“We’re surrounded by high performing suburban districts, but people still talk about how quickly, for our size and for our demographic, we were able to get up and get folks connected and online. I attribute that to our building leadership team, our curriculum folks, and our central office being able to work together. That was a Herculean task.” Amid the chaos of the pandemic, Danbury Schools didn’t just adapt—they innovated. Dr. Casimiro and Danbury High School Principal, Dan Donovan, fresh from researching instructional models in Nashville, used the lockdown period as an opportunity to shape the district’s future. ‘We knew things were going to be very different when we came out of this, and the world was going to be more digitally focused. But we also knew we needed a different model of instruction to engage students,” details Dr. Casimiro. During the pandemic’s peak, the team crafted a fiveyear action plan to restructure Danbury High School into smaller learning academies based on student 390 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 10
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