
Jack Comporesi is hugged by former student Janette Ireland of Kent during the Sharon Center School reunion Saturday.
Ruth Epstein
Jack Comporesi is hugged by former student Janette Ireland of Kent during the Sharon Center School reunion Saturday.
SHARON — Memories filled the air of the Sharon Center School cafeteria Saturday, March 1, as alumni from the 1970s to 2000s gathered at the invitation from beloved teachers Irv Robbins and Jack Comporesi.
Shrieks of recognition from those who hadn’t seen each other in decades were constant. So was the laughter as reminiscences were shared. The two teachers looked on with delight, watching as the more than 100 came together.
Looking back on their years with great fondness, the pair decided to host the reunion in hopes of reconnecting with the students they so enjoyed. Robbins taught social studies and math, while also coaching and Comporesi, affectionately known as “Compo,” was the physical education teacher and coach.
“It’s a blast to be in a place with friends,” said Robbins, who was at the school from 1969 to 1998.
“This is just great,” said Comporesi, decked out in his signature shorts which he wore throughout his tenure. “It’s bringing back a lot of memories. I’m surprised at the turnout. I guess that shows how much they thought about their time here.” He taught at the school from 1968 to 2002, noting a highlight was his being able to introduce cross-country skiing into the program. It was the only school in the state at that time that offered the sport and he praised the Board of Education for providing the funds.
As they arrived, the guests first headed over to the teachers for hugs and handshakes. Adam King of Westborough, Massachusetts, came bearing his eighth-grade yearbook, poring over the photos with some of his classmates. “As fast as I wanted to leave this town, I’ve kept it in my heart.” He and several others made reference to Comporesi’s shorts, noting he always wore them, even in sub-zero-degree weather. “His gym classes were the bright spot in my day.”
Among those attending Saturday’s Sharon Center School reunion are, from left, Meng Kry, Maggie Laverty, Julie Prindle, Barbie Ellis and Andrea Kennedy.Ruth Epstein
King remembered that Robbins had them read Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” and that he invited students to his home for sledding.
King, and others, recalled the wooden hand Comporesi kept in his office as a deterrent to poor behavior. Jesse Loucks of Salisbury also had vivid memories of that spoon that had one smashed finger. When he thought about it, he went over to question Comporesi to ask if that finger was a result of his using it to punish someone. He came back with the answer. “He said that broken finger was just for effect,” reported Loucks.
For Nam Kry of New York City, Sharon Center School played a pivotal role in his life. He and his family were from Cambodia and were sponsored to come to town by the Sharon Congregational Church. Knowing no English, he said sports was the way he broke through the language barrier and he credited the two teachers for providing those experiences. He and his siblings were the only Asian students at the school at that time, but they were embraced by the school and community.
Kry went off to Salisbury School, Yale for an undergraduate degree and Harvard for a master’s. He works in the area of technology. “My American dream started here,” he said. Robbins noted he was one of the brightest students he ever taught.
As she embraced Comporesi, Janette Ireland of Kent said, “He was tough. He didn’t let us get away with anything.” Ed Duntz of Sharon said his main remembrance about Robbins was telling the students they all needed to know about football, because the boys would play it and the girls would date players. Douglas Cahill, current chairman of the Sharon Center School Board of Education, said his greatest pleasure is giving out the Comporesi Sports Award for sportsmanship at each graduation and Brian Wilcox beamed to relate that his daughter Morgan received that award.
Several women from the classes of 1986 and 1987 attended, pleased to see the teachers and each other. Andrea Kennedy said the two “set expectations because they loved the kids that went here” and Maggie Laverty said they inspired her to become a teacher.
Jamie Hall Casey of Sharon said when her father died, Comporesi was the first to arrive for his calling hours. Linda Amerighi of Sharon remembers students having to take part in the Presidential Fitness program under Comporesi’s supervision, which gave students needed exercise. “I still have my badges and certificates,” she said, proudly.
Jonathan Costa, who is director of EdAdvance, said his father, Tony Costa, a former principal at the school, hired Comporesi. “Jack inspired me in sports and Irv inspired me in education,” said Costa.
Ellie Lowell of Sharon came to show her appreciation to them both, but said Robbins made her seventh- and eighth-grade years enjoyable after having a difficult sixth-grade experience. “You don’t forget teachers like that,” she said.
Wanda Moeller of Sharon was the school secretary from 1977 to 2006. “They were a lot of fun,” she said of the pair. “They cared deeply about their students.”
“I knew I’d enjoy it and I did,” said Robbins, looking around the room toward the end of the event. “It’s a dream come true. I loved the kids, most of whom I haven’t seen since they graduated. To see them as adults is a joy.”
COPAKE — A Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 plane carrying six people crashed in an open field near Two Town Road shortly after noon on Saturday, April 12, killing all aboard.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the aircraft departed from Westchester County Airport and was headed to Columbia County Airport in Hudson.
NTSB board member Todd Inman said Sunday night that the plane‘s passengers were headed to the area for a holiday celebration with family.
Among the victims were Karenna Groff; Jared Groff, their parents Dr. Michael Groff and Dr. Joy Saini; Alexia Couyutas Duarte and James Santoro, according to a family statement.
The NTSB will lead the investigation and expects it will be approximately 30 days before a preliminary report is issued. A full report may take 12 to 24 months, Inman said. The NTSB expects to be on the scene in Craryville for at least a week.
Albert Nixon, an NTSB investigator, will be in charge of the investigation, which will include up to 14 team members.
Inman said the agency has obtained video of the crash, and added that the impact site is 100 yards in length and that the aircraft is intact, but buckled and embedded in the muddy, snow-covered field.
He said the plane appeared to be intact and was flying “at a high rate of descent into the ground.”
NTSB has retrieved data from the plane and is aware that the pilot had missed an initial approach to the airport in Hudson and was being redirected to make another approach. Inman said that air traffic control received a “low altitude report” from radar, but was unable to make contact with the pilot despite three attempts.
“There was no response from the pilot, and there was no distress call,” Nixon said.
Inman thanked the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office for its assistance on the scene and after investigators arrived Saturday. He said there are no plans to release the video, and appealed to anyone who might have other video, eyewitness accounts or information to get in touch with the agency.
In a news conference on Saturday, Columbia County Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore said the plane crash occurred in a muddy field on Two Town Road in the Craryville section near Route 23. The crash site is 10 miles from the Columbia County Airport.
Parties to the investigation include Mitsubishi, which manufactured the plane, and Honeywell, maker of the engines as well as the FAA and the air traffic controllers union.
Inman said the plane had been sold approximately one year ago, and that it had upgraded avionics. Its tail number is: NOV635TA, indicating it was manufactured in 1985.
As of Saturday afternoon, agencies on the scene included the Copake Fire District and rescue squads, along with State Police, the coroner and the Sheriff’s Department.
Sharon Hospital
Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy approved a merger between Northwell Health, a large New York-based health system, and Nuvance Health, which owns Danbury, Norwalk, Sharon and New Milford hospitals in Connecticut, as well as three hospitals in New York, according to a Tuesday announcement by the agency.
The two systems now have to complete the step of formally joining the entities together under the Northwell Health banner, a spokesperson for Nuvance Health said.
Northwell isn’t directly paying to buy the Nuvance Hospitals, per se, resulting in a technical purchase price of $0. Instead, the New York-based health system has agreed to invest $1 billion in Nuvance’s Connecticut and New York hospitals over the next five years, with annual reporting on the progress of those investments.
Those investments will go toward a number of capital projects and the implementation of a new electronic medical recordkeeping system, according to Boyd Jackson, director of legislation and regulation at OHS.
“No money is being transferred directly within the affiliation deal,” Jackson wrote in an emailed statement, explaining that, instead, “Northwell has made promises of capital investment.”
Nuvance Health has been struggling financially for some time, posting a $99 million deficit in fiscal year 2024, which executives chalked up to, among other factors, increasing costs and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
John Murphy, a physician and the chief executive officer of Nuvance Health, said the merger will help improve health care for the system’s patients.
“By joining forces with Northwell Health, we can strengthen and enhance our ability to meet the needs of patients across Connecticut and the Hudson Valley for generations to come,” Murphy said.
During a public hearing on the merger in November, Murphy said Nuvance’s financial challenges had reached a point where the system could no longer survive without the support of a parent company.
“Nuvance Health today finds itself at an inflection point, where continuing its current course threatens the long-term viability of our facilities and programs and the future of health care in Western Connecticut,” stated Murphy in pre-filed testimony for the November hearing. “We firmly believe the time has come to join a larger health system.”
The combined health system will have 28 hospitals, over 1,000 care sites and a network of 14,500 providers across New York and Connecticut, according to the statement from Nuvance.
The state’s approval hinges on certain conditions, laid out in an agreed settlement. These conditions include the $1 billion investment in Nuvance hospitals. The agreement also prohibits, for five years, any real estate sale-leaseback transactions, the type of deal that many critics say drained the resources from the Prospect Medical Holdings-owned Connecticut hospitals while enriching the health system’s private equity backers.
Northwell also reached an agreement in August with Attorney General William Tong to maintain labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital for the next five years.
Northwell Health is the largest private employer in New York state, according to the company’s website, and owns 21 hospitals and 900 ambulatory sites. The health system does not currently own any hospitals outside of New York.
Health care consolidation — the trend of big health systems buying up hospitals — has been shown to lead to cuts in critical services, as well as higher prices. But the proposed merger with Northwell received significant public support.
During a hearing in November, several people from the hospitals’ surrounding communities expressed hope that Northwell could help strengthen the Connecticut hospitals. Those testifying included many Nuvance employees, as well as members of Save Sharon Hospital, a community group that has fought against service cuts at Sharon Hospital.
During the same hearing, Mark Solazzo, the chief operating officer at Northwell Health, said that the company intends to address financial challenges at Nuvance by, among other tactics, increasing staff retention, reducing reliance on outsourced contractors and driving down costs through collective purchasing.
“We have never closed a hospital, and we don’t intend to,” Solazzo said.
Katy Golvala is CT Mirror’s health reporter. This story was originally published by the CT Mirror.
To escape the cruelties of war, Katya finds solace in her imagination in “Sunflower Field”.
‘I can sum up the last year in three words: fear, love, hope,” said Oleksandr Hranyk, a Ukrainian school director in Kharkiv, in a February 2023 interview with the Associated Press. Fast forward to 2025, and not much has changed in his homeland. Even young children in Ukraine are echoing these same sentiments, as illustrated in two short films screened at The Moviehouse in Millerton on April 5, “Once Upon a Time in Ukraine” and “Sunflower Field.”
“Sunflower Field,” an animated short from Ukrainian filmmaker Polina Buchak, begins with a young girl, Katya, who embroiders as her world becomes unstitched with the progression of the war. To cope, Katya retreats into a vivid fantasy world, shielding herself from the brutal realities surrounding her life, all while desperately wanting her family to remain intact as she awaits a phone call from her father, one that may never come.
“Once Upon a Time in Ukraine,” a short documentary from directors Tetiana Khodakivska, Betsy West and Richard Blanshard, shares the stories of four children navigating war. Ivanna, a young girl in the Kherson region, reads from her a book as drawings of vegetables, which she has thoughtfully named, animatedly come to life on. As the film proceeds, Ivanna’s animated vegetables eventually go into defense mode against their Russian attackers.
Still from “Once Upon a Time in Ukraine” depicting a coffin designed for a child being lowered into the ground.Krista A. Briggs
Young Rusland from Moschun tells his story with an emotion not usually seen in school-age boys. He resides in a temporary home not far from his house, which was destroyed in a bombing. He speaks of time in the cellar, keeping busy canning food while his neighborhood was under attack. He misses his cat, Tima, another casualty of the conflict, and stays close to his dog throughout his time on camera while taking viewers on a tour of his neighbor’s former home, now a ruin from the devastation of the area. As Ruslan sadly observes, “It used to be a beauty.”
In Dnipro, eight year old Myroslava, likely a budding gymnast, is exhibiting her limberness. She speaks of formerly smooth roads in her hometown of Mariupol, which eventually caught fire. She explains, “Ukraine and Russia used to be friends until Russia got crazy.” Myroslava’s father has, in fact, perished in the conflict, but she remains in denial – or, as her mother explains, “She has gone into herself.” Myroslava finds comfort from multiple hugs from her mother, but continues to maintain her father is alive. “He will return,” she says. “He’s coming back.”
In Bucha, Maksym, 10, relates stories of explosions and bombings, as well as close encounters with missiles, which forced him and his family to evacuate. As with Myroslava, Maksym finds solace in his family, particularly his older brother. He can’t sleep in the dark and stays close to his favorite toy – a present from his mother. A pianist and a dancer, Maksym says, “I dream of peace so they don’t have to take up arms.”
Children are resilient, but the young people of Ukraine are clearly being tested to their emotional limits. When the internet cooperates, the children of war-torn Ukraine have, for the most part, been receiving educational instruction online for the past five years and despite their circumstances, are academically persevering with a strong academic focus on STEM and the arts.
But education, pets, toys and loving families are for those children who have not been killed since the war began. More than 2,000 young people have been injured or killed as a result of the conflict. Observed filmmaker Buchak, “We’re losing such a young generation now.”
The number of children who suffer from mental health challenges is much higher. Untold numbers of children are in need of psychological intervention. All of Ukraine’s children need to know the war is coming to an end, but until that day, they remain awake in a nightmare.
Anastasia Rab of Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit advocacy organization, fields questions from the audience alongside filmmaker Polina Buchak. Anastasia and Polina are both Ukrainian natives now living and working in the United States.Krista A. Briggs
After the films, a Q&A featured Buchak, Anastasia Rab, chief advancement officer at the nonprofit, Razom for Ukraine, and Joshua Zeman, whose vocal talents were featured in the documentary, “Cropsey.”
“What’s going on in Ukraine is a travesty and truly undemocratic,” said Zeman, who reminded the audience that their participation in viewing these films is a form of protest against the Russian invasion, most appropriate on a day marked by protests by the Hands Off movement in support of American democracy.
Rab, whose organization supports a physically, politically and economically secure Ukraine, noted the trauma in young Ukrainians whose existence and identities are under attack. “This war is about erasing Ukraine,” said Rab, who pointed out another atrocity of war – the kidnapping, trafficking and forced illegal adoptions of young Ukrainians by Russian forces. In some instances, the young victims are “deprogrammed” by Russian forces and forced to fight against their own country – a war crime.
Despite the atrocities of war and its terrible consequences, Polina Buchak, while grounded firmly in the awful realities of the ongoing battle, remained optimistic for change. “My hope is for a peaceful sky over Ukraine without the fear of being invaded.”
Sam Tanenhaus, when speaking about William F. Buckley, Jr., said he was drawn to the man by the size of his personality, generosity and great temperament. That observation was among the reasons that led Tanenhaus to spend nearly 20 years working on his book, “Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America,” which is due out in June. Buckley and his family had deep roots in Sharon, living in the house called Great Elm on South Main Street, which was built in 1812 and bought by Buckley’s father in 1923.
The author will give a talk on “The Buckleys of Sharon” at the Sharon Historical Society on Saturday, April 12, at 11 a.m. following the group’s annual meeting. The book has details on the family’s life in Sharon, which will, no doubt, be of interest to local residents.
Buckley, who came from a family of 10 children, including his brother Sen. James Buckley and his sister Priscilla Buckley, who were familiar faces in Sharon during their lifetimes, was a well-known conservative writer and political commentator.
“He was a true intellectual,” Tanenhaus said during a recent phone interview. “He would even talk to his dogs in that way.”
Buckley’s name was synonymous with the conservative movement back in the middle of the last century. He was the founder of the National Review magazine in 1955 and host of the public affairs television program, “Firing Line” that ran from 1966 to 1999. The key aspect of Buckley’s conservatism was a push against the tide of liberalism, said Tanenhaus. “It was more a negative than positive movement. He lived as a conservative, being highly patriotic, family-oriented and practicing civility and order.”
Tanenhaus said Bill Buckley was the first political writer/thinker to understand political controversy was really cultural controversy. When he was waging a cultural war, the stakes were about such things as the communists winning and Jim Crow.”
Tanenhaus relates his subject’s relationship with a variety of individuals, including the explosive encounters he had with writer Gore Vidal. “There are indications he had a large capacity and never held a grudge. He didn’t disparage Vidal as a writer and didn’t say he was a bad person. Nowadays that approach is really uncommon.”
Buckley was always interested in other people’s lives, including such figures as Huey Newton of the Black Panthers and Jesse Jackson, of whom he was very fond.
Tanenhaus spends time in the book delving into Buckley’s personality, noting he could talk with anyone and was always interested in those he met. “He wanted to maintain friendships. He never wanted politics to supersede relationships. He was just such an exciting person to be with.”
What he couldn’t tolerate, said Tanenhaus, was being bored. He enjoyed being in the company of others and was a great listener; not so great a talker. He was a great publicist and promoter of ideas and arguments.
Often asked what Buckley would think of today’s political scene, Tanenhaus said he really couldn’t say, but he said he did have lots to say about Donald Trump back in the 1990s. “He might say different things now. He never did have him on ‘Firing Line.’” They had one friend in common; attorney Roy Cohn.
Tanenhaus revealed his political leanings do not mirror those of Buckley’s, but took on the project to see how the world thinks of him.