Bill Egan

‘The Best Community in the State of Connecticut’: New Canaan Principals Report on First Day of School

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For New Canaan High School Principal Bill Egan, there’s no better day than the first day of school. Newly arrived freshmen and returning students “bring life back into the building,” Egan told members of the Board of Education during their regular meeting Tuesday night. This academic year, NCHS welcomed nearly 1,270 students—including 52 who are new to New Canaan— who brought “ the energy only they could bring,” Egan said during a report on school openings. 

“I want to thank you,” he told the Board during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “It truly is an honor and privilege to be a New Canaan High School principal. There is no better job in the world than being a high school principal.

Blankets of Hope

‘You Are Loved’: West School Students Participate in ‘Blankets of Hope’ Community Service

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Students at West School this month participated in a community service activity that saw the kids learn about and write notes of encouragement to those suffering from homelessness. The K-4 students underwent what West School Principal Jan Murphy called a “kindness workshop” administered by Blankets of Hope, a nonprofit organization. “The students felt proud to be able to do something to help our community,” Murphy told NewCanaanite.com in an email when asked about the activity. Through donations from West School parents, each student was provided with a blanket to donate to a chosen charity—Malta House in Norwalk, which provides housing for expectant and new mothers and their babies. The students tied handwritten notes of encouragement to each of the 540-plus blankets delivered. The outside of one card reads, “You Are Loved.”

“The project was a school-wide effort to continue our focus on empathy and being good citizens,” Murphy said. 

The kids’ letters were “colorful and thoughtful,” she said.