BOE discusses 2025 initiative

Jordan Shenhar, Staff Writer
May 22, 2013
Filed under News

The BOE convened on Monday, May 20 to discuss the Westport 2025 initiative and the district’s goals for the upcoming year. The meeting’s primary focus was a presentation by Director of Secondary Education Lisbeth Comm, Director of Human Resources Marge Cion and co-founder of the Teacher’s College... Read more »

School, Police Communication Hinders Security Audit: BOE Pulls Security Audit from RTM Agenda

Jordan Shenhar and Cadence Neenan
March 15, 2013
Filed under News

In the wake of the tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Westport Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) recommended that a security audit be conducted by Kroll, a New York-based consulting firm. However, controversy over the selection of the company dogged the proposal until it reached... Read more »

Stepping Away: Laddie Lawrence Retires from Teaching

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
February 15, 2013
Filed under News

Laddie Lawrence has been teaching at Staples since before Steve Jobs founded Apple and coaching at Staples since before the moon landing. He met fellow P.E. teacher and Staples alum Bruce Betts before the Kennedy assassination, and the two have shared an office since the Reagan presidency. And yet,... Read more »

Jan. 24, 2012 | Preparations

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
January 24, 2013
Filed under The Daily Click

2:30 p.m. Students attending the Junior State of America's Winter Congress convention in Washington, D.C. next month prepare for their debates at a club meeting.

We Are Survivors: Debunking the Mayan Prophecy

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
January 14, 2013
Filed under Opinions

And you thought the movie “2012” was a flop. As most Americans raced home from school and work on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 21, eager to begin their holiday breaks, fire and brimstone did not rain down from the heavens, nor did a tremendous cataclysm ravage the planet. Earth did not turn... Read more »

NFL Playoffs: Divisional Round Predictions

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
January 12, 2013
Filed under Sports

Don’t worry, this is where it gets interesting. Although the Wild-Card round was marred by sloppy, mistake-filled play and low-scoring games, the second round promises to provide much more excitement, with the top two teams in each conference refreshed after a bye week and only the strongest teams... Read more »

Playoff Preview: NFL Wild-Card Weekend

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
January 6, 2013
Filed under Sports

With a tough transition back from Christmas break, miserably cold weather, and midterms coming up, January could easily be the worst month of the year. But fortunately, the NFL playoffs are around to provide excitement and entertainment throughout these dark mid-winter days. Over the coming weeks, I’ll... Read more »

Bored of the Board: Why the BOE Needs New Perspectives

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
December 21, 2012
Filed under Opinions

Imagine what America would be like if not a single congressperson had ever set foot in this country, or what you’d learn in your statistics class if your French teacher wrote all the lesson plans. Think of the lunacy of the Oscars awarded by General Motors instead of Hollywood—or worse yet, the opposite:... Read more »

Dec. 17, 2012 | Gloomy Afternoon

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
December 17, 2012
Filed under The Daily Click

2:15 p.m. Students board their buses at the end of the first school day since Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. All flags in the state were ordered to fly at half-mast in memory the victims.

McMahon Has The Plan

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
October 26, 2012
Filed under Opinions

Enter an arena where hot-headed idiots bluster their way through sensationalized battles for the sake of attention, where big egos duke it out on broadcast television, where America’s finest men and women wear ridiculous suits and claw at, sucker-punch, and pummel each other, emphasizing crowd reaction... Read more »

Oct. 23, 2012 | After the Meeting

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
October 23, 2012
Filed under The Daily Click

8:45 a.m. Principal John Dodig and Grade-Level Assistant Dee Hychko remain in the conference room after the last student exists today's homeroom meeting. Two senior homerooms conferenced with Dodig, Hychko, and Assistant Principal Patrick Micinilio to reflect upon their experiences at Staples and discuss... Read more »

An Endangered Species: Will Staples Learning Centers Become a Thing of the Past?

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
October 5, 2012
Filed under News

Keyboards clack. Pages turn. Occasional whispers are rendered unintelligible by a humming printer and stifled yawns. Faint footsteps resonate in the hallway. Learning centers, one of the last bastions of silence left at Staples, harbor nervous test-takers and quiet studiers alike, day in and day out,... Read more »

Car Drives into Post Road Storefront; No Injuries Reported

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
September 15, 2012
Filed under News

At 6 p.m. on Saturday night, a car drove through the front window of Painter’s Supply at the Compo Shopping Center. The store was closed at the time of the accident. No one was injured,  and there was no damage estimate as of Saturday night. According to Katie, the store’s manager in design who... Read more »

The Fun Never Stops: A Childhood Favorite Makes An Appearance in Phys Ed

Jordan Shenhar, Web Managing Editor
May 25, 2012
Filed under Sports

Color is scarce in the Staples fieldhouse. Its dull crimson floor and faded cinder walls are illuminated by little more than flickering fluorescent lights strung onto high girders. But all that changes once the parachute comes out. A billowing mass of color that is frequently regarded as the domain... Read more »

The Calm without the Storm: Why Stress-Free Works for Me.

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
April 12, 2012
Filed under Opinions

SAT Question of the Day: Which word most accurately describes my college process, my life that should be dominated by stress and the dreaded SATs and ACTs and GPA and stress and college visits and Naviance stalking and stress and extracurricular-padding and common apps and early decisions and stress? Calm. The... Read more »

April 11, 2012 | A Taste of Irony

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
April 11, 2012
Filed under The Daily Click

11:45 a.m. On Wednesday, and every other day this week, the cafeteria served sausage and pepperoni pizza on matzah bread in order to accomodate Jewish students keeping kosher for Passover. However, Jewish dietary law prohibits mixing dairy and red meat in the same meal and considers all pork-based... Read more »

Popping Pills: Drugs Behind the Counter

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
March 28, 2012
Filed under Features

They know it’s wrong. They know it’s dangerous. They know it’s illegal. They do it anyway.   But these dealers lurk just outside the framework of conventional morality. They illegally sell legal substances, known more for study aid than mind-altering recreation. And Staples students use their... Read more »

March 2, 2012 | Multitasking

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
March 2, 2012
Filed under The Daily Click

12:30 p.m. English teacher Alex Miller chats with Stephen Colodny '13 while grading papers and monitoring the auditorium area on a quiet Friday afternoon. A group of students lounges by the doors in the background.

Bring Back “Merry Christmas”

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
December 21, 2011
Filed under Opinions, Top Stories

Last weekend, I experienced a miracle. A store employee in New York City said “Merry Christmas!” to me. Not “Happy Holidays!” Not “Season’s Greetings!” I’m Jewish. The store was a Jewish deli. And yes, it was a Christmas miracle. In the oversensitive world we live in, Christmas-related... Read more »

Winter Sports Teams Participate in Charity

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
November 22, 2011
Filed under Sports, Sports Center

Although snow days, Christmas, and mid-afternoon sunsets are still far on the horizon, winter sports teams are already starting to join together and warm up. Before the first practices or games, each team has to raise money or awareness for a charity cause of its choice, and several teams have already... Read more »

Nov. 18, 2011 | More Cans for Candlelight

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
November 18, 2011
Filed under The Daily Click

2:30 p.m. About a week after the Orphenians put their "Cans for Candlelight" box in the front of the building, the Staples community had already donated enough canned goods to fill an entire box. The second Cans for Candlelight box alrady has several cans in it. The Candlelight concert will be held on... Read more »

Oct. 14, 2011 | Smooth Jazz

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
October 14, 2011
Filed under The Daily Click

3:30 p.m. Jazz pianist Danny Pravder '12 practices a piece before playing for Live from the Media Lab. His performance is scheduled to be recorded at 4 p.m., with vocals provided by Kiana Khozein '13.

Reverse Stockholm Syndrome: Why Global Themes Might Not Be So Bad After All

Jordan Shenhar, Opinions Editor
September 29, 2011
Filed under Opinions

I’ll never forget my only late nights of freshman year. Whether it was cramming for a Western Humanities test or putting the finishing touches on our most important paper of the quarter, my social studies class was the source of all my panic attacks and undue amounts of stress. There was an endless... Read more »