001hey everybody welcome to meet the candidates tonight brought to you by the citywide pto we are excited to be back in person finally in a long year so let's get started i just want to touch on a few housekeeping items first first things first fire exits are located on both sides bathrooms if you go out the far door and turn left and immediate left or right on the back wall here uh please keep your mask on at all times that includes the kennedy results you guys talked about that already um the last thing in terms of housekeeping just so everybody is aware this is a night for all of us to listen to the candidates views on education it is not a debate we are not going to go back and forth and have battles
002we all have conversations it's gonna be a nice civil night and just give you guys an opportunity to learn where each of the candidates is coming from with that being said the format for the event will be each candidate will have a specific amount of time to answer our questions including from us and yourself from the audience there will be a there was a coin flip already that we've held the democrats will be going first in terms of the mayoral questions yeah and then following the mayoral questions where event candidates will introduce themselves as well after the mayors and they will then alternate between parties so we will be starting with the evening with three determined questions we've already came up with following that will be asking questions that we have gathered from the audience
003that you guys have filled out with cards when you walked in the door uh east canada like i said have about a minute and a half to answer uh we're hoping to get as many of your questions in as possible for this evening with that being said let's get the evening started but before that i could ask everybody to stand for the pleasant evening [Music] pledge allegiance which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty justice okay everyone so we're going to get going we have the introductions by the mayoral candidates first two minutes each and we're going to start with councilman elf thank you so first i want to start by thanking the citywide pto and for having all of us here and one more public thank you before it really discovered is
004to my wife robin who's here with me and it's important i thank her because with this let me tell you the story of why i'm here what brought me here to run for marriage i actually met my wife in these hallways we were on this stage many times we started dating at the every high school and we were in the part of the marching band we were in the band and now we fast forward from where we met in these schools in this very building and we have children we're planning our family planning and when you get ready to have children the first thing you start thinking about is you know think about when they're 20 years old you're thinking about their college their future think about where they're going to go to school so
005we started having these conversations on where our children are going to go to school and then what we noticed was our peers our friends we grew up with our age they're moving out of town we always hear that people are coming into damage but we don't talk about the people we're losing our peer group has been moving other towns with a perception of better schools and we knew we wanted our kids to grow up we knew we wanted to go to not only one of the most diverse school systems in the state one of the most diverse school systems in the country with tremendous teachers with great administrators so we vowed to each other that we were going to fight for it and that vow really quickly changed in my wife saying well i think
006you're going to run for office and now here i am right so robin thank you you're the reason we're here i appreciate that now we knew it wasn't going to be hard we saw what the challenges were the schools weren't broken they didn't need to be fixed but there's a lot of opportunity here because they have they haven't been invested properly our schools are ranked that last when it comes to per people expenditure 169 of 169. our teachers are aware our counselors are we have real challenges here in danver but we need real solutions because for the last years things have been stagnant and the only way to change that is a new vision new energy and people who really have a stake in this parents residents neighbors thank you everybody [Applause] yes thank you
007first i'd like to thank the pto citywide pto for hosting tonight uh thank you to all the candidates that are here tonight to speak directly to the constituents so they hear exactly what we have to say i also would like to thank the audience all of you here tonight that came to listen to what we do have to say so you know where we're coming from on issues especially of education and education is one of the most crucial issues that we face in this city obviously uh i'm going to take a little time to introduce myself again dean espegido i'm the candidate for mayor here in danbury she was born and raised here in danbury and like mr alex i went to this school as well and i was a little bit before his time
008but i was here as well i attended all danbury schools right from south street school in kindergarten to danbury high school as i said and graduated actually my daughter went to south street school as well and i was the president of the pto actually there back in 89 98 97 98 my son attended saint joe's for preschool i went on to be elected to the common council or the city council as they call it now in 1998 or yet 98 or 89 i'm sorry and then i was appointed to city clerk in 2003 that was a true honor that i was selected by the party that i represented at the time 30 second time clerk i went from there to seal our weights united for the city i went from there to this mayor's staff
009with mayor balcom and i became mayor bowen's chief of staff for the last six years and now i have the honor of being chief of staff from mayor cabo and i think that we have to focus right now in this time as we sit here today we need some experience that's going to help move this city forward especially with education especially with everyday operations experiences [Applause] we'll have one minute to introduce themselves and i think we'll go from left to right let me just move down the line hi my name is here um the jamboree area i have three children all three born raised in danbury and all right so while they were in school so thank you [Applause] good evening thank you my name is joe dasilva i'm currently a member of the danbury
010board of education i ran two years ago because education as mr alex just said it is key we all agree with that in this room but first i want to thank every member of the on this diocese everyone is running for office it takes a lot to put yourself out there to run and everybody here should be commended for doing that because education is important everybody here believes that there's some difference in philosophy as to how that is done education is important and i'm a proud product of the gambling public school i went to king street school i went to rogers park and i graduated from denver high school after attending this very building i was in between councilman alves and candidate esposito um i had a great education my children are receiving a great
011education i believe we have to work hard to make sure all kids get the same access to the same great education that i got and that we all just really have thank you [Applause] my name is [Music] um as i can make an important contribution to my hometown based on my background knowledge and experience i was born and raised here in january my dad graduated from gamer's eyes in 1959 and was a world war ii living veteran my mother immigrated here from rutland after world war ii i attended local schools and i graduated from dealership in 1970 i received a ba and ma industry from western connecticut state university my husband andy milga and i have been married for 45 years we raised our two children in november we both graduated from the united states
012academy that was going to serve your country in iraq i retired after 20 years from western connecticut state university as the administrative assistant emeritus to the provost and academic vice president in my position i worked with faculty staff and students as well as the csu system office in hartford some of my work consisted of infinitely good policies [Applause] right i don't think you'll have any trouble hearing my big mouth but um so ralph measure festa a long time danbury resident two children through the jamberry school system uh sun that graduated daughter and our current senior here at manbra high school served on the board event for a total of six years former chairperson former chairperson sites and facilities committee a former city-wide pto president great organization thank you guys um former great plane pto president
013there's any great players here um great great school and just um basically come out of retirement to uh you know run again for the border then because um [Music] these days things are a little different and they need a unique um you know perspective and i think i offer that [Applause] i um a current board member my husband carl and i have lived in danbury for over 20 years i have two children in the danbury public schools one in middle school and one here at the high school as long as my kids have been in the school system i've been heavily involved as a volunteer a pto officer junior achievement facilitator kindergarten interventionist and a board member for the past four years before deciding to run for the board i attended board meetings for several
014years became a graduate of the current leadership training institute and an advocate for fair education funding as i became aware of the state's broken ecs formula during my time on the board i have served as vice chair secretary and chair of the policy committee over the past four years i have been grown in knowledge experience and passion for this work and i hope that i will be able to continue to serve my community thank you so much [Applause] again better um i've lived here for 24 years i have been teaching for over 20 years i used to teach attending high school and broadband middle school i start english in both schools i am a master of education i have three children who graduated from denver high school that they attended while i was here i
015have three published books i have a grandson who's now in pembroke school so i have a very vested interest in what happens communication in danbury and um i've served on several boards of directors one international one and uh that's pretty much i'm a from mothers and [Applause] grandmothers that have worked so hard to put this evening together i appreciate everyone coming out this evening my name is okay i'm first generation human american that has been proudly working in the diverse city of january for 20 years married to michael and a full-time working mother of three beautiful children 23 15 and 11 the reason i decided to run is because i think our children should continue i want our parents to feel confident that danbury schools are continuing to provide the best education and opportunities for
016their children while working with incredibly talented teachers i will listen to concerns of our kids and parents and make sure we hear all their perspectives but make decisions that put our resources in the right places just want to say good evening quickly because i guess i have to talk a little best from dr perlman and i'm very happy to be here to share the discussion and our future with our schools and students for over 50 years as an educator teaching in danbury working at the state department with professional development administrator at new ridge primary for 25 years i've had the privilege to serve with very wonderful students families and staff because they work for the benefit of all many have experienced schools of distinction ribbon awards and alike i've seen them accomplish marvelous things in
017spite of finding concerns by now our city continues to grow we must continue to seek other ways to be sure state officials realize this growth and what it means for our students 15 seconds i've been involved in all aspects of school development he came to grade 12 and have lived and worked within many cultures and beliefs there's so many things i would like to say but i know we're stuck with time frame and as my staff would say dr c you better be quiet um i do want to say i'll plan to work with the city and state of virginia to develop a plan for improvement and funding for educational systems as we face a growing population please help me let me do this and help you it's time thank you [Applause] so we are
018going to move on now to a couple of questions i just also wanted to mention if anyone needs interpreters we have portuguese and spanish in the back with headsets so please just go to the back and somebody will help you moving on our first question is for the two mayoral candidates mr esposito will answer first and the question is and we've had many questions regarding this topic in many different forms but it comes down to there's multiple questions and comments regarding increased enrollment in danbury so besides being much discussed and already in progress career academy and ellsworth annex what do you propose to do to address the needs of our ever-increasing enrollment in our district now thank you i i think we've been taking initiatives now we've been moving forward with our current administration which
019i've been part of uh with the freshman academy we have ellsworth avenue as you mentioned we have granville avenue that we've developed and younger kids you've got the career academy moving forward which is a middle school high school i think when i read this note it says now in capital letters how do we provide that now well in my opinion now is the time to move forward on a public charter school charter school is it gives us the ability to move forward now if we would get our state legislators to approve this so we can move forward and get the monies that we deserve we've got a donor that's there to help subsidize this we have the state that's going to fund it so their impact on our taxpayers is minimal so if you want
020to get this move forward now a public charter school is the way to go [Applause] well thank you for that question but more importantly thank you for the way that question was ended with the word now because dandry's overcrowding isn't a new problem it's a now problem and i see it firsthand every morning when my children get on that school bus on their way to school that bus drives by an elementary school before it gets to theirs and those two schools aren't even the two closest schools to our house and that's just one example of some of the challenges of our problem another one is that the city of danbury right now is currently leasing space for kindergarten kindergartners and brookfield we don't have space for them here we are in dire need now tonight
021you're going to hear a lot about how the state needs to do more but the truth is the city you're also going to hear a lot of bug passing and having somebody else figure out these challenges but that's not what our teachers and students families deserve but you know what we don't see when they say that they're doing some fixing now we don't see results that matter results that make a difference we don't need like i said earlier more families leading to neighboring communities like brookfield they invest 60 percent of their budget towards education we need leadership that's committed to not making excuses and blame in others and addressing the challenge now the state just increased our pilot funding by the tune of two and a half million i'll make a commitment to put all
022that money into education as it was allocated for that's now we make a commitment to increase the city's portion of the education budget now that's what we're going to do now not past the fall and the question is what are your goals regarding education here in danbury and how do you plan on accomplishing that well we need to address three major things the conditions of our schools the students are packed we see these pictures every year staffing at all levels especially right now there's examples of guidance counselors in our city with 375 children to one counselor the american school council associate counselor association recommends that these children have a ratio of 250 to one think about what we're going through these days the mental health issues and these counselors are overworked the other thing we
023need to do is address how the city allocates our budget a decade ago 55 of the city's budget was allocated to the border fed for the last five years since 2016 it's only been 51 and in fact the education funding over the last five since 2016 hasn't increased a single percentage point that's a huge divester in our children now let's talk about what we've been doing what we've been doing is we stopped and we've been listening we aren't where we are because the other side hasn't been listed 30 seconds i see a lot of familiar faces here you're familiar because we've rallied together we've organized together we've demanded action together but those demands have fallen on death's ears their priorities have not been with our children with our families with our teachers with our administrators
024i hear you that's why we have a plan it's been out for weeks a real plan now to pass the buck and it starts with adequate funding allocating our precious resources accordingly and increasing the percentage that we give to our schools that's how we get it done thank you i want to reiterate the fact that overcrowding is not a problem here in danvers the overcrowding issue came up in fact when my youngest child was in second third grade and he's now in college and back then there was no long-term plan initiated by the city to help us get out of this so what we need is a long-term plan that helps us dig the whole take us out of this whole of overcrowding that we've gotten ourselves into and we need somebody in the city
025that's actually going to implement this plan but also we have to discuss the lack of funding that's been given to our school system as a whole and what that's done when we were on the pto we had to fundraise for a new school sign and new stage curtains because there was no money for the city to replace them for us and that's unacceptable we had to fundraise for smart boards because there was no money to give them to our classrooms that's unacceptable so we as a board as a city as parents need to push this for our children and need to put them first so we need to make sure that our students are in classrooms that are adequately suited for learning and we also have to make sure that every child in the city
026has equitable access to the state-of-the-art resources that they need to build that foundation of learning so when we as parents see our children graduate danbury high school they are leaving with the best high quality education that we can give them thank you thank you two years ago when i ran for the board of education i had two goals in mind the first was to address overcrowding because as you've heard this evening that's not a new problem it's been a problem for years the other was to address the gross lack of funding on the part of the city of danville very proud of the fact that the board of education over the last few years has moved and then acted and addressed the issue of overcrowding the granville pre-k academy that freed up seven classrooms and
027schools the ellsworth avenue annex the coming career academy those are concrete examples that we've done to address overcrowding tomorrow evening as a member of the sites and facilities community member of the sites and facilities committee there will be a meeting where we will discuss future growth and how to deal with middle school overcrowding that was our goal for two years it still continues to be our goal to be clear the solution and i will work with everything in my power to avoid a charter school in this town the only thing public about a charter school is the public money that funds it a charter school is managed by a board of directors [Music] a public money should not go to a private corporation the charter school does not answer to the members of this board
028of education they do not answer the mayor of danbury it is not the solution for dead hello i think there's a lot of money out there and i would like to work towards getting more funding from grants for the schools the bottom line for all our problems is [Applause] all right so i think we could all agree we've never been involved in the school district i don't like using when i was on the door but when i was on the board and then you know no agree there's not just one issue that is that stand there um danbury is such a diverse and unique school system there's you know a lot of different issues that come up so the way i would accomplish some of the goals of moving the district forward and addressing the
029issues i was always a big fan of visiting the schools talking to the teachers and really the people who see what really goes on in the school so i used to visit the schools you know twice three times a year every school and it was great because you get some information from the administration you know that's two or three filters through there and it gets yeah once it gets down to you everything is great so i was a big proponent of going in 30 seconds and seeing the people on the ground teachers deal with stuff every day and each school has a unique issue so when you go there you go and you understand and try to get a feel for what you're dealing with so that's how what i bring back to the boardroom
030and how i try to make decisions so i would continue to do that because the teachers are you know all all unique situations in school teachers are working hard and they really know what the school needs you know when you sit up in a board in a board room and you don't go out and visit people and see people and understand what people need you know it's very difficult so that's what i like to do and i like to hear from the people that are actually going through the problems [Applause] first and foremost my goal as a board member is to place children at the forefront of every decision i will continually strive for ways and opportunity that will allow them to succeed there are several district initiatives that began during my time on the
031board that i hope to be able to continue and see through to completion and free election at the start of my term i asked about our district vision and mission busted that off which happened to coincide with an opportunity to develop the portrait of a graduate several years two grants many focus groups and one new superintendent later our district is headed in an exciting new direction having served on the city gps task force i would like to see through the completion of our ongoing building project as well as on the educational side and implementation of the career pathways of the new career academy the board is currently in the midst of auditing our entire policy manual while this isn't the most exciting or glorious work right though 30 seconds i do enjoy it and it's
032critical and would like to see that through and last but definitely not least communication is always a high priority for me as a parent i know and recognize the importance of communication so as a board member i will always look for ways to strengthen that communication thank you as a teacher and a parent of uh students um i think i have a perspective from both sides of the aisle and so to speak one of my primary goals is to fund our students and teachers based fully on what the boe approves one of my primary goals is to ensure our students are considered our number one resource and stop being put on the back burner by cutting proposed budgets another of my primary goals is to alleviate the tremendous toll our underfunded budget and ever increasing
033student population has hung on the shoulders of our teachers and staff with the expectation year after year that they should be able to accomplish growth and achievement with less and less money with less and less resources overcrowded classrooms pleased to the leadership that fall on deaf ears and to ensure our leadership going forward endorses and trust the thoroughly researched budget proposal and then fund it 100 30 seconds my primary goal is to once and for all help find equity in the funding of our schools the sixth largest school district in connecticut with the absolute lowest funding let me repeat that the sixth largest school district with the lowest funding doing these things will ensure being able to attract and hire teachers counselors and increase the quality of educational resources for our children and i want
034to work to keep charter schools out of here because and if they're going to put 1600 students in a charter school by [Music] i'm on the other side of the coin i believe the charter school would immediately um satisfy some of the needs that we have on overcrowding it is going to be fully paid no increase to the taxpayer it will be in downtown granberry um growing as a part of our new community the hispanic latin community they have new programs the lead program that would work i would hope together with the parents and the teacher together and our students to shape the future of our education here in danby and prepare for it not just keep finding areas to put children we are going to address that issue now then we need to actually
035start constructing and it would not impact the current public school funding it is not private it is [Applause] [Music] thank you for beaming up scotty i i you know i'm listening to all of it but you know after being in the school district over [Music] and 50 still talking about overcrowdedness my school itself was overcrowding when i walked in and it was still on the problem we have to do something and as she just said this is a freebie why would you look this look at this like it's you know something terrible it's an awesome thing to have you have nothing to worry about you get the money you get the teachers and if you're already employed in another school you certainly can move to this charter school your did your certification work so it's
036not a deal about anything other than these we have to give our students the opportunity and our families they've got to have the space they've got to have the area to explore new curriculum as well so uh i will be working with the city and the state of bishops to see it's come to a reality i really believe it's something finally that can be so you can answer question two and then you will also get question three okay thank you well obviously questions two has hit some nerves uh we're sitting back and talking about an opportunity for the city of denver to move forward and instantly get space that we need quality education that they provide and bring the city to a point where we have a breathing space to up to move forward and
037look into other options as we know there's an opportunity out there for us we're not going to be able to build a new school within a few weeks we know that we are looking into new opportunities with renting space or buying pre-existing building buildings and renovating them but you know my friend down at the other end of the table keeps saying they did not do this and they did not do that but my friend is a sitting councilman as we speak right now and i haven't heard him step up and make an offer or an option when he votes no on our proposals what is the option he hasn't made that clear so the option for us for me right now is to move forward work closely with our new uh superintendent we're closely with
038the new director of finance on the education side and they have a more than one new staffer over there in finance we have a great stafford finance director on the city side and we're going to continue to work closely together to move this thing forward time to provide the best services we can to the city of denver and especially the ones that mean the most are the children thank you [Applause] the next question the danbury public school district as we have been discussing here has been underfunded for many years at both the state and city level given the current state constraints how do you propose to bridge the gap in funding and give the district the tools necessary to succeed including more teachers more staff and more programs how will you ensure that danbury can
039provide all of our students with a competitive high quality education miss mr escazo your friend oh thank you this is sorry this is for the mayors only thank you again there's an opportunity here to fulfill those obligations that we're looking for in this question more teachers more staff more programs they'll be out they'll be offered with the charter school gives us the opportunity to move forward very quickly and provide the space that we need you know i get concerned about some of the comments here tonight about underfunding or cutting budgets just to make it clear the fact is that we've never cut the education budget ever every single year it's been increased those are documented numbers you can ask for the the number that you're asking for is yeah sir by law you can't cut
040the budget if you get you have to be at least the same number as last year the fact is we never cut the budget on the education side we have a surplus this year of almost two million dollars so we're doing something right here in danbury we're gonna continue to do it right no matter what the the facts are that people bring out in a negative way i'm a dan marion i want to move dan murray forward and danbury is where we have to be we have to unify and provide a quality education for these kids not sit out there and argue about that so let's start working together and build a coalition here for the city and the students and the kids that live here because that's the future we all know that thank
041you [Applause] thank you this isn't much about the city of gabriel this is about the state meeting anymore but before we really get into it i think a quick finance lesson we haven't gone up a percentage we increased the dollar but the value of the dollar today isn't the same as the value of the dollar 20 years ago or five years ago ten years ago that's finance there's inflation involved when we talk about inflation we haven't even kept up with inflation and if it wasn't for graded funding every year as far as schools would sort with funding sources we can't rely on year in year out we wouldn't even need contractual agreements that's no way to run a business there's certainly no way to run a city so what we have to do is stop
042kicking the can down the road stop passing the boat because that's the reality this isn't new every year we hear this and how we how we go from that is we need a leader who's going to implement the most efficient and effective solutions that don't sacrifice quality along the way that don't take from the public schools what am i going to do like i said before we are committing to increasing funding the two and a half million dollars that the state increased that's supposed to be allocated for education from the city saying they're going to allocate all of it i am committing to that we're going to increase the funding because it's our responsibility to do so and as a city councilman for the last two years i've done more than the city government does
043in 10 years that's why these people know me because they've seen me advocate for that thank you we are moving on to the audience questions now um a lot which are similar topics obviously and this next question or the first audience question is for the two mayoral candidates and councilman house you'll be going first since you were last and here is the question for the past 18 years the board of ed requested education budget has not been fully funded by city hall this has led to a 54 million dollar shortfall in the education budget which has hurt our kids and community tremendously and led to a severely overcrowded school and reduced services and the question is will you support the budget requested by the superintendent and approved by the board of ed thank you for
044whoever submitted that question i look forward when we win to working closely with the new superintendent on whatever the most responsible budget is for our schools because again the passion in this room is because our schools aren't being funded fairly so the city has to step up and do its part so we have to find responsible ways to do that and that's increasing the allocation it's increasing it's guaranteeing money that comes from the state and again like i said this isn't about the state not doing it not but of course i'm going to ask this thing to do more i'd be crazy not to and i'm gonna use my relationships with my friends in the harvard legislature our state senator and all our state reps instead of bashing that movement delivery every year working with
045them to get even more that's what we're gonna do so yes of course we're gonna we're gonna be okay with any responsible budget well i have to say i agree with that we're going to work together for any responsible budget like we do every single year you know we we spent this year alone 146.4 million dollar investment in education that's more than half of what it costs to run the whole city i'm telling you there is no one on that diocese besides my colleague friend that voted against there were a couple others but the reality is the money is being spent where it needs to be spent we can't put a burden on the city's taxpayers we're just coming through a pandemic we've been trying to do everything possible to keep that burden off their
046back and thank god for the quality teachers that we do have on the front line doing the actual work they're out here each and every day educating those kids because those are the people that really matter not the ones behind the scenes not the ones sitting in back trying to dictate what's happening those teachers are the ones that are doing the real work and i praise them so that the teachers are doing the job the city's providing the money that we need to get the quality education and we got seven schools of distinction and where do they come from did they come by accident no they come from hard work and investment into this community thank you the next question is for the board of event candidates and just a reminder you are not required
047to answer these audience questions if you would like to answer you may raise your hand and we'll just go in orderly fashion um and here is the question it is on cooperation with the local teachers association teachers have often had a seat at the table while not necessarily feeling that our voices were heard will you pledge to include the local teachers union discussions and final decisions surrounding all matters related to the local school district its schools and its funding you may start uh i think it was jane roberto having been a teacher myself for many many years and understanding their perspective of things and having been a parent i would fully support something like that and i think they deserve to be heard i think they deserve to be included they're the ones uh actually
048that mr esposito just said they're on the front lines they really are and um and they know what they need and they know better than anyone what they need [Applause] is no i totally agree your teachers really need to be part of the whole operation actually like you said they are at the forefront all the time and after working with them for 50 years [Music] there's a lot that they have to give and they can get um you know i'm not talking about all their pockets we talked about on their minds and their hard work so yes teachers should get involved and i'm sure they will do especially with new school sites are coming on board [Applause] i just wanted to bring to light that we do have representative um that keep your representative at
049every board meeting every regular board meeting um so there's a place for them there's also a place you know for the administrators union uh to come give us an update um we do appreciate when they come and tell us what's going on in schools they also have a seat at the table you know on various projects our reopening committees [Music] we have the portrait of graduate was you know largely largely run by the teachers um i've worked with them on uh t-deck and t-val committees um as well as hiring panels [Music] as accessible as possible um you know like ralph he would you know walk to school um [Music] you know i i did the same and i appreciate when teachers reach out to me first time so thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you
050um of course teachers the same thing um frankly all of our stakeholders should have a stage behavior that includes teachers it includes parents includes administrators it includes residents of denver who don't have kids in our school we need everybody involved we need everybody behind education needing everybody to support education that said it doesn't mean you put giving teachers a seat at the table is only important if we're actually going to support them it's one thing they say that they're number one or they're in the front lines it's another thing to support them it's another thing to attend their forum it's another thing to fill out their questionnaire it's another thing to say the state doesn't fundament schools well enough and we have two and a half million dollars of pilot funds only one candidate is
051committed to dedicating an education teachers need a seat at the table and they need our support when they're there [Applause] i think we're good okay the next question is for the team of mayoral kenneth um councilman alex movie first history indoor air quality will you make it a priority within your first term to ensure that schools in the city have updated or newly installed hvac systems including air conditioning to provide healthier air and standard temperatures for learning and teaching throughout the year yes or no thank you well yes everybody wants clean air so we can absolutely begin the work i think we have to talk about feasibility i think those are major projects that nobody would say that it's not going to finish in the year but reasonably we have to commit to doing it
052as fast as possible and that is my commitment yes i definitely would agree with quality air systems you know our grandville avenue school that was just developed uh has one of the top quality air systems that you could possibly get and the landlord there provided that system at the time when it was just coming out so our goal is and we are in process of looking into uh building the the air systems to make them more qualified our quality air system so uh if you're asking yes or asking me if the air systems should be better yes they should so thank you [Applause] thank you the next question is for all of the board event candidates what experience do you have in advocating for the needs of large groups of children and the second part
053is how do you see your role as a board member approval only or active purchases please raise your hand the last part is how do you see your role as a board of ed member approval only or an active participant what experience do you have personally in advocating for the needs of large groups of children and then are you approval only or active participant well i i've been on the board of education for the last two years i'd like to think that as a board member we've been advocating for the 12 000 give or take students that are enrolled in the danvers school so i think i come to this with that experience i think it is an active participation role i think the existing board has all been active i don't think anybody's been
054passive it's not approval only we ask questions we send emails we listen to constituents it is an active and engaged process so i think that's that's where my experience comes from comes from as a board member but it is definitely an active role it's not something that's passive is not a rubber stamp thank you [Applause] so when i was on the board so yeah so experience advocating i served in many different roles on the board as chairperson especially as your chairperson any board member here will tell you you see behind the curtain you really see what goes on in each each aspect of those school districts so um people who serve with me or people who know me it's definitely not approval um i'm probably rachel will smile at this but she has a mascot
055so you can't see it um i was probably one of the loudest board members uh maybe joe's up there but i was one of loudest board members and would really make things uncomfortable for the administration and hold us accountable and just not take you know someone's word for it you know it's just so it's not just like joseph the rubber stamp it's that and i feel most of the board members that i've served with and the new ones now we're committed to really getting down to the issue and making sure it works right the right thing to do so that's my unique experience is being in different roles on the board with organizations like gtl and stuff like that very unique uh perspective i think it's a great part of the experience and um [Music]
056[Applause] it should be active and involved and knowledgeable [Applause] um i'm very proud to say that i was actively involved in um the first bond that was improved back in 2012 when the overcrowding started we had a group of parents and i and we became very vocal in advocating for the first expansion and bringing to life a lot of the problems with the overcrowding that were starting to bubble up back in 2010 2010 2011 and uh finally we got the expansion to be the school of the edition and westside middle school um so i'm definitely familiar with that with being an advocate for the kids and really however by the time construction was completed we were fully private again it didn't really solve any of the issues long term um but i would not be
057up here if i was planning to take a rubber stamp approach to being here with one egg so i will definitely be actively involved thank you [Applause] yeah definitely active um almost every year since i came across glti and the penn state school finance project i've gone to hartford have advocated on behalf of our kids danbury wasn't always last for people i remember just this happened within years and this was a direct result of total abandonment of ucs formula by the state legislator legislature for years all districts remained flat while most of the districts saw a declining enrollment so naturally their poor people went up and our our ranking just kept going down by the goal like the first and the per pupil amount is not an accurate reflection of all that the city spends
058on the school it does not include capital expenditures building expansions and property renovations like the clear academy the brand new tracking field right outside is beautiful if you haven't seen it yet uh science labs elworth avenue expansion dhs freshman academy the west side middle school elevators i thought at um i fought for our elevators to be replaced um in front of the council just you know a year or two ago for the staff bond meanwhile our eps formula is a disgrace we would not be last if the state would probably fund education once and for all we had an opportunity to be fully funded immediately through a very strong bill this past legislative session our state senator was one of the very few no against this bill and now we have to wait until 2028
059to receive our fair share of education funding from the state school finance is a state level issue so why haven't our state delegation brought more money back to danbury they should be fighting for a budget that puts students first and creates immediate and long-term change to address all of the needs of our students [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] there's a lot of talk about uh defunding i just wanted to point out that um last year 651 was the budget it was increased this year 9.82 um i believe there was a little bit of a higher request but this the city did find 9.82 gave the teachers a raise which obviously they deserve um and the state owned funds about three thousand six hundred dollars or so for danbot every other school everyone [Music] that is
060a significant difference that has to do with the state it does not have to do with us the state is funding only we have to pick up the difference every other city in town here is getting so there's a really big problem with this ecs calculation it doesn't take into construction all the work that's been done transportation there's so many factors that do not get included in that 169 to 169 number as we all know the population here is growing our students are there is more every day and other cities that are nearby our towns bears are going down that means they get more money for students because you by law are not allowed to give a penny less than the year prior so every year dan barry for the last 18 years has contributed
061and giving an additional amount to whatever the state has provided lastly again our students are on the top city of the congratulations [Applause] thank you [Applause] next question is for the mayors and i believe it is mr esposito's turn to go first it seems that there is constantly a new apartment building or condo complex being built in danbury the economic benefits of which also come with hardships with regards to continued school enrollment growth what responsibility do you think the city bears for facilitating this that's a very good question as you know we have some serious growth here right now in danbury amber is the shining star of the state we do things right here in danbury we keep the taxes low and regardless of what some people think we provide excellent education to the students
062i met a lady the other days 35 years in the realtors business and she said that one of the greatest selling points that she has is that danbury's educational system is so good people want to come here so that's it i guess there's some people that don't think that again but the reality is that it has to be with managed growth managed growth is something that we always focus on and uh that's what we'll do for the future of danbury and it's your next marijuana i'm sure the managed growth will be positive [Applause] i have two articles in front of me let's read a quote from one of them we're saturated with condominiums and multi-family housing in the city our traffic is a mess our high school is one of the largest in the state
063that's one the next one esposito wants this city to control growth more particularly new condominiums which he says put more pressure on the schools and increase traffic this was 2005 being esposito i like that dean esposito because he was fighting for our schools but since he's been working for the city and his new bosses that has changed all of a sudden but the pressures in his schools have not changed so what we have to do is manage responsible growth and that welcome 2005 venezuela to work with us so we can do this responsibly it wasn't working then again we can't stress these aren't new challenges to vanguard there are the challenges in 2005. this is not new we cannot fix them with the same ideas the same stagnant leadership we have to move on we
064need new energy with new vision we need a new direction thank you thank you next question regards to infrastructure as it relates to school remote learning sidewalks those kinds of things as a parent i value internet service as a public utility as well as sidewalks to make foot traffic safer what infrastructure expansions and upgrades would look to do within the school district with any potential money that danbury may receive as a result of the federally passed infrastructure bill and this question is open to anyone who would like to answer could you please just raise our heads israel having taught during the pandemic when everybody had to have hybrid teaching teaching from home and students were learning from home there were incredible unimaginable challenges that went along with that and i believe that some of the
065money should if we get money for this kind of thing especially for internet that it would be very good not because i'm hoping to have another event and i'm going to be the last thing from my mind if it ever had to be again that we fund families to be able to have the internet because some don't so their children aren't getting the best education without that and um also maybe make help students learn in an environment for instance i'm just going to give you an example some of my students had small homes and um there were lots of family members so for them to sit in front of a computer especially very young children to sit in front of a computer and try to learn all day was an extremely difficult path so i
066would like to see some kind of backup system uh implemented if there's money or funds for example to be able to address those kinds of issues within our school district because our school district doesn't end inside the buildings um you know teachers have lives that they go home to students have families they go home to but they're still part of us they're still part of danbury and the more we can do for them to be able to get the more we do for them to be able to get them to have the best education we have fine that would be great [Applause] [Music] anyone else like to take a shot okay the next question is for the mayors um i believe on this [Music] for the mayors do you intend to speak with mr donovan
067and his team about their ideas for the needs of the high school sure do you intend to speak with mr donovan and his team about their ideas for the needs of the high school i would definitely speak with mr donald about his needs for the high school but directly with our superintendent who is his overseer and we have an excellent new superintendent and we're in a good position to move forward now and i think building a great working relationship with the i hate to say education side and the city side it's all our size we're all damn bearings here we all want the best possible education for the students i've talked to him every single day i know he's a football player i've played football here myself so i think we're on the same page
068if he needs to move forward he needs support he must make suggestions as their next mayor i'll definitely listen to him and i'll sit with mr uh the superintendent kevin walston and understand what the needs of the school are directly with the high school and each and every school in this city because we have some of the greatest schools in this state of course we'll still mr donovan mr wallston we'll sit with all the assistant principals the parents and the teachers when we're invited to talk to them we're going to show up and talk to them so i welcome any invitation because that's how nobody has a market corner on the right ideas some have to corner on bad ideas but the way you find out when you get to where you need to be
069is by having coalitions we've been building coalitions since we started this campaign before so i welcome any conversation [Music] this next question is open to whoever would like to answer do you support school mass mandates and faculty vaccine requirements imposed by the states please keep it simple people are scared to answer this i'll just do it because the responsible thing is to say you support mass mandates you support vaccine mandates with testing this is about health and saving lives i think everybody here that's a bipartisan issue we want to save lives our city has been doing a good job that doesn't cross that's about doing what's right and about being responsible [Applause] just really simple none of us on the board of education are health professionals i mean in any decision we look to the
070experts to help us make you know make decisions to enforce them and i agree it's about what's doing right for everybody else and we want to keep our kids in school this is what we have to do [Applause] yes and yes [Applause] [Music] feel free i'm gonna have to go with uh yes obviously follow the science i think that is something that changes every day um i do have an issue with masking children when the percent is .03 i think that really impacts their mental state of mind um i think that there's a lot of loss in the education in their facial expressions you know you identify a lot from the child through their face so i think that that is a big burden for our children to carry the science really doesn't support that
071but again i am aware of i have been vaccinated i'm aware of the importance of it i do they'll feel that asking people about whether they get vaccinated or not is a violation of hip-hop but i always will i will always follow the law and until that changes then yes we will have to wear our masks and you know social distance and do everything that we have to do until hopefully this emergency is over but it looks like we've got to march 22. [Applause] [Music] next question why and this is forever for anyone that would like to answer why are the democrats now pushing for more school spending as a platform when they've never pushed the democratic state reps to get danbury is fair allocation from the state before thanks for the softball first of
072all the state delegation has gotten us more money than the governor's proposed budget every single solitary year period this is more important the state of connecticut the way we do pilot funds pilot is payment in rule of taxes those are funds that the state gives to the municipalities for things later not tax like hospitals colleges etc with that re-tiered system danbury winds up with 2.5 additional 2.5 million additional dollars because we are an alliance school district now while the state legislation does not tie those funds specifically to education that is 2.5 million dollars denver is getting an additional state funding because we're an alliance system because of the way our school system that's where we get those funds we hear a lot about the state doesn't fund us enough i don't hear anything from the
073other end of the table about devoting those dollars to education 245 right now for education that will help there are challenges our students face we know that because of pandemic take the state money that we all say we need and devoted to that got to be clear we could use more money from the state i want more money from the state believe me i want more money from the federal government too we need more money from the city of danbury this is not an issue this is not an either or situation but to be clear the governor proposes a budget every year the state delegation and it's not just a democratic delegation that's been recent the delegation even prior to that when it was a mixed and bipartisan delegation has gotten us more money than
074the governor's proposed budget every single year is it enough no we want more of course we want more that doesn't mean we haven't gotten more than what the governor has proposed and we have more money right now sitting here for the city of danbury ready to appropriate for education the time to commit tonight [Applause] well like howie joe you said it best is it enough no it's not enough we always want more and i've made it clear before i'll make it clear again the city of danvers steps up every single year to fund the budget for education every single year my colleague here michelle spelled it out for you eight almost nine thousand dollars per student is paid by you the taxpayers of danbury out of your pockets and the money that we send up
075to the state in tax dollars is 3 500 coming back when it's reversed in most other cities i don't understand that if you can clarify that for me joe that'd be great [Applause] sorry there's no no no answer response thank you [Applause] so we've always lobbied to save her more joe said what i've been saying all day the state has given us more and we've made a promise a commitment to allocate those funds that don't affect our tax dollars to our board of education the only people talking about raising the only person talking about taxes going up here is dean esposito we have money that doesn't affect our taxes and we're committing into that now i'll ask right now hey representative bucker say senator julie please give us more we've always done that nobody is
076that we are working for more funding we're just saying that the city has not allocated their funds appropriately last five years 51 every year yeah you may increase a couple dollars but the percentage stays the same that's not how you do budgets year in year out maybe these people have been in the city talking too long and it's time for a fresh approach [Music] [Applause] anyone else would like to answer this question that has not spoken on this yet go ahead he's talking about funding he's talking about defunding and not having enough money you know asking the governor and not getting the money i believe he's a democrat and i just have one question for everyone is how is it that we don't have enough money yet for the last three years the board of
077bed has not used all their funds in that [Music] the mayor has in other words that money goes back to the city and the city has gone and reimbursed or given that money to the board of ed so i don't understand where that disconnection is i just don't understand how we keep talking about defunding when the democrats are on the state the governor the governor and the board of ed and zoning i mean i think you guys need to answer some of your own questions if you have not answered the question yet you may answer the question anyone else yes mr plessy it's been a while since i've heard the question so i'm a little no problem why are the democrats now pushing for more school spending as a platform when they've never pushed the
078democratic state reps to get danbury its fair allocation from the state so just to clarify the new ecs formula that was frozen for far too long was fixed in 2017 when it was basically a split legislature that's that's the group that's the delegation when we had more republicans on on the delegation there was it was basically split and i believe it was a republican budget that was that was pushed through that year and the new eps formula took effect in 2019. this past legislative legislative session the governor originally proposed freezing the new formula we're still due we still do our fair share bottom line we're not getting it until 2028. most of our people have been graduated by them we need it now we had our chance we need to come up with a way
079to appropriately fund our children now they need [Applause] this is the last audience question before we have the final question for everyone and again this is an open question if there was community momentum desiring metal detectors at our high school would you be in support of that action if there was community momentum desiring metal detectors at our high school would you be in support of that action thank you yes it's next mayor danvers i would definitely support that because the safety of these kids is the most important thing out there and i know everybody in this room would agree no matter what party we are thank you [Applause] thank you i also would say yes i think we can also keep tragic event today and anything we can do to keep our children safe you
080know i think like being said everybody here is for so of course [Applause] [Music] okay so we have a last question um it's going to be for everybody and i think we'll just go down the line here sure we can start with mr esposito and come down this way and we'll go two minutes each and the question is drawing from your demonstrated record in danbury please share with us what is it that distinguishes you as a champion for teachers students and public education champion for education that's easy the teachers themselves are the champions i support the teachers in every single way the frontline teacher that actually does the job and educates our kids every single day those that stepped up to put their lives online to educate our kids during this pandemic my goals are
081simple as the next mayor i'm going to support the teachers the true teacher that's actually doing the job out there each and every day i'm going to support you the employees of this city each and every day but most of all i'm going to support you the constituent the people of this city we are one city danbury is a one city and we are a shining star because we all work together and put our differences aside when we have to that's the best part about this city i've lived here my whole life basic and there you go i'm 61 years old i've lived in the borders of danbury for 45 years yeah they are so the reality of it is my goals are simple i love this city i work together with anybody out there
082that needs to watch to put this city first like i do the city of danbury is the best place to live in this state and in this country as far as i'm concerned and the kids of this city deserve better than what we're putting out here today we need to work together and provide founding answers to the students of this city so they're safe and there's to continue to get educated in the top quality education that our teachers are providing them our administrators are providing them and our city government's providing them thank [Applause] however you know after living working especially with all teachers and being able to work with the state department worked with all the people all my life over 50 years in education i still say we need to support them yes and
083we need to make sure that all of us in this city work for the city if this is where we're living this is where we need to support this is what we need to do for all our residents and our students we've got to make those students the next reign of residents in our city and yes i believe we need to put every foot forward to help this make it happen so you know education 50 plus years what am i thinking right i've been here all this time i've lived through here longer than everybody probably sitting in the audience and i'm still here in this city because it is the best place to be just repeat that question sure drawing from your demonstrated record in danbury please share with us what is it that distinguishes
084you as a champion for teachers students and public education okay um i'm a parent my son is 23 years old i've been through the system iep i've got two other children um i would say most importantly what i can contribute is my background i'm again a cuban american my parents came here exiled about 60 years ago they made it very clear and instilled in me how important an education is especially for people that have a second language they are not victims they have more to offer they have the ability to add diversity more diversity to the city which we already are very diverse but we want to make sure that every single child in danbury is successful and graduating at the same rate and it becomes inclusive an inclusive city with everyone um given that
085opportunity and able to shape their future they cannot take anything away from you the only thing you can keep in life is your education um and that will take you forward in life so i'm basically here to oversee and try to help wherever i can to make sure that our kids get an excellent education that we know where to put the money more money does not mean a better education and um i think that the republican party is really um addressed all the facets we're trying to push through there's always so much more to do but you know we're all here all of us i think on this stage wanting to help our kids and trying to find out the best way to do that and i think together if we all work together we
086can get there [Applause] [Music] uh thank you for that can you hear me um i think in my last 20 or so years of teaching um i have proven that i am a champion not only for teachers but for students and i've had thousands of them many many many many of them i'm still in touch with teachers that they say teachers affect students lives but students also attend and to be a champion for public education i would and for the reasons i'm going to give i would fight hard to not allow a charter school in danbury it is a hope it is a private empathy run by private people and the people who run them donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to people that are running campaigns um they fail within forty percent of the
087charter schools in connecticut fail within 10 years and go out of business and i say out of business because they're not public also the one that is proposed for danbury please let him speak thank you the one that has proposed for danbury is taking in 110 students per year for six years but guess what our student population is projected to grow by at least 600 students in six years so that is a complete wash thinking that's going to obedience 30 seconds the crowding in this damn schools it's not and we need to find better ways and better solutions so yes i would definitely be a champion for public education [Music] [Applause] advocating for our schools for our public schools there's nothing there's actually nothing private about charter schools in connecticut just like magnet schools technically
088technical schools and activism schools the purpose of a charter school is to raise student achievement in the state's lowest performing districts and are only permitted in alliance districts the charter management organization has to be by law a non-profit everything is open uh finances are transparent board meetings are open and they're they're held at a higher accountability for autonomy to to raise green achievement that is that's the goal of the charter school now if you want to talk about enrollment study we are bound by our demographic studies of what we're building we've had several demographic studies in the past three years we're about to embark on another one uh with our new superintendent um but we're building we're building right now all of our our projects that are ongoing the career academy the elder santa um
089the middle school classrooms are all based on those projections from the demographer we are bound by by them that's what we build on baby state um reimbursement so that the burden doesn't fall totally on the local taxpayers um and and we're bound by where the growth is the growth is in our downtown and that's why we're building an annex to eldworth avenue school [Applause] so i just want to leave everyone with this is that my personal opinion is i don't i'm speaking from one of them i don't feel that corn event should be really political it turns out to be that way political here tonight so all i'm saying is i'm not guaranteeing money i'm not commenting on charter school only one that i can guarantee is that i will always and always in the
090past have put the teachers staff and kids in this [Applause] [Music] who have served on the board understand that sometimes things just don't work so it's do your best and always put the staff and children ahead of politics [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and after the election there's no more politics it's going forward for the best of the town and our schools thank you thank you i will agree with ralph in this regard i am very proud to serve in the board of education for the last few years and i can say with the utmost honesty i have an amazing respect for everybody on that board that i've served with for the last two years and politics has never crept into it everybody's done what they thought was right and that's what we have to do as
091elected officials and as a champion for kids i think i've done that for the last two years i think i'll continue to do that both in advocating for our career academy and the innovative education that that will offer our children advocating for the other expansions that we're doing to address enrollment and fighting for proper funding to be clear mayor mayor of the oral candidate esposito is correct danbury spends about nine thousand dollars per student to be clear norwalk spends 14-5 in stanford 16 000. we're dead last in per-pupil funding the mets and padres were third in their divisions this year to fire their manager they were third [Music] [Applause] i will always fight for our kids and i will always fight for our teachers and excuse me respectfully the only thing public about our charter
092school is the public money that funds it a school that answers to a board of directors in brookfield or brooklyn is not a public school a charter school does not answer to this board which means it does not answer to you the voters their [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you we're almost finished this overcrowding issue started to bubble up and my kids were still young and we could have easily sold our home and packed up our bags and moved to one of our neighboring communities like the festival of brookfield that wasn't having the issues of overcoming what we were having but we didn't we chose to stay and we stayed because we have the best educators the best administrators and the best support staff that our kids could want to have and also we have a
093wonderful diversity diversity in our community which we should embrace but after having my kids in the school system for 20 years i can honestly say that you know the city did look out for our kids as a parent i don't feel like they were able to have the best interest of our kids because we're sitting here tonight as parents and we are discussing and we're advocating for the same issues that we as parents sat here 15 years ago they're the same issues we were advocating for then we're doing now so nothing's changed our schools are um a diamond in the rough and we can polish them up and they can be the gems of our community we just need to to focus on doing that and when we do that our children succeed and as
094a whole our community succeeds as well thank you [Applause] long now since we asked for the question leave the questions what have you done to support what are you giving me to support like i said before we're going to listen we're going to listen we're going to speak and i've shown that i ran for city council in 2017 because of our schools and i haven't stopped advocating for them since when we're when i won in 2019 we continue to advocate advocate for that and we continue now everybody here supports the teachers it's nice it's easy to say that but i'm the only opinion who accepted their directly from the teachers i'm going to continue to support the teachers because they are our front line they're the ones there sacrificing the scholarship so i'm here to
095support the teachers supporting their administration and continue to support them that is not going to stop thank you [Applause] all guys so at this time we're running a tad bit ahead so we're going to go ahead and give just the two mayoral candidates a two-minute closing speech of their choice potential is to go first thank [Music] i think you made that clear when we did the twin uh coin toss so i'm good with that ladies and gentlemen i'd just like to say thank you thank you each and every one of you for being here tonight to see what we have to say the next mayor of danbury sits up at this dyess either myself or mr alves but i just want to let you know that if i'm selected as the next mayor danbury my
096goals are simple to move danbury forward as we have in the past 20 years keeping gambling taxes low providing quality service i've been involved in public service for 30 years so i personally believe that experience matters in these times i just want to thank each and every one of you i want to thank the members of this board anybody that's up here is a candidate it's uh it's not easy to step up and put your name out there to be a candidate people get mad at you because of certain things but i just want to bring everybody together tonight as bambarians we're still going to have our issues we're going to still be separated on some of these things but we're all dan durians let's stay focused on danbury and i would like to ask
097you for your vote in november 2nd so i can continue moving danbury forward with 30 years of experience and a good working relationship with all our departments thank you again for being here thank thank you to everyone here who spent your evening with us because this matters thank you to cypto for hosting this event and thank you for everybody who i'm sharing this guys with this is not easy this is hard for a lot of people you do push yourself out there there are people who don't agree with you almost always it is civil so thank you everybody i think my opponents and everybody who is on this stage my two kids go to our public schools they're gonna go to our middle schools they're gonna go through our high school public high school system
098i'm here because i've got skin in the game that's what we need we need everybody that's in the game to have a seat at the table and be invested this election is about our future it's about making things better because we can make it better making it better is moving forward making it better is accurately addressing the issues at hand allocating resources accordingly how we need them not kicking the can down the road the board of education is the city that is one of the city of andrew's largest employees we have to listen to what the employees in the larger senate way they start telling us they're telling us they need help this isn't you they have intelligence needing help when organizations aren't run right they change leadership they don't bring in more of the
099same we need to move forward and we move forward by looking for a leader who isn't afraid to acknowledge that we have practical systems and was willing to make the improvements we needed to make by strategically allocating our resources by committing increases in state funding that we've all talked about that we need and is there to education let's stress that again we're committing to you by committing to increase the flat percentage of the budget it's been for the last five years since 2016. this is a question of where our values lie where our priorities stand and if i'm fortunate enough to earn your vote in november you know you can count on me to prioritize our kids and prioritize our future so thank you everybody for sharing this evening that ladies and gentlemen we'll conclude
100our night on behalf of the city-wide people we would like to thank all the candidates for coming out tonight spending their evening with us we hope all you the audience have enjoyed the evening with us as well good night [Applause] you