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District: NCHS Senior Died Saturday Night

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A New Canaan High School senior died Saturday night, according to district officials. The deceased was a “strong student, an excellent athlete, a kind young man, and a wonderful friend, and he will be sadly missed by all who knew and loved him,” the superintendent of schools said in an email to the NCHS community. “Such unimaginable loss is difficult to process, and we want to ensure that our students, staff, and families have access to the support they need during this difficult time,” Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in the email. The high school will start on a two-hour delay Monday, he said (details here). Buses will run at regular times, and classes will start at 10 a.m., giving friends of the deceased time “to gather together in support and love, and, if desired, speak with our dedicated counselors and staff,” Luizzi said.

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District To Roll Out ‘Phone-Free’ Policy at Saxe Middle School

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Saxe Middle School soon will see students locking electronic devices—including cell phones, smartwatches and tablets—kept in a locking pouch system throughout the day as part of an updated policy on the electronics’ use, district officials say. The “Phone-Free Schools” initiative at Saxe is expected to launch around mid-September, once the pouches are in hand, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. “We’re looking at some of the implementation as a design thinking challenge,” he said during a special Board of Education meeting, held Aug. 26 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School and via videoconference. “How do you create a system that best enables students to lock and unlock their pouches as they’re coming and going during the day?” Luizzi continued.

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New Canaan High School SLOBs Turns 20 [Q&A]

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One of the most active service organizations in town, the New Canaan High School Service League of Boys, turns 20 this year. 

As school starts Thursday, we put some questions to its communications team, led by Sarah Wrede, to mark the milestone. Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: For those who haven’t heard of the Service League of Boys or “SLOBs” at New Canaan High School, please tell us a little about the organization’s history. 

Sarah Wrede: SLOBs was founded 20 years ago this fall by a group of service-minded mothers who wanted to educate their sons on the importance of volunteering in their community. The National Charity League (NCL), a national mother-daughter service organization, had been introduced in New Canaan in the early 1990s, but there wasn’t a similar organization for boys. And NCL wasn’t part of the high school.

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School Security Update: SROs at Elementary Schools, Doors, Pedestrian Safety

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Each of New Canaan’s three elementary schools will have a dedicated police officer on campus when the academic year starts this week, the superintendent of schools said Monday night. In addition to expanding the number of School Resource Officers or “SROs” from two (New Canaan High School and Saxe Middle School) to five, the district is upgrading its radios, security of school building doors and pedestrian safety at NCHS, Dr. Bryan Luizzi said during a special Board of Education meeting. New Canaan Police Officers Ron Bentley (East School), Nicole Vartuli (South) and Shane Gibson (West) will join Officers Jeff Deak (NCHS) and Matt Blank (Saxe) to fill out the SRO roster, Luizzi said during the meeting, held at NCHS and via videoconference. “It’s really a great team,” he said. “They will work very well with our campus monitors—they’ll work great with our staff, with our principals.

Dr. Bryan Luizzi

‘Words Cannot Describe How Grateful We Are’: Hawk’s Court Opens at Saxe

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Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi has a plaque in his office, he told a crowd of about 40 people gathered outside Saxe Middle School on Monday afternoon. “It says, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,’ ” Luizzi told Saxe students, parents, staff and faculty moments before formally cutting the ribbon at the new “Hawk’s Court,” a gift of the Parent Teacher Council. 

“And when this first came together, it definitely was a bit of a moonshot,” he continued, addressing Saxe PTC Co-Presidents Jess Huetter and Jessica Knowles on a warm, sunny day. “But to your credit, you had the courage to take it, to go for it and to work with us, with the town, with everybody to put this together. And really, it’s another example of how the quality of the idea on behalf of the children is the single most important factor that we use in our decision-making.”

The ribbon-cutting, attended by Luizzi, Huetter and Knowles as well as Saxe Middle School Principal David Gusitsch, the Saxe Hawks mascot and students Alex Knowles and William Huetter, marked the culmination of a $170,000 fundraising effort and summer court installation overseen by town and district officials. It was followed by a students vs.