001good evening this is a call to order of the Bridgewood Board of Education regular meeting today's date is Monday March 27 2023 the time now is 6 30 P.M so we'll start off that's call order we're going to go to the Pledge of Allegiance please stand I pledge allegiance to do one nation under God indivisible thank you the next item on our agenda is roll call our secretary uh Mr Lombard's not here so I will take it Bobby Brown here Joseph sokolovic present Michael macaron Albert bennahan president Akisha Casimir present and Joseph lumbar Sybil Allen nope [Applause] the next item we're going to move on to the agenda is student representative reports if there are any students online please state your name the school you attend and Report at this time I don't see any
002student representative online if students do come on we'll allocate time for them to present their report so moving on to the next item on the agenda we have public comment we currently have two speakers that have signed up so for each speaker you will have two minutes and I will honor that two minutes so please if you get signaled the time is up wrap up your final comment our first speaker is Miss dasha's spell good evening my name is Dasha spell I am a parent here in the Bridgeport Public School System tonight I have several concerns however I'm going to talk about something positive instead of negative this time around I know that currently we're focusing on the budget and finances within this school district so I wanted to put out that every year samsa
003has grants especially for trauma mental health school based resources now I do understand that the board of education has one grant writer versus the City of Bridgeport that has three grant writers an assistant director grant writer and a director grant writer yes I'm throwing shade at the City of Bridgeport right now because they don't support us with that in mind what I am suggesting is and superintendent parent what I would like to talk about is the possibility of looking at some of these Community College as well as universities and regular four-year colleges that have grant writing programs to see if we can get some interns to actually come into the City and help with applying for some of these Financial grants that are worth millions of dollars because obviously we have to invest in ourselves
004because there are certain people in this community that aren't or feel that our kids aren't worth investing in secondly in regards to um this is actually more of an issue in my district and I appreciate director pilus in regards to his assistance but I do have an issue in regards to how certain situations are being handled when it goes to facilities because we're talking about sports we're talking about school buildings we're talking about students and bullying now there have been a couple of situations within my district that involve basic curio and classical studies all three are in the 132nd district and there have been situations where decisions have been made and I don't think that it has come across facilities death as a conversation and I think that it's a disservice to our kids when
005we sit here and as adults we make decisions but they impact the kids on a whole different level and as social emotional but as well as we're trying to teach our kids you start something you finish it and it's not fair to our students student athletes our community that our kids like gets stem when it comes to what they're trying to accomplish is that my two minutes because you know I can go more almost it didn't buzz it didn't Buzz okay so I can keep bombing you can finish your last comment my last my last comment okay so I also want to say in regards to the candidates that are actually sitting behind me in the audience that went for this board of education um position congratulations for you making it this far now with
006that in mind I want you to get used to my face because you will be singing me here a lot and I do have a lot of input because I've been around this um particular realm for a very long time when you come into this position please remember that these are your kids so the decisions that you make are for your kids and with that I'll walk away thank you thank you misspell the next speaker we have is Miss Gladys Walker Jones okay please protect our babies the ones who Teeter around our knees and the ones who Tower Over Us in height and size there's been way too much loss Alan Wallach a servant leader three children three adults and a 28 year old female shooter in a private Christian school in Nashville Tennessee today
007lives innocence careers Health courage Zeal lost here in Bridgeport my heart is heavy I'm worn with the many experience intangible and intangible loss tonight we have you all have an opportunity before you the opportunity to add to this board of add a champion for all of our Scholars one who is going to insist a superintendent and staff look out for the safety of each and every one of our Scholars one who does not have a track record of preferring adults over the needs and rights of Scholars one who is compassionate it goes Way Beyond advocating for dollars that tend to benefit far more the adults than the clients we are called to serve our Scholars are dealing with major gaps in learning and aspirations yet we have actually we had an underqualified superintendent who was
008able to secure the bag along with contractors you were not privy to it is our hope that we will not suffer another loss as a result of appointing an unprepared person to finish out the eight-month term vacated by Erica Castillo prior to her formal resignation by way of her lack of attendance and attention Joanne Kennedy will be here and prepared to tackle the time-sensitive priorities along with you all from the lens of Scholars and Families First Joanne Kennedy understands the urgency she knows that this is not a trial run not a dress rehearsal and as for the remaining candidates who indicated there are near open interview process their intent to run for a Boe seat in November I encourage you to show up regularly and learn the full scope and responsibilities of being a strong
009Board of Ed member I also encourage you to lack arms with other organizations such as the Greater Bridgeport NAACP of which I am the education chair the work and families party generation now votes Ed Gold's black Democratic Club Faith now PT bar on Partners make the road Connecticut faith-based organizations because it's our time to ensure that we have a mere a Board of Ed and a city council that works for us thank you for Jones and that concludes public comment I want to acknowledge in person Board member Miss Casimir and board member Mr bennahan thank you the next item on the agenda is approval of regular meeting minutes there are two School Representatives that have come in okay please state your name they're going to actually hold on the approval minutes and go back to
010the student representative reports and so please state your name for the record the high school you attend and your report good evening first and thank you for the time to share an update my name is Eric benzo and I'm here to represent aquaculture as a Central High School student in addition to our normal school business this week we had a visit from the State Department of Education to check our compliance with State rules and regulate regulations regarding the operation of our asde Center the initial reports were very positive thanks in large part to the participation of all our stakeholders and thank you to all of them and you've continually supporting our program this past Friday some aqua seniors completed competed against other Regional high schoolers in the UB rise event Grace kistner finished first and
011Jack Murray was also recognized with honorable mentioned they are both aquaculture seniors it was a fun day on the UB campus and a successful one for aqua and BPS we appreciate the continued support of the Board of Education thank you for the opportunity thank you Miss Pinto we'll move to Miss Julia Estrella Hernandez please state your name although I said it in the high school you attended your report foreign I think and lastly an attended a drill competition New Jersey this past weekend they received um so the first second place personal inspection then second place dual exhibition and third place Athletics and third from his new Cadet colored car and we're very proud of them um thank you so much thank you Miss Hernandez and the next student we have is Nikki Ann Thomas please
012State your school and your report hello my name is Thomas and I'm from Massachusetts on Wednesday the 22nd WTH and News 8 completed segment on our Tango flight project thank you Mr Benjamin for coming by this segment will air on tomorrow at 6am under what's right about schools thank you to miss Vasquez Mr Benjamin and Mr Torres for the pts open and dine events last Friday it was a blast to see everyone try our painting classic Pride path TSA is starting to plant our second annual Day of Silence events plastic with the other four high schools participated in the same production of the Lightning Thief the Percy Jackson musical the students were actors designers State managers and more they performed in two performances for just under 500 8th grade students and staff and then in
013another two performances for about 200 community members basic Palm will take place on the evening of May 12th the student council has started selling tickets thank you thank you students for your report I do want to point out that in the past we've had student Representatives attend our meetings in person and you're able to participate in our active business even if you decide to stay online tonight or in the future you can come in person and give your perspective as a student on the actual policies that we're voting on as a board and so I just wanted to emphasize that especially now that the sun is out a lot later safety Wise It's good to to come to these meetings thank you both are all three of you for your reports and now we're going
014to transition into approval of minutes the first um minutes to approve is from the regular meeting from March 13 2023 do I have any comments edits being none no we didn't have a motion yet hasn't been moved to a second yet would someone like to move in second it make a motion to approve the regular maintenance maintenance regular minutes March 13 2023 my second okay motion's been moved second by Mr bennahan to approve the regular meeting minutes from March 13 2023. is there any discussions edits or comments seeing that there's none uh well do a vote all in favor of approval of the regular regular board meeting minutes from March 13 2023. hi hi hi the eyes have it um any opposed I didn't think so any abstentions I didn't think so I was right
015the eyes have it so the minutes uh from March 13 2023 have been approved the next minutes for approval is the special meeting held on March 15 2023 motion to approved a millionaire minutes from March 15 2023 special meeting second and so the motion's been moved by Mr sukolovic second by Mr Benny Hinn are there any discussions edits or comments okay seeing that there's none no vote all in favor any any opposed any abstentions the eyes have it the meetings have been approved for a special meeting March 15 2023 the next item on the agenda is special meeting on March 21st 2023 motion to approve the minutes from the special meeting March 21st 2023. the motion's been moved by Mr sokolovic second by Mr Lombard any discussion comments or edits seeing that there's none will
016vote on it all in favor any opposed any abstentions the eyes have it the Special meeting minutes from March 21st 2021 I mean sorry 23 has been approved the next item on the agenda is the Chairman's report Miss Brown is available virtually uh do you have a report Miss Brown um currently do not have a report at this moment okay thank you Miss Brown we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda which is committee reports and referrals the first committee is the education diversity equity and inclusion Mr skalvik yes we did not have a meeting in interim the next meeting is scheduled for April 17 2022. do we have any referrals to that committee okay not not all at one time okay we're going to move on to a report and
017referrals for the finance committee Mr skalvik again we did not mean to interim we got a date scheduled tentatively for the first Wednesday but I got to coordinate some things to see if that's possible even possible because the normal Day falls during spring break okay any referrals to finance okay again not all at one time okay thank you for respecting the rules we're now going to move on to the governance committee yes governance also did not meet in the interim but we got a few items on the agenda to get through the next meeting will be April 19th Central High School thank you the next item on the committee report is health safety and Facilities Health safeties and Facilities that's chaired by me Christine Baptiste Perez we have not met in the interim I plan
018on having a meeting on in mid-april after spring break any referrals his mother I'm sure sorry about that my chair um I know you talked about this but I wanted to be sure for the record I will send to you again the process of the what I asked about security but I want to be sure for the record that what night uh I will send Miss pairing the request that I'm like to have um Captain Greg technique Park um and um um Mr um Santiago he's one of the lead guard and also um Jimmy masor you know it's all we can speak and talk about situation what's going on but um security and for the record any security guard we have in responsible they're very welcome they are start saying to them they cannot come
019to our meeting because our meeting is more very high invisible for professional people and I don't like that we all equal we are not perfect but everyone is welcome especially when we have the media and security all the security Bristol school they're very welcome to college I just want to have that for the record but I will email you all the details thank you madam by share any other referrals to visit our health safety facilities uh I'll make a referral since it'll be on the record um based off of public comment maybe see what what the district is actually exploring in terms of grants that can be applicable towards student students mental health and well-being um uh maybe have us look into what's available uh the samsa I think is what was presented during public
020comment oh I hope I got that right or I'll reach out to misspell um but maybe looking at Alternatives so some of our agendas from the monies we receive with covet that's no longer going to be here after next year we can still continue to support our students with financial sources elsewhere so I'll make that and anyone else okay thank you the next item on for the committee reports is personnel and contracts that's Miss Brown good evening everyone um we will be meeting on tomorrow we have a few contracts that will need approval and um a few items for personnel as well um so we'll be meeting tomorrow 6 30 on teams thank you Miss Brown is there any referrals to personnel and contracts seeing that there's none we'll move on the next committee report
021is Mr bennahan with students and Families because we have to say thank you for um the pack um Johnson practical leaders from Johnson school and the pack later school they have amazing report how they work together and workshop for the parents um thank you for Mr planner and Dr jenke four percent information about math in Reading you know it was very important that you guys gave information update you know and we need to be working on that more but um so far everything was very nice we have a great dinner and stuff like that now our next meeting is going to be April 20 2023 Thursday at six o'clock in library in Central High School thank you thank you Mr bennahan do I have any referrals to students and Families okay seeing that there's none
022we'll move on to the next one that's teaching and learning uh that's shared by me teaching and learning has not met in the interim uh again I plan on having my committee meetings after spring break so mid-april do I have any referrals for teaching and learning yeah not exactly a referral but I would just recommend that we receive the information from the students and families with math and language arts presented because it's very relevant for teaching and learning a lot of statistics and standings and so forth that would be helpful thank you any other referrals for teaching and learning okay seeing that there's none the next item on the agendas the superintendent's report Miss Perrin good evening everyone Pre-K registration continues for school year 2324 that is available online as well as at pre-k sites
023throughout the District kindergarten registration will begin on Monday April the 3rd as well for next school year nursing we are still in the process of collecting data in physical forms for grade 6 and 10 families um the state deadline is April 1st for the submission of these mandated physical reforms so students will not be um not be allowed to return to school if they have not submitted this currently we are at 80 percent okay currently we are at 80 percent of our students in grade six um in 10 who have met this requirement we still have the next week to be able to do so um in addition to having the physical forms it can also provide copies of appointment cards and that will be accepted as well uh we have our math grade seven
024and eight um our math meet will be June 1st for for grade seven and eight from nine to one at Sacred Heart University um one of the new opportunities that we are exploring as a district is called experience Connecticut the district received funding from the state of Connecticut's Department of Education to launch experience Connecticut which is an outside of school program for fourth graders 100 fourth graders will spend on one Saturday a month exploring the state um with chaperone from the district these students will create quote unquote a passport of all the places that they visited and some of the um things that we've set up is the Pequot Museum Miss dick aquarium Lyman Orchards um and the like the program is free for all students and parents who want to attend to chaperone as
025well um with their children so this will be getting started very shortly care for kids update we have re-engaged care for kids as a payment subsidy for our Pre-K classes parents can inquire about the application process at the office of early childhood some of our upcoming events we have our pack ptso Roundtable taking place on March the 29th at Harding High School at 6 PM the focus is restorative practices we also have our Bridge Bridgeport Public Schools League debate happening on the 31st at the Pequot library in Westport we have period orientation for experience Connecticut which will be held on March 27th from 6 to 7 at Central High School and then we have to save the date for our high school graduation day which will be on June 12 2023. um I want to
026send kudos to a student from the Aerospace in Hydro space and Physical Science High School in Bridgeport Connecticut they were chosen from 26 000 participants from across the United States to participate in the math con which is a prestigious academic competition in Chicago which will take place later this year so this is um there was also among the 628 finalists Zachary Allen an 11th grader from Aerospace and hydro space was chosen as well so congratulations to them an update on our PSAT for grades 8 9 and 10. please note that right now we have a approximately 99 of our eighth grade students who have tested successfully um and for our grade 11 we are up to 84 and still have the remainder of the week to get that done so we're doing nicely with that
027as well thank you Miss Perrin uh yeah are there any questions or comments from the superintendent's report I have one uh the experience Connecticut that's all offered to all fourth graders in the district a hundred uh okay so 104th graders is it on first come first served basis yes okay but it's 100 students and if every parent and guardian so is up to 200 a parent and child yes or it can be up to 300 because if they have two fans because it's not cut off to just one parent it can be two parents as well yep very nice and this what's the duration for experience Connecticut it's well it was supposed to start actually last school year but because there was a delay in the funding it's going to start this may and go
028through next May oh nice no I'm asking because that's something that maybe we could have a presentation in teaching and learning uh the what the students got from it thank you I have no further questions Mr bennahan yes thank you uh Ms Perry um one question one comic for the first comment you know thank you for being on the teaching um events in the union it was very very nice you know we have a good fun and finally I meet your mother you know very beautiful lady um and my second my question is when it's going to be we're going to start the process to talk about about Democratic High School BMA I've been waiting for is um communication from the city Miss Brown and I have met with um then probably about two and
029a half weeks ago um because right now we don't have any other information to share we had shared all that at the last form so we're following up on that request because we have not heard anything in regards to next steps for that piece to be able to share with the community so another word we have to wait in for the city to see what's going to be the the process what are we going to do so no we're waiting for the city to get information because one of the things that we had talked about doing is another form but the information that we need comes from help with the city because we don't have anything else so we're waiting from that from from that for right now all right thank you Mr you're welcome
030no more questions any additional questions or comments um before we move on to the next agenda item I have a point of personal privilege as we all know we just lost a long time member of our staff the Alan Wallick I remember Mr Wallace very kind man he was very kind to my son when he was advocating for before I was on the board he was advocating for a playground and he made sure to update my son all the time and he saw him at a meeting and then later when I was on the board and it was approved talked to him talked to me did a good job so I'd like to ask for a moment of silence Alan wallet please oh well that's completely fine with me we all have a moment of
031silence okay and then thank you any other questions or comments for the superintendent from the superintendent's report uh I I have because Mr bennahan did bring up um basic High School uh some of the publicly available documents from meetings as early as 2017 regarding the new basic high school is no longer available online uh can we look into having I.T have some of the original meeting minutes that were approved by the board available to the public for their review okay seeing that there's no more questions from superintendent's report we're going to move on to unfinished old business the first item up for old unfinished business is a second read and possible approval of policy bylaw 9130 construction and posting of agenda since this came out of your committee opportunity to discuss right they were this
032is the um second iteration with all the all the changes were captured that were made in the first read on this item so everybody takes a moment to glance at it and see if there's something else captured or something that's indifference and if there's nothing we can just make a motion and go on to discussion if any further changes and then maybe improve it oh does anybody see anything all right so I make a motion to approve the second read for immediate implementation of policy 18 15 30 as presented this evening so the motion's been moved by Mr sakolovic second by Mr bennahan and I'll open up the floor now for a discussion debate any discussion debate regarding the content okay Lombard were any changes made beyond what were suggested no every day seems to
033have been captured and um we took care of that sentence I got the last time I was struck okay if any board member needs a copy a physical copy of it we could pass it down just so you can review please okay any discussion debate comments seeing that there's none we can vote on this so we're going to vote right now for the approval and immediate implementation of policy bylaw 9130 construction and posting of agenda items all in favor uh hi any opposed any abstention the motion passes unanimously the next item front for old business is second read and possible approval by law 9170 Quorum and voting procedures again this was introduced to Mr sokolovic committee so you can introduce it first this is similar to the last one these changes just one red line
034in row a so I'll just make the motion to approve as presented this evening and in the first read second [Applause] so the motion's been moved for approval of policy bylaw in 9170 Quorum and voting procedures by Mr sokolovic and second by Mr Benny Hinn any discussion I I do have one comment is this for immediate implementation yes be an amendment to the main motion because that was not part of which well actually it's really uh it's already written in the policy but we could add it to because uh bylaws are immediate and policy changes are if it deals with children or the schools there's thoughts redundantly but I can't make it motion to admend to include immediate implementation exactly the motion's been the amendment to the main motion for immediate implementation has been moved
035by Mr sokolovic second by Miss Casimir any discussion regarding the immediate implementation Amendment seeing that there's none we're first going to vote on the amendment to the main motion which is immediate implementation all in favor aye any imposed any abstentions the amendment to the main motion passes now we're going to the main motion on the floor is a motion to approve policy bylaw 9170 Quorum and voting procedures implemented immediately um any additional discussion seeing that there's none will vote on this item all in favor any opposed any abstentions okay the eyes have it this motion too passes unanimously the next item for old business is second read impossible approval a policy bylaw 91.90 public hearing again Mr sakalovic this was introduced from your committee so you can introduce it to the public thank you motion
036to approve public hearings 9190 as presented for immediately immediate implementation there's only been one change to this second okay the motion's been moved by Mr sokolovic second by Mr bennahan any discussion debate seeing that there's none all in favor any abstentions seeing that there's none the motion passes we're now going to move into new business the first item for new business is discussion and appointment of candidate to fill the vacant board met Board of Education seat left by Erica Castillo this item may qualify for executive session thank you will any board member like to move into executive session seeing that there's no motion for executive session is there a motion for a candidate I'd like to make a motion to approve Mr Robert schramer to be our newest board member second okay so we have
037a motion to approve Mr Robert traber to fill the vacant Board of Education see and that was moved by Mr sokolovic second by Mr Lombard any discussion well I have a comment for discussion um first I want to thank all the candidates for applying and their interest in the role it's very hopeful and inspiring to me that there's a lot of people that care and want to use their expertise to improve the school district and I wish you guys would have ran against us in our original primary because there was a talented and passionate bunch of individuals who are here and committed to our meetings more so than others that's right um and it's not an easy decision but this is just an eight month seat and I highly encourage those who are interested that
038there will be an election and this is just a temporary position that's all I have to say I may be wrong on my math but this is temporary so thank you is there an interest to make a motion for a roll call for roll call yeah okay so this is going to be roll call vote um any more discussion comments Mr bennahan comment um thank you um I agree what you say um and like you said this is a position for a eight months and like you said we got a big elections coming but I have to say that thank you for a lot of people they come in they care the interest to be working with us in the virtual school but don't give up just keep you know um fighting you know it's
039a big Legend and I know you can do it I know you can do it and then we're gonna kick forward because I know who care about personal school about our students staff in in parents I just wanted that for the record no more comments Madame thank you are there any other nominations all right I don't see none all right so we're going sorry I cut myself off okay we're going to go around roll call vote for approval of Robert traber for the vacant Board of Education seat okay uh Miss Baptist Perez no yes Mr macaron stain is Bobby Brown still on yes yes okay um Mr Lombard yes and then Mr macaron you're staying I'm sorry doesn't no one passed all right so we have one two three four yes to No One abstain
040motion cares motion carries um I'm sorry but um there is a buy Lotus particularly troubling you have the coin yeah I don't have it prepared because I was expecting at least five for the board uh requires a majority of the board to it requires the super majority it requires five eight does it require a two-thirds Vote or majority five it requires of the total board majority of the total board not the total presence so you would need five right right so that doesn't pass then in that case so this item may qualify for executive sessions or also I can make a motion I can make a motion to reconsider the vote and we could vote again because I think this at this point this discussion needs to be made out in the public so the
041resulting of this if we don't get five votes for one candidate it's going to go to milliganum second you have to make the motion so he did right I made a motion to reconsider motion okay so there's a motion to reconsider by Mr sakovic it was second by Mr Lombard so we're going to go again seeing as there is no other candidate that has been proposed I don't know why we've got no votes on a candidate that has a clear majority had a clear majority almost a unanimous decision but for some things to happen between the meetings and now I'd like to speak to that too I I don't understand why no one else was nominated if the person that was nominated wasn't wanted I don't understand the logic behind this if there was someone
042else that someone wanted or didn't want the person that was nominated unless in fact they wanted none of the candidates so if they wanted none of the candidates that would make sense so I'm a little flustered by what just happened so so do we have to vote on whether or not we're going to vote again and seconded all right we'll reconsidering the question now so we've got to think to close it out we've got to vote again or what have you somebody wants to raise up another cabinet wait yeah absolutely so we are going to reintroduce the motion the previous motion that failed and I'll emphasize again this item may qualify for executive session so if there's that would actually have to fall after this vote um I would just speak just on this motion
043that's on the table now if it does pass that we vote again I would ask that if someone has another candidate that they are interested in being the board member for the next eight months that they nominate them so they can be considered as opposed to just voting against the only one that was nominated okay so we're going to vote again for Mr Draper I just want to make sure I understand do we have to go to whether I'm going to take a vote again well yeah we have the motion to reconsider is on the on the floor the motion to reconsiders on the floor the vote could be to reconsider and and yes so it would be to reconsider our previous vote right so okay we'll do roll call again this is whether or
044not we want to reconsider and if not we know what goes out of our hands so miss Baptist Perez no okay because I think there's another candidate and depending on I will just move the other candidate okay Mr skalvik yes Mr bennahan yeah yes Cashmere Miss Casmir if you need additional time to consider you can pass and it'll go on to the next board member and come back to you towards the end okay Mr macaron yes yes okay Miss Brown yes to Lombard yes Miss Casmir no okay so we have one two three four five yes to no who we consider okay so now we can reconsider and so we've agreed it most the motion to reconsider has been approved by the board so we're going to now vote on approval of Mr Traver as
045a Mr Trader to fill the vacant Board of Education see so this is going to be the current vote in front of us all right because that was the previous vote was to actually reconsider reconsidered past so now we'll vote on um Mr traper's candidacy okay vote okay yes Mr bennahan yes Ms Casmir Mr macaron yes Miss Brown yes Mr Lombard yes five yes okay the motion carries Mr traybar congratulations welcome to the Board of Education you will now filled the seat left by Miss Erica Castillo okay um can we get a five minute recess yeah motion for five minute recess there's a motion for a five minute recess it's been second by Mr bennahan any discussions all in favor uh any opposed any abstentions motion carries we'll have a five minute recess I'm sorry
046uh we're returning from our five minute recess again I want to welcome Mr traber to the Board of Education congratulations thank you may I have a point of personal privilege here yes you may I'd like to thank the board for voting for me um I did really want to participate and help this board in any way that I can and look forward to working with all of you as I said last week I think this board's moving in a very positive direction and it's exciting to me to see that happening I also agree with you in your comment about I was very impressed last week with all the candidates I've known Miss Kennedy for years and I want to congratulate her on her applying to and look forward to working with her as I have
047in the past but I had the pleasure of talking with a couple of the younger ones outside and it was just exciting to see younger people wanting to get involved so as a retired old man and I know there was one other older woman there who I went up to and spoke with after the meeting because she was very impressive too um I think it's just very exciting for Bridgeport so thank you for your support and I will do whatever I can to help earn your trust and support thank you thank you we're now going to move on to the next item for new business which is discussion and possible action to suspension of bylaws 9300 and 9310 for the purpose of immediate implementation of bylaws 9200 92 to 20 and 92.30 so I believe
048this came in from your committee Mr sokolovic would you like to introduce it yes the purpose of this is bypassing these things so we don't have to have a first read and a second read and the reason I'm bringing it up for these particular bylaws because the only changes in gendered language so I'll make a motion to suspend buy lows 90 300 and 932 310 for the purpose of immediate implementation of bylaws 9200 9220 and 9230. second so the main motion has been introduced by Mr uh sokolovic um it was second by Mr Lombard who is now virtual um and now the floor is open to debate or discussion thank you okay seeing that there's no debate or discussion we'll now vote on the motion all in favor any opposed any abstentions abstention motion passes
049okay the next item for new business is discussion and prosper approval of policy 9200 officers again this was introduced by Mr sakolovic I make a motion to approve the changes and officers 9200 as I stated before we have just gendered language changes the only changes in this policy second okay so the motion was moved by Mr bennehan and second by Mr Lombard any discussion okay hearing none um we'll now vote all in favor any opposed any abstentions abstention extension the motion carries we're going to now move on to new business item d which is discussion impossible approval of policy 9220 official duties Vice chairman again it was introduced by Mr sakolovic so I'll let him introduce the item and if anyone feels compelled to make a motion they can feel free to approve official duties
050of the vice chairman in 9220 again the only changes made were to gender point of order your mic was off thank you sorry about that uh make a motion to approve the official duties of Vice chairman policy number policy by loan numbers the only for immediate implementation the only change is made were to gendered language so okay second second the motion was moved by Mr Benny Hinn it was second by Mr traber uh any discussion or debate seeing none uh we'll now vote on the item a main motion all in favor all right any opposed any abstentions abstention one abstention motion carries we're moving on to new business item e discussion and possible approval of policy 9230 official duties secretary again this came from Mr sakolovic's committee would you like to introduce Mr sakolovic yes
051um explosion to approve official duties secretary policy 9230 by low 9230 for immediate implementation again the only change is a gendered language second the motion's been moved by Mr bennahan second by Mr traber any discussion I'll like to make a comment I agree with the edit upon a majority vote of the board I think this reflects the reality of the board so I think that was a good edit any other points for discussion or debate okay seeing none will vote on the motion to approve policy 9230 official duties secretary all in favor all right any abstentions extension one extension motion carries [Applause] we're going to move on to item f for new business first read of nine policy 9210 official duties chairman again this was introduced from Mrs Collins or Mrs Collins committee so would
052you like to introduce yes this one uh this one unlike the others has some changes some that may be material of nature so I did not put this one up for bypassing the bylaws so um but I would like to make a motion of waving and reading of the entire policy time and just focus on the changes second there's no motion there is no publication for a vote it's just first read 9210 official Duty motion to wave that so we don't have to we can see I read the whole thing go or focus on the changes and we accept the first one I make a motion to only read the changes as a first read so there's a motion to just read the changes it's been second by Miss Casmir any discussions we will now
053vote to only read the changes for policy uh for 92 10 official duties of chairman all in favor any extensions abstentions one abstention so the motion to just read the changes for 9210 official duties chairman has been approved okay so we will now just look at the changes uh is there a copy of 9210 I mean um okay thank you all right so I apologize for my confusion I may have just turned away from the 92 10 moving through the agenda items um in accordance with Robert's Rules since I'm facilitating the media I open up the floor first to any board member for discussion or debate before I comment okay um as I mentioned I thought item 12 was a good edit to get rid of the majority of the board one the edit removes
054the chairperson shall call shall cause to be noticed or cancel all of the meetings of the board in just period that too is straightforward yeah that uh part of majority award was just a proposed change to Black is on the original so that just that just didn't make the cut in uh committee it was correct so the chairperson shot it would read normally would read the chairperson shall have the authority to invite legal counsel but the new language is what just so the boys aware that the attorney is coming she's like a minor change and tested address your point would you like me to just go down the line to point out any of the other material changes or all the changes basically um for me uh one was addressed we addressed 12. for me
055I you can address uh 9210 subsection 6 and I think that's fine for me um yeah my budget is I'd like to point out that we changed the gendered language one through five five and six change the gendered language and new language inserted was the chairperson shall distribute to all Board of Education members written legal opinion of board Council this way we're all on the same page that's why that was entered gender change in seven eight and nine and ten and eleven and we've already discussed 12 and 13. what was the change in sick six would be new language edited if in a sentence where it says chairperson deems it to be appropriate there was a whole sentence added the chairperson shell will distribute to all Board of Education members the written legal opinion of
056board Council this will prevent a legal opinion of being dropped us dropped on US 10 minutes before meeting and nobody will have time to digest it that only the board chair had proving to as you know this has happened in the past I'll anticipated happening with this particular board chair but we're not writing policies and bylaws for now we're writing them for the future and people who follow behind us I suppose that's from that's fine okay this is just a slight concern regarding costs everything doesn't have to be a five page 10-page paper but if we do ask legal counsel for our opinion point of order Mr bennahan um I think keeping board members informed of legal opinion is definitely key right so I see that yeah to address your uh question about cost I
057did come up in uh committee and it's these courses either non-existent or negligible between their different opinion so now I have a question oh do we have a flat fee Arrangement or billable hour arrangement with birchman Moses so it will have an impact yeah I guess that's true maybe distributes an attorney and um thank you he would speak with the board chair and then the board chair would ask that he put his opinion in writing and so there is obviously billable hours at his rate or an associate's rate and depending on how long it takes to put the opinion in writing it could be one hour it could be 15 minutes and as you say it could be several hours so there there is a cost um but I think based on history it's important
058that we put in writing that we ask for the full board to be informed of the opinion no bye thank you I agree I think it's just do we know if the available hours is in six minute increments most likely okay um I mean is there anything else for discussion all right so since this is just the first read um for policy 9210 official duties of chairman um I think this will move on to the next regular board meeting for possible approval all right so the next item we're going to go on for new business is item G which is a first read of policy 92 80 committees again this was introduced to Mr sokolovic's committee so I'll let you introduce it to the public and then we can discuss once again I'd like to
059make a motion to wave the entire reading and just focus on the changes in order to consider the first read second okay so the motion to wait reading the full policy and just read the changes that say that okay was moved by Mr bennahan second by Mr lumbar is there any discussion regarding not reading the entire policy but just reading the changes seeing that there's no discussion or debate regarding this item we're now going to vote to wave reading the full policy and just reading the changes all in favor any opposed any abstentions okay the eyes have it we're just going to focus on the changes in the interest of uh experiencing I just point out the changes in paragraph one we have gender changes only chair men and chair to chairperson chairpersons and then
060the next change will be indeed that's a whole new insertion of a category it says any change to committee assignments made to subsequently filing the list to the superintendent shall be approved by members of the by the members affected or a majority of the full board as the this was added with the intention of preventing a chair from just stripping a member unreasonably of assignments so that chair that person will have an opportunity to say no I do not want to move and then it will feed into the next line line two which reads each committee shall have oh wait by a majority of football so that's if somebody not that it'll ever happen sends a mean email or something I guess the committee stripped and the rest of the board don't agree they'll have
061a chance to either affirm or deny the Chairman's request to cut those committees and then the next line is every committee shall have mirrors can be the same number of members providing that each member of the board Shall Serve on at least two committees that change was made in my keeping in mind that we are a full board those of us who aren't appointed or elected even those appointed or accepted are expected to share in the workload equally and not have a disproportionate work amount of work fall on certain members because we were all elected by the same method and or appointed by the same method and then there's one more change in number five uh the chair shall recognize them instead of me recognize Madam chair yes Mr Lombard so I'm just looking further
062because I'm on this committee also at number five where it says um board members who are not members of the committee shall not participate which would include speaking or vote as a member so I kind of feel like with the Way It Was Written is the chair May if they want recognize them to speak but for us to say this the chair shall recognize them to speak I feel like it contradicts I didn't notice this in first looking at this feels like it contradicts the fact that earlier in number five it says they shall not participate so I'd want to bring that up for discussion right may I clarify that he's a manager I'm going to go around and allow members to give input and then then it goes back to you so it's not
063a back and forth dialogue Miss Casimir do you have any comments well I just want to thank Mr lumbar for pointing that out because I didn't catch that thank you Mr bennahan no come in this moment thank you Mr traber yes I have uh if I if I understand item five having just read it it that refers to public portions of the meeting the sentence that you read Mr Lombard refers to Executive sessions and it says board members who attend are not allowed to vote or participate in executive session well I'll just if I could speak well the the uh I believe the portion they would definitely not be an executive session but the final sentence refers to even in the General Session of the committee that the chair shall recognize them to speak in
064in practice that's what happens typically the chair does recognize you know for example last week when Mr bennahan was chairing students and families there were a number of board members there that were not there were more board members there that were not members of the committee maybe than they were that were and he always recognized everyone this is saying he shall he must recognize them and I I think that's just where I'm seeing conflict in the current writing of it as I just to see if I'm understanding correctly the first sentence says that there's a very limited if you're a guest to a committee meeting there's a limited role to play uh the second sentence is if you're a guest uh the chair can recognize you to speak in the public sessions only I think
065um that's correct that's how it is now but if we change it it says they must recognize you yes um Mr sakovic part of that paragraph is basically state state statute nobody that's not on the committed can't attend executive session if we have a Personnel committee and they go behind closed doors I as a non-member of the Personnel committee may not be able to close behind closed doors now this shall be recognized if we're discussing um should we seek out a new employee or what have you I would have the right to comments and the reason being this has this has all members in the past have been exclusive speaking not in a very recent past but in uh probably four years back and what that does is let's say we don't speak at the
066committee and somebody decides to shut out a dissenting opinion opinion where is that dissenting opinion going to come out right here right now at the regular meeting and will not have a chance to be addressed on the committee level to iron it out as you see working on this committee here we usually have about three or four board members in total in the committee so we walk we're walking out of this meeting with four votes and a lot of The Kinks ironed out before we get up here so it'll behoove us to have a shower rather than a May or wait one sec I want to open up the floor to Mr macaron if he has any comments no uh no comment right now thank you do you have any opinion Mr macaron regarding the
067executive session portion of it uh I think um well I think I'm okay with the executive session portion but I'd like to hear a little bit more okay Mr Lombard yes so just to be clear I agree with the intent of the proposed change I just feel there's a grammatical conflict uh for example what I think would clear this for me at least is if it says at the very first line because it does not specify executive session until the second part of the sentence when it says and shall not participate in the executive session but the first part just simply says they are not a member of they shall not participate or vote as a member of such committee so what I'm saying is they may either they may participate or they may speak
068but they shall not vote so I think to say they shall not participate to me means they shall not speak either the necessarily don't participate I feel like we have a conflict that's all I'm pointing out uh I will put in my commentary I see where you're coming from Mr Lombard um I I think for this particular subsection of 9280 should be flushed out more in detail on the committee level just because like I see the confusion with it I do have a comment though separate from item number five but I want to keep this organized if there's any other board member regarding commentary to 9280 subsection five uh keep it limited to 9280 subsection five Mr bennahan are you talking about that yesterday I will talk to you about the uh like item number
069five and I will talk to you about my experience as a chair the tutoring family you know I'm always recognized and I very welcome to people coming speak I don't like to if you have a comment if you had to say something you know I work on either though the guests or whatever your parents to come because they import for me but in this part of the reading the sake of this section I can tell you my experience when they have available on personal when they let's see they have an interview of Staff they want to come to a program about occasion and I'm gonna be part of the committee actually out of the committee part of the reason I'm agreed apart because I'm a board member and now or later I had to see
070the staff whoever is going to be you know hiring I need to speak to them later or they can come we can discuss we can anything that can happen so I always and I really have experience that I had to be out and how many minutes or 30 minutes or hour speaking I said I'm outside waiting for it so I don't feel as a board member I have to be outside of course I don't have the voice of vote you know and not just to listen but as a board member I would like to listen what that stuff is coming you know what they're going to bring for the war of education so I'm a little concerned about that part thank you Miss Muhammad my chair okay any comments uh regarding subsection five Mr sakovic
071yeah um does anybody have any other issues with through you manager does anybody have any other issues besides that one word change I think it's been identified that this shall not participate from Mr benningham he's given an example of that he's allowed other board members to participate um I can speak from my experience with my committees I'll allow board members to come and participate but the vote is only amongst committee members before moving it before the full board um I think this is where a good old comma and maybe additional clarification sentences can come in so when we're talking about regular committees and then what happens in the case of executive session um okay in terms of the notwithstanding committee chair shall recognize them to speak in portions of the meetings open to the public
072yeah this is just it's just not clear uh I think it could be fleshed out more on the committee let's see that's the thing these things refer to the committee about two years ago and we've got so many other new policies coming up that I would like to make a motion to strike the shell and leave it as original if that'll clear the whole thing up because it's not really a major points in the policy and then I leave it as in because then the May the May was the old language so if everybody's okay with the old language it's not something that we need to go back to committee and have a whole other meeting about and then come back here and argue discuss and argue about what's the next thing to do and
073take up more time motivation oh I'm sorry um so your proposed motion is to keep the language as is and number five in subsection five okay it's so moved final second it's been okay gonna have it moved by Mr traber and second by Mr sakolovic to keep the original language in 9280 subsection 5 only any further discussion all in favor of keeping the original language for 9280 subsection 5. hi thank you any opposed any abstentions emotion carries we are still on new business item 9280 committees um and not every transitioned I want to bring up for 1D I don't necessarily think we need to bring that up there's a whole chapter in Robert's Rules of Order for when the chair is acting out of line for him him or her that particular person to be
074removed to facilitate a meeting as well as trial procedures to be conducted by the board if a board member has been unfairly removed by it I will say I experienced firsthand what happens as a freshman board member that does not know all the rules but in this position with time in reading the rules I find this a bit redundant and so I will open up the floor now to any comments Mr sakolovic yes the redundancy has has been discussed but there is no mechanism that right now without this section the chair has sole discretion and there's no request whatsoever either under Robert's Rules or not to put that person back on that committee or to keep them on a committee yes it is chapter 21 the last one of the latest edition I'm not going
075to entertain a debate in back and forth this is discussion for the entire world by law is supersedes you're out of order Mr sakovic please wait wait did I not wait I'm not going to entertain an argument right now I've expressed my opinion and I want to go around and hear the rest of the board members because as I stated there it is a dress and the newest edition of Robert's Rules what to do when a chair is Rogue or how the trial procedures go for a board to run effectively and do our jobs I'd like a point of information which may actually may under Robert's Rules interrupt the speaker Robert's Rules States in lesson by law and supersede our bylaws state that the chairperson has sole discretion in appointing committee members a chairperson will
076not be in violation of Robert series is simply removing a person from their committee assignments person will be in compliance with Robert's Rules where is that in terms of this and why is it not cross-referenced in this area then because it's a totally new policy and we haven't gotten up to disciplining the chair yet there's no unless you want to delineate each and every reason we could discipline the chair or move the chair we would have to add it chair is okay now we'll open up the floor to the board members for any questions or comments pertaining to this particular item 1D Mr macron I have no comment Mr Lombard yes I I would appreciate an explanation of what is stated to see if the mechanism that's stated in Robert's Rules is a mirror to
077this and see if this is redundant or this is something different thank you Mr traber yes I have a uh two questions I guess one is uh the shall be approved by the members affected that would be the member or more than one member that was removed or changed or altered so that's not necessarily members it may be one person I was confused by that language so it should be a parenthetical s because it may not be more than one member right am I understanding that correctly well I agree um but what you pointed out but the effective members I'm not sure if any change on the committee that's going to impact the board because someone's going to get swapped out for someone else and that affects the the workload it could impact well when
078it says there shall be approved by the members affected I wasn't quite clear what that meant so I was trying to clarify what that meant it's not clear because this is proposed language uh so it's the first time coming up and then the second question that I had was um there was a reference a moment ago to the chairs unilateral authority to a point but if I recall the debate at that one committee meeting it's not clear is it that the chair has the unilateral uh right to unappoint if you will uh what I will comment on that is that's why it's I said where's the cross reference to the authority of the chair because then if it's saying what it's being stated now I want to cross-reference as to what is the power of
079the chair and look at it at the same time and that's not before us right now Miss Cashmere wait did I just pronounce your name wrong sorry oh okay sorry I'm tired um no no nothing right now thank you Mr bennahan I'm not coming in the question this morning I'm just listen what's going on thank you okay [Music] okay for this particular is a first read I think what should be done this is just a suggestion is a cross-reference with the actual policy and authority of the chair and maybe we can just share around the latest edition of Robert's Rules not in violation of any copyright policy you know so that way we can look at the suggestion for Mr Lombard with whether this is going to be a repetitive process um I believe Ms
080Brown brought up that we were going to do training so maybe appropriate training before this change can be helpful or garnering more support for it um like I said I've seen it firsthand so I understand your reason for bringing this forward I just think more time is necessary for clarification and that's for item 1D so is there any more discussion regarding 1D is there any discussion regarding change two to 9280 I think what you're looking for here is a promotion to recommit which I won't make because I disagree so there's a motion to recommit which one are we recommitting what 1D or the remainder there's got to be the whole policy we can't pass the first reading of portions okay so real I moved to recommit the entire policy to committee 280. I moved to
081recommit the 90 the the proposed policy change to 92.80 to committee the entire proposed policy change any second so the motion was moved by Mr traber second by Miss Casimir all in Army and he just sorry I apologize any discussion or debate regarding recommitting this back to committee seeing none of we're going to now vote to recommit 9280 in its entirety back to committee roll call please okay oh okay yes yes sorry okay Mr traber yes yes uh Mrs Perez yes Mr kolovic no Mr bennahan Mrs Kashmir I'm sorry did you say it again okay thank you your microphone's not picking you up um Miss Brown I'm sorry Miss Brown's left the meeting okay thank you um Mr macaron yes Mr Lombard yes okay the motion to recommit back to committee carries oh so sorry
082you're absolutely right it's point of order Miss Baptist Perez Mr bennahan yes okay the motion carries to re-uh oh sorry sent it back to committee 9280 the motion carries the next item on the agenda is is discussion impossible action regarding library media renewal project Dr Jenkins leave your proofresenting this thank you good evening to this evening I'll be presenting phase one of the library media renewal and this evening I will be co-presenting with Lisette Valley she is currently the library media specialist at Park City magnet school and has assisted me tremendously in gathering feedback from the other library media Specialists to inform decision making and recommendations thank you the agenda for this evening is to review the goals of the library media centers within schools provide you with an overview of the library media purchase
083process the review of materials process to facilitate a short presentation of the pebble goal and PebbleGo next Resource as well as a short presentation of BrainPOP resource to give you an introduction to planning for phase two of library media renewal and finally to present the requests for approval the American Association of school librarians identify several goals but the three goals that I'm sharing with you align with the goals of this project we want to provide intellectual access to information through learning activities that are integrated into curriculum and we want to help all students achieve information literacy by developing effective cognitive strategies for selecting retrieving analyzing and evaluating synthesizing and creating and communicating information in all formats and in all content areas of the curriculum so this goal is to support that type of thinking across
084all the content areas science social studies math engineering number two we want to provide resources that support learning experiences that encourage students and others to become discriminating consumers and skill creators of information through comprehensive instruction related to the full range of communication media and Technology and to provide resources and activities that contribute to lifelong learning while accommodating a wide range of differences in teaching learning styles methods interests and capacity so these are three of the goals from the American Association of school librarians that have unguided the process so there are multiple types of literacy that relate to library media centers for this purchase we focused mostly on information literacy we want our students to have the ability to recognize when information is needed the ability to locate analyze and use effectively the needed information for
085projects reports research we want our students to know how to find the information needed for any task or decision at hand the ability to think critically about varying types of information and analyze and whether it's the right information for the intended purpose our next phase will address more of the media literacy and news literacy I'm going to introduce Lisette vajay the media specialist at Park City magnet she has a vast knowledge based especially about media resources she has worked within our district at the high school elementary and middle school levels and she's demonstrated leadership with the other media Specialists to capture the needs of the schools as well as the district we do not have a director of library media so I was grateful that Lisette was willing to collaborate and support me in the
086process media Specialists have met monthly to review different products that are listed at this time I'm going to give Lisette a chance to provide a more comprehensive overview of this process thank you Dr Jenkins good evening everyone as Dr Jenkins mentioned my name is Lisa vaje and I am the librarian at Park City Magnet School part of or one of the major pieces of this process for us has been as in regards to district-wide Librarians is to ensure that we reached out to as many of our certified Librarians as we have in our district to ensure that we have a nice base and expertise in bringing in and recognizing the resources that we need um with that said on our team we've had representing representing classical studies Geraldine Johnson High Horizons Multicultural Beardsley Harding um
087Madison Reed waltersville Marin Dunbar Barnum we've also included um the expertise of our speech and language pathology Pathologists um and also in collaborating and connecting with our I.T department and our academic support instructors that they have on staff so we wanted to make sure that we Encompass all that expertise to ensure we're reaching out um to everyone and to ensure that we have um recognizing our districts very diverse population inclusive of our bilingual students our special education department the talented and gifted the AP course students that courses that students take um so we wanted to make sure that we have something for everyone and the US you know in addition to the goals that Dr Jenkins mentioned as part of the American Association of school librarians is that we want to make sure that we
088have Equitable access and what I explained to our team is that means that no matter what ZIP code I'm in if I decide or my grown-ups decide that we're going to move to the west side and I'm at a different school that that library is also going to have the same resources that my old school had and so we're making sure that across our district we have anchor content and as I mentioned anchor content meaning that regardless of your school regardless of your ZIP code you're going to have the basic the similar information and access to resources the additional piece of that is recognizing that we have certain special programs in certain buildings that won't be at others and so those buildings with those special programs would be um be included in having additional resources
089in those library media centers so that we have something for everyone for example we have our medically fragile students we may have someone who's visually impaired and need high contrast print we may have someone with mobility and so may not be able to manipulate maneuver a typical paperback book so we would ensure to have resources for example we call them like chubby books or the board books that would be easy for a student to to maneuver and use those resources the other piece of it too is taking into consideration um digital content so yes books in print magazines in print but also having ebooks having digital magazine subscriptions having databases that our students would have access to Via our class link so closely collaborating with our I.T Department to ensure that that's integrated and our
090students have access through our through their devices as we are a one-to-one district um I wanted to be sure to include and there are to mention that um we're also considering and looking at resources in different languages our district our top three languages in our district all the languages spoken are Spanish Portuguese from Brazil and Haitian Creole we also have numbers of Pashto Mandarin Chinese Arabic Turkish and Farsi so we're taking into that into consideration and always with the on with the mindset of willingness to be open and hearing like did I miss something did we miss something and then being willing to listen and to receive that information a different view how do we address that and how do we ensure that we're incorporating that so that we continue with Equitable access for all
091of our um close to 20 000 students and here in our district um one of the things or one of the resources that we're um that we're looking at to consider is this digital access is um PebbleGo and so yeah we're just gonna switch screen here just as a quick um show so that everyone sees this is this is what PebbleGo looks like um and so as I mentioned this our students would be able to have access to this via class link so they would it's a one sign in um through their um Bridgeport Public School portals and this is PebbleGo students have access to resources and this is a sample of what we would have access to our students would have access to um so this is just our research whether it's animals in
092science biographies which we know like first uh some of the the resources at our um at some of our libraries are very outdated and so biographies is one thing that's huge in regards to us needing to ensure that we have um resources that are relevant and that students want to read kind of thing um and so here we have social studies and health these resources for PebbleGo are also available in Spanish there is um this is Kinder through second grade we have PebbleGo next which goes uh third through fifth grades and then we have access to ebooks as well uh one feature with um PebbleGo is that these books uh would be permanently belonged to the to our district so it's not like they expire um you know they download them onto your device and
093then they're gone for a while uh after a while they're there they're they are our devices um and so this is Pebble go and then in addition we have um this is BrainPOP and one of the things that um that we as as all the Librarians that have been on our team is we want to make sure that we have um anchor content so I know that at Park City magnet when I talk to students about citing their sources and MLA citations um and where do you find the copyright date um where what does it mean when you're looking at a magazine how do I know that this is uh current information where do I find the date that all this like anger information that all our students should have access to and I tell
094our students all the time especially when they say to me um we have the site our source again all the time I'm like yes and I and I tell them all the time I promise you that what we're learning here in elementary school in the middle school you're going to use it when you go to high school and if you decide to go to college you're going to be able to use that it's not to say that you're going to know it like right away to say this is exactly how this citation and goes but you're it's familiar you've had experience handling it writing and citing your sources and it makes you think about when you see something for the first time not to just believe it really quick it's like hmm let me just
095do my own research right it's so it's all about having Equitable access and ensuring that we have good quality sources across the district and so one of the things with BrainPOP specifically we looked at that they have a whole unit or several units in regards to citing sources and so this goes back to again as I mentioned regardless of your ZIP code if you're moving to another side of other town of Bridgeport you know that you have or your librarian will have access to this as our staff will have access to this where the students are going to be able to continue their lesson on whatever it was that was being covered and so it doesn't um it it doesn't dampen the fact that we're going to maybe add I prefer to read or this
096is one of my favorite stories that I share with my students and maybe one of the other Librarians has another favorite story that doesn't change like we still get to have that little bitten to integrate that in what we do with our story time and our our teachings with our students but this is like the anchor pieces that this is like quality um information and a source for the students and it it goes with the piece of um we have video so if we have students who are struggling readers or just emerging readers we have the video we have it so that these um both of these sources have it so that it reads the text to the students so again if we have our English language Learners if we have um anyone who's just
097learning to read that has that additional supports built into um it's like an additional feature that's already built into this here um and so this here is BrainPOP and it's one of the across across the board with our team everyone um really thinks that this is like an important resource for us to provide for our students here in Bridgeport stop sharing it [Music] okay um Lisette is going to provide an overview of our planning that we have launched for the second phase of library media renewal we are only requesting approval for first phase resources but I wanted to give you a glimpse of what second phase resources that may come to the board look like thank you so a part of our second phase in planning for our library media renewal is to ensure that
098we have student voice and student choice in what we're providing in our libraries and one uh vendor that we're working with is called bookalicious and this content is specifically uh grades K8 these are books in print we've talked with this vendor of course because for example at Park City we have close to 500 students so there's a lot of hands handling the books so we want to make sure that they are hardcover it's a good quality um and so in addition to to that piece of it again going back to student choice and student voices that um there we've have we've been able to create a survey and that will be distributed district-wide Dr Jenkins has a selection of books um that um that I was able to get from bookalicious just so that we
099can see the variety of books um and the quality of the books um so the survey is going to be distributed to students in through grades K through M8 in all of our schools including the Bridgeport Learning Center those students in our Rise program and our lead programs and so the idea is to in like as I mentioned to ensure that we have students choice and uh students voice and that we understand and know what it is that they like to read like what do you want to see on the shelves of your school library because what what does it matter if I have a collection of ten thousand books if no one's reading them um and so we want to make sure that we have that students have a sense of ownership in this
100in their space in our school library as you know being the center of the school um in regards to making the um the survey available the logistics of that it would be shared out through um class link a notification Our IT department collaborating with us and pushing out that survey to the students where they'd be able to click some of the questions might uh would be like what do you like to read how do you feel when you get to read your favorite book um is is reading easy for you how does that make you feel that kind of thing so we have that social emotional component to get a gauge of how students feel about reading and what they like to read and what they would like to have in their own School libraries
101um in regards to bookalicious and Cur and curating the collections um the company has a group of literary mentors um and so they they're going to ensure that our collections reflect situations and current events because we want to make sure as I mentioned you know that we have who's the most current president what's the social uh thing happening in the world and so this company is thorough in regards to ensuring that they have on their team people who will enable and be able to provide us and ensure that we have an up-to-date and current uh collection and resources for our students um and in addition to student choice and student voice the Librarians in our district our school media specialists in our district will also be able to identify specific genres topics and titles that
102we would like to have across the district and all of our school libraries there will be a special consideration to cure collections for special situations for example a school that may have a specific program that is not available at one of the other school buildings and so that's part of that piece of it and our magazines what we did was we created a survey you know um asking what would they like to have in their school libraries for magazines in print and the intention of the survey is to collect that data to identify anchor content so that all the schools would have these specific magazines and we're currently looking at digital access magazines as well and that would be um so again all the students in our district will have access to those resources um
103let's see in regards to the middle and high school that is also where um looking and working with a company and a person that's called a jobber and the jobber's responsibility is to connect visit the libraries have meetings especially at the high school level to ensure that the content and the resources are um appropriate for our high school level taking into consideration our magnet programs our college readiness programs and of course our students in our special education programs that are at the high schools and ensuring that we have resources at the high school um at the middle and high school level that are appropriate for our student population um and let's see our sub goal in sub goal in regards to the public library the connection with our Public Library is so important uh the
104resources are there for all of our residents Bridgeport residents um and so for myself personally at my school library what I've done is um I make it part of an assignment and so I'll send a note to the parents to say you know everybody needs to um get their public library card it's free September's is um Library sign up month and so the students their parents take them they get their public library card of course making an exception in that maybe someone has mobility issue can't get to the library so those are special circumstances that will that I take care of and go directly with the branch manager but inclusive of having access to the Bridgeport Public Library and all their services that are available to our Bridgeport residents they have access to ebooks they
105have access to downloading music all of that stuff and then we also have the Connecticut State Library and so I have worked with um a person at the Connecticut State Library as well as our I.T Department I.T director and so any one of our students can access the resources at the State Library the um State libraries Network recognizes that they're accessing their database from a bridge board school at the Connecticut State Library if you are a Connecticut resident you have access to all of their resources and so part of an extension of making sure that our students have access to good resources they can also use their public library card to access the Connecticut State library from home in addition to going to their local neighborhood public library and borrowing resources there or participating in
106the programs that are available for Bridgeport residents and that is our planning for phase two I just wanted to add on in regards to the goal of getting as many children to have a library card beyond our five-year contracts if you agree to the purchase we would have access to the library for more resources and our purchase of books may not include some of the most popular books such as the diary of the wimpy kid you know so that children could have access to the diary of the wimpy kid that's very important in the lower grades so um that's one of the other reasons as well so in addition to um the bookalicious to put books on the shelves and the K-8 schools the focus would be for the remainder of you know starting next
107year looking at purchases to support media and news Literacy for grades 7 through 12. we've purchased maker spaces in I.T Department that we haven't leveraged yet and making sure students have knowledge of media literacy and what they published has to be grounded in Integrity that they need to be able to analyze all forms of communication they need to understand what is actually credible information and have that discernment they need to know whose stories are highlighted in media and whose stories are not understanding certain populations may be marginalized that's the type of literacy instruction we have to expand um for our grade 7 through 12 students foreign so the request for approval includes pebble goal for grades K through two five-year subscription um pebble goal for next for grades three through six a five-year subscription um
108the e-book collection and activity bundles um we would own them after the five-year subscription um once that ends and we will receive complementary virtual PD as needed across the subscription in the quote that was provided to you the subscription discounts are based on purchasing a multi-year contract and we are prepared as advised by our CFO to pay in full um so there's no multi or gradual payment in regards to BrainPOP for grades k through eight a five-year subscription um BrainPOP comes in Spanish and French um Papa go is only in English and Spanish they provided BrainPOP High School sites have complementary access for the five years as well um they've also added in BrainPOP for English language Learners complementary for five years um they did give us a once year subscription to science that I
109didn't put in um we're launching a new science program so I don't know how much we're going to use BrainPOP for science next year we didn't want to take away the focus from our Discovery Ed adoption but we will have one year of BrainPOP science um you know for free they're providing 12 on-site PD sessions per year and five virtual PD sessions per year and they're offering a certification program that media Specialists may want to take advantage of and become like certified brain poppers so the request for this first phase of media renewal resources which are primarily digital is one million two hundred and fourteen thousand one hundred and eighty two dollars and 50 cents foreign and I just wanted to answer Mr Lombard's question he had presented um back in I believe it was
110February Mr Lombard wondered if our students participating in early college courses dual enrollment courses with colleges or universities every student that's in one of those classes has access to um The College library database so that is already available to students participating in ECE and dual enrollment courses with universities that's that's yes the request is always last [Music] thank you Dr Jenkins thank you Miss bye I'll open up the floor to any questions or or comments discussion uh from the board members to the library media project so Mr Bennington is he is probably way more than yours Mrs yes higher oh so go to Mr bennahan and Mr Collins are libraries from the school what they doing if they have this kind of programs you know I know some libraries they have this kind of you
111know this kind of program I was waiting for the end because everything looked nice but at the end that's what I want to see and nothing is free I see that price you know and I know we sure are so many things how many hit we had to hiring things I know I must say it's not important but we have we got things behind there dude we know we have to hire it and I just want to know what our libraries our schools are doing because I know they have some programs I know that we have um bigger fields on libraries in the district open like a new field you know it's open it's my it's meant it's open they have a lot of programs for our kids and just can you answer me that
112question please so what the libraries or the media centers in the buildings represent is a way to support Literacy for our students specifically at Elementary level and now the extension at the high school level so with programs like this you'll be able to provide additional supports to students to be able to access those fundamental skills to be able to read on grade level also in each of our buildings we have media Specialists that provide coverage for um prep enhancement for teachers so they do see students across the grade levels to be able to do so programs like the ones that misvaya and Dr Jenkins spoke about will be used during those periods as well yes because we straight no it's another means to be able to support literacy but we have media centers that are
113there and we want to be able to provide up-to-date information and books in the access to be able to find literacy so one of the things that Dr Jenkins spoke about was that students need to be able to get library cards so they'll have access to books with programs like the one she spoke about today they'll be able to access those they'll be ones that they can download on their student devices and continuously have access without having to go into a library to do so so it gives additional access for that also gives an opportunity for parents to be able to support it because they'll have access as well through that one-to-one device that students have is exactly yeah they will be for five years of fetching right this is a five-year subscription it's gonna
114be hot well this is a one-time fee so this This 1.2 million dollars will um contain all of the five-year subscription for um all of the three programs that Dr Jenkins spoke about let's say for the recording I'm not gonna get a friend that knows reading is very important that the Jenkins and everything for the for that amount I prefer to bring a lot more about a professional homeschool communities and people that are School in our teachers need so I just want to say that for the record no more comments no more questions mad and why share thank you thank you Mr Bennett yes I got uh four questions the the funding source is operating budget Grant assessor yes sir thank you uh next question how many media Specialists do we have in the system
115now currently to my knowledge is 19 media Specialists we have eight schools that do not have who have more than eight schools we only have one high school with a certified media specialist um and of the 28 Elementary we have 19 so eight schools that do not have certified media Specialists media specialist is a shortage area Statewide okay all right I got three questions this is my last one could we possibly go back to the BrainPOP next slide this one no I'm looking for uh the demo she was using yes because there was a the first it was the first presentation oh for the record Ms Brown has rejoined the meeting maybe maybe I didn't mean it was like four books on the screen the main the main point being one of the books on
116the screen was American Indians and an American Indian history I'm not too happy with that language there because as We Know they're not really Indians they're Native Americans and I want to know if um how much this was vetted for current up-to-date language and identification of different people because I would want to find um another book about people about the old Asian term Oriental um I can I can examine the Pebble go more closely um about PebbleGo go next when listening to videos that were shared I thought that the text was sensitive so when they were talking about Alvin Ailey as a dancer they mentioned that he was a member of the LGBT lgbq plus community so one of my you know awarenesses and I think that we're speaking about it in cabinet will our
117families be comfortable with that much Advance representation of of our diverse Community you know do we screen out some of these things so I mean you're not you know comfortable with the term American you know Indian those are some of the things we will have to explore as a community because when we have diversity we have that diversity of language piggyback on your point I'm not looking to screen it out I'm just looking for more racially sensitive language around the term on food we don't want to ban any books but I do want to be sensitive to our community because we do have quite a few Native Americans in our system not not a large majority but proportionate enough that might come across this and find it offensive and I'm just think we should be
118mindful of the terminology we use in the terminology the the book plans are using um I mean if you want me to inquire more I can um I wouldn't be able to go through every bit of content um I do know in regards to racial diversity um ethnic diversity both products have it gender diversity um I can ask can that tile be changed I don't know it's something I can inquire but I will say that it's something we probably could and really need to discuss more because when I heard the video I'm comfortable but we have a very diverse community so would a Middle School Parent want that language shared in a video I don't know right so I'm saying that there's a lot of content to vet in order to make sure we're sensitive
119to the needs and diversity we even have religious diversity in religious values okay yeah last last time I'll hop on this point but this is their sales pitch and this is on the front page of their sales pitch which is I just don't know what we'll see in a deeper dive thank you Mr sakolovic Miss Casimir I see your enthusiasm so I apologize for it [Music] em vice president you're welcome um I I just wanted to piggyback uh off of what Mr sokolovic said and this is because I love going to Native American powwows like I like going to the ones Upstate New York and stuff so um and I just know for a fact that they are trying to scratch the word India now and they want to be called native people is what
120you're told but again it's a catch 22 because I see your point because once you start delving into these films and documentaries they more than likely are going to be using that term so um that's it just a comment but just definitely please recheck yeah just um the language but but I see the um the importance of it absolutely Mr bennahan thank you I have a question where the 1 million to 114 992 will fifty cents I'm not gonna I'm not gonna forget that number where is the budget where the money is going to come stay sorry I thought I was off my bad I apologize Mr bennahan um that question was previously asked and it is Arps or funds am I correct yes and I I think I omitted a major piece of information
121from the presentation to my knowledge I don't think we've purchased materials for our media centers as a district since Maybe 1998. the media Specialists they hold Book Fairs the Scholastic Book Fairs and that's to my knowledge how they purchase materials for their schools we haven't purchased materials for media Specialists to fix a book they do not have magazines unless it's a site-based decision and they have a partnership with organization and that organization buys the magazine in 1998 the state of Connecticut had a major funding stream of income for called the early reading success and Statewide libraries purchased books but to my knowledge Bridgeport Public Schools hasn't done anything to this scale and speaking to Ms baje today the American Life American Association of librarians recommends that we spend 15 to 20 dollars per child annually
122so that would be about three hundred thousand dollars for our twenty thousand dollar population of twenty thousand population of students so we haven't spent any money on media centers in over two decades so I know it's a lot of money but every child now has a device in addition the digital piece is to help students to become digital consumers I mean just the other day there was a photo of Donald Trump being arrested and he wasn't that was misinformation but how many people know it's misinformation and how many people know how to check that misinformation so when we bought the devices we actually entered a realm in which we would need to educate our children differently so I I definitely understand your concern with the amount because I live here too and those taxes are
123they're real so no matter what the decision I just wanted to just provide that bit I didn't want to say it to like Leverage it but I guess I just wanted you to know why we've probably we've probably allocated overall three million dollars over two years to build up the information Hub within each school and our high schools haven't had a remake I don't know when they did it maybe when they did construction it may have happened for the high schools I just wanted to share that it's been a long time to clarify it's coming from ARP that's why I want to know the amount of the money um I believe Marlene breaks it down but I do know it's Esser funds I don't know like she'll tell me which code when I enter it
124if it's approved but it it is not operating money it's money we must spend by the end of next year this is the money they want to be complete without you know the budget our kids and everything I'll be fine but it's going to be conflict that's going to be issued with the money all our kids it's going to be a problem so I'm sorry a problem issue you know because we really know we need funding we we tie and many things you know that Dr jenke but it's going to be extra money like you say I know how my music I work the numbers I'll be fine with that no more comments no more questions Madam chair thank you okay I'm gonna go to Mr tray bar and then Miss Brown um thank you
125madam chair um so you're saying that we're not replacing anything with this since nothing's been done since 1998. eventually we will be making book purchases so that will be a replacement the media specialist will be able to um because I mean I I don't think I was clear so I'm sorry for interrupting but I just because I you're you I think you're going in a much broader okay there's not a current equivalent of this that we're now deciding okay it's been five years we're putting in we want to buy a new one no current that was all I meant um and these books that you offered up for the quality of the books obviously aren't K to eight right but they they will be equivalent there will be similar books for the upper grades yes
126and um given this new the the presence of this New Media Center in the schools so there's New Media resource in the schools um the lack of staff that you just mentioned in response to Mr sakolovic's question would suggest that it's going to be a fitful implementation um so is there some thought given to how we how we get it to work to its maximum uh without the certified media specialists in all the schools um the classroom teacher can leverage on Pebble go to do projects When I visit the schools often students are engaged in projects but they're using paper biographies that schools have purchased as an example so the classroom teacher would be made aware of the resource and shown how to use it to support their projects in classrooms students in the Elementary
127grades are always doing um projects on animals that's like one of the most popular topics around so the teachers would be you know shown how to do it if there's not a staff person available so doctor it's it's just because my mind is got to shake some rust off here we did get a new digital resource while I was teaching in the last five to ten years right Mayan was the digital research we had understood the rest is there right Fran Rabinowitz and we had it for three years ah okay so we don't have that anymore right okay but this is similar but maybe better I'm not it's new I just heard about it so I got it Mayan with digital books yes it wasn't a database for research it didn't support no I heard
128that part I I know we used to use other resources for that but the access from home and the ability to pull and draw on that yes thank you Miss Brown thank you okay we we will not own the package we're renting the package for five years to know that even if you said point of personal privilege Miss Brown yes really bad connection maybe Dr Jenkins is better than me but I caught like every other word could you repeat your question again hopefully the connection is better sorry is it okay no you go in and out I'll just put in I'm gonna assume you say chat but okay okay thank you well Miss Brown types her question in the chat go around um Mr macro is no longer in the meeting okay and then this
129one part is no longer a meeting I have a few questions and then I'll see what Miss Brown wrote and then we'll go to Mr sakovic um so I have a question so ownership of the materials is that all the materials provided or materials downloaded and actually used by the schools when with Pebble go we purchased about 1500 e-books at the end of the contract we will own the 1500 e-books ebooks are quite expensive I believe we're purchasing them at ten dollars an e-book they normally run about forty dollars in ebook so we will own the e-books at the end of The Five-Year subscription but PebbleGo and Pebble go next that's a temporary subscription thank you um this is redundant and I don't mean to make myself sound old but we don't need any kind
130of special access to get to the e-books this electronically so we would be able to pull it whether it's cloud-based or on a server for our school it's our 1500 books once it's purchased correct okay then I felt old asking that question um no then um I had a question regarding the trainings I have written down 12 on-site trainings for the district and five virtual trainings for the district is that correct for BrainPOP yes BrainPOP okay and I can't read my own handwriting right now so that's fine um oh you have my time to the floor they did get Miss Brown's question and she just was just seeking Clarity um that this would live oh same question this would live past Sr fund access to the e-books that you just answered yet yes okay and
131then Mr sokolovic yes were there any other programs under consideration um we considered PebbleGo because it is one of the lead media special meet lead media products um it's the number one award-winning product for library media centers we considered BrainPOP um so we've chosen two of the most leading we did not go back to Mayan because it's normally with not within our reach it wasn't it would take my own would probably take the million uh what kind of times sensitivity do we have on this purchase other than Esther funds um if you wanted to you know wait to answer this question it's it it could Mr Traver um I I'll ask this and it may be that I just need to do some catching up um so the use of this as an Esser fund
132meaning the the money that we got from the feds um is it are we have we had the discussion about putting it here versus do we have options for putting it into other places all right is that a consideration and so I shouldn't revisit if I don't know if I'm being clear but I know that we're about to try and pass the budget and we're going to need to figure out where to get money when we find out what money we're going to get from the state of the city um and what other other sources we have um so is this money that we should wait until we make the big decision on everything else or move now then that may not be directed just at you Dr I don't know who's the right person
133to answer that if that and if that wasn't clear I'll try and clarify it that I I think that's an opinion based question um in terms of or maybe I just don't necessarily completely understand we have until next year to use the money are you talking about just reallocating oh I'm talking about we need in doing the budget this year we have various places to try and use together the money we need to operate a school system and Esther would be one of them that I know is going to expire in a year and a half a little over a year but do we is this money that we should wait until we get to the big discussion about the whole budget should we make a peace decision here I I guess that's what I'm
134just trying to understand why are we making a peace decision on this not that it's unimportant I'm not trying to question the value of it but given everything else I see this as sort of isolating one thing let's decide to spend the money on that now versus everything else and if I'm wrong somebody tell me why I'm wrong I'm happy to be told them so what I will say to that is um there was a plan of how Esther funds would be divvied up prior to me coming into this position and I know there was an allocation that was made to be able to renew library media materials to do that but more poignant to what you were speaking of there about the operating budget in our deficit areas in that regard there is a
135plan on the table to be able to support where there will be a deficit area if we don't get the appropriate funding from the city and the state accordingly that does not impact necessarily that 1.2 million dollars [Music] do we want to hold this 1.2 million to decide whether we want to spend it there every year and somewhere else well that that would be really up to what the board is but I just asked that we when we're making that decision that we think about what Dr Jenkins did speak about is that there has not been an update to these materials um since I was in high school um so that is an extremely long time um here in the City of Bridgeport and if we keep talking about access to education and providing supports
136to our students um we know we don't we don't know if we're ever going to get a windfall like this again but being able to put some um resources in to be able to support that I have a follow-up I'm sorry I'm not mistress um how much does this because I know what the library the Bridgeport Public Library offers is is tremendous um and are we how much of this overlaps with what they offer are we duplicating services because I know you can get movies and as you said you've rattled off a list of things and I I know my wife is in an expert on all that but we we go to programs we go to different things and the Brain Pop is uh instructional tool to support content to support students as Miss
137vajay said with um citing resources their units on plagiarism so BrainPOP is a tool students can consume but it's more teacher directed PebbleGo Pebble go next provides access to information and a contained environment currently if teachers want to provide that information they have to curate on the internet like they have to try to find the safest length to give children versus knowing that this environment is safe our children aren't going to click something and something else pops up so the library doesn't provide a resource like PebbleGo however that's why I mention a sub goal because five years from now we're not going to have it and massage shared that most of the children at Park City have a library card I know most of the children at waltersville have a library card how can we
138expand that so when we don't have this resource children have access to those Source some sources at least for reading because I don't know necessarily if teachers want to go combing through the library I did it but I don't know if they do I would agree with you about that I'm I'm more looking at the the resource of the books that you were talking about and the ability to access those books right versus the uh the pedagogical or the educational benefits of these programs I'm sorry I was looking up competitors the PebbleGo basically the Trump the comment Mr sokolovic uh yes to Mr traber's Point there's I've been in the beginning since the beginning of the Christ of covert crisis and the certain buckets that the money is allocated well we did not that we
139do not necessarily micromanage that and one of the goals with the spending of the Esser funds is to try to prevent the fiscal cliff but the physical cliff is coming up but this is something even though I'm probably going to want to stall this in a minute but this is a program that would be great to approve if it meets all the criteria because what Esser funds expire at the end of 2024 25 always get confused 24 this 24 fiscal school year this will live on for four more years as a program and then the hard copy then not the hog the hard copy books will still be here and you said 1500 ebooks as well we will own after that and that will live on Beyond Esther and then I think that's quite a
140prudent use of funds that we wouldn't be able to find anywhere else to put that would have such an impact thank you Mr sakovic um any other questions or comments because you yielded the floor um this is the question going back to miss valle's presentation and it was mentioned that materials are were surveyed like the magazines were they surveyed by all students a sample set of students or in is it built in particular like the children at Park City really likes ABC magazine where the another school like EFG the media specialist did the survey of magazines because I asked that we have anchor text that would be the same across schools with bookalicious we pushed out a survey to students we do not have that information because the survey size the sample size is small
141it's either 24 2800 and we have 14 000 students so that's why bookalicious was pushed to phase two because we don't want to buy books without capturing a larger number of students in their voice thank you um now we are back at quorum um so seeing that this is not a immediate purchase and there's some at least on my popular concerns about the language one quick question is this the one we have access to the link to explore to make a motion to postponents while we get the additional information that about the American Indian and uh see if any of this is competing since it's not a time sensitive issue and it'll be I think it'd be Prudence to make sure it's not a prevalent thing throughout the program emotion's been introduced to postpone of
142the renewal of the library media project and it's been second it's been introduced by Mr sakovic second by Mr bennahan I'll open up the floor for further debate and discussion regarding the motion to postpone up I have a question Dr Jenkins um if we were to purchase it now or if it's postponed when being purchased at this moment I guess tell me what the timeline is had we approved it tonight what would have been the steps or what could be the steps before it it's approved it goes to CFO the CFO puts in the numbers for Arps or confirms it's from arpser and then it would be available the start of the next school year or is it available start of summer uh I guess kind of like the the timeline for implementation is so
143it's ready because if I want to know the consequence of if we postpone it or push it down to committee and then it's passed in September how we would actually introduce a launch mid-school year of a new project so Mrs Siegel would prefer to purchase before April 6. [Laughter] that's the deadline for entry however when Mr sokolovic shared his you know thinking around the term indian I know that you know we could ask of course because he's a board member for a different date I'm just but that is the cf's old cfo's preference because closing down the district takes a long time she says okay Mr traber I guess piggybacking on your question I guess what's the I agree that that's not a desirable goal to start you know to buy in the fall nobody's
144I don't think anybody's suggesting that so what's the the deadline do we want to implement it for the summer which has its benefits in terms of training the staff and getting ready for the following year there's nothing teachers say worse than finding out in the last week in August we have this new program for you to think about with regard to running your classroom this year um so it would be preferable to have it sort of some lead time built into that so what would be the deadline for us to get it all ready if this is the way we're going to go how how when do we have to make a decision by I am going back to the cfo's recommendation but miss Perrin can I I'll interject thank you Dr Jenkins so we
145probably will need to know probably within the next four weeks or so in which direction because we do have we're planning a teacher leader Institute at the end of June as we prepare for the next school year as well as we want to be able to roll out any new initiatives or programs that we have during that time okay Mr Supply so just for clarity I mean the chemist actually miss Siegel let's uh let's get clarity postponing is to the next regular board meeting will have no impact on educational implementation of this program thank you sorry cut myself off okay so emotion Mr Bennett um when you know when I say they agreed to post morning because I would like to learn to listen more information enough for you with Madame by share they're supposed
146to come bring bring this in one of our committed it was introduced in my committee already yeah um but I feel it's getting more more details more information so that's what the reason I said you know to postpone thank you and we'll come back to the full board I don't think there needs to be additional vetting for committee and as mentioned during committee reports teaching and learning is going to meet the end of April Miss Siegel probably have a heart attack though um just kidding um Miss Casimir just one quick um unrelated but related question have you seen a trend in like increase in kids that are using um ebooks and audio books I was just thinking of the different learning styles have you seen like a upper Trend with them using more electronic um
147ways of reading or is it about study over it let's you know say it like the last two three four years well due to the pandemic our students have gotten better at reading online we assess our students on our Statewide exam online so they must have skill with reading digital and printed text a child learning to read in Elementary grades it's better for them to have printed texts when learning to read pebble go reads to the child so they're listening to content almost like they would on their phone I mean students consume a lot of content on their phone so it's really tappeting tapping into our students being digital natives so we may not be as comfortable but they're more comfortable getting information through listening and viewing then you know at least my generation thank
148you um Miss Brown do you have any questions no comments and hey thank you um so again there's a motion to postpone this to the next regular board meeting it was second by Mr Benny Hinn um seeing that there's no more discussion uh we can now vote on the main motion to postpone action regarding the library media renewal project all in favor of postponing until the next regular board meeting all right hi uh all opposed any abstentions the eyes habit this item will be Revisited at the next regular board meeting the next new item for new business on the agenda oh man Mr Garcia this is from my committee teaching and learning is discussion and possible approval of fmx software for building operations facilities is Mr Garcia still there I'm here thank you for sticking
149along um it used to be at the end of the agenda oh man um I'll just quickly uh say this was presented in teaching and learning uh no I like facilities um health and safety and Facilities I think it's a fishing process for how our facilities are being used and Mr de Garcia will give additional information on it so pretty much what we're looking for is going to be a change to the policy the current policy is a manual policy um when someone needs to request uh renting our facilities it's a manual process what we're looking to do is change that policy to give us the ability to bring in some software so folks can do everything online currently um it's a very cumbersome and costly processed as you've got to engage several folks um
150we'd like to bring a software in so folks can do the applications online they could pay online they can see what facilities are available um if there's any needs attached to the rental of that space they can make those uh requests within the system um so everything is is managed within the system and then it's just approvals from a couple of us as opposed to engaging several folks um we see it as a way to uh streamline the rentals and take the ambiguity out of um folks that you know want waivers and other things um you know they have to upload all of their documentation and make sure that their payments and everything are um done in a timely fashion so like that you know we're not chasing folks for payment or for uh you
151know Insurance Riders and things like that so um pretty much just to change to the current policy that's uh manual to uh uh software-based online process any questions thank you Mr Garcia um opening up the floor to board members any questions regarding the fmx software for building operations and Facilities I have a question Mr Traver just to make sure I understood I know I'm I'm behind the curve on this this is just to deal with rental of our facilities okay thank you I just have a comment I think actually having a software to do this would bring us into the 21st century um Mr Garcia during the committee level showed the tedious process and when we have multiple outside organizations trying to use our facilities uh a platform already there that shows clearly whether payment
152insurance all the information necessaries there whether a venue is there um it just makes sense and Mr Garcia can you I believe this was really affordable right how much was it it was under ten thousand dollars I don't have the exact number in front of me uh Mr sakolovic yeah I was at this meeting I was I was very impressed with the low price of the software and I did it I did want to demonstration of the software by putting um all the lighthouse uses about building and finding the true crust that we will be recruiting if there were private companies using it because as we know we only get was the 75 000 per year from Lighthouse and I'm sure if they exceed that we're using costs so I'll probably be asking for you
153to come before finance and show us those numbers uh we we have those so uh when you're when you're ready we can uh share that with you thank you so much great sounds like it is already people ready and willing to use the data from the software for their committees uh are there any more questions comments uh this is for the discussion item right now there's no main motion on the table unless someone wants to make a motion motion to approve the purchase of the fmx software for building operations and Facilities second okay so the motion to approve the fmx software for building operations facilities has been moved by Mr sokolovic second by Mr benningan is there any further debate or commentary regarding the motion on the floor right now Mr traber just to make
154sure I understand so for instance lighthouse Willer won't use this everyone's going to go through the system because um in order for us to have an accurate um inventory of what's being used we have to input everything so when someone looks to request a permit whether it's external or internal it's going to run through the system and like that we have a clear picture of exactly what's going on and so that would also apply to internal meetings like the Union um so there's there's two categories of things when it comes to usage of the buildings there's the permit process which is the larger stuff that's going on the day-to-day stuff that happens within a building is an activity report so that's school-based um so if it's a school-based function it won't fall within the permit
155process everything else does no I'm not talking about a school-based function I'm talking about like a union delegate meeting yes okay all right seeing that there's none we will vote now on the approval fmx software for building operations facilities all in favor say aye aye any opposed any abstentions the okay we have one abstention and the motion carries fmx software for building operations facilities was passed thank you Mr Garcia thank you everyone we're sticking along with us and now we're up to the last item for new business on the agenda agenda Old Warren Hardin High School building site um uh not sure oh the referral to the board to introduce it by a particular board member but any this is just discussion um so I will address board members who raise their hands I'll go
156around I guess I thought since uh my name is probably one of two remaining on the board that's actually on the new Harding building I was here not through the whole process but through the probably like six months prior six to eight months prior to the river ribbon cutting and this is all about the video this conversation would not be happening but for the video that we've had and the board for its part we've got to do better and we've got to definitely create a policy to prevent this from happening ever ever again because what I saw plant speakers microscopes preserved animals books history artifacts of this school uh my stomach started sinking I was I was raised poor and taught to never leave a dollar on the table these are the dollars that we
157failed to recoup as a board as a body that we need to have a policy that does not exist I've heard this has happened on at other schools while we handed them over to the city There's No Exit Plan there's the policies that we currently have are insufficient so I like the listening public to know that we are going to learn from these mistakes and we're going to build a policy that prevents it from happening but we move into the new basic and that's going to be the focus of my committee for quite a while because the policy doesn't exist and in my search there's no real policy that totally fits it so this is going to be new grounds I'm going to bring it to committee and I'm gonna have to have various people
158come before the committee and it might have to end up being multi-committee and a joint between the city and us because there's some City Charter rules that we've got to follow and there is some things but but that could never be allowed to happen again Mr bennahan thank you for the advice here um I agree with Mr Joseph said and I was in shock made me sad made me angry at the same time what I see and um as I was saying in um my board members that uh last former when I was the first year being the board member I asked the last former entrepreneur what we're gonna do and he just saw say like you know it's nothing they can do the city will take care when it was not true it was
159so many things there that I know in the beginning when this happened when that happened over in the new Hardy high school that another school that can use it and a community they can use let's say habitat they can use it for our community it's a lot of antique stuff there that the principal school they will take it to get fun you know money for baseball school but it was it's a shame you know but I don't like when people start pointing and say more education more education emotication emotication I don't agree with that because when they say modifications that's including my name in each one of us and people didn't know exactly what happened to investigate first and find out in top first before they put it outside in social media you know I'm
160not a person on social media but when they attack about education social media trust me that I will attack back because you know people had to ask first before they attacked us and it's a shame that um I was not born member at that time but it's it's sad to see that you know when I know in the beginning when I asked for my first year that situation will be fit but let's get forward let's you know to see what we can do and let the other community like I know you know we're not here to judge nobody but over here to fix the situation in Province thank you Madame Bashar no more comments thank you Mr bennahan Mr traber yeah as a resident of the neighborhood I saw the video it's disgusting I mean
161the entire thing was the fact that they got in and got to go around the fact that people were in there cutting out metal and Scavenging the building um why it's not sealed oh it's just a plethora of questions that need to be answered so I would defer to you all as to the right way for us to proceed but and I agree with you Mr banahan about the finger-pointing um it started right away and my first reaction as a resident was I thought the city took it over isn't it their responsibility to make sure that nobody's inside that building and that there's you know now the question about why stuff was left that's a different thing and that's a valid thing to explore especially when you saw the fiber called the the artwork up
162on the walls in the old library um you know and I think of monger's market and the people spending lots of money down there on some of that old hardware and you know Woodwork and windows so I I think it is valid um wait I want to go around and give all board members opportunity to speak or comment Miss Casimir Miss Brown about my service so I put my comment in the Box I'm not sure is it feeding back your services you know now yeah okay I wasn't sure um so I I definitely agree with um um what Mrs okolovic would think concerning about policy being in place for uh the transition of a school I also believe that um there has to be a conversation with the city and our board on what that
163looks like so that this doesn't happen again I'm also very concerned for any parents or students that you know have Rich history with dinner whether that's artwork or their staff member whatever that may be um that we can keep um in-house because I definitely I was a student at Hardin High School um there was a lot of like basketball trophies things that the school preserved uh from when I was there so just imagine how much more years later um that there's information in there that could be preserved or history related to the building um so I definitely would hope that um as we build policy or you know as we build uh around this topic that we'll be able to make sure that we are doing our part as a board of education and that
164we are importing hands at anyone but making sure that we make sure our house is in order when it comes to you know moving out of a thing and not leaving it to you know where heart it currently is um so I I definitely appreciate that opportunity but I'm also grateful for those on the board who ask for this particular conversation because I do think if we deserve to know what where the board stands on this and what our next groups are in a future problems um I'll just say a comment on this especially given that it's no longer and it hasn't been in the the building site has not been in the custody of the Board of Ed in at least three years is that about right right 2020 um if I'm replying the
165facts correctly um I I do agree that there needs to be a policy in terms of when transitioning a school potentially to a new site what is done with the materials the supplies everything within the building before transitioning ownership back onto the City of Bridgeport um and I think that is the most important and that's the only kind of action we can do at this time as a board is to make sure that that mistake does not happen again and that oversight doesn't happen again in terms of the condition of the building now that's the city's property um it's been the city's property for a while and rfps have been issued by the city with walkthroughs of the site and so I will say allegations of I don't know what was going on somebody from
166the city had to know the conditions within the building prior to the release of that video so allegations to the board and this particular board which the majority of us brand new look today as of today um had no impact or Insight on it seemed a bit unjustified and uncalled for given that there is a bountiful opportunities for development throughout the city and then Mr bennahan yes thank you um I wouldn't add what I say I remember when I was at the BTA so the former bdsl president of Ambassador High School we discussed and we talk about the antique bathroom high school hat right now to move it to the new um basic high school and we have proof of black and white of that so it's something that I don't want people you know
167they think oh the obaster high school they throw everything away no we're going to move few things that I know exactly what is it we're going to put in for the new message so we can remember you know it's it's nice high school never take that beautiful things that Audi High School have amazing because I know I work with that school they don't put in the new heart in high school so you know like if you're saying like you said we had to put it in a policy to be sure that I know it guarantees not going to happen again in that school new basic high school in any school as us as a board member everyone I just want to add that into my Plumbing thank you madam okay is there any more discussions
168or commentaries on a building that is no longer in our possession seeing none that is the last item for new business and now the well there is a motion to adjourn that I would love to entertain solo by Albert benningham second by Mr traybar all in favor say aye aye pass unanimously have a good night