001foreign good evening everyone this is a call to order for the Bridgeport Public Schools Monday regular board meeting Monday January 23rd 2003 2023 at 6 30 pm I would like to have everyone stand for the pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance in the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I believe Mr secretary is online so Mr secretary can you do the Roll Call yes um Bobby Brown here Christine Baptiste Perez present civil Allen Albert bennahan Russian Acacia Cashmere present Erica Castillo Michael macaroon Joseph sakolovic Joseph sakalovic president sorry and Joseph Lombard president thank you at this moment we will have our student representatives to share they're going to share their reports so I don't see any student representatives in
002front of me so we will look at the ones online um please state your name and your school and feel free to start your report um good afternoon my name is Josie nicis I am the student reporter from Fairchild the I.T Department and um we had steam night which was um held on January 12th we also invited in prospective students to tour and do the school we held a science fair Capstone night in an art show at the same time it was a great success with over 500 people in that building we are planning a Black History Month to honor um a Black History Month event to honor the hard work of black men and women we are planning on having hbcus come to our school and um we have the movie night coming in
003February 10th it is sponsored by ptso and student council infotech is also planning to breakfast for I.T industry professionals to come and talk about our curriculum and about how to prepare students for post High School opportunities thank you have a good one thank you is there another student representative that would like to share good evening my name is Lindsay Muhammad and I'm the student representative for the Aerospace school at Fairchild wheeler so these speakers report is going to be pretty short and sweet we had our steam night as mentioned before it was quite a success with many students and parents coming and it went by pretty smoothly um also every student that placed an order in Arrow has received a crew neck with our school's logo and name on it received them either last week
004Friday at the end of finals week or today and starting with that we have finals week is finally over and students have started their second semester classes today that is all I have for you thank you thank you Lindsay is there another student representative please state your name hi good afternoon my name is Julie Estrella I'm the representative for Bridgeport Military Academy um so basically all I have today is um Bridgeport Military Academy held a stock drive with the build on organization to help those in need and it was a success Miss McGinnis is art class uh created a coloring book for Martin Luther King Jr Day these books were shared with Roosevelt students Pre-K kindergarten and first grade the disaster history and disaster science class has spent the day managing a zombie pandemic as
005members of a mock Emergency Operations Center and our CDC scientist while wearing a hazmat suits the lottery for next school year closed on January 13th 591 591 applications were submitted which is an increase of over 200 applications from last year we're so happy that VMA is still a strong program that parents and students are interested in and lastly seniors are working on um having t-shirts being custom made um to have a celebration for senior acceptance day thank you thank you and are there any more student Representatives good evening Board of Education members and thank you hi my name is Isabella oh one at a time one at a time we'll do Erica first and then we'll do you next but Erica thank you good evening Board of Education members and thank you for the time
006to share an update my name is Erica pinto and I'm here to represent aquaculture as a Central High School student Aqua will be hosting the Bridgeport Public Schools science and engineering Exposition parents and community members as well as the Board of Education are invited to see the scientific thinking on display on Wednesday February 1st from 5 to 7 30 in the conference room at Aqua judging will then take place the following day and then winners will be set on to the state science fair I will be representing aqua and it would be great to see some of you there we also started our second semester today at aquaculture and welcomed in a new a couple of new Bridgeport students the aqua staff are preparing for their upcoming compliance visit from the Connecticut State Department of
007Education in March we are also planning on an aqua social on March 10th and our next recruitment event on March 15th thank you for the ongoing support of our program thank you um Jay Lou if I said your name wrong please correct me uh yeah okay it's Julio go ahead okay uh my name is Julia Stewart from Harding High School and in Hardin High School students begin a new semester and many seniors successfully completed and presenting their Capstone projects at the end of the semester the student council is organizing a class versus class battle where each grade will have a team of students competing in a series of activities to win a class Champion students are also participating in a complete FAFSA event on Wednesday thank you so much art is there another student representative
008so that's all of our student Representatives thank you all for sharing at this moment we're gonna open up public comments individuals have two minutes to speak I ask that you be respectful of those that are sharing once your timer has gone off I ask that you please exit the podium into your seat anyone that goes over the time will ask you to sit and then anyone else that is disruptive you'll be asked to leave the meeting tonight there are young people on here we want to respect them and we want adults to be respected as well we have a no bullying policy in the City of Bridgeport and that means for children as well as adults as you are speaking please respect each other share your ideas and please respect the time limit all right
009the first speaker is miss Ann and if I pronounce your name wrong when you do go on the mic please correct me if I pronounce it wrong our first speaker is Miss Anna Baptista foreign person Bobby Brown board member superintendent administrators teachers and Bridgeport community my name is Anna Batista president of the Bea the teachers union I am here this evening to address some of the concerns regarding Bridgeport Military Academy I was just as surprised as many on January 9th to hear that BMA would be awarded on the eight classrooms at the new school I've heard from concerned Educators about the lack of physical space for a school that hasn't even been built I have taught in Bridgeport proudly since 1984 long enough to have seen several new schools built with space both insufficient and
010less than originally promised we cannot repeat these mistakes with BMA we need to ensure that our teachers students staff and the community have a school that will meet the present needs of BMA as well as those of the of the foreseeable future let me provide you with some background the Bridgeport Military Academy is the only High School of its kind in the state of Connecticut which we should be very proud of while it may be a small school it graduates its graduates have a mighty presence be a made both graduates who are currently serving in the U.S military police officers several right here in Bridgeport firefighters and emergency medical technicians the BMA color guard has participated in local graduations and parades also it has competed proudly against other Connecticut color guards and colored birds in
011neighboring states along with the BMA drill team although BMA has only been in existence for less than 10 years its impact on the community the city and Beyond shows how essential it is to continue to function at a high level may I continue and at the end Please wrap up your last statement thank you I'm trying to decide what I Should Skip here basically um this this evening you will hear the uniqueness of BMA let's continue to be Bridgeport strong and build a facility with enough space and technological advancement that it may continue to provide the Bridgeport community with the foundation it deserves thank you thank you so much for sharing our next speaker will be and please forgive me if I pronounce a wrong Lieutenant Brewster Lieutenant Commander Travis Brewster I'm the senior Naval
012science instructor at Bridgeport Military Academy what makes uh BMA unique is our ability to expose Cadets to a wide variety of occupations within the realm of community service professions be it the military police fire department emergency services and a specialized all the specialized fields in between we construct our curriculum so that it builds off of each other and all tied together to reinforce our school motto of services others before itself I teach Naval scientists who's only found at three other schools in Connecticut and our school is unique because all of the Departments work together to develop Cadets to be outstanding citizens of the community country and the world our award-winning color guard has presented presented at parades the Boston Celtics on the USS Constitution which is the oldest Worship in the United States Navy has
013performed and it performs annually at the Bridgeport Public Schools convocation as well as the Houston tonic and BMA graduations our drill team is placed as high as fourth out of 20 schools in the past and performs annually at the Houston tonic and BMA graduations and is also most recently we marched in the Bridgeport Columbus Day Parade some of our Cadets are now in military police Navy corpsman those are military EMTs and firefighters in the Army Navy Marines Air Force Coast Guard and the National Guard these Cadets received a foundational exposure BMA that set them up for success and gave them a 16-month head start on promotions as well as an 800 per month pay raise on day one in the military thank you so much for sharing the next person is Aaron Caden if I
014pronounced it wrong please correct me sorry that's okay thank you all right good evening just to follow through also from VMA I would like to explain why we are a unique School talking about our for um our First Responders program we have a forensics unique program we have Civil Air Patrol we have an epidemics course that we taught and as you heard before we combine and integrate with the other classes we had a disaster history program we worked with disaster science we've talked about the students how they can be in that career how they can focus in developing careers into the CDC FEMA how to work organization skills so some of the things they talk even as having a space for Civil Air Patrol as many of our students they start in simulators they have
015space for the simulators where they can practice flying they learn how to fly they have instructors that work together within the different disciplines to show them how navigation happens how navigation courses will occur and then these students get a chance to go into the airplanes and they fly off Bridgeport airport with instructors from Civil Air Patrol from the wing command that show them how to fly that teach them let them fly the plane in the air and then as a matter of fact we have three Cadets that are going to the summer Air Force program which is leading to a career that they could be in the Air Force they could develop skills and they could be better so not only does BMA have a foundation of integration with the other disciplines where we have
016math science and epidemics working together where we curate our curriculum to teach what the science is involved for a first responder or military skills we also have the ability that we can open their eyes to see that their careers out there and their programs that they could be looking into the future whether it would be first responder with the Red Cross whether it would be somebody in the epidemics working CBC or even getting an internship in Atlanta so another thing we've done also the forensics program we have has gone to Stepping Stones museum for children where we were able to show the elementary students how forensics is applied what is the difference between crime and forensics how is positive note if you can just wrap up your last statement thank you and just to finish
017up the Stepping Stones museum for children the Civil Patrol and our zombie pandemic are just small examples of how we Open the Eyes of students and give them opportunities for careers with this small school that we have thank you thank you the next person is turn the camera onto the speakers is it possible uh yep Sam is looking into it now okay thank you just give us a second okay thanks salsa okay um the next speaker is Robin portal if I said your name wrong please correct me yes thank you um I'm here on behalf of the teacher staff Cadets families and community members who are concerned that the culture at BMA that we have fostered over the years will suffer with the plans that were presented at the board of ed meeting on January
0189th we have a very unique student population and culture that exists in our school I myself am a math teacher and I know that I'm a math teacher of Bridgeport Public Schools but at BMA we have a lot of interdisciplinary lessons and we work collaboratively with the different departments to um promote different projects like for example the math department we just did a build on which was build a better Bridgeport and it was a partnership with build on and the students I mean every math student for first semester was involved in this project of building a better Bridgeport and it is amazing of what these students from freshmen to seniors were able to like imagine and create for a better Bridgeport for all of us um furthermore VMAs lower student population tends to be a
019factor and its attractiveness to prospective Cadets and their families as you heard from the student that our application rate was up 200 this year so word is out there and people are recognizing BMA and what it is valued for and families are really looking to BMA for a good choice to have their students attend our school so the low student population allows teachers and staff to form connections with all the students over their four years at BMA this cannot be said for many high schools and it shows based on its High graduation rates that we have and as mentioned by my colleagues some of these students go on to be very successful locally in the community and even Nationwide with military and first responder positions so um said let's see let's continue to be Bridgeport
020strong and build a facility with enough space right as Anna had said that we have space and room for technological advancement that it may continue to provide the Bridgeport community what the foundation offers and what BMA has to offer to Bridgeport and the state of Connecticut thank you thank you so much for sharing the next person is I want to say maurizo Gonzalez I could be incredible yep if I said it wrong please okay um I am a parent from my kids go to Thomas Hooker but my kids at my kid my oldest she used to go to Thomas Wilbur cross we live on Lakeside Drive um our school district wasn't good she went there for two years and um after that she went into what Fairchild wheeler when she went from those two years
021were not good there for her because when she went to Fairchild wheeler her grades so were terrible there I mean Fairchild had to help her in such a way that she took her an entire year just to get back into her a a status okay after that she graduated from Fairchild wheeler so I'm saying that for a reason I had two other kids had the same sort of problem about the school district I transferred my kids to World War I to um Thomas Hooker my kids are good at Thomas Hooker and ever since all these things are happening right now I mean my daughter has learned disability my oldest did have alerts between my my baby is in third grade all my kids are nervous to go to school because of all all these things
022are going around and because the school district were not updated for over 10 years from Lakeside Drive we're all having to all the good parents are having to transfer our kids to other schools because of all these problems I don't feel like it's it's okay to give all our all our teachers all these headaches we should be narrowing down all these headaches and giving the kids who have problems giving them that that help not just throwing them to a different school just because of easier I just feel like we need a little better better solution to all these problems that's it thank you so much for sharing the next person on our list is Nicole Russo Rivera Rizzo if I pronounce everyone please correct me good evening my name is Nicole Rizzo Rivera and I
023am a language arts teacher at Thomas Hooker I had the privilege of shaking hands with many of you a little over a week ago at the superintendent quarterly recognition we continue to hear a lot about numbers and hooker having the space for cross students and there is no denying that our seventh grade numbers are low not our eighth but as Educators we should not just be talking about numbers we're talking about the quality of Education of our students and what they're receiving contractually we have the space but ethically we do not the right thing to do for all the students involved would be to divide the cross students to several schools including hooker that have open spaces there is a better chance of cross students assimilating into schools into all the school's culture and a
024better chance at closing the achievement Gap if we meet cohorts that are absorbed into several schools if possible we hire interventionists to help with this support many conversations we're having about what is right for cross students but we cannot forget our Thomas Hooker students this is the first semi-normal year due to our own teacher shortages and it is still not perfect at a hooker and it is not fair to drastically change their education in the middle of a school year hooker has two high need classrooms and a lot of time and resources go into those rooms the Band-Aid that you are putting on the situation at Cross will only exasperate our issues at Hooker I urge you to send a second security guard that has a focus on our middle school students this will help
025ensure the safety for our students and our staff we were told that the climate specialist is coming to Thomas Hooker part-time to serve only cross students if the students are to be treated equitably that means all students should be benefiting from his support I do not agree with the complete merger at this time of the school year and feel there are other options that have not been considered Thomas hooker's staff has had many many ideas and no one was listening to any of us I am sure we could all agree that we do not want Thomas Hooker to be left with the same teacher shortage that the cross community has been faced with thank you so much our next speaker is Joel Estrada if I said your name wrong please correct me good evening members
026of the board my name is Joel Estrada as a former student in Bridgeport Public Schools in which I attended Cesar bataya school from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade I believe it's erroneous to take students from Wilbur Cross School and place them at Thomas Hooker School halfway through the year these students will now be forced to catch up with a class who has had longer time longer Learning Time teachers will have to stop their class to catch up the students up all while the issues of Wilbur Cross School being understaffed persists when having a temporary solution benefited anyone I urge the board to take proper and complete action because the education of our kids is not a joke it is a it is state law for students to receive an adequate education do you think the remaining
027kids at Wilbur Cross School will I went through something similar in eighth grade where we didn't have a science teacher instead of students being transferred our principal Mr Sanchez did a deep search and hired a science teacher Uber across School were with you let's unite and address this issue and get the resources you need for your school thank you thank you for sharing uh just the next speaker is Jessica Ortiz I'm probably going to say your last name wrong but please correct me sorry hi my name is Jessica machaca and I am here as my child's Advocate the move is not a well thought out plan this change that you're proposing a disrupted to all students involved there is no well-developed plan in order to make the teachers and students successful in the transition ideally
028it would have been more successful to have known about this move and ask for suggestions you did not think of the multiple issues facing our children on a day-to-day basis Thomas Hooker is already managing issues with mental health and behavior our teachers are dealing with lack of full-time nurses psychologists and guidance counselors our teachers perform multiple jobs during the day to fill those roles adding an additional 66 students at this time provides a greater straining an effort to maximize students learning success and achievement I want to know why Wilwood cross have gone through so many teachers to create this crisis shift as you are deciding try to look at this through an 11 year old's child child's eyes he's very anxious and stressed about this change thank you thank you for sharing our next speaker
029is Wendy Martindale if I said your name wrong please correct me good evening my name is Wendy and Martindale you said it right as a parent and stuff accepted change coming towards Thomas Hooker way with what could have been done in such a better manner for the change should happen at the beginning of the school year and so this late in the game there should have been a meeting and place to discuss change amongst both sides to brainstorm a smooth transition I feel this was underhanded and dirty move on you guys part as a seventh grade parent of a student at Thomas worker I still feel lost with information or lack thereof at about this transition not necessarily been presented all this here is planned but why information is really discussed in the plan there
030should have been more communication to us we felt blindsided and that very loud frustration lies not that there are more kids coming into Thomas Hooker we definitely feel will cross kids should have a proper education and feel very welcome to cut Thomas sugar this seems as if this is going to be a very chaotic transition and not as smooth as you have in your minds we definitely need more resources that you can afford you can't place kids somewhere without additional resources we need a full-time functional staff and support support team and stuff just part-time assistant principal to help our our already overworked staff we have a place like Thomas Hooker we need more we need more than one security guard to help out for instance if something happens Upstairs Downstairs had she been two places
031at once we need another full-time IEP specialist to help with their one we have already her workload is going to increase immensely as well we need a full-time psychologist because this change that's happening both sides both sets of kids when they eat that outlet to discuss how they truly feel and reassurance of being supported when the a4-time guidance counselor to help the eighth graders transition into high schools smoothly it would happen Okay it would benefit our staff more to have a sword program move from um it will benefit the staff more to have the source program removed before bringing in the students we have two Source programs at our school how many other schools have two for pre-k through eighth grade thank you our next speaker will be Conrad Sirens I'm so Ariel if I
032said it wrong please correct me thank you good evening my name is Conrad savario I am uh vice president of the pack at Thomas Hooker so I had many questions last time I was here um I'm pretty sure another none of them have been addressed disappointed in uh is an understatement to say the least when it comes to this board when I was here last week the individual was on this board that are obviously not interested in addressing the problem at hand but want to point the finger I guess a testani um of whom hasn't been the superintendent here for quite some time or basically the beginning of the school year there there were three people in particular this board that you know basically all they did was Gaslight didn't have anything positive to say
033but Gaslight silly issues um that no rational parent would use as a reason to oppose this idiotic plan if you can call it if you can call it that the plan that is the three members well we're not even I'm not even going to mention the names they know who they are um you can't you can't sit here and tell me that making this move is great for all children involved it doesn't make sense how's disrupting another school due to your incompetence and answer you all are being held accountable for your terrible choice I have I have no issue with uh Wilbur cross and they deserve the best education that they that they are supposed to get but not at the expense of the Thomas Hooker children the issue with Wilbur cross maybe has been
034there a while maybe not I'm I don't know it doesn't seem like anything was done to remedy this problem for quite some time you all are getting paid well to do a job one of them is problem solving but it seems you like you you like the idea of schools not operating as they should I say I say that because I say all that because just to say this all of this is just going to cause confusion and Chaos as you can see thank you for sharing our next speaker is Lena Pereira if I said your name wrong please correct me in the past few days I've spent a lot of time reflecting on the Wilbur cross and Thomas Hooker Board of Ed decision honestly for the sake of the staff and the children I
035do hope there is success in this but we have to keep in mind that this plan may very well go in the wrong direction as there are other Solutions you could have proposed to handle the issue but you chose this one how was this path decided on to take now I ask what is your response to failure for those of you feel responsible for the outcome in the last meeting I heard excuses as to why the issue hasn't been resolved in over a year stating at 42-43 minutes that Mr Ben hen or Ben him had emails saying testani would fix it I don't want to hear excuses okay tassani um stating that he didn't do his part this decision is a group effort and you all fail to follow up and do your job to
036oversee the superintendent all right it is my understanding that Hassani moved on to Fairfield school superintendent how in the world would he receive a promotion if he was doing his job poorly nothing creates a greater motivation for a parent to vote against you all then for their child to be negatively impacted by your poor decisions a lot of these parents as well as their families are voters and we will be waiting to see the outcome of your decision okay I'd like to mention that this is an election year for both the Board of Ed and the mayor thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is city council president ID Nevis good evening uh superintendent parent and Board of Education members my name is Irene I was and I'm city council president I'm
037here today um speaking on behalf of myself and the city council as city council president and understanding the situation that is before you as a board of as Board of Education members students and children should never feel unaccepted or rejected in any setting especially in their school each student deserves an equitable learning environment As Leaders we will consider the academic and social growth of all of our children in the city and I say that to encourage that our leaders our community leaders understand that our rhetoric our words also carry over to how our children feel and what they see and the energy they feed off of and understanding the situation after speaking with President Brown this afternoon the board has a difficult decision before them it is never easy to transfer a child for a
038parent it is never easy a transition for a child I can only give a suggestion at this time which could be which you can choose to um take which what I would suggest is the least disruptive path to a child I mean I work in an educational setting with with um Miss Ford here and going from fourth grade to fifth grade to a new school is a transition for a child learning trusting relationships building Partnerships within the school and even for parents so those settings are especially important I'm not saying that the choices you have to make today are going to be the best ones because on both sides Thomas Hooker parents will not accept either one will be upset by either decision but we must think about the children first and support their needs
039and their need for acceptance their need for Equitable and achievement student achievement should be the goal it is unfair that these students have gone without a permanent teacher it is unfair that that the City of Bridgeport continues to have a shortage in teachers which is affecting the whole state of Connecticut but I want to take this opportunity to offer the support of the Bridgeport city council to discuss a situation or solution to support the Board of Ed in trying to recruit more teachers to try and recruit more trained staff but at this time I'm only asking and I implore you as Leaders as well as myself to understand both sides and it's not going to be an easy decision but these children these students sitting here on the left of me have made the decision
040to make themselves present and their space and their emotions and their learning environment should be respected by all adults in this room and by the whole city so I ask you again As Leaders please understand the need and I know it's always about the financials and we're going to be sitting down and talking about that but we have to think of the best interest of the children and their families so thank you for your time thank you the next speaker is Kaylin I'm sorry I'm gonna I don't want to pronounce it wrong but go ahead Caitlyn hi is this too loud I don't know sorry okay I'm so I'm not actually not a student I'm a teacher I know I look like a student my name is Kalyn seslick students know me as Miss C
041currently I teach seventh grade ELA at Marin in Bridgeport I'm loving it I started a week ago so this past September through December I was a student teacher at Hooker I taught 7th and 8th grade literature my experience was truly life-changing both the students and the staff at Hooker taught me more than I ever learned in any class at Sacred Heart University when my student teaching was over I saw that cross actually had an elao position open and after interviewing I learned cross only had one certified staff member that meant cross students were not receiving an equal let alone Equitable education for who knows how long so obviously it took the job I was so excited on January 5th three days before I was supposed to start at Cross I got a call from City
042Hall I thought it was just going to be about final paperwork seeing my start date was three days away little did I know I would be blindsided by the news that cross's middle school was going to be merged and it was to Hooker not gonna lie I cried I was uh frustrated heartbroken worried I was so excited to work at cross with the resilient students and staff that have been functioning and in this craziness for years and now I just get to admire their resilience from afar but what really keeps me up at night is literally up at night is the lack of support planning resources being implemented during the week of January 9th I contacted took it upon myself um contacted as many people as I could all gave me the same answer no
043additional support will be added I even showed up at the city hall had a conversation with somebody sitting at the table here um was suggested that I could be a sub for upstairs do you mind if I finish briefly finish your last statement thank you I suggested I could be a sub or something to do to help was met with the answer that no additional support can be added I understand well I don't understand but um it was worth a shot just to try and get the ball roll this was on um January 9th anyways what I want to end with is um equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome I hope that all of us right now can ask ourselves
044what's equity because this isn't it for anyone so thank you thank you the next speaker is Maria Pereira good evening uh first let me state that nobody on this side of the room is responsible for the debacle between Wilbur Cross School what's going on there which is atrocious five months with one certified teacher for the entire seventh and eighth grade and uh I can tell you and there's tons of reputable Studies by people like Dr Pedro neguera many Urban Educators who will tell you that this plan has no basis or in any Merit or in any way will work okay tons of studies Google them reputable Urban professors the people that on this side of the room should be holding these people accountable please please respect the floor as the speaker speaking please continue there
045are five the top five administrators of this the superintendent the chief academic officer we have a deputy um superintendent now the two alone take over a million dollars when you include fringe benefits five people you have one boss you have I mean you have one employee the superintendent your job is to evaluate higher terminate a superintendent and you have failed at your job because you by your own admission a parent came here and notified you late September early October this was a problem Mike testani said I'm going to fix it but where was the board saying we need every two weeks of progress report we need where was the accountability that is your job and testani's job is to hold his administrative staff now you have four additional executive officers I love Mr planus I
046think he's an amazing individual but I'm sorry Mr pondness you should be teaching math at Wilbur cross school until we get this problem solved it's not anybody's fault here it's your fault thank you our next speaker will be Samantha Cheatham and the Wilbur cross students hi I'm Samantha Cheatham and first off I want to start with we keep pointing the fingers but the fingers are the fact that it's that city council is the ones who go fight to get the money that these teachers that everybody need to do what they need for the city not the school board not nobody else but still at hand these kids here at this school need an education it was brought to the school board numerous of times if testani didn't handle it the school board did do their
047part because it was brought to parent when she was put in on November the 4th so we dealt with all of all of the Rick and calling them dumping them throwing them calling them trash being trashed on Facebook how do we even tell these kids that it's okay for them to get up and go to a school where a bunch of teachers who don't even want them who's tearing them down little by little day by day it's all right I'm gonna tell them to be quiet in a minute so day by day doing whatever they doing but at the end of the day we still got to sit here and listen to them say oh now it don't have nothing to do with the students that's not what we watching in reality we got a
048city council woman just running through this city doing whatever she want and tearing kids down kids though she went too far this time it's not on the school board it's not a nobody we at River Cross is asking for help for our students it don't matter if we go to Thomas Hooker it don't matter where they go these are still School City of Bridgeport it don't it don't matter what you ain't please please respect the speaker please respect the speaker I mean you said if anybody be disrespectful you told me to be quiet I was quiet she just do what she wants please respect the speaker configure we we should be able to as a city put these kids somewhere where they could have an education that's all I'm asking for I'm not asking to
049be talk about the debacle I'm not asking to talk about right or brain go or break time let's hook her over to them one way or the other we gotta sit down because I've been disrespected the whole time I'm talking Miss Cheatham thank you thank you students for sharing and spent representing we did miss a parent at the top so I'm gonna go back uh Sarah malazio I apologize if I'm mispronounced your name everyone Mrs pronounces it um as you can see here we have parents and we have students from Wilbur cross you know at Wilbur cross who are upset we have parents just a second just a second again if there's Interruption on either side or individuals you'll be asked to be quiet and then you'll be asked to leave if you cannot maintain
050at the end of the day there's still children in the room please respect that continue as you can see on both sides we have parents we have teachers we have students who are all upset my child in third grade is upset my child has a story my child used his voice when everyone sat there at Thomas Hooker to express his feelings and those feelings should be considered he uses all of our services what's going to happen when we have half a part-time guidance counselor a part-time nurse one social worker who is overworked past pandemic we have two neighborhoods that apparently these kids don't feel welcomed okay and we have our kids who want to welcome them and they want them to be there but they want the support it's not fair in the middle of
051the year to have these kids just put in without any proper introduction it's not fair for anyone it's not fair for you guys to hear us it's not fair for anybody like I said my third grader is affected by this and it's just not fair we have other choices we need to give them teachers who can give them the proper attention that they need in the schools we can't overload and double our school size because there is something that went through the loophole with Mike testani we can't do that to our kids and we can't do that to them they deserve a proper education and so do our kids thank you for sharing our next speaker is I'm gonna say this wrong I believe it's Matilda Gonzalez I can't understand the right she did okay
052and then there's oh Angel Garcia good evening all right we have kids involved here just a second just a second um you guys chose to be in a position of of leadership I'm in a position of leadership so every decision that I make every single day affects more than 35 hours whether it's good or bad so I very I I better assess every decision that I make every single day I don't think the decisions you guys have made it's the right decision when it affects our kids it doesn't matter which school it is they both all the oldest kids they serve and they need the resources and the City of ritual does happen so you guys chose to win a position of leadership so act like it act like leaders there there's got to be
053a solution to this problem if it's by Merit transfer to another District to another school be it but don't don't want problem to the other if you have a problem in your house you're not going to come to my house with your problems I'm going to dump you out fix your problems to your house and then come to my house why don't you fix every single problem in school and trust me if I can fix the problems in my job I will lose my job tomorrow I don't have to wait for election day I don't my boss will call me you don't have a job okay it's the kids this kids they're on the privilege so they're on under deserved they need teachers these teachers are over stressed I came from New York City public
054park system okay I came here and not speaking no English whatsoever 25 students per class it was really really hard so he takes some nerves for anybody any that wants to be a teacher to apply to the city bridge but to be a teacher because it it takes strong people so approach to them because it takes strong people and you guys just put them in a position to fail that's what you guys are doing and you guys are playing with the future of my kids for every single kid and this that goes to the school take that take that into consideration thank you if you can just wrap up your guys statement thank you and then our our last speaker for the evening is Charles McNeil uh good evening board my name is Charles McNeil
055um I'm actually here I just want to say I sympathize with the situation with the parents and the school um I'm here speaking on on something different but after hearing everyone I just felt compelled to uh to say that that I encourage everyone to try to work together and come to a solution in that matter um my concern uh was actually was listening to the board of ed meeting on January the 9th uh regarding the presentation of the basic high school and I just want to kind of go over uh some things that the residents are feeling uh as it relates to public safety concerns with the new high school coming into the area uh right now Lafayette Street just a little history is a narrow Street uh and it's pretty much uh a public
056safety hazard you have limited parking you have a daycare is surrounded by a number of churches so there's always activity you have the Port Jefferson Ferry traffic you have the influx of amp theater traffic as well as the arena traffic so there's always a parking issue uh you're dealing with excessive speeding as well and uh now we're going to put a school there so there's no it's very narrow when you have two cars traveling in opposite directions and you're trying to get out of your car I can't tell you the number of times uh residents have had their their mirrors knocked off even employees at ABCD same thing had their mirrors knocked off near misses as far as uh people getting hit by cars uh accidents on the corner of Gregory and Lafayette at least
057two to four accidents a year and now we're putting a high school in this location uh so we have to consider and get back to the table regarding the flow of traffic in this area so I just want to ask in closing that uh the board would uh request the follow-up meeting with the developer uh Perkins and Eastman just to review the drop off and pick up and just to give the residents that live in that area an opportunity to give some feedback and in addition uh we would like to be involved with the committee that makes the decisions on the bus routing as well thank you thank you for sharing that concludes public comment at this moment I would like to uh we we will not be approving meeting minutes from last meeting they'll
058be on the next agenda at this moment this is for Chairman's report I would like to everyone to take a moment of silence this week we lost a educator from skane school so I'm going to read her name her name is Elena heropenik I probably am saying her name wrong but I do apologize if we could just take a moment of silence for her in this game School community thank you also in our and Chairman's report I just want to remind everyone that on Wednesday will be the basic and BMA Forum um superintendent uh parent will probably be addressing some of this in her report but just want to remind you all that it will be at Hardin High School um and there are buses that are going to be able to provide transportation for
059those that need it um without further Ado I'm going to turn it over for committee reports and referrals um the first one is education diversity equity and inclusion uh yes we have committee has not been interim we will be meeting on January 3rd 6 30 p.m at Central High School thank you are there any referrals to this committee any referrals online CNN before I go to the next committee I just want to remind the public that these meetings are all posted on our district website they're open to the public for you to participate there is not public comment but you can participate and hear what the meetings are talking about and those particular items come to the board as a whole so you're more than welcome to attend the next meeting is finance yes the
060finance committee met on July January excuse me January 11th to create and it created goals and objections which are as follows the finance committee will strive to deliver an on-time balanced budget seek to increase participation and advocacy from board members parents students in the community at large committee will also Endeavor to highlight The Perils of the coming fiscal cliff and start planning for upcoming potential short pills should be shortfalls should we not receive adequate funding the committee will also seek to increase the Public's confidence in the Integrity of the budget process through increased transparency and scrutiny of the budget process in addition to the goals and objectives the committee presented was presented with the 2324 operating and food and nutrition budgets which are appearing on tonight's agenda along with proposed changes to the permit fees
061lastly the committee is exploring the possibility and feasibilities of additions additional or enhanced auditing of our past budgets highly suggest all presidents today make an effort to understand the budget and realize the upcoming dangers of the fiscal cliff that opposes to our children's education the next meeting of the finance committee will take place on February 8 2023 at 6 30 in Central Library thank you are there any referrals to finance hearing none thank you the next committee is governance excuse me the governor's committee on January 18th and the following occurred goals and objectives for the yeah we'll discussed and we came up with the following the governor's committee will seek to meet regularly to review and update bylaws policies and regulations we will review these items in order that they appear unless another more pressing
062item is brought by the superintendent or referred by the board priority will also be given to policies that have not kept up with the changing with changing government regulations as the committee has been neglected for the last few years the committee will endeavor to operate in an efficient manner to update policies and procedures some of which have not been looked at in decades in addition to the goals and objectives finishing touches were put on the field trip policy and public comment bylaws we also discussed amending bylaw 9010 regarding board members roles all three will be appearing on next month's next on the next regular agenda for a first read I ask that all board members that take an interest in being active participants in change please do so by appearing and participating at the committee
063level where the bulk of the work takes place the next governance meeting will take place Wednesday February 15th at 6 pm at Central Library thank you any referrals for governance foreign on the next committee is health safety and Facilities committee this Baptiste Perez uh good evening uh facilities in health and safety committee has not met in the interim we're finalizing the dates to meet we already have an agenda in place sometime hopefully next week thank you is there any referrals for health safety and Facilities hereinan the next one is Personnel contracts Personnel contracts actually has an agenda set and we'll meet on Tuesday January 31st at Central High School is there any referrals for personnel and contracts okay no referrals the next one is students and Families thank you madam chair um our last meeting
064was um January 19th and Wilson Central High School we have a good um meeting we discussed a lot of things that parents in community want to know but um I have um some question to miss Perrin and I want you um um suggest and find out why is the recent Vegeta on school the three um pts operations are used in PTO and that's I'm concerned because I know they have a um they are pts you know BTS or not PTO so can you please you know search for the principal what they're using that after that everything was fine then it's me it's going to be February 16 2033 in the Central High School library at 6 30. thank you are there any referrals to students and Families foreign no referrals the next one is teaching
065and learning uh very similar to facilities we have an agenda in place we just need to finalize the date due to me being sick I had to move it from tomorrow so once we have a date finalized hopefully sometime next week we'll have our first meeting for the year thank you are there any referrals to teaching and learning foreign none uh we're gonna introduce the superintendent's report Miss Perrin good evening currently um from nursing updates we have no changes to the covid-19 19 guidelines nurses are continuing to follow up on flu vaccine compliance for our Pre-K Scholars and reminders are being sent home to all grade six families regarding the deadline of April 1st for submission of the mandated physical exam form that is April 1st for all grade 6 Scholars the I.T department is
066currently in the process of remediating the defective docking stations at all schools in The District in a progressive fashion currently we are addressing the larger schools first so we can complete as many as possible so this will be taking place speech and language um the update in regards to that is currently all schools do have an assigned speech and language pathologist and or speech and language pathologist assistant in place to provide comprehensive Service delivery to students presenting with school-based speech language needs for assessments our physical education assessment students in grades four six eight and at the high school level are obsessed on the Connecticut physical fitness assessment Connecticut State Department of Education is requiring individual student data to be collected and shared this year so that will be ongoing ngss iabs they are scheduled for
067the week of January 30th through February 3rd this is for students in grades 5 8 and 11 are required to participate the High School Reading Plus students in grades 9 to 12 should complete this assessment next week January 23rd through 27th which is this week excuse me a file will be shared with administrators including student information and will be updated daily to help um in viewing participation and scheduling for mathematics assessments acadians assessments for students in grades kindergarten in grade one will begin today which is on the 23rd and close Friday February 3rd the hmh mid-year assessment for students in grades two to eight is within the same window CT dots teachers have been entering data for students in pre-k 3 and Pre-K 4 so that is ongoing as well progress monitoring for Dibbles the
068next progress monitoring window um is February 9th and 10th ngss interim assessment blocks for 11th grade students uh will be the week of January 30th through February the 3rd for the last couple months on students in across the City of Bridgeport have been participating in the kanathalon this was a nationwide competition and there were several categories that students were participating in and it just closed about a week or so ago and um students in the City of Bridgeport were ranked amongst the nation so for the level up category the school with the highest average of skills leveled up on grade level math who will take home the trophy High Horizons magnet from Bridgeport Connecticut with an average of 63 skills leveled up so nice job High Horizons foreign cultural Magnet School came in number three
069with 47 skills leveled up and Columbus school what 47 skills leveled up came in at number four as well um in the take your time category um Hall School came in number three with a 776 minutes so and they were the only School in Bridgeport who placed in that category um please note for Lexia English this has been purchased for multilingual Learners to address English academic and language acquisition the program integrates speaking listening and grammar and the subjects of Math Science Social Studies general knowledge and biographies this will be launched in March for grades 3 to 12. also we note that quarter three as well as semester two begins on today we have our science and engineering Exposition we are planning our BPS science and engineering Exposition the Showcase night is February 1st from 5
070to 7 30 here at the agriculture school um judging will take place the next day on February 2nd from 10 a.m to 1 p.m at Aqua as well winners will proceed to the state science fair please note also that we all have our community Forum that will be happening Ms Brown spoke about it on Wednesday night at Harding High School from 6 to 8 P.M for those of you who are taking the transportation um that will be available at VMA in basic that will be happening at starting at 5 30 p.m so please take note of that more information will be coming out in regards to community forums in regards to our budget thank you Miss Perrin I would like to open up the floor for board members if they have any questions from his
071parent the first one I see is Mr binahan thank you um um I know and how much you can find out and what is the reason they don't inform us exactly we know that Senate Greg now is the captain of the police department and I know we need somebody to be in charge you know watching you know our security guard so I just suggest for me and you can do the search that we can have um a great police people's security you know what's going on he's been in the system for so many years and I just suggest if you can speak to the captain Grant to have um his name is Mr and it's one since Tron it's amazing is know what's going on he's King such that he can help us a lot
072he can know what's going on in the school he got experience how communicate with the children's clothing and staff everyone this is the cover he'd go about the book and the policy so I just want to bring that to you just in case you know someone and you can speak what caption now to neglect to see we we can work with him so thank you for that information I will share that with Captain correct but right now they have Lieutenant Trisha Parks who has been um taking over the role since uh Captain Greg has moved up I don't think we I didn't know we don't know that so Nino is new for us you know at least you can let us know no I know you know that but you know it's new for us
073yeah she's been she's been working in the district for about 20 years as well she's worked um in the police department and as an SRO as well I hope when you should come in the facility we're not doing them and then she can give us the report you know what I asked for okay thank you you're welcome no more question Miss Brown thank you Mr sakolovic yeah I got a question about one of the student reports from uh Fairchild Wheeler They said we've got 591 applications do we have a breakdown of suburbs versus local no I do not have that breakdown but I will definitely get it for you so 591 applications you want to see basically what percentage it represents our Bridgeport students versus the suburbs correct thank you is there anyone online um
074it's Akisha I'll just call everyone do you have any questions from his parents yeah just quickly the ngss interim assessment blocks for 11th graders can you just explain what that is really quick please NGS as it's the Next Generation science standards so it's an interim assessment that students have to take um usually in grades 5 8 and 11 that they take these interim assessments to be able to track their progress to see um how they're doing towards meeting those science standards it's part of the Statewide assessment that they'll take out in March or April of this year thank you Miss Allen do you have any questions dedicated to the studies make sure that they do and if they cannot do well then always there's somebody out there seek out that person and see a thing
075I talked for many years thank you Miss Alex yes thank you um um Mr Lombard I'm going to hold my questions for the new business agenda item all right and then miss Baptiste Perez no questions okay um before we go into our our there's no old business to be transacted but before we go into our new business um I just want to say there was a scheduled meeting a special meeting on Friday January 20th that did not happen so the agenda the way it's set up um there was technical difficulties as to the posting of the um agenda so the items that are now on this particular specific agenda are at the bottom that I just want to let you guys know we do apologize for not being able to have that meeting um the
076first item on the agenda is discussion of possible action on the 2023-2024 operating budget request and that is Miss Siegel uh good evening to everyone in a moment I will bring up the PowerPoint uh good evening once again uh this evening we are presenting the operating budget request for 2023-24. the presentation is divided into four parts the first part is the fiscal framework goals and challenges the second part pertains to the budget overview for the current year 2022-23 the third part pertains to the budget request for 23.24 and the fourth part is an appendix with Grant funded services bought one consists of the fiscal framework goals and challenges we're going to review briefly our fiscal goals the district enrollment trends the nceep net current expenditures per pupil the school allocation model and fiscal challenges so
077our fiscal goals are a structurally balanced budget a school-based budgeting model School accountability and comprehensive fiscal management and I want to emphasize that our comprehensive budget consists of a financial plan that is comprised of all fun sources and it's designed to ensure cost management but most importantly the most effective educational program possible now our district enrollment has declined over the last few years and you can see on the chart that over a five-year period enrollment declined by 1654 students most of the the decline occurred uh due to the pandemic and in the 2021 school year there was a loss of 800 students mostly at the elementary level in 2122 the enrollment was 19 049 which also represented a decline of 2081 students compared to the prior year and in the current year our enrollment is
078nineteen thousand one thirty three so enrollment has declined um it's it's up slightly in the current year by 84 students but what's most important to understand despite the declining enrollment is that we still have to maintain the same number of classes and the same number of buildings because the loss of enrollment does not necessarily translate into the ability to consolidate classes in addition the bottom chart is illustrating the dramatic increase that has occurred in special education students and English language Learners ell students between last year and this year as of October 1st the special ed population grew by 135 students and the L population by 618. look at the number of L students currently in the district 5028 now that was as of October 1st the number has further increased since that date and the
079special education students equal 3608 as of October 1st now let's look at the percentages the special education students constituted 18.86 percent of the population and the L students 26.28 percent now I looked at the most current data and the comparable numbers comparable percentages as of early January were 19.31 for special education and 26.84 for English language learners in conclusion the numbers are growing and of course our special needs populations require more intensive Services which also have a higher cost Factor moving on nceep means net current expenditures per pupil this is a statistic that the State education department utilizes to measure the finances across districts and on this chart I have indicated uh the five districts including Bridgeport with the highest uh student enrollment so the other four are our peer districts and um this is
080the January 2022 uh report so it pertains to 2000 2021 on the next slide we're going to see the most recent report which was just issued I actually did the update this morning but looking first at the 2021 data of 166 Connecticut districts Bridgeport ranked number 145. and you can see where Bridgeport stood in comparison to Hartford in particular at 21756 per people compared to 16954 for Bridgeport so approximately a difference of five thousand dollars per pupil I want to add that the ncep um is a statistic which includes um all fund sources including grants in and that would also include those grants that are school specific so it it has been documented that Bridgeport is underfunded in comparison to its peer districts and we always like to compare Bridgeport to Hartford and recognize that
081if Bridgeport were equitably funded with Hartford our budget would rise by almost 95 million dollars now on the next slide we have the January 2023 data and as of January 23 for the 2122 school year um the Bridgeport ncep has risen and it's risen significantly why did that happen well it happened because the nceep statistic is including the Esser grants and we expended in uh 2122 uh 42.6 million dollars across all of the Esser grants so the 42.6 million alone um adds a significant amount to our nceep however we are still lower than Stanford New Haven and Hartford and still approximately five thousand dollars per pupil behind Hartford with the inclusion of of all the of the additional funding specifically the Esser grants um our rank improved to number 121. however I want to remind
082everyone that the Esso grants will expire in 2024 as of September 30th 2024. it's also important to understand that the nceep has an impact on the special ed excess cost Grant so this pertains to the funding provided by the state for out of District placements and we are required to pay four and a half times the nceep for each placement as well as a percentage cap of the balance so in the example at the bottom of the slide I've uh included an example based on an out of District placement with a total cost of a hundred ten thousand dollars next year based on our higher ncep we will have to pay 84 407 dollars for each placement plus the cap times the difference between uh the cost and the amount that we have to pay
083and cep times 4.5 so now the cap I want everyone to look at the chart on the right hand side um the cap for many years was Rising uh back in 1516 it was 22.37 percent and it was steadily Rising to 29.11 in 1920. now in 2021 which was the first full pandemic year it felt to 16.52 percent last year 2122 it rose again but not significantly to 18.02 so 18.02 is still significantly lower than where it was in 1920. so in the example I'm using 1802. now you may be wondering well what is the cap for 22.23 we do not know yet it is announced toward the end of January early February so it should be announced uh soon um by the state when they issue the first calculation for the year of the
084special ed excess cost Grant now in the example our total District share would be 89 000 and the balance would be paid by the state so next year for every out of District placement we will have a higher cost Factor due to the higher ncep it's also important to recognize that special education in 2122 based on the educational Finance system reporting um was 26.14 of the total budget and 30.12 of the operating budget now the amount that is in the total budget which includes the grants also includes of course the federally funded idea Grant and this is um one of the few uh grants that is intended to fund mandated services so the Ida Grant which is approximately five million dollars is used solely for mandated special education uh services and that's reflected in the
08595.9 million dollars or out of District expenditures for last year looking at the 95.9 million again we can break that out between in-district approximately 75 million and out of District uh 20.8 but I want to emphasize the 20.8 is not the true cost because that is net as indicated on the slide of the state excess cost Grant reimbursement um and by the way this is called a grant but it's it's actually reimbursement it comes over the wire as um as funding which uh flows into our budget as as a credit and so um that amount last year was um about 6.2 million dollars so the actual expense was um you know close to 27 million dollars in total now we have a school allocation model we post a school allocation uh model that is on
086our website in the finance section and it's built on empowerment accountability equity and transparency and the four main components are a position allocation an operating allocation which has been increased with the Esser funds to 25 dollars per student a teacher's Choice allocation for our classroom teachers which means that they receive a school specialty e-card with which they can purchase supplies for their classroom and that was increased from thirty dollars to a hundred fifty dollars per teacher in the current year with Esser funds and we expect to continue that allocation uh in the last year of the Esser funding uh next year 23-24. um there was also a parent involvement allocation which is built on the title one formula so the title one formula mandates that one percent of the title one appropriation be utilized for
087parent involvement so we take one percent of the total appropriation we divide by the uh projected Elementary School register and calculate a per capita and then we allocate um the parent involvement budget to the elementary schools through title one and we give parity to the high schools with funding in the state priority uh Grant and that of course requires submission of a plan approved by the principal and the PAC or ptso president now in the finance world we continually have multiple challenges and variables which we monitor daily and um this graph is indicating in the various circles the variables that impact the budget the the circles do not constitute every variable but major variables um and they they would include utility costs um the special education and English language learner services that I spoke about
088earlier um absence coverage benefits of course uh specifically health insurance and um Murph and the RF that pertains to that's the municipal education retirement fund and for every non-certified employee we have to contribute this year 21.58 percent of salary to the retirement fund um and of course transportation and we've indicated some of the strategies that we use to to strive to control costs to the greatest extent possible but there are limitations and this slide is illustrating uh some of the steps that we've taken to build cost controls into the budget so that we can optimize our resources on an ongoing basis but as I said there are limitations and the best illustration would be the transportation contract for the five-year contract from uh 2020 to 23 current year uh through 2627 we aimed to negotiate
089the lowest possible percentage increases however with inflation at a high point and labor shortages the best possible contract we could negotiate specified a 6.72 percent increase in the current year next year 4.25 followed by three and a quarter four percent and then 3.75 so this is a sharp contrast to the prior contract which had much lower increases per year now for transportation in 2122 we expended approximately 22.35 million our current projection is in the range of 23.4 23.5 million uh for the uh current year and of course the expenses Rose last year and they're continuing to rise this year um primarily due to the new contract and the 6.7 two percent increase but it is important to note that expenses started to rise significantly last year due to the return to full on-site instruction now
090we always show the expenses for our Core curriculum because this is of course a major focus of any school district and it's important for city and state legislators to understand that curricular resources have to be renewed on a multi-year cycle and it is uh costly to do so and so we have to build into our financial planning uh funding for the um curriculum renewal and just as an example um this this year um just looking for yes in in 2223 uh we introduced um the into math program for K-1 followed by grades two three four and five in the prior year and you can see in the prior year that was about 1.1 million dollars over 1.1 million for a six-year program and then another 268 thousand or k to one and we also purchased
091in six year Cycles starting in the current year K-12 Science Program um which was close to 2.7 million um totally funded through the uh Esser grants now we're going to move on to part two the budget overview for 22 uh 23. and we'll discuss the um District budget um look at the implications of the enrollment trends that I spoke about earlier look again at special education and Ill populations and the services as well as the federal and state funding the state city share of of Revenue and the average percentage growth so on this pie graph we can see at the top what is regarded as the operating budget so the operating budget consists of the city share or city Revenue and the stage here or ECS ECS means education cost share and since Bridgeport is
092an alliance District we receive ECS in two parts we receive the base amount which is 164 million 195 344. plus an alliance ECS Grant which appears on our grant charts and that amount in the current year is 24 764 531 therefore the total State ECS is 188 959 8 uh seventy five hundred eight million excuse me 888 million 959 875. now um The Alliance ECS represents an addition of fifteen thousand four hundred thirty four dollars only fifteen thousand four hundred thirty four dollars that is in shop contrast to the annual increases in Prior years so um over the last uh 10 years it was some years where there was a four million dollar increase um but over the last few years it has averaged around one and a half to two million so we were
093expecting one and a half million so clearly we started 2223 which with a much lower resource level due to the minimal addition of funding in the alliance Grant on the city Side the city added two million dollars so the city's share of the operating budget is 27.9 million uh 27.9 percent and the state uh percentage is 72.1 percent now our budget is supplemented by various federal and state grants which are recurring grants not like Esser grants they are recurring grants unless the federal or state governments decide to discontinue them of course but they have been recurring for a number of years and with those grants we are able to fund services that are part of our strategic educational plan and so for example on the federal side I mentioned idea well Ida is a federal
094fund source that is intended to fund mandated special ed services so we are funding special education teachers and power Professionals in idea in title one we are also funding a very high number of special education paraprofessionals in order to maintain services uh we we also have title 2A which funds a significant portion of our HR staff and HR activities including recruitment and uh staff development and title 3 is the bilingual ESL grant program so there's approximately 22 million uh that is applied to our comprehensive uh educational uh plan and then there are state grants the state priority Grant the state bilingual Grant and the inter-district magnet grants now on this side in red you'll notice that the state priority Grant lost money it declined by 76 657 dollars and it has been declining unfortunately in
095each uh year and in the inter-district magnet Grant we lost money as well due to the lower enrollment at the inter-district high schools on the Fairchild wheeler campus and that was 225 000 144. the priority Grant also has three components it has the main Grant it has a summer component which we use as required to fund the mandated early reading success program for grades K to three in the summer and there is an extended school hours program and and for that we are required to issue an internal competition RFP uh schools apply and we make selections of of the schools that will receive will receive those grants so we can only use those funds for extended school hour hours grants um and and that also funds the uh programs the extended day programs at classical
096studies um Magnet Academy the main building and the annex now on this side um unfortunately title 2A has been declining and um it lost money 48 000 744. um we did gain some funding in in Title One minimal but certainly uh welcome 164 um and title III uh also increased right but when I speak of the operating budget and the operating budget request I'm referring to the city revenue and the state ECS Revenue including the alliance Grant and these are the funds that are funding core Services basic Educational Services what do I mean by that well it pertains to um the services we need to operate schools uh principles clericals teachers nurses custodians security guards psychologists social workers guidance counselors speech teachers um librarian library library media specialists um but the operating budget also has
097to fund all the benefits for staff it has to fund Medicare and I mentioned Murph for non-certified employees as well as health insurance and it has to fund transportation and um substitute costs and out of District placements and medical and consultative consultative services has to fund utilities facilities supplies and Services Workers Compensation Legal Services uh the summer esy which is the extended school year program Athletics unemployment life insurance as well as the base level of supplies for technology data management and um various other aspects of operating uh the district it also includes the payments that we have to make to um uh six to six and agriculture in Trumbull and Regional Center for for the Arts so it's important for everyone to understand that that the operating budget pertains to the um basic essential services
098that are necessary um to to operate um the schools and that's separate and apart from the services that I mentioned as already being in in Grants such as special ed Paris funded in Title One or in um idea so this chart is illustrating the current year budget uh operating budget 262 million 506 and you will notice that it increased over the prior year by 2 million fifteen thousand four hundred thirty four dollars or 0.78 percent so the growth factor or the current year was 0.78 percent and our city shares 27.9 percent our state share 72.1 now once again um I mentioned the enrollment trends I'm currently special ed and L enrollment have increased this could potentially have implications for um the alliance Grant but I'm hopeful that um the state legislature will allocate a substantial
099uh uh appropriation for the alliance portion uh for 23.24 um it may be lower than it would have been if if the enrollment had stayed higher but hopefully it will be in the multi-million range um I mentioned reductions in the state priority Grant and um there could be a possible reduction in title one and other grants would formulas linked to enrollment also once again to emphasize our special needs populations in particular special education and English language Learners require more intensive services with lower student staff ratios which have a higher cost Factor this slide is illustrating the grants that we do receive at the state and federal level for special education and for bilingual ESL services and we did receive some additional funding with that additional funding we were able to move some positions that we
100were funding in Essa grants into these grants which will hopefully stabilize those positions and allow them to be sustainable but it's not enough I'm still funding six uh ell teachers in Esser grants uh as well as 12 uh special education uh teachers actually it's 13 with the Adaptive Arts position now this slide is very important to understand over an eight-year period the average growth in the operating budget where the operating budget pertains to the city share and the state ECS share the average percentage was 1.12 percent with 0.78 percent in the current year and that is clearly insufficient to keep Pace with escalating costs even after taking into account our ongoing focused efforts at Cost control and management and on this slide we want to acknowledge or for everyone who views the budget from the
101city council to state legislators that we are very grateful to have received 144.9 million dollars over a three-year period in the Esser grants but those grants represent a one-time infusion of federal resources a one-time infusion the three-year cycle will end on September 30th of 24. and it is likely that we will not have the funding unless other fund sources emerge to continue all of the services currently in the Esser grants so now we're going to move on to part three which is the operating budget request so here again is the pie graph and we are indicating that on the operating side meaning the top section for City revenue and state revenue when we look at the cost factors for all of those core services that have traditionally been funded in the operating accounts we need
102an additional 26.5 million dollars I also want to emphasize that I build the budget based on every position being filled and that is our goal we hope that and we strive to fill vacancies over the past few years due to various factors including the labor shortage it has not been possible to fill all of the vacancies and when substitutes are hired instead of certified teachers or paraprofessionals savings emerge due to the difference in cost between the cost of a sub and the cost of a full-time employee with benefits that is not intentional it occurs because of the inability to fill positions so I build the budget based on the expectation that every Position will be filled we'll discuss um in in a future slide how we incorporate into a gap plan the concept of savings
103from vacancies now I'm projecting at this point um which isn't based on any um definite information it's just based on on the um on the hope that the state will allocate a minimum of one and a half million I hope it'll be five million or more but um at this point we're putting in a realistic uh reasonable projection of one and a half million and on the city Side we are requesting 12.4 million dollars or 4.3 percent of the 23 24 total in the bottom section at this point we do not have any information from the state or the federal government on the expectations for grant funding for next year so at this point every year we project stability but as I showed you in the current year often there are adjustments some grants may
104increase and Others May decrease so how do we calculate 26.5 million dollars well collective bargaining alone is calculated at 5.3 million and that would include Medicare and um the Murph the retirement costs for the increase for the non-certified employees now the health insurance share uh is projected at approximately 3.3 million I want to emphasize that we do not know yet what the actual growth percentage will be we will know most likely in March um so we're using a reasonable figure of of six percent um Merv currently is uh 21.58 um it is expected to go up by one percent now it may be 1.2 it could be one and a half uh we are waiting for the official communication um but we expect that it will increase um there's probably zero chance that it won't
105increase because um the the state did Issue a few years ago a plan for increasing it in each year up to um a cap of I believe 25 percent um and the transportation contract will add four and a quarter percent uh which is approximately 1.1 million dollars and the utilities um will increase as of um uh mid-year uh in in the uh current year and so uh looking ahead into next uh year um we're projecting 1.7 million and that incorporates uh projected savings from the Energy Efficiency projects that are underway in the facilities uh Department these five items added um together total uh 12.4 million and we believe it's fair and proper to ask the city to fund those uh five items so that is the basis for the request for 12.4 million now before
106moving on I do want to comment on the 26 and a half million hopefully this is a worst case scenario I mentioned that we don't know yet the actual percentage growth in health insurance um we're using six percent because that's the average over the last few years but um if if it came in at five percent that would would enable us to lower the um the monetary increase and there could be other uh factors um in in the total budget plan that impact on that number so hopefully it's a worst case scenario I would rather decrease it in the next few months and um as we look ahead to uh July 1st um if possible then then have to increase right now I'm also including an additional cost factor for um special education and and
107here again we're assessing the um direction of special education expenses while we're pleased that the number of out of District placements appears to be lower currently than in the prior year um the number of one-to-one powers is growing so we have now 56 um one to one uh paraprofessional allocations in the district compares to I believe 44 in the um in the prior year okay but this is another factor that that hopefully we may be able to decrease now the next two factors uh pertain to um the internal service fund um and the point uh here to understand is that in the current year 2022-23 in order to balance the operating budget we are currently projecting that we would have to withdraw from the ISF savings that are on deposit from prior years nine million
108dollars now we're doing everything possible to try and reduce that number but it could increase or it could decrease our goal is to take steps to leverage our resources as we do every year so that potentially that number can decline thereby conserving the funds on deposit in the internal service fund we have approximately 27 million dollars on on deposit that we can draw on but if we use 9 million in uh the current year 2223 uh that would leave a balance of of 18 million for for next year which uh should be adequate as our Gap plan will show to balance uh next year the open question will be what will the balance be for carry over into 24 or 25 when Esser funding ends and and what will our operating need be and how
109will those two factors uh converge but at the moment we're focused on completing 2223 and looking ahead to 23 24. but the point here is if if I have to use nine million dollars from the internal service fund to balance the budget in the current year then going into the next year we need nine million dollars because that represents nine million dollars of of operating resources that we need to fund would it be okay if I asked the question this is uh Joseph Lombard um I'd like to finish and then and then come back all right because it's about what you're talking about would all due respect I would sure sure thank you very much so um the next item is that they can see fill Factor so I mentioned earlier that we build the
110budget based on every position being filled um the reality is that and we were taking steps to um obviously to fill positions at the highest possible percentage but um in we we have to account in the budget for the savings that were derived in the prior year in this case 2223 from positions that weren't filled because going into the new year we now have to fill them so I put a four million dollar figure in and then there's a small reserve fund and then we include turnover savings now we are achieving a lower level of turnover savings because in the current year our teacher salary has risen now it teaches the average teacher's salary will rise and every year due to collective bargaining but the point is that it's rising um beyond the um rate
111of turnover savings meaning that um well what has happened is we are hiring uh experienced teachers to fill vacancies which means they're being hired at higher steps on the salary table and so we're not achieving the um typical savings that we would have achieved in Prior years so it's wonderful that we're filling those positions and it's wonderful that we're filling them with experience teachers um we have to recognize um the fiscal impact so um I've reduced the expectation for turnover savings to a million uh from one and a half so um this then is the accounting for 26.5 million dollars right um and this slide is illustrating the breakdown for the 5.3 million across the various categories of personnel and just going back for a minute um of course the teachers and the administrators will
112um uh entail the highest cost Factor all right so uh the city um our request to the city is 12.4 million I've explained the components and that represents 4.7 percent of the total budget or almost 17 percent of the city share and um if they were to fund 12.4 million um that would result in on average for the city share of 1.06 per year for nine years so this illustrates that while to the city it will probably appear as a very high number it is actually um very fair because in Prior years the um growth rate was um below expectations okay so how will we close uh the Gap what is our initial plan um we're requesting in revenue 12.4 from the city um the state where we're hoping is a minimum of one and
113a half and as I said earlier I hope it'll be a minimum of five million dollars or or more um after we take into account Revenue uh we have to cover uh the balance and this plan is illustrating that we would um seek to apply an additional 2 million in Grant Revenue that's not um already allocated so this would be 2 million and and non-recurring in funds that have been applied for non-recurring expenses and um 7.1 million uh would then be withdrawn from uh ISF uh savings and um if vacancies occur again and as I said our goal is to reduce the number of vacancies or goals to fill vacancies but if they were to occur again there could be Savings of potentially three to three and a half million dollars um I did mention
114earlier that um we have substantial funds um on deposit in the ISF that we can draw on if uh necessary but this is our initial plant and the first step in closing the Gap is to identify um the revenue that will come from the city and the state uh combined um and this slide is illustrating some of the strategies that have been used uh to close a gap including um you know position program adjustments potentially that that could generate operational efficiencies um curriculum and Technology renewal is basically funded solely from Grants um I'm not using the operating budget at all for curriculum and Technology renewal projects we continually operate in what is known as deficit prevention mode we have very strong position controls in place procurement controls and internal controls and this slide is illustrating
115those components now we're frequently Asked well you know what what's the operating budget fund and I mentioned earlier the uh components and this graph is illustrating um based on the categories in the budget system the percentages in each category and uh 69.70 over close to 80 percent is spent for directly for instruction and student support now administrative support is 23.2 percent what does that entail well we can see the various components on the slide what are the two categories contributing primarily to this this area and those two components would be facilities and transportation which is not surprising and it's also important to understand that in the operating budget we are funding a range of benefits we are funding the employer's share of health insurance for retirees as well as active employees and all of the
116items I mentioned earlier Murph Medicare life insurance unemployment workers comp and and that's close to 66 million dollars and then finally here is our um summary chart um I just noted I have not yet updated the bottom part for the January 23 report reflective of 2223 I mentioned earlier our rank has actually increased and our ncep has increased so I will update those two uh rows but this is the summary uh illustrating the budget request and the city share uh State share um as well as key enrollment data and the average growth over eight years of 1.12 percent now part four is for reference um it includes um there is uh slides pertaining to Major grants so that um the board members and and the public can see uh Grant comparisons as well as the
117main Services funded in um major grants contributing to the comprehensive financial plan such as Alliance or priority uh with that I'll conclude my presentation I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you Miss Eagle we'll um extend opportunities for board members to share their thoughts um Mr Lombard you had your hand up yes thank you so Ms Siegel thank you very much for the comprehensive as as always um presentation I think this year I was really able to follow it even better homes a lot there but my question has to do with when you were determining the uh the budget the 26.5 million minimum needed for essential needs was that including services that have been implemented under the Esser funds no okay no it pertains um solely to the um or or basic or essential
118uh services that are traditionally funded in the uh operating budget so are are any of the services that are currently funded under us are accounted for anywhere as far as in the budget of expectations are they included in what the budget is through proposed no no so so the Esser grants for example um are funding additional social workers and additional guidance counselors none of those services are expected to continue is that correct based on the current it's based on current information okay so so all right because I was noticing that on your slide some I mean they're all important obviously but some of them included you know assistant principal positions um also I mean there are all sorts of things and I just and I so those are not we don't have a plan to
119try to keep that going beyond the budget that we already you presented today is that right well that is correct because our our first um at this time because our first priority um at this time um is to secure the operating Revenue right for the uh New Year okay and um determine the uh Gap uh plan which in turn will uh determine the uh projected um remaining amount um in the internal service fund that would be available to help close the gap in the subsequent uh years right so I guess and and we are we are um leveraging our resources to reduce Reliance on the operating budget wherever possible but that does not mean that we can um reduce the nine million dollar projection that I that I mentioned um our first priority is to
120try to um make sure the well try try to prevent the uh 9 million from increasing yeah and and then hopefully by the time of the end of year close uh based on Final expenditures in all categories but in particular Legal Services where we have to maintain Reserve funds to account for settlements potential settlements as an example um and after we review the final accounting for special education perhaps that 9 million will be reduced to 7 million right perhaps it will be reduced to 6 million and if that um occurs then uh there would be additional um funds remaining on deposit in the internal service fund which would strengthen our financial position going into next year and and hopefully the year after um I um I I just want to give another example in response
121to your your question um so we are using Esser funds and I believe I've mentioned this at other meetings um to finance for example um contracted services for special education such as uh psychology um and uh Speech teachers so the Esser funds are funding a portion of of those contracted Services um approximately two million dollars in in the current year so that's reducing the Reliance or impact on the operating account so where it is permissible to use Esser funds to reduce the Reliance on the operating budget when I say permissible I mean legal and compliant with Esser guidelines we are taking that action in order to leverage our resources to the optimal extent to conserve operating Revenue okay thank you very much thank you all right uh Miss Akisha just do you like I did
122have a question but she had answered it during the presentation thank you no no question Mr bennahan all your simple questions are we going to have fun to hire more staff before school and that's one important thing because we don't want what we're going through is happening again I'm sorry I believe I missed I apologize I missed a part of the question did you say do we have funds to hire more staff for a particular School uh I can say not a particular school I can say all spiritual school because I know with short staff what's going on about the schools that we need exactly um urgent to have um staff are we gonna have um let's say money to about to hiring the staff because we don't want to go through what we're going
123through now well we we well first of all uh if if I'm understanding the question uh correctly the um superintendent and the HR department um are are engaged in a number of continuing efforts many of which started under the former uh superintendent to um which we call University Partnerships um and I've been involved in in all of these uh discussions because I oversee um the HR office and um the these uh Partnerships include Cross certification programs where teachers uh who are currently teaching Elementary School for example um it can volunteer to enroll in these programs at District expense um in in order to obtain um the endorsement the state endorsement for Cross certification in a shortage area special education ESL so those programs uh were were started last year they're underway I believe we have
124nine special education teachers who came through this route we also have several ESL teachers who who took this route this is at District expense the expense is paid in the Esser Grant so we have several hundred thousand dollars allocated in the um Esser grant for University uh Partnerships um we're also funding uh some University interns who hopefully will uh accept positions in in vacancies and I know they are working on uh initiatives um in in math and science uh as well right and and by the way the the memorandum of understanding that was signed in relation to the special ed teachers and the uh L teachers who um are enrolled in these cross-certification programs um that uh stipulates that they will go up two steps on the salary scale um when they are placed in
125the uh in in the position yes physicals have to interrupt you I know understand everything you told me but I'm going to give a very simple if my wife give me a list to buy something and go with my budget I'm not gonna go exactly where my my wife gave me a list to buy the supermarket so my question for you is do we have the money to hire more um teachers that's the only question I just want to know yes or no you know that's that's the simple questions the answer would be yes we built we're building the I just want to emphasize again we build the budget based on every position being filled all right all right that's the one I hear thank you thank you Mrs sakolovic a couple of comments and
126questions ever since I've got involved and started paying attention to the Board of Education I've seen nothing but Cuts Cuts Cuts until covet hit covet has for stalled a lot of cuts but I use the word for stalled intentionally because it did not eliminate them but coming to face these Cuts very very shortly we're gonna have to pay for all the cuts we did not make in 2020 2021 2022 2023. when the Esther funds run out we're in big trouble now I would like to ask a couple questions just to illustrate how much did we receive an increase between the state and this state and the city funds last year was it is it 2 2 million fifteen thousand in total yes that's correct and what was our increasing staff costs well we we had
127projected a monetary need with all positions filled initially of about 17 or 18 million dollars the the staff raises along I think it was five point oh I'm sorry the the collective bargaining growth correct um it was probably around five four to five million so the state and city increase was not even enough to cover a half of our staff cost increases correct and that's that's amazing and um a little further conversation because I never liked the word consolidate if we consider that we're not going to get this money and we hit the fiscal cliff and we have to consolidate does that mean less making more into less for instance when we consolidate staff we have left staff when we consolidate schools we have less schools and we can set when we forced all purchases
128we don't buy stuff these are very real terms that the people need to understand that we're in real trouble if we don't get funded the internal service fund is not going to last forever as the funds are going to be expiring at the same time we got a perfect storm first of all all the funds the answer is covering world of positions they're going to be gone Esther is also not only covering new Physicians to help in covering the operating budget shortfalls so when I say a cliff yeah pay attention there's a cliff we're in trouble you think this right here right now with these two schools Disney we're gonna repeat this over and over and over maybe up to four or five schools having to consolidate into the rest of the schools should we
129not receive proper funding in order to keep keep our operations going so this is very very important for everybody to pay attention to advocate for the fundings we need to operate because we didn't even cover the additional raises from the city and state portion and that's really disgusting thank you thank you um missed um Baptiste Perez all right Miss Allen do you have any comments okay it's wrong yes uh Mr bennahan thank you um or it's primary um how many vacancies we have now so right now we have approximately 60 vacancies across the district with that 66-0 um that's what I spoke with um human resources about so with that it's in you know elementary high school as well as Middle School across the district some of those vacancies are being covered by long-term Subs
130we still consider them vacancies because they're not certified staff all right thank you you're welcome yes Miss Cashmere one quick question Miss Siegel um if there were an individual that wanted to donate money to the Bridgeport Public School System would that be allowed I remember um years back when I was a PTO president for Norwalk public schools and they didn't allow like you know parents or a couple parents get together and donate a couple million dollars I don't know to You Know cover yeah yes insurance or whatever yes so I just wanted to ask is the district you know allowed to take private donations um the general answer is yes um we have a Grant's office the office of Grants development and management now the deer clock is the director um and we also have
131a foundation the foundation for excellence in Bridgeport Public Schools um so um individuals can make donations to the Bridgeport Public School System or the Bridgeport Board of Education um for specific uh purposes uh either for specific schools and specific purposes or for General use the individual should contact the grants office and Grant's office will explain the procedure and the funds are set up in a separate Grant account uh clearly for for integrity and for tracking purposes um and um if it's for a specific School the school then utilizes the funds from the grant account following the procurement and payroll procedures of the district so the best way for an individual to make a donation or a specific school and or purpose is to make a donation to the Bridgeport um uh to the foundation for
132excellence in Bridgeport Public Schools thank you thank you and and um we WE Post our financial condition reports uh five times a year the reports for all prior years are posted and in the report there is a tab for Grants and you can see all of our grants currently we have 200 million dollars in in Grants including the balances in the Essa grants that we are managing um and and that report includes uh the foundation grants as well they're at the end um coded as um um the the Third um uh the the third digit is is a letter uh f for foundation so they'll appear as uh 22f or 23f um with a three-digit code following thank you are there Mr binahan thank you thank you Miss Brown thank you um um um are
133you working with a grant department to get Grant to cover the position which will be lost once um Esser goes away all right thank you thank you for that question um because I did I did want to mention that um we have been working um diligently um through through our Grant's office to explore all possible um funding opportunities that may currently exist and that may arise in the coming months that could be utilized potentially to maintain a particular services in Esser grants for example while we've been discussing the very important Services of social workers and guidance counselors we also have a teacher leader model and this was a new model which has a large number of teacher leaders over 100 teacher leaders throughout the district and the stipend the annual stipend is five thousand dollars
134and and this was intended to achieve multiple purposes but one of the one of the critical purposes um was to retain experienced teachers in the district so if if that model is no longer funded we we would lose one of our retention tools now now clearly the main purpose of that model of course is to provide uh professional development and ongoing uh support and training for teachers at the school level through experienced teachers that's the primary goal but one of the other uh goals um was to retain experienced teachers and um while while some of the teacher leaders who were selected in the spring did leave the district overall we had a an excellent rate of retention as a result of that model so so that's another example of a particular service that you may
135not you know hear about as frequently as the social workers and the guidance counselors and and the supplemental teaching positions um and and the extended day programs but nevertheless it's it's a critical component and so in brief um we we are working diligently to try to identify uh funding opportunities Brown for now all right if there are if there are no other questions I will entertain a motion to um to approve the operating budget requests motion to approve the 23-24 operating project request promotion to approve the 22 I mean sorry motion to approved 23 24 operating budget requests as presented by Miss Siegel Samuel discussion all in favor oh any abstentions Aaron and motion carries the next agenda item is discussion and possible action on the 2020 2023-24 Food Service budgets food and nutrition question
136um thank you I just need a moment to bring up the document um so now I'm going to present briefly the uh food and nutrition services uh budget plan um and first I I just want to cite a few important points about food and nutrition services uh first of all this is a separate budget totally separate from the operating budget that we just uh discussed it has a separate code uh in the budget system it's the 900 series and it food nutrition services FNS is a totally funded by federal and state reimbursement uh as well as sales that um uh occur valakot items and so um they're fully funded by the uh federal and state uh Revenue um each year we spend up to the amount of Revenue you do not spend a penny more
137um however we have to set up in the munis system which is the budget system uh we we have to set up a number for the budget so we make a projection of the expected Revenue um but it would be impossible to know exactly what that number will be first of all we don't know what the federal government reimbursement rate um uh will be in terms of the increase in in rate will it be a two percent increase will it be a 3.5 percent increase so clearly we make a projection um and it could be higher so it's impossible to know exactly what the revenue will be um so we have to set up a number that can be put into the munis system to enable the setup of the budget and the goal is
138to establish a number that is higher than the expected revenue and then we monitor the budget carefully every week and the projected unrealized revenue is not expended so that is how we make certain that we spend only up to the amount of actual uh Revenue we're constantly projecting and reproducting um every week so you can see on this uh chart um there's some historical data I'm in the interest of of brevity and considering the time I'm just going to you know look at 2223 for a minute and and show you that at the time that we prepared this um the the current budget number in munis is 22 million 683 and we are anticipating unrealized revenue of about 2.6 million uh now by the end of the year it may be 2.7 million it might
139be 2.2.8 million but this was the number uh currently based on our projection methodology for the new year um I'm going to ask that the budget be set up at 25 million uh 613. now do we expect actual revenue of 25 million we do not based on current information however you will note that in one of the pandemic years we received almost um almost two million dollars in supplemental allocations in the current year we've received 348 495. we're not anticipating any supplemental allocations for next year but potentially there could be a supplemental allocation and so we need room within the number to account for any supplemental allocations as well as any further increases in the uh reimbursement rates but I could always emphasize that we are thorough and focused on spending only up to the
140amount of the actual uh Revenue so we have a budget plan that requests the city uh to set up 25 million uh 613 and our initial unrealized Revenue would be set up at approximately 4.8 million and um we've also presented the initial projections for expenditures um which which of course are totaling the um about 25 million with the unrealized revenue indicated on the red line okay now I do want to um emphasize uh an important Point um related to the uh Point I've shared with the board about the internal service fund so you may recall that when I presented the um end-of-year analysis for 20 uh 122 um I indicated that there had been a surplus in the food and nutrition budget so if we scroll down and go back to 2122 and I'm going
141to enlarge this a little little more here okay let's just scroll down all right so last year in 2122 that actually had Revenue in excess of the budget amount and that was 836 thousand eight uh 38 and the final total Surplus was um 6.4 million as shown in the chart and as I indicated in the end of year analysis I just want to remind everyone um one and a quarter million of that amount belonged to the district it belonged to the Board of Education because um we we um uh allocated that amount for the cost of the health insurance for the food and nutrition retirees as well as any potential additional workers comp costs we make a contribution in July from our operating budget into the internal service fund or the areas health insurance costs
142for the retirees so that goes in as as a lump sum as the employer share so we pay up front for all of our retirees at the end of the year we aim to um create a surplus in food and nutrition as long as it doesn't impact on the provision of of of our food program our first priority is to deliver the highest quality nutritious healthy food program for our students um but fortunately we have been able to generate that that Surplus so um at the end of each year um hopefully we'll be able to contribute between 800 and a million dollars um to cover the cost of the retirees but but it belongs to the district because we paid up front right so at the end of this year 2223 I hope to be
143able to add from this budget current year budget 800 to a million dollars and that will further increase the um the savings on deposit in the internal service fund all right so that's a positive uh development going forward um but as mrkovic indicated um at some point in the future um those funds are going to be uh depleted the question is in you know in how many years and right now we're predicting that it could happen in 24-25 all right um moving back to food and nutrition um of of the amount that was uh in Surplus um one point one a quarter million belonged to the district and then we have since moved back into the 20 223 budget two million dollars to fund equipment for the nutrition center as well as for schools and
144food and nutrition has 3.2 million on reserve in the ISF that's separate and apart from the approximately 27 million on on deposit currently okay all right so um back to 2324 um in 23 24 as well as in 2223 on the health insurance line um I'm anticipating that um 800 to a million dollars uh will be uh transferred into the internal service fund to cover the cost of the retirees and potential additional workers comp costs for food and nutrition of theft are there any questions board members Mr Lombard Miss Baptiste Perez no question okay no questions out here all right um I will entertain a motion to approve the 2020 324 food and nutrition budget plan some of the second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions hearing none motion carries the
145next agenda item on our agenda is discussion of possible action on a proposed permit fee policy for fiscal year 23 to fiscal year 27. yes I am going to bring the document up on the screen and then I believe George Garcia is in attendance virtually and Mr Garcia will make the presentation uh George are you there yes all right I just need a moment George to enlarge this I can do it here all right the floor is yours George good evening everyone uh this evening we're looking for approval of the permit fee schedule um there are two buckets that we consider when we're looking at school building usage one is the school-based activities uh School directly School related uh Municipal groups um federal and state groups uh those groups get a waiver from the fee
146costs the second group grouping of folks are the folks from the outside of the district um you know um for you know uh organizations that will like to utilize our facilities um that aren't directly related to the school function um so in front of you have the fee schedule um so we've given you 2021 uh 22 23 24 20 24 25 and 25 and 26. there's a slight escalation every year to get into consideration um increases in cost of utilities and um the workers that will actually be managing these programs at the school-based level the costs are for the use of the space the custodial services and security for these for these events and that's pretty much I can take any questions if you have any um Mr Mr George can you just mute any
147board members have any questions for Mr George I see Casino hands raised um all right so I will entertain a motion to approve the proposed um permanent fee policy for fiscal year 22 20 I mean 23 to fiscal year 27. the move by Mr benningham second by Miss cashmere any discussion yep go ahead I just wanted to say that on the committee level we did ask given the increase with utilities and projections as to whether this increase was appropriate um just because it wasn't discussed ahead we did ask about this in on the committee level um and just in case the audience and anyone watching from home is wondering why the board hasn't asked any questions that was taken into consideration uh given the increase utilities costs associated with this so I have no further
148a comment but I just wanted to say we we had asked and inquired and believed that this is fair and reasonable thank you Miss Baptiste Perez all right um so no discussion outside of that question all in favor um oops forget about online India polls any abstentions there were none motion carries thank you both for sharing tonight miss Marlene and Mr George thank you everyone thank you good evening all right the next item on our agenda is discussion and option regards suspension of policy number 51161 which states uh School assignments will be determined by the Bridgeport Public Schools directory industry and street guide push it to suspend five five one one six point one is there a second second second is there any discussion any discussion yes governance right no this is no this is
149this is for the next agenda item okay sorry um no discussion all in favor uh any opposed any abstentions here and on motion carries the last agenda item is discussion and possible action on relocating Wilbur cross Elementary 7th and 8th grade students to Thomas Hooker School for the remaining of the 2022-23 school year and um go ahead and I didn't hear you sorry Mr I I wanted to um ask the question I've been holding for superintendent Perrin from her about about this agenda item if it's okay yeah okay thanks so um superintendent parent I'm going to ask you to the best of your ability having been in this role now for a short time on this particular issue that was brought to your desk um about finding a solution for the shortage of teachers at
150Cross and a solution being maybe the Only Solution on your your eyes or what have you a solution being transferring the seventh and 8th grade students to Hooker to Thomas Hooker um what your thoughts are about this I I'm aware that some practical movements have already been happening in the buildings I'm aware of that and if we're going to vote on doing this I just really want to hear from you what your thoughts are given some of the present some of the sharing today and and the other day about Alternatives in other words dispersing the students to multiple schools or bringing bringing teachers from multiple schools to Hooker or other Solutions why you think if you think the one on the the Jed item today is the best one if you would please share that
151thank you so looking at the the situation and its totality um looking at across the district about how many vacant spaces that we have available whether we could separate students I don't think we have the don't believe we have the capacity to be able to have all 66 students placed in the seventh and eighth grade so when we're looking at that we do have a few spaces across the district there's not they're not all totally filled however we don't have the capacity to be able to make sure we can fill all of them unless the majority will still continue to go to Hooker School um when I look at the teachers we first started looking at teachers um and I was talking about that with the Bea about how we can look at collapsing classes
152somewhere to be able to make teachers available to be able to support um what was happening at Cross and you know there were there weren't any options the only available body that we did identify was the gentleman who works currently at Hooker School um we've looked at reaching out to retirees so the team has been working and reaching out leaving calls on leaving emails contacting them and we haven't reached any success with that we've talked to um I reached out to um the individual from TFA in regards to this as well to see if she has any open vacancies that you know we could place now I'm still waiting to hear that as of right now um looked at specifically working with Kelly Services to try to find out whether they're anybody who was there
153who was looking for that or also to provide an incentive for people to want to take on the vacancies across to do that so um one of the things that I work with Miss Siegel on as well as the HR team is coming up with an incentive um that if someone committed to being there for the remainder of the school year they would earn a extra bonus at the end of the year of two thousand dollars to be able to do that as well um so we're looking and trying to figure out what we can do to try to be able to support cross but we're not we're not finding any other options that we have and while we're waiting and we're looking and we're searching time is still moving forward and these students are
154not receiving an education um so right now even though we're continuously exploring and I'm still going to continue to explore to be able to possibly support the student these this is what we're dealing with right now um and at the end of the day when we're looking at trying to provide right and access to education right now this is the solution that we have on the table thank you very much for your thorough answer I appreciate it you're welcome does anyone else have any comments if there is yeah it's been mentioned that there's no Sports going along with the children what additional supports will be going to Hooker so one of the things that we have going to Hooker I spoke with Lieutenant Greg about assigning a guard there additional part times during the week
155it's not a flow time guard but it is a part-time card to be able to provide supports there we have a identified guidance counselor who's going to be there um they only had an allocation for three days so now they have an allocation of five days to be able to support that as well we also have identified someone who works with rise app um to be able to do restorative circles with the students and all the seventh and eighth grade classes to be able to provide supports there they're going to be there for at least for the first six to eight weeks and then we do have available funding to be able to support them beyond that if we need to be able to do so as well um we have volunteers from the community
156who's reached out to say you know I'll come in and volunteer sometime to be there um to be part of the hooker Community to help facilitate the process because they want the children to feel like they're welcome and to be able to have some ports there as well so um I've worked with Miss Eagle as well as providing some additional funding um for of course the pack for pack involvements as well as the operating budget to increase that in addition so we're still looking at some other options but that is where we are that's what we've talked about since last week thank you can I interject for a second the the it is projecting some screen that's not the meeting they may want to fix that it's silent now say it again oh there was
157no noise I didn't know if it was what was going on oh okay there was there was an issue um a technical issue and he's fixing it now okay thank you okay all right so it's still streaming it's just he's trying to disconnect another um who's trying to disconnect Miss um Siegel while she was sharing so um that was Mr sakolovic um is there anyone else have any questions or concerns um um Miss Christine Baptiste Perez sorry I didn't know if I had about you um Miss Perrin uh this question is geared towards you and the executive um staff um and this is kind of just the basics how many certifi oh what's the certified areas that we would need to fill vacancies at Wilbert Cross School would we need a certified English teacher math
158can you list out the certified areas that we would need those subjects in to have an equivalent of what staff is at Thomas Hooker School So currently we have a certified social studies teacher there Mr Wynn who's been there servicing the students so in order to have a full staff you need a el certified Ela teacher a certified science teacher and a certified math teacher um in addition we had um looked at hiring an individual to be able to come in based upon the number of special education students that gentleman was already hired but with the the plan to be able to move them to Hooker he was then allocated to be able to support the students if they are transferred there okay uh well I asked that question because based off of public comment
159even with the ELA teachers um there would still be uh two certified areas of teachers missing for Wilbur Cross School um I guess my next question is I'm trying to understand the statement for the statements from public comment regarding uh the already stressed and um burdensome workload from the staff at Thomas hookers School um on average how many students do teachers in and I'll keep it to the Middle School uh how many students do they have in the classroom on average in the district is the average number of students per classroom about 25 26 27 what's the average number of students per classroom in Bridgeport for Middle School so for seventh and eighth break where that's what we consider Middle School it's approximately 25 students and then how many classes are at Thomas uh how
160many seventh and 8th grade classes are at Thomas Hooker school right now they have two grade seven classes they have two grade eight classes but they also have an additional certified teacher who does not have a homeroom class who is certified to teach that's seven and twelve seven to twelve continue okay inside so I'm pulling my notes from our special meeting and maybe I'm wrong with my notes but there's approximately how many Stu how many seventh grade students are at Thomas Hooker right now right now at Thomas Hooker there's a total of 25 grade seven students in 43 grade 8. oh okay so that means in the two seventh grade class we're talking about 12 students in one class and 13 and the other when on the district average it's 25 students you said yes
16125 students and so I guess I'm failing to understand the burden and stress on our teachers uh at Thomas Hooker School or um aside from the capacity I'm gonna I'm gonna move on from that area I I have a question if we did decide to have the students from Wilbur cross uh uh finish their middle that this school year at Thomas hookers school um would there be a class because if you combine all the kids at Thomas Hooker School there they could just be one seventh grade class will there be a Thomas Hooker class and a little bit cross-class or will we be mixing the students I feel like in the eighth grade we would have to mix them just on the numbers but for the seventh grade will we have all Thomas Hooker students
162being one Thomas Hooker class and all Wilbur crossed seventh grade students being in one Wilbur cross class or will we mix the students no the intent was to mix the students okay then I have a question because I've heard the number of students with IEP from over across numerous times from public comment but how many students with IEPs are in the Middle School class at Thomas Hooker yes Dr Morgan is saying it's between 15 and 18 that are currently at Thomas Hooker I believe they were getting one additional student sometime this month as well okay uh for right now I'm going to yield the floor to any questions from my colleagues on the board one other communist Baptist Perez Miss uh Dr Morgan said she did not add the students who are in the soar
163Continuum but but who have IEPs okay thank you you're welcome any other questions from the board yes I do okay go ahead Mr lumbar sure um super tampering I'm gonna ask a question about what I think is the elephant in the room and I'm gonna and I appreciate that your response would be very appropriate diplomatic but what is this sentiment where is it coming from of concern about cross students that's what I keep that's that's what I keep hearing is this concern about the difference in the in the in the community between cross and Thomas Hooker one is an oasis and one is not and not just a number of students per classroom I mean I have to ask this question you don't have to answer it if I'm putting you on the spot but
164I feel like there seems to be a lot of pushback and resistance to some invisible difference between the students do you know anything about that so what what I can understand as being an educator here what I can understand from what has been put out there is that the students at Cross definitely need more structure they talk about the environment that they've come from um and the things that they've been exposed to and I think that there is a great amount of fear that students will be exposed to some behaviors that you know some students who may be in the Thomas Hooker neighborhood are not exposed to but when I think about overall the students at Cross I just think about when I related to my time at Dunbar 13 years I was at Dunbar
165and they said the same thing about the students at Dunbar about behaviors and things that they distributed and that they did in the community and things that were happening and a lot of it came from a lack of structure so trying to provide that structure for these students will help give them better outcomes am I saying it's going to be perfect no I don't believe that by no means but I think that you know we have to take this current situation and look at it from all angles and try to make the best decision possible okay thank you that was that was a very good answer so I I appreciate that and you know it's true what you say about there's an opportunity for growth here for for everyone in learning the structure you know
166so it it's it's an opportunity for that of giving and receiving on both sides so thank you um this parent I have a question um one of the questions that I have is that prior to um the Thomas Hooker and cross students connecting together was there an individual conversation between one school or both you know or both schools but just at separate separate times because there was a lot of concern from public comment that there would hasn't been any conversation with one school is just bring them all together and let's talk about it has there been any concerns that have come from parents to your to your office from both schools so nothing has come to my office I know the parents at Hooker did share that during the comment in the meeting that we
167had last Wednesday but nothing has come to to my office since then though and nothing from the cross parents either and then my other question would be as the students are preparing what has been the the process if you can just reiterate again I know you talked about it last time but what is the process if if the board chooses to vote either way because I know there was it was held up so the students weren't able to go how is communication with the cross parents so um the the principal Miss Cordova I met with her um to talk about that process so what she did was she reached out to parents to let them know of course she let Miss Cheatham know as well who communicated what was going on um she sent memos
168to them um I don't think they had another meeting about it I think they've met with the students specifically and I know that because they have planned to go on a white party for the children and they met with the students to talk about that so one of the things that you know Miss Cordova's bottle shared was there was a lot of angst around students they felt some uncomfortability about walking in because they felt like they weren't wanted which was a concern to them I mean they vocalized that but they were saying okay well still if this doesn't go through if the board you know doesn't make this decision what's going to happen um so that was part of the conversation there on the students you know they're looking for more they're wanting more um
169they can't they just said we want to be taught that's that's the overall sentiment foreign no how can they determine which children they are going to take to hook her school and if any are coming to wolvercross so would that would it change it would be because there are no T certified teachers aside from Mr Wynn who's at CrossFit I can't hear you with that thing up okay with this better though they will be uh there's one certified teacher at Cross School who is Mr Wint um so there are four students I mean four classes of students seventh and eighth grade who do not have teachers so the determination would be for those students who do not have certified teachers at Cross to move to Hooker School so no one from hooker will be coming
170to cross will be cross going to hookers since they were the ones who did not have the teachers foreign just press green yep I mean that's it oh I'm sorry I usually am accused of having a big mouth and a loud mouth and now you tell me you can't hear me but however how are they going to make the selection these youngsters that are going to the schools any students are they going to walk across are they going to go to Hooker for the room is there room in those schools to serve them so there is room in the school to be able to serve them in the classrooms according to contractual number they are less than so the in this actual physical space that could accommodate them as well and the students when you
171act about how we would determine that it would be all the seventh and eighth grade students who are currently at River Cross okay so those students would stay in Wilbur Crossing the seventh and 8th grade students would go to the liquor school they would be bussed to hooker's School so there would be no movement from Hooker School no thank you all right uh Mr bennahan um so we're going to have another security um for local school I know we got one and she run the whole school and I know she's doing amazing job now we have another um additional you know students I would like to have another um security if it's possible so I spoke to um Captain correct about that so what he's allocating currently is somebody to come for two days per
172week so I said to him you know we're looking for some type of support there so you know he's that's what he's starting with so he's really looking at trying to do that just based upon the shortages that they have within the security office as well also though we're going to have a um we have a part-time nurse or we're going to have a full nurse in school they will be a part-time nurse that will not be a full-time nurse the nursing staff shortages across the district will not allow for us to be able to do that we did look at it I met women early to try to figure out another solution but we will not we'll have a part-time nurse and the transportation is all said that all students were going to have
173transportation you know go back and forth everything is uh correctly the way the parents want the transportation is all set scheduled it's been sent out to parents as well um the office of the superintendent has been taking um comments and questions and inquiries in regards to that as well but it's all scheduled all right thank you the only thing I can say I hope they um like you said we're gonna have about two days and not for security I hope they can have at least the five days actually because I know the I know the real Wonder the safety and when I want the parents to be sure that the case of UV safety in the building but thank you no more questions thank you Mr President all right um last question last call for
174questions I don't see any hands raised online but I had my hands up Miss Brown oh sorry I didn't see you go ahead Miss Baptiste Perez um I have to ask this question because it was post me from different calls I received but the uh Miss Perrin there is the one I'm gonna phrase it as bonus teacher so that's the certified teacher at Thomas Hooker that you know Thomas Hooker has to certified social studies Ela science math and the bonus teacher with no homeroom right now that's a certified teacher um two-part question what areas that teachers certified in and why couldn't we potentially send that teacher over from Thomas Hooker School since they are already fully staffed with certified teachers why couldn't we send that one cert uh bonus teacher from Thomas Hooker to Wilbur
175cross so the teacher that you're referencing as a bonus teacher he is currently certified in 7 to 12 math so when we looked at his schedule the way Thomas Hooker set up their seventh inning degree schedule that the homeroom classes were receiving math more than one time per day so it was almost like an additional period to support their math scores when we talked to Miss Ramos about why that was done she said because it was in response to um the need for students to have more support there could the schedule be redone and that teacher removed yes it that could happen that is a potential that he could be removed but then that would mean that they would change have to change their entire schedule at uh poker school as well well I I'm
176just thinking about what was said during comment that would leave a certified social studies the woman that uh said she was hired to teach Ela if everything alleges to be true that would be a certified Ela and that would be a certified math leaving a vacancy for science that is correct has there been any discussions with changing the educational layout at uh Lord just saying hook across look across but changing the layout at Thomas Hooker school so we could remove we can move that teacher over because that that could be another viable option Dr Morgan and I definitely have been having that conversation we did not have that conversation with Miss Ramos would miss Ramos if Miss Ramos didn't agree with that then what would happen nothing would happen if she didn't agree with it
177I was just telling you about who we had the conversations with uh no no I was wondering if that would prevent it if there's something in the contract or okay uh then for I think I remember the generals with the numbers right now Thomas Hooker School has about 280 students and with the additional web across school that would bring it up to about three is it 280 students um how many students are Thomas Hooker Dr Morgan said 262. okay 262. so that would bring them up to about 320 too for a school in the district with about 322 students do they normally get two Securities two security guards uh a full-time nurse and all the additional stuff that Thomas Hooker School is asking of is that no no usually um what happens is they look
178at the number of students uh most of our elementary schools have one except for the larger schools that do have two um security guards in regards to nursing they look at it a little bit different they look at what the actual needs of the students are so if you have someone who is diabetic or you have a fragile population you'll have a full-time nurse um but usually that's how those determinations are made and so there if this transfer were to happen based on the fact that there is no full-time nurse at Thomas Hooker school and I don't recall um when I had neighbors and Friends sending their children and that they had ever had a full-time nurse there um but the students if we were to approve uh Wilbur cross students going over Norms with
179any major health concern to require a full-time nurse no I have I said early check into that already there is no major health concerns in regards to the students who will be transferring over okay that'll have no further questions all right so I'll ask again is there any other board members I would like to bring any comments or comments oh okay I'll see two hands all right Miss Cashmere I just want to go back to the question of spreading the students around to other schools I'm sorry can you just repeat your answer to that why can't some of these students be spread around to other middle schools so we we do have the capacity to be able to put one or two students at various schools exactly how many I don't have that answer too
180but we did look at the number specifically to see what was available but the bulk of them would still be have to go to Hooker School um to be able to do that because we don't have a lot of spaces available across the district in grade seven and eight okay and um my next question is I I know that you said um certified areas that are needed at Cross or Ela science and math is that right that is correct so I don't know if you can answer this but what's the worst case scenario if we just leave everything as it is and then plan to have them move this coming August or September for the new school year what is the worst that could happen if that comes about so the worst case scenario would
181be um that they would continue not getting Equitable access to the education that we have available to them now um we can look at trying to provide something which I said I'm working with Kelly Services on trying to really see if somebody who's really wants to commit to that population um to be able to work with them in that capacity throughout the rest of the school year um and then we will be providing supports with some of the directors that we have to try to support it but right now supervision is a concern as well because they do not have the um supervision that they need and that the teachers at Cross are taking in additional students that are well beyond the contractual limit of 29. ability to have like long-term substitutes in these areas
182just to the end of the school year or so that's what I'm working on with Kelly Services that's where the two thousand dollar initiative would be um for any long-term substitute teacher who decided that they would commit to serve for the remainder of the year in addition to their daily base salary They will receive this bonus as because of the commitment that they made to cross and you have no prospects at all since you've been working on this so right now there was only one prospect that we've received and confirmed as of yet and that Prospect was someone who was removed from Bridgeport Public Schools because of the treatment of of students so there was about five reports that was entered into Kelly Services by very principles about their treatment so that wasn't something that
183I would consider thank you Mr bennahan thank you Mrs Brown um he's preparing I will be honest with you but I I really really a few things I'm very disappointed because I just want the best for the students and I know this was a change that we don't know we will close his eye we trust somebody they told me it fits it and we're trying to fix it but by now I have a security for only two days when we know we need more security the full time I must say it's not your fault but you know the way you taught us the information we need a full service you know nurse and we need so many things in the school not only for help all these you know new students is going to Hawker
184school but at least help the school and the principal and all the staff they cannot have a full service I feel they they don't have either half a server they're supposed to receive everyone in photos in the school feel like it's like a less of half so I really I hope they can give uh give them more service and more support because I know it's not it's not easy we try I know you we trying to best but I hope they can give you more support to the staff and students and parents they understand we're trying to do the best for the education for for the students you know we're not here to a point Who's good and who's back because we are not perfect only God but it's bad that we're trying to fix
185something it's supposed to be fixed a long time ago but I know for the next like I said next time it's not gonna be this situation is not going to be happening so I just want to say that for the record thank you I agree with the security guard I think there should be at least two or three security guards especially in the beginning of this I just think that one security guard is not going to be sufficient enough especially not two days a week at least to have it five days a week I just want to stick it up and may I Miss Brown um especially you got one security that you have to run the whole school not having more students you know when I said all the students in our profit but
186we never know if there's security let's see be in the second floor something happened downstairs you know it's it's it's just terrible for me so I want you all understanding at least you can go and see by yourself you know what you know what's going to happen if I just want to put that for the record um Mr lumbar thank you um I would just like to bring back to the table the idea that board member Baptiste Perez brought up I'm kind of surprised it hasn't been discussed thoroughly with the principles of both schools seeing that they would still both be impacted that that if this really is an option of only needing to hire one long-term sub for science or whatever um if we really would have the other the other positions covered it
187seems like I I kind of want to understand amongst ourselves and with superintendent perin this idea why this has not been entertained further before I'm prepared to vote on the other option I see that something should happen I I do not agree that we should just put it on pause and let things continue the way they are until the end of the year for the sake of the fact that we're in the middle of the year I don't agree with that idea so I believe we need I believe we must take action but it seems like now there's another possible choice where up until uh when uh Ms Baptist Perez pointed that out I really didn't realize that so I'd like to have an understanding of where that has been discussed how that's been discussed
188Ms Perrin and where that stands that possibility before I would want to vote tonight thank you so really what we have to do is bring it to the union um and to talk to them about the movement of a teacher at this point in time to go through that process um when we talk with them at the beginning of the year um when I first came in and we started talking about that that's what the conversation was um movement of Staff when we first put forth this specific plan um I was not necessarily aware that that teacher was certified to teach the math program at the time so it was not discussed with Miss Ramos but Mr Dr Morgan and I have been in conversations about that as well and and the other teacher that
189spoke the other teacher that spoke during public comment that was supposed to be hired for for cross and instead went to Hooker so that's that would be two possible teachers one of them is happy to do it actually uh so yeah so it's my fellow board members I feel like that possibility I would like to present be presented with that before I make a decision with only one choice be nice to have two choices and then pick what I think is the better of the two that's just my thoughts on that thank you uh yeah to Mr Lombard's points they're watching social media over and over again even in public comments we have heard if these students come teachers are going to resign we've had people say they would sign letters of recommendation for these
190teachers to leave our district if these students would transferred over so what makes you think if we try to make a lateral move for a teacher that's currently in hooker to move to cross that they'll accept the assignment and just not leave the district altogether that's one and until you got the collective bargaining agreements it would be an involuntary transfer and it would have to be done by inverse and you already we don't even know which teacher that is at this point did I get that so if option b is gone but there's no guarantees that it will fix the problem we'll be in this poor kids will be in the same boat for the next four or five months to transfer over to Hooker now would allow time to put a plan in place
191for the next school year to fully staff to school thoughts I would like to know if it's an option so I guess I guess I have a question so if that is an option what does that look like for cross school right now if that is an option so if that becomes an option go ahead I mean uh for from his parents so if if that becomes an option right now the clock the cross students will be remain at Cross we would have to go through um speaking with the um Bea in regards to what that switch would be um they would have to go through that piece there would have to be you know formal documentation put in place um the teacher will have to be given time to be able to execute the
192move there as well and then with the ELA teacher uh they would have to be brought back to cross because they were allocated to another position what position were they allocated to and what school days are Pattaya a seventh and eighth grade vacancy at Ela so so they will excuse me correct so they would have to that teacher would have to move back correct but but I did when I was speaking with Miss um outro Dixon she says that there are more there's more of a pool for either Ela Subs than for Math and for science so she she's hopeful in that regard any other thoughts questions comments have a question how how long will that take for Bea Communications uh because I'm most I also want to be mindful like these are real students
193there's a real timeline to the educational the remainder of this year um how much time will we give this staff member up because just from a very lay perspective uh Thomas Hooker has everything it needs and its numbers are not that high for classroom populations so having a now I'm going to go back to my terminology that bonus teacher doesn't really make sense to me to be in that school so how long uh typically are what's the longest possible communication with the union and moving them over um what would that look like if we explored that as an option um probably about a week and a half to two weeks um because they have to be given adequate time to be able to move um and to get all the programs in place so probably
194probably two weeks even without a classroom so because we also have to um because we would also have a lot of time for Miss Ramos to reconfigure the schedule that already exists at Thomas Hooker to be able to for the students there as well okay and in the event of a grievance and resignation what do we do then we visit the same plan that we're having tonight yes unless we get somebody else to reach out in their interim the board has a tough decision to make um I have a question I have a question yep if we vote to do the transfer if we vote tonight yes number if you can just talk more we can't hear you follow lock sorry if if we if the majority of the vote of the board votes to
195move forward with the transfer tonight when will it take place so that will be discussion with the board but my assumption what it would have been the 30th of January 30th so we have a week wait as it is okay correct any more questions any more comments yes I do go ahead Mr lumbar um in your professional opinion given everything we've talked about Miss Perrin do you think it is worthwhile to investigate option b or just only move forward with the transfer what do you think what that wasn't my response Mr Lombard so uh Ms Perrin said doing that because I want the students at whip across to be welcome wherever they are and that's extremely important um when I have children who look at me and you know feel like they are not going
196to be welcome because where they're from that's a major concern and we may have to revisit excuse me order order the superintendent is speaking please respect her as she is speaking thank you and as we are looking at things that are coming up as Mr sakolova talked about the fiscal cliff and so forth we are going to have to look at how we're Staffing and what that looks like for our Scholars so with that you said that you would you think therefore it's worthwhile to look at the other option before we vote tonight or you think we should just move forward with this in your opinion you think it's worth it's too risky to wait to find out more from the Bea and so forth or and possibly the teacher resigning because they don't want
197to be forced to transfer do you think all that isn't worth the extra week what I would encourage is that the board makes a decision on what they want to do um in regards to it with the caveat that if we are able to able to sustain and get this teacher without them residing and moving forward um then we will be able to revert back to students staying at Cross that's what I would advise I appreciate that and I just have to say that you know aside from anything that's happened in the last few weeks and all the pageantry um in general it makes sense to stay in your building with your classmates the school you went to your neighborhood in general it makes sense in my opinion in my opinion aside from all the
198things that have been said and not said and implied that's a whole other thing so I I just feel like this is a little late and maybe it's too late so we just move forward with this for the next few months and then between now and then we get those teachers there but if if there were a way to not Shake everything up like that if it was really if it were really that straightforward I feel it's worth looking into it would stall it by a half a week because as it is if we say yes to this gal it's not going to happen until Monday anyway and Ms Perrin said it would take a week to a week and a half maybe two weeks for everything to happen if it happens so I just
199I feel that that that that's pretty pretty logical and rational so but but at the same time it may be a longer stall and messed things up and shake up more people get teachers upset because either way hooker's going to be affected and they mean I like that so but but I think one of the things that was said over and over is we weren't consulted we weren't really talked to we were just told to be given given that opportunity for this Ramos to say no I don't like that option I want to keep my bonus not a bonus teacher my mother math teacher I want to keep that it's only for a few months anyway with the new students here then supposed to be hopefully back to normal but at least you'd have that
200opportunity to to have the discussion so I'm still prepared to vote on what's on the agenda tonight but I just felt like this needed to be discussed so thank you all right uh Miss batis Perez I think my hand was up from the last I'm sorry all right so um at this moment um the floor is open I will entertain a motion who would like to do the motion I'd like to make a motion to get Grandma's parenting authority to move the move across students Elementary seventh eighth grade students to Thomas Hooker Elementary School for the remainder of the 22-23 school year pending exhausting all of the means before Monday does that make sense second wait hold on just clarify clarify that what was that last part yeah he's going to clarify I make a
201motion to move to Grant authority to miss Perrin superintendent parent to move Wilbur course Elementary School 7th and 8th grade schools students to Thomas Hooker Elementary School for the remainder of the 22-23 school year pending the exhausting of any other means discussed this evening oh so what does that mean that means yeah okay so that's a second okay what that means is she's going to try to find somebody if she can't find anybody by Monday if everything falls apart the students will move this way we don't have to come back and have another meeting well that's that's no I don't think okay and that's that's that's basically what you that's basically what you asked for Mr Lombard is right but I saw something means that it might not work this way if it don't work
202the plan is ready to move forward so so you're saying along with this motion we're moving that she needs to come back to us by Monday with the results the real results of the of the uh investigation of the possibility of moving teachers so between now and Monday she will have talked to those two teachers to see if they're willing to do it and the Bea so they may not have to if they're if they're willing to do it so all that stuff is going to take place between now and Monday I would hope so I was I was I was not asking him to come back to us though all right if that's acceptable to make that motion it's so be it all right is there was it properly second yeah Mr bennahan second
203is there any discussion no roll call vote go ahead uh hold on okay Miss Allen I'd like you to clarify this Alan would like you to clarify one more time yeah Mr Mr Mr sokolovic is going to do that go ahead basically the focus was apparently a superintendent parenting authority to move the students or not move this as soon as at her discretion after investigating other means I I'm not comfortable with this but okay so are we ready to vote so Sybil Allen it's Alan how do you I'm gonna pass on this one right now okay oh Christine Baptist Perez yeah what oh sorry uh I'm going to pass right now okay um Bobby Brown on the past two okay um Albert bettahan but he said yes I said yes yes oh sorry I didn't
204hear you right um the keister cosmere is past the same as abstain no no she doesn't ask me she comes back to you again pass okay okay Joe sakovic yes Joe Lombard no civil Allen no did you say no no no okay Christine Baptiste Perez yes yes okay um Bobby Brown I'm gonna say yes too okay and that's Akisha Cashmere no no okay that's three no's no sorry yeah three no's and four yeses and motion carries all right motion to adjourn so moved all in favor all right I have sentence