Dr. Bryan Luizzi

‘Words Cannot Describe How Grateful We Are’: Hawk’s Court Opens at Saxe

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Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi has a plaque in his office, he told a crowd of about 40 people gathered outside Saxe Middle School on Monday afternoon. “It says, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,’ ” Luizzi told Saxe students, parents, staff and faculty moments before formally cutting the ribbon at the new “Hawk’s Court,” a gift of the Parent Teacher Council. 

“And when this first came together, it definitely was a bit of a moonshot,” he continued, addressing Saxe PTC Co-Presidents Jess Huetter and Jessica Knowles on a warm, sunny day. “But to your credit, you had the courage to take it, to go for it and to work with us, with the town, with everybody to put this together. And really, it’s another example of how the quality of the idea on behalf of the children is the single most important factor that we use in our decision-making.”

The ribbon-cutting, attended by Luizzi, Huetter and Knowles as well as Saxe Middle School Principal David Gusitsch, the Saxe Hawks mascot and students Alex Knowles and William Huetter, marked the culmination of a $170,000 fundraising effort and summer court installation overseen by town and district officials. It was followed by a students vs.

Board of Selectmen

Outdoor Basketball Courts at Saxe To Get Major Upgrade

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The well-used basketball courts behind Saxe Middle School stand to get a major upgrade, thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Parent Teacher Council. Cracked and with weeds growing out of the asphalt, the outdoor courts currently aren’t regulation for middle school use, according to Saxe PTC Co-Presidents Jess Huetter and Jessica Knowles. Yet the courts rank among “the most utilized” spaces at Saxe by students and the wider community, Knowles told members of the Board of Selectmen at their most recent meeting. “There are kids of all grades, all ages at school, genders—it’s used on the weekends by the community, after soccer practice, lacrosse practice, kids come and play, there’s always pick-up basketball games,” Knowles said during a presentation to the selectmen at their Feb. 20 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

COVID-19 New Canaan

New Canaan Parents Take on ‘Home Schoolteacher’ Role Amid COVID-19 Emergency

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New Canaan resident Jessica Knowles, an HR consultant and mom of three—a kindergartener and third-grader at South School and fifth-grader at Saxe Middle School—has struggled since late last week to stay on top of work. 

With the kids home as part of the New Canaan Public Schools’ newly launched remote learning program, Knowles’s ability to get back to people, schedule meetings and otherwise do her part-time job has been pushed into the evenings and become “sporadic,” she said. “I work from home and I am not really working, other than really trying to help my kids navigate this,” she said. Knowles is among the hundreds of New Canaan parents who have taken on a new role as “home schoolteacher” under the district’s e-learning program, launched Friday as an educational stopgap amid the COVID-19 emergency. Public school buildings are closed until at least March 30, officials have said. Conducted through email and web platforms and consisting largely of assignments that generate feedback from teachers, the e-learning program is drawing wide praise from the parent community as a testament to the district’s commitment to education.