**FOLLOW-UP**
I wanted to update you that six other moms of girls who dance with Dance
Expressions (two of whom are returning dancers with Dance Expressions from
their own youth in Menlo Park) and I met with Nick Szegda yesterday for
close to two hours. After a difficult start, where Nick mentioned he had
approval from his *manager* and the *Mayor* of Menlo Park to cancel all
Dance Expressions classes for ages 13-17, we reached an agreement to work
together—his staff, the Dance Expressions instructors, and us—to find a way
to reinstate the Advanced classes for the girls for the Fall. We all agreed
that Burgess is about community and our children and our families. To that
end we are hopeful a solution will be found this week. I sincerely hope I
will not need to reach out again, and I hope that in the future better
community communication will be in place for our and other community center
programs.
With Respect,
Caryn Wasserstein
Menlo Park Resident
On Thu, Jul 30, 2026 at 8:41 PM Caryn Wasserstein
wrote:
> 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
>
