001I'm going to call this meeting to order of the community relations committee um we uh you know you guys got an email from uh from our board secretary talking about some of the things that are going to be priorities for this particular meeting um and we're going to start with item number one uh which was sort of elevator pitches for theem I think that one of the things that we talked about and Dr cely please feel free to jump been any time here um because you've been part of these conversations sure but basically what we're looking to do is have an in-person session of the community relations committee with Brent Dean who is you know our our expert sort of on theems and how to um you know what we need to do as committee
002members and and really as board members is kind of come up with a way to talk about theis with folks out in the community whether they are uh you know business owners whether they are parents of students that are in school whether they're community members we need to understand and have you know some ways to explain this model to people who are not familiar with it in a way that helps them better understand it and helps them understand the changes it can bring districtwide to us so um the thought process here is we would have a brainstorming session in person with Brent and sort of talk through some of these things and talk through some of the questions that some of us may have heard from folks out in the community as we've started this
003path um and we have two dates that are narrowed down Mike if I remember correctly one of them is Monday the 17th and the other is Thursday June 27th uh yes I'm pulling up my notes here right now um I had those written somewhere but uh I will confirm that in just one second soon as my screen pulls up here hey do we have anything from uh Nashville maybe they have some kind of already elevator pitch that we can probably tweak it to our level I I absolutely think Brent does um and he has a lot of materials and I think that'll be a big part of of this session is sort of looking at kind of the way theyve they've done it but then also putting our own little unique danburry spin on it
004so um you know as Kate said I you know and I've gotten cornered you know not cornered but you know people have come up to me you know I'm at you know getting a sandwich or something just in the community you know say what is this what is this Academy thing you guys are doing you literally have that three you know 30 second transaction while you're you know paying for a sandwich whatever so you know how do you make the most most of that 30 seconds and you know and to say it in a way that resonates with somebody in the community as opposed to You Know the Way Nashville said it so yeah I think that that's exactly the sort of thing we want to iron out in that session um 17th and the
00527th I have here Kate okay so I guess my question would be primarily to um Al and to Mrs Cooper right now um although I would welcome and encourage participation from board members who are not necessarily part of that community that Community Relations Committee um which of those two dates uh fits for you so Monday June 17th at 6m or Thursday June 27th at 6m and this would be at Beaverbrook uh for me it would be the 17th it be good okay yeah and we're doesn't look like we have anything else going on that night we have uh Finance the day after but nothing on the 17th okay so um my position is let's pin down Monday June 17th um and we will have um a backup date if it turns out that we we
006cannot make that work um but I know that that that date works for Brent as well so it's really a question of you know how how many folks from our committee um and from our board can be part of that conversation um now Kate do you want this as an official meeting of the committee I think so Mike you said that that date worked for you as well yes okay um in addition to that what I'd like to do and I will reach out to our recording secretary for this request I'd like to have uh a Google doc started so that we can as committee members as board members start to throw information into that document about what we think about theems um and what we understand about theis and any questions that have come
007from the community that have been about theems that maybe we felt a little unprepared for so my hope would be that between now and then or when when the um document goes out from uh uh Cara pompo that we could we will each make an effort to jump on that document and you know put some initial brainstorming thoughts on there so that when we come into an inperson session on the 17th we'll be able to sort of hit the ground running and have those conversation points ready to go do folks have any questions about that or other thoughts about it Dr cely did you have something to add no I just I think that's a great way to get it going this way once we get together we don't you know waste 20 minutes just
008kind of spitballing and we can we can Dive Right In um the document will probably come from me and the invite will probably come from Cara pompo tomorrow okay great thank you very much Mike I just have a question would it and I think it will also benefit us and board members uh that are not listening and at the meeting uh to have them participate and just what would it cost us to have them make a suggestion about questions that they have also heard and then it can still be filtered through this committee and then you know because a five of us it's five of us and you're the committee but still there might be questions that board members have on their mind that they can fil the through this committee and uh at least
009we have their in input too was just a thought inclusion yeah absolutely I think that the document and um you know sort of an overview of what we're trying to do is going to go out to the full board for participation so thank you Mrs Cooper and I'll include a little synopsis in the uh in the document too so everybody who's seeing it for the first time knows knows knows what they're saying okay all right um so that is item number one so it looks like we're doing June 17th 6m in person at Beaverbrook and we will work with Brent Dean on that uh the academy pitches um item number two on the agenda here um Dr celik I think I might turn this over to you to sort of um move the ation forward
010yeah and sort of talk about what we're trying to do here thanks Kate so the idea here was um in in previous community relations meetings we'd all talked about finding just the the various touch points that everybody has in the community and again this could be your child soccer team that you coach it could be the Rotary Club it could be a bridge club I mean all the different places that we interface with the community and what we wanted to try to do was come up with some sort of you know Master calendar that would really track these you know and obviously wouldn't you know have to go into the depths of you know you know personal commitments things like that but you know clubs organizations you know things that are sort of on the
011you know sort of you know on the you know kind of public radar so that if a board member say wanted to go and you know and and talk about theems or you know maybe try to do some fundraising they would have access to this calendar and they could see all the different things that were happening on a Friday night and and Kate as we talked about this we realized that the the the Mind share of this that the school district has is really limited to what is a sponsored by us and put on by us and B what is simply just our facilities are being used for so we have a rental calendar and we know the Cub Scouts come in every week and they meet on a certain date but beyond that we
012don't really know what's going on um especially with you know various Youth Sports and and other programs so we wanted to brainstorm some ideas about how we could kind of pull all these dates and calendars together um and you know I think technologically we have the capacity to do to to have a master calendar but calling and going out and finding these things is is where we're really challenged um and it's not like a oneandone right so it's not like you know we've gone out and we've got the calendars from these various organizations because they continually change there's new dates put on there's new appointments there's new practices new schedules so we wanted to just you know kind of think out loud together about a way to pull this together and you know some of
013the initial ideas that we had were you know like we said to pull our rental calendar in so that we could identify the communities that were going to be you know actually in the schools on a certain day and we know we have um you know youth basketball and and a few other programs like I said Cub Scouts um but beyond that you know there's a few things that the city has on their calendar there's certain groups that meet over there uh we could work with them on a sort of download and ideally we'd get this in a sort of like an Excel CSV file then we could just upload it to the master calendar on our website and it would be right there and you'd be able to sort of click on you know
014the different you know the different views that you wanted to see with the school sponsored event what's a community event and so on that's about as far as we were able to get the the real work now is in you know how do how do we pull these together and and who knows where these things are sort of in the wild right now yeah and I think you know there's the additional obstacle Mike just to piggyback on that a little bit is that um you know we need to figure out a process like so that if we do make contact with someone in an organization that's providing information to us and there's a change in leadership or whatever that we don't lose our connection to that group as we you know as we're carrying this
015information forward yeah I yeah go ahead sorry no no that go ahead that was so I guess you know the there's a couple questions for for the group here to talk about um you know what do we want to brainstorm a list of organizations that we want to try to make contact with um in terms of putting the calendar together we talked about it being an educ education youth youth Focus um it may be that we want to apply this to a you know a separate calendar that might be more Community specific events I know that you know there's like a men's club there's a Women's Club there's um you know the the uh the Leo Club the um you know the Elks Club all these different organizations that exist in Danbury um you know
016where it would be of benefit for board members to have some connection and contact with them so we might be looking at potentially as you know two two calendars that we're looking at to sort of contain this information Mike can can you talk a little bit about you know why like how this can how this could benefit the board to have this out there and and also how it benefits the community to have sort of a centralized calendar yeah I I mean I I think you know some some of it you know I I I touched upon um you know the just the idea that you know if we recognize that you know for example the the earlier conversation we had about the elevator pitch for the academies um you know it's not clear that
017that there's a general understanding of how these work and why they're a benefit and fundamentally why they're worth the investment of you know taxpayer dollars you know we're doing something here that really is you know presenting a new value proposition um to the community about you know why your taxpayer dollars you know are are you know uh you know should be going to this new this new program um you know it's a limited pot of money what makes it worthy and you know and we have an incredible you know uh thing here to talk about with the academy not a lot of districts in the Northeast are doing things that are this Innovative and you know Dan bur is really on the Leading Edge of this how do we get that out into the bloodstream
018how do we get you know everybody to just understand intuitively you know what that thing is um you know we have this building going up that you can see is literally you're driving past you know the airport on seven or you know driving down 84 um you know there's such an opportunity there to just have people look at that and you actually you know you're not just doing a little program tweak where you're saying you know you know we're going to change the you know the schedule of a kid at school you're actually having new building and there's there's such an opportunity here to just really have a a culture change you know a change in fundamental beliefs the way that people think and talk about Danbury public schools to miss out on that opportunity
019at this critical juncture I just think would be such a shame um because we're we're really turning the page this is a really a new era um you know in this school district so if we don't seize upon this opportunity to get out there and you know just you know make sure everybody is is hearing this and hearing the language of theems and understanding what that structure is with the seveny um you know it's it's you know it's I it's it's just a really it'll be a really missed opportunity that I you know I think we'll we'll be trying to recover from for years going forward there there's just there's never an opportunity like this where you have literally new construction you know a new you know big literally shining building on a hill you
020know it's like it's kind of writing itself um that that if we don't seize Upon This Moment here in the next you know 12 months to talk about all that's happening with it um and invite people up there to see it uh you know we're you know we shouldn't have to be you know defending this and explaining it you know and in in these granular details um you know at budget meetings it it should just be in the vernacular when we go in there and people say oh I see what you're doing that's why you're going to need an additional $10 million right thank you Mike and and that's the whole point here is we're what we're doing with a calendar set up like this or intending to do is to create a series of
021opportunities for board members to be in these spaces so that as these conversations inevitably happen there's somebody there who's positioned to have that conversation with people and sort of create dialog around this sea change for the district exactly yeah yeah and this body should be armed not only with you know the language and you know the elevator pitch and the you know the three bullet points or whatever it is that we generate you know when we sit down with Brent about how to talk about it but also you know if if you want to get out there on the stump here's a calendar of places you can go next weekend that you know are are you know uh you know willing to listen and and and engage in a conversation and you know maybe it's
022the Elks maybe it's the quanis and maybe it's just the guy you're you're talking to at the deli who you know knows you're on the board and says what's going on with this place so I I would say that uh you know in the next probably month or so uh there are a lot of community activities a lot of diversity cultural diversity celebrations going on uh in the city um you know maybe maybe we should consider of pointing a table at some of these locations and and be there ready to answer any questions and hopefully Meeting those contexts to who involved with the Colonus or I mean with the Lions Club and other organizations or the Rotary Club and all that uh I think that might be a start to to go forward with that
023uh but I think the the the cultural diversity celebrations is coming up within the next few weeks here in Danbury uh I think that that could be a could be a start it could even start on Saturday when they you know when they have that uh that activities going on on Main Street um uh Saturday afternoon so it's it could start from there and move on into like on this on Sunday the Portuguese uh the Portuguese is Portuguese day so at the Portuguese Cultural Center they have a big Festival out there that you know next week I believe it's the Greek festival okay so all these uh these organizations they bring a lot of people into into the into their F festivities and I think it might be an opportunity for us to set up
024a table and say you know be available to answer any questions and maybe he give out some handouts in reference to you know the career Pathways and get us started I was just gonna say we we probably need some pamphlets or flyers or something to go along and I would go I would say Mike also you know bilingual uh fly flyer especially you know Spanish and if we can do a Portuguese because there's a large Portuguese Community too so you know um it that's that could be a start it could be a start for bigger and better things so you know if we want to do this then maybe somewhere down the road and we hold some kind of a larger event for example maybe we can we want to create an art EX exhibition
025through uh you know some kind of Youth talent show or something like that where the kids can draw something and display it you know we we have enough schools that we can open up a gym or whatever it is and and and put it into a display and and start that way I don't know yeah yeah I mean definely can I can I add something hi it's I I'm on in the car so I apologize not being on camera um I know this weekend for the street fair 12 to 6 downtown on Main Street Brent Dean will have a table there for theem and I think a couple of us are joining um to Al's point about and Art Festival we have Kota coming up at the high school either this weekend or the next
026weekend I'm not sure this okay so there's an opportunity we have the Head Start Fair a daytime program that's coming up next week during the week that will be there we have events already um especially around the chronic absenteeism work that we're doing that will'll be reaching out to these groups as well to speak to um to help them train to share the same message around chronic absenteeism so I would welcome uh to to work with this committee and board members to be able to come out and um you know go with us to these events and um share the information that we're talking about on this call thank you Dr me uh Julie I see you've got your hand up here yeah I just want to add to what Dr me says um because
027um since last year I'm pretty sure that by parent Square all these events are promoted through our uh parent square and last year I think that I mean dber Public Schools was present on many of these events what I believe that we're lacking is more interaction from board members because I've seen danur Public Schools I mean um employees or um anybody interacting but I don't see many board members standing at those stes other than maybe at spk or many others thank that's I think that we should I mean try to at least be on some of those events not all of us of course but I mean we can rotate yes good idea I agree and and I think you know part of the thinking here is um as a board we get a lot
028of information kind of Peace meal um you know we'll get let know about two or three events here and you know maybe there's an event over here and we get an email about this um one of the things I you know that I was looking at in terms of this centralized calendar piece is how do we make this an except like a tool that kind of cuts out some of the um the extra conversations that maybe board members feel a little bit bombarded by um so that they say okay like here's the calendar and I can volunteer for this date and this date and then you know we know that that person's Gonna Fill In yeah uh in the short term Kate what what if we just so an just rattled off four or five
029different things coming up between Kota and and um a few other events going on you know just so we don't get bogged down with the the technicalities of it let's just start a Shar dock of of everything we know that's just coming up in the next few weeks I mean there's between now and the end of June I mean there's probably 30 different things between the moving ups and the graduations and the awards let's just put those on the calendar and anybody who wants to sign up for one can just put their name on it and then in the background you know we'll be working on these elevator pitches I'll work with uh my team on putting together some collateral pamphlets brochures you know we'll just have stacks of them at bbac and if you're
030going to event come by or just keep you know keep a stack in the trunk of your car and you know and and when you go into one of these you you know you just go in you know with with you know everything you got and then sort of evolves can figure out you know whether there's more technical component of the calendar and all that so sorry I can't see if anyone's raising their hand but if not i' have a a suggestion sorry um you know I I was just thinking about you know the need to have that sort of internal event calendar that DPS sponsored stuff which would be great because I there's so much happening I even I'm struggling to keep up with it's not on my calendar but it's you know um
031so I can only imagine you know board members but I'm also thinking that you know for those events um where you there is a festival coming up uh it would be wonderful to have like t-shirts right for the board members or polos three button polos you know that is Danbury public school board of AD member and then you know maybe across the back or across the front and says ask me about the acmy right like something so that you know where it's we have intentional events where we go out and people are instantly can recognize as a board member because you know in crowded spaces sometimes that doesn't happen especially for new board members and then um you know everyone's identified that they're a board member so you know and when you do that then
032you know you know it kind is an invitation to invite conversation as opposed to I'm having dinner with my family tonight in a restaurant I don't you know I don't really want to talk about something that happened in schools right now but um it's almost an invitation ask me about theis and so you've got two or three people standing together at an event under a tent um with you know a DPS tent um chances are people will say oh okay let me let me talk about those acmy so I think we can get creative I don't think we have enough um enough uh I don't want to use the word bling but signage and and event gear and things like that that kind of you know signals you know danber Public Schools this is their
033space and here's all the things so in addition to the brochures maybe outfitting board members with a couple of you know kind of key things that identifies them as such um and maybe invites a little bit of inquiry and you know uh curiosity so just a thought thank you cara um is is that something that we could use uh Grant dollars um yeah to manage the cost yep I could work that in so that's something that um you know as we're writing we're writing the next revision of bar right now and most of it obviously is around program stuff but uh and training for the teachers but we always have a little bit of flexibility for that kind of stuff and we could definitely work that in it doesn't not a big deal to make
034you know 11 or 12 uh polos and you know a couple of pop-up tents with some are Insignia Diversified printing is has reached out a couple of times even recently and you know they're here for us and want to partner and they've been very generous on our on our behalf so I could certainly get some quotes and see just you know how much is this would cost but I definitely think it's you know probably for a couple thousand dolls we could really create some um marketing you know marketing strategy and a brand if you will around this I think I think three 4 inch buttons would be perfect about ask about ask me about Academy and oh there you go even that or the other thing too if we can come and I think we
035can do this even come up with another slogan that we can give out the to the kids those buttons and have the kids walk around with them that they can come back to to us and ask questions about the Academy I love that like that uh just just me thinking about buttons and long long as it's a button and and it's no sticking where you know we don't want a kid to get stuck with a something they might have to pin so we're just talking about a button C right I'm always I'm almost thinking about safety you know you don't want a kid to get stuck with a pen but that's a great idea all great ideas and I just want to say this as we was riding down the parade on uh Monday and
036there was two ladies just sitting in this two eras and one lady says oh that's a dam Board of that and the other lady said to her who is the other lady and she says I don't know I don't know if that's the superintendent school so we have to identify ourself more and I you know so a great great suggestion I price out some hats too my hair is thin and Mike so all right well we definitely have some homework to do I I'll get with my folks tomorrow first thing and and start getting some pricing on all this stuff and um yeah just start putting the pieces together we'll see how fast we can get all this moving I'm size medium all right so um I just want to make sure if anybody else
037has anything else to add to that conversation and whether you're on the committee or not uh please feel free to chime in now just give you a second here any questions or thoughts on that Qui can you give it I just came in sorry what was decided I'm sorry hi Terry um so we've been talking about three things today we've only gotten through two so you're here for the third the first was um the group the community relations committee and any other board members who want to attend uh we're going to schedule a meeting for Monday June 17th at 6 PM in person at Beaverbrook um to go over with Brent Dean um sort of talking about the academy uh the the cies of Danbury and how to pitch them to people as we interact
038with folks in the community um and then the second thing we were talking about was was really an initial conversation about creating a centralized calendar for board members so that we know uh what events are upcoming and that um sort of uh evolved into a larger conversation about how we're going to create opportunities to engage the public um you know in including you know using some visual marketing tools like maybe a shirt that says ask me about theems or uh some buttons that that have you know something similar uh about you know the direction that the district is moving in um to sort of create you know those public conversations that we can part participate in and also to identify board members in those spaces nice very nice thank you for a summary thank you
039absolutely yeah thank you for jumping on um and now we're up to the third part of this conversation um Julie I did see your handang girl briefly did you have something yeah I I was just gonna add on the um Promotional and info but I was just going to ask if if there is like a Interactive video that um once people um address us or reach out to us that we can show it what to expect from theem like I'm not sure if we have something like that or not I don't think we have a video Cara if if you can hear us I if you want to chime in here I I know we have ample resources on on the web and you know there there's all sorts of things we can post and
040have QR codes that connect but I don't think we have a video do we Cara so we made a career uh we we did make a couple promotional videos we did the one on the career fair to kind of talk about the importance of the career fair and we do have another one um that we could send out I will double check with Brent that was part of the we made a couple vignettes some of them were more geared towards like the industry folks but I think um having one geared towards the general Community you know parents or or just General uh would be good and one of the things that we also need to do is to conduct one of those in or two of those in Spanish and Portuguese as well so so
041far we've made the videos but I think I need to get someone to actually you know understand the pitch and to support me in a conversation about theis while translating so I think that'll be important as well so we'll work on that that's part of um we do have us a as for the rest of this year we still have funds around around media and then we'll be sure to build those in for the next one our next Grant is kind of do on in like in in uh June so we'll build some of that in because I do think the videos are helpful and um it's a great reference that you can include like even when you just send emails out it's just part of your signature that there's a video about theem in
042there which is nice yeah and I think the challenge right now is that be because those are not up and running um you know there's parts of this that are going to be missing until we actually are engaging kids in these Academy models duly so um I guess my question to the group would be is there Merit to sharing videos from other spaces uh like Nashville for example in order to sort of bridge that understanding I mean on my end K I think it's more like a providing information like interactive information like what to expect from the academies when people can expect the academy to open who they can refer like those always keep um I mean blasting people on social media even us if we can I mean promote it I mean I think
043that I believe that fun facts and information INF session works and I know this for a fact I mean people get I mean even the kids get attract to oh let's see the video I mean things like that I'm not sure yeah right so from your perspective Julia I just want to clarify if I understand correctly what you're saying is what's important isn't so much the uh the content in in that we we don't necessarily need to give them all the answers but what's helpful to folks is to be able to see sort of how the process is working yes what's going on what's going on see like oh any any um anything that is important for us that it could be important as well for the public like when we're going to open um
044what to expect what academies we have approved um what to expect for each Academy I mean things like that I mean and make it fun for the kids so they know um how would it work on things like that I'm not sure okay okay because I I know this because we've been trying this for a while and explain things on how things were and people actually get their feedback and trying to get more information or where to get the information if it's a link or like you mention a QR code um they can register or see more information about not only go to the board meetings or waiting on only on us to reply on the information but also they can get the information on their own okay thank you for clarifying I appreciate that
045no thank you uh any other thoughts before we move on to the third part of this conversation uh just just my thought and I need to sort of was just thinking as Julie was talking as we want to get parents and students and everyone excited about the academy is there anything that restrict the district from saying to parents or sending out notifications saying would you like to just come and see not go inside the building just see what the structure looks like is there anything that pre prevent us from doing that short of just clearing it you know and just determining where you know where would they stand and what all that would look like I I don't think there would be Cara you have any thoughts on that um I mean if you're talking
046about the new building know so the new building is one part part of part of it that's the satellite campus that's being built so that's kind of the shiny thing we could point to right now but in terms of understanding theem it's really you know dber High School this is a high high school transformation so it starts at danur high school and the new the new uh campus is a satellite campus that's going to help house um you know at least two now three acmy so um you know we have they can certainly you know certainly could when we have brand openings if you will or Ribbon cutting ceremonies we can do that I don't know if we could get in there if they would appreciate it from the outside but we certainly you know
047Dan Donovan uh and Brent also you know invited um many times we had lots of open houses to have come for a presentation and each Academy is going to be offering their own individual open houses soon so that parents can come but they were not well attended so very disappoint we had maybe 20 or 30 families show up total um so I know Dan was disappointed about that get that blast out uh quite a quite a few times so it's really how do we get the information across build some excitement around it so but you know anything's possible we just have to find a way to get the parents to the to the events right right thank you okay yep all right one last call any any other thoughts on this particular part of the
048conversation here okay we're going to move on then to the third item on the agenda um and this is something that I think you know we as a a community relations committee um needed to talk this out with the help and advice of uh you know our our cabinet and and uh a superintendent to sort of figure out uh what is possible and you know to schedule this and and figure out like sort of how we're going to run this but sort of the initial granular thought and I want to thank Mrs Cooper for for bringing this idea forward um the thought is to have a welcome back school event um that weekend of September 7th or 8th um to introduce uh our new superintendent and to also um introduce the board you know to
049the school Community um and I think the challenge here is figuring out the size of this event whether it's going to be Standalone or if it's going to be part of you know other events that are already taking place and um you know sort of figuring out the logistics of do we have any kind of um what kinds of things are we going to have at this event and how are we going to encourage people to attend um so I kind of want to open the floor before I put any thoughts out there I want to open the floor to other folks and see sort of what your initial reaction is to an event like this and sort of how you would Envision it happening okay real quick I have a question are you sure
050do you have any um I think it's a great idea first of all I think it's I think it's perfect opportunity for us to with all the new board members and with Cara to have an event like this um but I'm I'm just curious to hear what what your vision was of this what you thought it should look like um I kind of pictured it as an outdoor activity um for space reasons um and something that we could invite the whole Community it's to me it's more of a welcome back to school event it would serve the function of being an introduction space for us but my thought process is that this might be an annual thing that we do to sort of like you know I know individual schools often have their own welcome
051back events for their buildings and I think having something districtwide to sort of bring the school Community together um I I think there's some benefit to that idea as well and creating a space for for us to um be able to engage with folks so I don't know you know to answer your question Louisa like I I don't know exactly what it looks like I I was thinking of it like everybody come with your your coolers and your your your picnic lunches and and hang out but um I don't know that that's exactly the uh I don't want to say imagees not the word but I don't know if that's like you know the the the format we're looking for so like at at a a location like like a Hatter's Park type of place
052is that what you're thinking or at one of the schools it would have to be Den high school if you're going to have that big proper because you have all those feels out there and it can spread out a little bit right I think with a good recomend my recommendation would be like a convocation convocation what they call it uh kind of gathering and and he used the football field because you have the bleachers there already and then you can you know do the introductions there do like a quick agenda and then have different stations uh for kids at different ages to uh to get engaged or maybe even you know start like a little mini tournament at certain certain events if you want to call it uh you know I don't know just a
053thought process just a brainstorming but I think a convocation you bring everybody together D high school at the stadium and they they go from there you know good 30 minutes or so introductions and all that and break up everybody to different events yeah almost like a field day right races and things like that yeah so um oh sorry okay uh my thought when I when I sort of you know came up and was thinking about this was again uh uh to introduce our superintendent to the community and appearance okay and I originally thought that you know was danber high school or either Rogers par one of our middle schools okay or whichever one it could be the high school and I'm looking at the form of and we're not going to ask I I wasn't
054looking at it as far as asking people to bring a cooler I'm talking about something for about two hours an hour and a half uh the connection as for as and some other people that we can get involved in the community and I'm talking about have light Refreshments water a soda chips or something like that and we're not asking people to pay anything just to come let the parents come let the kids come let her introduce uh our superintendent introduce the board and then you know we want to have the band we can take some musical groups or something else going on a little a little mini program or something uh and call it a day that was my thought so we have some other groups here that can make contact with other groups in
055the community that can probably bring in parents that we can't bring in so that's my thing and some of those parents are not familiar with things that go on in our school system so that was my whole thought of really introducing and bringing back and our staff our teachers and our students uh you know on afternoon Saturday Sunday afternoon whichever one the groups feel like is more comfortable that was my thought in doing this can I make a I can make a suggestion if can't see if anyone's hand is up so I apologize okay um you know it could be we had a very successful Family Resource Fair um that you know Ann put together over at Rogers Park and it could look something like that so if you held a Saturday afternoon um or
056Saturday morning right get people in and people like to get in and you know have still have the rest of their day and um especially with young kids and you know you have if you could picture kind of tents all the way around so people would you know like a 10 by 10 10 around the track at denur high school and we invite any providers in the community to come out you know you child care providers preschools anybody who who offers after school tutoring um you know could be this the people doing the sports signups could be who somebody providing music lessons anybody who provides services for kids could be the Y um Boy Scouts anybody to come and have you know bring you know have your tent so like a damber you know a
057damber for kids day and we have the band come we have you know maybe we have the cheerleaders come and you know it's a two hours of you know pain whatever it is and people can see you know all the providers the of you know in the community who support kids plus we have our own DPS booths and then at some point you know we we address parents and we have an introduction area and U meet U meet and greet area and we kind of mix and mingle but um there's also something for the kids to do and then there's something you know parents could get a you know check out all the resources in Danbury for children it might be a good good space to do that just a thought thanks Dr casmiro other
058thoughts about this so I think the thing that I'm conscious of as we're having this conversation is what are the expenses involved here um and you know being being mindful of what our budget constraints are and and sort of thinking about you know how we do this in a way that feels um valuable to folks so I like the idea Dr Casmir of bringing in you know providers so that this is a resource you know as a resource opportunity um I certainly don't want to step on um Dr me's feet at all as far as as you know her planning is concerned but I see that she's not on the call at the moment so we might have to have that conversation offline um but I like the idea of creating value by by bringing
059folks together as opposed to you know handing something out you know you know again another brain brainstorming here you know another way we can do it is also ask the athletic programs at the high school to Vol for the kids to volunteer some of their time uh for a couple hours to also interact with younger younger you uh younger students uh you know and provide them some community service time hours or something you know to try to keep the cost down and also it kind of introduces their program too for future uh students that go into Denver High School yeah that's a good thought so that we might at the just like they did at the resource fair you have you know tables and and you know Community organizations that the parents can visit with
060and have a conversation and you have another space in which you know younger younger kids are being supervised and given you know enrichment activities or or you know um recreational activities to kind of allow parents a little bit of space to breathe well I know we have Partners too um you know and and I I'd have to get a I have to look more closely into this but um at some previous events we had face painting you know um I know we we had a partnership um for a petting zoo so maybe some activities like that too kind of hybrid you know fun almost you know kind of Carnival but at the same time educational we could look into some things like that you know they would be reasonably priced school-based health health clinics you
061know they can set up a dental you know that the they can you know the the the folks who work in those clinics can set up a booth to talk about the services we provide for kids there's a lot of lot of opportunities there give out books still have books to give out yes I was going to say that it can bring the attention to the kids like what is like in the future to be such a this or such or whatever um is your desire to go with with than the academist if it's nursing you can we can bring a few nurses from the DB public I mean from the hospital um to say I mean their experience I mean they can show oh this is what we do or like you said Dr
062um that's me um mention um also like bring the dentist things like that I don't know but also we have to be aware that many of this activity it's mainly not for only the parents are just to stop to get the information but we got to make it interact I mean interesting for the kids otherwise we're never going to get them because they go will go where the kids go that's a good point Julie Louisa you had your hand up there yeah just really quick um I know we you know a lot of these events usually a lot of parents of the younger um Elementary School uh students are usually attending I I'm just wondering how we can get some of the more of the Middle School uh parents involved you know as they're going
063into the academy just kind they're at the cusp of of of making that transition um what can we offer them to get them excited about coming to an event like this that's a good point as well I mean I think promotion of the academy work has got to be you know part of the the selling point here right like it's we're welcoming folks back right we're introducing them to to the new leadership but we're also saying hey you know the district's in a transformation and this is what the New Vision looks like and all the work that the community put into the portrait of a graduate we're trying to make that come alive in in this process for theems so are you curious about what's going on with theems are you you know thinking about
064how this is going to impact your students uh career this is your opportunity to come and have some conversations and learn more about what that model looks like yeah I think that's great I think that should be part of the the conversation I think I think the idea of that video I think is is really good to have that because people are visual so they like to see what's what it's going to be like and they like to see what it is so and hear about it so um yeah I think that's great interpret all that Julie you have your hand up just a moment add to that adding to that is um nothing for nothing but we have to wash our faces on the community because unfortunately not everybody has a good experience with
065the board I mean the interaction with us is zero I mean we they we we are seeing like boring people as long and unfortunately we have to get into social media somehow at some point to interact I mean make them look like even though yes there's challenges but we are same as them we are parents we are concerned for the education and we want the um the academies to be a success for everybody not only for for the community in general but we have to make it like a fun fun I don't know how but we have to get there as a fun group that wants to get make the message go on but not just like oh this is what we do this is what it's going to be I don't know I don't
066know how to express it but unfortunately we are considered a very War group okay thank you for the feedback Terry serious I'm sorry I was thinking of a trifecta um you want to introduce Dr carara can we do a picnic at the hardest building and that way you get also kick in I mean is there any chance they could do a mini tour there at that point or tour um picnic on the grounds you know something like that or has that already been discussed it has not and that's a that's an interesting idea um I don't know what the logistics for that would look like because of insurance and it being an active work site and that kind of thing but yeah you would kill you wouldn't impede on Dr be's area you know and
067the other schools but you're introducing the community to not only Cara but to the new building and to the academy extension there and that's all I got to say thank you Teresa any other thoughts on this uh welcome back to school yes Kate I'm going to reach out to uh I have a few contacts that that work over at uh save um save the children for organization I want to reach out to them and see what they can do uh in reference to donating some uh um you know school classroom stuff into our into our program program uh I know that uh you know I I was very successful working with them you know my two years in Iraq and and it really provided a lot of things for the kids there and I'm wondering
068I know they do they do have some stuff for uh Rural America for education so I'm going to try and figure out uh what um uh see if they can do anything for us okay that'd be great Mrs Cooper uh my only thought is if we want youth to participate and we want the parents to come because uh you know not just those young kids I I think you have to go back to contact because I can tell you right now over at my church to get 25 or 30 youth to participate you're talking about fourth fifth and sixth grade students middle school students we have have uh youth advisers that work with these Youth and once you tell the youth that they need to be somewhere and they're representing U uh the church their
069parents are right there behind them and if there's something that's going on like that and we want to have an affair you have to make the contact with the adults that dealing with the youth so that was my yeah thank you all right so my takeaway is from this conversation right now and Dr SEL um if you caught anything that I didn't please feel free to chime in but um what we're looking at is some sort of um initial you know convocation style event with maybe like 30 minutes of programming and maybe some school groups performing um we would provide some very light Refreshments um and then have a a space um um down at the the track uh where Community organizations that provide services for students uh could you know Prov you know have
070like a resource Fair basically um and we would be looking to uh use that you know promote it uh by uh talking about the transformation of the school district um we would try to enlist uh student volunteers older student volunteers to help with the younger students and look at bringing some programming in for younger younger folks um and depending on the possibility of this maybe even um create a tour opportunity for the new Career Academy building um obviously it's a lot and we've got to sit there and like kind of crunch and figure out what can we reasonably afford um and what are you know sort of what are our what are our initial goals if this is going to be a yearly thing what are our goals for year one um to try to
071put this together did I miss anything I think that's it and then um Teresa had the idea of possibly doing this in coordination with a ctis tour um if it's you know in shape to do that at that point in August and to add up okay I think that you guys can make like a quick survey around schools what would parents like and then bring it up on one of the meetings so Julie what you're talking about is a survey at the actual event no prior to the event to see what would they like to see on the event okay thank you sort of like a Google form with the QR what would you like to see on this event what do you know so maybe we can have an idea um a pre pre
072pre-made idea on what they want and what they will expect okay perfect thank you for clarifying so um some of these conversations are going to happen offline as we continue to sort of um move through and and coordinate you know try to coordinate this stuff um and I will do my best to communicate out through our recording secretary Cara pompo um you know details that I you know you need access to and uh you know questions that may come up so um I would ask committee members just to keep all those things in mind that we've talked about and to be prepared to kind of jump in with feedback as needed um since planning for this is going to have happen over the summer um when we're not when schools are not in session we
073may need a meeting or two over the summer of this group to sort of pin down some details um and work on that any questions any La last minute thoughts that folks have about any of the things that we've talked about at tonight's meeting I would I would just suggest maybe considering not the first weekend of school that the kids are back but maybe the the next weekend only because if we're talking about like a Labor Day or post Labor Day we tend to you know there's usually a lot of events we'd probably be competing with a lot of other things yeah and it would also give it would also give um you know we lose all of our staff over the summer so a lot of people would just be walking back into the
074school year and uh we might just get a better you know product if if any support staff would be helping us would give them AEK week or two to actually help put this together so Cara initially we were talking about the weekend of the 7th 8th because Labor Day falls on the second the seven the second okay so that's probably a better weekend I mean we could push it back to the 14th or 15th like if if you're thinking that that would be a less competitive spot I do personally think it's probably a better spot I think we'd get a better turnout I also think you'd get more DPS staff to also participate um and have a couple of weeks to help them get their stuff together because I'm actually envisioning that we can get
075our assistant principles or directors people who are in charge of these acms to you know put a booth together and Garner up some student support and you know have them maybe train the kids a little bit to train up the kids to with some talking points so that there's a student representative at each booth and um they just may appreciate having a couple weeks um to get that going once the school year starts it's a little bit hectic in the first week or so okay just that's a good thought thank you and if we're going to do this at Dam high school we got to look at make sure there's no sports events you know the other thing all right well I just want to thank everybody who came to the meeting um appreciate all
076the the thoughts we we put down here um you know our next step again is going to be that meeting with brentin on the 17th and I welcome not only committee members but also anybody from the board who wants to participate in that brainstorming and um that's probably going to be our last community relations meeting officially uh before the end of school and uh we'll pick it up as we go through the summer and work on the planning for this event all right uh with that in mind uh can I have a motion to adjourn please I favor that motion a motion to adjourn all right thank you Al may have a second on that I think Mrs Cooper you might be the only one that could do that she's seconding okay all those in
077favor please signify by saying I I I