001all right good evening ladies and gentlemen this is a call to order of the diversity Equity inclusion committee meeting today is 1 21 22 the time is now 6 31 p.m and attendance we have Committee Member Erica Castillo myself Joseph Caldwell committee chair board member Bobby Brown chair of the board online Dr McPherson is present uh Central Dickson and I'm sorry I don't know the next person's name is she presenting no no okay thank you Adam and Bob the audience okay thank you first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes dated 121. 22 which I believe I said was the date which is incorrect today is the 30th motion to approve the minutes stated 11 21 22. good Lord so moved I shall second do you see any corrections needing to be made
002any discussion on the minutes no uh I second I see nothing as well all in favor aye aye motion carries the minutes are approved next up is goals and objectives for the committee for 2022 I mean 2023 good Lord I'm still year behind and very much basically exactly the same as we started last year the committee on diversity equity and inclusion overall objectives are to use data-driven information to apply an equity lens the entire Bridgeport Public School System and to identify an animal policy procedures programs or services that are having a disparate impact on any distinct group of students or staff the committee shall seek to rectify any issues found through committee discussion research and will also make referrals to other communities create focus groups and or make referrals to the full board for for
003the action we will also seek to promote initiatives to promote Unity amongst Bridgeport Public Schools diverse student body staff and the Greater Bridgeport School community do we have anything to add change or any suggestions with castilia no sounds good it sounds like a little uh like a mission statement sounds good to me Dr McPherson I think we should like to see Aaron or subtract not at this time no yeah you'll see anything so um Okay so you know what I don't have this as an action item so we can't approve him but I will read them out at the next board meeting as part of my presentation and state everybody sounded okay with it so next up on the agenda is discussion of three-year historic data of certified staff student demographics and comparison side by
004side who's taking that away do we have slides online too I don't think so oh and we don't have slides online you could check your um packets everybody but there is an upstate and of course thank you right there is a there's an update to one of the set of numbers all right are you ready yeah you ready yes please all right first uh we have to apologize we noticed an error in the data presented in the packets regarding the be cast the supervisors or administrators the breakdown of their the percentage and the total head count of our administrators I unfortunately we could not upload anything to the system to provide you all with this different um the different information but focusing on the breakdown from 2020 the the numbers were for those be cast
005which is any educator above a teacher so this could be the special ed supervisors dean of students assistant principals principals and our and um certain Department directors such as science and Performing Arts in 2020 we had a total of 79 supervisors one identified as American Indian Alaskan native one identified as Asian 23 identified as black or African-American eight identified as Hispanic or Latino and 46 identified as Caucasian or white when you look at the percentage that means it was 1.27 percent for American Indian Alaska native 1.27 for Asian 29.11 for those identified as black African-American 10.13 for those who identified as Hispanic and Latino and 58.23 for those who identified as white in 2021 the administrators totaled 87. one identified as American Indian Alaskan native that was 1.15 percent one identified as Asian again 1.15
006percent in 2021 23 administrators identified as black African-American which was 26.44 percent the Hispanic and Latino was represented by nine supervisors at 10.34 percent and 53 supervisors identified as white which was 60.92 percent in 2022 again one uh supervisor identified as American Indian Alaskan native at 1.03 percent I'm sorry in 2022 we had a total of 97 supervisors two identified as Asian bringing the percentage to 2.06 percent in 2022 28 supervisors identified as black or African-American bringing it to 28.87 percent 10 identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino bringing it to 10.31 percent and 56 identified as Caucasian or white totaling 57.73 percent passengers here uh okay so you're gonna do this after the teacher yeah so a breakdown of teachers a three-year the same three-year demographic comparison by race in 2020 we had three teachers
007identify as American Indian Alaskan native which represented zero percent we had no one in 2020 identified as American Indian Alaska native and white 2020 we had 41 teachers identify as Asian that's three percent of the total teaching population we had no one identify as Asian and whites we had no one identify as black and white non-hispanic we had 169 identify as black and African black or African-American which was 11 percent we had 179 identify as Hispanic Latino that is 12 percent we had 11 identified as two or more races which is one percent and 14 unknowns which is also one percent we had 1088 identify as white which is 72 percent in 2020 there was a toast of 1505 teachers um 2021 we had three teachers identify as American Indian Alaskan native we had one
008future identified as American Indian Alaska native and white we had 46 teachers identify as Asian three percent we had one identify as Asian and whites which is again zero percent we had four identifiers black and white non-hispanic zero percent we had 178 identify as black or African-American that was 12 percent we had 195 identifies Hispanic Latino that is 13 percent we had 13 identifiers two or more races one percent we had 15 identifiers unknown one percent and we had 1080 identify as white 70 percent in 2021 there was a total of 1536 teachers and then in 2022 again we had three identifiers American Indian Alaskan native which is zero percent we had one identifies American Indian Alaskan native and white zero percent we had 47 identify as Asian three percent we had two identifiers Asian
009and white zero percent we had eight identified as black and white or non-hispanic zero zero percent I'm sorry one percent we had 188 identifiers blackened or African-American twelve percent we had 177 identify as Hispanic Latino 12 percent we have 13 identifies two or more races 13 that is one percent we had 20 identifiers are known again that's 20 sorry that's one percent and we had 1061 identifiers white which was 70 in 2022 there was a total of 1 520 teaching staff uh any questions uh Miss Castillo no sir no questions Miss Brown no questions at the moment okay could you um if it's one of you ladies can go into the packet and go over the student demographics probably sound as I said I sent you an email with three pictures on it it's on
010the come on can you get them you got you got the yeah we got the pack goodness just to break down please all right so um this is for this just for this coming for this current school yeah okay American ninja and we have 103 students uh for Asian we have 370 students the black African-American we have 5540 Hispanic 1166 students native Hawaiian other Pacific Islands are 22 students two or more races 380 students and whites one thousand five I'm so sorry 1 687 students you want the percentages for that um they actually highlighted I just sent the picture all right Quantum might as well why is all this so important if we look at our student demographic body for this year that's is they possibly like that a little bigger if not it's okay
011Hispanics make up 58 of our student body and they make up approximately 10.31 of our administrators and 11. yeah 11.3 11.64 of our teachers and the same thing you look at the African Americans you see 29 African-American for the students and then you see our teachers are 12.3 12.37 not as a wide disparity as with the Hispanic teachers to the student ratios but large disparity nonetheless and of course you see the white students at nine percent and 69 of those teachers teaching our students our education which is wonderful we love teachers of all racist colors and Creeds but we need to do better at recruiting I know we do best in the state probably among the best of the states in our recruitment effort and it's not easy but I would like to find ways
012to improve on our numbers not improve on the no business Stanford not the rest on our Laurels that we're doing better than anybody else do better next year than we've done this year and that's why last year I've we kind of set a goal on it to try to increase the um incoming cohorts diversity by I think I can't remember the fact that like a five or ten percent factor and let me see I can't even see if we've met that did you break up the next slides you know as well because it it says something when you look at the pie charts side by side or I want to sign myself no one after the other please tell me about the administrator yeah all three teachers hit teachers first then students then administrators and
013instructors can you do it that way please now we see the Hispanics in the yellow African-Americans in gray and white in the blue to the students I apologize I thought we had a slideshow in here uh now you can see it's like almost the exact inverse of the numbers between Hispanics students versus Hispanic teachers and Caucasian students and Caucasian institutions and and that says like can you do the administrators please the administrators is not going to be correct the pie chart all right never mind thank you thank you for pointing that out again uh yeah so what current initiatives do we have to increase our diversity pool in our teachers so actually um I met with my diversity equity and inclusion team we're doing a training uh through CES but part of it her homework
014was we talked about action plans and what we can do so one of the things we are focusing on like you prepare had prepared today's data collection so in addition to these this type of data we want to know more about tracking applicants like who is applying and then what happens during the process of these applicants if we have 10 uh uh people of color applying what happens between when they apply to when the job is filled so we're looking we're going to look for debt on that we're also focusing on exit interviews like getting information as to why people are leaving our district if you saw we saw a marked decrease in Hispanic and Latino teachers in one year they dropped a decent amount I noticed between 2021 and 2022. so we want to
015focus on why people are not remaining and we want to focus on why teachers of color are not remaining in the district we want to also focus on you know one of our biggest resources of our new hires are their student interns our student teachers so we want to focus on the demographics of those interns and student teachers so again focusing on and working with the local youth schools and universities to obtain their data on what their head count for their students enrolled students of color keeping track of how many interns of color or student teachers of color we also want to pull data from the State Department of Education see how what how their data reflects on their diversity and their own employment we want to focus on student diverse student organizations we also
016want to reach out to the schools uh as we've all realized and it's been constantly reported the numbers of students or people enrolling in education programs is decreasing tremendously and I think we fed out this past year maybe the science uh two students going on to teach science there might have been a couple in this year's class whereas in the past there might have been double digits so we want to track where where is the decrease really is it overall um is there can we see if there's a mark decrease in candidates or people of color going into the teaching profession so our first things to gather as much debt as we can and from there we take we'll take the data we'll review it and we'll do we'll focus on creating different strategic plans
017to address that one of the things we we have done and we'll continue to do is um and I think someone mentioned this in one of the meetings focused Partnerships it's nice to have Partnerships with every school but we want to make sure we're having Partnerships with the right schools we want to make sure that we're focusing our time and energy on the schools that can give us what we need so focusing on schools that have a higher level a headcount of teachers or students of color that are in their program we are working on attending a lot more job fairs and hosting job fairs last year we saw the return of our in-person job fairs we've signed on with an onboard uh online platform to do online job fairs and we are signing up
018we have four job fairs coming up in February and March and I'm sorry one in April when we're going to look to expand Beyond Connecticut we want to we're looking at job fairs in the Philadelphia area we're looking at job fairs in the Boston area within reason um recognizes that some of our local students do go out to these other states for education and hopefully we could go in and bring them back to Bridgeport we also want to make focus our relationships on the local schools and local universities start attending um more like informational meetings attend freshman orientation attend any type of informational meetings they might have geared towards people going into the field of Education if we could get out there and say hey as part of your program to become a teacher you're
019going to need to do a b c and d come to Bridgeport we will work with you as your intern your student teaching and when and if all goes well we will hire you so we want to focus and get them from the beginning and maybe encourage people to go into education by going to freshman orientation now with that um part of uh my committee we were talking about is feed more present it and making us known that we are a very diverse um staff when you see as you see in a lot of the data a lot of the administrators write it is we do have a high level of um administrators that identify as white we are talking about how when you go into an interview and if everyone you see is white
020and you're someone who's black and and things you know how that might feel how it might impact on you as the person interviewing you as the person being interviewed so we want to create something where people can see that we are actually pretty diverse we have room to grow in our diversity but we are diverse so we want to make sure that people can see that we have all different ethnic or racial representation and we're continuing to grow and we're continuing to try to expand that we want to keep reaching out to our local alumni people who have gone off to school but are now back in Bridgeport maybe they have connections or um suggestions that we can do so tapping into that also looking at maybe former uh teachers or administrators who worked in
021Bridgeport Public Schools but now work at a higher education level they might be a good resource to make contact with and get a hold of them and get our foot in the door to make ourselves known and start keep on recruiting everyone again one of the things um Beswick Chandler mentioned Bridgeport numbers but I'm sorry Boston public schools has an amazing program that they do so you know one of the things we want to do is look into their program and look at other successful school districts that have been successful at recruiting and increasing staff of color and not so much copying their tactics or their strategies but borrowing them and making them unique and most effective and efficient for Bridgeport Public Schools we also want we talk about hiring the other key thing is
022retention so getting you in the door is one thing but how am I going to keep you here we see a high turnover in the younger teachers so one of the things we were talking about is creating we kind of call them support groups or things like that groups of I think Beswick mentioned um there are this group of men black male teachers or black male administrators and they meet once in a while to get together so by doing that and focusing on support and professional growth I think will increase our retention which is another key thing we want to get again hiring you is one thing but I want to keep you then we were talking about also advertisements um Bridgeport Public Schools seems to have people think poorly or they are quick to
023conclude or Draw assumptions on all of Bridgeport Public Schools every district has good students every district has bad students this is not a specific to Bridgeport so we want to make sure that we are out there and we are selling Bridgeport and all the wonderful things we have like basic is building an airplane I mean that thing is going to fly soon I mean how amazing is that so a couple of years ago when I first started we created a recruitment video and we had a lot of our um veteran staff we had a lot of diverse members on this video so we wanted we want to update it we want to create it again and we want to highlight the wonderful things that Bridgeport Public School has to offer not only to students in
024the community but also to our staff and you know we are focusing on professional growth and things like that that you know we want you not only to teach our students and this children of Bridgeport but we want to also teach you we want to help you grow professionally so so I know I said a lot so there's a lot but I mean these are things that you know are all the things that we are trying to do and we're trying to work on and we're hoping that even if we could increase our percentages by two three percent for this upcoming school year we're going to be hitting Peak hiring season soon so I mean if we could just increase a few percentage it's the step in the right direction absolutely ask me any questions
025no I'm just really impressed by the thorough um you know report that you just gave about all the different strategies that you're using um do you need like any help implementing some of these things or what what I need to win Powerball well yeah we all need correct a lot of it does come to financials and you know that's where we are impacted the most is that we cannot financially compete with um the fairfields the norwalks and their salaries so I remember talking and I said one of the things I liked about Bridgeport is that despite being the largest District in the state we operate on a small district field like I remember and I tell the story that it was there was an emergency at a school um last year and on the phone
026was ranged down from the superintendent um social work um the director of Social Work the principal HR and so it's no matter what it's it's you know we do come together and we try to sell that to offset what we cannot offer financially but I think you know it's I'm open to four ideas if anyone has any interesting recruiting ideas that we haven't done I mean we are definitely open for suggestions we're not we continuously try to think outside of the box for example one of the local businesses was um they were releasing all of their I think their accounting and business department so we thought well hey maybe we could try to reach out to them and see if any of them are science or math um bachelor's or they hold a degree and
027we'll train them and work with them to get across to getting the certifications so I mean other than money just support and ideas if you think if you know someone then let us know anyone who can help us if um ideas on what where best to advertise or recruit we're open for it you have to go oh who's yeah it's not somebody that we know through security is Castillo I think Miss Bobby has her or Miss Brown has her hair committees first though okay uh Miss Brown yeah I was gonna say um I appreciate the um the thoughts and the work behind uh doing the research because when the research on finding what is the interest for staff members that are you know on their that are different races I think that is very very
028ethnicities is very important because last year we were talking about especially looking at the Hispanic population of students versus teachers what you know and and I'm not Hispanic but I'm I'm also looking at culture um is is teaching like a large part of the culture that um those individuals who are Hispanic go into is there is there an interest there because I can only speak for being African-American there was a um there was a large push I believe when I was in college where a lot of the Educators a lot of African-American students begin to push in for the education stance and become teachers and I I truly believe you know that the idea of making sure that those that are teaching reflect our students and that was like a major push just in the
029black community alone so hearing my friends and hearing different individuals saying they're going either into the um the education field because they missed that um individual that looked like them teaching I didn't have a lot of those when I was in Harding but I do have a few I mean Miss McPherson is also one of those people but just like people that you know that look like you that actually put you know they are the examples as to why you want to go into that particular field so I um I I really you know appreciate um Miss Dixon and your in your thoughts behind you know doing the research and finding out is this a cultural thing is is it is it that a lot of Hispanic households are not pursuing the education um track
030if not what track are they pursuing and is there an opportunity to not really say like try to convince them to do otherwise but expose them to the educational track because that also thinks about what our students are going to go into once they get to College what are some careers that may interest them and we hope education fingers crossed is one of those tracks for them so that was one thing um the other thing as I was listening um I've had a quite a few uh individuals reach out to me I'm concerning this and one thing that they had asked have we looked into the hbcus um the east coast is not really um full of hbcus we're not the Hub of them unless you're going all the way to um DC or the
031DMV area but I know a lot of students who are in who are now um going into education or may have gone into education they should be out of school by now but I'm not sure if if they've decided to come back home and teach I do have a couple friends that and this is just my personal experience I have went back to their I went back to the places where they graduated to teach because of pay um because um Connecticut or you know Bridgeport and you know example does not have the the proper pay or high enough pay for teachers but as we know this is across the world but just thinking you know um maybe um I know that Housatonic and a few other places are adapting the HBCU model uh to really
032expose students that are either um in um in the two-year track or the four-year track two potentially go into education um quite a few different Community leaders have asked me about that as well and I I saw you shake your head so I'm assuming there's something either happening or on the rise so that's good to know um but I'm really rooting for um hbcus and Multicultural universities that will give you know that have students of interest for this particular career but like you said you know when we were talking about this last year with Mr testani is that first of all we don't have housing for those individuals that are looking to come back home so once they get here and they realize the cost of living is more than the paycheck you know now
033you have to juggle between what am I going to stay here make less or you know stay here and not be able to have a home or build a family so as we're thinking about those particular areas that brings that diverse Community um you know these are the things that come to my mind but that was just a whole spill but I do appreciate the research and I do appreciate um the efforts and as I you know continue to build um learning the different communities and the marketing aspect I'll definitely bring you guys back ideas that we're currently doing now so if I can respond we have tried we reached out to the hbcus and you know I'm not opposed to traveling down South for a job fair I would love to um but I
034think you know when we think about the finance part of it but the logistics in that a lot of the uh peop a lot of the students may not want to come up to Connecticut interestingly that um you point out housing so Michael Brosnan and I we he hadn't there was an article and I think it was I in the midwest somewhere where they worked with the city and created um affordable housing for teachers or city employees and I remember jokingly speaking to Janine Hawkins about doing that I'm like well what wouldn't it be wonderful if the city and the Board of Ed can work together and create some type of affordable housing and a lot of these um vacant warehouses or things that are slowly being redeveloped and offer this lower income not lower
035income I'm sorry subsidized to housing for those who are employed by the City of Bridgeport and those who are employed by the Board of Ed to right to recruit and bring people in I mean right it's expensive to live in this area and let's donate we talk about taxes so it would be an amazing idea if we could work with the city to create some type of housing for as an incentive to bring in not just two for the Board of Ed but for the City of Bridgeport employees absolutely I have one more question Mr sokolovic is that if that's okay yes um so so on that point um you don't have to go far you don't have to go far Miss Dixon to really reach out to some of the hbcus as well um
036there are a lot of fraternities and sororities are very connected within the communities that have connections with HP hbcus professors um and also students that are coming home to you know coming home into the different communities and that's something that I can definitely like link you up with some of the the fraternities and sororities that that the education is one of the main components that they really really push um and they may know some individuals that are looking to work and serve in our community so I'll be sure to like connect you with that but they also do job fairs they also do Career Fairs as well I currently work in New Haven I mean there's always some type of career fair especially with the chambers that are promoting education for those that are looking
037for employment so I can definitely send you some information on that and then um that was just a comment and then my other question would be um since the e-l-e-s-l um students are increasing are there going to be more staff support for those L students and ESL students so one of the um programs that started last year was to focus on getting cross endorsements for um ESL the tesl bilingual staff and that's something we're hoping to continue this year I know Anna Sosa Martin's I don't know how she does it but I think she's probably one of the most successful in filling her vacancies in her department but we try where it's it seems that the bilingual and the um the tesl there it's not a common area and it's not that easy to get
038cross-endorsed and things like that as far as additional support staff up outside of teaching that I am not sure about I can follow up with Tim McNamara who's the assistant director of HR and he deals more with the non-certified staff um there's no other questions for me sorry Steel ers seniors um diploma seniors that are going to be graduating this year please report to the cafeteria what is happening I'm sorry just a second they're doing a little announcement all right good okay sorry um nothing I just um I I want to add you know I I also agree I think that the um the research that's been provided is very extensive and thorough which is really great um I guess I just wanted to add two uh little points of nuance that I think are
039worth considering because I think with Hispanic and Latinos oftentimes we get kind of put into the same bucket and one of the things to keep in mind is that you know not all Hispanics identify as Latino Latinos identify as Hispanic but that's one one point um the other point is that you know Hispanic and Latinos are it's an ethnicity it's not a culture and within the bubble of being ethnically Hispanic or Latino there's many different cultures you know as a as a Puerto Rican woman I can say that culturally my experience is probably going to be very different than that of a Mexican person you know so it's it's um I think you know the Spanish-speaking common denominator seems to be like a good place to be able to um recruit for um you know
040teachers that um are Hispanic or Latino and I think I have seen that on some of the posts from the the Bridgeport Port of Ed you know you do occasionally have um applicants that specialize in in Spanish who are not Latino Or Hispanic right so you have that Catch-22 but I think for the most part the majority of applicants that come through would likely be um either Hispanic or Latino themselves so you know I think if we can keep kind of um looking for creative ways to find Spanish speakers um that would be an effective way of recruiting um Hispanic and Latino teachers because culturally we're it's a very diverse situation and ethnically not everybody identifies as one or the other so that's all thank you um yeah a couple of questions as far as
041um the interview process for a teacher uh you said you mentioned a number 10 I don't know if that was a hard number or just a reference point for um he said let's say 10 apply and oh that was just that was just a number yes so I'm asking um basically if somebody's interviewed and they don't get the job are we tracking the race of the people who interview and are rejected and are retracting those parameters to stop for implicit biases among the higher links no um it's interesting well actually it's not interesting it's it's a little sad we don't have a proper hris system we are now finally working on trying to get something in that's going to allow us to track a lot of this data my office is still back in the
04218th century with paper and things like that so we're trying to streamline this where we have all that data on hand in the computer and we could run all of these um these reports and come up with these hard figures but we don't have the system in place to properly track it um also keep in mind when people fill out applications they don't always answer the questions I know I'm guilty of that at some times I may not feel like I want to answer what is my cultural or racial background but as far as the interview process and things like that teachers or teachers are done mostly at the school level but one of the things we were talking about doing is creating a interview and hiring Committee of Administrators teachers and all different levels
043where we can come in and we could see all the applicants streamline the questions and make sure the questions are uniform across the board and things like that and then we create pools of candidates that have for have crossed our um barrier first where we'll go in and this would be a very diverse committee of people not only in their race and culture but your job position your job title and then it will also help the administrators who when you're in the thick of running your building and you need to fill your three vacancies it's I'm sure it's a lot of work so we're hoping to help streamline everything and it also allows us then also more control over tracking and control over any type of um unconscious bias or conscious bias that someone may
044exhibit or uh during the interview process en could you explain the principle the process of hiring in on the building level finding teachers sure um obviously once we've the position has been posted go into acting track and literally go through the pool of candidates that are there and um contact those candidates um yeah but that's basically it depending on the time of year that you're doing it obviously um like I have a vacancy now about to let me say um and um I've been looking um but because we're kind of in the almost the middle of the year right there's what's in there is and who's in there it's kind of who's been left behind type thing right is that all right to say that first I'll play the fifth on that one about December
045graduates yes well you know that's not that's not necessary and then obviously your your position yeah your vacancy is going to be specific yeah so um but but that's that's the process literally going in and obviously I'm reaching out and making contact with HR for assistance as well but there you go for applicants for that one position I created blessing how would you select the candidate oh so I I never interviewed by myself all right so I'll have um the teacher there not a teacher a couple of teachers there um and whichever um uh auxiliary not auxiliary but sports stuff that might be available because it's the school year it will be easier to pull people together um yeah in the summer um I was able to pull people in through teams right so we
046create an interview committee I have a standard set of questions that HR department had shared with us some years ago used those and everybody decide so we're asking the same questions to each candidate do you know I mean to kind of eliminate um any level of bias so to speak we do that on a forward level as well and uh is the school governance councils involved in any way yeah we also have we'll have the parent leaders involved if they're available yeah yeah absolutely so it seems maybe um that implicit bias trading could maybe be expanded to anybody who conducts interviews because you never know you could see like in a Sciences or the mathematics if you get a bump of crap of of people and you got somebody I'm just gonna pick up something
047that's ethnically sounding these Crews Blackwell and Smith and as far as science position or a mathematics physician and one of those resumes got a misspelling or some verbiage issues because there's um they're from another country so the language isn't going to be all there and that resume may be taught to the side of the language in verb transitions don't necessarily make a science teacher teacher and the front end of placing we probably have those verb transition problems would be native Hispanic that's just some things right and and I think again it's going to depend on the person reviewing this resume these applications um personally I look for whether or not someone is certified I look at their education level like if their bachelor's Masters or sixth year doctorate and then I look at their teaching
048experience or some type of education experience I actually I personally don't look at names right away I look at other key points but again it's each person ha I think would have their own personal style in um weeding out the candidates and deciding on who to offer an interview John that's a good question uh yeah let me finish my I'll recognize you anymore um and as far as recruitment goes uh ideas I recently read in the paper in one District I can't remember well I can't recall where that was using a Visa program from other countries so that um was discussed it's expensive on average um a Visa process can cost a school district approximately ten thousand dollars per person so recently I was involved in the visa for a teacher and one of the
049things we did um do and I was speaking to um the superintendent about it and with the um Marlene Siegel we all we talked about it we had an mou signed where the person agreed to remain teaching in the district for x amount of years and each year the amount of money uh paid by the district towards the Visa is offset if that teacher leaves the district prior to the end of the committed commitment period then that teacher is responsible to reimburse us the remaining money but it is an expensive undertaking question if you know off the top of your head how much do we pay say Teach for America per Advocate that they find as possible their salary not the the bonus that goes to Teach for America for a recruitment effort S I
050don't I don't know I okay because because say it's like if it's like two thousand dollars a year that's five years right there that's the same cost of recruiting somebody from overseas I'm not aware of the Board of Ed paying any type of bonus to a TFA teacher not how to teach yourself what did uh company I am not familiar with what if anything we paid but um uh uh I will have to double check and ask Marlene about that one they recruited a few Hearts uh recruit areas I believe in Science and Mathematics and if they place somebody and they stay X number of years they get a bonus but if they leave and if that's something that's comparable a comparable like right I know TFA unfortunately they're hoping to get a group of
051um candidates for the 24 20 24 25 school year right yes I think okay Miss Kennedy I'll recognize it um in reference to recruiting when you guys were talking about recruiting I know that my um my sister go to she's a part of me I've eight well she's a founder of VIP um always going to hbcus so that's the connection Bobby knows her she was in VIP so she's connected with them they know they know her first name basis down there so also going back in history a little bit there's been times when people that I know that have never gotten an interview and they can be black they can be Hispanic never got an interview that's a fact I can give you names um so that's part of it when we talk about implicit
052bias and stuff like that that you guys were saying so I would definitely say get in touch with Teresa Wilson refers to how you can hook up with those hpcs that she takes buses and buses for the last 30 years the children with children on it to the hbcus and how to reel them back in one of the things that you guys were asking about was um said talking about was the salaries I keep hearing that that's kind of bugging me teach yourself bye is the question that we cannot pay a competitive uh salary with the surrounding District we're still all in Fairfield County so I don't know what what formula has to happen for us to become competitive or our schools become so amazing that the teachers are knocking our doors down to come
053here there has to be something because I keep hearing them hearing that we can't pay enough we could to me that's an excuse so how do we solve that problem not not just the instances with the uh uh apartments and so on and so forth how can we get our teaching salaries up I don't know the formula I'll take it uh definitely definitely funding thank you for that question fun are you the City of Bridgeport from the City of Bridgeport from the state and the state as well because the City of Bridgeport does give the second we actually improved to the second lowest purpose you've improved to the second lowest her people expanded here in the City of Bridgeport we will always last for New Haven Canada surpassed us this year because they had a
0542.5 million cut in the last budget cycle and it's it goes hand in hand with the state as well I mean is it who proposed bill out there that's going to give certain districts 27 million dollars additional funding and Bridge the city Bridgeport three million dollars and so they said those kind of disparities the teachers don't that affects the teacher's salary absolutely we've got how many how many teachers do we have 1500 1500 so you get 1500 teachers a thousand dollars raise that's 1.5 million dollars you get that's right yes you give them a ten thousand dollar raise to compete with the suburbs that's 15 million dollars extra in and all budget right there and we've got already we've got a 44 25 million ask for this year to just State even where we are
055with our services so it's important when we think about this that we're competing for the same teachers every District wants to diversify so some some districts will reach out in or for a teacher call it an additional step to attract those teachers and get a little more money but we would have to give definitely got to give money or create such a working environment to make it more pleasurable to stay but but we have money yeah we have the district that has many challenges right the need for teachers has forced us to offer a higher starting salary than we have in the past so we have increased our original uh incoming salaries for teachers but we're also Bound by the terms and conditions of the contract that sets out their rate their salary and their
056raises and when they can get raise increase step increases and everything and that contract is under renegotiation negotiations starting this summer I believe will start negotiating for the new contract for them hmm thank you that's tough Miss Castillo um I mean maybe this is more so something we can defer to um um like our finance committee but I always wonder if there's any way that we can move money around you know to free something up like are we looking critically enough at our spending um and to be able to free up additional funds for this because I do think this is like important this is probably among the top priorities in the district um salary increasing salaries for um for teachers so I don't know anyway I'm just sharing that I think that um I
057always wonder about that it's like are we spending well because this is a big issue it's been a big issue for a long time you know and and even though um you know we have increased our salaries recently our starting salaries it's it's not enough not for not for college graduates that spend you know x amount of dollars on their education and you know have student loans to pay it's not enough salaries in the City of Bridgeport absolutely I I agree I agree with you excuse me 100 teachers deserve more money it's not a matter of willingness it's a matter of ability if you're how you're algebra skills I just want to make a metaphor when you when you balance that algebra equation if you put something on one side you got to take it
058off the other side to balance it out so if we take let's do the ten thousand dollars which is not really ridiculous to compare us to say Greenwich or Stanford salaries and get that 15 million dollar hit that 15 million dollars does in fact have to come from somewhere else where does it come from does it come from maximizing class sizes in all our schools and having the kids shoulder to shoulder does it come from a security Personnel does it come from uh School repair budgets or does it come from the bus stands the kids got to walk two miles so there's always going to be something that has to be cut when you add somewhere else I mean it's a zero sum game we have been suffering nickels and dimes for decades oh imposters
059and yet as we speak about recruiting um more diverse teachers the um challenges yes there is the salary at one point on one part and I've never negate that but it's about finding the candidates yes right so I think that is that is what the Crux is do you know what I mean so it's where are they how do we fight because we're not you know right we're not finding them or as as you shared um there are those who are saying they're not being incidents so I think it's so we can we can get um diverted by the finance but but the um the reason the salary is that's gonna impact yeah um but in terms of where are the candidates right locate in those candidates that we're talking about how do we raise
060that and again to point out I do want to do better than we did last year but Bridgeport is doing far better than the rest of the states and we're oh all Computing for the same small rule if we could free if we could create a situation where the whole pool expands we could probably grab more of those things yourself I don't know what the answer is but I think at least once or twice a year until we resolve the idea is that not the ideas the the the the um initiatives that we each had diversity committees working on um chairperson Bobby Brown mentioned um sororities either Deltas AKA um you know there's other organizations today's students tomorrow's teachers who had uh presence in Bridgeport not quite sure where they are in the high schools
061but it's about tapping as that's already happening right tapping into those agencies because it's doable awesome about five percent or ten percent but it's it's doable sorry Mr is your hands still up or you got another question oh no it's not sorry okay go ahead Miss Casa yeah anything else I just again I just want to go over again um with all the ideas that you have for recruitment do you have an enough resources enough people helping you out with this stuff because I know that all these things take like small details and they you know all a lot of moving parts to some of this stuff do we have a marketing department that could help you out or we do not have a marketing department um and another thing just before you keep going
062um a proper hris system so does that mean that the system is outdated and it needs to be completely like our system is uh we run off of munis which is the city's payroll and um their system we are working with um front line to create something more towards HR and where we can track our candidates their certifications and more of the data and information we need for HR so we're in we're underway with that we did sign a contract with them and we're going through the initial training and then creating the platform oh okay so that's so that's underway and we're hoping to have that up and running for this Summer's Peak hiring season um then my last question is what is the latest time that uh applicant could have a job interview let's
063say if an applicant works all day long and they really want to work for the school system you know what was the last interview time that you guys have is it three four it depends on who's doing the interviews uh we try to right because you do it as a group right right so if it's the school I mean I would have to defer to the school as to when they could do the interview uh we try to be flexible um recognizing sometimes that people have emergencies we though we prefer to do it in person we might allow it to be over teams yeah so I don't think there's a hard answer I could give it okay well I was just thinking on Thursdays maybe for later interviews or you just pick one day and
064say yeah let's give you until seven for just for those people who work all day you know at another job I think that's a great idea and that's something that when I create an interview committee and team that that's something we can look into is hosting um later interviews um one day a week or at least once a month or whatever but I think that's a great idea thank you thank you uh next item on the agenda um any other questions okay thank you so much Johnny and that was a great presented and um Title IX presentations come on okay Title Nine so I did hand um provide a copy of the handout or the training material that is provided that was provided by Bertram Moses we do at least once a year there's mandatory
065training for Title IX officers uh every school has a Title IX officer and then at least one and then there's the district I'm at the district level I am the Title IX coordinator for the district uh Tim McNamara my assistant director is also a Title IX officer so Title IX involves um when there's discrimination or harassment based on sex sexual orientation or gender identity it does not apply to any other areas of protected a protective status and Title IX can apply to employees and students so when we talk about sexual harassment which is where where title when Title IX kicks in is that there's some type of sexual harassment it could be between two colleagues it could be between students it could be a student and teacher a teacher and student or an administrator so
066there are certain um criterias or um standards that have to be met for it to fall under Title IX one is uh when an employee conditions and Aid a benefit or service on participation in an unwelcome sexual conduct that's called quid pro quo quid pro quo sexual harassment it's a this for that if you do this I'll do that another example would be unwelcome sexual conduct that is so severe pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the district's education programs or activities now it's not one or the other it has to meet all three basic criteria severe pervasive and objectively offensive so when this interrupts or interferes with um let's say Susie is making unwanted gestures or comments to Lucy to the point that Lucy doesn't want to go
067to band practice anymore or Lucy starts cutting math to avoid Susie that would fall under the interrupting or denying someone of an educational program sorry I'm gonna take off my glasses now educational programs or activities it's the location event or circumstances over which the district exercise substantial control over the harasser and the contacts in which the harassment occurs so these would be events or situations that occur in school on the school bus on a field trip during extracurricular activities this does not Title IX would not fall under uh students personal or private social media accounts or things that occur outside of the school unless there were additional actions or incidents that occurred inside the school then the the we also have situations such as actual sexual assault Dating Violence domestic violence or stalking which these
068are defined under criminal statutes so the duties of the district when we learn of a Title Nine first and foremost we decide whether or not this is an actual Title IX matter the majority of incidents that are reported to me I do also regularly review the situation with our legal department and they don't rise to the level of Title IX sexual harassment again a lot of it falls under that unwelcome sexual conduct that is so severe pervasive and objectively offensive again it has to meet all three requirements and a one-time incident may not satisfy all of those requirements a pattern of behavior over time may qualify meet all those three requirements but first and foremost um we want to make sure that when we receive uh allegations or complaint of possible sexual harassment we need
069to make sure that we ensure safety and also equality in how we address things a lot of times we want to if for example let's say it is something that does rise to level of sexual harassment we might have a knee-jerk reaction where we want to remove the alleged aggressor we cannot so easily there are certain things that we have to do before we can act or take any acts of what can be considered as discipline so when they say our response to complaints must be Equitable and prompt we cannot delay addressing these things and we have to be Equitable Equitable towards the aggressor as well as Equitable towards the alleged the the victim we have to be fair and not show any bias or conflict so again we here we go again with unconscious
070bias or stereotyping we have to be conscious of that we have to as when a lot of times people for example when you think of domestic violence a lot of people are quick to say oh a man cannot be a victim of domestic violence that's just not that's not possible because everyone thinks it's the woman who's usually the victim of domestic violence that's an unconscious bias that's not true so we need to make sure that when we look at any allegations or concerns about sexual harassment we're looking at it with open eyes and no preconceived notions ideas or stereotypes because anyone could be a victim and anyone can be an aggressor so again I mentioned that in the packet it labels our grievance procedures all the things we have on the HR website you will
071see the Title IX link and under there the Title IX link it it includes the um training material it includes all the forms that we've we have to fill out or follow it includes statutes under which uh Title IX and sexual harassment fall under it includes uh the step-by-step grievance process when we address Title IX there are formal complaints and informal complaints an informal complaint is usually addressed at the school level and this is where we put into place some type of counseling or we adjust the schedule of the students where they don't have contact with one another a formal complaint any person has a victim has the right to seek a formal complaint that's when my office would get more involved and we would conduct a much more thorough investigation where formal forms and
072have to be filled down and signed a non-disclosure um confidentiality and there's sharing of information where we present to the alleged aggressor um the detailed account of what the alleged victim has claimed so not only does uh the alleged victim have the right to file a formal complaint but is the Title IX officer has the right to file a formal complaint so for example if it this involved two employees and the alleged victim did not want to pursue it but there was enough that we as a district cannot turn a blind eye that it has to be addressed then I have the right as a Title IX officer to file a formal complaint and conduct a thorough investigation the thorough investigation can be conducted by me as the Title IX coordinator or I work with
073the Title IX officers at each school a lot to for them to conduct the investigation they will do the interviews they will prepare reports when they prepare a report then each party gets a copy of that report they have 10 days to review it and comment on it when the reports and everything are completed then it is presented to a decision maker now that decision maker might be an administrator at the building or I know in the past when I conducted an investigation I used one of the executive directors as my decision maker so there's steps along the way and multiple eyes looking at the formal complaint the investigation the reports and the evidence presented so it's it's a process that sometimes can take a little bit of time when we talk about trying to
074do interviews and follow up with interviews sometimes when it involves students with IEPs or 504s or things like that we have to take that into account and that's another layer that we look into before we make a decision on is it a Title IX actual Title IX matter as I indicated the majority of them do not rise to the level form a level of a Title IX a lot of the things we do then address it on the school level counseling um we bring in Social the social worker school guidance counselors and things like that in my tenure here I think my office has conducted two or three formal full investigations regarding employees and it's it comes in waves I will um as to how many complaints or inquiries we receive uh last year it
075could be because we were remote learning the years a couple years before but I think last year I probably received I would say around 15 inquiries of Title IX matters most of them do involve the students a handful have involved um employees um just one quick one I guess it's more like yeah it's a question so you said that um and an accuser isn't removed right away like I understand it has to be a due process but I just want to give you a scenario um a female principal is that is accused of sexually harassing a male teacher and that's on Monday and then Tuesday comes and there are just give you a silly example two more male teachers come and say hey this principal sexually harass us too like and then Wednesday you know
076three more teachers so I'm I guess what I'm where I'm getting at is like where does it in that particular scenario that I just gave you where do you say okay well we should at least take this principle off of you know off duty or whatever until we keep investigating I know that's a kind of silly example but I really want to know I think it's different it's different when we're talking about employees so employees I have the ability with um approval of the superintendent to place someone on paid administratively now being placed on paid administrative leave we're not depriving them of any type of due process or anything like that we are not taking away their income and this would allow us to remove the separate this them from the situation while we conduct
077an investigation so there are certain situations where safety has to take priority over everything else and we have to remove someone from the situation if we can't ensure safety by separating from sketch students from their schedules or things like that then yes there are situations that might arise where we have to act before we complete a formal investigation yeah again safety is always priority perfect thank you let's see ya nothing thank you it's brown no questions I got a few um what would you say the most prevalent complaints you got out of those 15 were said that again you said the 15 complaints over the uh over a certain time period what was what was like the onus of the complaints like inappropriate comments um perhaps someone hovering over another person inappropriately um contact whether
078it's intentional or accidentally things like that now I got a I got a couple of scenarios um is there the whole reason I brought this up is because there seems some uh we're talking about gender pronouns at the last one I don't know if you were will you want to call so I don't think so I'm not accepted because um well anyway it came to a shock some of the things that Title IX for instance um questions if some if a student identifies as a female who is biologically male at Birth and that student goes into the female's bathroom that's okay right yes and if a principal or somebody stops them and says you're not allowed to use that bathroom that is what goes with your gender identity that is in fact a violation of
079Title IX no it's not it's not again you have to meet those three criteria so it's it's not it's a one-time it's not um what about multiples you have to say it's the same principle forces that student through the entire time yeah ninth grade school year and a student has complained and says that's not what I'm comfortable in and that's just talking about a random child I'm talking like maybe a gender fluid student right or just in transitioning again it's it's you when we talk about Title Nine the three criteria has to be I lost it on my page for faces it's so severe pervasive and objectively offensive that if it effectively denies a person equal access to the district's education programs or activities now Ken I will play Devil's Advocate and I could and
080I would say well by denying that person the right to use the female the women's bathroom but they could still use the mail the boys bathroom that I could argue that that might not fall under denying um access to the district's education program or activities so I think of a choice if that was presented to me as you said I would probably say no that doesn't rise to Title Nine but we have a lot of other issues that we should be addressing with that administrator and it should have been addressed a long time ago yeah so if it's repeated I don't know it seems like it's creating a hostile environment and putting a student in danger perhaps if the student has point is no good ways to say these things uh if the student has
081say breasts and also mail Anatomy down below okay for that students who have to go into the men's wrist restroom might create such a hostile environment that as students cannot Avail themselves of the educational again you're operating on what ifs and speculation then now are you not saying are you not exhibiting an unconscious bias that's saying that the boys in the Boys Room bathroom or locker room might be the ones to create an offensive or environment for the possibly in my scenario building up a plan so but it's it's not it's not easy it is when you're dealing with something like that it's I don't think there's any clear-cut line it's again it's it falls under like what I might find offensive you might not and so it's it is it's an interesting thing but
082when you look at what the requirements are and when I look at it from my legal point of view I will tell you that it doesn't it would not rise to the legal standard of a Title IX okay so let's let's flip the switches let's get out of the bathroom and go on to the football field okay females or less not transgender athletes playing for sports teams because it's clear law on this playing for sports teams other than their gender at Birth it was a recent case about that um that you might have more of a an argument because by denying a person the right to play on that sports team is depriving that person of a school activity basketball team and a girls basketball team this could still play for their own basketball team
083if they're transitioning to mail or vice versa it's true and this is the the these are established cases yes but I think when you're talking about something that would deprive someone of an actual activity or an event um going to prom or things like that because they don't allow same gender couples to go to the prom or things like that when you're now your actions are preventing someone from fully engaging in school activities or um if we fall on people want to say The Stereotype that uh girls aren't good at science or things like that again so when you're depriving when your actions are now treading into depriving someone of a right to an activity to um extracurricular activities or events classes at school then you depending on the other Elementary requirements I think you're
084more likely to be able to argue or move towards Title IX right and how aware is Staff which I don't know if you notice that people are you allowed to use the proper rest the restroom that they identify with would you say that it would be a lot of confusion there or maybe a need for more education or yes I think I know um this issue came up a year or two ago and I don't know I don't know Carmen if you remember whether or not there were any policies or memorandums issued by the superintendent's office so yes there's always room for further education and um updating policies so as this is in um more and more common event or situation people are um dropping identifying with certain genders or things like that the incidents
085or the occurrences will be on the rise and that is definitely something the district needs to make sure that all of our staff our administrators are aware of and even the students I would like probably fall under an additional Title IX training or that wouldn't file fall under Channel 9 training this would fall under just I think General training um I don't think it would necessarily be under a Title IX training I don't think I mean I don't want to say if something along the lines of a common sense training um but just cultural sensitivity and awareness training okay right it's inclusion right thank you awesome now oh miss Castillo you'll go thank you I had a quick question um do we have a process in place for students that do um choose to use
086uh different pronouns so for example if I was a student in the Bridgeport Public School District me Erica Castillo and I decided to go by alternative pronouns right or if I decided if I was in transition and wanted to go by different pronouns what's the process for that is there like something like how did the teachers become aware of that what are the policies for how teachers should then refer to the student that sort of thing all right sorry Carmen and I were discussing this and neither of us recall no if there's any set policy or procedure but it was discussed during I think the administrator's orientation and welcome back um training a couple years ago that again if a student comes to you and say and informs you that I wish to be identified
087as a b c and d then that information then that should be uploaded in uh PowerSchool and everything like that and that so I think the district it makes every effort to um address that and ensure that our database properly reflects what a student prefers to be identified as okay and so it's really just based on the students uh personal identification the parents I assume are not involved at all in in that process or in how how their child is being referred to at school I don't think we could give a clear answer around that um I don't want to say that parents don't get a say so we'll have to we'll have to look into that as to what role a parent would play because I would also think it might then also depend
088on the student's age in that matter right okay thank you I think that there's some opportunity here to maybe Implement um something a little more structured so that um you know the the way forward is clear so that if we do have the circumstance where a child comes forward and says you know um I I'm experiencing this I'm transitioning I would like to be referred to as such that there's a proper plan in place for how they can go about making that change without feeling that there's no way for them to or deal with them having to um be faced with you know having unpleasant interactions in the school system because there's a lack of Education around you know how we deal with these things and um and I do think that there's um there
089has to be space for the parent voice and how the parent chooses to weigh in on on the matter as well because I think with most students in the school district we are um we are dealing with minors and so um I I do think that there's still um some um thought that is happening realistically amongst our our young people about um you know so this it's a very explorative kind of um you know chapter of life so um I I don't want those those students to feel that they can't outwardly Express or that they don't know how to or they they you know there's no uh implemented process for these things so definitely something worth uh furthering the conversation on definitely thank you yeah Miss Castillo thank you so much for that card that
090was that was my next vein of questioning I did in fact bring this up on the governance committee and we had this basically no policy in place um they say you're my teacher and I'm transitioning to female I say please call me Miss you said you could actually right now in this point in Tennessee no I will refer you to as Mr sokolovic because you have male anatomy and there is absolutely nothing prohibiting and I had suggested that on the governance committee that we create a training around this subject where teachers are obligated to call students by their preferred pronoun and it was a little bit of a significant pushback and talk of indoctrinating our teachers and such like that so it seems to be a very delicate subjects all right I mean but I
091don't know how you would indoctrinate a grown adult for respecting somebody's Choice pronoun but um it's definitely something that we need to look at and as far as parental permissions I mean maybe for the Young I think there's some instances where students can come to school staff for certain things without parental permission if I'm not mistaken like for for instance if they could go to the school nurse and ask for certain items and you don't have to report that their parents your child came and fixed up a condom or something like that from school is that correct I don't I just no only because it's ideal with HR or staff I'm I'm not as familiar with the policies and all for the students but I'm definitely going to follow up on at least the pronoun
092and um the identity how people choose to identify themselves and ensuring that uh staff is respectful of how someone wishes to be addressed is this something we would we as a committee would like to explore further on expanding upon and going down the road because I think it'd be better to find an area where we could um come together as three on some some sort definitely got to be gonna have to be some sort of training I don't know as far as change in policy it would be sticking but um I think maybe some sort of training would be definitely beneficial to our staff and students training definitely and maybe even the board they should sit in on some of these trainings because yeah they came up as an absolute shock that a student would
093be permitted to use a bathroom that's not assigned at Birth which has actually been quite a while in policy in the country so and and if we as policy makers and decision makers are not aware of that we definitely need to become aware of the things that we may be encountering does anybody have anything else on this subject I think that is it okay all right thank you everybody I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn yep so moved or the second oh we're just all in favor aye opposed motion carries thank you everybody great meeting thank you I would never normally sound like you're gonna say foreign