Homepage Featured

NCHS Senior Luke Huang Earns Top-300 Ranking from Society for Science [Q&A]

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New Canaan High School senior Luke Huang has been selected as one of the top 300 scholars in the Society for Science’s 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search. The nation’s oldest science and math competition for high school seniors, it’s designed to recognize promising student scientists researching ideas that could make extraordinary contributions to the world’s most pressing scientific issues. Huang was selected from a pool of 

According to the Society of Science, scholars were selected from a pool of 2,126 applications from 712 high schools across 46 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and other nations. Each entry is reviewed by three or more doctorate degree scientists, engineers, or mathematicians based on the subject area of entry. The Top 40 Finalists of the 300 student scholars will be selected Wednesday, where they will then compete for more than $1.8 million in awards in a week-long competition in Washington, D.C. The top-10 winners of that group will be announced in March. 

We met Huang at New Canaan Library on Monday afternoon.

Homepage Featured

Meet Kelly DelMazio, New Coordinator of the Senior Internship Program at NCHS

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Town resident Kelly DelMazio started this week as the new senior internship coordinator at New Canaan High School. 

The Senior Internship Program sees NCHS seniors placed in internships around the community during the final three to four weeks of their senior year of high school. 

We talked to DelMazio about the program, her interest in it and the need for more host businesses and organizations this spring (her email is kelly.delmazio@ncps-k12.org). Here’s a transcript of our interview. ***

New Canaanite: Please give us some of your own background in New Canaan and with the schools. Kelly DelMazio: I actually come from higher education. I worked in higher education for 13 years.

Board of Education

Board of Ed Divided on Best Calendar for 2025-26 School Year

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District officials are trying to figure out the most sensible way to build more wiggle room into the proposed 2025-26 school year schedule. As a proposed calendar now before the Board of Education has it, that school year would start on a Thursday in August and end on a Thursday the following June, meaning the final week of school could absorb just one snow day before threatening to push the academic year into the following week. However, the district by its own policy doesn’t push the school year beyond the third full week of June. “So there’s different things that are conspiring against us here for that start date,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said during the Board’s regular meeting, held Dec. 4 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. 

The ‘25-’26 school year is already an anomaly in that several months will see a reduction in the number of school days just because of how the holidays fall.

Board of Education

Pilot Program: Board of Ed Approves Policy for Bringing Certified Therapy Dogs into Schools

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The Board of Education during its most recent meeting voted unanimously in favor of a policy designed to oversee a pilot program whereby a certified therapy dog can visit New Canaan Public Schools. Led by a teacher who also is a trainer, the program has already seen a certified therapy dog visit South School once “and it was a big hit,” according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. 

“And not only was it a big hit, it was a big dog—it’s a Newfoundland, hard to miss,” Luizzi said during the Board’s regular meeting, held Nov. 20 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “But it was wonderful. The kids loved it.

Board of Education

Following State Law, Board of Ed Updates Kindergarten Policy for 2024-25 School Year

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The Board of Education last week unanimously approved a revised policy regarding kindergarteners, following a new state law that takes effect in the 2024-25 school year. Under the law, children must be five years old by Sept. 1, 2024 in order to start kindergarten that year, though children who do not meet that cutoff date may still be admitted into kindergarten with a written request from a parent or guardian and school “assessment” to determine that the admission would be developmentally appropriate for the child. 

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi noted during the Board’s regular meeting Nov. 20 that the change effectively shifts the age of eligibility for kindergarten from children who turn five before Dec. 31 to Sept.