Dr. Bryan Luizzi

Podcast: Superintendent Dr. Bryan Luizzi on ‘Renovate the Dome’ Planetarium Project at NCHS

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi about Renovate the Dome, a public-private partnership to renovate the planetarium at New Canaan High School. Discussed in recent years within the Board of Education and with the town, plans to not only refurbish but also reimagine “The Dome” at NCHS are well underway. Here’s an FAQ on the Renovate the Dome website, here’s information on how to support the project and here’s a video overview:

Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

Board of Selectmen

Public-Private Partnership: District Pursues $1 Million Refurbishment of Planetarium at NCHS

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District officials say hundreds of thousands of dollars are to be raised privately to offset a taxpayer contribution toward an upgrade of the planetarium at New Canaan High School and that the revamped facility would be used by students as well as the wider community. 

The ca.-1970 planetarium and its original projector have been “aged out for a while,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi told the Board of Selectmen at a Jan. 23 budget hearing, held in Town Hall. 

“We use it for our programs, but the opportunities that are there at the planetarium are enormous. The new technology now allows you to change the projector out and put a new projector in that use the dome as the screen in an immersive environment. And if you have been to the Natural History Museum or others and have seen a planetarium show, you have seen that this is an immersive experience that is focused on not only astronomy but multi-disciplinary, across anything, any age, any discipline, any subject.”

To upgrade the projector, sound system, dome and seats in the planetarium would cost about $1 million, Luizzi said. The selectmen at a subsequent meeting voted 3-0 in favor of a capital spending plan that includes $550,000 in taxpayer funding for the planetarium.