Facilities Committee Meeting Tuesday, April 1 6:30 PM

001Good evening. The um meeting of disabilities committee today is Tuesday, April 1st and it's 6:34. We are at city hall 5. On the agenda tonight, the first item approve oh uh in person um we have Jere the chair committee um Alberta Benan committee member committee member Andre Woodson's online board member Joseph Collins is in person board members Robert Traver online and Marissa Estro is online the first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from March 5th 25. Is there a motion? So move. Moved by Mr. Benham. Seconded by me. I'll second it. Um. All right. Any uh on that? All right. I will take a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I. That one passes. Um the next item is a special meeting from March 10th, 2025. Um is there

002a motion? So moved by Mr. Benan. There a second. Second. Second by M on that one. All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Okay. All pass. Okay. All right. The first item on the agenda after minutes was the facility master plan. It's going to be everyone. Uh so it's going to be a brief update on facilities master plan where um we had a meeting last week with the city council. We gave a presentation uh along with our consultants landing and studio Jade. Um same presentation we've done in the past uh with the presentation of the facility investment plan itself along with the recommendations. Last night we had our first community meeting. Uh unfortunately there wasn't much attendance. I think we had maybe a handful of parents and community members were hopeful that uh

003tomorrow's meeting over at central will be better better attended and then we have our final meeting at BASC on Thursday. Um those meetings will start at 6 6 p.m. in the evening. Um so that's where the facilities master plan currently. Any questions? Is there any questions? Uh any more uh committee members members? No. Wson. Um so Mr. Tak, no questions at this time. Yeah. Well, I heard at the presentation that we said we're going out to this year for the um funding potential potential. Potentially. So, city council uh has uh hearings coming up and as far as us filling out the application, we saw when we voted to merge BMA and Baskin, we got locked into that. We could not change. If you're intending to go before the state and ask for money saying the

004board is going to merge these schools, you will be giving that you'll basically locking the board's hand, tying the board's hands and making the decision for us. So, I think we need to put a pause until we actually review and actually debate and modify this master plan to the board's liking because right now it's just a proposal. We're proposing consolidating schools. We're proposing is nothing actually that's locked in. And as you see and when I think about the past and BMA right now and its potential demise in the future by the way it's set up is a backdoor way of closing the school without going through a process. And I'm very concerned about that that we have not approved this plan. We've got several issues with the plan especially the demographics being all in one

005neighborhood. uh is really there's real discussion before we actually pull the trigger on anything that locks us in to something. Not saying we don't need to contract, but I'm saying we need to have an actual not a proposed plan, an actual approved plan by the board into what we need to do for the next 10 years. uh that there's there's other questions about the data some people ask me about um the the studies I mean we haven't had really much time on this thing yet um as far as the capacity of the schools we got um which was capacity we got on this one we got some of the schools got preks that don't have preks some of the schools eliminations of classes don't exist on this thing. Like the first question I want to

006ask is the contain how many empty classrooms like for instance you got the page couple of the city council had questions about 20% So these are rolling questions. Uh more capacity more capacity. Now let's take up bar for example. Got um flexible class 25 + 4 is 29. You got 41 total fulls size classes. Uh so five self-contained and three pre prek repeats 38. So we have how many empty those extra classrooms? What are they? Eight 37. So we got 34 empty classrooms in that are those being utilized like we saw the staff using them. What schools? Look at look at Barnum. Barnum. That's a free reduced comp. That's not Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. It was I gave you the wrong I gave him the wrong. We're trying to understand if we don't understand going

007through this. It says total full size classrooms 41. Yep. 41. 25 in use. Mhm. Four flex classrooms. So it's 29. So 29 is used to determine capacity. So contain five prek is three. So you add that 29 to the eight and you come up with 37 classes in use. Correct. If not yeah on another sheet there was other. So there was some flex classrooms that were there. Um you have the flex classrooms here. I see that there was also um where's other on this? There was another sheet where there was other if you can come on to the next I'm looking at come back to see if next next thing is a couple of things here um Horizons is listed as K through8 is listed through K through8 Madison's listed through K28 is this the

008proposal to eliminate prek in those in those buildings. No. So then D is just one that they gave us. Yeah. I think the grade levels on some of those that they gave us were incorrect, but the but the classroom walkthrough so they have schematics of each um of each school and each school is associating with um what the classroom number is right now. What what the classroom what exists in that classroom. So is it a full size? Is it teacher A, teacher B, teacher C? Um, the classrooms are notated, the self-contained rooms. Now, obviously during the school year, they could change, but but at the time of the study, those were the numbers that came on the study. If you're looking now, some of those rooms, like for instance, we have two new classrooms that

009not in the study that are in um Columbus that we moved. There were two uh self-contained classrooms that we had just moved there. I don't know, Dr. A. George, do you remember when? It was probably about November, maybe. Sometime in November. So, yeah. Well, let me try to get back to this. And um as far as far as the preks not being included in the classroom, are they included in the student count? Yeah. Yeah. The student counts for us, it's it's often enrollment. So, we have the we have the enrollment columns, the crystal reports enrollment as well as a dashboard that's on the on the data management website that you can just go click on every day and drill through and see um your race, ethnicity for the school, your gender, um free reduced lunch,

010um whatever you want. Um it is on the website and it's a uh live document. It's a PowerBI document that you play going to drill down to uh allow you to see what's going on before before we actually begin debating the document of I can see it corrected. So we significant amount have a significant amount of money into this plan. It should be it should be basically accurate. Sure. So Joe, if you go to um I don't know if you you have the document in front of you, but uh it's page 36 of you what was out last night. Um it's a schematic of each school. I can get those you guys put into your hands basically a breakdown of um each classroom, what's associated with that classroom, what grade levels are associated with that

011classroom, and um not sure exactly in there, but it kind of looks like kind of looks like this, which is which is what is one of the I don't know u one of the photos on it. We have this for every school, so it's broken down document. I'm actually looking for. Okay. Yeah, that. So, those I don't think were given out. Um the documents that were given out were the actual study, right? The um the um the FCAs from uh uh Studio Jane and the financials from Studio Jane. Those were given up. But as far as the schematics, as far as the school goes in the classrooms in the color codes, those weren't given out because we just receive them back again from MP planning um who took a breakdown of every single school and

012um and went ahead and marked them up so that we would know exactly how many classes we have. And besides walking through the schematics were there as you were there on the walkthroughs to see um we're notating each classroom to make sure that it was properly notated when we were walking through. Yes. So so some of the loading um I can't answer everything but I know on some of the loading there were some questions. So one of the questions I can answer and and this may not come out but this is what I asked the company. So if you have an edge spec of 750 students, okay, that educational spec at that time was the amount of students that they were going to give us money for to be able to open up that building.

013That's not to say it's the actual capacity. Just like anything else, if you have 10 classrooms and there's 10 um self-contained rooms, those classrooms right now, instead of being 29 each, which is would be give you 190, those classrooms you you would have a max of 10 on there. So, you would only have a max of 90. Oh, excuse me, 100 because there's 10 classrooms. So that max of 100 means your capacity in that school right now, you can't have extra 19 going into those 10 rooms. If it was a domino effect and they use 24 for everything, we don't. We do it a little different. We use 29 and 24 for K and one as a max and then we would use 18 for prek. The way that MT Planning did it is they

014use 24 for everything. So that way um it was a standard class if if it was a full-size classroom then they could use a standard capacity throughout because it may not be a prek class. It may be today but it may not be next week or a year from now. So they needed a standard number. So their numbers are going to fluctuate a little bit um different than what that hedge spec says um which is the 750 how they come up with 810 because their numbers right now are looking a little bit different and they have an 80% factor that they use on there. If you want me to get you the formula I can get you the formula from them so you can understand it. But that's how they do their capacity is not

015just looking at the number and that doesn't make sense. Well you're right. If you just looked at the numbers, it doesn't make sense. But once you see the mathematics behind it, then you say, I understand what they were doing, whether it's right, wrong, or different. That's how they did their capacity loads and that's how the company broke down what the um planning capacity was for the stool. Yeah. Sorry, so many questions. I'm trying to get stuff before Yeah. it gets to a critical stage and and especially to put and I can get I have that. I can get you especially since we're looking to go to the stadium. Don't want to lock us into anything. We got Beards located 2 point something miles. So from the new potential site potentially every single student that goes

016from Beardsley to Harding is going to need transportation. And there's another school I can't remember which one that's one mile and another one that's seven miles. 7 miles some of the students will be able to go without transportation. But people under four miles in the other direction they'll have to they'll be qualified for fair transportation. We got to factor all those costs in to see if we actually will have a savings. Sure. How do we lock ourselves into any plan any plan? Yeah. We've we've got to do this in a constructive constructive way and there's there's actual timelines. This is why we should be actually sitting in meetings debating the plan and refining the plan to something that's to the acceptability of six and 708 numbers or numbers. Sure. Yeah. I mean I mean again

017I'm not going to speak for for pink lane but I would say those are just recommendations as saying. So th those recommendations take it or leave it of what they are. their recommendations by the company of what they recommended that we looked at. Now, if you decide to go in another direction as board, you know, whatever that direction is, we're going to support wherever you decide that you want to go. Um the the key is, you know, you you have the plan, you're able to, you know, make decisions based on that plan. If you like the plan, if you don't like the plan, you know, if you have another idea for your plan, the reality is that's what they came up with and that's what we have in front of us right now. So, yes,

018it is your job to take look at it and say, um, these are some things I like about it. I don't like that. Can we do this? Can we do that? That's what the question is. Mr. concern I'll reiterate is going to the state and promising something that's not really beyond the promise when when you go to the state and you you you petition at a certain point you have to have an idea of where you're going right so so from a projection standpoint you have to have an idea of who you want put in the school um what the projections would look like from a uh grade level I mean you just can't build the school you're absolutely right and say, "Well, we want to build a school, right?" So, so you have to

019have an idea in mind when you're doing it. And then they have to look at a whole bunch of other things including projections and what it would look like for the next eight or 10 years. And that's not something I can do. They don't accept any projections that I give. Um, they only accept from an outside source their projections on what they control. Right. Right. again and when we projected the Harding and Bassid Bass and BMA merger, we found out it's not working and it's kind of too late to pull it all back to somewhat stay within those confines and have a presence of So, just let you know. Yeah, we don't do projections. I I want to make that clear, right? So they won't allow PJ's office to do projection because I'm always going

020to project to the way I see it which is to make sure that we have enough space for children to go there just like Harden every school that we've been building are under capacity right now same thing I mean when you go down the line but because the state only funds a certain amount so that certain amount that the state's funding when they bring in their outside consultants or those people who are doing those projections They have a number in mind that they want. We have a number in mind. If you ask George and I, we would, you know, say, "Hey, we want to go here." But the reality is that the state's going to give us based on what those companies that have come in or that company that has come in and have

021done those projections. And if you ask me, they've been projecting, underp projecting for the past X, Y, and Zur, right? And that and that's another concern. And um we talk about always listening to the professionals. Listening to the professionals. The professionals designed the um demographic study around Harding High School. Correct. No, not necessarily. The new Harding who who who projected there was only going to be a certain amount of kids children going to that school before we submitted the plan for the capacity. The You mean the new Oh, the new Oh. Oh, no. That was so the state brought in their own company to do the projections and that's how that worked out. Basic basically professional electoralists or whatever have you. Yeah. And we could all see they missed their they missed the mark significant.

022Yeah. So that's why it pays to question questions. That's all I got from Mr. Cher. Yeah, actually uh if I recall the history correctly on Harding Joe, uh uh Superintendent Val wanted it much smaller, um initially and he actually had it being built for two or 300 less because he projected that he wanted them all to go to the Fairchild Wheeler campus. And it was only when they realized that the uh residents of this area were going to want to go to the res the the building in this area that they had to redo the plans for the new Harding um and make it bigger. And so in midstream they had to change the the plans for the new Harding and make it 1150 or what is it 1150 it was built for? And so

023it was originally designed for 850 and they had to redo the plans to make it 1150. Um, so that was a travesty on two levels. Um, but that's not what I had my hand up for. Uh, but that's what you ended on. So I thought I would add that bit of history. Um, uh, back then. Uh, I just wanted to make comment. I spoke with Dr. Avery this afternoon. Uh the poor turnout yesterday was an unfortunate reflection I think of the uh uh holiday, the weather, and a few other things. Um but uh even Dr. Avery uh discovered what I discovered last week. There is absolutely no way for a non uh member of the Bridgeport public school community to find out about the uh open forums on the website. Uh which hopefully that was

024fixed this afternoon. Um, but uh, you know, we want to really beat the bushes to make sure people know about the next two forums so that they can come and ask the questions they want to ask at these public forums about the plan that we're putting forth. Uh, and hopefully over the next 24 hours, we're really making sure the word gets out in the community about the meetings at Central and Bassic. Uh I know that the word was there on the p parent square and notices were sent to the parents but the fact that they weren't in school to uh yesterday uh there was nobody talking about the meeting and there was no reminding people at school about the meeting so we didn't have the turnout we wanted. We really do want to encourage the

025turnout uh at school, but we also want to try and encourage turnout in the community for the next two meetings so people can come and ask questions and hear each other's thoughts and questions at the meetings, which is what I was looking forward to last night and am looking forward to the next two nights. So, that was my only comment tonight. Yeah. And Mr. Mr. Traver, you made a great point. I think while we have uh both companies there um I'm I'm I'm going to second that because any of those questions that yes we can't answer about the study with the company being there both companies they can get in a little bit more detail than we can at this point and explain those areas that you have those questions about the questions Mr. Kick's

026asking the questions I know that Councilwoman Pereira wants to ask. Um I I think that all of that stuff needs to get out in the open and have a full discussion in our community. Um and it was not I looked for days at the end of last week and Dr. Dr. Avery looked yesterday um uh I mean today and we looked at the site and it's just you can't go on the Bridgeport Public School website and see anything about the meetings and it should be popping out at your face as soon as you get to the website. Uh and I know people showed up last night at the meeting and uh we're confused because we had the meeting at 5:30, we had a special meeting at 6:30 and it was just very confusing. Um, so

027we just want to make sure that if you open up the bridge public school website, you see, you know, meeting about the public uh the facilities master plan so that everybody knows and I would even encourage a press release to make sure the public knows. We just want people to know, come on down and and ask your questions and get them answered with those people there. Yes. Right. Thank you. Yeah. So, we're going to work on making sure that's the the first health special because it's on the website just under the other doses. So, we have to make sure it's on for this week. Yeah, we did we did it before. Remember when I raised the fact that the the master plans the summaries weren't available the next day. I know you got them up

028there PJ, you and Jeff so that when you open up the website, boom, they were there and people could look at them. And that's what we have happen is that boom, you know, the nose is there and people see it and hopefully we get a better turnout between that and the fact that school's open and you know, principles are reminding parents to come on down and and you know, ask your questions and find out about the plan. And uh thank you, Mr. Chair, for clarifying that as well. One of the things that we did when we first posted up there, I had uh technology put like a little bullet I mean a button that kind of link so where you can just click on it and they took it down for some odd reason. That's

029what I wanted up there to stay up there. Soon as you go to the website it's there or it's scrolling where you click it somehow somehow we need to go back to that. Yeah, that's would be common so I can Yes. If you can work with them on helping get that. So, we'll we'll make sure we we'll get we'll work on that tonight. So, yeah, because because people have lots of questions and they're good questions, you know, we want to make sure that we answer all the questions and we hear all the questions so that we're responsive. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Woodson. Um, I just wanted to just to mention that, you know, not not many people are online. I mean, I know majority of people are on their phones and stuff like

030that, but most people are are better off finding out maybe with a a note in their kids book bag or something like that. And I I I I doubt most people are online looking at the website. So, I mean, if you really really want to get the get out the word that hopefully the the teachers or the principles could put some uh materials in the kids book bags or something like that. I don't know. Just just saying. Thanks. We can do that as well, Miss Wilson. I'll make sure I get that out to the campuses uh first thing in the morning. See, I want to ask a question. I don't know if you can answer me now or you may you can answer that one. When you talk about your master plan and everything we

031talk about say about Bass High School, everything is talking about Bass High School in Bass High School in Bass High School and doing something they come up BMA everybody know from the beginning for years I never agreed with school together. So part of though you must plan is everything about bass high school because and when you do build the committee you know that we talk about passing high school my last meeting I asked the chair since they needed attorney and he said everything must passing so I know they act this in the last moments last year you know few years back and was the former superintendent before that was the only for me you know didn't agree with that what's going on with this situation while in BMA in fact you know because that is

032the process It's like I'm selling to you this and I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it. ask so many question what's going on with that because you guys know anything I post in my social media you're going to be ready to go crazy and almost 99% people they don't want the two school together about a lot of things a lot of things about safety the amount of students staff you know sometimes staff they don't want it don't agree but sometimes they you know they cannot speak too much because they don't you know the situation but parents is the most important you know they are the one complaining about that because I I know it's a lot. It's a lot of process. I know that you know each if you're going to see how

033many cases are supposed to be under 1200 1250 1250 and let's give a give a sample amount is 1,400. What we're going to do with the rest of the students students belong that student they are have to go to because it's going to make sense to put another student to another high school. you know transportation going to cost more money and we don't have for that you know the safety I don't see is something come out talk with the parent they don't talk with the student they don't talk with the staff you know it's it's a lot and I don't want at the end of the day they make a decision oh this is what we're going to do we're going to do okay trust me trust me trust me trust me I would do

034a big revolution in people pop school because I never agree with this you know it's a lot it's a lot of questions and nobody can answer the questions it's like I told you want to sell it to me I'm going to show you I'm not going to buy you. So you just want to know it's going to be part the master plan or or you want to answer that question. You know what? So I think um it was addressed to a certain extent in the master plan in the recommendations. There's still conversations with the state I believe. Yeah. About the potential of those things, but every single day we're having these conversations of different options for BMA and what we can and can't do. Um, but you know, I don't think we're there yet and

035those conversations are still fluid. So, if we can just sort of give this a bit of a pause, give us a little bit of time. I think we're going to be able to better answer your questions over the next few weeks or couple of weeks, I'll say, because there really isn't much time. We got to start making decision. We need to come together as a community, um, as a board, as as a school district, and start to have these conversations. I mean, um, you know, there's a lot going on right now. There's there's, you know, we're dealing with the budget. We're dealing with with the master plan. We're dealing with a lot of different things going on at the same time. So, if we can have a little bit of grace, a little bit of

036time, I think that we'll be able to start to better answer those questions for you in the near in the near future. I'm okay with that. The answer that question, but I really want to answer the question when the decision is already done. Yeah. Because really this is not coming for now. This is coming for a long time and asking this for a long time and it's always in the limbo. And we know that uh okay, we all know that the army, the navy, the coast guard and other ones, they're trying to help BMA 100%. But if they're going to be to school together, they said they're not going to do it. And I don't want that thing that that BMA had that amazing opportunity to, you know, they lose this, you know, and the

037state of course they want this and they want that because they wanted the money and they, you know, whatever the state what the you know make decision they don't care about what's going on about safety and the process we're going to having here and I'm ready to go to the state and I'm ready to post some people. I've been talking with some state rep over there and they told me let me know what day your comments you know and we really can answer your questions. So before that I would like you know not go over you know go over either with Dr. nothing like that and nobody so try to see we can't answer that question as soon as possible. I know you have a lot of I really trust you. You do amazing job

038and your team, you know, but I don't want things go out with the line. That's right. And and the way that Captain Lip has grown that program, you know, I mean, I think that's an inspirational thing and I think that's part of the decision making over the next few few weeks if even weeks um to have to continue this conversation. Yeah. And I think Albert, two things. the old bassic to the new bassic is one about 1.5 miles away. So there is going to be some busting cost. Um and we did factor that in already because obviously it's 1.5 miles further in another direction. So for some students um there won't be busing. for other students there may um we have been working with the GBT to get more um buses along that line so

039that there's not just one bus coming up and back that there's multiple buses that are going down so that we can bring more um basic students on those buses uh down to the new campus um at this point. So those are things I can say we have been working on to try to get at least a bus system at that point getting those students to where they need to go and trying to minimize any cost that we can that's associated with doing that extra transport with those students. So we've been in talks with we transport to try to make sure that um we can get the best deal that we can get um to make sure that our children um can get transported from point A to point B. No, I really understand that and

040I appreciate that you do, Mr. DJ. But you this is what's going on with the state. The state tell you this is what we have. This is what you're going to do. This is why we going to give it to you. And then you guys had to deal with whatever the state give, you know, give it to us. Yeah. And then after that, you guys, they go to Dr. Dr. Go to the board. But the state they say, I already made the decision. This is what you have. And then who's going to deal with the rest of the stuff? Us. Right. And most important thing, they always have it in the bottom. I never got the I always have on the top is the parents because the parents don't want gonna speak the parents are

041going to you know so and you know I always support my parents so the state we're going to do this but the state have to understand we have to deal with so many things part is the city the most connect the most we have in Connecticut they know we have almost 20,000 students so I know the state someday here this is why you got people going to do that then I'm ready to make that's what I said the last time I'm ready to make so just just for your um acknowledged state technical assistance assistance is aware of the situation. We we have made them aware or you know immediately of what's going on. Okay, one more question. Um, so this is a a question that um the council brought to me um about the redistricting

042that we haven't done and I know last year there was a a proposed like a redistricting proposal that had to do with the previous um Yeah, I can. Sure. And so can we come up with can we can we see a redistricting plan if we were to if those schools that are recommended to close will close because u what Mr. the column was saying is, you know, some of these schools are, you know, quite a distance to the proposed new building knowing that not everybody who would if if there's need to close, not everybody that goes severely would be going to this school, they they can go to the schools in the district around the district. So, so I could I could I could rectify that. So, when when Dr. Levy Damon um initially wanted

043to close the six schools. Um we had um redistricted uh those six schools to be able to go and get redistricted to other schools so that those six buildings may be closed at that point. Um we do have the capability of um redistricting students and children. Um the one thing that we didn't do was um the board is going to guide us on where we need to go and then we're going to um support the board in that methodology of what do they want to do to redistrict um uh sad is not recommended by the um team that um we work with. So, the two groups, uh, Studio Jade and MP, um, if you make a decision that you would like to see what it would look like based on, uh, a possible, as I

044said, a possible closing or not even a closing, I want to see what it would look like if we evened out um, you know, school A, B, and C. We can do that. We can give you an initial look at what that may look like. Um my suggestion is that if you have those ideas that you uh want to set forth, give us a a plan of certain ideas that you have so we can look at obviously to do every school and every sector is huge and we're asking a company to do something again. But if you have areas and pockets of what you want to see, we can look at that and come back with what it would look like if we were to do this. This is this is what you know this

045attendance zone or this area would look like based on a possible redistricting of of that area. Yeah, there's like um to that point, you know, we have the the the schools that were recommended on the plan for closures, but I think that would be um something we should look at um where they would go if this new school was built. And then on top of that, you know, you got the schools with um that are on on paper on the p the plan says um what is the wording? Uh well utilized. Over over utilized. Yeah, well utilized. Um, but they're at 100% capacity. And so like so yeah, those capacities are now the the specialized programs. But if you have something like, you know, black where they're at 33% drive wind up at 80, you

046know, even if they drop the the redistric line like, you know, a few blocks, how much would that affect, you know, so so understood? That's a thing we could look at. Understood. So, we would need I need to know some areas of what you're looking at because again, if you're looking at, you know, let's say the east side or the east end and you're saying, you know, we want to look at that. You're saying, I want to look at something on the south end or I want to look at something at the north end, but we'd have to know what whatever area that you're targeting or what you're looking at. we have to know exactly um where you need to go. So we can try to guide them and say can we look at this

047area and get a better projection of what it would look like to move a boundary line here or there so we can see what you know uh what the model shows and predicts based on what we do with that movement of that line or that area. And then um and then and with that transportation cost where if we did have to redistrict um you know what what's what would be the plan for those that are over a mile. Yeah. And and and that's that's something the board's going to have to think about because right now we have one mile and just to put it out there not to say listen I'm just putting it out there. You you recommendations are maybe 1.2 25 maybe 1.5 you're the amount of cost you're going to save a

048busing perspective now I'm not I'm not saying that that's the right thing to do I'm saying that's a recommendation to look at say what it what would it be for 1.25 25 miles instead one mile. How much would we save in an area of transportation? Because reality is transportation costs are high. However you look at I mean our transportation costs are um extraneously high um because we're not just trans public school students we're transporting charter. We're transporting parochial. We're transporting all kinds of um students at this point. So, um I I I think that's an area that we haven't really targeted that you you may want to look at to see if in doing this plus the redistricting if it makes sense to look at it from different perspective to see how much we may

049save. M just to add to what PJ saying uh the board has recommended, you know, superintendent's office to provide $30 million worth of cuts. So, we're getting that's what we're doing right now is working through those numbers in order to provide those options and things that we are going to be able to save that far away from the classroom as possible. So, in the next week or so, we're going to have $30 million worth of cuts that we're going to be providing the board uh and transportation pieces as part of that uh that initial conversational plan that we're going to be providing the board for consideration. Again, a lot of these things are all things that we're going to have to consider or the board's going to have to consider in their steps in trying

050to come up with a 30 30 plus million dollar savings. And so that's that's one of the things that we're we're going through those analysis right now. Uh and it's it's a tough analysis to go through, but it's it's a very wellthoughtout process that we're having to look at the cost savings of what we're going to have to do uh in these next decision- making uh opportunities that we'll we're going to have. So again, we're we're digging deep into all the opportunities and options so that you as a as board can have really clean, you know, perspective and the estimate dollar amounts that's tagged to these things are just estimates. We don't know true dollars until we get into the work. The other piece of that with the redistricting for the entire district, we've paid,

051you know, the two um third party, you know, companies that's working with us now in this facility plans. We we we pretty much cost them out. Any additional work that they're going to have to do is going to cost this district a little bit. That's part of the redistricting. If we look at that, there's going to be a cost associated to that. don't know what that would be until we go back to ask them what would it cost to do a redistricting of a portion of the district, all of the district or quarter of the district, that kind of thing. So, those are other options that we'll we'll bring back to the board as well. I think with the board it would help. I'm just saying for me and and I I'm only speaking for

052myself that uh if if we had ideas uh from the board, in other words, what your what your vision may be or may not be, what what what other areas um that you feel that may not have been in the recommendation area? what what is it that we can do to support um Bridgeport Public School families and students and the board? And with knowing that, we can at least give you a look at some estimates or some other areas of where we may need to look at. Um and again, redistricting is one part of it right now. the the the other part of looking at redistricting again are all the other parameters that go inside of something district. Yes, sir. Mr. Cher, you Mr. Cher. Yeah, I I wanted to one agree with Mr. Woodson

053in the spirit of last night's discussion that the paper is worth it. Um, so I wanted to reinforce that comment that he made about making sure you send something home in the book bags. Um, and it's really hard for us, PJ, without knowing what the redistricting costs are going to be and savings are going to be. So, you know, that's that's part of the the squeeze that we're in. Um, we do need to see, um, and I I assume this is going to come to a finance committee meeting soon, the 30 the the $30 million worth of savings cuts. I'm hoping that this comes to a finance committee meeting soon because we don't have a board meeting um, until the end of the month. And, uh, the appropriations committee is going to be meeting on

054April 25th. Um and so that's sort of our deadline for having [Music] some parameters for the um direess if you will of our situation. Um so I think that uh we need to have that list Dr. Avery that you're talking about out there as to how dire our situation is. Uh but it's really hard PJ to sort of compare situations when we haven't even had a chance to hear what the community thinks. about the one idea that's been put out on the table. We're only beginning to hear that this week. Um, and we need to hear what the community thinks of the plan that's been profered and hear their feedback and then begin to ingest what they think of it and where they think it ought to go and then respond to their concerns. So,

055we're sort of in between a rock and a hard place on that one, which is what I raised at the board meeting a few weeks ago. Um, so we need to to be flexible and I heard George with regard to the time constraints and we're trying to juggle all those things, the state legislature appropriations committee deadline and the state legislature bonding and all the city council. So, it's a bunch of different things that all need to be pushed forward rapidly. Yeah. And I think Mr. traver for us. We're in the same boat as you are because with guidance um and working together um we may be able to solve some of this in a manner. We just have to know what direction we're going in. Um what I mean the recommendations are there. If there

056are any other recommendations um that come across or come to us, we're going to go in and break down those recommendations and give you a look at it, give you a copy of what you need to um um make effective decisions. We just have to know where it is that you want us to look. And I understand the public has to be part of it. I'm I'm I'm with you. I understand all that. But once that's done and we get that feedback, then we're going to need to know what areas do you want us to target? Where do you want us to go so we can produce that and help with this plan hopefully in a in a timely manner so we can give you those other things that you need in front of you

057so we can make decisions. I got it. But first we have to go to the public. Understood. Thank you. Mr. the colleges. Yeah. A couple things I will start where I didn't mean to start, but I just want to address something Dr. Amry mentioned. It's not the board that's sending $32 million in cuts. It's the law. We've got to balance the budget by law. Board does not want to make these cuts anymore than staff and management does. This is a mandate by law. We must balance the budget by law. That's one thing. And second thing is um as far as the cost of domestic facilities plan thus far is being worn by the city and when we initially developed and gave them their marching orders. Part of their marching orders were develop a plan that

058does not have a disparent impact on one particular neighborhood or area. But what they brought back to us was not three schools closing in one area. They gave us a fourth school and took out another school from another side of town. Last time this city was redistricted. We redistrict every 10 years according the census and everything for the voting rights and everything. But our children don't get redistricted. Is when's the last time we redistricted the whole entire city? That's a long time ago. Were you here? Yeah, I was here. Yeah. Yeah. So, so it's been decades. Decades. All the movement around the city with schools atund and something capacity. Schools that we're considering closing because they're at 40 50% capacity. yet we haven't even considered a citywide redistricting. I think there's some other parameters though

059like over like um control transfers mobility I mean when we start getting into that do you know the mobility numbers you know how many control transfers we do a year when you start looking at some of that stuff that why is the city the way it is and I'll tell you some of the families don't want to go to certain schools so right away they want to control transfer immediately because they just moved into a neighborhood and their neighbors are saying, "You don't want to go to that school. You want to go." I don't know if you know how many parents call our office and say, "No, no, we just got here. We don't want to go to that school. We were told that's not a good school. We got to go somewhere else." There

060are some things that we need to clean up internally. Yes. First, and there are some policies and plans that we need to look at to make sure that we are supporting our schools. And again for me each school in Bridgeport public schools is should be a school where every parent wants to go to. And when we start segregating and saying well that school on this side of town is better than that school on that side of town and you don't want to go there because it's not this then we have a problem and and we need to solve that. Absolutely agree. And then the segregation brings to my next point. with segregating not once but twice on the east eastern quadrant. Mhm. One with all the school consolidations getting boarded up and left for abandoned

061in the neighborhood. We're not calling them school cultures. Uh and then only considering increasing the class size in that very same area rather than have the four even if the four ported up buildings remain in that area rather than considering a whole redistricting of the city. So I neighbor they going on the north end get a couple extra kids in the classroom but we're not considering that we're only getting one part of town that is inequitable and that's not going to support it and I I think I think we heard a lot of rings out of from not just the city council that's sitting here but other others have reached out as well and they they give us the 20% said they you got want to get that building built built. We got we got

062to address that because if we don't get the funding from the city, it's not going to get built either. I mean, talk about hitting one side of town disproportionately when everybody else walks away. We got we've got to spread the unfortunately we got to spread the pain throughout. You can't have one group of people accept the pain just because they don't come out in lobby, just because they're not standing in front of just because they got to work two, three jobs and they can't get out to the meetings like the people online. It's just not fair. It's just not fair. They're worried about trying to find food, trying to worry about feeding their families. And I'm worried about coming out to the board meetings until it's too late and they find out the kids in

063class with 28 29 students being packed in. Well, parents would come out here and advocate. They come out and advocate for a sports program to be saved. They could come out to advocate for this to be saved and that to be saved and see their little faces and their tears in their eyes and we say, "Oh, well, let's save." But what about the people we do not see? What about the people who do not have glutes? This is what we got to consider before making our decision. Oh yes, thank you. Um, yeah, I feel I mean I throw what Joe is saying, but I mean when the side of town has been neglected for so long, I mean where what are you going to do? you going to go to another side of town and

064fix school or you have to fix the most the most uh needed place right you got two schools of a combined age of over about 250 years I mean or yeah about 90 and 135 how many years is that 215 something like that I don't know but you know that I mean it's with that combined amount of years you know I mean there's I I I understand Joe's point, but we have to do what has what has to be done and hopefully we make decisions based on, you know, what this what the what the data is recommending. We don't get personal feelings involved in the in in in our decisions because like I said, we we we have neglected this for so long. There's been other schools and other sides of town that that skipped

065skipped the order. No, I don't I didn't hear Joe complaining. I I I don't remember Joe complaining when when another sky side of town skipped the skipped the the the the process of when they got their school redone. So, you know, I mean, it goes it it goes both ways. The schools need to be done. The sooner we get them done, the sooner we get the kids back into the schools and then the neighborhood and then the the neighborhood could start thriving again as a community. We just need to stop delaying the process. Thank you. This is Mary. I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. And then Mr. D. Good evening everyone. So, I just wanted to reiterate what Mr. Woodson was chatting about. When I read the facilities master plan, it was very evident from the

066report that one side of town was consistently neglected and that was the east side. So I think in the interest of doing right by our fellow you know um residents that that that area needs to be addressed. How we do it is a different story. However, it's very evident from that report that something needs to happen there. Those are not good facilities for children to be um going to school in. There's it's not suitable for teachers to be in. There's health and safety issues, so that needs to be resolved. Thank you. Mr. Chamber. Yeah. And once again, I find myself agreeing here with uh Mr. Woodson and Miss Esther Himenez. Um the narrative that Mr. uh uh Sakalovic is is stating is a nice narrative, but you know, the opposition that I've heard is we're

067going to build this monstrosity of 750 student school, preK to 8. Yet, um what we have in the North End is a 750 student school in Winthrop and an 11200 student school in Blackham. Um and they're both good schools. Um I having taught at Blackham I know Blackham's history in and Winthre was always one of the gems of the uh the white power structure in Bridgeport. Um and it remains so. Uh it's being renovated for the second time. Um so what this plan is that's different than the plan last year is we're going to replace the schools in the east end. Let's be clear, it's the east end, not the east side. um with a brand new school. And that's what's different is the plan is to replace um and build us a new school

068in the East End um in Mil Hill. Um and uh that's different. And so to present that to people as an alternative. We're not tearing down the schools, we're replacing them. And that's what the people people I've talked to in this neighborhood find as an attractive. It's not universal. And I'm still waiting to hear. the jury's out and we need to hear and talk to people. Uh, and I'm waiting anxiously to hear what people have to say. But I I know um people who say, "Oh, a new school in our neighborhood. That's great." So I that's what people find attractive is the thought of having a brand new school built in our neighborhood. Um, so it's not um, you know, I don't think the picture is quite the way uh, Mr. Kivik paints it and

069it's important for us to get out and talk to the people in the neighborhood and see if the thought of having a brand new school built in our neighborhood um is more attractive than uh renovating the old buildings in our neighborhood. Um and that's what we're out there meeting in the community about because I know people that love the idea of having a brand new building built on at the old Harding site. Um and a 750 uh student prek to8 building is not a horrible thing. Um Winthrop is 750 762 according to the chart. Um and Lackam is 111200 over the years. So I don't think that's a horrible thing. Um and I agree with what Miss Esther Jimenez just said. Um the east end has been neglected for years and it's time and not

070be neglected and that's what this uh facilities uh master plan says is let's build something for this part of the city. Um we took off Bryant because Bryant never should have been on the plan to tear down. Bryant was renovated in the in uh the West End um and it wasn't well done but it it was renovated and it should be maintained. Um, so, uh, I think this is not a bad plan from that point of view. It just remains to be seen if the people in the neighborhood support the idea of building this new school on the old Harding site, and that's what we're out to find out. Thank you. See, no further questions. We're going to um allow you know we'll have the community forums tomorrow and um Thursday. So board members to

071attend a little bit and really listen to our the public on those. Um and you know this is again a continuing conversation that that can just make a quick point before go ahead. Um we can't give you direction until we have an action item on this thing because we there's no direction yet until we have an action item. We're just basically talking in circles until it's made an action item. And the longer we take to make these things an action item, further it's going to draw out and then further we get to a time where we have to make a decision without thinking. I don't want to get into that position again. I suggest we put this as an action item. So, Mr. Kappa can get the direction he's seeking to actually put something before

072us because like them they're sitting around having time to make decisions. We need that same time as well as board. We don't need them. Took them at the last minute. Oh, we got to make a dent. The application period closes next week. If you don't get off the pot and lose want to be in that position of tie to get that position. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to move on to the next item on agenda. Basic decommissioning update. So, um basic decommission. Um obviously you know as we're preparing for uh occupying the new facility we want to make sure that there's care in the process and decommissioning the current bassic. So, we've created several committees to ensure that uh there's a there's a smooth transition into the new building that um there's signoffs

073at every level in terms of the activities needed to be able to decommission the building in a way where we understand our assets are properly valued and moved to where they need to be moved whether it's newassic to other facilities into storage what have you. So um you know we've created a decommissioning committee myself and Jamie co-chair this committee. Jamie will be going through um the documentation of how we are um ensuring that this doesn't turn into another hardy. Um and then Mike Zuro will touch on how we're going to start the process of turning the building over to the city. Um so we'll start there. I'll close up with um some details in terms of the conversation I've already had with OPED and then um you know when we anticipate turning the building back

074over. Um PJ also has had oper um um planning and program planning and program uh committees that uh you know are are weekly. Uh so you know we're taking a lot of care spending the kind of time that's needed to ensure that we're decommissioning the building properly and that we're ensuring that as we move into the new building that things are smooth for the teachers the students day one of the new basket. So Jamie if you can go through the documentation. This um first document is our task list that we created for closing a school. So there are different categories of tasks from archival, building, uh technology, keys, environmental, finance and each task has a department to perform the task, a department to assist with it, a coordinator name, and a deadline. And then we

075will check off once it's completed. So about two months ago, we created these committees. We started organizing and planning on how we were going to effectively hope close back. So far in the last four weeks, we've had 25 truckloads of move from Basset either to be recycled or from other schools, not to the new Basset yet because it's not ready. So what happening is we have a gentleman in our department who meets with each department head. He physically meets with them at the school. They do a walkth through of things, items, books, supplies in their department with their teachers and they literally go through every single item, identify it, label it, box it, and plan on where it's going to go next. So, he's done that with a few department heads so far, including art,

076math. Um, I believe he worked with science, the athletic director. We met with Lighthouse because they have um a room there at BASC and we also notified the city of some of the items that need to be moved before moving on to the new school. um some of the items. If we go to the next um sheet, which is this one, basset decommissioning. Oh, it's a different um document. Document. So, some of the items are either labeled to be auctioned, recycled, moved to a different location, or moved to the new bathroom. Um and um while going through this process, since this is something new that we're doing, the documents we have are living documents. We're changing them constantly. We're adding notes. Every department head, both principles from BMA and Bass and our staff has access

077to share drive that it created for us for these documents. So, if someone has a question, they want to edit it, it's live on there and we can see the edits and move forward without skipping a beat and waiting for the next meeting um to move on with things. Everyone gets a space in the building. It seems to be going pretty well. We haven't had any complaints. We've actually had a few accolades um that has been moving so far. Um and it's only been four weeks. During April break, the plan is to bring in three 40yard dumpsters and start purging the items that have been labeled as to be recycled and that way we won't disrupt programming during the uh school day. We found during this walkthrough we had a few areas of concern and

078those areas of concern are only concerns because of the amount of equipment or supplies or materials that are in those areas and one of the biggest ones we um joke about but it's a heavy lift. It's the wait room. There are a lot of weights and I don't believe they will be moving on to the new bathroom and I don't know yet where we will be moving them either to other schools or to um be auctioned off the new bathroom will get new I believe so right a couple areas of concern just because of the amount um that will have to be either move recycled or auctioned off our um the garage area and then records. Records is huge. But I think today, right before this meeting, we had a a meeting and we put

079a plan together to uh start working with it and everyone to work on the records. So, we're not physically moving them. We'll be digitizing getting into the 21st century, which is good news. And as you can see from the list on on the screen, there's a lot of care in inventorying everything in every single classroom. I think that's an important factor like that. We know how many desks, how many chairs, um, you know, it's it's helpful for the auctioneer to be able to understand this stuff, but also for us because there's a couple different phases to that. There's the potential of auctioning, there's a the potential to donate, and then whatever's left over we need to we need to dispose of. Um, you know, because our intent is to turn over a room clean building

080to the city. No, I'm all set. Um, so can I ask about the work first? Um, the board asked, but can we have a document the document portal? Absolutely. Daniel, you can have it, but it's the changes every single day. So that's why I didn't share it. But I that previous document is it's also working document. Yes, they're both they're both and keep up to date on exactly where they kind of grow as they stand. Yes. And another thing is um you know, one of the things that that I know when we think about the missteps with Harding is the historical pieces that were in Harding, right, that left behind. Um how is that? Are we keeping some of those pieces and and displaying them in a new bass? Um so there is a plan

081um you know through the leadership both Dr. Raola and Amanda Lip who have been tremendous to work with um there is action items in the document itself to to capture that piece of it. Um you know I think we walked through every detail and took us Joe will tell you this this goes back a couple years now uh when we first started having conversations of making sure we had a document to capture all this. He was part of the original committee when we started that. We took all of that information and actually got it into this document. Um, but you know, we we haven't left anything on anything to chance here because we understand the gravity of of what's happened in the past and we also want to make sure that there's a return on

082investment for the residents here. They made an investment in the past, but that investment lives on. Um, the historical stuff we want to make sure we capture. Um, that's a dual process. um you know that's part of part of that is going through construction and to do this document simultaneously in parallel um because those conversations are going on daily. Um so we're we're ensuring that these things will not be left to chance. Um if we can just go into mic or if if there's any other questions on this part of the process. Okay. question right now. Yeah. Oh, you want microphone first? Go ahead. So, let's finish my my You have a question for me? I I can wait. Okay. Well, on the operational side, it's more I'll step in when most of this work

083is wrapped up and it'll be um shutting down the equipment, securing equipment, uh draining boilers, plumbing systems, whatever is necessary um along with the city so that we turn it over in the condition they expect or want it. and you know ensuring that the building is groom clean and finding perhaps one or two items that maybe maybe hasn't made our list. You know this is uh you know it it is an extensive list. We think we've covered everything but you know something's always I'm afraid you're going to pop up and you know keeps the building safe and safe as we can and secure and ready to turn over to the city in whatever fashion you know they want. Yeah. So, you know, ready to be reopened if they want or if they want. So, light

084is ensuring that the mechanical systems are left in the best condition possible. You know, uh whether it's it's winterized depending on the timing. We're we're ready to do all of that. Um you know, all of our teams are on alert for when Mike activates them for specifics. Um I've already met with the OPED team. We've given them environmental records, building records, everything so they can start their process of of what their thought process is for the future of that site. Um, so they're ready. Um, I'm not sure if they're going to be going to RFP anytime soon, but you know, we feel that we'll be ready to turn over the building probably sometime, you know, second half of September is our goal. We want to get ahead of winter. We don't want to carry the

085winter. Uh we also understand that you know on the technology side we're you know we want to have a handoff on that end too with security with the cameras with you know everything else that that is a cost a reoccurring cost to the district. So we're taking that into account also. So we're trying to exit as gracefully as we can and as efficiently and economically as we possibly can when we exit fasting and ensure that the city has a building that you know they see that we cared for. again. You know guys, I love you that you guys are missing and you do a good job and you know I'm not happy about this two schools together. First of all, I know you see they change the the information why we don't have you know

086our package but I would like to have it. I know you say you change it but I like to have it for the record. Um and I know you say bass can be made bass and being made and it's sad. It's and it stress me so bad and I know we start this in the beginning for basic and everything we talk is about bass. You're the first person right now that you say bassing and BMA. You are the first one because every time we have a meeting stuff like that or the building committee we talk about basic and basket and basket and bass. So I heard listening to you just now. You say Bassie plus VMA, you know, I'm telling you, you're the first one to say that and I I know you guys trying

087to do the best and I know this for a year they trying to do put it together, but I'm not agreeing with that and it's sad, you know, stress me out so bad that they want BMA so badly together with with it with basic when we can help BMA. I know and I really bring it to the table and I'm telling you right now that I'm going to be working with parents and stuff like that because you know I know I know some staff and I know principles they would like to have you know like you said bass and be made the way it's supposed to be they cannot make decision they not made decision say no whatever I cannot speak and I can speak for them you know I'm free to speak but uh

088I I really don't know you know but I know everything you understand I respect everything you guys said I respect your job but This is the way I feel. And second, I really walk with you guys. I really walk with you, George, one day and we take pictures. I still have the What is good to bring to the new Bass High School, you know what we can say, stuff like that, you know, um history, you know, stuff like that. That old bass have beautiful things, you know, the gravity tech and I hope we can, you know, take it back to the new high school. and we will archive some of those items like uh you know the folks that have walked our facility understand that you know we we see the value in the history

089of Bridgeport the history of the board of education um you know not every item can make it into the new facility but you know we we we house a lot of those things in our in our warehouse you know because we understand the value the history of Bridgeport so in this instance we'll do the same and if there are items that don't make it into the new facility that really hold a special place for folks we We can house them in our in our You have in your department a big bell. We have the belt of Columbus. Exactly. That's a history. That's something you know. Very very Yeah. Just about all of the plaques and you know the first renderings that went into the building displayed through our facility. Um you know it's it's part

090of who we are here for you know. Well really they think we have one more question. Um Mr. Do you have any questions? Uh, no. I just want to comment. I want to uh thank the guy. I thank the u the staff and everything. I appreciate their hard work. I see I could I could tell, you know, it takes a lot to to to to just to get all the numbers together and all the information together. So, I just want to tell them I appreciate the the job they're doing. Keep up the good work. Mr. Thunder, I was about to do the same thing. We start like you said, we started the journey together. Yeah. sidetracked, but if you if you recall, we started the journey as creating a policy to go forward forever. Uh

091where's this document going to be living for future generations? I think we're going to have to create a new policy uh a school closure policy. Um I think it's healthy for us to start looking at some of these policies and updating them. Um so I think this could probably be one of the most one of the first symbolic um policy that be updated um as this this will be a living document for every school moving forward this will be the way that we decommission is I mean when you take when you when you think of the size of bassic I mean you know it's a lot of work that goes into it I mean and and we're not just assigning things we're ensuring that folks are signing off on what it is that they're responsible

092for um you know and that we're taking those items that have value and and and moving them on to to a place that can use them, you know. So, um and you know, as other pieces that as the state starts to contract a bit on what they're willing to to reimburse you for, there's items that in the past we didn't have to move on to a new building that now we do. So, you know, the staff has done a tremendous job. I know that Tito Blanis and and Sarah J and Henry have really have worked hard. Um, those are two folks that Dan I said have really stepped up, the science department folks. I mean, you know, everyone's starting to feel the the the energy of a new building, but also wanted to make sure

093that we don't disgrace BAS in any way and that we do we do right by Bass. Um, what what's happening with the telescope in the observatory? U, that's still one of those items that we'll be discussing into the future. Um, we're not sure um, you know, what will what will happen with the telescope. I think that's something that, you know, we should as a as a board, as a as a as a district, start to have a greater conversation about. And now, there's an assumption I want to bring up that you automatically assumed that we're going to give that back to the city right away. Again, that's another board level decision that may possibly be able to be looked at for the master plan. I'm not sure in any way, shape, or form what happens

094with that. But, but the concern the concern being that I don't know if anybody ever tracked down if there was a restricted covenant on the deed with the bass family, but it's got to be used for an educational purpose. Yeah, we couldn't find it. I know that there's been I know construction services did try to uh did a search. Um, we haven't been able to come up with anything. Only reason I want to get out of it is because Gary and Paul are extravagant. um you know and our budget is not gonna grow and and and just for the record um you know the operational costs for the new bassic are going to be 50 times more than the current bass because we're going from flicking switches to to modulate e to you know in

095uh you know to to to intricate systems that will be doing that work and central air is 10,000 I believe 20,000 a month you know so these are new costs so not carrying that other cost is very important to Right. But one of one of my concerns also is um no problem charter school jumping in there. How much would it cost us if they put two 300 students in yanked that from our ECS? I mean that's that's a conversation with the city. Uh you know I think uh you know it uh you know those are conversations that you guys need to have with with leadership on the other side. um you know because end of the day there is an effect to all of those things. That's all. Any questions online? I just had this

096is more of like a maybe a round thing for for maybe alumni. Um I'm not sure if anyone knowing but um we know that um folks at a certain age alumni um who who attended these schools are they have um a great sense of pride right and um is there going to be or could we possibly do some kind of closing ceremony pep rally or something for them or final tours I'm not sure if any party but I know there's a lot of um pride, you know, uh when it comes to these schools. And it's funny because I did a walk through with some ladies uh alumni from Harding in their 90s of the new of the new Hardy. Uh so I think that's a great idea. It's something that we should definitely explore a

097closing pep rally for uh you know and invite alumni. I know that like you know anybody or any of the older you know any other schools they really have a a sense of still if we can um you know maybe consider that um absolutely and that could be you know at the end of the school year we don't want to disrupt this the the students and stuff like that but I was told there was going to be a plan for alumni to walk through the new grass and I only know that because Marlin is 1969 graduate high school and she cannot wait to do the last last I'll admit you you know, drive over to school, take a walk through. It's going to be a whole I think that's a great idea memorializing the history

098of of the board of education. So, we will start looking at how we can make something like that work for you, but let's say those things we love doing, you know, something outside of the norm. So, yeah. All right. Or any other questions on this and we'll move on. That's something we can be good. All right. And um the next item is the facilities monthly operational update. Let's focus on so what we uh this comes from a meeting that we had. We had all of our custodians in um about two weeks ago and one of the items that they asked is if we had the ability to sort of update the board on some things that just happened, you know, quickly, give you guys a little sense of what's going on in the school level.

099So we wanted to have we wanted to put this on the on the agenda moving forward. so we can give you the quick hits on some of the items that are going on um and some of the things that we've been working on. So this this month if we can bring up this sheet first just this handle it. Um so we wanted to start the conversation about endings. So as you guys know we have digitized the the department and we're continually starting to integrate more and more of what we do into a digital platform for ease of use and ease of management. And as we start to dwindle down the department to the level we are these things become more and more important. but also the fact that, you know, we've got to look at

100every single dollar expended. One of the areas that we we constantly are dealing with is vandalism in schools. So, we wanted to start to have this conversation. So, we have some data for right around a year. So, it's not trendable yet, but you know, as we move into the next season, we'll start to have some trend data and start to have a better understanding what's going on in your school. But, we do have a top five. um we do have the cost of repairs that go along with um the different schools and then how many manh hours we're putting into this. So if you see we've put 1,584 and a half hours into manis alone um and a cost of $33,000 of material. So as we start to get more and more of this data,

101this number is going to continue to grow because there has been a tendency not to label it as vandalism. So now what we're doing if our tradesmen go in and something vandalism and it wasn't labeled as vandalism they will change that work order label as vandalism and photos are always taken all of these instances. Okay. What constitutes vandalism then? Um Kipping out a stall door which is probably one of the number ones. Um you know that's that's a big deal we have. Um you know bathrooms are one of those areas we get a ton of vandalism. People say the bathrooms are terrible. And then I go to the school, I dive in because, you know, I want to ensure that, you know, we're doing our piece. And a lot of times it's a vandalism that

102they're talking about. My my my my son, my daughter, you know, can't use the restroom because there's no doors. Well, I mean, what is that? $200 for an in system for the composite doors. The hinge alone is $200. So, if you can imagine, when we're having u multiple instances in some instances in one facility, it's very costly. Now, the other piece to that is that there's a lead time. There's the the ability to get that stuff in and then do the repair with two carpenters. So, if you start to look at our efficiency levels, this really skews our department from being able to move the district forward. So, we wanted to start to bring this to you guys as the first conversation. Um, this will be something that, you know, we'll be updating monthly for

103you guys so you can get a sense of of um, you know, where our pinch points are. and you'll always have the top five and we're going to make sure that we inform you on Omni band man hours and late and um you know material costs so we can start to have conversations with the schools to to you know sort of hopefully address this. Um you know in the past we had vandalism on the exterior buildings with graffiti and you know we had a campaign that addressed that and we saved a tremendous amount of money but now it's in the building and and it's really costing us a ton of time and money. So, I want to give you a brief update on that um just because I felt it was important at this point

104as we're looking at at dollars and cents. Um any questions, Mr. Woodson? Yes. Why Why isn't this being reported by the teachers and the principles? Puts the work uh the custodian puts a work order in uh based on the the need for work. Um, you know, we can we can generate invoices, which in the past when Marlene was there, Mike would generate an invoice and they would charge the the school account in some instances and in some instances the principles will take that invoice and pass it on to the student. Do we collect it? Typically, nine out of 10 times we do not, but we've got to get back into that practice. I know that there's a lot of moving parts right now. We're sort of trying to settle some some major issues out there.

105But we wanted to bring this to everyone's attention because we are looking internally at our budget to see where we're expending our dollars and wherever we're expending dollars that don't make any sense and there's no return on that, we've got to address that. We're going to be bringing that to the board monthly. Okay. Um, one more question. Um like if I know when we went to the bathroom everything is you know you get hall passes especially I know in high school you know everything is timed and you know they can look at the passes and tell what time kids went to the bathroom and stuff like that. I mean if this is reported right away there's a way that we can isolate this stuff down so we could figure out if there's certain kid the

106same kids doing this over and over and over every time somebody fixes it. Yeah. And and and the good thing is that in a lot of instances they can utilize the the the camera system to identify who the culprit is. So in those instances in the past principles would bring them in, they discipline them and then in in some instances we provide the invoice and they pass that on to the parent. We've got to get back to that because when when we're doing those kind of things, we're not having this level, but we're seeing an increase. So we wanted to bring it to the board's attention. Yeah. I I think the only way to, you know, keep it in check is to for somebody to actually get disciplined for it. So once you see once

107they see somebody get discipline for it, then, you know, maybe it the the the the occurrence will go down because, you know, you you you can't keep replacing doors and stuff, $200 hinges and stuff like that. That's that's a little ridiculous. I just hope that there's a like some type of system in place through the through through I mean the custodians. I know the custodians there, but sometime there's only one or two custodians in a building. You know, the teachers are one. Yeah. And that and that's one of the issues we're having is we have one custodian in just about every building now. Um, you know, when they're dealing with this kind of thing, they're not they're not able to deal with the dayto-day and then that's getting piled onto the night shift along with

108additional work. Um, and that sort of segway segus into another bit of a conversation I want to have. We did a we did an estimate on what our daily um our daily call out rate is or you know whether it's vacation, sick time, personal workers compet go to this one um because they sort of play in and in right so with less staff with less staff on days we're putting more work on the evenings now we're starting to dig into what the dayto-day looks like because you know we kind of understand that trend um and right now uh you know our average is about 10% down a day. So that's about 15 folks down a day. So we're going from that one the new 150 from the 160s and then the 10% average, right? We're

109down to about 135 a day. That is very difficult to manage a district. And then when we have these outside issues, it becomes almost unsurmountable. So we've all got to work together as a district to start to solve some of these issues. Now let's take March. March is when most folks need to burn their time. We've had days where we had 28 and 30% of our staff out because folks have to burn their time. We've got a lot of staff members 10 plus years, four weeks of vacation time. They don't take it all at the same time. Now you got to burn that time in March. That becomes a a hardship for us. So if we're down 30% of our staff, I mean, we're just not getting things done. And the reason why we bring

110that is because you're going to hear more and more complaints. We want you guys to understand why in some instances the the volume is going to start to raise up on complaints because we just can't keep up with a lot of these day-to-day issues. Um, you know, so we're going to do the best we can to make sure that we do everything that we can on a daily basis, but we are in a critical situation as a district staffing wise. Um, and then we look at our budget and we don't have the budget to be able to transform anything at this point. Um, so we have to make sure that the dollars we're spending are spent in the most judicious way possible in order to have fighting to change. Um, two things I I'll start

111with the um followup. Is there and the vac burning vacation time is there like um what's the system you have in place right now for folks to request time like can they request the same week like can some people request the same week off or they're blocked? What what we're doing is we're we're denying in some instances and now we're denied not not just because there's more than one person in the school. We're just denying based on the fact that we just don't have enough folks to operate the district, you know. So now this is an additional compounding issue with folks that have earned their time and we have to tell them unfortunately due to the the circumstance we're in, we're not going to be able to grant you this time. So So we're running

112into you know some issues. Now April is a new challenge that we're starting to see. Um, so March is we're burning up the the time we have, but then we have some folks that have a tendency to burn it up front. So we see we're we're looking at the trends in April and April's another one. We're going to be hitting above 10% in a lot of instances on a daily basis based on the fact that people have no time to use. Yeah. So we just wanted to make you guys aware of some of the challenges that we're we're seeing on a day-to-day basis, but we're digging in as deep as we possibly can to understand how we manage this district at the level. And then um back to the vandalism piece. Um I don't know

113if you have it right there, Sam or not. against the first. Okay. Um, you know, I think the first the red schools was the top like five schools most nor elementary you said the fair child wheeler um you know and this might be a a competition for um building in in each building. But is there um I know when I was in school and even when I taught a little bit you have um teachers who bring their kids to the bathroom. You know, it might be one or two where they have to go at a random time which is obvious, but for the most part, um, you know, the class is going after lunch or before the special or whatever it is and there's set times where obviously a teacher can be monitoring that. Um,

114do we know that if across these at least the elementary schools, the middle schools, if that like something has been an option? Um, like I said, obviously if a kid has to go when it's not fine, they they go, but I wonder if that if it's not consistent, if that can be something we can look at the building leadership to see if to cut down those costs. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, as we close out this school year and we get to the new school year, I think that's something that we we're going to tackle up front um and have conversation with the principles at the at the at the beginning of school year meetings about the need to start to do that. So for instance, last year Dumbar by far was double

115the top number that we're seeing here. Uh we made some modifications work with school administration. They've locked down bathrooms at specific times and you know it it sort of makes it a little more convenient for folks to be able to get into the bathrooms at random times and we've seen a complete reduction. Dumbbar is at $455 for us this year. That number was 20 times that number last year. So, you know, when when there's when there's um safeguards in place, you know, you can make a change. Um any other committee members members? I just wanted to say um to to Miss Garcia, I said Mr. Mr. Garcia. Um I know like I you know our our our company wanted went through the same thing. They wanted to lower overtime. So what they did, they kind

116of amended our contract so we could get money for like the money the the the for the the the time that we didn't use we just got paid for at the end of the year. So and that helped keep the overtime down because people wanted to, you know, keep that little bank up that they that they had. So, I was hope hoping that maybe if we could we could um you know get get with the unions and kind of if it's if it's possible I don't know what year it is. I know how long we negotiate or maybe it's just that dire that we could maybe amend the amend get with them and amend the contract so we could make a adjustment so we could curb overtime. No, just a just a thought. Just a

117thought. So, so currently within the contracts, um different unions have different contractual language. Uh for instance, um you know, the supervisor union can sell back two weeks, carry one over, and then all the other unions can sell one back and carry one over. The issue is that we have a lot of senior um staff members that have more than 10 years. So, you're talking in some instances four to six weeks worth of vacation. And um you know that's where we start to get into the folks that you know come to work understand that we're in a dire need of staff and they'll come to work and then they say oh wow like you know I'm I'm giving back several days I know Mike's coming back and we you know we we just do this because

118you know we we have to come to work and then what happens is when you look at the end of the year you're saying wow I've got all this time. Um, we have encouraged folks to to to as reminders when we meet our head custodians that, you know, talk to your staff about taking time throughout the year to not sort of keep it off for one time. We do have one blackout week a year and that is the week the uh two weeks before school to ensure that that final push we're able to complete all of the tasks to open up school. But, you know, we try everything we can to get folks to to utilize their time, but there is language current Yeah, but like as a as you know, as a city, like

119we're like running a business and we're trying to keep overtime down. If we could give people, you know, okay, even if we got to take away like say they they lose a week if they don't use it, say if we gota even got to take that away just to keep people and in work and not not uh causing overtime, then that's what, you know, that's a a good idea to to to to maybe pursue because we got to we got to start pursuing any option that we can to to to save money, right? So we if we got to if we got to take that away to to curb overtime I think that should be a a thought. Thank you Mr. Medina. Um just recommen let me join the meeting and you can go ahead

120and ask your question. Thank you madam chair. Um oh let me turn my camera on. Sorry respectfully I do that. Thank you. Um just George George um on a policy perspective I know that um I know the conversation going back and forth like I wasn't here for the beginning but I know we talked about the vandalism one part of it and I know you have spoken um in answering questions um about all that you know families have been given kind of like those receipts and saying you going to be held responsible and everything on a policy perspective I would love to sit down with you and see if we have anything in place right now to make sure that we have something to make sure that we can cover ourel the district you know holding

121the families accountable if thing but also in the check in in those laboratories I know we have the camera that you have met um is there like a signup sheet inside the laboratory let's say like I know I see it in a lot of hospitals in a lot of uh elderly places where the janitor goes in even at the mall they have to you know kind of like you sign in that I checked in at 10:00 and everything was okay. Well, the the one the one issue we have there is that in a lot of instances there's only one staff member in a school. So, you know, we've got breakfast duty, there's litter outside, there's the day-to-day, you know, uh issues that they've got to handle, right? So, it becomes very difficult for them to

122also police the the bathrooms throughout the day. Um, and that's one of the challenges that we're dealing with now. You know, it drives me crazy when I hear that, you know, someone has a complaint in the bathroom. In a lot of instances as managers, we go out, you know, uh just to assure people that we're doing everything that we can and sort of work with staff if it's needed, but you know, we're just we don't have the staff to be able to to manage at that level where we're policing the bathrooms all day long. It's just an impossibility for us at this point. Gotcha. And I think we can come up uh you know, again through you and with you come up with ideas. I think even the staff could probably help and support something

123like that that there's kind of like a checkin of somebody just going in just to have a checkin and somebody can sign or initial that they checked in at this hour because when we find vandalism then we can uh identify like the time frame you know at 10 o'clock through 11 there was a check-in there was nothing but at 11:00 checkin for example and just to brainstorm I know we can come up with something to support you know your staff with the campus staff with everybody overall so I think we can come up with something but I would look forward to uh thinking about that. Um and then on the the other level when you guys were speaking regarding the bassic uh I think it's a great idea that the board uh madam chair that

124we can talk about about having that that kind of like celebration that moment with the community and those uh basic uh alumni to do that final walkth through and even the walkthrough with the new building. I think that's a great idea to celebrate and we can uh kind of like start that process moving forward with every uh you know uh event like this to have that special moment um and to find out what costs might be associated uh with it. But uh thank you George again because I mean you guys your department has been a champion throughout the years after years after years and matter of decades that you guys have been a champion and and giving back to the district in savings and you guys been sharing. So again I want to say that.

125So thank you again and we want to support you but we got to come up with ideas that way the load is not on you guys especially with the cuts that you guys had to deal with you as as the leader of the team but also your team overall. We want to make sure that we we we honor those that are staying right now and honor those that are that have gone uh that we're going to be looking to get those funded to get them back. Hopefully, they're going to be one of those frontliners that we're going to get back in our district. But again, thank you very much and I look forward to uh brainstorming with you guys. Thank you, Madam Chair. Also, sorry, happy birthday, Mr. Millian. Enjoy your birthday. Thank you very

126much. Thank you. um Mr. Chair, but maybe maybe Mr. Ch answer this too, but to piggy back off of um Mr. Medina um you know having other um folks who are in different units having to check in on the bathroom. I'm not sure if that's allowable. Um but maybe maybe you have that maybe you can clarify that M chamber. Um it's a neverending battle. Yeah. Um I I spent years Every time I'm going from one place of the school to another and I hear tittering in the bathroom, I stop and find middle school kids in an elementary bathroom and ask, "What the heck are you doing in here?" Um, if it was a boy's bathroom, I could go in. If it was a girl's bathroom, I'm standing out in the hallway saying, "Come out. Come

127out. I hear you in there. Come out. I'm not going anywhere." It's like more so like the the the vandalism like actually like checking the bathrooms. Well, you can certainly check, you know, you got to be careful walking into a girl's bathroom unless you're so you just it's it's just I mean the middle school kids are, you know, I'm going to the library, I'm going to the nurse, and they end up in a bathroom meeting their friends. Uh it's it's just a never-ending battle to try and catch them, you know, where they shouldn't be and and direct them where they should be. Um, so it's just that I'm just saying it's they take a pass and they use it for something else. Um, so it's it's just it's ongoing and teachers who will spend the

128time and there are teachers who won't. Before you ask your question, I just want to say maybe that's um look at those that went down. We can maybe look at what the building measures did and Jesse can probably, you know, consult them and see how we can use that. But Mr. Ch, go ahead. My question was exactly that point that it's just you'll find some teachers who will do it and some teachers who won't and I spend all my time uh you know if I ran into some situation I deal with it but other teachers will just go about their business and that's just the nature of what it is. You can certainly be checking on the bathrooms and you can certainly be checking on on the business of the school and there are those

129of us that do it and there others that won't. Um, and it's not, you know, you can't require them to, but they there will be some that will and won't. Um, it's beyond our duty, but it's certainly part of our our will. So, it's worth looking at. Mr. Dr. and I'm just scal I think the other part of that is the is the is the uh the partnership between the campus principal and the how they monitor their buildings and how they you know monitor having kids leave the leave their classrooms throughout the day. Uh we are you know looking at other ways to be able to support that uh at the campus level as well. uh some of the campuses are are utilizing what they call smart pass where the teacher when the kid leaves

130for the bathroom from a classroom. It kind of you know you know dictates who actually leaves and when they come back when they leave. So there's some things that we we should be able to uh support the campus principles and teachers in in those buildings and monitoring that a little bit. And so as we start looking at other ways to be able to kind of combat that, that should be a good way of to supporting teachers and principles and working with the kids and making sure that we know who's in and out of those classrooms all throughout the day. So this is by no way us putting blame on anyone. Yeah. But this is something that our custodian has to us and we we needed to make sure that their voice is heard. Mr. Scald,

131yeah, a few things. Um, let's start with just something that irked you a little bit. It's not a big deal, but you got dollars and cents is skewed. Stay consistent and see the dollars and the dollars and the cents to the cents because it look like some schools were like really out there because they had extra digits. They did that for you. Trying to be accurate as possible. We'll make that thing that work. Appreciate that. This This was straight pulled from the from the system. How are we paying 200 for a hinge? Are we the Air Force? That's what That's what a hinge costs because they're continuous steel hinge. It has it has to be that by code. No, that's that's the it's needed for that's the replacement for the bobbering. Sierra partitions that we

132use in all our new schools. Yeah. Because it's the the metal panels no longer are viable with the rust and the the germs and everything else. So it's a composite now. And now I'm now now I heard something very disturbing. Heard it before. We've had the children come before us several times that they've only have one bathroom in the building open that they got to load. He spoke about walking to the walking the kids to the bathroom all at the same time. Now all this is losing instruction time. All of this is putting restrictions on kids, treating them all in the same manner for the actions of the few, which is totally unfair. I mean, we It kills me every time the kids come before us. Would you You just had a new restroom just

133a moment ago. Sure did. Had nothing like to sit. Would you like to hear that you have to go down to the first floor to use the bathroom and come back up before you could come back sit in your meeting? No. It would be unproductive time for you. It would be unproductive time for us. And if we forced you to do so, we said that right now and put that rule in place for you. You would have no complaint. You would have a personnel complaint. Might also have a Can I make a point of clarification? I did not mean that the only time that these kids are going to the bathroom is when the teacher No, you're not. When I grew up in school, I went to the bathroom as a class. When I taught,

134my class went to the bathroom at certain times a day. It did not lose significant instruction times built into the passing period. And if a child needs to go to the bathroom, I'm not saying you can't go because it's not 210 and that's when we go to the bathroom. Don't have passing. You go sit. Okay. When you go to a special, everybody has a special once a day. All right. For lunch, that's passing. And so I'm not saying only one time a day you get to go to the bathroom. And if you have to go at like at at a different time, you can't go. You still have the option, but it might reduce if that's something that's practiced across the district. I'm not sure. I'm not in the schools, so I don't know if

135that's practice across the district. I think Mr. Traver probably has most experience with that in 20 years in the district, and he probably has some opinions on that. I'll let you continue your topic and thank that that wasn't directly in particular because all last year some of the complaints we heard from the parents and the students that their kids were being lined up waiting to go to the bathroom outside their classroom under the um class administration that was that became an issue as well and that was something that was to us and the high the high school students they come and give us their reports that they're going to go to the bathroom in fact in um F central and I Just recently hearing something about Fairchild Wheeler. I'll address that on the next item.

136Um, one bathroom downstairs. You know, bath is open. Fair child. You know, they got three wings. You're walking from the furthest point down to the bottom. And now they got this um opest where students got to be back and forth within 10 minutes and being threatened with ISS. At least according to the survey results about four or five students put on the survey that I just recently discovered by snooping on my son's phone. So, so um I think it's imagine I just think it's a bigger issue because I work directly with high schoolers and at Fair Child at Central at Harden some who don't even go to the bathroom throughout the whole day because of stuff that's happening in the bathroom. There's other stuff that we just brought before the board game. There's other things

137happen. Go ahead. Go ahead. I just want to clarify. You can I know you were talking. I'm speaking right who want to go to the bathroom who want to be treated as human beings who have to really urinate at this point in time rather than walk across the whole campus. Go to the bathroom where they can't avoid using the bathroom being restricted to one restroom. that student that has to leave the classroom. Perhaps a female school that goes through menis that has to go all the way downstairs and take care of her hygiene that has to walk all the way downstairs and then return in that time or face the threat of internal in in school suspension. Now, if this is true, if students are being threatened with in school suspension, we're not returning to

138a bathroom to no fault of their home, but taking less than 10 minutes because another student is vandalizing a bathroom. We got to keep every single bathroom closed. I don't even think it's legal. I think I think we should have our legal department look at the fact that is it legal to close bathrooms in a school building. I believe we're supposed to by law we're supposed to have a certain amount of build. When we build these buildings, we build them according to a code that required a certain amount of BS. Correct. So, are we actually following the law by closing these bathrooms and not having them available to the students, having one bathroom available for basically 6700 males, 6700 females in a building? Is that even legal to code? Are you done? Mr. Traver, um,

139yeah, I I was just going to respond to your point. It's common practice for an elementary school teacher to have bathroom breaks for the class. Um, and you take your class out at a certain time and get them all to the bathroom and bring them back at the same time. And as you pointed out, when a child needs to go, otherwise let them go. um and give them a pass to go to the bathroom. So that's for elementary. Um for middle school, I it would be a different practice. So it doesn't interfere with learning time in the sense that you do it between if you're switching over from math to language arts or some other subject, that's when you would take your break. Um it's just better organizational classroom management time. it that's normal. It

140far preceded Joe um the last administration. It's just easier to do and to manage your class and make sure that everybody everybody gets a chance to go to the bathroom and you can make sure they're not up to any mischief in the bathroom. But as you point out, you let them go. If they if they raise their hand and say they need to go some other time, you're certainly not going to refuse them. All right. Thank you. We're going to move on to you. I really understand the situation what's going on with the bathroom and it's sad that you know just because one something they are supposed to be doing everybody had to be entertained but to have the bathroom um closed like that for students I'm not good with it I'm a kind of

141person I drink medication and I have to go to the bathroom sometimes and as a parent and find out that they see my and then went to the bathroom because it's far away because the bathroom is closed and he have you know he get wet or something happened to him. I'm going at the bishop school as a as a parent. We do not sanction. No no I'm not saying I'm saying that's a that's a that's a building issue. I know. I know. But I'm going to say, you know, as a parent, you know, because I'm a parent before either. If something like that happened, I'm going to find out why the reason. I understand. We cannot be um have everyone everybody's guilty because one student do something ridiculous. You know, that's just going to say

142that for the record because they nobody said, you know, go to the bathroom and that because our students, they got some health issues. They have some health. You see, sometime because I had to go to the bathroom. Mr. Jones, like you just said, got to bathroom. Many of the student had to go and sometime I know that they say no you're not going because you know but we can like I said we cannot go because that student made something wrong doesn't mean all student are the same we cannot so they have to have a solution they have to do something to be sure you know everybody be in the same position just want to say that for the record thank you madam chair I think we just go back to like what the building the

143best practices all right so discussion of action board the rapid system that's the next item Madam chair, I have Jeff. Jeff here from technology is gonna give us a quick little overview. Uh he has a short little video he wants to share. This is the the alert system. Uh and this the only uh portion of the rapture system that we're going to be visiting tonight. Uh it's uh so I'm going to give him let him give you the history of that and then share with uh the committee the video of the alert system and what it does and so we could have some clarity moving forward. Yeah. Does everybody have the one page up and do you have the video queued up? Oh, no, not yet. I just want to make sure we have it

144ready to go. Um, so, uh, we um, in person and we do have a onepage handout. I'm not sure if it's online yet, but it'll be put in the portal tonight. We don't have it online yet. Yeah. It's in there. Forget it. Not the video, but the p the picture, not the video. The the paper. Okay. So um Raptor is comprised of a whole bunch of different modules. Uh the module that Dr. Avery has heard me talking about this evening is uh what is known as the alert module. The alert module is uh an industry standard um and is honestly one of the best ones there is out there that essentially allows a uh faculty or staff member within a building to have the ability to uh report some sort of uh emergency or have

145the ability to you know uh do a lockdown. Um and uh if you can real quick um you have a handout in front of you. Okay. Um if you look on the handout um you'll notice that uh the the app is very simple. Um what they've designed it to do is to basically be available in a moment's notice um and usable on a faculty device. Now, they do have the ability to use it obviously against on any device owned by the district and they also potentially have the ability to install this on their personal phone as well. While that's not required, that's something that's available. Um, now we're in the beginning stages of of looking, you know, to uh do this. So, you know, those types of things can be up for discussion. Um now

146uh this system uh would be able to integrate with powers school which means that it would have the ability to receive like the class rostering information and things of that nature that relates to uh you know its location and things that now um what we wanted to do is just kind of uh show a quick video that Raptor provides kind of giving a super brief overview view of the system and then um take questions afterwards. That's it. Hello, Sam. In the event of an emergency, are you confident you have the right tools in place to keep your students and staff safe and avoid losing precious emergency response time? With Raptor Alert, a mobile panic button solution, emergency notifications to multiple first responder agencies are instantaneous and ensures realtime coordination. When you initiate an emergency, a

147customizable list of administrators, staff members, and first responders are immediately alerted with the touch of a mobile button, expediting response. For localized incidents, the team assist function allows customizable lists of scenarios such as fights, spills, vandalism, or any situation that can be handled by your building staff or SRO. Raptor Alert provides users with real-time messaging capability to authorized users across all devices. It integrates with the Raptor suite of school safety solutions, ensuring full emergency accountability for every person on campus. The system is 100% aligned with the standard response protocol and can be configured to any protocol you use. Plus, it helps your district stay in compliance with panic alert recommendations and mandates. Raptor Alert from Raptor Technologies. Get help now. Visit us at raptortech.com/raptoral alert and request a demo today. Excellent. Now, it's important anyone

148with dimension to follow up there. Um, so one of the main things to understand is when you have a product that has the ability to do a whole host of different things, that doesn't mean you need to roll out a million things at once. Um, one of the things that, you know, is recommended both by Raptor and the implementation people, you know, for something of this nature would be to start with, you know, very specific goals and then to layer on other things as you go forward because um, the more complex a system becomes, the more likelihood that there are issues with it. So, uh, the last thing that it had talked about which was localized scenarios, that would not be something at least to my knowledge that we're looking to start, you know, as

149as part of this. It would be specifically to major level panic button type alert. I'll hand it back to Dr. Avery for kind of clarification. Yeah, I just really want to make sure that like if there's, you know, the system could be designed for a campus principal to interact with their their staff on again, like you said, fights and, you know, spills or things that somebody needs to bring attention to. uh it is customized for the campus but it also is customized to to us as central office folks to be able to kind of make sure that we are aware of all major issues going on um you know across the district and at each individual campus. The other piece of that is that it is it can be linked to our Bridgeport Police Department

150as well and the non 911 system to bring in a critical response once the training and and the implementation piece is fully you know vetted and you know trained throughout the district. So kind of work from there. Uh can you talk a little bit about the procurement side of this? You know what happened, who requested it, previous administration perspective and how that came about? We've we've been using modules of the rapture system for at least two years now and we started the the IV badge piece. We've kind of, you know, sunset that a little bit due to some due due to some concerns. Um but again part of it. Yeah. And kind of can you talk a little bit just briefly about how all that kind of came came about? Yeah absolutely. So um yeah

151the the system was originally uh the process had started with when the former superintendent was here. She had requested that we evaluate different solutions and look to purchase one um and uh see what what one met our specific use case scenario. Um and so uh we have a very specific matrix of software and things that we support. So um what we were looking for was one that essentially you know dovetailed with things like powers school and office 365 and all the other different types of hardware and things we have. So um it was brought to Dr. Love David at the time and then what we did is is we acquire this software on uh state contracts through normal state contracts procurement. So it's not like a, you know, another type of contract, uh, C's customer

152onthe-shelf software. So essentially what that means is is like any of the other contracts that we buy off of, we're buying a service for a defined period of time. So it's not like a, you know, a new contract. We're invoking and purchasing offtheshelf stuff, which we do all the time. Um, and so the the idea behind this was is that, you know, this software system was meant to do different needs. And so at the time the superintendent had different needs that she had identified that she had wanted done. Um there were various different things within suite and so we deployed them based on leadership you know at the time and then that kind of evolved as you could see you know with people concerns you know as it related to like um the visitor system

153and stuff like that. So it's a very flexible products. It it allows us to deploy based upon, you know, what our particular use cases are. And I think the most important part is is that it they're very flexible with us. And if we have issues and stuff, we have the ability to kind of manipulate it. So um anyways, I hope that answered the question. Okay. Open up for questions from committee members first. So Mr. Ben. Yes. Oh yes. Um this is coming from when from when the former former from the former superintendent. Yep. Um this was never approved or nothing like that, right? Well, so this is purchased on contract. So it's not the same type of uh process because we're buying it as a commodity in those words. So like we're buying it's like

154software off the shelf. So uh if it was a thing where we put it at the bid as an example, uh that was something that we needed to do. Um then it would go through that process. But because this is just basically like buying boilerplate stuff, you know, we buy boilerplate stuff all the time. Um it it's a scenario where you know if you look at the purchasing governance for this, you know, stuff that goes out to bid stuff that are are individual contracts that are rewarded. This is under our master contract. This is under the one that we buy uh all of this type of stuff off of. And so that's that's the procurement. So um you know that's in compliance with what we do. So you what you say is coming from the

155contract purchase from contract. So how much it cost? Uh I think for this particular module was like this quote was maybe like 30 I think something like that. 30,000. Yeah. Yeah. But this was out of master grant. This is not out of operating. Oh. Yeah. So this so whenever you purchase so in other words if you know if this goes forward past the time period you get it this would have to be allocated to the budget and then have to go to the board but because this is a grant and this is purchased as commodity that's purchased as a surplus and when it expires it expires. So, um, if that's something the board doesn't choose to continue with, then the board doesn't choose, he'll continue with them. And this is coming for the the staff,

156the teaching, or whatever's happened at the school, they will, um, whatever is emergency. Yeah. Think of it like um, and they different, right? They have a lot of different measures are out there. They have little badge things where you can hit buttons. They have phones. Think of it as the ubiquitous panic button. If something really bad happens, I'm going to hit that button. I'm going to do that. And I think the important part to understand is is that when hopefully we go forward with this um I think there's public support. The main thing to remember is is that people need to understand the gravity, right? When I hit this button, there's a consequence to it, right? And so that's as we go forward with that type of thing. I think you're going to see a

157lot of people that are going to feel a lot more comfortable about the fact that they know they have it because here's the thing, it's like the good oldfashioned having to break glasses, right? You feel a lot better knowing that that big button is on the wall there to hit in the event of an emergency, right? We don't really have that. There are lots of schools out there that do. So, this would be our version of that, right? And um you know, I think that done correctly and done well, I I think it's a very positive thing. Um and you know, Again, like with all the Eser stuff, if if that doesn't choose to be funded by the board, that's your choice at that time. You know what I mean? And so, um, you know,

158it's it's one of those things where we're kind of in this moment where having alert platform like this, I think, is a good idea, you know. Yeah, it's all about the safety security piece that that's trying to I mean due to some of the the the incidents that we had Tisdale with with the weapon that was found things that I think internally staff is looking for some things to to really rely on what are we doing safety wise in our buildings and so this is a way that to sh to share with the community that you know safety is important to this district and we're wanting to make sure that do the right thing then giving those opportunities for staff to fill that in the buildings and then if I can intervene for them the

159other thing it has security groups so what's good about that is whenever something goes on in the school usually you find out about it on YouTube or somebody else tells you um part of this is it could be set to alert central office also hey there's a major fight going on in one of the high schools And right away when it's pressed, oh now everyone in central office knows that there's a serious problem at X Y and Z school. So we don't have to hear from someone else. We get notified and immediately we can uh you know uh go out to that uh location and help support whatever is needed. And if I may, the other thing that they mentioned in the video I think is really helpful too is the compliance part, right? because

160that helps because now you have a a log of these events occurring so that you can look at it and you can say all right we have a log that shows that this event occurred um which meets that compliance marking and that's never a bad thing you know what I mean because it helps you to to you know not only know because the right people are getting the information helps support the school too I was not finished yet my question is oh I'm sorry so um this situation it's going to be the cell phone it's going to be like for Oh, I was just giving you an example. This time, you know, I'm talking and I'm just thinking you have to be careful because child a little child is getting touching. Oh, they don't sign

161it. My point, you know. So, my thing is second is it going to be the cell phone. How long that is going to be if something happened in the school for the classroom, how long that teacher is going to open that form to that, you know, to be sure. But right now, it's locked. At the time you take out your lock and everything, lock your phone and everything. That's one of, you know, things. Gotcha. So, let me kind of hit that uh hit a different point of that. So, uh number one, this is designed for K12. Like, this is what they do. So, I mean, if the district did so decide to buy the badge burden of it, because they have those, it's called the Laura badge thing. Um they designed it so that if

162children were to passively hit it or do things to it, it's not going to go off. It doesn't work like that. They do. There's a uh I believe it's the way that they click it or something. I didn't get into the phone. Yeah. There's like there's like a thing that makes so that doesn't happen. And then in terms of the phone um you know the way that the phone works is um you know the app is on the phone and it has push notification. It's like any other app you have where like you know let's say you get C CNN news or whatever you get on your phone. It's that. But what we can also do and some districts have done is put a little thingy on the bottom of their phone whether it's Android

163or iPhone and they click on it. Now um you know on our devices I can control the deployment of how we push it out and I can control that type of stuff on personal devices. Remember that that's just an additional um you know convenience that we can provide. You know what I mean? So um but yeah, you know again through Dr. Avery and and the team you know whatever specs I'm given I can get that together and you know there's lots of options so and going to be on I see who's going to see I see you in the class when you press it who the person going to notify that you know they will so this is the great part about that it can be whatever they want it to be right so as

164an example um you don't want this to be every five minutes somebody's hitting the button and then it's not helpful right that doesn't help anybody you want this to be a thing where it it's escalated the right way. So my answer to that is is that we should look at that uh if it was me and I'm just you know uh spitballing here the the the idea would be that local building administration should be contacted immediately um if and when you know uh it's approved I can also have that directly dovetailed into our emergency response systems that we have and then depending on how far we want to go um you know I can do so many different things. What's beautiful about the way this is set up is is I mean this is like

165topnotch but um you know it's one of these scenarios where we also have the opportunity to dip our toes in the water and try this feel confident before we decide we want to do more um so whatever the plan is through all of you that's how what happens I know the safety is one of the big issues we have is more important it's priority for you know the students parents and everyone but you know it's something that the president you know it's like a just in case a teacher that is present. It was not emergency. It was something um can be fixed with the principal school. Yes. What's going to the consequence? So I would I would say um that there's so to cancel notification that feature set you can obviously turn that on if

166they if that's the case or maybe it goes to the principal and then the principal is the one that makes that decision. I don't have the answers for that because that's out of my realm of expertise and I wouldn't want to be the one that answers that. I would say again through Dr. Avery uh our partnership with Bridgeport Police Department, you know, um Brook, I don't know which title he has now. Uh Captain Greg, Captain Greg, I know he's above Captain or something. Um uh but police department. Um I think those are the types of decisions where, you know, we can look at what scenarios work. What's really good is uh through Raptor and through them, there's so many other large urban school districts, multilingual um places that have done this successfully and they know

167what they've already taken the hits and the bumps so that we don't have to and we can talk with them and that's one of the really good things because it's such a large community especially when it's um you know uh uh people multilingual they support that right. up when this emergency is see a teacher present this information go out to the parents they're like you know let them know something happened in one of these holes so the answer to that is is again anything can be done I would I would caution against about doing that now I can tell you this much we have as part of this the reunification module uh depending as we go forward in time that is phenomenal um it's specifically designed um to address uh the communication part with the

168parents if they need to get their kids and a whole host of other things but this is more about start all the school I think specifically with that school right that's correct so example there's an emergency that requires god forbid and I won't even use one of our schools because they want to jinx them the Smith school right um if that event occurs and parents have to come get it up it will actually do push notification to the parents and say that this event has happened and it actually allows them to pick up their child, they sign for their child on phone. Um it's called reunification. It's one of the most important parts. I mean, god forbid if you thought of the different um you know incidents that occur at schools that gives the parents

169peace of mind. One that not a random person comes and picks up their child because they have to sign for it. They have to validate it. All that stuff is there because that dovetails into power and things of that nature. Um but again I I think that the most important part is is to take this in the right pace and do it in a way where comfortable. I don't think rushing ever works well and so again that would be directed through you know the superintendent as well and if it's going to be in the same two school three school at the same time work well they say the department you guys probably know what's going to this does major districts way way larger than that but you know it scales from T all the way

170up to the largest systems that are out there. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I think with with with the security groups and the advantage of what you can do and what you can't do, it allows you to be able to set up system in a manner that you want to. So I think Jeff was saying before just to clarify that if there is an incident or or or something going on the security guards can be alerted immediately so that hey there's something in classroom you know 102 that you have to get to immediately those are things that right now if you look at response time sometimes response time is they don't know now somebody's calm down to a principal then from the principal goes ahead and gets a hold of But the response time with this

171is a lot quicker because it automatically they all get it at that at that time where there's something going on you got to report to X Y. So if a teacher press that so the security phone school that will um receive that information it could be set up that way. In other words what whatever we decide the way to decide to go it could we can do it that way or as little as as you want. I I mean yeah they have I mean there are districts that put strobes with this. There are districts that so it dovtales with our digital signage solution so that if that is something that we ever want to do it will literally overtake the displays. Again that's what's beautiful about this is is that you know you start off

172with a panic button but then you scale up to meet those different things because it works with our milestone camera solution. It works with um our door access control and can lock the doors in the building. You can do all these things, but that takes time. Automation always takes time, right? And so at a minimum, if you have a response group in the building, let's say right now, and I'm just making this up, uh, person X is having a problem in the classroom and they call the, you know, they call the main office and say there's a problem, a kid needs to go right now. Right? So that panic button, it helps them to move several steps ahead of making that phone call. Not to say that they still wouldn't make that phone call, but

173they hit that button, it's going to make all the bells and whistles go off and let a whole host of people know if it's medical in nature, right? It's going to let the nurse's office know, those types of things. So, um I what they recommend is is that we build up our plan and we tweak it because it's a living thing, right? Like we decide that there's the medical response button. But what we're talking about again is major things right now. The lockdown, the um you know shelter in place type things and then we add what they call again the local response stuff as time goes on because every school will be different right Harding would have a different way maybe and and things of that nature. Does that make sense? So to be correct

174confused what you said right now is let's say it's a something wrong in the school as a panic to teacher but thing you know that you guys let know everybody know the police department and everyone in the security because they are the first respond you know they are do amazing job but it's a student the behavior is not good so that's a different classification again that was but they're not going to be the panic because the student is not behaving because I don't want no that's and to be clear it can do those things. But I think we should start with the big button issues and then work our way to the more specific use cases because what you don't want to do is this is the way I would look at this. You don't

175want to have them think that I hit this button and all my problems go away unless we're sure that we're ready for that. Do you know what I mean? Like there's a fight, I hit the button and then nobody comes to help with the fight. That's that's the worst. Like you don't want that type of scenario. So the idea is that we build those structures that those things are thought of before we have people come to Pand. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Woodson, do you have any questions? No, I'm all set. Thank you, Miss Mr. Mayor. Menz, hi there. Um, I have a few questions about the system. So, um, I've heard about it quite a bit and really excited to hopefully get this out to the schools just because I've heard from various

176teachers it would help increase safety in the schools and they're they've been pushing for it. So, I have a obviously we're going through a financial crisis at this point. you did mention that this software was purchased using grant funding um in the past year or so. Um I had questions about the financials. So we is there a subscription fee? You mentioned that there was um that um what was the other question I had about money? Um, so I wanted to know if there was a subscription fee and then you mentioned that we purchased and then once the software expires um at that point we would have to re-evaluate to see if we want it again. So two questions how is there a subscription fee and then when does the software expire? Okay so to answer

177your question think of it like this. uh the district committed a certain quantity of funds to the raptor uh products services right and so the amount of money that's in that commit is what we have the ability to just spend services on so when we initially done this when Dr. love David was here there were certain identified things that we were going to use Raptor for and so uh we had scaled it to make it so that we when the purchase went that we would be able to do that. So you can change those inside of there. Um so that let's say for an example you only want raptor alert. You don't want any other products. That means that the amount of time we have left on it goes out farther because you're spending that

178commit. But let's say we want the whole pass solution and we want raptor alert. Right? So it's literally just that. It's just a fee that we pay for the service and that's what makes this a commodity, right? Because at the end of the day, you're just paying for a piece of software to last a certain quantity of time and depending on what software you use defines how long it goes forward. So, um I mean I don't have the numbers in front of me because I wasn't prepared for th that particular question, but suffice it to say that we do have the ability to, you know, change the different pieces of Raptor depending on what our needs are and we do have more in there. Um and again, you know, through Dr. Avery's office and and

179what you know the board would like to do. I can get that information if that's what you want. Thank you. Yeah. Um let me just so Okay, I think you answered this question. So it goes back to what what did we purchase? Did we purchase just the panic button or did we purchase the entire scope of what Raptor can provide? But it sounds like it's a we initially committed to a number of things but we can scale back necessary as necessary. Is that correct? Absolutely correct. Yes. You can make this custom fit to what one of the one of the nice parts about working with Raptor is because they're they're very used to and really quite frankly designed for the 12 school environments. They're used to this type of stuff where budgets change and aren't

180available. So we can say to them, you know, we're only really interested in using Raptor Alert. You know, how much how long based on the amount of money we've committed will that get us for Raptor Alert? And then we can decide, you know, three months from now that we need to tack on Paul Pass for one school. We we can do that. It's very flexible. And um so far they've been very good to us. Uh and you know what's nice is is that depending on how the board wants to proceed because again this was purchased with grant money on K's contract. So that means that you know once the commit is gone then we have to look at that and if that is going to be done that would have to be determined is that

181going to come out of operating is that going to come out of a grant and then we would have to make that same decision again. Um and that's through leadership and obviously you know power. Very good. Um my last question is about the contract as a as a whole. So, it sounded like um and this is my last question, I promise. Um it sounded like we go out to RFP or to competitive bid for a software company and then once that software company wins, then we can purchase different software requirements that we might need for an extended period of time. Is that correct? So, let me let me explain this because this always confuses people and and it's totally understandable. Um, so there are multiple different ways that you can do acquisitions, but everything we

182do has to be in accordance with uh purchasing guidelines for both the city and the board and um and honestly the state of Connecticut itself. And so the point is is that uh whatever whatever vehicle we're purchasing on so you had just described a moment ago the RFP process. So yes, that is a total way you can do that. We could say we decided that we want to go out to RFP and so we identify the criteria for that RFP and we say that you know everybody who wants to apply for that Raptor you know any of the other ones that are out there and then that comes back we score the bid we do that and then we can award it and we do that and so that would be the RFP process of

183it but for uh this particular software because we bought this off of contract so the contract vehicle already exists and we use this contract vehicle like most large. So if you've ever heard of NASPO or DAZ contract or TIPS or any of the consortium contracts, they do massive massive RFPs so that they get the best price. Think of it as Bridgeport, the city of Bridgeport or the Board of Education can do its own RFP, but because we're smaller, you know, we are big in Connecticut, but there are districts that are infinitely larger than us. by going together in large consortiums, they can get substantially better pricing than we could alone. So, it's always typically very good to do that uh in consortium contracts, especially for things like software. But here's a perfect example of where

184it wouldn't normally be good, right? Is that in a local place, let's say you wanted to have somebody bid on doing a roof, right? That's something that would most likely be local. That would be in our area and you can probably get different types of pricing. So that's kind of more advantageous to RFP rants. So it depends. It depends on what you're trying to do. Um but typically for this type of thing, you you want to have it on existing NASPO or other contract because you get really good pricing. Some cases like pricing we could even come close to touching otherwise. So Gotcha. That is very well explained and I understood it. So thank you for breaking it down for me. Um, so is that contract contract consortium is like is it managed by the

185state? Is it federal? That's an excellent question. It's actually there are multiple. So this one was purchased off of state contracts. Um, and so it depends. So as an example, one of the greatest ones of all time is NASPO. NASPO is one of our best contracts. The buying power at NASPO is is tremendous. we get. So this is most of the United States uh municipalities uh state governmental organizations and other ones. Um that one has tremendous buying power because what they do is they go out and they say okay we want to have a price for thing X and then they will say what are the best prices? Now sometimes it can be what's known as a multiple award where more than one um uh vendor can win an award. Now, in a scenario like

186software where vendors vary, it depends. But the long and the short of it is is that there are different types of consortiums for different types of purposes. Does that kind of make sense? Yeah, it does. Thank you so much. No problem. That that concludes all my questions. Thank you. No problem, Mr. Traver. Okay. So, now I'm going to go back to Denzel Washington and talk to I mean Tom Hanks and talk to me like I'm a a six-year-old. Um uh the um we have a $30,000 contract and it's Yes, this is a contract. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, it it fluctuates as to how long it's going to last because Yeah, it depends on how much of it we use at any one period of time. Um, and so if we only use it for the

187purpose of the uh panic button, it'll last longer. I got that. Um, I heard other uses in it. Uh, but we weren't discussing those tonight. Um, we're discussing primarily the panic button aspect of it. um if we only use it for that purpose, about how long do we have left on that contract? So again, it's it's not a contract in the same sense. It's a spend. So unfortunately, the world the whole universe, how long do we have in the in that account? It uh so right now the raptor product for alert would end it this year if we stayed licensed for all of the things that were licensed for. if we were to change any one module of that that would change the spend and then you know rather roller could go longer. It depends.

188Um and again I I apologize I wasn't prepared to answer those questions because I didn't know we were doing the finance otherwise I would prepare for that. But um the the the point is is that I can find out and then if you want to you know move around the spend then you can if I Jeff if I understood your question there your answer there we are we are um we are we are able to use Raptor for more than just the panic button right now that is correct there was the ident we're not we're not using it for more what are we are we using it for anything right So, uh, the there are the pilot things that we're currently working on, which I would refer back to Dr. Avery to answer that. Um,

189uh, but I would say that there are, uh, other things that you want to take. You're talking about the we have the we have the badge system that we're that we were using it for. We paused that a little bit after the safety meeting that we had. Uh so so if we don't continue with that, we could probably take the the the funding from that and extend the alert system out a little bit further. The what system, Dr. Avery? The the um the visitors. Oh, the badge badge system. Yeah, the badging. I'm sorry. I just I just didn't understand you. That's all. Yeah, that was that was the first initial, you know, um right activity or module that we used in the district, you know, but there were some issues with that's been Yeah. parent

190identification cards and ID badges. So, we we paused that. So, if we if we shift from there, we could extend the longevity of the alert system. Yeah. over time. There's also a pilot of the uh the pass system where we talked about where when kids leave the classroom, you know, it there's an automatically you can punch the teacher can punch the student's name, it the student leaves the classroom, when the student comes back, you can punch it again and it, you know, so there's there's other different things we can use for technology purposes to to extend the life of it, But we're going to get to a point where we're we're not going to have additional funds to use and that we're going to have to come back to the board for consideration for extending

191whatever. Well, the whole pass system is intriguing given the discussion we just had about vandalism and and bathroom access, but certainly all that is it becomes moot in light of our budget discussions and our u fiscal concerns. Um so um right now I think it's wise to focus primarily on the panic um uh button concern and so the question would be how long can it be the current expenditure that's been made and I assume that expenditure is locked in and there's nothing I mean it's not like if we cut it off today we could save any money. Um, so the money spent and the question is how long can it stretch out for? Um, and how much uh security can we uh uh provide to staff if we have this panic button uh provided citywide

192to the staff? And that's really I think the only question that I have is what do we got? What do we have available if this panic button if we if we expanded this program citywide? How long are we are we able to provide that security to the staff uh that sense of security to the staff using this program? Um and then when we resolve our our financial concerns later this year, we can explore any other questions with regard to Raptor. Uh um I guess so. And you're saying Jeff, you don't know the answer to that tonight. So I do not I would be able to work with Dr. Green for you. just call sorry. I guess I guess that's all that's that's the answer to the question I'd want to know is how long you

193know what what what kind of what kind of use can we get out of this? Um but that's it. Thank you Mr. Medina. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Um, I apologize if some of the questions might sound repetitive and I'm going to try to go as slow but also as quick, but I would like to have a respect as I have the floor. Um, you mentioned some words, Mr. Jeff. Um, so the first one will be um, we committed some money to Raptor. What is the money and or the contract that has been committed to this Raptor program? So the way that it's done is is we identify products that we want and then what we do is is that's purchased under existing contract. So it's not a new contract. We are buying

194off of existing contract. And so again, uh the spend was broken down based on what Dr. Lovey David wanted for the commit for Raptor. And so basically um at the time uh there was uh a different type of hall pass or whatever the things were at the time. And so those were the things that were selected. And then you know again if we decide to change which particular things we use we would say hey you know raptor we want to change you know these allocations and we want to get this instead. So um you know break the question up once again if you wouldn't mind. And I don't mean to dis uh to cut you off, but I want to make sure I'm looking for a number. How much money has been committed to this

195raptor? Because you're going to touch on another question and I want to have that question uh completely separate. How much money was committed under contract or whatever you want to say? Maybe Avery can answer this or somebody. How much money because you use the word so money was committed to this raptor. So we need to basically the way I interpret that is that we got to use the said 30,000. Okay. So, that's what it is. I just want to make sure because there's other statements that I got to make sure say. So, it's 30k that's been uh thing. And what when was that done? What date or year was that? Uh again, I I I wasn't prepared to to provide that information right now because I was only doing a product info. I can certainly

196provide any of that information uh through Dr. Avery uh to the board. No problem. Thank you. Or to or to this committee. I would say it's just going to be one of my recommendation at end. So, next question if you wouldn't mind. What are the licenses that we have right now with Raptor? The ones that are in place uh we have um uh Raptor Alert uh reunification as part of Raptor Alert EMS which is the module they they go together. Um there is uh the visitor safe system which was for that thing and then uh there are some schools that are currently using uh the hall pass solution. Uh, interestingly enough, uh, which is kind of unusual, uh, uh, Smartpass, which was the vendor that when we were doing eval products, ended up getting acquired

197by Raptor. So, it is now Raptor. So, at the time, uh, when the schools had schools that had wanted, they had purchased it, it it became they became Raptor customers. So, um, that that would be the other one. That makes sense. Sounds great. So that I think I think you named four as I was taking the list. The the alert, the unification, EMS, visitors, and hall pass or smart path now I guess. Smart. Yeah. Yep. So that's four. Thank you very much. Um my next one is how much has been spent on Raptor so far? Mr. MJ, that question was asked. He's going to get that information for us. Yeah, I would rather not guess. I I thought it was a different question, but I I I I respect his answer in yours, Ma, Madam

198Chair. Thank you. Now, I I want uh what are what are the other district that are using this system because I know you mentioned something uh about it before a little bit. Is there any district around us that is using this system fully at all? Absolutely. Yeah, Raptor is used all over the place. uh not not only you know uh just our general northeastern area but um either our large like Arlington public schools which is way big they they like when we were initially looking at this they looked at Arlington public schools because it met similar demographic uh keynotes to ours uh and that was one um but in Connecticut uh there's multiple different ones uh that have it if you want I can get that information from the vendor so that you have one

199so you can talk No problem. That that that that sounds good. I would love to to have that for all of us. Uh especially at this committee level. And you said Arlington. Where's Arlington at? Virginia. Arlington, Virginia. Thank you very much. Yeah. Assume. I'd rather ask the question than assume what state that was. Uh yeah, one of the things that I identified is is that since we have a large Hispanic um uh in Spanish uh speaking population um they it was very important to have not only multilingual support but have the ability to dot tail in to make sure that we support all of our learners and and the different people there uh including Portuguese and various other different languages. But um when looking at that since they had a lot of similar concerns to

200what Bridgeport had uh they went through this you know in a substantial way to make sure that those uh things were met. So thank you. Uh my last uh more statement than a question uh and I would like to uh uh make a plea out to the committee uh to all the committee members that are voting this to move it possibly forward to the full board um to uh to maybe take in consideration. I I don't want to have a Pandora box be opened before the full board when we don't have a lot of these questions answered. Um, and I'll give you guys all an example. Uh, uh, me as a, uh, president and a vice president of, uh, a union up in the, uh, transit company. You know, we talk about hardware. So, we

201haven't talked about how much hardware has we have we purchased. You know, we only talk about these programs. So, there's hardware involved in this, guys. Um, and then every software has a has a also a a cost. So, uh, and then also, uh, equipment. Um, so hardware is hardware, but equipment is another one. So, we want to make sure that we get all these answers before we try to move this. I believe before you guys push it over to the full board. Just clarify how we're not actually taking any action tonight. The purchase is made already. We're not taking any action. It Well, I thought it was going to be moved to the full board. I kept on hearing that multiple times and people saying, "No, I'm saying I'm I'm I'm saying my my truth.

202I heard a few times about the board making it so we don't keep going. We we're not moving it to full board. It's already a purchased item. Um well, I would also like I would also like to see this contract that we're committed to this money and these funds. Uh I would like to see it presented to the full board to all of us for us to read. This is one that's very uh it's not a contract. It was it was not a contract. If not a contract then we can just then well I'm being told either we spent this money or we lose it or what is it that we have then because I heard the word commitment it's already spent it's no there's no contract involved it was a it's already spent commit

203you it's been already committed and it's there's no there's so committed means there contract there's money so I don't know how much money because I have series of questions all we're going to move on because I think they answered the questions that you're asking is not it's been committed. There's no contract involved with this. The money's the money's already been used. But the vendor has it checked and passed. Do you have further questions? And then I'm going to Mr. Nope. Madam Chair, I've got a series of questions. I want everybody to speak like they respect me like I'm not an idiot. Gotcha. Did we have a commitment with Raptor prior to 2022? Any answer is no. We did not have a commitment prior to 2022. We entered into a purchase commitment meeting of the minds

204to purchase a certain amount of software. We committed to purchase something that we've never committed to before. Therefore, with the meaning of the lines, with a creating a new relationship, no matter what contract we are utilizing to do it, we entered into a commitment or a contract under law to call it a purchase, a purchase order. We entered into a commitment that was binding to spend a certain amount of money with these people. So the purchase order is issued to the vendor under the contract and the reseller. So what happens is is this vendor is uh a value ad seller which is it's like perfect example Best Buy right so if if our relationship is established by just making Best Buy right you're going to Best Buy and they're selling you an Apple product we're

205selling HP products right because they are the value ad so the purchase is with the bar it is not with Raptor it's off the shelf like I can drive to Best Buy and I can go to the shelf and I can pick up into it Turboax Right. So, we're not writing any checks directly. No, you're not. That is the point is that this is purchased under contract. It is it is a VAR. That is what makes that. So, think of it this way. The idea behind it is is that we decided to get this product to fulfill a purpose. That's an operational goal. Again, I'm not the one behind that. The point is that that was what was decided. So um like any you know thing like that you're making the decision to get that

206and that's what happens in terms of how that goes forward. That's that occurred during the prior super. So what what would happen if say we committed to $30,000 and we decided hey let's just spend 10. So again there's no recourse for the firm if we just spent 10 and said forget about the rest of the 20 we committed to. Nope. Because the thing is you're paying for that upfront like all those different contracts uh that you're talking about the other types those are ones where you're paying over a suspended period of time and example like if you were to buy academic software right and they bill you every so often that is where whether you've making HM you are going you are saying I'm going to pay this amount and then they English right this

207doesn't work that way you are saying I'm going I'm buying this one Okay. And then the commitment has occurred at that time. You have the ability to use that during that time period. And when does this commitment end? Uh just when the funds are expens then then the way it works is is the the VAR will say okay then that means that you've extended the time frame to whatever that ends. And um as far as what's the balance left? I can find it up yet. I don't know if that's the $30,000, but it's one module. Correct. Uh yeah. So again, that's and then other modules have other monies. That's right. Yeah. They just have different spend. Unfortunately, the whole industry has really moved to software as a service. It's the way of the world. We've

208all seen, you know what I mean? So the thing is that we're going to see this more and more as we go forward in time with everything we do is that we're going to have to buy like The reason they use that term is that was invented by insan you know what I mean like committed. So um yeah it's the way reality is now right for further clar clarity I would like to request all paperwork surrounding the raptor technologies as far as purchase orders spending agreements with the consortium or whatever it is then yeah I think I think I think for anything we're buying and spending or making a purchasing decision on we need these this information um because there's Now question once I get that because I have my mind wrapped around this because

209still sounds like a contact to me. I'm still not totally there yet. But I'll reserve judgment until I see all all of them. I'm going show kindness. No, no, don't no disrespect, but we we produce your duties. Now I would like to bring this um if we can learn this. Don't we already have system monitoring of our schools with the EPD as well already? I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question. I'm I'm not I'm not looking for specific security protocols. I'm not I'm not aware of anything you're that you that you just presented. All our buildings have cameras, correct? It's connected to a central place where there's a there's that we're paying 24 hours to basically look at cameras in our school building. That's not where I'm at. You mean outside the You

210mean the Bridgeport public Bridgeport Police Department? Not the public school, right? There's like if you walk outside this build, this room right here, there's a camera. There's a camera in front of your office and cameras in our schools that people are paid. We pay one employee to sit there and watch it. Mr. Fusion Center. The fusion center. School district not paying it though. No, we we've we've had one employee that Oh, the fish schools. Okay. I've been declaring I don't know what you're saying. So, they're already monitoring. It's not like we're leaving people out there thinking and and this one page is a little bit misleading. Can I clarify? Like you you're you're talking about like in the middle like throughout the day. So they're being watched like all the schools are being watched throughout

211the day. One those cameras 24 hours if they're monitoring the schools when they close 39 39 schools throughout the day or 30. Yeah. The fusion center got all one person's monitoring. But of course it's not but I'm not going to get deep into the weed into that. Again, the third, this will be a little bit misleading. Um, even in the video is help us comply with the law. This is not a law in Connecticut. This is a law in Texas, a couple of states. I forget what the man was saying. I think it was referring to incidentation. So they have to you legally to require to do that. So for this this law that they right here it helps us comply with this is law. This is law is not the law of Connecticut. It's

212not even the law in half the states in the United States. So we're not we're not we're not trying to comply with some law that's not on the books in Connecticut yet. Yeah. I think that because again that's promotional material that you're looking at. I I think they probably have to make it for promotional purposes. Yeah. And then the further concerns is once it's in there again talking about other modules and expanding upon it. It's it's it's just really really concerning. We've got the other modules. They're going to find out the cost for us. Didn't ask for that. Um but yeah since there's no stop here so I get further information to make the decision just know that there's a petition at fair child will wheel against one of our rapist products and there 6

213and change petitions like I said I found out by snooping a question you want to shake Nothing else. Okay. Cuz you're saying that you want to um not do the other models, just do the the security the panic. Not you. To be clear, I don't want to do anything. I'm sorry. Sorry. I think it's important I mean that we have some type of support for campuses, guys. And with everything alerting security-wise, if something happens, we just need to make sure that we have an opportunity to provide staff with another option, you know, and so that's what this is all about. I understand everything about, you know, the funding pieces and all that. I think it's important moving forward that you know our staff need to understand that security is important to us. You know to

214me as a superintendent I was questioned on the stage about what are you going to do to support security for teachers and students in buildings and I couldn't really even go there because I did not have this as an option for me. So again I get it and and I respect that. I I respect the questioning that we had. I really truly do. You know, I was a deputy when this all came about. You know, when she, you know, visit with with with with Jefferson on leadership team about we need options. We need options for badging, all those things and and work through some of those things. I had several conversations with it regarding what we can and can't do, all those things. So, I I respectfully understand that, you know, but again, I just

215want you to make sure that we have a product that we can use that we can get in front of our staff to keep it moving. And if we if we have to pause things because we want the funding, that's what we'll do, you know, but again, it's an it's an opportunity that we can do to keep our staff feeling and knowing that they're safe. So, f final question. This money is expended already out in ESSER and you're not asking us to tap into operation. Absolutely not. Oh, thank you. Absolutely not. You know, I mean, remember's gone. The money is gone. And so, we have an opportunity to use the product for as long as we feel the need and then we can get feedback from our staff about the effectiveness of it and how

216they feel about it. and then she's gonna decide on if we want to regroup as a board, as a superintendent to make sure moving forward, you know, what we're can and cannot do. That's really where we are right now. Um, I'm going to go to the committee members and then go around for a second round of questions. So, I'm Mr. Woodson. So, a question for Dr. Avery. This this money didn't come from a grant. It came from ESSER funds. ESR is a grant but yes sir it came from the Esser funding uh when we had you know a surplus of that uh a year or so ago we purchased it we purchased the product in as a module we didn't use it during that time now we're looking to use it so we can extend

217the life of using this particular alert system module yes sir okay so there there's no option to take away the money or anything like that right the money the money's already you are you are correct you know either we're going to use it or lose it at this point I mean I I I I notice you know anytime somebody mentions you know leaving David's name I know the people go into like a frenzy over there but you know she did do good things for the district I I just want some people to know that and he stepped out of the room I wish he would have heard it but hopefully you know he he understands that you know everything that that lady did wasn't bad for the district. It was it was it was really

218trying to make sure that we do a forward thinking about access to buildings, safety in buildings. And so that should be a a a staple for everything we do moving forward is the safety and security of our students and staff. For sure. Yeah. Something that something that it didn't have on the previous six years that he was on the board that we have now that but now it's a problem I guess. Okay, thank you. All right. Um, we're going to try not to engage with each other's uh here. So, Mr. Ben, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, was just one question and one comment. I know this is not part of the you going to tell me yes or no. We don't need to talk about it. It's not part of the the talent. You know,

219the one is in front of the SP nothing. Okay. Something different. Yeah. Y that's fine to discuss and also just for the record because I know Mr. Medina say something like this. I know in the agenda they talk about discussion possible reaction of the full board after the rank system but we don't know until now this is was purchased it was done you know so I just want to be sure for the record this not going to the full because they really purchase this you know back you know with the former clear and everything so to be sure clarify for that I don't want people be confused that is that is yeah that is true thank you no more question yes when I wrote the agenda um I didn't realize it was already done that's

220fine just waiting for the right for everybody being disabled. Yes, Sister Mary Menace. Um, so I have a comment and then I also have some teacher testimonials that I want to read. Um, kind of emphasizing the need of this, but I did want to step back really quickly and talk about the Fusion Center. the Fusion Center. I had the opportunity of seeing it and it was purchased in 2018 using federal grants and it's completely different than what we're trying to do tonight. The Fusion Center looks at cameras outside in the streets. They are not um cameras within the school system. So, just want to make that super clear. It's really to help deter crime. It's nothing to do with the schools. You might have some positioned outside of the schools, but there's no um safety

221mechanism associated with them within the schools. And if you have any doubt on that, you can just Google Connecticut Post Fusion Center. The article comes right up from 2018. Um, so I just wanted to I had a number of teachers come to me. Um, really trying to emphasize the the importance of this. So if if I may, um, Madame Chair, I'll read it. It's a little bit lengthy. I'll try to make it as quick as possible. Is it as long as Booker's filibuster? No. two minutes. Um, okay. We live in a world where school tragedies have become common place. Often they are not even reported on a national level. We no longer hear about these events because they happen so frequently that as a society we have essentially become immune to them. We no longer

222mourn the lives of children and school personnel because we have grown used to it. Even within our own district, we are not informed when students bring guns to school. We found we find out from news articles and word of mouth. We know that this is reality. We know that teachers may one day be faced with the task of saving a classroom full of children's lives. We also know that technology exists that might protect us and quite literally save lives. Yet, we don't have this technology. The ultimate solution to saving lives is simply that people intending to do harm never enter our school buildings. However, Bridgeport schools do nothing to prevent this. We do not have sets of double doors in which both are locked. We do not ask anyone to show ID prior to entry.

223We do not monitor people walking throughout the building. If anyone tells you this is the case, they are simply unaware of what is happening within the building, which is a scary thought in itself. Simply put, school safety should be of the mo utmost importance. It is truly disheartening that teachers and parents have to fight for anything that might protect us and save lives in the event of an unthinkable tragedy. Perhaps we cannot change the doors on the school or hire additional security to better monitor the schools, but we can implement that raptor system. It is unthinkable that our district has access to this and is simply choosing not to use it. Simply choosing the risk to risk the lives of staff and student on a daily basis. What tragedy is it going to take for

224those able to provide the technology to do so? I cannot imagine being in a position to potentially save lives and turning a blind eye. Please remember that these school shootings are very real. Please don't fall into the immunity that has overtaken our country. Please do the right thing. And then I have two other small little paragraphs. Um they read, "I am a teacher and a parent in this district. I have heard that school shootings do not happen here. However, that doesn't mean that they can't. There could be outside people with bad intentions. We see it all t all the time across this country. You are taking away our guidance counselors which are there for student mental health and teachers are left feeling vulnerable walking into work each day with no protection in a world where

225school shootings have become a norm. I have taken the time to research this this technology and it is very comprehensive and can save lives. This should not be a debate. If teachers are asking for something to help them in emergency situations, the board and the superintendent should be there to make that happen for us. And then the last paragraph reads, "I am a teacher in Bridgeport. I have two cousins who work in Norwok public schools. They they have used the Raptor Emergency Response Application for years and it has been very successful. Their teachers were trained and there have been zero issues with misuse. Bridgeport teachers deserve the same technology so we can keep our students and fellow staff as safe as possible. We do not want to say we should have done something when it's

226already too late. Thank you. Thank you. Medina, Miss Medina. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much. Um once again I just wanted to add um that uh just want to be for clarity for a point of clarification that um and I would be welcome Miss Marissa uh uh to uh to to come with me and I could show her. So, I want to make it clear to the public and to all the board members and I talk with you, not at you, that clearly I know for a fact and again I invite her to an to a uh go to the fusion center. Cameras are clearly inside the school although so I want to make sure everybody knows that for a fact. Cameras in the fusion center are inside the school. is not only

227outside and they were bought back in those times as she had mentioned and it does belong to the property or the board of education. So clearly they are inside the school. They're there to protect and be used. Um and also I just wanted to know um I lost my other question. I apologize but I just want to make that statement real quick that it is uh cameras are inside the school and I would like to know from Mr. Avery if possible knowing that we got to you Dr. Avery, excuse me. Um that um knowing that we got to use these funds, I would like to hear the plan of of what is the best utilization of this funds moving forward or maybe a a a maybe uh plan A or plan B. That way we

228can uh work together with the board uh once the committee has that plan or an option of plan on how to move forward to spend this money to make sure that we use it and not lose it because I understand that we're lose it and lo use it or lose it. Do we have a time frame as far as um when this money has to be used by? I don't think there's a time frame, M. Medina. Uh you know, but I think it's just, you know, I don't have a problem being able to provide a little overview of what we what we can do and give you give the board a little synopsis of that. Uh, so I'll I'll be glad to be able to do that, but I'll have that, you know, uh, tonight,

229but be glad to kind of when we give you the burn rate, it's how fast you burn to, right? So, so again, we can we can give you a little bit of that, but maybe not specifically a timeline of when it's going to be explos. I like you guys mentioned earlier about, you know, if we use this or we use that, we can expand uh the time frame and all that. just maybe a plan or two or even three, whatever you guys want to uh show to this committee. That way they can move it to the full board. And then another um question and suggestion is that maybe to have a if there is a a a um a campus that has access to all these different ones that are we we have. Then maybe

230we can have the board and or the committee uh you may be go and visit and do a drill and everything uh with the system to see how it works and all that stuff and see how we can uh it could be utilized and how the thing but also to maybe have um after that presentation let's say if if you go to that campus then maybe have thought and change come up with a survey and and survey you know the campuses overall and to get an idea that way we can help direct the board on where where we they may see uh fit to uh to use this program to maybe have it if we have to spend it, we got to spend it. So now let's figure out what's the long-term goal to see

231if we can get something like this, whatever area, whatever program. I I heard four of them. Um uh that we can uh use and they, you know, have it for maybe the next two years to see uh but just an idea of food for thought. Thank you. We could we can we can I can probably get a demo done for the board so you guys can have hands-on you know experience with using the alert system so we can kind of work something out that as well. So either we can do it you know just as a standalone training I can get with Danielle and give you give you a time when you guys can come in and do that little demo uh so you'll have access to it. It would have to. So when they

232come and demo it, actually bring them. We did it at Black Rock, they do have to have it at one time because they actually bring phones and they give it and actually run real emergency and all that. So you have to be in one place. Um you know Yeah, that's a come here to do it and we can have Yeah. We can set a date to where they can all come here for a demo and we can set it up here in this room and they can all come to experience it and kind of work from there. Thank you for that. S Mr. Traver. Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. I just This is getting lost in the weeds. There is one aspect of this program that we are talking about. Not four, not three, one aspect

233which is the uh the alert button, the panic button. We're not talking about the hall pass. We're not talking about the uh the visitor pass. Um we're talking about the alert button and that is we're the only question we want to know and that we asked for a half hour ago is how long can we stretch this out if we apply this but program to all the schools. So that's really the question that that I want to just I don't want us to get lost in the weeds with all these other discussions. The the question is how long can with what we have left of this program if we just implement citywide the the panic button in all the schools how long can we get out of that? That's what I thought we decided a

234half hour ago was we need to know how long can we get out of that. The rest we're not doing the other programs. We're not doing the hall pass. We're not doing the visitor pass. Um those were were set aside. So how long do we have left before we have to think about whether we spend any new money with the money that's been spent already, whether we like the fact that it was spent or not, whether we like how it was spent or not. It's been spent and that's just all we want to know that we don't know tonight. So that's what we're focused on that that addresses Miss Estraa Himemenz's problem question that the par the teachers want to know how can we do that and how long will it last for us and

235that would seem to me to tell us do we want to do that this year or do we want to wait and start it in the fall but can we is it months or is it a year period thank you and Mr. Chber I'm going to just request that um Dr. team um gets that information to us whether it be via email whenever you want for you to get that together that finance piece on how long it'll last absolutely so that we could answer that question that was the question that you Thank you right your statement so say no further question I know Mr. Woodson had a stand up but down now. So seeing no further questions. Thank you for um presenting on that. Um going to um make a motion to adjurnn. So moved

236by Mr. Benah. I'll second it. All in favor say I. I. I. And we're ending at 9:43. Have a good night. Good night everyone. Goodbye all. I scheduled it.