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We don’t just cover the Board of Education and issues affecting New Canaan Public Schools parents, including testing mandates and teacher evaluations, new hires in the district and programs in our schools—we also celebrate students and teacher achievements and spotlight outstanding work at all levels.
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan High School Principal Bill Egan about the NCHS Scholarship Foundation and the major fundraiser coming up to support it, the Color Drop, scheduled for Saturday, March 23. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
One of New Canaan High School’s most celebrated events, the Post Prom at Waveny House, is marking a major milestone this year with its 65th anniversary. We put some questions about the widely anticipated party to Susan Gelvin (NCHS ‘92), fundraising co-chair for Post Prom 2024. Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: Tell us a little bit about the history of the New Canaan High School Post Prom?
Susan Gelvin: This time honored New Canaan tradition–and the highlight of most NCHS students’ experience–is celebrating its 65th anniversary. The Post Prom provides a safe, fun and memorable night for the entire graduating class, while delivering nonstop entertainment, games, food and raffles from midnight until 4am.
An interim principal who has led a number of public elementary schools in lower Fairfield County in the past, including in New Canaan, will start Tuesday at East School, district officials say. John Grasso will serve as interim principal of the Little Brook Road school through the end of this academic year, as Kris Woleck works into her new position as an assistant superintendent in New Fairfield, according to a press release issued by New Canaan Public Schools. Grasso had retired in 2012 from the Greenwich district after serving as principal at Riverside School. Since then, he has served in interim positions throughout the county, including principal of Royale Elementary School in Darien from 2014 to 2016, Parkway Elementary School in Greenwich from 2016 to 2017, Hamilton Avenue STEM Magnet School in Greenwich from 2018 to 2019 and South School in New Canaan from 2019 to 2020. The district is “incredibly fortunate” to have him back, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in the release.
Charlotte Lee’s aunt, a mother of three, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia five years ago. The New Canaan High School sophomore recalled her dad relaying a doctor’s prognosis that if her aunt didn’t get treatment immediately, she would die in six weeks. “It was so scary, because her kids were all in high school or younger,” Lee recalled Wednesday, adding: “I know they were really scared about living without their mom.”
Thankfully, Lee’s aunt did undergo treatment and recovered, though the harrowing experience left a mark on the teen. And now, Lee and two of her classmates and friends—Sophia La Magna and Victoria Vaccaro—are raising funds to help fight leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancers . The trio has entered as team “Ramming Cancer” in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s 2024 Westchester-Fairfield Student Visionaries of the Year campaign (their donation page is here).
Town residents during Monday’s Board of Education meeting called on the public schools to pursue more sustainable ways of serving food and discarding food waste. Margot Bright Thorsheim, a board member and secretary of Planet New Canaan, said that the district ranks among the best in the nation “primarily due to our financial resources, and the vision of the people on this Board and in our administration and its faculty.”
“However, many believe that one educational component is missing in this town, and I would also like to advocate for greener schools in the New Canaan district,” Bright Thorsheim told members of the Board of Ed during their regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “We have yet to show our youth some basic principles of caring for their home and the planet that their children will inherit,” she continued. “Even while we as parents teach our kids to be environmentally respectful, they are going to school and learning that we live in a disposable economy where convenience rules the day, regardless of the long-term cost. And even though we know what is wrong, we have used disposable cafeteria supplies for decades and throw away all of our food waste.