On Jan. 3, the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) released a public education reform plan with tougher guidelines for teacher peer review and assistance, and for a more streamlined dismissal process to replace the current system of tenure. The CEA represents more than 43,000 teachers, making it the state’s largest public employee organization. Connecticut teachers have created and approved these proposed reforms themselves. Could this be the beginning of sweeping, meaningful reform in the state that will make educational opportunities more equal for all students?There are, of course, other factors besides underperforming teachers that affect the ability of students from pre-kindergarten to high school age to learn what they must in order to lead successful lives. But the proposed reforms also include a program creating partnerships between schools and communities, involving students and their parents as well as teachers and community volunteers. Taken as a whole, the CEA’s proposed reforms could have significant impact on school systems that have been struggling with budget cuts and fewer resources over the past years.Mary Loftus Levine, CEA’s executive director, in an interview on WFSB TV 3’s “Face the State” program on Sunday, Jan. 8, said that contrary to the public perception that tenured teachers have jobs for life, there is now in place a hearing process for underperforming teachers. However, it was often too long and drawn out.“It could take up to 120 days for an arbitration to come to a conclusion,” she said. “We want to treat teachers fairly, but keep them accountable.”Streamlining the arbitration process will mean that rather than several arbitrators and lawyers being involved in hearings, with multiple schedules needing to converge, there will now be a single arbitrator overseeing the process. This should save both time and money.Teachers work hard and many are more than competent and caring with their students. Levine said in the “Face the State” interview, “Teachers don’t get into it for a salary. They get into it to make a difference.”For those who do get into the profession to make a difference to young lives, the proposed reforms will only make things better, allowing them to share their knowledge and passion for teaching with their colleagues in a more peer-oriented review process. Yet realistically, some teachers do get into it for the summers off, the benefits and salaries that look pretty good compared with recession-affected private sector jobs. Many of those weed themselves out, leaving the profession after a few years to pursue a career more suited to their skills and talents. Even a few years, however, with underprepared and undermotivated teachers can have a negative impact on the students in their classes. Those students don’t get another chance to be inspired to learn. For those teachers who don’t make students their priority, the CEA reforms will give their administrators and colleagues a better, more efficient path to holding all teachers accountable in a timely way. For more on the proposed reforms, go to www.cea.org.
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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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