001raised outside appreciated thank you patient under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much 250 to begin each mayoral candidates will have two minutes to introduce themselves the board member or an education candidate will have one minute let me start from a mark I'm sorry to share ideas first I want to say that I'm proud to have been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers of Connecticut and strong schools making strong communities by providing opportunity for our children in a workforce that attracts business and economic growth we need to build a strategic plan for our schools and prioritize the education budget to make sure our students and teachers get what they need it's manner I'll work with city leaders to advocate Hartford for danbury's fair share of education funding until we
002get it I'm an attorney and every day I advocated negotiate my work to find solutions and that's for the city Danbury I'm taking a problem solvers approach to danburrys issues calling attention to the issues that have been plaguing our city in the last 18 years because that's what they are supposed to do I want to build ambery up as a Democratic candidate premier I hope you'll join me in seeking out newer smarter inclusive and more efficient ways to create a school system that our children deserve and that taxpayers can afford I don't want to be the longest-serving mayor I want to be the most effective Thank You u-turn mr. mayor thank you very much I mean ah great good to see everybody thank you so much for coming out this evening we appreciate you taking
003the time and after in your interest in the future of Education here in Danbury are proud to the end the dice with some great candidates and some folks that have served a little bit longer on the board of education I'm proud to work with the elected officials that are here in this room as well as some of those they couldn't make it tonight as well as superintendent and his staff at each and every day this we worked in seek to improve and engage their parents as well as our children and improve our political system the less eighteen years I have been mayor the city I am proud I'm probably aspect of our city I love neighbors and I believe this immense responsibility to be Deborah's chief cheerleader when our kids do good you'll see me
004in there and every way shape want impossible to be able to reward them to thank them and to celebrate their accomplishments and achievements tonight we meet in a room that was filled under my administration this is auditorium as well as expansions of Marcus Park and we've engaged in over a hundred million dollars of expansion to all of our school buildings across our city those are include but are not limited to three expansion for elementary school a new middle school - brand-new Elementary School's a new hot box theater Crescent Academy new athletic field as well here in the city everything that damn Brandeis damn Bremen radians suppose one of the most livable cities in the state of Connecticut is because of the blend of the hard work done by our school system the blend of our
005low taxes at the blend of the lowest sewer water rates and state for a second I'm proud to have done the job that they've done there's no question that we have I'm excited about that work I view it as an opportunity that is something to dump on Danbury about with something to stand out of celery we have seven schools and distinction in our city thanks to the great hard work of the staff we gotta celebrate Thank You mr. mr. Rowan I don't might even top of these two heavy weights here I'll just start by saying Who I am now boy named Eric goes when I was a war revenge II came in the early eighties family really really left up here to be fun of all of you I want to make something very clear
006one of the reasons why are we have the quarterback is for the kids for the teachers in the air I applaud you thank you so much for what you've done because they go hard for the graduation rate has at least amongst of minority community part of why why I wanted people at the end is I want to diversify a little bit more I want them teachers and how one our school systems to reflect our community just like with our police force arguments growing the diversity you have thank you great point pto four seven one son just graduated high school and just wanted to say that I have definitely Johnston hi I'm Pat Johnston I am also a member of the word that presently I'm the chairman the last two years I have been a president
007Danbury for quite a long time I spent any of the exhibition's mayor mark second term was the first time I ran for office I was on the Zoning Commission for six years I was on the Planning Commission and I've been on the Board of Education I've tried to instill in my kids were both attending damn very public schools right now and one of our reasons that we moved today I married was to attend Dameron High School one of the reasons why I ran for the Board of Ed was to help with what I felt with some of the issues that came about and I've worked diligently over the last four years I'm hoping to come back and continue that work I know that we have system thank you so much so I was born in
008South Street and I'm an incoming member of the Board of Education and I know or the education I received here in Danbury and you know I think we got a lot of work to do and I think we can be doing more and like for our teachers and students thank you I'm doing because [Music] why our students I've got the diversity in our town I like to leadership they're working together and I think anytime you want to move forward you have to put things together and work together in order to move those Wars I have one son I have two beautiful grandchildren remember they work they have to search for what that means so they tell that person and I'm just here to make sure that whatever I could want the people on the board
009to support to make things do right or thanks everybody for coming this evening supporting the community is home I am double originally I grew up there and graduated in high school there there's that a lot of onions traveling in and out because it was close a lot of things here that local communities also take advantage and when I grew up you know I realized I wanted to live that more diversity and what Bethel had to offer and so I thought a Kasich year and I started to get involved in the community in several different ways and ultimately found that attending the board Mendis every other week was I I started to attend these meetings because the schools are the foundation it represents where we are as a community and where we're going as a community
010we're training our workforce we're training our future leaders and whatever effort and investment that we put into the students as well be Reynolds Bentley going to see a community of Danbury and the vacancy presented itself in January 2019 I stepped up to fill that vacancy because public education and I want that for members that passes through our doors so I ask for your support in November thank you very much no it sounds a little trying because I'm the person who's sneaking Grover I do want to thank the members who see what they do for doing this my wife spent three years is the president PTO apart after school [Music] we move on to the first question for the mayoral candidates mayor and Christa - what has a lobbyist done or what do you feel they
011should be doing for our school system and is it also beneficial to continue to have yes I do believe it's beneficial for a couple of reasons one I just wanted to clear that both the Board of Education and City Council agreed to split the cost of a lobbyist between us there are ten cities in all cities a lobbyist that works for them and as a former past president of Connecticut countless municipalities that was elected by other mayors it's likely across the state to represent they're interested Harvard I know how much value a government affairs person can bring to the table and so it's not a question of either water there are those of us about to have a lobbyist that means the mayor's never do anything that's ridiculous I'm in Hartford disinfectant zone than any
012other place Washington included but the fact that matter is is that you also need something that's going to work closely with your legislators to help them understand what the issues are of the moment in the city of January as well as for them to relay information back to you at least the committee work that might be going on and so in 2016 actually it was the first time we hired a lobbyist we hired on for the head start building way back in 2002 2016 we'll begin planning for the president Academy we want to increase our reimbursement rate and so dr. Tsao I thought it was prudent to bring some of the important team on board to help us do that they work closely with one of our representatives that really took the lead on this
013event was David R Khan who said I'm going to fight for them and he did along with our government affairs person and because of the kiss save the city 11 million dollars and expenditures and two years ago when we needed better reimbursement rate for our modular classrooms to be able to accommodate space the same deal happening once again those two went forward or quad cross and save the city one hundred and eighty thousand dollars so for the thirty thousand dollar invested $15,000 a design that we pay to have something of the reference Aaron just along with a man along with our council people along with our state reps the state senator it's a darn good investor president Thank You lobbyists to represent the city and the Board of Education marker and one purpose is the
014lobbying for increased funding for education I heard the mayor at the City Council budget meeting rail against Hartford saying that he need increased funding if I'm elected mayor I'll be the chief lobbyist and marker for the interest of the city and we can see under thousand dollars a lobby the governor the speaker the House the Senate President and make the case for why the most diverse city in the state of Connecticut requires more attention and more education funding I'll work with our legislative delegation senator Julie Kushner representatives Godfrey an hour comedy doctor and Allie Brennan to achieve the kind of outcomes we need to improve our schools because I'll be the most effective spokesman for the funding that we need the issue comes back to outcomes Ian's last 169 169 municipalities and per pupil expenditure
015it's not because we have more students than anticipated we have a 1.3 million dollar funding emergency the second week of school in no idea yeah the Superintendent of Schools sent a letter to the Commissioner of Education asking for emergency funding and then press that the request was denied where was our lobbyist what was he doing to help address the crisis the time you've been talking about lobbying for more funding is when the report was released early in 2019 that's injected 700 more students in the school system to the next 10 years I think that we need more than a cheerleader we need a champion and that's the kind of merapi next question it's going to be for all the candidates how do you propose the city addresses the needs of our ever-increasing and rolling let's
016begin this time with mr. cetera that will move on to mayor about Democratic after that going to last the hallmark of this administration has been in action and now we're seeing the results our schools are bursting at the seams after 18 years of uncontrolled high Fenske residential growth did no one think that there would be children living in all of those condos and we need a plan to manage the growth we need a citywide commission made up of parents teachers administrators and facilities experts to craft a strategic plan for our school infrastructure that takes into account increasing enrollment enrollment friends not for one year but for 20 years every few years has been a bond issue 20 million or 50 million dollars for additions to our schools and I'm not saying that we need another
017school what I'm saying is that we need a plan that makes best use of taxpayer dollars and the strategic plan will help us do that but we spent the past ten years on school additions could have paid for another school if it's determined that that's what we needed it's not just the outcome case the process that matters we need an inclusive process to determine how we can fix these problems and we need to empower our community to be invested in our schools the mayor's 2020 task force just met last and a request for members from the citywide PTO was put out after 350 students showed up on the first day of school unexpectedly crisis management is not the way to improve our schools 2020 is around the corner it's time for change thank you for
018the question we have what the short-term plan a long saying you need to get a plan it's not a plan not plan what people are talking about we're already doing these we're already meeting we're already beginning that process and yes we did ever significant amount of unexpected students show up at the door there's no question about that we've seen a similar problem in the city of normal same exact problem 400 students showed up there this year as well so these want to believe maybe there's something larger going on here that we're just not aware of that all of us in terms of the state have to take a look at in terms of why are we still than showing up unaccounted for in anybody's demographic study so I think it's important for us to know
019if we're going to plan and how to handle the situation advantages weird did the kids come now my father sparked a lot of wealth from the west side condos that's what they did that's what did it and that could be farther from the truth in fact we spent today as yet today developing a heat map this shows you where the kids are coming from and I know it's hard for you to see it out there but if you look at this map you see on the left-hand side your left you'll see blue circles they and then on the right-hand side of the map and the east side of 80 or you'll see red circles and the West Beach corridor from roughly the Pecos family up to city long there are 512 students that come on
020to that one area there are 6,000 students that come out on the right-hand side of the span well basically never the core of our Nathan neighborhoods o-line neighborhoods that have been converting two three four family homes there are 450 kids that come out of the Westside including all the neighbors there as well as all of the new construction ladies and gentlemen the problem that we have is that we have to manage a very difficult situation that many communities are facing today and we're going to do them we have a short-term plan to be able to handle those children for next year but we got to look beyond make sure we've got to look again to makes five opinions and that's really what the 2020 task force is chargeability it's not just about Mexico it's about
021developing the strategic plan for the time to go go on beyond them to be able to go into multiple years and understand what's happening but first it's we've gotta address what's right in front of us and so this is why we have spent our time pulling our information together today as I can develop that plan when we do that we'll execute just like we've done before we'll go to the voters in March we'll ask for an appropriation we'll build the buildings well hire the teachers and let me just say there's no funding emergency in the city of Danbury we have already made arrangements with the superintendent last June for special ed funding as well as this fall once we do all these new students were coming in September we've already planned [Applause] right that's better
022to say there's no crisis is absurd the superintendent wrote a letter to the State Department of Education indicating a one point three funding crisis because there's no funding crisis there's no reason for that but that's number one number two plan a short term or long term plan where is the plan don't see me because it doesn't 2020 task force was formed in 2008 hasn't met and only recently asked for new members last week the time to come up with a plan is not after the horses have gotten out of the barn and you're trying to close the door the time to come up with a plan is in advance I support this piece of terrorism for proposal to come up with a commission to play not just for now but for 20 weeks because in
0232008 we had that opportunity to come into 2020 task force and once they decided that we needed to bond it to a bond in addition to Park Avenue a shelter like schools they stopped meeting they stopped doing that wasn't by the way to be clear that wasn't enough there's portable classrooms in the parking lot a shelter at school that's what we that's what one of the major reason why I'm running for the Board of Ed because their schools for years this is not new it was only made starter the spring of this fall when threatened 50 extra kids showed up they'd ever touched that just I just want all so we're good intentions as far as addressing and that's okay but but you need to have a plan going forward I think sure there are
024some interim steps we need to consider taking one of those programs which we're danbury's a moment has been going up a lot of the neighboring districts and across the state the numbers have been going down so basically this program would allow some immersively children to attend school in new more districts if that was something as a group that's a possible interim solution another attributive solution which the board is discussed and that I think also investigated was finding a single location to house our pre-k program because currently that's taking up classroom space and I believe five different schools so that would have opened up some additional space in the short term as far as the long term the reconvening of the 2020 task force felt by some of the first steps that we need to take
025that would be an updated enrollment projection from the company that provided our enrollment projections back in the spring those were lifted off and they're going back to figure out what exactly happened provide us with some new information to go forward we're also there's discussion about an updated evaluation of our organization to make sure that we're maximizing what we have the way that we're arranging our classrooms and then finally you know putting together they're planning to move forward possibly with the new building which I frankly I think we need the challenge is there that we don't have any space on and structures have known and we don't have the money to purchase land however I do think that the city needs to really put some thought into purchasing land go to school or donating land to
026the school back in August there was consideration given $200,000 purchase of some blighted properties near the airport that was something that the City Council was seriously considering spending money now I really didn't mean to bump our schools up the priority list that's it's much more important to me so ultimately you know I think that this is a team effort that has to come through coordinating with the Board of Ed and the Senate's leadership to come up the state in the city both need to allocate more resources to the way we need to we know what it was like to try and cross through the sea stairwell during the lunch waver over the deep bridge you know it appears like every time [Music] and I think that's an issue and you know I also see first
027hands these specials like the artists get demoted from a classroom to be put on the stage to become public art so I live thank you I I agree on a lot of the points that we got going on here that the growth is beyond all of our expectations there was demographics that were put out but this goes back a long way I actually ran for the Zoning Commission 16 years ago to help curb the proliferation of condominiums and ambering I thought it was a problem then that having more and more condos would bring in more and more students that we couldn't afford to let that run away that's not the problem anymore the problem is the influx of students now was beyond the demographic plans that we had had for years we've been looking at
028every single time the lines drawn up it outweighs it and this year was immense we've taken every step that we could to address the issues as they come we've sat down as some of the other board members have brought up we have begun looking into building new schools it's finding how much how much how much property we're going to need to build how many schools whether we can afford to do it and of course to look at the plan for not a quick fix for right elbow for something that's going to lead us out for 15 or 20 years to build a school that solves the problem for the next three years with with getting three hundred students a year in 30 or more means that we need if we were to just build schools
029to solve that problem we need a school as the biggest Park Avenue every two years we can't obviously do that so we need a long-term plan we've been discussing it with the city with the mayor with with the pastorale and we've looked at it through the architects and we're trying to come up with a plan and a location and do that coming up in the next the next term so that we could get everything put together and get some more funding that's was addressed from state that's hugely important thank you all right so I'm generous into the sites and facilities so I'm very familiar with the a couple of things I'm not a person until numbers out but we're so a lot over the last couple years have done work for six years we've been
030growing one point five to two percent a year this year I believe it's six percent so no one cared so no one can have a plan to allow for that type of growth what I can tell you is that exercise facilities chairperson we need we are constantly content of the city we're constantly studies to find the spatialization you know land sites to build so the same there's not a plan I think there's a plan because we're living in every time we have a meeting so the plan is to you know find space and to develop the space or add-on and make sure that that we know we get the resources into the buildings that need to get there but to say that no one can allow for the increase and you can say where they're
031from [Applause] like such as children that forces the human beings and the reason why here in wonderful comments it plan you know I Drive around and around and read and the maintenance has been great with these screws again baby we have new boots [Music] we have you working 2% in graduation among their spending like that's a thirds of set increases 2012-2013 we have a graduation rate and the bacteria has increased by nine Center and 7% still is a low-income household that was the last few years that was done with working with what we have and he ain't just stole money and expected to solve the problem they even told us they told us he can create it about it and when it doesn't get create about you know what I did I thought about my
032attendance the telomere shortly sources want me to be creative so I stepped on a couple of holes with them across the school you know we have immunization then not change the easiest one day no state funding of Catholic centers or construction their will they won't they want to build a school and the property tax reallocation that means carbon tax that spent without the money you can use right nowadays there's a plan that I like the City Council I hear all this talk about biotechnology they always fight by eros push back on City Council and I think we're losing track I think priorities they governmental administration I work with him we have three executive orders that was passed that I dub that I worked on legislative task force a bipartisan bill made that pass with the
033military occupation skill that's something that I'm going to be home and I think the one is everyone really want to get possible schools a chance thank you very much [Applause] what are your goals regarding education here in Game three and how do you plan on shame me and mark you we'll start with you sir you know it's something that fourteen years of experience teaching high school the master's degree in educational psychology from Western Connecticut State University I worked every day with the average students or most of my adult life before it became there so I understand the challenges that they face a understanding challenges the district but I think when we talk about goals I think the season team things be addressed and continued to be worked on don't we make taking great steps up
034what is some wants to continue to work on closing the achievement gap the disparate difference between what certain economic households get in terms of test scores and access to services is important to us but also it can lead to having success if they have the pregnant resources in front of them one of the things that we proposed and we brought the legislature was working our way through the process now has been able to offer low-cost wide world class Internet access to every single home and apartment the city of diameter returning about $15 a month to start after five years of junk for $5 a quiet we know because we want every child to have access will they use the cloud use the internet to be able to do their work to do their research and
035not have to be locked out so I think that's a worthy goal is something everybody continue to work on obviously we're going to solve our space is usually continue to build and being creative very spoke about you can possibly use it the open choice program that's a certainly something should be investigated talk about potentially creating a single stop pre-k center so that all of our pre-k operations one building that will free up about six classrooms in our elementary building that's a good idea we ought to do that we ought to talk about being able to utilize some of the schools around the centerpiece shut down by other communities because they don't have enough enrollment entering into strategic partnerships of those communities would be good and beneficial for taxpayers we ought to do that and then
036we have to look at closing the funding gap that we see here everybody talks about the number one six you know thirty seconds I'm gonna give you a number eighty-three percent the taxpayers the city they eighty three percent of the building of funding the education for our children the state of Connecticut as promised that issue they only be fifty percent if we were to get that thirty three percent that we mean about forty million dollar increases forcible budget each and every year first we have a crisis in the school system our schools are bursting at the seams in the report that was provided to the Board of Education in early 2019 states specifically that most of the growth is expected from children that are coming from the west side we need a plan to manage
037the growth we need a community-wide commission to craft a strategic plan we've adequate facilities for learning we don't have that now and we need a mayor that's going to be focused on getting that done damn breeze last a per-pupil expenditure mayor points to the city's Blue Ribbon Schools as evidence that were adequately adequately funding education those are our awards were earned by the hard work our teachers what we do what we do have here in Danbury for the best teachers in the world and children that deserve better municipal budgeting is a matter of priorities and properly funding public education is one we do need a manner that will lobby the state legislature for the resources that we need and aamir the delivers for our community $500,000 in impact fee has to be paid by the
038developers of the matrix is evidence of 18 years of missed opportunities you know what else we need you need to do better that's why I'm advocating for universal pre-k studies show that children enrolled in pre-k succeed at a higher rate how about we focus on what helps our students excel not the reasons why not and one last thing honorable mention goes what I'm not going to do not going to have parents well bake sales for two years to fund a playground for special needs students at a public school before stepping in at the very end to funding the city should have funded the tempura playground from the beginning like I said doesn't only are wanting things that I really want to work on is having future workforce that reflects our community they've done so often
039with these forcing emergency services and looking at the numbers of 58% of inverse forces students in the school system are from the memory communion I love to see teachers workforce that reflects that or as close as we can this is not to say that we're gonna do away more complications or all high qualifications it's still going to be there but I don't really want to focus on work with it before bed and focus on maybe getting more minority teachers the area or absolutely really highly qualified teacher kids choice effective choice number two only is there really one focus on choice one is choice we can't even allow them to prospect that have saved wouldn't have been whether they're not be open or not I looked at different possible is now looking over there that have
040a very high success rate so when it does come to choice I want to make it better prospect it's not going to cause a single dime there's already set aside all we need to do is get one brave legislated I'm gonna work with that legislature because whatever they have in front of name but we really want to get into system one legislator open up that funny experience telling them you're going to have a real choice it's not gonna cost we've done thank you okay so in general and we do that by one important rules as a whole is to work with the administration to make sure that they get the tools resources that are noticeable you know simple bold simple statement you know we we know first end I don't want people to think that
041you know we we understand you know the hardship that goes on and challenge was that the teachers and staff all time and one one of my big things is walking the school building and you know listening to the teachers of Prince that's so that's what you really get because I can't be you know decisions meetings if I don't really see it for myself so I think you continue to talk to the people were actually boots on the ground in the schools every day we talk to teachers the teachers people who know me they know that we're here for you guys as well but I think it's really important for the staff to understand that we're here for you guys so I mean so we'll continue work with the administration continue work with us that you
042know what they said thank you thank you gentlemen so I believe the administration goals goals that they can achieve policies to allow them to work with the teachers raise our achievement amongst all of our students that's our primary goal it's we need to give the schools its ability to teach the kids we have great teachers in the school system I've met with hundreds of teachers over the over the years and the necessities are apparent we need more space we need more funding we need bigger schools which has all become a huge problem and it's all going to be resolved over time depending upon how much increase in students we have and how much our plan goes forward into building the rate schools for our upcoming influx of students the problem is not going away I
043don't see any any way that it is and it does appear sometimes that it's triage that we're trying to put in modulars but the money just doesn't exist to build school after school after school so we have solved the problems as they've come up we're working forward on a long-term plan with the mayor in the city and I think that over the course of the next four or five years we're gonna see a lot thirty Seconds thank you a lot of plans coming forward that the people of the city are gonna have to look at and decide if that's what they want to help fund and then we're gonna of course me to have people up in Hartford we have some of our representatives here that need to shake are productive get us some of
044the money that we're supposed to get we're shorted thirty million dollars a year by ten seconds so if we can get some of that money we can improve Thank You self-effort inverter for me a big goal of mine is to just make sure that you know everybody that walks through the doors on the first day as a Danbury public school student was walking across that stage in Tacoma and teachers I believe not just saying that so many continue to work as hard as they do I mean the fact that we have so many schools of distinction with you know the resources that they're receiving just speaks behind unions to just you know intrigued me for a second imagine what they could do with a fully funded budge I just think that there's so much potential
045and if we give our teachers administrators the things that it required but every here that school board budget that comes forward is not a budget that will give us some play money to do some things that's a budget I [Applause] my main goal is to achieve proper funding for education in February there certainly been comments around the idea that money can fix everything in that history you can't guarantee graduation rates it can improve literacy rates but what our schools are insufficiently funded it guarantees that our students are being underserved then our teachers are being overworked and that we're in precarious position where things don't go as expected there's a crisis like we experienced at the beginning of this year so we need to work with the City Council to address the decline in budget operations
046for the schools in 2009 to 2010 school year the schools are funded by a fifty five point three percent of the total city budget and the next year the funding drop to fifty four point four percent of the budget and that pattern continued to our lowest point which was infinitely 14 when the schools were funded by fifty point two percent of the budget and those numbers add up if you were to a scene in the flat twenty to fifty five percent of the budget which is how we did previously then there's a short moment approximately sixty five million dollars which could and should have been spent on education we also need to press the state to fund our schools appropriately well other cities and towns are Elizabeth students Denver is experienced significant enrollment increases and
047alignment of students and special education and English language programs the funding for the state has been relatively static and even more problematic is that some of this funding which comes through the alliance grant we received because we are one of the 33 lowest performing districts in the state are tisha pitch so we are caught in the cycle where if our performance increases how we get there is the question first I think we need to support our staff and our teachers and that doesn't just mean what their contract is what it also means is making sure there's enough reading tutors and social workers in our school and English language learning those are the things that are lacking when our funding is down now I don't want to beat everybody up with a bunch of statistics and
048math but we're going to later for example in comparison to Norwalk and Stanford that blue folks according to the Connecticut school finance project Danberg gets almost twice as much money per pupil in their favor in Norwalk we spend five thousand dollars less per student at Stanford for example Norwalk at nineteen hundred forty nine dollars per pupil and spends fourteen thousand four hundred twenty six dollars every it's 30 to 75 husbands we spent less than all of our pier towns in the state of Canada for example we spend less than personal croc Middleton normal Stanford and ended deaths that credits 10:17 in that's nine theory and that's important we are shortchanging our students if we want to increase our educational attainment through the benefits of the education the city of Danbury we as we as a
049city up - yes yes this year this goes for the mayor's just the two mayor's amber has a 30.8% latin population Amber is home to many mixed status families your stance on national immigration policies and your refusal to not work with ice agents could they can typically affect students from mixed status families what will you do to make sure these students feel safe at school and in Denver yeah what I said it that the big last week was that I work nights deputized the police department to go and day laborers to defend civil right to hundreds of thousands dollars in taxpayer money to settle that litigation and so you know I believe that we should respect diversity and so you know when it comes to targeting any particular group or a particular background I don't
050think that's that's appropriate under any mentor and so you know if someone's involved in some kind of activity criminal activity that's early on the police department for no matter their background and so you know I think that we got to respect diversity and I certainly believe that that's a fundamental value here and that's the kind of man that I want to I would want to be of an administration that's inclusive and how in in policy and respectful people because I think that that's important or one city or one community let me just say that when you stand up in front of this community put your hand out raise your right hand take the oath of office you agree to enforce the law of the state of Connecticut I States of America of course on local
051ordinances you don't get to choose which one you like or don't like that's just part of being here so back during that time that Kris is referencing our officers who were working on an ice operation did engage in that activity and then turns out post that activity those individuals many of those individuals were criminal conduct so even the people in the immigrant community would a lot those individuals leave here and then later on will be entered into a partnership with Icicle 287g were two detectives were trained to enforce a law of the United States of America and got special access to a database we were able to find people in Danbury were wanted in other countries for horrendous crimes we have one individual who was picked up in Danbury was wanted for being a serial
052murderer Eastern Europe he is gone because you don't belong in our community and it's not fun but sometimes you have to do those kinds of things that's what a leader does now in terms of looking at what happens down the state of Connecticut passed something called the trust and the trust Act is very specific about power police officers can interact with ice on day to day basis and we follow the law with the trust back as well that's why I raise my right hand thick view of the Box to follow all of the laws of the state of Connecticut to serve our departments do as well so I think that families can feel comfortable also because of the Supreme Court decision called Plyler versus doe and in that would not allow a Board of Ed
053and the intake folks at Hosmer's feet are not allowed to ask you show up with a backpack pencil 30-second ruler education application this is a second language for five years I worry kids from all over the world I think [Applause] okay this next question is with all of the candidates we're going to start with me and my first activism okay I am a senior at duper high school I have a dream to minimize air my high school's carbon footprint many schools have already participated in this type of project over 16 plus schools together this type of project would save thousands of dollars any money would go into the budget to support salaries and the bare necessities at the school okay actually it's very good question what article seeing here for asking that we describe every
054day to have a clean and green approach the things that we do particularly in our schools and every high school we've switched with dual fuel heating systems technical but basically the switch over to natural gas and we do that frequently as the price of natural gas is stopped was actually cleaner burning material the number two heating oil an addition to that one it's called solar panel something in our buildings in addition to that we've also to create all of our school buses to propane so they're not spewing out all those easel particulates that get in the air and then you have to smell is a dry environment so we think it's some really good steps in terms of sustainability but we can do more it's a silly thing the sense of the grand scheme of
055things but it's important for us then we converted our research you can plan to be able to produce our own diesel fuel that allow us to be able to produce a fuel that's cleaner and of course cost nothing and it's made from a byproduct that we've collected our recipient system we're also working at a comprehensive plan for all of our buildings what other things we've done and talked to dr. sound offices that the city doesn't stink when it comes to solar panels for example the board does its thing all of them are well intentioned are good and have saved us money but if we work together on a comprehensive approach for all of our school buildings and all of our municipally owned buildings and land we can do things like solar farms and other things
056that's all [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I actually personally owned my own solar panels on my house I have a fully electric car out in the parking lot right here that I Drive I am the chief electrician on the hydroelectric dams and all about green I think it's a great idea I've been for putting solar panels if we can do it if we can get rebates and let go mr. Petra Pisa said any of the students who want to come down and discuss that I'm always thrilled to be aspect of taking it and not just to do something because it's green but because it's also viable because you can do some of this stuff we can get rebates from from the state from the federal government and we can offset some of those costs and return that
057money back to our school system and I think it solves a lot of problems and it has a great look forward I walked the walk myself I've been looking looking and doing em for years as an electrician and I think it's a great call that the student brought up I would be more than enthused to talk to any student that wants to come down speak there or talk afterwards or see if we can put some sort of committee together to look further into it thank you so much I think it's a great idea I think it is the future and you know I think there's also educational free on keys free energy and we'll take anything free at this point yeah [Applause] [Music] you know what just don't say it's gonna be right because it
058sounds but I'm glad you become them sit down with them so [Applause] so yeah obviously I think that's the wave of the future is to look at the way that we use our resources and figure out the best way to make sure one of the things that came up at a Board of Education several times was the possibility of switching over from stagger from lunch trays to regular plastic luxuries like they used to happen and because our budget is so tight and has no wiggle room and it was not feasible transitive to entertain the idea of doing this so when we talk about the budget issues and how they impact our school days and children this is something that I think everybody we normally get on board consider the anomalies that comes out of our
05917th schools every day from lunch and how that pile is up over the course of a school year we have all liked to do away with that but we simply don't have the funding to make it happen at this point so it would encourage all of you to show up at the meetings and let us know what's going on with the schools and to fight for the changes that you want to see happen thank you reducing the carbon footprint of any school is obviously it's a credit to the student to come up with the answer and but most of the one of the contends is it proves that whether it's a 16 year old of the UN or a high school senior here at the Danbury Board of Ed PTO forum it's the gun that
060will save us from we find that catastrophe crisis in future thank you for the question it's a great idea thank you thank you yes a tremendous question minimize the carbon footprint of our school system to find to find savings you know I think it's a matter of commitment to to the processing to the and to the premise because it's a matter of technology I was a member of our City Council in the landfill closed in the membrane was put over the landfill and so you know even back then there were discussions about how to harness the landfill itself to find different ways to produce energy of one type or another and so I think it's just having a commitment to the technology that's constantly evolving so that we can in fact find those kinds of
061savings and then we can improve the carbon footprint so I mean that is that's a great question I'm glad to hear that that there's even an application with regard to the school buses because one of the threats obviously to the environment is emissions and so more traffic and congestion and we have in the city the more likely it is that we're gonna we're gonna have a bigger threat from the emissions and so I think that it's a good idea that the vehicles also take advantage of technology because I think this is a no wait the current every public school system focus on equity in our schools one funding would do Keith such as sustainable projects I mean when you Equity in terms of equity in our school system I think is important in terms of
062how we treat our students and how we treat the school system as a whole I mean what we want to do is one every student the opportunity to to succeed and we certainly want a school system where everyone has a quality of education that's certainly a fundamental right the state of Connecticut and so I think that's it's important that we have that we bring that kind of approach to the school system and then we that we put forward policies that are going to not only prepare our students but also promote outcomes that are that are superior for all students in the Denver Public Schools I think that in any way that we can support a little outcomes for all of our district is a good thing if you're talking in terms of how the individuals
063treat one another and then assuming that each child and every disc every school in the district has access to a quality education then I think that it's important that we make sure that our resources are bouncing appropriately I think doctor stay on the board do a good job at that making sure that children have access to the specific needs that they may have in terms of their education I'll also say that there's also another word that's used out there alive it's called Atticus and it's a little bit different than ethnic because that really simply refers to keeping all things eat but they're really the question you ought to be asking ourselves are we doing everything that is adequate for our children and for our parents and that is a much broader discussion that we ought
064to have in our school just because why I was a prime mover and shaker and one of the first mayors who pulled together to sue the state of Connecticut over the issue of adequacy funding of our schools and that court case took 11 years have we won in the trial court report to the Supreme Court threw it back to the legislators that you guys got to figure out how to properly fund your schools but an issue is over adequacy equity is important obviously but it's also the question that we need to ask ourselves as we move forward as we begin this process to bring more money into the district from the state and get them to honor their commitment to commit their job that we are giving each talent adequate education early is an adequate
065opportunity for education [Applause] every is equal as everybody gets the same thing equity gives gets more matter of so I stand and look over a fence you don't give the person next to me no box the standout is there five times five that's equity equity is about a matter of fairness equity is about giving people the resources they need that's a function in our system of for example making sure they're social workers making sure we have teachers for kids who are English language learners making sure they're the right resources for all of our children to have an opportunity to excel the opportunity to learn without those resources we deny them the opportunity that's a function of all of our time that's a fun don't get me wrong could we get more money into the state
066of technic of course I don't get more money the state Academy I'm on the board of education rest assured I will be screaming at the top of my lungs from what I understand that said that's not the only source of funding and that's not really where we're falling down right now as they said before the city of Danbury Trump's every peer community in the state of Connecticut and education funding we're not doing our job Connecticut school finance projects estimates that average we spent $4,000 per less per student than the state average I hate to break the news to you that's not a badge of honor I'm not proud of that I don't think that's good I don't think being dead last in education funding is good and they don't think it's a badge of honor
067I don't think it's something we should wait from the rooftops I don't think it leads to equity or equitable outcomes or equitable offer that's what we have to do we have to work that our funding won't happen overnight to solve the problem next year it's probably took a long time to get here it's a problem we'll take time ourselves but we don't recognize it's a problem what ever saw [Applause] they're features that's something that I think we could discuss teachers another area that we need to think about is their company policy is materials that we provide for our special education and our first language learners the playground is a great example of that when you think about the education of children in recess and playtime it's not the thing that pops first to find but
068that's the important part of the school day for lots of kids imagine being that kind of came to us to sit and rest from the window verse on the side of your chair and you know everybody else gets to go clad so that's the kind of thing we spend significant amount of money you know to bring that opportunity here for our kids but it was necessary and it was important to the equity another circumstance I can speak to is I had a conversation with a couple of kids who go to school again very high and they're in a yellow class and they have the rowboats the problems from even now two kids in in regular English classes and their classroom just didn't get them and I can't think of a population that would be better
069supported English language learners through the use of that terrible so I've you know I'm truly believe that every group that we can work together and discuss before we end up this point of great board I was so how you said but something just want to leave it and not envy sobbing about but I think these are things that you know the board the superintendent he had his staff can sit down and talk about how do we make this things to make sure that all students and out spoons get what they [Applause] getting our students especially getting our teachers tools equity is right so I'm naturally gonna have some students that come in already excelling a little bit more than you know their classmate but if we can get every student need those tutors you know
070for the was language impaired students or support or tools in the toolbox for our teachers just start thinking about that yet yes we have a policy board as a whole is moving forward in living that policy together the funding for the four that will be done in a way that every other item is funded there's no way that we're going to isolate our equity in our moving forward so as far as the specific dollar amounts in the administration you know be fun then we set up the policies and the administration will fund that policy as it needs to be funded make sure that all of our students they need to move forward it's as simple as that you know we're not leaving people behind because afford to serve their needs everybody gets treated equally and
071we're actually putting that into overall policy and moving forward with it it's been in process and that's doing great right now so we're looking forward to have that done and probably before the end of this year thank you I'm in agreement all my fellow board members have something that we could work together I think mr. Walston these packets would go the charge on that and one of the things needed to be done as I mentioned earlier was engaged feedback staff because they know what's going on first and so we've done that and just an echo before the rest of the board set work on support I'm gonna say fun thing because everybody else says you know I think those are the key phrase that said that was said earlier that that really rang me and
072agreed advocacy and opportunity I think all those goes hand-in-hand so I look at this within spectrum because I'm fairly new to this but looking and having someone who's been in school system very very she's three years old next a notion 2016 17 18 I but I think likely I also want to talk about I want to look at choices I want what the choices choices are gonna present opportunities for parents so I'm gonna give them advance those choices to decide what other options we have for kids go to school you know I actually spoke said earlier I mean the options are out there and it's not going to question anything so we want to talk about equity I also want it's not community and we gather those options open now we have three questions 11
073the next two questions are for AMR and crisp and then the rest of the 14 candidates so this one workers trouble mister cetera only mr. Sir Tim oh please levering on your plan to provide pre-k in neighboring how will this be funded yeah pre-k is important and it would it would give our students a real leg of the studies show that for every every dollar spent increase day that we have five dollars back and so in the end it's a it's a significant investment gives our students a real leg up because they perform better through school if they have the opportunity for pre-k pre-k believe funded through state dependent and so when I talk about being a mayor that's going to go lobbying the legislature we're collaboratively with our delegation Julie Kushner and the state
074representatives Bob Godfrey O'Connor represent Americana attend Gunther and reveille Brennan that's what I'm talking about right so that we can have a legislative agenda to try to move our city forward in our educational opportunities in the city of Danbury and one of those I believe ought to be universal pre-k and so it's funded through the state of Connecticut and I've said before that I would be the chief lobbyist for the city of Danbury and this is one of the things that I'm talking about that I would Lobby to governor the Senate President and the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the Education Committee in order to make the argument about why our city our city is the most diversity in the state of Connecticut and why the needs that we have are important
075and I think that it's you know our city is one of a kind and so I would bring our resources our issues to the to the attention of the state officials to make the arguments until they stay right about what it is that we need and what we're pursuing here in the city of Denver regarding educational policy so when it comes to pre-k that's exactly what I would do and I with Lobby so that we would have that funded and we can provide that opportunity to the children of the city mayor marcado enemies say they value the diversity of this community how will you or do you demonstrate this value well I think first of all you that every day I'm proud ambria's 11th most diversity of the United States of America we're that as
076a badge of honor I think it's a great place to be I started my adult career working at Danbury high school or 15 different languages were spoken every day we're back in 20 so in terms of when we look at our city diversity has been something both historical but also something that we have always celebrated it will continue to celebrate under my administration we've implemented a entire program related around the vs. we created a heritage Plaza outside of City Hall we host each weekend this past week and we have Italian Americans that were there to celebrate to raise a flag a penalty for Columbus Day as the Patrick's Day there we have Ecuadorian Independence Day there we have pretty much Portuguese independence you pick today pick the ethnic group we have a celebration that's there
077for them because we want to send a message to every family resident that each of you has played a part of building us to the community that we are it was an old saying it says you know well we all drink from the well we never forget we don't go well well its immigrants they've dug the well of this city I certainly understand that and believe that that's our future as well so the fact of the matter is is that whether I'm attending an ambassador temple is of a mosque on Friday by the way temple church or synagogue or whether I'm at a birthday party or somebody's 16th birthday party wedding and whatever the case might be we're there to celebrate with the community I've been with this community or 18 years as mayor I
078don't shy away from that I'm proud of it and I think every single event I possibly can to show this community that I respect you and I respect what you do and I want to tell you like your Park and last questions for thinking and Adelman what experience has best prepared you for a poor dependent position repeat that one experience has best prepared you for a board event position you are lovers have a company one being military younger growing up I want to be a cowboy but that was acceptable so I join the army and being the army Alice surrounded by such diverse school but you know you know you know I was comfortable in the army because the Ambra high we had that ever school even back to the early 90s so I was
079comfortable military I've met guys from all walks of life nobility my ten years in the military and going in the Balkans fighting Afghanistan that many from all walks of life so you name the characters and I've met a knight know the other working state government now I mentioned earlier that I worked my administration in labor department and I was proud and I was happy to get things done with Governor Malloy and his staff you know you've got three executive all the doors that I traffic all pass the legislative task force I have worked at bipartisan legislative task force we pass bipartisan support and help drive it along and we got passed so my experience is importantly the very second being in a diverse College and diverse community and work was a table shows you that
080could work with both sides of the aisle there's a tiny campaign and this attack were popping in a new rhetoric but once that's done you weren't you get down before and when I'd love to see you like to see legislation gauge you're already doesn't matter of fact it was campuses has done get to work and I had that experience thank you so i'ma drop the chairperson working just changing six years more members and everybody pretty neat perspective so I guess there's nothing like a lot of my adult life serving the community and several boards the last four of which and it was very eye-opening experience when I got there it takes a bit to get into the swing of bed there's a lot to do and it's a very demanding job the hardest job I
081never got paid for in that in the long run I was elected twice to the chair and it was an honor that I took with it and if I'm re-elected I hope to carry the experience that I've had for the last four years forward it's a great [Applause] start all the way and I know it's like to walk down the hallway and be shoulder to shoulder with everybody the entire way to your next period so most of the teachers I had are mostly still there so I solve those relationships they're still teaching so I'm gonna talk to the district I mean they're working issues that are going on right now and that experience that I think is about experience [Applause] and got involved in like a night and as I started on everything to Baris
082think that I decided that comes one start attending board meetings I attended board meetings or two sided years before some of you might know her mrs. Nancy Marcus came up to me and says serving ever since and I was 28 years and that has nothing to do with all the subcommittee so 30 seconds [Music] [Applause] in it in a similar vein I actually attended all their meetings for about two years before I stepped up that was five and that experience was really recommand you you know on the other side of the table in the audience you really are very attuned to the public speakers that come in you get to have conversations and the downtime with parents teachers and with students to attend the meetings and perhaps don't state that the whole experience of the
083meeting but that gives you insane I think that that really drives why you do this kind of work you know we're all though here each of us and given quite a lot of time to the schools in one way or another and that's because of all the leave that deserves a quality education 32nd really excellent public education and I want to see that continued for the next generation I think that's a really important way that we preserve I think I had lots of involved with the community there's lots of things that I think determine that is the opinion of others that I've ever defend why I'm running have always been involved in the city and volunteered as much as I could do for as many years as I could they started as over of Appeals
084under Mayor Eric was a proud member glister those volunteer fire company I work for very small business I don't know anything but I helped an attorney there and one of only six attorneys I understand once its work the homeowner I understand how taxes work I'm respectful of all of those I understand when he does it grow on trees and you have to prioritize mostly one of the things that got me to run I spent the last you know several years of my kids in school trying to desperately help with our Lord you know one of the you know of what teachers do try and help us third grader with their homework we spent the last four springs co-chairing sentences t-ball team we want to be them all the teachers do every day try and teach
085a six-year-old kind of throw a baseball except the bracelet I have been all the way our teachers do running because I want to support them and I want to support all of our kids and thank you very much ok thank you very much now since we have so much time left I think we're going to do one minute closing for each candidate at the next figure and then I have my closings and then he's already lost all right closing mr. cetera one minute I want to first thank the citywide PTO for sponsoring this and for all of you for coming out to Tijeras tonight I think it's important that we exchange ideas and this was a great opportunity you know I've talked about the fact that I'm an attorney and that for a living what
086I do is to advocate and to mediate and to negotiate and how important that is not only in my own practice but it's important I think as an elected official you know what I think the mayor ought to be doing is to use those skills every day on behalf of the people of the city of Danbury and so I've said that throughout this campaign that I think that it's important that we look at outcomes that we set a standard of effectiveness and that definitely work that's important to the people of the city of Danbury and that's the kind of mayor I want to be someone who's focused on good outcomes and doing what's best for the people of the city using the skills that I have and that's what I want to do when I'm
087elected to the mayor's office thing thank you thank you very much the citywide DTO and the we appreciate the time that you spend here of course of our moderators you guys are great social gradual recent studies doing what you do ladies and gentlemen as I said before and I'll say it again I have been proud to be here mayor for 18 years I've seen tremendous growth in this city I worked closely with the board dr. Tsao and the entire team to make sure that we deliver quality education experience to our students but it's more than just that I've been found to be here for 18 straight balanced budgets I've been proud to be here for 18 years of strong economic growth as long as this community has ever seen I've been proud to be here
088being a leader of one of the safest cities for 18 years in the state of Connecticut I've been proud to be as mayor of the city for 18 years as a louis of employment and state of connecticut I've been proud to have the highest fire rate and the city's history for 18 years of the state of Connecticut ten seconds and I have been proud to work with one of the most diverse room with people you can ever find United States of America for 18 years that's what we do together that's nice of us and that's why I'm asking you for two more years that continue thank you I thought I'd just close the second ago but very simple very briefly my political has always been my dad my dad spent 17 years in the Denver
089City Council if there's one thing he taught me is that the rule for any elected official in any office should be to put the city first you're part of a second or so class if I'm elected the kids come first the city comes first the party comes after that and I come last that's what a public servant does they put the people they're elected to serve first that's [Applause] here we are experiencing obviously the problems with enrollment and funding issues I would like to have the opportunity for another for your Terence and whether or not I'm elected I intend to beat those meetings and I intend to continue to participate in this process I think it's really important that we do everything we can to support [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everyone I'm about doing what's right
090and I believe kids and our student our apartment de cambiar is a beautiful place we have I've been lying when I got off the bus in 1971 I but and my friends I know and the reason why I'm running for the board is I only get back and you know I just I want to be a good Board of Ed member I think our kids deserve but our teachers deserve it and if I'm elected next month I promise to do that just ain't sure me forward children are the future and thank you guys the great job as always I would appreciate uh the opportunity to move forward I enjoyed my time I'm bored it's it's a difficult job it's a it's a great job and it's rewarding despite the difficulties and I have two kids
091in the school system and I wouldn't want them anywhere else despite the issues that we have and I doubt that you guys vote for me give me a chance to finish up what we already started we are moving in the right direction overcoming a lot of problems and the school system the diaper I have nothing but admiration for the administration the teachers all the staff that puts all this together ten seconds a shoestring then we run it on them so I appreciate that thank you something guarantee once a people that have known me party politics society I've always done what's best for the war that's what school district that's for the kids so I stand by that party politics aside sometimes decisions beautiful country that would limit for someone like me who was not born
092they're born girl until he feels to come they're not some people in the big legend started moisture school by thirty minute you all the backwards that's not the narrative but go through the every public school system we have product in the public school system their markets what am i studying all teachers and I'm not gonna lining in not gonna numbers my daughter's in a cutpurse my family's income first but you know what an abandoned every back one defender endowment is an intimate enraged school system and my father my dedication motivation for Erickson extend to all your children's so that's what I'm gonna promise you and I'm going to bring some new ideas you might not like it you both me and I promise you'll represent other options besides Michael 2:31 all right city ypt I
093was honored to have hosted this event before we conclude evening we wanted to extend a sincere thank you to all the candidates particular time out of their busy schedules [Applause] next thank you to our audience for joining us this evening we are hopeful the information that was provided was very helpful with regard to issues on hand for different public schools the city white GTL also strongly advocate that all district parents attend their local PTAs there is so much information that these groups can share with you and keep up to date with about 10 attended school system on a final note a reminder that an election day is three weeks November 3rd please get out and vote have a great evening [Music] [Applause] you