Nick - thank you again for your time, we appreciate it very much. Your
respect for us was clear and your apology regarding communication was
appreciated. I sent my original message to the City Council as a concerned
Menlo Park resident before you agreed to meet; thus, I sent the follow-up
email to the Council yesterday letting them know you met with us this past
weekend and that we are working together. We appreciate your commitment to
finding a solution for the 13-17 year old girls whose Dance Expressions
programs were all canceled. Our group met with Dani for several hours
yesterday, and—per your commitment on Saturday to let us attend—we will
also be at Tuesdays meeting, working together as a team. Thank you for
giving us your time, hearing us out, and accepting our help to ensure our
kids can continue to have the experience they love.
With Respect,
Caryn Wasserstein
On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 10:26 AM Nicholas J. Szegda
wrote:
> Hi Rebecca –
>
>
>
> Forwarding a message I just sent to the group - I had to correct a typo I
> had in your email address. Fixed now I hope.
>
>
>
> Cheers -
>
>
>
>
>
> * Nicholas J. Szegda*
> Library and Community Services Director
> Menlo Park Library
> 800 Alma St.
> tel 650-330-2506
> menlopark.gov
>
>
>
> *From:* Nicholas J. Szegda
> *Sent:* Monday, August 3, 2026 10:15 AM
> *To:* Nicholas J. Szegda
> *Cc:* Betsy Nash
> *Subject:* FW: Dance Expressions - Sad and Disappointing Update to My
> Recent Email
>
>
>
> Hi Caryn and group (via Bcc) –
>
>
>
> Thanks for staying engaged in this process, and for showing up and
> advocating for your kids. Balancing limited resources with community,
> contractor and departmental needs is not easy, and I appreciate your
> willingness to talk with me. We as a team could have done much better in
> communicating schedule changes with impacted participants earlier – thank
> you for accepting my apologies for that. Making clear that although I have
> discussed this issue with members of the City Council and the executive
> team, this is a decision that I am making.
>
>
>
> My recollection from our Saturday meeting was that I was to reach out to
> the Dance Expressions team and schedule a meeting to discuss shifting other
> DE classes from the Maple Room to make room for the advanced classes. Your
> group said that you would reach out to them separately with some options
> for them to consider.
>
>
>
> I am still open to exploring this, and I and my team have scheduled a
> meeting with Danielle and Marianne tomorrow. My hope is that we can make
> all the pieces fit into other available rooms at the ARC, and that they are
> open to moving classes from the Maple Room. Please let me know if you have
> any information that would be useful for me before that meeting.
>
>
>
> I will update you all when I have more information.
>
>
>
> Cheers -
>
>
>
> *From:* Caryn Wasserstein
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:10 PM
> *To:* _CCIN
> *Cc:* Betsy Nash
> *Subject:* Re: Sad and Disappointing Update to My Recent Email
>
>
>
> **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
>
>
