Month: October 2025
The DMA’s annual Holiday Party will be held on Wednesday, December 17th at the Country Club of Darien starting at 5:30 PM. The cost is unchanged from last year, $70 per person. This price includes passed hors d’oeuvres, buffet dinner, two bottles of house wine (one red and one white) on each table of 10, and musical performances by Gab Kallay and the Camerata singers.
This event traditionally sells out, so to ensure your place be sure to register by the general meeting of November 19th. Final deadline to sign up and pay is December 3rd.
DMA members who have any questions may contact Chet Cobb or Ted Helms.
State Representative Tina Courpas will be our guest to talk about special education in Connecticut. She sponsored a reform bill on the subject, and will discuss how it passed the General Assembly with 100% bipartisan support – a rarity these days! She will discuss her education bill and influential role on the Education Committee as a minority member.
Background readings
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- Glossary of School Finance Terms. Click here.
- Overview of Special Education Funding in CT. CT Office of Fiscal Analysis. Click here.
- Special Education Law 101. CT Office of Legislative Research. Click here.
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- Summary of 2025 Legislative Action on Special Education. Click here.
- Full text of 2025 Special Education Bill. Click here.
- Recent CT Mirror Article. Click here.
“After struggling to build its products on three continents, Apple was lured by China’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. Soon it was sending thousands of engineers across the Pacific, training millions of workers, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create the world’s most sophisticated supply chain. These capabilities enabled Apple to build the 21st century’s most iconic products–in staggering volume and for enormous profit. Without explicitly intending to, Apple built an advanced electronics industry within China, only to discover that its massive investments in technology upgrades had inadvertently given Beijing a power that could be weaponized. In Apple in China, journalist Patrick McGee draws on more than two hundred interviews with former executives and engineers, supplementing their stories with unreported meetings held by Steve Jobs, emails between top executives, and internal memos regarding threats from Chinese competition. The book highlights the unknown characters who were instrumental in Apple’s ascent and who tried to forge a different path, including the Mormon missionary who established the Apple Store in China; the “Gang of Eight” executives tasked with placating Beijing; and an idealistic veteran whose hopes of improving the lives of factory workers were crushed by both Cupertino’s operational demands and Xi Jinping’s war on civil society. Apple in China is the sometimes disturbing and always revelatory story of how an outspoken, proud company that once praised “rebels” and “troublemakers”–the company that encouraged us all to “Think Different”–devolved into passively cooperating with a belligerent regime that increasingly controls its fate.” — Provided by publisher.
The Social Events Committee is organizing a trip to the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday, October 28th. We have arranged a guided tour of the Helen Frankenthaler exhibit and MoMA’s Masterworks Collection. Helen Frankenthaler was an important figure in the development of abstract American art who spent the last 13 years of her life living on Contentment Island in Darien. We will take Metro North into Grand Central and proceed straight to the Oyster Bar at GCT for an early lunch. Following lunch we will proceed to the museum, walking along 5th Avenue and through Rockefeller Center. The walk is about a mile and takes roughly 20-30 minutes. At the museum we will have a guided tour of the Frankenthaler exhibit as well as the museum’s Masterworks Collection. After the tour, everyone is welcome to circulate through the museum and find their way home. As an optional extracurricular activity for anyone who wants, we will stop by the Campbell Bar at Grand Central.
The plan is to catch the 10:18 train from Darien arriving at 11:23 (10:21 Noroton Heights). At the Oyster bar, you will have a choice of soup and sandwich or an entree. We should arrive at the museum at 1:30, for a one hour tour to begin at 1:50. Following the tour, freely circulate and return on your own (last off-peak train at 3:30). For those interested, stop by the Campbell Bar between 4:30 and 5:00. Guests are welcome. Maximum capacity for the event is 52.
The cost for the museum and lunch is $100 per person ($78 for MoMA members). Signup during the meetings or email Ted Helms or Wim Jessup. We are already approaching capacity, so please be sure to sign up as soon as possible. Checks should be made out to DMA.