Region One Superintendent Award Winners

Each spring, students throughout Region One School District nominate a standout classmate for the Superintendent Award. This honor recognizes individuals for outstanding academic performance, commitment to school sports and clubs, and dedication to the community. Below are winners for 2024.

Leila Hawken

Allie McCarron

Kent Center School

By Leila Hawken

KENT — With a strong record of academic achievement, Allie McCarron was selected as the Superintendent Award winner at Kent Center School (KCS).

She is involved in the Student Council and the Litchfield Rowing Club where she engages in competitive rowing. She shares her talents readily with younger students, providing a positive role model with a positive attitude.

During an interview on Wednesday, April 10, Allie recalled that she entered Kent Center School for the Second Grade, her family having moved from Kennett Square, Penn. She has participated in the school band since the Fourth Grade, playing alto saxophone.

While she has enjoyed her time at KCS, Allie singled out the sense of community among her fellow students and the teaching staff as the highlight. She said that she has appreciated the spirit of collaborative service within the school.

Allie plans to attend HVRHS in the fall.



Patrick L. Sullivan

Logan Miller

Lee H. Kellogg School

By Patrick L. Sullivan

FALLS VILLAGE — Logan Miller is this year’s winner of the Superintendent’s Award from Lee H. Kellogg School. Logan is a trumpet player in the LHK and Region One bands.

He runs track, plays hockey and baseball, and serves as a hockey referee.

As treasurer of the Student Council, he runs the school store, and he is the man inside the Falcon costume at pep rallies.

He told The Lakeville Journal that he is headed to Housatonic Valley Regional High School, where he plans to get involved with the agriculture education program and the Robotics team.

Beyond high school, he is thinking about studying science at (perhaps) Boston College, Boston University, or Quinnipiac University. “Somewhere with good sports.”



Riley Klein

Nate Young

Cornwall Consolidated School

By Riley Klein

CORNWALL — An active participant in the community, Nate Young was selected by his classmates as Cornwall Consolidated School’s 2024 Superintendent Award winner.

Nate is an active Boy Scout and proud leader of the CCS morning announcements team.

For his eighth grade exploration project, Nate is repairing a 1974 Land Rover.

“It’s awesome,” said Nate. “I spent probably two or three hours this weekend draining the fuel system... it had like 15-year-old fuel in it.”

“The fuel was older than you?” asked a Lakeville Journal reporter.

“Yeah,” Nate responded.

Nate will be attending HVRHS next year and is looking forward to continuing his passions for baseball, cross country running, saxophone, chorus, and agriculture education.



Patrick L. Sullivan

Mia Belter

Salisbury Central School

By Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — Mia Belter, an 8th grader at Salisbury Central School, is described as “mature, polite and kind-hearted. She is a role model who starts each day with a smile.”

When asked why she won the 2024 Superintendent’s Award for Salisbury Central School, she thought for a moment.

Then she said, “I’m nice to people, and I get good grades.”

Mia plays basketball and soccer and plans to run track this spring.

She is a big reader, with fiction of any kind a favorite. She admits to having two books going at a time.

“I used to read during nap time.”

Mia plans to attend Housatonic Valley Regional High School.




Riley Klein

Federico Vargas Tobon

North Canaan Elementary School

By Riley Klein

NORTH CANAAN — Federico Vargas Tobon of North Canaan Elementary School has been chosen as the school’s 2024 Superintendent Award winner by his peers.

On what the award means to him, he said, “It means a lot because all the work I’ve done finally pays off.”

An academic leader who excels in all subjects, Federico takes pride in his efforts on the student council, sports teams, and theater productions.

Federico played the Prince in NCES’s recent production of “The Little Mermaid.” He looks forward to continuing his passion for drama at HVRHS next year.

Federico plans to play on both the basketball and soccer teams when he becomes a Mountaineer next year.



Leila Hawken

Jayden Milton

Sharon Center School

By Leila Hawken

SHARON — Students at Sharon Center School (SCS) have chosen Jayden Milton as the 2024 Superintendent Award winner.

Presenting himself well with strong communication skills, Jayden wins SCS praise for his commitment to learning and for his qualities for being consistently respectful and responsible. He displays strong habits of mind in academics and within the school community.

He said that he has enjoyed working with the early-Kindergarteners and Grade 4 students, sometimes reading to them, but engaging in other activities at other times. Jayden performs with the Jazz Club as a percussionist, and he is serving as stage manager for the school musical.

Interested in serving the larger community, he has recently become a Junior Firefighter and received training in hazardous chemicals and how to deal with them.

Jayden plans to enroll this fall at Oliver Wolcott Technical High School with an interest in the machine tool program. Eventually, he hopes to pursue engineering studies.


Click here to see more winners.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less