001hey okay this is a call to order of the first regular meeting of march 2022 of the bridgeport board of education today is monday march 14 2022 and the time is 6 33 pm you all rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty mr lombard uh if mr lombard was here would you please call the roll i don't see him all right i'll do it myself john walden present bobby brown joseph lombard sybil allen christine baptiste perez albert benahan erica castillo michael macarone president joseph sokolovic president okay we have a quorum [Applause] next on the agenda is student representative reports do any of you have anything to say and if we
002state your name for the record beforehand and what school you're from my name is angel serrano um from bridgeport military academy angel serrano bridgeport military academy um i don't have anything in front of me because the wi-fi is not working uh okay but yeah sorry all right thank you hi my name is ruth cruz i'm from basic high school ruth cruz from basic yes okay so a couple of things that my school is doing is the ninth graders uh team has the highest completion of my path benchmarks and great engagement in the program the boys basketball team has made it to round three of the tournament and they play an away game at saint bernards in norwich that'll be awesome hi my name is avery fleckner i'm at fairchild i.t um nothing really exciting we
003just one of our classes opened the school store and so we've been just making sales which goes back to the school so we're excited about that okay thank you uh let the record reflect that mr lombard has joined online uh do you have any student reps that are participating remotely no no okay okay next is public comment we have one speaker this evening gladys walker jones [Applause] thank you chairman john weldon on behalf of the collaborative effort of the greater bridgeport naacp the education and health committee we are following up on the urging during public comment session on boe meeting monday february 22nd to re-establish a working health health and safety committee supported by active medical personnel not limited to the nursing supervisor you may recall that in my capacity as a gb naacp education
004committee chair i firstly commended the boe members for voting to extend the mass mandate i followed the commendation by providing factual information as to when the boe last had an active health committee with medical personnel that year was 2013. before concluding i reiterated the request coupled with the expectation that this re-established an active committee would work to ensure all scholars and staff are safe beyond the issues surrounding the covet 19 pandemic lastly i stated that this re-established health committee should also be instrumental in ensuring that any staff member who is injured while working is supported with reasonable workplace accommodations so that they may continue to engage in the work that they are passionate about please provide the executive board of gb naacp with the outcome of this direct request and the action taken to ensure
005not only all of our scholars pre-k to 12 are safe but that all staff that serves our diversified population of scholars are also well supported and in celebration of women in history month a close review of the boe committee reflects that out of 10 of the standing committees not inclusive of the ad hoc district-wide branding initiative and the charter school governing council board liaisons zero standing committees are cheered by a female elected boe member i'm asking that you take a look at that and um ensure that we have elected board of ed members on female representatives to cheer at least three of our standing committees thank you thank you that concludes public comment next on the agenda is approval of board minutes there's only one item february 28 2022 a regular public meeting is there
006a motion to approve moved by mr sokolovic is there a second second second by ms castillo are there any edits or comments or discussion okay hearing none all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions i'm going to dispense with the chairman's report and move on to committee reports and referrals first one being ad hoc district-wide branding initiative ms brown our next board of ed i mean our next branding meeting will be this wednesday at 5 30 which is um going to be at central high school for our ad hoc um branding light committee meeting okay are there any referrals oh yes mr chair um i'd like to refer the [Music] the budget presentation to the ad hoc committee because they do uh marketing and stuff i think it needs like a reconfiguration just not as
007far as styles fonts we've been using the same file for style for i don't know how many years and it's a little unfriendly for the po to the public and for public consumption i don't know if that's something the branding committee could handle or what have you in conjunction with i guess the finance committee as well okay are you comfortable with that ms brown yeah i only mentioned that because this is relatively compressed time frame oh no i want to be sure that you're comfortable with oh no not looking for this year mr weldon i'm looking for just going forward for next year okay okay that's fine thank you we accept you accept all right contract contracts committee did not meet since the last board meeting are there any referrals educational diversity equity and inclusion
008mr sokolovic yes we will be we didn't meet in the interim but we will be meeting march 21st 6 30 p.m at central high school okay any referrals facilities committee met on march 1st we received a briefing on the status of the heating system at columbus school for the referral of ms baptiste perez everything is working as it should there was a explanation given for what happened the day that it failed we also moved to the full board for a oh no i'm sorry we also approved at the committee level the um pursuit of a curial and nutrition center roof replacement and that was it that the record reflectors allen has arrived times noted as 6 41. are there any referrals for committees for re for facilities okay finance committee also did not meet in
009the interim we will be meeting on march yesterday i'm just lost today to apologize 17 6 30 p.m any referrals governance committee met on march 7th and moved forward to the full board the two items under new business are there any referrals okay personnel did not meet since the last board meeting are there any referrals students and families mr benahan is not here let the record reflect mr benehands participating remotely go ahead mr bennahan thank you mr chairman then family we have mark martin because we will be higher high school okay are there any referrals all right teaching and learning mr sokolovic yes again we did not meet the interim next meeting will be tuesday the 16th at 6 30 pm central library okay any referrals for teaching and learning superintendents report yes i just
010have a few items to mention this evening i know we have some important business too um friday was sel day across the district there was celebrations of social emotional learning throughout it was way too many um celebration uh artifacts that were shared to be able to provide to the board but i will forward in an email to the board just to highlight some of the amazing work that was done by staff and students throughout the district i just want to recognize last week was school social social worker week all the hard work that our school social workers have been engaged in especially during and now post pandemic so as was mentioned in the uh report student report tonight the bastion boys basketball team is playing at the quarterfinals of the uh division three ciac tournament
011uh up in unconsciousville at saint bernard school for those boys win they will represent bridgeport in the semifinals of the state tournament um later on this week so um good luck to the boys tonight and i'm proud to announce uh louisa wolfe principal at johnson school is a finalist for cass elementary uh school principal of the year so it's an honor to have [Applause] bridgeport educator to be a finalist it's an extensive process from this point on there will be visits to the school interviews of staff and parents uh prior to a final selection for the uh principal of the year so well deserved by miss wolf and the team at johnson school and lastly i'd like to announce tonight i invite everyone i am hosting a fundraiser in collaboration with 100 girls leading uh
012organization that i believe was founded but also as bobby brown is instrumental in we will be sending out more information if anyone if ever would like to attend or sponsor a young lady to attend the event it will be held um april 28th from 6 to 10 p.m at boca oyster bar right here in bridgeport uh all proceeds will go to 100 girls leading again 100 girls leading fundraiser please support our girls support our mentors the great work that's being done and again all proceeds will go to 100 girls leading so april 28th we will send that out district-wide um to all staff but again if you're unable to attend you want to sponsor a young lady or you want to be a sponsor um these uh there's ways to donate as well as purchase
013tickets on eventbrite so all all funds will go directly to uh 100 girls leading that's 501c3 that's a 501c3 so there will be no cash handled or checks everything will go through tax deductible as well any questions for the superintendent have a question is it normal to for the superintendent to promote non-profit organizations sponsorship charitable contribution events during board meetings well we've been doing a lot of uh community outreach in the last few years this happens to be an organization that's uh working with bridgeport public school young ladies uh on a regular basis and not asking for any support so um i was just wanting to help out in terms of helping fund uh an organization that is going to work and continue to work and expand and mentoring young ladies in the school system
014any other questions okay we're going to move on to old business discussion possible action regarding in-school mask requirements when last we talked about this it was about a month ago on february 15th board meeting and the board moved that a committee be formed to evaluate this come back to us with a report tonight so that we can make a decision on what we want to do moving forward so mr tastani i'll leave it to you to talk about what the word is you did so first we did send out a survey to all families through parent square and staff members in the district we got a response that tallied for parents 1072 parents responded that they would like to continue with the mask mandate 955 said they'd like to go mask optional so that's about
01510 percent response from families in the staff response 250 staff members responded to continue with the mass mandate 423 said we should go mask optional um in the last week or so i've held a round table discussions at almost all high schools that encompassed about 50 students we have not gotten to fairchild wheeler yet or basic but at harding central and bridgeport military academy all students that were represented supported a mask optional um we had some really good discussions it wasn't just um teenagers giving their opinion but they also voiced some of the negatives of what the effects of the mast are having on them and their teachers within the school environment uh angel here was a representative of the round table over at bma who spoke i i think quite well on the topic
016i don't know if you want to add anything from what was discussed in our time bma last week sure i got no problem um i personally thought um we should have a mass optional um that's just due to one many kids have um health conditions and whatnot and having a mask all the time you know that stops them from you know breathing or whatnot um and another thing just having um for example um gym um i personally have to wear a mask during gym i think it's completely hard trying to do a pacer test i'm not pretty sure everyone took a pace or test before and just having that mask over your face constantly and not allowed to just you know take that one breath you have to keep it on um but i personally
017like i said i think it's i think it should be mask optional um because let's say there is a person that you know um wants hey keep your mask on you know and respect the others and i totally agree i don't think it should be absolutely you know no mask at all like i said just mass optional um and it's been hard wearing a mask you know um learning wise i don't know if you're comfortable talking to me because i don't know your facial expressions i don't you know um and it's hard it's like it's hard thank you and and you know the students really articulated well on the rationale behind it they felt that they would be able to decide appropriately in which social settings or educational settings that they should put the mask
018on and when they should be able to take it off um i will have our health experts um weigh in but just for a frame of reference i know we're looking at metrics that was something that the committee talked a lot about and the two weeks of reporting here in bridgeport the this is the entire bridgeport community from february 20th to march 5th the positivity rate dropped to 2.5 percent um and more recent data the reporting of new positive cova 19 confirmed cases for the bridgeport community for friday saturday and sunday was a grand total of 13. um so obviously we have gotten back to a point where it um believed from the committee uh miss bautista uh from the bea participated mr sokolovic participated miss castillo participated one parent uh did show up that
019did respond yes to talk we also had our health director we had representatives from naij from the bcas and also miss early nursing supervisor and i we spoke for about two hours the discussion a lot of questions were asked but i ultimately i think everyone there was a consensus wouldn't say it was unanimous uh believed that we were in a good time to go mask optional i believe uh this morning i heard that on the news that hartford has announced in the public schools they will go mask optional at the end of the month as well so the big the big cities are all falling into that um recommendation i'm going to defer to i know um we have our health director on virtually and also our nursing supervisor here in person uh i don't
020know if lizette wants to go to the microphone and then they have some more specific health data i think that will shed some more light on this topic good evening so based on our current trends in the state city and in the schools this is an op optimal time to go to mass option and comparing numbers to other areas in bridgeport where they went mask optional at the end of february the parochial schools which the school nurses for the bridgeport school district also cover in the last two weeks they had one reported case amongst their five schools when they went mask optional as far as us we've had one case this week that includes over the weekend last week we had three cases so the numbers are coming down also in areas where such as
021the younger age group where they had an inability to keep mask on throughout this pandemic we did not see any difference in numbers between them to the masked students they were relatively the same numbers there as well the health director ebony she's online but she and i discussed metrics that her department is working with where we would determine the number of students based in each particular school so we would determine the population of students and the population of staff and based on those numbers her metrics will determine where we would be at to meet the 10 outbreak threshold and if that is the case and we do monitor these numbers daily so the building administrators and the nursing staff in each building report to me daily what their covered numbers are we can within less
022than 24 hours pivot back to a mask in every student at the particular grade level or classroom level depending on what we start to see and we would institute that for two weeks if we started to see an uptick in numbers in a particular grade level or classroom within 24 hours we can send out a notice that the parents will now need to make sure that their students are masked we have the mask to provide should they not have them and we can do that along with sending home test kits so we can catch it before it becomes a larger spread we also continue to promote testing vaccination and the other mitigation member measures such as distancing when appropriate and hand hygiene when we do decide if we do decide to lift the mass mandate
023we currently have approximately 45 000 test kits that we will distribute two to every staff and student uh prior to leaving before the mask this mandate is lifted this i believe each test kit and the ones we received have two tests so this will allow for four tests if people feel um any symptoms they can take a test prior and get instant results prior to coming back to school and infecting others so um that'll carry us out even if they want to be precautionary for four weeks beyond um to help reduce any possible spread of the virus within school so and we are prepared to send out a test kit to every student and staff member prior to going mask optional as it was recommended by the state so that they can test prior to
024the mask option remember this is not doing away with mask it is just providing the students families and staff to make the decision that is best for them okay we want to hear from the city health director yep she has her hand up go ahead man hi everyone i just wanted to just expand uh the metrics that we are working on so basically we mimic the cdc metric guidance where it basically measures everything in community levels so it goes from low to medium and high height instead of community transmissibility so what we have done is based on the metrics that the state has provided us for schools and which it basically states that ten percent of the population of the school population is considered an outbreak that would be your high metrics um it would
025change for every school because there's a different population for every school so that's why you know we are still working on it because we have to individually do that because there's there's a different population for every single school in bridgeport um so everyone is different with their low number medium number and high number and there is guidance specific guidance with each of those metric levels so right now we're all in the low um so when you're in the low it just focuses on from preventative measures when you're in the medium it goes to the next step where you not only talk about preventative measures but you gear up towards going you know to masking and doing more physical preventative measures and then when you're at high you know there are different levels you know that
026you need to escalate to to go ahead and prevent the spread so we basically have mimicked that for the schools and once we finish working on that then we will give that information to them so that they can follow that we will be tracking uh continuously as we do now all of the data collection that we receive from partners and the schools and we will be collecting that information at the health department it is available for people if they would like to see it and it's on our website as well okay mr collins yeah a couple of questions first we were talking about metrics uh we didn't mention immunization rates across the categories of students can i have those for the whole board's consumption please like five plus five to twelve twelve to sixteen and
027sixteen to twenty four so that has not changed from last week is that correct ebony no no and so we were at 19 i can pull that up i have it in my phone so we were at 19 in the 5 to 12 age group and then just one second and then in the 12 to 17 age group we were at 68 partially vaccinated 57 percent fully vaccinated and as i said we continue to promote that information on vaccination to our families so they can make the decision that is best for them and as our um young scholar here stated there are effects on masking when we're talking about in the classroom that versus weighing out the risk of illness so there's effects to the difficulty in student being able to understand speech reduced loss
028of visual cues especially at the lower grade levels many of our students at the high school have already developed some of those skills but more so at the younger age level where they've been in mass for over a year there's some loss there and so we need to start gaining that back and as some of the educators have expressed to me even just a couple of days make a huge difference at that age level for those types of skills um so those are some of the things we also have to consider as well so i'm not done i still got a few questions excuse me um yeah so we're getting 19 at the youngest level grades vaccination rate um i also got some questions about uh for a public health director actually well verse venice
029area initially you have suggested a tiered approach because of the vaccination rates being so low in our elementary school students um what would be the harm in doing a staggered removal in a mess because obviously our high school students are more imma got more of an immunization race they've had access to immunizations much longer and the parents who in elementary schools who have decided not to get mandated not get to get on i realized they made these decisions with people being amassed and being protected in schools as we as a board made these decisions with these mandates in place to reopen our schools and support the superintendent and reopen the schools this okay that that's all for to reiterate the question your initial recommendation was to stagger the matt dropping the masks correct miss uh
030shawnee jackson i mean um yeah jack jackson i apologize it's okay um so yes that was my original recommendation and um as far as data collected as far as when um bridgeport dropped the masks in the schools what data do we have to see that it didn't increase i mean in the city and no i mean in schools because absolutely my point is there is no data in schools masks have been dropped the governor's order wanted effect february 28th two weeks ago two weeks ago when you don't have data to make this decision are you are you comfortable as a professional public health director to make this decision to drop all mass without further data would it be harmful to stagger the approach while we collect more data from other districts to see what happens
031in their younger age groups i honestly um when we're talking about data uh it is it is it depends on what you're looking for um and are you looking for trends um if you're looking for trends you know it's not enough time if you're looking at a trend um usually when you're looking at trends it takes a little bit longer um but the data that we collect daily so we do collect you know daily uh data so between all of our organizations city organizations schools if they have a case a positive page they will notify us and we record that information um so far the in schools right now we don't have a lot of cases in schools we're not even remotely near any outbreaks um we we do have low case rates uh in
032bridgeport public schools which is a good thing um do we have any data or do i know of any data from other school districts uh since they've dropped the mass mandate no i have not been versed in what some of their trends are so i can't really speak to you know what will happen um but the only thing that i can say is based on trends if you're going to see an increase most likely it it's not due to dropping um or making the mass optional it's more likely due to spring break so it's more likely you know that we will see an increase after spring break um not really you know due to you know any any of uh or a mass optional choice i personally or you know professionally i honestly don't think
033that you would see a big difference the other thing is is that um two months because we are making this decision if we made this decision or the board makes this decision um that would probably go into effect at the end of the month so you're really not going to see any trends until after about three months of not having the mask on um you may get some variation in numbers for you know a couple a month or two but you're really not going to be able to tell you know what a trend is until after it quarterly yeah that last question point yeah i raised this up because when this testament mentioned nearly unanimous i was a soul voice pushing for this end i think we don't have enough daddy yet and trends like
034this uh jackson shahid states um we um it takes some time all i want to do is buy a little more time for our youngest most vulnerable students we our students at bridgeport have more cohorted more commun co-morbidities than most of these suburban students and they need to take extra precautions i proposed i don't propose again when that time is appropriate that we allow mass optional for the high schools and staff and then after spring break move on to the younger children or even longer if we need more time to get the trends to see what happens because if by the time we see the trends up ticking is a bridgeport if we wait for see what happens in bridgeport after we remove the mass it's too late but if we sail through spring break
035and maybe a little bit beyond and we see the numbers tick up in fairfield we see the numbers tick up and tremble we know our students are vulnerable and we know so i just have a question and so at a meeting on friday with all superintendents where this was lifted almost two weeks ago at that point they reported no difference in reported cases but they also reported that the probably about 60 percent of the students still wear a mask so i don't think lifting and making it optional is going to that necessarily impact the masses i do think that you're going to see similar trends where kids are going to make that decision to protect themselves based on what's happened for two years i mean i went in and i gave kids just to see
036in the round table the option of taking the mask off or not some did some didn't right this was a choice they were able to make as an individual as as a responsible person knowing that they could potentially bring it home but if we do it for the high school kids and they have younger siblings and they go home then what did we accomplish um yeah i was just like i know i said i was dumb but it was like point of water okay please finish your sentiment and then mr benham yeah i just would like avery respond to that point um yes our younger students are most more vulnerable and to see and the cdc has things in place for children with asthma for people with moral comorbidities they suggested to avoid large crowds
037distance further can we assure that our students who have asthma are going to be able to stay six feet apart are they able to only stay in groups without need to stay six feet it's three feet well are you going to be able to avoid loud crowds or our parents who are frightened that they have immune immune compromised excuse the language child if they keep their children home that they won't be charged with educational neglect out of fear listen i could play devil's advocate with you as well if they're that concerned about the coven 19 virus then why is the vaccination rate at 19 because i would think if i was that concerned about contracting the virus at this point vaccination is a protective measure but it's being not utilized by 80 of those parents
038which means those the the rest of the folks who would like a mask option have no choices i i just don't think that's fair when we're given the entire population if you're telling me on one hand that they're at risk and there's fear then take advantage of the protective measure which is vaccine i mean it just seems like that would be your option i yield the flow all right mr bennett and you're next but if you'd like to yield for avery okay go ahead okay thank you um so i just had two points so the first point is so i go to fairchild it's an inter-district school so you got multiple districts should we be worried about dealing with the other districts and seeing what trends if we go optional you have the students still
039interacting like i'm from milford and i still play sports and they're optional right now so with the kids bringing in other districts should we be concerned about that so no the it's hard to compare us to other districts because other districts have different vaccination rates um the behaviors in the communities are different and we've seen that since the beginning of the pandemic i would say in our district there's more caution and more adherence to mass than some of the surrounding districts and the immunization numbers are higher in other districts such as milford so as long as people are following the other mitigation measures as well we found didn't know it wouldn't increase any concerns here now other things to consider are also that it's the opposite is true students are have less risk when they
040develop the virus as opposed to the adult population and i do have families right now that are concerned about their children with asthma because of the masking i have concerns from parents telling me that because their child is masked and breathing the recirculated air they've seen an increase in use in their asthma medication since they've been masked i also have students whose doctors are requesting more mass breaks which means that they're taking away time from their instructional learning because of their asthma they need to remove the mask more often than their counterparts so those are also things um to consider and again we're not asking for mask removal we're asking for each parent to make the decision that's in the best interest of their child and then my second thing was do we really want
041to go mask optional when we about if we're going to do it at the end of the month we're going to have two weeks before we go on spring break and if spring break is going to be anything like christmas break it was covered breakout so do should we go now or can we wait to at least see what happens after spring break it was another point the only thing i would say to that is that that christmas break we were in the middle of uh variant breakout we were also enclosed um where spring break you would have more people populating outside versus inside um so people were more likely to congregate during the holidays inside with other people spring break you have to take into account how many of our families would actually be
042traveling some may not they may you know take the opportunity to just stay home so that also varies by district we have some towns that are more travel likely um than our town might be and that would affect numbers um truly we won't know until we know sort of you know once we remove the mask option or make it masked option i'm sorry i'll remove the mask mandate then we would need to take the time and see what is really going on it's hard to determine beforehand and for international travel you must test to return to the united states so everyone would have to return with a negative test prior to any international travel domestic it would be a different story okay mr bennehan and then ms castillo taking me this year um i know
043you said the percent about the parents and students and staff and some parents they decide to have mass some staff say you know check it out but i believe from their staff they are parents they have parents that i believe they have to understand what our parents you know is our voice you know this priority for our peaceful school they want the safety for our kids i just want to bring that to you and melissa i'm very glad to see you again and miss jackson this is mr bennett speaking i'm going to ask you a question for both of you as a professional you are in being the assistant the situation do you think all bristol school kids are going to be safe do we know have it without mask yes knowing knowing that knowing
044that a lot of things going through if you see the news the former president obama he'll have the virus and thank god he's okay so we can know that this still they are out just because the percent go down this doesn't mean we okay because we are never gonna be okay this is going to be still around yeah so i'm i'm concerned about that because i know it's still there and i'm concerned about our students to be sure i know this is the mask is crazy i understand that um but we have to be sure they're safe i don't want later parents and people community complaining oh this was cool they decided to check it out the mess look at the consequences because i know everything's okay let's see what happened in spring break people
045travel people go out the state you know have fun that's good but i hope when we come back there's no issues because i don't want to hear that board education made the decision and then they're going to blame us so you think we're going to oh great staff parents are going to be safe in bristol school without the mask yes and i wouldn't be standing up here advocating for mask option if i did not believe it many of these students are family of mine as well i consider all 19196 as of today um you know my kids as well and so i do believe that we can move comfortably based on what we're seeing across the country the state and in our community and still continue to be safe and i do believe that many
046of our families will still consider continue to be cautious maybe if not for their own students medical needs but for the needs of their family members at home they would still continue with the masking for protection of themselves and they would still have that option i'm not going to say it i'm not going to tell you that we won't see some numbers increase just like we did after the holidays but even when we saw it then we were still able to manage and keep the children safe by making sure they stood home we'll still continue with our um you know quarantine and isolation guidelines um that has not changed so they would still come back and continue to be masked they would have that conversation with the school nurse if i find out that there's
047someone who is positive the school nurse would have the conversation with them as to what they need to do next to make sure that before they come back into the building that they're safe i want to her opinion for me jackson please yeah so i just wanted to start out by saying you know as a public health professional i or we um but specifically i can't make any concrete um decisions or or say that um i can guarantee this because you know this is a disease that we are still unsure of we're still learning the diseases as a community as a country as a science you know community um so i cannot say that whatever decisions that we make you know it's not going to affect people um because we have seen throughout the entire
048pandemic that all we can do is do the best with the information that we're given i mean we're in a position where we where we are better off than we're where we were in the beginning um um however you know whatever decisions we make we there is no guarantee because the virus does change so you know honestly that's that's the only comment i can make thus far thank you jackson thank you melissa for information okay okay peace just happened elementary level or physical ailments associated with wear mask do we have a number or percentage so no we do not have any data on that okay so you were talking about isolated incidents that are not reflected on data regarding learning loss and ailments correct this is through speech and learning department where they've done research
049across the country not just in our district what okay but we don't have a number for our district for our district okay so i'm gonna ask this question still because i focused on physical ailments what percentage of bridgeport public school students are experiencing emotional related issues pursuant to wearing solely mass i would have to defer to our social work department too what percentage of the students have experienced social emotional issues pursuant solely to wearing masks because i think it's i mean you can't say solely to the mass but the contributing factor i mean we had a lot of discussion around that an angel was present at one of the round tables where many of the students did feel that um taking the masks off would help in their adjustment to right back to normal school
050being able to interact with people in a more appropriate way being able to read facial expressions um teachers would be able to see when they were confused when they were struggling and they wouldn't have to be as as much of an advocate for themselves um am i missing anything angel i mean i mean it's just i want to know what the data is specifically for bridgeport so i think i think there's i don't think we have accurate data anywhere on that information yet i think it's it's gonna be years to come before we really find out what impact this has had on children um as i've said to the students and they heard me if i were them i would start writing their narrative because there's going to be plenty of experts who are going
051to make assumptions based on what they've observed but the kids are the only ones that will be able to tell us what this has done to them um but they're all in agreement that this not has not been a good experience and that a return to normal will definitely be something that they welcome at their own pace i understand kovitz not a good experience overall i was just asking solely to mass i have another question this one's more for you mr testani is there any objection regarding covet testing with a lab associated with with a lab in schools because i've realized that there's a reliance solely on at home testing is there any objection as to why that couldn't happen potentially testing in schools of all individuals no it's just optional testing instead of relying
052on the test kits that may provide false negatives we would actually be able to create and garner detailed actual covet results so that way a lot of the questions or fears can be addressed i mean we actually have real numbers i mean peop the public is free to go and schedule testing anywhere in the city that they'd like prior to at any given time i don't think that it's something that as a school district we're prepared to take on um regular testing plus i would have to assume we'd have to go out to bid to see who would be able to provide that it couldn't just be choosing someone to come in and do the testing i was informed that progressive labs based out of trumbull was permitted to do testings in schools including bridgeport
053but it hasn't done so may i okay so we piloted something similar over the summer to see um programs like progressive do provide something like that and what they'd like to see is people sign up weekly um for testing and when we tried it we did it through walgreens and this summer and we had very low numbers you know three of people who wanted to have their child or the staff member tested every week some found it too invasive and they didn't want the infringement the reports do get sent directly to the district although you know we do request that everyone share their at-home test results with us as well and obviously if we see students out for x number of days you know we're calling to find out but that was one of the
054reasons why with the numbers did not support having them in our schools can you clarify the weekly testing that was during the pilot over the summer was it required weekly testing or optional testing no it has to be we cannot require every student to be tested this was optional yes no longer require we're no longer required to we we no longer have the authority to require testing of staff either or student vaccinated like we did well you know that's a good pivot question um what percentage of teachers are vaccinated is it a hundred percent no but very close [Music] we were only testing when the month the weekly tests were being done of entire staff not just teachers a little over 200 at last count and that was dropping because we were people were dropping
055off uh because they were getting fully vaccinated so we were under 200 staff members in total out of 2600 roughly so we had over 90 percent of staff vaccinated and again staff is used vaguely i i just want no teachers okay teachers were probably the highest in that group can the board get provided with the numbers over 90 yeah can i get the exact number excuse me can i get the exact number i'm smiling under my math well we haven't asked anyone else for any vaccine information since we were told so i mean i'm not going to go back now and collect vaccine cards again when there's no reason for them to provide that but over 90 percent can i say 94 93 yeah and we used all stuff because it's just an extra person
056or two spread out over 30 semi buildings okay children may come in contact with security clerical the cafeteria which is why we did it based on the entire staff no no that makes sense because that takes me into my next question the survey that was done uh where the staff answered what percentage of that survey was completed by teachers are you able to gather that information we just sent it out and they did not work they were not asked what position they held in the district they were just staff members because everyone's equally exposed a pair of professionals in the classroom a lunch person is in the cafeteria security guard is coming in contact with students clerical staff is interacting with different members of the public as well as the school community now i understand
057my concern is based off of a shortage of teachers in in the classroom like certified qualified so that's why i asked i have another question how many pac ptsl presidents were invited to roundtable discussions regarding the mass mandate hold up round table discussion on mask mandate so was there any discussion with pac presidents regarding this or parent leaders no my last question that i have written down is why weren't all heist are all representatives from all high schools invited to participate in the roundtables so you had mentioned that it was bms because today's meeting came before the last two roundtable discussions are set up they were these are round table discussions that are held regardless if the mask mandate was going to be lifted it just was a topic that while we were coming to
058this decision that was discussed um but a lot of things were discussed um as they always are i just have a follow-up question to your question which question that acts like dirty the testing kits that are being sent home we were provided by the state of connecticut to distribute why would those not be sufficient to provide to students when same test kits that were also provided by the federal government to any person in the united states that requested there's articles that i've read and i don't have the internet or phone in front of me regarding questioning the effectiveness of the test the tests also seem to come during a period of a spike and lack of testing facilities available especially during the time of a few months ago january to christmas holidays you saw hundreds
059of people online desperately searching for tests and so what could be interpreted as a late delay to get as many testing kits out as possible could have been one of those i also inquired regarding actual testing in school because again i have stated this in past meetings there's no duty to report if you follow some of the news i believe this happened in connecticut you saw false test covet tests circulating for individual purposes depending on whether they wanted something positive or negative to get out of responsibilities so that's why i had asked the particular regarding testing in schools and i questioned the effectiveness of the actual tests test along with the fact that there's no duty to report unless i'm wrong is there a duty to report and do you check to make sure that
060it's so verified test result so it's on an honor system and i did have similar concerns as you did first let me state that there are false positives in all the testing whether it's pcr rapid antigen or the home testing and we've seen that since the beginning of the pandemic so once we had the home testing there was concern which is why even when home testing was first an option we waited to accept those until it became a shortage and out of desperation we needed testing so if someone is out and we do still ask for the daily checklist there's a checklist on the website that they're supposed to you know monitor themselves for every day so we ask for a picture of the test with them to write on the test the name and
061date so that that way not just on a piece of paper so that way you can't take your test and then give it to her if it was negative so we do like the name written in the date on the actual test and marker and then they send a picture they upload it either directly to the building administrator or their um building supervisor whether it's staff or student um so now that we're you know covert is right on the mind as soon as we start to see a student who's been absent for a couple of days covet is one of the first things to think about and then we do request a test if they don't have one we can provide them one at the time i have a question do you know what's the
062variance between the effectiveness of a rapid test versus the pcr i'm sorry can you repeat that what is the do you know what the is there and do you know if there's a variance between the effectiveness how effective is the rapid test in comparison to a pcr test no i don't have exact numbers but i can certainly look them up for you and then email them to you if you'd like but can you at least tell me do you know if there's a preference of one over the other for being more effective with data the pcr is considered the top of the line of the three testing um is the laboratory results it looks for and that's the one that just doesn't look for active infection but also lean infection which is why you can
063continue to test positive for up to 90 days with the pcr with the rapid and the home testing it's more likely to look for active infection okay um what was your name liza early early thank you miss earling and thank you also miss jackson shaheed for obliging us this evening with the data that we do have on the covid conditions at this time what i learned on the committee last week was very similar to the information that's being shared this evening but furthermore that the data is a moving target and that the data will continue to be a moving target and as long as we have coveted here so while i do feel that we have a qualified board qualified in communications some of us are in education in law and public transportation and contracting
064et cetera we even have some parents who are on the board of education who have children who attend in the bridgeport public school system as well however what we do not have are health experts on the board or individuals who are well-versed enough at this point to make a better decision than the superintendent who is in regular regular communication with public health officials and the staff teachers students and families within the district the subject of mask mandates is a polarizing issue as we saw in our meeting a month ago and as we continue to see in our meeting tonight so i think it is in our best interest to streamline the decision as a board mr tassani has been leading the district on kovid related matters since we began the pandemic and i personally feel
065and trust that he will continue to make decisions that are in the best interests of our community so with that said i would like to make a motion for the board not to vote on the mask mandate this evening and that the executive decision lies solely with superintendent testani thank you secretary what was the exact motion i'm sorry this is she she moved to defer the decision to the superintendent i think that should remain a board level decision um i would like to make then the motion to keep the mass mandates in place for the high school students until march 31st that sounds like a whole different motion that's a whole other motion you're not amending what she's talking about okay so we have a motion and a second by ms castillo seconded by mr
066lombard is there any further discussion i just have a comment um part of our obligation as a board is to be reported information if i don't get information to review or data i'm not going to just relinquish my obligation as a vote elected official and that oversight duty and so that that's just my comment regarding that discussion yes discussion on february 15th this board came together and we made a decision that the decision would lie with us and we would come together get this data and make a decision as a board to now defer the decision we make because right now it's difficult and it might be controversial i think it's unfair to the superintendent i think we should make a decision as a board and like we we said we were going to make
067a decision i think we should make a decision to keep it in our hands well the promotion has been made and seconded so we're okay so are you ready to take a vote no this morning yeah mr chair our question with this is stunning do you really have and and how do you be sure that our staff are going to be vaccinating and to be sure they are not going to get the virus because some people they can get it they keep walking the king laughing they can having fun they came you know give education to our students and boom they figured out they have it after two or three days some people the reaction is different so i'll show you we that our staff are going to be safe for our kids because that's
068the priority i wanna make sure the staff and your kids be safe because you say you can ask the card and stuff like that but what guarantee that our stuff is gonna be well no we did ask for the proof of vaccination when the governor's executive order was in place because we needed that to know who was not who was exempt from testing so that information is on record anyone since the executive order that may have been vaccinated that was on weekly testing we would not have that right now but if they're not vaccinated and they're not testing they are in our schools unvaccinated currently um and that is their choice and they're now been given that opportunity to make a choice um we have and we continue to encourage everyone that if somebody is
069feeling it sick to stay home get tested prior to returning um can i say there's a guarantee there's no guarantee when it comes to the fluid or any other physical ailment but i i am pretty certain that we are in a good position my only question is wherever you guys decide to vote if it is going to stay a board decision will it then also be a board decision when i have to come back and make a pivot for a certain classroom a certain grade level or a certain school to go mask mandate i will then have to come back to the board to get those approvals as well because if you guys are making the decision on mandates or option you'll make those decisions as well and i don't think as miss early mentioned
070we have the um the time to have to wait for a board meeting to make those types of decisions they need to be made immediately when we see that there's cases popping up so i it's it's the decision that lies with you i think though that students and and staff have spoken those who feel comfortable i believe should have an opportunity teachers are already removing mass at the front of the classroom when they're instructing they've been given that for several months by the governor as angel reminded me and after school programs and everything else masks are pulled down kids are doing kid things at the end of the day so i i think we've protected our staff we will continue with our other uh sanitizing and wipes and one of the students mentioned today over
071at harding that if we went mask optional could they all get more wipes we have several of those so that they could wipe down desks and things in between classrooms which should be happening anyway so i understand that this done in your opinion but in our respect and i respect on staff opinion in the comments but the way you say just not like oh the staff make the decision so what happened with the parent decision as well okay because yeah i just want to be sure because you say oh stop make the decision so i want to be sure that parents if you see the percent you just say before your parents decide to have the you know how the the mask and we have to respect that absolutely because without i always say that
072you're not going to repeat it for the record with our parents we will not be here um mr chair um i know in the unless for education meeting we talk about march 31st why we had to make the decision again to vote again about the match we made the decision to come back here today okay to talk about this with the possibility of making masks optional effective march 31st but we were going to always do it today have this discussion here okay and i respect what miss castillo said and i respect everybody's opinion and say that me tattoo standing heaven i respect everything you do mr dustani but we have to understand we are number members that we care about the students and staff to make decisions just so you make the own decision we
073have to know everybody's opinion how we feel because we are priority for me and i will always say it was my staff and my students to be sure are safe the best thing for them that's what we're here for one more question no more comments castillo and miss baptist perez i just wanted to say um once discussion has um finalized on this particular matter when we do go to vote if we can do a roll call i was planning to i i just wanted to to state for the record that this decision is not an easy decision however i i have not heard of a school board itself not making the decision and deferring to the superintendent i also think that making a generalization of parents and staff has spoken especially since when i asked
074very specific questions there wasn't data available only ten percent of parents have taken the survey there was no conversation with pac presidents who are parent leaders right there in the schools not all high school students were spoken to even though that may not have been the objective of the round tables and we were elected to make difficult decisions not mr testani and so i'm just saying i'm not going to defer my voice to nobody that's the chair yeah i'd just like to address something the superintendent said about having to come back to us for every single decision that's not true this is a district-wide decision day-to-day operations which will fall under okay for the other things that will be your purview just like we approve a textbook we don't approve what each teacher teaches from
075that textbook just make it clear this is an executive level decision about the once it gets down to building operations after mitigation or whatever that's that's all up to you we're not going to have to approve every single thing say park city has a explosion of grass nowadays you know how to come let's put on the masks but that's okay mr bennett [Music] how many of us around the district have mass option and policy like uh trumbull stratfor westport monroe all of them all of them all of them so as i as i reported uh capps did a a survey after february 28th of all superintendents in the state the last number that i received 124 were masked optional on the 28th since then other districts have followed suit as i said this morning hartford
076announced that they would go on the 28th of march mark mask optional so um i can't give you the exact number but we will be one of the last if we go beyond the end of the month so whatever that says to you i don't know but i i i can't say anything else i mean i just to your point before my decision is not to remove masks if i was given that decision it is to make it optional so people have choice whether they'd like to and when they would like to i think like i said we had good discussions kids felt that in certain circumstances they would continue and in other circumstances they would like the option to take it off maybe for an extra 10 minutes maybe for 15 minutes in a
077classroom where there's only eight kids in the class rather than 25. i just think that we got to a point that giving people a choice but okay you guys decide thank you this is funny thank you appreciate it okay are we ready no angel has something to say um i just want to say like i totally get everyone's concerns with it at the end of the day we're the students we're the ones actually like living in or going into the classrooms um so there's no offense to anyone but at the end of the day it's like oh i'll say this in like a respectful way um it's sad that we're obviously like living through this everyone's living through it's not just a student it's not just the parents it's not just a board of ed
078you know it's not just mr sestantis everyone you know we're all living the struggle um but you guys are saying yeah you know maybe we should extend the mass mandate that's up to you i i have no say so whatever i say most likely is not going to get through it no matter what we're just here just to take notes and whatnot um but i feel like you guys just knocking it without trying it it's like what's it doing you know you as as my grandmother used to say you know don't knock it till you try it all right so if we if even if we do on march 31st we do go mass optional um let's try it out see how it goes and you know we have spring break so let that be
079like a trial run okay we go on spring break and if you know covert you know results you know increase and obviously we won't jeopardize every you know every all the schools in the district but we can okay if basic is having an increase in you know um positive cases then basic you guys quarantine our basket you guys you know have have something just for basking it should not go across the whole district kids in the lower grades from k to eight they're like yes like walking coronavirus like they touch everything they put everything in their mouths the kids are not switching their mask every 20 minutes the kids are not switching their masks you know every three hours the kids stay with their dirty mouth wet soggy and whatnot until the end of the
080day so regardless of it being mandated or not i mean they're wearing the same ass don't you think that that dirty mass is getting contaminated and they're breathing that dirty air regardless they're wearing their mask or not um and i don't know i can only speak for myself i don't know how everyone else feels i like i said i do like strongly believe like mass optional is like the best option you can try it if it doesn't work then absolutely go back to you know the mask mandate that being said like with the spring break if we do have spring or when we do have spring break that first two weeks let's make mass option or mass mandated because yes there's people who leave out of country out of state what not and we don't
081know what they're bringing and there's people that are just staying at home for like a week or two um but having that mask mandated for those two weeks and let's in seeing like the results okay no one's having covet or no one's exhibiting symptoms let's remove them after those two weeks if anything happens then you know we um quarantine the school or that specific school that's all i have okay and i would only correct you in one regard we do listen to what you have to say you're not just here to take notes mr macaron has his hand okay so we we've taken what you've said to heart i hope thank you thank you mr crow yes yeah thank you thank you what i want to mention is one of the largest school systems in
082the united states in new york so you know like what what is the what do we have to worry about i mean as far as that as far as i'm concerned we should we should also follow the same uh the same direction in the same direction okay thank you mr macaroni we are going to take a roll call vote wait you had disingenuous if we did anything without mr benehand so we're going to clarify the motion that a yet a yes vote is to give the superintendent the discretion to make the decision a novo means no and then we're back where we started so we'll wait for mr benehan and the decision falls back in our hands yeah all right so and then from motion for a three minute recess what motion for a three
083minute recess seconded by mr scholar all in favor aye opposed okay and you good you can't hear we have no volume mr were you trying to say something mr lumbar no okay well we saw your lips moving we're getting ready to take a vote now i'm going to clarify since a lot has happened so this castillo made a motion lombard seconded it to defer to the superintendent the decision as to whether or not masks become optional in bridgeport public schools okay so a vote of yes is to give the decision to mr tastani the vote of no is to keep it at the port level everybody clear on that a vote of yes means mr tastani will make the decision of when or if to make masks optional a vote of no which means the
084decision rests with us everybody understand yes ms allen you understand i guess okay and it was requested that we make this a roll call though so i john weldon i'm going to vote yes bobby brown no joseph joe lombard no no you seconded the motion mr chair he made his vote yes excuse me i can speak for myself i wanted to move the meeting along i thought it was important that we get going with this okay no erica castillo yes michael macarone yes yes josephic no is alan you passed do you want to make a ballot okay yes one two three four yes one two three four no it's a thai vote motion fails somebody want to make another motion i would like to make a motion that if the board is unable to come
085to a dis a majority vote decision this evening that the final decision will lie with mr tastani so that a decision is made tonight i repeat that that if the board is unable to reach a majority vote decision on becoming mask optional this evening that mr zestani that the that the decision the final decision will lie with mr tastani okay is there a second for that second second by ms allen i have a question one two three four five yes you're right okay motion failed five to four please note that for the record mister either way [Music] okay so was there a second to miss castillo's motion okay mr chair so to clarify hang on so if the board is unable to arrive at a majority vote decision tonight one way or the other right
086okay that that this that the so if we reach a deadlock and we just can't agree yes okay i don't want a deadlock mr chair i believe that point of order i believe it goes against robert's rules to have a contingent motion we've already voted that we do not want to give that to mr testani that and that was from 5'4 so the majority of the board has spoken if it takes the board more time miss castillo could do it can try and make a motion to rescind after the fact um and therefore i believe that what's going right now before the board is an illegal motion and i i'm obligated for my k training to call that out that that's not appropriate yes i was going to say that thank you so much a
087little bit of carter ahead of course understood yeah so mr chairman hang on would you mind withdrawing that again would you mind i i would throw the motion would you withdraw your second please withdrawal thank you mr lombard thank you sorry sorry um i make a motion board votes on the issue on the agenda or deciding if we will make the best man optional or remove the mask as a marksman okay second second by ms castillo so the motion on the floor is a yes vote will make masks optional effective march 31st a no vote will make them continue okay motion to amends okay uh i like to add the words for high school students and after the first day back from spring break kate the race students is there a second to the amendment
088second second time is baptiste perez we're going to vote on the amendment do we want a roll call vote on the amendment yes please myself john weldon i vote no bobby brown yeah joseph lombard no no sybil allen no christine baptiste perez yes albert benahan erica castillo no michael mcarone no no joseph sokolovic yes all right the amendment fails five to four so now we're back to the main motion john weldon i vote yes point of order there's no roll call for the main motion or is there they request that they want to roll call john weldon votes yes bobby brown yes joseph lombard yes yes sybil allen yes christine baptiste perez i abstain okay albert benahan i pass erica castillo yes michael macaron yeah yes joseph no mr bennehan you passed you care to
089make a ballot yes are you saying yes you do or yes yes okay motion passes one two three four five six seven in favor one against and one abstention so mass will become optional effective march 31st so next on the agenda you're welcome thanks new business first read and discussion of your revised policy regarding public comment everybody received the document this is new this is the original policy items in red are what's been added to it um if you see red with a strike through it it was added but the uh governance committee voted to strike it so it was stricken and replaced with what was following it so does anyone have any questions about it this went through two cycles of the governance committee two meetings okay there's no action needed this evening and
090we'll come in two weeks at the next meeting no it's we're not doing anything tonight okay just for you to read we'll make a decision in two weeks thank you okay next on the agenda is first read discussion of revised policy regarding high school magnet entrance and performance well that's what it says on the policy if you want to change that change it on the policy which is okay okay yeah but they do talk about other schools don't they right that was not okay well that means all right well again it's only a first read to make modifications so i'll leave this up to you at the high school level can't hear you mike right sorry my apologies so um the only aspect of the policy that was reviewed and altered was central magnet since
091fairchild wheeler and bridgeport military academy operate on a blind lottery our intra-district central magnet committee was formed at central to go over the outdated entrance requirements because it talked about assessment data that was no longer being utilized by the state and they wanted to take a look at not just assessment data but also for kids that may not have done well in the assessment um principal recommendation and other aspects so as you can see the only aspects that were altered are highlighted um so entrance for eighth grade students the central magnet number one have to be a resident of britsport since it is a bridgeport um magnet program it is not inter-district there's a selection by lottery for non-feeder and tag students a final grade of c plus or better in core academic subject areas
092in grade 7 and 8th grade report cards student code of conduct and attendance must be aligned with bridgeport public school policy that will be changed before the second read it should say student handbook we renamed when we passed the handbook uh it's no longer of code of conduct it's just a student handbook it the cmt data is no longer available since the cmts are no longer the assessment so s back scores with a minimum of two in reading two in math or an average score above the 25th percentile and reading and map on district benchmark assessments administered and grade eight for the magnet students who score in the top 10 percent percentile in the district assessment for magnet will automatically accept accepted to central magnet and they included now a principal recommendation that will help
093for students that may have had a bad year due to some personal issues but have the ability to be successful at central magnet all grade eight students in tag in bridgeport public school magnet elementary schools including classical studies and geraldine clader may automatically enter central magnet if they have met the minimum entrance requirements stated above um then what was altered um and updated in the requirements for continued enrollment in central magnet all ninth and tenth grade students must enroll in four courses which include two academic courses english math science social studies and world language inclusive of four credits each of english math science history and three credits of the same world language and as you can see students must pass a minimum of three courses per semester placed on academic probation or reassigned to district
094school students who fail two academic courses by the end of the school year will be deselected everything else remained intact there is an appeal process as you can see and a process to admit students that are on the waiting list that has not changed as well okay any questions i have a quick question mr let's say i have a child in the tag school and they don't have the they got in via lottery but they have a final grade of c are they able to get in that's where we wanted to um we have a multiple so you're saying in the eighth grade year they have a final grade of c uh yeah no because it just hit it just dawned on me as i was looking through it is this an and or an
095or has to meet two of the requirements three of the requirements was definitely mandated for the lottery students i guess is really my question well the final grade of it comes after the lottery so the only way a student would then lose their spot from their selection since the lottery is done early in the um spring semester would be if they fail so i think that's where the final grade if if there's a student who ends up with a c in the end of the year that will not perhaps prohibit them from attending freshman year at the program okay yeah okay anyone else all right again no action needed tonight it's just the first read we'll come back to this in two weeks i will have them update that um change of name [Music] is
096there a motion to adjourn moved by ms brown second by mrs baptist perez all in favor aye aye opposed times 8 15 pm we will see you again on march 28th you