WEBUTUCK— During the Webutuck Board of Education (BOE) meeting on Monday, March 26, Eugene Brooks Intermediate School Principal Jay Curtis presented revisions to the fourth- through sixth-grade program for the 2012-13 school year.“Ms. [Margaret] Brizzie, as most of you know, is retiring, which will most likely leave us with seven sections. Three of those sections will be fourth-grade, two sections will be fifth-grade, and two of the sections will be sixth-grade,” he said.Curtis then broke down the proposed class sizes.“The fourth-grade will be approximately 18 students per section if the [enrollment] numbers stay around where they are now. Fifth- and sixth-grade will be roughly around 25 per class,” he said.Curtis added that there will still be two special education teachers.The fourth-grade was then broken down by personnel.“With the personnel we have we’re hoping that the fourth-grade will have one English language arts [ELA] teacher, one math teacher, and then one science and social studies teacher, so three teachers for fourth-grade,” he said.The fifth and sixth-grade structure will be based on the New York State Department of Education Common Core of Standard.“Based on the common core it just makes sense to have one ELA and social studies teacher and one math and science teacher. Then for the sixth-grade the same thing.”Curtis stressed that the usage of teachers’ assistants will be more efficient this year.“Schedule wise we’ll still be able to keep our 90-minute blocks of ELA and math,” he added.He then addressed concerns from parents.“I’ve heard from parents that the there is a concern that we didn’t have a science or social studies set class. This schedule fixes that problem. Another issue is our parents whose kids are coming up from third-grade, they’re used to the model where their students have a homeroom teacher and the student knows to go to that teacher if there is a problem. “The schedule this year made the parents unsure at times of who to go to if they had a problem. This schedule helps with that because now there is a team, a fourth-grade team or a fifth-grade team.” he said.The new schedule also allows for a common preparation time among teachers which will facilitate a “team-time” to schedule conferences with parents if needed.BOE member Kristen Panzer questioned Curtis’s confidence in these changes.“So over all you feel solid about this? You feel that there is a lot of alignment and there’s a lot of agreement behind this plan?” she asked.Curtis said the plan presented has been worked on by the Building Excellence Team (BET) and that all members are in agreement.“We’ve been talking about this since January. Every single one of our four through six teachers is on that team. This list is exactly what they came up with,” he said.BOE member Robert Trotta was interested in overall improvement.“In your judgment have we improved academically this year and if the answer is yes can you give me examples?”Curtis was very confident that there have indeed been improvements.“Yes, I think we have improved. A couple of examples that I can think of are that our teachers are using data-driven instruction to guide their instruction. They’re taking the data from bench-mark assessments and using that data to use flexible groupings in order to make sure we’re meeting the needs of our students,” he said.Curtis also clarified that “flexible grouping” allows students to be grouped by skill level to give those struggling more assistance while fostering those students who are grasping material quickly.Trotta also asked about the athletics program for the students.“We actually have the new intramurals program that was set up by our athletic director, Mr. [John] Zenz. That’s been going really well and is taking off. So that’s been a great change for our students,” he said.
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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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