Bunny Potts

Board of Ed Recognizes Two New Canaan High School Seniors, 13 Retiring Educators

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The Board of Education on Monday honored two graduating New Canaan High School seniors and 13 educators who are retiring after this academic year. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Kolek (who is herself retiring and earned kind words from Board Chair Hazel Hobbs during the meeting, held in the high school’s Wagner Room), spoke for a few minutes about both seniors who received Student Leadership Awards from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education or “CABE,” as well as the teachers and administrators soon to retire. Here’s a snippet from Kolek on each honoree. Students

(CABE each year recognizes two students for distinguished leadership in school activities and daily lives, “And I have the pleasure of presenting those awards tonight,” Kolek said.)

New Canaan High School senior Kit Mallozzi (also a NCHS Students Advocates Award winner, headed to Syracuse University in the fall): “One has only to talk to Kit for a few minutes and it’s clear, she’s one of the world’s great optimists. Her nomination submission portrays Kit as someone who embraces life, a friend to all and a ray of sunshine.

News

New Canaan Public Schools: Cafeteria Health Inspection Results

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For the second straight time, cafeterias in New Canaan Public Schools largely aced the most recent round of unannounced inspections by the New Canaan Health Department. Each school scored 95 or better out of a possible 100 during inspections recently conducted by sanitarian Carla DeLucia. DeLucia told NewCanaanite.com that the school cafs consistently are clean and well-cared for. “We rarely have issues,” she said. “If there is an issue, it gets fixed immediately.

News

New Canaan High School Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi Named Interim Superintendent

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Less than two months after designating itself as a search committee to find a successor to New Canaan Public Schools’ retiring superintendent, the Board of Education on Tuesday said high school Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi has been appointed to the position on an interim basis. The Brookfield resident has worked at New Canaan High School principal since 2011. In a press release, school board Chairman Hazel Hobbs said Luizzi will build on what current Superintendent Dr. Mary Kolek and the school district have created. “We are excited to have an interim superintendent who can lead our high-performing school district in the continuous pursuit of excellence,” Hobbs said. “Dr. Luizzi is an experienced leader with the skills and passion required to lead the district.”

Luizzi said in the release that he was “honored” to be given the opportunity and said he would collaborate with the “school board, community, administrators, and staff to ensure a productive and successful school year.”

“I am very grateful for this opportunity, and I look forward to the great work that the New Canaan Public Schools will continue to accomplish going forward,” Luizzi said.

Now & Then

The WPA in New Canaan: ‘Fantasy and Beauty’

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The next time you visit South, East or West School, seek them out. They hang high and proud in each of our three public elementary schools. Their vibrant colors and scenes virtually burst from the walls with playful images that spark creativity and imagination for the hundreds of students passing by them every day, perhaps unaware of their rich history—not only in New Canaan, but in the United States as well. And had it not been for a few key New Canaanites, these treasures might have been lost forever. The paintings were originally commissioned by the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, a Depression-era government program developed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiative.

News

New Canaan Public Schools: Search Underway for East, West School Principals

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New Canaan Public Schools released the following information to local media Friday afternoon (and posted it to the district’s website here). The update follows the announcements that East School Principal Bunny Potts (announced last month) and West School Acting Principal Joanne LaVista (announced two weeks ago) would retire at the end of this academic year. The search process also has been kickstarted to find the next superintendent of schools for the district, following Dr. Mary Kolek’s announcement this month that she would retire June 30. Here’s the district’s news:

“The search has begun for two new elementary school principals. With the goal of welcoming two outstanding new principals to East and West Schools on July 1, 2014, the elementary principal search committee has been assembled.