Finance committee refers Carver after‑school partnership to full Bridgeport board

The Bridgeport School District finance committee on Oct. 29 referred to the full board an agreement with a nonprofit partner to run an extended‑school‑hours (ESH) after‑school program at Carver, a classical‑studies magnet campus.

Committee chair Jenna Perez described the item as a request to authorize a grant partnership that would continue a program in place since 2018. Staff said the partner organization has previously contributed to the program and that the district seeks to sustain the mix of academic tutoring and enrichment activities for families at Carver.

District staff provided financial context: presenters said the outside partner and related philanthropic support have contributed in prior years (presenters described approximately $700,000 brought to program development over multiple years). Staff also pointed to a Carver budget attachment listing roughly $143,000 to operate the program, of which about $54,000 is shown as partner‑provided funds. Staff told the committee that additional ESH grants this year were distributed competitively and that eight or nine campuses received awards of about $28,000 each; the remainder of funding for the Carver proposal is shown in the package as coming from district Title funds (the transcript reference was "title 4 5").

Committee members discussed the tradeoff between expanding access to multiple campuses and the per‑campus funding level: opening the grant to more schools reduces the amount available per campus, staff said. Hannah (district staff) confirmed that Bridgeport submitted multiple applications this grant cycle and that some historical recipients were opened to competition this year.

After discussion the committee moved and referred the agreement to the full board for approval; one committee member recorded an abstention. No final board action was taken at the committee meeting.

Next steps: the referral will appear on the full school board agenda for approval and district staff said they will continue to coordinate grant uses and partner contributions while tracking potential expansion to additional campuses.