001are you ready mr mcleod okay if i can have everyone's attention this is a call to order of the first regular meeting for april 2022 the bridgeport board of education today's date is monday april 11th 2022 and the time is 6 35 p.m you'd all rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice mr secretary would you call the role yes sybil allen christine baptist perez albert benehan bobby brown president oh sorry buddy erica castillo president michael macaron president joseph president accounting for john weldon president and joseph lombard president at this point i'm going to defer to the superintendent for a point of personal preference thank you mr chair i'd
002like everyone to take a moment of silence bridgeport public schools lost a loyal employee after a two-year battle with illness morgan graham school psychologist and also to keep in our hearts and our prayers the family of a student we lost tragically from warren harding high school this morning okay okay thank you for that let's get you what i'm gonna do is i'm going to ask for a motion to relocate item 10a to immediately following public comment in deference to the fasting of the muslim community that's here i'd ask that that item be moved up so that this item could be addressed in a timely fashion to allow them to leave and break their fast is there a motion to that effect who's seconding mr lombard's motion i have an amendment is 11a okay i'm sorry
003who's seconding mr lombard's a moment second seconded by him is castillo mr kalavik has the amendment is there a second on the amendment second second by ms brown all in favor of the amendment aye opposed okay wait wait a minute we're relocating this to right after public comment all right public comment movement before student representative reports and then followed what do you want to do we're moving this up to next because [Music] it's going to move to number three public comment number three and eat outfits here number four and then you want to move student representative reports behind right correct okay fine all right all in favor of the moment as amended hi okay so that's what we'll do all right public comment we have members of the public guys we have 21 members of
004the public to speak is everyone good with expanding from 15 to 21. all right first one is shireen musa good evening everyone and thank you for coming tonight my name is shireen musa and i'm a board member at the bridgeport islamic community center it is important just to clarify something it is just important to clarify something before we start this meeting that we had initially asked for two days the first day which is that is the following day after ramadan and the second day is which is hajj or the islamic pilgrim upon submitting our requests to the superintendent asked for us to reduce it to one day i was a fall on the summer for the next or three years according to the new york candor unfortunately this did not happen i am stating this
005in order to clarify that all along we were asking for two days and i wanted to add something that's not actually on my speech um this is not like what it was five years ago or ten years ago when i was in school the population is growing and it is just sad for me to see my kids and other students asking for a day or two where they could celebrate their holiday they just have to debate every morning on their e days or their holidays whether or not they should go to school because they don't want to miss on their assignments or celebrate their holidays just like anyone else thank you thank you [Applause] hi everyone thank you for coming tonight uh my name is judy and i'm asking for your vote regarding the islamic
006holidays of it would mean a lot to myself as well as other muslim children to have these days off i would love for all muslim children to enjoy the day off by celebrating with their family and loved ones without having to worry about school absences or assignments it would be amazing to have idol future and official school holidays as this will make muslim students feel misrepresented and loved within our community not only will having these muslim holidays help muslim children feel included it will also help encourage a celebration of diversity and promote acceptance within our schools thank you thank you note for the record that board member symbol allen has joined the meeting dr khalidi thank you good evening my name is khalidi and i am representing the bridgeport islamic community center which is the
007largest islamic center in the state of connecticut i'll share a personal story a few years ago we had a family marriage in toronto canada and that was on a sunday night and the i mean the event ended like 1am and my son insisted that we travel very early next day without having a rest to catch his class at 11 a.m why we want to put our children in this choice in this dilemma to choose going to school or to celebrate their aids i am an educator i have been teaching for 35 years i never advise the student to skip a class let alone someone want to advise students to skip the whole day the bridgeport citizens wrote this twice and communicated this twice a petition signed by more than 200 people the petition is here
008and it went to every single member of the board of education and the superintendent there are there are 260 people till 10 am this morning who signed the petition out of them 214 bridgeport residents bridgeport citizens have raised the issue it is the role of the board of education to respond to them it's time to take an action thank you [Applause] teresa lafever good evening my name is therese lafever and i'm co-chair of connect which stands for congregations organized for new connecticut we are a multi-faith organization of over 30 congregations representing from new haven down to norwalk but tonight i'm standing here as a mother of four daughters and a lifelong catholic and there's never been anything more important to me than raising my children in the faith as a christian i'm privileged to have
009my holiest days recognized and i can fully celebrate with my family this should not be a privilege this should be a right for all faiths to be able to celebrate those most sacred moments with their families i have a letter that i'd like to um not read all of but present to you tonight from bishop caggiano the bishop of the diocese of bridgeport and in closing he wants to say that he commends the students that have brought forward this issue and he wholeheartedly recommends the addition of afilter and al-a to the calendar which would allow the observance of these holidays with their families thank you thank you [Applause] members of the board of education mrs chairman and super testani good day i'm monaco saint an 8th grade student at park city magnus school this year
010our social studies teacher decided to start a topic in class that everyone was interested in this project was called project citizen this project is about a topic in our class that we are looking to make a change in we have chosen ten topics and then narrowed it down to three and now one we have settled on idol idol is a day when muslims have completed their 30 days in fasting and now celebrating justin this one day it also is unpredicted dates on one day it will be idol future is a name day on the school calendar but not observed this is a problem because muslim deserves fear right and should get that day off they need to stop worrying about any assignments and classes that they will have to make up for on the next
011day the diversity community has suggested that we mark students non-absent and let them observe their holiday that is a problem because not only muslims could not be attending that cannot could be attending school and something happens to them and no one will know but also muslims get other holidays that are observed but people who do not celebrate don't get the day off this is not equity if one religion gets a day after the associated others not just see the future as this isn't a problem brought up by the city i feel the board that the world of education members will rub this to the side and forget about it enough enough we need to we need something to happen not all religions are being treated the same and deserve the same respect on our first
012attempt we got denied and resent back to collect more data on our second attempt the committee meeting we had got support from the bridge for islamic community center once once we had once we tried to gather data and create surveys board of education said that they didn't ask for data and it should have been survey ran by the superintendent's office then they made two motions one motion to pass this on to the full board event meeting and another go ahead another motion to look at any other holidays that aren't observed on the school calendar this project took a long time and much effort so we should get this day off this needs serious consideration and thought as this is a major idea that we are trying to solve please help our class and make history
013and approve our plan thank you for taking your time to reading to read and pay attention and i look forward to hearing for all on what you have to say thank you cesar juarez uh board of education members good evening i am cesar guard from park city magnet school you all are aware we want eat alpha tour as a day off but i want my muslim friends and their families to have the same religious freedoms i have as a catholic i get many days off from school these days are christmas easter good friday and three kings day it's not fair that my muslim that muslim students don't get eat after as day off what i have observed from muslim students from my muslim friends and their families is that they take the religion seriously and
014are dedicated to islam i hope my muslim friends get eat off with her as a day off thank you thank you good evening mr chairman members of the board superintendent hastani i am rehan bendy from park city magnus school at the beginning of the year we were introduced to project citizen we were allowed to pick a problem in our city fast forward to the middle of the school year we had 20 problems as a class we shot into 10 problems and 4 problems then we had a big class discussion and our class decided the most important problem was that either is not observed as a school day off as the weeks went by we compiled a list of sources from across the web that mentioned the problem either not being ideal from school along with
015that we held a bunch of interviews with students that are in bridgeport public school district and workers from the district such as teachers and our principal at park city magnus school with all the information we gathered we created a powerpoint that we that we would present at the bridgewater public schools committee meeting of educational diversity equity and inclusion at the first meeting we got shut down we looked at this as a positive way as next time we can come back with an even stronger power point at the next meeting the islamic community of um support us in our second attempt at the meeting after that meeting here we are at the regular board of ed meeting we have come a long way in our journey as a class and will not give up until either
016from school thank you i would like to submit a written testimonies [Applause] i think i may have skipped over someone dr anthony bennett good evening i am pastor anthony bennett i am blessed to have been the pastor of the mount every baptist church the past 28 years just celebrated a couple of weeks ago um i've been before generations of board of education members discussing many things i think these young people spoke for themselves tonight and so i am here as a christian pastor to support their efforts to say that it's only fair in the abrahamic tradition the judeo-christian tradition that we afford them the opportunity not to have to choose between becoming the excellent students that they are going to be and practicing their faith and so as my co-chair of connect teresa fever has
017spoken we stand with our muslim brothers and sisters and say please allow them the opportunity to celebrate and to commemorate their holidays thank you [Applause] members of the board good evening i am cass shaw i'm the former president and ceo and current adviser to the council of churches of greater bridgeport you've already heard uh great examples of why this is important to the muslim community and i too support them wholeheartedly on behalf of the council which is made up of about 70 congregations catholic orthodox protestant black white and brown but i'd like to speak briefly about the fact that it's important to the rest of us as well clearly muslim students and their families deserve to observe their faith and observe eve eid as a family tradition that it is and is a religious holiday
018but i think it's important for the rest of us who are not muslim to fully embrace and include the muslim community into the mainstream of our culture of our society of this community not to recognize and honor their most important holidays maintains a sense of otherness and is absolutely contrary to our values as a pluris pluralistic and inclusive community they deserve to have their their holidays just as jews and christians celebrate ours so thank you very much for your support i hope [Applause] state senator dennis bradley senator bradley okay michelle rubell good evening my name is michelle rubel i'm the od ordained cantor at congregation binet israel here in bridgeport for those of you who don't know what a cantor is we're sort of like rabbis we specialize in sort of the musical elements of
019the synagogue and therefore are infinitely more interesting than rabbis um as a as a jewish child i attended public school just over long island sound here on long island and i had the luxury of having days off for the high holy days each fall for rosh hashanah and yom kippur which are the two holiest days in my faith i didn't know it was a luxury until i was older and i realized that for many religious minorities including my fellow jews growing up in old other places having the ability to observe our faith without missing school was not a given and as a clergy person in fairfield county i have seen the ways children and parents in our congregation have had to fight for the recognition of their faith within the public sphere and i've seen
020the struggle of students and parents and even teachers and administrators when they are asked to become the token representatives of judaism in the classroom in the school environment the goal of any school should be to educate and nurture the whole child forcing students to make the choice between their spiritual and cultural needs and their academic needs undermines that goal and in its worst iteration makes that student as my colleague said feel like an other amongst their classmates and that is a feeling that lasts long after the school year ends when we educate young people at our synagogue we try to find those teachable moments those natural opportunities to draw a connection between a situation and our jewish values and traditions in this way the bridgeport school district can teach an important lesson even on a
021day when classes are not in session this is the lesson of religious freedom and equality of all faiths in our society it is the lesson that your individual heritage and background is not simply tolerated but encouraged in my understanding the celebrating of eid for muslims is a day of sweetness community forgiveness and joy what could be a better antithesis to the feeling of otherness is that not the feeling we want to last thank you [Applause] dr assalamu mr superintendent and the members if it's about statistics and data i think we have the significant number if it's about something else or about uh inclusion then this is what you are teaching those kids uh in action please all the kids here in bridgeport schools please stand up please our kids all please stand up please the
022adults stay stay stay stay sitting down but all the kids please stand up and what we are seeing here today is what you are taught in schools in action all the history lessons and the social studies about the inclusion about how this country was established about how those who fled from the religious persecution in europe the first generations those who thought about the constitution how should the constitution be written this is you are seeing here and witnessing in action and for the other educators here what we are witnessing today is what you are teaching those kids in action what is the effect in my opinion the main and the most important point not only about missing a day of school and maintaining the academic excellence of those kids it's about what is the effect and
023what is the impression that those kids will have in mind when they leave their schools for 12 years they will stay in those cl in those schools and in every single year their most important religious occasions are just passing by like any other day in their official school system they are not recognized despite the fact of all that they learned in their social studies and in their history studies about america and about the inclusion and about the religious freedom how do we want to leave these kids leaving the school system here this is what you really need to think about when we have a significant number that is completely ignored or that they have to go and do this on their own and the rest of the society or the mainstream or the system the
024school system is gonna ignore them this is the question about and this is for all those kids this is what we are seeing and this is what we are learning in action this should be one of your most important lessons and if we couldn't do it today you should maintain the struggle and keep pushing until you get it thank you denise george good evening um so the next two on the list are my niece jamie espinoza and my nephew nico espinoza if i run over time i'm stealing theirs so this to the board members i'm here as a concerned aunt to a student at fairchild wheeler my nephew nico i feel that you the board members have a responsibility to take all complaints seriously i know for a fact that letters have been sent to
025you voicing concerns with no response i'm asking why these following concerns have not been addressed why is mrs finary suspended why was the information tech community including staff and parents not notified immediately that the principal of their school will be absent how long will she be absent who will be running the school in her absence why was there no administrator assigned to the school on such an important day as sat day i asked you what right did mr tistani have cancelling a trip without consulting with parents first nico was attending that trip i asked did you know as board members about these changes did mr black know did mr watson know did mr lip no speaking on behalf of parents we want answers now why is it so secretive what we don't want are more
026lies and more rumors we want truths we want to know what is the plan there are only about two months left of school this is now and we need to resolve this now again we want answers now i feel that with a leader like mr tustani the entire district will be dealing with consequences later we need a leader who will make decisions that are thought out very carefully regarding the people who are solely responsible and understand the day-to-day operations mr tastani's drastic changes are negatively affecting everyone not just at fairchild wheeler but the entire bridgeport district is going to feel it we can't ignore the obvious maybe to not everyone but many of us feel this way including parents that i've spoken to personally that this is not about a trip at all [Music] i
027just want to say as a parent and not a grandmother that our children and young adults deserve more than the uncertainty of mr tastani's decisions we are angry we're scared and we're confused the kids that have up the opportunity to attend fairchild wheeler or any other school in bridgeport deserve more our hard-working teachers and our administrators deserve more it's time to put personal feelings aside and give more [Music] the victory here is not who wins or who loses the victory is what's best for and what's right and only what's in the best interest of our schools and our children this is most certainly not mr tastani we heard from parents and students already and staff members at fairchild wheeler they love mrs funari they need mrs fanari and they want their principal back i realize
028as board members that your responsibility do not include micromanaging mr tastani's day in and day out duties and activities but it is it does include you evaluating him based on his work and his management of the district and the decisions he makes as a former board member and this is a very long time ago former board member myself and a community president i do believe that voices should not only be heard but action should be taken it is your duty and responsibility to search for and demand the truth you as board members owe it to the children and the parents who put their trust in you i plead with you to fulfill your duties and ask mr tastani what is his true agenda i'm asking you to hear me to hear the parents to hear
029the administrators and that's it thank you and um nico i'm not sure didn't want to say anything today um and i am speaking on behalf of his dad so i just wanted to add something um so he and and this is on a personal level obviously um because it's not just about nico but his dad had written so we sent our kids to school our most precious cargo under the impression that they are in a safe environment that we believe they're going to achieve every day great things but we find out they really are not in that same environment through social media through his through his own child there was never any communication immediately letting them know that mrs fenari was not in the school and that's very disconcerting to him so i just wanted
030to read that for him [Music] thank you [Applause] see mr bradley has entered yes thank you senator brennan thank you thank you uh mr chair thank you uh superintendent tassani and the rest of the board members it's nice to see you guys all i know how hard it is to serve in this capacity to the students are here joining us i know it's difficult to serve in this capacity so i commend you all for taking our concerns very seriously i come before you today to talk specifically on behalf of the islamic community here in bridgeport my muslim brothers our neighbors and our friends who live and reside within the city of bridgeport and the wonderful students who attend our public school system as you guys are fully aware the islamic community has fully integrated themselves
031in the most positive way here in the city of bridgeport i've had the opportunity to have students from the public school system come and intern at my office and hear of their many accolades and accomplishment both scholastically and in community service we have here a wonderful mosque who does a a food pantry that has really broken my heart to see the need that's out there and to see people be responsive to that need just today as a matter of fact i went to do a jail visit for a client of mine and i saw iman's and muslim brothers going there to provide spiritual needs for people all the way up in cheshire connecticut this is a community that has been an integral part of bridgeport it's a community that has shared with us a beautiful
032faith and cultures many different cultures from different parts of the world and wants to also be respected and included i think that we have had a tradition as americans to respect the religious diversity of all the people who come and want to breathe free air in this country and and the muslim immigrants who are coming here now are just the newest wonderful fabric of this great mosaic that is america i think it would be a tremendous gesture of adhering to our guiding principles as americans as bridge porters to make sure we include them in these holidays and i i live in the south end of bridgeport my office is in the south end of bridgeport and i see uh so many people walking to the mosque and opening up shops and engaged in our public
033school system and i see so one of so many wonderful young faces uh here who are are part of our bridgeport public school system so i just implore you all uh superintendent chair board members to take into consideration this wonderful new community to show them that the promise of america that is to be inclusive and respect everyone's individual religious choice is alive and well in the city of bridgeport i thank you so much and i think the members of that wonderful community for being here president god bless you all thank you eric johnson good evening this message is chiefly for our students the students here students watching at home and i know you're watching at home i told you i told you that if we came we came ready we came prepared the community would
034back us and here they are thank you to all the members of the community thank you for being here we're with you and to you members of the board thank you very much thank you for the opportunity to hear to hear our our arguments to hear our position and to take it seriously we appreciate that and you've given our students the greatest lesson that you could possibly give them you've given them a lesson of faith in government and i can tell you personally that they are the change that we're always hoping for thank you for listening i yield my time to mr tahasan islam [Applause] assalamualaikum um honestly a lot has happened in the last three years that changed their lives this year we were able to go back to our school and learn new
035things and interact with other people people we started this simple project and we thought it was not possible but we had hope in ourselves and now we hopefully um we just passed a policy that would change people's lives forever i feel pa i'm proud that i was part of this project because this public policy was always a problem in our family when we celebrated our holiday era you see i liked school and always on eat my mother would tell me not to go to school i would i wanted to go to i want to go to school but i like to eat too and i did not want to miss a day of school so i'd always decide to stay and celebrate our holiday this usually made me upset but i had to choose if
036this if this policy is passed it would be a different and good um it will be different and good for the future i want to thank my class for helping me support a policy that should be passed thank you thank you gene melgoglio hi it's been two weeks since i came to and shared my son's story with you i told you how his life had changed three years ago because of a principal who took time on a summer day to care she promised him a school free from bullying and filled with excitement for learning the most amazing tech and staff and students who would respect him her name is beth fenari and she's truly surpassed her promises beth's abrupt departure shocked the i.t community leaving them what to wonder what happened to her this caused
037incredible anxiety for already stressed out students during a critical time in their school year s.a.t psac and the end of the quarter rush they needed normalcy in routine and said they were thrust into a void of uncertainty wondering what had happened to their beloved principal from for so many the students especially mine she is their trusted adult and to have her removed so suddenly and without a word is absolutely appalling beth doesn't just show up for work she gives her heart and her soul to the to that school her staff and those kids she loves those kids as if they're her own because of her kids are taking classes in cyber security learning how to run a genius bar launching a weather balloon on a summer day and so on because of her students are
038challenged with rigor as they learn the skills to help them enter the ever-changing workforce or head to college because of her students are beginning to heal from the effects of being home for months during the quarantine because of her students are greeted daily with a fist pump and know they have a place to chill because of her students know that they have an adult out there who loves them and finally because of her i have a son who's finally happy and will be graduating in two months and heading off to college year 2021 2022 was supposed to be a year to return to normalcy students were finally back in the school building after enduring a year and a half of receiving instruction through a computer screen they were looking forward to celebrating the year and
039activities finally in person staff had been working tirelessly to close the gaps in their academic learning and help mend the emotional damage caused to students during the pandemic beth has been leading the charge in making this all happen [Music] her kids she has truly led the way of helping her kids who have not had a normal school year and two years adjust feel included and thrive for students to have their main support their anchor yanked away from them so abruptly for one day would have been bad enough but for 25 days so far just awful beth does not deserve this and her staff and children do not either she needs to come back to fairchild immediately thank you [Applause] assalamualaikum members of the board of education superintendent tassani and everyone else good evening i just
040wanted to thank you all for attending this meeting in support of recognizing and acknowledging eid of victor as a holiday among bridgeport public schools i'm more than honored to be a part of this and i appreciate everyone else who took the initiative to join this is much bigger than just another holiday in the calendar it's about equality among religions when i was younger i absolutely loved eth but i hated the day after when i had to catch up on all the missed work and lessons and simply just felt left behind because of celebrating a significant holiday that is a part of my religion i'm glad that other muslim children won't have to relate with this issue and can ultimately enjoy the holiday without any worries thank you [Applause] growing up around muslim students i was
041fascinated by their religion and found it intriguing outside of school i was constantly surrounded by christians and thought that christianity was the only religion i always wondered why muslim students were absent on specific days of each year respectfully i believe muslims not having a day off on their special day is unfair i strongly suggest you make eid alpha 2 a holiday thank you thank you gladys walker jones good evening on behalf of stanley lord the president of the naacp for the greater bridgeport area the executive board and the education committee we want you to know that we stand with our muslim population and we ask that you take their um concerns um seriously there was a consideration for having um scholars who are observing the holiday mark present that should be a non-starter that's a
042security issue so again the on behalf of the executive board of naacp we stand with our muslim population thank you [Applause] good evening chairman and members of the school board education my name is for han vemen i'm the chairman of the connecticut chapter of the council on american islamic relations care which is the largest muslim civil rights group in the united states we're based in hartford and we work through the media and in partnership with state agencies for a better understanding about islam all over the united states school boards are deciding to place the major muslim holidays of idol fitter and on the school calendar edel fitter signifies the end of the month of ramadan a period of religious observance essential to the islamic faith we're in the month of ramadan right now and idol
043atha signifies the end of hajj islam's annual holy pilgrimage to mecca both days are commemorated by muslims worldwide through prayer and celebration in accordance with our faith tradition although only idol atha is only on the sorry only idol fitter is on the agenda today i want to emphasize that muslims are looking for both holidays to be added to the calendar school boards are making this decision because having a district-wide holiday on the two eids is in the interest of equity it's in the interest of the educational it's in the educational interest of students and because federal and state statutes require that the needs of muslim students be reasonably accommodated in bridgeport your district observes rosh hashanah and yom kippur the two jewish high holidays christmas which occurs during the winter break three kings day and
044good friday i would hope that there are valid secular reasons that the district has chosen not to hold classes on these days and it only seems equitable that the district applied the same criteria to muslim students as well the educational interests of students in bridgeport are best served if classes are not held on these two days first muslim students should not have to face the choice of celebrating the holiday with their family and friends or going to school and even if tests and assignments are postponed some families will feel the pressure of attending school secondly non-muslim students will have to wait for muslim students to catch up if the hall of school work has to be repeated again when they come back to school so a holiday for everyone makes the most sense lastly there
045are many statutes applicable to students staff administration faculty that require a school district to make reasonable accommodations so that these constituencies can observe their religious holiday as others do in your district for these reasons i hope that you will vote to put edel atta and edelfitter on your school calendar it's just required holidays thank you thank you good evening to all my brothers and sisters in the room and ramadan mubarak and sorry were running late for the iftar we have to be culturally sensitive and this is iftar time for all these fasting people all we asking is today's holidays for our children when we understand the issue of the lunar year because ramadan and the holidays it goes back 10 days maybe the calendar the school calendar year is not gonna be the same for
046our children as a as a grandmother i would love to see my grandchild celebrating the holiday with us i would like to invite you to come and see the muslim communities a day when they pray all of them at the park to see how the power of our community we nee we do we don't want to be left out we don't want our children to be discriminated just because they are muslim we would love to see them celebrate the holidays uh we'll be happy to build the bridge of trust between our community and the city of the agencies and bridgeport if you we would love for you to communicate with our community faith leaders so you could understand when we celebrate our holidays by july 1st we're going to have our lunar year the muslim
047calendar year will be starting and from there we could calculate for next year when is the holiday is going to land and we would love to see it added to our school calendar i appreciate your time thank you for giving us the chance to speak and thank you [Applause] okay that concludes public comment thank you all for that as per the amended agenda we're going to discuss item 11a discussion possible action to close schools an observance of muslim holiday before we get into that our attorney initially was going to be here to provide some information to us that wound up changing and he provided something in writing instead which i'm going to read to all of you there were a lot of legal sightings in the various presentations which were made so i sent the
048presentations to our law firm to have them review them and give us a formal opinion and the subject is religious holidays one there is no statute in connecticut governing allowing prohibiting closing schools on religious holidays two state law does vest in the local board of education the authority to establish the school calendar boards of education cannot endorse any particular religion or even religion in general this is a violation of the establishment clause as a violation of the u.s constitution therefore it is illegal for abort to close school for religious reasons you can close school on a religious holiday for a secular non-religious reason most common reason that is due to a large number of people in the community anticipated to be absent because they will be celebrating the holiday and school is closed to recognize
049that it will be difficult to advance the curriculum with so many students out certain holidays such as christmas have been considered to be secularized meaning they have a significant non-religious element to them such as family gatherings gift giving etc easter is said to be another court has been split over good friday but some have said it becomes a long weekend that people visit family go away etc the bottom line is if the bridgeport board of education is to close school for eid al fatir you must do it because you anticipate a large number of students to be out there by frustrating the educational process that is the opinion of floyd dugus our district council from berkshire moses so i'd ask that everybody consider what's just been said if you have a question you want me
050to read something please feel free so does anyone have anything to say do you want to just start going around the room is that peace press i i think it's evident by the growing population of the muslim community in bridgeport that there will be a large amount of students absent during the school year therefore based off of the language from bertram and moses it would be applicable that eid alvatar should be observed by the school board because we would have numerous students absent and that would cause a delay and issue in the educational system as the schools would have to catch up a bunch of students so in in order to avoid that i think that eat alpha there should be observed as a holiday mr tastani you were asked to get some data previously
051regarding school absences did you get that yeah further request um one second we looked back um data management to go pre-covered and um so 2019 i asked data management just to look at the day of the holiday the day before the holiday the day after the holiday just to get an idea and in 2021 there was some semblance of normalcy last may after vaccinations and a return to the majority of the district into in-person learning we did the same thing um the absences seem to either favor the day after in 2019 much more significantly higher of the three days lower on the actual holiday and the day before the holiday in 2021 and pretty consistent the next two days so so what were the exact number day before day of day after june 3rd of
0522019 unless my research in choosing the holiday was incorrect it was june 4th of 2019 so there was june 3rd 1457 students in the district were absent on june 4th 1399 on june 5th 2070 and then on uh if i'm incorrect please please correct me on may 13th of the holiday in 2021 there was 1512 students absent on the day before 2021 and the day after uh 1543 so it's well no day before day of day after 15 12. 15 12 the day of the day up yes 2021 the day before 1543 the day after on an average day off we picked some random dates in those same similar week or so before in may 21st it was 1308 1299 on may 22nd 1213. so there was an increase a slight increase of 100 or
053so students on the day of and then in 2000 and we did two weeks after the holiday in 2021 1310 on one particular day 2043 and another day in 1319 so we tried to stay consistent with days of the week that were similar but i don't know if this data really provides any insight because as parents said they send their children to school despite the holiday because children don't want to miss school so i don't think this really reflects any real accurate data but that's my whole point here children that i know personally that go to school on the holidays i'm not sure [Applause] so my thoughts as far as justification for secular holiday based upon enrollment is that whether or not data is accurate from the last few years there is a critical mass
054and momentum that's happening in our community that attendance numbers might be very different in the years going forward even after tonight's meeting and from muslims and non-muslims alike so i definitely think that that is that is the direction that need we need to go on this issue however i want to also say and this is jumping ahead a little bit another agenda item i just want to say that this is this is now this is the moment this is the right thing to do in my opinion but we also have to think about after today as a board going forward how to address tomorrow's requests because there we talk about equity and fairness of all religions there are many other religions what will be the critical mass that determines whether or not there's a disruption
055in attendance so that we would have a secular holiday that happens to fall not happens to fall on a religious holiday and i say that because i feel like it will come it will be it will become obvious to us as the whole community comes around from all different constituents different areas of our community that we have to address that at that time because it's it's it's impossible to have every single holiday holy day recognized of every single religion it has to be something that that is so apparent in front of us and then the other thing i just want to ask about because i don't know this what happens with a holid a school calendar when you add one or two holidays does the year go out longer yes so the year goes out
056longer more into the summer correct okay all right that was the question i had and there was just one thing that was mentioned that was untrue there was no option of marking children not in the buildings present i don't know where that assumption came from uh school attendance is a legal document legal record so we would not mark anyone present it would not be in the building they would just be excused but not present so i just want to clarify thank you for clarifying that i want to clarify that the school calendar for the upcoming school year was approved with this holiday observed with students being able to take the day off without penalty and i think part of that was to be able to gain some solid numbers about how many folks actually would
057take the day off from school to celebrate this holiday as it is at present you have some folks who will take their kids out others who will keep them in school so it's kind of a skewed number but as it stands now as it has been approved on the upcoming school calendar um it's noted on the calendar it's explicitly stated that kids can take the day off without penalty there will be no tests homework assignments projects anything that may work against them and i think that's important to keep in mind we have another agenda item about establishing ad hoc committee to look at the overall calendar i think that if we keep it the way it is for now and get some information from folks who take the day off as an excused absence in
058the coming year that could give us some really crystal clear data by these numbers i don't see a mass change in absence absences from one day to the other i don't see us going from you know 13 14 1500 absences to 5 000 because there's a sudden influx of people taking the day off so i don't think that this data gives us substantial reason to close the entire school system at this point because at this point you would be looking at the remaining 20 000 school kids being sent home their parents being forced to find child care and the like or having to take the day off themselves when we don't have concrete data to support that and so i don't think that this rises to the level where we can just we can reasonably
059say uh it justifies closing an entire school system that that's my position i think this needs to be revisited with some some harder data misters nope mr scala yes um you just laid out the perfect argument before closing the schools on that day you said there will be no homework on that day no exams no important lessons on that day so instead of just shifting the calendar to add an extra day at the end of the year we're gonna yeah we're not gonna force twenty thousand kids to take off but we're gonna talk force twenty thousand kids to pause their education because we can't figure out the calendar why why should we have no lessons on our day our students have suffered so much learning loss already to have them lose learning for one more
060day simply because we can't adjust the calendar in the sense of fairness it's totally unfair and totally i don't know i i i don't know what to say i'm just done i mean if our superintendent can't find one day on the calendar to shift either forwards or backwards to accommodate not just the islamic students but the 20 000 students would have to pause their learning in order for those islamic students to be excused for the day is totally beyond the pill to clarify not having homework doesn't make the day a waste kids can still be doing things that keep them active and and children families who choose to send their kids to school can send them if they want to keep them home they can't but they're not going to be penalized for it mr
061bennett thank you mr chair um good evening everyone i'm very it's an honor for me to guide you'll be here and whoever sent me the emails i really send you you guys receive my response back and i'm here to support all of you a hundred percent and i know mr tastani and board members the oldest kid they can be absent one week or two weeks and i guarantee a hundred percent they will get a plus because they're very smart they're very intelligent they they do the job very good i'm very proud of that but trying to i don't know i don't want this situation that mr stanley say in our committee meeting we don't have to bring this to the board but they decide to bring it to the board dick i don't know why
062the reason why we stopped why can't i have a date day off or two days off these people they deserve it they're very professionals the parents they are here they were supposed to be home with the kids they're here to see we listen because we are the board members we're here to help discuss and help the community not to go back and forth and make the situation longer so i'm not going to have the situation longer [Applause] as i always i said and i'm going to keep saying people they don't like it what i'm saying i'm a little fisher i'm a board member because the community but for me the community vote for us to be above members so we support to respect them and try to give you this opportunity because you don't see
063this every day you don't see this why another towns they have this and they cannot have it so i i support them 100 and i hope this decision we can have it tonight because i said we want to bring it to the board mr chair we had to have the discussion and have these people have the opportunity to respect the religion and i support you a hundred percent and i will be doing your side thank you mr chair no my question mr macaron do you have any thoughts you want to share at this point no i'm just going around do you have anything to bring to the conversation [Music] you know i i definitely am moved i should say i just start by saying um by the um public comment that we heard tonight by
064the um families who were in the room fasting you know because this is an important enough issue for them to be present um i'm concerned about as a board i think our main priority is education obviously it goes without saying that you know we've we've struggled with there's been a major impact in recent years um in terms of learning loss due to the pandemic and that's something that you know i committed myself to during the campaign i'm a new board member so um you know i think that i feel conflicted about um other days on the holiday or on the calendar that are being observed and why this this holiday is not observed and i think that as a board we really need to um consider the way that holidays are um established on the
065calendar on the school calendar generally speaking to be friends i think it's it's an odd time of year to be having this conversation because um the next school year was established in january you know for the 2022 to 2023 year so really this conversation is for the following year and you know i i just don't um i think that as a board we really need to think um carefully about how we award holidays on um the academic calendar i think another thing to consider is that there there is a state requirement about um how many days students have to be in the classroom throughout the duration of high school and um i don't i don't see that any of these holidays um including alpha tour um that it conflicts with that um but i i
066am concerned that you know we're opening up the floodgates for future conversations like mr lombard said i did have a question for mr benahan um you had mentioned that there was other districts that recognize the holiday which which other districts recognize i have another district i will mail you the the town david new york city that they support so i hope us bridgeport support a community muslim okay okay that i think that's a a compelling argument and i think it's um it's definitely something to be considered thank you [Applause] it would be interesting to find out from those cities uh the basis they used if somebody can find that out yeah this brown is next is brown sure um good evening everyone um this one thank you to all of the emails that i've tried
067to respond to each and every one but i i joined the board i joined the board in support of giving giving our students an opportunity to probably find any and all things that matter to them um tonight and the weeks uh that our education diversity and inclusion committee i have been been in a place to hear our students concerned and also to have seen the you know the importance of this issue i know i believe the principle i'm not the principal the teacher shared tonight that the things that the students are bringing to us is a reflection of our district the fact that we preach and teach education diversity and inclusion as one of the things that we want our students to focus on and to hear them and to see them utilizing the skills
068that we push out every single day within our district i think is it it's amazing because at the end of the day when we're long gone as you know adults they will be the ones that will be running the district and i think it's important they understand that they are important and that anyone that wants to advocate for an issue or topic should have that same right and be able to share their same thoughts so if everybody wants a day on the calendar you know if if it grants them the opportunity to share their thoughts in concert i think as board members we deserve i'm not we deserve we owe them that opportunity to be able to listen to their concerns um so just here i you know i i'm in support of this because
069i also too believe in giving our students that place and they have they have literally shared their thoughts and why this should why this is important to them so um whether i know mr weldon did talk about that there's gonna be a committee forum to be able to look further into um some of the things that miss castillo has brought up i think that's going to be important and i think you know as we start recognizing um this particular opportunity for eid i think this will open up doors for us to understand how things are presented for the board of education when it comes to delegating what goes on the calendar and what doesn't um so i want to say thank you for this opportunity and you know um congratulations to the students for using
070your voices we we give you guys this platform let me take that back we don't give you we encourage you to use your platform and this is one of them so i want to say thank you go ahead okay from a student perspective we are all about diversity sorry inclusion in bridgeport so if you were just to give an excused absence what's stopping for the rest of the students if i personally had the knowledge there was going to be a day for an excused absence i wouldn't go so what's stopping the rest of people who don't follow that holiday from not going so so to answer that quickly your someone would have to turn a note in for you your mother would have yeah of course yes of course of course i'm just throwing that
071out there um but also you said there would be no homework that day whatever what about lectures i know at the high school level i missed a day of school because i went on a field trip for something sports related and i missed a whole ton of notes just from that one day mist i know homework you might not get it but just the lecturing and being in class that day makes a difference so why can't we take a day off from if you're looking for a day to take off we don't need two weeks for christmas take a day off from there and move it to give them their holiday like i said we're about diverse in inclusion so if adding just one more holiday and taking away from something else which we don't
072like i said need two weeks for christmas then if it includes if it gives them the inclusion they need then i think we should add it it's my student opinion [Applause] excuse me chair i've had my hand up but i was going to say something before i looked up i was waiting for miss allen too so i want to remind people what i said earlier we cannot close schools for the sake of religion we can't do that that is against the law there has to be a secular reason for this so we can't we can't trade off and just for the sake of giving a religious holiday there has to be a secular reason and that it's continuing to be lost i want to reiterate that okay so ms allen you had your hand up
073no okay is baptist perez okay i like to see the information from the attorney from brochures bertrand moses i don't think it's appropriate that legal advice is not shared with board members in advance for something of concern this came to me at 3 46 p.m the board meeting started at 6 30. i was on a train until 6 15. it got wi-fi so i had to print it so i had to print it screenshot take a picture send it over because that's the information that i need to know and it's a personal privilege that is something important that i feel as an attorney i need to read to come from to comprehend and be able to digest it based off the information and data that i have i and then i also think that the
074type of information when we're looking at the absentee rates was it specifically amongst muslim children because what i believe from the last diversity and equity uh committee meeting was that that information isn't collected so we see a hundred percent absence of muslim children are we collecting that data is that what we're comparing are we comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges because i want to know what percentage of the population isn't there although there are information that's been presented that families are faced with a very complicated hard decision of making a choice for their child's education because they're not being acknowledged i also wanted to comment on the excused absence it is essentially saying you're saying to the muslim students and the families here we hear you and we don't care we want you
075to be absent miss out for a few generations maybe and then we'll think about it later we'll think about it later when there's a significant number of you failing in behind because we didn't want to acknowledge you we need more of you to come to our school systems and not be here so then we can give you your excused absence despite the fact that the muslim community has been grown exponentially due to several world conflicts and it's been published in the news that bridgeport is one of the asylums very similar to new haven very similar to new york city so when you see similarly composed diverse cities acknowledging this holiday even though there's not a long historical background of data we're just holding the time bomb and i feel that by muddying it up with
076consideration of all other holidays religious holidays that are not in front of us today is ignoring the essential issue and also [Applause] this conversation is happening now and not at john uh in january because ramadan is now now is their holiday now it's important now now more so than ever their speech is not only public speaking it is political speech it is religious speech it is i'm making a choice here to bring this before you here now because it it demonstrates the importance of it to the community uh and then also if i was your mom i just write a letter in protest i'm going to support my daughter taking excused absence to have eat off because it's unfair if that's all it takes to have the day off is just to write a letter
077saying i i want my child to i want my child to be equitable to other students in observance of their religious holiday yeah i got a question in the comments a question how hard would it be to find the date but for the holiday should be approved your microphone mr sokolovic thank you i apologize my question was to mr testani uh how hard would it be to find a day should this be approved this evening it wouldn't be hard at all okay and on that note i would like to make a motion due to the fact that many islam students will be off and the disruption that it will cause to the school day and operations of the system that we approve each alpha tier as a holiday going forward the 23 23-24 school year
078high second okay second by mr lombard clarify mr sokolovic you consider five percent of the total enrollment being absent on a day to be a significant amount of the student enrollment i consider the 95 percent of students education that will be stalled because of the five percent accommodations that we would have to make we have 95 percent of students won't be getting homework they won't be getting important lectures and they won't be getting tests and exams and reports for the entire 19 000 school district i do consider that a point of contention that needs to be looked at in making this decision because not it's not only about the five percent about the 95 percent that are going to be held back okay so to the legal definition is that you anticipate a large number
079of students to be out there frustrated you are saying that you consider five percent yes i do i consider it a considered disruption to everyone else baby see the legal document chair can you take a picture and send it to me i i would just like to say something first of all i want to clarify your motion that you just as so it was heard that's for the 23 23-24 school year correct is that what you said correct correct so it's not for next year's for the year after because this gets calendars already set that would be for the thing you seconded that i said you clarified his opinion on what uh a significant and i also just want to say regardless of a particular explanation of legal legality i also think that in general
080the board i think i understood can set the calendar yeah even if it's not for a mass of people being absent if we want to as a board and we come together and vote we can set the calendar so so mr sokolovic's flip could be a reason why we consider changing the calendar not only because it's satisfying the uh prospect of a large number of people being absent just just to clarify that that we have the authority to do that yes so we do again right just making sure no i understand everybody's not the same i appreciate you representing you know what he what he wrote all right so unless there's any further discussion do we want to take a vote question yeah um mr weldon or mr chair can you please reread um the
081statement made by the um the lawyer about there was a statement about um celebrating for secular something or other purposes i guess we could have saw it if you sent it to us still waiting out of order okay it is it is illegal for a board to close school for religious reasons you can close schools for secular non-religious reasons the most common reason is due to a large number of people in the community anticipated to be absent because they will be celebrating the holiday school is closed to recognize that it will be difficult to advance the curriculum with so many students out is that what you were referring to yes that's exactly what i was referring to and i guess my question would be you know how to so like yom kippur or you know
082rosh hashanah because we we're we're aware right that uh the jewish population of the school district is also not significant in numbers um to to really meet the requirements for that that definition so those holidays were put in place 40 45 years ago let me finish i don't know what the demographics were 40 years ago to cause them to do that but that does need to be looked at absolutely because today is not 1975. okay i need some order here does anybody else have a question speaker okay so are you ready to take a vote mr bennett i'm still waiting for the document to be sent to me mr beneham i have to say something privileged you asked me to make a vote based off of content and then you're not sharing it with the
083board i don't need you to read aloud to me i went to school for that thank you okay you're out of order i challenge the chair mr document mr bennett all right i'm going to say this and this is not something first of all we have to stop as us as the board members we had to relax and start the body language right that's one second if we got another holidays a three kings day um all the holidays we have that i don't care they did it 1975 what i mind is these people need to have the holiday it's the only thing i care because we approve so many things in the calendar we have so many holidays i don't know how many years now it's a beautiful community to come and ask for the
084holidays is the issue it's a comment it's a but no we want to we can't no i i i i like i say say exactly in our committee it was necessary to bring it to the board because we mr decided you say that but you decide to bring it to the moment the chair and mr destiny just say right now me jacob joe sucker and um ask a question is it going to be some issue about the date are you exactly saying no me to study right i know it's a policy it's a protocol and everything but why we have to spend this situation more longer when we ask that as a board member you know we we are elected we are elected official members we got a community to be sure we can accept
085the days this muslim community had this is taking so long they need to have the stop and let's make a decision and that's it okay that's the money i have to say with the chair all right so ms allen wanted a clarification to clarify a vote of yes means that you feel that there are sufficient number of absences on the subject holiday to warrant closing schools what's your emotion you just want to close schools on that day motion to close the schools on eat alpha tier due to the significant efforts of students and a disruption it will call to cost operations that's that's the other part okay do you understand i think so okay all right all in favor i still have a comment this is disc debate discussion questions what's your question go ahead
086i just wanted to clarify a va valid secular purpose is related to the rational basis test so it has to be rationally related um to it valid secular purposes it's not necessarily limited and this is like a good reminder of constitutional law first year law school um that it cannot be arbitrary um and it cannot be irrational and so part of my reason for requesting the documents that i should be able to observe is to make a rational determination and whether the law actually is restricted because there are citations in it as you mentioned early so i should be able to review the citations and see on what basis other courts in connecticut or in or within the united states has provided those opportunities and i don't think it's necessarily so restricted that it's based
087on the attendance rate however without the document in front of me it is very hard to make an educated decision so it's been said to you this is his preliminary he is going to provide a much more expansive with citations but this is what he provided tonight so he just provided a preliminary information provided despite knowing that this was going up for discussion amongst the board and the population would be here so we're going to take a vote now all in favor project yeah can we have it okay clarify a vote of yes means we are going to close schools on eid al fatir because it is perceived to be a what was it joe would you significant number of students will be absent and cause a disruption to the entire school system based on
088the information that's been provided tonight correct sir inappropriate okay roll call vote i just terrified you i didn't hear it i'm sorry okay well you ready no i just said i'm not ready christine yes can you turn on the phone sorry bobby brown yes erica castillo yes michael macaron yes joseph zikolovic yes john weldon i abstain sybil allen yes joseph lombard yes [Applause] motion for a five minute recess take five seconds we're going to come back to order if everybody would resume your places okay all right are we back online okay we are back online we'd all resume our places okay next on the agenda is approval of board minutes the first one is march 28 2022 regular public meeting move to approve by ms allen second second by ms baptiste perez are there any
089discussion or edits all right all in favor aye opposed any abstention mr lombard of states march 28 2022 special meeting is there a motion to approve some moved by ms baptiste perez second by ms allen is there any discussion or are there any edits i'm staying with okay all in favor opposed and mr penahan abstains mr benahan and mr lombard abstain next is the chairman's report establishment of ad hoc committee for district wide calendar holidays and vacations i think the past hour or so illustrates that we need to come together with some common understandings about how we structure our calendar so i'm going to make a motion that this ad hoc committee be established and that it be charged with finishing its work uh no later than august 31st moved by ms allen is there
090a second second one mr kalavik do you have your hand up no that's nice okay all right all in favor all right okay all right i'll select the members for this and announce them at the next meeting committee reports and referrals ad hoc district-wide branding initiative ms brown thank you thank you mr chair um currently we will be meeting this wednesday um to discuss our district logo and the um and any other items that are on uh but we'll meet this one virtually this is a virtual meeting correct okay any referrals contracts committee did not meet in the interim are there any referrals educational diversity equity and inclusion mr sokolovic microphone what we met on april 4th and what happened today is the results of that meeting and that's all i have to report and
091the next meeting will be sorry calendar thursday third monday whatever i'll mr chair uh there will be at some point after a final negotiations referral to the contracts committee on the uh bus um rfp response so you're gonna have a recommendation for award yes at some uh we're waiting for um miss siegel to finish her final negotiations with the bus company okay facilities did not meet in the interim are there any referrals beyond what's already been referred okay governance governance would have met on april 4th but the diversity committee met in instead so we did not meet um are there any referrals beyond what's already been referred personnel did not meet are there any referrals for personnel there's not um we have uh reposted the position for um special education um leaders okay and it
092has been reconfigured to a um unaffiliated position of a higher statute to try to widen the recruitment net okay since we only have two applicants okay what does that mean um non-union yes okay students and families student family the next meeting is going to be april 28 2002 22 sorry cpm and central high school and the library okay any referrals yeah you submitted to a referral i got a change um take the date um mr john tory he emailed me one day what did it mean okay thank you okay sound good thank you okay did you have your hand up mr macaron teaching and learning ms baptiste perez thank you chair we met on april 4th 2022 two items are up on new business which are the discovery magnet field trip and winthrop school field
093trip so i won't go into detail regarding that now we did have a very enlightening discussion regarding the student sport students for participation grade requirements and enforcement particularly taking a look at middle school basketball for boys and girls and we'll have uh mr tastani is going to be working with the coaches to develop a handbook that will actually hopefully be enforced that will emphasize the student athlete component to it we also had a presentation of some of the research on the benefits and drawbacks of a later school start time for high school and more information will be presented on that because that will be a lengthy process okay thank you are there any referrals for teaching and learning they referrals it's in your inbox um for your next meeting thank you okay all right superintendent's
094report mr chair we skipped double finance oh stop doing it you missed the finance committee [Applause] finance committee yes after facilities okay go ahead uh yes we met on march 31st we had a little community forum decently attended we're gonna have one last one on april 22 he said yes april 26 6 30. it's going to be here at aquaculture and it'll be live streamed as well okay any referrals for finance okay superintendent's report you don't want to do the students oh that's right we moved around student representative reports there's two of you left um a reflector from fairchild wheeler i.t i just would like to report recent or a couple weeks ago we invited mr tastani and welcomed him to have a round table to discuss issues at our school and personally i was
095invited there so i think everything we did and talked about went pretty productively and found out some important things which will help change our future at fairchild and then also this wednesday the it is having a pep rally so yay just we get to play um dodgeball tug of war and musical chairs but we were just very grateful to have it because it got pushed because it was supposed to be in december so yeah dodgeball right it's gonna be so exciting so because we're going to do it we're going to have the fresh we're going to make it a surprise so it's going to be the freshman and this freshman sophomore against junior seniors and the winner of that will play each other and in the winner of that we're going to make a teachers
096team but that's going to be a surprise so it's the teachers are yeah there's no fair child kids on there um and so the teachers are gonna have so much fun pelting the balls of the students they've already told me yeah okay okay my name is elena khan i'm a aerospace student um firstly we have a 10th grader that was awarded an honorable mention at ub's research day for a project they did his name is paul zint so yeah other than that after um spring break aerospace will be having a spirit week um that week and then we will have a pep rally on the 28th and yeah we'll also be having some sports for the kids to do and to kind of show appreciation for our student athletes because they're um rachel doesn't have
097sports within our school so we don't really get to like support them at games and things like that um yeah so we're doing that and yeah that's it okay thank you do we have any reps online what is that mary mountaineers i am the central high school representative and a few things that's going on in central is that we have student council um team selling um t-shirt to really spread awareness for um autism awareness month which is the month of april we also had a successful blood drive that was um hosted by the world there was a lot of volunteer from the national honor society and that blood drive well today and then also we have um course request sheets going around where students request you know the classes that they want um for next
098year which is really exciting and then lastly um on wednesday the central high school debate team defeated the hardin debate team in a debate that was hosted by the american association of universities thank you okay thank you are there any others online i don't see i'm sherman elliot from harding high school okay on april 7th the last ptso meeting in collaboration with wedding parents ptso and school governance council open a hygiene closet where items such as lotion tool brush toothpaste floss soap deodorant sanitary napkins brush comb enhanced sanitizers um [Music] is located in at the closet where it had um students have access to them because if they do don't have the they'll have access to it otherwise um currently over um the seniors who there are seniors who have received received um scholarships which
099which is worth over three six hundred and three thousand dollars um and that's it thank you thank you are there any others online okay back down to you new business discussion and i'm sorry superintendent's report thank you um just a few items that i'd like to mention um first the l summit this year is planned for april 28th 3 30 to 5 30 at warren harding high school they are collecting right now applications for any former english language learners students for scholarships at the school so any students that have previously received english language learners support are welcome to apply so the competition right now is participation is low so we'd like to encourage as many seniors to apply for the college applications uh scholarship applications excuse me um we are planning thanks to dr morgan
100uh summer stem camp um july 5th through the 11th for grades four through six at five locations uh throughout the district as well as 10th and 11th 11th graders at basic and harding and they will culminate with a shark tank activity on july 13th i want to mention that we are having a job fair bridgeport public schools job fair on may 17th at central high school that will be the first of two job fairs that will be held one uh obvious obviously just mentioned in may and then one at the end of june is being planned as well so please spread the word looking for highly qualified educators for the 223 school year i just want to mention uh since december 8th 8 with the approval of the footsteps to brilliance program for our pre-k
101students the report back today was extremely encouraging that our approximately 900 pre-k students have read 17 million words to date so this is extremely encouraging so that this will be also presented later in the year at teaching and learning committee once we gather all the data but that was just some news that was shared today i want to give a special thanks to the talc foundation for their generosity they are funding a cupcake truck that will go out to every school over the next couple of weeks to thank staff for all their hard work this year so that's just really appreciative for the talc foundation we have just want to give a little plug the village initiative project incorporated um has been with under the leadership of teresa wilson serving underserved youth youth in bridgeport
102um through college tours uh and giving them exposure to higher education they are currently seeking more students to participate uh in grades six through eight they meet on tuesday evenings from 5 30 to 7 on the third floor of the margaret morton government center and for ninth through twelfth graders they meet on wednesday evenings from 5 30 to 7 30 at the bma campus on aranastan avenue so i think it's a great program that we should be promoting for students to get access to higher education through college tour visits i just want to congratulate the news that we found today miles g building substitute at park city magnet has received an incentive bonus and is a finalist for substitute of the year that will incorporate a monetary award of five thousand dollars if he has
103chosen and also fifteen hundred dollars that will go to the school and just wanna share prior to the final announcement bridgeport public education fund has uh disclosed their awardees for this year uh that will be celebrated at a later date um in their awards ceremony the george bellinger leadership awardee this year for uh outstanding principal goes to mr brett gustafson of curiel school and the eight outstanding teacher awards go to jessica valdezon laura l wenger rebecca fiola teresa oliveira michael palucci christina shanahan makia stovall and jennifer wieman so congratulations to those folks and also the elizabeth freeman civic engagement awardee goes to uh wayne's dairy income bridgeport so those are quite a high honor and that will conclude um superintendent's report for tonight okay thank you okay back to new business that's some question for
104me you got a question yes two questions or maybe you can answer both at the same time if it's funny and one of one of them is that we already spoke about that it's why they take so long the city to pay for the vendors and i'm asking what let me tell you this for the record when i know all these pack leaders and pta so when they you know order for the vendors they take forever to get paid those vendors that's why the list is like 60 70 000 vendors because they don't get paid right away i understand that coming from us all right this is coming from the city i don't know why they need so many signatures how many permission to get all these branders to get paid when the money is
105there exactly each pack leading ptso receive amount of money you know just depend how many kids in the school why did it take to talk forever so i did look into the uh specifics to your question after we spoke last once the recommendation the the p9 is is inputted there's a number of approvals as you mentioned when the video is generated so we're trying to streamline so that the individual who entered the p9 is notified when that po goes out um what we did find in just some cross-referencing that the address that the vendor may have provided when they registered may no longer be valid and that is the where the po is sent not to the address that's entered into the p9 um and the individual that enters the p9 doesn't have really a
106way of knowing when that p that po goes out so um i did have the business office look into this we're going to try to see if there's any adjustments that can be made so if mr benajan enters a p9 uh the minute that po is issued he receives a copy so that he can follow up with the vendor to uh shorten the time frame for the vendor to be compensated for their services okay so i encourage last question for you mr stunning knowing that we have a while in april may in june two months to finish the school we don't have no contracts we don't have nothing we just have to be run away you know to be update nothing like that or they will do it for next year because another you know
107one question is because we don't want the last moment one of the staff say oh i need to run away my contract so i'll just ask you a question you don't have no staff they have to learn a contract nothing like that not currently no okay i just want to i thank you one more question with the chair okay anyone else i have a question um so i know that um i want to appreciate the email that we received about the young student i just wanted to know um is there anything once there is more information available of how the district could bring awareness to whatever the situation was so that students feel supported um i know uh specifically um by being a young woman i know quite a few girls have reached out um
108and you know dealing with what took place but i just want to know anything the district is looking to do to um provide awareness uh for this particular incident sorry yeah we we immediately reached out while we're they reached out to us the folks from the hub and and um miss roca reyes did speak to victoria and giovanna at the hub and they are putting together some resources for counselors and student success team members they're also going to have the mobile crisis unit be available at the school for support and they're offering additional support staff just if we need it but they are also going to provide professional development to all staff to support social emotional needs and um and training for students around resiliency and that information is going to be forthcoming thank you
109you're welcome anyone else back to new business discussion on possible approval of discovery magnet school field trip to nature's classroom is there a principal here to uh teacher cervino's here mary cerinos hi i just wanted to i want to make sure that you can hear me oh yeah we hear you okay great um thank you so much for allowing me to ask for permission for this trip for this year our sixth graders usually go to nature's classroom um every year since 2010 and we haven't since the pandemic this would be the first time we're thinking about going on an overnight trip and we're only thinking about it because they're doing pretty good at um regulating some coveted guidelines and restrictions for vaccinations and um pcr tests and that sort of thing so um this would
110be first sixth graders we have 44 students going we have four chaperones that that are as well attending so it'll be 11 to 1. we're planning on leaving on may 31st that's a tuesday of 2022 and coming back on that friday which is june 3rd and as you all know because we've our schools in bridgeport have been done doing nature's classroom for years is that it's a great educational experience for the students it's a lot of team building and it's a great way to connect social socialization social development student driven exploration and interdisciplinary studies so we not we don't just do science we do a lot of social social studies as well um i would like to say just a couple of things that the nature's classroom staff is all fully vaccinated and they are
111asking for the students if the students have their vaccinations that those students can have a rapid test three days ahead of time and if the students do not if they are not fully vaccinated they will require a pcr test three days ahead of time before we leave and on the date that we leave on may 31st we are nature's classroom is asking that we provide a rapid test to all the students before we get on the bus to go up to ivoryton so this trip will be up in ivorton connecticut which is just um north north east of hammond asset are there any questions sorry um i i wanted to ask i was looking at the documents that were provided and i did not see anything specific on this so i just have to ask
112i mean it's okay apologies for the fourth right nature of the question but do are does nature's classroom still do the like slavery reenactments no they don't no okay and they haven't been doing that for about the past five years that that we've gone and as the teachers that go to nature's classroom we we can actually ask for the for the activities that we want to do um and it's never been one of our things okay can you share more about the activities that you are choosing to do sure we do uh we we do um we always do like a a night activity where they learn about their stars so they actually go outside without flashlights they learn about stars and their rods and cones in their eyes and they do different little activities
113with that we um the first night we always ask we always do a team bonding so it's just working together to accomplish a common goal whether it's to get across the room without with just using um sign language or something like that without talking just little things like that to kind of get the kids to open up and then we're only there three nights this year so the last night we always do it's like a sing-along and around a bonfire and you know the kids have s'mores and we just sing campfire songs so those are the nighttime activities and during the day um the kids are broken up into small groups so we have four groups we'll have um some educator from nature's classroom that leads each of those groups and they go into the
114woods and talk to talk to the kids about different things that they see in in the woods and from my experience in the past 10 years it's always been those educators are really good about finding out what the kids are interested in and they lean towards that in the afternoon they have two to three classes that students pick and a lot of times for for the teacher and i that are going we always ask the counselors to just pick the ones they're most interested in so you know sometimes it's um a fungus among us so they go around the woods and they identify fungus that is edible and they bring it back and they cook it up on the skillet or there's shelter building um there's uh you know looking at amphibians and things like
115that in the water it kind of depends on the location that we're at but um there's rocket science so that these they launch water rockets there's sometimes there's dissections um so we try to do a big variety we'll do a dissection with each um you know with each class there's four classes that are offered we'll always have a dissection but all these other different ones so that the kids can feel comfortable going to a class that they really like awesome thank you very much appreciate it welcome mr chair uh not so much a question but a suggestion when uh doing the permission slips is it explicitly spelled out the difference between a pcr rapid test and the obligation to get a pcr test for the students affected no i actually don't i don't i don't
116think so i have been looking at the permission slip and as we spoke last week at the last meeting remember i didn't really know so this is me reaching out to nature's classroom since then to get more details that students that have proof of vaccination can get a rapid and the students that don't have proof have to do pcr so we'll make sure that that's indicated we're really good about communicating with the parents who are on board for this trip and we'll make sure that that's spelled out very clearly thank you okay anyone else okay someone want to make a motion to approve the discovery magnet school field trip to nature's classroom led by mr benahan second by ms allen all in favor aye aye any opposed okay have a good time great thank you
117all right have a good try next discussion possible approval of winthrop school field trip to washington dc we have would you state your names for the record my name is jennifer russell just turn your other microphone yeah turn on that i thought i was louder my name is jennifer russell uh carrie romanowskis um i am from john winthrop school i forgot that part um i am the program leader for the program um we've been three years ago we set out to take the students to washington d.c uh the trip will entail going to such landmarks as the vietnam war war memorial um the holocaust museum the world war one world war ii monuments abraham lincoln etc um as you know this trip has uh we're going during covet so we have taken some precautions as
118per the the company the company expects a pcr or an antigen test prior to us departing three to five days the students are required to bring a copy of like their insurance cards even though we have a doctor on site for 24 hours if they do get sick we have in um a doctor on call and students if they catch or uh become ill with covet they will be quarantined and their parents will be flown down to take them and bring them back home at no cost at no additional cost to them she would like to step forward to pass out the books that go along with the program as is the case with this program um there's an academic piece to it which is very important that everybody should must know whenever the students
119go to a site they'll be required to fill in this work they have a program leader who will also be there to answer any and all questions and this does count i don't care what they say it does count um there are going to be a 40 students with eight chaperones so that's a five to one five five to one ratio um we will also have in addition to not only us there will be a night shaft nighttime chaperone to help us monitor the students at night i don't know if you want anything else do you have anything to say or do you have any questions yes winthrop no here uh winthrop has not done it in the past however sorry has not done it in the past however world strides which is the company
120we are using is been doing this since the 1960s and does programs throughout the united states canada europe and bridgeport public schools have attended through we've had yes other programs have done this um i think this country as a matter of fact might have done it through them um any other questions how long is the stay it is uh we're leaving june 20th and coming back june 22nd so we're leaving on a monday june 20th and returning june 22 which is wednesday so two nights two nights two nights thank you you know because alan asked if you were they were insured excuse me yes yes it is fully insured fully insured everything's insured got all every all of the insurance paperwork is in the packet as well as the bus companies insurance and the company
121world stride and full medical releases and full medical releases are for each and every student is provided any other questions mr bennett i know you already said on the committee but i want to be sure for the record that you who say that the kids will be testing before they go correct and then before they come back to um now there is no there's no school i got you i just want to know there's no school don't talk about that you wanted to see if we were paying attention yeah yes they will be required to test um since this we're leaving on a monday they were required to test on friday they have to show me that their they've tested negative before they can even think about getting on the bus okay okay sorry thank
122you no more questions okay anyone else yes the parents are flown down to pick up the child and then their meet are the parents responsible for the means of transportation no they're going to transport them back what oh i could pick them up too medical medical is included in this trip yes it is okay yes it is and the parents don't have insurance it's yes if the medic if the parents do not have insurance they do have medical they're just asking if you do have insurance to put that insurance on as primary thank you all right yeah she used to take her students to dc all the time oh she knows she knows who knows any other questions no anybody online and don't let them ask you if they can share a room okay my
123boys decided that they wanted to share a room with the girls and i said it'll never happen under my watch not on my watch that's if there are no other questions the century all right so is there a motion to approve the john winthrop school field trip to washington dc is presented second moved by ms baptiste perez second by ms allen all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions okay you're gonna have a good trip all right well we appreciate it thank you thank you if you can't be in the hall at night leave your shoes out there so they can see him and they think he's still there is there a motion to adjourn all in favor you opposed [Applause]