001but just wants to acknowledge her at this moment we will go into public comment just want to remind you that public comment is two minutes you will get a 30 second warning and then I'll ask you to wrap up your final statement uh Miss Rita will be on time at this moment we have Miss Dasha spell please press the button once good evening my name is Dasha spell I have two issues that I'm bringing to the board tonight I am a former classical studies parent as well as parent leader and it's very disheartening when we don't have representation at the table when you're talking about extending the contract for the annex program that particular building is being rented from the diocese historically we have had issues with the diocese in regards to the maintenance and
002upkeep of that building and also classical studies is a part of the basic high school BMA project so if you go back to the actual facilities meetings from 2015 to 2018. you will see that classical was always a part of the discussion so my question tonight is what are we going to do about classical because last week I was informed on the hottest days of the week that a lot of our kids either have bloody noses or fainted and luckily the nurse was in the building over the years we have always said that that both buildings not just one the one on Linwood and the long the one on Beechwood actually needed to have an upgrade when it came to the HVAC system they don't have water from water fountains so you want kids to
003stay in this hot behind building and not have no ACS no fresh circulations because some of our babies do have allergies and on top of that no water for them to go to a waterfall and to just drink some water um in the past our school has did our due diligence to do research to actually find ways to actually help the Board of Ed when it came to purchasing certain things like a remote AC unit if you go to Black and Decker they have AC units I can also send you pictures because the state just purchased some for our office thank you thank you our next speaker is Miss Joanne Kennedy okay good evening I was just coming again to reiterate what I said the last time where there is no vision that people perish
004um I know that Miss Levy David is here to do the work of the children the last meeting she had to um say can I please just do my job can you guys just please let her do her job she's excellent she is amazing she is highly intelligent and we need to treat her as such moving forward um the people on the board and you know who you are that continue to give her a hard time you need to stop because the public is who puts you in these seats okay um some have been voted in by the board which is fine but the fact of the matter the people have the voice to get you out so you need to understand that you need to be respectful you need to be treat people how
005they want to be treated and if you want to be treated nasty when nasty come back come comments come back to you don't be surprised don't be surprised when someone attacks you because you're attacking her because I say before and I'll say it again the public is watching and we were going to hold you accountable to nine board members thank you and have a good day hopefully we can move forward and be nice and kind to each other thank you thank you Mr Lyle Jones Mr Lyle Jones next one is Miss Mary Lee Miss Mary Lee at the moment this concludes public comment uh the next is approval of meat and minutes we only have one to approve that's from regular board meeting August 28 2023 is there a motion to approve so move move
006by Mr sokolovic I'm going to give it to Miss Allen second by Miss Allen are there any comments questions or Corrections I didn't hear you there's a correction that needs to be made on it regarding University scroll fall vote unfortunately I'm driving right now but it's incorrect so we'll take a moment and review those quickly it's our page 18. you found it okay please share I'm scrolling through yeah say it again page 18 the motion as amended was approved by a five free vote voting in favor remembers Brown Baptiste Perez Casimir anahan Perez and Allen voting in opposition where uh Galen sokolovic and brown so you have they put your name twice and Mr Trey bro stained Okay so just give me one second so I just want to can you restate it again because
007I didn't hear you what was the error um your name was put as voting in favor and in opposition correct so uh it was on page 18. the correction is I uh voted no against the and I believe that is the only one you have it wasn't there next uh Mr traber abstained I voted no Mr sokolovic voted no and Mr Gallon voted now yep there you go thank you are there any other comments or Corrections all right all in favor oh yes yes Osama like to make a motion to amend the meat in minutes a second Mr sokolovic second all in favor aye your polls any abstentions Karen and motion carries all right now we need to vote on the main motion all in favor you can understand okay Mrs okolovic abstains anyone else
008all in favor I abstain here and so we have one abstention and all the remaining yeses yes Mr McLean you're good okay Perfect all right uh the next part is the Chairman's report um I just would like to report that uh there are two up and coming events for the Bridgeport Board of Education members uh the training will take place on September 27th with the birchman Moses to talk about legal legal rights of the board and the superintendent that will take place at Central High School at six o'clock P.M the next one is the cave training that's September 30th that will start at nine o'clock a.m and I believe we selected Harden I will confirm with Miss uh Rita after this meeting um and then also wanted to remind um oh on our last meeting
009we phased out the final phase of the superintendent search firm that meeting took place last week we discussed um we discuss our I we rather we identified um goals for the superintendent for the new coming school year and I'll reiterate those goals for anyone that was not at that meeting and we'll also be scheduling another meeting to flush out those goals um we identify forces adjusted goals physical long-term plan for the district strategic plan teacher retention and recruitment community and communication um and then underneath those goals I'll just quickly bring those up retention and recruitment for staff diversity within staff skills identified for ESL support for children to follow them from the grades that they start to when they finish physical gaps within the budget um slash procurement of funds communication amongst the board and
010community and parents we also talked about branding and marketing uh building relationships with the community social emotional health curriculum goals audit physical a physical audit for the district parental District support areas safety assess assessment and then accountability with Community Partners and programs these were the items that board members discussed at the last meeting that we had and at that meeting we also identify four suggested goals so there will be an up and coming meeting that will identify and flush them out further um I also asked board members to submit any pending items that they either wanted to have information on for Dr Levy those items have been submitted but I still do encourage board members if anything is missing please see uh please email me so I can make sure I share those with her
011other than that those are all the items that I have to share for the Chairman's report at this moment we'll start with committee reports and referrals the first one is education diversity equity and inclusion shared by Mr sokolovic yes our committee has not met yet we're going to be reading on September 18th at 6 pm at Central and video teams are there any referrals for this committee are there any referrals to this committee are there any referrals to this committee here and none the next one is the finance committee also chaired by Mr sokolovic the finance committee will be meeting Wednesday the 13th that's Central pending confirmation and on teams are there Central and we'll be meeting at Central High School and Via Team 6 30 P.M right oh what do you mean are they
012meeting on teams are they going to be out okay both what time 6 30. all right uh any referrals to finance any referrals to finance any referrals here and on the next committee is governance also chaired by Mr sokolovic governance will be leaving Wednesday September 20th at 6 PM Central View teams as well are there any referrals to this committee are there any referrals to this committee finally are there any referrals to this committee all right here and none the next one is Health safeties and Facilities committee chaired by Miss Baptiste Perez I know you are driving do you want to hold off so that you can say it in person space is fine um we have not met our first meeting will begin tomorrow at 6 30 P.M at Hardin High School thank you
013are there any referrals to this committee are there any referrals are there any referrals Karen none the next one is personnel and contracts we will meet on Thursday um September 21st at 6 pm at Central High School a few items that are on on our agenda is uh positions that are going to potentially be filled and then we have a few contracts that are coming before the committee for full board approval um and that's all I have for that committee are there any referrals to this committee any referrals to this Committee hearing none the next one is students and family chaired by Mr bennahan I don't believe he has joined us so if he does come back I will give him an opportunity to share the last one is teaching and learning Miss Baptiste Perez
014teaching and learning meeting not tomorrow but the following Tuesday at 6 p.m at Central High School we have not met thank you are there any referrals to students and families I'm sorry teaching and learning any referrals Karen none that is all for committee reports and referrals just want to remind the community that all uh committee meetings are open to the public anyone on the outside can come in um there aren't there isn't any public comments to these committees unless requested by the chair so you will see some may allow it some may not but the meetings are also streamed online for your review so please share the same items that are covered in a committee more than likely will end up as regular board items as well so we do encourage you to participate yes
015Mr Circle um please also note that student representatives are welcome at committee meetings as well and to participate as they do it on the regular board correct and let the record reflect Miss Baptist Perez's in person the next item is the superintendent's report uh Dr Levy David you guys the floor thank you will someone be running the presentation for me or am I running it myself oh okay fantastic feel free to project it when you're ready the moment while he resolved some technical issues easier for him to do it that way though yeah what can you give Dr Levy a presenter rights and she can join the meeting and project off her computer that may be the best way to describe it is while she's doing that let the record reflect Mr benninghan has joined
016the meeting and Mr gellan has joined the meeting got it I think that's you or that's him do you do full screen yeah it's not me okay that's that okay just put a full screen and put it in views or presenting mode I think we lost it there you go I got it oh it went away there it's on the screen now what does it mean or happy this is him it's not you okay even though he gave you the presentation right to build thank you if if you want we can probably come you can come back to your report so give them time yes it won't reflect it won't go in presentation mode by this one right here you see the little computer at the bottom of the screen it's like a little computer
017it's where it says notes comments it's at the bottom of the screen yeah we'll come back yeah we'll come back to the superintendent's report to give it some time so we'll go to um there's no old business to be transacted so we'll go right into new business yes for our students and families sure Mr binahan yes Madam chair yep go ahead you could give your report did you have a report for students and Families on the third on Thursday we will have next week okay all right so uh and we'll go back um we'll go back to new business so the first item on our agenda is review and possible approval of the csde Child Nutrition programs form ed-099 authorization signature change forms for board members who are not familiar with this whenever we have
018a new superintendent or a new secretary uh uh there is a set of change forms that need to take place for both there's the superintendent's signature as well as the secretary's signature but we have Mr Steele online if you would like to explain any of this further it's also in your uh package board members Mr Steele yes welcome Hi how are you good night um so this form is a form that we will fill out every time we have a new superintendent it is to ensure that we have our reimbursable meals and it is we'll excuse me it will all she's also our secondary authorized signer for the state that's it thank you Mr traber yes moved by Mr traber is there a second yes I'm gonna give it to Mr zakolovic are there any
019questions comments or concerns I do have a question I know in the past we've had to read specific language this is not one of those items that we need specific language no okay all right that answers my question all in favor any opposed any abstentions hearing none uh we'll make sure that Mr secretary and uh the superintendent has their signatures for you all right thank you thank you the next item is discussion and possible action on re revising the RFP for the lobbyist firm this is an item that came out of finance and I'm gonna give it over to Mr sokolovic to explain uh yes uh the lobbyists RFP went out and it returned no we had no takers and I believe and I said this before we sent it out fifty thousand dollars is
020too low to get anybody confident to Lobby it for us up in this so apparently nobody wants to touch it at that price at that price point so what I would like to suggest and ask the board to do is increase that price point to at least 75 to 100 000 and reissue right because a Lobby a Lobby is going to have infinite returns if we got somebody in there speaking for us all the time up up in Hartford I think that could have especially coming with the fiscal cliff and dividing up monies that are coming in to make sure Bridgeport gets his fair share because historically we have not and the lobbyists that we're using on the city side has not been as effective as we've discussed in our committee meeting all right uh
021I believe is Miss Siegel online would you like to share any thoughts concerning this Miss Eagle if she is online or Mr Pirates uh yes I am go ahead Miss eagle um good evening evening I I think Mr sakovic's suggestion is fine um we can certainly reissue the RFP uh with a change in the range for the uh projected amount to be uh potentially expended okay are there any questions I see Mr traber Hand is up Mr traber if I understand what we're doing we're simply raising the amount that we are asking for people to make a bid on we're not committing ourselves to anything we're just seeing if we can get some uh proposals from people correct are there any further comments Miss Baptiste Perez is it 75 000 or a hundred thousand dollars
022I was just throwing numbers out there I would say 100 probably better I moved to increase it to a hundred thousand dollars there's a second by Miss Allen are there any further comments or discussion uh Dr Levy David I would like to recommend that we hold off on securing a lobbyist at this time I am planning on actually going to the Capitol myself in order to meet with legislators and elected officials on behalf of the district and to address the needs of the district I've already been talking with city council with state legislators and congressmen and it is fully my intention to take part of that delegation and to Lobby on behalf of the district I think that it would be um um at this point um ill advice to spend the money uh when
023you have a brand new superintendent who is very capable very experienced and and is very um enthusiastic about going to the Capitol to Lobby on our behalf thank you hold on Mr sokolovic yes um be first yeah go ahead uh yes um we've had plenty of comfort competent superintendents lobbying in Hartford basically going back decades and it has not been a but just just hearing from the superintendent the City of Bridgeport has their own lobbyists and some people would like to think we have a competent mayor and a comprehensive city council but that lobbyist has not helped Bridgeport Public Schools did any public schools around the city around the country have the have lobbyists as well and I think we should approve this notwithstanding the Excellence of the superintendent in Hull potential lobbying efforts but
024if you could use all the help we could get and it's a very small investment for a potential oil to return Miss Perez this might be in the RFP but is this a year-long position because 100 000 for a short session that's coming up um seems like a lot I mean I just want to know if this is like for the whole year or just for the legislative session which is a short session this year well there'll be prep work sitting down talking with us what our legislative priorities are and it's not just sitting up there I mean we've got to develop our priorities we've got a and it could also be used for city council and other things it's not strictly for the stadiums Mr traber again these are all legitimate questions we're not
025debating the merits of whether it's the right thing to do or not we're simply the motion is to increase the amount in the RFP to see whether we get any takers for this proposal then we can evaluate whether or not it's a worthwhile expenditure of money depending on what who whether we get anybody and whether we think what they're proposing is a worthwhile proposal compared to what Dr Levy David is suggesting um would be a better alternative so that's all I'm saying right now we're not debating the merits we're simply increasing the amount in the RFP any further questions I'm going to turn to online because I didn't oh I'll just give me a second to do online because I didn't see them Mr Bennigan do you have a question or comment on this item
026no question no comments thank you thank you Mr Gellen do you have any questions or comments on this item yes I question I don't know what comment is should we before approving a potential um RFP that would potentially get candidates I think we should sit down and document um job description of this particular individual if we were going to approve it as opposed to approving then to figure out what this individual is going to do precisely uh I think we just need to be a bit more um deliberate so Mr Gallen uh it's it's inside of the RFP the description and the duties what the lobbyists would do I guess I missed it yep no worries Miss Casimir just for my information and education aren't lobbyists normally like lawyers attorneys or no oh they so
027they don't have to be like a lawyer no okay that was my question thank you I think Miss Baptist Perez I saw you going for it but I wasn't sure so what would be the new proposed deadlines in this contract because this was scheduled to start July 2023 and I it kind of reiterates the question Miss Perez asked regarding how would this look and what is the timeline for this because that's not clear to me um it's just not clear Mr Circle we could leave that up to the discretion of Mr pyriz because it's pushing out maybe two all the dates pushed out because he's got the expertise in doing this so I think pushing out the everything probably about August September with two months out from the last time so two more months out
028should be plenty of time to get some more response back all right so if that concludes oh sorry Miss Baptist Express doesn't it take this was this takes typically about three months three to six months to hear back so September October November December January February March I just don't understand why we wouldn't just table this until further notice and give Dr Levy David a chance instead of fishing for someone for the next potentially three to six months and then it would be right at the cusp order start of the financial season and legislative and lobbying we may even miss some time getting to know or whoever the lobbyists may be if we were to go that route um given them enough time to get acclimated into the climate that is Bridgeport yeah just just to
029that point that six months timeline was inclusive of developing the RFP inclusive of committee meetings we passed that point where to set the table where it just goes into the uh what you call it the purchasing portal and it should be a quicker time a lot quicker turn around at least half the time and just wait and see what you see what you see we've been waiting to see for waiting to see for over 20 years so I proposed we put this out now let's see what we get and we could always vote no against these not it doesn't cost us anything Mr traber I'm not sure that I understand what the negative what the downside is to putting out an RFP um we had it out we didn't have a high enough number to
030attract interest we're saying let's raise the number to try and attract the interest um if we don't attract the interest if we didn't if we do attract the interest then we can sit down and see what the party is offering and whether it is conducive to what Dr Levy David is suggesting or whether it's not and if it's not then we can debate whether or not we want to spend the money or not spend the money but I don't see what the downside is to putting the RFP out now as we have already developed and put it through committees and spent several months developing that proposal we're simply raising the amount to see if we can attract a competent lobbyist to do what we'd like them to do and if we get one that we
031don't think he's going to do we want them to do based on two factors one the money's not enough and they're not offering to do it well or it doesn't meet what Dr Levy David has in mind now um then we say no that's the point we're at I don't see the downside to raising it and putting it out there to see whether anybody's interested in doing this work all right is there any further questions or comments Karen none the motion has been second so all in favor okay sure uh gonna start off uh Mr traber Miss Allen Mr sokolovic uh Miss Perez Miss Baptiste Perez Mr binahan oh he stepped off Mr Gellen nay Bobby Brown yes eyes have it I'm sorry it's fine I'm used to it uh mine is I all right
032the eyes have it thank you Miss Siegel the next item is um discussion and possible action on issue in the audit scope and RFP this is also Mr sokolovic through Finance this is also came up to finance but I also like to point out that this also has a fifty thousand dollar cap which I would like to make him promotion to amend to at least a hundred thousand dollars for this very same reason we got the uh scope so motion to oh all right discuss a little further yes I'm sure um Amanda RFP scope in our packet to reflect a hundred thousand miles are you making a motion okay go ahead okay Mrs Mrs okolovic seconds but uh is it all right I would like to just uh hear from Miss Siegel to see if
033she has any comments on this um yes I do I would just like to State uh publicly for the record the information that we presented uh in the finance committee last year the district undergoes an annual mandatory Financial audit each year it is conducted by an independent audit firm the same firm that conducts the audit of City finances in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards that order firm is CLA Clifton Lawson Allen which has a city contract in addition to the annual audit The Firm also conducts the audit of EFS the education Finance system and special education excess cost as mandated by the state in accordance with AUP which refers to agreed upon procedures in addition The Firm conducts the mandated federal and state excuse me the mandated federal and state single audits the audit
034process begins in June and continues through October for selection of samples and collection of data by the Auditors in summary the district undergoes four audits per year and all have resulted in zero findings the four audits are the annual Financial audit the EFS education Finance system and special education excess cost audit the federal single audit and the state single audit the annual financial review is posted to the city website each year the state single audit reports and the federal single audit reports are also posted to the City website there is a report issued on EFS and the special education excess cost audit we post the education Finance system reports to our Bridgeport website the district operates with fiscal integrity and with exemplary fiscal controls operating procedures and business practices I want to emphasize that when
035I came to this District in 2012 we discovered that the district lacked at that time basic standard operating procedures position control coordination communication and collaboration across offices and internal controls to ensure a proper workflow would corresponding approvers controls were then introduced and each operating procedure is based on electronic workflow with built-in steps to ensure proper approvals and compliance with policies we have a finance team of exemplary professionals working diligently to ensure compliance with law regulations and policies in a fully transparent manner thank you thank you Miss Siegel I'll open up the floor for questions Mr sokolovic Experian yes I do not disagree with one thing Miss Siegel said as I stated before I stated again for the record I am almost positive this will reflect exactly what you said and the purpose is not to
036catch anything but the purpose is the public is not comfortable the public has been clamoring for a forensic order the more deeper audit that we're suggesting here this or it should find that everything you said is true and it should because every every budget cycle that we advocate for the question is we don't know where the money is they spend money wastefully in this and that this will confirm the Excellence of your work I believe the whole you I believe you got the confidence of most of the board or if not all the board in your work and in your work of your team so there's no disrespect intended there we are ordering ordering papers not people so you could have better advocate for funds for our schools so they know everything's been looked at
037not once but twice but three times or four times this is a layer of protection the public has been asking for for about probably five or six years now thank you any further questions or comments Mr traber so we're looking to spend 50 to 100 000 to reassure the public that everything is above board correct and not only that it'll give us more with more talking points for our advocacy purposes because you've sat through these things where they said they don't know where the money's going they're spending the money recklessly this will prove the point that we're not and it'll buy a lot of Goodwill in the community any further comments or questions go ahead I have sat through it it's generally been political verbiage attacking unnecessarily but I understand what you're saying I just
038this is this is new to me I made the motion because we need to get the discussion I needed to understand exactly what this was about but this is new to me I will say and uh so can you explain to me what the I guess what the what the urgency is now I guess because i'm this is new and I would like rather think about this a lot more myself so you need to talk to me a little more well we did cut it up very extensively in um the finance committee for quite a while I had to say yeah but um same conversations is the same order because our books are ordered along with the city or City books and you just need to take a second look this is something actually a
039lot of board members pledged to do when they were elected they they put I know I pledge to call for a forensic order that I think um I believe it's the been ahead also I'm not sure anybody else who's been elected but there's a lot of groups out there that advocate for us that are calling for of forensic orders such as um straight for free tax uh Jen now and a couple of groups and they're climber before and they're they're our stronger as advocates if our strongest Advocates are asking for it I think I think it's uh wise expenditure just to put that to bed that has been done it's been given a clean bill of health or a no vote is taken and questions beginning all right any further comments or questions I'm gonna
040turn to online just to make sure I don't miss anyone Mr Gellen do you have any questions or comments at this time okay Miss Casimir has the same um had the same uh of the same CPAs that they well okay for the last how many audits has the let's say the district had within the last two years let's say how many audience that's the Miss Eagle question Miss Siegel uh yes there are four audits per year there's an annual Financial audit the EFS and special education excess cost audit the federal single audit and the state single audit and these audits take time and the Auditors are independent um they select samples uh they work with the staff to identify the documentation for those samples and it takes considerable time of Staff as well as the
041Auditors in order to conduct an audit of any type the following must be specified first a specific focus with a defined Universe of items from which a sampling would be done second generally accepted procedures based on criteria and parameters to apply to the sampled items and three a time period applicable to the sampling of the items okay thank you so my question is have the same Auditors been doing the work for the last two years that's my question the same agency or has it been different auditors I believe it's the same agency I'm sorry I didn't hear you yeah that's fine thank you Miss Siegel yes and it's the city um the the city has a contract with the audit firm the audit firm conducts the um annual audit of both the city finances and
042the Board of Education finances okay good so my next question is this RFP that's out is out for people other than who have been doing the audience I'm sorry I'm not using the right verbiage but do you understand what I'm saying well the firm that um uh has been under City contract CLA Clifton Lawson Allen uh they are certainly uh eligible to apply to an RFP as well as others right yes thank you any further questions Miss baptiste's Perez Miss Siegel do you know how much CLA is paid to perform the audit service um I do not have that information this evening do you know what the average audit service costs I would project that the cost of an audit could range anywhere from several thousand dollars to twenty thousand to to a hundred thousand
043or more depending upon uh the scope of the audit and the time frame involved as well as the um projected amount of work uh that would be entailed Miss Eagle did you have a chance to look at this uh uh RFP uh yes we uh reviewed it in the finance committee last spring in your opinion is this detailed enough for a specific audit based on the content it it was designed to um identify uh at the time it was designed to identify and audit firm that would be available in the event of the board deciding to engage in a specific audit um with a targeted Focus thank you Miss Siegel yeah any further questions any further comments all right the uh this has been seconded okay yeah just to be clear as they imagine that
044I've been seconded and we're voting first and then back to the original RFP okay say it again the amendment to the RFP in alpaca was up to a hundred thousand dollars is what we're voting on now and then we got to back up and vote on Authority hasn't been I understood he looks good we open the floor with the amendment to the RFP in our packet you made the motion I seconded it that's the motion on the floor now then we got a vote on the main motion RFP as amended all right so whatever hi hi any opposed any abstentions all right Harry none now the vote is on the main motion all in favor hi any opposed any abstentions okay so the eyes have it all right now we'll go back to uh thank
045you Miss Eagle thank you so much you're welcome now we'll go back to Dr Levy David you have the forums and technical difficulties but we're back thank you the floor is yours thank you all for your patience and I want to make sure that we yes we are live we now have the presentation on the screen um today September 11th and while um I think sometimes we we tend to forget the significance of this day and our nation's history it's very important to continue to mark this day to continue to honor the individuals who lost their lives sacrificing themselves for others and um next slide please I had the opportunity to participate this morning and a very emotional um and very solemn ceremony with the Bridgeport fire department our police chief our mayor our city
046council members and it was a tremendous honor to be part of that commemoration and to be able to listen to people's memories of that day um those that lost loved ones colleagues friends on that day and just the incredible importance that it is to continue to help our students understand why this day is so significant and why we should continue to mark this day and how it changed the lives of people not only in America but throughout the world so um I just really want to thank um our fire chief for hosting this event and for all of the cadets um for our Police Department who were present and for all of the city officials that attended it's um as someone who has family who served and continue to serve it is just so incredible
047to me to know how this event continues to impact the lives of people long after 22 years now I think uh since the Twin Towers fell so I'd like to make sure that we continue to emphasize this day in our instruction and that our students have an understanding of why this is such an emotional and such a critical day for Americans next slide please um over the weekend I did make the board aware of a tragedy that unfolded with one of our students two of our students at basic high school and um without going into a lot of detail and and respecting the privacy of both families I would definitely like to Advocate to ensure that when our students are entering adolescence that we're holding them close that we're spending as much time as we
048possibly can talking to them engaging them and ensuring that we know what they're thinking at all times and what types of things to have access to at all times it is so critical to ensure their safety during those adolescent years when mistakes can be life-altering and life-changing and I spent the morning visiting with students and with staff at Bassett today and it was um it was very moving to see students and to see adults engaging in the process of navigating this crisis and engaging in the process of supporting each other through the crises and I just really want to commend principal Joe riola for his leadership for the way that he supported students and staff today and for our crisis team and the way they supported the families and students and staff today this is
049something that I think will Mark um a really significant transition at basic in the way that we engage with our students in the way that we engage with parents and and support them in having additional communication with our students as this situation continues to unfold because unfortunately it is not over I will be continuing to update the community on the changes that take place and continuing to support the families through this very very difficult transition next slide please foreign the first two weeks of school were a resounding success despite the heat that did impact our ability to have full school days on Wednesday Thursday and Friday of last week we had incredible leadership from our principals and our teachers and a tremendous amount of patience and understanding from our parents as we work to ensure
050that everyone was safe and that we had temperatures that we weren't exposing our students and our staff to temperatures that would be hazardous to their health so I thank everyone in the community all of our staff all of our operations teams facilities teams and certainly our board for supporting us through that process it was definitely um one of those things that happens at the beginning of the year it wasn't covered but it definitely was challenging so I'm looking forward to the next few weeks to continuing to build a beautiful culture and climate across our district and to engage with more students and visit more campuses and so we expect that hopefully in the near future our weather will definitely be more Cooperative than it has been in the past two weeks next slide please had
051an exciting very exciting meeting with um very exciting meeting with the Allen concerning the Alan Wallach stem centers that are going to be coming to all of our schools in the district this is a partnership between Hall Neighborhood House the Cal Ripken senior foundation and dedicated donors and they are pledging to equip each one of our schools which stem Labs that are valued at approximately four hundred and fifty thousand dollars this will be coming to every single School in the district we are scaling this process up beginning right now and we have already begun um with Holland High Horizon and we're going to continue with several other campuses in the near future this is an effort that is going to be strictly funded through those donors and that foundation and and I asked about sustainability
052they're pledging to continue to sustain this process so we're really excited first of all to be able to honor Mr Wallach for all of his efforts in the district and also to be able to continue to partner with the call Ripken foundation in our community and and to do it in a way that definitely aligns with our efforts to highlight and to prioritize science learning in our schools so really exciting to have them coming forward with this wonderful wonderful effort and I'm looking forward to reporting to the board the progress of this project as we move forward next slide please in addition to this wonderful effort we I had several Community meetings uh over the past couple of weeks I had a fantastic meeting with the Bridgeport NAACP uh chapter and was able to also
053attend the announcement of the Ring Master for the Barnum festival and actually got to learn about the Barnum Festival because that's new to me coming from Texas so it was great to be able to take part in that event and to see all of the red jackets and hear about their histories as ring Masters in the city I also got to engage with our local delegation of elected officials and to talk about our efforts to Lobby on behalf of the district for additional funding for additional attention to education in the City of Bridgeport and also for additional attention to bilingual education in the City of Bridgeport and what those programs mean mean and why we need to really highlight the efforts that we make to ensure that all of our students who may be second
054language speakers are receiving the support that they need from K-12 it was a very exciting meeting they listened a great deal and they were very enthusiastic about the process of partnering moving forward and lobbying together at the state level so I was very excited to take part in that meeting additionally I was able to feature our aquaculture Center on News 12 with the exciting work that is happening there actually we're having our meeting currently in the aquaculture Center and to Showcase This brilliant program that we have in our district that really brings science alive for our students and highlights their abilities all the possibilities that are available for them with science careers and one of the most exciting pieces for me was to hear from the students themselves and to hear from them the impact
055that participating in this program has had in their desire to not only continue their education but also their excitement around Math and Science as a result of the experiences that they have at this Center so I just really want people to take a second look I was very impressed with the number of students that we have from other districts who participate in education at this location and the students that we have from our own District who love coming here every single day and are planning really really Bright Futures and finally the ability to discuss the Bridgeport promise the Bridgeport promise is going to be a new program here in our city and it's meant to provide access to all of our students with financial aid careers wraparound Services sustainability ensuring that our students complete a
056four-year college education and that we support them through that four-year process so it's it's a pro it's a problem is the promise that we're making to our community to participate on a deeper level with our students not only through K-12 but beyond and I was able to have a really exciting meeting with the president of Bridgeport university uh specifically discussing how we can better partner to ensure that our students have that bridge from our school district to the university so really busy last week meeting with lots of exciting people and and going through very exciting processes for the district and I look forward to having more of these meetings and sharing them with the community and with the board next slide please I wanted to provide you with an update on our enrollment um kindergarten
057pre-kindergarten has gone up uh from 8 20 to 888 as of today we have 39 open slots left and those are going to fill pretty quickly because we have students on the wait list so we're going to have those filling pretty quickly and we're really excited to see that our Young Learners are are taking advantage of this opportunity I actually had a conversation earlier today with our executive cabinet about the prospect of broadening the services that we provide with Early Learning and making sure that all of our learning programs are full day programs so that our students are there for the full day and they're actually able to begin their education in pre-k and they're Kinder ready by the time they leave Pre-K so that's the piece that I'm going to be bringing to the
058board um in the next coming months how we're moving through that process of exploring the possibility of doing that in the coming year next slide please our total student student enrollment has also increased by 213 students and we're excited to see students continuing to enroll in the district we're hoping to be able to hit the 20 000 Mark hopefully before October so I will keep you posted on how we progress with that next slide please uh our magnet student enrollment has also Inc has also increased from uh by 36 students and I am really really enthusiastic about the work that is happening to continue to recruit students into our magnet programs my plan is to continue to highlight our different magnet programs throughout this school year I'll be visiting them personally and highlighting those programs
059and what they offer so that our community can take a second look and actually see what it is that we can do to benefit their students here in Bridgeport next slide this slide might be too small for you to see but I did promise that I would provide you with a breakdown of enrollment across all the magnets we now have that data for you and I actually provided provided you with a three-year trend of how enrollment has unfolded and there are some changes in enrollment there's some areas where enrollment has increased and some areas where enrollment as a trend has decreased and um as we continue to study those Trends I'm very interested to see exactly what it is that is leading to those trends of gains and losses across the district and and whether
060it has to do with the programs themselves or with the climate and culture or whether it is um um really getting feedback from our students to see what we can do uh to make the programs more attractive to them how can they be more responsive to their needs but I will be providing all of this information and dropping it into your folders um later tonight so that you can take a look at it digest it and provide me with any questions that you have regarding our magnet enrollment because I'm sure those will be forthcoming next slide please teacher vacancies uh unfortunately are not where I would like to see them at this time our vacancies have decreased slightly by a difference of 12 and we continue to work on recruitment the majority of our vacancies
061are in the area of special ed and so we continue to work to fill those vacancies across the district and to ensure that we are making Bridgeport as attractive as possible for all its employees I know that when I talk to teachers teacher pay is one of the things that continues to come up you know compensation and making sure that that compensation is able to meet the cost of living expenses here in Bridgeport and as we continue through the contract negotiation process I know that that will be part a big part of the conversation next slide please for our staffing updates on the 21st when we have our Personnel committee our prospective interim superintendent will be making a personal visit so that we can all meet them we still have a posting for an assistant
062superintendent for social emotional learning Comprehensive Health and student affairs we plan to begin having interviews in the coming week for that position our director of adult education currently going through interviews for that position we have concluded interviews for the director of math and director of literacy positions and we're ready to bring those Fort to the Personnel committee and we also have assistant principals to bring forth to the Personnel committee so those positions will be available for you to discuss very very shortly and that concludes today's presentation and I'll await any questions that you may have thank you so much for your presentation uh I'll ask for some comments or questions uh I'll start with Miss Casimir do you have any comments or questions um yes so I understand how difficult it was to make the
063decision to go half day for um you know the schools because of the weather but I wanted to officially ask is there any way that we can get air conditioning in each and every school it's just a question so that we can avoid half days from now on I know some schools are old I know some schools can't probably withstand because of the elect the way that they're electrically wired but I just want to know is it a possibility to have air conditioning in every school in every classroom that's my first question it's actually a discussion that I've had with our director of operations Joe Garcia who's George Garcia who's not here tonight and I will definitely be following up with you I know that there is some cost prohibitiveness with attempting to install HVAC
064into older facilities and I've experienced that in in my prior District um sometimes it's less expensive to build a brand new school than it would be to actually install HVAC in an old facility so those are questions that I would defer to him but I I know that that's definitely something that we would love to be able to do in all of our schools thank you um my second question is uh Bridgeport promise um do they have any plans to engage students that are not interested in going to college or don't want to go to college um you know students who are interested in technical jobs like HVAC electricians Plumbing Etc great question Bridgeport promise is designed to strictly work with students who are College Bound it has strict criteria like a 3.0 GPA a
065certain level of attendance of course a certain level of discipline and additional activities that students have to participate in in order to qualify for the program and I can tell you that we do have other programs where we address school to work options for our students through our technical Career and Technical education options and those will continue to explore and align in order to ensure that they're more effective that they're more responsive and that the career options that we're providing for students are actually aligned with the interests and the industries that are available to them here and in other areas as well right because I know HVAC and plumbers they make like a lot more money than somebody who has a master's degree like they make a lot of money you know and even coming
066out of training um and my last question um are the Pre-K parents being given kindergarten expectations when I talk to kindergarten teachers they tell me that they can tell which students have been read to and which haven't within the first two weeks of school um you know identifying their name when it's printed sitting down for an activity when being told those are just a couple of different things but do we have something printed for preschool parents to know what the expectations are so that they can invest in and help us prepare them for that question to miss I don't see her okay well either either of our executive directors I will defer that question to you I have not had the opportunity yet to look at our Pre-K curriculum so I'm not in a position
067to answer that question as of yet but I um I look forward to hearing from one of you please feel free to come to the mic you just turned it off okay so this is not in my purview at all I don't really supervise Pre-K but I do know that they have strict standards on what students are supposed to be doing in pre-k and part of that is engaging the community and what types of activities will help them build skills and also there are some physical things physical activities that they have to do to build up their muscles trained like fine motor skills and build up their legs and things like that so those are told to parents on a regular basis comment where I think it would be great to put it on the
068Pre-K on website if that's possible Mr planus wants to add to that response yeah one last thing I want to say is that family engagement at pre-k is very strong good morning good afternoon good evening all three uh we we have a small pamphlet that we had created in the past that are based on the the standards from the state it's a very short pamphlet and it basically Narrows down and this is pro when I was a principal we used to provide these to every Pre-K uh parent that used to come in uh usually was during um the the uh back to school night and you have the small meetings in those groups and that's when we provided those um you know those pamphlets if by any chance we will actually check with the schools
069in that regards to see if um if they still have them and we'll make sure that they provide them oh yeah it's critical for them to give it to the parents when they start preschool and then write one graduation from preschool like the last day they should be given to them again I mean in my opinion at the Connecticut elds uh standards you know they were uh what are you talking about yeah yeah thank you I'm sorry that's all I have Mr benningham thank you um Dr Levy Morgan question when they invite you to uh this morning they invite you only to you for the um ceremony for the fire department yes sir I received an invitation oh it's stranger because it will have to be nice you know board members be you know with
070you support you and especially support you know all this family because you know I know board members as me I lost a brother Alex two cousin we lose friends and I know us as a board member we represent parents you know we'll be there to support parents that cannot make it so that they cannot be there for not to support them and you know um especially condolence to them you know because I know something that the city would not invite the board members for so many reasons but then you know you as I are superintendental school would let you know let us know any event we would like to be there to support because we just while we're here we're the same responsible school just want to say that for the record thank you madam
071chair I'll be happy to do some Mr banahan Mr sokolovic yeah first of all I love this stem initiative I just love it I want to know I would like to be invited to the first one when it's completed and opened on the biggest boost of science for the last six years we definitely need more science we definitely need more highlights in the silence programs and aquaculture itself too because we could stand to increase enrollment in this building as well especially among the great boy residents too because we do got a lot of other districts here so I'd like to see a little bit more on that thank you um staff vacancies are any of the vacancies concentrated in any one's School or are they spread out evenly across the district they're spread out even
072across the district we've been really um mindful of ensuring that our campuses that need the most support that we're Staffing those schools first so we're not going to come up we're not going to have another issue with like uh Globe across the staff [Laughter] Benjamin just to keep in mind we don't want another one cropping up somewhere else just to keep cross full as well we've really really and truly the the positions that are open right now are not um are not positions that are going to put any of our schools in Jeopardy awesome thank you and the magnet school enrollment um although wait lists at all of our schools because we that is something that I would have to come back to respond right I know that some of our magnet schools don't have
073a wait list at this time and there may be others that do but I'm not quite sure about which ones do and don't right because the kind of information I'm kind of looking for is just to match up the grade wait lists versus the mtc's just to make sure the children are waiting on seats that are empty the secretary lost in the next month in a while and finally Bridgeport promise the initiation of this 34 promise was during a last budget cycle and that money is for college students for residents of the City of Bridgeport not necessarily students under our purview and control and initially we were approached to give a match the temperature of the board was taken or it had no desire to match because our purview is K2 oh Pre-K 212 and
074all that money is needed here just to put that one in your radar as well okay I know if we are required sorry just that word just bother me right there requested to match because the mayor and nobody can require us to do anything what the money wants us transferred into our budget decisions are all right here thank you the presentation that I observed actually was um the recommendation was fundraising in order to to sustain the program year after year and that's like I said if still in the early discussion phases we're not final yet so as those discussions progress I believe I have one another meeting later this week on the Bridgeport promise I'll definitely take those questions to the table thank you Mr Mr Gellen do you have any comments or questions thank
075you Miss Baptiste Perez no comments no questions Miss Allen any comments or question okay Mr traber any comments or questions just if you could go back to the very last I didn't quite follow the assistant and Deputy superintendent so I just wanted to to repeat it okay it went you went too fast not a problem not a problem Deputy superintendent that is a position that we are posting but in the interim I would like to have an interim Deputy superintendent there's a lot of work that needs to be done and I would like to have an experienced superintendent retired superintendent to support with that work as we conduct that search the assistant superintendent position is currently posted and we've already looked at a lot of the candidates and we have um already reviewed those resumes
076and invited some people to interviews for that position so once those positions once those interviews take place those individuals will be going to the Personnel committee the interim Deputy superintendent I've invited to attend the Personnel committee meeting in person so that he can meet with you the board that's okay so we're going back and forth so the deputy is posted that's the one where assess is helping you is that the one with cesus involved the deputy yes I don't have my notes in the last meeting but I know that was one of the success was helpful yes um and that interim will be at the next Personnel meeting absolutely and you will receive a packet with information regarding that individual and the interview should be conducted assistance we don't anticipate seeing them I don't anticipate
077that we'll maybe done that quickly I think it may take another couple of weeks before we're done with those interviews great thank you it's Perez uh I did well I feel like mines have kind of been answered but I just wanted more clarity on the Bridgeport promise I know that uh prior to your arrival there was a lot of discussion on it so I do look forward to whatever information that right now my I'm trying to go back to the notes that I received before so I'll send them to you via email as they come up concerning it making sure because I I guess our big my one of my questions is it is Bridgeport promise but is there a allotted number to how many Bridgeport Public School students get a chance to apply like
078is it like I know it's a first per promise that's everybody but how many of our students have like is there like a a list or I don't know how to explain it my understanding is that it's based on the criteria students meeting the grade point average criteria meeting the attendance and um School discipline criteria and also partaking in all of the different activities like completing their FAFSA and things of that nature so I don't think there's a certain number per se it's how how many however many students meet the criteria okay um and then I think that's it for now if I come up with something I'll send it oh I am also with Mr slokolovic and being excited about the stem program um very big component especially here um I know there was
079some work being done within the district but just to see that there's a community partner um that we may not always partner with is going to actually be doing something I'm very excited to see where that goes and to see more students involved in it um so yeah kudos to that um but other than that I have no other comments board members if you have anything that may come up definitely send me email We'll add it into the report all I asked is that um Dr David if you can put this have Miss Rita put this into the portal so board members can reference back and forth if they have any questions um without further Ado is they're both to adjourn oh okay okay there's a motion you have a question it wasn't that question
080but I know um I never they did it and uh it's a point of privilege before we adjourn okay and I just wanna can I have it sure go it's hard just to know we talk about September 11 but we know what's going on what happened in September as a father and as a former BDS of President obasan high school as a board member I'd like to have a minute silence what happened the tragedy ambassading High School okay so it's very important I know we say about the September but it's very important that the parents want to know you know if they know and it's very it's hard for me and break my heart as a father you know this family is going through with the situation so I'm gonna ask for a minute silence
081for the tragedy what happened with the family at Boston high school please sure thank you everyone please keep that family both families in your and your thoughts uh Miss Baptiste Perez the motion to adjourn is there a second second by Miss Perez all in favor any opposed any abstentions here not everyone have a good night thank you