News

Op-Ed: Through Difficult Times, NCHS Community Makes This Graduate Proud to Be a Ram

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I’ve always been proud to be a Ram. From our strong sports programs, leading to many a state championship to our excellent academic reputation, being a graduate of New Canaan High School is something that I’ve always appreciated and honored to be a part of. I’m proud of our school spirit and proud of everything else in between, but there is something that stands out the most when I think about New Canaan High School in general. The community that NCHS builds and has nurtured is something that stretches and continues way past your four years there. We all support each other, student to staff, no matter what.

Schools

NCHS Community Honors Kay Timmis with a Tree Planted in Her Memory

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Teachers, students, family and friends of Kay Timmis gathered Thursday afternoon for a tree planting ceremony in her honor, after the longtime New Canaan High School substitute teacher passed away suddenly in January. The ceremony was held outside the NCHS Library, and those who attended took a moment to remember Timmis as a substitute teacher and how she touched the lives of the NCHS community. Priscilla Schulz, NCHS Physical Education teacher, coach, and longtime friend of Timmis, organized the ceremony along with six other speakers. NCHS seniors Carly Risom, this year’s recipient of the Kay Timmis Award, and Sean Davidson had kind words to say about Timmis, along with NCHS faculty Lynda Pescatello, Michelle Luhtala, and Lenore Schneider. Timmis’ daughter, Kim, closed the ceremony with a speech.

News

‘It’s Not Only a Teacher Everyone Loved, It Will Go To a School’: NCHS Book Drive in Memory of Kay Timmis

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Charles Sosnick, a University of Pennsylvania-bound New Canaan High School senior who serves as president of the student body, remembers Kay Timmis as one of the nicest, most respectful educators he’s ever had. The longtime, beloved New Canaan Public Schools substitute teacher’s sudden passing in January at age 82 “left a pretty big hole in the community,” Sosnick recalled from outside the main office at NCHS Thursday afternoon. “It was pretty amazing, the level of emotion that kids had for her,” Sosnick said. At his feet lay scattered boxes and bags filled with books that are being collected in Timmis’s memory. The Student Coalition’s book drive will benefit the classroom libraries at Edison Elementary School in Bridgeport—an effort dedicated to Timmis because she was a champion of literacy and education who was “very charitable and loved to read,” Sosnick said.

News

Anonymous Local Donor Funds ‘Kay Timmis Award’ for New Canaan High School Students

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Since news of the passing of Kay Timmis broke this week, scores of New Canaan Public Schools students who through four decades had come to know the cherished substitute teacher have shared remembrances and tributes to a singular educator and human being. Now, thanks to a local parent whose kids went through the schools here and whose family is feeling the loss deeply, generations of future students will be touched by Kay’s spirit and legacy. This spring, through a fund administered by the New Canaan Community Foundation, the first-ever “Kay Timmis Award” will be presented to a deserving student. “Mrs. Timmis will be remembered this spring and every spring after that,” said New Canaan Community Foundation Executive Director Cynthia Gorey, who on Wednesday morning took a call from the town woman behind the fund—a New Canaan resident who wants to remain anonymous. “It’s a parent whose kids went through the schools and her kids had Ms. Timmis as a substitute teacher and they just were really touched by this woman and were moved to do something to honor her legacy and help people to keep remembering her for the good that she did,” Gorey said.

News

‘She Was Everyone’s Grandmother’: Kay Timmis, 82, Beloved Substitute Teacher in New Canaan

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The New Canaan High School family is mourning the passing on Sunday of a beloved substitute teacher who began working in the district in the late-1970s and touched hundreds of young lives here with her rare and unflagging kindness, smile and generous spirit. Kay Timmis was 82. “We started off first period with a lot of tears” as news of Timmis’ passing moved quickly through the school, NCHS World History, Civics and AP Comparative Government and Politics teacher Kristine Goldhawk said Tuesday. “Kay was an original,” added Goldhawk, in her ninth year in the district and who saw Timmis just last week. “She was a sweetheart.