001to get back into your seats okay there is more than one item in the district that goes on every single day with our children in our schools so as the public we should be able to make our public comments on what we would like to and what we desired she was burning in our spirits about our children in the district teachers and the like okay because there's a lot of variables there's a lot of concerns not just the one item that you decide to put on the agenda okay again we're the public we vote for you so it's not fair for a person that just voted for you a few days ago you come up here and say oh i want to speak about something that happened to a teacher or a student and you
002say no it's not on the agenda it's called freedom of speech okay that's our rights thank you welcome it's tasha spell here okay that's the end of public comment we're going to move over the approval of board minutes until we get a quorum so i will move on to the chairman's report um as some or all of you may know we had a loss in the district and i'm going to read this into the record arthur peter ziegler assistant principal at basic high school passed away suddenly on saturday october 31st pete as he preferred to be called was born in springfield massachusetts in october 1970. he was the son of arthur peter ziegler senior and his wife nancy a proud father of three pete spent his life working hard to provide for his family as
003a bridgeport public schools teacher and administrator for the past 25 years he began his career as a teacher at basic high school throughout his career pete rotated between several positions places and titles full circle to return to basic as an assistant principal where he was serving at the time of his passing over the years pete who was a social studies teacher by trade taught a variety of courses including world civilization united states history latin american and puerto rican history sociology and psychology he was also part of an education committee working to revamp the social studies curriculum in grades 7-12 and served as a crucial voice on that team as it sought to meet the moment among his most noteworthy accomplishments over his tenure were his efforts to partner with local colleges and universities for a
004dual enrollment and credit options for high school seniors in 2012 pete and some of his colleagues in the district fostered partnerships with housatonic community college university of bridgeport and fairfield and sacred heart universities officials at those institutions said the programs encouraged students to top off their education with a college degree a true leader at heart pete advanced his education as he worked full time earning a bachelor's degree in history a master's degree in education and a sixth year degree in school administration pete also earned several awards and fellowships as a teacher and administrator from the bridgeport public education fund and the bridgeport rotary club among others and presented on school reform and social justice to the united states department of education apart from education pete is remembered for his love of music his interest in
005history his involvement in helping people with disabilities and his devotion to his wife and children pete will be sorely missed in this community as well as by his family i would seek a motion uh well first we're going to observe a moment of silence in memory of mr zigler okay thank you for your indulgence i'd seek a motion that all district flags be lowered to half staff for the balance of this week until the close of business on friday november 12th yes yeah um we don't have currently have a quorum but i think we can reach a consensus i think we can reach a consensus that would be an appropriate act more ceremonial thing so with that understanding does somebody want to uh move that forward so signify by saying yes yes yes okay is
006everyone in agreement yes yes okay this time you'll make that happen yes okay committee reports and referrals ad hoc district-wide branding initiative ms brown we have not met yet we will meet on november 17th at 5 00 pm at central high school library okay any referrals contracts committee did not meet there was one item that was proposed for us to meet on which is on the agenda but um it's it's such a simple item we didn't think there was a need to meet we just i just put it to the full board educational diversity equity and inclusion dr fabian is not here are there any referrals facilities there was no meeting the next meeting is scheduled for december 1st governance has not met since the last board meeting but i'm going to refer a couple
007of items to this committee one of which ms kennedy is related to public comment and the expansion of um what will be allowed another one will be uh discussion relative to reports that student representatives to the board may give and and what the confines of those reports will be are there any further reports or referrals uh central high school magnet policy type ready for your first presentation what did he say central high school magnet policy okay personnel did not meet any referrals from personnel not at the current time we do have some interviews that begin tomorrow and we also have the posting um for assistant principal at basic high school that was unfortunate okay students and families and hands not here teaching and learning uh i think we skipped over finance too do we do
008finance no is that final rule finance finance yeah financing will be meeting on september 17th at november 7th november 7th november 17th right november 17th at teaching 6pm teaching and learning will be meeting on november 16th at 6pm 16th you said yeah 6pm okay superintendent's report thank you just a couple of items uh worth mentioning this week uh we have um our student success plans those students who have a zello account we have 77 of our students that have completed a student success plan to date and of the college of the high school seniors um 2570 college applications have also been created to date so our school counselors and students are eagerly pursuing higher education opportunities so that is very encouraging post pandemic especially given the year that that these students have been able to
009endure so congratulations to all the students and good luck on those college applications and acceptances um discovery inner district magnet school third grade student gianna fiola was the connecticut elementary division winner of congressman jim hymes's hispanic heritage month essay so uh essay contest so congratulations to gianna for her extraordinary work and her recognition tomorrow evening at harding high school 5 30 p.m please join us as we recognize all the students who participated and submitted artwork that was published in the district calendar this year should be a nice event great to have everybody back in person and on wednesday evening at 6 pm uh rep chief garcia and i will be hosting a public forum uh on safety at harding high school as well so excuse me let the record reflect that ms allen has entered
010the meeting and we now have a quorum and the last two things i'd like to recognize uh mr james kuhn uh teach pe teacher at columbus uh for completing 35 years of service and he'll be retiring effective uh december 23rd and also ms claire master monaco special education teacher who gave 23 years of service who retired affected the first of november okay and that is it for the superintendent's report any questions okay there's no old business to conduct new business there's only one item discussion and possible action regarding contract with riosapp for learner engagement and attendance program who's here to present for that mrs reyes no we have here and a deer is here okay so i haven't run by your eyes it's me i have the contract if you want more information about the
011leap program itself if you do then mrs rocca as we'll be able to do that for you well it was given to all of us um do you want to just give a summary what this is for the general public if you would like that yeah carly so um the learning engagement excuse me attendance program it's a state initiative to address student absenteeism and disengagement resulting from the pandemic so the connecticut state department of education is working collaboratively with the rests the regional education service centers and our risk is ces so we developed a budget um with the funds the federal stimulus funds and the the largest component of the leap is the home visits um so the kennedy state department of education has been providing training for us to use either a community based
012organization or our own staff to conduct home visits so the home visits will enable officials to address other critical needs that are identified such as behavioral and mental health services housing stability child care technology internet connectivity transportation and additional educational support so we are partnering with rayasap so they have a group called public allies and they will be the ones who will be going to the homes to work with the families build relationships make make connections determine any barriers that might be the family might be encountering that is affecting the child's student engagement in attendance it won't be going there to address attendance necessarily but just to work with the family and help them to get their students and the families re-engaged in the schools so there's a state forum as well as an internal
013bridge port form that the home visitors will be filling out they'll be referred by our own student success team and then that information will get back to the student the counselors and the success team so we continue to support the family progress monitor the interventions that have been put into place and hopefully see improvement in engagement and attendance anyone have any questions carly that's me yeah i got a question on the contract portion and um just the dispute resolution process as far as um arbitration in court why can't we do binding arbitration is there a particular reason so this template that i'm using is something that was designed by the city attorney we've been using this for the last couple of years all of our um contracts that require cbo's that is community-based organizations this
014is a template we've been using if there is a desire of the board for us to change that message and you're asking for a binding opportunity i'm just wondering because because after we go into court i mean we could win the case in arbitration and we have a strong case they could take us to court and lead us dry out on lawyers fees but you can actually speak on that the city in general is trying to get away from binding arbitration because their attorneys are more skilled in general practice law rather than very niche niche areas that you might take to binding that you might take the binding arbitration so to the extent possible they'd like their arena is court not the arbitration room so they feel more comfortable and confident in going to court
015than binding arbitration that makes that some extent um as far as could there be any closes put in for like if the loser paid a lawyer fees because a lot of times we settle these cases because we just don't want to pay excess lawyer fees going forward but if we could take that off the table would that be a possibility of anything uh i could certainly bring it back like i said this is a template we've been using from the city attorney's office any changes i will certainly bring it to them if that's the desire of the board well here's i think what the deer is trying to softly say is that i don't we would need to see what the city attorney had to say about making a modification of that nature and if
016we want to wait and let them weigh in and give a reason why something may not maybe should not be changed then we can kick this over for a crew to the next meeting is it something you're really hard and fast on or well we'd like to get going um i'm well i'm only one member but it might be something we want to consider bringing to the city attorney for further contracts because i think we should go look at it going forward at the very least okay but like i if i'm the only one that's really feeling strongly about it right now i'm not gonna put my foot down anything i think we could pass this contract but i think it's something for the future because it could rain in our legal costs in the
017future okay if we have such a condescending contract chair just the question what is the concern on the contract mr goldberg just um we split the course of the lawyers for arbitration and we could go to court but if um we have some sort of cardo that prevents people from making us use our lawyers and paying the expenses and having us settle for a lower amount than our legal expenses would be if they're on the hook for paying the course of the lawyers should they lose and vice versa would be less likely to have frivolous suits going if you forward them not just for the damage but for the also the cost of the legal fees that we might incur right and if that's somehow able to our contract not particularly not particularly so i'll
018make a motion to approve if nobody else has any questions second i'll accept the motion to approve as it stands yes second the move by mr collins second by mr lombard is there any other discussion or questions okay all in favor aye aye the opposed any abstentions okay thank you thank you thank you all right is there a motion to adjourn move by ms brown is there a second okay [Applause] is you