News

‘It’s a Great Move’: Water Refilling Stations Coming to NCHS

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Thanks to generous parents, New Canaan High School soon will have see its water fountains retro-fitted to include eco-friendly refilling stations. The Board of Education on Monday night formally accepted a $5,000 gift from the NCHS Parent Faculty Association that will see district staffers install the stations within about two months, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said. “Kids do not really use water fountains any more,” Luizzi said at the school board’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “They are not drinking out of them. They are buying plastic water bottles, drinking those and then putting them in the garbage—sometimes the recycling bin—so what the hope would be here is that by retrofitting the existing stations to these water refilling stations and water fountains, we could encourage students to bring water bottles into school and refill them up this way with the station.”

He added: “It’s a great move.

News

Restored: With Student Input, NCHS Pep Rally Returns To Homecoming Week

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Because New Canaan High School students started meeting at the end of last academic year and through the summer to plan for a Homecoming Week pep rally, the popular event will be restored one year after administrators cancelled it, officials say. Student Council representatives, varsity team captains and others met with administrators to plan Spirit Week activities and, as a result, a well-loved school tradition will once again be held on the Friday headed into Homecoming Weekend, NCHS Principal Bill Egan said. “For me, it was something that I wanted to bring back history and traditions of the school, and that is something that the students had talked about being a big deal,” Egan told NewCanaanite.com. “But with that comes a responsibility, too, and students were actually planning before I started, there were groups of students meeting with adults in building and trying to change activities and make it different. And they worked really hard to do that.

News

Police K-9 Unit Sweeps New Canaan High School for Heroin, Other Drugs in Training Exercise

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New Canaan Police K 9 Apollo at NCHS
The New Canaan Police Department’s newly deployed K-9 unit swept through New Canaan High School’s hallways Wednesday morning, sniffing lockers during a demonstration and training exercise that could yield a more regular effort to use the drug-sniffing dog to combat substance abuse among local youth. Apollo, a German shepherd dog that since completing training in July has worked throughout town with NCPD Officer David Rivera—making his public debut at the Family Fourth at Waveny and already helping police with drug arrests in town—spent more than one hour sniffing lockers up and down NCHS hallways. The keenly sensitive, drug-sniffing dog successfully detected marijuana and heroin planted by NCPD officers during a tightly controlled test, and is able additionally to detect crack-cocaine and cocaine, among other drugs, Rivera said. “Once he tells me he is entirely sure, that’s when I am good with it,” Rivera said during the session, as a leashed Apollo in sweeping the lockers throughout the hallways stopped and lay down in front of those where School Resource Officer Jason Kim had planted the drugs as a test. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski and NCHS Principal Bill Egan followed Rivera and Kim through the school.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Many New Canaanites by now have seen a rendering of the Midcentury Modern-inspired commercial building that John and Melissa Engel have planned for the lot at 215 Elm St. The architect on the project is Westport-based Frederick William Hoag. Some time after John Engel explained what he had in mind to a University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation professor, a document that included some truly fascinating concepts came in from students (see above). The Maryland architecture program been called the only one in the nation that includes professional Masters programs and related PhD-level studies in planning, preservation and real estate development within the same school. ***

Bill Egan, the newly hired principal of New Canaan High School, has gotten into the spirit of the job very quickly: At his formal introduction at the Board of Education meeting on Monday night, board member Sheri West astutely noted, Egan was sporting a NCHS Rams tie.

News

New NCHS Principal ‘Honored’ and ‘Humbled’ To Take on Role

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The next principal of New Canaan High School said Monday that he “could not be more happy” to assume the role next academic year. Bill Egan told the Board of Education at its regular meeting that hearing his name tied to the NCHS principal job was “a little bit humbling.”

“Being the principal of New Canaan High School is truly an honor that I am humbled by, I am thrilled by and I cannot wait to lead your high school,” Egan said during the school board’s meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “Honestly, New Canaan High School is one of best high schools in the state if not the country, and it’s got an amazing academic, arts and athletics program, and I look forward to leading it into the future so thank you all so very, very much.”

The district announced last month that Egan had been hired and the Board of Ed meeting marked his formal introduction as the next principal at NCHS. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said Egan since 2009 has served as principal Wamogo Regional High School in Region 6 in Litchfield, and that this past year, the school was one of two schools in the state and 51 nationally to be recognized as a 2014 National Blue Ribbon School. In the past, Egan has served as assistant principal at Brookfield High School, as dean of students at Norwalk High School, Luizzi said, “and his teaching experience prior to that included high school level business, middle school level language arts and mathematics.”

“Mr. Egan is an innovative and intuitive educational leader who is passionate about helping all students succeed and excel,” Luizzi said.