NHPS Parent Advanced For School Board
Jan 28, 2025
Daniel Juárez: En route to ed board? When Board of Education nominee Daniel Juárez’s oldest child was approaching high school — with a daunting local school lottery process on the horizon — Juárez and his wife had a question for their two kids enrolled in New Haven Public Schools.“We said, ‘What would you guys think about moving to the suburbs?’” Juárez recalled on Monday evening. “They said, ‘Absolutely not!’”Juárez told the Board of Alders Aldermanic Affairs Committee — which on Monday unanimously voted to advance his appointment to the New Haven Board of Education — that he “immediately repented” after hearing his kids’ response. They wanted to live in a place with sidewalks, he said — which he took to mean literal sidewalks, but also a metaphorical kind of public infrastructure.“They meant, ‘We want to live in a place where there’s community, where people do things together,’” Juárez said. And as a parent, Juárez said, he hopes to be a part of that figurative “sidewalk” — and help to make it better.Juárez’s older son is now in his senior year at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, while his younger son is a freshman at the Sound School. Both kids have gone to New Haven Public Schools — first at the Strong School, and then at the school that’s now called FAME — for their entire school-aged lives.Juárez told this story to the committee inside the Board of Alders Chamber on Monday night, at which alders had an opportunity to interview him for the role.“Will your kids remain in public schools?” asked Beaver Hills Alder Gary Hogan.“Yes,” Juárez replied.Among the seven current members of the Board of Education, only one person — Mayor Justin Elicker — is a current parent of a public school student. If appointed, Juárez would double that number to two.Mayor Justin Elicker had nominated Juárez to serve on the Board of Ed in mid-December after declining to reappoint Board Chair Yesenia Rivera for another four-year term. With the committee’s favorable recommendation, Juárez’s appointment will now be reviewed by the full Board of Alders.A Beaver Hills resident, Juárez is both a fundraiser for Yale and a professionally-trained opera singer. By day, he works as a program coordinator in corporate strategy and engagement for Yale Ventures, a university entrepreneurship and innovation resource center.He also trained in operatic singing at the Yale School of Music and continues to perform as a tenor in local productions. Until recently, he was the musical director at the Branford Evangelical (BE) Free Church.He told alders on Monday that his experience as a parent would be central to the perspective he’d bring to the Board of Ed.As his kids grew up from grade to grade, Juárez became involved with the FAME Parent-Teacher organization, then the School Planning and Management Team, an NHPS Reform Committee, and then the Steering Committee of the Citywide Parent Team.Committee Chair and Fair Haven Heights Alder Rosa Ferraro Santana pressed Juárez on whether he would be able to bring a sense of calm and cordiality to a Board of Education known for infighting and bickering (which once devolved into a duel challenge). Even as those particular tensions appear to have improved in recent years, Ferraro Santana said she still isn’t satisfied with the culture on the Board.“I will always behave in a way that wouldn’t make me ashamed in front of my children, my family,” Juárez said. Current Board member and former FAME Principal Abie Benítez described Juárez as a collaborative presence on the SPMT, which brought together parents, teachers, staff, and administrators to make governance decisions for the whole school.“Mr. Juárez was not someone who would always say ‘Yes, Dr. Benítez, that’s fantastic’” she recalled. He wasn’t afraid to speak up, but “he was a good thinking partner.”“He was the quiet person that sat down and listened — and then gave us feedback that was constructive,” described Daniel Diaz, the school system’s parent engagement coordinator.Pastor Steve Chamberlain, who worked alongside Juárez at BE Free Church, pointed to Juárez’s approach to directing the church choir as an example of his leadership style.In the church choir, “sometimes people would come who couldn’t carry a tune. I mean, they were awful,” said Chamberlain with a laugh. Rather than prioritizing a pitch-perfect sound at the standard of his own professional vocal performances, Juárez would encourage those out-of-tune singers, the paster said. “It was a higher value for him to raise that individual up.”It was this demonstration of inclusivity that most resonated with Hill Alder Evelyn Rodríguez when it came time for the committee to advance his appointment.“No matter what the voices were, all of the individuals who wanted to be a part of the worship were made to be significant,” Rodríguez said.Members of the Aldermanic Affairs Committee. Juárez testifying on Monday.
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