001anybody online okay this is a call to order of the second regular meeting for april 2022 of the quickport board of education today is monday april 25th 2022 and the time is 6 31 pm mr secretary would you call the roll [Applause] christine baptist perez thanks for clicking to get it sorry microphone um is miss baptiste perez online or is she trying to get in oh okay joseph zikolovic michael macaron john weldon present myself joseph lombard president okay next uh pledge of allegiance will rise i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty is just raw next we have some sad news uh passing of executive director of specialized instruction rob arnold passed away late last week
002after uh an illness mr tastani you knew him fairly well if you'd like to say some words yes mr arnold was a 18-year veteran of the bridgeport public schools he started as a school psychologist he then became director of school psychological services and served in twice in the role of director of specialized instruction for the district and that was his most recent position prior to falling ill um he survived by his wife and his um many friends and family so i just want to say um if we could take a moment of silence he was a dedicated employee but even even more so a good man so okay [Music] okay thank you for that of our condolences to the army yeah who's the chair upon the privilege before we start the meeting please okay um
003knowing that we'll be in this board and we're working like as a team and we're working as a family i would like to get enough people some people know they don't know but i look at all of you as a family you know together sometimes we're agreeing with disagree yes or no but i'd like to get him a minute of silence because i know this weekend it was very hard to admit to stani he's lost his grandmother i'm 96 years old and his wife loves his father in brazil and my condolences mr destani we like you we respect you and as a board member you know and i know everyone here you know we appreciate everything you do for the short time and i would like to get a money styling for your family please
004thank you mr chair okay so okay thank you for that next on the agenda can can anyone hear me we were aware that you're here you were noted present we saw you when you came okay yeah i [Applause] okay next on the agenda student representative reports i don't see anyone physically in the room is there anyone online what i can't see the name um yes oh my goodness go ahead if you'd state your name for the record and do you have anything to report and what school you're from um my name is daniel marseille and i'm from basic high school what we have to report is that national honor society had a successful fundraising before the spring break they had a um basket raffles um honor society introduction ceremony is on may 18th cg c
005is host his host has hosted a door decorating contest ptso who host a great event last month and thank thank you to our ptso and miss mr benjamin for attending cooking we had a successful sat and psat day students are preparing for second benchmark in in my part in my part assessment technology education program has assembled the wings and tail of our plane the fuselage unit should be completed soon with engine and of unix being installed over the next month thank you okay thank you are there any other reps okay that concludes student representative reports uh we're going to start public comment now we have three people who signed up the first is denise george who who are you where's denise george right here we're just going to swap unless if you want okay no
006it's fine you're janine mal julia um good evening and hello again um 30 school days have passed since beth fennari was last seen at fairchild 30 days and still no communication about her expected return date or reason for absence the superintendent promises students an answer by spring break instead of an answer they heard silence i have spoken to you the last two meetings about the impact she's had on my son and the other it students and the urgent need for her to return and nothing has changed nor have parents or students been told anything this madness needs to end and beth needs to be immediately restored to her position i find it quite ironic that one of my quote memories that popped up on social media yesterday was a post of a picture of three
007national merit schools of excellent plaques that had been awarded last year to each of the schools that make up fairchild the achievement just didn't happen by itself it was a result of hard work and exceptional dedication in the entire administration of fairchild beth has brought such prestige to not only fairchild but to the entire district from receiving tens of thousands of dollars in grant money to then creating learning pathways with the latest magnet courses that prepare kids for successful careers in the ever-changing i.t world she never stopped instead of being commended for hard work and leadership she's been banished that's no way to treat anyone forget someone as extraordinary as beth in addition the impact and incredible connection she makes with her students is what sets her apart as the exceptional leader in school districts
008throughout the country schools have identified the need to focus on social emotional health of students that has taken such a beating due to not only the ramp up of typical teen drama and family issues but the psychological impacts of living through a pandemic as well beth was focusing on the kids emotional needs long before school closed in 2020. her office is a sanctuary for kids who need to take ten she's always treated each of her students as if they were her own children applauding their accomplishments along the way and being there for them during their darkest days she builds strong relationships with her kids and our families i personally have seen how she can take a school-resistant bully teen and transform him into a self-confident young adult who loves school for many of these kids
009she's the only adult they trust and have her yanked away like that is appalling she's the epitome of the phrase trusted adult and she always has their backs now she needs your your backboard of ed members 30 days is one-sixth of a school year this insanity has gone on way too long to make her silently disappear for so long from her kids and failed to come through with promises of a return for her is just deplorable to beth the students and the staff it has caused confusion and mistrust at a time when they need normal the need for normalcy is so critical in the students lives children are supposed to feel physically and emotionally safe at school march 11 changed that date for so many i.t students they lost their sanctuary and their emotional safety
010net clearly beth needs to immediately come home thank you thank you denise george morning or good afternoon evening um i'm also here on behalf of beth fennari this is my second visit here and i'm requesting the board for your support because our multitude of requests in person and in writing have at this point fallen on dead ears our confidence in mr tustani is at this point null and void therefore parents are requesting again that the superintendent be held accountable for his choices he informed our children that mrs funari would return by april break this is a lie april break ended on friday today's monday he informed the families that we would get paid for the trip that was canceled this is also currently a lie he threatened a high school boy this is a travesty
011he still has not provided the teachers with any information or parents this is a complete lack of respect he is blaming the principal mrs fanari for his decisions this is just unacceptable the reality mr tistani unilaterally made a decision to cancel this trip to germany and switzerland mr tasani unilaterally made a decision to reimburse us through zoom how is this the principal's fault he is lying through this reality he is shifting this blame why are you not holding him accountable why are we all paying for the price that his decisions and his actions have made consistent leadership is what makes a good school and district our kids have neither right now due to the fact that our principal was allowed to be pulled away because of someone's abuse of power that someone is mr testani
012what bridgeport has in an agenda what we have is an agenda-driven individual unqualified for the position who is wreaking havoc over our school and our district i again mentioned the psat and s.a.t travesty that occurred because of this poor decision-making not to mention the fact that he is not considering the health of our kids furthermore i have learned that mr tasani pulled a boy into an office alone after the walkout blamed him and threatened him telling the child that he has protested again if he protests again that he would be kicked out and he would not be allowed to the prom what on earth are we allowing the protest was peaceful as far as i was um as far as i understood and quite frankly it looked as if the entire school participated so why
013are we penalizing the and threatening one child this is just unacceptable this blame game he is playing seems to be very reminiscent of what he is doing to mrs fenari he caused the protest he caused the principal's absence our superintendent makes bad decisions which then attempts to deflect and uses punishment tactics to silence our subordinates by the way the monroe students returned from their trip to germany and switzerland that their superintendent did not cancel on them i'm hearing that they had an experience of a lifetime an experience we wanted to provide to our kids that the superintendent took from us guess what our bridgeport kids stayed home but they did learn a very very valuable lesson about abuse of the of a title and a tyrannical leadership okay i just want to clear up some
014rumors going around some good news mrs fennari does not have covet she is healthy and well sitting in an office in downtown bridgeport mrs fenori was not kidnapped and more importantly mrs fennari's mother did not pass away those are what the kids are talking about [Music] so i'm asking you the board where do you go from here i will tell you where we plan to go if we do not receive a clear response for the reimbursement by the end of this week legal action is being planned to be taken for the distresses that could have been avoided if we do not get our principal back immediately complaints will be filed with the state thank you thank you julia doherty you begin please be mindful time limit is two minutes of course um okay so bridgeport
015i've seen bridgeport in the news quite a number of times lately talking about teacher retention and as we know this isn't just a bridgeport problem this is a national problem i work in a building that probably has pretty good teacher retention and what retains employees other than money because we know that that is one um leadership stability and culture and yet our school has had those things shaken by the long absence of our principle and the lack of information about what is happening this has a ripple effect that shakes the confidence of employees in the school but also throughout the district april break has come and gone the teachers respectfully request an update on our principal beth finnard her return is in the best interest of fairchild a school with good teacher retention and high
016sat scores and the resolution really is in the best interest of the district as well staff retention as a whole is important i think we have heard how much beth is loved and missed however this is also a practical issue for the district and you know i just want to say i came to bridgeport after a 20-year career in higher ed i have seven certs i love where i work i really love where i work and i really love bridgeport and i care a lot about not just teacher retention in my building but i care a lot about bridgeport as a whole having really great teachers for our students and i i really i think when these things happen you know and i know there may be details that are not for us to hear
017but i think when these things happen they do have a ripple effect on bigger issues that are really important to the district as a whole and i hope that we can get some resolution on this thank you that concludes public comment next on the agenda is approval board minutes there's only one set to approve april 11th 2022 regular public meeting is there a motion to move by mr benant is there a second second by ms brown are there any edits or discussion to be had okay all in favor any opposed any abstentions chairman's report i only have one thing to report uh well two things uh i had the privilege of participating in the joint career bay bridgeport public schools and bridgeport parks and recreations middle school basketball league banquet i guess you'd call it
018uh a lot of youth were recognized for their efforts over the past uh eight or nine weeks and it was a really nice event uh when it happens again you'll all be invited i encourage you all to attend you were invited this go around i know i know we can't be everywhere but it was a really impressive event and when it happens again next year i encourage you all to stop by and see it it's really something the other thing i have to report is um the city council's budget and appropriations committee will be having its public hearing for the 2022-2023 city-wide budget as it relates to us it's what's the appropriation going to be to the board of education from the city this is everyone in the public's opportunity to show up and stand
019stand up for our budget and for us here at the board level to do the same they are doing it in person in the council chambers at six o'clock on wednesday april 27th so i encourage everyone to sign up and speak and that's it for me uh committee reports and referrals ad hoc district-wide branding initiative ms brown thank you mr chair um our our committee met um last month um i think we had a great meeting um we're looking forward to seeing more about our district-wide logo and a few other items that are on our agenda our next meeting will be on may 18th at 6 30 at central high school okay any referrals okay contracts committee did not meet since the last meeting are there any but it will be meeting uh sometime soon
020i'm not exactly sure to uh address the uh transportation contract it's my understanding that negotiations have concluded and the final document is under legal review so whenever that completes we'll convene the contracts committee to go over it okay any referrals educational diversity equity and inclusion mr sokolovic yes we did not meet in the interim we were meeting i believe on monday may 16th at central high school 6 30 pm okay any referrals facilities did not meet in the interim are there any referrals beyond that have been already made okay finance mr scalabic that's finance um did not meet in the interim since the last meeting we will have one last community forum tomorrow taking place here and online okay that's 6 30 pm 6 30. any referrals governance governance will be meeting on may 2nd
021at 6 o'clock in the central high school library to discuss the items that have been referred to it were the last few weeks are there any other referrals beyond would have already been made okay personnel did not meet we meet as needed are there any referrals for personnel students and families we will meet april 28 2022 at 6 o'clock in central high school on the library okay any referrals teaching and learning did not meet since the last meeting the next meeting will be announced next week will be announced you said yeah okay all right any referrals yeah just like a special education update the usual one we used to do uh we put that on the next agenda mr the peptide yes i believe that's on the agenda already but thank you for the reminder
022okay okay i did neglect during the chairman's report to announce the appointments to the ad hoc committee that was created last two weeks ago that committee is going to consist of joseph lombard erica castillo and michael macaron with mr lombard being chair so mr lombard you you know get in touch with your folks and just coordinate over the next few weeks and then when you have some semblance of a schedule let rita know and she'll formal formalize it okay superintendents report mr testani we just returned from uh the april break today so the only thing i'd have to report is an announcement uh mr david viesto who is a sixth year math teacher at fairchild wheeler arrow has been selected based on an essay submission is one of the winners of the disney imagination campus
023celebrates 50 teachers as part of the walt disney world 50th anniversary celebration uh mr viesto is also the central high school indoor and outdoor track coach and he was the magnet school of america teacher of the year in 2020 for region one so congratulations to mr david fiesta and lastly i'd just like to thank the staff at harding high school and also central office for their generosity in supporting uh the family of the young lady we lost tragically at harding prior to the break they were able to raise over two thousand dollars to help with funeral costs and other expenses so uh thank you to the support of the staff at harding high school in central office and that's it okay any questions for mr tustan next is old business third read discussion possible approval
024a revised policy regarding public comment you all were provided with updated copy in response to what was discussed at the last meeting where this was discussed um i contacted connecticut association of boards of education cabe and their staff and their staff explained what was going on and what people's concerns were and the staff attorney there provided updated language which is on page two just above the b section um in in essence his recommendation is that we clarify the language such as to provide clarity as to what we're trying to achieve and why so the added language is to protect the impartiality of the board the board will not hear public comment that involves a complaint about a board of education personnel students a personnel action a student disciplinary matter or pending litigation anyone who has
025a complaint or grievance regarding a specific employee may take the matter up with the superintendent so that the proper and applicable procedures may be followed if anyone violates this policy their privilege to address the board of education may be suspended so that's the only change since the last time i also struck nor will the board receive any demands for specific disciplinary action to be taken against any name personnel so that was struck and was replaced with what i just read so does anyone have any comment on this does somebody want to move to adopt this i guess the only comment i have is in relation to what we just had tonight where the board of ed personnel is the superintendent is the superintendent because we talked about not commenting or anything right so is there
026anything you want to clarify i'm not exactly sure how to say it off my head because i mean it it doesn't give the opportunity for what happened tonight to happen yeah i understand so that's why i feel so we could clarify it that beyond outside of the role of superintendent no no no something like that okay mr scholar i'd like to make a motion to amend and insert the word um [Music] spin files before we're complaining person election before that's set before that sentence which said um paragraph six uh after the lines that are to protect it to protect impartiality the board will not hear public comments if i was a i think it should be a current complaint or a standing complaint because a lot of times the first time we hear of anything
027is before the board i can understand our impartiality during um like a stan like a standing complaint that we're ready to go into arbitration and somebody brings us new information and affects our impartiality but as far as like um student behave like student behavior or such like that that would prohibit somebody from coming to the microphone and saying my school's out of control kids are acting up and i was well that see that's a general complaint that's not about a specific person or or like say one of one of the principles is acting out of control and they already brought it to superintendent testani in the unlikely event and the only way they got to reach us is through the board like say something like that i i i get the restriction on the current
028and to protect our interest reality but while we were stick when we're going to respond to an existing complaint maybe yeah yeah something like this that make this logic because if they bring up something new you're saying that should be right like like a new complaint that we never heard that we never heard of and it's just being first brought to our intention okay new versus existing item okay miss baptiste perez you had a comment yes um i agree with what was just stated um i i think the language i agree with is to protect the impartiality of the board however the board will not hear a comment that involves a complaint about board of education personnel yes that needs to be amended to change versus kassani a complaint about students we're a part of
029education how are we not going to hear any particular complaints whether it's bullying because that is in general a complaint about students or a personnel action that is effectively almost trying to silence the public comment we just had today and that's new information that's coming to the board for the first time um i just think that this particular language um we need to be informed as a board as to what's going on although our requirements are to keep track track of the itemized budget the education of our students and our only employees mr tassani it's how the schools are being run the overall the functionality everything for our students and their education and and all the policies that we eventually have to come up with uh part of how we learn what policies we need
030to implement and amend come through public comments and so changing or i just feel like this is too much of a chilling effect we don't even have turnout heavily for our board of education meetings and so i i just have a huge issue with it because of what's being censored i understand the impartiality and i'm sorry i am in the airport right now so there is a lot of background noise it's okay but um to to edit it like if there's a current litigation going on if there's a current suit then it's in suit it doesn't need to be in front of the board because at that point we're aware but if there's a bullying issue that's a complaint about students i i don't think that needs to be edited if there's a personnel action
031and they've gone through the proper procedures with mr chastain and nothing's happened we as a board because we're his employer we need to know about that and i don't i don't want to be led into blind of making decisions about the school or the school system overall without knowing what's going on and i think when you remove that from public comments that's problematic so i think maybe we need to put this back to the committee effective governance and maybe have a discussion with the attorney who crafted this language instead of doing this here it seems like this maybe was not ready to come here after all as ready as we thought it was so do you want to just put back the governance for continued um work [Music] okay second by various people first miss
032castillo then mr benan then miss batis perez all in favor all right any opposed what we'll do is uh we'll try to have the staff attorney from cave who drafted this uh maybe get him on speaker phone so he can articulate some of his thoughts of why he worded it the way he did and he can receive from feedback from us so that maybe he can modify that degree question mr chair okay um when i was looking at the bottom part of this and this is not discussion but i had a um i know it says that the individuals if they are basically they'll be banned from speaking again at public health well is that suspended okay suspended so what does i think it's a discretionary thing it could be for a month okay it
033could be whatever so just from just from my perspective that to me because you can suspend but you can't ban okay so what my question was is will this be made available and clear at every meeting because that may be the issue people don't know that this could happen to them when they do it's actually at the top of the public comment sheet okay i never seen that okay thank you all right so moving along new business it's mr pastelowski here he's what he's online of course it man is online okay so this is an annualized thing that we do the formal item is vote to approve or disapprove resolution for schools and libraries universal services parentheses e-rate for 2022 2023 this resolution authorizes filing of the form 471 applications for funding year 2022 2023
034and the payment of the applicant's share upon approved approval of funding and receipt of services and i'm going to let mr postolowski explain what that means hey everybody hey um so what this is is this is our yearly submission of our forum 471 which pays the lion's share of the district's funding this is the uh annual uh submission that we do every year that basically uh pays for our internet connection and the purchase of the hardware uh that actually runs our network uh all of that is handled through the process of obviously a bid which is then submitted to uh the city and um you know the purchasing goes through that and so every year we go through this process and this is the formal approval and adoption of that so that we can uh
035continue forward with the e-rate program okay who's gonna be the first one to ask questions i have a question this kiss to um was this the lowest bid yes yes it was okay anyone else follow it uh how do these rates compare to last year's uh they're roughly the same there's typically a uh one to two percent increase um but because we're under contract for the vast majority of it um for the services side that remains the same uh in terms of the equipment though that's you know where everybody is seeing an increase uh because of kovit for that so and how long is the contract uh so we yeah the contract is uh basically the way it works is we we do it every five years this is not one of the years this
036is just uh where we go and we are continuing our uh submission um the contract for our wan connection will come up fairly soon and then we'll again go out to uh bid for that as well okay thank you yeah mr bennett yes um how much money i might be talking before in the months for now before and after uh i'm sorry do you mean in the terms of how much we have to pay or yeah part of it okay so on the uh paper that was provided if you look um we pay uh if you look on the column that says pre-discount amount that's how much we normally pay and then we get a 90 discount which is you know basically is amazing and uh then we you know pay our share so as
037an example in the first column if you look where you see applicant share you know of the four hundred and eighty thousand dollars we put we pay four thousand eight hundred of it uh the government pays the rest um and so and so forth so if you look you'll see that go down and so for category two we are eighty-five percent which is the highest possible discount that you actually can get so in other words they pay the mass they pretty much pay for everything that we have we pay a small portion of it okay thank you okay no problem anyone else miss castillo um just to clarify the services provided are to all the schools in the district and libraries as well uh no so the program which is called the e-rate program is
038uh we the the entity file for the board of education so we're only paying for the board of education part but the program is called um you know it has the word and libraries but we don't pay the library part okay so this is for schools this is only for schools to be clear yep schools and any building that is boe maintained okay thank you no problem do you have anything to to ask ms bethesda sure since you're giving me the full or mr chair thank you uh so just to be clear i'm looking at the page from the 2 million thousand leave it there we the board of education were responsible for the 310 thousand dollars and that's been that's the 90 discount uh yep so the way it works is is we pay
039for category 1 which is a 90 discount and category 2 which is 85 discount and so we budget every year uh you know our portion is the term for that this is how all you know schools and districts do this is it's a the federal program that basically pays for what makes everything work essentially and so um what we do is we determine what services we're going to submit for and then they pay for that you know that service after it goes out to bid which it did okay can you just clarify for me then when you were answering mr bennett's question you said 4 million i was looking through the document and i couldn't see that so where did that number come from four million i'm sorry i if i missed smoke i apologize
040i thought i said uh it was 40 uh 48 000 and then we are paying you know uh basically four hundred and uh four thousand eight hundred dollars does that make sense so we're paying you know uh ten percent of the total cost in other words and you know that makes sense i'm just trying to see it on the actual documents that's provided to us because i don't see that number uh that should be on page three i believe yes page three forty-seven things what that page 3 line 1 that's correct okay that's the 47 000 okay yep so that what it is just so everybody can understand is that's our itemized uh services that we get and it shows the amount before the discount and then after the discount and then what our share
041is and so again this is the you know our typical submission every year for this purpose anything else okay that event is there a motion to approve the resolution for schools and libraries universal services brent's e-rate for 2022 2023 moved by perez second second by mr bennehan any friends yes mr chair um it just because of the it says include the following wording and you're bored just making sure that we put that into the record just uh yeah i read it all right thank you sir i just read the whole vote and i write it prior also thank you sorry i appreciate it good it's in the minutes uh any further discussion no all in favor aye aye any opposed any abstentions okay is there a motion to adjourn so move thank everybody uh if
042you give me a call jeff when we're offline yes sir no problem thank you okay all in favor okay motion uh motion carries we are adjourned times 7 11 p.m 7 11 7 11. slurpee you