001foreign ER superintendent for Easter for a region Eastern Redding and um Joe Barlow I'm Richard Lemmings who's the executive director he previously provided coaching for superintendents Rydell Harrison is currently working with all the administrators in the district as well as our assistant principals Isabelle Stevenson director of organizational learning she works with the executive directors special education department and many of our teacher leaders and Kerry Lord director of programs she also works with teacher leaders she works with our principals in providing professional development directly to them partners for educational leadership have basic core values that made them attractive as an organization to partner with to support our leaders in the district one of their core values is around Partnerships they work with us to diagnose challenges and to find Solutions within the district's context so their
002part the partnership is differentiated based on our school district so what they develop with us is unique to Bridgeport Public Schools some of their core beliefs are around continuous Improvement engaging in Collective inquiry but developing routines that will sustain continuous improvement over time I'll share a bit about that belief system during the presentation another belief is that context matters that the strategy that they developed with us is developed for Bridgeport Public Schools they believe in supporting leadership throughout the organization so you will see how leadership is supported from the executive level down to the classroom within all of this improvement work teaching and learning is a belief that we have to partner together among each other collectively to improve teaching and learning um not just in theory but what happens directly in the classroom between
003the teacher the student and the content and then last but not least partnering to disrupt um since stomach inequities uh making sure we're looking at how to create culturally responsive practice to meet the diverse needs of our children and partnering with institutions committed to anti-racism making sure that their our power is being used to elevate children and not to suppress their identities in life foreign this is the rationale for our partnership with partners for educational leadership we've just finished coming out of a pandemic there's massive learning loss among our students we've actually had the opportunity to hire numerous new leaders I believe on one of the slides there are 23 new assistant principles over the last five years several assistant principals within the district were promoted to principal ships so we have about a third
004of our leadership team that's new to their role so partnering to build capacity in our leaders we've had numerous staff turnover so we expanded our leadership reach to classroom teachers we established lead teachers so there are about 227 lead teachers in the district across grades K-12 to support the learning loss to support teachers and leaders learning and we partnered with them to identify a focus to support students families staff and leaders over the last five years we've had two administrators leave the district we've had 13 administrators promoted within five leaders happy tired and two leaders most recently participate in the position change of a promotion altogether we've had 23 new assistant principals so in an effort to make sure all leaders have the capacity to engage in that continuous Improvement to promote Equity to focus
005on teaching and learning on behalf of children we invested an estimated amount for this school year of 395 thousand dollars that 395 000 could possibly touch the 19 000 students we serve um there are 346 stakeholders that are engaged in this work with an estimated cost per stakeholder 1141 dollars the desired outcome is to provide ongoing job embedded professional development for leaders based on Research there's minimum Effectiveness based on one research study but collectively with developing teachers and developing a leader the combined Effectiveness is greater so these are the stakeholders that have been involved with partners for educational leadership but we have administrative Council meetings once a month they're approximately 100 leaders in the room we have participated in nine sessions as of the 21-22 school year which was a total of 14 hours before
006as of 22-23 school year we've had a number of a number of two two plan sessions I'm the executive directors myself Dr Baldwin arminio upon us and Dr Selena Morgan we've had 10 sessions last year with the partners um we that was a total of 40 hours of professional development as of this year we've only participated in four sessions we participate in those sessions monthly the principles of 16 principles new principles with five or less years have had a total of nine sessions 23 hours they've attended a number the number of planned sessions for this year is six for the entire year 23 assistant principals nine sessions last year 23 hours last year six sessions have been planned for this year um teacher leaders um 227 teacher leaders the last week of August this year
007the teacher leaders about half of them participated in four sessions 10 hours of professional development that professional development focused on understanding adult learning theory developing relational trust understanding cultural competence among teachers they've had one follow-up session this year they're scheduled for a follow-up session in January and April with another follow-up session during a teacher leader Institute in July um the directors myself we meet with those teacher leaders additionally once a month to support the work at the school level around literacy mathematics social studies and science we have school Improvement Grant schools there are eight stakeholders involved eight principals we did not support schooling school Improvement Grant schools last year this year we have planned six sessions to support the Improvement of teaching and learning at our school Improvement Grant schools and last but not least
008this year we've launched support to build capacity and Leadership within our special education department and there are seven supervisors and a director and there are 10 plan sessions to um develop that capacity partnership for the partnership with the partners for educational leadership the focus is truly on Improvement science understanding how we can make small changes that have high impact and low lower efforts to create big wins within the district what do we mean by Improvement science what specifically are we trying to improve one of our major Improvement efforts is around chronic absenteeism what changes that could drive that Improvement we've established home visiting we look at data their attendance teams that support schools we've established um we've established best practices around how we can use high quality instruction making sure there's a good positive climate
009in the classroom for students to want to come to school how will we know if a change is in effect an improvement we engage in cycles of improvement called plan do study act while we know that a change does not always lead to an improvement no improvement can occur without a change so we're looking constantly at ways to leverage change as a short example I met with my principals about an hour before this meeting we were focused on chronic absenteeism we didn't just look at the number or percentage of students that are chronically absent we wrestled with which grade levels have good attendance which grade levels do not are we calling families to find out why they're they're absent are we speaking to students if there's a grade level where the students are attending is
010it due to the relationship with the teacher in wrestling with that data what are some positive things we can do differently we're thinking about as an example next week is the week before Christmas break can holiday parties and activities be scheduled across that week to make sure students want to come to school minimizing having holiday opportunities too early in advance and then we're going to continue to go through this cycle over the months of January and February because chronic absenteeism is higher during this month during this month these months additionally um the principles can rely on each other some principles already have best practices in place so with this work with the partnership with educational leadership we've embarked on looking at the role of improvement science to advance the learning of children and to fill
011the capacity of the staff to solve the problems that are unique to Bridgeport Public Schools I mentioned here on this slide that as humans we're naturally diligent improvers you want to grow better plants we want to have it you know improved data to help us navigate you know you know when we need directions you always want the most improved updated ways information we try to improve our bodies physically um apple is always working to improve and update the phone so it's natural for us as humans and for us as an organization to engage in Improvement science as Educators where natural improvers we look to problem solve the closed gaps to go from where we are to where we want to be and we start by engaging in problems of practice so not being intimidated by
012problems but having confidence routines and strategies to solve them in U.S Public Schools most problems we Face are rooted in the fact that our fundamental system was not designed for Equity so when we're visiting in a classroom we're looking at how we can leverage Equity more effectively as a result of this work just as a small example one of the textbooks had a map a paper map on the page and students were struggling to relate to how do I use a paper map to help me well children don't use paper maps a culturally responsive you know entry to a map could be using a cell phone looking for those small inequities looking at students in the class that may be multilingual Learners how are we differentiating instruction to support the multilingual learner how we differentiate
013instruction instructions and make sure it's inclusive of students receiving Services that's the level of improvement that we've embarked on to create a system that promotes greater equity for students that may not naturally function at a high level but through small changes through Improvement we can make gains Ed mentioned the PDS Cycles which is plan do study Act planning a specific change that we would predict would lead to Improvement so planning to implement small group reading instruction implementing that small group reading instruction collecting data monitoring students monthly monitoring students sometimes every other week to see if that small group instructional data is improving reading meeting with the team teachers and principals to compare results if we implement this small group reading instruction do we see students improving do we see males improving do we see multilingual
014Learners approving do we see students who are homeless population improving if we see a population that's not approving we we adjust our instruction if we see that it's healthy all populations we adopt this instructional practice if no one's improving we change so that's the Improvement cycle that we've partnered with this organization to learn and become Nimble and robust with But ultimately what are we trying to improve we're trying to improve what we call the instructional core the most important relationship that exists for a t for a student is that relationship between the student the teacher and the content so if they're learning reading children must be engaged around reading cognitively engaged emotionally engaged but we must also develop the capacity of the teacher we can't change one element of the instructional core without changing every
015element of the instructional core and what's really most critical is the task what are we asking students to do we're asking students to do something meaningful that creates a positive emotion and cognitive engagement we're going to have engagement it's going to be relevant to the student and offer all that to happen the teacher must be developed as well so ultimately we're trying to improve what's happening in the classroom for children daily what changes might we try to drive Improvement these are for the changes that we've embarked on we've provided professional development to all stakeholders I've engaged in professional development so I interact with my principals differently principals have engaged in professional development so they interact with teachers differently teachers have engaged in professional development so they work with our children differently so this professional development
016is around creating a safe space for adult Learners so they can take risks they can try new changes so we're constantly working to build relational trust and cultural competence so we understand the people that we're working with the children the teachers the leaders we're culturally competent understanding their strengths their vulnerabilities in creating that space for their growth we're working on improving curriculum transforming that experience for the student in the classroom based on the task that's on their desks we're working on proving leadership to address the current context of what's happening in Bridgeport as well as issues of equity and we're working on developing leadership routines that allow continuous Improvement the routine of going through those those learning Cycles planning for a change do study the effectiveness and act if the change leads to positive results
017adopt if it doesn't lead to positive results let go so all of this Improvement is to minimize minimize variance and performance we have some schools that perform very well and we have schools that are under achieving however when we study those bright spots and inform what's happening in those schools that are producing results or those classrooms that are producing results we can learn and improve minimize the variation you don't want variation you want to see quality improvement across all schools and all classrooms so as I mentioned when I was with my principals today some have really strong attendance teams so those those principles are sharing this is these are the positive things happening in my attendance teams because we don't grow in isolation we only grow in community so this work is teaching us how
018to minimize variations across schools and maximize looking at these positive opportunities to bring to scale um I had given attendance data as the example so most recently um actually Dr Baldwin and I'm Carly broker Reyes director of counseling they spent some time in September and October looking at the bright spots in the district around um attendance data and we highlighted and learned from Edison and Barnum Bryant Columbus and waltersville some of the positive things they were doing with attendance you know they're like okay they have this good attendance data but one of the things that they drilled down to we're looking at what are some of the resources needed to produce that positive attendance data what were some of the celebrations those schools were engaging in what were some of the incentives what were the
019structures that produced that outcome you know having strong SEL teams Student Success teams restorative practice facilitators what was the data that was guiding those schools they had school climate data individual srbi data for students they were using attendance data they were looking at the relationships between teachers and students there were some routines like the principles monitoring data daily um teachers calling home looking at tardy absence confirmation because sometimes children walk in they're marked absent and not you know they're marked absent but when they get to school the absence isn't changed to a tart so they were looking at the routines so this this um image here has become a tool for us to talk and discuss these are some of the positive things that create outcomes these are some of the small changes that can
020create better intendence how can the leaders use this information to create Improvement in their school and finally um hopefully these could be some of our next steps with the partners for educational leadership if we continue with the Partnerships um continue to look at the school system to identify areas for improvement especially focused on equity today here at Aqua there were I believe about 20 assistant principals here studying Equity with bright Dale Harrison studying how to understand how to use our individual positional power to elevate and advanced learning for children one of the areas other areas of equity unique to Bridgeport large and growing multilingual population students who are chronically absent students receiving special education services so we would continue to look at the system that way we could continue to use the drivers of professional
021development curriculum leadership and culture to advance our improvements and then last we can examine the results of learning Cycles to design to decide if a change is adopted adjusted or abandoned because not every change leads to an improvement but we can only improve if we change any questions for this presentation thank you your presentation Dr Jenkins like always I like him you know very good but I have a few questions but I'm gonna put all my questions in one um I said everything about staff and everyone and not to work together and everything is amazing but I want to know how uh Mr Harrison Mr lemon's Case Stevenson and Miss Lord how everyone had to be working with parents because I know us and you guys are professional they can work for the students and
022give it the best but I like to be sure that parents be involved because we don't want um all the time is that parents have to be involved they can know us what we can do you know us what we you know we're doing you got what they're doing to be sure they give that great education information to the students what hard parents are being in that area at this time there's no direct service from the partners to parents that it's not something that we have planned however I will say as an example when you had your last you know students and families meeting and expenditures weren't where you wanted them as a board we needed to go and create some plans and Implement some change to make sure those expenditures occur you know making
023sure there's one a complete pack making sure everyone had an action plan and what is your plan to meet the spend down requirements as outlined in the district so please note that we immediately went into a learning cycle with administrators so I just want you to know to to advance the the mission of the students and families committee so I just so that's one way in which the executive directors I if that's something that you would like us to consider going forward um that could be considered enough yeah I would love to yeah all right thank you no more questions uh Mr sakolovic uh yes um as soon as this is mostly basically a top-down approach how do we quantify the success because it's going to take a little while take a little longer to
024trickle down to test scores and everything than like traditional program coming up we can measure quicker if this program is working but going to top down approach how do we measure if it's successful so one of the things that we have learned is to collect process data so when we're implementing professional development we always get feedback from the teachers on how well that professional development was received is it valuable so I know for literacy all of the feedback from Individual teachers and we look at the number of teachers that respond we save it and we use that as process data um the administrators provide feedback as well at the end of you know sessions to let us know how we should adjust in October when we had professional development with the teacher leaders they gave
025us survey feedback but they were also able to go into small groups with each other to provide feedback on what's working in the district and what's not working so rather than waiting for outcome data we're always looking at process data as well and as far as the survey results have about what percentage of so I I can only speak the literacy when we administer a survey we strive for a minimum of 50 I would say it ranges from 50 to 70 percent of the staff so that's a decent sample but just as an example I I think it was November 30th I met with a group of DEA stakeholders for Bea Roundtable so if we're implementing something and it's not well received to get feedback that's may not be as optimal but it would allow
026to make adjustments and create Clarity so um there are Round Table opportunities with teachers as well thank you um I just have a question for this coming school year the number of sessions for Teacher leaders almost triple oh no quadruple uh from 4 to 17 is it from feedback that more sessions like that were needed for Teacher leaders and what was the increase so we were launching at the end of 21 22 so the four sessions were the fourth days in June so during the year I meet with the teacher leaders monthly you know to get feedback because they're on the ground we also provided sessions during the year like big group sessions so they had one in October they will have one in January one in April and another Institute for professional development and
027feedback but I meet with teacher leaders monthly I'm herminioplanas meets monthly as well as David Henry meets monthly or science so that's another feedback opportunity for us but they're also helping us with the curriculum implementation and supporting professional development on the ground anyone else have any questions or Miss Morgan yeah yeah so you said this kicked off in June for the teacher for the teacher but administrators we this is our second year of Engagement this is the continuation yes but we did expand to include teacher leaders the special education supervisors and the school Improvement grad schools right so um kind of piggybacking on what Mr Collins was asking about evaluations so in the this will be the second full year what type of feedback have they received and and made any adjustments based on or
028was there no calls for adjustments to their delivery of the program with the partnership really working to make it more practical application to what they're doing in the building and so just they they taught us a process or a routine called an empathy interview so where we would ask a leader or teacher you know what they think about something and not physically like like no facial expressions no body language but to create a safe space for any stakeholder to um give us feedback so as I mentioned when I met with the Bea Union for a round table there were a variety of feelings about some of the literacy changes um some was resistance some anxiety some feelings of confusion so they've taught us how to collect they call it Street data because you can collect
029satellite data they call it satellite Street and um map data so Street data is like when we do the home visits and we collect that verbal feedback from families so when we we are trained to do empathy interviews when there is resistance to change confusion frustration to try to get to the root of it um and be more humanistic because you think Mr sokolovic said we could just allow straight along and not collect um data that would inform changes and and more quickly because if we wait for a student outcome data we we may not see an outcome because we haven't addressed The Human Side of change they they've also called it adaptive change human changes has to be adapted understanding the emotional needs of the person technical change like fixing this projector is pretty
030easy so don't tell that to him normally but it's it's going to get fixed and be done whereas trying to make a change in how we deliver reading trying to make a change in how we deliver how we address chronic absenteeism we're addressing the human side of it some people may feel overwhelmed by it some but how do I meet you where you are to implement a small chance just so I understand these those four individuals are it's their product their program and they're implementing it in these these professional developments they've developed the program for us so you're you're going through the program right okay but but they've it's been designed so we influenced the design constantly so we may make course Corrections what we plan for December may look slightly different in January so
031the the PD that you're receiving at your level is that with them yes and then you're implementing the PD at the lower levels I'm implementing with principles but they get bd2 from from them the same pz as me so it's almost like a similar language okay so what I shared with you I actually shared with the principals an hour and a half before coming here right thanks all right thank you thank you very much all right um if there's no further questions thank you Dr Jenkins and our project for saying correctly uh thank you uh presentation the next one under it is that discussing the next item is discussion and possible action on the overview of the commissioner's Network application process planning year for Barnum and basic school so can we take any action on
032this Advantage no no it's it's presentation no action no action mm-hmm the floor is yours good evening everyone I'm Nadira Clark I'm the district's director for Grants development and management I'm going to give you a super brief overview of commissioner's Network Dr raiola is on he's going to present uh on more intricate details on the basic plan and where they stand and I believe Ms Booth is in the audience and she will present as it relates to Barnum thank you for your time I did send along some information in the packet and that's what I will be reading off of if you wanted to follow along because I cannot share value of the screen that I have so the commissioner's network is basically a commitment between um local stakeholders meaning the Lea which is um
033Bridgeport and the State Department of Education to improves student achievement in turnaround and focus schools and basic and um Barnum will explain to you more about their statuses as that relates to this program so the state decides to make a really concerted effort to improve what they call Taco it is the talent academics culture and climate and operations related to programming at each location they are looking forward to providing monies into the millions uh over several years at each location that they end up choosing uh to go ahead and provide resources focused on that tackle area the schools that are chosen they actually go into the network for a minimum of three years there are extensions possible but they are only maximum up to two years so there's only a five-year cycle that could potentially
034happen the district has had several other commissioner Network Schools starting with curiel actually in the first cohort that was in 2012. we've had Dunbar Marin Columbus and most recently still in the cohort there um started in 2018 is Roosevelt they are currently in their final year of the program and then the district is now applying for basic and Barnum to enter into the next cohort and as you'll see in that timeline I presented it's a 17-month process there's an application process where the state opens up for an um an expression of interest it's basically a two-pager asking for basic information about what the school is looking at right now in terms of their Insight data and then what their overall plans might be and then from that information the state goes through a series of
035different initiations of collecting additional information from the school having site visits asking them to prevent uh present different pieces of information as of right now we are in December so we're in that August through December a portion where it's the initiation of the planning Grant so each school that was invited will receive a planning Grant basic and Barnum do have a fifty thousand dollar um thank you Arlene who have been made those two Awards uh they've been going through different iterations because the state is closely um you know aligned with both of the schools doing several visits and follow-ups as to you know how they would like their final draft plans to look like making sure that what they're going to be spending their time on over the next couple of months will work in
036terms of them getting their committees together and getting those final plans together they did give them an audit report and that is the second handout that you should have for both of the schools now that I have share right maybe I can put that up for you uh so each school will have information back from their audit where the state has actually asked them to focus on particular areas um Barnum and basic and that's at the bottom of each of their um quadrant that I would have shared with you last week and I'm going to kick it over probably easiest to miss Booth who's in the audience and I'll just bring her item up I did share the the direct information for the audit but miss boot will share with you as they're going through
037they can't focus on every single thing that's noted uh she will tell you what their school has decided to do just join us at the table yeah so you can be on the mic step up to the mic good evening I'm Christine Booth I'm the principal of Barnum as Nadira was explaining um we were a part of the application to the intent application and Quantum was selected to continue with the application with this state um we partner the direct District partner is Mark Hughes she comes out to Barnum about once a month or sometimes twice a month to work with us she was part of the state audit where they came and visited all the classrooms had student focus groups parent focus groups staff focus groups and then we're able to provide us with feedback
038around their rubric under the domain of Taco Talent academic culture climate and operations after that audit we shared it with the staff at the school we've shared it with parents at the school and then have highlighted the areas that we want to focus on to make Improvement one of the reasons that we think Barnum will be successful is looking at pre-covered s back data and last year's svac data Barnum has really rebounded well higher than the district average we're not exactly where we were pre-covered and still a lot of growth to make but that shows that we have such a strong foundation in our staff and commitment to elevate students academically so the handout that Nadira had shared with you is a revision of what we are working on with the state this came right
039out of the state audit as far as like our data snapshot anything that has an asterisk unfortunately the state determines it's too low of a numeric to report out and from one I understand it could be for multiple reasons but I you know our numbers unfortunately were very you know into low performing area um and then if you is it in Nigeria are you presenting yes scroll down actually you could scroll down um on the left is the um what's called the turnaround committee and this is the like the governing Committee of what we're doing and the application that we are creating this year um I sit on it as the administrator the teachers union has selected two teachers to be a part of it the um the union chose one parent to be a
040part of it I asked our Pac president to be a part of it as um as representative and then the superintendent's Point T is Mr clonus as he is my direct supervisor and oversees Barnum um so we've um that was appointed by Mr tessani and then the state commissioner appointee which is Margaret Hughes on the right side we've um created a school-based writing team and these are the teachers that and it's um a cross-section of Staffing from the youngest grade levels at kindergarten all the way up to 8th grade and we include our special population um as well and we need to look at what was reported out in the audit and to conduct root cause analyzes which means we look at um the indicators on the rubric and we say well why aren't we
041at the highest level and but why but why but why and so we're we're still in the process of identifying the root cause and now uh completing Rick Ross analysis so that we can build a plan that can create systems for us to move ahead in the different domains and then if you move to the bottom these are the highlights highlighted areas um that we're really focusing on and it it really almost kind of encompasses everything but the focus is to build the capacity of the staff to elevate their practice which in turn impacts students positively as well as the culture and climate there's attendance there's a parent piece operations the use of time so it really we want to move Barnum forward holistically and so through the commissioner's Network we complete this application it
042said it's a year but it's due March 3rd which feels like it's coming really quickly because it's you know a lot of work and hearing a lot of voices um and making sure that we're being thoughtful in our process if the State team that's working with us um approves it then it would move forward to the State Board of Ed in the spring and and if we're granted um acceptance into the network we become basically a network one of a network of schools and there's financial resources that come with it that allow us to do the professional development and the in-house coaching the advanced coaching that we uh would like to advance our practice thank you are there any questions or we can wait till after um the last presentation eventually back to you Miss
043Clark okay and so next up we do have basic I'm going to put their item on the screen if it would let me right okay and Dr raiola is along with us uh all right there we go um evening everyone uh happy holidays um you know congratulations to um you know Miss Brown Miss Baptiste Perez and Mr Lombard on your appointments yesterday uh good luck for um you know your service over the next year so um you guys know me Dr rayola principal over at basic um I'm I'm very pleased to bring this to you this evening um you know this has been for for us um you know for my time at basic this has been a a lot of work to get here to get this opportunity to even apply for this plan
044in this grant um I think we applied two or three years in a row they weren't sure about stability with leadership um and and finally you know last year into this year everything kind of clicked um so we're at a real nice point where um the state is looking at us at basic and saying geese you're you're building a new school you've got um some some great opportunities here um you've got a you're building a new school and at the same time um we have this opportunity to provide you some some additional resources to um work on what goes on inside the building as well so um you know this plan and and the outcome of the audit um showed some really interesting things I I guess the the strong stuff and and the glows
045would be um around the organizational systems we put in over the past five years Safety and Security they commented highly on our leadership abilities um there were comments about our teachers in there and the dedicated staff that we have um you know I got to give a big shout out to to my teachers and and um their their ability to persevere through the pandemic and their overall dedication to the students at basic that was noted through a lot of the audit work and the interviews um there was some notice of the parent um supportive basic and the trust that the parents have of of the professionals at basic as well um you know we recently won the governor's award for the FAFSA Challenge and you know to to earn that earn that award uh parents
046need to really have some trust in the school and some trust in the counselors because they they provide a lot of information that frankly some people may not want to turn over so um there were some notes in there about about the relationships with parents um there was some positive attributes to the scheduling that we do um and all in all the the state really felt that we were at a a nice point organizationally and operationally to to switch over to our growth areas which is around uh teaching and learning so um you know looking at Daily instruction what is that tier one instruction look like in our classroom uh what is tier one leadership me is it instructional leader my instructional leadership team not just the administrators but also the department heads that we
047have at the school those instructional leaders that are working with the the partners um you know the focus of this grant would be how do we build the capacity of all these individuals to support our students so um you know really in short the the grant is about um what are we teaching and how are we teaching it so so we're really looking at those two items and and then pouring as much professional development in to build as much capacity as possible into the school um you know with outcomes you could see the test scores and and things like that up above um with outcomes measurable in those areas um that that's more or less a quick overview of the Grant I mean we we do have some some committees that are working on this
048it's not uh you know we're not doing this in a silo by any means um you know central office Dr Jenkins um and her team have taken an interest in in supporting this work um and at the building level we do have a school-based writing team that Miss Clark is showing you now um you know it's it's that instructional leadership team that uh I think two meetings ago we met and they're doing that work with the partners um so that team is also helping to write this this grant they're kind of closest to the teachers closest to the work they understand um a lot of our growth areas and they're helping to make recommendations as to what goes into this um so we have that school-based writing team and then we have a District representative
049team that you could see on the left hand side um you know and and that's that's our group there um so we've got a pretty diverse group here um I've been sharing this information with gosh as many people as possible so it's it's nice to be here tonight and share it with you as well it's been uh sent out to my whole faculty um it's been sent out to my parents and and we've done some surveys and solicited as much feedback as possible and we're really trying to um make sure that as we develop this plan everybody can see themselves in the plan and has an active part in it as well it's going to take a lot of people to take this next step at basic but I believe everybody's in the right places
050and we're able to move in that direction going forward thank you so much uh Miss Clark is there any more for the presentation before we open the floor for questions oh no those were the two main items thank you thank you to uh both principals for uh sharing today I'll open up the floor for any questions for either of the principals in their schools um hi good to see you again um when I see the um the talk when they say the person hey I see that um grade um third for fifth yeah 2012. and DSM maybe it's low the commission Network you know they allow that is not a problem it's not something that just because the numbers look the percentage down that you know they keep going with the uh you know with
051a network yes um and that is one reasons we qualify because our scores are um are low and underperforming that is one of the reasons that we qualify to apply yours that the special it is very you know they don't have no you don't have nobody special day for now or you maybe you're gonna ask somebody else oh um within the committee yeah we were lucky we we actually just hired a um new coordinator for our special ed um a bright a bright individual actually we just just put the rep for hire in last week um so we're lucky yeah Special Ed will be fully represented um she's going to start I think February 1st so right after that one special add-on you know represented a little bit more heavily on there all right thank
052you no more questions thank you Mr psychology yes this question is for both schools and both principals um it says on this um turn around plan and it says in consultation with the school Governors councils do both of your schools have fully functioning School governance councils and how will they be consulted during this process I um I can speak the barn we do have a fully functional uh School governance Council and in fact who had a meeting last week last Tuesday where I did update on the team regarding uh where we are with the statuses and um many of the teachers that are on my team have already been to the small group sessions where we go over the information um and I've given I'm giving the outside Community member which is uh Maria Valle
053opportunities to meet with us internally if she would like to speak further too as well as the parents awesome thank you we are still in the process of getting our governance Council up and running for the year um we've had some difficulty getting some of the Community Partners back on board and uh some of the parents as well so uh we're a few steps back on that but um on the other side of it we have advertised um this work out to the entire community so there's definitely an awareness of what's going on and we are seeking input from uh the representatives from the community thank you um any other questions Miss Baptist curious says for additional resources available to network schools they may provide financial support can you elaborate on the kind of initials
054for is that more supplies professional development is whatever can be interpreted as financially yes I could take that question uh so traditionally there is a planning Grant which both schools currently have right now which is to help them get through these next couple of months per the timeline to get their plans together and under that both schools have put together their budget indicating they would like to pay for additional professional development if it's in some cases in the past some schools have ordered books to help their their writing groups you know learn more information about the items that were turned back during the audit and so that they could present a really good plan once the schools are accepted usually the first year is about a million dollars or a little bit less this is
055a really good investment so that money can be used to get additional teaching resources in the form of intervention at the school get additional you know materials and resources um you know which is you know workbooks for the kids if you're creating an art program you're going to start from scratch and they will help you develop those items once your budget fits and aligns closely with the plan that you developed and presented to them so it really can range and we do work from central office with the the schools that are selected to create and Miss Siegel is on the line both her and I sit and we're diligently with them to create you know viable plans to put together that can be submitted to the state and we closely monitor that spending to make
056sure it's done and the way that's it's expected any other questions for either the principles Karen Matt thank you both thank you Miss Clark thank you to both principals of basic in at Barnum um and any staff that were a part of this so thank you for presenting tonight thank you very much thank you thank you for having us no problem our next agenda item is discussion in possible pool of parent representative for the commissioner's Network planning committee which is for basic high school so I'm going to turn this over to miss Perrin okay um good evening everyone um as part of this planning process as you know there has to be parental voice um and involved so Dr raiola um as well who's trying to reach out to find parents who wanted to participate
057um so week and a half two weeks ago um they were able to reach out to a parent who actually wanted to participate in the planning process her name is Rosemary Velez and she's the parent of an 11th grade scholar at Baptist High School um she's been active person's education so much with its English teacher she was nominated for this position um when the principal asks for less if she would take others responsibility she responded by saying anything she could do to help on fasting so miss Velez is a lifelong Bridgeport resident and also attended basic high school she is very thankful for this opportunity and foreign thank you I will now entertain a motion to accept the name for the parent for the um commissioner's Network someone um move by Mr bin in a
058second by Miss Allen all in favor oh discussion discussion sorry no worries I just got a quick question he says she's a teacher and a parent says no she's not a teacher she was she nominated by a teacher all right so we'll start the process again um all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions all right the motion carries um thank you thank you um the next agenda item um qualifies for executive session is discussion and possible action on the appointment of filling the board vacancy created by John weldon's resignation um we actually have two candidates here tonight um and we will give them that opportunity to start the process um I'll entertain it can be done in public but I will entertain a motion to go into executive session if needed to discuss yeah
059we can discuss yeah right I'm just trying to think I think we gotta we would have to do it uh one at a time yes it would have to be one at a time mentioned both 10 days ask them both if they would like to correct have an executive session I mean it happened in public the same way we do whatever they are in um correct so our first candidate um sorry I want to make sure I say the name correctly and please forgive me if I say it wrong so please uh correct me the first candidate is Miss Cashmere all right Miss cashmere you um we're actually gonna uh start the process would you like to have your meeting in public or an executive session okay all right so it's up to the board
060now I believe she's able to take which one you want for the record which was he like well you could choose which one would you like uh uh executive position all right so now I'm turning over to the board this is an opportunity for us to decide whether or not we want to move into effective session I mean my experience back when I was appointed it was in public I don't really have a preference I'll go with whatever the boardwalks okay anyone else I think because transparency and consistency has been reputation we've been labeled with whether or not it's true false is different um verbal to have it in public uh just so the questions that our apps are available and this will essentially be a public role and so what great way for everyone
061to meet you then to actually see the interview process since they will have an opportunity to elect you anyone else I agree with mental policy you know because because that's the way I feel Miss Allen would you like to say anything about it no I'll just uh vote along with the group whoever okay thanks okay all right so uh we're gonna put it to a vote no we don't need to we don't need to okay so then um if you want we're gonna have you join us up here please join us so you can be on the mic actually is that will she be able to do executive session no we're not so is she okay to sit over there will she be able to be able to ask everyone to speak louder because okay
062so we're gonna have you talk about it maybe here is better okay so we're having technical difficulties so we're trying to figure it out Hi how are you yeah hello hello there's a bike there okay all right so just project your voice um at this moment I just want to remind board members that resumes uh cover letters um well not cover alerts but letters of intent are in your um portfolio but what we also have agreed to um with doing this process that whatever question we asked for one we must maintain that same question for the other candidate as well so um what I'll do is I'll go last but I'll open up the floor for any candidate that would like to start first Mr macron is he um yeah so let the record fight
063Mr macaroon is no longer a part of the meeting um in who would like to be our first person to ask her a question yeah five minute recess oh no never mind so how about what we'll do is we'll give you a couple minutes to introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll open up the floor for questions the floors first okay thank you thank you for this opportunity my name is Akisha kazimir um was born and raised in Stanford graduated from Stanford Public Schools um attended Norwalk Community College and I earned my associate's degree and Human Services and then I attended Sacred Heart University where I earned my bachelor's degree in criminal justice I have two children who are 28 and 26. and they are both college graduates they were
064both born in Bridgeport um and I live in Bridgeport and I work in Bridgeport and I'm really excited because I am um getting ready to work for myself Reinventing myself and um it feels great and so the hands-on experience that I have and the classroom experience that I have a combination of the two uh brought me here to you today I've always been involved in my Pitt school I joined the PTO for both of their schools and I ended up being voted in as the district-wide president of the PTO Council of Norwalk Connecticut so um I'd go on about myself because I just love myself but I won't so that's about it thank you all right so what I'll do is I'll start at this end of the table and work our way around Mr
065bennahan would you start us off with okay I can reverse yeah yeah we'll start what's nice first person so we'll start with Miss um Baptiste Perez would you like to start your first question uh do you have any kind of affiliations that would conflict or impact your decision-making abilities on this board of education no foreign I I didn't hear but do you have children now presently in the school system no ma'am I don't thank you so um as you may know there's a lot of different committees that are on the board and you may be asked to serve on one or more um some of them include Finance teaching and learning um uh students and families there's governance contracts what interests you what could you bring to any one of those committees if you were
066on the board can you repeat the Committees again well so I was especially who knows all the Committees so there's a lot of committees there's teaching and learning there are students and families there's ad hoc uh district-wide branding initiative there is health and safety there is um diversity diversity equity and inclusion contract Finance Finance Personnel Personnel governance facility facilities what interests you what would you like to bring to students and families and why is that uh I have over three decades of experience working with families Children and Families um parents as teachers is a program that I work for right now and what we do is go into the home conduct home visits and as the child and parent is interacting with one another we label to the parent how they're helping with their children's
067development um I am a advocate of keeping kids out of the Criminal Justice System and I'm really passionate about investing in children these are the people that are going to be making decisions for us while when we get older and we're no longer able to take care of ourselves so I've always for many many years ever since I've had children I've always invested in children I've spent 15 years running a non-profit organization that I founded I break through options for families advocated for single parent families in poverty and provided mentors for at-risk kids that were enrolled in a program and that was in the Norwalk area so um my passion I'm passionate about helping children and families and it's just who I am I don't know everything I'm here to learn from everybody um and
068still trying to learn if this is a good fit for me yeah I'm glad that I was able to see the meeting um and how you know the agenda flows um and I think that that's all I have on that for now thank you very much thank you um yes do you believe institutional racism is a barrier to people of color still today why oh why not institutional racism is definitely a barrier um to people of color today and um although I believe it's getting better [Music] um and why because of my hands-on experience um I'll give you an examples someone in poverty is applying for section 8. they're looking for an apartment um for a landlord that takes Section Eight so um legally people who own property can't say to somebody I don't accept
069Section Eight that's illegal to do that of what they will do to discriminate against them is ask for two months security from somebody who's a single parent and they're poor um they'll they're they're different ways that um people discriminate against people and not just people of color I mean people who don't have money like there are a lot of Caucasian people people who are non you know who are not of color that um you know that also have issues and barriers but particularly for people of color it's just something that I've lived through and I've um witnessed personally and with other people that I've helped Advocate the work thank you Mr bennahan hello how are you good thank you um one review to be to be a color you want to be a board member
070and be responsibility to get successful for Boeing I'm sorry can you repeat that what what motivates you to want to become a board member have responsibility to get successful for Boe well I think that I have a lot of experience working with Children and Families to bring to the table um but I'm also humble enough to know that this committee this board has been up and running for a long time and have done some great work and I just want to be a part of it if I can I want to contribute to the success of students in Bridgeport my question is knowing the commitment of serving on the board of ed does your current schedule give you the flexibility to attend committee meet-ins regular meetings and or special meetings well I don't know what
071the schedule is and um yes my my schedule is jam-packed but I am willing to adjust that schedule to make a commitment to this work thank you are there any other are there any comments that you would like to give to miss Kashmir or Miss cashmere would you like to leave us with a final statement before you move on to the next candidate I just want to say thank you very much for the opportunity um I appreciate it and um whether I get chosen to be on the board or not I am still willing to help as a citizen of Bridgeport to do whatever I can to for the success of not just the students but the parents as well thank you very much um at this time we'll call our next Kennedy I please
072forgive me if I butcher your name please correct me uh Mr David jellum okay God please join us the same process that we did for Mitch Kashmir will go the same for you feel free to introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll start the question sure um thank you and good night um my name is David Gellen um I recently moved to Bridgeport by 2020 during the mass Exodus in New York uh during covid I decided to buy a home in Connecticut and I looked at several locations but I wanted to be in a place where it diverse I have two children seven and twelve they both attend um John Winthrop a little bit of background a little bit about my background my family is from Haiti my mother and
073dad migrated to Haiti um in the late early 80s I grew up partially in Brooklyn New York and Coney Island I remember specifically going to a public school P.S 288 you know I loved it um and when my parents were had to move to Queens New York um I attended PS 116 and ps35 and I felt a stark difference in that public school the teachers were not attentive um I felt like I was ignored um I didn't really feel valued I think my parents for being patient and also finding um being dedicated to putting our Education First and we're able to move to Long Island and we I attended Elmont Memorial High School I entered Alden Terrace I moved in when I was in fourth grade and I attended a Memorial High School and if
074you know Elmont I'm not sure if any of you do um it is a majority of black neighborhood um but I was able to excel um in Elmont in Northern terrorists I was identified that I needed at fourth grade I was reading at um part in fifth grade when he did my evaluation I was reading about a second grade level I was able to get the help that I needed to continue on my path then um by him today and I knew it was because of the community uh folks in the community I know it was the board members teachers principals everyone parents who fought hard for the students um to ensure that they were equipped to tackle the real world um I'm currently 36 years old I graduated from Malloy college with my bachelor's
075and master's degree in nursing I'm a nurse practitioner I work full-time currently I'm a assistant part of me I'm a seniors manager for critical care units I cover sort of eight units um so what brings me here today when I decided to transition my children full-time to um School here in Connecticut um I was left for the choice to be honest um I heard about open choice where everybody my um children can have an opportunity maybe someplace near that's outside of the city um I have a congregation in Trumbull I was contemplating them to um the Catholic school there however I wanted to stay true to what matters I think Public School really matters and I wanted my children to get that experience they had said John Winthrop I love this teacher there and I
076see the great work that's being done here in the world so as much as you know thank you so we'll start the question process again we'll start with Miss Miss baptiste's Perez family members that may work for the City of Bridgeport that will conflict with or impact your decision-making ability as a public official on this board no Allen I have good questions yeah you're at the same question I think he answered it he has two children in the Bridgeport School System yes okay uh Mr Lombard thank you um so the same question I asked before we mentioned some of the Committees that are support has you may be asked if you're on the board to serve on one or more committees you will be asked what would interest you or would like to uh give
077your input into and why for example there's the finance committee there's the Personnel committee there's teaching and learning there's diversity there's students and Families there's Health Community it goes I don't know I think you heard them before so what interests you and why is that what do you think you could bring to the community I think um health and safety um you know is up my alley uh me being a nurse um for the past 12 years um I think I could bring um you know what I've learned throughout my career in healthcare like Dr Jenkins mentioned early on she was she presented to us the pdsas I use a lot of pdsas about Carnival in fact I presented today for the ihi The Institute for health Improvement um nationally abuse whom of course but
078uh we I spoke about some of the pdsas that I'm currently working on in my units um and I think things along those lines how do we improve processes um maybe the health and safety even Personnel I do a lot of hiring right so maybe how do I get involved with the hiring process how do we look at candidates how do we screen candidates thank you thank you Mrs yes same question um Do You Believe institutional racism still creates a barrier for people of color today why or why not right I have to be honest I think it's more income based um I know there is some institution no biases that may exist but I know there's a lot of Brown and Brown folks who um um who are the income kind of and probably
079kind of leads them um into that um bracket Maybe your first priority is not to learn is to eat shelter the same goes for white folks um our um Asian friends as well right so I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and I've seen firsthand that race itself is not because of barrier I think other things may add to it and have our face racism absolutely I really specifically anybody that I grew up in a friend of mine who happens to be wide and three other friends of mine were black cops just came by stopped us let my white friend go and searched me and my three my two other friends I faced that but to me I still believe in America I still believe in together if I come together we have so
080much in common we could certainly make a difference and I know these board members we have maybe diverse of ideas and um I mean I have the same political um points of views but we still see the same problems maybe we want to achieve the same Solutions and for this board's priority which I know is to take care of our children our students in the Bridgeport Public School System um in addition is to ensure that the tax dollars that we're receiving is allocated fairly thank you Mr dennehan um second question I'm going to ask sorry one's debate you you want to become a board member and be responsible to get successful football education all right so I like this part of the story out so what I called um to enroll my my um my
081students some of my children into John went throughout High School um I spoke to someone at the main office and you know just trying to get a feel on how school is and their perspective I said it's the best school best elementary school in Bridgeport and just kidding around I looked at some of the trouble grave as well and I mentioned so that trouble is pretty good too that well that's troubled not Bridgeport and to me that really let the bad taste my mouth you know because Bridgewater is no different than Trumbull no different than Fairfield no different than Norwalk we've worked together we work hard and become we collaborate we can achieve so much for our students and that's what motivated me thank you thank you and last question is knowing the commitment of
082serving on the board the Boe does your current schedule give you the flexibility to attend committee meetings regular regular board meetings and or special meetings yes it does and we'll leave it for you to give one last date one last statement and then thank you again I just want to thank the board for allowing me the opportunity to apply and present myself and what I can bring to the table and I just want to leave you with this I've over the past two board meetings I've seen the dialogue um I've seen some of the back and forth what I've also seen is the care that each board member have for the students I just want to add to that okay thank you to both of our candidates for tonight um I'm gonna ask our I'm
083gonna ask our candidates um because we obviously have to discuss um Candice would you be okay if we discuss your your interview session and executive session all right so I will entertain a motion to go into executive session on the purposes of discussing the candidate interviews second all right all in favor any opposed any abstentions here and none we'll go to a better session we'll be right back shortly so Canon there's no board members online foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so you may need my glasses is beautiful that is a big deal so many times yes we respect you all right all right ladies and gentlemen we're gonna get to work we're going to start back the process um everyone that has that entered into the special meeting to Executive session is now present
084here and we will start uh the voting process okay so we have two candidates what you're going to do is I'm gonna call on you and you're gonna say which candidate you would like it's either yay or nay for either candidates got it so the first candidate is Miss Akisha Callum I mean Miss Akisha Kashmir this is Keisha Cashmere and we will start with Miss uh Chris Miss Baptist sorry I'm so tired yay Miss Allen Cashmere yeah Mr Lombard yeah Mr sokolovic yes Mr bennahan yes is that the record oh me uh yes let the record reflect that there was a total of six yeses for Miss Cashmere so with that with that being said congratulations to miss Kashmir foreign meetings before so continue to do so and uh we hope you stay close by
085all right um Mr Lombard I believe you have to yeah may I suggest a five minute recess to take care of this business stuff sorry again so because it's actually not on the agenda but it doesn't need to really need to be done just do a quick five minute recess recess all in favor all right this is there an issue that I notarizes I don't even know if it has to go to the city city office what we'll do now is we'll take the OverWatch okay and then I'm going to I'm adjusting the piece so it looks like and I'm going to sign the form I'm going to hand it over to the superintendent submit it to the so we had the interviews I was sworn in at the point recess um we're gonna move
086right on to our next agenda item which is update on the RFP process concerning the superintendent search and that is Miss Siegel foreign can you hear me now yes very good so good evening to everyone uh the RFP for the superintendent search firm was posted on November 18th 2022 and the return date is January 4th 2023. Mr pyroz will receive the proposals from the city Purchasing Office he will then notify the superintendent who will notify the board chair so that a meeting of the superintendent search committee can be scheduled and the superintendent search committee would then review and rate the proposals in order to propose a search firm to the full board for approval thank you Miss uh Siegel um yeah there's there's no uh there's no need for discussion we just want to make
087sure there was an update for the board so we appreciate it and we'll look forward to um because our next meeting next year we'll have more of an understanding of where everything stands so we just want to say thank you for the update but what was that date again that I know the 14. the return date is January 4th 2023. that is all thank you Miss Eagle thank you good evening all right good evening um the next one is discussion and possible action on the 2020 the 2023-2024 school year calendar everyone should have it in front of you please take a moment to review it if you haven't see if there's anything missing anything out of place that we can have corrected oh all right I hear um I hear no concerns um at this
088moment I'm going to entertain emotion motion to approve 23 24 calendar as presented this evening discussion yes okay ads on eBay okay okay so that's what I wanted to make sure yeah okay perfect all in favor all right any opposed any abstentions here and none we just approved the school year calendar the last agenda item is discussion and possible action on the 2023 regular board meeting schedule you all have a copy of that in front of you please review it take a moment to see if there's any corrections that need to be mentioned yeah school calendar now we're on our calendar our third calendar thank you all right I hear nothing um what I'll do is I will entertain a motion to approve moved by Mr Bennigan second by Miss Allen um discussion okay Mr
089sister you're good okay all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions parent none uh board meeting calendar has been approved now we'll entertain a motion to it during the meeting all right any opposed any attention here none have a good night everyone thank you I always forget the discussion part I know