Stamford's Rogers School Makes Dedications to 2 Lost Teachers

Leslie Padilla and Patrice Pollard are gone from this life, but the Rogers International School family made sure their families knew they were far from forgotten Monday morning.

On Monday, the school took part in a celebration of the lives of these two "exceptional teachers" lives and dedicated both the school's auditorium and part of the Media Center to the beloved fixtures.

Both lost battles to cancer in March of 2012.

"About a year ago I was walking down the hallway... and I was approached by a group of children who said to me, 'We really loved Mrs. Padilla and Mrs. Pollard and we really need to do something about that. What do you think about naming the auditorium for Mrs. Padilla and then we could do something in the media center for Mrs. Pollard,'" Principal Cathleen Cummings recounted during the ceremony.

"We're an International Baccalaureate school and one of the main things we look for our children to do is to take an action and I think that was one of the most heartfelt actions that could ever have been taken by a group of our young adults," she said.

Padilla was a teacher for 12 years at Rogers and directed all of the theatrical productions and co-founded the theater group “Racies.”  Padilla taught Spanish, Bilingual and ELL during her tenure. Students suggested the school’s auditorium be named, “The Leslie Padilla Center for the Performing Arts” because she modeled the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile in all of her actions.

Pollard was an International Baccalaureate Humanities and Language Arts teacher for three years.  The school dedicated a section of the media center as the “Patrice Pollard 5th grade Inquiry Center for Language Arts and Humanities” as a way of honoring the way she made interdisciplinary connections in order to make learning more meaningful and significant for the students.

A lengthy list of community members were in attendance for the ceremony, including Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia, who read Proclamations of Distinction for the two teachers, that "commemorate the lives of certain individuals."

"I think that what you're doing falls in line very nicely with the kinds of things that need to be done on a daily basis and at least need to be promoted throughout the city of Stamford," Pavia told the student. "The Proclamation of Distinction is awarded for the dedication, commitment and love of community that is expressed by people, in this case Leslie Padilla and Patrice Pollard."

Among those in attendance were Rep. William Tong, David Martin and Eileen Heaphy, as well as John Mallozzi, John Freeman, and Rep. Gerald Fox III.

Also making an appearance was the INTAKE Symphony led by Angélica Durrell. The trio played three beautiful songs that reflected the emotions inspired by the teachers lives and their passing. Following the symphony, three students took turns singing songs they'd learned under the tutelage of Padilla during each of the plays in which they'd participated.