001we're going to call this we're going to call to order the second regular meeting of january 2022 of the bridgeport board of education let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance to your left i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice mr secretary will you call the role yes sybil allen president christine baptist perez albert benahan president erica castillo president michael macaron president joseph sakalovic president bobby brown present john weldon present and joseph lombard present okay thank you we'll give a full house next item on the agenda is student representative reports we only have one student we're up here this evening would you please uh identify yourself and if you have anything of some
002virtual are there virtual too okay all right do you have anything to report um right now my uh my name is angel serrano from bridgewood military academy my connection's not working so i'm gonna just go based on what's up in my head there has been many um events in the in bridgewater military academy over the past month um with that being that finals are this week and getting kids ready for the next semester after um this friday the navy program has had many promotions over this week we're moving on to our change of command ceremony for the next semester um and leadership roles the civil war patrol also has many um promotion leadership positions that also been um promoted to the other students and um that's all i really got okay thank you anyone else
003you can't see really who you are to be going down the line one by one so if you have something to report please unmute yourself and and say what you have to say i can go um my name is arie fleckner i'm from fairchild wheeler i t so just this past it was last thursday the 20th we hosted our steam expo and it was mix of the capstone just the students seniors presenting their capstone projects to panelists and it was also a mixture of the science fair just their signs for projects being graded and so they for them the judging just occurs this week and then we're also going to be celebrating some seniors that will be graduating this friday for our just our advanced thing because the end of semester ends starts this friday
004they're endless friday okay thank you anyone else uh yeah my name is michael hemmings i'm at it at fairchild wheeler this week is finals week um also today we had a meeting a remote meeting with bcyl to go over young entrepreneur leadership training and also another meeting for the juniors alone which was success high school junior edition which they would actually help us uh get ourselves together to go into college and the young entrepreneur leadership training would be uh useful to teach us how to be entrepreneurs in the future okay thank you any others good night i think i think you're muted i'm sorry about that good night my name is sherman elliott from harding and um last friday uh harding hosts that um their first debate since closing between central and hardy um the
005goal was to bring students from different schools together to support each other and help build the debate program across our schools thank you okay thank you very nice anyone else i think that's it okay okay well thank you all for being here we're going to move into public comment we typically limit to 15 people but there's only 17 people signed up so does somebody want to make a motion to suspend the rules to hear the full 17 speakers second made by ms baptiste perez second by ms brown all in favor okay so we're going to start off first up is councilman ernie newton councilman newton does someone want to retrieve council okay good evening um can steve um nelson come up here because i you did okay okay good evening ladies and gentlemen of the
006board of education mr president mr chairman i'm here today to support someone that you all know in this room someone who has demonstrated as a person that cares about our children now i'm a product of heart in high school and i can remember john lewis charlie bentley who went beyond the call of duty when it came to their children i've seen the coach eddie do things in this city that we haven't seen in a long time when i was young at harding our teachers would go to our house knew our parents that gentleman right there knows the children and he knows the parents and he's not afraid to keep our children in line now what i don't understand is that bridge porch for some reason misses the mark all the time show you one where's
007john at ramos a bright young man who was with our school system guess where he's at today but now helping those children succeed in life you know when we have people to have ordinary skills black and brown because that's what this city is made up of we need to hold on to them now unless unless mr eddie committed treason which i don't think he did i'm asking the superintendent and this board to not lose this gentleman because he cares about our children and i know it firsthand because i've witnessed it this is not what nobody told me he cares about him not only does he care but let's look at their scores in school how many of those students are passing how many of those students go to d1 colleges now maybe he didn't do
008it all but i guarantee you it started with him so i think you all would be making a terrible mistake if we lose him because in my book we don't have many people that will hit the ground with boots on to help our kids like this gentleman has done and so i'm telling you i would be very disappointed superintendent if you don't intervene and squash all this craziness leave him as the football coach let him do his job to save our children thank you thank you okay i neglected to mention this at the beginning that public comment is limited to two minutes so try to keep your your thoughts focused into that time frame next on the list is byron jackson good evening to the board my name is byron jackson uh hardin alumni class
009of hudson university alumni class of 2014 graduated with an mba and a bachelor's in hospitality and tourism um i'm just here to show my support and love for coach ed uh when i first came to hardin in 2004 i met coach santiago and it's been love ever since the man has been in my life ever since then he's helped me tremendously throughout my life with things i can't even explain how or why he did it but it was just because of the love that he has for the community and for the people hardin is a family and i can't think of anyone else that will be in his shoes and that can take on the road that he has taken on the things that he goes through the things these kids go through on a
010daily basis man i i can't name too many people honestly that will step up in his position and sacrifice the sacrifices that he has made over the years and uh just recently this past season i volunteered some of my time just to be around the team because i've been back uh let me backtrack a little bit i played pro ball over in germany so i came back to know since covet and i just came back to volunteer some of my time with the team and i just see the things that these guys go through and how coach is this right there and the staff they're supporting them and it's just amazing how being a product from bridgeport and seeing the love and the care that comes from coach and his family and his coaching staff
011i don't know what happened i i don't know anything of what happened i just know that it's not right i feel it in my heart that is not right and he should definitely be back in his position because i can't name not one person honestly in my eyes that will step up and be a leader for our community and for the hardened organizations like coach ed has been for the past years that he's been there so i have to say thank you thank you thank you thank you mr jackson next is bob cole bob cole i just want to start by saying uh i'm bob cole uh i coached football at harding for a total of 27 years and uh the last ten were as a head coach and i had the privilege of coaching
012many of the young people in this room and eddie santiago was one of those outstanding young men so i wanted to start by telling you that and and why i'm here um but before i do i want to tell you i'm amazed that my coach still fits me after 27 years at harding mike i think you could uh attest to that it's getting harder and harder but in all honesty i i scratch my head when i see the support that's here for him and i follow ed i know the time and effort that he puts into the program and i had a whole thing written out that i was going to talk about and and that doesn't matter what matter is why are we here why are we here have we done our due diligence
013as a board and as a community this is a young man it's do you know how hard it is to get anybody to step into these jobs and we have somebody in the job that we're pushing out who hasn't been disciplined for anything anything but putting in too much time too much effort and too much of himself and that's a shame and that's a shame i just want to say there has to be compromise and i know eddie and i know him well and you can't go from here to the floor what's in the middle is there a progressive step we can make have we done our mentoring and our tutoring to make him a better coach if in fact he needs to be which i'm not sure that's the case but when do we
014help eddie because all he's done is help this community and i'm going to leave you with that's the way i feel once a president always a president let's go thank you mr mario york york mario york mario yes sir yeah the other way around yes all your life huh all my life mr test donny how are you um i'm gonna jump on coach cole's uh coattails here and just well i can't even believe we're here i've known this boy for 30 years i was his wrestling coach at harding high school i was his health teacher at harding high school uh it's an honor and a pleasure to know this guy i love him like he's one of my sons like if i had a son he would be it's unbelievable i can't even believe we're
015here if you go through what he's done for this community he should be embarrassed for firing him he's putting kids through college they're getting accepted into division one colleges on scholarships there he's got over 75 kids he's he's gotten into college and what are we here to do we're here to educate we're here to guide these kids he he he he would give his life for any of these kids i i had him as a wrestler and a student in my classes i i can't say anything but positive things about this boy and when i heard this happen i thought it was a joke you're gonna fire this guy when you think of hard bridgeport athletics and bridgeport academics i think of him he's in the community he's doing all kinds of stuff for these
016boys he's keeping him off the streets he's keeping him out of gangs he's keeping him off drugs he's he's giving him a place to go they have they have something to to to own up to they have a feeling of pride they're part of something i've never ever i can't i couldn't believe that that they were doing this to him he didn't what do you do he's a little maybe he's a little rough around the edges maybe he doesn't you know maybe he doesn't take orders all that well neither do i mike attested that bob cole who who hired me to coach wrestling could attest to that you don't want to be pushed around but oh my god the kid's awesome he's an awesome kid and to fire him because of whatever i don't even
017know what the reasons are are there any reasons that they fired him what were the reasons let's get some reasons out there was he insubordinate he hit somebody was there some kind of other issue so i tell you right now people uh we got to get him back in that job that's all there is to it and i was going to read my little thing that came from here thank you mr mario hector reyes um good evening um my name is hector reyes and um i was valedictorian of class of 2014. live um fourth and uh fcx um graduated high honors at fairfield u and uh on my own business now and honestly i wouldn't be here today without coach santiago um he's the one that showed me how to um combat adversity and he's
018pretty much the father of harding high school and everybody could attest to that so thank you coach [Applause] good evening board uh my name is delcato i'm assistant coach under coach santiago for the past four years and honestly there was no one else that i would stand behind and advocate for than uh coach santiago this is not about drawing up plays and leading touchdown drives um even though he's damn good at doing that but with all the negativity that we have in our worlds right now a lot of distractions that our kids are seeing that are leading them down the wrong path we are striving to look for leaders and role models in our communities and we have one of the best right here uh in bridgeport's own uh coach santiago um in been working
019with coach uh i've seen him in all types of capacities and some of the things that you know need to be highlighted is you know when some of our of these kids and it's not just harding kids it's central kids basket kids anywhere through bridgeport if they don't have a place to stay coach's door is always open if they don't have food to eat coach's kitchen is always open when when they need a shoulder to cry on he is there reading and willing to shoulder that load and that is not in the job description and again that's for all bridgeport kids that is not strictly for harding high school kids uh you know a lot of people will sit there and boast on his accolades he's won conference titles he's uh taking teams to the
020playoffs he's on a seven game thanksgiving day streak and yet his best wins are the ones of sending kids to college uh having kids go into the military become outstanding members of our community and become outstanding husbands and fathers it would be a travesty to lose an amazing resource in coach santiago and so i implore this board take a long hard look at what's going on here and make the right decision uh make the right decision for the kids make the right decision for harding and most of all make the right decision for all of bridgeport we need to reinstate coach santiago [Applause] okay thank you the reverend d stanley lord good evening we're ingredients in the greater bridgeport naacp and uh as a former coach one of the basic things that we worry about
021or concerned about is our athletes their progress academically and athletically here it says that he didn't worry about his kids too much academically but if your kids aren't academically eligible they can't play you can't win so then it says he doesn't adhere to the board of ed's policies and procedures we all know the board of bed doesn't always follow their own policies and procedures so there's kind of a contradiction in hearing this evaluation but when i look at coach santiago i look from a distance i've been watching when you watch and see a man who not only gives his time and his talent and his treasure [Music] we have a song that we sing may the work i've done speak for me may the service i give speak to me may the life i live
022speak for me i think by the number of those who will stand up and say that this is the coach that i want to be will stand up and show that they love this coach they'll support this coach because he's been that positive role model here a coach of color will stand up for his students as you've heard be stated here tonight as a coach maybe there might be some shortcomings in some areas where is the system that the board of vet has put in place to support the coaches so they can build them up in those weak areas so please reconsider and put him where he belongs as coach of harding high school thank you [Applause] thank you reverend tremaine spodnick good evening ladies and gentlemen um i also had a speech that i
023wanted to to read out but i i absolutely want to speak this from my heart because not only am i a harding graduate eddie's been my best friend ever since we were like 17 15. he's 15 i was 17. met this kid in the gym in the uh bathroom talking about wrestling and i laughed at him a little scrawny kid only 96 pounds the heart that he has on his chest is unbelievably strong i remember when he took the job as a head coach from jack cochran and he looked at me and he said tremaine i don't know how i'm going to do this i'm not going to have a day off until after wrestling season is done not only does he have his son to coach but he has he takes on all these
024children every single day i've been to his house numerous times slept at my house i sleep at his house we are like this that is my blood and for use to fire him i am i'm shaking right now i don't understand what better coach do you want i don't know because if you cut that off i don't know what's gonna happen thank you giovanni gerard good evening board my name is jovian gerard i'm one of four senior captains that was under coach santiago this year for the football team i'm also the wrestling captain without coach scott this community loses a helping hand for me i met son at middle school he was my middle school coach for wrestling and he gave me he helped me find my passion in life he helped me find a
025way for me to um better myself without coach sign i don't know where i would have been and when i say i could vouch for most of my teammates and say that him and the rest of the coaches we looked at them as father figures it was always there for us you can't ask for a better coach who relates to you who understands where you come from we come from most of us we don't come from nothing so for him to give us these opportunities that most kids can't say they've ever gotten and there's nothing that we can um there's nothing i could say to truly say how thankful i am and grateful that we are for that so thank you thank you mr gerard terrence and i'm sorry i can't read this last name
026is it carter please feel free to correct me good evening um my name is terence carter and i'm a sophomore [Music] there's a lot i want to say but i since time is short i'll keep it short um concert coach santiago does not just coach football he teaches young men how to be an adult i can tell you about all his accompli cop accomplishments over the years but i'm pretty sure everyone in this room knows how good he is and what he does um but i want to talk to you about what he's done for me ever since mr ramos told me to switch schools from my elementary school coach santiago was taking me under his wing and had my back ever since dealing with problems at home coach helped me through everything and um
027the best advice he's given me is no matter how much adversity you face you can never never give up on yourself he's taught me how to be a better man and he's opened up so many opportunities for me i've never seen in my life um coach santiago's never asked anything from his community so i act as the community to reinstate him as head coach of our football program so he can continue and inspire young men like me in our city like me thank you mr carter dante dix good afternoon my name is dante dix and i was a senior captain this year for football under coast santiago um i don't know where to start um coast santiago was like it's like a father to me it's like without him i wouldn't be where i'm at
028today so coach santiago helped me get my first football offer and i don't even know what i'll do without that he helped me show like he showed me how how i could do something with my life he showed every athlete on that team that we could be something and cosine always had an open door like i don't know where i would be i'd probably be on the street somewhere doing something dumb but coach stein helped me he showed me the right path and without him i don't know where i'd be at i'm just thankful for for him and he helped me get into multiple schools like i got into west virginia all of that and without him none of that would be possible without him believing in me i wouldn't even believe in myself and
029i love him for that i love you coach okay thank you mr dicks tony dorn good evening members uh tony doran i've been involved with the harding high school for 10 years with coach eddy as their staff photographer and actually as a donator as well uh i believe in eddie a lot and uh i think that gentleman's uh postcard right there says it says it all he's more than just a coach he's family and everybody in this room can't figure out why he's got fired it's not public information can't figure it out what does it take to get him back what happened does somebody not know the love everybody has for him what a great coach he is is that person who fired him here so they can hear this and see this with their
030own eyes because it's so obvious that he's respected he's loved he's doing the right thing he's from the community he knows these kids he's live with these kids lived and he's connected so what is it is it something that maybe clerical issue that just got out of hand and somebody didn't know how to deal with it and just fired him so you you're the board and i hope you find out and maybe we can resurrect this maybe we can walk back a couple steps and entertain what where this happened and get back to the drawing board and just communicate try to get another coach with what he does look at central how's that working out for them it's very hard to restart a program i've been at that program the worst field in connecticut when
031there was barely 25 kids playing 10 years later with with john and eddie they build a program there's there's kids there's 50 60 kids and i know that because i buy pizza every single time out there there's stands with with parents out there watching them all over again like it used to be we're going to start over again it takes years to rebuild this it's the devil you know the devil you don't know and he's not perfect no one's perfect but why don't we work as a team get back together eddie this is what we need from you how can we achieve this it's all it's going to take no one's got to feel bad about it and i hope that's how we tackle it thank you for your time thank you mr dorn tony
032barr i guess that was perfect i'm on the phone so we'll make this crystal clear here i'm gonna be real clear okay my name is tony barr two youngsters here i spent 21.5 years in federal penitentiary for doing everything wrong you have a good man there that i met when i came home trying to do everything right to make sure you don't do what i do okay or get to where i get to or go to the grave as a kid he's going to be reinstated you got to worry about that part went to school with mr tastani call him a friend to a degree if you don't get this right we're not friends no more you two up in front if you don't get this right in my community but they'll have very few
033leadership the people that look just like them that can learn better your studies say these things that if the person look like the person they learn better okay he's been teaching them i had the opportunity to interact with him i see what he's been doing in this community if he was trying to do right you'd also have me in the schools talking or someone like myself speaking to these kids because they don't know right from wrong it's a hard life waking up for 21 and a half years and you can only get up on one side of the bed okay it's even harder when you leave that cell your mind your business you stay to yourself and maybe you can survive i'm a tough guy god gave me the right to make it back to
034this world and talk to you kids keep him as the coach right there's no one in here that's gonna uh not put him back where he belong if they have issues with him at harding high school then you fix that with them over there because he's a leader to these kids and i have the highest level of respect for him you mr testani john weldon all these new members on the border education i've supported both of you guys never turn my back on you but i keep it honest this is a bad look and if we're not going to get this right look how good we've been to you mike we gave you everything every opportunity they said you wasn't qualified they said you shouldn't be this okay we still took that chance and gave
035you the opportunity they said you have to come live in bridgeport you didn't even come live in bridgeport we're still forgiving you for that as well okay fix this thank you [Applause] thank you mr barr joe grits wait did you miss no no he signed up twice good evening on board my name is joe grits uh central high graduate class of 203 um 2003. um so off the rape you know i'm i'm supporting a a hardened uh situation so that show you something cause i'm a hilltopper but uh but what uh mr barr said you know i agree and he kind of took the words out of my mouth um you know what i do in the community for last decade or more is is to be in the position of uh santiago doing the
036same work and you know they don't let dudes like me in in those positions and you know i think it'll help the community even more so to have a man like him in that position that's doing more maybe off the field and on with these kids is is is deep is deep and as he said and not even to make it a racial thing but these majority black and brown students me as a king if i could see a black man in a position of power and successful it it rub off on me better to to take after his step no matter how many you know others is is showing me the way but they don't relate to me and they relate to him and not even personally knowing more like calling them or anything
037the students that i have that i that i that i um mentor they they always speak a sign they always you know say that's that's that's they they homie that's who they go to or or help them along the way and like the his friend was saying having the kids at the house and different things like that you take him out the system man it hurts me because like i said i want to be in his position and there's it's not too many of him in this school system so you take him out that's that's already breaking these students and and when we spoke to the news i think yesterday was a a middle school student that was looking forward to being coached by santiago so now he's already crushed who knows if he goes
038to another school or what what happens but just make it right make it right you you thinking it's just one fire to him but you firing all these kids future and what they inspiring to be reinstate santiago salute steve nelson hello everybody it's been a minute since i retired in 2016. i used to be the school officer at uh hardin high school when eddie went to school but um i'm not here to talk about myself i'm here to support uh coach santiago i'm here like everyone else to support the coach i've known him since he was a student at hardin high school when i was the officer i've been followed his coaching career supporting his coaching efforts since he became the hardened football coach eight years ago and wrestling coach i'm here to ask the
039governing body to pause take a minute take a deep breath and take a look at the whole picture of why we're all here tonight listening to the positives and the negatives of this case i can't believe we're here fighting for someone who should be honored i hear through the grapevine it's a major personality conflict between coaches and school a.d please take into account the student athletes who will be affected by a negative decision to remove coach santiago losing kids to the streets every day even more since the pandemic coaching is a coaching a high school sport is a way for caring adults to reach our kids who are already having problems surviving in this crazy world coaches in bridgeport are the lowest paid coaches in in the state with the most responsibilities they got the
040most responsibilities but they're the lowest paid coaches suburban coaches don't got to go through this nonsense yet they're paid almost double the salary our coaches make this guy has coached for eight years that should mean something i'd like to suggest com heads sit down and resolve this personal issue so the community can sleep well at night pardon football players and parents want to rely on a coach that they trust somebody that cares about their kids coaching is more than wins and losses it's mentoring it's role models it carries a lot of attributes it's more than just being a coach i've done it for 25 years right here in bridgeport i was a police officer over 25 years and i made the most connection with kids is a coach when my birthday comes they still call
041me and say happy birthday this is not about me but we can't just throw this brother under the bus i have a very lasting relationship with all the kids that i coach in my coaching tenure and i'm just gonna end it by saying this somebody could do something right a thousand times they do one thing wrong and we're ready to kick him under the bus that is not right [Applause] thank you mr nelson jessica martinez good evening board and superintendent of schools i thank you for hearing everybody out um bridgeport um jessica martinez here i was a former board member i'm a bridgeport parent and oh thank you i was a bridgeport parent and i'm a community bridgeport community leader there's a couple things i want to say today i decided to wear black and
042gold why because i'm class of 2000 central high school hilltopper coach eddie's class of 2000 president and so this shows you a reflection that we're bridgeport we are united we have the same disparities the same challenges our kids go through the same things every single day we need more of coach eddie's out there we don't want to lose him now i gotta tell you i provided you with his evaluation i asked you guys to substantiate the five bullet points that that let this man go there's no proof or evidence that that that was put before me or this community as to why he should be let go as to what's a good reason that he should be let go so i asked the board of education to do your investigation you got what you need
043in front of you put this on the agenda i want him reinstated immediately our kids need him reinstate it immediately and you know what you guys can implore the superintendent to have this discussion and and just to come to the table i i text the principal i text the athletic director there's got to be some misunderstandings here nothing here shows me that he deserves to be gone nothing here shows me that he deserves to be gone that young man that he was talking about is my nephew my nephew is romero lamar jones jr he goes to bearsley school he will be in in harding high school in two years right before coach eddie in football he plays for the chargers right now my nephew is half black and half puerto rican he deserves to be
044with coach eddie do you understand me he deserves to be with coach eddie and if he's not there my nephew won't be going to harding that's all i got to say but what but what but please please look at these kids face look at everybody who came out i'm like so emotional i'm so proud of bridgeport i'm so proud of richmond coach eddie was the coach there for 17 years he's been the head coach for eight years the last four years he's been going through freaking hell excuse my french he's been going through it why has he begun through going through anything for the last four years why hasn't he he hasn't been supported support this man come beside him and support him okay he hasn't recruited he he hasn't recruited enough harding high school
045student what do you do to help him recruit harding high school students what access does he have to to the building why doesn't he have the access all year round because he does it so you got to understand there's a lot of red tape behind all of this there's a lot of adult politics and fights behind all of this and coach eddie does not deserve this but more than anything the fight's not for him the fights are for these kids to fight for these former kids that's who this fights for and i'm gonna tell you right now we're not gonna stop until he's reinstated reinstate him immediately please and thank you thank you ms martinez our final speaker is kevin bednars please come up [Applause] how you doing i have spoken to you before when
046i was a senior in 2018 i'm class of 2019 i play football 2018. my name is kevin benards as a quarterback for two years for coat snot and i was a two-year captain now i think i could tell you a bunch of stories about how coastline has saved a bunch of us over 100 kids maybe but i'm going to give you our story instead i remember when i was a junior and i was going to play varsity for the first time and the only number i ever wanted was number 10. now kosan told me no and kosant gave me number 11. i never understood why but he told me one day i would and i think i understand now there's 11 players on that field and there's always one quarterback in the arrow of the
047team and i lead everybody but there's all of us coach has made every single one of us into leaders in the family i don't know what else i can say but concise saved a lot of us pray down three part on me one two three [Applause] thank you that concludes public comment next on the agenda is approval important sorry there's one more speaker they're coming i'm sorry they're on the list i might overlook them i've read every name on the list okay approval of board minutes january 10 2022 regular public meeting some old moved by mr benahan is there a second second by ms castillo is there any discussion or edits all in favor any opposed any abstentions okay chairman's report let's wait a second oh you want to come around [Music] okay oh i
048think they're almost all out excellent all right is there a motion to recess for three minutes moved by ms brown second by ms allen all in favor [Music] you don't know why this happens okay we're gonna where's my cloud and everything okay all right we are reconvening the meeting the time is 7 chairman's report found out over the weekend that a career educator of ours passed away recently over 30 years of service ronald stack a career history teacher in the bridgeport public school system passed away due to parkinson's on june january 8 2022. he was born in bridgeport connecticut and grew up in bridgeport where he graduated from central high school where ronald stack mr staff yes um that's okay where he graduated from central high school where he ultimately retired from in 2003 as
049a history teacher in the magnet program after high school mr stack graduated from the university of bridgeport with a bachelor's degree in education after completing a master of arts degree in history from columbia university mr stack began his teaching career in bridgeport first at basic for the last 18 years of his teaching career in bridgeport mr stack taught history at the central magnet program which at the time was bridgeport's solution to make a first-rate college preparatory education available to students in bridgeport his time at central magnet made the final stretch of his career very rewarding he loved being able to convey his love of learning and history to a diverse student body many of whom went on to college and achieved advanced degrees ronald felt uniquely privileged to be a part of this positive force
050in the community as did many of his students upon retiring in 2003 mr stack's favorite activities including reading history traveling and playing golf for anyone who's watching and who knew mr stack his services are on thursday january 22nd from 4 to 6 pm cody white funeral home in milford that's awake from 4 to 6. so i'd like to observe a moment of silence for mr stack okay thank you and as we customarily do although it's not a real formal action item uh i'd seek a motion that all district flags be lowered to half staff starting tomorrow and to the end of the day on friday uh in remembrance of mr stack is there a motion for that effect moved by ms castillo clear second second by ms brown all in favor any opposed any abstentions
051it concludes the chairman's report committee reports and referrals ad hoc district wide branding initiative ms brown sure thank you mr chair um our art committee met on last this month on the 19th um at central high school 6 30. i think that we had a really productive hands-on meeting i want to give a major shout out to miss castillo for getting us on a really smooth track as far as the students submitted their different logos we were able to graph small information and pieces from it to graft up a potential logo mr tastani will be seeking other individuals to come in to potentially help us build off of there and any branding process moving forward i'm really excited about that thank you mr bennett and miss castillo as well and you too mr weldon our
052next meeting will be um february 16th i believe that is let me make sure february 16th is the third third wednesday at 6 30 at central high school are there any referrals no referrals okay contracts committee um i'm scheduling a contracts committee with mr caires we have two items papyrus was on vacation the past week so we'll try to get this in the first week of february he has two items one is approval of a contract to install weight room equipment at central high school and the other is the approval to issue an rfp for special ed review uh services we may also have another additional um regarding wheat transport contract uh are you extending it no new contract we exhausted all the extensions and this contract currently ends uh at the end of this
053school year so we have that comprehensive all the extensions we're gone yes okay all right an rfp for student transportation services will be addressed potentially any referrals okay educational diversity equity and inclusion we will be meeting on monday the 31st at 6 30. 6 30 p.m 6 or 16 that's central line okay any referrals okay facilities uh i need to schedule something with mr macaron and mr benahan uh to focus on some security related matters i also need to find mr craig's availability lieutenant correct's availability are there any further referrals just let me know what you need to do yeah i'll reach out to both you to see what your availability is as well as lieutenant greg he's a busy guy finance finance committee will be meeting wednesday i encourage everybody to come present them
054the first uh budget request and also some um funding everybody needs to everybody may have a different opinion but everybody needs to have the same facts when we're having this discussion so we encourage all board members to come to this next meeting okay any referrals yes mr chair i have a referral for financial um i would like to know and get the report for charter schools that i know the board education we know we give it some money about give it to you know to the school to see i like to get to see the report what they do with the money where'd the money go how to spend the money because i know for years i know publication will give you some amount of money for trustful so i don't know where that where
055is that i like we never see i never see a report so i believe it's you know the community financial to see the report about charter schools yeah we can provide mr bennett and the committee as well as the board a breakdown of what our monetary contributions are to what um those contributions um and then what in-kind services that were mandated to provide for a statute to charter school students okay so i just like to ask if you're not actively speaking would you please mute your microphone next governance will meet on february 10 2022 we will continue our discussion regarding public comment and the discussion with the make the road connecticut youth group that they were not able to make the last go round and we'll begin our discussion um about potentially revising the high
056school magnet policy central well the way it's written in the policy it's high school ah we'll take a look yeah because we've uh it only relates to essentially that's maybe where it started because that was the only one the only one so those requirements do not pertain to fairchild wheeler okay because of the blind block maybe that'll be part of it to clarify that this is specific yes okay okay however all right any referrals okay personnel we need to schedule a meeting to interview candidates for the position of executive director of specialized instruction when there are some candidates that are ready to be yes right now we're looking through the applicants scheduling the first round of interviews at that point we'll see if there's any candidates to move forward to the board or if we
057will go out for another possible solicitation of applicants okay this is a critical position in the district and that we want to be very valuable in the candidate that's selected it is a huge responsibility especially given that our staffing levels are not quite to the level um as other districts so this person needs to be more than qualified and competent to handle a district of our size okay well let me let us know when you're ready for that yes any referrals to personnel okay students and families from the family we're going to meet this um january 27 at six o'clock on central high school library okay any referrals teaching and learning yeah the teaching and learning committee met on tuesday we got some very good news out of um special education department we have no
058open complaints in the state of connecticut yeah while no open complaints oh which is no complaint it's been quite a while since we had some riddles um and also there's good news out of um i'm sorry what is this nah man why i'm blanking i'm sorry yeah man the um the little kids mom pre-k early childhood early childhood thank you very soon wow yeah also only five open slots out of was about 900 filled or something like that mike only five one filled out of the 895 and actually today we got that number down to two oh man that's awesome and that's also over the years at this point in time we've always been struggling and kudos to the two directors dr jenkins and mr um we actually had a parent of two children this
059morning that could fill those potentially open spots but declined where they are located so unfortunately awesome and let's do kudos to mr young and listen okay and we'll be leaving tuesday the 8th of february central library okay any referrals mrs baptist press i have a referral to teaching and learning um discussion of the elevate bridgeport that program in particular has eight hundred thousand dollars of arp funds already granted to it and so they're looking to host that program at bridgeport high school so i would like to discuss that 800 000 in what funds arp okay all right could you email me exactly what you're looking for please listen but thanks for us thank you just i can give a quick quickly this piece perez that we have had discussions and given the folks um the
060parameters to operate at basic high school and we still are waiting for the proposal from their side as to what their extended day program would look like there's been a numerous correspondence back and forth and for the last maybe a month or so a little maybe a little bit more uh we're just still waiting for that proposal for uh approval any other referrals okay superintendent's report okay um it's going to be brief this evening paddling through a little bit of a um big future scholarship is the first uh scholarship offered exclusively by the college board i just want to recognize four bridgeport public school seniors who have been awarded 500 scholarships from the college board uh felipe herrera from the aerospace hydrospace engineering physical science high school melanie olavon from central high school and a
061500 scholarship from the college board soon zita chowdhury 500 scholarship from central high school from the college board and jennifer tapia pineda again from central high school uh 500 scholarships so these are the first scholarships awarded through the big future scholarship um initiative from the college board and four of our bridgeport public school students have received them again one from aero and hydro space engineering and three from central high school so congratulations to those four well deserving students a brief announcement that i think everyone should be aware of february 1st we will hold the bridgeport public school science and engineering exposition aka also known historically as the science fair uh mr henry has informed me that due to some covert restrictions and to the the large nature of the displays and after consulting with sacred
062heart university they've decided to move it to a safer virtual event so that information will be um dispersed so that folks can view the science fair projects the statewide science fair is being held virtually so one of the other rationales was to give the students an opportunity to present their projects virtually at the local level so that they will be more prepared as they move on to the state level so february 1st is the science and engineering exposition today the governor through the cea uh wanted to do a last-minute visit on a stop at in bridgeport i think it was to really promote um the cea's efforts to try to give a broader picture of the teaching and learning environment for staff so we were at blackham height blackham school today it was a great
063event governor got to see talked and interact with some staff members there but also some students um there was some media coverage um one of the things that was mentioned was mask mandate there is expiring executive orders for the governor um that that are uh will take effect february 15th one of those is the mask mandate in public schools throughout the state so obviously he is receiving some pressure across the state from parent groups that would like him to end the mask mandate um i did get the opportunity to address the media on what school uh districts feel i can't speak to for other superintendents but just to give you regardless of how i feel about it personally i think it's a very difficult decision to make mid-year to remove masks because there's a lot
064of factors as i explained to the folks in the room my parent may want me to wear a mask in school ms castillo's mom says no you're not wearing a mask we're in the same classroom we're eight or nine years old you're my friend i see you without a mask my intention is going to be to take my mask off who is going to police that who is going to then spend all that time t from teachers or from staff trying to make sure that the kids whose parents want them to wear masks um wear them and those who don't don't have to wear them it's a pretty poor predicament to put kids in to make those choices so i think as i explained there's a beginning and an end to a school year we
065started the school year with masks mandated we are almost halfway a little more than halfway through the year i think it just makes sense that we end the school year with how we started and then we can regroup and discuss how that would look like for the 22-23 school year we wouldn't change rules or regulations we wouldn't change policies on kids midway through the year i think it's unfair to put kids in that position where they have to be different than their peers i think it's hard enough right now to be honest with you i don't think that the masks have impacted our students one bit the kids come to school they wear their masks they don't have to be told a million times i think this is more of a parent parent-generated concern i
066understand everyone has the right to feel the way they feel but i just don't think it's fair that we put our kids in those predicaments at this time that's the comments that were made so i just want you to be aware of that um there is some talk about the possibility of putting it on local school boards to make decisions for their own school districts i think that's a very difficult decision to be passing along to others so i do think the governor will maintain the mass mandate um throughout the rest of the school year or at least until later into the school year i think that the numbers have been dropping significantly we have not seen the cases that we saw prior to this the winter break after thanksgiving and immediately after the break
067um it seems to be i don't think it's any any secret that the mitigation strategies in schools works it helps with spread throughout the community and um i think we should stay the course if so i just want to prepare you that this could be something that gets thrown on the board's lap in less than a month and something that you know we'll all have to deal with and a decision may need to be made by the board itself but i'm hopeful that the governor sees that the metrics has not changed enough to really impact making a change in decisions that could be that could potentially cause a spike in cases amongst our kids so um and there was one other thing that just eluded me as we were um oh it comes to me
068out okay any questions i have a question uh do we have any updates as to the um availability of the covet tests on site would you thank you thank you for reminding me so uh we did receive uh our second batch of the test kits from the state of connecticut that allowed us on friday this past friday to distribute a test kit home to every child in the district and we were almost had enough of the adult test kits because we received two different ones um to provide to every staff member so we were able to provide them to the vast majority uh we should have the other staff kits distributed by the end of this week for those folks um but we were we really wanted to get families a test kit we didn't
069want to hoard them because there are potentially more that are supposed to be coming into the district so every kid went home with a test kit which includes two tests and a packet of wipes we do have a significant number they haven't been using them as much so we wanted to make sure they can bring them home and help keep those healthy habits transferred that we do at school at home thank you for that that was what i forgot okay mr chair ms brown um i just wanted to highlight um and to thank mr sestany for sending out the email to the district about the opioid epidemic um i know that we've been following the story with this young man that died from um that in harford and i know that at our last meeting
070um we talked about possibly making sure that we get ahead of it and informing our community especially our students about you know about this fentanyl and then also keeping them you know informed and sharing information so i followed and i was reading through your email and i'm looking forward and i believe the board would be too any conversations community conversations around this to keep parents aware because we know that you can't smell it you know it's it's it's hard to identify until it's already done the damage um so i think just making sure that we get ahead of it and keep them as informed as possible but i thought the letter was really good and i've gotten a lot of um uh calls from parents for just you know addressing it so i thought that
071was really good thank you um where's we're having a follow-up meeting i believe it's tomorrow myself and um folks from libations um here in that works out of life bridge that we will be um discussing some strategies on how we can prevent uh provide more awareness so i think that we should first start with parents um because i think that's the most important component here to keep parents engaged and just be on the lookout for some potential signs where children may not be it may not be a fentanyl issue as i mentioned in the letter but it comes in through other avenues and so you may think all right my son my daughter smokes a little bit of weed and puts the harm you know we all did that or but that's where these dealers
072now are targeting kids to hook them on so that they can purchase their drugs so um i think just making aware bringing awareness to families first and then we're going to start doing some presentations to student bodies we're going to start in the middle schools i think that's a targeted group they're very impressionable and then move on to the high school so tomorrow's our follow-up meeting put tomorrow wednesday um to see what our course of action will be but we're going to try to gather a lot of support and interest to invite parents i will do it at different locations throughout the city to make travel easy and uh hopefully get out some really good information is it too much to ask to include the health department uh she's gonna be on the next call
073okay yes thank when you talk about the master you're talking um and you report what is the who gets more issues that use the mac the elementary school or the high schools um i i think from the the emails that are reported when we get cases i think it's pretty well spread but there was a few schools that had a little bit more positive cases reported than others um to be honest with you i think some of our larger schools that you would think but have more uh issues in terms of positivity rate than not i just really think it's it's pretty much hit or miss high school kids have been really good um but i think at times the the density within the the classroom is not as much as as you do see
074in the elementary schools and when you talk about the test for the kid when for the the parents of the student give that it's going to be for all students or it's going to be if it's necessary no they all got them friday they went home in their book bags no more questions did you okay i have a question do you find that there's a particular demand within a group in a school whether it's the teachers staff in general or even student athletes that require more testing or more frequent testing the staff yes i think that's that's the group um that we've we see the most demand asking um i think parents in general want their kids in school i think they they trust us they believe that at this point we've been doing this
075for a year and a half that their children are safe we've been able to prove that but i think there's still an anxiety level among staff more so because you know they may live with somebody that's older they may have some underlying conditions themselves and um so i think that that's the the testing group that is more interested in getting those those things in their hands i guess my next follow-up question is what kind of measures aside from just distributing at-home tests could the district possibly do to help relieve this draft anxiety with going back to work you know we try a lot of positive messaging i think that's that's important we set up the clinics uh right away when the vaccine became available we're uh providing on saturdays opportunities for them to get boosted
076at central high school um really whatever ppe is available we try to stress that um every couple of weeks to make sure that the building administrators um our facilities department is making sure we never run out with the sanitizer with masks if they want gloves we have sneeze guards plexiglas i think there was a little bit of a relaxation after the vaccine and at the beginning of the school year and that heightened level of anxiety obviously the media doesn't help in their reporting of the numbers but i think as we start to see the the numbers decline um i i think people are going to feel a little bit more at ease as they come to work this is mr macaroni yes yes i'm sorry i was not able to be there tonight but uh
077i have a question regarding mr santiago's dismissal are we going to what is the next step that we have to take after we heard these 17-18 people support the santiago's history as being a real supportive individual for our students so this is a front-line building level decision that we don't really have any authority over mr testani could intercede if he felt he should do that and that's the purpose of public comment is for uh us or mr testani to hear the sentiments of the public about issues that we have respective authority over so us at the board level there's nothing really for us to do is that right correct it's happening before and it's always gotten some okay stay out we stay out of staff mr tastani takes care of that and and also it
078being a personnel matter we are really limited in terms of how we can be discussing it um as it relates to foi and the so then so then why do we have these people come here to to ask the board to make a decision uh which which might be different from what the decision was made earlier please explain that well um i i get the sense that there was some community organizing that took place and they just rallied and they mistakenly feel that we have some level of authority in this matter although i did hear a lot of them saying they wanted mr testani to take some sort of action so i think they may have some differing views of how this should move forward but in the end it's really mr testani's wheelhouse i
079will say i will say this we talked about this at the governance meeting a couple months ago with respect to public comment and getting more specific about what we will allow people to come to the mic and talk about because sometimes they come up and they talk about things like staffing issues that is inappropriate so we're trying to craft some language that um more clearly defines what people can come up to the microphone and talk about okay okay okay any other questions yes hang up mr pista miss brown's point um the health director and i have been talking with the communications folks on the city side about some public service announcements as well i will inform the board if that comes to pass it would be nice to have some board members possibly participate in
080some of the public service announcements regarding the uh the fentanyl uh crisis that we're seeing across the country so i'll let you know when that is if you have some time you can stop they have a green room set up um over at the margaret morgan government center and you know we'll be able to tape a few of those and get those out i think it'd be great to be able to have multiple faces um promote that in conjunction with ebony and i okay did you or mr lombard have something else uh macaroni sound like lombard yeah what was it mr lombardi no i'm going to go about that i had a question question that um that maybe those testing kits with copenhagen testing kits can be distributed to the nurse's office so at least
081you know in case kids do have symptoms of covenanting or you know i'm not feeling well at least they can get a test uh you know a test right then and there rather than having to go to the urgent care and waiting you know for x amount of uh hours or minutes or whatever um then does that make sense yeah angel that's a great point angel we did hold some test kids back so the nurses do have those available for any of the students that are symptomatic um that was what we did for the original um um donation that we received from the state because we didn't have enough to distribute to all students um but we once we got the second group and we knew morris should be coming in the upcoming week or
082two we didn't want to just have these things stockpiled we wanted to make sure we got them out but if any students are exhibiting some symptoms and they do go to the nurse uh every nurse in the district does have some available that they should be able to provide to you i have because of angel's comment oh question is is the district looking for any kind of partnership maybe with urgent care facilities or doctors offices to provide testing on site for teachers staff and students there has been some some of those that that took place we also did the mobile clinic for vaccinations what's hard is because it's it's limited in how and they were bombarded with testing throughout the the community and couldn't say no to some and to others that's why these test
083kits are being provided to the schools to help ease some of the congestion that's occurring at the immediate health care facilities and the testing sites originally we were just going to hold out for anybody that was exhibiting symptoms but then what we found is that parents then would have to send sick kids to school in order to get tested if we sense them home we encourage them to hold on to those and not just randomly use them but if anybody was starting to feel sick at home this way they can do it at home and not send them in to collect it but there's supposed to be much more coming i'm not sure when that will be but um the we were asked in a survey if we had enough that would last us two
084weeks last week which we did so i think this that in the coming week or so we should receive um an email to go pick up our next um delivery anything else there is no old or new business to be transacted is there a motion to adjourn ruled by mr kalavik is there a second second good night