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‘He Is an Exemplary Model’: NCHS Educator Jim Zambarano Named ‘Teacher of the Year’ by Tech Ed Association

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While serving as New Canaan High School principal, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi recalled Monday night, the district saw a rise in interest among students for computer science and coding. NCHS offered no specific class to address those interests, Luizzi recalled, though Jim Zambarano—for many years now, the chair of the school’s Career & Technical Education program—“had talked about what might be needed to try and do that,” according to Luizzi. “I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Well we don’t have anybody to teach that,’ ” Luizzi recalled at a Board of Education meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “And he looked at me right back and said, ‘I can,’ and jumped right in.”

Thanks largely to Zambarano, the program swiftly was put together. “We talk often about ‘Project Lead the Way,’ our goals and STEM education and engineering, and we are very proud of our Project Lead the Way program.