Rogers Park educator earns state honor
Perez named CT’s top assistant principal
DANBURY — When Dana Perez realized that many of her students at Rogers Park Middle School were facing food insecurity, she helped raise money and organized a meal train to provide them with meals and snacks.
Work like that is one of the reasons Perez has been named the 2022 Assistant Principal of the Year. She was selected out of all the middle schools in the state by the Connecticut Association of Schools.
“I am honored to have been selected for this award,” Perez said in a statement. “It is a reflection of the hard work and dedication the entire RPMS community engages in on a daily basis to provide all of our students an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.”
Perez has been selected by the association to represent Connecticut in the National Assistant Principal of the Year Program sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Perez, along with assistant principals from each of the other 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity Associations, will compete for the national honor.
Perez has been the assistant principal at Rogers Park for four years, juggling various responsibilities, including professional development, collecting and analyzing data to inform instructional practices, building relationships with students and families, and developing strategies to meet the social, emotional and academic needs of students, according to the association.
“Ms. Perez never stops learning, reflecting, or pushing herself outside of her comfort zone in order to continuously improve,” said Principal Kristy Zaleta, who nominated her.
Danbury Superintendent Kevin Walston called her a “learner, a leader and an implementer.”
Rogers Park Middle School is a diverse school where 44.2 percent of students qualified for free lunch and 34.6 percent of students were English learners in 2020-21, according to state data.
Perez has focused on educational equity as the number of non-English speaking students has grown, according to the association. She ensures new families feel welcome and have the resources they need in their native language.
She worked with bilingual and English as a second language teachers to raise expectations for English learners and to build a program that offers those students the opportunity to access grade-level content with the appropriate supports, according to the association.
When Perez noted that Rogers Park Middle School had higher suspension rates for Black and special education students, she jumped into action.
She formed a school climate group focused on improving existing discipline policies. In addition, she integrated restorative practices in the schools.
“Dana's leadership and vision ensure that our school culture is one where students and adults feel safe and are able to learn and interact productively,” Zaleta said in a statement.
This work led the school to decrease its out-of-school suspensions by 40 percent in one year.
“The decrease in student behavior issues has made space for teachers to shift their focus from strictly classroom management to teaching and learning,” Perez said in a statement.
Perez’s meal train project, meanwhile, has blossomed into a nonprofit organization that aims to provide ongoing access to meals for students and their families, Zaleta said. The meal train raised more than $22,090 last year and provided monthly groceries to over 81 families.
“Ms. Perez thinks on a higher plane,” Brian Betesh, a social studies teacher, said in a statement “She is always pushing us to take risks, think bigger, raise expectations and explore new avenues, always with the goal of helping kids.”