In a letter to Danbury Public School Board Members, Sal V. Pascarella, Ed.D. announced that he will conclude his 50-year career in education and retire as Superintendent at the end of this school year - June 30, 2021.
Please see Dr. Sal's note below.
Dear Board Members:
This current year has been the most challenging to date in my fifteen years as Superintendent of Danbury schools, yet in many ways, it was one of the most rewarding. Despite our challenges, I have had the opportunity to see our school community grow and rapidly transform in ways that were not previously thought possible. I am proud of our teachers, staff, parents and students who have come together under great pressure and uncertainty to help one another navigate a radical shift in teaching and learning, while also supporting friends and neighbors in securing food and basic supplies to help during these difficult times. The Danbury Public Schools and our community at large will always be defined by their willingness to embrace diversity, work together for the greater good, and ensure that all of our children have a chance to succeed.
After a great deal of thought and reflection, it is with mixed emotions that I have decided to conclude this chapter of my 50-year career in education and will retire as Superintendent at the end of this school year June 30, 2021. I firmly believe that the continuity of leadership created the stable foundation that gave our faculty, administrators, and students the room to grow and achieve so much during my tenure. I have experienced a level of support most urban superintendents can only hope for during their careers, and I believe our district is well-positioned for a new leader to now build upon our success.
I am blessed to have spent the closing years of my career in such a place of caring and compassionate people. I have had the honor of working with a highly professional and knowledgeable administrative team who supported my vision and worked hard to implement the very best for our students. Our dedicated, collaborative group of teachers and staff consistently put the best interests of Danbury’s diverse student body at the center of their decision making and actions. When I look back, I am most proud of the critical projects that you have supported, despite our many years of challenging budgets, and that ultimately placed our fast-growing urban district at the forefront of educational initiatives that have now been locally and nationally recognized.
Building on the successes of our magnet school programs at the Academy for International Studies, we turned the problem of middle school overcrowding into a critically acclaimed theme school at Westside Middle School Academies. Building on the solid foundation of our rapidly growing high school’s Freshman Academy and the Danbury Early College Program (DECO), we are now laying a fast-moving path for the new career academy that will soon be a reality at the Summit. We have focused on our mission as a District and the impact of national conversations about equity and inclusion with our community-wide focus groups and the development of a meaningful “Portrait of a Graduate” to prepare our graduates for career and continued education. The detracking of our largest high school in Connecticut and the expansion of Advanced Placement (AP) courses to all students tangibly supports that mission and vision with opportunities. At the elementary level, we have dedicated ourselves to a renewed focus on how elementary students learn, ultimately resulting in two National Blue Ribbon School designations and a growing list of elementary schools recognized as Connecticut Schools of Distinction, an accomplishment that few districts around us can claim. For those early childhood learners, we molded our ideas of inclusion and early intervention into a thriving Family and Community Engagement Center, that includes centralized registration in its parent welcoming center as well as a vast array of parent education initiatives and early playgroups. This year, we cut the ribbon on our new Early Education Center, which will give us a welcoming new space to grow our preschool programs for those with special needs.
Looking inward, we have focused with the intent on our commitment to building, supporting and retaining a diverse workforce, with our recruitment strategies and the Minority Teacher Pipeline that connects our District more tightly with our partners at Western Connecticut State University. I am perhaps most proud of the deep personal commitment we have made to the development of so many of our best and brightest staff members, many of whom started with us as teachers and have grown to lead student-centered teams, administrative teams, and whole buildings with such great success, because we recognized their many gifts and created space for them to achieve, ultimately to the benefit of our students. While the challenges of operating in a pandemic have been great, the silver lining has been our ability to usher in a new age in technology access for our students, giving every student access to a laptop, shoring up our infrastructure to support all of the new technology, and intensively training teachers in the new world of blended learning. While we have all experienced many hardships and losses during this time, I continue to be impressed with the resilience of all of our team, teachers, staff, families and students who continue to discover this elusive silver lining.
I want to thank my family and especially my wife, Karen, who has supported my passion in building a district that honors and respects the contribution of all of the families and the gifts they have to offer. Over the last decade, together we have had an incredible impact on our Danbury’s students. I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead this District and I am grateful to be able to close out my time as Superintendent in a rich community that I have come to love and cherish.
Respectfully,
Sal V. Pascarella, Ed.D.