001thank you this is a call to order of the first regular meeting for october the bridgeport board of education today is tuesday october 12 2021 and the time is 6 30 6 35 pm secretary's not here so i will call the roll simple allen albert benahan president bobby brown president spokesman fabian joseph lombard jessica martinez joseph zikolovic chris taylor here and myself john weldon we make five which makes form first on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance we all stand saint pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god with liberty and justice ah okay student representatives present oh you already did this okay ruth cruz hi you are from basic okay from fairchild wheeler we have avery
002flexner hi hi and michael hemmings not here he's not here okay harding high school we have josue frazier this is joshua they need to fix this uh charmaine elliott okay all right welcome guys welcome next on the agenda is public comments there's no public comments to be had approval board minutes first one is september 27 2021 regular meeting is there a motion to prove some of whom i mismoved by mr banahan second by ms brown is there any discussion all in favor aye are you opposed okay i'm saying sir mr taylor abstains he was not present september 27 2021 special meeting minutes is there a motion to approve somehow moved by ms brown is there a second joe seconds is there any discussion all in favor any opposed okay abstain mr taylor upstate i don't
003have anything to report we're going to move on to committee reports and referrals ad hoc district-wide rebranding initiative okay any referrals contracts committee we met um no we did not meet we did not meet any referrals educational diversity equity and inclusion there's nobody here for that facilities facilities met last week we received a report from the director of facilities operations george garcia on the efforts the department had taken to reopen schools it was very impressive uh is there any referrals for facilities yes i have a referral mr chair and like i said and i know we're talking about um um security um situation in what i'm not referring for mom to our facility when with the 10th grade come and that to speak with some situation about they can talk about the what's going on
004safety security budget training the protocol policy sro so i would like to mr craig you know he'll be in charge of the security of bristol school they can give updates you know some information the same way that mr uh mr garcia did it for us in the last meeting please can you email me what you just read yeah of course i'll wait finance did not meet in the interim uh the next meeting will be um wednesday oh wait this promise [Music] so probably um maybe move it to tuesday the 19th after the teaching and learning committee reading any referrals okay next is governance governance met this past monday a week ago monday and they brought forward the two items we have on tonight's agenda one relating to the approval of a new student handbook and
005the other uh first read of a policy regarding live streaming of board and committee meetings are there any referrals oh mr chairman if i may i don't know if it's the appropriate committee but i've uh from some constituents uh as obviously i won't be running again or seeking another term they asked that if we could uh uh modify the bylaws to include uh them to speak about anything related to bridgeport board of education at a public meeting i don't know if that's a governance issue or not it is uh then i'd like to put that on the agenda that uh we can uh change that uh it's very restrictive and parents don't feel like they could come and voice what's going on in their school because it's not on the agenda okay thank you sir
006i agree personnel there was no personnel meeting any referrals for personnel students and families to the family we're going to meet october 23rd 2021 and 5 pm at the central high school library okay any referrals for students and families teaching and learning teacher learning did not meet new terms since our last meeting next video will be tuesday october 19th okay any referrals okay superintendent's report thank you um very brief um just an update as you can see here in the room it's an um air purification systems have been installed in the board room here um phase one all school cafeterias have been completed phase 2 786 classrooms to date have been completed 11 schools remain those remaining 11 schools will be completed by the start of next week and then we will begin as mr
007garcia mentioned phase three um all offices um next week at the end by the end of the month we will have all offices classrooms cafeterias and then some common areas libraries and other areas completed throughout the district for air purification purposes using arps funds last week we held a student success day all students um throughout the district worked on their student success plans i will have an update um at the at the next meeting of how many students uh actually completed their and began their student success plans from last week's student success day a couple of other items october is anti-bullying month uh we will be celebrating uh unity day october 20th um we're asking everyone to wear and share orange to prevent bullying this promote kindness acceptance and inclusion so that would be october
00820 a couple of other items we are currently working to update this district website today we held a meeting with the blackboard who handles um and provides service to our website so in the coming months we'll be spending a lot of time and effort to make a more user-friendly website especially for parents and students to be able to access information in a more condensed and efficient manner so just on the lookout over the next couple of weeks the website will change its look and will make it much more eye-catching and part of the process is rebranding and right up the alley of miss brown's committee with uh brandon so we'll work in conjunction we've already begun to talk to the new director of performing the visual arts and she's working with a team of teachers
009on uh logo well um a couple of items that just need to be just made aware of we are having some issues as is of school districts across the country with supply chain in certain certain items and one of the impacts here in the bridgeport board of education is food and nutrition they're having a difficult time with getting product consistently there's also been because of a driver shortage of loss of vendors that are servicing bridgeport public schools so they're having a much more difficult time in planning monthly menus and being able to hold to those menus so just to make people aware they are working through it there was a social media post last week of a food item at one of our high schools that has been rectified it was the first time that
010the usda provided raw product that had to be cooked and not pre-cooked items so my apologies to the students at harding high school and that is a problem that will not happen ever again at the school or any other school and last but not least i just want to bring your attention um we're just having some issues at athletic events as are some of the other surrounding communities uh we are looking and we will be meeting over the next couple of weeks in uh just improving and beefing up safety and security at athletic events we had an issue at a central basket football game that was unfortunate mostly not caused by the students at either school but students attending from other schools so we are looking at some options new haven public schools recently implemented
011some processes and procedures that would prevent any outside students from other schools to come and cause issues at school events uh mr benham was present yesterday at a soccer game again um there was some just alterations that we could make in our procedures to prevent from some of the uh actions that took place yesterday uh having fans that uh you know on the field or on the field level rather than in the stands and a few things that adults could have done differently to prevent some of the um the poor behavior that that occurred yesterday at the soccer game so uh just to inform those that we will be making some adjustments to protocols as we get uh into the the rest of the football season and then into the basketball season which sometimes becomes
012contentious when we have inner city rivalry games and other than that um i have nothing else to report day okay any questions for mr tustani mr benahan i know you uh like you said i missed the home to study yesterday in the central high school though sucker came lanes i know the team they did a good job you know they worked very hard i know but before that the week before i don't know if you know you know um basket high school win in november um park you know again kobe on cobo high school so you know they win very good and i know yesterday in central high school i know they're lost but uh i just wanna you know shut it down that guy they did a good job and i know after you
013see what happened i hope you know the next time is a little more um professional you know though behaving how to control the team how the fans had to be on the side so we don't have no issues i know you were there within you know turner greg you know some stuff and now the good thing is that everything went well you know the safety and now you stay to the end and i appreciate that you stayed to the end to be sure everything was clear and everybody was going home so i appreciate that what you did obviously thank you thank you mr chair he's brian i don't i don't have any questions but um maybe a suggestion i know recently we lost the student um at central high school and we appreciate the letter
014that you sent um in light of that with the violence that has taken place within our community especially around our young males and just students in general between the fights between the gun violence accidental or on purpose i think our district already in the beginning of the school year has witnessed and has lost prior students and also students that are involved in behaviors that have put a lot of our students lives at risk i would i guess my question is and even some of the high school students you guys are aware of a lot of happening because you guys are in the building what could we do not only just for the social emotional side of it but also to to continue to create safe spaces for our students within the district so that this
015number doesn't rise um and i don't know if you already are working on something but i it's a little depressing and i you guys probably will agree it's depressing to see students lose classmates and you know just from the year you know in itself with everything that's going on um i think it's something that we ought to you know listen to or entertain or have a conversation a roundtable something because it's hitting home to a lot of our students even more now with this whole culvert situation so so that was been a topic today with student support staff leadership and building principles especially at the high school and we're going to plan some events to be able to address some of the behaviors that have been observed early on in the school year as well
016as put an outreach of support line you know of a line of support to students who may be struggling um and right now do not have the either the courage or the um you know being new to the high schools may not know who to reach out to so we are in the planning stages again today was another tragic day that a senseless act caused the loss of a life here in the bridgeport school so we supposed to do something in trying to plan what we can do for the student after school i know before we have someone sports stuff like that but one of the point is we trying to help other students after school they can be some sport people help them listen to them you know have something they can get busy
017i know how to they will be out more on the street not be in the street like the way that you you got my point so i know we have it's a it's a process but i know we can do something for all these preschool school have programs and i know people that will help you and help us to be sure all this could be industry after school they bring in another program electing you know sport things you know and i know that will help them a lot with that right so all schools are in the process of planning extended day programs not all of them entail sports we know that we would like to incorporate the arts music and other opportunities for all students to have an opportunity to participate in after school activities
018so schools are in the process of submitting those applications for their extended day programs we're also looking at from a district perspective um an arts and music academy that will be roll out later on in the fall available to all high school students who wish to participate right here and what it'll be hosted at harding high school because of the new facility there but students from all the schools will have transportation to and from similar to what we have with the rca program this will give more opportunity for kids to participate that go to all our high schools and i know i know it's a process because not from one day though it's not going to be fit but i know it's really good to start start i know high schools but it started from
019elementary school so when they get in high school this kid they enjoy more to be in uh you know right now all the schools are are planning extended day programs every high school every school excuse me in the district including the high schools that's good thank you okay where else how about you folks you have any questions for mr testani okay i didn't see it okay okay anything on what he said anything okay mr uh i i did notice one thing and uh not to be pain i noticed that when the superintendent speaks the camera zooms into him but when mrs brown speaks it doesn't zoom into her when i speak it doesn't zoom into me i think that's a little biased not not directed at the superintendent but why is the highlight and the
020focus on the superintendent only and not any one of us who have campaigned and gotten elected i just find it a little offensive i didn't see it i don't know how my colleagues feel about it but i just watched miss brown talk and the camera did not go to her i just watched mr benehand speak the only time the camera zooms in is on the superintendent i don't think it's fair i don't know how my colleagues feel i can't see it i didn't realize i'm not casting stones i'm just bringing it to my colleagues attention here's here's what i would say who's operating the i.t dr oz if you would uh either if you have the ability to zoom in on every speaker um just in fairness i would appreciate do that if that's not
021a capability you have because of angles i would say just leave it leave it that's to the library mr chairman if that's with my colleagues i just don't think it's fair okay as long as we have a understanding thank you this is like our second time doing there's only a certain amount of preset uh locations we can put the camera yeah that's why so then that's in that scenario just leave it like this that's it just don't do it all right thank you thank you appreciate it there's no old business to conduct we have new business four items first one is discussion possible approval of uh fairchild wheeler campus aero hydro space field trip to 2021's name maritime convention mr livingston and board members and um superintendent um i apologize for the tardiness of this
022i've been negotiating with the society of um naval architects marine engineers since august trying to get the price down to something reasonable they wanted all the students to be student members at 85 and to attend and i got it down to 50 which will cover the food and some of the activities what we're doing uh it's up in providence rhode island it'll be a day trip we'll leave at 7 o'clock in the morning get back at five we bring in 10 students i'm going to go myself as well as my teacher that teaches naval architecture it's an ability to branch out to the universities and other companies up in the area it's held annually this is the closest it's been since one in new york about 12 years ago so it's an opportunity for our
023students to see some of the industry and be able to do some networking okay um anyone have any questions yes mr scala yes um how are the ten students selected and how many um bridgeport residents versus uh outside residents coming uh i selected the 15 students mostly seniors and juniors based upon how well they had done in the naval architecture program and their interests and talk to base with the counselors i have no idea i don't look at those those numbers but but roughly um one of our board of representative reps who's here was a bridgeport resident i was one of the students selected to go she's home studying for the sat i would say somewhere 60 40ish range but 60 of them being bridgeport students i don't know the exact numbers uh once i
024get all the permission slips in uh i'm still collecting them i can inform the board if you desire sir yeah just like like going forward with all the trips especially at our interdistrict schools i'd like to make sure it's like equitably distributed not to say that involves people just just something to keep an eye on in today's times and another question uh you said you're taking us how many people does the bus see this bus seats 14 people including the driver i'll be their driver we have a 14 passenger a school bus i'll bring bringing a female the teachers in naval architect is a female staff member so we'll have a male and female chaperone along with the students the ratio is actually about 50 50 student female to the male um students that have
025been selected um but it gives us the opportunity to do that make sure everyone stays safe sir drives a little over two hours you can't you can't get a regular school bus like spread out the kids a little more so yeah because um when our students get on the bus they drive go normally go into cover protocols they're going to school 10 15 minutes on the bus tops and bus is a little bigger there's more space but 10 10 students on uh four 12 12 people on a 14 student bus that doesn't need much time no much space that doesn't need much air circulation people who fought to keep the schools closed for coverage to really understand the safety protocols as far as the students have it i can get a quote and look at
026the price of the bus i'm trying to keep the cost down for everyone's interest the district will cover the cost of it understand sir thank you very much thank you okay anyone else albert thank you mr chair um like to know about how ever did the process about the club 19 the kids have a vaccinate you know i don't want when they go they come back or something happen uh you have a plan about what's going on but they'll help 19 kids and the staff i mean my the safety plan sir yes we have a safety plan and you know all this stuff going to mass you know the protocol the policy everything together absolutely i actually have the rhode island state police in my phone in case something i'm playing this that's very exciting
027we're able to pull this off if you guys approve this there'll be a real feather in the student's cap to get that exposure all right thank you mr chairman just addressed mr penny he's a former naval submarine commander he's top shelf just so i know everybody's concerned but i believe that man is more than competent and his staff is more than competent to conduct this field trip in a safe environment for his students i i've met him i met him personally i've seen in school top shelf yeah i understand me i'm at the table but i just want to know because parents ask questions so i just wanted the parents when they maybe they asked questions no no i'm saying but i'm just telling you you know what you tell me so but to be
028sure the parents they know how professional he is they have everything a safety plan for everyone well why don't we have a rattle office curricular vitus real quick and you can impress everybody is it it deserves to be impressed all right so if you would please tell us your background so they they are blessed with the information that would feel secure trusting your children on a way to the naval architectural academy in rhode island all right um thank you very much mr teller i'm very flattered now i've i entered education in 2004 after um 23 years uh in the naval submarine field um i'm a marine engineer by my background i was a member of society american uh naval architects and marine engineers and actually they i got a scholarship for them while i was
029at the university picked up about five thousand dollars of my tuition cost um i'm very proponent to get this program up and running i have a good partnership with the course gas students doing internships there um paid internships uh very lucrative and they're getting employed by sikorsky i really don't have any connections right now with the marine industry with the exception of electric boat and they're not interested in our students doing summer internships yet i'm hoping to get something a little bit closer and the exposure for our students to see the universities that have programs for them to be successful i have one four students right now studying those those fields that are prior graduates thank you thank you good to know and we're very proud to have you in the district we just clarified
030the record that was a flattery it was respect yes sir i appreciate that i appreciate the support of the board for for my students and myself and for the programs we have here in the district thank you thank you please student reps you have any questions about this no okay this is we're doing this because any time a field trip out of state is proposed the board needs to approve it we don't typically approve every field trip but because this is out of state we need to step in a little bit yes so i'm going to entertain a motion to approve the fwc aero hydro space field trip to the 2021 steam maritime convention second moved by mr benahan second by ms brown any further discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye opposed okay
031great job have a good time okay discussion possible approval of new student handbook michael testani as was discussed at the governance meeting last week a lot of time and effort was placed into updating the student handbook it had been several years the majority of the work done around the handbook was updating the attendance protocols that now focus on chronic absenteeism and less on truancy for a number of reasons number one is that state law has changed and students that have 20 unexcused absences are no longer referred to family court most of our multi-tiered student support is included in our restorative practices and um the major change was uh when offenses um of discipline are doled out there's now much more leeway given um on the behalf of students whereas in the old handbook if a
032student committed ex-offense they needed to be because they must be suspended a certain number of days to the offense the most language has all been changed to may so that in an instance for example one student who may have a recurring uh discipline issue that doesn't seem to be rectified with certain supports may get a suspension for an offense another student may make commit the same offense but it's their first time and administration will have a little bit more leeway and how they would provide restorative opportunities in that instance rather than have to suspend the students so it passed through the governance committee and now we're looking for full approval so it can be implemented um immediately through the uh 21-22 school year okay any questions yes go ahead um so you said you're going
033to redo the website making the student handbook more easily accessible honestly would be great because i personally have no cluertis it's hard for us to find it so there will be an icon right across on at the top of the fold as they called it i was educated on some of the terminology on the website design uh that will stay student handbook a message here um sorry um i wasn't at that meeting but i just i don't i don't know if this would delay it or whatnot but does the students have a say in the handbook because the students have a say in the handbook a lot of the stuff uh in the handbook is either statutory or um again that's why we removed the word must so every student will be treated in a
034restorative manner not in a punitive manner so could i make a suggestion if not this year possibly whenever we revise it again if this is not if this changes throughout the year if we could have a component where students could have a say in the rules that they have to be governed by because some of it you know it may open up your eyes to something from a student's perspective at some of the things that are being created that are either going to reprimand them or reward them it would be cool to just have them you know be a part of it sure taylor had your hand uh i i carry a flip phone so technology is not my strong point um as the student had suggested making accessible suit is it possible to get
035an app for their smartphone where they could just hit the hit the smartphone if i'm using the proper verbiage where it's an app they can go right to the students so one of one of the uh reasons for the new web design is to make the mobile version of it much more user-friendly so this is what with the new design of the website the mobile version will be much more accessible to the icons that we're going to the superintendent if i may you and i are both in our 50s you look much better than i do so that'll deal to you but uh as uh as i don't they're millennials or younger everything's an app i mean i just hear from my kids oh it doesn't have an app i don't want to eat there
036so would it be the bridgeport board event it will be an app and when they click on it they can download the app like like google play or instagram or whatever whatever it is i apologize if i'm speaking out of turn but in regards to the young lady's suggestion and the rest of the student body everything's an app am i wrong is that you guys like apps i mean is that you know app to me is appetizer i mean i like appetizers i'm good um so that that would just be my suggestion if it's not a giant expense or inconvenience to our i.t department to to have a downloadable app where they can have it on their phone because most people have a phone um and be able to hit it and say okay i
037can't do this i can do that and they're well informed and a well-informed student is a good student thank you okay yes and then hopping on that even creating the my bps portal for the students creating that as an app too would be helpful unless it is already i have no clue if it is or not but just that whole portal for the students having to log in each time but having it as an app on your phone that would save so much time yeah you should speak up now right here it's time the app makes life easier is that something um we can include already and the communications that we've already put out for the parents could that be something that piggybacks for the students so this way you don't have to recreate something
038brand new parent square app will be for students and parents as we start to roll it out so we are beginning phase two of the rollout uh could that be on it because we don't have to recreate it i can ask how that how that information will be distributed but as far as the uh what icons will go above the fold we will be asking students um what are the icons that and parents that they utilize the most in order to put those there we do have about six to eight choices we can put in addition to the drop downs but we'll also be making the drop downs a little bit more user friendly not just a whole list of things when when they click over it um it's expanding the width and the view
039of the of the website because right now if you look there's a lot of wasted space that was what triggered my um my frustration especially during the covid pandemic and putting notifications that you had to do too much scrolling down now it'll be more scrolling across um so we're really going from an eight-year-old website to a state-of-the-art 2022 website and even if you wanted to get the students involvement since i'm i t school this is kind of stuff we're learning so i'm sure we can also give advice on like what we're learning and how we can input stuff and help out with the app or website making okay thank you mr scholar oh yeah a couple questions like was this posted to the website not yet it can't happen yeah but we had said at
040the last meeting that we're going to put up so that people could see it and have it because we weren't going to really read through the whole thing and also was it part of the student's packing and everything's in the students back but i got to say i'll tell you how to copy it to something look at this new student handbook and i already have the time you know i read the whole thing and what i'm on everything's important but i would like to buy the uniform policy doesn't mean it's going to be after we prove it it's going to be mandatory that we're going to be following the uniform policy for the schools you know what's going on you know in that situation uniform policy hasn't changed i know um if you're talking about
041the enforcement of the uniform policy i mean coming out of the covet pandemic i'm sure that there's other things that right now that schools are more concerned with than the uniform policy itself um that is something that i would love to have a discussion around and having student input on that because i think they would have a lot to say about how they would prefer to move forward and how they can dress for school yeah i agree you know from the roundtable discussions that i've had over the last couple of years with students uniform policy as it stands is not something that they are in favor of they all seem to be very um very much a proponent of a dress policy and not a uniform policy but i can defer to my four young
042people over here who currently have to abide by it and see how their friends and classmates dress each and every day and you know get their opinion here tonight but i think that's a bigger conversation that would include maybe a survey to parents and a survey to students on what they would like to see or or keep the current policy as is i ask you this because i know years back we have some issues something in the school that another student come from other schools or you know to another school and you don't identify because of the uniform because they come regular you know dress you know sometimes they don't dress the way you're supposed to be proper to come in high school so it's not about safety to see what's cooling and what's cool
043is that the student so i'm just worried about that so and like i always say apparently something i say about the uniform and stuff like that but if they have money to buy the pro 12 cell phone iphone calls a lot of money i believe they can afford to buy you know that's my opinion into a uniform so i just want to bring it that part uniform policy for you joshua would you like to say on this topic sir i mean honestly um being like in middle school like a big part of like me going to school and all that was like ming trap proper uniform like proper colors all that and like for me it stressed me out and like from like freshman year like not even like playing uniform like yes no stress
044on me anymore like i'm not anxious about anxious about it like pressing this doing that so like putting in like a uniform policy to me anyways but especially for freshmen we'll just like stress them out on top of everything that's already going on with you know first professional like being stressed out and stuff you know so you would be more in in favor of a dress code rather than a uniform yeah exactly and i think having the students develop the dress code would be yeah with some input on what is a little bit too far uh but i think you know i would trust what you guys would have to say in your classmates in terms of what would be more most appropriate to wear to school so are we sending this back to committee
045no no this is this somehow turned into a side display i think that clothing and addendum is yeah all right so can we uh make a motion to uh baptist yes adoption policy made by mr taylor is there a second second second by ms brown all in favor aye are you opposed any abstentions we got a new handbook next item is discussion impossible i'm sorry first read and discussion of policy regarding live streaming of board and committee meetings this is something i put together because we started streaming during covid and then when we came back to in-person meeting we continued to stream but we didn't really have anything that put some parameters around it i'll just read it's a really short draft policy live streaming of meetings all regular special and committee meetings will be
046live streamed however meetings called with 48 hours or less notice may not be live streamed due to staffing or other logistical difficulties does anyone have any questions mr taylor uh mr chairman uh my objections our our live streaming is uh on numerous occasions when we live streamed the somebody had discretionary power to take our meetings down and off the website and off you do um that is not uh fair and equitable when it was not ct 61 or whatever channel i apologize um it couldn't be taken down it was there it was a permanent record on more than one occasion our meetings were taken down that were simulcast i apologize i don't know the proper term um if if it's going to be live stream this should be live streamed if the staff can't get
047here get new staff um if we're going to represent the public we need to represent the public in every meeting not just selective meetings not giving somebody an out because they don't want to be on the tv that night if we're going to have a meeting and we are a public organization i represent the people as in my colleagues if we're going to represent the people and we terminated the the husband and wife that ran the camera that were here faithfully and dedicated servants to the bridgeport board of education for years and we're going to take on this new technology which i'm all for there has to be it's got to be any time we meet unless it's executive session um and it cannot be taken down um it cannot be at the will of
048the chairman or the superintendent to remain filed footage they personally and i'm not saying you guys did it may be happy with or someone else is not happy with that's that's my objective to it i don't mind the technology um as long as the camera distribution is equal and equitable to all people here thank you so i think the 48-hour issue came play when some meetings were requested to be had on relatively short notice and it was difficult to find to get the staff to be at the meeting so there's two ways we could do it i mean you you could say that um you know no no like no committee meeting will be called with less than 48 hours notice or something else i mean i just don't want us to be in a
049position where let's say there's some emergency we have to have a special meeting and there's nobody from i.t who's able to do it i mean well mr chair just to clarify for mr taylor i think live streaming and recording and posting it we are going to record all meetings and post them the live streaming never occurred prior to the technology those the husband and wife were only recording and then posting later so that would always occur if i may rebuttal mr chairman through you um my concern is the ability to edit discard um we represent a public office if we're going to do this let's do it and do it properly and be equitable to the bridgeport residents of bridgeport parents i don't think it's proper protocol for this party to have access to the
050video footage after it's been shot and leave it subject to question because people question people question integrity so why create a problem that we don't need to have we didn't have that problem when we had the husband and wife team doing a video on the cable network it was not accessible to any one of us so if we're going to take this let's just stream it live people can record it do whatever but not at the discretion of certain people to be able to put up take down edit and so on and so not saying that anybody would but i want to limit any doubt to people that are skeptical that live in bridgeport so you're saying you don't want it necessarily recorded and posted you just want it streamed and and people who are
051watching it if they want to record it i do think we're on the same page if we streamed it and you and the general public has the ability to catch the raw footage as it's shot and then we keep a backup file for later i'm sure but there can be no question from the public oh hey they they monkeyed with the tape they altered the cassette i just don't want to be put in that position and i would advise you gentlemen you don't want to be put in that position either it protects everybody on that and it gives a sense of security to the parents of the people watching the meeting if they watched it live nobody can alter that video after that i just i'm just a little confused so i i understand what
052you're saying but i also think too that the archive the actual posted part is what a lot of parents go to after the meet and it's over so yes we don't want it to be tainted but if it's already streamed then it should be posted right after okay is that what we do okay but as long as it was streamed and then posted okay they had an opportunity to see it live where there can be no question okay one once we take it into our archive or our file and we have custody of it people couldn't question that so if we stream it in 48 hours you want to post it or put up i have no problem the parent wants to review it i have done my diligence as a board member to provide
053live footage that cannot be questioned and my other question or if i'm hearing you correctly is that you said 48 hours so if it's an emergency meet and we wouldn't live stream but it wouldn't happen you know when the meeting gets called whoever calls it needs to understand that there may or may not be an ability to do it they'll try to do it but if it's only two days from now and they just can't find can't get nick because he had no he had no notice mr chairman if i may then you you may you may be told look we can't find nick we're not going to be able to stream it mr chairman threw you to miss brown uh my concern is there happens to be an awful lot of emergency meetings in
054bridgeport and special meetings that the public is not entitled to speak at that people don't really pay close attention to so what i my objective here is to eliminate any skepticism from the public of what's going on in a special meeting so if all of a sudden we there's something that somebody doesn't want brought to the light oh my god it's an emergency we got to do it and we can't videotape it you can't speak and the public's left i'm not saying that's going to happen or it does happen i just want to prevent it from happening or giving anybody the obligation to say this is why you did xyz i've been in politics for four years now i see the way things get done and the way games are played and i don't want
055to be part of it thank you my my one second my concern is that you know staff is going to potentially get in trouble because they didn't have the ability live stream a meeting because it was called so last minute and they they scrambled they just couldn't put it together and now they're going to get in trouble because of that we'll turn around either if that is the concern um maybe that's a staffing issue that is that part of the job requirement to do to do your job i mean these teachers show up in inclement weather and go through hell and high water to get to their classrooms you're telling me my rit department can't rise with less than 20 it's technology i mean i don't know a lot of whatever it looks like you
056hit a button so uh all super principals the custodians the security officers the teachers the cafeteria everybody else is held to a high standard in this education department and they fulfill it and yet now all of a sudden rit department can't do anything about 48 hours or 24 hours notice they should be there like that their it you can't wait for it you need i.t your blackboard's down or your whiteboard's up you need i.t so to hear that we're worried about 48 hours uh id department you got the wrong board remember sir yeah i might go for a suggestion i had i had a lot of the same concerns with the taylor does and a lot of the same concerns you did with the calling the meetings and definitely if we don't have i.t and
057there's a meeting called we can't call that meeting without violating the bylaws um the work might need to be done because of appointment we're changing the law by law right now to have this here right we're talking so help right yeah so how about if a meeting cannot be live streamed or done in this manner we don't no no we do it um we go we go remote because this um the superintendent's staff has the ability to livestream us as we did through the whole covert the whole pandemic so if we just add that to it that would i think satisfy all concerns of everybody here this way that satisfies me chairman so you're saying that if they don't have the ability to live stream in a meeting room for a staffing issue that the
058meeting will be called remote i think this really is only if it comes down to a special meeting if well no because we have committee meetings right but if committing me as a committee chair you should be able to call your meeting far enough in advance there is no emergency meeting where necessary for the students and families or the ad hoc committee or governance if you don't know with within a week i'm going to call a meeting next week that's just common courtesy for the members of the committee and the staff and nick does this pro bono we had that conversation at the i think you should address that separate issue the remote okay so here's what i'm gonna do this was only a first read i'm gonna is the chair you had something else
059yes how many people in the idea department work right now i believe total with the academic support team but not everyone has the um capability of running this live stream and and that's you know other folks are not they have union contracts they have other things that um but that's it's not an issue we can we can we have a remote option that we can that's what i'm saying this is this seems to because if it's an emergency maybe not everyone can be there including board of ed members we're sitting here with five board of ed members on a regular regular scheduled meeting okay officer mr chairman and through youtube and rebuttal to the superintendent i just had one of our dedicated security officers come out here and tell me about how to run this
060system so we have a security officer who's a security officer not an i.t guy telling us how to run the system so obviously he's very capable of running the system so anything you guys have just said is completely moved so ah right just we've come to a workaround okay i i like brown's idea that's great so i'll modify this again this is only a first read that's why we do it as a first and second so we get this kind of input so i'll modify this to include that and we'll bring it back at the next meeting okay next on the agenda just in time discussion possible approval of collective bargaining agreement between the bridgeport board of education and the bridgeport council of administrators and supervisors i believe attorney dugas is here here there we
061go i believe a summary of the contract was emailed to everybody today yes mr chairman is there anybody here uh to represent the uh be cast i don't believe so but this is uh they approved this on their side there's nobody here nobody's commenting on their end we're not gonna hear it straight from their mouth but they were happy with it they sent an email that said they approved it okay which is why he's here and now it's our turn okay attorney thank you this is my gun there we go does anybody need a summary i had sent it around earlier i have copies if anybody needs one i don't need one okay so um very briefly um we settled the contract with the bridgeport council of school administrators and supervisors otherwise known as be
062cast as you all know that includes the principals the director supervisors who are certified the contract is for a period beginning july 1 of 2022 and it goes for four years essentially the terms of the agreement provides for a two percent general wage increase to the stop top step of the salary scale and then anybody who is not at the top step advances a step on the salary scale so if you're a two you'd move to three that would be your increase until you got to the top step and then you got the two percent you get the two percent general wage increase i've given you the total cost of those in the summary that i distributed on health insurance currently the be cast members pay either 27 of the cost of health insurance or
06329 depending on whether they were hired before or after 2014 we hold it at that number for the first year of the contract and then each year thereafter it goes up by 0.5 percent topping out at 28.5 and 30.5 which is for the public sector is on the higher side uh not inconsistent with other city of bridgeport contracts but uh certainly on the high side one of the other changes we made in health insurance um currently they pay 15 of the cost of dental and we've changed that so they'll make the same contribution that they make for medical the 27 or 29 and so forth so the district will reap some savings in that regard there were uh a few um what i'll call language changes um one of which was a proposal that the
064superintendent had put forth i'll let him speak for himself if he wishes but basically it was to define more clearly the period of time in the summer where administrators had to be around when they could take vacation so that if he needed to get a hold of somebody he needed to pull together elementary principles or whatever it was he had a period of time where he knew where they were and also providing certainty to the public and to teachers if they needed to reach out so that was a specific modification that the superintendent sought to have a better dialogue in management of his staff the there's also a provision which is common in collective bargaining agreements that says if you get um injured uh in addition to workers comp the school district will pay you
065the difference make you whole excuse me mr chairman point of clarification i apologize mr dugan this is a discussion and possible approval of the con is it your position that uh you said be cast is in an agreement to approve it is it the superintendent's will that this is a good contract for the board of education i think it's a good contract you're an agreement to it well so we're not here to renegotiate the contract we're just here to prove it i call the question let's approve the contract uh make a motion to approve the contract and get attorney dukas out of here if we're not going to negotiate in terms it should all have been done in committee this is an approval i call the question i make a motion too well i call
066the question so let's have a vote let's see if we're going to move on because i have to get going if i leave it breaks the quorum so do you have a whole lot more to say no the only other thing i i would add is that we just added clarity right now the contract language was we would pay the difference and then proportionately charge them for sick time we've just made it clear that it's they'll be charged a third of a day and then the only other change was we increased their bereavement allotment from three days to five but also clarified old language was anybody in the household and we've clarified and limited that to spouse child in-laws etc so that's really in a nutshell and i'm happy to answer any questions mr scott
067you got a question uh yeah how did we come to the 2 number is that all they wanted or did they ask for more well like any other negotiation they asked for more um we landed there um and uh you know frankly that two percent with the cost of step was in the ballpark of where other administrator contracts are settling so that's happening and does and um are we now on parity with other districts around the system with the for our administrators fees uh i i believe you are yes especially those that are in the group four um the 10-month assistant principles um the disparity between their starting pay and the top step of a teacher was very limited at the end of the four years uh they will get a sizable increase and really
068separate themselves from the teacher's top step okay yeah that's end um yeah thank you and point album something mr taylor you are correct this is political i just wanted to point out how negotiations are supposed to happen nobody just drops a large number oh boy is there emotional proof mostly to approve second second by ms brown moved by mr taylor all in favor aye are you opposed all in favor motion to adjourn okay we're done thank you okay