Throughout the months, years and decades, the Gazette has reported on current educational issues and chronicled developments in our schools, from the histories of the one-room schoolhouses to the formation of the district, and all the achievements and challenges along the way. This year alone we covered 25 different educational topics and published 20 notices and articles congratulating students on their accomplishments.

Our coverage has encompassed all levels, national news ranging from Sydney Marland’s participation in “Selecting NASA’s Teacher in Space” in May of 1985 to “Local Girls Compete in Gong Show” in August, 1980, subjects of state import such as 1987’s “EastConn Opens”, local topics like “Hampton Elementary Makes 6 O’Clock News” and “High Count of College Bound at PHHS”, and the universally understood “Hampton Kids are Smart”.

Controversies have, if not garnered the most educational ink, than at least the most attention, with opinions flaring on issues and our coverage of them in articles and editorials alike. Through the years, budgets have been the subject of debate, and building projects, with 1988’s “Hampton to Get a New School” one of several articles that chronicled its development from the concept, through committee meetings and taxpayer votes, to the eventual migration of students from the building that now serves as  Town Hall a mile north to their new school.  We’ve also reported on the Hampton Elementary School’s special happenings and programs, test scores and student achievements, resignations and retirements, including front page coverage of “The Go To Gal” for Diane Becker who retired from her position as school secretary extraordinaire in xxxx after xx years, and the parade the town put on for Phyllis Stensland, who retired in xxxx after xx years as a beloved paraprofessional.

Parish Hill Middle/High School has suffered far more controversies than the elementary school. Through the years the Gazette has reported on studies that advised full district regionalization in 1987 and in 2017 and the subsequent votes against the recommendations. We’ve reported on the threat of losing accreditation in 1997, the proposal to build a new high school to deal with that possibility in 2004, and failing that, the formation of a cooperative high school with Brooklyn in 2007, a proposal that only Brooklyn did not overwhelmingly approve. We covered educational studies in 2004, when Scotland tried to withdraw from the district, and in 2009, the one that recommended the withdrawal of the middle grades from the high school, and dissolution studies in 2009 and in 2017. All of these considerations have come with articles on the many meetings, the reports and recommendations, the forums and the votes, and many, many letters to the editor.  In fact, the June 2004 issue that reported on the impending vote on the building project only contained information on the referendum question and people’s opinions on it, nine letters in favor of, and nine letters against, building a new school.

Not all coverage has been controversial. We’ve recognized students from all high schools, colleges and universities with the quarterly honor rolls, deans’ lists and annual commencements, congratulated them on their achievements and accolades, celebrated the district school’s anniversaries and accomplishments, announced student performances and school presentations, and published notices on special happenings like Empty Bowls, the school’s annual event that involves the community in making pottery tureens to fill with soups the students prepare for the benefit of local food banks, pantries and kitchens.

Controversies regarding education are inevitable. It’s a passionate topic, triggering a lot of differing views and generating a lot of ink. And while it’s incumbent upon us to apprise readers of the issues as they arise, to cover the conflicts and provide room for opinions on them, when it comes to our schools, our favorite items to publish are the students’ reports to us. As with Prima Bartlett’s scholarly explanation of “No Child Left Behind” legislation, and when Zack Burdick-Chapel’s “Ten Seconds in the Eye of a Shooter” painstakingly took us through a hunt, the heart-warming submissions of former students to their retiring teachers, and when elementary school students shared their favorite recipes, the letters of advice they wrote to the President of the United States, and explanations for familiar proverbs. Who would have guessed that you “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” because “It could overflow!”