001everyone i would like to call to order the first uh bridgeport board of education meeting of 2022 um i would like to call it the media has been called to order i'm sorry um and without further ado we would like to acknowledge the pledge of allegiance right i pledge allegiance with liberty and thank you um at this moment i would like to turn this into mr secretary's hands for a roll call sure thank you um christine baptist perez present albert benahan erica castillo president michael macaron president joseph kolovic present sybil allen john weldon bobby brown president and joseph lombard present thank you mr secretary um at this moment we're going to open up the floor for student representatives to share reports on their individual schools how how it has been done and has been put
002on the road to uh student representatives from each school one of one from each school to share their report i believe we have one student i see but if you could because we're doing it virtually if you could announce yourself and what school you attend and then you have the time to share your report if you don't have a report you don't have to share but just want to give you the opportunity yeah we have layla wilson here layla would you like to share hi i'm layla wilson i'm a senior at the biotech school at fairchild wheeler i'm actually a short report just talking about some events we've done recently in the past we've done um a food drive and also a toy drive and a toilet drive as well these drives included all three
003of the schools at fairchild um they're put on by the national honor society as well as other um students who brought in their donated items to school and then at the end when we collected them we donated them to the respected states and um at the moment that's all i have to report thank you is there any other students on with us i can go um hi i'm avery fleckner i'm a senior at fairchild wheeler i.t so i just want to report a couple things that are happening in i.t so we'd like to thank the uh the it people because they're not rsit people the big it people because the motion capture lab was fixed we can start animating in a few of our classes and also two teachers with granted donors chooses for their
004classroom their like their classroom resources we'd like to thank that um so we also had a successful transition back to school today from our long weekend or some people break because they quarantined um it like rit is partnering with the bcyl so kids like little kids can t or can be learned how to code so we'll have some of our kids after school go teach the little kids how to code and also just some of our seniors are starting to hurry back from colleges already no big names but college is college thank you avery is there another student on i can only see a few that's on the screen yeah i can go that's not sure you're good i'm alina from aerospace at fairchild wheeler um so since the last meeting we've held a skills
005stay which um happened before we left for break which is basically like students got to sign up for different events held in different classrooms where you could learn something new or do a different event um and that was really successful and the students liked it a lot and then now like avery said we're coming back from our break and since the semesters for us and the quarters coming to an end some kids are working on final projects um since we're project-based learning a lot of people are working on their finals and things like that um and then since like seniors are preparing for their caps tonight and then the rest of school is preparing for their science fair which is next week on thursday um it'll be held virtual so there is a link on
006fairchild's website and everyone's allowed to attend if you'd like um that's what fairchild's working on right now hello um we see you miss allen let the record reflect uh mr bennehan and miss albert um i mean mr albert and miss um alan miss allen sorry um are now in the meeting thank you to our student representatives for sharing did we miss anyone we got a couple more miss brown uh michael mike michael hemmings hi my name is michael hemmings from it at fairchild wheeler um pretty much a reset almost everything that's happened so far so i have no things to say all right thank you and is sherman elliott from any of the other schools um i'm from harding high school go ahead sherman so uh for the christmas break uh students um design like
007christmas cards stuff to give to healthcare workers like thank them for what they have done stuff and as a senior uh we've been preparing for colleges like doing college applications i've heard from some colleges already and so is my classmates my classmates also heard from from colleges already and we're preparing for um like helping other students losing their applications and stuff thankfully sherman thank you very much all right um anyone else mr sassani are we all set that's it miss bro okay thank you students for sharing your reports um we appreciate all the work that you're doing um and all the things that you have going on and transitioning back to school over the break so we thank you for um sharing today um and as we've mentioned in our last meetings we know that
008you guys do have school tomorrow so feel free at any time during this session so please log off um but you're also free to stay if you would like to add more into the conversation at this moment i'm going to turn it over to miss rita to let us know um we're opening up for a public comment i believe she said we had two people that were in for a public comment um so rita yes at this time we would have um anna batista president of bea and she's online with us so miss anna you have the floor thank you for public comment um yes thank you good evening uh my name is anna batista bea president the bridge education association the bea strongly supports the american rescue act premium pay and particularly the inclusion
009of bps classroom staff and its benefits our fine and dedicated bridgeport teachers and support staff deserve to be included in this benefit having risked their own health as well as that of their families every day to provide the first-rate in-person education bridgeport families wanted since august of 2020. just like the first responders and other essential workers did for the city of bridgeport and the state of connecticut our members work to keep the bridgeport public schools open and running effectively indeed our members helped the district reopen safely and this was even before anyone was vaccinated welcoming children and families back to the classroom even as the recommended social distancing guidelines shrunk from six feet to three and in many of our classrooms especially among the youngest and most specialized populations it is much much less than
010that keeping the business of the school functioning for the bridgeport community has always been and always will be our mission we would not have been able to reopen and make gains had our members not come out and performed their highly specialized jobs please show your support by backing up your teachers and support staff by providing the premium pay it would also go a long way for the membership to see the board of education and the bridgeport community advocate and support them in this and as i always say together we are bridgeport strong thank you miss anna read it so miss brown just to notify you that the second caller i did try to reach him did not get an answer sent an email with how to connect and um and nothing so we're not able
011to get our second speaker okay um so this um this concludes our public comment section at this moment we're going to do the approval of the board minutes for uh december 20th 2021 regular public meeting say it again listen to approve the minutes second second all right so it's been approved by mrs zukulovic and second by mr lombard all in favor okay any opposed any abstentions aaron nunn is officially approved for um board meet in minutes for december 20th um any questions concerns edits any of those things just like to say that sybil allen has joined the meeting oh we we got you miss allen oh okay fine yes all right um i would like to entertain a motion for december 4th 2021 special meeting abstain mr lumbar stains all right motion carries um any
012questions concerns edits all right here and none um mr weldon is not here as of yet i don't think so we're gonna just skip um chairman's report and when he arrives he can um um i guess give his report so we're going to do to go to committee reports and referrals um ad hoc district-wide branding initiative we have not met we will be meeting on december 19th at 6 30. um i'm not sure if we're going to be meeting in person at that time mr tassani at the buildings but um if not it'll be held via teams but it'll normally be at central high school if we are meeting in person um yes oh sorry may i be recognized yes um you said december 19th did you mean january 19th january 19th i'm sorry that's
013a wednesday sorry all right thank you yeah um so yeah so any referrals for this um committee all right hearing none the next one is contracts committee i think that is mr weldon as well yes okay so we're going to leave that um education diversity equity and inclusion i think that is mr sokolovic if i'm correct i know he's under the weather so yeah so i apologize just trying to get the date um we have not met yet an interim first meeting will be third monday of january it will be if you don't mind me answering for you yes ma'am please okay hold on i have it on my calendar um actually maybe i do not oh yes i do uh the 18th of january thank you so much uh and the time uh 6
01430 p.m is what i have okay thank you you're welcome um any referrals okay hearing them the next one is facilities i believe that is mr weldon as well um so we're going to leave that on finance it's also mr sokolovic i believe yes finance will be meeting wednesdays january 26th hopefully in um central library i believe we should be meeting the same way our students are in person okay any referrals to that committee all right hearing none the next one is governance i believe that is also mr weldon he's not here um then we have personnel i believe that is mr weldon as well all right um and then students and families mr bennett good evening everyone very happy to see you everyone um my next meeting family will be january 20 thursday at
0156 00 pm if it's not it's to not be remote maybe later just depending situation with the sunny what's going on with the city will be on the central high school library perfect any referrals okay here and then the last one is teaching and learning that is mrs cullivay teaching her learning will be tuesday january 18th at 6 p.m essential again in person okay all right so that concludes our committee reports and referrals um now we're going to open it up to mr tastani for superintendent reporting um okay all right so i hear both of you guys we'll go to miss christine and then we'll go to mr bennett um just want to make a motion to refer to committee for teaching and learning okay so um my motion to refer to committee is the
016outcome of discussions with the principals at central basic and harden regarding the education the educators rising program that was mentioned on november 22nd 2021's um general meeting that there would be discussions on the 23rd about extending the credits college to credit programs to those three high schools and opening up well for more bridgewater public um students so i want to just make a motion to refer that to the committee teaching and learning okay i don't think you have to make a motion for it i think we're just going to refer to mrs sakalovic got it all right um anything else miss christine no that's it at this time okay uh mr bennigan yeah ms brown um i know he was going fast um i just want to know i know mr not here no that's
017okay mr what is not here for facility but i just want to be sure if possible for the record then the facility we need to the update of the security i saved this from 2021 mr mr um stanley know about this so this is 2022 and we need to have to get information about facility they really know i already sent this email last year so i just want to be sure for the record when mr john wasn't coming he can hear the meaning be it and for the refer of our facility about security everything was very now about a business school perfect thank you i don't know mr hastani if you like to add to it other than that um we can leave it for mr um welding but floors mr tassani thank you um
018yes so we as um mentioned earlier by our students we have transitioned back to in-person learning from the break i know that's caused some discussions um and concerns but overall obviously last week we were in on tuesday and experienced weather-related closures on wednesday and friday uh which will be made up at the end of the school year um and thursday being a planned day off so we were back in school today we seem to be doing extremely well um given the circumstances we don't seem to have as many of the challenges that have been reported out in other districts across the state and across the country uh thus far that could change obviously um but overall we didn't see that much of an increase last tuesday to the number of students absent as we would
019probably normally see on a short week coming back from um an extended vacation during the christmas holiday um prior to covid we would average anywhere on a day like that from 38 to 3 900 students absent uh we were a little bit higher uh we ran a report and had a close to 5 000 students absent so there was a comparable not that significant of an impact um given like i said extended vacation people traveling short week returning back um we see similar numbers prior to 2019 when we would start school on a thursday rather than a monday at the beginning of the school year we would we would get anywhere from 37 to 3 900 students that would not attend the first couple of days on the reports that we ran and um it's
020much more improved when we start on a monday so just some data points uh we are monitoring we're working closely with the state department of education uh the governor's office uh department of public health are monitoring the situation closely we've made the statement a million times i i know some people still advocate for a remote learning experience that is not an option um there are no districts in connecticut offering remote learning as an option to families so we are confident that schools are safe we've proven that throughout the pandemic that schools in bridgeport schools across the state are safe um this the significant spike when people talked about it over the vacation week we're not because of schools we were out of school for 12 days um it was community spread um so we we
021are hopeful to see now that everyone get back gets back to school holiday gatherings are uh are over with for now um that the number of cases across bridgeport in particular will start to decline uh we're going to do our part here in the schools to make sure that um we're responsible we stress our mitigation strategies consistently with our administration at the building level to make sure that kids are safe and staff ourselves is this cold i start to have some real concerns about the schools we as a boy just recently went to remote to remote meetings just tonight because of the i'm the cross surge i sat on the original uh reopening committees and the set of standards we set forth in those reopening committees how much different than we're facing today the positivity
022rate was much much lower um the distance between seats was much bigger i mean it's a whole different animal right now whole different ball game i mean what are the consequences if we defy the governor's order and go not full remote but um split as we did before which is in the plan in case of surges that's in our plan that was approved by the governor that if we have a surge we can pivot but now all of a sudden the governor's tying our hands and tying the hands on all these districts i mean what what's the governor going to do if we go to hybrid learning again and ease out the classroom or give the parents the choice whether to send their children to school as a game because as you know i've advocated
023for the parent choice all along the whole thing that we do have pivot points in our plan that the governor approved and i think i think the governor shouldn't be tying our hands like that in our districts and have you spoken to any other superintendents and what are their feelings about waterbury new haven bridgeport hartford and other districts if we all go decide we want to go hybrid is he going to punish all our districts and all our students and cause us to go all to make up all those school days i think the governor is playing election games right now well i i don't know what the consequences would be um i can tell you from just brief conversations i'm not going to divulge obviously with whom in one of the districts that you've
024mentioned um there there is no strong feeling to go in in a hybrid model i think the staff here specifically would have a hard time going backwards i think you would put um an extreme damper on morale it was a very difficult experience last year for staff educating both students in the classroom and at home uh i think it's clear from the attendance numbers that parents are relying on us um to educate their child their children and also to provide the social emotional support that many of those students that we're speaking of that may have concerns desperately need um it has been a well documented not just across the nation but specifically here in bridgeport the challenges that many kids face coming back to school and interacting appropriately with with their peers many schools experienced
025a lot of conflict within the buildings we've been able to work very very hard with students and with families to finally get us back in a good place um maybe not pre pandemic but but getting there making significant progress in working with kids and helping them get readjusted to to interacting socially appropriately with their peers and with with adults so um i think it would be a huge step backwards maybe two steps backwards if we were even gonna consider that um i mean it's it's no secret i'm a huge proponent for in-person learning i don't think um not only do students lose out i i also look at it that there's significant deficits and and challenges that educators face in the delivery of of remote instruction and that's not a knock on on teachers and
026staff it's just a reality i think it's a very difficult way to present teaching and learning in a virtual model especially at the primary grades i i mean those are the kids that i think suffered the most and um i would be hard-pressed to say to those kids i mean we we are seeing some spread um but the numbers in the schools being reported right now of positive cases most of them are students with and they're reported with mild symptoms as ms castillo mentioned prior to us going live i think overall um you know it's it's been pretty good and we're going to continue to monitor it i know um we do have uh and the state department of ed sees the urgency to have bigger discussions around this so rather than uh our third
027friday of every month is usually a huge superintendent's only statewide call that's been pushed up a week um just to get some conversation uh and input from 169 of us across the state this this week so there could be other options that are being considered but right now um you know i think we need to stay the course unless um unless something significant changes i know what you're saying um in terms of the number of positive cases and the spread but um it it's a different predicament than when we opened and and we talked as as committees and a reopening committee but it's also a different virus as well and um you know i think listening to a lot of the health professionals this is something that we're going to need to live with for
028a while it doesn't seem like it's going away anytime soon and i think the more we continue to um put kids at a disadvantage and our kids are the ones that are hurt the most you know we we've talked about this you know our kids don't live in 3 500 square foot homes where they can isolate from family members and peers uh where they have a workspace that's appropriate to learning virtually um i i just think that it would do a lot more harm at this point than um than good if we even would consider something like that all right i i agree with you mr testadi uh in fact i was one of the biggest proponents of reopening the school in person i know and i still remain as we have i actually tested
029full disclosure i just tested positive for a covert but that's neither here nor there i've been thinking about this for quite a while um and i don't know what what would be our piv what would be our pivot point for shifting oh what will be uh i mean and furthermore furthermore it looks very very bad for us to say it's safe enough for our kids to go to school yeah right now i'm sitting in my bed at a meeting which i would have to be anyway but for the next meeting when i'm done with quarantine if our children are basically forced to school because parents can be charged with educational neglect if they don't send their children to school so basically if they're forced to send their children to school we should be forced to
030sit in a meeting in person okay no no no argument there um it was just suggested because there was a an understanding and then that there was going to be several uh board members tonight that could not make it in person and it was going to be a little clunky having that many remote participants um but that was only a an option that i threw out there for for this meeting um i'm hoping we do return to in-person meetings i think those are much more productive meetings as well um but i think you know what one thing you brought up um when we look at the metrics nothing else is you know we're talking about and there is discussion around the country about closing schools to go remote health and safety um i i see
031packed stadiums across this country packed arenas um you know so i think you know there's no restrictions on restaurants there's no restrictions on businesses um so i'd hate to put any restrictions on children and their ability to um interact with their peers with their teachers with the the services that we provide that they desperately need um we've been able so far to get through the winter basketball season at our at our high schools without incidents of any quarantine so i think overall we're we're in a a different place but in a better place than we were 12 months ago thank you you're welcome um yeah i'm going to get ready to turn it over to mr weldon but before i do i wanted to make let the record reflect mr weldon is here um and
032once he has it then um i just want to make sure i pose a question to mr sustani on this issue um is there possible i mean i don't know i know the numbers we're monitoring the numbers right now but with that being said you know just listening to the communities as well because you know we may need to take a temperature of how the community is feeling about this right now i know there are a lot of concerned parents and you know there's a lot of you know there's there's both on both sides but i think what we did in the beginning of this is that there was a choice given to parents when this when the numbers were advertised i'm not sure where the numbers are right now but i'm wondering will if
033things do seem to climb higher that that option comes back to them that they have a choice and i know that we don't want to move backwards but you know i know there's no fully remote or fully in person you know for for how this is going to play out but would that be something that we'd be looking to to entertain be it that was part of the opening um the opening project the governor's executive order on that has expired so there is no choice available for families to do that uh if he does enact the new executive order then you know we would have that conversation again that presented a tremendous strain on our staff uh i think if we had to go back to that for any significant period of time um we
034would we would push a lot of folks over the edge there that was extremely tough last year we lost a lot of staff last year um in general but also due to the fact of the the toll that it took we were hard pressed to find people to work summer programs and other things they were they were cooked um but you know if that option does present itself through um state department event and the governor's office you know then we could explore that but um it's tough right now but i think everybody is more comfortable in the way we're proceeding forward i know there are parents that have concerns you know i'm not here to tell anybody what to do but i'm speak to your doctor speak to your pediatrician we do have one of
035the lowest vaccine vaccination rates in the state definitely in in fairfield county um i i just find it a difficult pill to swallow when i have folks that are extremely concerned about the virus yet are unwilling to even consider talking to a health professional about receiving the vaccine to protect themselves um that's just you know i'm trying to make sure that we put forth our best efforts to keep kids in school provide them what they need but at the same time um as as we've heard a number of times throughout the pandemic and especially over the last year since vaccines have been released you know everyone needs to do their part and um you know the numbers in connecticut are very telling when it comes to how this impacts those who are vaccinated to those
036who are not vaccinated um i'm not a health professional i'm not telling it like i said i'm not telling anyone what to do but at least consider having a conversation with your doctor with your pediatrician um if there's that level of concern um because it's kind of a double-edged sword if you're that concerned but you won't even consider you know what your doctor recommends you know it's hard it's it's it's hard to to make that decision then and say you know that that i respect people's privacy but at the same time you know they have to respect the fact that we have 20 000 children to look out for and um you know we're going on 24 months of this three school years have been impacted um that's a significant period of time that those
037children will not have the opportunity to get back thanks castillo yeah i had a quick question um firstly i i will share just from personal experience because i also recently had tested positive i'm now negative but during that period of time you know i just ask to have some grace for the parents because i had also contacted my primary care doctor to um to get tested and and to be seen as i normally would and couldn't get an appointment until march you know so right now i think the health care system is exasperated and it's difficult you know to to get the to get questions answered um or to get testing or basic needs so um i just on on their behalf asked for some grace but my other question was if um and i'm
038not sure if this is uh available district-wide or if it's an option on a school-by-school basis but is there an option for parents to um to to apply for or to ask for permission for their children to have um uh remote learning for a small period of time you know last week i was positive and and i had the option to work remote and i did you know right now mr sokolovich is is online with us um because he feels well enough to participate and so he's you know actively engaging all those sick so is there a possibility where parents could apply um for a small period of time for their students to participate um remote you know because it it's would you agree that it's better that they are watching and still learning even
039if you know if they're if their parents decide that they're well enough to participate then to not be participating in the school day at all during those times if if say it's a 14 day or 10 day or 5 day quarantine that um that they're not in school for well right now the quarantine period now is five days um from exposure or symptoms so um and if children are sick then they should it's it's a sick day right so that's the the other side of this that as mr sokolovic mentioned you mentioned their mild symptoms um there's less of the asymptomatic group because we are testing you brought up a great point for anyone exhibiting symptoms we do have test kits that were distributed late last week to our school nurses so those are available
040for students and staff they're exhibiting symptoms um at no cost so we are anticipating um two more deliveries of those from the state um at some point so we do have tests that have been distributed for kids and from staff that are showing symptoms no one has to wait any longer to try to schedule an appointment or go to a testing center um but if you're sick you should get well um work will be provided for you um until your return just as if it was pre pre-pandemic if a child had the flu child had bronchitis you know strep throat they missed a few days of school they came back they had an opportunity to make up their work they could stay after school for extra help so all those supports that have always been
041in place are still in existence okay thank you appreciate it you're welcome so that was the the next part i'm glad you asked that question so we do have test kits both for staffing for students um you know a lot of the guidance around this has evolved with the information that health professionals have gathered over the last almost two years um and i think they've received a lot of feedback obviously collected a lot of data around um and i think that's why you've seen some shift in the length of isolation um the the disbanding of you know isolating everyone who's not ex who may have come in contact but not exhibiting symptoms so i think the new guidance has evolved in is evolving i think a lot of people the feedback has been positive throughout
042the district from parents because many parents would be angry when they saw a healthy child running around their home that wasn't able to go to school um because they were considered a close contact but we now can get a test kit in people's hands immediately through the nurse um this way then they can rule out whether it's covered or just the cold or the flu um because i think we're starting to see a little bit of both now the flu season is in full effect uh health department and uh health dhph is saying that it is um very rampant this year the flu um virus so i think we're going to see a lot of people um that are going to be out of work out of school feel better and come back miss baptist
043perez you have a question yeah i just wanted to clarify we're following the current cdc guidance for the five day quarantine and that's regardless if they're still testing positive but are not symptomatic correct so it's five days and then they can return unless they still have a fever um and then they have to be if if they continue they have to be fever free for 24 hours okay and then just um i heard the debate regarding remote learning uh has it been expressed by any of the principals in any of the schools whether packets could be distributed to a child that's sick and in quarantine five days is only technically one school week and so it's almost the problem sending like a winter break packet or anything to make sure a child's not left behind
044um academically yep so we we do have some folks that we hired using some of the s or money that are on part-time that do check in with students that are uh quarantining kazukovit uh and are able to work with them periodically throughout the day so there is work provided on teams um that's the beauty now of having one-to-one devices and the ability to post work on teams so kids are still engaged and based on that engagement um that they're also considered present they're not marked absent they're called you know quarantine present okay all right is there anything else for mr testani well one last thing i want to mention on a positive note as everyone may have seen in their email we did open after the break the fame academy over being housed at
045harding high school our performing arts academy that we've been prepping for um over the last uh eight months um so we're excited about that unfortunately the weather kind of derailed the rest of last week but we're back in session this week um so all you know the early reports from day one and two have been extremely positive kids are really engaged they're excited about this so we're hoping that this becomes um really a robust program that we can offer kids throughout city of bridgeport the plan is also now to incorporate a middle school component on saturdays next school year to kind of build the the feeder program into the fame academy so i just want to make sure great job by sarah jane henry our director of visual and performing arts for all the hard
046work her and her staff has put into making sure that this became a reality we had initially talked about this alicia robinson and i it was kind of our little vision for now that we have some federal dollars and um you know dr henry was able to come in and uh carry the ball and make that um a reality so i'm very proud that we've we've been able to do that for our kids mr bennett you have a question yes thank you mr chair um mr testani how far i don't know if you give this information let it quit um covet do you know how many staff we have out because they got over the students something like that or the person is high um actually we we update the dashboard when we get reports
047there hasn't been a huge number of cases reported since the break um there were significant numbers apparently of folks that tested positive during the break uh but their quarantine period has expired and they are all back to you know we have some kids that have been been reported out um today um again mild symptoms positive and um we do have some staff out sick not necessarily i'm sure that you know not sure if they're covered related or not um they could just be just regular sick days today so not not as high as prior to the break though um we we made a you know it was tough getting to the christmas break we had significant number of staff out the last few days um but that number had today was much lower than it
048was prior to the the break so that's that's a good sign thank you this time one more question mr chair okay anyone else okay so we're gonna move on to there's no old business to transact new business discussion possible adoption of the 2022 2023 academic year and calendar mr chair may i be recognized oh i didn't see your hand up i forgot to break it we had skipped over the chairman's report as well as the committees that you chair at the beginning of the meeting and so before we move on to older new business um start back all right so uh contracts committee uh will be meeting in february there's an rfp it escapes me what's the name of the rfp mr tustani um which rfp is is that one um the the special education
049review yeah so we're going out to rf requesting proposals to a review of special education throughout the district it's been a significant period of time since that's been done we're hoping to get a thorough evaluation and report back that we can work from to improve the delivery uh the effectiveness and the efficiency of the services we provide to students with ieps throughout the district that's right so we'll be looking to for authorization to issue the rfp and then we'll get responses to it that will will be graded and uh approved at the board level correct are there any referrals for contracts we're just going through the committees that i chair is that right this baptist yes okay uh facilities are there any referrals um mr chair the one you already made i wanted yeah the
050one i talked we talked about facilities i know in 2021 and they got the information about i'm always saying about the security what's going on everything so i hope this year we can have it you know the person that can bring to us the information and when we're gonna have the facility committee meeting we'll have a facilities meeting in february um governance we're gonna pick up where we left off in december with the um discussion with the make the road make the road connecticut youth group regarding student transportation and uh the matter related to a board policy regarding public comment other referrals central high school magnet central magnet high school and the magnet policy for central personnel are there any referrals for personnel not yet mr weldon we are in preliminary um interview set being
051set up for a couple of positions that will eventually um land in the personnel committee but that will probably be in about two weeks that we would need a convener meeting if that's acceptable we met a couple of weeks ago to interview um candidates for the assistant principal at asic did you make a decision on that yes we went with the the same um recommendation of the committee okay you want to say who that was uh jamie lynn is her name she's a uh currently works at stratford high school and will now start as the assistant principal um filling the vacancy left by the death of peter ziegler at basic uh next monday is the start okay thank you all right we did the superintendent's report old business new business discussion and possible adoption of
0522022 2023 academic year calendar this is an annual item that mr tastani prepares i believe was in your package it's pretty generic we follow similar calendar with fairfield county [Music] districts to make sure that those staff members that do live in surrounding towns when their children are off um they don't have a hardship when it comes to child care it's pretty standard 181 school days for children 186 contractual days first for teachers and staff um that that extra five days before were teachers report allows us to do a lot of professional development the week before school opens and we start school a full day of school on a monday as i discussed prior to you arriving with mr weldon it is uh and more advantageous um having um schools start on a full day on
053a monday we have less kids that um and families that do not report the first couple of days as we did in the past when we started on thursday any questions about the calendar okay is there a motion to adopt the calendar as presented so we'll move back there's second second allen second by ms allen any further discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions okay next item is discussion possible action regarding supplemental district employee compensation related to work performed during covet 19 pandemic the unions of the various employees we have approached myself and the superintendent and mr sokolovic as the finance chair to express their feeling that the district should provide some sort of compensation even if it be only symbolically not necessarily massive monetarily uh to acknowledge their work
054during the pandemic it's not something that i can decide but i agreed that i would take it here to the full board so that we could have that discussion it's my understanding that a couple of the union leadership uh kind of made their cases during public comment am i correct in that understanding yes okay i don't know what they said i wasn't watching but i was aware that they had signed up um so i'm going to turn it over to mr testani to get into some of the back story of all of this we don't necessarily have to make a decision this evening this is a big big uh over overarching discussion and there's nothing wrong with having a discussion taking a step back and thinking about some coming back in another couple of weeks
055after we've thought it over so don't feel there's any pressure this is just a preliminary discussion at this point so mr testani yeah just to kind of fill in there was a press conference held i want to say prior to thanksgiving the unions were um in front of uh margaret morton government center and uh i believe you know met with the mayor and his his folks um regarding premium pay for work as you said performed during the pandemic um there is um i guess a willingness from the city folks city side of this to provide some compensation um now there it is allowable under the american rescue plan we're not clear and we need a lot more clear uh clarification if this is even allowable to use american rescue plan esser funds well there are
056two separate buckets um the municipalities received american rescue plan money where the um elementary secondary schools received the arp esser so just want to make sure that we are clear prior to any decisions even being made by the board that it's allowable to use the money for those expenditures and what percentage if any initial uh discussions were inquires from our grants office to the state department of ed and still a little vague on on how that can be allowable and there was some discussion that there needs to be an agreement in place prior that seems to be some of the language that was used which was not the case we're kind of working backwards now in this request because there should have been some parameters set up prior on what would constitute someone earning um
057what they call premium pay um so i think there's still some questions that need to be answered and also um you know there are some questions as to what that would look like and where that that funding then what that means and the impact on children so okay i see some hands raised i'm gonna call them in the order that i saw them uh mr bennehan i think you were the first one yes mr chair thank you so much with the chair um let's understand think of information and i'm going to say this very clear and very slowly so they can be in the record in their bodies everybody understand i would like to get more information about this because i know what's coming in the agenda so we can discuss like you send me
058the chair you know more and we can see what we can do the only thing i can say is that i hold this money where they come from and and i hope does that receive it the way it is because i know the staff that was always in the first place and they do a lot of things that's what i guess i stopped searching and that's why i sent it to you guys what i have and i hope we can still have more information to see what we're gonna do but my opinion is i hope the stats receive this because you know they work very hard um i love into that you know to that because they was always on the front and like i always said and this is not nothing against nobody but
059the same way we vote and we make you um mr destani i know you have to be deal with this too we make you happy to give you a nice race i hope all the staff get received the money the way it is because they worked very hard and there was first like you made understanding you was on front line that was the front line and you just want to be sure they received the money and i hope we on the same page so i just want to bring that to the ripper and to be sure everybody understand my point no more question no more coming mr chair thank you okay the next hand i think i saw was miss brown followed by miss baptiste perez yes um i just want to know um is
060this going to be referred to finance to discuss in deeper detail or this is we can we can i just you know they came to me and said look this is what we want we want to try to do and i thought before i initially thought of just sending it to finance right off the bat but then i thought you know what maybe it's better to have a larger discussion here and if the group wants to send it to finance then that's what we can do or if you just want to continue the discussion at our larger level either way i'm fine with either but i definitely think as we start getting into the deeper details and more details about um about the funding that we're receiving to where it's going to go and if
061we can or cannot use that definitely think uh marlene miss siegel and all the powers that be should be a part of that okay good enough miss baptiste perez um i just had more of a comment for the discussion it sounds like from mr testani this is going to require additional legal interpretation because um it was a big fact of earlier of today's meeting the applicability of remote learning and i am not 100 knowledgeable of this but there are constraints to employees that could work remotely and so to the extent that remote learning did occur um we have to be cautious of making promises we cannot keep um and how we will actually apply and apply these funds before i guess counting all your eggs before they hatch all right fair enough mr scholar if
062you're talking we can't hear you sorry thank you i think this is definitely something that should be referred to finance to be vetted through finance because this issue is going to become become one of emotions while our staff is deserving of compensation the matter isn't is is not could we the matter is should we because every dollar has to come from somewhere that's the funding is not a magical stream of money that comes out of nowhere it is a limited bucket of dollars that go we gotta measure pros and cons cost benefit analysis and that's best done with an unemotional eye through the finance committee because say we got uh price tags i've heard is between one and five million dollars for this one million dollars will pay for what maybe a couple hundred hours
063psychological services for our students that they won't be getting so we will be redirecting money from children to adults and this is something that we really really gotta take a critical eye to not not that the staff doesn't deserve it everybody has worked hard through the pandemic and everybody deserve everybody deserves it's not a matter of deserve it's a matter of ability and i think that but best way to do that is to have a dispassionate eye through finance look at it and decide the pros and cons to refer to the board i think we need we need to have a better grasp of all the answers before we make any kind of informed decision um ms castillo and then mr lombard i just wanted to to make a comment for the record um i
064i also agree of course that um you know our staff and um teachers work very hard during the pandemic um and i do think that we need to critically look at how the numbers pan out but furthermore whether or not this is a proper use of arp s or funds i'm i'm not aware of i know that arp esther has outlined certain areas where the funding should be used and and unfortunately to my understanding i don't think that this is one of the areas that has been outlined so beyond what the cost would be um we also need to see if this is appropriate use of funds underneath the um what has been outlined by the arps or so just keeping that in mind i also feel that um i'm not on the finance committee
065and i would like to to participate in the conversation if it's it's most appropriate in terms of processes to have it outlined in the finance committee and then brought before the board then that's fine but i do think that this is a conversation that needs to be expanded upon and um discussed thoroughly by the board at large thank you that's it mr chair before you go to mr lombard um to mrs castillo's point i did look extensively over the last couple of weeks at the arps or outlines um there is no mention specifically of this the only mention of this is in the arp funds that municipalities receive not boards of education um they talk about that in in that bucket of money it is not spelled out anywhere in our dollars um that's why
066we're trying to get some clarity and the only other local municipality that i'm aware of or board of ed that's doing this and i think it again trying to get clarity from my colleague i think it came from the municipalities bucket of money at stanford and they gave their teaching staff that quali met the threshold um 500 just to give you an idea of that is the only one that i am aware of at this point i'm not sure if others have done the same but again i think that came through the municipality not the board of education uh but i am going to confirm that with my colleague but again it's it's a lot i think you know like you know mr sokolovic said i mean people deserve um but i don't know what
067the parameters are and we need to really be sure because i don't want to have to then take that money if we're wrong from from operating budget because we just don't have there right uh mr lumbar you're on you thank you i i swore i wouldn't do that i just want to make a couple comments and some thoughts that are going through my head one of the things you mentioned mr tastani about how this is going backwards wasn't planned up front and i think about people who possible um objections that could be brought forward with something like this something like this is meant to be a positive thing people who either people who decided not to move forward and maybe could state well if i knew there was going to be a compensation for it
068maybe i would have stayed or people who already retired they did work last year but they're no longer working you know should should they receive it um or or just those types of things i think we have to remember that no good deed goes unpunished and just to keep it in mind as we just as we discussed this obviously the specifics would be discussed through finance but like miss castillo said that the discussion and the decision would come to the full board obviously um i just i think that you know these types of things need to be thought about you think if it makes sense um just keep those in mind for the discussion in the finance committee whether or not i sit in on it or not um talk about all those factors so
069i just wanted to share my thoughts on that well i think to your point one of the reasons why they say a criteria needed to be set forth prior to is because what time frame are we looking um from march 12 through the end of that of school year 1920 we were no one worked in the buildings except for limited staff um mainly food service folks um that were having that direct contact with the public um for the most part um you know so there was limited staffs and clerical staff and things of that nature security staff reported to make sure that you know the the food distribution went smoothly but again not totally interacting um not to say but so we were closed for several months we we paid everyone for the governor a
070full salary um so i guess that time frame should be excluded i mean from a municipal side police and fire still had to report because they they had to keep our our streets and our our community safe so that time period needs to be removed um we reopened in september to in-person learning so you know anyone i guess would be considered then on the front lines from there on forward so we have to establish what time period that includes because anyone who retired at the end of the 1920 school year was not at risk you know those teachers that they never went back to the building so i think you're right there needs to be and that's why i think the criteria should have been discussed well in advance um this makes it hard to
071to go backwards to say who's deserving and who's not because i think everyone's deserving in their own way yeah i think we need to be really mindful that we don't inadvertently do something where we pit one group of employees against another based on their individual circumstances um it's it's not an easy discussion but it's something that i think is detailed enough to be had at the finance level we have a few more hands up the first was mr benahan followed by ms castillo again followed by ms brown so mr bennehan thank you mr chair i'm going to clarify because i'm listening all of you and i want to be sure that it's not money we taking from the children the money in the arpa is for hassle pay that's what i understand it that's what
072i'm searching maybe later we can discuss the situation i'm not saying you can answer me back right now but i'm not great one minute because did you say it before and i agree that we have to bring it to the financial committee but this is funny i don't want you to think that we are taking the money from the kids and later people say oh they're hurting the kids pick up because it's not it's very clear and in the documents it's a lot of information to read in it there and you have to understand and one part you say just a few not few minutes ago was a few seconds ago that nobody when you're walking in a building i want you to unders correct me if i run because that's why you said because
073we i know we got the studying secretary cafeteria what's inside the building so i don't want you know that's what i understand from you and you know i want you to be clear and understand and i'm going to repeat it again and i hope our staff they work very hard and they risk the life they get this money the way it is because it's in the document it's very clear in the arpa no more questions mr chair thank you that's the kind of discussion i would expect to have at the finance level i want to get into that level of detail here yeah i agree i agree with you yeah so next was ms castillo um i i wanted to inquire about the the context in which this was brought to um the board to
074to be an agenda item so so it started um a couple of the unions that we share with the city which is you're familiar with naij yes and afscme that those two unions have members who are city employees and members who are boe employees so it kind of started there with them petitioning the city for this kind of consideration and then it kind of got expanded well we have boe employee members as well so shouldn't we be talking to the boe as well because the city was explaining to them that um you know not all your members are city employees and then from there it segued into the bea because they too are bov employees and the the union leadership requested a meeting with mr tastani mr the mayor's office myself and mr cicalo to
075kind of pitch their case and i explained to them well that's not something that we can make at our level that needs to go to the full board um so i agreed in all fairness to just put it on the agenda so that the full group could consider it i initially thought i would just automatically send it to finance but i figured at least before we do that we could at least have this discussion here and if the group wants to send it to finance then that's what we'll do as opposed to mine doing it so that's kind of how it evolved over the past just a couple of weeks ago so what it was the conversation um within the context of this school year or is it within the context of the whole pandemic
076they didn't they didn't get into that level of specifics they just they wanted something um an attempt was made to try to place some values and i immediately stopped that because this is not like a negotiation this is we'll either do this or we won't this is there's no give or take this is totally within our discretion um so you know when when they started to to try to take the discussion into dollar values and who should or shouldn't that discussion was clipped because that's a discussion we should be having ourselves right and okay thank you so much okay miss brown sorry i'm gonna put my hand down um i think you answered my question um i was kind of on the same lines of miss castillo so thank you yeah okay yeah again it
077was just something that came i don't know for me came out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago i agreed to entertain it and hear what they had to say to see if it was board worthy and i figured just send it to the board and let's all make a decision mr lombard and then mr bennehan thank you i just want to share the thought that's coming to my mind is recognizing everything i'll say that again recognizing everyone every student every staff member every faculty every administrator everyone went through the pandemic and still going through the pandemic and i i i'm not saying monetarily or possibly i'm not saying getting into that but i feel as though you know kind of going back in a different way joe mr cigal but you were talking about
078the students you're giving something to the adults maybe taking away from the students and i know mr bennett was saying those money's definitely spent on the student i'm not clear on that but i feel as though something as a recognition of a of the battle wounds you know of of all of us as opposed to just specifying certain workers with a monetary reward for for their incredible work and this is a thought i wanted to share i i feel like if anything it's stopping and acknowledging in some way a material way but i'm going to share that yeah but one of one of the guidelines for sure for the arp money that the city is allowed to distribute there is a threshold of income eligibility so that that is for sure um so we can't
079even if we wanted to provide everyone a monetary bonus because there are restrictions based on income level um the vast majority of our staff would receive it they would qualify under the arp guidelines just not everyone okay could you i'm sorry go ahead yeah i just want to ask this for just for some clarity since all of this is being discussed obviously on the record uh mr benehan's uh point about the monies can't be spent on the students anyway is that accurate no no so there is i sent everyone a copy of the um summary of ar esser um they're they are different than american rescue plan there's they're one in the same but separate so the the esser dollars have different ties um as you can see when you read it for what is
080allowable expenditures and the vast majority of it is to be spent um on students in student programs um social emotional support there's a specific 20 percent for our l population and our our special needs population uh monies that needs to go into facilities um so there is a breakdown but again different than american rescue plan that municipalities received than on school districts so that's where i think there's some confusion and i think that's why the initial request went to the city folks because that's where those dollars are clearly spent uh spelled out in their dollars that it can be used up to thirteen dollars per hour for those workers not necessarily that amount with a cap of twenty five thousand dollars which obviously is a a very large number but um that is not spelled
081out in our dollars and that's what we need clarity on before the finance committee meeting um is is convenient but to be clear the money could be spent on students and student programs if not well there's it has to be right well i just want to make that clear that it's not in fact if it's spent somewhere else maybe for a worthwhile cause but if it's spent somewhere else it can't be spent therefore on a student program it is you can't do both at the same time that's that's what mr sokolovic was saying correct thank you all right okay yeah thank you mr chair um mr chair and then i don't want me to study we um it's not the way we i mean i just suggest to make um a special meeting with all
082the board members and we talk about this situation with the sustaining before you know you bring it to the financial committee so for me i would suggest to have all the members talk about the situation and everybody be on the same page we can talk we can automate the comments um that's for me prefer that because you know if we're going to be financial uh in the financial committee you know it's only the committee whoever's in the party committee can vote they can talk but i would prefer everyone us though as a board member um sit down and talk more discuss what we're going to do so we can be on the same page so because like i said is prefer and it's fair that all these staff here from brisbane school they work so
083hard they receive this money correctly of course follow the protocol the way it is so i suggest to having a special meeting with the chair you know if you we can do that we'll it will be much better for everyone being the same page no more question i'ma come in with the chair thank you so it was suggested to refer this to finance is there a motion in a second to do that is that in lieu of a special meeting yeah let's get past this first because it was initially suggested to have it referred to finance so somebody's inclined to make that motion let's see how if that gets any energy and if not we'll take it another way no i'm sorry john but i just want to understand so if it does go to
084finance then we're not going to talk about it going to special meeting because it's okay all right it's been referred okay so is there a motion to refer this item to finance so okay move by ms allen i'll say second by miss brown any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye any opposed opposed okay mr benahan and mr lombard opposed motion carries uh before we adjourn um i first want to thank ms brown for getting this started well i worked my way back here through a subway delay i appreciate you starting things on time and moving the ball forward thank you for doing that and i also want to acknowledge uh if i may mr benahan the passing of your mother uh you're my sympathies to you and i'm sure those at the board
085as well it's not an easy loss for those of us that have gone through it and uh you have my sympathy for one second i would like to thank you all the board members so that's me and email me now your support and i appreciate that i will never forget and i know from heaven my mom will bless you each one of you thank you so much i appreciate that okay you're welcome amen is there a motion to adjourn by ms allen is there a second thank you thank you seconded by mr lombard all in favor all right hi any opposed okay meeting is adjourned time is 7 51 pm thank you we'll see you all again everybody good night good night you