001Good evening. This is a call to order of the Bridgeport Board of Education um regular meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 14th, and it is 6:34 p.m. Um if everybody can please rise for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Benning, could you take the role? >> Good evening everyone. Mr. Woodson, Mr. Rover Traver, Mr. Joseph Suckiff, Miss Jennifer Perez, Mr. William Medina >> here, >> Miss Marites Jimenez, Miss Aisha Casemia, Miss Akisha Casemia. Yeah, >> Miss Christine Paris mess up here. >> Thank you. Um, we're going to start with the student representatives. We have two in person and we'll start with in person then we'll go online.
002So, we can when you're ready you could click the mic. Hello, my name is Brian Omea and I'm a senior at Aquaculture as well as student at Central Magnet High School. I'm proud to announce that our studentr run seafood market Angie's at Aqua is officially open for the new school year. The market operates every Thursday that school is in session from 3 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and features fresh student prepared seafood. It's a great opportunity for our community to support student learning and enjoy high quality products. Our oceanography class recently participated in the Yukon Early College Experience cardboard bow race and we placed third in our heat. Students said it was fun and educational experience and challenge their teamwork and engineering skills. We are also very excited to have launched the sailing club this year.
003Students have been actively preparing boat boat maneuvering balance and wind management. In addition to our non to our onampus activities, we've been reaching out to future Aqua students, we've held informational sessions at middle schools across our sending districts and welcome seventh and eighth graders from Bridgeport for a field trips to our school. These visits included tour of facilities and hands-on sciences activities either on our research vessel or our hatchery. Finally, I'd like to share the the applications for the next school year are now open and we're hosting an open house on October 22nd for any interested students and families. It's a great chance to learn more about our program and see what Aqua makes such a unique, inspiring place to learn. Thank you for your time and continued support of our program. >> Thank you.
004My name is Rebecca Bristol and I'm a senior at Harding High School. Um, so we have had so we've had a exciting start of the school year. Um, first we've had a student council who hosted our Harding 100th homecoming dance and over 200 students attended. Um we also had a student um a medical magnet academy who um raised money um to donate to charities that provide assistance to children fighting cancer and a medical magnet also plan on raising money and awareness during the bank and festival that will be happening like on the 23rd. Um and the full festival there will be floor games, crafts and face painting, music and all of these all created by students. Uh we have a bilingual department um who's going to be hosting a Hispanic heritage concert and multicultural fair
005this year. And lastly, we have created a senior committee um for the seniors at Harding known as the um Hing to ensure that they get to plan their senior year as they wish to and to make their senior year like um the best and memorable. Thank you for listening. Thank you. And then we have the student rep from BMA online. Good afternoon. My name is David. I'm representing Bridgeport Military Academy. Uh this past two weeks we have leadership training and the Columbus parade. Uh the leadership training last Friday on Friday 14th BMA NTC cadets went to the camp net in Nant Connecticut to participate in the area one basic leadership training. These training for cadets to hone their leadership skills. Events include a medical rely a statistic display in a of a city army national
006guard firetruck weapon for f formulization and took the army fitness test. Cadets earned the ribbon and represented BMA well with with two other schools. On s on Sunday 26 cadets marched in the 107th annual greeted Bridgeport area Columbus Day parade. Uh last week SAT for seniors and PSAT for juniors and sophomores and freshman uh 98% have completed the NWE um math benchmark for fall and nearly 95% have completed the reading plus for the fall. Um for this week we are the we are doing reading plus and K Academy and we are also planning homecoming and company competitions. Um thank you for your time. >> Thank you to the student reps. Um we look forward to continue hearing from you guys throughout the year. Um, next we have a public comment and just rest your >>
007um good evening. >> Um, Jess Rusto president at Park City Magnet School. Unfortunately, um, George Garcia and Dr. Eye aren't here. Um, but we just wanted to take a minute to thank some amazing people who helped our school beautifification project become such a success. A huge thank you to George Garcia and the entire BOE facilities crew, especially Penny who was incredible and to George's wife who jumped right in with so much enthusiasm and heart. It was uh such a great example of teamwork and meant a lot to all of us. We also want to thank the Aspetuck Land Trust for partnering with us and donating all the beautiful plants. The kids were so excited to help. They were digging and planting um laughing together and you could feel just the pride that they had in
008making their school look better. And a very special thank you to the acting superintendent, Dr. Avery. You didn't just show up. Um you stayed, you rolled up your sleeves, and you planted right alongside the kids. Uh my husband and I both said afterwards in all the years he's been in Bridgewart. We've never seen a superintendent do what you're doing. You're really connecting with the kids and the community, not just showing up for a photo, but actually being a part of it. Um, and we wanted to to we want we just want everyone to know how grateful Park City Magnet is for the kind for sorry, we just want everyone to know how grateful Park City Magnet is for the kind of leadership, teamwork, and genuine care. When our students see adults showing up for them
009like that, it teaches them pride, unity, and what community looks like. Bridgeport kids deserve this kind of love and leadership, and we're so thankful to everyone who helped that um make that happen. Um, we do have cars and stuff for them, but they're not here. So, I'll just give them to PJ. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um, next on the agenda, we have approval of the meeting minutes from the regular meeting on September 22nd, 2025. Is there a motion to approve those? Moved by Mr. Benahan, second by Mr. Traber. Any um do we discussion on that? Seeing none, all in favor to approve them say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes. Um, moving on to the chairperson's report. Um, I just want to give a quick update on some of the
010things we've worked on. Um, since last meeting, we had a workshop on September 30th to discuss our committee structure. Um, and uh, we we've uh, Pab facilitated that workshop. So, we were just discussing our current structure and what are some um, ideas we have for improvements. um and um looking at best practices. So, we're going to continue to work with Gabe. Um they're they're contract with us to support us um in in updating all our policies. So, um we're going to continue working on that um uh through the policy committee and um uh hopefully um sooner than later we'll have um that drafted out. Um uh we'll move on. Oh, any questions for that? Mr. Uh, Salib. >> Yeah. Um, I got a question about the last meeting agenda. We tabled an issue about the
011legal the legal services agreement. Um, there was three firms that bid. Um, couple of score sheets seem to need updating. It's been two weeks. Has one's not on the agenda this time. I know we've got uh legislation coming up where the city wants to take over the legal department. So, I think it will behoove us to get that settled before then so we avoid the appearance of trying to wait until after the election to see what's going to happen. >> Yeah, I'll get back to you. I'll try to have it for the next meeting. Um, it wasn't ready for us today. So, I'll uh double check with council on >> I mean, yeah, just just to be clear, what they need to do is add up about five scores ranging from one to five and
012just get it proper >> so it's not something that's very difficult for them to do. >> Anybody else? All righty. Um, for committee reports, um, the finance committee has not met since the last board meeting. Our next meeting is going to be on October 29th. Um, and, um, with that said, do you have any uh, referrals to that committee other than what was referred last time? >> Go ahead. >> Yeah, sorry. It's not really a referral, but have we gotten anywhere with finding out what contract we are now li viable bindable to from the state for the buses? Have we gotten any more information about that? >> Not yet, but I can bring it to the committee for report. >> Thank you. Yes, >> Mr. uh Medina. Yes, I haven't heard anything regarding the report
013on uh the finances for PTSO and PAC uh for the district pack. We've been waiting since last year and also I'm not sure if anything came up yet to update the pack and PTSO leaders on what funds they have available. Um I was asked by a few presidents trying to find out what they have in their budget that way they can plan and I haven't seen anything. So, >> okay. >> Thank you. >> I think that was Yeah, I we'll we'll try to get that out for you. Um, >> see nothing else, Mr. Treyber, your committee. >> Can you put your microphone on? >> Just again, this is in the realm of repetitive questions. Any news on the $5 million either? >> No, >> just nothing. Okay. >> All right. Um, do you want to
014do your report now, >> Mr. Ch? >> Hold on. I'm just writing. >> Uh, yes. Uh, Madam Chair, uh, the, uh, ISS committee met a couple of weeks ago and we, um, uh, approved several, uh, student actions. Um, the, um, debate team grant, which is that on here tonight? Yes. Item one and the new business and um the uh field trip to DC which is on here tonight, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. And then the um uh we then had a discussion about middle school sports um and began that discussion as an ongoing uh discussion throughout the year which was what we had initiated initially discussed last spring. So, we began that discussion as to what we're doing with middle school sports uh with the athletic director. Uh we got an update on staffing uh
015and a report that was presented to us at the meeting. Um and we will continue that discussion. Again, it's an ongoing uh topic of discussion at the committee. Um and um uh we also initiated the discussion on the re uh turn of kindergarten parents. Um and at that point we passed the referral that's being brought to the full board tonight. Um or actually was brought to the full board at the special meeting last week uh to bring kindergarten Paris back uh to the level they were at last year. Um and then we got an update on special ed and um we tabled the discussion on the technology update which we will discuss at the committee meeting at the end of the month. >> When's your next committee meeting? >> Pardon me. >> Next meeting is
016what? >> Uh it's the fourth Wednesday. So it would be hold on let me just get my calendar out. That would be >> 22. >> 1 2 3 4 22nd. So, next a week from tomorrow. >> Okay. Any referrals for the instruction support services committee? >> None. All right. We'll move on. Um, first I just want to know Miss Esther Mayor Jimenez has joined online. Um, Mr. Medina, Policy and Personnel Committee. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, policy and personnel committee met uh on October 8th. Um, we have a few items that were moved forward. Uh we had some great discussions. I want to thank personally uh Miss Marissa Himenez on her great work and following up on in every item. It was a busy task. We definitely did still have a lot of homework
017to do and a lot of work that's being done, but we have made great headway on many items. Uh which we had like from letter A to K and we literally did uh every single one of them and work. A few of them are before us tonight. Uh our next meeting will be November 12th uh which is again the uh second Wednesday of the month. And if there's any other referrals or questions. >> Thank you. M the facilities committee um has met or has not met since the last meeting. It's scheduled to meet the um 5th, November 5th. Um we will be adding everything from the cancelled meeting back on that agenda um as well as um some updates on uh that were referred um by Mr. Medina the last time. Yeah, last morning. >>
018So um there my email um so any referrals Mr. Sakalic? Yeah, you got my standing referral on the facilities master plan discussion. >> Mr. Chabber, >> just when is the meeting? >> Uh, November 5th. >> When is the meeting? Sorry. >> November 5th. Some dead body that'll be falling in here on November 5th. >> All right. Um, >> when was policy? I'm sorry. >> Sorry, sir. Yes. November 12th is the next meeting. >> 12 and finance. I missed that. I'm Paul. >> Finances. Uh October 29th. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um Mr. Kick, do you have anything for Cave? >> Just came. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Third Thursday is going to be the CAB legal workshops um meeting if whoever signed up if I don't know if it's too late to sign up if anybody
019wants to go it's 8:30 at the lysum is registration and 9 9 to 12 is the program they're going to be discussing understanding the legal pitfalls of social media use by board members and administrators a year in review and court important court and agency decisions since October and managing employee attendance despite new legislative mandates All right. So, um, we're going to move on. Uh, Miss Hughes, are you doing the superintendent report? Miss Hughes or Okay. Mr. Karatha and Miss Hughes will be delivering Dr. Avery's report. Dr. Avery's out today. Um, so in his absence, um, the our assistant superintendent and Mr. Parafa, what's your title? um >> chief information officer will be um presenting. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening. All right. Today, we're going to take you through the superintendence report.
020Uh, basically, I wanted to talk about October 1st. Right now, our collection. So, part of this is important for you to know some of this information. I'll talk a little bit about uh not only the collection, but um the collection period. We'll look at comparisons between last year and this year and pretty much get an idea of what we're looking at for our student counts as well as some other information that um is available in the packet. So this year, um, everyone knows that our October 1st collection is really from October 1st to January 26th, which is, uh, excuse me, January 31st, 2026, which is our freeze date. That means we have between now October 1st and January 31st 2026 to be able to uh fix data, clean data, be able to work on um
021uh elements of the data that we have given to the state. What happens is during October 1st um there are a lot of things that happen. That's the date they use to pay us um for the students who are sitting in the seats in the classroom. With that date coming on um they have a system called PSIS which is the public school information system. Basically what happens is we register every child that's registered goes up to the PSIS system which is the public school information system and the state has a record of those students. There are some cases where they're called concurrent cases where for instance a student is registered in Bridgeport but takes the day off and then decides to go to another district. They enroll them on that day and then we do
022kind of a court case which is we fight to say nope they've been with us. The other district says nope they've been with us. And basically that's how we resolve and get these students back into the district. As of today, we're about 517 students short of where we were last year. So, our enrollment right now um is obviously not to where we need it. We have a brand new enrollment center that has been doing extended hours and has been working with families to try to bring them in. I will admit, we're still having issues with ICE and um certain families um that will not register for whatever the reason may be. As you can see, our um our count right now as of 109 was 19 thou 19,132 students. at that time. Um, we are
023now approximately 517 students less than where we were at that point. Certain grade levels that come out of this are our first grade seems to be down 165 students and our fourth grade seems to be down 133 students. I don't have answers for that on why they're down. I can tell you that um as I spoke at the podium before, we do have approximately anywhere between 6,000 and 6,200 students who live in Bridgeport who do not go to a Bridgeport public school. Those children either go to a private parochial charter. They come in and out of the district um every year. Our exits right now are approximately uh 1,630 students as of 71. Our entries at this point are 2,312 students. What that means is as fast as they're exiting, they're coming back into the
024district. Also, usually when we look at 20,000 or 20,000 uh you know 100 students, we're looking at somewhere around anywhere between 23 to 25,000 students that walk in the door and either stay with us or exit and go on to another district. For instance, I wanted to bring this up before we get on to the next page. um our uh facility codes are broke down um by state code. So what the state does is the state has a um standard defined code system that lets us know when a student exits where they exit to. For instance, an O2 is a public and instate um school district. And right now we have 524 of our students who have left Bridgeport public schools to go to the surrounding towns or in a city somewhere inside of Connecticut.
025We have approximately of our children who have left us since and they are going to a charter school. Those are the two largest components of exits that happen in Bridgeport public schools. It's either they're going to a charter school or they're going to somewhere else in Connecticut, not to not in Bridgeport public schools. Okay. Now, um the other thing I wanted to point out about um our enrollment is that um with the hard work of the enrollment center is they're also helping families not only the extended hours, but they're trying to support with medical documentation. They're also um personalized assistance with enrolling um families into the district. And um as we do every year, we try to put out a memo and actually go ahead and get kids into our seats. We do the best
026we can to enroll them. I don't want to say recruit because that's the wrong word, but we we, you know, discuss with them how great Pitchboard public schools are and we try to get him in the seat by October 1st. With that being said, um I wanted to take you to the second page right now of the Okay, this is a little a little bit of history that we discuss and this second page is just there are a lot of questions asked. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. Fine. Give during is fine. As Madam Chair, >> go ahead. Do we know? Do you know? >> Um, you mentioned the concern about what effect ICE may be having. >> Do we know if there's a commensurate drop or decline in other districts, >> other urbans particularly? >> Honestly,
027I could I can only speak for us that ELLL from last year to this year has lost approximately 263 students from where we were last year. at this point in time. >> But we don't know for instance Stamford, Norwok, New York, honestly. I do not >> we don't know if they're suffering the same. >> I do not >> or if this is unique to Bridgeport. >> No, I I mean I can say to you parents have come in and they have talked about their concerns inside the enrollment center about enrollment and being targeted. >> I understand. That's why I'm I'm looking for systemic I'm looking for a systemic answer. if we're seeing this pattern, if the state is seeing this pattern. >> No, we don't know. >> I I don't know. >> That's fine. Thank
028you. >> We're gonna I'm actually gonna hold questions till you're done with presenting. >> Okay. So So right now, I know there's a lot of questions. We we tried to put a magnet um not really magnet, but a magnet data breakdown as well as a grade seven, eight, a grade six, seven, eight. These are just some of the questions that you ask all the time. For instance, central magnet. We wanted to give you an idea of how many students are in Central and how many students take part in the Central Magnet program. Right now, as of when we pulled the report, there were 452 students who were inside of the Central Magnet program inside of Central High School. It's important. I think what we're going to start doing with these reports is showing you the
029point in time from last year at this time to this year at this time. so you can get a a global view on what's going on. Um, our seventh and eighth grade, we show you that count because a lot of times we're being asked, can we open up middle schools or can we do something? Um you get an idea that with 2,839 students in grades seven and eight or in grades six, seven and eight which is 4,241 students. Um we have a decent number of six, seven and eight students as well as seven and eight students who are in the Bridgeport public schools. Um the question has been asked about Fairchild. So we put that in here so everyone can get an idea as of when the report was run. Um on 10 9 we
030had 1,56 students who were in Fairchild Wheeler. Um and it's broken down by the school. So you can see that we also broke down the intrad district magnet and interd district magnet. Um so you can see the counts of that. Questions came up about aqua students. So we kind of put it on here. how many Bridgeport students are going to the aquaculture school and where they're coming from and RCA. Um there was questions asked that we wanted to make sure we captured. I know it's kind of hard to see. It should be in the packet um of how many students are going to RCA uh from our high schools. Okay, next slide. Okay, so this is district enrollment really quick based on sped um and MLL uh as well as duly identified. This is just
031a breakdown for you. I'm not going to get into all of the numbers here. I wanted to make sure you had it. I really want to get into mobility and talk about that a little bit on the next slide. um this year, you know, as usual, as I said, we are stable in special ed. In other words, um what we had last year is close to what we have this year. Um but our MLL numbers, um are going down, as I said, uh approximately 264, I think less than where we were at last year at this time. That's not to say it won't go up again, but I'm saying with decline of enrollments, you're going to get decline in that area also. All right, let me take you to the next slide, which is the
032mobility slide. And we can talk about that a little bit. Okay, so we do a breakdown on mobility a lot. So mobility what what I try to do is on um on this slide give you a mobility explanation. So this is the explanation that came out and what we use is based on how the state calculates their mobility. They do what's called the joiners plus levers formula and it's pretty much your your entries plus withdrawals divided by total enrollment times 100. Okay, with that being said, um we right now average somewhere in our high schools close to, you know, um 30 to about 45% mobility based on the high schools. It's early now so there's not that much movement as you see but in hall school alone you know for an enrollment purpose and entries
033and withdrawals our mobility rate at this point is 22.38% of those students who are moving in and out of hall school same with Dumbar if you look at Dumbar out of the 468 students there were 46 entries and there were 54 withdrawals which gives them a mobility rate of 21.37. Some of our children will end up in two, three, four, five, and six different schools based on um living conditions, based on families um who are having challenges. um when we discuss you know at a certain point um student engagement, parental engagement, you will find that some of these families um have participated in four and five different schools by the time the year is over. Um I can't speak of why families move or where they're going. This is not control transfers at this point.
034These are entries and exits that are happening inside of the school and that's how we do our mobility rates based on that. These mobility rates by the end of the year will be somewhere up to about in a district wide somewhere around 30%. So our mobility is moving when we talk about you know why special ed students or why regular ed students well they're mobile. I mean, they're transient. Um, they're going from building to building based on, you know, money or or circumstances or situations um from the family. I look at this a lot when we're talking about area kids, kids who are in their attendance zones, kids who stay in that neighborhood school. Sometimes it's not that a kid doesn't want to stay in a neighborhood school. it's that the family has no choice
035but to go to, you know, uh, two other schools based on living conditions or um, based on um, you know, uh, other circumstances that that transpire. I wanted to put that in front of you um, so you had an idea of how the district calculates it. Next time we'll bring in so you can see the special ed we we broke it out for you where we have mobility rates. Um, this happens to be everybody, but we recently broke it out. Next time Dr. Avery's report comes out, we'll bring that out so you can get an idea what that looks like. Um, we also did MLL, so we'll put that in there so that you can see some of those families who are moving. Also, this is a combination of everybody that you have in front
036of you. So, you don't have those other two, but I want you to get and be aware of the mobility of those children also to have an understanding um the different areas and different schools that they're going to. We have approximately, so it's not on on the sheet, but I do want to bring it up. We have approximately um by the time the year is done anywhere between five and 800 control transfers that are asked each year. This year happens to be a little less at this point. Now we're probably at about a couple I know we're about 240 last time I talked less than where we're at where we were at last year. um those numbers are are pretty high. When you ask me, well, what areas? It's all over the place. It isn't
037really targeted to a certain area. It's targeted to um you know, I guess all areas. I mean, every school has controlled transfers or asks for control transfers. Um we do need to look at policy and start working on it, Mr. Medina. Um at that point, I think it's important. Um, a lot of what we were looking at from a demographic study and everything else, the questions were brought up about how many of our kids were out on control transfers, how many kids are mobile and stay at their home school at this point for their career at that school. Those are questions that have been asked and hopefully um when we start having our discussions we can bring it out and enlighten you with those children who have been in their schools for their career and
038those kids who have been in multiple schools based on their career being here. Okay. Um next racial survey. Um I just I just brought this up quick. This is a lot of numbers. So I I don't I don't I'm don't want to really go through the numbers. It's for you. I will tell you that we've done some analysis right now. And when when we look at um Hispanic Latino right now you're at about 62%. Um the reality is um at this point it's probably truer somewhere more around 66% when we look at um the truth in what's there. Right now we're looking at 62%. The black and afroamerican is around 26.17. And then you could see some of the other populations um that are inside uh and where they stand. Um I'm finding that the
039numbers are close to where they were last year as far as enrollment at this time and as far as um the racial um survey is broken down. So we're we're really again with those 500 students short, but you know in capacity we are pretty much around exactly what we had last year um in in those ethnic you know um areas is what we should say. Um I'll take questions now if anyone has any. >> Mr. Kovic >> yeah I'll go in order in uh of the presentation. Um >> yeah, first first off, the decrease in enrollment of 517 students is a little troubling. While it's going to have some impact on the fi on our finances, but not an immediate impact because we're held we're held harmless. But however, as these students metriculate, if we
040do not reverse this trend, eventually we will get 517,000 times 517 times 11,000 from the state less. Mhm. >> to deal with these students. Um there will be some impact because whatever students we don't capture this year, there's going to be a few dollars that we don't get on top of our ECS for the students that we would have gotten that over here. Now, so that's one thing I would like. Um you mentioned that um the outflow 500 and change I believe it was to charter and state schools. >> Yes. How does that compare year over year like year-over-year? Is that a common trend or is it >> Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really it's a common trend. I mean, um we we find a lot more are going into charters and then the reality is
041at the end of the year or in the middle of the year, they end up coming out and coming back to us. So, it's kind of an I'm not saying for everyone, but it's an in andout process. It depends on where we are in the year. Meaning we lose them but then we gain them again you know mid year. The state doesn't do their Joe I think that what what you're asking for is the state doesn't do their calculations on it's that October 1st number. So if we gain them back in January we we we have them. It's we we have to educate them but we're not getting the funding for them is I think your question. >> Right. Now what what what would you say the percentage of those are that come back after
042October 1st? >> High and and I I I would say a large number of students. We're also getting them in from other countries. Obviously with what's going on in in our nation, it's a little different, but the trend has been after January or inside of January, they're coming back and we see an influx of students who are coming in. So that October 1st number, as we said, that's another thing we need to, you know, work on from a state law perspective because it does not capture properly the students that are coming in and out of Bridgeport public schools, >> right? Maybe we should lobby some sort of a pro proportion proportional funding. Makes >> sense. They leave, they >> get X amount of funding for the year, and then it comes back to whoever is
043hosting the student. That's a good point. Um, all right. Uh, you said there's 62 Bridgeport students in Aqua. What's the percentage of the overall student? >> I I got to get that. I I think and and yeah, don't quote me on that, but I think there was 20 and I don't know. I I got to get it for I don't know if it's 283 what the number was. So, I don't know what the percentage is, but it was somewhere there. It's close to 300 kids that Aqua has every year. And out of that percent, we're actually up this year. We we're usually down to like 40 kids from Bridgeport. >> Yeah, that that's a little troubling because at best that's 25% of the students at Aqua, the school that we host and our other >>
044magnet schools are basically 75% is statemandated. >> So our students aren't taking advantage of the program within our own district. And that goes towards we need to market this better towards our students because this is a great program. >> Our students should definitely have first crack at it. And as >> I haven't looked at the racial breakdown in the school, but I'm assuming I'll take a I'll make the assumption since there's a lot more surrounding districts that >> there is there is there is >> demographic. >> Yeah. I mean I mean that's an area we need to work on. We need to work on um recruiting and bringing our children in. It is a great program. It's something that uh you know I think it would be a positive for our students and we got
045to do a little bit better job on um you know showing them what Aqua is all about. >> Okay. And then next up, you said uh a lot of the um impact on um students, the decrease in enrollment was um you mentioned ICE. >> And now I want to address the um the MLL decrease as well this year in percentage. What's the overall percentage of MLL >> currently? It's I >> I mean we're less than 6,000. Last year we were almost we were 6,200 plus. So we're at about 59 around 5931 now is where we are. >> So approximately 30% and change >> about 30%. Yeah, somewhere around there. >> Right. And I just want to make this point that the outflow. So what's the percentage of English language learners departing the district in comparison
046to >> I I'll get you I'll get you those. It's a great question. I don't have it in front of me, but I'll get you those numbers. >> Right. Because because that brings to mind is with the people with some students fleeing to charter schools which all have less than uh 10 to 15% English language learner ex student body. >> Sure. is really very telling because of course if you compare our charter schools to our schools and people taking the test in the language that they're not familiar with, >> right, >> we're not going to do as well and they're going to continue to cream our students and reap the financial benefits for their districts. >> Well, I I can just really quick and I don't I don't want to over talk, but I think
047it's important you know this. our our charter schools. For instance, in Achievement First, um when I pulled it today, there's 1,092 Bridgeport students who go there. Capitol Prep, uh Preparatory Harbor School, there's 828 Bridgeport students who go. Great Oaks Charter School, 772 Bridgeport students who go there. New Beginnings, students who go there. Park City Prep Charter School, 459 Bridgeport students, and the Bridge Academy, 320 Bridgeport students. >> Yeah, that's >> so do the math. It's almost 3,000 kids who are >> and very few very few of them are. >> So, in achievement first, we have 1,092 Pritchport students as of today. Capitol Prep, we have 828 Bridgeport students as of today. Great Oaks Charter School, we have 772 Bridgeport students as of today. Uh, New Beginnings, we have 495. Park City Prep, we have 459.
048In the bridge academy we have 320. >> I just wanted to get the actual number of English language learners as a percent for for example capital prep which is the largest. Correct. 10.4% English language learners. A 20 something point disparity between us and >> achievement first is number one. >> Oh okay I apologize. >> 92. So yeah, but even all none of those numbers exceed 15% of English language learners, which is really really something. They should not be approving any other charter schools until they are equitably educating all students across all demographics as we do. And final question is okay. Okay. You said you mentioned the mobility rate of about 30% pe with within the district. Mhm. When students move from school to school, is there any possibility of them being lost in the enrollment
049count for a period of time? No. >> So, so state law, here's the law. And so, you can get an understanding of that. When a student transfers or asks for a transfer, it's called an 01. That's an indistrict transfer. when they ask for an IND district transfer, the home school or the sending school is responsible for that student until that child gets into the receiving school. Once they get into the receiving school, then it's no longer their responsibility to follow the child because the receiving school has that student who has walked in the door. We make sure based on the state we don't have, you know, truent officers or anybody to really go out. But what we do is we go through our due process that allows us to find that student and make sure
050that student, especially in district, got from point A to point B. That we do very well. where we don't do very well is when they leave Bridgeport and they fill out, you know, at this point um and withdrawal form and they end up going to Stratford or Trumble or somewhere further than that, we don't really have anybody to go out and make sure that they got from point A to point B. We do have a brand new record system that we are not allowing parents to have um copies. They can have a copy, but that copy right now is not an original. So, at this point, it says it right underneath so that the schools have to call us and we can make sure that that student got from point A to point B. That's
051the new software that we brought in. I think it's important because it helps us follow through on where that student is. They said they were going to Milford. They still haven't gotten there. We are responsible in making a phone call saying Milford hasn't called for your official transcripts. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Mr. Medina, >> thank you. Can you go back to the other one, the Aqua one, please? >> Thank you. Um, I was just noticing in the Aqua and RCA, Central High School is under 40 plus participating. >> Basic Aqua is nine. Harding is 12. For AWA, for RCA is seven for Bassic. Two for Bridgeport Military Academy. Hooray. And then 14 for Harding. See a big gap like Central students are heading over there. And I know Central is heavily populated. Um
052but like why do we have that huge gap number in um >> yeah I mean >> that that gap has been there for a few years. I don't know if I can answer that meaning why there's such a gap. Uh I can't say that. I know that Central High School does a lot of promoting to get their students into programming and into programs. I just can't speak of why you know Harding and and Bassic are where they are. Um then you mentioned about uh my understanding right the data that you just gave us concerning the kids that are going out after uh January 31st. >> Mhm. >> If a student came into our district from any other district or the state is not funding for the student. >> Nope. >> No. So it's it's the
053students who were with us on October 1st is what it was. those students who are sitting in a classroom, that's how they do their funding model. Um, I'm not saying I agree with it and that's the right way to do it, but that's the way it's been done for years. What we do between October 1st and January 31st of the next year is consolidate and reconcile those records that are in there to make sure that on October 1st, everybody we have in there was sitting in a seat. And that's where the concurrent registrations come in where um we I don't want to say fight, but we prove that the child was sitting in a seat on October 1st at Bridgeport Public Schools. Our problem is and and and I think Mr. Traber brought it up
054and and and everything else is we have an influx of children who are coming in in January or in February. There should be some funding model to where they're giving us a percentage for those students who are coming in or prorating or whatever they're doing to make sure that those kids or we have some adequate funding because that's not how it works. >> Yeah. When you're talking about special ed and I didn't want to touch on that, then you're talking about those numbers could be crazy. >> Absolutely. If we're not getting funded for a special ed kid after that date. So I don't know if this is uh only for regular ed and not >> just every student. >> It's every Yeah, this is this is every student. Yeah. >> For talk. Uh >> I'll
055leave my other questions. Thank you >> Mr. Mr. Chamber. >> Yeah. First off, following up on what Mr. Medina was just asking, did have you analyzed whether those students from Central or Central Magnet or Central uh the the other Central High School, the general uh high school? Are you talking about for Aqua and RCA is what you're talking about? Actually, it for for Aqua Central Magnet um students who are coming in and for RCA it's a plethora of students who um are in the arts. Yes. Yeah. I I mean I guess it also deals with absenteeism too. you know, when you're involved in these programs and you're going out, a lot of it is you want to also make sure students you're sending are the proper students who are going to go there for a
056learning environment rather than the child who's absent every other day. >> I just think that we need to make sure what you said a moment ago is correct. >> But I'm I'm I'm just you need to we need to do a good job of marketing among our our regular high school students. >> Yeah. I I'm in agreement. I mean, >> I think there's self marketing when you're at the magnet, but when you want to get in, we need to do a better job ourselves. That's that becomes more incumbent on us >> to get in and talk to the students about what options are available. And I think we're probably remiss. My guess, my my my assumption would be that we're remiss in not getting out there and recruiting students who might be interested in Aqua,
057who might be interested in RCA because they're in the regular high school. And so that would be incumbent on us to do a better job of getting out getting those students who might have an interest in something like that. >> Sure. And I'm in agreement we could always do a better job. I mean, that's that's part of the process. understand one of the problems is the abil the people to do that but we we do need to do a better job. >> Um I want to go back to the Fairchild Wheeler numbers and draw attention. I'm assuming that these Fairchild Wheeler numbers are just the Bridgeport students from your presentation. >> No, >> the Fairchild Wheeler numbers,56 students include the suburban kids. >> Yes, >> that was from 109. >> Okay. So, can you tell
058me how many of those,56 students are Bridgeport students? >> Not at this point right now, but I can tell you at for the next meeting or I can get you that data of who of those,56 students are Bridgeport students. >> So, this is a high school that could have 1500 students. >> Yeah. 500 per school. >> Per school. And out of that we have just over twothirds of it filled. >> Correct. >> And they're not all Bridgeport. And that's not the Bridgeport population. >> No, not the full. >> We've lamented the number of empty seats in the building and I was thinking that this was the 500. >> So it's not even it's worse than that. >> No. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Uh, and um I want to underscore a point that I
059think Mr. Scalivik was making also that if we're down 264 in the multil- language learners, um, charters are not the place they're going because charters are not the place that um, recruit >> multil- language learners. They're not known for their capacity. Um, uh, and I want to emphasize what Mr. Medina just said in my experience while teaching um I would get students back after October 1st from charter schools who were pushed out as problem students. >> Absolutely. >> That the charter school did not want to keep and there was a it was not unusual to find a special ed student pushed out because they were a problem student. They did not want that student there. They wanted to push them back into our student population. And frankly, I would often counsel the parent, the student
060was better off with us because the student was going to get more immediate uh attention in the building at at Black where I was teaching because the special ed teachers were present and more available to that student. But it meant that they had kept them until after October 1st. So they got credit with the state for having that student in their school until after October 1st. >> Absolutely. >> Um the um uh uh the I believe do you have the numbers? Do you keep track? You gave us the numbers for all the pre uh charter schools. I believe they're growing in Bridgeport because they've been allowed to expand. They're not we're not getting new charters, but I believe the existing ones are being allowed to expand. >> I know they're building a they are getting
061a new building. Um I'm not sure if it's new be one of those charter schools. They're building they have a new building for prek. So that's being built as we speak as as I speak. And um so there will be some uh growth uh for the prek students uh inside of the charters, but pretty much unless they're getting bigger buildings, they're probably at the capacity or somewhere around the capacity for the buildings they have >> in within the buildings they have. Yes. But I believe that they are u moving some of them. For instance, um Capital Prep is moving out of St. Ambrose and moving into a new building. So I believe that's to allow them um >> to expand. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Um so I I think that we just need to
062be aware uh because that is something that we need to be um dealing with. Um and it is a concern. Um let me see. I had want to come back to you. >> I take I think that's it for now. Thank you. >> Um Mr. Bahan, then Miss Hughes. >> Mr. Medina, I had a question. Mr. Ben, Mr. Medina, then Miss Hughes. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I heard you about you talk about the state this, the state made this, the state made decision and state that the state they don't see what we're going through and you know we I'm tired to say this and you you guys the team the cabinet do amazing job but they don't see what we're going through right now. You make the count amount of the students. I
063just give you like a 3,688 students almost go to the charter school in the state. They don't see how much how many kids we have. Imagine if we recruited these kids, you know, and it's not easy. And I I don't like when the state made that decision. When the state didn't come, it's very easy from the office and make decision, but they don't come here and look and talk say come with you all of you and look the papers and go through about the books. Let's put it this way. That's the way I say about the books and what you go through and you what you have to do what you do. Sometime you got to do miracles to be sure uh books are very correctly, you know. And I'm very appreciate that you guys
064do amazing job and tell it's not easy especially I see your staff working Saturday Sundays you know when you're supposed to make it relaxing with your family you working the state they don't see that us we see that and I just want to put that for the record here because I really appreciate that you guys very do amazing job so I just want to say thank you for that >> thank you >> Mr. Medina >> just rough number on that uh fair child winner Mr. It's about 265 out of state according to the numbers. We know the data is like one to three. Um also just on the the whole charter school and you know just >> later on you can give me those numbers or get us the numbers. I was just wondering demographically
065as far as our district for example, how many students, you know, from Dumbar or Moren are going into charter schools and I'm thinking about in the lines of, you know, demographically also because we pay for that transportation and, you know, transportation is one of our big hits to our our numbers and we're sending kids to charter schools, all different spots. So, I'm wondering where are they coming from that they're going to charters? You know, if you can get me some data there >> can get you those numbers. Yeah. >> Thank you very much. >> Miss Hughes, we'll have we're gonna move on and then come back to >> let's let's get the rest of the presentation and then you ask the question. >> Go ahead. You ready? You you you've spoken twice already. >> Spoke
066once. >> Go ahead. >> Um I I just want to point out we can you you you're born and raised. >> We've had discussions Looking at the mobility, you can look at the neighborhoods where the heat it occurs. Just in my neighborhood, Hall is twice as high as Edison. The neighborhood has a lot more rentals. it it's just one side the other of Boston Avenue and you have twice the mobility problem because the housing is much more densely rental housing and so people are moving a lot more and that's part of what's we have a housing insecurity problem in Bridgeport that's worsening >> thank you miss >> evening everyone slide. >> The final one. >> Last slide. >> Thank you. This is a summary of the division of curriculum and instruction for the month of
067September September 8th through 10:10. The work that we've been doing. Our number one priority for the division is to support our principles and our teachers. We have seven directors, two executive directors as of last Monday and myself that are contributed to these numbers. There's approximately 117 classrooms in Bridgeport public schools. We visited 36 schools. The other two, SCANE and BLC are visited by our uh special ed department. We've been through 218 classroom walkthroughs. This is where our we have a strategic school plan where we visit we we don't we're not on top of each other but we visit different schools across the a district. Um what this doesn't include are the number of teachers that are supported through through these classroom walkthroughs. We're going to start keeping track of that as well. 27 schools receive
068climate and culture support. We've had between the two executive directors and myself, we've had 20 principal what we call one-to-one support meetings. They include not only walk discussing walkthrough results, but also strategic uh strategic operating uh brainstorming if you will with with the principles. We've had from professional learning, that's the PL, we have done one session for teachers and three sessions for administrators. I just thought that you would this information would be useful for you to see that we are out there. We are on the ground every day of the week except Fridays. We do spend a lot of Fridays in the office. >> Thank you. Do you have any further questions on the superintendent's report? >> On the reporting, >> Mr. Chber, go ahead. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um what is the school's climate
069and culture support entail? >> Visiting with uh attendance teams looking at there uh uh schools are meeting weekly with attendance teams. So they're going in and uh doing the attendance with them. also going in when there is any kind of unfortunately we've had some tragedies in the district going in and providing support within the school uh counseling support specifically uh climate and culture where uh schools are preparing their emergency plans and submitting those and conferring on an as needed basis for that as well. >> So when you say there's 27 take Setting aside the tragedies, how many of these are regular? You said dealing with attendance. I assume that's like business as usual. >> That's the majority on >> there were probably three tragedies. >> These were three tragedies. So 24 >> 24 are regular
070business. >> Um of the 36 schools visited, that means that 12 were not dealing with climate and culture. >> Well, there's only one director in that department. So, um, she gets the, you know, she's making the coverage by herself at those schools. >> So, they're all in longing to be visited. >> Yes, absolutely. And we have a strategic plan uh, between now and uh, Thanksgiving, which we'll revisit and restructure it for the next 3 months. >> So, between now and Thanksgiving, the remainder will be done. >> Yes. All schools will be visited by the majority of directors by Thanksgiving. Thank you. >> Did you have a question, >> Mr. Medina? >> Thank you. I see that you guys visited schools and I just want to note that there's 20 principles that had one- on-one uh
071support after. And I just I don't know why I highlighted that and I just saw I like that number and I and appreciate that you guys are going back and having that one-on-one discussion. Um but I'm sure all the other ones and I would love to hear continuous on that because that is great that they're seeing you guys and not only seeing you guys but then you guys are spending that time to have kind of like that those conversations. to clarify that there are uh the classroom walkthroughs all the directors prepare principal um summaries and email to them after their visit when we're we meet as a division on Friday we take a look at we look at trends where do we need to provide more support where do we need to provide more professional
072learning um to that end but there's the two executive directors and myself do the principal onetoone kind of bringing together what we're seeing across the walkthroughs >> congrats All right. Well, see no other questions. Um, thank you, Mr. Grapha, Miss Hughes for the presentation tonight. We'll move on to new business. Um, the first item on the agenda um went through the instruction support services committee. Um, and it's approval of the Bridgeport Public Schools Debate League trip to Washington DC to participate in the Washington DC Urban Debate League Dragon Tournament on November 6th through 9th, 2025. Is there a motion to move that to approve that? >> Mr. Traber um makes the motion. >> Second. >> Mr. Sakovic seconds it. Any further debate on that? Uh, all in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions?
073All right. Um, that passes. The next one, um, this hasn't gone through committee, so um, we're going to have a quick presentation on it. Um, approval of the the Roosevelt School overnight field trip to the People's State Forest, Barkhamstead, Connecticut, October 23rd through 24th. So, when you're ready, oh, click it one more time. >> Oh, click it one more time. I think it turned off. There you go. >> Oh, good evening everybody. My name is Jackie Simmons and I'm the principal of Theodore Roosevelt School. Uh this is going to be our first overnight trip in about 10 years. So we're very very excited about this. My physical education teacher, Miss Ortiz, has partnered up with an amazing organization called Outside Perspective. And they focus on physically active programs, building trust, empowering children, teamwork, applying skills
074they learn. They go hiking, they go camping, uh they go rock climbing. Um applying those skills, learning respect for the environment. They've done that since last year. She partners with them to fund raise. Uh over the summer they did some activities. They are looking forward to going to the people's state first uh bark barkhamstead in Connecticut. It'll be approximately 12 students with two certified chaperoons certified in wilderness training and wilderness medicine. They will leave on Friday the 24th and return the afternoon of Saturday the 25th. Um, and they are going to go climbing, camping, looking at things at sunset, making breakfast, making their uh, meals. Uh, and what we've done so far, um, since they went last year, it's been really an amazing thing. We have quite an interesting group of children, many children who
075you wouldn't think would be involved in this, and the parents are really, really loving it as well. So, we're hoping to expand this program actually um, after we go through this. Any questions? >> Just to clarify. >> Yeah. So, I see a typo on this because this says October 23rd, but it would be Friday. So, I'll resubmit the package. >> I'll just make sure that um we make the motion to correct it. >> Thank you very much. >> Any question, Mr. Sakalo? >> Yeah. I apologize if any of this is packet. I haven't had a chance to look at it. Um uh what's what's the ratio of the the chaperones to >> One to six. And that's in compliance with our Okay, that's one. Everybody's medical clearance is cleared. >> Correct. >> Okay. Transportation we're
076using. We transport another firm? >> No, we have another private one. And in the packet is the is the pack and the insurance. >> Okay. And all permission slips. That's all. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> No further questions. Um, if you make the motion, can you just make sure the date is changed to 24th, 25th? Whoever wants to make that motion 24th 25th >> The motion was made by Mr. Treybert. John, did you get that? It was off mic, but I don't know if you got it. I'm sure you got it. All right. The motion was made. Um, is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Um, all in favor? Any further debate? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hope they have a great time. >> Thank you so
077much. >> We hope that we can get more students out there, too. >> Well, for the wilderness. Oh. All right. The next item. Have a good night. Um the next item on the agenda, um there was an error in the minutes, so we just had to um correct it to this date that's on the agenda. So, if you if somebody wants to read that, Mr. Traver, put your mic on. Thank you. I I move um >> you could just read it exactly how it's working. I know I'm going to, but I think you got to move for the approval of the correction of the April 28th, 2025 board minutes to read quote pursuant to the Connecticut General Statute section 10-215F comma food and nutrition services, Bridgeport Public Schools certified that all food items offered for
078sale to the students in the schools under its jurisdiction, comma, and notexempt Comma from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education, will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2064 >> to to read >> to read June 30th, 2026. Period. >> That was moved. Is there a second? >> Second, Mr. Sakalic. Um, any further debate? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes. Um, the next item on the agenda is the approval to suspend bylaw 9310 for the purpose immediate of immediate implementation of policy P 3011 internal control. Is there a motion to suspend the bylaws? >> So moved. Moved by Mrs. Calvix. Second by Mr. Dina. All in favor say I. >> I. >>
079Any opposed? Any abstensions? And um so that passes. So uh we're looking to approve policy P uh 3011 internal control. Um this went through committee. So Mr. Medina's moving it. Is there a second? >> A second by Mr. Sakalic. Any further debate on this? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed. Any abstensions? Um is there any further business tonight? So seeing none um is there a motion to adjourn? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Moved by Mr. Sakalic, second by Mr. Medina. Um all in favor I >> meeting adjourns at 7:48. Have a great night.