001on their money even ladies and gentlemen this is a call to order the diversity equity and inclusion committee um time is now 6 08 pm first item on the agenda is approval of minutes data oh wait apologize and attendance is Akisha Kashmir online Committee Member Committee Member Albert bennahan also online chair Joseph skalvik of the committee in person and Mr Robert Trevor board member president yes and Miss Alicia Perrin is also online thanks superintendent okay first item of the early agenda is the approval of minute state of February 28 2023. you'll have a motion to approve so move second does anybody find any material errors or emissions no sir nor do I hearing nothing else all in favor approving the minutes aye you motion carries the minutes are approved okay next up on the agenda
002is review and possible referral of the RFP but Dei training Mr pyrus I believe you're going to take that away yes uh this is a referral from for a request this committee to develop a draft RFP for Dei training diversity to equity and inclusion uh We've we've done that we've presented we've um we have a copy of it I think it's part of the uh committee's record but I'll go through some of the uh the goals and objectives of this uh of this RFP uh basically it's to it's to um replace some of the functions that were being performed by Dr Gay I think he performed these in over the past couple of years and that is the keynote address at convocation student assemblies parent education sessions board development training and strategies unconscious bias and
003cultural competency proficiency for staff Title IX training for certified staff and the Consulting Services would consist of the unconscious bias and inclusive hiring practices organizational factors and impact on Student Success communication strategies strategic planning and diversity equity and inclusion integration for admissions there's some reporting requirements that we included in this RFP that includes some reporting out by the consultant to both parents board members board meetings and um that that also includes uh recorded data and uh to be able to be recorded and presented so that's all included in here you might want to take a look at the makeup of your committee which is the selection committee oh but let me back up the term of the contract would be for one year with four one year option renewals so you renew it every year
004you'll eat and look at it and um see if it's worthy of renewing um reflect Mr bennahan is now in person there was a cost assigned to it which is a range of dollar amount I can believe it was I think it was 10 to 50. it was 10 or 50 000 of these but in any event they're required to provide us with an hourly rate cost across the requirement timesheet and the schedule of fees that will be um approved by the board by but but for the school district hopefully by by the superintendent's office and uh basically that the Crux of the of the RFP the dates obviously on this RFP are flexible we can change those at any time the um the evaluation process there's there's a there's a number of folks here
005that that are being being assigned you could change those if you if you don't think that they're appropriate uh that's on page 17. yeah that looks fine to me you can see Mr banan right evaluation Community use it looks fine to me and the version that you have the V2 that has been reviewed by the city attorney's office so it's um unless you have any changes that you'd like to see made to the uh to the to the document that would be the document that would be presented to the school board for approval and then that would be the document that would be uh it put out for republication on bidsync any questions uh hello Mr bear how are you good how are you good to see you again we'll be back uh this evolution
006is going to be every year so so that the first year will be signed this year that every year will be evaluated to see if there's a renewal there's a renewal I believe it's 90 days prior to the contract being um uh expiring you'll you'll re-up it again if you see that it's worthy or if you'd like to have it renewed what's going to be the process if um the first year let's see something's wrong with somebody and then they're saying can you keep going the same issue I will be you just make this tablet a little makeup whatever situation the first time or or yeah the the operating agreement will be specif will specify that every year there'll be a renewal period so 30 days 60 days whatever you you deem fit okay so
007write them a letter and tell them your intent to renew it or you just intend not to renew it in and terminate the contract I think no more questions Take Care thank you no everything's clear so far no questions thank you that's the truth no no I got one question um he's a little unclear about how the MBE works MBE is actually verified by our purchasing department they verify that the credentials that are being provided by the contractor are legit that they're registered in the state they have to provide a certificate and they verify that right and as far as as far as the score sheets are power score sheets we have no points assigned the the purchase number automatically assigns the extra 10 points are welcome to the uh yeah thank you no further
008questions uh anybody else gotta Miss uh superintendent parent no I have no questions I just asked that Mr Perez could you just tell people what the MBE stands for just in case they're not aware minority business Enterprise thank you you're welcome okay so hearing no further questions I'll entertain a motion to submit this to full board for approval to be issued a second any further discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries thank you Mr Paris okay next item on the agenda is special equity and sports attendance protocols I bought this item we had a few basketball things coming out events canceled and stuff like that I just wanted to know what kind of what what's the process behind deciding whether something's canceled or not what goes into that there's been a lot of confusion
009in the community and it seems to basically happen around basketball really no other sports I Believe Miss Perrin you can take that um so specifically there was definitely lots of confusion um this year around basketball and I what I determined um um by engaging in conversations with the principals at the high schools um through Communications with the um the athletic directors that there needs to be more continuity across the district about expectations in regards to communication in the decision-making process on what um what became um an issue was that people were making independent decisions and they were not communication about those decisions um and Clarity made so that they were uniform decisions so moving forward what we've decided to do for next year uh we are using a one athletic director for all of the
010high schools this year the model was they had three athletic directors one at each High School which was an administrator who received a stipend to oversee the process so there was no continuity with the communications and expectations around that with on the school-based decision making as well as the district um So to avoid that one of the things that we're doing is we're instituting that piece so that there is one voice and expectations around communication for those pieces and will there be any kind of like criteria to put them to follow or like what signif what I mean so it's like clear across all sports so I think that it's important to make sure that we we know what's going on because I can't say that there's going to be one specific you know um
011one size fits for all for all high schools it really depends on what's going to be happening um I think it's extremely important to have the clear communication so if something does um transpire at one of the schools that um poses a safety concern that we are aware of what's going on and that a decision could be made as far as what's going to be done and communicated to the community that was one of the major issues so the communication piece will be delineated for the individual who's going to be in charge as far as expectations are concerned with that when we um get to the point where we start opening up for sports next year what we'll do is we'll sit down and talk about the issues that we saw this year because aside
012from we had the major issues in which you're referring to at the high school level but there were also issues at the middle school level as far as different things happening um so just clearly delineating what those procedures are for can communication that will be done um at the district level um with the new athletic director who's going to be overseeing that to make sure that it's done um and everyone's on the same page I think that was a huge issue I spoke with Dr Baldwin about that as well um and she was in agreement that that's something that we needed to work on towards um so miss Siegel um and I had the conversation and it was decided that we would move differently um in school year 23 24. right say anything we could
013put in place where like the cancellation of a game is basically the last option but it's not I'm the last one to say this because I'm all about the academics I really not a sports-minded person but um for some people the academics is what I mean uh Sports is what keeps them in school and keeps them motivated so but when you cancel like basically some championship games or whatever have you based on behavior of one and affecting the whole team is things like that I do understand that but that that wasn't the case this year um at all but it is a is a resort um there is no question that there isn't it is something that we're looking at no one wants a game to be canceled because children have worked hard um to
014to work in these championships and their parents are looking forward to seeing them as well as the community so it's absolutely a last option um and the the reasons why the games were canceled this year were all because of safety concerns it was not something that was done lightly um and because of lacks of lack of communication so that's where the biggest issues came into play but I absolutely agree um that you know when we're delineating the process that is a last resort because I don't want children to be disappointed the families or the community Mr banan yes thank you Mr chair first of all I have to say Mr Keisha um his parents sorry um thank you because I know for when this situation happened you right away and I know you was a
015uh of the state doing some conference and you from far away you make action to be sure things will be resolved the bad thing would happen in the situation and we talked about that yeah it was that the live communication that's what happened you know parents sometimes in people and in staff or or Police Department went crazy oh this has happened what happened why we don't know this way we know that because sometimes people want to be Chief everybody want to be boss but they don't resolve the situation the way it's supposed to be and especially when the communication is not out for the parents parents go wild you know we are parents and then and then that's that's what we want but I know there was a result I know it was a consequence
016I know you really um um resolve this situation I really appreciate that um the only thing was I can say was a little like a communication that's why everybody was confused but if the students doing things and I and I agreeing that part that they doing things um they're not supposed to they're gonna have consequence I don't want the sport get cancer I want the kids have so much sport and always our favorite to have sport in Bristol school but if you don't behave the way it's supposed to be that's why we got policy that's why we got a protocol so you had to you know be ready for the consequence so I just want to say that for the record no thank you Mr chair thank you Miss Mary all right and piggyback on
017that that's what I was really getting at is um their what is the policy of protocol to like cancel the game or to keep the students out I know the I'm so out of sports I know they got a governing board for the high school sports I forget what the name of it is and that we apply for but it seems like sometimes they'll still let the kids play there I wouldn't let them play here or vice versa so really what what the decision-making process was um in regards to this year was there was a huge safety concern at one of the games in New Haven um earlier in the year where there was a massive um fight with the students um and parents um police were involved um and that took place um over
018the weekend um and the game took place and and it was a huge issue so what was determined after that game we knew that they would probably meet up again had they reached the Championships so we had put into place that they would engage in restorative practice circles um to see if the children would be able to engage in the process appropriately um so you know there was circles held um at the New Haven school as well as here um was our Bridgeport School and then they all came together to have this conversation about what was done that was wrong um it was a very contentious situation where a lot of people could have really gotten hurt um and and we what we was communicated was that they were all set that everyone was in
019a good place um as well as staff being able to move forward but what was not communicated was that there was a communication with um a superintendent from another District that the game would be closed that was not communicated to myself or any District Personnel so we were made aware of that at the last minute and I didn't think that was fear for our community or for our parents because it was not communicated to us as well to be able to make that communication and make sure that you know we had communicated that so everyone was on the same page um when that did um become I became aware of that one of the things I asked for was to have added security at the game instead um instead of closing it out since about
020something our community was aware of at that time it was communicated that you know the other District would not participate in that because that was an agreement that was previously made um so at that time that's what we had determined that we were not going to be moving forward with the game because I was not going to um not allow our parents or community community members in at that time without having communicated appropriately um so that's really where that one came from for the most part uh when I have conversations well since I've been here when I've had conversations um with principals about students or issues it has been done on an individual basis um one of the things I think that we've gotten away from is having you know this policy or expectations for
021our student athletes about what that looks like as far as grades as far as behavior is concerned as far as sportsmanship which we have to get back to and I think that's because there's different expectations at different schools hence why I wanted to create One Umbrella that everyone is going by um and delineating what those expectations are to the athletic director who will be overseeing all the high school basketball in sports thank you Miss Casimir thank you um I just have a quick comment I mean this this stuff is hard right it's like you can never predict what is going to happen at any given event Sports you know event Etc um and I also just want to mention something that um his parent had um you know uh touched on a little bit is
022that when you're in another district and you're in another town um and you enter the part of the state you're kind of at the mercy you know of the superintendent of that that City or the police department at that City so you know just looking at it from um like a criminal justice perspective and a you know it all boils down to safety um are you know is the person or the perpetrators uh that are involved um you know causing a safety issue for everybody that's at that venue or at that game you know so you know just looking at the same situation from different lenses is not an easy call to make but safety should be the ultimate priority for everybody involved whether they're kids Spectators parents staff that are there um you know
023so so that's all I wanted to say thank you Mr Trayvon sorry yeah I I actually I'm I know I'm coming in on this sort of late and you've discussed it um I in my experience many many years ago I've played in games where we had tensions between two schools and they literally played the game in an empty gym with nobody there but the cheerleaders um so I the game getting the game accomplished can be done it's whether or not you can include you know parents and other supporters uh in a safe environment and that as Miss parents said I would agree is Paramount um but if the issue is getting the game done for competition's sake whether it's a playoff or whatever you can do that in a neutral site if you really believe
024there's and that's between that would be between either the superintendents or the athletic directors of the respective schools I would think and and you're absolutely right Mr traper and I and that's that's exactly what was you know supposed to happen in this specific case however it was never communicated to our community which caused you know this this huge uproar about what's going on with our children why can't we see our children when it was never communicated um so I absolutely agree with you that you know for the for the sake of competition there are alternatives aside from canceling a game that you know that does have to be looked at when we're considering safety measures um but what I think specifically Mr Calif was speaking of was the fact that you know it was canceled
025and that was ultimately the choice because there was not that um communication ahead of time so all all parties would be aware of what was happening and the why it was happening yeah I agree yeah and I found out this isn't well maybe not anybody else wants to speak um it's not a per se about the basketball games about this it's about the feeling I came away from with the whole situation that our children are so feared that another city wouldn't come and play with how do we get to a place like this in the city I'm I know our students are hit by traumas of all sorts and this is this is the inequity I is happening throughout the state this is this is why I brought it here because it's like just a
026sense of like Doom I mean you go down the road to Fairfield Fairfield Connecticut would never never dream of banning parents from any kind of game if there was a fight if they were expecting trouble they boost up the security personnel and control control access somehow to certain individuals but it's just like this doesn't happen in other cities and this is the iniquity of seeing not not the decisions for this one game or two games per se but just an overall feeling of and don't know how to properly express myself but I could feel that it's like really really unfair to our students because even if there's a say there's a fight in Fairfield or fight in Bridgeport you compare the two cities and they're like an playoffs you got people coming to these games
027watching the kids play they'll be watching the kids at Fairfield that had a funny play because they got big security there but unfortunately the Bridgeport game ended up canceled or closed The Outsiders I I don't know just and and just school spirit and all that stuff also suffers as well and it's just like it just it just seems very very very sad to me I I agree with you Mr sakalovic um but I think about it from the perspective of a student when I was a student in Bridgeport Public Schools it was similar it was the absolutely similar we had the games that we play and there'll be tons of fights and things that will be happening and it was always this expectation that this was going to happen in our urban center that this
028is going to happen in for these Bridgeport kids how do they move differently to be able to let students know it's okay to be upset about something it's okay to disagree without looking to become aggressive in the way they engage and how do we change how people look at us because that's really what it's about we're in a city of brown and black children who go to these schools that represent our city I said and when they talk about Bridgeport and you know you're constantly hearing these things you know it gets embedded and then the kids start you know showing behaviors that they shouldn't because they feel like this is what people expect from us we have to work on changing that culture it took a long time for us to get here and it's
029going to take an even longer time for us to move differently but we have to make sure that our parents our community members are all pushing into that and fitting into making sure that kids know that there were something and that's really what it's about it's looking at yourself saying I I said no I can't control what somebody else does but I can control how I respond to it so that way I can change the narrative we have to work on changing the narrative that's one of the things that I know this specific committee talked about you know with branding initiatives to try to change what that is what does Bridgeport represent in the eyes of so many specifically our children yeah I would add one other thing um you know my experience was 50
030years ago in Los Angeles um public schools and it was depending on the neighborhoods but more recently here in Bridgeport uh when we started the soccer league in the late 90s here in Bridgeport when we would go play in Trumbull or Monroe there was a racist presumption about our kids um and there was no problems at all but we were loud and supportive and you know they would just it was a racist stereotype being applied so we have this this expectation of how we're going to behave when we were behaving in a perfectly acceptable manner just not to them and I remember the first time we took the 10 year old girls out to play at Trumbull High School we had more parental support than I'd ever seen at any one of these games in
031my life they were allowed and raucous and people were like just intimidated by us we weren't doing anything wrong we were just having fun um and being supportive of our kids so I think there there's an element of what can we do with ourselves and our demeanor and our behavior and then there's an element that we're dealing with that is beyond our control that we have to you know constantly come back which is how other people in other communities perceive us correctly or incorrectly and oftentimes it's incorrectly I think there is that element I know when I when my daughter was at Central where she was on the fencing team and we'd go out to these other communities and my wife and I would find ourselves sitting in the stands next to some parents from
032North Branford or somewhere and they were all white they assumed because we were white we were with North Branford and they would say things that were inappropriate to us you know thank you Mr chair I agree with you Miss Perry 100 people they think because um beautiful school or the past was you know terrible or worse or whatever they think we're gonna keep doing the same we're gonna keep doing the same and I know we change a lot it's as us the board members you know obligation they're always education it was you know always negative but they see now they're different because I always say together we make the difference you know we work together you know nothing is perfect we go up and down but at least we're trying the best you know for
033personal School we're trying to break that chain that at you Sam is parent you know people they think we're gonna be the same no we have to change that we had to work together especially for our kids because I I really don't like when I go another town they say I'm coming from Bridgeport the first thing people said wow Bridgeport I said yes Bridgeport coming I'm very powerful baseball what's the problem what is the problem and you guys how I am how I am so it's it's like a team working together it's not going to be easy but as I say good communication great successful and together we can make the difference thank you Mr chair anything else anybody I just wanted to say I you know just based upon what Mr traber shared as
034well as Mr benihan I just think about you know those those racist connotations that are out there right um that that live and even like when we've gone to the debates Mr bennahan and I people have come out oh your kids are so fabulous they're great and I almost want to say what did you expect them to be because and they're here to be you know they're here for a purpose did you expect us to be anything but and you know it's it's almost like an insult like a slap in the faith that you expect our children not to be well behaved not to be articulate not to be smart because they're from Bridgeport and it's it's a reminder of the work that we have to do not only within our community but with our
035neighbors as well to learn to accept people for who they are who they show you that they are versus who you want to believe that they are absolutely yeah and thus is the reason that this was on this Committee just to get all this conversation out there thank you very much anything else anybody Mr ask something Mr chair thank you one of the good things that we're doing is very important that at least us as a board member Miss Perrin we appreciate why the staff and the students that they're doing now all the time like I said okay thank you you do a good job what we need to show them like we appreciate what they're doing toward responsible they're very smart what the um our staff they doing you know when you give your
036credit and you appreciate what they're doing so they have more passion they work more with the school and they really appreciate that because we appreciate what they do because it's not it's not easy but you know stuff they're doing but you know and I'm very glad that you everyone Miss pairing you do the presentation you know to give the certificate you know who are the staff and the students and people see that parents see that they say my God at least someone now they appreciate what the students in the staff is doing so you know it's a good thing it's a little by little in the beginning to change things as I said together we can make the difference anybody else hearing none very good discussion thank you everybody and next item on agenda is
037presentation of three year disaggregated data students staff racial demographic comparisons for the file on titles teacher vice principal principal all administrators above principal this is a continuation of the item that was last month with all the data side by side um we just want to disaggregate it a little bit further let's see our administrators uh forward or forward-facing administrators that our students see yes good evening so I sent over um we s you should did you receive there was a small chart broken down regarding the administrators yes um and this is the most of the data we have is only for this current school year specifically when we talk about the current uh racial breakdown uh the ethnic breakdown for our students so the last meeting we had we did we did provide the pie
038graphs and other um the overall for the teachers but now when we look at the administrators and I had to break it down a little because as I was doing math and looking at to give you percentages I noticed that there was one group that I found a little confusing so I was trying to clarify that um the administrators above principle um Jay Ulysses Rogers who's the director of payroll and benefits he helps create all this data for me he's The Wiz with munis and Excel and everything so I had to break it down so when we look at all this first and foremost at this point there are approximately 98 administrators um with the with our Bridgeport Public Schools of that approximately 57 percent are Caucasian or white uh 11 identify as Latino Or
039Hispanic 30 percent identify as black or African-American and now out of the 98 we have one administrator that identifies as Asian and one as American Indian or Alaska native so their percentages would be obviously extremely small about one percent each so breaking it down a little further when we focus on the first level which would be assistant principles and what we call as the Deans or as we like to we also call them the 10-month administrators there are approximately 38 of these 10-month administrators of those excuse me 58 or 22 identify as white eight percent or three identify as Hispanic and Latino and 34 or 13 identify as black or African-American excuse me my apologies it's allergy season yeah the next uh group that uh Mr Ulysses created was principles uh the special ed supervisors
040District supervisors assistant directors and program program directors now unfortunately he didn't get back to me um yet I wanted clarification if this meant the directors who are at City Hall such as uh the director of psychology the director of speech language pathology but there are approximately 46 of these 12-month administrators as we I'll call them uh 57 percent identify as white 13 identify as Hispanic and Latino 26 percent identify as African-American or black one percent is Asian and one percent as American Indian or Alaskan native I went ahead and then I broke it down for starting from the superintendent the deputy superintendent the CAO the executive directors and then the directors executive department heads such as the special ed Department the science department performing Visual Arts speech and language social workers School psychologists and guidance
041counselors I'm not I'm sorry school guidance counselors the psychologists slps and our language Department at this point our early childhood is bacon so that is not in this number but there are 13 who hold those titles these are some of them are under as part of be cast but some of them are not affiliated with the union and that would be the executive directors the CAO the superintendent and the deputy superintendent but of those 13 at the highest level 38 percent identify as black or African-American 31 identify as Latino Or Hispanic and 31 percent identify as white when we look at the you we mentioned on the last time our student population the majority of our student population identify as Hispanic or Latino there are approximately 58 of our student population identifies as Hispanic and
042Latino their approximately nine percent identify as white 29 identify as black or African-American two percent identify as Asian a half a percent identifies as American Indian or Alaskan native and two percent two or more races and point one percent of native Hawaiian other Pacific Islander so we at the last meeting we talked about how the majority of our administer I'm sorry our student population identifies as Latino and Hispanic but that is actually that um when we count our teachers the Educators the certified staff and then the administrators the Latino and Hispanic is the lower percentage in the in um of our educators the majority of our teachers or um Educators and then the administrative staff do identify as white or Caucasian secondly the highest group identify as black or African-American third would be Latino Or
043Hispanic we have a few a small percentage of Asian and a small percentage excuse me percentage of Alaska native or American um Indian and then we do there are a few that identified as either two or more races or they chose not to answer the question so those are that's the breakdown of the numbers does anyone have any questions about that part all right let me check how many members yes thank you um I have a question for you when you say Hispanic and Latinos what is the difference two words there is it the reason why I I specifically say Hispanic and Latino that is the category listed on all the forms okay no I understand you know I know the part for it and I noticed this process that we we're working about that
044where I spent in Latino because I asked us as Panic you know and inspiring Latino four is the same words you know the same thing always listen to you that will say what's she using two warn you explain Latino you know this thing I know some form they say that but you know right I understand you know I just want to ask and you know no that's fine and same thing with black African-American again these are the these are the categories or the choices that are on the forms that um the government uses to track the uh makeup of no no it's like I want to say you know like and then they put your race you know and then they want me one day they probably told me whites and I said no I'm
045not white you know so you know we'll go back and forth so and it says something that had to be undone and stuff like that but no I just want to ask you that question no more questions yeah I just want to piggy back on that for a second because I've gotten myself into in trouble by using the words interchangeably not all Hispanics Latinos believe as you do because I believe I might I might get this wrong because I'm not a history buff and a geography puff but I think the Hispanics refers to more Spanish-speaking areas in Europe like Portugal Spain or such like that and the Latinos in Latin America everybody got to educate over here shaking his head so I don't know baby yo let's cut Portugal out there they don't speak see
046I told you I get myself into trouble I speak Portuguese right but but yeah and I've got I've had people get offended by recalling them Hispanic when they're identified as Latino so there is some disconnect in there where some people wanted and we currently got some people alone just want to in the legislator we got latinx coming up and they want to block the very word latinx because it's not in their language but it's a more inclusive word that some people would like to use so there's a whole big Earth stuff there I go ahead Miss councilman disgust me you got something to say uh I was just uh shaking my head in agreement I mean um but you know going back to what she said these are federal standards so it doesn't matter whether
047you're Latino Or Hispanic they're putting you under white right so like and I think about mixed race okay mixed race I see the number for mixed race but have you Incorporated you know half of the white you know like somebody who's half white and half black like have we incorporated that into the White and the black section and then what if some you know and I'm just being ridiculous about this what if somebody has a Russian uh father and a mother from Barbados that's two races I'm just you know just hypothetically picking that out like I think that it's just so you know confusing and that probably is by Design it's much bigger than us I know it's at a federal level but really when you think about it they need to break a lot
048of this stuff down so um yeah that's all I wanted to say you know Miss Kashmir to respond to you I live that I'm half asian and my father was an Italian Jew so what do I put down on the forms I don't I I don't fall under any specific category technically that's the truth exactly two things one could you go back through the student percentages quickly for me I saw the data from the previous meeting but I didn't yep okay take notes so Hispanic and Latino Hispanic and Latino makeup approximately 58 percent uh the black or African-American population makes no I'm sorry 29 percent there's approximately two percent Asian students nine percent white or Caucasian students a half percent of American Indian or Alaskan native sorry how much percent you have half percent two
049percent uh students identify as two or more races and point one percent identify as native Hawaiian other Pacific Islander and then I just in the discussion we just had I've been I've read some articles recently about the debate between whether what we call Spanish-speaking peoples some prefer one thing some prefer the others we've seen a similar debate over the last few years within the uh Native American populations uh my favorite I swear to God I started in February of 2001 we had to do the census data that spring I'd never done it before in my life nobody showed me how I go through my class trying to figure out how to do it as tactfully as I can and I then end up with my African-American students last and I'm counting and I say one
050two three we're gonna have 13 African-American and a voice in the back of my room goes I am not African-American and I looked at her and I said what are you and she says I am jamaican-american I said you are so right and I would feel the same way but I don't have that space on this form so I think it's always going to be difficult we want to be sensitive I notice we have the um category here of American Indian did we have on this thing which we're trying to avoid yes Americans is the government's name I am recognized so it's it's a minefield yeah I see I see on this we're doing it seems like we're doing the best in top administrative levels as far as Diversified diversity meeting or you've seen I
051believe you said um African-American number was what percent in the top level 38 38 which which actually exceeds students staff and other numbers as well the Hispanics is up there as well at 30 30 31 31 which is more than posted a 20 27 higher 20 points higher than um on a teaching level correct that's all right I believe correct the percentage of uh Hispanic teachers or be Bea members is about 11 12 percent students again are 50 plus percent about 59 so as as we go down through the staff a pipeline is getting smaller and smaller yes if it will become an assistant principal who will become a principal likely scale their way all the way to the top in time and the best in the best way people come up from the bottom
052so um we have a couple of recruitment events uh coming up whatever we have we done anything differently to recruit in for minority pools that we've been doing yes we you know what we have been trying to do is uh we've been using our social media a lot more and we do uh we used Bridgeport Board of Ed social media so we've been posting parent Square um I believe uh the Instagram account um I know I created a Bridgeport Public Schools LinkedIn account that has the um job fair advertisement from the job fairs if any of you have seen we have Billboards now up advertising the um job fair so I think uh superintendent Perrin for granting us this uh budget to do the uh run the billboard so I was really excited to get
053those up we are actually also looking into possibly purchasing um reusable lawn signs and to use those on perhaps putting them on all the school properties to advertise job events uh job fairs coming up as well as if there's any staff members community members who want to put them up on their yards uh since some of us don't may not live in Bridgeport we can bring it to our yards in our communities and hopefully recruit uh Beyond just Bridgeport but one of the big things that we've been focusing on recently to increase the diversity in our staff is focusing on our resources at our fingertips we started last year a parrot well it started for this year a parrot to teacher Fellowship for sped and we were able to pull I believe there are four
054three or four members I think I know three off the top of my head and they are all people of color um so it is it's great opportunity we are also when we do the job fairs we started inviting um last year we had invited local universities and other agencies to help come and direct people who want to become teachers so there are a lot of people who don't know how they could become teachers they're apparels clericals so if they come we could say okay you have this then let's go direct you to talk to this person so we're definitely trying to tap into the community we try to get Word of Mouth that hey if you know someone who's interested in being a paraprofessional or you know a para who wants to become a
055teacher then come talk to us uh my um Michael brosn and Steve Correa at my office are and Sharon pavrado doing great with trying to direct people in in steps they could take to become teachers or parents or things like that we are working on a uh Fellowship uh or a partnership to help people become uh Paris and then from the Paris they could eventually become teachers so we're trying to tap into all of that uh smarter partner I like to call it smarter or more useful Partnerships where the the schools that are more known to produce uh a more diverse student teaching population so we focus on that and try to recruit um through them and focus on our Partnerships with them again to increase the diversity in the staff so we and we're
056open for any ideas um another question I always have to ask what are some of the problems with recruiting teachers to the City of Bridgeport I won't even say the usual but beyond the finances the teaching population is unfortunate that well is drying up less and less people are going into teaching teaching no longer has that Allure or that pull for a lot of if you think about it in a few years ago the majority were white or Caucasian women who went into teaching even that group is less and less in the well so it's not only are we competing with a shortage or lack of finances there aren't candidates and with the state policies or state guidelines requiring a more Diversified teach um Workforce other districts are not only offering higher salaries but they
057are actually poaching from our districts with um prettier incentives so you know we try to be creative um I always like to try to say that you know even though we are the biggest District we do function like a small District in that everyone pitches in when we need to and that I think is a nice thing to have in a Workforce especially as a new teacher is you know I I try to encourage or or instill a sense of community and teamwork in that we I may not be able to offer you the big funds or things like that but you know we can offer you the support and hopefully as we try to do um professional development focus more on what is um important or what teachers actually want then we could offset
058the lack of funds listen I there are I mean there are there are clear I remember one year at black and War we lost three teachers to Stratford they were five to ten year veterans they were women with young children and they got 11 11 000 race to go to Franklin School in Stratford um it's it's just it's hard um you know they they cut their teeth in Bridgeport it was that way when I started teaching and Miss Perrin when you started um you know they were you know people knew the teachers cut their teeth here they got their experience in the classroom and after five years or so they started looking elsewhere and I know last year I taught one out of the four teachers in my cluster moved on to Newtown um and
059the other one would have moved but she was too old so I I just it's a holding on to them is hard um I've always Mr sakovic and I have talked about this I know you all are doing something about it but when I the last year I was teaching we had between 100 and 150 Paris with bachelor's degrees and you know 95 plus percent of those people were born and raised in Bridgeport though the neighborhoods and mostly people of color so but there have been there have been several programs since the 90s that helped parents become teachers but at the time we ran one and in the middle of it the state pulled the rug out from under it was just Bridgeport and Hartford at the time so we need more programs like that
060because that's a pool of people who it's a big race to become a teacher you become a pair and you go to becoming a Bridgeport teacher well that's you've made it big versus trying to get people in here who are are not going to be making any huge increase um so I think that's the place to go I I'm happy to read There is some legislation being considered right now in Hartford that would make student teaching a paid job um that would pay the student teachers um you know I I believe that if we can do something as a as a board uh I when I was with the Union as the union I was arguing this to give scholarships to Paris who want to become teachers that would get it you know that five
061thousand dollars that they need to pay the bills while they're student teaching is a huge obstacle to overcome so I just think that if we can do things like that we'll find you know the opportunity and we'll find the people who are interested in becoming a teachers I will say we do we do offer Financial incentives we cover approximately ten thousand dollars for the cost for a parrot teacher program and and while they're in this program traditionally they teach it they are hired and work as a parent and receive a salary second year of the program they are um they're working as teachers under a dsap and then the third year of the program and they're hire they hopefully they're you know they're still working under dsap so that is something we we are doing
062and we have been um and a few others uh one of the other programs we have is the um for cross endorsement Sports uh special ed and we offset the cost for part of that Pro that program as well and obviously in return they do sign a promissory promissory agreement that they will remain working for us it's usually three years yep I'm okay yeah um just a very quick question do we uh do we know if there are any High School seniors that are interested in Para positions or will they not be eligible because they don't have the experience I you know I know that's a two-part question but have we ever looked into just getting the data on like how many high school seniors show interest in in you know teaching or becoming you
063know an employee of the board of that I can speak to um Carly Roque Reyes the director of Social Work she would she might have that information um as to if there are any seniors who have indicated an interest in becoming a power or teachers now for a para either you need an associate's degree or you need to pass the parapro exam unless it's the early the little children The Early Childhood paraprofessionals there's an additional requirement there so yes someone without associate's degree if someone could apply as long as they take and successfully pass the parapro exam yeah because that would be really great information to pass along to you know High School seniors I I'm just thinking in terms of you know just Solutions that's all so um to answer to talk about that
064second piece Miss Casimir um that's something that we have talked about um with Carly um and looking at using the Zello information which is um the warehouse per se that um students in grade 6 to 12 use to talk about goal setting um is where we're really looking to try to get some of that information from whether it's regards to working in Bridgeport Public Schools or what type of Pathways they want to go on so that we can better create better opportunities for them as they exit um secondary education yeah yeah so that thank you very much that clears it up and I would love to you know at some point you know to get just the interest you know just to see what the interest is that's all at some point in the in
065future meetings high school kids are not working together I just want to make sure I understood this wasn't there a report I heard recently about a new effort to get high school kids to help tutor they're helping tutor younger kids in one of the schools in that school it could be I can't tell you that I know that off the top of my head where did I hear that I could have sworn it was within the contact the Bridgeport um I know we used to Black them get middle school kids to come over and help tutor but I also thought I more recently heard a report about a program with high school kids helping to tutor younger kids and to me that's a like a you know that's a a beginning of trying to inspire
066them to become teachers and to think about teaching I don't know about the tutoring piece like I said I don't want to speak incorrectly because I don't know that I know that there is a mentoring um there's a high school program um called Elevate where there is no Elevate yep there's a component where high school students do go and it's called Little Elevate where they go to a partner in school once per week and do some work with the students and most of that is in regards to like social emotional pieces nothing academic something that looks at but I'm not sure of anything outside of that no I think that's what it was because I follow Eric you know again another black Alum I follow Eric and his work with Elevate yes I think that's
067what it was thank you anybody have anything else said well thank you very much ladies and gentlemen uh at this point I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I'll second all in favor aye some carries have a good night everybody welcome back