As per Public Officers Law, Article 7, § 103-a (Videoconferencing by public bodies) although board members Becky Peters and Tara Gore are not present in-person for this meeting, they are attending via videoconference from locations posted on the public meeting notice/agenda and open to the public; they are therefore considered to be in attendance for purposes of quorum and are permitted to vote. In addition, board member Jennifer Sammartino-Mallen is in attendance via videoconference from a location not posted on the public meeting notice/agenda and therefore not open to the public; she is therefore not counted toward quorum and is not eligible to vote at this meeting. 

QUORUM IS MET FOR THIS MEETING.

M. Harmon-Vaught stated that this is CEO T. Castanza's last meeting with the Board in his capacity as CEO which is a really big occurrence and he just wants to say personally, what a remarkable experience it's been for 5 years getting to work with you, the school, and this community that you've shaped. A place that you have truly imagined into being, and a community of children and families you've loved and cared about and supported and advocated for, not just within the community, but across Staten Island, across New York, and in the world beyond. You've seen the importance and the distinctiveness of the work we do, even within education where all the work is important. That's a mission that's been deeply inspiriting to me. It's the reason I come back every month. And I just want to say thank you, and there will be many more moments to say thank you but I just wanted to speak that tonight. I'm incredibly grateful for the leadership that has made all of this possible, and that that is always with us, even if you're not physically with us.

T. Frey added that she wants to thank T. Castanza for providing a space where kids feel loved and welcomed, seen and heard. Where that hasn't always been the case for them. They know that regardless of what their disability is, that people in this building care for them and are helping them learn and grow. And that is definitely because of the leadership that you have provided to staff. Also, personally, I loved the opportunity to come back into a school building. And I thank you for making me feel welcome. Making me feel useful again. And giving me the time to do things that I love in service of other educators to allow them to do what they love to do. I know that a lot of it was because of the leadership that you provided and the modeling that you did for your staff that everyone is open to feedback, everyone is a lifelong learner. So I just want to thank you for giving me a place where I feel like I belong, too.

C. Caputo stated that she's excited to join the Board but it's bittersweet because as she's hopping on, T. Castanza is hopping off from the school.  She continued: I'm so thankful to all of you, and I'm so thankful to Bridge Prep, and I truly mean what I said a while back that there's not enough I could truly do to thank Bridge Prep for how much it's changed my child's life, and other children's lives. So, I think of acts of service, and being on the Board is just one way that I can give back. I don't know if it would ever be enough because I'm so grateful to the school. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to learning the ropes, and I'm really excited to be with everybody.

M. Harmon-Vaught responded that we are very glad to have you aboard.

M. Harmon-Vaught stated that this is a topic that was an initial goal of ours at the start of the year, and it's something that we named as a priority and had discussed prioritizing for enrollment, recruitment and retention of students. He then gave the floor to T. Castanza.

• T. Castanza said we are fortunate that we have a team that has been thinking about and continue to think about enrollment, recruitment, and retention as an annual effort that happens not just once, but all year round. Two of our team are at this meeting tonight: Fahron Ebanks, our Director of Strategy, and Joanne Dembinski, our Media and Recruitment Coordinator. Two staff members who have been with us for a really long time, and who will walk us through this deep dive into student enrollment, recruitment and retention. It's important when you're recruiting students and engaging families that you have people who have been with the school a long time and know who you are, what you do, and what makes you special and can communicate that in a way that resonates with families. We prepared some data that we want to share with the Board tonight. This is the time of year when the admissions process is just getting launched. So you can see where we are now. He then gave the floor to F. Ebanks to speak about the current situation, to be followed by J. Dembinski to cover some of the things that are on the horizon for the spring.
• F. Ebanks shared maps and charts showing STUDENT ENROLLMENT DATA by home zip code, gender and grade. We've increased our Brooklyn student residents by almost double; last year, we had 7 Brooklynites in our midst, and now we have 12. Our gender breakdown hasn't shifted much at all, but our grade shift is that we had 4 sections of 4th grade last year, and this year we only have 3 sections but we have increased our kindergarten section to 2. Our total enrollment numbers are a little lower this year at this current moment, but we still have the section count that we look forward to. She then shared graphs indicating data of student enrollment by race and then comparative data on race with the other Staten Island charter schools and DoE District 31 schools. T. Castanza added that all the data that F. Ebanks is sharing with us tonight is helpful when our charter renewal time comes because this is data that NYSED collects every year. We can look at the data that students provide in their registration and in our student information system that gets reported on the NYSED website. We are able to track from year to year the numbers that are going up and down to see trends. We have been intentionally targeting zip codes serving a high number of English language learners (ELL) with student admissions information based on NYSED's request to outreach to ELL students. We are able to show that in addition to what we do on Staten Island, we're also reaching out to ELLs outside of our borough. F. Ebanks then shared more student enrollment data in the categories of: Economically Disadvantaged, Students with Disabilities, Siblings and English Language Learners for Bridge Prep as well as comparatively with the other Staten Island charter schools and DoE District 31 schools.
• J. Dembinski gave an overview of the STUDENT ENROLLMENT TIMELINE with a graph indicating projects and events from April 2025 through August 2026, including the student admission lottery, Family Nights, Open Houses and informational tours, targeted marketing campaigns, website redesign, marketing materials, billboards and mailers, etc. She gave an details of each area and said that we have rolling student admissions all the way up until December because we're still filling seats, some students back out, or they move, and a seat opens up. So we're continuing to work on that and we will continue to do school tours upon request. She then spoke about the MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS that our school has with the following companies: Finalsite Media (website platform), SchoolMint (digital advertising & application platform), SI Chamber of Commerce (billboard), SI Parent Magazine/Schneps Media (print & electronic media campaigns), SI Media (custom SEO & local displays), Smartlite (mail advertisement rental) and Vanguard (distribution of marketing mailers). She gave details on what each company does for Bridge Prep and although we partner with all these media companies her focus is on what we get back from those partnerships and to make sure we're getting the biggest bang for our buck. Our contract with SI Media is up for renewal and she has some questions to discuss with them, before considering renewal. We'll have more information on that after we meet with them next week. We have some reservations about whether we should continue with them because we haven't seen the yield as much as we'd like. They gave us some analytics to go over before we decide. 

A question and answer session followed each section of the presentations.

M. Harmon-Vaught thanked F. Ebanks and J. Dembinski for sharing that deep dive, which was really thoughtful. It's exactly the kind of meaty topic that we want to have discussions on and it's great to have you join us this way to walk us through as experts doing the work on the ground. It's really important, and we're eager to partner with you. T. Frey added thank you also for the invitation to the Open House. Please keep inviting the Board members to events. If you give us those dates ahead of time we can all clear our calendars to attend.

T. Frey gave the following report on the Academic Committee meeting held on January 12, 2026:

• PRINCIPAL'S ACADEMIC UPDATES: Principal Livingston presented to the committee some of the work that they have been doing with the staff, including work with SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) and creating focus groups. A screener was given to 2nd graders through 5th graders; they also looked at Tier 2 behavior-identified students to see their specific needs. The specials teachers and the social workers facilitate these Tier 2 groups who meet weekly for about 30 minutes. The Art teacher incorporates art therapy and the Music teacher incorporates music and movement into the group, so the students aren't just sitting still, they're actually doing tactile, active learning. They're looking to see if there's a sense of self-efficacy and self-regulation in students after participating in these groups. It's based on the CASEL framework, and there are 50 SEL lessons by author David Harris that the teachers are using. They're going through 6 cycles of 3 weeks each. 
• STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT: Principal Livingston also presented a winter State of the School Report that had been presented to the staff. It was the second one of the school year. They had team-building activities for staff where teams created their North Star and they shared with us those North Stars, some of which are posted around the building. Teachers did a crosswalk to their Phase 2 instructional template looking for which competencies need continued focus, so there was some self-reflection. We reviewed again the overall goals of the school. They presented a similar State of the School Report at a Town Hall meeting with families a couple of weeks ago. She then asked Principal Livingston if there anything she wants to add before she moves on to the Grade Team Leaders meeting; Principal Livingston replied that was everything that we discussed during the Academic Committee meeting.
• GRADE TEAM LEADER MEETINGS: They shared the agenda of a Grade Team Leader meeting. A Grade Team Leader is a teacher who represents a particular grade and shares items the principal has asked them to share with the other teachers on that same grade. Principal Livingston discussed the QRs (Quality Reviews) from Spring 2025 and Fall 2026 to look for areas of growth or where items remained unchanged. They modeled close reading strategies for students, which the teachers then did in a later professional learning segment. They did a crosswalk of the Instructional Phase 2 Plan teacher-leaders need to get where they need to be so they can go back and share with their teams. And teachers are now data-tracking the criteria for success weekly. Principal Livingston also introduced a protocol that teachers can use when they're analyzing student work to change or revise instruction.
• PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCE OBSERVATION (PPO): We discussed the PPO that was happening in January. We visited different classrooms, including Orton-Gillingham (OG) classes and were looking specifically at how the Wit and Wisdom curriculum is being used in the ELA period, since that's a new curriculum. CEO T. Castanza, Interim Acting CEO A. Pecoraro and T. Frey held focus groups with Grade Team Leaders, new faculty, the new Dean and Family Coordinator, the OPS team, and the School Leadership Team. T. Castanza and A. Pecoraro also observed a professional development session where they focused on the close reading strategies. 
• INSTRUCTIONAL COACH: Lastly, we talked about the Instructional Coach. There's a budget line for a full-time Instructional Coach, and the school opted to bring back a consultant who worked with some of the teachers and Ms. Otterbeck last year. Principal Livingston and the Coach were working on a plan for 3 new teachers and some co-teachers who need support.

R. Peters gave the following report on the Finance Committee meeting held on January 13, 2026:

• CONTRACTS & RENEWALS: One of the vendors we keep in mind as we talk about contracts and renewals is Staten Island Media, so she's happy to hear that we are going to look into that. One of the struggles with them has been getting information on yield and ROI; School Mint and their information seems really helpful for the school; hopefully Staten Island Media can provide us with some of that as well and we can figure out if it's necessary to continue with them in the same capacity. 
• NEW INSTRUCTIONAL COACH: Obviously, we need to stick to a budget, but ideally, we can plan out what we need to serve the students as a starting point, and then we'll see what that budget requires, and then we'll maximize and prioritize and do our best to accommodate that. 
• DECEMBER FINANCIAL REPORT: We went through the December report, which looked great.
• BANK ACCOUNT OWNERSHIP: During a CEO transition, it can be difficult if only one person's name is listed on the bank accounts; part of our yearly process is going through the Financial Policies & Procedures (FPP) to see what makes the most sense for the school. That is something the school will look into, as we get later into the spring. In the meantime, Interim Acting CEO A. Pecoraro will be added to the bank account, because our current FPP as it stands has the CEO as the bank account holder. But definitely something to think about, for the future.
• BUDGET REFRESH:  After the Finance Committee call, the team scheduled a meeting to go over the budget refresh one more time, so we don't have the most recent data. But something we emphasize with the team is to not only look at the current year, but also future years to make sure that the future will have a healthy budget as well. Next year looks fine, but future years may have a negative net income/net loss. We just want to make sure that the future looks bright as well for our school. T. Castanza added an update: since our Finance Committee meeting, we did a budget refresh with Josh, where we adjusted some things, and took into account a lot of what we call an overlap in spending; we had adjusted some of our actual projections, and what we found is a budget that shows long-term viability and strength if we continue existing trends of spending. There is no negative deficit. In future years, we'll continue to see some of the surpluses we're used to. Of course, the leadership will have to make decisions on what the specific individual budget lines look like, and we had some really in-depth conversations about our spending this year. So we have really good context on how the team might do it next year. We've had past success with early budgeting, getting into this process early and identifying key areas as priorities. We had some conversations with Josh about how we can get a little bit more out of all of our vendors. Not only enrollment-wise, but how can we do that with every one of our vendors. It took a long time to build relationships with some of our vendors. He's feeling good about where we left the meeting; with your support and the support of the Finance Committee, we'll be just fine. M. Harmon-Vaught said thank you for the diligent oversight, it's really important to make sure we're leveraging our resources to maximize our mission.

N. DeStefano gave the following update on Board Development & Governance:

We have some prospective new board members. Welcome, Christina. Glad to have you on board formally. At our last Board meeting we introduced a streamlining process around prospecting members, assessing alignments, and ultimately onboarding, just to have something official to reference. We began ticking away at the prospects we already had prior to the holidays, and are going full steam ahead. Thank you to R. Peters and T. Frey for your candidate referrals. We've slated two exploratory meetings: tomorrow we'll meet with Michael Taddei, who has a career in finance, an area of expertise that we'd like to have on our Board. Next Friday we have a meeting with Vincenza Gallassio, a former Staten Island DoE School Superintendent and her academic leadership adds robust conversation and oversight here. Fingers crossed, it's a mutually good fit, and we're excited to see what comes of those meetings. We'll keep you posted.

C. Caputo gave the following Family Association update:

There is so much happening and so many wonderful events planned. The goal is to raise the engagement factor and meet families where they're at, so that is something that we're working on because geographically, the map shows our students come from all over and we're a heavily bused school. The goal is how to meet more of our student's families, how to reach families and keep them engaged and involved. 

• VALENTINE'S DANCE on February 12th; we've secured a reasonably-priced DJ and since the 100th day of school happens that same week we are working on celebrations for that too. We're asking for parents to accompany the children to the dance, for safety. I know that's something they spoke of at the school level. We're also going to see if we could add in a little fundraising and have raffles or baskets for the parents. Light refreshments will be offered and light snacks for the kids. The students and families are really excited that there will be a dance and everyone's looking forward to it.
• VALENTINE-GRAMS: We're going to create little Valentine-grams, like telegrams for each family to send to their student (not student-to-student) that way no child will be left out. Just a fun little thing that we're working on.
• BOOK FAIR: We're looking into finding a vendor for a Book Fair to help meet families where they're at. We're looking at cost effectiveness from larger retail suppliers. Traditional book vendors, really don't give much back for fundraising. So we're looking at smaller vendors where the fundraising percentage is higher and is more cost-effective for the kids and the families too. 
• FAREWELL EVENT FOR MR. CASTANZA: The Family Association is planning, to say their thanks with the CEO transition and Mr. Castanza moving on, so that's something that we're working on and not giving any details away. 
• NEW ELECTION FOR TREASURER: There will have to be a new election for the Family Association Treasurer position. Interested parents will be submitting an email to the Nominating Committee. The date of the election is to be determined.
• FAMILY ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER: We're still working on trying to a newsletter out, and looking for somebody to work in that role of communications. Right now, we have social media with our Facebook page, which is popular and parents have a lot of their own independent text chains. Emails are also going out to families. Class Parents are very helpful and are getting a lot of the information and reminders out as well.
• BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION: The Family Association was thrilled to receive a random little check for $90 from General Mills Box Tops for Education and were excited about it, Encouraging parents to keep eating that cereal and scanning their store receipts. (Note: Box Tops for Education is a digital fundraising program where users scan store receipts featuring participating products using a mobile app to earn 10 cents per item for schools. There are hundreds of different products that qualify.)
• FUNDRAISING SUMMARY: The Family Association fundraising was successful; there were Dream Cake Sales, the Pie Sales, the Holiday Fair, Box Tops for Education, etc. and after deducting expenses, the final fundraising balance is $2,695.34.

T. Castanza stated the following:

I did prepare some remarks for this evening, noting that in the past, I've been able to use the feedback that my team received, and I'll speak to all the work that we've done, but I'm culminating with you all tonight. So, if you'll indulge me for a little bit, I do have some prepared remarks. I will read right off my prepared remarks, as I've learned after many graduations, it's best to do that. 

I've been reflecting, and on tonight, conversations that I'm having, evenings, talks… hallway grab-chats, and meltdowns, and all the things that are coming the next week, and I've been so struck by the weight and the meaning of these conversations more than I have been in quite some time. Even sitting at this table with you all as the founder of the school for the final time as the CEO, It's been weighing. it's been something that's been looming, we know it's coming, I know it's come, but here we are. I'm even more struck by the irony of my final week as the leader of Bridge Prep being National School Choice Week, starting on Monday.

Bridge Prep began in the spring of 2016. Not many people knew that. I spoke to some 4th and 5th grade students today about - I'm using the term - retiring from Bridge Prep. And I asked them, how old are you? And I said, how many of you are 8, 9, or 10? And we had a conversation that this school began being talked about before they were born. Our 10-year-old 5th graders, the year that they were born is the year that Bridge Prep was born. And we had a really interesting conversation, and they were blown away by that. A lot of people don't know that Bridge Prep opened in 2019, was authorized in 2018, but began in 2016 in the spring. It began not as a school, but as a belief of some very committed people, that students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences deserved a school that was built exclusively for them. Built in a belief and a possibility and ideas on how to give them this access, access that they'd been missing for so long. And so what exists today, as we sit here now, almost a decade later, no longer an idea, and it does far more than give students just access. It's a living community with a clear mission, and measurable results that we can discuss, debate, talk about, and improve. And more importantly, it has students and families whose lives are different because this place exists. And that's something I'm deeply proud of. I'm equally proud of how it was built. We built this school thoughtfully, with intention, and with a willingness to make hard decisions in service of students, and doing what it takes to transform them into lifelong learners. We stayed anchored in the mission, and the weight of its impact, even when it would have been easier to compromise, settle, or revert back to the textbook way of doing school. We know that that's not what our kids need, and we know that's not what we promised. Together, we position Bridge Prep not only to endure in the long run, but to grow and thrive beyond any one individual, including myself.

Last night is the night that hit me the most in the past 6 months, because I started to see kids from our first graduating class getting their high school acceptance letters. And my wife asked what's going on? Are you okay? And I said it just hit me, all the impact of the work that we have done, that our first babies are gonna be in high school, and that they have thrived so much in middle school, exactly as we promised them they would. So I want to give a special shout out to the members of our founding staff and our founding cohorts who took a chance on something that was unproven. And entrusted us with their children and their careers. A long time ago, many left their careers, many came out of retirement to join this team, it took a lot to do that. We had no outcomes to lean on, no traditions to lean on, we didn't even have shirts with our name on it. And they took a chance on that. And the students showed us - and showed their parents - what was possible when they're truly understood and valued, Bridge Prep exists because of their courage, because of their trust in the work.

I'm especially proud of our team of builders. We talk about bridge-building, but I have a team of builders here, a lot of builders - past and present, here and not here - who carry the vision forward with me day-to-day. They are talented, caring, relentless, committed people. That is the foundation of what we've done and leading alongside that has been an honor of mine.

Now, as a school's founder, I feel it's my professional responsibility to be clear about some things that need to endure here. From the very beginning, we made a promise to families that Bridge Prep would be a place built with intention, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to students who too often were misunderstood and unseen. And to families, who were disrespected, ignored, and unheard. And that promise is not symbolic, it is foundational. Protecting it is not optional.

Remaining deeply anchored in the mission is not a preference. And preserving what makes this place unique must remain non-negotiable, no matter the cost. For it to evolve, leaders will change. But the founding principles must remain. This school exists for a very specific reason. And it's my hope and expectation that it will continue to honor the reason it was created, the families and students it was created for, and the belief that bold, thoughtful work done with intentionality and belief in those students will transform their lives.

Now, on a personal note, founding and leading Bridge Prep has shaped who I am as a person and as a leader. This school will always be part of my story, and I'll always be part of its story. I talked to students today and told them I was having another baby, and they said, how many is that now? And I realized that I started here having no babies, having this baby here. And I will forever be a fierce champion of this place. I will carry its name, its mission, and the lessons I've learned here with me wherever the next chapter leads me.

And to the Boards, both past and present, I'm grateful for the partnership. I'm grateful for the challenges and the confidence that's been placed in me to build, shape, and steward this place, from its earliest days through nearly 10 years of growth and strength.

We began as a promise to families and students, and my greatest hope is that after I leave this role, no matter how long it takes, that we continue to meet the promise that we've kept. And so as I close out, I've been doing a lot of artifact-finding, cleaning out my office and desk, you find stuff. I found this presentation deck that I made the first time I pitched this school to this community, Four slides nearly a decade ago. And the slide that stands out to me now is the one that I probably spent the least amount of time on, entitled "Imagine". In it, we identified the immediate goal of what we wanted to do: to create and open a charter school in Staten Island for 2018-19, designed to help students who struggle to read and write find success by breaking down the walls of frustration and exposing the true star inside of each child. At this moment, to this day, I believe we've answered this call. And I hope that this Board, future Boards, new members, future leaders, continue to ask the hard questions, and protect what makes this school special. So we can continue to achieve the mission, never lose sight of the students that are at the center of every decision that we make.

I am looking forward to a really nice week next week. By the way, shout out to our DLT today for talking about emergency preparedness plans for Monday's snowstorm. We're ahead of the game, and I appreciate you all.

We'll have some enjoyable conversations on Thursday with our alumni, when we see and talk to many of them. We have a wonderful day scheduled for Tuesday for National School Choice Day in Albany, where our school and the work that we've done will be honored by our State Assembly members. We have some vision boarding to share with families on Wednesday night. Really exciting things and a nice way for us to wrap up my work here. I hope that you leave knowing how grateful I am. My wife is very pregnant, like, super pregnant, going to give birth in 2 weeks, and she's so emotional, and it's starting to hit me now just how impactful this has been for our family. We've had difficult conversations at my house like, I'm gonna be home a lot more now. And my son is asking really good questions about why. Why is this happening? And we talked about how it's somebody else's turn now. I know that whoever that person is, they'll have the best job in the business because it's the best place in the business. And so, thank you for letting me do this. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next for you all, for this place, for our students, and our families. Anything I can do to make sure that Bridge Prep continues to be successful. Thank you.

M. Harmon-Vaught responded, thank you.