001Good evening everybody. Uh all right. Good evening. Um this is a uh special meeting of the Bridgeport Board of Education. Um a community forum, one of four community forums. Too close here. Um I want to first um thank you all for coming out. Uh we are starting the meeting at 6:06 for the record. Um and today's July 9th. Um so the purpose of this forum is um the board of education will be in the near future um creating a strategic plan with the superintendent's office. Um and that's going to be down the line. But at this point, we do want to get start gathering community input for the vision that parents, community members, students, teachers, staff have for uh Bridgeport Public Schools. So, the board of education like I said will be holding four forums
002and then this month um and today we have uh Faith Vieos who is going to co-f facil or facilitate this forum for us. Um before I get started, I do want to introduce the board or have intro board members introduce themselves. Um they're going to just say their name, uh role, and uh years on the board. Um I'll start with Jennifer Perez. I'm the chairperson. Um and I've been on the board for going on two years now. Uh if you have a microphone at your desk, Bridgeport Board of Education 70 member vice chair. My name is Rob Traber. I was appointed to the board in March of 23 uh when there was a vacancy. Mr. Al Banan. I'm the secretary of going for six years as the board and I'm here for help and support
003parenting and staff. Thank you. Uh Andre Woodson. I've been on the board for a little under two years and um just just Marissa Shira Himenez. I have been on the board for a few months now. Thank you. Uh Willie Medina. Um been on the board about a year and a half. Uh and I chair the personnel and policy committee. Thank you. I didn't see any other board members here. Um, so, um, like I said, we really want to just, um, gather your input for this, um, forum and so, uh, we going to explain the the process, I guess, so I'll pass it over to you. Thank you. Um, yeah, she let me use it, so I went with the flow. But, uh, good evening and thank everyone for coming out tonight. Uh, my name is
004Faith Vagus. I am the executive director of the Bridgeport Public Education Fund and part of our role in the community is to do exactly what we hope to do tonight is bring community together to really think about what is the best uh direction forward for our students but also um to ensure that the community voices heard. So, uh, tonight, thank you to your board of education members for allowing space for community to make their voices heard as it will, uh, inform a part of the strategic plan that they would undergo with, uh, the superintendent's office, but also, I believe it's connected to some of the Connecticut State Department of Education um, wish list for us to uh, move into a more prosperous category as we move forward as a community. and as a district. So,
005tonight what we would like to do is um for one we have Ununice, I'm sorry, Ununice, I don't know your last name, Ununice Rosa. And she will be your Spanish language translator tonight. So, for anyone needing those services, please uh feel free and welcome to come in. And uh would you like to translate what I just said? Thank you. So tonight, Miss Unus, don't go too far. I'm going to need you one more time. So tonight, what we would like to do is um have you all sit with your board of ed members at a table and this is the opportunity again for your voices to be heard. They are going to be individuals who are listening to you. They are curious and anxious as I've understood to really get feedback about the vision of
006the district and how you as parents, proud community members, uh would like to assist in ensuring that we are putting our best foot forward in getting this district moving in the right direction. So, um what we will have you do is for one, um really think about Do you want to translate first or Oh, yeah. Okay. I can talk really fast though. Bridgeport. She made it sound so much more exciting when she translated it. Oh my goodness. But um so tonight we're going to uh have everyone go into small group sessions or small group tables and one board member will be sitting at each table. Uh but if so please don't crowd all of the tables. We have a full room tonight. Um but if you happen to sit with one or two board members
007that is okay but again the purpose is to have open dialogue. We will have that for about 30 minutes. Okay. And once you are ready to come back into the full group, we would like for you to share out. So in order to do that, we need volunteers for two things. We need a table captain. So primarily I've asked the board of ed members to do that because that's a non-speaking role, right? Um but then I also would like to have someone take notes, okay? because again we want to make sure that we capture and catalog your responses or your input. Um so if you would like to volunteer to be the notetaker, let's get that situated within the first couple of minutes of sitting at the table and then we will go into our
008group discussion. Uh there are some pre um vetted questions that will be available and on the table but you are not expected to get through all of them. If you can that would be excellent but if you cannot we also understand and you will have opportunity to continue to provide feedback throughout the process. Secret formula. So, um, would you like for us to get started at the tables now? Okay. So, if, uh, we don't want to select self, we want you to self- select. You can come up, join the table. We see Mr. Rob Traber, Mr. Andre Woodson at table. We're going to call this table one. Look at you guys. Table two, we have Mr. Albert Graales, Ben Benhag Graales. Uh, table number three, Miss Jennifer Perez, board chair. Table number four will be
009Mr. Willie Medina. Table number five would be Miss Mrs. Gimenez Jrast. Estraa Himenez. And table number, I'm sorry. And table number six would be Joseph Sakavic. Did I get that right? Sakalic or Sakovic. So, um, I'm going to ask all of you to come up to the front, select the table, and you don't have to sit with your friends. Yeah, I know. Cuz some of you are going to go to the person that you know. So, let's try not to do that. Sit with a stranger. Come on to the front. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh god. Hi. My wife Jessica They do need it. So, uh, we're going to have table one go first. So, if we can, uh, give them our attention. So, we have at table one, we're going to have Nicole, who
010will be our speaker for this table. And we want to thank uh Mr. Rob Traber for being the table captain and Dr. Monette Ferguson for being our notetaker. And every one of you got one of these. So please fill it out for me and I'll come to your table and grab them. Nicole has the floor. Okay. So um ladies and gentlemen, so with question Oh, thank you. So with question one, um what do you think a great school experience looks like? Um we we both felt that um it it coincide with question five. So we're going to skip that. Number two um biggest strength for our schools and community. We feel like parents do care, right? Even when they do not show up on a regular basis uh to board of education meetings, they show
011up when it is time. Right? So, I use the example of um the hiring um process of a superintendent, right? That's when they show up in big numbers. Um if there is something um like some sort of challenge that um poses as a threat to their children, they show up in big numbers, right? They show up when they feel that it is most um important to show up, right? So uh for sure that that is um one of the biggest strengths. um educators and teachers, they have a choice to teach here and they can simply go to the next city, next town and make tens of thousand dollars more and they decide still to stay here, okay? And provide education to our children even when the resources are lacking. So for sure our educators and
012um our staff support staff for sure um is one of our biggest strengths here in this district. Um and there's a sense of community overall. Uh number three biggest challenges of course lack of resources um uh which is the financial resources both at the local level and at the state level. Um so and that appears to be from those who have been educated here and um who have been a product of Bridgeport Public Schools. That seems to be an his historical problem. It's not a current problem. So it's an ongoing issue. Um so that is one. So um you know resources are a scarcity to our specialized populations. So, we talk about general education, but we talk about students who require special needs like our neurodeiverse populations um and our multilingual um bilingual um students
013and families and um what changes or improvements again uh fiscal wellness um and fiscal responsibility, fidiciary responsibility and accountability of those finances and resources. um stability. There's um a lack of stability within our uh district leadership and um I mentioned fiscal responsibility. Yep. And um vision. So the vision number five and number one like um like we mentioned uh coincides. So um what is the vision for our students? Um providing um opportunity for post-secondary success once they leave Bridgeport public schools and pursue their dreams, whatever those dreams look like. um whether it's trade school, whether it's college, right? But rigorous instruction needs to be implemented within the classroom to prepare students for college readiness and preparedness. Um success successful navigation to our parents and families. Um transportation um excuse me, transparency within leadership to parents
014and families. Um we mentioned rigorous instruction for college preparedness and um readiness and post-secondary success, collaboration with city leadership regarding fidiciary responsibility both at the state and um both at the city and state level. Um proper allocation of resources. So when we talk about fiscal wellness, right? again the proper allocation of those resources. Yes, ma'am. All right. For number one, uh what do you think great school experience looks like for uh students, families, staff, and how do you feel Bridgeport Public Schools can better support the experience? I feel like we could be more welcome. Well, we felt like we could be more welcoming in our schools. We don't feel like all schools are so welcoming. Um, we also would like to see He can't hear you. Turn to your side. I'm sorry. I thought I
015thought you could hear me. Um, we'd like the schools to be more welcoming. Um, also when uh when we pick up our kids, we want our kids to talk about what they did in school more than what happened in school. Um, we want more parent involvement all the time, not just when they're mad. Um, number two, uh, what do you feel are the biggest strengths in our schools in our community that we should build upon is our teachers. Um, I I am not just a parent, but I also work in the schools and I can tell you that we do have some really dedicated teachers. teachers that not only come out of pocket but spend most of their time and their effort on our kids. Um our uh our guards our guards our guards are
016always overlooked, but our guards are the most trusted people in our building if we like it or not. Um regardless of how good a teacher is, our kids identify with our guards more than they identify with anybody else in our building. because I I personally think it's because they come from the same neighborhoods and the same communities and we see each other in and outside of school. Um, another strength that we have is how multicultural we are. And um, I believe that we have a lot of multicultural nights throughout our buildings that are really successful. I think we should push for like a district one, something that like we can get more people in the room so that it be more collaborative on a positive note. Um, number three, what do you think are the
017biggest challenges and barriers in the district? Um, money is always number one, of course, and it's going to continue to be number one, but um, there's a lot of infighting on our board of ed. um uh ed educating our parents. Our parents are very unaware of what there is and what they can take advantage of in our district. Um and uh curriculum curriculum is another challenge that we can uh we can approach because I myself my daughter is going to fifth grade and in six years she hasn't had the same curriculum if any curriculum. Um number four what challenges or improvements would you most like to see in our schools over the next three to five years? again curriculum. Um the superintendent regardless of who our superintendent will be in our future, we'd like them
018to stick to that curriculum and not just come in and change everything like every every superintendent does. Um and uh school equality like we like to see uh every every school in our district be more representative other than just a few schools in our district be representative and hopefully everybody can feel more I guess maybe I should say all our decisions will feel more equal across the district. um was what number was that for? Number five, what is your vision for the students of Bridgeport Public Schools? And uh utilizing more schools like Aqua in trades. I think that's something we need to lean more towards. um teaching kids for uh teaching kids for the job market, uh taxes, um interest, uh interest rates and life skills, things that really are going to affect them positively
019through our throughout their lives other than things that they don't feel like are are going to be relevant in their future. Um, uh, middle schools, I we believe that middle schools, the our middle schools kids should be more aware of what our high schools have to offer because there's many, many kids that I personally run into have no idea what they could have had. you by the time they graduated, they didn't know they could have went to school to be an electrician or they didn't know that they could have came to Aqua and learned, you know, a different a different um uh I don't know what word I would program a a different a different skill. A different skill. So, um other than that, um I think that's where we left off. Thank you. Table
020number two. We're going to go to table number three and we're going to ask Mr. Al Ramirez to report out on his uh tables uh responses to the questions. But we also want to thank Mr. to Willie Medina for being a captain and Miss Jazelle for being a studious notetaker. Al, the floor is yours. Do you have the microphone? Yes. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Al Ramirez. Um, nice to see and meet all of you. Um, so our first question, um, and answers were teachers that have empathy and patience, um, com uh, comfortability, safe environment, um, relatability. uh teachers, state um the environment collecting a check um students to gain gain a why attitude asking questions like encourage the students to ask questions. Um uh families should be respectful of the teachers. Um
021they have a hard hard job. Um, but you know, I I gave an example. My my mother was a teacher um for over 35 years in the city of Bridgeport. Um, and she was a tough mom and a tough teacher. Um, and sometimes she'd get push back from certain parents and sometimes those same parents would come back later on and say, you know, you actually taught my son something or taught my daughter something. Um, so just kind of really respecting the teachers and um what they do, their job is very difficult. Um then also support them. Um hire hire more teachers that live in Bridgeport. Um and more teachers of color. Um you know you just learn more from people that look like you that people have the same experiences as you, have the same
022backgrounds as you. Um so we thought that that was uh very important. Um so number two um hire teachers that can relate. Um, and then we put um diversity. Um, so Bridgeport is a very diverse city. There's people from all different backgrounds, all different colors. Um, and we think that that's a great asset to the city of Bridgeport. Um, for us not all to be thinking in one way, one direction, one style. There's so many different attributes and and and different perspectives that diversity can give um a school, a classroom. Um three, um what do you think are biggest challenges or barriers? Um funding, uh temporary subs. Um so there's a big problem with temporary subs. We feel that they should be for a certain amount of time, that they should get a permanent teacher.
023um is if you don't feel safe, you don't feel um I guess attended to in a classroom um then you'll lose interest very easy. Um I I was one of those kids. I lost interest very easy. It was very easy to lose my my attention. Um and for a substitute, you kind of feel like they're just a body in the room, right? So, you know, I used to that was a little trouble. Yeah, exactly. I used to go off, goof off when the when the you know, sub was there. I ain't doing my work today. Definitely not. You know, so but when you have a permanent teacher or when the teacher comes back and they're like, "Well, the sub told me you didn't do this." And then you're like, "Okay." You know, you kind of
024straighten up a little bit. So definitely having some some permanent teachers. Um and then again, uh teachers and principles that live in the in the community. Um and then ones that have uh real leadership. Um, and then four, the way adults lead and talk about the community in a negative way that a lot of people have negative things to say about Bridgeport, our students, our teachers and and a lot of the teachers, administrators in their in their offices or in in their coffee time talk and maybe the kids hear them. Um, if no one believes in us, how is it how can we expect you to believe in yourself? Right? So, that that's a that's a huge one. um Jazelle that I think that was absolutely amazing. Um and then also I added for four
025um financial uh literacy and entrepreneurial uh courses classes. Um I think that it's something that's overlooked in schools and then we're expected to know when we become adults, right? And we we don't even know how money works. We don't know how to do this. We don't know how to start an IRA. We don't know how to start a business. We don't know entrepreneurial goals or aspirations. So, I think that that's a huge thing. Um, and then also I put exposure to trades. Um, as many of you know, I'm in the carpenters union and and it changed my life. I wish I knew about it since I was in eighth grade. I think that exposing children as early as 8th grade to to let them really see what the trades are about, see if that's a
026path that they want to go down and uh maybe circle back when they're in high school, right? to say, you know, maybe bring unions to the table or different trades to the table to show them that you can make a lot of money doing this. Um, I built a a great life for myself on it, so I'm a huge advocate for that. Um, uh, then we have, uh, mentor, uh, so exposure to trades and mentor mentor programs. Um, so as, uh, we found out that there was a huge mentor program before in Bridgeport. Um, and we really want to tap into that. Um, there's a lot of individuals who are from Bridgeport, who made it out, who made it to successful career path. We'd love to hear them and have them come back and talk
027to our students to say, "Hey, this is what I did. This is a path you can go down and I'll help you. I'm here to help." Um, so that's great. And then five. Um, I was thinking you were already on five. You sound like you were telling us your vision just now. Sorry. Schools mentors. Yeah. So, uh teachers um uh need class management. Uh they need to make sure they focus on class management um educ education to be top of the list um and help the students to achieve. Thank you so much, Al. We really appreciate it. Round of applause. And for those of us who are of a certain age, we were excited when that cart got rolled out of the closet and our teacher was absent for the day cuz we already knew,
028right? Or if you get split up into the different classrooms and your best friend in the other class, Kayla, Miss Miss Kayla know what I'm talking about. We were in Dunar together, so she knows. And going to that library, Miss Rickyo. All right. Speaking of table number four, that's our table up here. Uh we want to uh ask Bobby to speak. She will be reporting out for her group, but we would like to thank our captain, Miss Marissa, and our notetaker, Sarah. So, we are table number four. Um pretty much everything that everyone has said you, we've touched on as well, but I'll just list what our team came up with. Um so one of the things that we talked about for question number one is rigorous curriculum. Um we feel that the um the
029current curriculum is is over reliance on online programs and apps such as math and literacy. So our students have way too much screen time. Not enough um in person and one-to-one teaching. Um baseline staffing level. Um we need to sub set a support system. Yes, ladies. Okay. All right. Let me say it. Yeah, the it it's the district needs to establish the floor of staffing at every school that they refuse to go under because without that anything and everything is up for cutting. Can we clarify staffing is not subs. Correct. I didn't get there yet. Uh yes. Um if you guys mention subs one more time, I'm gonna be hungry. Yes. uh the wrong sub. We've acknowledged that there's a performance index and dropping too much screen time. I've also mentioned um um better assessment
030for ESL um students. Um they need better need needs rather than overburing sped bed sped students. Yes. Classrooms because they don't have special needs. They just can't read. Correct. Language. So there's an over reliance of identifying students that speak a second language. Yes. best. Yes. Um for number two, we talked about um diversity and culture is two things that we believe is uh Bridgeport's biggest strengths for our community. Diversity and culture culture. Um for number three, we talked about uh pack structure. It doesn't work. Um parents should feel more independent and when they organize their events shouldn't feel like a watchful eye. they should feel more engaged and be able to have the comfortability to talk about what is happening within their school and how they would like to see it improve. Um, we talked
031about lack of communication, transparency for families and from all levels within the district. There's a lack of transparency and I believe we've mentioned that as well. um building connections and also realizing that there's intergenerational gaps um amongst parenting and there should be respect towards that because we're used to the OG's holding it down for the children. Now you have younger parents coming in and what would fly with the older parent is not going to fly with them. So just realizing that and then you know not talking down to them as if they don't exist because they do exist and they're the new parents. Um so having that respect for them. um funding. I'm going to let um uh Sarah talk about the pilot part. Yeah. So, everyone has mentioned the like funding challenges. Um one
032thing that I'll say is that there's an opportunity to reook at the pilot reimbursement formula so that it's a more equitable distribution between the three major cities/school districts of Bridgeport, I mean of Connecticut. Sorry. So, that's Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford. um there just needs to be more equitable reimbursement um and the formula. So there needs to be political will behind um advocating for that. Correct. Correct. Um and making sure that you know there's accountability on that side of the house. Um number four, we talked about um some of the challenges and improvements is one more certified teachers which as everyone has has mentioned um school spirit. We while we're excited about the new bass school coming up, there are a lot of schools that can, you know, schools bring about school spirit. So if
033the building doesn't look appropriate, the kids don't feel like it's, you know, something that they want to be a part of. So school spirit is so important. Um, beautifying the schools, extracurricular activities, whenever funding happens, the first thing are to go are the programs that are impacting the kids the most. the act, you know, that student who only comes to school because they're excited about math or they're excited about a mentoring program that's in their school. When you take those things out, um you don't benefit the student want to be involved in the school setting. So, um not even just that, we're talking about languages, we're talking about um sports, we're talking about so ours, so just just for just for the record, our team was a very interactive table. So, everyone had something to
034say and there's a lot more that could be added, but all of those Yes. And we're multigenerational as you can see. Um, thanks, Mom. Um, thank you. Yes. Yes. So, um, languages, sports, and etc. Um, we talked about the state surplus as well. Yes. The four billion state. Is that what you Oh, the rainy day fund. The rainy day fund. Yes. Yes. Yes. So if if I could just sum up what our ladies talked about as for what a vision for students of Bridgeport would look like, I would say it would look like community. And I think sometimes we forget the empowerment and the impactful part of community. And when we leave out certain parts to the foundation, it always falls. So we have been in this pointing the finger pointing the finger. But let's
035just do community work because our kids will become community leaders. They will become voters. They will become teachers and staff members within the community. So if you're talking about vision, you're talking about the most important parts which is the community that they are a part of and that is the school community that we are all responsible for intergenerational and all. Thank you. You're here. Thank you, Miss Bobby. I met Miss Bobby when she was a student at Harden High School and we are still engaging uh with each other to this day. So talk about the intergenerational. We love it. Did you have something else to add, Miss Sarah? Oh, okay. Hit it there and the second part. Okay. No, no, no. You're fine. You're fine. Okay. Table number five. You are the last one, but
036definitely not the least. Okay. So, we want to have Joe, who Well, we want to thank Joe for being our table captain, Miss Kayla, uh, Medina for being our notetaker, and we're going to have Mr. Isaiah with a Z, not an S. You That's why you wrote it like that, right? For me to Okay. Speak and let us know what his group spoke about. Thank you, Isaiah. Do you need the microphone or you have it already? Okay, there you go. Thank you. How are you? Um, good. Thanks for asking. just because I do not believe in wasting anyone's time. We all have the same vision for our schools. Um, but one of the things that we mentioned over here that I have not heard mentioned yet is that we want our students to feel comfortable
037and reading proficiently. So, I'm going to start at number five and then work my way up to number one. We want to see our students reading proficiently, working with other students, and being well-rounded individuals that can operate in not just corporate America, but in any part of America they decide to go into. And because we want that, we had to focus on the funding that goes into our schools and into our students because funding allows for better technology, better um books, better even better teachers. All of that becomes better and all of that will lead to us establishing a great sense of community and pride in our schools that will lead to us having better students, better communities, and even just having a better city. All right, I'm good. I was thank for summing that
038up cuz I got a little I was about to give them more index cards but I don't know if we had that much time tonight but thank you again. Um as you can see there were some commonalities amongst all tables and that lets us know that as a community we are concerned as a community we do care. Yes. Oh, microphone. You need to use a microphone. And here I was thinking I was using it. Again, thank you all for coming out tonight. Um, I I really want to just express really quickly how proud I am of everyone who showed up, but also contributed to the discussion because believe it or not, it does matter. We've been doing this for years. We have created documents. We have advocated at the state and the local level for
039certain things um to occur and we are hoping that uh as the conversations the forums continue throughout the month of July. I would like to say the next one is July 16th um so please again invite other family other friends if you would like to come back out and so I'll finish the part if you want. Um, so we're going to have uh three additional forms this month. Um, July 16th, which is next Wednesday, um, we're going to we we're going to post that tomorrow, but it's going to be at Blackham School. Um, and then the following the last week of the month, we're going to have two. So, the 30th and 31st. One will be um at JFK and one will be at the Dunar area. Whether it's Dunar or the Raphaela Taylor, we
040still have to establish location. Um and um we will post those with times within the next couple weeks um so that everybody we we'll get that message out sooner than later. So um please invite other people like who you think would have um great input. Um we can't do this work without you. So you know we can we can write a vision but if we don't include the community it means nothing. There will be interpretation at um the forums um at the future forums as well. Times to be determined. So um we're we're looking at different times uh the those schools that I announced have lighthouse programs. So we're looking to engage the families there and if that's means we do it a little bit earlier while they're picking up the kids or we're going
041to um kind of if you guys have ideas share them with us on times. it's 6 o'clock you think it works um you know we we can definitely um do that time as well but we're we're we're kind of asking around um input from community members if an earlier time might work better when they pick up from Lighthouse. So um yeah so I I just want to thank you all for coming. Um I know it's we only gave you guys a week notice on this and you guys um showed up. So I appreciate that. Um, on behalf of the board, I just want to thank you all for coming. And if I can just uh ask just really quickly to close up some of the uh table conversations. If you have any additional information that
042you want the district or the board of ed to have so that they can continue to build from this conversation, please uh you can give it to me. I'll make sure it goes with your table and uh gets included to the board. But thank you for your time and your patience. Thank you all.