PINE PLAINS — Pine Plains Central School District Board of Education (BOE) trustees were caught off-guard by a proposal late into the 2011-12 budget process from Trustee Todd Bowen, who asked the board to consider eliminating one of two Stissing Mountain Middle/High School principals and the building’s dean of students.The issue arose following a budget presentation made by Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer at the Wednesday, April 6, Board of Education (BOE) meeting. The budget Kaumeyer presented totals nearly $28 million, up a little more than $1 million (a 4 percent budget-to-budget increase) from the year before. The estimated tax levy percent increase is 4.61 percent (for a more detailed recap of the budget presentation, turn to Page A5).The board discussed the long-term ramifications of a tax cap bill (which, if passed, would not affect the 2011-12 budget but would start the following year) and how the district might best prepare for the upcoming years. When Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finances Michael Goldbeck presented the board with a list of areas where further reductions could be made, if the board wanted to do so, Bowen said he had his own ideas. Bowen said that with the district’s low student enrollment, he didn’t see how both a middle school and high school principal could be justified to guide a shared building.“With the cost of two principals, including salaries and benefits,” he said, “I just don’t see the need for two principals in one building. And we also have a dean of students. Years ago the dean of students was the principal. I don’t see the need for that position, either. “There are areas that can be cut,” Bowen added. “With only 1,110 students [total in the district], I believe we can make cuts there, and I think those positions should be eliminated.”The BOE is supposed to adopt the budget at its April 19 meeting. The state allows it an additional day, until April 20, for final adoption. Bowen’s suggestion comes very late into the budget process in Pine Plains, which began in earnest with budget workshop meetings in January. It also came at the tail end of last week’s meeting, right before the session was to wrap up.Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer said there was “quite detailed discussion” about the need for two Stissing Mountain principals several years ago, while the district was looking for a new high school principal. The responsibilities of the two principals, including the health and safety of the student body, factored into the decision to keep the two positions.“With over 600 students,” school board President Bruce Kimball said, “there’s no way that one principal can handle all the things that need to be done. We would at least need to have a principal and an assistant principal. And it turns out that with the difference in salaries and services, it’s just not worth it.”Bowen pointed out that the district has operated fine without two principals in that building, but Kimball rebutted that structuring the building with one principal was last done decades ago. Kimball, a math teacher in the district during that time, said that he knew specifically of one teacher who didn’t get evaluated in eight years. Teacher evaluations are conducted several times a year now.“There were a lot of things not happening in ‘the good ol’ days,’” Kimball said.As for the dean of students position, Kaumeyer again said the position had been looked at carefully a number of times in the past few years. Prior to the 2010-11 school year, the dean’s responsibilities were handled part-time by two teachers in the building.Under that configuration, “it became evident that the management of the building and discipline of students was not to your satisfaction,” Kaumeyer told the board.This year, retired teacher Dennis Malloy stepped in as a full-time dean of students. Kaumeyer said he receives no employee benefits and his annual salary is only $30,000.“It’s a cost-effective way to handle health and safety issues in the district,” board Trustee Helene McQuade said to Bowen. “We were having problems in the past. In other districts, they have far more layers of administration that we do.” Board Trustee John Shea said that he would rather see the dean of students position eliminated than the board have to make any cuts to programming that directly affects students.Discussion eventually became more of an argument between the two sides, and Kimball pointed out that the conversation was going in circles. He went around the table, asking each member if they wanted to accept the budget as presented or look for further cuts.Kimball himself said, “At this point in time, I’m perfectly comfortable and I think it’s in the best interest of the district to adopt the budget as is.”Trustee JoAnn Wolfe said that before she came to any decision about eliminating a position, she wanted to see more information about the impact it might have on programming and on the students.“You have to know the facts and what the impacts will be on operations,” she said, without taking a firm stance on either side.“You don’t just decide this at a moment’s notice,” McQuade said about the proposal. “We really don’t have time as far as I’m concerned to seriously consider what you’re suggesting.”When it came time for Bowen to speak, he accused the board of not taking “every penny” spent by the district seriously, an accusation that the board vehemently denied. Another argument ensued and Shea walked out of the meeting.“Every dollar counts,” Bowen insisted.“But it’s also what you get for your dollar,” Kimball replied, additionally questioning why Bowen had waited until two weeks before the budget needed to be passed to bring up these concerns.“I take offense at being blind-sided with this,” he said.“Every time there’s a budget, there’s never anything said about [making cuts to] administration,” Bowen persisted. “If the taxpayer has to tighten their budget, so does this school district.”McQuade pointed out that looking at possible scenarios involving tax caps for upcoming years, Pine Plains may find itself needing to make $1.2 million in cuts the following year. Earlier, Goldbeck had shown the board that regardless of what cuts were made this year, it would not lessen the number of serious cuts needed the following year. “It will only make it that much worse next year if we cut this year,” McQuade said. “There are a lot of sacred cows we’re going to have to look at.”The board decided that it would schedule a special Board of Education meeting the following Wednesday, April 13 (after this paper’s press deadline). Kaumeyer said that she would bring information at the board’s request to that meeting about the cost-savings involved with cutting the two positions as well as any impacts that would result from it.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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