these items would have to close school, have to consolidate school,
038we have to extend the walking distance, we have to take away all the one to one tablets, plus other options. I just don't want people to take a snap picture and say, "Bridgeport has brought down their gap deficit next year to $24 million." That is not the case, please. I I just want to be on record. That is not the case. And I'm going on record as well to say this team the district has really, you know, did a great job of going back, trying to figure out and find additional dollars for savings. And And that's part of what the audit said. We we have to be a little bit more efficient uh in the work that we do in order to make sure that we can maintain those dollars. And so, that's the process
039that we're trying to do. And And I I I have to give it to the state, they're helping us get there. They're helping us get the manuals and the processes and procedures and all those things, you know, written down so we're not just haphazardly trying to get to a point of savings. And so, we're just trying to get into a routine of working through that. And uh and if it really hadn't It hadn't been fun, uh but it's something that we felt we needed to be able to do. We We We don't have a lot of staff, uh and we're Everybody's doing multiple things to try to get there. And um uh and starting about 4 weeks ago, I had a task of every single week we have to bring back, you know, efficiencies and
040and um cost-saving things that we have to bring back. That's how we got there got to the $6 million is that we had to go back and keep looking and keep looking and keep looking and keep looking. Uh you know, optimizing uh transportation routes and and really doing the work. And so, very very proud of the team for for um sticking with me to kind of fine-tuning the things. And And this is where we are. If we don't get any fundings, we would have to cut another $25 million. And And with all these drastic things, then we have to even further just to get down to the 25, which uh is not even feasible for the district to even function if we had to do that. So, uh and that's why we tiered it so
041that the board can see tier one, we can we feel very confident we got the extra money. Tier two, we got to do these things. Tier three is going to hurt because we've already experienced those two of those things already. Well, three of them, all three of them. Uh that never materialized in previous cost-saving measures. So, um we don't want to have to get to tier three, but we know that we have that everything has to be on the table, and that's why it's there. Uh and we'll go from there. So, we'll take any questions. Uh Ms. Destiny Hernandez, Um I just had a quick question about one of the the professional learning program. Can you expand on what that is? You're currently looking at a couple programs, you know, uh that we're currently using
042in the district. Uh and one of those is um the the a literacy program that we have. I don't really want to put the name out there cuz it's, you know, um but it's it's one of the literacy programs that that we feel that we could we we we'll be able to do that with the other programs that we have. Uh and so, that's what that's why that's there. Uh and um again, it's just really getting with staff, getting with those directors, and trying to figure out exactly how, you know, and what we can save with those programs. Thank you. That's all the questions I have. Ms. Erickson, do you have any questions? No. Thank you. Um Any other questions? Mr. Jaber, Yeah, um Where are you from, again? The uh If If people saw
043the Appropriations Committee put out their report yesterday, um and basically there's no change to this year's budget for education ECS. I line stood. Mhm. ECS money. Yeah. And um but if you read the the the news that I've read, um and I I just pulled up the one that I wanted to refer to, um just to be clear, um you know, Senator Austin said some major addition is still possible. Yeah, i.e., it's not done. True. Um and what she referred to specifically was the the governor's 500 million from last fall. But, there is also the possibility that they could go outside the lines like they did last spring or fall to try and raise more money. That's outside the budget itself. So there are other ways for them ways for them to raise money and
044she made a um she made a point of saying so. And so that's important just to not lose hope is all I guess I wanted you to say tonight was if they're they're making sausage for next month technically and so this is this is this is you know this is worst case scenario and this would be horrible. Um but we have to keep up the fight um for the next month. We have a meeting with our legislators in mid-month. There's uh Bridgeport day third week. Uh there are two lobby days the week before. Um there's just lots going on over the next month that we need to like keep up our efforts and our hope and our strength to try and see if we can get more money beyond the 5 million out of this
045legislature and this process to try and avoid this stuff. Um and this is the reason we have to keep fighting because we don't want to do this stuff uh and the other reason is of course the budget we passed which included trying to start restoring the very things that we've been cutting for 13 years. And as we said at our last ad hoc meeting if you think about it and it's really important to think about it um the students that testified so eloquently most of them um they capital in the LOB at the very hearings over the last month. Um I've come to what we what we what we called the frozen generation. They are the students who have not seen an increase in the ECS throughout their entire lives in the Bridgeport public schools.
046For 13 years they've been in the Bridgeport public schools and for 13 years the state has not increased the money for their education. And there some of them spoke about their siblings. Um but those were the kids who were standing up there fighting even though they're leaving for the Bridgeport public schools. And we have to take courage and strength in what they're doing. For us to keep doing it. Is it Dr. Evans here? Let me just add to that today the urban school superintendents had a a meeting with Representative Leeper and she we were able to kind of just kind of get a feel from her what the possibilities. So she's also hopeful. She talked about the 5 million 5 million dollars from the mayor from the governor's perspective but she also talked a little
047bit about the possibility of going with the 16,000 dollars per person. Am I right? No that's not the deal. Yeah so so very hopeful that all that's going she said there's a lot of you know conversation going on right now and so everybody was kind of quiet on the phone call but it was it was very hopeful like you said so we can't give up that piece and and she said that you know we just need to keep you know pounding it and let's see what happens. And this is an historic opportunity for Connecticut to step up and do the right thing and hopefully they're going to be able to do that so there's a lot of pressure coming from a lot of different avenues and so it's good. And I would add to that
048it's it's it is important to keep in mind we have argued all along that there is the ability through that one process to deal with the short-term need i.e. the next fiscal year through those various needs. In the next session which is the long session where they set the biennial budget they can address the long-term revenue needs which is the funding bills that we've been expressing. We supported the funding bills in a motion for our board. Only one of those bills was remove the guardrails to allow for short-term. The others were all long-term funding needs. So those don't have to be addressed this year. That can be addressed in the next session um when the finance bill the finance committee issues its report today or tomorrow. I don't know if they've done it yet today
049or tomorrow. Their their their deadline was today I think. So you know that's where we just there's lots there's it's just a lot of things sort of shaking around them because of our work. Is there a button Thank you Madam Chair. Um first of all I just want to know why the reason we why we received this about the budget today. Um I I know we received it by email and the and our computer but I don't know why we always talk about receive this before so we can read it because a lot of numbers to read and to be sure we okay I don't know why. This is a this is a working document so we're sharing the recent presentation. I understand Madam Chair. >> voting on anything. We're not voting on anything. It's
050just a presentation. I know that but I'm saying you know when I see a lot of numbers good to you know on time. Second that everything you say about all the you know the cut and I hope we we don't cut. And I'm telling you this right now if you're going to do a cut like that I hope not. I'm sorry but you need to be cutting people from the top not the people that have a low income because you know we don't want to have that have the situation happen years back. And I don't understand why the the state they know what we're going through. They know everything because I know you and your team they give everything to them. I don't know why they support and help our children because they're the ones
051suffering. I just want to say that for the record. Thank you Madam Chair. Mr. Can I let me respond to your your uh your ask of me Mr. Benavides. Uh what I what I my job is to provide recommendations to the board and so and I have to be you know um a steward of the finances of the district as I make that recommendations to the board and you know one of the things that Nestor and I we and team had a chance to to really fine-tune these recommendations. Some additional things were was added to this document today for this presentation. The board has been requesting of myself and Nestor for the last month or so that we need to kind of start considering the cost-saving measures that we're going to have to take in
052order to get to a balanced budget and so this is the first step of that and what my ask is of the board is there anything else that you feel needs to be on this list to consider? I think we'll bring another comprehensive list to the board in order for us to start tackling because we can't wait until the end of June or end of May to come up with possible solutions. We have to be able to start thinking through some of these things are critical and very impactful and so I I I was definitely understand where you're coming from and if I had anything to do with none of that would be on the list but realistically we may be challenged with an additional 24 million dollars in addition to these things we have
053to go 24 25 million dollars more in order to make budget and and that's not the state will not allow us to not make budget so we got to be able to do what we need to do moving forward. So I I I I I I respectfully understand where you're coming from but the board will vote on each one of these items if they want to do it or not so I do understand. Mr. Colleague I understand I understand I understand that Dr. Arena I know you do a lot of extra money in your team. I really understand and respect your job. Thank you for everything. Yes sir. Yeah couple of things. Well first first I want to run through real quick the front page the tier ones. Are we do we have an actual
054firm number on a reduced health risk or is it just an estimate? Uh 2013 Is that a firm number or is it just an estimate? But we should be getting a a firm number from Segal by the end of this week so But that's still somewhat in flux but Well no it's not going up. It's not going up. It's not going up. It's not going up. That's for sure. So is that so is that firm is that firm is that firm? It's firm. Right. Yeah I'm just trying to get an idea the firm is It's not going up. The final thing it was cuts. Yeah. It is not going up. No. It's not going So that's it on the first page. Um second page we need Wait there's a firm Three four numbers on conference
055saying I was a little concerned and worried about that too. How much how much was approximately the 5.4 million dollars comprises out of district 12th graders? It's about a per month a rough number. Six. I think it's about three >> About no it's 5 million. It was is 5 million. And those numbers are solid. Those those out-of-district placements of 12th graders that are leaving, you know, we we've taken because they're graduating, so we're taking those kids that are not that we paid for their services, um, tuition in the out-of-district placement, and we added that up. I don't know. There's about 12 or 13 kids. So, that leads me back into this next on my question. So, that $3 million that's baked in there over number maybe is for every single student, and assuming we don't
056have to add one more in kindergarten or any of the other grades. No, it's that that's We're still We're still working through the process. We have four sites that we still have to visit. Mr. Scofield, you know, so we may end up getting a couple more, but they're not added to this amount yet because we need to kind of take into consideration we're going to have at least five kids. This year we only outplaced like five kids out of district, which is great. Normally we were doing 10 20 No, not 10. 10 or 10 five or 10 kids every year. This year we we've done a lot of work around making sure that we keep kids in district. One of the One of the big issues with it we didn't have specialty teachers, right? So,
057we were we were on the hook because we couldn't provide services. So, we we outplaced those kids to different services outside of the district. This year we we got all vacancies filled except four. So, that's why we didn't we never sent kids out. So, those That is the hope that we can keep doing that to where we don't have to send kids We're going to be sending kids that we can't service. You know, and so we got to have that cushion to be able to And that's where when you when you look at bus routing efficiencies, we haven't really did the optimization on the bus route yet. We're in the process of doing that now with with transportation. So, we're going to get a a dollar amount that we're going to be able to save,
058but we did not add that dollar amount to this number cuz like I told Dr. Hughes is that I don't know what's going to happen. If we if we have to, you know, um, provide a a different type of educational environment in our district that we're paying out of the district, we can we can cook recoup those dollars and build a program in in district if we need to. And that's one of the things with the new build new school that we're doing, we're going to get off We're going to get a lot more savings when those kids come back cuz once we build it in district, we're not required to to to, um, send kids out of district because we now have services provide them the a top-level education in district. So, that is
059the whole process that we're working through from that from those four sections, you know, to be able to get to that four $5.4 million or or actually $6 million when you add number 12 to it. That's where the $6 million comes in. I know you're not. Now, the reason I'm just emphasizing this so so much is because of last year's budget projections were way too way too aggressive with And and and and lessons learned. And yeah, and and and these are these are this is something that's somewhat a bit out of our control, which could change with two or three ultra-high-needs students like on on on on a basically in time. Absolutely. >> don't blow our solid could actually potentially fall through through no fault of anyone's. And and and and to add to that,
060you also have settlements that have been in place for the last 10 years that their parents are coming back now wanting some compensation for services not rendered. And so, you got to We ask them to see a couple of those things coming to you for consideration as well, uh, over the next month or two as well. So, you're you're exactly right. We have to have a little cushion in there for, uh, the unknown. And that's that's one of the things that we already take into consideration as well. And it's a much smaller number to decrease professional learning today on the, state the state, um, update on Bridgeport. One of the things Dr. Hughes has said is next they're going to turn their attention to professional learning. When they turn their attention to special education, they
061added a staff member that cost us more money. So, hopefully they're listening. Whatever whatever whatever professional learning, uh, attention you want to turn towards, please do not add to our budget because it's going to come out of our classrooms. For clarity? I'm here. Uh, it's professional development is what he's talking about. They're they We gave them a list of the areas that we're going to be training our teachers and administrators on next year. They're going to try to help us with that training for our teachers and administrators. And that's what you call about professional learning. Can can can we, um, differentiate between professional learning and professional development? Is it different? Same thing. Same thing. It's People use them interchangeably. I know. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a new thing. >> Same thing.
062I know. I was listening for a while. Same thing. All right. So, then, um, I'm going to move on to the criminal one and then special education programs contracting Yeah. We have a few out-of-district placement contracts that we currently, you know, that that's been brought to the board every single year, uh, and we need to consider, you know, trimming those those particular budgets down in order to not For example, there's one one campus that we we we pay for 40 seats. We don't ever use 40 seats. And so, we can cut that in half and only pay for 20 seats, you know, and that that number will go in half. So, those are the types of things that I feel we need to be able to do, and I think we can save about $1.4
063million. I think it's the same things that you guys have brought to the board in previous years that I've been here the last 2 years I think it is. But, I want to be sensitive to what has happened over the last month or so in order to make sure that Yes. So, that's kind of what I'm doing. I know. Yes. So, that's what that's for. Right. Yeah, definitely definitely going to look into that. Um, next up is, um, is something I don't want to say that's a scenario cuz none of this is positive. This is all horrible scenarios. We are currently at a position where districts without libraries. Every single cut is going to fail. We are not in the position to provide our children as of today not a single additional cut the education
064that they deserve. I spoke about this today earlier, um, but $1 short. Currently I think the only thing that's still surviving in the legislature so far is the potential to get five in SB7 five or six in SB7 that hasn't died yet. This is the only thing that's written into the bill. Now, we do have to be optimistic that something could happen. The less time something exists in a bill on the floor for debate, the less likely it's going to happen. So, we definitely do got to keep up that pressure. We got to keep up that advocacy, but we also got to keep up the urgency of what happens if it does not happen to keep up what's at stake. Now, speaking of what's at stake, what's the next the next the tier three, we're
065talking about kindergarten paraprofessionals, and we got a contract going out for it. But, what's substitute paraprofessionals that might have to be erased at 1.3. And then we got buses 1.7. And then we got school consolidations school consolidations 1.8. And if Fish we're sending guide, the schools we're going to be looking at is the schools we looked at in the past that would be probably best considered. And those schools are already being considered for a move. So, if we have to make a move like this, those schools may be moving twice in a couple of years when the next school comes online. All right. Um, All right. That is Last budget cycle we almost cut Last time we cut Holland and Edison are on the top of them. Holland and Edison are in the master facilities
066plan to be consolidated into the new school. This plan is not waiting for a new school. This plan is right now. Today. So, let let let let let's realize what's at stake. And if nothing else changes on the state level, we still got $24 million to go. The order of magnitude people get bug-eyed glass-eyed when they see the big numbers. So, I would like to suggest Mr. Cole and Dr. Avery, give us the numbers cuz I keep hearing that administration I'm the first one to go after the top-tier jobs first. Okay, but we are the eighth leanest district as far as administrative staff on your level. It would behoove us to have know the order of magnitude. I did some rough calculations, but they YouTube and just I did I did what if What if
067we cut every single administrator in central office? And I think my number is we still got $30 [laughter] million every single principal in every school? That still would not get us there in and of itself. What if we closed every school and taught the kids in the park? That still would not get him get us there. So, if we get a menu of cuts that if we eliminated every situation situation it would create it would stop that narrative that it could be done just by targeting one specific thing. I think we also got to look at we are constitute constitutionally obligated to provide appropriate education for our students. This is under federal constitution. This is under state constitution. I spoke about this today. That is an obligation under state constitution, which conflicts with our state
068statutory responsibility to provide balanced budget. I think what this board needs to be clear on this is what I was calling out today is that we need to we need to let them know we are agents of the state. It is not our failure funding that we cannot meet these. We should not be forced to choose what to take away from our children because state is not fulfilling their obligation. That obligation belongs on the state and fully on the state and somewhat the local funders as well. But, the state still owns the constitution that has to provide this by law. The state's the one that gives us our mandated services that we've got to pay for. They're the ones that give us our special education plus the special education students they deserve every student every
069service that they get, but the excess cost grant is not fully funded. So, we we need to really consider advocacy efforts in coming in at a through several different directions because best case scenario we reach 24 million dollars short right now after closing two or three schools. After closing two or three schools and making our students walk 1.5 and 2. miles and in a district without librarians we would have to find $24 million in cuts. And if we eliminated an entire central office we'd still be X amount short. So, that's that's the order of magnitude we're in. Thank you for the presentation. Um We have a lot more work to do so, but thank you for the work you did Barry. So, we know what to Uh huh. You know what's going on. Yeah. Uh
070I have to say in March here I'm running out of options. >> [laughter] >> I already had my meeting but getting caught for and caught for and There's only so much you can cut. Let me just give you fair warning. Only so much you can consciously cut. Very unbelievable. Thank you. Um So, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Seconded. Um All those in Aye. Adjourned at 6:40. After every March um