Dear Honorable City Council Members,
I am writing to follow up on my recent email regarding dance programming at
Burgess Community Center. I appreciated hearing from many of you in support
of my email, thank you for taking the time to read my message. Tonight was
the last session of the Adult Hip Hop Summer program taught by Dance
Expressions. After class I was shocked to hear that all Advanced level
dance classes across all styles were cancelled going into the Fall for all
students. The students scheduled for these classes (scheduling was
submitted in May 26) range from the 8th to 12th grade. As you can imagine
this is an extremely sad and disappointing decision by the administration.
This is especially true considering that after a little follow-up, I
discovered the dance room used for these classes will now be empty for many
of the time slots, while the building remains open at the same times and
later for other classes in the center. Young Menlo Park dancers grow up in
programs like Dance Expressions many of whom commit to increasingly higher
levels of achievement over the years. To broadly cut all Advanced classes
is to intentionally put an end to a program that serves our community. I
ask for your assistance in looking into this matter with the City Manager
and his Burgess Community Center direct reports. Additionally I will take
this on myself with other dance parents escalating this issue to the City
Manager and the Library and Community Director. As a Humanm Resource
professional I have a sense this is a move that would not be tolerated in a
corporation, but I will be further exploring my suspicions. Any support you
can provide would be appreciated. I am also happy to report the
administrations behavior to The Almanac if you think this will be helpful.
With Respect,
Caryn Wasserstein
Menlo Park Resident
