001committee meeting uh to order we do have a a pretty full agenda today we've blocked off about an hour and a half to start this conversation um but I expect it to be an ongoing conversation it's going to evolve as we sort of God bless you as we uh sort of talk through some of these things and um you know figure out um you know sort of how to uh make use of this committee as a as a way to build better connections with the community um so with that in mind um I am going to turn the meeting over to Dr seelig and Dr me uh to rund down today's agenda thank you Kate all right uh so we have a pretty packed agenda today there's there's only four items but there four very
002big items um so the the first one is going to be an overview of the danburry family Learning Center then we're going to talk a little bit about some ideas that we've had some brainstorming ideas for fundraising um we'll be talking about some upcoming uh community outreach events that we're planning for the board and then uh lastly we'll talk just about some general Community updates and some plans for our next meeting so the first item on here the Danbury family Learning Center and and you'll see how these things all sort of Link together um as we start talking about fundraising and collecting donations uh we're going to need a mechanism that sort of uh collects these things that keeps track of everything that makes sure the dollars go where they're supposed to go that files
003the the tax filings as appropriate so um we thought it was a good time since we already have one organization that is sort of teed up to do this um we thought it would be a good time to talk about the family Learning Center to see if that is going to be the right mechanism for us to uh start collecting donations and doing fundraising um so we're going to have just a quick overview of that Danbury FL see uh and Ann's going to walk us through just kind of the goal the mission uh how it works and uh you know just some of the end and outs and some of the greatest hits things that they've done and and the types of work they've done in the past so Ann I'll turn it over to
004you great thank you Dr Cel so welcome everybody good to see people on board here tonight um so the the D family Learning Center um has a has a long history here in the in the district when I came on board in 2008 um Dr s and an lyen Meyer our previous uh data person had had a conversation with um Senator Murphy about what danur needed and S responded they need a Literacy Center and so about two or three weeks later we get a note from Chris M Murphy that he's put it in his Congressional ask and we refunded $250,000 to set up redo the entire downstairs here at the um Osborne Street Building um we had were in the process into early late 2009 and early 2010 in moving people around the curriculum Resource
005Center up at mil up at mil Ridge other folks out at Beaverbrook and so we had the opportunity to use that funding to be able to redo carpets and paint and everything in the building turn around the front door so it was more uh welcoming to folks and on um May 10th 2010 we opened up the family Literacy Center we had worked with a community Advisory Board of what this Center needed to look like um we had one large room that had all kinds of resources in it and tables that children could sit at and the other room was a large playground or playroom um it also um helped to reconfigure and um provide space for our original registration Center that was in the building um Accord sedexo was in here with us as well
006as ELP um so it became a very welcoming place for our families to um come to as the center is now with welcoming All Families to Danbury schools from that Advisory Board and it was mostly corporate Partners at that point people questioned why we were not a 501c3 who held the district's 501c3 here I sat in this Advisory board with corporate people that said we would love to fund activities that that danber schools um wants to do um but our Corporation will not allow us to do that unless you have a 501c3 and so um from that Advisory Board we were able to um put together another board okay of other other some of those folks plus some new folks and we incorporated the Danbury family Learning Center so we went from Literacy Center to
007Learning Center because we knew we needed to open up a bigger context than just literacy learning was math and all of those other um learning goals that we want children and their families to learn so we were Incorporated by the state the Secretary of State in December 2013 um at that point we applied to the IRS for our 501c3 that normally takes anywhere from a year to 15 months thank goodness to a call for a call to Chris Murphy's office he moved it through very quickly or pushed it through and on 314 2014 we received our determination letter that we had become a 501c3 Corporation we uh register yearly through the department of protective Ser uh protection consumer protection We Are An approved Federal bidder through the IRS and our yearend paperwork is called a
008990 it is done by our certified public accountant Kate Johnson of Johnson and burth uh CPA is on Main Street and damur and each year since we incorporated and started doing those taxes in 2014 we have um satisfied the requirements of the IRS to stay a 501c3 determined organization so our mission is to improve literacy and educational experiences and knowledge of children birth to grade 12 and their families and to support and encourage excellence in the creativity and educational activities in Danbury schools and throughout the greater danur area so why is a 501c3 really really important is because when a company gives you materials funds provide services or whatever they need to take a monetary deduction on their taxes and because you're determined a nonprofit 501c3 organization they then can take right off 100% of
009that donation to um their company so um it it really helps support um their company and encourages them to redo it um our board members um Jeff Harold he's our retired Fire Chief and a Community member lri baros a parent Megan Duffy Knight she is a retired DCF work a social worker and now a private practitioner Holly Robinson who is of course you know an attorney and a parent here in our in our district um uh Carmen Pinsky she is a parent educator and parent of a child in Danbury recently joined joining the board just prior to the um election here for the Board of Ed Rich janelli has come on board and Shirley Rickard who is an assistant principal and head of ESL for bridgport public schools and a gury Community member so we're
010really proud to have that board uh previous board members have been uh Judy Koko was our beginning board president um followed by Eileen Albert who unfortunately everyone knows that she passed away during her tenure of President and Jeff Harold um stepped up into that into that role so some previous grants that we have received um have been United Way Grants that have supported much of the kindergarten boot Pro boot camp program that we run ran for several years in 2015 through 2019 right prior to covid uh Lindy Corporation um has given us funds to run the new promise Program Connecticut trust fund um is another one of our funders um they have funded pep in 20 uh 23 they're going to fund uh parenty next year okay we are part of the giving fund through
011Kimberly Clark um Corporation in New Milford where uh employees give donations um that we receive we currently are waiting on Pitney Bose for our summer reading program eversource funds many of our events that we have uh we did put in a nice ask for this next year fiscal year 2025 Congressional funding and we're waiting on a United Way operating Grant um so where do where does the funds go how are we using them some grants come through what's called restrictive and restrictive says you write the grant along the guidelines of what the funding organization is asking okay and that's how you have to use the funds and then there are unrestricted grants and so like the United Way grant that we've applied for is a unrestricted operating Grant so we'll be able to use it
012how we see fit um for that particular Grant but it's just really important for you to understand the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive grants you have to remember preco and the moving out of this building we did run a very successful preschool program here we ran play groups here and so though the play groups were free we did charge a fee for the uh preschool program which we had hoped to continue when we moved there wasn't space to do that um nor when we moved back into the building were we able to pursue that but we do have our School Readiness classrooms downstairs so many of their children um came came directly into there so how are the funds used um we use them for to support our family University they're along with family University
013there is um food fees that the families all eat breakfast in the morning if it's a full day they have lunch uh building rental our safety Advocate that we have there um if and many times when we have that we coordinate with other um agencies so they pick up part of the cost like in you'll notice at our last Early Childhood Fair a couple weeks ago we actually um had a police officer there and so our School Readiness Partners uh paid for that um we also had the family nights in November and we served you know snacks for the families they were all provided with games when they left um and it it provided for stiens for those that came in and helped deliver those nights it paid for any of the outside contractual uh
014people that we had present those nights um it also pays for some of our lison training that our lison and our schools receive we've really been um um happy with the level of training that we've been able to um give those lisons um it provides for the wages and benefits of our assistant director provides for uh parents and pep as I talked about it also has helped us start our new our new um food pantry here that's here in the center upstairs here now for families during Co it provided hot spots for um families I think we bought 25 or 30 hot spots for families with a year-long um uh subscription so that students that couldn't connect during covid was able to connect play it pays for field trips and supplies for our playto learn
015play groups chamber chamber events Chamber of Commerce events and um child care when we're running parent trainings so that's kind of the highlevel overview of uh what we do here at the center it's um or here at the family uh Learning Center or the purpose of the family Learning Center um it's it's a great organization I have to thank my board every single day for you know quarterly if not a few more board meetings in there um and of course our CPA just just does a wonderful job on our taxes and to ensure that we're in compliance with the IRS so that's that's all I have thanks Dr Dr casmiro yeah and and thank you and I I was running a little bit late I was on the an important phone call so I apologize
016for for jumping on late um I think you know when I when Mike kind of first ran the agenda by we're talking about you know this the this idea about fundraising I I you know am excited that you know I think we've been talking about some sort of some sort of mechanism to be able to this effectively uh for a long time and you know but I'm also I also want to be you know it's where I think it's an opportune time between the the fact that we're trying to build Partnerships with industry and the community and we're trying to seek these donations I think that there um you know there has always been a need to to find the right vehicle for that um one of the things I'll just put it in the
017chat that I wanted to raise was the idea of that there's a community organization that we would love to model after and it's called pencil um so we came back from from Nashville that was one of the most impressive components about what Nashville Public Schools um had going for them was that there was this um you know separate entity from the school system that was organizing on their behalf and working every channel possible to bring money into the school absolutely and you know I think it's going to be important for us to find the the proper mechanism to do that I think the feeling Resource Center has done amazing work and I'm but I'm wondering how do we set up a separate entity that's not so tangled with the school system that's going to create
018a clear path um you know that that that will allow us to do that um and not necessarily I mean it's there's a lot happening under that the Family Resource Center and I think you know for the next iteration of where we need to take the Grant and funding and the advocacy work um you know we're going to have to do a little more homework on how to on how to set it up I think and then how we Define our relationships to it I think is going to be important but um I think it would be it would be it would behoove us to investigate the the structure and the mechanism to do that um because I think you know right now we're in the crunch of oh my gosh we have a budget
019crisis so let's we got to hurry up and do something to bring money in but I'm think I'm thinking yes we have a crisis but I'm also thinking long-term vision of setting something up with the with the long game in mind on how to do this in a way that's going to grow and and be its own thing so um that's just kind of my two cense on it yeah no that that sounds good I will let you know that this is an independent organization separate from any other organization we do the the FLC Incorporated board of directors does support danber children as well as other children in the greater Danbury area so we are a separate entity from the school it landed up that um we chose not to hire an executive director right
020off because then you you Curt into all your funds yeah um and they're spent on you know having an executive director so I have worn the Hat of a volunteer director throughout all these years but this is an independent um agency or independent organization from the school system so I just want to make sure everybody's really clear on that yeah okay thanks Mr janelli okay the subject matter fundraising what it's a broad term what are you looking to fundraise are you looking to capture all fundraisers that are done within the district by ppos or independent groups or is this specifically feared toward fundraising for the growth of partnership of the academy well I think that's a that's a qu that's a broad question for everybody right um I don't I don't think it's it's any
021one person's Vision um but I you know my sense is that um you know we have work to do on both of those fronts um you know to Dr casemiro's Point um I think one of the things that we need to really be conscious of is you know sort of you know setting up a mechanism that really is dedicated you know to the specific function of supporting this the Dany Public Schools um and so you know there's a certainly um I certainly appreciate uh you know Dr me you bringing all this information forward and talking about the the mechanism that you have available for us to use and and making and offering to make it available to us um I think what what we need to think about and you know pencils certainly a good
022example of you know setting up an organization that that devotes its energy specifically to like the cies down in Nashville I know in bethl they also have uh a separate Education Foundation that does its own branch of fundraising um for the schools um but it's independent from the schools completely it has really no no ties other than it's it's sending the money to the schools once it's raised um and so I just like I'm thinking about all the work that that um the FLC does in tandem with um The Family Resource Center and and all of the the you know the the connections there that already exist um I'm trying to also be mindful of what the workflow is going to look like as well um because you know however we set this up um
023it's going to take time and energy from folks to keep it keep it running and and the hope is to grow it to a point where you know it does become a full-time job pencil I think employs how many many people was it I want to say 50 75 it was it was a fair number of people that are involved um specifically in that work right so um you know that's I don't know that we'll necessarily grow that big but um you know I'm just thinking about it you know from a from a standpoint of you know again what's what is the long what is the long-term goal here and how do we structure things up front so that we make sure that we're staying aligned with that long-term term goal um so I think
024that's something to think about we might have to you know come back to this conversation about the mechanism piece and you know I would love to just kind of talk out some ideas about um how we might do some fundraising and then we can come back to that conversation specifically about you know what mechanism we use to to to do the collections and that kind of thing are you are you getting a a central company that fundraises for for every single District in in school district that all monies come in there and they get allocated out for the particular funds uh we've got all of the ppos or 501c Tres they do their own fundraising so the academy to me is probably one of the largest possibilities of incorporating some educational money in into it
025um but I I'm not sure really what you're looking to do are you're looking to have a central company that just takes all money for that would be contributed to the the schools not necessarily the Board of Education and and allocate that back out and be administratively for it um I mean I don't see why you're undertaking a big task like that getting involved in fundraising in in general I'm assume uming fundraising will take as much as bake sales cooking sales and other stuff like that as opposed to some of the larger dollars that I would Envision that we want to do for for the Academy so and I'm not sure that putting this into an's organization is is something that should be considered because our mission statement is different than what you're anticipating this
026this organization to to do so sure I I tend to think that you know my feeling is when I was raising money for the for the pen playground we ran it through the penber PTO because it was a a 501c3 and we got the deduction for that you know it was one of the benefits for companies to to do it as and had mentioned big resistance that I had received is comments from going out to to to commercial companies business entity was when I was doing something relative to the school most of the comments came back that these were public schools and should be funded by the city so I ran into a lot of resistance in getting corporate dollars coming in I wasn't as successful then happen to be very successful in bypassing that
027through her years of uh being in the FC but I tend to think you've got to focus more on what your goal is here and what your objective is what kind of fundraising you're looking to do sure for this I I think I think we're trying we're trying to do multiple things here um we're trying to have a conversation about the longer term goal of fundraising for theems um but I think we also are you know having a conversation about uh more immediate fundraising one of the comments that we heard repeatedly at the public hearing uh from different folks who were testifying was I I'm willing to pay more I'm willing to contribute in in more ways and um it seems a shame not to U provide an opportunity for people who are willing and
028interested in contributing in that way um and and maybe we don't set the terms necessarily of how that money is used maybe we give folks uh some level of say and give them you know a handful of categories that we we you know we say okay you know here are the five uh General things that you could contribute to and you get to decide which one you want your dollars to go to in the immediate I see Lauren's got her hand up sorry I was just a little confused um when an was saying that um it's a separate entity from Danbury public schools that confused me so if that could be clarified for me that would be great so legally it is a standalone organization under that its 501c3 determination has a board of directors
029it has bylaws has a all the legal documents to make it a separate um entity any 501c3 normally stands legally is seen as its own entity we just help but aren't aren't like people that isn't it run by the school district so that's where my confusion is I know it's a stand alone yeah the the board makes decisions on different things that we're going to do activities that we do and things like that yeah the school district the school district has no oversight of all these programs and stuff Cara is that correct I'm so confused so most of the programs that we do come out of the the face Center here as programs that support parents education parent learning does that does that help and and of course it makes sense but so we're running
030them through the face Center which is I just don't see it's Standalone but we're running them for the district so that is so confusing to me so so that's our mission to support the educational opportunities and education of of our families so if you think back improved literacy and educational experience es and knowledge of children birth to grade 12 and their families and to Foster and encourage excellence and creativity and educational activities in Danbury schools and throughout greater Danbury so we are supporting programs um just like if you look at the pencil model that um Cara was just talking about they also are an independent organization but they bring in funds to support theems in Nashville correct but none of their employees are paid by the Nashville School District so that's where my concern is
031that's all I'm saying like you're saying they Standalone but there's employees that are being paid by the district so Cara if you could just chime in because I don't know if I'm making myself clear because we're we're saying we're Standalone but we're running programs as Danbury public schools so technically we're Standalone when we want to be but we're Danbury public schools when we want to be right so I guess I guess that's the that's the dis that's the distinction I think that's that's the point of I think why we're talking about creating a separate Organization for the purpose the structure that we're trying to to accomplish um at least that's what I'm that's what I'm suggesting um because the the FLC does serve you know Danbury public school systems children and an could probably best
032list who's you know that who's being paid out of those grants um and and for what purpose purpose like the parent training like so for example I don't oversee the parent training that comes from the FLC even though our students directly benefit in some in some ways it's similar to the to how dsabc has operated with our students and you know if they're mainly a DPS uh they service mainly DPS but that Arrangement is you know they are they are separate board I think the difference is is that there's no one you know what we tried to create that distinction with um with dsabc to not have the payroll uh crossover into into the Board of Ed sector so that's kind of the the distinction and Clarity that that I would be seeking in a
033if we're going to redo a model that's going to um you know that's going to be you know that we hope to grow out so that there's no so that there is a separation between that if um you know that seems to be a source of confusion I guess okay so um I don't want to get you know too too far along in this conversation if if you know it seems like there is some question about uh what the most effective mechanism is going to be for for dollar collection that might be a conversation we're goingon to have to Circle back around to that we're not going to be able to resolve today um and that's fine um you know I'm expecting we're going to have several more meetings before the end of the year
034um and maybe we need to go back put our thinking caps on and kind of come to the table with some other possibilities here um but I do want to get around to having this larger conversation uh around fundraising and um sort of some strategies that we could use um talk about you know um you know to Mr janell's Point um we need to I think we need to be conscious of how the pto's are fundraising and um you know what they're doing so that we're not stepping on their toes and then um we've got two more agenda items on here as well that I want to make sure we get around to and we're already at 5:30 so I don't to I don't want to go too deep down this hole um are there
035questions from any other committee members here yeah Kate I just I want to just comment Michelle hang on a second I'm sorry I just want to make sure committee members don't have any feedback oh I'm sorry I forgot I'm not that's that's okay that's okay that's okay I don't need to comment thank you okay thanks Michelle all right um no nobody has any any questions so uh we're going to move on Michelle unless you wanted to say something uh okay all right so let's talk about um if we could some some strategies for fundraising um and you know sort of think about what that might look like um you know I know we're talking about two different things here and that can get a little bit confusing um but my thought process here is after
036listening especially to the testimony that came forward at that public hearing you know some of the things that um we're going to probably continue to struggle with in terms of um you know supplies or um you know different materials for our students um or supporting extracurricular activities for them uh knowing that we're going into uh you know a a difficult budget cycle um you know I think this is an opportunity for us to see what we can do to help with some of these um perceived extras that you know I think from an educational standpoint aren't really extras at all but um from a legal standpoint have become that so um Dr sely did you want to talk about um this topic before we open the the floor up to uh to board members here
037sure and um I think there there's a few different pieces to the conversation um sorry we got an echo is okay again do it again can you still hear me yes okay great um so there's a few different pieces to this and and as Mr janelli and several others pointed out right the the mechanism for collecting but how do you get money going into that collection mechanism in the first place so there's a few different pieces to this and uh one thing I wanted to share was uh we're we're starting to explore uh ways to um have an online donation site so um you know certain individual schools have done things like you know gofund me and things like this but it's it's kind of uh a little sporadic and it gets hard to control
038and they'll they'll buy certain technologies that don't you know coincide with the systems that we have and they don't meet our specs so it's really something that we want to bring under one one roof so one of the ideas that we've been exploring and I'm going to share my screen here um is inspired by uh the donation site at Richfield VNA okay if everybody can see this so this is the the rvna website and you see this button up here it would look something like this on our website where you could donate now and then what this is this isn't actually in the same website this is a pass through it's a gateway to an actual website that that focuses on secure donations and making sure they get trapped properly and then you set your
039page up just like this I'm sure everybody has seen one of these if you you know if you've ever donated to a baseball team or whatever you know it's pretty straightforward I uh Mike I can't see it at all uh Mike I you're not projecting I'm Pro in I see you I can see it okay I cannot see see it I'm uh it shows I'm sharing the screen uh glass maybe hit one of the um at the top of where the head if you change that view it might it might pop into view okay just move on I'll get it some other way okay I'll send you a link to it afterwards too okay okay um so everyone has seen these but but again this is a separate website um that that does this and
040the way the websites work is some of them will take an upfront fee or a monthly fee to manage it some of them only will take a percentage of the donations there's probably 20 or 30 of these different um uh applications out there currently so we're Ving a few of them um just to get a sense of of what's going to make most sense for us whether a percentage or a monthly fee um and then we could have something on our website that would pass through so kind of at a high level that's that's one of the things that um we are uh exploring um so you know in terms of different fundraising things um do folks have thoughts about different things that we could do I had I had a couple suggestions I thought
041I'd bring forward um some things that were suggested to me and some some things that I had had considered um there's an idea of this like a a handprint wall um which could be uh individual uh donations um you know we're sort of like asking folks to make an educational investment and that might be like a higher ticket item um looking for individuals who might be willing to make you know a donation of you know a few hundred dollars or more to have like a handprint on the wall uh of a school or something of that nature um I think it might be worth considering um you know having a a raffle or an online auction um and you could do instead of items which might compete with some organizations like I know the marching
042band does a uh an auction every spr um we could do things that were you know a little bit more experiential like um you could do a ride uh to and from school in a police cruiser or lunch with the superintendent um you know some experiential things that also are you know tied to the educational space um that you know uh families or uh community members could bid on um and then uh you know a districtwide pajama or hat day I know some schools will do that on an individual level and so students will pay you know a dollar or $2 dollar to be able to wear a hat or to be able to wear their pajamas to school that day um you know those are just a few things I'm tossing out but you
043know basically I think as a group we need to really think about how we can get folks who are willing ready and able to help support our schools to give them the spaces to do that um um you know it might be in part just setting up this donation form um but it might also be you know are we going to think about having some kind of uh Gala or something of that nature um if we're able to get uh a foundation piece together which I know that the uh uh mayor B had put together a foundation at one point and they ran a golf tournament and they did fundraising uh through that golf tournament which they used to then provide payments to um I don't know if it was to teachers directly or to
044or people applied with projects um but something like that I think would really uh benefit us so I'm going to open the floor now and ask for committee members um to uh make any suggestions or talk about any strategies they think that we could use to uh to build up uh some fundraising opportunities for our schools um Kate I know they still do the mayor Cup golf tournament every year so I'm not sure where those funds are spent but that's something to look into they did dissolve the uh the foundation after mayor esito left so I know that that's no longer operational okay so but they are doing the golf the mayor's Cup golf tournament this year so maybe we can find out what that in those funds are being going to okay yeah yeah
045um but then also along your lines of the handprint wall um a brick like a brick walkway maybe somewhere at the Academy yeah great idea um and then I just have a question a question um having the the donation thing on the homepage just kind of in my mind is that going to affect any of our schools you know because like if schools are asking for donation having that on the homepage are people going to donate to the district versus the school are we fighting against each other I can speak to that a little bit that's a really good question so I think the idea is is that we would just coordinate with the schools and pull everything centralized in This way everything is clean for recordkeeping purposes tax purposes and then we would pass
046back pass it back through to the schools so they wouldn't have their own anymore and if they did it would it would redirect to our Central site so we yeah it would just all be through through one single Channel and it would be just a lot a lot simpler and you know organizing and and just making sure again that you know the things that they're getting and requesting are actually you know aligned you know for example technology that they're getting things that that work with our systems and things like that okay Lauren are you referring to um I just want to clar ask a clarifying question could um are you referring to PTO fundraising or are you referring to like School fundraising specifically pretty much anything I mean I know like in the beginning of
047the year you know schools will say you know help us out because there's a activities fee and there's a PTO fee not a fee but there's a PTO event and there's an activity and there's wrapping paper and there's chocolate and then there's a donation button on the home screen like are we just crazy asking for donations anywhere we can which I know we need them right I know we need the funds but are we just everybody just going to see put money in the bucket everywhere they go and just be completely frustrated so um does that when we talk about like maybe like a larger event like um a dinner or a Gallow or something of that nature which I know that there are again organizations within our district that are doing things of this
048nature already um what is your sense as far as that being a competing interest I think something being larger scale for Danbury schools I think that's a great idea and I think that would be I think that would be like easily received versus I just feel like that's that's a better thing you know something more grandiose because I feel like a lot of the people are competing for the same thing but I feel like on a district level a handprint wall a brick walkway somewhere a g I think are all great ideas because we a lot of people are all doing the little things but a district like a major thing would be a great idea Rich you know I'm generally the most postive person person essentially on the board person myself probably honor this
049thing here I think you're setting yourself up for failure the the I don't know how many of you have had any experience in fundraising but this is not reach field you can't just put up a website expect somebody to donate some money you know have has be going through and say I got an extra X number of dollars you're in competition with all these other PTO you're setting up an administrative nightmare for what effect I don't know what your target is in terms of raising money who's going to be responsible for for coordinating all these events that is a massive job I mean for for what I I don't know what your goal is except to say that we we want to support the danur school system the school systems is supported essentially by the
050ppos the if there's a going back a number of years we get away with freshman Sports the city team together and raise money that was a specific issue they had they didn't want this item out of the budget they fund rais for it but I I tend to think if you focused your attention on a specific Academy then you could build a theme behind it as Anne has built a theme behind her organization but they throw something out there like a go fundme page can't think you're wasting your time and you're going to be getting nickel and Di I mean that's my personal opinion and I mean it's great to have handprints and all the other stuff but when you down to it who's going to do the work this is volunteer work you're not
051going to pay anybody and you've got to consider that in a particular strategy so I I I see no benefit to this kind of a model that that you're looking to do and I tend to think You' be competing with all of the other PTO and organizations in here that want to do their own fundraisings and have ways of doing it uh so my my feeling is is that I think would be a BL okay thank you Mr jany I know you've got personal experience here so your your your Viewpoint is valuable um okay so I mean in this obviously this a a tough conversation to navigate right as we're having this you know uh in a public space here but I think you know we need to as a board I think leaders in
052the community right we're elected to this position to these positions to to be leaders within the space um around the issue of education so um maybe we need to come back to this conversation as a whole having you know had some of this conversation out think about it a little bit digest it and then you know come back to the table um you know with some with some new strategy uh behind it because I do think um you know I I certainly appreciate all the work that that PTO do um I think a lot of work Falls to them but to be able to um build some momentum around a larger support for the district and that might be through uh an academy specific um you know entity you know a fundraising entity that serves
053the academy specifically um which eventually would bleed down to the to the elementary level as we start to incorporate the programming there as well so um maybe that's something we come back to you are folks amenable to moving on or sorry go ahead Al I just attached a a link uh to a a nonprofit organization that is in Stanford and helping our school system in Stanford um you know they're they're very big on you know public uh with the public uh uh with private companies donating money and all that uh that might be something that we might want to take a look at their their model and see if we can do something like that um you know uh last year in the fall they had a one probably one of the largest 5K runs
054in in um in Stanford that they end up getting almost uh over 800 students from different schools that's also was a more motivational thing for schools who building um morale amongst competition and schools that's something we can also do you know uh which brings out some of the best qualities in everyone but I think we we as a committee we should take a look at that uh that model because it it's something that I think we're talking about it kind of answers a lot of questions that we're talking about thank you for sharing that Al I'm looking at that page right now and it says that uh this Foundation delivers Direct Services in school buildings uh like uh Middle School mentoring uh math tutoring uh at the high school levels uh Early Education uh support
055so uh certainly something worth taking a look at Mike can you copy that link and make sure uh that we get a look at that thank you and I'll add I'll put this in the notes um there's another one so this is Stanford's organization Norwalk has one called the Carver uh it's very similar they they take donations they fund raise but they also have direct programming in schools as well and they're they're they're very you know tight with the you know the the programing folks of the district okay thank you um we're at about uh 10 to six here a little past that um so I think moving on to unless there are other comments from committee members Mrs Cooper just a comment and my suggestion and I have been thinking about this and I
056and I call the superintendent I had a discussion with her and I spoke to you because with our budget situation and things that are happening in the district and I didn't think the Beyond September October I was thinking that as a group this committee could come up with and I think I was very clear a way to help our schools out and by that I mean when a teacher sent a list home with my grandchild saying I need so many wives okay in my classroom for my hand sanitizer for my kids whatever we can do as a group versus sitting around the table talking all the time and trying to hear ourself flap all the time okay what can we do to support the educational needs of our school district maybe it be uh whatever
057the PTO is doing and I came up with the thought about the hand print footprint whatever you want to use it and I saw that as a further on down the road after September October if we had considered that or wanted to consider that as a group what I sort of thought would be nice come first week in September if this committee could do before it gets cold an outside a fair okay where we can invite the entire Community if they want to have a snack or have a do they want to just say hi to the superintendent whatever let them do it at that particular time okay and we take whatever is bought in on that particular day we're not going to ask them hey you got to give us$5 $10 at this for
058whatever you put in the bucket that's what going to go to our schools to help our schools for hand sanitizer a wall whatever they need whatever they need okay and I don't want to get so technical to say that looking on down the road we can figure out something else to do but I think to me with the school system closing in a couple of months we have people that won't be coming back some may be coming back and then we have another road that we're trying to keep uh uh the morale good and those people that are working on our system continue to move forward I thought it would be an excellent idea before it gets cold and I had about six people that I think will bring uh to this group have a
059conversation with them that deals with the other segment of the community and the chairperson of this committee and the superintendent and myself we sit down and sort of throw this out and I think this would be an awesome idea for us to put together and open up our schools with a new and fresh attitude and that means I want to go into my classroom and I want to work because I believe in danare and I believe and our board and our superintendent and let's move forward so that's where I'm coming from thank you Mrs goober so uh I'm just gonna throw this phrasing out there like a community pledge day where we have an event and folks can show up and they can give what they'd like to give um or just come hang out
060and have you know some snacks and and get everybody to kind of uh mingle and use that as an opportunity to talk a little bit more about the schools with them okay yeah you know the the new building would be a great location to bring the community in to take a look at and and donate at the same time just a thought okay probably need to see where're be yeah a great thought a but the building is not and it all depends on what time of the day you trying to get up to that building and and I'm I'm just thinking because people are very comfortable and I think about when we had and I'm sorry chippers when we had the reception for Dr sath the black box theater is nice and flat and you
061know it's easy to accommodate people for this activity okay and and I don't have anything wrong with the Career Academy right now but you know that was just a thought that Rose off my mind okay Michelle did you have something yeah I mean I'm sorry I got cut off I lost service for like a couple of minutes there so I'm not sure if anybody has suggested or I miss some of it I'll go back and watch the video but I was thinking maybe something along the lines where the kids themselves participate and the engagement is there with family you know what I mean other than just to pledge day but like maybe instead of taking it from each PTO we use it as like somebody composes a song for the new school or does a
062piece of artwork and people maybe donate towards those is like something that isn't going to cost the district as much as it's going to show the creative the creativity of of our kids and our students and the parents you know it's not one against the other you could put up pieces like kind of like the gofund me we could figure out something or you know just maybe something to go along with the opening of The New School in September I don't know just just a thought um I don't know if anybody was looking in that direction and kind of growing it from within and and and creating a piece of art as well right or a song or something sure it's a great idea for engagement very good thank you sure uh Dr Sil is
063there anything else that you wanted to bring forward to discuss here um I don't know if there are any committee members that had other uh Concepts in mind um strategies we could use uh again I think you know some of this conversation is going to be a longer conversation as we start to talk about uh the mechanism for uh you know helping the the um theems uh get off the the ground one thing I do want to mention which I thought was really interesting is one of the things that pencil does as an organization is to provide a school store that teachers in the district can shop for free at they have a sizable budget that goes towards the purchase of supplies um and so you know that's something that helps support the classrooms directly
064and gives teachers some freedom of choice in terms of you know what materials they want to use um and to have so I just wanted to mention that that's one of the functions that this organization provides that I think is very valuable and also um contributes to this idea that teachers should not be paying for their own supplies for their classroom so hey you make a great point and I I just think there's so many of these things that we encounter on a daily basis whether you know to Lauren's Point you're just walking through the park and then you realize somebody donated a brick right I I think it's good that we just start collecting these things as we see them sort of in the wild then we can bring them back to the committee
065and say Hey would that work for us you know I think some of these are are you know almost Tailor Made For Us and other ones probably you know Mr janell's Point might might not be might not be the right fit but you know we can keep Cur rating this list and figure out the ones that work best thank you Rich yeah what I'd like to do is change it a little bit since the open discussion i' like to create a way by which we communicate more with the general public I get frustrated when they go to council meeting during a public session and have 30 minutes to talk on items on the agenda and basically never understand or never know whether my comments are given attention or what what's happening similarly when people come
066to the board they have the public session we hear many many comments that are made to us with very little response as to what's being done is there a way that we can Bridge a relationship with the community with with parents with students faculty that we are listening and there's a way that we can open up a dialogue with them to have a conversation with them um without violating any policy I think we're too far apart we we're missing the point of engaging with the public in this community to make them feel that we are human beings and that we're listening to them you know I don't want to be put on sort of a a pesto that a person comes in and and makes a statement of public hearing walks away and never knows
067what's you know what's happening or what decision has has been made so I I think that is something that we might be able to to look into to see how we could improve the communications to the general public the other thing would be as to alert the public as to what the board of education does what's you know I don't want to get corny and say our role is a responsibility but to get out in the community was at some functions a while ago and and people had no idea what the Board of Ed does and here we are servicing them granted it's a small population of the total population of danur but it's a way that if you're looking to create this mechanism of fundraising you have to create an awareness as to who
068you are basically what you doing and things like that so I think it fits into the concept of community relation and I think it's something that long overdue that we've over overlooked and U perhaps we can consider this at some point in time to how we can improve it I think that's the perfect lead into uh agenda item number three uh Rich which is community outreach events um you know we have to Make spaces for that for those dialogues and those conversations to happen and to your point the Board of Ed meeting or the city council meeting is not the forum for that so what do we do what are we going to do as a group to create spaces where we can have that dialogue back and forth um and I think you know
069one of the things we have to talk about is you know we have to do that work with um parents and families and community members we have to do that work with teachers and uh educational staff and we have to do that work with students so you know to my mind we've got three different you know stakeholder groups um that we need to really work on our our our conversation with and and to hear from so that they can they can they feel that they can come to us when they have uh concerns or ideas um the we've had uh we've had some young folks that have shown up uh some students have come to our uh Board of Ed meetings lately and done some testimonies um which I think you know has been exciting
070from my standpoint because we've heard um some new ideas some things that you know they brought some ideas to the table that maybe we weren't considering um and I really appreciated that they were coming forward to have that conversation but to your pointr that came forward in a public session and that's not the space for dialoguing back and forth about it so I guess I'm going to open it up again um to ideas from committee members about how we might create those spaces for these conversations to take place I could offer a suggest not a suggestion but years ago when Mark Bon was mayor he had for some period of time one Saturday a month that he had coffee with the or whatever it was he could spend an hour with the mayor and it
071was a nice round table it was very informal you could discuss anything from the the weather that day to a specific issue that that you had on your roads whether it be Pooles um it was nothing formal and you'd be surprised at the number of people that came there and felt comfortable in talking and the fact that he was there giving you his attention and responding to your request um made you feel important made you feel like you had a representative of the city actually listening to you and that's all I'm trying to say here is that we should be able to create some sort of a dialogue I don't want to use the word meeting it's too formal but an event where whether it be an event put it that way where we can
072have these open discussions without violating policies or procedures or information so that people get to know us and if they get to know you then they're more apt to to to participate in the events that you want you're asking them to because they feel there's a relationship right now I feel that we're too we're too distant we've got to break bridge this particular Gap so as a specific mechanism I don't have an answer it's just a con concept and I think it's Food For Thoughts or something for us to to to work on in in doing this thanks Rich um now Lauren glattus want to make sure you all have a chance to weigh in no I I I don't have nothing at this time I agree I think you know there is a disconnect
073um and I think you know just finding the right venue for that and I think gl's idea of a community event would be one perfect example of connecting with our community and you know maybe we make it a spring and fall thing an end of year party and a beginning of year party and the families are invited and come say hi you know and not necessarily like tell us all your problems and we'll fix them because we all know that's not how it goes but just get to know us you know and meet the people kind of thing I agree with you Lauren I think that's a great idea like a like a end of the year school the end of the school year uh picnic or something have some kind of for the for
074the children more directed more toward Young kids this brings out you know brings out the parents and then then that's a way to to get them dialogue that's a great idea and we can all use those Texas roadhouses buns anyway I'm gonna run out of rolls I think we're donating like so far 750 for teacher appreciation week so oh my gosh wow thanks crazy um do we want to do so I love I I love the idea of like a um like a community picnic I think that's a great idea but to Mr janell's point I think there's something about also creating an a more intimate setting in that um having like um more direct contact as opposed to like you know maybe we're going to walk around and we're going to chat with a
075few people that's a different conversation style then say I want you to you know I'm going to sit down and I'm inviting you to come sit with me so that we can have a conversation about something um so I'm wondering if we could do you know both things are you thinking more like a c coffee with a cop kind of deal Kate yeah okay I mean I think that's good too um you know and we could just I think that's a great idea and you know maybe if we do it just once a quarter or you know just start and see what the response is we don't I mean we don't need to make another huge commitment because I don't know where we'd fit that you know me neither it's not only one idea it's
076a combination of different thoughts different ideas and I the social Gathering is is nice because it's like if you would meet somebody on the street and engag in the conversation um that has a nice informal atmosphere but there's also before I was on the board I think Kevin had something coffee or something with the mayor I don't know if that was successful but it Go in lines with what you know Bouton had done that that's another another concept as I said to keep things on more of a formal basis with the understanding that we're listening to you may not have an answer problem yes we're listening to you and you know we'll eventually get back to you to let you know what what's happening so you know it it's the start of different ideas that
077can work on to something successful you know as long as we we have the thoughts and the commitment to do certain things starting small and then to to to build it's going to take a while to establish our relationship don't forget we have a diverse Community it's not like a Richfield or a Brookfield so we have a a very diverse Community which also brings in a lot of interest because you can have like cultural days and these picnics where different foods are brought in so the I think the ideas are endless so long as we sit down and discuss a plan we want to do something um glad did you have something no I my my question would be and I don't have a problem with uh any of the suggestion that has been made
078if we're talking about dialog and and maybe I'm not hearing this right um letting people know or have a doubt dialogue with people when they come before the board and that can include our young people um I think there's a process in place where people come before the board and then our superintendent have someone in place to deal or have a conversation with those places if we're talking about just having a general conversation with people I have no problem with that but again I I like to war you have to be careful as to how you go about having a conversation with people and what they want to talk about everyone saw how aggressive the young man was at the meeting that when I told him that we don't dialogue and that's a conversation that
079I've had with Mr Mone ever since I've been on the board how do you dialogue we're not supposed to be dialoguing back in Forth most board don't you know don't have that in there on their agenda so if we're talking about yes it's a procedure and you know most of the time we have to follow procedures to go through our agenda but some good recommendation has been brought here today so maybe we need to go back to the table look at it at least put what I've seen over the years that this with this committee there's no form or date or nothing has been in place and we find out that we've killed the whole year here and we haven't did anything to me we' did small things but what I was alluding to was
080having the affair uh where we could bring parents everybody this anybody in this diverse community that we live in that want to come out and just share meet with the board that every everyone that feel like they're part of our education system want to say something we can get our band to stand out and do something you know if you came to my program at the church we have our young people always on the program so we can get our young people involved but as far as going and to me changing the structure as to have an out dialogue session with pants we can set that up too but I don't see that happening at a board meeting Dr Casmir yeah just um just I'm just thinking that you know because I understand the kind
081of the the structure and format and if you're if you don't set it up properly it could you be a little unruly but um in the same sense you know I I fondly recall the community conversations that we've had um that were very structured and it was really positive you know facing kind of questions and solicitation from the community that Drew a lot of information in a very short amount of time period from across a ton of stakeholders at all different levels and I'm just wondering you know we did that specifically to get the portrait of The Graduate attributes and to start to begin that conversation but I'm just wondering if it as As a matter of practice that just becomes something we do you know and maybe it's something we do every 16 or
08218 months or something along I once a year it's a lot to put something like that together but but at least you know every other year you have a community convers a ser series of community conversations um where where it's facilitated so that the conversation always remains you know positive facing as opposed to a complaint you know it's like what how do we get to a Solutions oriented conversation and how do you structure that so that people feel value they feel heard we get to understand you know have a pulse on the city on what's happening with where families are at and what they're experiencing and what kids are interested in and um so I just I think that having a facilitated structure dialogue and just relying on that as a vehicle every year to
083to stay current and to stay fresh and to allow that access I think would be good and and then the other thing I think is is wonderful is you know when I went to the uh the Family Resource Day family University um just by being there at a fair event um the number of parents that I interacted with and had some a little something to say and it was a happy event so it wasn't you know it wasn't come and talk about about you know specifically set up for someone to talk to me or to speak speak with you but by the very nature that we were out there invisible parents parents felt comfortable and you know we introduced one another and oh by the way I have a third grader in this school and
084I'm just curious about and it and it was fine um so I think those two kinds of things one you know how do we get more parents out to to events where we're giving them very you know positive information and resources um that can help them and where we can interact with them in a positive Manner and then two relying on a cyclical structure to facilit that's facilitated um to make sure that we're we're always in tune with what's happening in the community and that they have they can access us as well they get to know us well on a deeper level that's a good idea Cara with the understanding that as the suppor of a graduate there's an ultimate goal and objective with these meetings you would have to undertake some sort of a
085action plan so to say based on the consensus of what you felt was important and if people generally had some issues we would have to at least offer them a suggestions as to how we were going to to change or or to respond to their their suggestions I mean after you know people come there and they just talk and you walk away and they see next year you know it's going on De Beers so to your point I like the idea but it forces us which I was getting to it gets to some action plan which then conveys to the public that we're really listening to that if I could just respond just back and then I'll stop talking for a bit um I I think it's that's a wonderful way to for for the
086board also to maybe uh for for part of your goals to maybe emerge as you're thinking about what the goals are for you know your priorities that you work some of maybe what you hear into that as what your priorities are as a board just a just a thought so yes Dr cely yeah I I would just add several people have touched on this already but you know just sort of inverting the process rather than always trying to put something on to get people out to us if we just sort of tap the organic um you know social networks that already exist through the board right so rotary lions churches you know temples what you know wherever people are congregating you know let's tap into one or two of those from each board member and
087we go out and you know they they bring a friend and you know you you get you know 10- 15 minutes or a coffee afterwards or something like that so you know we can kind of think about it from the other direction too go go to where they already are rather than you know trying to get them to come into you know a parent event or something yeah I I do think that um one of the things that and I'm not sure how we we put this together but we've had a conversation before about a uh districtwide consolidated calendar um something where uh in particular would be useful for us as board members to try to figure out how can we try to make sure there's a board member at as many events as possible
088um you know and and uh you know for some of the more important ones perhaps multiple board members um I know that each of us is uh assigned to the alaon for uh one of the school pto's but that doesn't necessarily open the door for all of the activities or events that are going on at different schools um so I'm just going to uh just put that out on the shelf and figure out you know maybe there's there's some way to pick that up and and try to piece together you know a unified calendar um or at least to create a contact Network so we're getting this information um and and kind of try to plan it out um but I do think that would be good because um you know there's nothing there's nothing
089better than being at one of these events whether it's judging for a a science fair or whether it's going to a math literacy evening uh to organically connect with the families that are showing up to these events um you know and give them a sense of who you are um and and what it is that you're trying to do uh as a board member in the district um and give them a space so that if they have a concern or a question uh they can ask we can't always give them an answer there um but just to know that somebody's there to listen to the concern and bring it back um can be very valuable uh with that in mind it's almost time for us to wrap this up so I do want to move
090on um now and I thank everybody for their ideas um I do want to move on to our last agenda item and that is uh any Community updates so any events that might be happening and uh plans for our next [Music] meeting and if you wouldn't mind taking that one here yep I'm absolutely here so we have uh parency graduation coming up on 517 you will all receive um invitations for that and thank you to the board members that attended the community conversation that we had two weeks ago it was a great showing and I think um you know and I'm sitting here listening reflect ing as well as another project that I'll tell you about in just a second um but I'm sitting here and reflecting and thinking about your discussions and so many
091of the opportunities that we offer our families such as that Community conversation was a wonderful opportunity I hope you share the sentiment with me for you to hear from the parents and for the parents to hear from you I think that particular day there were a lot of relationships made that evening as well as our early childhood fair I know every time I turned around Cara was addressing another family Kate was there addressing other families and other board members were there too I know um Al and a few others were there so the I think the more that we look at how we can get out to um you know different events that are that are being held whether they be school sponsored or non-school sponsored is really advantageous so the parents see um class
092that we're running is certainly an opportunity to do that or the fair um we have a pep class that is beginning next week and then we'll graduate along with our epep program that we are have a partnership with the continuing ed um and more details on that graduation that'll be coming up um towards the end of the year um we are looking at um continuing our series of K TR transitional workshops for families um we have kindergarten teachers that teach those that talk about what's expected in kindergarten how to set up a a positive routine in in at night and in the morning that your child's learning and um try to have less mental meltdowns first thing in the morning with our kids um and then of course our um Collective impact that we have
093in Danbury is of and running uh last night the Early Childhood subcommittee had a wonderful meeting where they talked about their goals the mental health committee has been meeting as well and then just today our or this this yeah today this afternoon we had the chronic absenteeism and um learner engagement group um so we're we're getting ready to uh distribute some materials and bring in all of our Community Partners to understand what chronic absenteeism is and what they can do in their own sphere of influence to be able to um get kids to school every day so that's a really uh promising approach that we're using and lastly tomorrow morning I think I know Cara and Mike are coming to it um others may be part of it is the rich field uh VNA Health
094spring um breakfast um I will be highlighting the partnership I'm the keynote speaker for it I'll be highlighting the partnership that we have developed um between our VNA health and our danur Public School Space Center in providing physicals uh well child care uh well child care physicals um to our families so I'm really um excited about being able to highlight that um wonderful partnership that we have with them so um as dates are secured over the next few weeks we'll make sure that everyone on the board gets an invitation um your participation in these events are just really critical to the things that you just spoke about so um always every other week we have a food truck that comes to Ellsworth School we're always looking for volunteers we have two very active student groups
095that come and help out every month as well or every week as well as several different community members so another way uh to meet other folks I know Kate has come out and done a food truck with us um it is definitely a fun night or a fun afternoon for that just an hour of your time or an hour and a half of your time and it's time well spent and it's a wonderful way to meet our families so that's it from um here thank you thank you Dr me um any questions from committee members okay um so in terms of uh the next meeting for community relations um in between now and then I'd really um I need to chew on some of this I think we all would benefit from doing a little
096bit of uh deeper thinking about this um and You Know Rich to your point um having some specific goals might really help us hone uh how we how we move forward um so that is definitely something I'm going to be thinking about and that I'm asking each of you to think about as well um theems is obviously one of our large goals but I think we have other goals in between here and there that um we also need to address uh so as far as the next meeting I'm hoping to set one up for May I know we have quite a few meetings that are going on already and I'm going to be away for work for a week um which unfortunately Falls right in the middle of May um but I will throw some
097dates out um and see if committee members uh can meet on those days and we will uh we will move this uh conversation along all right uh do any committee members have anything else to add before we wrap this up nothing all right I'm looking for a motion to adjourn then please tell move thank you uh Rich you'll get the move and Lauren you'll get the second thank you perfect all in favor hi hi I thank you so much everybody ie