Staples High School
Encyclopedia
Staples High School is a public secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

, that opened on April 26, 1884 located in the town of Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut
-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

, USA. Staples High School is named after its founder Horace Staples who founded the school in 1884. The school was first located at Riverside Ave. and moved to its current location at 70 North Avenue in 1958. Recently the North Avenue location was expanded and renovated into an all-new facility. .

For comparison purposes with similar schools, the state Department of Education classifies schools and communities in "District Reference Groups", defined as "districts whose students' families are similar in education, income, occupation and need, and that have roughly similar enrollment". Westport is one of eight school districts in District Reference Group A (others are Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, and Wilton).

History

On June 24, 1887 Staples High School confered its first high school diplomas to six female students that comprised its first graduating class.

Inklings

Staples' school newspaper, "Inklings", has won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association gold medal every year since 2000 (in addition to a silver medal in 1999). The paper has also received the rank of First Place with "Special Honors" from the American Scholastic Press Association since 2001 and has been dubbed "the best school paper in the state" by the Hartford Courant. Staples also teaches classes for Journalism, and introductory course, and Advanced Journalism, in which students hold positions on the paper's staff. Inklings also has an acclaimed website, inklingsnews.com.

Staples Players

The Staples Players is the acting group at Staples that performs plays tri-annually. One play toward the middle of the Fall Semester, one toward the middle of the Spring Semester, and one in the Summer. In the past, they have performed such plays as Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...

, Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...

, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, and Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...

.

Notable alumni

  • Steve Baumann
    Steve Baumann
    Steve Baumann was a U.S. soccer forward who is currently the Chief Executive of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He was a first team All American at the University of Pennsylvania before playing three seasons in the North American Soccer League...

     ('70), professional soccer player and Director of the National Soccer Hall of Fame
    National Soccer Hall of Fame
    The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a private, non-profit institution established in 1979 that honors soccer achievements in the United States.-History:...

    .
  • Guitarist Murali Coryell
    Murali Coryell
    Murali Coryell is an American blues guitarist and singer. Best known for performing live in small venues in New York State, Coryell has also opened for George Thorogood, Gregg Allman, B.B. King and Wilson Pickett...

     is a 1987 graduate.
  • Governor Wilbur Cross
    Wilbur Lucius Cross
    Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. was an American educator and political figure who was the 71st Governor of Connecticut for eight years.-Biography:Born in 1862 in Mansfield, Connecticut, Cross graduated from Yale University Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. (April 10, 1862 – October 5, 1948) was an American...

     was principal of Staples for the 1885-1886 schoolyear.
  • Three time Emmy Award
    Emmy Award
    An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

     winning Back to the Future
    Back to the Future
    Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...

    actor
    Character actor
    A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

     Christopher Lloyd
    Christopher Lloyd
    Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...

    , is a 1957 graduate of Staples and former Staples Player.
  • Actor Paul Lieberstein
    Paul Lieberstein
    Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American screenwriter, actor and television producer. An Emmy Award winner, he is most widely known as a writer, producer, and as supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the U.S...

    , who plays Toby on the Emmy award winning show The Office
    The Office (US TV series)
    The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...

    , graduated from Staples High School.
  • Director Luke Greenfield
    Luke Greenfield
    Luke Greenfield is an American film director. Greenfield was born in Manhasset, New York and was raised in Westport, Connecticut. He is best known for directing The Animal and The Girl Next Door. In July 2007, he appeared as a guest judge on the filmmaking reality show On the Lot...

    , whose projects include The Animal
    The Animal
    The Animal is a 2001 comedy film, directed by Luke Greenfield. It stars Rob Schneider, Colleen Haskell, Edward Asner, and John C. McGinley....

    and The Girl Next Door, is a 1990 graduate of Staples.
  • The Girl Next Door's Westport High is based on Staples
  • WSHU public affairs talk show 'SpeakOut!' was hosted by 1990 Staples graduate Jason Goodman.
  • Former MLS
    Major League Soccer
    Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

     player Kyle Martino
    Kyle Martino
    Kyle Martino is a retired American soccer player and currently a TV soccer color analyst.-High School:Martino attended Staples High School in Westport, CT...

     is a 1999 graduate of Staples, the same year he was the Gatorade
    Gatorade
    Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...

     National Player of the Year.
  • Parker Kligerman
    Parker Kligerman
    Parker L. Kligerman is an American racing driver currently with Penske Racing's driver development program. He currently drives the #29 Dodge Ram for Brad Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series....

    , who is the driver for the number 29 Penske Truck Leasing
    Penske Truck Leasing
    Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P., headquartered in Reading, PA, is a joint venture among Penske Corporation, Penske Automotive Group and General Electric. A global transportation services provider, Penske operates more than 200,000 vehicles and serves customers from more than 1,000 locations in North...

     Ram for Brad Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Awards and press coverage

  • In the November 2008 issue of Connecticut Magazine, Staples High School was named "#1 High School in the State"
  • In 2004 the Wall Street Journal listed Staples among the best public and private schools in the United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    .
  • Staples' school newspaper, "Inklings", has won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association gold medal every year since 2000 (in addition to a silver medal in 1999). The paper has also received the rank of First Place with "Special Honors" from the American Scholastic Press Association
    Scholastic Press
    Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...

     since 2001 and has been dubbed "the best school paper in the state" by the Hartford Courant.
  • Staples' drama department, Staples Players, has received many awards for its mainstage productions, including numerous Moss Hart
    Moss Hart
    Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...

    awards.


External links

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