001okay so now we are in we're doing a live broadcast and it doesn't seem like it's any different from the conversation we were having prior so that's why i was saying it's going to be a comforting conversation because it's just me and you right you know just pay attention here and and when um you have an hour to answer the questions that we're going to ask and um if you start to go too quickly or take too long i might try to move it along or slow it down a little bit just to remind you that you know it'll be good to just take your time and make sure that everyone hears how fabulous a person you are right and all thank you so much i want to thank you um for joining us the
002amherst pelham regional schools and the fort river community today for our first of three forums the staff and caregivers were given an opportunity to submit questions that they would like to have answered by you in addition to the questions committed submitted by the community there are a few questions that would um that you heard before when you interviewed right so if there's enough time we will ask any questions that are submitted via the chat feature are you ready i'm ready okay so of course you know the community have not seen you they were not part of the interviews and so this is your opportunity to let the community know about you what roles what responsibilities experiences and licenses you may hold that have helped you prepare to be the next principal of fort river elementary
003school excellent well thank you so much doreen for inviting me to be part of the forum and for the community at large for allowing me to be part of their time to have them know me a little bit better my name is denis pagambega i was born and raised in puerto rico i am multilingual and multicultural and i'm very proud of my culture as to who i am and where i came from that was foundational as i understood as an adult the importance of being proud of who i am i when i was very young my mom relocated to new york city so we lived in the south bronx for a couple of years and we didn't know any english uh therefore the schools were really important and pivotal in our development of learning the
004language not learning the culture that we were not used to or known because again in puerto rico the culture is very different and so it was important and i still remember to this day who those teachers were we lived there for three years but mommy was very clear my mom was a single mother and she was very clear in terms of learning the language learning english but also maintaining the spanish so we were bilingual um so those teachers were vital in my development they gave me and i still love dictionaries because i would get vocabulary words to look them up and that's how i learned libraries also were extremely important i'll go to the library in the school every friday get a book to read and bring bring it back on monday so that was
005really important i also participated in summer school and after school and i always say the story i didn't know it was a title three kid or title one but i learned how to eat bologna sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches and learn arts and crafts and again that also helps to be my emotional uh well-being so i am a proponent of summer school and after school programs because again those were foundational uh for me we relocated back to puerto rico and i graduated from high school and always wanted to come to the united states to do my higher education and i had to take all sorts of exams you know the toefl the sats the college board all those tests because again my first language is spanish so i came um and the story that i
006would say is always circled you know the highest they always ask you know what is the highest grade that you want to achieve and at the time i was a 16 year old i knew that i wanted to have a doctorate i didn't know how or when or what that looked like but i circled that and i came to the united states my first year transitioning to a different again culture very different from what i had been used to my mother brought me to indiana took the airplane back the next day so i was left alone in an environment that i wasn't accustomed to but i enjoyed that experience for a year however i had a very heavy accent not knowing how to pronounce certain words i remember asking a professor a question and his
007response to me was why don't you go back to where you came from and i remember that i i was like in shock not knowing how to respond to that knowing that my mother had always you know and hearing still you know education education education and that i would always have had to follow my dreams um i called my mother and said i don't want to stay here any longer she said no you're staying on you're finishing the year and then you can transfer if you wish so i did transfer i completed my bachelor's and then i completed my master's and i still remember in the back of my head i wanted my doctorate um so i have two children and i went back to school i was my kids were in middle school when
008i got my doctorate and i always say you know dreams are important if you feel that that's what you aspire to and i believe in opportunities opening the doors of opportunities i'm breaking down barriers i believe in justice right i know what um being told that you don't belong here but yet having my mother say you belong everywhere so it's opening door for of opportunities for everyone and i became an educator i'm passionate about what i do i'm always listening to families and understanding the needs and i think the voices of individuals is very important i've worked at every level of the educational system with the federal government the state in puerto rico the state department of education i relocated to massachusetts 14 years ago i was recruited to work in a district here in
009massachusetts in the western part of the state and i've been here ever since and i do hold certain licenses that i can share um i did take my mtel so i also understand um the challenges with having you know uh testing in the second language that you don't really master that well so it's about you know developing plans uh and opportunities for not only the students but also the families and also the community at large the teachers and administrators that are every level to come together to have a better understanding what education looks like and what it you know curriculum social justice and the justice in the curriculum and i always say that um children especially at a young age they develop a sense of who they are of who they are and developing that
010they develop the sense of gender the race and i think that's important in being respectful of um cultures languages religions genders because i'm one of those people and i'm very open and honest and always looking for opportunities to improve the life of children i believe in education i believe teachers matter a lot because i believe that teachers are the change agents and the change occurs in the classroom and there has to be a balance between what the students need to see themselves in the curriculum right in terms of is there a balance between what is taught in school what's happening in the community at home i'm a single mother myself so i know this understand fully the challenges and the opportunities that we can do this alone we need networks of people who support us
011and fully understand the needs of all of our kids not only academically but mentally social and socially and emotionally and i believe in you know programs that um allow the students to have breakfast in the classroom uh lunches and are open in the summer i work very closely with federal programming to ensure that all those programs were in place because those are important schools are safe havens to our kids well thank you for that i feel like you've answered almost all the questions that are on my list i'm still going to ask okay sure so question number two says our district holds many important values and initiatives including social justice project-based learning and arts integration the practical implementation of these can be challenging due to limited time and scheduling requirements as principal how would you
012act as an advocate for these initiatives in your decision making and negotiating around scheduling and logistics i think that's really important again uh teachers and the students need to see that for instance the arts we learn to read through the arts right as we're reading we can children like to draw that's as a story storytelling so i think that's important to be able to look at the scheduling in the classroom or in the school and have the ability to negotiate those things again the integration of the arts into the curriculum is important again i lived it i know how that helped me emotionally even though at the time and i didn't know that but doing things the arts and crafts and art and the library they'll play an important role in the development of children
013and i think that's important to learn early on because again kids love to learn you know the brain i see it as an organ that expands so the more knowledge that you provide and they see themselves in the books the arts giving them the ability to see that these are there are no barriers they have the ability to to do the work and teachers need to also have the tools to be able to do this and i like to communicate and hear what the concerns are of the adults and then making it possible looking for solutions together so that we can understand that it's about the kids okay so how would you encourage and motivate your staff and can you give us some specific examples of how you've done that sure i think it starts
014with showing respect um many of us are not used to even just a good morning how are you having an understanding of where the teachers are so that they are in a place in the school that they can bring the supports uh and then to to be in tune with the needs of the children i think that i my philosophy is that i uh lead by example and respect is number one and um it's always i never look at the deficits but seeing where we are in the process and how do we build together those plans that will enrich the lives not only of the students but also the community the teachers and the staff and everyone is important at the school from the person from the janitor to the clerks to the administrative us
015everyone is important and i think they also should have a voice in terms of the school needs to reflect the community and they should reflect the kids and it should reflect the needs and the desires and the abilities and i think that we can come to consensus when we have an understanding as to being honest having honest conversations about what needs to happen so how do you encourage and um sorry uh can you outline the role that you think parents guardians caregivers should play in the school and specify some best practices that you have used to help encourage that certainly i think that's important again i saw it in my mother single mother i'm a single mother myself i have a daughter who's a single mother so those are we want to be involved and
016i still have yet to meet a family member who doesn't want better for the kids that could be a mother or father an uncle or grandmother or an aunt um so i think that we need to encourage them to come to the school schools are should be again centers of the community where the families should feel always should feel welcome i think welcoming families i've also as part of the work that i previously have done is going to the communities where the families are sometimes families don't have transportation sometimes you know there's certain barriers so how do we break down those barriers to how the families understand that they matter again um we want to be involved in our child's education and we want to have a voice i mean you also need to understand
017what is taught and i think that again that communication when i welcome the ability to and i always say i go where people invite me i welcome i've been to churches to community centers again uh locations that it's accessible to families for them to understand that doors should always be open to them and they have a voice in the process okay great so here's another one knowing that there's a pandemic and students and staff are just returning to in-person instruction what is your vision for a fully thriving school committed to equity social justice and the social emotional well-being of students and staff i think that's important i think that um this past year has taught us many things and one of the things that kids are resilient and kids can learn in many different ways
018and so the we need to look at now the capacity that we have as adults also to teach it's a teaching and learning process of students and how do we use the technology that the kids have learned because that's an important tool again we're in the 21st century and we've continued to talk about removing the barriers on our technology and also it's assistive technology for some of our children we need the support um so i think that technology has played an important role and we need to see how is it that we did not we were not able to get to those students what were those barriers because that's part of justice right and by the way i see uh education as a civil rights matter so i'm very much in tune with what the
019challenges were to uh for some of our families and i also know that the brit program is at the school and i'm thrilled to hear that because all of us were impacted by covet young you know the kids and the adults so how do we work together to ensure that those programs are in place um to have a better understanding of the needs all the students and how does that impact their learning and to be able to reduce the anxiety that our kids have felt this past year and to bring them to the school again it's about what is it that we need to do a bit different it is no longer the traditional way that you know traditions are done with so how is it that we incorporate some of those lessons learned or
020best practices and move forward this next question is similar to one that you heard during the interview yes and it says at fort river we consider all groups to be critical stakeholders in our schools how would you get input from groups that have not felt included in school decisions in the past i would like to identify who those groups are and what happens and correct that and i think it's important that all individuals again the school community families are important whoever is involved in the school needs to be part of that fabric right the development this helps our youth develop it helps our staff and i think the more we have an understanding of what those barriers were we need to break down barriers again i think we need to have a better understanding of
021what happened what kept them from being involved and then improve on on that can you specify like how you would improve on the communication is it a language communication is it a barrier is it location uh barrier is it again i i'm a single mother and i like family members to be involved and to be able to come to the school or do we need to go to the home where is it that we need to go to to have a better understanding of what the needs are and why is it they felt excluded because that's again part of social justice what happened that you felt that you were not that should you couldn't be involved and how do we support you how do we support those members to become part of the school community
022involved in the school because that matters so please tell us about a time when you have to make a decision that you knew would be unpopular what steps did you take prior to making this decision and how did you handle the pushback if there was any i think that adults sometimes have miscon misconceptions about decisions that have to be made because again it's part of you know if you continue doing the same thing you get the same results but then when you look at data when you see what's happened or what hasn't happened you need to take a deep dive with those individuals to have them understand why those decisions and as a principal why those decisions have to be made what are the implications of not doing it again it's having a dialogue in
023terms of um why those decisions have to be made and it's not about one person but it's about the collective is it good for the kids and i think they need to understand that we all have a mission and it's about educating kids and it should not be personal it's about breaking down again the fact that we could not communicate and understand that it needs to happen for the betterment of the kids and the community and what did i do well sometimes you know making those decisions you know do i need to bring it to a higher level so that others understand that it's not because and i tend to think that we need to stop saying because they you know the superintendent said so because the state said so but it's because why is
024it that we need to do it to ensure that it's impacting has it is having positive impacts in the lives of children and their families so anything that's good for the kids and good for the family members i would certainly push back also because you have to have us you know you have to believe that those decisions are going to improve the lives of the kids so i'm going to pause at this point just to see if you want to take a sip of some water or please let me know if you need clarification on any other um [Music] things okay the next question says please give examples preferably two to three of how you will connect with elementary aged children at fort river to develop meaningful relationships with all of our students please demonstrate
025your knowledge of engagement with this age group of students when responding certainly i um i think it's important to again show respect kids are very intuitive they they know when you are being honest with them and caring i think three things that really matter in the lives of children caring the culture and the curriculum and there's always one person in the school who will change a student's life around and i want to be that person there's always someone that the students um have a connection to um and i think that when kids see the adults in a reflection of themselves someone that looks like them they have a better understanding that that's where they belong um i have a granddaughter and i would say my kids also or my lab um a lot of things
026that we learn in school you learn in practice again it's about being respectful being caring and loving and showing respect and i think again the um kids understand that when they are meant to feel important and loved and wanted kids again i you know would say good morning to the kids welcome the kids be out there in the front of the face not in a in an office kids need to see who we are kids need to know our names kids need to we need to be a reflection of the adults that matter in their lives aside you know from the family members which are important but i think when the kids get to know who i am they will understand that i am authentic and there for them because i care and understand i
027don't want to understand their needs and being able to celebrate the wonderful things that they are doing this next question is about restorative practices and it asks can you give specific examples of action steps you have taken to implement restorative practices in your previous roles and if you have not implemented restorative practices how would you go about implementing it at fort river i think it's important again to understand the culture of the school and where we have been and what has happened in the school to make sure that we correct those mistakes micro regret aggressions i would say um not everyone is understanding of what that looks like but again it's about social you know again it's respect social justice um the values it's bringing people together so that they understand that these are practices
028that are should be taught early on in school so that the kids can grow up again respecting and they have this sense of who they are and what does it mean so it has to start with me are those practices so this is another question that may seem familiar with to you it says at fort river we have three district-wide programs caminantes our dual language english spanish program aims a specialized program for students who have high functioning autism spectrum disorder building blocks a specialized therapeutic program for students with emotional disabilities who who need specific social emotional and behavioral supports could you please discuss your experience with each of these populations and your experience working with specialized program students i'll start with coming on this i oversold the ell or the title three program in my
029previous district um important to align um the resources not only the financial but the teachers curriculum uh tutoring uh the community meetings that needed to happen to bring the group of families together who were dll families i'm currently doing mental health i am coordinating services identifying what the diagnosis is for the youth or which are and then coordinating services for the youth and the families um important to understand and having differentiated instruction for the groups of kids that we um we have in front of us but it's something that we need to do because again like i said earlier it's um education is a civil rights issue for me and i think that it's important to uh to have the correct staff the proper staff to work with the needs of the students and the
030environments also have to be welcoming for all students so that they are again if they are in an environment where there is a lot of anxiety they need to come to a school where it's calm for them to be able to get the services not only academically but also social emotionally as well and the staff is important so you also have the aims program yes yes and you mentioned that that's a high functioning uh group of our students right because we let's make the inaccurate assumptions about students ability to learn and i think that once we have an iep we have identified the proper instructional practices for those for the students including the building block students that were able to address their academic needs and the kids are able to succeed the same with the
031building blocks and i know i heard that there is a brib program which again i'm thrilled to hear that that social emotional supports are being addressed in the school and you need to provide you need to have those entities who have the expertise to give us the professional development and the supports the wraparound services what i call them uh to support all students and would you like to expand on your experience working with specialized program students sure i again as part of my previous work in in the school districts and the states i advocated for programming that catered to the needs of the particular population of students and i remember having to work with the alternate assessments and also alternate achievement standards to be able to uh to have the teachers understand and administrators that
032kids can uh can do the work can achieve to high standards and we i think that we all need to understand that it's high achievement for all students incorporating all the the population of students that you mentioned and again it has to be differentiate instruction with the support in place to be able to have students on build the capacity their academic learning to move forward okay great and here's another question that you may be familiar with it says caminantes is the dual language program at fort river how will you support the mission families staff and curriculum of this program and serve as an ambassador of the program in the larger community certainly again as an ell student myself i think those problems are important to embrace again the culture the languages to be able to
033provide the supports for the students who are learning uh english as a second language and also have the staff i'm advocating for all students i worked with the federal government on the legislation um for ell because in puerto rico limited spanish proficiency and the federal government didn't understand so there are certain things that we have to learn to negotiate at every level again it's about communication it's about um advocating again because i'm one of those kids and i know how important again i i am the ambassador to el caminantes uh and all other programs because again i am part of those wonderful programs that helped me to get to where i am today and what thoughts or ideas do you have for bringing a sense of joy compassion love and unity into fort river at
034the student level the staff level and for the whole school again i think like i said earlier everything starts with me and it's about leading by example people need everyone needs to feel respected everyone feels that they belong so it starts with the students the staff everyone that works in the building they're part of a learning community and everyone should be able to come and feel safe at the school and again it needs to be a welcoming environment for everyone being respected the values that socially the gender identity all those things that do matter because it's about equity what is your ideal discipline policy and how would you develop such a policy it certainly would not include suspending students if you're talking about disciplining students not that that is not the way to discipline anyone
035i think that again having i can give you an example um in a district that i worked in uh the students were having a lot of difficulty and they wanted to be suspended so i called the family in something that they felt that they had never no one had ever asked them to come in to have a conversation to understand what was happening and i spoke to the youth as well and i still do this in my jobs uh and this particular job as well to have the voice of the youth in the process to understand what is happening and we developed a plan actually what i called it is um an agreement that the youth we were able to incorporate those things that the youth needed the support systems in place to have a
036better understanding what was happening in the youth uh indicated that you know he would stay in school um because we needed to understand that he didn't feel safe so we need to have a clear understanding why is it that there are um the issues are occurring the discipline but i think that having spaces for students within the school we need to have counselors a social worker the rip program and i think all of us could come together and have an understanding and have plans in place to have a better understanding what the needs of the students are not make the incorrect assumptions i don't believe in suspending students at all i don't know what the uh i'm hoping that that's the policy in the district because that doesn't that goes against learning right uh our
037case the black and brown kids are the ones who are always suspended so we're always marginalized and i think that we i don't believe in in suspending and i believe in just working with the youth and the family to have a better understanding and improve the outcomes for all kids and then we only have one question that was submitted and after that i'm going to ask you a question that we don't have on this sheet okay so the first one is what is something you have done that you are especially proud of and it does not have to be work related um i've done many things that i feel very proud of i i think again um not allowing the barriers that were presented to me and always told that i didn't belong that i
038needed didn't need to be there i'm breaking down those barriers and having a sense of self and um being proud we were very poor um still are but you know in terms of kids don't know that i knew that i went to school every day um and there were you know challenges but i never saw myself as being uh not wanted in the school so that created a huge impact for me and again keeping having a goal in life and keeping that dream that eventually i don't know how or when but it will happen and i think encouraging others to do the same so i'm really proud of you know the work that i've done not only personally but professionally because i encourage others um i went to a forum where i was a speaker
039a couple of years ago and i spoke about just i'm speaking with you about barriers and the opportunities and the it was about women young women came to me and they said you've given me hope to go back to school regardless of the age and there was a particular woman that was from michigan um we met and we said hello and she said oh thank you for uh for your conversation and your honesty because it comes through she went back and she did her master's she sent me a note a couple years later thanking me for encouraging her for continuing her her studies and also have to go back to when i was a sophomore in college i transferred to these coasts and i remember again because of there were challenges as a student that
040i had and i spoke to a professor and i said is there any way that we can start a tutoring program and they had none other time at in the school of the university so he said oh that's a good idea let's talk some more we went to the dean so we created a tutoring program and i started tutoring an older woman um who you know she gave me the story that you know she had dropped out of school she got her ged but she wanted to go to college she was had four kids she went on to graduate from college and she always thanked me for being there for her tutoring again it's just having an understanding of people's needs and looking for ways in which we can that's who i am okay and
041so this is a question like i said it wasn't set submitted but i'm just sitting here listening to all that you're saying and you know all that you're sharing with us and i want to hear from you from your heart why should we hire you i will be an asset to the school and the community at large i fit into the fabric of the wonderful work that you are doing and it starts with the leader and i've been following the work that the amherst pelham school district has been doing for a long long time again social justice you're breaking down barriers you're having these conversations um i see the work that you're doing in another uh elementary school so it starts having those conversations and the planning because you have you doreen and your superintendent
042are very supportive and principals need to be supportive of the work that the teachers want to do because they have the best interest of students at heart and i will be an asset i will be i would love to be part of the community uh to encourage them that it can be done everything is possible again and it's about having these conversations okay well i i see that there are eight viewers that are still here with us um hello everyone and i don't know if there's anything you'd like to say to the viewers before we end in the stream yard well thank you so much for uh participating today and i welcome the opportunity to meet you personally and to uh to have the opportunity to work with all of you uh because there is
043a vision and that vision and the passion that we have about educating all of our kids not some of the kids i think it's you know one group of students that we can open the doors of opportunity for all of them and i look forward to uh being part of the school community to make the difference and the changes that need to happen okay so i do want to thank you um denise for joining us today and sharing all of your experiences and i'd also like to thank those who are able to take the time to watch us and hopefully they'll share with their colleagues and other families that this video will be available for them to go back and watch and listen again and thank you everyone you have a great evening and and
044we'll see you again take care thank you so much buena tardes