Darien Board Of Education Chair Looks Back On 2024 With Eye Toward 2025

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Ensuring the safety and wellness of students and staff

Over the last year, the Darien RTM approved funds for two school security infrastructure improvements, and work began this past summer, McCammon said. The projects are mostly completed with one last component planned for December break.

“Our security department continues to work in close collaboration with the Darien Police Department, and we appreciate their continued provision of SROs to our middle and high school. Our school security officers, SSOs, continue to successfully support our elementary schools,” McCammon said.

Mental health has also been a critical focus for the school board.

“We are collaborating with the town’s mental health task force, behavioral health subcommittee and local organizations such as Kids In Crisis, particularly through their Teen Talk program at the middle and high schools,” McCammon said. “We thank the Community Fund and the town of Darien for their support of the Teen Talk program at the middle school this year.”

The district’s new personal device practices for grades K-8, and at the high school this winter, have also supported mental health, McCammon noted.

Aligning and supporting district priorities to the budget

Since the Board of Education has the authority to make decisions on how funds are allocated within its own budget, McCammon said there’s a responsibility to be “thoughtful, strategic, and fiscally responsible.”

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She highlighted the decision last year to take the district’s special education transportation model in-house when busing costs increased. The RTM approved an appropriation this past year for the district to purchase several transport vehicles that were up and running at the start of the school year.

“We’re also proud of the work done to adjust a lower overall budget increase than what we actually requested last year,” McCammon said. “Our staff worked through insourcing and outsourcing models, looked carefully at comparable non-classroom staffing ratios at other districts in our area, and implemented most of the shift from four to five classes at the secondary level.”

McCammon reiterated the school board’s commitment to the community.

“I will emphasize, the Board of Education remains committed to providing the best possible education for our students and shares the community’s desire to prioritize student needs and programming,” she said. “To ensure the long-term health of our district, we will carefully review all options and make informed choices. Our work to provide a starting point that is relatively consistent with the Board of Finance tax strategy is still the beginning. Developing and adjusting a budget will be an ongoing process with careful planning, flexibility and a commitment to balancing priorities.”

Supporting the year-four implementation of the strategic plan and vision of the graduate

“Now in its fourth year, the strategic plan continues to guide the work of the district in teaching and learning, wellness, diversity and inclusion, the use of technology to support teaching and learning, expanding the professional capacity of staff, and the focus for this year, the implementation of the vision of the graduate for all grades,” McCammon said.

McCammon outlined some indicators used to measure success in this area. She said student performance across standardized testing continued to be “exceptional,” as reflected on SAT and AP tests. She also noted the number of National Merit Scholars in the district (four), Commended Scholars (24), and Presidential Scholar candidates (three).

Additionally, 95.2 percent of graduates in Darien attend two to four-year colleges

“One of the things we’re doing at the Board table is continuing to talk about all of the graduates, including those who don’t plan to go to two to four-year colleges,” McCammon said. “Everybody matters, everybody has a place.”

The number of students taking AP courses has increased by 9 percent since 2020, another positive indicator, McCammon said.

McCammon also pointed to the school district receiving recognition from the NAMM Foundationas one of the best communities for music education. She also highlighted the district’s ongoing success in athletics.

Enhancing engagement and communication with the community

McCammon praised the “successful work” of the new Communications Committee, and the creation of a district communication plan that looks at multiple new and existing channels for engaging with the community.

Elementary building projects

In August, the town celebrated the start of the Hindley, Holmes and Royle building projects.

“We had a successful and smooth opening to those three schools in August, which was not a given,” McCammon said.

She thanked the late David Martin, who was an HHR Building Committee member and played an important role in the projects. He died unexpectedly on July 30 at the age of 65.

Looking ahead

Future challenges for the school board include navigating a nationwide teacher shortage and technological changes and higher education costs, McCammon explained.

“We’ll be working to stay ahead of teacher shortages by focusing on recruitment and retention of staff and teacher leadership opportunities to support career paths, as well as by preparing for negotiations of our next teacher contract this coming summer,” McCammon said. “We’ll continue to be actively engaged around the use of AI and its impact on teaching and learning, as well as student use of personalized devices during the school day.”

McCammon also said the school board will focus on more strategic budgeting at the local level while also advocating at the state level.

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