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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: ‘A GOOD HIGH SCHOOL WILL RAISE THE PRICE OF ONIONS’
In 1866, Horace Staples was perhaps the wealthiest man in Westport. A direct descendant of Thomas Staples, one of five settlers who founded the town of Fairfield in 1639 -- and of Mary Staples, accused but acquitted of witchcraft during the fever of 1692 -- he had worked since he was 8 years old. At age 27 he started a lumber and hardware business in Saugatuck; it soon grew into a general store carrying grain, groceries, household furnishings and medicines. He bought sailing vessels, a silk factory, and part of an axe factory. He owned a thriving pier off the west bank of the Saugatuck River, near the State Street Bridge. In 1852 he helped establish a bank. In addition to everything else, he ran a farm.
CHAPTER 2: WILBUR CROSS: BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AND THE PARKWAY
It may have been the newest high school in the state, but Staples students quickly settled into a rigorous academic routine. There were daily recitations, oral and written exams every two to three weeks, and a comprehensive written examination at the end of each term. Pupils were expected to be “courteous, patient and observant of all rules of the school.”
CHAPTER 3: THE TOWN TAKES CONTROL
For the first few years after Horace Staples’ death, little changed. Three trustees – Judge Daniel B. Bradley, B.L. Woodworth and John Henry Jennings – took control of affairs of the school; all were appointed by Mr. Staples before he died. The school was also overseen by an executive board, composed of all the ministers in town, and one layman from each church. (This, the Westporter-Herald said, was “in reality but an advisory council.”)
CHAPTER 4: THE TWENTIES ROAR
With attendance an ongoing problem, the Westport school committee appointed George W. Mills as truant officer for the 1919-20 school year. His charge was to enforce a state law requiring regular school attendance for all children up to 14 (provided they completed sixth grade). The state paid $3 a year per average pupil attendance, so every missing child was important. The absentee/dropout problem was so acute that the town asked the State of Connecticut to send investigators to Saugatuck. They discovered 35 children working illegally on “factory machines” in their homes before and after school.
CHAPTER 5: A DEPRESSION, THEN EVERY BELL AND WHISTLE
The Great Depression started with a crash, but it took several months for the ripples to reach Westport. As the 1930s began, Staples High School was placed on the New England College Entrance Certificate Board eligibility list. This allowed students to enter member colleges without taking examinations. Ten graduates of the 31-member Class of 1930 went on to college, a cause for celebration. Principal Horace Beach formed separate classes for students in the college preparatory track, a move made possible by the increase in the school population and the number of those planning to attend college. There had been a “college course” for years, but in reality those students shared most classes with students in the general and commercial courses.
CHAPTER 6: BOBTAILS AND BUTTON-BURSTING
The new building opened just a few months before the 50 th anniversary of Staples High School’s first commencement exercises. To honor the occasion on June 18, 1937, Governor Wilbur Cross – the school’s second principal – sent greetings. He wrote: “I shall never forget the pleasant year I spent in Westport….As my special training had been in English it was my endeavor to create in my students the habit of reading at a time when our own literature was rarely in the school curriculum….One girl committed to memory the entire first book of ‘Paradise Lost.’ No others in the class got beyond twenty-five lines….Remembering all these and many other things, I still have a warm heart for the Staples High School.”
CHAPTER 7: STARS FOR SERVICEMEN
It did not take long for John Ohanian to make his mark. After arriving from Massachusetts, where he was the associate conductor of the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, he organized a small Christmas concert featuring the orchestra and chorus. It was held at Bedford Junior High School – plans for a Staples auditorium were still on hold – and included a candlelit processional during the obscurely joyful “Sing We Noel.”
CHAPTER 8: “OK FOR GRANDPA, BUT NOT FOR US”
True, the 88 graduates of the Class of 1946 included five members still serving in the armed forces. And yes, the previous December the Board of Education was forced to delay its building plan, when contractors could not bid due to the shortage of materials and construction workers. But the war seemed a distant memory that June. Everyone – including students – looked to the future.
CHAPTER 9: AN A-BOMB ATTACK AND UNTIMELY DEATHS
After digesting the shocking but pleasant news that the new addition came in well under budget – it cost $656,463.22, nearly $200,000 less than planned -- the student body and staff settled quickly and easily into their expanded building. The second half of the 20 th century was about to begin, and Staples High School raced to meet the challenges ahead.
CHAPTER 10: MISSILES AND THE MAY PROPERTY
Principal Stanley Lorenzen settled easily into his new position. Like his predecessor Douglas Young, he signaled his firm belief in the innate wisdom, goodness – and power – of students. He described his ideal student government as one that was independent of the faculty and principal. He hoped he would not have to reinstitute detentions, calling them “a sign of immaturity” in a high school, and vowed to add kettle drums to the orchestra for a “boogie-beat.”
CHAPTER 11: ECONOMICAL, SALUBRIOUS, OR DOWNRIGHT LUXURIOUS?
The modern new school taking shape on North Avenue riveted the town’s attention. But for students still in the two Staples buildings on Riverside Avenue, school life hummed along. In 1956-57 the music department added three new courses -- voice, music appreciation and music theory -- all under the direction of Robert Estes. Walter Stevenson taught two new classes, Functional Mathematics III and IV. For select seniors, Advanced Placement European History replaced the venerable Problems in American Democracy and Economics requirement. AP English V and Spanish IV began, the latter with only three pupils. Without a permanent classroom, Jeanette Atkins and her trio of Spanish students met on stairs, outside and in cars. New teacher Vada McFadden transformed Corrective Speech into Effective Speech.
CHAPTER 12: “THE FIRST FAINT SOUND OF AUTOMATION”
A modern school, continued prosperity and the coming of the New Frontier propelled Staples into a fresh, exciting era – and, more and more, the emphasis was on academic excellence. Departments began grouping students ever more rigorously according to levels of achievement. Advanced placement courses were added, attracting one-third of all seniors. More homework was assigned, and grading grew more rigorous. Foreign language unveiled a cutting-edge lab. Guidance counselors were reimbursed for visits to college campuses, an important concept now that 80 percent of students continued their education after high school.
CHAPTER 13: A HARD RAIN STARTS TO FALL
The 1963-64 school year started innocently enough. The school teemed with some of the finest athletes ever at Staples, including a football team loaded with stars and a runner named Laddie Lawrence. Over 750 students signed up for choral music, eager to join John Ohanian and George Weigle’s thrilling program. Ten students – including football star Rick Multhaup and Staples Student Organization president Tom Dublin – were named National Merit Scholarship finalists. The 1,500 students and nearly 100 staff members (including 26 new teachers) readied themselves for another high-achieving, self-congratulatory academic year.
CHAPTER 14: PETER PAN AND PLENTY OF PRINCIPALS
Bob Dylan may not have been a Westport icon when Kenneth Johnson quoted “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in Soundings in the spring of 1964, but by the next school year “The Times They Are A-Changin’” could have replaced “Friendly ties can ne’er be broken” as the Staples High anthem. Change loomed everywhere. As is often the case with social institutions, it did not come easily.
CHAPTER 15: THEY CAME IN THROUGH THE OFFICE WINDOW
By mid-August 1966, Staples still had no principal. That was not good. Baby boomers were now teenagers, changing American society at a dizzying pace -- and some of the most politically astute, vocal, creative, rambunctious and disaffected of them were about to pour into Westport’s high school.
CHAPTER 16: WAR – AND PIECES
Across the globe, 1968 was one of the most pivotal years of the 20 th century. In January, the communist Tet offensive turned the tide of the Vietnam War. In April, student riots and general strikes terrorized France; a week-long student takeover paralyzed Columbia University, and Martin Luther King was assassinated. Two months later, Bobby Kennedy was dead. Staples High School suffered no violence. No one tried to take over any buildings, no tear gas was fired, and no one was killed. Yet the 1967-68 school year was one of the most convulsive in the school’s eight-decade history.
CHAPTER 17: ‘WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?’
Staples graduated a record 582 students in June 1968. Three months later, the new school year began with 1,994. If Staples’ first graduating class of six students had magically been added to that roll, Westport’s high school would have hit the once-unfathomable figure of 2,000 students – crammed into only three grades. A safety valve was in sight – the new Weston High School opened that fall, and the Staples sophomore class was its first ever to not accept Weston students – but with so many children of the ‘60s bursting through the halls and spilling into the courtyard, the year was bound to be eventful.
CHAPTER 18: “HELL NO, WE WON’T GO!”
In a school year that saw an astonishing 86 percent of a record 675 graduates continue their education beyond high school; that saw the literary magazine Soundings win a gold key in ScholasticMagazine’s regional writing contest; that saw Staples students place in the top 10 in the National Mathematics Contest for the 10 th straight year – among many other noteworthy achievements – 1969-70 stood out even more for one thing: the Staples Governing Board.
CHAPTER 19: SPRIGHTLY, QUICK AND DIRTY STUDENTS
In the fall of 1970, something was missing for the first time since Staples High School opened 86 years earlier: Weston students. The last bunch had graduated two months earlier. Finally, Staples was a Westport-only school – and not a moment too soon. Over 2,000 seniors, juniors and sophomores packed the halls and spilled into the courtyard. Each class averaged around 700 students.
CHAPTER 20: “IF HOMES WENT DOWNHILL THIS FAST, WE COULDN’T BUY FOOD”
Any thoughts that Robert Genauldi would spend a quiet year as acting principal were dispelled early in the 1972-73 school year. First, he used his “State of Staples” address to slam students for not accepting responsibility regarding school rules and regulations. After praising their intelligence and talent, he said Stapleites had much to learn outside the classroom: where to smoke, how to pick up litter, what it means to respect their school, and when to publicly display affection.
CHAPTER 21: A NEW COWBOY RIDES INTO TOWN
James Calkins opened the 1974-75 school year with a shocker: He resigned.
CHAPTER 22: “THE SGB SELLS OUT”
George Cohan’s second year began much like his first: The principal instituted a new rule. Some people praised it as necessary; others called it an over-reaction.
CHAPTER 23: ‘STAPLES IS NOT LIVABLE’
When staff and students arrived on campus in September 1978, they expected to find their campus a construction zone. Their major surprise, though, was how little had been accomplished. Work expected to begin in July was delayed until August 23, due to the referendum and bureaucracy. Before the first earth was moved, the expected completion date had been pushed back to January 31, 1981.
CHAPTER 24: “THROUGH HELL AND BACK”
Despite the previous year’s optimism, in the fall of 1980 the promised land – the end of modernization – remained a distant dream. Inklings’ first issue of the school year sounded an angry, defiant tone. Editor-in-chief Tim Keating wrote that for all the optimistic letters and speeches, the administration’s it-was-all-worth-it attitude was “both Pollyannaish and premature. The Staples modernization project is woefully behind a constantly changing and imprecise schedule. Priorities are confused. The Staples student body deserves more. It is certainly a time for facts, objectivity, and truth.”
CHAPTER 25: RETURN OF THE FROSH
Whatever else happened in 1982-83 – settling into the new, all-in-one building; undergoing the ten-year accreditation evaluation; celebrating the Apple Festival – was overshadowed by one irrefutable fact: Freshmen were coming, and the entire school had to prepare.
CHAPTER 26: DR. BOTSTEIN BLOWS IT
Anyone looking for a shift in Staples students from the 1960s to the ’80s would be intrigued by two Inklings editorials in October 1984. Two weeks before the presidential election, editor-in-chief Jeff Udell and production editor Kevin Braun duked it out over the merits of Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. Yet both agreed on one thing: The Republican president was the overwhelming favorite on campus. Jeff rued the trend toward conservatism, Kevin celebrated it, but neither disputed the fact that the political center of a school Jeff said was once “liberal, free-thinking and even radical” had shifted.
CHAPTER 27: THE SPICE, THE STUDENTS AND THE PRINCIPAL ALL GO
Specialization and individualization were educational buzzwords in the fall of 1986. Staples responded with a pair of innovative programs. The Writing Center opened in Room 607A. Directed by English instructor Joe Ball, and open two to three periods a day, plus two days a week after school, the room served several purposes. It offered writing, revising and editing help for assignments in any department. It was a place to polish college essays. It even provided students in Staples’ high-stress atmosphere a supportive environment where they could write just for fun. And, in a school still wiring itself in fits and starts, the slew of Apple IIe word processors and printers was a welcome sight for students who already knew the importance of those tools.
CHAPTER 28: THE DAWN OF DIVERSITY
On June 19, 1992 the Westport News announced: “New Yorker named principal at Staples.” Though Marvyn Jaffe’s successor was indeed a lifelong New Yorker – most recently, principal of the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn – a more significant headline would have read: “Woman named principal at Staples.” For the first time in eight decades, Horace Staples’ school would be led by a female.
CHAPTER 29: SGB DIES, CAPT ARRIVES
If, as many people felt, the arts were the lifeblood of Staples, then the heart surgery that took place all through 1994 was necessary. But did the operation have to take so long?
CHAPTER 30: “TOO OFTEN WOE IS OUR BOSOM FRIEND”
When teachers returned to school in September 1997, they were greeted with a lengthy report on “The Status of Academic Excellence at Staples High School.” Scholarly, wide-ranging and filled with direct quotes, it was the result of seven months of in-depth interviews with certified teaching staff, guidance counselors and administrators. But this was nothing like the 10-year evaluations conducted by the New England accreditation group, nor was it a Board of Education- or Taxwatchers-mandated study. It had been conducted at the request of the faculty itself – and it was written by one of their most respected colleagues, English instructor Karl Decker.
CHAPTER 31: FIELDS OF DREAMS, AND DREAMS OF THE FUTURE
In the 1950s and ’60s, Staples’ enrollment rose rapidly. In the first years of the 2000s it happened again. This time around staff, administrators and Board of Education members – many of them part of that first population explosion – remembered history, and vowed not to repeat it. As baby boomers, their generation had demanded freedom and privileges, peace and justice (along with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll). At Staples that had translated into open campus, experimental English, and – well, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Now the baby boomers were in charge, and charging up fast behind was the baby echo. The aging boomers were not about to revert back to an era of – you know – but they retained enough of their youth to recognize the importance of individuality.
CHAPTER 32: 9/11, AND BEYOND
School was not even two weeks old. It was a spectacularly clear blue Tuesday – the kind of day that, combined with the fresh start of a new academic year, led anyone at Staples to believe that all things were possible. It was September 11, 2001.
CHAPTER 33: “WE CANNOT IMAGINE A BETTER SCHOOL”
According to an advertisement in The New York Times, Staples High School’s new principal had to be “a decisive leader who will assume responsibility for leading a vigorous and dynamic faculty, and achievement oriented student body….[Staples has] outstanding fine and performing arts programs, rich curricular and extracurricular programs and a highly supportive parent population.”