001We are live. All right. Thank you. Good evening. This is a virtual special meeting of the finance committee. Um today's Wednesday, June 4th, 2025. It is oh 4:29. Sorry, one minute early, guys. Sorry. Um but we're on Microsoft Teams. Um there 4:30 now. All right. um in attendance on Jennifer Pres uh the committee chair uh Mr. Medina committee members online um we also have Mr. Traber and Mr. Benahan um see any other board members I think that's all the board members um and then Dr. Avery is also online. Um, so we'll go ahead and get started. The first item on the agenda is approval of the the minutes from May 21st, 2025. Mr. Medina, do you want to move that? I hear you now. Yeah, it's a little it's a little soft. Little low. Are
002you moving it? Yes, I say so move. There we go. I hear you now. I'll second that. Um, any questions on that debate? All in favor say I. I. All right, that is going to pass. The next item on the agenda is the detailed um breakdown of 8 to nine central office staff positions eliminated in the fiscal year 2526 proposed budget. Dr. Avery's going to take over there. Uh, uh, good chair. Uh I wanted to make sure I give the board an update of the what's happening regarding the central office uh 8 to9 positions. Uh I have worked with Nester to kind of quantify the dollar amounts that we say that we were going to be able to um uh uh calculate for the savings that we have regarding those positions. Uh I would like
003to um have a conversation with the entire board uh on Monday regarding some detailed specifics. There are still a few of those positions that have not been solidified quite yet due to some um you know legal things that we're having to kind of work through with with HR currently. So again, I need to talk with the board about that as well. uh but it looks really good you know to uh to be able to say we have the dollars to make sure that the budget is balanced uh moving forward. So uh in addition to that we will you know expand upon the conversation around uh how I would like to reorganize the district uh moving forward as well. So again, a little bit more detailed conversation with the entire board. Uh if the committee would
004like to, uh move this item to the full board. Um uh I want to acknowledge that Miss Estra Jimenez's family members and Paul and so is Mr. Skullik, a board member. Um we uh for this item, Dr. It's actually not on the agenda to uh refer to the full board. It's not written that way. So, um, uh, it's definitely we could something we could talk about when we talk about the budget on Monday. Uh, yes, absolutely. It it'll it'll tie in directly into the budget. And so, I'll be glad to kind of give a little bit more details. things should be solidified by then with with some of the things that we were trying to hold off on do some through some legal uh you know maneuvering that we had to do. Uh so I
005would like to be able to to bring that back up if you don't mind. So we can we can lump we can definitely lump it in because it also is part of the budget that's going to be referred to the full board as well as a line item of the cost savings that is that's behind the scenes of the entire budget as well. Mr. Medina, do you have any questions on this item for Dr. Avery? No, I do not. Thank you. Professor number two. No, not at this time. Hands up. Any other hands? No. So, we do expect a a full breakdown of that on Monday's meeting. Um, so yes, I know Dr. I know you've um we've already talked about, you know, what you're going to be doing. So, um we'll we'll we'll have
006that out for Monday. Um then we have the updated and possible delay on the budget gap cost uh cost-saving measures particularly regarding uh two administrators on special assignments, four assistant principles, one counselor and one supervisor of alternative education. Yeah. Uh through the chair. Thank you. I I want to kind of emphasize to the committee that these these positions, the two administrators on special assignment, the four assistant principles, one counselor and and one supervisor of alternative education has already been approved to eliminate, you know, by the board. Uh but what I'm asking you know the board to consider is to postpone postpone the elimination of these positions until June of 2026 due to the fact that I have about three to four uh tenur administrators that will be looking to retire uh come November December of
007this next year. So due to the fact that we are very limited uh in our administrative staff, it would be helpful to the district as I look at the reorganization piece to postpone these eliminations until uh June of 2026. Uh the cost savings, you know, of doing that is only going to be saving the district about I think it's like one two about $8,000. uh is so it's almost like we did when we did the assistant principles when we delayed them it wasn't going to be that big of a cost savings uh because a lot those principles will go back into teaching positions. Uh but again this will give us an opportunity to take the full brunt of the savings because these individuals will be retiring. Well at least half of these individuals will be
008retiring. Mr. Medina. Uh, yes. On on on that number, I was trying to look at my notes uh throughout uh after our meeting and everything. Um, and I just want to make sure you have all those numbers correct. It's my understanding on the process of the assistant uh principles and those positions that we eliminated the cost savings. uh you got to always also keep into account that um you know those people might have bumping rights into a teacher positions and then those teacher will bump those that are being run by Kelly services. So I think the cost savings I think it might be off and I don't know Nester you can probably help me with that to confirm that because that's the way we knew the numbers to be that if you know they have
009bumping rights then we would also save uh on the that end because we don't have to have uh Kelly services cover uh those classrooms I don't see Nester online Fine. Okay. Well, to Madam Chair, the bottom line is the a teach a principal, not a assistant principal or administrator filling a teaching position, what it does ultimately, it it forces a Kelly long-term sub or substitute teacher out, meaning that we will get a net savings of 46,000 approximately $46,000 a year. That's pretty much the net effect per per long-term sub per year. Make sense? So when they can you hear me? When they force out a long-term sub, that means the district will save $46,000 a year for not retaining or hiring that long-term sub from Kelly. That's correct. Sorry guys, I just got back. There's
010there was some connections issues. Okay, let me start all over. the the savings, the net savings, the the actual savings of an administrator forcing out a long-term Kelly itself is $46,000 a year. One position, let me be clear. Mhm. It's actually I think it's 467, but it's 46. 467 468. It doesn't make any difference. That gives you an idea. I know you had lost connection. Yep, I'm good now. So, yeah, that that just confirms my my notes that we that I had from before that there will be a a considerably bigger savings um than just the 8,000. So, we're looking at probably about 370,000 or plus on those positions. But you know double check that and I look you know that's not being voted on now that'll be at the board. So just want to
011confirm. Thank you through Madam Chair if I understand from Dr. Avery it's actually six months because if those veteran principles or assistant principles retire they will retire middle of the year. So it's only a six month cost if I'm correct. Dr. How do you suggest which is 6 months which is uh 50% of the 46,000 in a nutshell? Mhm. Per questions or No, I I I said thank you. Nope. Okay. Yeah, I have two questions. So, I just want to make sure that I'm following properly. The $8,000 difference is from keeping them on from now all the way to November. Correct? Because then we would have these additional folks would be getting replaced. Well, there's existing folks in their seats right now, but they would be retiring. Do So, my question is twofold. Is that
012where the $8,000 come from? And then secondly, do we have already resignation letters or retirement paperwork confirming that those folks are indeed leaving in November? We do we do not have a written confirmation of that, but just a verbal confirmation of of those retirements. Uh and and again, these individuals have been in the district for 20 plus years and they're they're very stable, you know, reliable employees in the district. So, we felt the courtesy of being able to allow them to stay in those positions for the time. Uh I I feel very confident that we're going to be able to get those resignations. Uh and then we are able to pay, you know, if they retire mid year, the other some of the other administr on special assignment can fill the void for the rest
013of the year. So in in in return, it's just a a better way to to treat the employees that are at the end of their career. They've given the district many many years to work through it that way. So that definite letter, we have not done that yet. Uh but again, I think it's important that we at least give a little bit of, you know, grace to allow them to to to make their plans and and exit out and and not do it so abruptly now where we're we're bumping people from positions and things like that. So that's that was the conversation that I had with HR and some of my staff as well. So great question. Uh but I think I will I will circle back around regarding those individuals as well to get
014a clear picture of of the timing that they need uh and work through it as well and and and update the board as well. Thank you. And then um Oh, sorry. You had two questions. I'm sorry. Yeah. Um my secondary Sorry, my son. Um my secondary question was the confirmation of the $8,000. Is that where that figure is coming from? It's the difference. Can you explain that again, please? What what that what that means is that if they bump down into another position, you you keep them at the you know, you keep them at the same salary. And Dom, you may be able to help me explain this better. Uh, am I correct with that, Dom or Nester? I don't see D. Well, Madam Chair, the when when an assistant principal is laid up, they
015have option to become a teacher. If they downgrade to being a teacher, they only lose $1,000 of their current rate of pay for the first year. That's correct. And that's where that thousand that's where that thousand come in comes into play when you calculate the savings if you if they if we did it now. And so we will gain a lot more than that if we allow them to go through at least that half year. You grab you grab half of that salary. So I think that's the that's the rationale that that I uh tried to explain. Am I correct, Nester? Yeah. Understood. Thank you. I'm all set. Yeah. A couple of couple of things. Um initially we started saying we had a balanced budget. That's um based on numbers that are not clear at
016this point. After some discussions at the state level, some numbers may have to shift around a little. When the numbers become clearer, we may not have in fact a balanced budget depending upon them numbers and how certain funds got to be spent. So, we need to look at that. That's point one. Point two, we laid off and eliminated over 100 plus positions. The reason why I referred twice to committee over the last couple of months is to set the hierarchy of returning is so all those positions could be considered to be given all the same due respects as the board wants to rank them with their part. If we are if we realize the yearly savings and nobody comes back to Bridgeport and everybody and we just do the if everybody bumps all eight positions,
017let's assume they all got bumping rights. That's $368,000 savings. That's nearly enough to bring back the whole our program, but the board has not weighed in yet on what we want. We haven't given you our thoughts. We haven't given you our feelings about any of these positions. There's a hierarchy. Do we bring back is it more beneficial to bring back these positions for six months, three months, four months, five months, whatever have you or put another psychologist or social worker or two on for the year. We haven't discussed that. That's why I want this on the committee level for us to discuss what we want to bring back. It's been made clear through CABE. It's been made clear through all our trainings that the budget is within our purview totally 100% to approve unapproved. All
018these cuts were voted on like the librarians. So right now it's rather than having on the agenda a hierarchy of cuts to replace as dictated by the board as requested by a board member twice, the superintendent has asked no, this superintendent, this is not your problem and not your issue. This is a board issue. Um asked once and it's here and we're ready to make a decision. I think this decision should be paused until the board creates the hierarchy of what the board wants back and all these positions be given the same due respect as the positions being mentioned now because all of our employees have worked with us for a long time. Um, yeah, that's all I got for now. Mr. Traver, you're mute still. I know. I know. I'm just I just got
019to find the button. That's all. Takes me a second. Um the uh the only thing I just wanted was just a a question. If we go forward with the cuts as we voted before, these eight positions would go down uh $1,000 in pay um and would work a lower position than they had been working before. um or you know the the administrative positions I should say would take a $1,000 pay cut and bump into a educator position in the lo in the teacher bargaining unit. Um and um the only one I see on this list is a counselor. Now that counselor is already in the educator bargaining unit, correct? Yes. I see Dominic and the superintendent shaking their Yes. Um, so the rest of them are administrative positions, the other seven, and those seven would
020be affected by the $1,000 pay cut. So they would be making substantially more money than they would as educators for the next year. Correct. Correct. Okay. Um, now by doing this the the four positions that you're referring to that would be retiring sometime this fall if I understood you correctly. Yeah. Yes. Correct. Um, we would then not have any resignation unemployment money to pay. They would be going into the teacher retirement fund. Am I correct about that, Dominic? Tom, I have to let you answer that question. I'm not 100% sure. I'm sorry. If they're retiring, did you say? Yes. I What I heard initially was they're going to retire. I The resignation word keeps getting mixed in here, but retirement. Yes, retirement. There'd be no unemployment initially. What? Retirement. No unemployment, right? Resignation. Yes. Then
021there's no there's no continuing cost to us. You know, we've talked in the past about laying people off. We have a continuing cost. Yes. Of the unemployment cost, but with retirement, there's no continuing cost to us. Correct. That is correct. Okay. So, by letting these people continue to work, the only continuing cost is some fraction of that $1,000 difference for that part of the year. So for the sake of this discussion you know $30 or $400 three four you know of the year right correct that is correct you know September October November three months out of the 10 months in the year that is correct is that correct dominant that is correct yes sir okay yes sir and with the counselor um that person I presume would continue to work the whole year. So that's
022that's a position we're continuing to leave on for the whole year. That's correct. That's correct. Okay. Right. Through madam chair if I may chime in Dr. refer in reference to the counselors again the extension of that particular counselor if there is a counseling counselor position that retired or leave the city on their own during the course of the year again it's up to the board if they want if they choose not to fill that position to compensate for the extension of this council meaning that this council being extended will backfill that future retirement or future res resignation, but we're just going to incur the cost of that counselor for the two for the time for the time for the two, three, four months that she continues to work, right? Um, and you know, that's a
023decision that we need to make having made the decision initially to eliminate that position to retain that position. I'm not I'm not judging it one way or the other. I'm just making sure I understand what we're being asked or will be asked. um based on this agenda. Um so um you know there just I was getting confused by the different questions uh and I want to make sure I understand. Um so seven out of these eight positions are administrative and affected by the thousand rule. One of them is not. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. That's all my questions. I see Mr. Woodson also joined the call. So I want to um um add him to the attendance. Um are there any further questions on this item? All right. And I see none. So we're going
024to move on to the next item which is um discussion of possible referrals to the full board of the fiscal year 2526 operating budget. Um, Nester, you're gonna take this one. Um, sure. Good evening everyone. Basically, we've come towards the end of the budget, FY2526 budget. The board, the finance committee, the full board has voted on all the cuts, line item cuts I should say, and program cuts intended to be implemented next year in order to have a balanced budget. So based on that, it totals about $33 million. If the line items are there, everybody had seen it before. But based on that, the bottom line is that the total budget for next year that the board will be operating budget, including alliance budget, the total is $296, million,890 22 29689192. And that is the
025total budget allocation or appropriation that the board or the finance committee should be or we're asking the committee to adopt tonight to become next year budget district budget which need to be ratified with by the board on the 9th. So the today we're just um ratifying or we're moving to ratify the 20 uh 96,890,92 operating budget. Yep. That's all we're asking because every other action relating or relating to that number has been taken by the full board. Mr. Medina, start with you. Uh just for the sake of my busyiness of all day I I didn't see that. Is that data that you just sent Mr. Dester in the portal right now for this meeting or no? It's it's been in the portal since yesterday I believe. Okay. Thank you. Or day before yesterday. I don't
026know which when. Um thank you very much. It's in the it's in the portal. I'm getting confirmation from the board members that are shaking their hands. So I thank you asking answer. Thank you boss. Thank you Mrs. Mayor. No further questions. Mrs. I believe Mr. Treyber had his hand off first. Okay. I don't see the numbers. So, Mr. Traber, you on mute. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Um, I simply wanted to ask you uh since it's been up for a day or two, uh there are things moving faster than all of us can even imagine in the last 24 48 hours. So this proposal is not based on current reality as I understand it and no disrespect to you Mr. and the quote um but the as we all know the legislature has been
027pushing around numbers and issuing bills. The uh budget bill came out yesterday. Uh the bond bill came out of the house this morning and is being debated in the Senate as we speak. and God only knows where everything's going to end up based on what I heard an hour ago. So, we're all waiting on pins and needles to see what the reality is that we're living with. Um, so I don't really know how we can vote on anything until we get what our real reality is. Uh, which is a sort of contradiction in terms I guess. Um, but so I I do I do respect what you've profered us. Um, but I don't know how we can really uh realistically vote on anything until we find out uh the uh the endgame that comes out
028of Harford. Dr. Do you want to handle or do you want me to go ahead and I'll I'll I'll follow you up uh as you again madam chair the numbers I mean every everybody here everybody on the floor I don't think anybody has the the final right answer numbers are flying all over and it depends who you ask people with different interpretations uh different opinions to be very honest with everyone but what I've seen so far uh not all there there's not a whole sort of significant change relative to Bridgeport school district I guess what I'm trying to say here if anybody's expecting millions of dollars more to pour into Bridgeport District nobody has indicated that I I I could actually disagree with you. Um but um the question is exactly how many millions that's
029going to be. Um and you know I I can't I can't read what you have got here because if I go off my screen I can read it on my laptop but I can't read it on my cell phone since this is an online meeting. Um I don't have to do it on my laptop. True. Madam Chair. Okay. True. Madam Chair, if I may, let me clarify something. Let's go to where the number there. We know that the district the city of B the city of Bridgeport gave us gave the district 3.125 million additional next year. That's reflected in this report. That's not going to change. Not going to change. We know that. What do you have for ECS money there? We know that ECS is a 10 10.4 million increase is what we have
030here. that 47 million 47.9 million that's what we incorporated here ECS and we we incorporated 5.8 8 million for special ed based on the assumption of 12. So it's when you net it all out, we we I don't think we are going to be way positive to be very honest with everyone. We're hearing higher numbers than that. Now how much higher we don't know. That's all I'm saying. Um I don't know that it's going to be a lot higher, but we're hearing higher. So, I'm just saying that it's going to change some and it'll we'll know by Monday's meeting, but we don't know today because they're up there arguing about the bond bill right now and there's supposed to be money in the bond bill. Bond bill for the school district. Yes, actually. And that's
031not that's not capital bond. Okay. So, I'm just saying, Nester, this is an unusual year and yes, it is. We're hearing unusual things and so I there's no disrespect meant to you. The this is not this is what's going on in Hartford, which is um faka basically. Um, so, uh, I, you know, we we we should vote this budget out and, you know, then you're going to have to adjust it come Friday when you have better numbers that we know from Hartford. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Through the chair. I have a vote. I don't have a vote. I'm just, you know, to express an opinion and and that's what I've done. And Mr. Traver, thank you for that. I think that's you you solidified kind of what I was going to be talking about
032as well. I think what Nester is trying to do is is is that we've done the board have done a great job of working with administration to to cut the budget and we we we've we've slashed everything. We're at rock bottom in what we're providing our children across the district. and to get to this point to get a balanced budget without even considering any additional dollars that we may get from the state. I think everything every other piece every other dollar that we get in addition to you know above the balanced budget is is is something like what uh Mr. Sakovic talked about then the board is going to be able to you know rank the things that the board wants to consider to be ranked that we brought back. So once we know we
033got we got a balanced budget and then if we get 5 10 $15 million at the at at when all said and done then we can start doing the things that the board has wanted us to do to to bring these positions back. But I think it's important. I know in my conversation with with um with the commissioner a week or so ago, she was concerned that we haven't passed the budget. But like I told her is that we we we go through a process in this district in an urban school district to really ratifying the budget, making sure that we have that balanced budget. And we worked really really hard to get where we are. And we don't even know the future unless we get more dollars. And so the hope is that we're
034going to see those dollars come in over the next day or so. U but again just moving the b the budget this budget knowing that it's balanced to Monday and by Monday hopefully we'll have a whole new light you know cast on a positive light cast on Bridge public schools. And so that's my hope as well and and I'm watching things and I'm I mean I've also had four different or five different interpretations of what we're getting. And so I'm all over the place as well as I follow this thing. So um but I'm hopeful uh uh that we're going to get those dollars and um I see a little bit of increase, you know, but I don't they're not substantial increases. A million dollar here, a million dollar there, but I won't call that
035an impactful amount. Right. So Madam Madam Chair, if I may, I just want to make something clear. The numbers I've seen will not so far, unless there's something hidden in the woods that hasn't been unveiled, the numbers I've seen will not bring a significant change to the this to what you're adopting tonight. Let's understand this budget is squeaky tight. Will it hold? I'll try my best. That's all I can say. I will try my best. It is squeaky tight. A budget this tight or squeaky tight without a contingency is pretty scary. There's no contingency amount in this budget and it's squeaky tight. It's very scary. I'm going to be honest with everyone. And if if I may u madame chair say I I deeply appreciate that comment, Mr. the quo. I I do recognize the
036difficulty of the task that you have been working on um and that we go through every year on this board of ed. Thank you, Mr. Yeah. Uh I'm not um as optimistic as Mr. Chber is about additional dollars. I do have a significant concern. Some of the cons consistent information I'm getting from various people is that that 5.68 number 5.833 that that number is not that number was based on 124 thou 124 million. That is correct. That appears at this point in time unless information changes that it's only going to be 40 million. So, we're back to the 1.8 whatever. So, that's that's the significant shift. However, there's also an additional $30 million in a different bucket, but that bucket seems to be restricted to special education uses and may not be able to be
037transferred from budget to budget. So, we got so we got to really really look at that money and see the net effect on the operating budget because that's basically in essence what we're looking to pass. And I would caution the board. Um I would caution us against pressure from the um even from the state of passing a budget and rushing it through. If we rush through if we rush things through due to fear of this commissioner, we could do irreparable harm to our district. You see you see Mayor Elica come talking today got press release. This doesn't satisfy us. We still got to lay people off. Their budget's not finished. They're not done yet. They're still working through the numbers because now they just got the numbers that the state's coming out with and they
038got more solid numbers. We are ahead of the game. We can the the law is we cannot start the year in a deficit. We could we still got some time to approve the budget. And if we do approve the budget, I say we need to do it with uh qualifier that this budget is subject to additional um what you call I forget what you call it. The cut additional cuts um that's the Mr. Nicole, could you help me out with some what's uh bud budget balancing actions, media budget balancing actions, right? Right. and uh al also and the plus or on the plus or minus side because what I don't want to do is approve every single thing in this budget as gospel and then have to come back and change and we already have
039voted on it. So, so we definitely would need a qualifier for that. I think we could definitely add in um uh when we do put the motion through. Thank you. Um Mr. Ben, I'm sorry. Sorry, Mr. Mr. Bennington. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to go back what um Mr. Nelson said about this budget is very, you know, delicate and everything, but I'm going to say something for the record. I know us the board members, I know Dr. Avery, I know the city, parents, students, everyone, we did the best to be sure our budget have to go through what you know funding of Bridge Public School. Nobody can say that Bridgeport Public School board members, uh, Dr. the cabinet, we never did nothing. We show them what we want. We show them what our
040students want. We show them what our staff want. We show them what the district want. If they don't give it to us, that's shame of hardware. Period. Because I know the city is trying to work with us. They was with us and you know, everybody know how what we going through uh Bridgeport Day in May when the student went to speak to everyone. So, we showed them everyone, you know, black and the white and color. Nobody can say that Bridge P school, they're not doing the job. I just want to put that for the record. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank Thank you, Mr. Tabber. Yes, I I I don't disagree. Uh but I don't know how Mayor Eller can be saying he didn't get it because the damn thing's not done. They're still debating up
041there right now and there's still people trying to drive the deadline to midnight. So, I I just think that it's all still iffy right now. Um, and they're still trying to drag their feet uh and drive the deadline into midnight and that would require them having to have special sessions. So, I just think that I do agree with the point that Mr. Sakalavic made that we may find ourselves tomorrow not knowing still even with their midnight deadline. And if that's the case, no matter what the commissioner says, we can't be irresponsible about the budget. Um and so if we find out at the end of the week that the legislature has not concluded successfully its budget and that there are pieces that are still un unresolved that um you know we need to be uh
042uh prudent stewards of the budget um and do what is appropriate and in the best interest of our our district um and that we'll decide on Monday tonight. Um, so I would agree with Mr. Scalivik about that. um that you know whatever it is putting in the the uh qualifiers that you just referred to, Miss Perez, um or however you would characterize what what steps we take or what precautions we take to make sure that we have the the flexibility to be uh cautious and maintain our options um so that um we maximize what's best for our district and don't lock ourselves into things that aren't good for our district. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um any committee members um want to make a motion to move this to the full board and then um we'll
043definitely have that um you know a deeper discussion on Monday when we when we find out. I can try to make a motion. If I misquote anything, feel free to let me know. Um, so I motion to it's item number four, right? Discussion, possible referral to the full board. Okay. Yep. So motion to refer to the full board of the fiscal year 2526 operating budget. Seconded. Um any further debate? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any extensions? Okay. So, next um so we'll talk more about that on Monday. Um the next item um is discussion of possible referral u for uh to the full board on um the following contracts. So the first one was the JFK campus painting of swimming pool room and the ceiling and I think Jamie is on. Did
044I see you? Okay. Good evening through you madam chair. We would like um to present two new contracts to the board. The first being the JFK campus painting. It's going to be painting the swimming pool ceiling and walls. We would like to um do this project this summer. We had put this out to bid on open gov through the city purchasing department. We had four attendees um come to the walkth through. We had two submitts. We did a scope review with the lowest bidder and then we move to um request that the city attorney finalize the contract in order to present it to you tonight. These this project and the next one that I present are both capital funded projects. Um, committee members, do you have any questions on this? Any other board members have
045any questions on this? Or Miss Mr. Mayor Jimenez? I was just going to say I do not have questions. Um, seeing no questions or hands up. Um, and if I'm missing one, just let me know. But um is there a motion to move the JFK campus painting and swimming pool room and ceiling contract? So moved. Um any any second? I'll second it. Um all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That one moves. And so the next one is the Howland School restroom first floor. Thank you. Yes. Um this we also put out to bid. We had three attendees at the walkth through one submitt. Um what we did with this bid is we um put out each floor's restroom separately in order to see if we were going to be able
046to come into budget. All three floors came a little over budget and because of the timeline, we only have um about six to eight weeks in the summer to complete projects like this, we decided to go with the first floor for this summer to renovate it. Um the lowest came in at $88,788 for the first floor renovation. This is also capital funded. Thank you. Um, committee members, any questions? Seeing none, um, other board members, any questions? Is there a motion to move the Hen School restroom first floor to the full board? So moved. All right, I'll second it. Any further debate? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Any abstensions? Um, one more. We have the relay hub student Medicaid building reimbursement. That's me. That's Tony. Okay. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you. Uh good
047afternoon everyone through the chair. Um the item before you is and let me dispel the whole thing about relay. It's not the same relay as we've had the uh the opportunity to discuss in previous meetings. So rest assured that uh this relay it was actually it's actually a company that was formerly called Copy Claim. And the purpose of this this this uh this contract is to help the district recover the maximum amount of money uh from Medicaid reimbursement uh activities. So, we've been utilizing PCG, which is the the parent company of the uh the the parent company that administers the IEP system, the the special ed medic uh IEP system. and the um they're a little they're short in terms of meeting our needs to to claim all of the Medicaid uh activities that we
048uh that we perform on a daily basis both from an out of district standpoint and from a a charter school standpoint. So, uh we consulted with the uh technical assistance team from the state and they uh referred this company who represents over a 100 districts in the state of Connecticut and they're very versed on on maximizing all of the uh the Medicaid reimbursements. So, this is before you to consider and to refer to the full board so that we can move ahead and and implement this as soon as possible so we can maximize our our revenue streams. Any questions? I have just to confirm like so so currently we haven't been maximizing so like the in the districts I've worked for or or been a part of you know um social work services PTO um
049speech path services that's all the billable things and are is that what we're talking about here? Yes, those are all those are all Medicaid eligible services provided that the student who receives the services is Medicaid eligible. So there's a whole validation process that needs to take place and the system does that for us in terms of parental consent whether or not the child, you know, they they're a valid Medicaid recipient and u and they'll process all of those claims on our behalf. Um, any committee members or questions? I'll move on to somebody else. I say no hands. Uh, Mr. Sakalic. Yeah, a couple of quick questions. Okay, you answered some of them. Um, is it is it is just Medicaid reimburseables? Um, like what what if like Husky and other So, so the cost the
050cost associated with for example paying relay for services that's Medicaid reimburseable. We can claim that. on our cost analysis uh reimbursible uh claim to the state. Yes. Okay. And and what's what what's the hit on this one's got to be operating budget. What's the hit on the operating budget? Uh there they work on a percentage of of of funds collected. So they're really really pays for itself. Okay. And the percentage of funds collected, is that percentage of new funds collected above and beyond or if they collect below what we collected last year, do they still get paid a percentage of what they collected? No, no, they get paid based on the funds collected period. Um, but we expect that the the number of collectible funds will increase dramatically because I would hope so. Right. Right.
051Exactly. So the more we pay, the more that means we're getting a lot more money. All right. So they incent so they incentivize to right find every dollar they can. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. No further questions. Um is there a motion to move this to the full board? The relay hub special um student Medicaid billing reimbursement. So moved. Miss Medina. Um I can second that. Um all in favor say I. I. I any opposed? All right, that one goes through. The last item on the agenda, discussion of possible referrals to the full board of the RFP for the uh Bridgeport Board of Education Legal Services. Um I can speak to that. So this is the this is the issuance of the RFP for our legal services for the board of education. We've had the
052same uh legal firm for the last seven years and uh you know it's according to ordinance we we're supposed to put it out to bed. They've been extended for a couple years beyond the 5-year period and this is the process that needs to happen so that we can solicit the best cheapest hopefully uh legal firm to to represent the board and and the district. I also want to clarify that um Oh, go ahead Dr. Maybe you can answer my questions or I was I just wanted to make sure I wanted to make sure that you know that uh you know the committee understands that again this is the process the process was going to happen last year but previous administration and the board you know decided to do an extension uh and so this is
053the end of the extension I think is it's up June 30th right we're just so we're trying to just kind of get you know the uh the RFP opport opportunity out on on the street. Every the board will have, you know, an opportunity to collaborate with the city attorney's office, you know, in selecting someone. So, that's that I really want to make that that clear. Part of the charter says that we have to go through the city attorney's office in order to solicit um you know, legal services. And so, that's kind of what we're doing. It's a collaborative effort. uh we're we're looking forward to kind of collaborating with them, but ultimately the board has a decision, the final decision on selecting who they feel would best represent the district. I want to clarify that
054um you know, we we talked um during the the line items um earlier this month or last month about um utilizing a city attorney as a board attorney um and and hiring one. And that's something that's that's a different thing right now. This is just for our outside um attorneys for when we can't use city attorney. So um that is still in the works and that's something that we're going to be doing um along with the city attorney and in selecting a city attorney that represents the board. But this is the outside firm that we would contract for if um there's any conflicts um of interest or or if it's something that the city attorney um can't handle. Um so I just want to clarify that with the board. Um so any questions from uh
055and and our goal for this is to reduce the cost significantly from what we've paid um in the past. So um uh any questions for committee members first hands I'm going to go to um I think Mr. Schol first. Okay. Yes ma'am. Um yeah a couple of things as on on your on your clarification. Yes, it's two two totally separate things. How and but we should have been utilizing the city attorney for routine manners all the time. What I don't right what I they're free to assign us a strict attorney but what they are not free to do is to bill us for that attorney. They provide they they don't bill any other department for the use of the attorney. So, they should not be building the board of education for the use of their
056attorney. Mr. All I'm sorry, did I misspeak? Miss Mr. P. No, no, no. You're you're absolutely correct. And and for the most part, we do utilize the city attorney's office to review uh RFPs, some contracts, mostly all the lease agreements, all of those things that we entered that are basically the legal stuff. And we do not get built by them. uh sometimes they're a little slow in turning it around, but other than that, they do provide that service for us uh at no cost. The this type of firm that we're soliciting is more for sometimes in labor negotiations, mediation stuff, uh board representations, um things of that nature where the the city attorney's office might feel conflicted or might feel that it' be will be better served for with an with an independent attorney. So
057that that's what this is for. Now it behoo it behooves us to be, you know, a good traffic cop at deciding what what what to utilize the city attorney's office for versus you know a pay per per service which is you know rather expensive at times when you utilize the the attorney's hours. So that you're right that that's that's probably one of the things that we need to kind of like be more you know alert to and cognizant of right and that via said another another thing about the RFP itself I don't have it open in front of me um there are some deliverables that are duplicative of what we get with CABE so that may drive up the price for instance uh some of the trainings CABE already has to provide us so if
058the firms are looking at this and they got to provide us like instruction on a um professional development on our bylaws and or some some of the deliverables that are already being delivered by CABE as as well as pro. Oh yeah, because we we we can certainly remove those items from but I I I wanted to be all inclusive in there. So, you know, so it'll give us the uh the flexibility to utilize their services as long as they understand that, you know, if if we're not using them, you're not billing us for us even though, you know, you're able to provide it to us, right? Yeah. Because because I don't it might factor into the I would think it could possibly factor into the price I would charge somebody if I knew they could
059get 10 free hours because no nothing is free. Nobody's providing any services for free. These are bonus services that will be built into the hourly cost and hourly rate that they provide us. Correct. So that that that's my concern is not that they're going to charge us $300 to do Yeah. Yeah. We could be more specific. Yeah. We could be more specific to that as we develop a contract with the firm that that we decide to and and again you you have the opportunity to interview these firms as they respond to to the RFP and we can clarify that upfront with them before we we award the uh the the contract. Okay. Thank you. That's favor. Yeah, Mr. fires. Um, this posting um is boilerplate. Correct. Correct. Same one you used last time. That's the
060one that we were going to use last time and we pulled it because we extended it for a year. Same one you used seven years ago. Uh, no. There's some modifications on there from seven years ago. Okay. And um you said this uh was a fiveyear contract. Uh yes, seven years in. So I'm assuming somebody made a decision two years ago not to post it either. Correct. It was extended a year then. Yes, sir. In the summer of 23. That is correct. Uh that was extended by Miss Parn and the new superintendent. I believe it was Miss Parent at the time because there was an transition going on. possibly right. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't recall either. I was on the board then. That was in transit period. Okay. And so this is
061perfectly normal for us to take a look. We have negotiations coming up this fall with BCAST, I believe. That's correct. Okay. So, this all seems fairly standard and appropriate to me um for us to take a look at uh what's out there in terms of law firms. Um last year we spent a great deal of time with a lawyer from that law firm uh who proved to be uh quite frustrating. Um and so we should we should see who's out there um and whether or not it's a better deal. Um so I wholeheartedly support this um idea of seeing who's out there, right? And all we're doing is seeing what's out there and what the costs are um in terms of uh other law firms. And as we know from going to the Cape Caps
062convention, there's a plethora of law firms who are all vying for board of ed business. So let's see what the you know what what competition is like. Thank you. Is there a motion to refer us to the full board for the RFP of the BBLE legal services? So moved. So moved. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second. Madam chair. Favor. Dr. Mr. Woodson has his hand up. Oh, I don't see it. Go ahead, Mr. Woodson. Sorry. Mr. Is it too late? Is it too late? Is it too late to say anything? I didn't vote yet. We don't vote yet. So, go ahead. You can have a final comment. Um, I wanted to ask is are we in the same type of transition that we were in when Miss Perry was uh superintendent? No. No.
063Are you asking me, Mr. Woodson? Oh, whoever wants to answer it doesn't know. I say no. She She left in July. June June. Oh, but but they said that year and we we still haven't been Yeah. So, we're not in the in the transition. No, we're not in transition. So, like we're just getting the RP out there so that we can start taking a look seeing that we have um like negotiations coming up. And um so we we want to change the law firm that has been handling all our cases that we that that in that we've been um that we're dealing with time. So So I I can try to answer that. So So in my experience, I was I was here seven years ago when we went through this law firm from a
064previous law firm. Uh if we choose a different law firm, there is an agreement between both the outgoing law firm and the incoming law firm that will handle they will the previous law firm will will handle any outstanding issues or any outstanding cases that they might have to its conclusion and any new cases the new law firm will pick those up instead of the old law firm. So there is a transition period that is an understanded agreement with both law firms. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, see no further questions, we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. That's who I. All righty. Um, next we have this motion to adjurnn. Is there a motion? So moved. So it works out. Moved by Mina. I'll second. All in favor say I. I.
065We're jouring at 5:30. Thank you all for presenting. Thank you. All right.