KENT — It is not unusual for parents and children to think of the first day of school as a return to the familiar. However, returning students to Kent Center School (KCS), along with the welcoming familiarity, will also find new programs and staff.Kent Center School Principal Rima McGeehan said, “We are excited because we are beginning our new school year with 275 students, including 10 new students (non-kindergarten).”One of the new initiatives for the new school year “is a federally mandated program, Response To Interventions, where we evaluate students at different levels to help identify struggling learners and provide interventions to get them back on track,” McGeehan said. A new program called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is similar “except it focuses on behavior instead of academics,” she said.The PBIS program will be introduced to students on the first day of school. “We have a staff PBIS team that will perform a skit for students to introduce them to the concept. On the second day of school we will have a presentation in the cafeteria to show what positive behavior looks like in that environment. “We will model that for students and let them know they are expected to practice model behavior,” the principal explained. “Going forward, students we observe practicing positive behaviors will be recognized.”Teachers and other KCS staff have spent a year being trained in the framework of PBIS. All staff participate including administrators, teachers and bus drivers.KCS is in year three of a three-year technology plan involving professional development for teachers. Much of the professional development is in-house, led by computer teacher Carolyn McCloud. A new KSC website brings a new resource to parents, students and the community: www.kentcenterschool.org. Every teacher has a page on the website offering parents a way to see what’s happening in the classrooms and what types of curriculum are being addressed, and to get timely information.“And I’m starting a new initiative, Professional Learning Communities,” McGeehan said. “These are groups of interested staff members accessing resources on important topics in education and bringing all of our learning back to the table, sharing it with the entire staff and implementing best practices in the classrooms.”This new concept was presented to teachers a week before school opened. McGeehan said she already has a dozen volunteers. Topics to be investigated and brought back to the school include enrichment for students, writing across the curriculum and autism.The principal noted that Kent Center School is beginning the second year of the LEAPS program for autistic learners, noting, “It seems the incidence of autistic births is increasing.”
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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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