WEBUTUCK — During the Board of Education (BOE) meeting on Monday, March 12, High School Principal Ken Sauer talked about the importance of offering many after-school options, as a tool to lower the dropout rate.Webutuck recently instituted an Intramurals Sports program and has been finding alternatives to sports for students who need additional support. Sauer stressed the importance of reaching out to those students who are showing signs of having trouble in school.“We’ve had good success with this personal approach and we’re looking to extend that next year,” he said.Sauer also explained that juniors will soon be going to Dutchess Community College to take their placement tests.“We did this in the fall with the seniors and this time around we are trying to get a jump on it by testing the kids at the end of their junior year. This way they go in to their senior year with that information and more options to explore,” he said.He also touched on the success of the recent career fair put on by the guidance office.“All the kids in the high school went through, we had it set up in the gym, and they got to talk to representatives from various fields including a photographer, a radio station worker and a representative from the health-care field,” he said.Students will also be taking part in a college fair in May.“We have almost 100 colleges scheduled to be on site, so that should be really great,” he said.Sauer then went deeper into what “dropout prevention” means and how it is being addressed.“It’s helping those kids that aren’t finding success in school. It’s about getting them to think about their options after high school, including things like the Armed Forces and vocational options,” he said.Sauer hopes to see an 80 percent graduation rate this year.The Board of Education asked Sauer to specify why the graduation rate fluctuates from year to year; estimates throughout this year have also fluctuated.“We won’t know the actual numbers until a few weeks before graduation actually takes place. We have our estimates, but there’s no way of being sure until the end of the semester,” he said.Sauer then spoke about the difficulties in working with parents.“Since I’ve been working here I’ve taken a lot of calls from parents. They want to know why you want to see their kid on a Saturday. I don’t have that information anymore than the guidance office does. I put it on the teachers, and that’s really where it needs to be,” he said.Sauer detailed what is expected of teachers.“I went so far as to say (to the teachers) that if they have kids that are on the failure list, you can’t not be in contact with parents and feel you’re convinced that your professional obligations have been met. We need to be making sure that they are contacting parents,” he said.Sauer also stressed that a certain number of parents don’t follow through on the meetings.“Parents claim they’ll be here and we do all the work, get all the paperwork ready, and then come Saturday morning they just don’t show,” he said.Sauer confirmed that while face-to-face interactions with the students and parents seem productive the intent often leaves the building when the student does.“Every student seems to appreciate the conversation, the face-to-face, one-on-one conversation. They seem receptive. Then the bell rings and those commitments seem to fade. It’s hard to make it stick once they go home,” he said.BOE member Judy Moran was curious about how calls to parents are followed through on.“Is there a way to monitor that calls are being made?” she asked.Sauer reassured the board that he had emailed the teachers on this issue.“I let them know that they need to be prepared to show me that they’re trying. I’m gonna ask for dates and times to prove the calls are being made,” Sauer replied.School board President Dale Culver weighed in.“I sincerely believe that the student who gets the intervention early in the year will be less likely to get frustrated and shut down,” he said.Culver then asked if there were any plans to start addressing these issues with students early in the year.Sauer informed the board that all of the students’ test scores from previous years are available for teachers as well as assessments based off of earlier testing.“Do our teachers know who is struggling? Yes. Do they necessarily do all that they could with that data? Probably not,” he said.Culver also expressed the importance of getting students the help in specific areas that they constantly show deficiencies in, as well as fostering areas they consistently do well in.Sauer responded that the test data and following up appropriately with the information provided will help in those areas.Culver also expressed the importance of simply talking to the students.“If you’re not knowing that they have a need then it doesn’t matter what resources we have. If you’re not asking, not contacting parents, then our target resources won’t help,” he said.After the meeting Sauer mentioned the difficulty in speaking on this topic.“I‘m not trying to beat up on my staff. This is a difficult issue and we need to follow up with the students who are doing poorly as well as the ones who are succeeding. The calls to parents have to be made and the follow through needs to be kept up on,” he said.The board thanked Sauer for his presentation with no further comments.
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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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