001you ready you're ready you're all set okay so this is a call to order of a special meeting of the bridgeport board of education today's date is thursday june 30th 2022 and the time is known as being 6 30 p.m mr secretary would you call the role that's neither listen i guess bobby brown care team baptist perez president joseph president erica castillo president john weldon president albert bennigan sybil allen michael macaron joe lombard president okay quorum so this special meeting was requested by jose in conjunction with christine baptiste perez and albert benahan and later ms brown also indicated she was in favor of it so the first item on the agenda is discussion and possible action on performance board member joseph sokolovic this item qualifies for discussion of this qualifies for executive session uh unless
002mr sokolovic requires that it be held in the open meeting so then ask mr sokolovic what if she's going to make this such an election uh no on that and mr chair i would like to request that we have a temporary chair since we're both subject to this meeting that we appoint a temporary chair to run this meeting to give an employer so and i would suggest um mr joseph heard since he did not sign both on a special meeting i think he can maintain the most neutrality in the issue so um we're not able to do that if you had wanted to do that that should have been placed on the agenda under the action laws we're gonna have to proceed with these two items exactly as they appear so for item one i'm
003just going to ask what you want to talk about okay i've got a presentation i'd appreciate if i have the flaw without being interrupted until i'm completed let the record reflect that mr benahan has joined the meeting online thank you and uh i'll send this to you miss brown and mr benehand in a moment i'm gonna get through it so you can have a copy that's okay mr joe i own my way i'll be there before seven minutes don't worry about it thank you good evening my my fellow board members and those of you who are watching from home i apologize that we have to be here today on this beautiful summer day but there are a few issues that need to be addressed 16 2022 during the superintendent evaluation workshop the chair john weldon
004gave his chairman report this was added to the special needs meeting notice on the website simply as chairman an item that confused the majority of thus present because the agenda included in our board packet did not have such a report listed under the guise of this chairman's report chairman weldon in an illegal action in violation of the freedom of information act added an accident to the special media into publicly level accusations against joseph skalovic this was based on an internal email which we've all read and will and i will also read it into the record for the public and as a result of this email mr skavik was script of all committees assignments and replaced them with board members some of whom were not even asked if they could fulfill or even wanted to fill
005their new responsibilities before being placed on them this unilateral decision taken on an internal email against the board as far as producing action items a member who has filled nearly every meeting required as committee chair has a 100 percent attended record for regular meetings and his own committee meetings over five years this action is disproportionate to the inaction chairman weldon has taken toward board members in a past and present including but not limited to board members who failed to hold committee meetings as chair for eight months and only one meeting for the entire year continue to have poor attendance at regular and committee meetings recently begins began shouting matches which disrupted meetings publicly called the chair corrupt constantly disrupt meetings board members under investigation are arrested for trespassing kidnapping stabbing living out of district election
006infractions almost sure i missed a few headlines and those who post racist and homophobic posts on social media well then i'm sorry this is all i would like to finish before i take questions this all based on the following email on june 10th regarding a meeting that hadn't been posted the subject area stating being stated the bad guy mr sokolovic began no i am not trying to flex no i'm not trying to play gotcha once again we did not have a posting for a scheduled meeting thereby requiring another cancellation we need to do better as a board it is embarrassing that this is happening for the third time this year and that we can't get basic foia requirements like correct i would like to suggest again that all chairs whether board or committee chairs check
007the website to ensure a timely posting of agendas and sometimes staff may be overwhelmed by their workload facilities has only met twice this year the only other committee that has met less is the calendar committee so it is imperative that this meeting is rescheduled chairman weldon replied you waiting until after 12 minutes after the foyer deadline to send this chastise and gotcha email well that one and then denying that's not what it was is a little disingenuous if you want to appoint yourself the foyer police it would be more helpful for you to alert us to a potential violation and enough time to correct the situation instead of waiting and watching for the issue to be problematic before opening your mouth the meeting will be scheduled to be compliant with foia laws i will also
008make sure it staff appreciates the importance of posting these items within the proper deadlines of psychological reply number one caps it is not my job it's your committee pay attention to your responsibility you are failing to hold meetings failing to put items on the agenda you have four committees yet have called fewer meetings than any other two committees combined again in caps do your job call your meetings check that they are posted to californic reply two and three only wrote the above because i knew that's what you would think predictable and trying to dodge responsibility for your failures oh and 6 42 minus 6 o'clock is 42 minutes after the meeting not 12 bulldogs to reply joe you are under the misimpression that this is a dialogue it is not however since you have chosen
009to respond the way you have i will tell you this your varying three responses reveal a lot about you with the level of blame name-calling nice self-righteousness that they convey it is unfortunate that you choose to conduct yourself in this fashion so much more could be achieved if you weren't so combative i hope you will give that some thought in closing the meeting has been removed from everyone's calendar and i am scheduling a discussion to i t to determine why meeting notices slash agendas are not making their way to the website after the superintendent's office uploads them no further response on this topic is warranted i am enjoying i am going to enjoy the rest of my saturday i would ask that you try to do this thing it's the california's final response have a
010drink on me do us all a favor and don't drive or give any speeches great advice anybody this email while serratively and undoubtedly calls out the chair for his failures and shortcomings the blame he talks about as board chair and as a member of a board we'll discuss that the next item on the agenda this was factual it could take no name calling as a chairman well when i starts in his email and there's a four basis to remove me from all committees one has to believe there are other motives besides this or any internal email there has been no misconduct at all in his email much less anything i should rise to the level to remove mr scala from all committees especially telling to me it's the call of duty's total movie removal from
011the committee really he created the diversity equity inclusion committee chairman welton added himself a man who uses the term woke as an insult a man who posts on social media black people who call themselves black or ignorant a man who shares a homophobic post about a toy that insinuates homosexuals are sinful i'll present evidence of all this in the next agenda item a man that is only a member of this board not to vote yes to add an eid alpha tier to the calendar the man who created the calendar committee to come up with a policy to regulate future requests a man who is expending taxpayer dollars for legal advice and creating such a policy because no other district that has passed additional holidays felt this policy was necessary speaking of policy i would like
012to point out that the bylaws specifically bylaw 9280 which decode which governs committee assignments the policy speaks to the chair's power to appoint committee members by filing as soon as possible after the organizational meeting and is silent on being a committee member for cause the chair expressly stated he was removing me for my actions the chair does not have that power expressively written into the bylaws all this being said i would like to make a motion to keep mr sikalovic in place on all committees he was legally appointed to in accordance to bylaw 9280. second thank you and i apologize that your time has been wasted today and now mr chair if somebody has a question i'd be happy to answer it thanks the studio would initially try to ask a question thank you um
013in your third paragraph here where there's um you know sort of disconnected sentences is this whole paragraph um from failed to hold committee meetings this chair for eight months and only one for the entire year continue to have poor attendance at regular committee meetings recently began shouting matches which disrupted meetings publicly calls the chair corrupt constantly disrupted meetings board members under investigation or arrested for trespassing kidnapping stabbing living out of the district election infra fractions i'm almost short i missed a few headlines are these headlines from newspapers or are these indeed these are headlines and all these are all separate actions mostly separate instances that have happened on the board that uh even if this board finds that this email is in some sort of violation that are far worse than anything and any email
014that contains no swear words and no violations of any rule of regulation none of these things were called out publicly by the chair i was publicly called out in violation of the law so are you now calling out him on having done these things do you have substantiated evidence to present today showing that these things happen uh some of it yes some of it would be more appropriate for the next agenda item so let's do it let the record reflect that mr macaron is in the meeting okay as far as as far as board members calling black people ignorant what did i put that one in there on the show i'm going to respond to that exactly you said it i'm going to respond she had the floor i am responding to this so three
015years ago mr kalavik and i had a nasty back and forth facebook for anyone who isn't aware this is it yeah okay thank you my wife is uh african descent her father is from africa joe and i were having a nasty back and forth he made some things disparaging remarks about my marriage which i shared with my wife and she replied to me that she doesn't consider herself quote unquote black black is a color and she feels that people who consider themselves black are ignorant now subsequent to this exchange i probably apologize to mr psychology and for my part i consider that to be end of it and i think he should too i did because when it's over it's over as for what he is passing out now i have a handout too there's
016a company in chicago called death by toys and it makes spoof gag toys and these are some of their products and i saw a post about them and some of their toys i thought were funny they're gag gifts some of them are a little distasteful but others have a degree of humor to them and so i made a post as quite possibly the oddest voice ever i said funny stuff is collectively picked this adam and steve image and manipulated it to indicate that i'm some kind of a gay basher or homophobe which is simply not true and if you look at these other images you'll get a bigger sense of the context of what i saw caused me to say stuff mr sakaliba is a manipulator and a conniver and he manipulates things and we're
017not name called point manipulates things that's what you're doing here joe this is a manipulation this is the fault this is the fact you posted this is the full picture in context this is a manipulation there was a motion that the second is not valid because why is it not honestly do that you had to state it on the agenda agendas discussion of possible action on the and that's your fault you didn't word it correctly if that's what you wanted to do you should have stated it are we still having discussion before we get to the vote on the motion and and and i will add i have the authority to make the appointments you can't reverse my decision you want to change a bylaw that gives me a certain authority you can do that
018but you can't just flip it go ahead how long ago was this three years ago why are we discussing this today well yeah it's going to be relevant in the next portion i asked to hold off would you ask for the evidence i mean we already talked about it so three years ago uh you know it's ancient history it's it's relevant and it's manipulated and it's manipulated it's manipulated it's manipulated to assassinate my character and i answer miss castillo's question fully apart the person who failed to hold committee meetings this is public record for eight months i came to the board and i did public speaking we can look into minutes if you truly want to put it down if you're questioning the veracity of any of these things i can actually send you point
019by point the committee that failed to hold meetings for eight months diversity equity and inclusion work was stalled for one year this is why this stuff that happened three years ago is relevant to why when it comes to that committee it is things stalled why that is also relevant today is because the man appointed himself to the committee this is the kind of person we want on that committee a person who thinks woke is a dirty word he didn't appoint himself chair of the company and this certainly has not been the case since i started since i got sworn in in december and we've met pretty regularly and we've done great work on the diversity committee yes and who's the only person who voted no one had any now i've got this agenda item emotional
020explorer has been properly seconded and it's an invalid motion on its face because you didn't state it on the agenda you need to state it on the agenda no we don't that's an action you want to take we're taking action on you you need to state that on the agenda for why it took an illegal action to remove me from committees now when i have my miss castillo is continuing to have four attendants at regular committee members meetings we've had board members not show up to any committees we have board members in the past few years who aren't even assigned committees and a both of us did the work i did the work i put in the time i come to every single meeting the chair was called publicly called of corrupts by christopher taylor
021no action just kidding meetings are constantly disrupted the chair does nothing people behave like the chair is behaving right now screaming and yelling over people who have the floor which is improper behavior that's never called out and it causes more and more problems and nothing happens to them under investigation all that could be googled you can see that and the racist and homophobic posts on social media you clipped you clipped a lot of stuff yeah you clipped uh i do have another one um this language here um bylaw 9280 which governs committee assignments the policy speaks to the chair's power to appoint committee members by filing as as soon as possible after the organizational meeting and is silent on removing is this the language is this it right here now that you're passing out actually
022yes the actual policy do you mind if i read it out loud sure thing okay the board shall act as a committee of the whole on all matters coming before it accepts that special committees for the consideration or investigation of certain problems or for the performance of certain board functions may be created by vote of the board committee members and chairs shall be appointed by the chairman by filing a list thereof with the superintendent's office as soon as possible following the organizational meeting the chairperson's designation shall be made public at the first board meeting subsequent to its filing which i do believe we did at the beginning of this term such special committees shall submit their reports at such regular meetings of the board as may be determined and when such reports have been submitted
023and accepted by the board shall be discharged all special committee reports affecting board policy shall be submitted in writing a special committee's only authority is to make recommendations to the board regarding matters that have been referred to it unless the board specifically authorizes otherwise each committee chair with the assistance of the superintendent's office will establish a schedule of committee meetings meetings of committee shall be posted in accordance with the freedom of information act a record shall be maintained by the chair of each committee of each meeting which shall include the names of the committee members in attendance listing of topics discussed and committee recommendations the superintendent's office shall notify all board members of committee meetings while board members may attend meetings of committees they are not a member of they shall not participate or vote
024as a member of such committee and shall not participate or be present in portions of committee meetings held in executive session notwithstanding the committee chair may recognize them to speak in the portions of the meetings open to the public so i'm um what language in here specifically are you deferring to that does not say or that says that the chair is not the chair is authorized to make committee assignments but the chair took an action at the last meeting saying he is removing me from committees due to my actions in the email if we all can recall that or we can bring it up at 41 minutes into the meeting where he says that nowhere in here says he can remove committee members at will he can't make it he can make new committee assignments
025but the action he took one illegal wasn't properly noticed because we'll get into that in the next one where you have the proper notice of filing charges against somebody taking an action against them okay so he took an action that he was not allowed to take that he simply didn't say anything and did all the assignments did all the committees i wouldn't have an action because he has he does have the right to change committees but since he said he's removing me for committing because i did this he does not have that authority you just said i have the right to change committee memberships the only thing i did was give a brief explanation to you i could have just stayed silent never said anything you have offered i offered to provide you with a
026forum and before i could do that you petitioned for this special meeting so we're doing this now and i still maintain that under connecticut freedom of information laws because you didn't specifically say what action you want to take tonight with respect to anything that you're really not in a position to take any action if you'd like me to i can run this by our attorney and have him interpret this but you didn't even ask for that well i guess after we take the vote we can um vote again it's illegal i'll take that to i'll take that to the attorney he'll make a ruling on it and it'll be overturned but not properly you did not specifically state no action you did not specifically state an action on this agenda that you wanted to take
027ergo ergo the public given no opportunity under foi to have any understanding of what specific action might occur tonight and that is would be a violation of the connecticut freedom of information laws under a regular meeting if you wanted to add this you could do that with a two-thirds vote but because this is a special meeting you have to stick to the agenda as it was posted and you have to be very very specific on what you are intending to do had you changed this up to 24 hours ago we would be fine but as it stands we have two nebulous agenda items that do not indicate concretely what action specifically might happen tonight so the motion that's on the floor is invalid under foi i believe mr baptist is baptiste perez um there's a
028few comments let me see if i can go back on one first i believe it's totally relevant as to comments that you stated while you were a board member if this is from three years ago as other board members in other districts in naugatuck right now are being asked to resign for similarly offensive comments dated in 2014 eight years ago second because in general and i would be interested to see the email or correspondence you send to the attorney for the board but when there is silence you could have i could have removed him from his committees however when you made public allegations of regarding him and i was not notified none of us are i was not notified i can't speak on everyone else it wasn't in my board packet it wasn't the content
029of the chairman's report wasn't in the board packet it came to me as a surprise especially since i can acknowledge when people do their work and i felt as a board member not giving proper notice and information about an action item you were going to take where it is silent and you decide to list causation is in violation of the law so if any information that you're going to see from the school attorney i would like to see as well and i would like to see the memo outlining the law with it because in general that's how contracts will go this is the contract i will but i will say this okay i'm going to contend that because i brought up the subject of mr sokolovic's conduct that that aspect is in violation of the
030freedom of information law i'm not sure about that that can be verified with the freedom of information commission they provide opinions all the time but the fact even if it were if that were a violation that doesn't suddenly make my removal of him invalid yes it does there are two separate elements there are two separate elements you're cherry picking in order to validate your separate elements and and you know on an issue a finding against me they can do that it almost sounds like was it the fruit of the poison like illicit fruit from a tree you're trying to justify actions and you called out and list reasons why that wasn't valid i have a question so i i just wanted to know was was the chairman's report was the check was the chairman's report
031what was supposed to be on the agenda that's what i want to know it was placed on the agenda five days before the meeting four days before the meeting okay right but it only satisfies half the law uh where is that we're posting of meetings these are you know there is a connecticut freedom of information commission you feel you have been violated under the freedom of information laws the most appropriate actions file an foic complaint but it's not for us to determine whether i violated uh for you if you want to get a ruling file a complaint with the freedom of information commission they'll conduct a hearing and they'll get down to the bottom of it and they'll issue a finding and a proposed remedy but this is not the right form i'm just asking
032because i don't remember seeing that a part of the initial agenda that's why i'm asking there was an initialism and it felt there was an initial agenda prepared on friday the thursday or friday the 9th or the 10th and it was subsequently modified on monday is permitted special meeting as long as it's more than 24 hours before the meeting and it was modified and it was filed yes and that only meets one late i'm sorry i didn't ask for the floor may have the floor please okay thank you um that means one leg of the test the second leg of the test for these board members need to be informed our packet had an agenda out the posting and the board members were not informed of the change we sat here and nobody knew that
033was gonna happen if anybody knew that was gonna happen and if anybody got it in their packet with the updated agenda please speak down you know they post the packets to the internal portal i didn't look in the portal so i don't know what you saw when you saw it or anything like that you know all i know is that the agenda was notified and it was filed with the city clerk and the bottom line is it's the chair's responsibility to make sure the board members are informed this is the chair's responsibility to make sure meetings are proposed okay well for a discussion about you we're doing a lot of talking about me anyone else have anything does baptist perez can you admit that the following did occur is that board members board member board
034committee members held the position for eight months and through the beginning can you start over can you admit or deny whether the following following facts or information did occur which is board members who failed to hold committee meetings as chair for eight months and only one meeting for the entire year did that occur it has occurred okay they're not required to they're not required it's each committee chairs discretion as to when they hold their meetings based on what business they feel they have to conduct we don't hold personnel committee meetings all the time we hold them when there's people to interview we don't hold contracts meetings all the time we hold them when there's a contract to review so it's to the discretion of each committee chair as to whether they think there's enough business
035to warrant holding a meeting some hold them every month ritualistically others do it as needed and there's nothing that says you have to do it one way or the other all right i'm just gonna elaborate a little bit further on to that particular committee for that particular committee it was the diversity equity and inclusion correct yes in a district where the overwhelming majority of the students are black and latino and from what i've witnessed at graduation where i hadn't seen a black male in the top two positions i find that highly doubtful that there was no business to be conducted regarding diversity in the most diverse school district and the largest district in the state i'm going to move on with the second part can you please admit or deny whether the following did occur
036that a board members who continue to have poor attendance at regular meetings were not recommended that's going to go to the second point i'm on page one paragraph three which lists down one two three four five seven items i'm on two they were spoken to they were spoken to but were they reprimanded or removed from their committees they weren't on a committee okay is it true that board members were board members who were under investigation or arrest for trespassing kidnapping stabbing or living out of the district for and for election infractions were allowed to stay on their committees again they were not on any committees okay and what's this this is two years ago they're referring to people who are long gone and and who did things in their personal lives that you know we
037we can't reprimand people for what they do in their personal lives but is it not true that how we conduct ourselves in public is in part interpreted a reflection of the board itself of course so do you find it problematic that it could be interpreted that your posts were racist and homophobic it is interpreted because that's how they're being presented do you have any evidence at this moment aside from what you provided because this still can be interpreted as offensive awareness because i'm the second one as ignoring the adam and steve actors in a school district where a lot of students have faced um or grown up in households with one or less parent figure i think laughing at um the death of parents is not plenty in the school districts where we have little
038kids joking about choking hazards is not funny and at the time you made this post were you a member of the board so i was a member of the board both three years ago that's a facebook friend of mine shared and i just laughed at it that's all i have nothing this is the focus of what we're talking about this none of this has anything to do with my performance as the chairman of the board of education you can like what i post or don't post or feelings of my wife she's entitled to have an opinion on race and if i share it and it rubs you the wrong way that's okay but this is not a topic of discussion as it relates to my performance this is all kind of connected okay you are
039a member of the board and as stated that in similar and other districts in the state people are being reprimanded and asked to step down i regularly yes and and their conduct was from eight years ago and when they weren't members of the board all right you know i feel like this has turned into less of a discourse about our respective performance and more into a hit job that orchestrated one of that on me personally i did not come here to be publicly uh berated or humiliated or to be shown in a light that is not true i did not come here for that asked for this meeting and i gave it to you in good faith you gave attention it says this is what you've chosen to do uh i'm go i mr chair
040i apologize if you feel by this considering work on the agenda item of performance of jose kolovic we're doing a lot of talking about me and that's what makes me say this this is not genuine there is not anything positive that is intended with this meeting at the end of the day joe just a chance to have been done talking at the end of the day and i do want to apologize but i wasn't done with my set of questions i'm just going to say this because we're people here and i'm not going to be interrogated as if i'm on trial and asked if i will confirm or deny this is not a trial i'm just going to say that all of this is precipitated by this email in the exchange you could have just
041as easily and most other people would have picked up the phone said hey john just so you know there's a problem with the notice i want to let you know about it so it can be corrected that would have been the end of it i could have but i didn't which role did i violate by not doing so i i'm just i'm i'm talking as a person i didn't say you had to so i didn't violate anything i didn't say you violated but i mean we're all rational people what paul i just thought of that email did you take offense to so you said it was he said i was rude and disrespectful one point seriously asking me that yes i am which part did you find rude and disrespectful can i be recognized i'm
042gonna send a chair i'm not answering i'm not answering i think it's obvious he said he was obvious i've been recognized by the chair um i was under the impression that this meeting was going to be to discuss the email exchanges that had that happened recently i was hoping that it would be a more productive conversation about um you know the behavior of board members i i'm not interested in sitting here and and um you know speculating about years and years of um things that happened before i was on the board i don't think that that's relevant to my performance on the board or who we are now as as a as a team and um i do find this to be very um i do find this to be uh beyond what is is
043necessary of this moment and i would like a motion to adjourn there are segments we cannot have emotions not debatable i don't feel comfortable voting on emotions that could potentially agenda he said that he would look into whether or not the motion was legal so we can circle back and and decide joe if we have if it's within our purview as board members to to give you your committee assignments back i'm not comfortable with that any assignments were never removed if you check on the website so then why are you making a motion to to bring is john and legally made causation accusations to the performance of sokolovic and sokoldek has presented to the board situations where it could be more dire and as expressed in the news i have a valid public policy and
044a reflection of the city all adjourn erica castillo i adjourn joe lombard i jose called no christine baptiste perez no albert benehand no michael macaron yes bobby's not here did you respond to me 4-3 good night don't forget to send it to the city clerk i'm gonna call you