A new school year begins, with excitement sky-high.
And not just for students.
Hundreds of teachers, administrators and support staff packed the newly renovated Staples High School auditorium this morning, for the Westport Public Schools’ annual opening convocation.
There were several highlights, like the announcement of the district Teacher of the Year (Saugatuck Elementary School literacy coach Jessica Carey), and superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice’s keynote address (including a video appearance by comedian Colin Mochrie).
But the most rousing applause — and a prolonged standing ovation — came near the beginning, when Scarice invited the facilities team and security officers to the front of the room.
Scarice offered anecdotes of the work the often-unheralded work performed every day by custodians, maintenance staff, and security officers. Their value to the district was recognized long and loudly, by the men and women they work with.
A standing ovation for custodians and maintenance staff …
Scarice also hailed the educators, administrators, nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals and others who make the district successful. He said that in his 30 years in education, “this is the most incredible faculty, from pre-K through high school.”
He thanked the 3 Board of Education members — Jill Dillon, Lee Goldstein and Stephen Shackelford — in attendance too, along with all staff members with 20 or more years of service.
There are 31 new teachers this year, plus another 31 support staff and 15 interns.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice congratulates Westport Teacher of the year Jessica Carey.
Introducing Carey as Teacher of the Year, Saugatuck principal Beth Messler cited her work helping students become “readers, writers, communicators and kind human beings.”
Carey — a Westport teacher since 2005, and No Place for Hate co-leader — also “influences colleagues and administrators,” Messler said. “And she makes sure that real, authentic books stay in kids’ hands.”
(Click here for an “06880” story on Carey’s annual project that encourages SES adults to write about their lives, passions, accomplishments, joys, challenges and more.)
This year, there were 23 other nominees for Teacher of the Year: Philip Abraham, Louise D’Amore, Caroline Davis, Sandra Decembre, Kelly Falcone, Deirdre Flores, Ben Frimmer, Kristen Gerner, Erin Hines, Amy Howland, Alyssa Improglou, Matty Jacowleff, Gretchen Jankura, Eric Lawrence, Carla Magnano, Ursula Malizia, Ashley Namnum, Suzanne Propp, Kelly Shamus, Meghan Stewart, Liuba Ulianova, Lisa Weand and Sarah White.
Teacher of the Year nominees, on stage.
Nominations come from the staff. The final selection is made by former Teachers of the Year, with assistant superintendent of schools John Bayers.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice
Scarice’s keynote included 3 pieces of advice he has offered his 3 children — Where is your focus? What does it mean? What are you going to do? — and 4 premises he hopes all Westport Public Schools employees will think about:
The world has changed.
We have a moral imperative to prepare students for that world.
AI is a force multiplier.
Technology must serve humanity — not the other way around.
The convocation began with performances by the Staples High Jazz Band and cheerleaders, and the national anthem sung by choral students.
Lauren Pine (right) leads choral students in the national anthem.
Jazz band director Kevin Mazzarella (right) and his musicians, in the foyer outside the auditorium.
Staples cheerleaders perform in the courtyard, during the pre-convocation breakfast.
(“06880” often reports on Westport’s schools. If you enjoy our coverage — or anything else on this hyper-local blog — please click here to support our work.)
Westway is a street off Greens Farms Road. (It’s also where former FBI director James Comey and his family lived, from 2010 to 2017.)
Though part of the oldest neighborhood in Westport, it’s not immune to the wrecking ball.
This week, “Then & Now” curator and pre-demolition archivist Dave Matlow offers 3 examples from Westway Road. The fourth is from nearby Woodhill Road. They’re part of the project he worked on from 2004 to 2020.
A reminder: This is a community blog. Our neighbors live here. Some built those new structures; others are the second (or beyond) owners.
If you comment, please be kind. Taste is subjective. Wherever we live, everyone has loves their home.
Less than 2 weeks remain before “A Day in the Life of Westport.”
On Sunday, September 6, every Westporter is invited to help create a one-of-a-kind portrait of the town. We’ll do it by taking a photograph that captures one real moment from our day.
Whether it’s a sunrise at Compo Beach, breakfast with family, volunteering at a community event, opening a business downtown, walking the dog, cheering from the sidelines or enjoying a quiet moment at home, every image will become part of a collective portrait of Westport.
“A Day in the Life of Westport” is a collaboration between the Artists Collective of Westport, the League of Women Voters Westport, the David T. Langrock Foundation, and “06880.”
As part of Westport’s America 250 celebration, the project will document the town in its everyday rhythms, creating a lasting record of who we are as a community in this semiquincentennial year.
Inspired by the classic Life magazine photo essays documenting “A Day in the Life of America,” the project invites residents of every age to photograph one moment on Sunday, September 6, then submit it online with a brief caption describing what the image means to them.
Photos must be taken on Sunday, September 6, and submitted by midnight that evening at dayinthelife2026.artcall.org. The submission website will accept photographs only on the day of the event.
Each participant may submit up to 3 shots, each accompanied by a brief caption describing the moment.
The “Meet the Parents” star was in Norwalk for a well-publicized promo of his recently launched Stiller’s Soda. Entry into the meet-and-greet line required the purchase of a 12-can case ($15, plus tax).
The event drew an enormous crowd. There were reports of fans (presumably of Stiller, not the soda) flying in from Texas.
Gabe Escobar was there too. I didn’t know who he is, but plenty of other people do. AI described him as a “musical theater graduate, and digital content creator with millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram. He is well-known for his solo travel vlogs, comedy sketches, Broadway content, and for sparking the viral ‘girlfriend effect’ fashion trend.”
I also didn’t know what “the viral ‘girlfriend effect’ fashion trend” is, but whatever. (Click here, if you must know.)
Back to Stew’s. Gabe’s encounter with “the worlds [sic] largest grocery store” — (he “didn’t know it was a superlative,” he notes) offers an intriguing perspective on it, as well as on Ben Stiller, suburbia, and the world of influencers in general.
Lyman — Westport’s sister city, in an especially besieged area of Ukraine — was featured in Friday’s New York Times.
The story begins:
Stay, or try to escape? Nina Ivanova, 77, felt the odds of survival were 50/50 either way, and she had nothing left to lose.
Russian forces were just over a mile away, battering her city, Lyman, in eastern Ukraine, with glide bombs and drones. Her husband was dead after a long illness, and her home was destroyed. She was hiding in a basement with her two daughters.
Lyman was burning, but civilian and military evacuation teams no longer entered the city, given the danger. The only way out was on foot — nine miles under drone-filled skies.
When Ms. Ivanova saw a body eaten by dogs in Lyman, it helped push her to her limit, she said. She and her daughters would take their chances on the road, as countless Ukrainians have done before them all along the front line.
“We got up and left,” she said.
Click here for the full story. To donate to Lyman through Ukraine Aid International, click here. Click the “I want to support” box; then select “Support for the City of Lyman.” Scroll down on that page for other donation options (mail, wire transfer and Venmo.) (Hat tip: Howard Matson)
Damage after a Russian attack on Lyman in 2024. (Photo/Tyler Hicks for the New York Times)
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Yacht Rock — a live tribute to classic ’70s and ’80s music like Steely Dan and Christopher Cross — returns to VFW Post 399 this Saturday (August 29; doors open at 6 p.m.; show at 7:30).
Tickets are $15 in advance (click here), $20 (cash) at the door.
Also at the VFW: The next Veterans Benefits Luncheon (Thursday, August 27, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), VFW Post 399).
It’s open to all veterans as part of an ongoing effort to check in on all veterans’ welfare, and connect them with the benefits and support they earned.
Representatives will answer questions, and provide information on services and assistance available to veterans.
RSVPs are encouraged (but not required). Email vfw399ct@gmail.com, and include the number of attendees, or call (203) 227-6796.
PS: If you’re not a veteran, but know one: Please pass the word!
VFW veterans’ benefits luncheon.
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Last night’s Levitt Pavilion Andy Frasco/Kitchen Dwellers/Magoo show — a finale to the three band tour — included Frasco doing a crowd-surfing hora hybrid.
Tonight (Monday, 7 p.m.), the outdoor amphitheater becomes a jazz club. Greens Farms Academy graduate Charlie Hall celebrates Miles Davis’ centennial with his “Get Up With It” ensemble project. Tickets are available here, and at the box office.
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We’ve featured lots of creatures in our “Westport … Naturally” series.
This may be the first sting ray, though.
Michael Friedland spotted it last week at Old Mill Beach.
And finally … Janie Bradford Hobbs died in Los Angeles, following an extended illness. She was 87.
Though nowhere near as well known as fellow Motown songwriters like Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson and others — perhaps because she was a woman? — she wrote several important hits for the label. Among them:
(Hat tip: Michael Taylor)
(Just like Barrett Strong, money is what we want. We’re not as direct as he is — okay, maybe we are — but we remind you again that “06880” is reader-supported. Please click here. And thank you!)
This story ran 2 years ago, as the new school year began. Several readers asked to see it again. It’s just as timely — and timeless — today. Have a great year!
Forget January 1. Pshaw, Rosh Hashanah. Tomorrow — at least for Westport parents and students — is the real start of the new year.
It’s the first day of school.
Whether you’re a kindergartner heading off on your own, a Staples senior already counting the days to graduation, or a mom or dad feeling pride, trepidation and the warp-speed passage of time — or anyone else, who has ever gone to school — this story is for you.
Summer vacation ends with a thud tomorrow. Each year it’s the same: One day a kid’s free as a bird; the next he’s trapped, chained to the rhythm of the school calendar for 10 long months.
Greens Farms Elementary School
Some youngsters love this time of year; they’re eager to greet old friends, and meet new ones. Or they can’t wait for the smell of newly waxed floors, the security of assigned seats, the praise they know will be lavished on them day after day.
Others abhor it. The thought of entering a strange building filled with strange faces, or trying to be part of a group of peers who won’t accept them, or sitting for hours at a time, doing work they can’t stand, is excruciating — even physically sickening.
Around this time each year, I think about the entire school experience. I wonder which kindergartner will hate school for the rest of the year because his teacher makes a face the morning he throws up in front of everyone, and which will love school because an aide congratulates her the afternoon she almost puts on her coat all by herself.
Which 1st grader will invent any excuse not to go to gym because he can’t throw a ball, and which will get through the school day only because he knows gym is coming soon?
Saugatuck Elementary School
Which 4th grader will walk meekly into class each morning with just one ambition — to get through the day without anyone noticing how ugly, or stupid, or poorly dressed she is — and which will look back on 4th grade as a turning point in her life because a guidance counselor took the time to talk to her, to show her how to comb her hair better, to make her feel good about herself?
Which 5th grader will have a teacher who does nothing when she catches him cheating on a test — too much effort to raise such a touchy issue — and which will have a teacher who scares him so much when he’s caught that he vows to never cheat in school again?
Which 6th grader will enter middle school intent on making a name for himself as the best fighter in his class, and which with the aim of never getting a grade lower than an A? Which 6th grader’s ambition will change, and which will remain the same?
Bedford Middle School
Which 9th grader will temper his fledgling interest in current events with the feeling “it’s not cool; no one else in class cares,” and which will visit the New York Times website every day because her class is working on “this really neat project”?
Which 10th grader will hate English because all she does is read stupid books assigned by the stupid teacher from some stupid list, and which will go to Barnes & Noble on his own for the first time because his teacher suggests there are more books by the same author he might enjoy?
Which 12th grader will have the brains to apply to 3 Ivy League schools, but lack the common courtesy to thank a teacher who wrote glowing recommendation to all of them? And which will slip a note in a teacher’s box the morning of graduation that says, “Thanks. I’m really glad I had you this year”?
Staples High School
It’s easy to wrap our school years in nostalgic gauze, or try to stuff the bad memories down our mental garbage disposals.
We also tend not to think in concrete terms about what goes on inside school walls every day. Learning, we assume, happens. Kids read, write, use laptops, draw, eat and see their friends.
We seldom realize how much of an impact this institution we call “school” has on our kids.
Or how much it has had on us.
(“06880” is your hyper-local blog. We cover Westport schools — students, teachers, activities, you name it — 24/7/365. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)
But between hosting town-wide events at its Bedford Hall auditorium, and the wildly popular 1o7-year-old Yankee Doodle Fair, plenty of guys are familiar with the Imperial Avenue property.
Still, I was a bit surprised that about half of the correct responses to last week’s Photo Challenge — a shot of the Woman’s Club’s moderately hidden patio entrance — came from males.
In fact, I was surprised that 8 readers nailed what I thought was an obscure image. (Click here to see.)
Congratulations to Diane Bosch, S. Jonas, Sal Liccione, Seth Schachter, Kim Reichert, John Hartwell, Rachel Sara Halperin and Samuel Pollack.
If we gave out prizes for this contest, you’d win the stuffed animal of your choice. Just like the Yankee Doodle Fair.
Here is today’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Dan Woog)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
is there a statewide competition to see which bureaucracy can spend the longest time on a project?
The Connecticut Department of Transportation took the lead, with its Post Road renovation.
But the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is not sitting back. (Well, actually, they are.)
The popular Sherwood Island State Park pavilion has been closed since January 16 for “assessments for repairs.”
The other day, the Y’s Men of Westport & Weston — which is one of many groups that uses the pavilion — asked for an update.
Parks supervisor Caitlin Munson told Allan Siegert: “We unfortunately do not have any estimated timeframe for the repairs to the pavilion as the project is in the planning phase with the Engineering division, however, it is my best guess that it will remain closed for the remainder of 2026 and the majority, if not all of 2027.
“At this time, I don’t have any details to give, but you’re welcome to check back periodically to see if there are any updates. However- I would say for now while you plan for your events next year, it is safe to assume that the pavilion will remain closed next year.”
Ruben — the popular, ever-helpful Westport Post Office clerk — has seen a steady stream of customers requesting passports.
They’ve filled out forms online. But because they googled “Passport application,” and clicked on a “service,” they paid an additional fee that they did not need to.
Ruben urges “06880” readers to avoid the excess fee. The least expensive way to get a passport is through the official State Department website: https://travel.state.gov/en/passports.html.
You can also get passport forms at the Westport Library.
Remember: A “service” that you find online is anything but. Go to the official State Department page website!
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Frank Mastrone is always a Levitt Pavilion favorite.
His 10th annual appearance last night was extra special. The Connecticut-born Broadway star brought 2 friends: Westporters Dodie Pettit and Rex Fowler.
Dodie met Mastrone when both were in “Phantom of the Opera.” Rex — Dodie’s husband — is the co-founder of Aztec Two-Step. The duo now perform as Aztec Two-Step 2.0.
From “Send in the Clowns” and “Bring Him Home” to “Like a Rolling Stone” and “The Boxer,” it was a great evening.
And the rain held off until 10 minutes after the show ended.
Rex Fowler, Frank Mastrone and Dodie Pettit. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Just hours after she was born 9 weeks early, in June of 2022, Shea Greenfield’s heart stopped beating.
Doctors saved her life. But she was diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome. Her heart’s electrical system takes longer than usual to recharge between beats. She is at risk of fainting, seizures, cardiac arrest and sudden death.
There is no cure for the condition. And Shea’s condition is one of the most severe her doctors have ever seen.
Shea’s parents, Mark and Kira, had moved to Westport a year earlier. In addition to educating themselves about LQTS, they began raising funds for the Mayo Clinic, where Dr. Michael Ackerman’s team does cutting-edge research.
In 2023, the Greenfields organized a fundraiser. Others followed. Since then, they’ve raised over $1.4 million.
The next event — “Shank It & Serve It” is September 14, at Birchwood Country Club. The day includes an 18-hole morning golf scramble, 9-hole afternoon scramble, ladies’ point-play tennis tournament and canasta tournament — all capped by a cocktail reception (and pop-up market).
Werner Liepolt is a longtime Westporter. His family has done extensive research into an intriguing family story. Werner writes:
William Bell was a noted fashion photographer. His career began in the 1950s. It extended through the 1970s, when he began designing furniture, silk screening fabric and putting color onto everything he touched.
His daughter Bobbi Liepolt and I — both retired Westport teachers — inherited masses of photographs, slides and transparencies when Bill passed away. Organizing and archiving seemed desirable, but low on the list of priorities as our kids moved away and we began our retirement.
However, one thin box shifted our priorities. Bobbi and our son James found it in a closet. He noted that Bill had scrawled with a thick marker “IMPORTANT,” and opened it.
The photos.
In it we found a tranche of about 40 8×10 color transparencies. Bill had mentioned some of the subjects we found, but no one in our family had seen them.
The subjects range from super models (Suzy Parker, Dolores Hawkins, Sunny Harnett, Evelyn Tripp) to celebrities (Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, David Niven.)
Marilyn Monroe, circa 1952 (Photo/William Bell, copyright Roberta Bell Liepolt 2025)
Bill’s extensive list of editorial and covers for Vogue and other Condé Nast publications have been featured in online archives and library publications.
Dodie Kazanjian chose 2 of his Vogue covers for her Met Gallery coffee table book, “Vogue: The Covers.”
Vogue cover, December 1, 1958 (Copyright Conde Nast photo by William Bell)
He was entrusted with several successful national advertising campaigns. Bill chose Westport for photographs in the witty, award-winning Dunbar furniture series.
Dunbar Furniture shoot at Kathleen Laycock School (now Greens Farms Academy) …
… and at Nyala Farm. (Photos/William Bell)
However, what Bobbi uncovered was work that had neither been printed nor published. Digitizing a few of the dozen reels of 16mm film that she always thought were shot during family reunions revealed Bill’s record of photo shoots and encounters with prominent figures from the New York fashion world — including her introduction to the teen aged Suzy Parker.
Still from 16mm film: Bobbie Bell, age 7, with Suzy Parker (Copyright WBELLC)
From the moment we began to review and digitize not only the film and large format transparencies (eventually about 150), but also the medium format and 35mm slides numbering close to a thousand, Bobbi realized that her father’s legacy deserved to be freed from the boxes where it had lain hidden.
Though much archival work remains, Bobbi, I and Bill’s grandchildren have formed the William Bell Estate LLC. We created a website where a portion of the archive can now be seen, along with Bill’s biography, and material placing his work in the world of mid-century New York fashion photography.
For Bobbi, the project has become more than an effort to preserve her father’s photographs. It is a way of bringing back into view the warmth, wit, technical skill and sense of beauty that he brought to his work — and of sharing a part of photographic history that in some cases has not been seen for more than 70 years.
The archive is still revealing itself. Boxes remain to be opened; films to be digitized, viewed and stored; photos to be identified, and stories to be connected.
Bobbi and I hope that people who knew Bill, and remember the fashion world he photographed, recognize a face or place, or simply enjoy discovering the work of a gifted photographer, will visit the William Bell Studio website, look around, and perhaps help add another piece to the story.
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