Regular Meeting of the Bridgeport Board of Education Monday, March 10

001right good evening this is a call to order of the regular uh of the brdw Board of Education regular meeting today's March 10th 2025 and it's 6:30 um we'll stand for the pledge please United States of America to The Republic stand nation under God indivisible and thank you Mr benan can you do roll call1 Christine be Paris herez Mr William Medina pres M Jennifer Paris Mr Justice s pres Mr Robert tror Mr Andrew Woodson I'll say m chair um the next up we have our student Representatives I know we have two in person and I think we have one online we'll go with in person first good afternoon board members I'm aian Latchman a representative for Harding High School um our student council students with the approval of our adviser and principal planned a daily

002event to have our students student council students go on to intercom on morning announcements to recite quotes from famous African-American artists and highlight their impacts on society in February this was a completely student-led Council event uh Harding High School's Medical Careers magnet has also been currently focusing on retrieving Signum for the upcoming blood drive on the 28th of March our HOSA future health professionals Club has successfully completed the first part of their HOSA competition which was the cognitive exam uh topics with uh dos with topics that have practical portions will be practicing their skills on March 21st at the host a conference at nagat Community College um winter Athletics has also um been fully completed along with celebrating our winter sports seniors which was a win for boys basketball against bassic right away and uh

003are currently in preparation and beginning try outs for spring Sports thank you thank you okay okay hello hello my name is Christian be and I'm the representative from Central High School and now for current student news one of our Central Magnus students was named the Bridgeport poet Laur and she will proudly represent the district and us as well at many poet reading events and for current news today we we held a wonderful health fair with HOSA and and T sponsoring it and we had an amazing turnout and many partnered organizations like ahac brbor Hospital St Vincent hospital and Hartford healthc Care Associates alongside Yukon and sacred har university medical students also help promote mental and physical fitness along with several other of our students who ran stands a part of HOSA and also clubs regarding

004that regarding clubs and sports they've also been do been doing well and sports conditioning is occurring currently with boys volleyball to be done this month with many no I know that they're going to sign up for it and try out for this season since it's a very popular sport there and Central on the 28th of February they also had a blood dve recently sponsored by National Honor Society and they got 28 out of 30 allotted pints of blood and we found that was better than last time and we'll continue to do one in the future and for prom for senior prom we're also planning a dress drive so that seniors they could be guided with help and finance finances or even just donating prom dresses so that if cost is a large U for them

005then they could get dresses for the special occasion but in terms of the and in terms of the nominee we also have a wonderful nominee for the Barum Festival student royalty section and they are I know that they're going to go for the interviews which are I believe next week so we look forward to that but otherwise than that in the future we plan to hold a stem a stem fair which I'm working on setting with the school governance Council and we also want to do a women's History Month assembly and also a spirit week which you want to hold in the last week of March so that we can promote School unity and spirit but than that Central is doing good and we plan to hold much more events too like sat preparation as

006the air goes by well thank you thank you okay and I believe there's some student Representatives online so you can unmute yourself hello my name is Bernard aadisi and I attend Fair child wheer Aerospace thank you for the opportunity to present on behalf of my school we would first like to thank Dr Avery and Dr saki for coming to our campus to celebrate Black History Month who are so glad that they made it and it was great to hear their voices as black leaders in in the community we're also preparing for next month's Sat by utilizing the half day this week for an SAT boot camp across the fair Child Campus students will be taking practice Ela and math sections of the SAT to further familiarize themselves with the necessary software question format and general

007digital layout of the exam we're excited to celebrate pay this uncoming February March 14th the National Honor Society has been planning a Pi Day pep rally that will involve fun games and with a p day theme it should be a fun way to end this week thank you again for the opportunity to represent Fair wheer AOS space thank you we have two representative from BMA yes hi my name is Ellie Mercedes and I go to BMA here at Bridge for military academy and here is my report two weeks ago we had hosted a Black History Month presentations featuring guest speakers from various profession Fields including law enforcement firefighting music fash music fashion design medicine and cosmetology these professionals engaged with students in sharing their experiences and insights last week we saw a significant Improvement in

008Reading Plus performance with the percentage of students reading at at or above grade level increasing from 9% to 25% additionally we organized an obstacle course fundraiser to support our annual military ball which was a great success this Friday this week on Friday the majority of our student body will be attending the St Patrick's parade alongside with um the rest of BMA Cadets thank you thank you want to thank all our student representatives for presenting tonight are there any more in the crowd okay um are there any questions for our student reps from the board members no okay thank you you're welcome to stay and enjoy the meeting participate in the meeting too um the next item we have um public comment and so our first speaker is Mr Andrew Sims just um click on the

009microphone you hear me is that on members of the board I am here tonight to specifically speak about phase two of the Raptor alert system I attended a demo with the district about the Raptor emergency response system this past fall and nothing has been done to implement the technology since I'm aware that some board members are opposed to the Raptor system however I believe there is some misinformation and confusion related to what teachers and parents are asking for specifically the Raptor ID machines seem to be a controversial topic we are not interested in this at this time and these security measures can be debated later what parents and teachers are seeking to be implemented in schools is the Raptor emergency system this allows teachers and staff to alert others in the building if there is

010any type of emergency or active shooter situation this is incredibly important technology to have in schools especially in K through 8 where teachers are spread throughout the buildings and cannot register if there are threats occurring elsewhere in the building PA systems cannot be relied upon to communicate during emergencies this Raptor technology is a silent alert system it is much safer for teachers or staff to report emergency situations especially when the directive is to remain silent to stay safe the technology can easily be used to also communicate other emergency scenarios such as a student injury cleanups Etc the app allows for such this system has already been purchased and has been sitting with the district for years now the financial commitment has already passed so what are we waiting for this technology can be life- saving

011I know for a fact that districts like Monroe and Norwalk have this in place and square by the value and success of it we owe it to our students and staff to have this technology in Bridgeport Public Schools I wouldn't want to look back say we could have saved more lives if our leadership acted more proactively the time to act is now thank you Mr um next we have Miss Jennifer Gilbert I am one of your public school teachers special education teacher so here we go again I'm here to advocate for my kids my school and all the kids of Bridgeport it really disheartens me to once again hear about cons consolidating schools new term but same thought on paper each one of our kids is considered just by square footage and class size they

012are not considered as individual students who each have their own individual needs they are not looked at as students who require special education who just came here and don't speak English or understand it who come from challenging home lives where school is their safe space the numbers show many of our schools are underutilized class sizes are smaller and in some schools than others but once again let increase test sizes let's increase class sizes because that will raise our test scores and those students will re and those schools will be utilized and save money now before you go into how when I was in the classroom well you're not in the classroom and you do not know what challenges our students teachers and staff encounter on a daily basis if you want our kids to learn

013and test scores to go up then decrease class sizes to make it more Equitable for all Learners please stop comparing us to the surrounding local school districts we will never be them compare us to districts that are similar to us that have the same challenges as for the special schools stick all the self-contained classes special classes in one building well that's against their our LR and Mild to low incident students would will now learn the behaviors from our students who have behavioral challenges also where are you getting all the certified sped teachers mental health professionals classroom assistants tsf pars through contracted agencies these kidss aren't invested in our these people aren't invested in our community or kids how about fix our current special education crisis concerns before addressing out of District placements and please present

014facts when speaking about the students that have been placed out of District there's reasons for why these kids go out thank you Mrs Silber um next on our list is Mr benan before you start I just want to acknowledge Mr Woodson join the call sorry I just want to acknowledge Mr Woodson join the meeting all right uh good evening everyone I'm gonna say this very fast to the point and clear we are not we are not closing schools I'm trying to say two Lang because I'm sorry to hear text message voice email Facebook everybody put crazy like a week closing the school so Dr Avery Mr Garcia facility they are not in charge for cl the school we got nine B members we decide to close the school not four not three not two not

015eight nine B members we had to sit down and discuss to close the school why the reason why we have to do that and the the the uh the reason the purpose but it's a protocol it's a policy it's a process it's not something we going to do it just like that because I'm tired tired I'm tired trust me as a father because I'm a father before a leader to hear that they closing the schools I was on vacation in New York you don't idea how many people calling me because they're closing the school organization people posting everything people talking lies and lies and lies and they know who they are they are here and they listen to me people parents everyone you want to heard you want to know what's going on with public

016school that's why we have a superintendent Dr ay that's why we have nbor members call us the phone call email trust me that I know that I know myself that I will call you and I I'll text you back or email back and I know my college that would do that I know Dr everyy will do that right Dr everyy so whoever come to you and talk to you about closing to school they're not we're not closing the school now because you know yes we want new school of course everybody want new school beautiful school but it's a process it's a protocol not something you're going to do it just like that you know crossing the school so is the Boe make deis it's not Dr everyy it's not um Mr Garcia he bring the

017information we follow we listen we see we search we protocal a policy if I'm wrong please correct me but we here to help you and to be sure our school be safely we are not closing the scope now thank you thank you next item the agenda is approval of minutes the regular meeting February 10th 2025 is there a motion motion to approve the approve the minutes again sorry February 10th 2025 seconded by Mr benan is there any discussion on that any amendments all in favor say I I any opposed any extensions was that an exstension MR um Medina um we'll move on the next item is a special meeting February 18 2025 moved by Mr benan is there a second second second by Mr svic any discussion on that all in favor to approve the

018minutes from February 18th the i i i any oppos osed any absts the next item is the special meeting from February 24th 2025 moved by Mr betan Al second any discussion on that one all in favor say I I any opposed any extensions the last one is uh special meeting from February 25th 2025 is there a motions motions approv the minutes from special meeting February 25th 2025 is there a second second by Mr benan all or any discussion on that all in favor say I I I any opposed Mr Mr trayor abstaining any other extensions abstentions all right so they've all been um passed the next item on the agenda is the Chairman's report um I have an update on our status of the trainings that we've had um we had our first um State

019mandated training on February 24th um in that meeting we discuss future dates for the additional trainings um and those are I'll read them out loud for everybody March 31st April 7th April 21st May 19th and June 16 those traines are going to focus on um updating our bylaws and policies um the evaluating superintendent and setting goals for the district um looking at our budget and how to um work effectively as a board excuse me um the last meeting we had we or the training we had with um cave um we had two trainers who who helped us or trained us on um the bo the board's role and responsibilities um board's governance and management um we we did talk about focusing on student achievement um collaborating with one one another and the superintendent um we

020discussed the decorum of the board and deorum effective board meetings um using Robert's Rules as a tool not a weapon um and to complete a board self-evaluation that was our action item and um with that board members um you are given the self- evaluation at the meeting we also provide you a second copy here um I will email any other board members the copy if you don't have it if you don't have the original one and um Nick Caruso has recommend or has requested that we complete this by uh March 21st actually the Friday before the um I had I had asked March 24th but he actually asked for March 21st so I would follow with you in an email and remind you so March 21st he would like it by Friday the 21st so

021that he can aggregate the data yeah um and um yeah so you can email that to me and CC Danielle Danielle will compile it off for us and um send it to Nick at that time the um oh another thing that was brought up I had a note here um is that there's um they provide us paperwork that or different worksheets and stuff like that that um I know Dr a is already going to start implementing um in terms of how they present the information to us at the board um and so the he'll be using that information as well so that's that another thing I just want to add to the Chairman's report um May regards to something from the um public speaking Mr Sims I I did get your email so um that's

022something I do plan on going through the facilities Committee just to have the board get a background of um what the system is and and why or why we're not using it okay um so that will go through our facilities committee um next up any questions for me regarding yes no okay yes do we have a March for um special meeting do we have it did we have a speci for I not sure because we had month sorry one second that was the presentation that was the the policy committee had a meeting that was the policy oh yeah all right we're going on to the committee reports uh we'll start with Finance good evening everybody the finance committee met on March 3rd and the F following items were discussed the food and nutrition budget was

023presented Ed and is coming before the full board is recommended that this is passed this evening and presented to the May's office the next item on your agenda was the 2425 budget status update I am sad to report that it appears that we have been able to meet our goal of balancing the budget through a combination of position eliminations programming and with a special shout out to Senator s suat gadar Wilcox for bringing back nearly $2 million to Bridge Port for reimbursements of special ed excess costs not bad for a fresh Senator at the end of the day we are sign saving a significant portion of the internal service fund to limit the budget gap for the 2526 school year the 25 26 school year however the picture is not so Rosy the budget request

024is appearing before you tonight for approval to submit to Mayor mayor's office I I suggest that this board approves the budget after consideration with the understanding of the following considerations unlike last year the committee and hopefully the whole board is aware that the approval of the budget request is just the beginning of this process and we as a committee as well as a board must now prepare to close an anticipated budget gap of $23 million give or take a few million dollars once all the data has arrived we will not be waiting on that data we will be proactively looking to find areas to cut before all the numbers are fully known we can assume we will be underfunded yet again by at least 18 to $23 million while the committee Endeavors to achieve a

025balanced budget however I would be remissed if I did not mention I am no longer confident we as a board can achieve this goal there were significant assumptions baked into my original confidence and the budget documents that were prevented at presented at the finance committee meeting if you look in your package from that meeting you will see a three-page document with suggestive suggested and projected Cuts one of those line items and a major one at that is savings that would result from the facility's master plan for the first time ever the finance committee learned that there will likely be no savings seen in the 25 26 school year and the plan not may not be implemented until 2029 I'm a bit unclear on that as the answer seemed a little vague I hope the superintendent

026the CFO could provide their professional opinion some clarity on when they believe the plan should be implemented in the best interest of the districts we still have time to realize Savings in the 2025 26 school year but that window of time is quickly closing we may we need to make the hard decisions as a board because if we don't balance the budget which is looking more and more unlikely the state will step in to make the hard decisions for us next fin Finance meeting will be on Thursday March 21st 24 2025 and a time and location to be determined after consultation with the committee on the agenda thus far will be about four to5 million in cuts that have been recommended by staff and not yet approved a financial report hopefully that's the February 28th

027update and I would like to suggest $20 million in suggested cuts that do not include non-represented administrative staff Sports programs or school closures thank you I'll take referrals I referrals from Mr cvic all right your next committee meeting uh I just said it I forgot now thank you instruction Support Services go ahead well can you use a microphone instruction and support services met last week on Thursday March 6th that was to make up for the meeting the previous week when I was out of town um and we had um a report on special ed a discuss report a discussion on special ed students and services which will be an ongoing discussion uh we are going to have an uh a meeting in between that and the regular meeting at the end of this month uh

028which I'll get to when that is in a minute um uh with regard to um the subject was about discipline for special ed students um and whether there was a distinction we did look at the data that uh Dr saki provided us and clearly there was a dispropor forunate uh number of special ed students being suspended uh so we want to take a look at why and what we might do to address that um and uh I'm going to sit down with Dr saki um and others in between meetings to begin that discussion and we'll continue that discussion at the next meeting um uh we had a presentation of mid year assessments um and discussed uh the sort of overview that it was provided uh we're hoping at a future meeting perhaps the next meeting

029though I need to talk to Dr saki about that uh of having the um the math and Ela directors at the next meeting to discuss in more detail uh what's going on and we also discussed looking beyond the test scores at the overall growth um and um I'm hoping to do that at the next meeting too um uh let me see let me see and then we have a few uh items that were on the agenda but we tabled uh that will be up on the agenda at the end of the month uh for field trips um that will be coming up uh in May and June and um um we had a presentation um which I think is on tonight's agenda um from the Handover group that no that's not on tonight's agenda that'll

030be on the next meeting's agenda as I understand it because it came up at the last minute so we had a presentation on that which will come up so uh our meeting our regular meeting will be the last Wednesday of the month which is um March 26 it'll be at 5:30 in room 305 um and we will be continued the discussion on special ed and the suspensions um and we will continue our discussion on the um midyear assessments hopefully with the department heads as well as um looking at growth beyond the test scores thank you are there any refer um questions or referrals for support go ah Mr benan um I'd like to get um the report our committee Mr tra to about pack btso budget um um everything because I'm asked for this information

031for a few months back and I see U few things is not organized way supposed to be and you know for so many years my passion about packing bdsl and I some leaders that lost so I like to get some the pack Le this from the schools the ptso the budget how they spend the money who's the vendors you know how much money they got left because I believe April 3rd or four had to submit all everything that's why every year around that time maybe you can find out exactly when was the last day to submit all the pack and PTs so um budget Title One Inc so I would like to get that in our to Mr tror committee go ahead I I'm I'm thinking in my head that I saw a few weeks

032ago a report on pack expenditures up until sometime recently so sometime in the last say month um and could we have that updated because I agree with uh Mr vanan Galis that we are the deadline for spending the money is fast approaching and so we need to make sure that the school packs are uh committing is if I recall if I understand correctly recall correctly the process they don't have to spend it by that date but they have to commit to spending it by that date so we want to make sure that they have planned and made the commitments to spend it at subsequent events in their schools um by whatever date that is in April that you're saying um and so we want to remind everybody of that deadline that's approaching so that they

033make their plans appropriately that's if that's what you're saying correct sir am I understanding yes okay yes and also um some school they really spent some money but they look like in the in the report I have a week ago that they didn't spend the money when they really spent the money so I don't what's going on with the formats that that's the process that secretary had to send to downtown like they are not spending the money when they really spend the money and I'm a witness for that and also it's another form they call P10 that used it for so many years that the pack or ptso pres they have to be using it and doing it just because they don't get paid just because they Park PR just because they represent the school

034that mean they're not going to do the job when they Pack Leaders they p s Le that they take this job they know they're not going to get paid they are know they know this volunteer but they they doing with some money that's coming from Harford and need to have a report a process to be sure how to spend the money we don't want problem with that I just want to make sure I understood what you said Mr benang Gales the P the form is P10 or B10 B10 it's a forign called B10 B is in B like a Peter DH P okay P yeah p and also another one that I I he from last year that you guys know I vote for kbe I know I need to a report from kbe because

035I know they receive um some money from us so I just want to know why where where how when how everything report about the money that they they receive from Boa and that's going to be all Madam shair for now thank you any other referrals Mr uh yes I would like to pick it back on Mr Ben um referral and have our L some with the parents come give us a report on how many trainings the interactions with the parents and what's been done is she could also prepare she could also present those numbers and the expenditures because we do have an employee that has direct contact and does the parent coordination correct Dr Avery we do have an employee that does direct coordination with the parents correct yeah with the parent groups yes so

036if we could have that person give us a report at committee on basically the overall health including the items Mr benan as mared just training make sure we get the training how many hours been taken for training and that kind of thing is what you're needing yeah basically so two different things you're you're asking for the for that administrative person to give her a report on what she's done and what's been done with the parents it could also be inclusive of the financial spending too beare the total training for parents in these organizations in addition to the the budget or finances that's been spent at the individual campus organization as well because they should have yearly training for parents like you know um how to read report card or some other things about safety in

037schools and uh reading with their children so there's there's some basic training that's given uh and so it should be he just wants to kind of know what what types of training no no I I understand that's not that's when he said pigy becking on that it's a it's a slightly different yes sir yeah and I'm I'm not sure whether I'll get all that in that at the end of the month she could also present the budget numbers as well don't actually have to have a separate person this school has this percent this scho has another percent right budet for each school we sent that already yeah yeah yeah so would she be the person to present those school reports too yeah okay I just may not get to all of that in one meeting

038Mr sov given what are the other things I'm following up on but I I hear you we can start it continue it thank you Mr Woodson uh yes um just picky backing on with Mr benan was speaking on you know just trying to uh bring some of these costs down and bring some of these money back into the district I had spoke to the athletic director uh about last week early last week sometime and inquired about you know you know like like I said bringing some of these programs these Sports programs stuff back into the district you know if people want to help they could maybe they could give you know the athletic director our call give him some ideas on what on what we can do to uh help uh get these programs in

039these schools going I know some of you guys have connections with these schools you know know I know they the a lot of these programs are run by this teachers know you guys may be a aware of some teachers who are willing to help get these things going right away because you know we're we're we're in dire need to save some money so you know just let you guys know you know if you can you know give the athletic director a call if you got any ideas on how to uh bring uh these programs back into into the school so we could have stop spending money out of the out outside of the you know outside of the school and you know try to save some money thank you thank you Mr Woodson um I

040I think that would be worthwhile to have him come in um and sit down with us uh at some point uh probably not this month but in in in later in the spring to start looking at what we can do for next year in that vein I think that would be a great thing to do all right thank you um the posy policy and Personnel committee Mr Benda yes thank you madam chair um we had a special meeting uh on policy and Personnel on Tuesday March 4th uh thank you for all those that came in attention uh were in attendance excuse me um we have right now one uh item that is up right now that we move towards the full board which is our new business under letter F we also have four items

041that were uh tabled for further discussion that way uh the cabinet and Mr Avery can get some things um in order that way it can match our policies and match our board and bridport and those are uh you know four items that were tabled and our next meeting will be on the second Wednesday which will be March 12 this week if everything goes right tomorrow we'll follow along with that and I'll take any uh referrals any referrals I have one Mrs I have a referral it's around the development of additional parameters to ensure the compliance of contracts over $25,000 which require board approval this measure will mitigate the potential voided contracts from reoccurring in the future okay be so kind I'm I'm I'm away right now be so care to send me that email and

042I greatly appreciate or send me a text thank you y we'll do any other referrals all righty thank you Mr Medina thank you madam chair um the facilities committee met on March 5th um on the agenda we discussed uh we had a presentation the food and nutrition services in the city um and we also um well I thank Mr Steele for that um presentation it was um there's a lot of good stuff coming up in that department so um we look forward to hearing more from you guys um the food and nutrition budget um bread contract was uh discussed but we did not have um the contract in front of us so we we did move it to the full board so we had time to review it over the weekend um so that was

043discussed last week um that would uh come up with immediate savings so that's why we wanted to act on it sooner um and then the large item on the agenda was the facilities master plan um we received recommendations from a third party um Studio Jade and and um MMP planning they conducted a demographic study and a facility study and there's over believe 700 million in in um facilities repairs that need to happen and so those are those are the some things that we we discussed um there were recommendations made um including possible closures possible additions in terms of new schools those were recommendations it's our job as a board to really go through that plan which is about this thck um and you know really look at the different options that were given to us

044and decide as a board um you know we have three Community forums coming up that the superintendent's holding um to give more information about this these recommendations um and um we will not be closing schools without following the policy policy 3600 which includes um a closing committee if if we decide side that would include public um input from each school um public participation including uh parents and um staff members so um that has not happened yet so there is no school closing this month this this this school year and or and maybe not next school year as well we have to decide as a board um so we do need to have a um uh follow the policy on that um I'll leave it at that this this study will be um uh discussed as

045well today for more information and that was brought to the full board so that all the members who weren't available to come to the committee can actually um ask the questions that they they want and get further Clarity um are there any referrals to the facilities committee the next facilities committee sorry let me give that date is tedly scheduled for April 2nd um April 2nd I believe first Wednesday of the month um and so um any other referrals for that committee Mr salic yeah I would like to suggest a series of special meetings around the um God I forgot the name of it to find the MPP plan this way we could um be a little more strategic and using our time rather than bringing because we're going to have to make the decision as

046a fullard Ward anyway and get any input rather than going through step by step inch by inch because time time is of of the essence as I mentioned in my report the budget is dependent upon this and if we don't make the hard decisions the state's going to make them for us I'm not sure if the budget's really dependent on closing so schools I'm sorry I would like to bring a point of information that there is indeed a line on the budget with a very big Blank Spot that says savings realized from the facilities Master to plan that but that line will remain zero for 2526 which is why I said I no longer have any confidence that we can balance the budget because this two and quot is going to have to come up

047with 20 to 23 million taken away from all our schools and I don't know if we could have a all right decent education plan the closures were not going to be $23 Million worth of closures so there was going to be cuts that Mr ni was going to have to present to us either way so let's get all the information out there we weren't looking at 23 million school closures the original plan for the six schools was $24 million in sa over time not over one course second year not for one year for the second year for the First full year there would be significant savings that's we'll discuss it and further and when we go over it tror microphone yeah I turned it back off I I didn't want to wasn't sure Mr scovic

048was done uh I don't know whether now is the time your committee report or when we get to new business the presentation and discussion would you rather discuss them okay I will wait then unless you have referrals for I'm looking for referral yeah no I'm I'm not I'm not I don't have referral so I'm Not Gon to wait in here because I I think this discussion I understand why Mr scovic is making a suggestion I respect that I'm not I'm not here to disagree with that there are some questions that need to be answered that are relevant to his referral um so he's making a referral to your committee yes so that referral will go to your committee on April 2nd cor Mr calic well he's referring additional special meetings so that's the referral but

049he's making that referral all he can do is make that referral to your committee on April 2nd right now correct any other yes any other referrals I don't see any online either so we'll move on to the cave report um the only thing I have I don't know if you have anything I Le on I know we have day on the hill I've not been receiving uh any information from C follow don't yeah to follow up with them because we did send them the change over that's so on the left um or they still got the old person's name on it somebody else okay I I'll fill that in I'll email them tomorrow um but we do have a day on the hill this week on Wednesday so that is um some board members are

050attending that that's a like a Lobby day for board members and we'll get some information from cave superintendent team will be up there as well um and um we'll have opportunities to hopefully meet with our legislators um send send them Communications folks all right um the superintendent report is go ahead I think there's five of total in my first glance at the numbers I think there's five total not 100% sure but she could follow up in the morning with the total number thank you um Dr Avery report first of all I would like to you know welcome everybody this evening uh one one of the first agenda items I want to talk about in my superintendent report is um March's board appreciation month and I wanted to kind of take the time to um to

051recognize our board for their dedication I think it's very important that you realize uh as as an elected official uh you're volunteering your time and your time is you know away from your families you know but it's always in the best interest of of children of Bridgewood public schools and so at this time I would like for you guys to uh join me in recognizing our Board of Trustees for their hard work and dedication so thank you for what you do and I know sometimes it's always kind of criticized is like well the board and superintendent you know don't they don't get along but I can tell you uh my my three months you know here as the interim school superintendent that's been you know a very smooth transition I think we can agree to

052disagree and I think that's important of what we do in this in in in the role that we both play and I think it's important as we grow together learn together and and understand to agree and disagree together that's part of the process uh and that's what make good school districts is being able to kind of blend those two perspectives together and work from them but I I just kind of wanted to pause you know briefly to talk a little bit about you know uh the board and and appreciate them as well so thank you for their service in addition to that I'm going to give a quick overview of some of the district uh stats uh basic information that I think the community and you will uh appreciate over time uh and then we'll

053start digging deeper into the data of the district but currently we we we have an enrollment of 19,7 122 students in BRBO Public Schools uh within that enrollment we have you know three 3,921 special education students uh we have 6,212 English language Learners uh as part of that enrollment uh and uh the last number that I looked at so about 50% of those 19,7 122 students are both combined uh special education and English language Learners so you're talking around about 10,000 of our students have those disabilities not necessarily disability but have those uh categorized you know um endorsements part of their enrollment status so I think that's that's really significant uh as you look at some of the challenges that we deal with in our district we have to deal with those a little bit

054differently and so as an urban School District I think that's what I want this community and I want the state to understand is that we look at things a little differently and we have to be able to provide you know a different type of learning environment for children uh with that status and so uh and then when you look at our gifted children they have they make a a good portion of those kids as well so we we deal with two sides of the spectrum and so we have to have that happy medium that serves both sides of that Spectrum so I think that's very important uh as we look at our student discipline across the district uh our our out of school uh year-to-date out of school uh placements is 1,117 kids uh totaling

055of about 7 33 students that make up those those incidents uh the ANS school suspension year-to dat data is 1,147 total uh and with making up about 785 of those students of students with that a number of um uh in school suspensions our expulsions the total in the district is 34 uh and that's 34 individual students that make up that uh that 34 expulsion count uh when you look at you know attendance data I think that's important as well when you uh The Chronic absenteeism rate has decreased from October to 32% from October to January to 30.3% uh our chronic absentees rate for our English language Learners decreased in October from 31.2% in January it was 29.2% the uh chronic absente is and rate for special education students decreased uh in October it was 38.7

056and in January it was 37.7% I think that's important to really when you look at the magnitude of um you know the disciplinary occurences the absentees and rate and again in future meetings we're going to kind of dive deeper into those perspectives so that you can see the correlation between you know how these kids impact on the academic rating in addition to that our uh the technical assistance team from the state uh met with my staff um twice last week we had our initial meeting on Tuesday it was more of an introduction meeting uh we spent about three hours in a Clos meeting to just to talk about General aspects of what this what the techn technical assistant team will be doing in the district uh how they're going to be engaging with different you

057know stakeholders in the district from uh central office you know staff members to campus leadership to teachers to individual groups of students as well and so uh we laid out a a time frame of when some of these initial meetings were going to be conducted Friday was a was the first individual ual wave of of um District staff being interviewed by individual um technical assistant team members and uh we'll start um more of those will begin tomorrow uh I think they're going to be in the district two to three days out of the week uh again they make their schedules and then they'll they'll allow my office to um you know based on reviewing data reviewing and having conversations with individual stakeholders who they will uh talk with at the next point in time and

058so it's a fluid conversation a fluid process that they're uh driving they said the process might change a little bit as we get deeper into analyzing some of the data pieces as well the next I know the uh academic committee had presentations uh with a lot of the academic data we're going to be presenting a lot more more academic data not only to our committee meetings but also bringing some data and an analyzation to the public meetings as well and in addition to posting some of those things uh on our website uh for the for we have a couple of updating events coming up uh we have the about 50 bridport Public School students um will have their poems featured uh on buses across uh uh the City of Bridgeport uh the deadline for for

059submitting the poems uh for those buses is Friday uh March 21st uh I want to thank Ryan rapes and the Greater Bridgeport uh uh for making this happen for our students of Bridgeport we have a math meet coming up also on Thursday May 29th uh at Sacred Heart for seventh and eighth grade students uh they're going to be inviting to more details of that particular event is coming up as well and I think this this is a a really you know really I'm looking forward to the event as well it's the district-wise um talent show at the kleining theater uh which is going to be May 29th uh also I think uh communication staff just started putting that uh looking for uh talented student staff uh that want to participate in the talent show so

060come out and join us it's going to be at the Cent theater on the 29th uh and more details are coming uh Madam chair mentioned a little bit about the upcoming uh facility master plan Community forums uh we have our first one coming up um uh March 31st at Harding High School at 6m the second one is going to be April the 2nd uh at Central High School at 6 pm and then the third one would be uh April the 3 at bassic high school at 6 PM again please be on the lookout for the district Weekly Newsletter uh and anything that you uh we put a lot of information out on on parent Square we're finalizing our um uh the unveiling of a brand new District website that's going to be a little bit

061more robust in uh commun community and communication forwarding uh to this community so looking forward to those things as well so um I'll pass it back to you m chair any questions Mr sorry yes a couple um as far as the state technical team do they plan on ever meeting with the board is they coming to help the board I would love to invite especially whoever is in charge of the finance to give me some technical assistance in closing this $23 million budget Gap because apparently we're doing it wrong so maybe they could tell us what we should be taking away from the children and how I got this facility things so very wrong that we not going to be saving money in 25 26 I would like to have that clarified by a professional

062end I would like to formally invite them to the next Finance meeting to give us some advice I have a meeting with the the Lee tomorrow morning I mean tomorrow afternoon at three I will make that request and see if I can get uh some support for the board on that one as well and forther that's all follow that topic and as far as the presentation of the suspension that I did briefly watch the teaching and learning committee I intended to go not the teacher learn instruction and support committee I intended to go but I'm a bit burnt out so than took a pass on that one but I did see some of the data that raised some concerns in the suspension exposion rates I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but

063there appears to be a growing disparity that had been addressed in the past between africanamerican suspension rates and their representation as part of the population of the Bridgewood public schools and I think that's something we need to start focusing on once again okay thank you yes I think that's one of the things that Mr travor and his committee is really kind of focusing in as well again I think we have to kind of bring that that data forward to make sure that we keep that you know at the Forefront as a focal point uh and that's something that we're going to be doing there's a couple of um um reports that we're that that we're looking at right now and to be able to to bring that data forward in a very consistent manner uh

064that's important because that has a lot to do with things kids may or may not be getting because they may be removed from the classroom so I think it's important that we take a look at that and and uh they made a good point at the academic committee meeting uh and then bringing that forward I think it's going to be something that he's going to be on it's going to be on his uh his uh radar every single meeting so that's important so yes sir yes the chair uh it came up uh it will be pursued um I didn't report on that specifically in my report but it was noted and it is part of what we'll be following up on in the interim uh between meeting meeting as well as the next meeting that

065there was there was a disproportionate rate of suspension for the African-American population also any other Miss EST us I have a few questions for Dr Avery um the first item is around the Raptor emergency system so um prior to being a board member in December the Raptor emergency system was actually being piloted important to preface this by saying there was two phases phase one which was a tablet where parents or any guests to the school would use their ID to get into the building houses and that tablet houses you know and summarizes everyone who's been in the building at at a given point in time then phase two was what the parent Mr Sims was chatting about which was um a silent badge system where School staff can communicate with each other about different emergencies

066now that Phase 2 um was supposed to have been R out February last month so I want to know what what has taken place why hasn't that been implemented um last you chatted about this in the December Q&A Forum in the North Branch Library um it w an implementation plan was being developed so what has happened that phase two of the emergency Raptor system hasn't been implemented currently now uh there has been uh some inquiries from board members regarding uh the the purchasing of that particular you know system uh and so what I have done and I've gotten staff to provide me some historical you know perspectives of the purchase of that particular the procurement of it it's been it was done differently it was done before I was here uh and so I'm I'm

067trying to kind of do my homework to provide some additional Clarity for the board uh it is that it's going to be presented to at the next facilities committee meeting so that I can I'll have enough time to provide that data work for you uh we're GNA we'll do a full presentation the board is not even clear about what it is uh because it was rolled out as a as a demo not necessarily a full-fledged where we're going to do things and we felt by February we would have been able to do all the the necessary work to be able to get it implemented in our school uh but we're not we're not even there yet so we have to we I had to take a step back to get some clarity uh there was

068a couple of emails inquiries from several board members and so I'm trying to do my due diligence uh to try to get that information I just hadn't had a chance to stop long enough to to compile it I have it I have to compile it so before we get to the facilities committee I'll have a a pretty good in-depth perspectives timelines for uh if we can implement it if the board gives me approval to go ahead and move forward with that portion of it we can do it uh if not then we would have to look at a whole different perspective on on how to roll that out but I have good I have some good you know possible thought process of moving forward but again I just need to kind of get uh input

069from the board is the a follow-up question is the thought process to roll this out this school year uh I I get approvement from the board to do it I I won't roll it out just because I want to roll it out I need the blessings of the board but I think if the board once the board kind of hears a little bit more about it uh and the impact that it will do for teachers and our and and for students and the safety of of families in the district I think it may be more received right now it's unclear because a lot of board members don't even know about it so I want to make sure I do my due diligence of of presenting it to them first and then from that point we

070may be able to uh have things moved forward sooner sooner than later I think that that makes me feel much better I'm just thinking in terms of safety we had tsil that just happened and then minor incidences here and there that get reported to the board so it would be nice to have some sort of communication mechanism where the teachers can communicate to each other hey don't go out into the hallway something's happening um so that that's great the last item sorry the last item that I have is about um Discovery so my children go there I was just informed that the guidance counselor has um was given to the end of this month and she's getting laid off um and now I I realized some of the board the board prior to me coming

071on board um voted for layoffs I'm really concerned about the the amount of what's the word that I'm looking for the amount of um TR like transient for example if we get another guidance counselor at Discovery this year it will be our third guidance counselor for the year there's too much there's just too much um turnover and my greater concern is that there's such turnover in the district who's going to want to come work here and I I realize we have Staffing level issues and such but if I was a guidance counselor would I want to work here knowing there's a deficit you know so these are all things that I kind of want to keep in mind that when we're making these difficult decisions I thought we had decided I our students in our

072classrooms are going to be the least impacted but here we are taking guidance counselors away that impacts our students that impacts the classroom so I just want to make that very clear for whenever we start talking again about budget cuts that classroom Cuts should be the last item that that should be getting touched thank you um the sad reality that's not a classroom um and so those cuts are made before we get in into a classroom and we what Mr sakalik has raised is where we'll be in a few months when we start looking at where we're going to save 20 to 25 million if if people in this room and I don't just mean the board members don't figure out how to get their legislators to get the governor and the legislature to spend

073that5 billion Surplus to help the cities of this state balance their budgets and that impacts the schools most directly our mayor and our superintendent joined four other Mayors and superintendents in Hartford months ago to talk about the need to spend $550 million on the schools in this state that would have brought us $50 million approximately to Bridgeport that would certainly take care of Mr civic's concern right Joe yes sir and that's where we're gonna not have to close schools so Miss Perez and Mr sakovic won't have to butt heads uh um and that would take care of a lot of our problems so our delegation needs to be on the program I know Miss getar Wilcox is on that program um and we got to get the rest of our delegation on that program and

074wherever else you live in this state um and that's really the solution so that we can move forward with a facilities master plan and not have to lay off counselors and not even get close to the classroom um but that's the conundrum that we're looking at over the next um two months before we hit the Bea contractual deadline for laying off staff and three months before the legislature closes and the budget is set for the year next two years this is the banal budget so we have work to do and and um that leads me to my Board of Ed appreciation month thank you um I feel no Grace and gratitude from the state department of Ed um they're in here helping us I'd like to know how I haven't felt any love from the

075state department of Ed we went up in January to hear how they might be helpful and then we got dragged back up there a month later to find out how they were going to come in and really help us by overseeing us and they've been breathing down our necks ever since and uh Mr calovic asked when we're going to meet somebody who's going to tell us how they're helping us and I can't wait because all I'm hearing is meeting meeting meeting and I'd like to have somebody sit down and explain it to us because all I'm hearing is indirectly they're doing this they're doing that and I'm On The Board of Ed and I'm not seeing or feeling any of it and so I'd just like to put that out there with the question how

076much is it going to cost us you don't know okay because of course the figure of 250,000 is floating out all over town that it's going to cost us a quarter million dollars to pay for all this help and I'd like to know if there's any truth to that if anybody knows you don't know and I take your word for it Dr Avery I appreciate that I wanted to get the question out in the open where because it's floating all over town that we're going to pay for this um and so uh you know I can't wait till we hear from them um you know I'll certainly do my homework by March 21st um uh and I guess that's all the question I have though thank you any other questions Mr benan yeah um want

077to go back a little bit that um um Miss minutes you was out talking um please correct me I'm R about the ID you know getting inside the school that's what you were talking about yes all right everybody know and know the board members know that this situation was goinging up with the IED things that just to clarify and just everybody know and I'm going to say it again I don't want to push parents away I don't want parents scar there can be a minim of something s parents are not going to um look at like a we try to communicate with them because right now us our regular ID us a brisb Connecticut ID I know they say last year that we had to change ID and have a star in the corner who's

078going to pay that us my not expired to 2028 so I have to make another one because the state or because the president want another one so imagine if we had something or idea or whatever to get in so to school right now parents don't want to come to school parents don't want to be around you know how they communicate sometime with a text message or with email with a teacher because they scared to come to the school I know you know that that the every and some staff they know they have the ID in front I did hear it take me like between seven 10 minutes we're gonna talk about in committee all right so I just I want to be you understand and they take long to register if you don't have a

079ID you have to take a picture so imagine if you had three four five parents behind you to register but the thing is I don't want to push the parents away I was again and they this 10 years back and I'm against I'm against that and I agree with you Dr um Mr tray 100% And it's good and it's time because sometime they talk too much and I don't see at fat you know they talk we have meeting we have meeting they don't they don't show us they don't give us and they don't help us the way supposed to be they like to talk and point but they don't come and help us the same way parents like to listen organization things they're negative I want the parents come when we need to go to

080harf for with two or three buses to talk and speak for our students do we have that's the I know but sometime they like to listen negative the positive no I know I know that but let's have to be positive to bring these people a heart for fight for our kids thank you m i I have one other question Madam chair for the superintendent or for theate superintendent okay go ahead superintendent it was his report yes it is it was his report um have we I I'm confused about this um Raptor project did we approve anything did we procure anything it's my understanding there was something procured it was a it was a contract that was piggyback off of another contract again I'm going to provide that detailed report to you guys that's what I'm

081working on right now I had to go back and get some historical data regarding when the when the program first was was purchased and then additional things that they have different modules that go on to it so the modules were were the ones that were purchased and so that's what I have to figure out uh technology purchasing is a little different than the other purchasing is my understanding so there's just some different ways but I got I got all that lined up for you guys ready to go so I think the clarity is is coming I understood what you had said yet I in talking to miss eser Mar men is she thought that we had actually passed something in the fall that had procured something and of course there have been contracts that mysteriously

082got approved and so I was just looking to find out if anything had been done unbeknownst us um so that clity is coming see y if in fact this is one of those that had been so you'll let us know I got that in at the meeting in in April so Mr anything for Raptor was GNA go to committee but anything else go ahead well is actually a little bit related to Raptor but as far as far as the information coming to committee I would also like to see if this contract went out to bid because we've had a habit as a board to so narrowly draw our RFP to always have to take a qualified purchase the security system I'm sure there's other Security Services that could provide the same Services as Raptor and

083maybe if we get some competitors out there we might be able to bring it in cheaper cost I know I will get you the information guys I will get you the information um you're gonna ask your question at that point but it was related to Raptor and I did want to acknowledge Mr benan um that I do realize that there are different our schools each of our schools have different needs so I do agree that we need to look at that a little bit further and then you know decide if it gets rolled out on a school by school basis but we can talk about it further in facilities we're going to move on to new business um with the first is um discussion of possible approval of the superintendent to establish a seat committee

084special education advisory Council leave Miss mck okay good evening Bard and uh Dr Avery the interim superintendent Dr Avery director of Partnerships and pro uh programs and the Connecticut parent at Advocacy Center are collaborating with and supporting the Bridgeport Public Schools special education department and seeking board approval to establish and begin a special education advisory council tonight we have Carly roacher Rees Lanna adek and Jennifer L lucier to share more information about this panting partnership all right hello everyone I'm Jennifer lucier I'm the partnership programs manager at uh the Connecticut parent Advocacy Center I'm Leona adamek and I would be Bridgeport seak coach and who's advancing the slides for us I'm sorry oh look they got a little CER all right perfect so um if you're not familiar with who the Connecticut payent Advocacy Center

085is oh thank you you're in charge of that um we are the Statewide parent training information center for the state of Connecticut under the individuals with disabilities Education Act every state is required to have at least one um parent training information center that provides free information support and training to families of children with disabilities um we also do a partnership with CK and Circ as um the Statewide family engagement Center and our mission is not to advocate for families but to support educate and Empower them to be effective Advocates and partners in um the school process thank you more okay yeah you can skip over that and so we're we're here to talk about what is a seak so a cak is a a local special education advisory Council and it's a representative of your

086stakeholders in Bridgeport uh who are would advise the district leadership on matters that pertain to education inclusion and the safety of students with disabilities and I just wanted to share Connecticut's definition of family engagement with you because as we designed this program we kept this in mind um Family engagement is a full equal and Equitable partnership among families Educators and Community Partners to promote Children's Learning and Development from birth through college and career so special education advisory Council brings together families Educators and even community members to be able to um work together towards improving outcomes for students with disabilities go ahead to the next one so um in interest of of time today we are trying to speed through the deck um we know you have a very heavy agenda and we're very happy to

087be here so um the special go ahead okay so we we have this slide because um these are questions that commonly come up with the districts that we're working with um so a special education advisory council is a parent Le and District supported group it's not an extension of the Board of Ed it's not like one more thing that you have to do um it's parent Le and District supported it's an Advisory Group who advises decision makers it is not a governing group that makes policies um all right so it's a group that collaborates and works on on systemic issues so it's not going to be a group that is talking about individual student problems individual class problems anything like that it's really supposed to be a group working towards a general systemic change it's

088a formal working group that identifies unmet needs in the district and priority areas for systemic Improvement it is not a support group again taking it away from the individual Isaac we're going to skip this slide because kind of did it we're going to skip this these are just some examples and I want just talk about the structure of how um the council meetings Run for the seak it's a open open meeting law very similar to the board of bed it runs under Robert's Rule of Order uh full Council typically means about four times a year uh there is an executive board and other subcommittees might come out of it as needed go okay so what's next now we're bringing it to you the Board of Education if you decide that you would like to um

089votee to establish the seak um and you agree to review and consider the advisory of supports of the group um then CPAC our organization will provide free technical assistance resources and support um to help establish the seak in your District um and then additionally an extra support for families we have a parent leaders Round Table where the cak members would be invited to join and that group provides continuous training um throughout the year and networking opportunities with other families so they can understand what's going on at the state and federal level um for special education um and be able to contribute positively to their local staff as we sat here tonight a lot of opportunities arose that we saw where our parents could be trained leaders for your District in a positive manner although we

090work with parents of students with disabilities that is over 3,000 families as you had mentioned in your report so thank you are there any questions for yes Madam chair Mr Ben thank you um thank you for your for you know amazing you know I was dying for this for a long time ago and you know that um it's my K you know then my question is like I always told you um I know when they say coner meeting is trust um are we going to have there at least a parent a leader parent in that in that part because I know you say in the boards agree parents be invite but I would like to see if it's possible to have somebody be in your let's say let's the way I put it like your

091cabinet your your team have somebody parents I suggest you 100% And you guys know Mr and your rest B30 is almost in a special need they know about the BLS and everything have somebody and maybe they can communicate with him parent from outside communicate you know with them I would like to have a parent be there and be involved I know you say invite parents but be part that I would love to have that parent be involved with you guys and have that part of the meeting so the good thing about this group is that 50% of the members must be parents okay so unlike our special education task force this is more led by the parents so at least 50% and this is where we've already started asking administrators to give us um some

092parents that they would recommend but we would also start out with just an open group meeting uh we actually had one last week but would like to do you know after tonight better publicity that it goes out from the campuses versus the district to actually have more involvement of of our parents the first year sort of what we're looking at is a large group but then eventually breaking out to where there would be a representative uh group at each campus and it's going to be out for all the special education staff we have so they can invite the parents I'm sorry repeat that they're gonna they're going to invite the parents you know the the staff so the staff they can invite the parents you know for the child come to the to the meeting

093yes yes and second I know this part Mr travor you know it's by his committee if you can let me please be sure he know the not that they can invite you know because he's part of the committee too so we like to be me and him you know he's the chair but I mean we part of that and you know my passion about special education I would appreciate that yes thank you no more question Madam chair thank you thank you guys appreciate it now I can also add though just in other districts um so sorry in other districts sometimes a board of ed member does come although they're not a voting member because this is who they' speak to they do come and provide some information so it is again open uh meeting and

094all are welcome mam chair I think I think it's so important that we give parents a form to be able to grow and learn and support their children all the way through the system uh this this group will provide that information and and that that safe haven for parents to Advocate I think that's going to be a huge part of a learning process for our families in in Bridgeport I think we need a lot more of that uh and the district needs their input they need to be able to have to be strong enough to be able to Advocate uh and so I I look forward to working with you guys I came to the first meeting briefly uh and I look forward to kind of growing and having our parents grow with you guys

095as well so uh provide all the necessary resources and technical assistance that you can provide so that we can uh tap into the resource so that we can uh have our parents Advocate a lot more uh for their their children moving forward as well so we're looking forward to that Miss Casmir hi can you hear me yes okay uh I want to ask how do you guys plan on addressing barriers uh of special education parents that have that may have special education students who are um like severe like they're on a severe level of special education or you know those parents that want to participate but don't have anybody to watch their kids because of the severity of their um uh ability um so yeah that's what I'm I'm trying to ask you like do

096you have some type of plan to address parents that may want to participate but can't because they're confined to the home because they don't have anybody to watch their child to come out to your meetings that's what I'm asking asking yes we are actually considering having uh hybrid meetings where we would do both very similar to the board meetings uh iners and virtual uh opportunities as well okay thank you you you're welcome Mr C did you say free free Mr EST Jimenez I wrote that down in caps too very important all we need is your ears um so I really love this I think you know special education we definitely need more around it um but I just want to know how will your board and ours work together um would you guys be presenting

097to us on a monthly basis just want to make sure that we're coordinating yes so we when we at first when we build um because this is parent Le right so everyone's coming to the table at the same time it isn't an existing set of people um and so as these stakeholders come they will uh reach out and they can report once a year it can be twice a year they can do a a sub um a committee um it's done all differently at different places so um all we ask is that you make room to hear from them so that they feel like their work is Meaningful and important thank you is there a motion motion to motion to authorize the superintendent of former committee special educ special education advisory committee in partnership with

098CPAC second Mr ban okay that was moved any further debate seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed any extensions that passes we'll get that started um the next item is um an item for executive session discussion of possible approval of the settlement Authority for claims on contracts um is there and and in that um session we'll have our City attorney our associate City attorney um John Mata the superintendent um Dr Avery and the board members so is there a motion to motion to go into executive session okay who's seconding anybody I'll second all in favor say hi hi going in with is I the associate City attorney and superintendent and superintendent um board members online you have a new link to join and you can join there thank you thank thank you

099e e e all right we're back from executive session time is 917 is there a motion yes yeah you can s so again John Mata from the city attorneys up uh the motion that I would ask you to make is to Grant uh to Grant settlement authority to legal councel as discussed in executive session in Weiss fenich and MC Millan matters I make a motion to Grant settlement authority to the City attorney as discuss an executive session for the McMillan fenich and Weiss matters there second second by Mr benan all in favor I I any opposed any abstentions I obain Medina thank you that one passes next item on the agenda um is the discussion of possible approve the nutrition center bread contract good evening everyone um seeking approval from the board to approve the

100food and nutrition bread contract um it'll be for our um future bread purchases and it'll be cost effective if we approve this sooner than later thank you all right is there a motion any Char Nutrition Center bread contractor a motion to approve the nutrition center bread contract award as presented in committee and in our documents by the nutrition there a second I second Mr benan has a second is there any further debate on that good question go for it it's the cheapest cheapest thank you oh okay we'll take a vote all in favor of the bread contract um say I I I any opposed any extensions all right you're saying up for the next one or all right so um the next item is the discussion and um presentation discussion possible approval of the 2526

101food and nutrition budget seeking approval for the 2526 food and nutrition budget food and nutrition is a um budget is self-operating and um that's about it for me good you just CLI your mic though yeah just for clarification Madame chair current year budget for Nutrition Center is 2,613 so their their proposed budget for next year which is 2526 is 26 m872 82 which is a 1.8 one a, $872,000 increase um the way Nutrition Center budget works is tied to the revenue the expenditures and the revenues must equal so if they don't spend if they don't spend the money they don't get the revenues and they can never they cannot or should not run a deficit at the end of the year they can run a surplus however if they do run a surplus that Surplus

102go into into their own independent inter into their own independent internal service fund which is a surplus strictly for Nutrition Center can not be should not be commingled with the board internal service fund and they can use those Surplus savings down the road to replenish trucks freezer trucks Capital purchases relative to air conditioned freezers which they still have to come to the board for approval to make those Capital expenditures so it's pretty much 7.4 7 College 7.5% increase from current year budget to what they're asking for um that does not mean they're going to spend it all but again it gives them the ction to be able to spend if there is need to spend that's pretty much it unless somebody has any question thank you are there any on this is there any motion

103just put your mic on move to approve the 2526 school year budget request is there a second second second by Mr benan any further debate all right all in favor um say I I any opposed I any extensions have a good night the next item is the present ation of discussion possible approval of the 25 and 26 school year budget requests Mr your qu we could uh through Madame chair pretty much I'm just going to go over this the slides which is the presentation there are two attachments one is numerical meaning the numbers and statistics and the budget the proposed budget and the Gap closing measures that happen we've been talking over I've been presenting Dr Avery and I have been presenting to the board relative to the cuts trying to streamline the gap between

104current year budget so far through the use of um $22 million in internal service fund as you can see in this fresy when I go through it to me this current year budget which is FY 2425 budget will be balanced but we're going to that's by using almost $22 million of the internal service fund versus the 26 million that the board had approved so uh We've made some we've made some progress but okay I'm sorry we have made some progress trying to contain the cost or contain the expenditures relative to this current year of course it doesn't come without challenge a lot of challenge a lot of minimizing cost actually and very careful as to what we spend or the district spends the challenges are for this year has been School transportation uh special education

105as usual which brip is not alone but and English is a second language elll and special educ ation puts much pressure on the budget or the district finances but to summarize it all current year budget 2425 will be inbalance um the challenge is going into 2526 which we're going to be getting into more details I'm going to go over both uh years fy2 and 26 simultaneously I prepared a spreadsheet in such a way that you can look at them the same time which is very which will be very um easy to assimilate with that if we can present our let's do the slides first anyway uh the slide is has some numbers but that's not where the budget that's not where the Gap closing measures are but we can go through it just I'm going

106to go through it quickly anyway um Richwood budget request it basically talks about which one oh okay okay all right virual budget request the B SCH talks about table of content fiscal framework goals challenges budget overview budget request FY 2526 essential monitary need and Grant funded Services it comes into part one which is the f framework which talks about fiscal goals District enrollment nce School allocation model and fisal challenges so those are the areas we're going to be covering the fiscal goals talks about structural balance budget School balance budget model uh fiscal accountability comprehensive financial management then we get into the enrollment as you can see um as of October 2024 the bridport school enrollment or student enrollment is 19734 which is a 44 404 students increase from prior year which is um October 1

1072023 we're projecting that 70 we have an increase of 70 students next year but again that's a guess anybody's guess is as good as mine until the students start oh sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry okay okay I'm sorry let me look up then okay I'm sorry everyone please um so the student enrollment let me go back again please the student enrollment as of October 1 2024 increased by 44 440 students from prior year so next year we're projecting a 70 70 headcount increase or 70 student increase that's a projection it could very well come more if you look at the trend of shift between elementary school and high school you're going to see that high school is supposed to go up high higher next year but Elementary School will go down relatively but

108in aggregate is still going up in total um next one next one is special education District enrollment the total number of students as of um total number of brick for students as of October 1 2024 is 19734 out of that 19734 special education students are 3,119 which makes up 19.4% of the total number of Bri post students ell which is English as a second language is 6,149 which makes up 31.2% of the total District student enrollment if you combine special education and elll students you come up to 9,968 students which is 50.6% of the entire student population um so that's PR that's this statistics right there relative to special education and elll so 50.6% of brip students are either SP special education or ell students uh the next next slide is nce which is the

109net current expenditure per pup this is how much each district or each School District spends per pupil in total expenditure so when you aggregate it or weigh it what they call the weighted average that's how much each district spends per student Bridgeport is number 162 when it compareed to the rest of the districts if you look at this chart over there um of the five big school districts which what has the highest number of students um they have the lowest number per pup ratio what it means is that bridport spends less money well yeah spend less money per student based on affordability that's pretty much what it means in a nutshell but if bridgew we to because of the lack of inequity in funding from the state level if brdw were to be funded accordingly

110or fairly or equitably the way hardford is funded bridport budget will be $130 million more to service to students so there is definitely inequity based on statistical number uh when compare comparing bridgew funding to Hartford uh dollarwise so so that kind of that automatically puts Bri for in a financial disadvantage and that's why we are where we are today strugg trying to keep the doors open or trying to service the students um also people have to realize bridgport is a hug what I mean by that it's a place where a lot of immigrants come into because that's what they can afford uh through history it has happened through ethnicity groups we had the you know have the Polish you had the he had the Irish come all everybody went through bridge for till they stabilized

111themselves so that's what's going on um that's just the nature of the big city and so we have to provide those services that are needed based on affordability as well as educational um services that are needed for our younger generation so that's why bridport you know it's a hub which favors every ethnicity that comes to you know into the country or you know for the American dream if you want to put it that way uh the next phase is pretty much a graph showing we bridport science relative to the N you know nce is just a graph it's the same number that I had mentioned but it's just shown graphically that's all it does um just for fancy presentation but the content is the same the numerical the numerical numbers are the same um the

112same issue the same financial burden the same financial hardship um so that's pretty much what it is that's the NC the state keeps changing it in a nutshell what this means with special education excess cost what it means look at way it shows you the example what it means is is basically if Rich Bo spends $100,000 on special education students just to simplify let's not get into the mask if briw spends $100,000 on special education student the state only reimburses bridport $199,000 the bridport district bridport taxpayers bridgport whatever money we receive we have to front or absorb the cost of $8,699 that's what it in a in a nutshell so um the only thing I have to clarify here the state or the legislators excuse me the legislators just attempted to infuse or adopt a

113budget of $40 million for special education cost bridgport will receive 1 Point call it 1.9 million more this year out of the $40 million special education allocation but the other thing there that allocation was not facted in this current year state budget but they managed to have muscled up realizing the need that municipalities have relative to special education the only danger there is that that 40 million is not repeated in next year state budget 2026 budget so it's not there however that 40 million is included in the governor's 2027 budget which throws everybody into limbo how can the legislators adopt the $40 million special education subsidy or heal this year 20125 but it's not in the 2026 budget but it's the 2027 Governor's proposed budget the logic doesn't work for me I don't know if

114everybody understand what the problem is here so we're in limo relative to that additional 1.9 million in 2026 I mean the more ideal thing for the legislators to do is to continue on the good path that they started just the $40 million in the budget process in 2026 you can't give somebody 1.9 million this year skip it next year I mean what are we playing ping pong I mean but you know it's not it's just the prudent thing to do for the our legislators to really realize that the need is there and just fund it in the 2026 budget so uh let's SK special education spared pretty much in 2024 in the EFS report the city of bridport spent $14 million almost $150 million in special education that's a lot of money uh that's what

115it did cost the city in special education in 2024 and out of out of that 114 million the state only reimbursed bridport 8.6 million we absorb the rest of the cost in school sure would you prefer questions throughout the presentation or at the end um if anybody has a question at this point we could we could tackle it as we go along your mic all right I on that one you I'm not I'm trying to follow along as you go miss the quote but um doing my math quickly if the district share is $80,000 of a special ed student and we have 3,800 students we have 38 no we don't have 3,800 students oh for special ed you mean yes sir okay that's um that means we have a cost of 308 million for special

116ed each cost is each every child has a different need like not everybody is I get so it's not then $80,000 each it depends it depends on the classification they don't reimburse you for okay so that was just one example when you say it's 80,000 in your $100,000 example that's just one case that's just to give us a ballpark to explain your point about the 80% right that's why when I said I said that's just an example I just said don't get caught up to be 80% don't get caught up in the math because clear yeah um so uh and then when you say that we have um 50% sped and elll yep that's not quite accurate either I just want to be clear do we know the actual number because a lot of sped

117students are elll students that's the way uh P PJ PJ it's on it's on page six of the slide oh it no it says it says we have 31.2% elll and 19.4% sped but a lot of elll students are also specializ so we have about overlapping groups yeah we have about a, 62 to um duly identified students that are elll and sped elll and sped that's what I thank you sir okay you're welcome all right that's it yes sir okay sorry next next page is pos position model the way we allocate positions are operational expenses 225 per student based on the teachers number of you know based on the number of students in the teachers class teacher's choice is $30 classroom uh parent engagement is U pretty much $9 59 Cent per student in the

118school which gets spent the next one this is pretty straightforward it basically tells you what the operating budget funds it funds principles it funds teachers classroom instruction all subjects elll sped tag absence coverage um student services psychologist social workers pH you go and on and on all all areas of profession in the teaching industry and uh as far as finance department data management the PO works of running a school district pretty much um from it from A to Z next one is um fiscal challenges are utilities everybody knows UI United Illuminating I'm sorry it's you know their rate increases there I mean we have to deal with it it's inevitable transportation we do have a contract with Wei Transportation um based on Progressive negotiated contract for next year the increase agreed upon increase is 4%

119which is somewhat a good rate is a rate we negotiated long time ago however transportation is based on roundout so if we establish more routs more out of District students for special education the cost is going to go up but let's special ed education ell intervention strategies absence coverage monitoring through Red Rover through Kelly those are the fiscal challenges I mean we know the filling positions could be challenging some positions can be challenging especially special special education teachers um escalated benefit on health insurance we just received I did tell the finance committee the district the bridgew district is um is in the state health insurance plan we do pay a Prem so we do let me wrap this up TR we do pay a premium they sent us um a notification that the rate increase

120come July 1 will be 12.6% um but fortunately I did get another email today they scaled it down to 9.9% but that doesn't change a whole lot I mean honestly I told you committee when they made it 12.6% I told the committee by then I already pushed I already pushed out the numbers I told the committee I wasn't changing into 12.6 I made it clear so I I told the committee the most budget is 10% at this point we roll the dice and it it came to 9.9% however they increase the state they give it to you here they take it from there the state increase the murf contribution the Municipal Employee Retirement contribution the employee employer share they increase it from 2.59% to 2.78% which is minimal increase I just did calculation or multiplication

121it's about 100,000 about $100,000 dollar impact increase what are you going to do I mean they give it to you give you a little relief on health insurance to take it give it to you one hand hand they to it the other hand y just microphone microphone first on the transportation costs um uh you're saying that the the the the 4% increase would be if we didn't change anything else this year it's going to go up 4% that is correct but if we have additional routes it'll go up that'll that'll increase our cost it will increase that it will our mileage it will increase our cost for that mileage based on the new rate right based on the new rate yes so any increase in mileage that's another thing totally any out of town placement

122I'm not referring to out of town if we re District okay any okay if we redistricted or Chang schools the kids were going to and had to change our routes in town that would also increase our rates too well it will increase your cost but you got to do a cost benefit analysis what are you saving and what is it I'm not arguing that I'm just saying that would be an increase in our rates I'm just saying that we'd have to take that into consideration so do we have to yes with all due respect Madame chair so do we have to take into consideration the savings that we will absolutely absolutely I'm not I'm not trying to make an argument I'm just only stating a fact that's all no no absolutely yeah Mr benan and

123then Mr Woodson you want to go to can you go over to patch 11 can you explain me about the teacher Choice teacher Choice uh location what does mean that youit apart there not here did I pass it page 11 let's see okay yeah they have number in the top they say 11 in the top each teacher gets $30 per class room here M an e card that they can use to purchase things for students of their choice yeah she he's an exper he couldn't explain it way contractual provision teachers have for decades been getting $1 per student is the way it B worked out to many years ago the class max went from 30 to 29 students but that $30 still stayed we used to get it differently but now they get cataloges and

124now it's the eCard um so that the teachers get a catalog and they can use use that $30 e card to buy supplies for their classroom no yeah I agree with you that's why I ask you because $30 they can cut a box or pencil when they order that and and I know the teachers come from the pocket you know and buy stuff you know his pocket because $30 is nothing you know when I know if we know me you know that that's and I just want to know if the state know that that some teachers they had to pay from the pocket to buy stuff in the classroom um so I know they know but I'm no trust me I order stuff I know that but you know I was I was surprised and

125now the other question um when the parents engagement budget I know they have to use the money if they don't use the money they lose the money right they're not gonna um it doesn't roll over it does not roll over because most of it okay they roll over with the parent convention with the parent convention if it's funded under a grant and the grant is extendable yes if it's not anything under operating budget budget under operating budget if you don't use it June 30th the fund livs no I know but they don't do that for the parent convention the budget the budget they use for the parent conventions if they don't go to the convention they don't then they wait next year they don't use the money that's my question that's what I'm saying if

126they don't it they give us it for the next year no no go ahead I talking about there is a there's money in The District budget for for a parental environment conference okay he's talking about that conference I think what they've done over the over the last couple years my understanding if they've just added money to that account so there's an account with the district that has for a big districtwide parent convention so he's wanting to know how much money is in that account oh good that I can find for you be sure you don't touch the money you know me let me know inform balance okay one second let me get clear parent convention balance okay Mr you have one more M my last question how much money was that last year for transportation

127and this year is how much going to be Transportation how much money was last year okay this year how much gonna be it's it's somewhere in the slide it's between it's going back it's going up when we get to that you going to see it yeah Mr Woodson no no when we get to that he's asking the cost of Transportation the total cost of Transportation this year we'll get there yeah we'll get there the page 13 he talk about Transportation that's why but that's okay you let me know later got Mr Woodson yes Mr in in quot is the was the cost of Health Care is that like projected over the years or do you get the cost of that like uh in the beginning of the of the budget year we get it uh

128through Madame chair we get the cost at the beginning of the generally the state gives you a preliminary number around January of every year uh come around March the finalize the numbers um so that's what's happening here they've kind of finalized the numbers based on community but so that's when we get the final number is getting to a point if you ask me when we joined when the city and board joined the state health insurance board I have to confess we did save a lot of money by joining now the premium is getting a little too high if you ask me that I spoke to the city we might have to revisit that subject matter and go see or have seagull seagull actual report is the actual company that does um Financial anal is and

129projections for such things see if we we can revert back to being self-insured like we were before so we have to run the numbers it's getting to the point that it might not be I'm not saying it's not it might not be coste effective to be on the state plan again I'm not saying it's not we have to have the analysis to justify it so but it's getting to a point that actually we spoke with with um the city Side I happen to be part a core part in negotiating with the Union migrating to the state plan or getting out of being self-insured and migrating into the state plan we save $10 million that year just by making that move but it's crippling up things will go up cost of living will go up but

130is getting to me we have to substantiate that it's still worth it let me just put it that way so we're going to be looking into it and maybe go back to being self-insured but again no guarantee to answer your question around March they finalize on what the final rate will be around March they finalize on what the final murf State retirement pension rate will be um so murf rate Municipal Employee Retirement rate used to be 11 11 12% 133% % they've crippled it up to the point that is 20.7 20% now so if you hire one person paying that person a dollar each dollar you pay that employee the district has to contribute 20 cents and 78 Cent 20.78 cents towards the employee pension except teachers let me let me clarify things here teachers

131the state of Connecticut pay teachers and administrators instead of Connecticut pays their pension contribution not the district I just wanted to make that clear Mr Woodson do you have anything else okay and and this is like the their health the employees health um contribution that they make uh weekly or whatever is that is that a is that um negotiated when the contract is negotiated or is that is that done yearly too um no that's negotiated with employ with employees union so actually let me this is an opportunity for me to clarify we mixed and misused terminologies the savings or the internal service fund that everybody's talking about savings let me clear up how that money came about is the employee coopay when the employee co-pays that money is being reserved with the city the district

132still pays full premium to the state the employee co-payment gets reserved in the health insurance fund for future liability so that's what that's how that savings this savings everybody's jumping came about and that opportunity existed because we had covid money now that Co not money is not there people should forget about replenishing that health insurance co-pay amount because we're just going to go through it and finish it almost finish it up was that all Mr Woodson so yes so that so so they're they're um when they when when we negotiated the contract they they if and if they like our our uh Insurance contribution has and a on the city side has to go up we we don't have we we're stuck with it with the payment and they don't have to contribute um oh

133okay let me okay I think I I get where what your question is if the health insurance premium goes up by 12% or 10% the employee cost year goes up 10% because the employee is paying 25% of the ENT higher premium you understand yeah yes yes I'm so I'm I'm portraying that the district or the premium went up the district is going to pay 12% or 10% of their share I netor will pay 10 12% of my own share come July everybody gets a bit of the you know burden if you want to put it that way everybody's responsible for their own share meaning the insurance premium went up by $1,000 if my co-pay is 25% I have to pay $250 of that $1,000 increase the district is going to pay $750 of that $1,000

134increase that's the way it works everybody gets pie of the pie got you got you thank you Mr n couple of points on where we're at we speaking of transportation and cost may go up and redistricting but we haven't redistricted in decades our cost could potentially go down we could find more efficiency since it hasn't been looked at in so long we could have children redistricted to a closer School rather than the school that's 1.5 miles away and we have to run those scenarios to be sure that the cost won't go down if we redistrict as well so it's not only an upward pressure a lower possib ability of a lower cost lower lower trip in and the second thing I want to talk about is the the health insurance that just came up um

135I definitely think it Bears exploring and I think we should take a page from the union book um form a coalition with the big cities that are part of the health plan and go to the governor and EST State and say hey if you guys don't work with us and drop our premiums we're out because that Health Plan does not exist without the B without the major cities and that's one place we could have very good bity thank you TR do you still have oh do you want to respond TR M you have to put your microphone on sorry for John microphone for John I was just going to say that when when we're in Harford on Wednesday we ought to be asking what's going on with the other municipalities for a similar reason um

136we ought to be exploring um what their experiences are because if everyone's experiencing the same pain then everyone begins to to discuss what the alternatives are and that puts pressure on the state to to tighten their belt a little if they're about to start losing customers oh through Madam chair for those people that don't know um how do I put it um the truth of the matter is that it's charges bridgport and fil County participants more higher rate than what they charge the other suburbs they claim that we're more prone and have more tendency of claims that's why our premium is higher I I I understand Mr noo tell you what they're doing I'm not saying it's right I sat in with you and uh Miss Mitchell and and other unions years ago when we

137explored uh the state and other options at one point 10 15 years ago so I I I'm familiar with what they say we didn't choose them at that time um you went with our plan in fact um at that time um and that's you we persuaded the other City unions to go with the plan the teachers had at the time um but I I'm just saying that you know that that competitive we should just see what's going on no no absolutely while we're up there because we're going to be with a lot of other cities and towns and see what they're saying I agree with you through Madame cheer I mean honestly when we were getting into negotiating or talking with the state in all fairness in all honesty they never disclosed it to us

138that we're consider that excuse my language high risk it was when we started comparing our invoices or Billings or premium per person with other towns oh you're high risk what are you talking me I don't know but again that's that's that's the factual truth but it's truth yeah Mr I have two things um kind of along the same boat as Mr sakovic um one wanted to know when was the last time we did um a bus route analysis to figure out how we can be most efficient in our bus routes are we as efficient as we possibly can um do you happen to know when when that was last done PJ PJ's office they have the statistics there's what they call transportation in finance I major my major was Finance you got to do the

139critical path of f Transportation but PJ can tell you it's all done mathematically okay so along with the contract um we used to have a transportation department that we don't have anymore um we got rid of that I'm not sure how many years ago uh George what maybe about 10 years ago so we transport does the majority of routing right now so they have a software called transfinder transfinder at this point um we load the students up the transfinder they put the students on the bus they route it and they come up with the routes um could we possibly look at routing to see if um we can get better rates or we can work on less buses we could um we do have a uh copy of transfinder on our end and we could

140run some bus analysis through TR um the transfinder product to see if there may be um a better way to Route um understanding that they do tier busing which is since we do bus not only bridport public school students but Charter Schools parochial um you know vag schools um there's a lot of tearing going on where in the morning you know they do the high schools and then they go back and do the elementary schools or a charter school whatever it may be so we we have discussed that we have talked about that um there my concern is that contractually um I don't know the contract and what we did contract with them um on buses and and um pays I think it's $400 a day for a bus and I could be well off

141on what that number is but but I guess the reality is for the routes we can definitely look at the routing and see if we could come up with a better combination I'm not sure contractually there's anything we could do with the company for that part of it but we can sure promote it or put it in front of them that hey we came up with a better system than you did Goa the other thing that I was thinking um and you kind of touched upon it the contract when was the last time we went out to bid for buses so I'm not quite sure I think that was rather new I think there's two or three more years on the contract right now um if I remember correctly so you know we transport again

142is uh is the company we've been using um you know I didn't want to bring this up but but um having them route at this point I think it's really good for us to to relook at that they do the special ed routing as well as the regular Ed routing um for busing so go ahead Neer um through Madam chair we're GNA get to that anyway on page 22 you're GNA see we transport contract is a 5-year contract it ends in fiscal year 2027 the percentages are there thank you sorry I jumped jumped ahead um my very last item um is about insurance um at what point or another can we look at if self-insuring would save us money it I know open enrollment usually happens in November of every year can we start looking

143at that now for potential Savings in the next fiscal year very true Madame chair to be very honest with you you're dealing with unions you're dealing with unions and for it to be cost effective you have to do it as a group meaning you're dealing with police fire AB me n you're dealing with mass Union Sometimes some of them don't want to open reopen their contract if they feel they have a valid contract if you feel that you need to reopen their contract it's going to cost you that's just the way it works what are you going to give me to reopen my contract the union members or the union will ask you Tre you know how it works doesn't come cheap so we have to do it in a uniform manner first we have

144to go out and have seagull do statistical analysis then find a company put it out to bid find a company who is going to manage the claims it's not as easy as it looks to answer your equation from beginning to the end you're looking at you did it very fast 18 months that is super fast by the time you finish dealing with the unions dealing with the new company who's going to baid it out set it all up minimum 18 months then you have to deal with the retire I'm sorry you have to deal with the retirees who will claim that go ahead sorry yeah who would claim that you're changing their plan that they rather be with the state because it covers a lot more for them there a whole lot of involvement there

145it's not as easy as it looks it's not a turn light switch you don't flip the light whenever you want right we we just have a big huge budget Gap trying to be creative with what we can potentially find Savings in my last question is when was that insurance last negotiated with the unions when when would that um contract end depends every Union is different every Union term is different the language there let me give you the history the city had agreed when we settled contracts about 8 10 years ago that there will be Progressive increase in cost year to the point that it starts from 25% every year it goes up 1% till it hits 50% so the employee will be paying 50% of the cost of insurance it got so high that they

146started revolting if you're if you have a family let me give you a typical example if you have a family the state premium is $38,000 a year so if you as an employee is a clerk or whatever title or position you are in and you're paying 50% of $38,000 the employees almost revolted so we have to reverse the percentage back to 25% and start going back back up again and capping it at 33% or else you're not going to have people coming to work in the district not at 50% health insurance rate so I'm gonna um pause everybody here Mr M we'll get to you in one second but I'm gonna have you go and then I'm gonna have Mr Nicole go through the rest of presentation we are jumping ahead a few times Mr

147mine you can ask your question but then afterwards we're gonna let Miss Nicole finish his presentation and then we'll ask more questions Mr Medina thank you madam chair yeah I'm just waiting um I don't even know if it's more of a question than a com well it is a question um when you talk about the busing because as many of you guys know I did over 12 years here in the city of brisport so I know a lot of the ins and out and maybe PJ or Mr nle can answer this question is it per pupil that we're paying is it by the M how is the contract uh done and the reason why I ask in my experience if it's by pupil or stuff like that we got to start looking of how we

148can consolidate these buses because when I even when I was a bus driver uh there was buses that only had seven 10 15 kids Max even though the list uh might have Mr medino um can we get back to that question because you're going to go over um we transferred the contract in like seven slides so if we can not a problem then we'll do the whole slide and then we'll get that that question so you can continue with the slide um page 14 basically tells you current year budget is 280 million combined with you know grants the total monetary need is $348 million which have already shared with the committee and that's the total amount of money needed uh to meet the needs of the district $78 million is City share of what the

149city has contributed or will is contributing in this current year we asking the city for additional $25 million next year in the proposed budget the state Alliance Grant is going to provide us $9.9 million which is what's in the budget for next year from State Alliance the excess cost grant that I talked about at the legisl has approved is 1.9 million oh no no I'm sorry they approved it for this year but it's not in next year so I have to withdraw that 1.9 million next year because it's nowhere to be found I was under the impression that the legislators will fund it next year but if it's not there is not there I can't just keep assuming so for all practical purpose we're going to count that 1.9 that in next year Gap closing

150measure that's nonexisting because it's not where in the next year budget it doesn't exist does not exist Mr we cannot assume what doesn't exist MH What flows through is because if we if we didn't count it counted it this year did the ISF get reduced no that's how we balance that's how that's how we balance this year budget you remember yes yeah that 1.9 is gone that's how we're able that's how we're able to proudly say we're balancing this year budget sorry go ahead there's not that many of us here is that one is that 1.9 million what we just got out of the $40 million y yep pass yep yeah have faith all right okay let's but I I understand what you're saying for the record I just don't want to okay we can

151continue okay let's let's just go Um so pretty much what are Gap as we go along solution one which we're going to go through this spreadsheet solution one is solid which is what the board had approved when we go through the numerical spreadsheet uh solution to the board hasn't acted on it 5.1 million so I can't really count it so but that's the split up of the revenues and the expenditures of the budget throughout the year you can see it here pretty self-explanatory I'm sure the board is very used to this um graph or here so let's go to the next fres sheet this is um how much the allocation has been increasing over the years in average in the last nine years the board of education budget had increased by $3.8 million a year

152now $3.8 million cannot sustain any District um just if you look at this pressure I shared with the board of committee the other day whether we like it or not wages alone goes up $9 million about $8 to9 million a year if wages goes up $8 to9 million a year and you're getting $3.8 million increase in your budget and health insurance goes up by that much all health insurance goes up by 8 n 10% a year and the state increased your am of contribution from 11 or 12% to 20% said that's almost $10 million increase and people wonder why how brid for is where they are when your compounded obligations are going up5 12 million every year and you're only getting infusion of $3.8 million automatically you're compounding your liability that is the issue I

153mean in all fairness in all seriousness this whole thing would have come to a bubble 4 years ago but the esa money kind of kept a lead on it let me be very blunt and honest with everyone was overdue and that is the fact truth okay uh does anybody have a question I'm sorry but that it's just the way it is um it is what it is [Music] [Laughter] I'm sorry but a little okay Bridge bridport School District finance department okay this is the breakdown of um all the 30 $310 million of the budget for current year and next year so it can go by salaries it can go by fringes it can go anything uh the increase that you see some high increase you see in some categories compared to last year actual or

1542024 actual expense it's not that we didn't spend that much money there we did but they were charged to ESS so people will understand so when you see that big variance oh how is it going up this much we Hada money in 2024 to absorb the shock Essa has ended and that's why he see the spike in some of those categories in conjunction with NOA money yes yes John I'm gonna get him to use his microphone eventually okay I'll get him to use microphone so that's pretty much that's what happened that's what happened SS sustained the district um a long enough time for almost 3 4 years now the funding is no longer there should I say the bottom has fallen off I mean it's no longer there so the reality of the fact and

155that's what I mean that it's overdue three four years ago so pretty much so uh the next one is just the graph of what the numbers are you can look at the graph you can look at the percentages it doesn't make any difference it's all the same it's just um we talked about special education enrollment and everything it's all repetitious of everything of what we talked about already uh again teachers okay this is a special education for those who want to know who want to look at the Historical numbers from TW between FIS schal year 2020 to current to 2025 in 2020 we spent $90 million in special education 2021 90 million 2022 95 million 2023 96 call 96 million in 2024 we spent $14 million in special education 2025 the rate and the pace

156we're going is going to be about $120 million in six years special education increased by $30 million now let's put it in right perspective in 6 years is special education increased by $30 million and our average annual increase in budget is 3.8 million do the math doesn't add up that's just special education we haven't talked about health insurance we haven't talked about wages we haven't talked about light bill we haven't talked about Transportation the facts are there the data is there which side do you want to turn so uh but that's what it is I mean it's broken down into tuition Transportation Medical Services the special education um okay we go to the next talking about wages this is the union increase for next pres school year 2026 this is a great upon wage increases

157the teachers union increases a $6 million administrators is half a million asme and unaffiliated is $615 Nurses and luner employees 80,000 AG 97,000 all in all you're looking at close to $7.98 million in wage increase alone if we have still is not high enough because we cannot high enough teachers because we're not well okay but um that's the cost of wage increase a year yes um to the chair wait oh questions at the end to finish the slides and then we'll go back yeah I know okay the next one page 20 is pretty straightforward everything is there aquaculture special ed to answer your question somebody was asking that's the total layer um of everything so next one we can flip over City Health city transportation we Transportation 30 million to 33 million that's what it's

158going to cost projected for next year okay on wi Transportation 22 page 22 regular bus that's the daily rate see the daily rate for 2026 $470 a day so just to go back I think this is going to answer Mr Medina's question here yeah okay Medina this answers your question is based per boss a day it's not per pupil it's per not per pup that answers your question no yeah but it's still even if even if it's been by pupil when you have a bus driving around with only five or 10 kids when you can have 40 kids on a bus it it's something that we got to take a look at as a district you know holistically but yes thank you sir I thought it was but I just wanted to make sure okay

159you have free bus pass field trip and all those things $23,000 they have K Services um which does substitutes for teachers absences and Par one to one par um then you have utilities we just put in $250,000 increase in utilities could it be more it could be more I mean but there's only so much you can add on let's just be real um this is the stat statistic City share State Alliance money um pretty much relative to that so that's what it is for this year the budget the graph for current year uh next one again the district is requesting $25 million from the city city of bridge forward well for next year that's what is requested um the next one is Sir pretty much 25 million requested from the city 9 9.9 million or

160$10 million in Alliance Grant is what we we're sure we're getting uh the board had approved $27 million in gap closing measures they haven't approved 3.1 million neither neither are we sure of 1.8 or 1.9 million uh excess cost next year so we still have work to do that's the whole graph if you can turn on the other slide with numerical so we can get to it straight uh there are two of them in the email yeah the ex the Excel spreadsheet I'm going to go through this past because everyone has seen it before can I ask my question sure go ahead ask question your your union your union bargain unit increases you said with salaries you sure that no no is inclusive okay I'm sorry salaries and benefits salaries and Mer and Medicare and

161benefits not health insurance not Insurance nope health insurance is facted in a separate line the teachers contract each person moves to what a new Step not percentage that's the teach's contract I write it mhm yep every teacher moves to a new Step there's no percentage increase you move to a new step that's inclusive of the percentage and the step on your annivers the next year yep that's the teacher's contract may be different from your time but that's what they negotiated to rain them hm yeah when we go back to the bud budget request and the Gap closing measures and we're anticipating right about that at this moment in time $23 million and when we're looking at these Cuts we got to be mindful of the percentage of things we're spending money on for example according

162to the pie chart you have we got about 70% in Personnel costs but understand the reason 70% of our Cuts may have to go towards Personnel if we're doing it proportionately and that's approximately 16 $16 million in Personnel cuts that possibly will have to be coming down the line if we do not get the funding we need and that would be devastating to the district so we need to fight for as much money as we can get I don't see how we survive as a district if we have to make $16 million in additional Cuts after what we've already done hopefully somebody can work some magic find it another way but if proportional that's just sorry to be the doomsayer but it's doomsday any other questions go Miss Miss EST him um so I'm looking

163I have very basic questions and I'm almost wondering if I should have like just a sit down separately with you so you can help me figure out what all these line items are what line items so my very what page are you okay go ahead um 16 P so I'm wondering it looks like utilities 2024 actuals $4.3 million then it jumps at $8.3 million how did that jump $4 million okay Madam chair that's what I started saying that some of the expenses when you look at the year 2024 actuals it Sub sub is subsidized or subdued with by the payment it's being charged to Essa grants oh gotcha so we're not seeing the full picture no because it was charged to a grant that's why I started clarifying that you're going to see some spikes

164in variances thank you that's not true reflection of trend you know comparing the trend gotcha yeah um I did have one other question and it was around the salaries and I know this is a union question um would be able so I'm looking at versus 2026 proposed budget that's nearly I don't know like over $20 million difference where where again same page 16 again with um let me see is that something that we can like freeze raises I know that's not really like a sustainability like a again through Madame chair what we have to realize we had $144 million in s money to spend so some salaries were some employees were placed in funded through Essa in those years so positions were funded in Essa now that Essa has ended we have to take them

165back home to the operating budget Mr Medina everything we could think qualifying under Essa was funded under Essa it couldn't have burned $144 million in four years Mr go ahead yeah see is the presentation complete already you can ask your question he has one more thing to present but you can ask your question okay I was just wondering um because I seem to be having a huge difficulty finding this in our packet so that was my first question um why wasn't this put into our packet or unless something it's in our pack we're all looking at it now okay I don't see it what what categor is under there it's the PowerPoint that we're looking at and then if it wasn't in the packet Mr Nicole emailed us well I'm sorry I'm I'm specifically I'm

166I'm specifically it's it's in the email made a statement okay I'm specifically asking why is is not on our packet I was told it is told it's in the pocket okay I was told it was in the packet so if you're looking at the packet right now can you tell me what item it is is I'm looking at the packet right now Madam chair so what are you actually asking because everybody talk about different things okay I'm asking you this this presentation that Mr Nichol's given right now you said it's in the packet I'm asking you what item is it because I'm looking at it so I would like to know which item is in the packet M chair the the thing that's on the screen you have to be more specific because we're looking

167at a lot of different documents so okay everything that Mr nle everything that Mr nle the just present it yes so it's it's not in our packet correct I'm asking packet that you saw in your facilities at the finance committee and it's in the packet that was both emailed and in the portal okay I'm in the portal right now go back and forth move on for a question okay that was a question and I haven't got a clear answer but all respect to the chair budget let's go with a budget question questions now it's okay has the floor now so Mr can have the floor okay I guess I gave up the floor thank you mam chair um yeah quick quick clarification also this not only of the bump in salaries is not only a

168function of the ISF it's also a function of the generous bump we gave to starting salaries in the last contract to Eno in order to draw more talent to the district a significant increase in starting salary I don't I don't know the order of percentag is respond we we we bumped the starting salaries but at the same time uh the we don't know we never got a clear report from the superintendent about the number of people that we were hiring above starting salary and there were a significant number of Staff being hired above the starting rate and so we don't know the full impact on simply salaries so when Mr nqu says people are getting steps steps are not always this particular contract was moving people through steps that didn't always happen in previous contracts

169steps would be frozen on some years um and if I recall this one didn't free steps I did not um so what he's saying is people are all getting their step movement but that was always offset Mr n by a a percentage increase right right so it it in the end it's one six to one half dozen the other uh and I won't go into negotiating whether that costs or doesn't cost that's a different discussion for you and I to have some other time but the fact is your point about the higher starting SE step to attract new teachers that was happening there were also new people being hired at higher rates of pay um but we were also losing a lot of higher paid teachers over the last year a lot so I don't

170know what the impact of that either because we weren't getting reports on how many teachers veterans we were losing at step 20 you know who were maxed out um and what the savings were from those lost salary savings from those lost positions Madam chair let me just clear something the numbers you're seeing here relative to salaries are gross gross numbers what I mean by that when you go to your Gap closing measure you're reducing that number in the gap almost $9 million in gap closing measure so what you're seeing here is gross then the board approved reduction of some positions which will bring a net reduction to that number that you see there's no other way to do it I can't start in the midst of line by line I'm going to confuse the heck

171out of everyone I'm sorry and I understand I'm not I'm I'm not disputing at all no no for her I'm just to let you're looking at the total right right and you're and you're projecting what the total increase be right if we left everything the way it is that's what it's going to cost but the board has taken action and said we cannot afford it and reduced by on funding some positions and that was used as part of the Gap closing measures yeah any further questions oh go ahead Mr B is not a question comment yeah did the state know everything about this about what everything you go through because I see these numbers you know the million this how much you pay get over here go over there check over here take it St

172about this do you sit down with the stay and let know one one live everything so they can know what going through Madame chair to me is a blessing if you ask me in my own opinion that the still the state technical team is here they can see the numbers and see the facts and see the data I mean bridge for is not wasteful as people portray it or think it's just it's a unique it's a unique Community a unique town that provides services to the Le least advantage or more needy you know individuals and that's what we're doing that's what br for is that's what Bridgewood has been and if you ask me I think that's what Bridgewood will continue to be as a big city understand that and agree with you but I

173would love to you sit down with them one each sit down and let them know like the way you Spain us and the way our colleague you know we got answer and you let us know because they can't know what we're going through they can't know where's the money go where their money has spended because they think we not spending the money the way it's supposed to be we're not talking about thousand we talk about Millions I would love to you sit down with them you know and take the time and know and I would love you answer question they answer question they can know what we're going through M chair I think already Dr ay is gonna make sure that we have a zoom meeting with a technical team just just just just like

174we're having here and they can ask all the questions in the world to more fine not zoom but it's live to Li you know it's really life I mean there's nothing to hide I mean it's all there it's all in the EFS report EFS report is the report you fil to the state at the end of the year they see it don't kill yourself they do see it they know what the facts are they know we spent $140 million in special education last year but it's not the same like you see the numbers by email or papers when you talk to them face to face and show them they can see it by their own and then you can ask me question it's a to different so they can know I just want to be

175sure they know what we doing thank you Madame chair man chair mat they're watching this meeting right now tonight they're watching this presentation so but we will also request a sit down meeting with them as well just to go over the proposed budget they have these same documents as well so they're looking to they want to they're going to do some comparison with us uh you know again they only came in last week they had other meetings that we're having but we're going to follow up as well so that's coming Mr Medina hand went down disregard some of the questions that I wanted to ask I'll ask personally thank you you want to continue presenting uh we can continue with this one um this spreadsheet actually this everybody knows this is how much the state

176gives no what do you mean it's not gonna work oh you have to scroll up or yeah I don't use laptop know come and come here I'm from the old school I just do hard I got okay just go Page by Page this is pretty much yeah this is pretty much by year by year how much the state gave the city of bridgport how much the city gave the city of the bridport school system I'm sorry year by year MBR is called minimum budget requirement we must spend this much money whether we like or not it's year by year so everybody has it past years are past years you've seen it in the past been presented to you in the past again it's a repeat of what you've seen in the past years so keep

177scrolling down um the number keeps accumulating anyway whatever the state gives you whatever the state gives uh the city gives you we add it on we keep stacking it on so when it get to year 20125 you're going to see the total that the city has given Board of Education and the total as a state has given more of education cumulatively so uh keep going so when we get to 2025 in 2025 cumulatively uh the city has given well the state maintains giving the district $164 million in ECS what you call education funding and Alliance money uh $37 million in Alliance and the city the city of Bridgewood gives gave $78 million to Board of Education uh City contribution so if you add them all up it totals $280 million keep I'm sorry keep going

178uh oh go to high high general fund high level sorry the next tab okay the next time general f high level it goes in times okay scroll up that's okay it's basically a repeat of go ahead keep scrolling the numbers are up there keep scrolling up the graphs you see in the graph this is a repeat of what you've seen um so you can that's it pretty much just a point of information we could use some more color toner but obviously our budget is such that we can't afford to buy color toner I know I know I know I know you know it's the Tona is running low I decided to run it empty I might I might as well do it in black and white next one analysis please it's cheaper in black and

179white um okay this is uh pretty much keep scrolling up this is how much by salaries and what categories it's categorized by category the total of the entire budget so you're going to see the total of everything by category it's sorted by category if you want to know how much we spent on accreditation it tells you there uh you know pretty much keep scrolling but again you have it in your in your sheet you can go through it the next one is fund request get that man lasered okay fund request scroll up please M way yeah that's okay keep going up down okay okay now we can go down this is the total City budget s board of education is basically what I've told you before keep scrolling down keep scrolling down keep scrolling you've

180seen this before keep scrolling that's it there's an area let go go here go to operating budget let's see go back to operating budget the first one yeah the first one and scroll down up oh keep scrolling down let's see go to high level keeping down then go to high level go to high level somewh it should be there okay keep scrolling keep scrolling keep scrolling see okay good good analysis good analysis it should be analysis okay keep scolling that's down down the Gap closing measure should be there no no no no go to the back go go to this one operating budget that's where I have it yeah yeah okay it's I don't let me see you yeah give me that no no no I'm going to where they have the Gap the Gap

181CL am it's more okay where okay that ah yeah okay that's it yeah that's it right here okay this is where we want to go right here as you can see the total Gap is six yep is page page page page six yeah okay that's the Gap that we started working on all along which most people have been at the meeting the total gap for next year is $67 million 67.8 million 26 M excuse me 26 million of that is see is see okay let me see let me see that's it you should have it you got it okay okay I'm wait we wait okay all right so what you're going to see there is um I'm going to scroll down slowly what you're going to see is basically how do you control this screen

182okay okay 67 million for monetary need for 2026 that's the Gap and that came about 26 million of that is the use of fund balance that the board adopted that's non recurring so automatically it creates a vacuum of $26 million into 2020 six but that's how that number came about but people wouldn't doubt now the board all Alliance you know basically we're going to do about 7 7.1 million being charged to Grant to relieve to relieve the operating budget of that 67 million gap okay we're looking at FY 26 monetary need and if I scroll down one more which is under up under Solution One the board had validated this following Gap closing measures 4.5 million in FY 45 in FY 2526 basically continue the Dr a and I are going to continue the maintenance

183of Citywide operational account free and attrition savings so basically positions are only going to be filled discretionary positions let me put it that way are not going to get filled educational positions when they become vacant they have to be filled we have to train our children discretionary positions will wait through attrition as much as we can so we figured it's going to save us another about you know 4.5 million in FY 26 the board agreed to that Nutrition Center is going to reimburse the district for the health insurance will pay for their retirees b nutrition nut Center retirees are covered and paid for by the District budget so they have to reimburse us the cost we fronted on their behalf plus a little small administrative charge that we charge them for all the accounting and

184administrative Services we provide for them to them so he added off is about a million dollar the administrative charges minimal but the main chunk of the reimbursement is is the health insurance that the district pays for them Water approv Gap closing measures this is the layoff of 70 this is the layoff of 77 or downsizing or consolidation of 77 positions that the board approved as a gap closing measure the effects some of the effect partial effect of it happened this year current year the full effect will come into play next fiscal year and that's why you see a full-blown effect of 7.9 million in 2026 so to answer uh member question the the salary you see as a gross is being reduced by 7.9 million because this is not a this is not a normal

185let me B this is not a normal budget year for the board this is all mixed up Blended up you whatever whichever way you want to call it it's really a puzz it's really a puzzle to be honest with everyone if fighting two two Wars from two different ends you're balancing this year budget you're balancing next year budget you're laying up you're doing that I mean it's a puzzle it's a war it's not for the painted hat but again we keep going now instead of using the entire 2226 million that the board approved we decide well we planning to use 22.4 million this year and defer or use the rest the remaining ose additional 7 million next year and leave a balance of $5 million in the reserve again the reserve came about for clarity

186the reserve came about by the health insurance co-pay that the employees pay in the Insurance Fund being left in the Insurance Fund and not use but it was more reserved for what they call ibnr incured but not reported for future liability and opep but we're going to use it the state is more than hundred and something billion dollars in op liability anyway they haven't paid years so that's the truth so no District No municipality funds they open to the fullest we attempted to but now we are into hardship that's the truth so um so that's that with that all there that would to that total 26 27.6 million that is solid validated savings approved by the board so if you take that out out of the if if if you take that out of the

18767 million and the 10 m and the other the other 7 million in Grants that will leave you with $40 million gap oh that will leave you with $4 million G Mr nqu so the the budget you're proposing today has a city ask of 25 million yes it does and historically we don't get that so these solutions would be what would happen if we don't get 25 million well I didn't even I haven't even they said ask for from the city yeah that's to ask and if if we we we may not get that yeah okay so the solutions that you're proposing now are just some of the options we have for addressing the deficit I kind of teared it up to m i kind of teared it up into different solutions solution one is

188validated yes that's to me is financially validated so for us tonight all we need is to approve the budget for the city not approve the budget I'm sorry approve the proposal the request for the city right City we're g to be working on this in committee absolutely solution yes so tonight what do you need from us well basically I approved the the request of 25 million from the city all right are there any questions about the Mr tror go ahead yeah I I I I hear I heard what you just asked um I'm seeing a budget that needs 40 million so where does it need 40 25 million okay so I just wanna I hear what you're saying and I heard Mr no say that earlier that we need 25 million from the city but

189where does this document say we're 25 million sure okay on I'm here the board right now you have 40 million right now you have 40 million short after solution one okay yes sir there are options to be exercised solution two this is a plan that Dr ay and I have put up out of that 40 million solution to is the board going to the board needs to approve has to approve 2.1 to1 2.2 to1 par elimination and they're going to they have to approve restorative practice on funding restorative practice positions that will save you 9 36,000 this one will save you 1.2 million the next one so is the board hasn't taken action so it's pending you can't count it so that 40 million is still there until you take these actions to reduce it

190make sense question no I I I get that you just showed me two other proposals that would do $2 million worth of savings okay and I understand that I I saw what they were but it hasn't been acted on by the board so you can't take it to the bank I I I understand that but that was 2 million right um 25 plus two doesn't equal 40 we go ISF let's go in chronological order okay um now you have this 1.8 here which I have to Discount this 1.8 million for the what the midyear legislative sped allocation for 2026 which is the one we just did for 2026 it's no we in the state budget in 2026 you're you're this is anticipating they're going to do it again right but for now we have to

191discount it because no I get that I I think they will okay I think they're gonna actually do a lot more than that but what I'm okay so I get that okay so you're just you have a variety of little bits and pieces like that and they're not little I get it I'm I'm I'm Miss I'm no no it's okay it's okay my my choice ideas ideas I'm a little stop it's okay it's okay we have a variety of of options things like that options possible options like that that um that we think are going to come through I actually think there's a lot more ECS money that's going to come through that I'm notw praying on um that the legislature is going to bend those guard rails a lot more but yes okay so

192you're these are I guess I I just didn't see it in in your proposal but I get it okay so you're saying you're expecting there's going to be another 15 million which is what this number on the side is no no no no forget about that 15 million okay focus on money there happened to be a 15 million over there it added up with your 25 to make 40 so that's why I was wondering no no no let's let's focus on this here you see this 3 5.1 million $350,000 in uh public facilities overtime reduction $936,000 elimination of elimination of positions $2.5 million elimination of position the board hasn't approved it $936,000 elimination elimination of restorative practice position the board hasn't approved it $1.3 million to to1 par elimination the board hasn't approved it so

193I just put it there as items for the board to act on but because the board hasn't acted on it I'm getting to the point whereby I don't want to startop putting numbers and everybody's going to think the budget is balanced without the board acting on it it's getting I yes I understand that I'm getting un uncomfortable doing that I I I understand we we're going to find ourselves because you and I you've been on the other side Mr nio we joked earlier um but the truth is that we all know we're not going to get 25 million from the city um we do need to get the money from the state right um and we need to get a lot of money from the state um because we're otherwise going to be faced with

194some very hard choices of what we're going to do with the schools um and as um Miss EST himz said earlier um none of us want to reach into the classroom like we had to do uh eight to 10 years ago 11 years ago um and that's what we'll be looking at um Andor what we heard at least one speaker tonight mention the closing of schools um and those are the other choices that everybody wants to avoid um but those are the hard choices that we'll be looking at uh Beyond these um smaller options frankly um that you're mentioning so I get where we are so tonight we want to pass a budget that will be presented to the city um as we're required to do a request to the city asking the city yes

195$25 million yes sir that's all with all due respect Madam chair that's all the board is doing tonight your passing a request to the city asking the city for $25 million you cannot adopt a budget because the budget is not balanced you're just making a request official request to the city yes sir just for clarity if you ask me let me just put Madam CH if I may right now you have $40 million okay the district has made some Cuts cut more than $10 million okay to bring the deficit down and made some serious drastic moves to bring the deficit down to $40 million from 67 million paring these positions one to one what is it 2:1 par is the decision the board has to make okay eliminating um restorative practice is a decision the

196board has to make cutting additional 2.5 million in Personnel now let me be clear to get 2.5 million Savings in Personnel you have to cut about $3.2 million in Personnel to net 2.5 million so when you see 2.5 it g cut 2.5 in positions and walk away walk home you got to cut about 3.3 million to get 2.5 yeah you have to pay the unemployment for depending how long they want to be pay your health insurance for some time depending when you cut now we're in April come April 1 you you owe them 3 four weeks of their vacation time because that's when by default they entitled to the vacation so if you compound all those effects I don't know I mean Madam chair I I I make a motion to uh approve the 2526

197school year budget request it was moved by Mr trayor and second and by Mr benan is there any debate uh yes and I'll use my time just for another question yes and I'll use my time for another question because I think it's important to point this out before we move on could you go to solution three please sure solution three this is I'm going to recap as we get to solution three uh to be honest with everyone let me just recap through Madame chair solution to the board hasn't approved $1.8 million or 1.9 in special education is not in the state budget after that you have $23 million hanging still $23 million deficit still remaining in a nutshell in a nutshell you have $30 million short for between the city and the state you should

198be asking for $30 million in a nutshell let me summarize it for everyone that is the money Rich for district needs to be asking from the state that's just bringing you a float that doesn't spare you future years that's just that's just to keep you a flat does not spare you future years the future years the board has to take some actions okay so I think Mr sovic wants to know about the solution three with the um yeah that's solution that is part of the solution three um so if you're looking for solution three solution three is all blank I just filled it out to you with $30 million read the first line on solution three please I just filled it out for you with $30 million pretty much why why wouldn't this stay stable

199impact of facility studies as it relates to schools right okay that number is zero so we cannot yeah Zer We're Not Gonna add anything to that number for the 25 26 budget so for facilities right you can't I mean I don't know I shouldn't 25 26 are you going to be able to build a new I don't know I it's up to the board I mean whatever the bo I'm talking about building a new school because well we'll get more into that but that number is going to be as we currently stand right now at this point in time is going to be zero for 2526 at a minimum okay correct it's up to the board again I said to be determined whatever the board wants to do I think I think what he's trying

200to say is if the board feels that you want to make an impact on 25 and 26 budget and if you want to do something or you want us to to if you have ideas of what you w done for 25 26 tell us what that is we will get a cost analysis behind that and we'll put it we'll fill in that zero to whatever amount we think we might be able to save to add to next year's budget right that's GNA be you know important again because we don't really know because we're all in the discussionary phase of the facility studies right now uh and that's another four or five weeks down the road before anything can can can come to play with that then if the board say Hey you know we got

201we let's close one school give us an analysis of what that c that's going to cost and and savings and then we can come back with an analysis and say okay it might say $3 million for next year's budget and then we could go there and then that's a less if it's $3 million is we we only need 27 million we're GNA get the other three from that measure from whatever we decide to do that's correct and now I'll discuss this more when we get to that point but the numbers are already there potential savings yeah the numbers are already there the numbers are already there for potential savings for each school they're already it they're already we know we know how much we spend at school a school B School C every single year

202we know that if that facility remains open we will spend that money year one year two year three can I can I ask for clarification sure remember I was told to pull everything down from last year every closure every document that was proposed prior to me taking the seat you know that we're not using any of that so we've taken all that information down you're referring back to things that you know I'm not for sure how those things were created last year so and how they were analyzed by campus you know and I think I kind of know what you're talking about right I'm pull I'm pulling it from actually okay the the the Board website the most up to-date numbers we got are 2223 not functioned by the district functioned by school we've got

203school bud school-based budgets x amount spent on Personnel x amount spent on those numbers are already in existence yep I'm not I'm not advocating for closing school okay now but I'm just I'm just saying that that number to remain zero means we got to cut from everywhere else and I want us to be mindful that if we don't take action in 25 26 or 26 27 or what I'm hearing until new schools are built we're talking about about yeah get speak but can I say if even if you were to close one school that doesn't necessarily mean you're saving that much money because you have so many shortages in other Schools teacher shortages that those teachers are going to bump right into one of the openings so it's not like you're saving for staff in

204that sense you're just saving you're not turning lights onto the building you're not well running in water well I I just want to like oh sorry yeah sorry just real quick again I'm not advocating for this this is a last resort doomsday budget but when we eventually have to possibly close a school as a last resort we're consolidating schools all into this one school we're not bringing every single teacher we're not bringing every single we're we're saving Min at minimum a principal a vice principal uh uh and teachers SEC other position right and it it won't be the whole Savings of course but it'll be the savings of the lowest paid staff member the lowest seniority staff there's a lot of open positions in the district so they' can bumper into the open positions throughout

205the district but now there's a lot of open is we just went through the budget where we saw 70% of our expenses are personnel there is going to have to be Cuts in Personnel in order to make this budget we can't we can't operate on hopes and dreams unless of course I see efforts work unless of course everybody watching this is saying holy crap this guy wants to close schools if we don't get money this guy wants to lay off staff if we don't get money and it puts enough dump into this guy ter yourself uh yeah I I don't mind being a bad guy know this guy activate the the people because by the time we realize that that's what we got to do it's going to be too late I want us to

206be in a position to make the decisions for ourselves and not make the state take over and make the decision for us because while we're in the driver's seat we know our community and we know what will be least damaging to our community but when the state comes in if we don't get budgeted all prefaced on not getting enough money of course will they make the same decisions we will would have made if we would have been proac that's all that is there any further debate I I I I don't disagree with what Mr scovic is saying that as we go forward we know that we are hoping as I said at the outset that we're going to the state is is going to come up with more money that the state is going to

207bend the guard rails more um as they should and I think that we started the year the legislative year with a powerful statement by our Mayors and superintendent and the money is there um there is powerful resistance to doing what is right uh Mr noo just made another powerful argument um taking his figures of the high and low of the five municipalities the difference between Hartford and New Haven I mean in Bridgeport MH of $6,000 in per student if you take half of that um I think um my number was um hold on one second it would give us 58 million more $3,000 per student times our 19,000 that would give us 58 million and we could do just fine with that 58 million so either way whether it's your 50 million from the mayor's

208statement or the 58 million from us getting half of what Hartford gets we do just fine um and you know for all the reasons there's you know any number of reasons we could argue that we deserve to be getting more from the state and so hopefully um somewhere somehow we get some Equity some justice out of Harford um but in the short term we know that if we don't um even if the city did um better than they've ever done before we're not going to get 25 million out of the city and nobody knows that better than Mr Nicole because he was always on the giving end before um and um so at that point we're going to have some real hard choices and the real hard choices are going to be cutting um you

209know 70% of our budget is sta is salaries and benefits from staff or as mral is Raising here cutting facilities and we ought to know what the impact of cutting facilities which is what that says I'm not advocating for it I know he's not um so I'm not trying to pin that on him I wantan to I want to remove that burden from what he's saying he has been honest enough to say in the past that he wouldn't rule it out and that's an honest statement and we can't rule it out um but we would hope to avoid it but if we get ourselves in that position where we've got to make some hard cuts we want to know where to make them um we saw a moment ago the hard cut that reminds us

210of when we had to make the cut to eliminate kindergarten Paras from all classrooms Esser allowed us to restore half of those yep now we're going to cut them out again um so we ought to know about what kind of savings because I really don't know what we save I I we don't not going to lay off any teachers it's just be clear I I don't care what you say Mr scovic our turnover in the Bridgeport School District is such that virtually no teacher gets laid off um we may lay off a counselor as uh miss eser him said ear earlier somebody like that in the position where we don't have high turnover um but classroom teachers we have turn over such that every year we never lay off teachers they always find an opening

211except for some really odd uh certification there's always an opening they can go into um so um teachers we don't really lose unless they want to go um but uh so we should look at what the impact is of reducing and we have reduced because when I was President we had 1500 members in the Bea we don't have 1500 members in the Bea anymore um so we have lost membership we have lost actual teachers who are teaching um and we should look at um a few samples of if we were to combine or eliminate a school here or there that are on the list ultimately and how that would look and um but hope that you don't have to do that um but we may find ourselves in another month or two of having to

212make those hard choices we won't really know that's the problem with this whole uh bass award system that we have um where the legislature doesn't make its decision till after the city establishes its budget um and that's in June just shy of when we need to have our budget done um and so we will be in that bind um and so we should just be prepared and i would support Mr calovic in that position of us being prepared and having some idea of what the actual impact would be of if we have to make that choice is there any one else with debate who hasn't gone yet for debate Mr Cal yeah I just want to give a point of clarification for Mr trayor in the public I did speak when I said layoffs I

213meant basically red in force which layoffs is not necessarily the end result unless there's not enough reduction in force Mr fa is correct on that point all right there's a motion on the table is there any further debate seeing none all in favor of approving the 2526 school year budget request say I I I any oppose any extensions that one goes on all right the next item on the agenda is the discussion and possible approval of the policy um sexual harassment SL tile uh n 4000.1 400.1 and 51 4544 go ahead yeah they need it online okay thank you Bor so the what you have in front of you is Cab's recommendation for the Title Nine uh regulations and policies uh in 2024 in August they came up with a new set of regulations uh

214to Title 9 which expanded the definition of sexual based harassment in January of this year a federal court struck down those changes so the Federal Regulations went back to 2020 Provisions now we have our 2020 policy and regulations on our website currently but the C version of the policy and regulations that you have in front of you is much much more um indepth it covers sexual harassment and sexual discrimination whereas the 2020 policy that we have online just kind of covers everything in a sexual harassment umbrella and doesn't really touch on sexual discrimination at all so this Cas this policy is straight from cab um uh if you'd like to ask any questions I'm happy to uh happy to answer any questions you may have there a second second I'm Miss um quick question I

215think it would be really helpful if we can just like note the revision on each of these documents that y once you vote for it to be approved it'll have the revision date and it'll it'll go right to through Oh you mean red lines no no no like on the bottom if you look at the bottom of our policy on 2020 it says revise seven of 2020 and you know I think uh once this is approved we could put revised whatever today's date is 2025 so that it can be approved through the board so that we know we're working off the latest and greatest perfect thank you Mr yeah real quick question we discussed the revision of was that was that made I didn't have a chance to read the doc what's that onion strike

216yes yes it now says the position as opposed to the name and and we checked with cab and that's what they actually recommend doing take a vote all favor the approving hi opposed any extensions all right that passes thank you B um Mr Garcia the last item is just a discussion on the facilities master plan uh Mr KFA Mr Garcia presenting you guys want to stand or come to the table stand okay appreciate that so uh we had a couple Forums on the facilities master plan the last form was on recommendations um we're here to answer any additional questions you may have um and you know part of the recommendations was the potential of building new schools and utilizing the time frame that we have in front of us with you know uh prek being

217a Hot Topic and the need in a lot of areas so I just wanted to briefly just go over what we need to do in the short term if we decided to go ahead and um ask the city to to fund a new school for us so there's a host of things that need to happen um we need to create an edpc in turn the board will approve that Ed speec um we would create the first cost estimate for the building along with a site plan and then we get outside body to go ahead and verify that um the city will H um the city council will need to approve capital that will show the call share for um the percentage based on whatever the dollar amount is for the buildings that we intend on

218building and then there'll need to be three resolutions that will be part of the package that'll go to the state one is the council authorization for the bonding um the establishment of a school building committee for the project and then the authorization uh to prepare the schematic designs in the short term and the feasibility study um and then we would look to go ahead and submit in in June to be on a priority list so for school building construction you can only submit in June uh so you can be on a priority list if it's a roof project or something else you can do it I think it's the third uh week of every month but when it comes to school construction it has to be done by June for submission the application so that's

219the process for us to to to go through in order to get to that point um the reason why we bring it up is because there is the potential of us uh asking the city to fund to school construction um so any questions on that front were asking for money to build a school there was a lot of different options in the facilities master plan which one so there's there's two options that um we feel strongly about based on the information and the data that we see in the facilities master plan um now it's the school that would would reside on the Harding site 750 Ka uh with a with a large prek population based on the needs in the city currently right now we're struggling to be able to open any new prek or

220special ed classrooms that need bathrooms in the classrooms we're maxed out districtwide in order for us to do that work you're talking months and months to get permits and the costs are extravagant so doing something in a new construction makes sense because we're paying Pennies on a dollar versus um you know having to fund it on our own or go through Capital because Capital will take us a year two years to be able to establish get the funding get the bonding so you know you're talking long time frame um and then there's the offset costs of what the FCA the facilities condition assessment shows in several buildings now the buildings that were proposed are just recommendations the board as they go through the process and we work through um the data that was provided to

221you all things can change right so you may say we wanna you know we want to Target these buildings or we may not want to close this building but that is purely up to the board um as you work through the process based on the data you've been given um the other is the specialized Center at the ske site um that's another one where we feel that you know we we're constantly asking for for for funding this is an opportunity for us to start to bring some of that funding back right um sort of like we've done through energy there's there's not many areas where we can look um where we can yield dollars that come back right uh I think we've done a tremendous job on the energy front and we're starting to run

222out of you know options on the energy front there's new technology that we're looking at but it's not going to be able to yield what we've seen through the through the lighting upgrades that we're done that have been done so we've got to find other other avenues to start to uh generate some funding back into the district so the specialized Center is one of those areas where we can do we can start to bring some of those those youngsters back and then another um prek uh based you know Foundation to the building um because it's not just a kicker to to raise the percentage rate that the state will will fund you at but it's also dollars that come into the district based on the programming so you know there's there's different opportunities there so

223when we look at it we're looking at it based on the data um you know and then we're hopeful that as we work through this that we can start to come to some some sort of an accord but right now I know that there's an appetite uh for the delegation to go to the state to look for funding for these for these programs which make a tremendous amount of sense um and we want to be able to start to get this together we're working on estimates we're working on on site plans not develop plans but plans that sort of show how things will lay out on the site and then how much the the construction will cost us so we're well on our way with all of that um we should be able to share

224that with you guys in the near future but you know we wanted to make you aware of where we are in that process um I don't know if there's any questions thank you let me just because I had to piggy back off of that um because one of the public comments today was about the specialized Center and bringing um I think there's a misconception saying that we're going to build this Center anybody in Special Ed is going there we know that's not least restrictive so that isn't mean that the the the leap programs or the rise programs are going to go to the center this is to bring out out a district placements back in yes and those programs in those schools will continue running in a in a way yeah I think I think

225there's there's different parallel paths here right so when we look at it we're looking at construction bringing sort of bringing some of those children back I think there's um some redistricting smart redistricting that we will be able to do um you know PJ the way PJ likes to look at things is in the four quadrants right we talk about Transportation costs there's opportunities to drive Transportation costs with when we look at where we have our programming we can start to you know sort of put the programming you know throughout these quadrant and really drive the cost of Transportation down so there's there's a lot of opportunities um the good thing is that we have the data to support all of this um you know and as we work through the process I think you guys

226will see that this is not just to tell us where where we have our issues but this is a document that's also going to help us shape the future of the district um in a smart way thank you Mr Garcia and I really appreciate everything you do um but I just want to clarify to be sure and I'm talk clear to parent they understand parent they understand that um you as a director you facility and Mr PJ about the data you guys bringing the information to the board and let us know what's going on in each principal public school and what you suggest you know the new school what you need to change how much it cost and everything because people they think that fact you or Mr P all the superintendent they are making

227a decision to close the school they I that we know you're not it's the N bone members will be here you bring it to the table so I just want to clarify for that in in that I'm right or not yep so um the dayto day right we we manage the day-to-day operations um decisions of this magnitude there's policies already in place that we need to follow uh the 3600 I believe is the policy that govern governs what we need to do if we want to close a building or shutter a building but at the end of the day the board has to make that decision so now we can start that process you know once we're given an edict we respond to that edict we do what we need to do but once again

228our job is to give you guys every bit of data that we possibly can and we've done that over the years we've been very transparent on how we operate what we do um now we have an outside agency has come in and has um done their own analysis and they've made several recommendations and we agree with several of those recommendations how we get to that final piece is something that we need to work through together and it's not just the board and us it's the board us the community it's everyone hand in hand you know one of the struggles that I've had in the 30 years I've been with the district is that we have silos that we gotta sort of break we got to tear the walls down to a certain extent because we

229can't keep working in siles where one fact faction is trying to achieve one thing and another faction is trying to achieve something else at the end of the day there's one goal it's about the children so we have to start to operate in that fashion across the whole entire District the whole city parents District leaders politicians teachers everyone Al so I just want to clarify because people they easy to point to point but they don't know how hard you work and your team and it's the PJ and it's surrended to have to talk with so many many people to be sure you being Grand you be sure you be bring money to BR public school it's easy to appoint but it's not they don't come to you to ask you what do you need and

230then here to support you and my other question for you it's possible Dr every and you if the people from the state are here it we glad you show them and talk to them and sit down with them what is your master plan and what we doing you know for brdo public school because like you say we have for one reason we here for our children absolutely no more question Madame thank you Mr PJ and thank you Mr Garcia to that I did have my first meeting with the state folks um so we we have started the conversations I know we're setting up another meeting to start to get into the facilities master plan um you know once again there's more Focus we need to take this opportunity while everyone's focused to start to move

231the ball and thank you for both Department you guys and your teams are amazing I really appreciate your hard we gonna go to Mr cic then Mr trayor and then miss CER thank you yes uh you you mentioned uh you're ready to move on Harding and SC for new construction bonding uh what What's the drop dead date for approval of the plan um to build the ideally the first week of April the board sort of says we like to move forward on this to give the the council time to make sure they get this into the capital plan because one of the resolutions is that we have to show that uh they've approved to to go to bond we don't have to go to bond but we need that approval saying that when time comes

232we will go to bond for it um so first week of April um then the council will do their activity there's a host of other other resolutions that we've got to go through the edpc which we can create you know in parallel of all of this um then you guys will bring the edpc back to you you guys will approve that edpc um and then we're taking all of this data resolutions and everything else packaging it we're putting in um I forgot the scg uh don't quote me on a number right now it's kind of late but um we will put in an application in June and then typically somewhere in the late fall we get approval and then at that point we'll start to do schematic design and things like that feasibility studies and

233then you know we'll start setting scheduling for follow question how do we avoid a repeat of bassic BMA and how do we can we get approved for the bond without saying which schools we will be consolidating if any or we just want to build a new Harding for 750 St and I mean I there's some nuances there um I'll get I'll sort of get that information back to you guys um but I I believe we can start the process as you guys are working through I mean remember this would take us somewhere around four years uh to get these projects done so it's not like they're going to happen right now you're going to have some time to work through the data we're going to have meetings we got to get the community involved there's

234a lot of pieces that we've got work through but you know that I think the key is to get something to the delegation right now you know while we're working through this so we can secure I mean you know we're talking somewhere in a magnitude of around $200 million is you know what we're projecting right now and then you know there's the percentage basis uh what the city's going to have to what the city's going to have to um put up as part of that so and then on top of that you know we've discuss the fact that we've done some things when we look at these buildings to make sure they're high sufficient High highly efficient buildings and then we're going to have prek as a basis to the programming so there's two different

235areas where there's kickers within the school construction Grant so we're giving uh uh the the delegate the delegates a lot of opportunity to go ahead and ask for a higher reimbursement rate hard Harding is a tear down rebuild or Harding is a tear down rebuild SC will be a tear down rebuild so we start fresh we we you know we can we can really tailor the program in for what the 21st century calls for you know we have a lot of buildings that you know are so up in age that we cannot provide 21st century education anymore um there is a gap when we talk about Equity there's a gap in in how we're how we're educating our children right now at bridport I had one more question but I forgot um and I also

236want to before TR goes um this will also be presented in front of city council prior to the um Community form so they are so will be understanding of the facility master plan since we're going to seek money from them presenting to the city council it'll be presented to them by Dr ay yes I believe is the 26th and and the delegation also 26th of this month will be uh at the education committee for the council um so we can have the same dialogue like we've had with with you folks so they can ask questions um they can get a sense of where we are on things so there's a clear understanding right now the most important thing for us to do is communicate and that's what we intend on doing with all the stakeholders

237but Mr tror go ahead yeah I I'm I'm concerned about that timeline you just laid out I'm very excited about all the work that's been done um and um I feel like I've begun to scratch the surface of it you know this thing is daunting um uh and I I haven't begun to scratch the surface of my neighbors and people I know that will be affected um but just what you just said really dismayed me um because I think it's at least two months before we can make a decision so we're not yeah there's no action Tak tonight I I got you I I just want to say um we set these Community meetings for the end of the month and to me these Community meetings are the beginning I I said last week at

238at the facilities meeting that I was upset about us using the um think Forum Think Tank whatever it is thought exchange thought exchange because I think it's it's premature I spoke today and I really appreciate PJ and and um Jeff getting the the program up on the website it I looked and looked and couldn't find it on the website now it's like you get to the website and boom it's there and so now people can find it um and so as of this afternoon you can go to the Bridgeport Public School website and you can find the two presentations and watch them and you can find the the the this this packet and go through it now but prior to this afternoon you couldn't do that so how can you you on thought yeah you

239had to download it Dr Avery you had to find it and download it somehow and old folks like me couldn't find it and download so it was not easy it was not accessible and yet we had 150 people respond to thought exchange and and and I saw people responding just like me I don't know how I feel about it um and so I thought it was premature for us to thought exchange I should thought that should to come up after the the the three Citywide meetings and to me those were the sort of beginnings of discussion in our community like you're going to have with the city council at the end of the month where people are going to start talking about this idea and what does it look like and you know how exciting

240can it be and me I'm reading it now I was away a week and then I came back and I saw the presentations and I'm going through and I'm getting excited and I'm thinking okay these are good in my neighborhood is the first new school that's been built in I don't know 50 to 100 years other than the high school on elementary schools and so that's an exciting thing um so I have some concerns and I need to work them through and I've said that um but I really am excited about having a new elementary school and uh we got to deal with some problems so I have some questions uh that I'd like to ask and but I'd really like to assure the public that's watching us tonight and this is really last week

241and tonight the first two meetings where the public can come on and watch that I'm sure they're not up now but next you know tomorrow or the next day when they watch this meeting and know that we're going to go you know you know the people have been Go attacking and saying oh it's the same as last year oh we're doing the same thing we're closing schools oh my God you know our other Det actors and no no no no we did a a really thorough study unbelievably thorough study we have this amazing stuff to show you that we looked at and now we've got a plan and we're not just closing schools we're going to build new schools state-of-the-art schools for our kids and we're going to do some amazing stuff and we're going

242to renovate schools and finally you know my old school blackham is going to get a re rebuilt F and you and I have joked about that for years told you we get um you know it's going to get its rebuild in two phases and the only way to do it um so we're moving in a good direction and we got to sell that idea that we're really going to do something good for the schools to Bridgeport is it the right way should it be done differently that's the discussion we need to have and we need to focus on it on that with people and and and instead it's ah you know some people are saying hey you idiots that's what the previous supernintendo one do last year and you were too stupid to see it

243and other people are saying oh no this is you know come on folks stop this is not the same thing this is a really good hard sincere effort let's have the community conversation let's tweak the tweaks that we got to do and let's move it forward in a timely basis and then we're going to follow the policy that we didn't follow last year so by no means is this the same but that policy can't even get started after those three Community meetings at the end of the month when we make a decision and if that means that some schools are going to be closed as has been proposed those schools need to have that that that Community process that's spelled out in the policy yeah that is part of the process is to if the

244board decides to close a school then we commit we create a closing committee where there will be public hearings at those schools ful that's that's aside from the three committee forums that we and we need to make sure everybody understands we're committed to that and that's how it's going to work and and we all know that but a lot of people in the public are throwing out all kinds of misinformation about that and so we need to sell all that and understand that this is just a proposal that you guys have spent a lot of work developing a lot of fine ideas a lot of great information and it may not be perfect it may not be exactly what we want to see or they want to see but that's what we're going to be

245spend some time now talking about about and that's what we're just beginning the process and and then we got to vote on something you're saying in a few weeks well I think I think if I may um you know we've been very very clear on how we approach this study what we've done as we've been building up to this we've um you know we've hit our Mark in terms of the schedule that we've provided to you guys early on um but you know there there is got to be some there's going to have to be a time where we're working in parallel on on things that are within that plan as we're starting to work through it because you know you have to look at the timing you have to look at the opportunities are

246out there you know we keep on waiting and we keep kicking the can we can't do that anymore you know I've been in this District 30 years you've been very clear I'm not I'm not suggesting otherwise George and the only thing that wasn't clear to me was that we had to do it and get it before our delegation in this legislative session and so we had to present it to them by April that was that's a new one for me and I'm not I'm not criticizing you well we're we don't have to present it to we're we're not going to present it to the delegation in April what we're doing is we're getting ahead of the fact that if there is an opportunity at the state level right now based on special ed and prek

247and if we can get a kicker at a higher reimbursement rate and we have to stay here to really verify and validate the information that we have we have to take that opportunity in my in my humble opinion I I I I hear everything that you're saying I just am concerned that we not vote on anything until we've heard from the public and that we need to engage the public before we vote that's what we're doing no no no I understand so by our April meeting we will have not engaged the public we will have had Community Pro Community forums by then yes we would have first second third beginning of Engagement April we're not voting to close schools we're voting to either what the vote will be either build a new school or not

248that's not meaning that we're going to vote that on the first week of April to close schools I and I I respectfully slightly disagree with you on that and so I'm just saying I I'm you just need to understand my point of view here not not I'm not asking you to agree with me or disagree with me I just want you to see from my point of view I saw that as the beginning of a community discussion not an agreement that says we can go ahead and vote to initiate this plan plan now um and so I'm seeing it differently so I I hear you you know you know you and I building no no it's it's building a new school and two enclosures those are two different things I see voting I see and

249he just said it takes four years to build a school so we're not that's going to be a longer conversation closing schools I didn't see them quite so separately so I'm I'm seeing it differently and so I'm I'm but I really love I'm not being critical I love having a new new building a new school in my neighborhood um so I just want to the I'm concerned about that timeline but we can present it certainly we should be presenting it to the delegation it's just us voting by then to approve a plan I'm a little concerned about that timeline so that was my only point tonight okay hold on um Mr Nico has a question then or comment and then M Madam Cher the the issue here just like judge indicated I could tell I

250could tell the process I was the budget director for the city I did the bonding the budget capital budget you have to the book the council needs to approve a plan a capital budget plan of the city sh in order for the legislators to go before the state bonding commission to make their case showing that Bridgeport is willing Bridgeport is ready bridgport is able we're I mean we've come to a point to be very honest with everyone that Bridgeport has to show some good Initiative for every other major town to emulate it's about that time the bridport show very Progressive initiative of building special expanded special education school or program because it's a chronic problem in the entire state we have to be the model for people to other towns to follow we really it's

251come to a point that Bridgewood has to be a good model for other towns to follow and this is where and when to prove it Miss Casmir um sorry um Mr Garcia yes is there any part of the recommendations from this agency that did the analysis are there any parts that you do not agree with that you would say to yourself uh I don't know they may have missed a mark on this one just curious I mean we you know we all work collectively uh I think the process was very thorough uh we didn't leave anything un un uh investigated um you know we went through every single building every closet every crawl space I mean listen I know this I've known this District really well I know it intimately now um you know I

252feel that the group that we had has done tremendous work um you know they they gave us all the time that we needed and we spent a lot of time with them uh you know and we have it's not just the facilities condition assessment you know we have all of the other data we know where all of our programs are now we know you know what our usage is not only in the building but in the classroom now um you know we've been able to use heat maps to sort of see where these kids are coming from that are going to these programs like we have the kind of data now that we need that we've needed forever that we've been advocating for a very long time and now we got to put it into

253action right because it's easy for this to become a stagnant stagnant book that you know we sort of look at and say wow that is a intimidating document we cannot let that happen we have got to act now we've got to work in parallel paths um you know I think we have to be strategic and how we move forward but this is an opportunity right this is an opportunity and I've seen so many opportunities com and going bridport and in good conscious and good conscience we need to act so is the answer to my question yes that you do agree with the annalysis I agree with the analysis now the closure of schools that is something that the board has to come to grips with on what they want to do and how they want

254to do it um you know we just looked at conditions um you know based on dollar amounts and and utilization thank you yes okay a couple questions um first comments if you were to build if you were to get the Grant in by June 2025 what year would we expect Harding to be completed can we use like the new East End school instead of Harding so we're not confusing anybody yeah the East End site we'll call it East site the East End site um um we probably start construction in 2027 but it's midnight and I started work very early so I will verify these dates for you and get them back to you um and duration for building at that scale is probably 24 to 36 months uh because we'll be you know uh tearing

255down the site and re re-engineering the whole entire site everything would be on the site so we'd have on-site circulation to really get rid of uh of the traffic that we have in that area um and then we have opportunity to work with traffic engineering and sort of you know start to put elements into that area to slow things down make things smarter so opening 28 29 2030 latest yep and then 28 29 28 29 but don't quote don't quote me on that I'm gonna get you the data on on how long that program because we have a lot of work that's already done so I can give you that tomorrow and in the meanwhile does the plan call for the children to remain in their schools absolutely until the completion of the project as

256you know one of the challenges and when you know you look at the study one of the biggest challenges is Swing space um you know because one for instance you know if you take a if if blackham had a different layout we wouldn't be able to do anything because we'd have to house them elsewhere we just can't do it um you know so this this opens up some opportunities for us here to be able to do multiple programs at one time which typically we wouldn't be able to do um my question as far as I lost again far as the East End the East End site um I don't have the same concerns as Mr Traer as far as proving the building so long as we can re remain Adept in how we fill that

257building because whether it's to take because there's issues with the program in my head is take all four schools walking distance and all that rather than redistricting the people closest to Harding which could possibly reduce Transportation costs and then spread out the additional 300 OD students around the other entire district and take a look a holistic look as which would be more savings on Transportation there there whatever whatever way that sh ends up shaking out will have the building ready to move on whatever the plan is these are all business decisions at this point they're all decisions that will drive the bottom line into the future than that's all thank you question Mr um doesn't understand the the complexity of the discussion with the neighbors and that's all I I'll say uh it it you

258you may see it as Bridgeport needs to prove itself and frankly Sir with with all due respect we've teased and joked a little tonight about being on which side of the fence but God help me I could spend a long time talking about 25 years of what the city needs to prove um and why um and hasn't but I won't but in this particular case what we want to do is make sure that the people being affected by this decision feel comfortable given they were traumatized a year ago and that's my point and so even the master plan schedule that I referenced a moment ago with George says that in March and April we will be discussing the implementation of this plan and so to suddenly say that the board's going to say to people

259oh here it is we're voting on on it they're going to feel like we didn't listen much and we need to make sure that we listen and that's the difference between us and what happened to them a year ago when they were traumatized and so that's what I want to make sure we do right and I do hear what Jo Joe just said and I hear what the chair was saying a moment ago and I hear what George is saying and I do understand the reason sir for why the state and the delegation and how bonding works I've been through it enough because I've watched the political machine in this town make sure that the East End didn't get the schools it needed for the last 35 years in this town which is why they're

260in such disrepair as they built new schools in Black Rock and other neighborhoods to the neglect of my neighborhood but I do want to make sure we listen to what the people in my neighborhood say before we make a decision any further questions Mr col can we move up a timeline and have a community Foreigner in the East End in the next week or two to get and put on well it's well it's been advertised as school close school closing plans and fac we have not advertised it as that that's for sure no no well that's the way it's that's the way it's being yeah people on social media might perceive it that way people and there's there's a lot of um I'm going to Maria pereira's meeting two days three days yeah yeah because

261that that being said with the comparisons of last year last year there was not one mention of a new school being built I think the community will be a lot more receptive to a new school being built if the conversation is separated between a new school and then what's going to be do you want a new school in your neighborhood no because the consequences for your district and for your area is these children will remain in those conditions for an additional year should we drop the ball just just to give you an example if I may Madam chair the new school is going to go on the football field right yes that's the idea and there's a traffic pattern that would be inside the property Y where you can currently where you could with the

262old school drive in off of Central LA and around behind the old high school and in fact you could stop and go into doc's office for those of you who knew doc the old president of the baa had we're in the print shop at Harding High School um and he had his office back there um and you could park your cars back there on your way back the stadium well that whole Drive will allow for an off Street traffic pattern for the safety of the students and the staff which is a tremendous Advantage for the elementary school kids and just the idea of the the school being up on that bluff overlooking I mean just the whole safety aspect of that is just it's too bad we can't have a drawing or a draft or

263something just to let people visualize that so I'm working on that actually on a generic on a generic 750 uh student great as a fly through 3D so you can sort of get a sense people will love that um you know it is it is just that idea of being able to see that um on that old site will will will help people but I'm just that's the kind of thing that people will will want to know and be able to see I know you don't get an architect's draft but you get an idea of how different that is because all we can think of when we say the Old Harding site or the East End site is oh that's that building that had the rats and the old guys camera the those those those

264those guys online going through it run down so it's just change the image CH the visual and that's just a so I and I think it's important that you know as we're going through this process we're also sharing the information that we are that are shared that shared with us so just because some buildings are closing doesn't mean we're closing schools necessarily right the idea is if all these Capital plans are approved in the future we'd have four new buildings um throughout the city throughout the city not just in one location servicing those eight schools or more I completely agree I think that's important that the message was complaining you're going to close classical studies and I said no you're can build you a new school yeah so that the message is like the message

265shouldn't be we're closing the school we're building new C facilities if the the board chooses that um is there any further uh discussion on this there is no action item tonight this will be brought up again throughout the month any further business is there a motion to motion so it's moved by by Miss cmir seconded by Mr benan all in favor the I the meeting adjourns on March 10th at 11 minute almost Miss 1157