‘NOT JUST A BUILDING’
Officials see career academy as example for region
DANBURY — The proposed $90 million career academy is expected to transform the way all Danbury high school students learn, not just those who get into the new classrooms.
“It is not just a building,” Superintendent Sal Pascarella said this past week in a meeting with the school board’s sites and facilities committee. “It is going to drive all the work that we do.”
This means freshmen at
Danbury High School will learn about fields such as science, business, education and communications before potentially moving to the academy, which would be built in the Summit development on the city’s west side.
“We’re talking about an enhancement to a high school curriculum experience, an enhancement that allow students to see, not only their place in high school, but where they can go after high school,” said Melissa Nadeau Weinheimer, curriculum administrator.
The academy would fit 1,400 students, with 1,040 high school and 360 middle school students. This, along with additional classrooms at Ellsworth
Avenue Elementary School, is expected to help address overcrowding in the schools.
With opportunities for students to learn about careers in science, business, education, communication and other fields, administrators envision the proposed career academy as model for Connecticut and nearby states.
“We could be — if we do this well — a flagship in the Northeast,” said Kara Casimiro, director of assessment and instruction. “Doing a wall-to-wall academy model is a game changer, and it’s not just a game changer for the kids, but it could be game changer for the community.”
Within the building, would be “state-of-the-art” equipment and specialized rooms, including labs, a machine shop and printing stations for the design students, Casimiro said. An ambulance bay would be on the ground floor for students in the emergency medical services pathway.
Administrators are still drafting the plan, but these details are needed for the district to apply for an 80 percent state reimbursement grant. The application is due Oct. 1.
School board members praised the ideas and opportunities the academy would bring to students.
“It's so forward thinking,” said Amy Spallino, school board member. “I love that, and I love that we might be a flagship in the Northeast. That would be a wonderful feather in Danbury's cap.”
The district’s vision is based on a similar academy in Nashville that Casimiro said has raked in $8 million by hosting schools interested in the concept.
Picking a path
Administrators envision six academies focused on professional health services; information, cybersecurity and technology; scientific innovation and medicine; global enterprise and economics; art, engineering and design; and communications and design.
“I get excited just saying these titles every time,” Casimiro said.
Within these academies, students will pick “pathways” where they can study certain fields in more depth. For example, the scientific academy would offer a pathway in medical technology and engineering, while the global enterprise academy would include studies in business and entrepreneurship.
The district plans to open first the scientific innovation and medicine academy, as well as the global enterprise and economics academy, at the Summit before building out the others.
It’ll take time, money and curriculum development to create the other academies, Casimiro said. Administrators have said the city needs to build in funding for the academy over time.
“I’m going to divorce myself from the cost, what it’s going to cost down the road and just say it’s a wonderful program and our kids will just benefit from it tremendously,” said Kathy Molinaro, school board member.
In addition to the middle school students, the academy will be open for 10th through 12 grade. Freshmen will attend Danbury High School and will learn about
these fields.
Those interested in attending the academy would pick their top pathways and apply to be considered through a lottery process. Special education students and English learners may participate.
“The goal is to transform teaching and learning at the high school level for all students and that we provide choices along the way for kids to explore and also to select, to concentrate on before they leave Danbury High School,” Casimiro said.
Each pathway would have roughly 130 students. There’s crossover between some pathways so students may still take courses their interested in if they don’t get into their first choice pathway, Casimiro said.
Pathways will be reevaluated yearly based on student interest and other factors, she said. Administrators are working on whether students could enter a pathway in 11th grade, for example, if a seat opened up.
But national data shows its rare for students to move pathways in part because students are supported in a “small, engaged community,” Nadeau-Weinheimer said.
“That’s actually what the beauty of the academy model does for the very large places like Danbury High School,” she said.
The plan is to focus on project-based and experiential learning, with students networking or gaining other experiences with the businesses at the Summit, including Nuvance Health, which plans to move some offices into the development.
“Kids come out really like a triple threat,” Casimiro said. “They have opportunities. They can pivot in many directions, and they’re well prepared and they should have a pretty solid foundation for post-secondary work.”
Businesses like Nuvance are excited about this, too, because these students could be future employers, she said.
“The community has needs,” Casimiro said. “Businesses come where there is skilled labor, and when there’s no skilled labor and it becomes too expensive to outsource, they move to where those locations are. So we have an opportunity to fulfill both needs here.”