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Staples High School
Magnet School	No
School District	Westport Public Schools
School Colors	Blue and White
Coeducational	Yes
Year Opened	1884 (by Horace Staples)
Charter School	No
Grade Levels	9-12
School type	Public
Principal	John M. Dodig
Location	70 North Avenue Westport, Connecticut, 06880, USA
Year-round schedule	No
Phone Number	203-341-1201
Enrollment	1615
Sports Teams	The Wreckers
Mascot	Construction Worker named "the Wrecker" (discontinued as of 2004, until volunteer can be found).
Homepage	shs.westport.k12.ct.us/

Staples High School is a public secondary school, located in the town of Westport, Connecticut, USA. Staples High School is named after Horace Staples who founded the school in 1884. The school was moved to its current location on North Avenue in 1958, and was recently 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 eduation, income, occupation and need, and that have roughly similar enrollment".^[1] Westport is one of eight school districts in District Reference Group A (others are Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, and Wilton).^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Facilities 3 Notability 4 Recent Accomplishments 5 Renovations and expansions 5.1 Modernization 5.2 2003 Renovation 6 External links

Staples High School was originally built in 1884 by Horace Staples, a high-wealth savvy trader, who built a three-story brick building on Riverside Avenue, just south of downtown Westport, Connecticut. The building contained several classrooms, a science laboratory, and a library. In 1937, a new wing opened up just north of the original building, containing many new classrooms but still no cafeteria or gymnasium (those were included in a 1947 expansion).

In 1958, to follow the expansion of the community, the school moved to a new site on North Avenue. This new facility contained a gymnasium, cafeteria and an auditorium, which was an impressive structure at the time. Its design was unique for the area, utilizing separate buildings and requiring people to walk outside to get around. The idea was intended to save on energy costs and to improve evacuation times in case of fire.

However, the idea of separate buildings did not bode well, and several more facilities were needed, such as a Fieldhouse, Pool, and Library, all which were built during a Modernization project which took place at the school between 1978 and 1981.

In 2003, several years of planning for yet another construction project at the school were completed and construction began on July 1 of that year on an $80 million project to renovate and expand the school into a brand-new facility. During this project, many of the original buildings were demolished as the new school was built on their original footings. The project was completed in September 2006.

• A 25-meter long, 4.2 meter deep pool,
• A Field House complete with 160-meter indoor track
• A Multi-Media Computer Lab
• A radio station, WWPT-FM (90.3 FM)
• An educational television station, Cablevision channel 78
• A recording studio
• An auditorium
• A 150-person Black box theater
• A turf football field

• Governor Wilbur Cross was principal of Staples for the 1885-1886 schoolyear.

• "Back to the Future" actor Christopher Lloyd is a 1957 graduate of Staples.

• In 2004 the Wall Street Journal listed Staples among the best public and private schools in the United States of America.

• Staples' school newspaper, "Inklings", has won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association gold medal every year since 2000 (with the exception of 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' drama department, Staples Players, has received many awards for its mainstage productions, including numerous Moss Hart awards.

• Actor Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby on the Emmy award winning show The Office, graduated from Staples High School.

• Director Luke Greenfield, whose projects include "The Animal" and "The Girl Next Door", is a 1990 graduate of Staples.

• MLS player Kyle Martino is a 1999 graduate of Staples.

In the 2005-2006 year at Staples, the school participated fairly successfully in several competitions. These include:

• Five semi-finalists and one regional finalist in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition.
• A finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search.
• First place in the 2006 Moody's Mega Math Challenge amongst 160 high schools in the Tri-State Area; the team of four received a $20,000 scholarship for first place in the competition.
• Five National Merit Scholarship finalists for 2006

The first expansion project came in 1937, which included a two-story building with classrooms. It is what is now the front of Saugatuck Elementary School.

Ten years after that, another expansion was built, including a Cafeteria and Gymnasium.

When the school moved to North Avenue in 1958, it consisted of seven separate buildings labeled 1 through 8 (buildings 2 and 3 (Gym/Cafeteria) were together). In 1964, a two-story ninth building was constructed at the south end of the campus.

In 1974, heating pipe problems prompted a project to fix the system.

From 1978 to 1981, the school was under a modernization project. It included the following construction:

• Redoing of Building 1 to include the Senior Center and Health classes
• Extra music rehearsal room
• New guidance wing (Guidance was before within the main office)
• New Deans office
• New Student Center
• Re-doing of the North Courtyard
• Fieldhouse
• Pool
• Redesign of building exteriors with sheetrock and bricks
• Connector hallways between all buildings

Beginning on July 1, 2003 and officially ending on September 12, 2006 the campus was reconstructed. For the cost of $84 million, an entirely new 32,000 square meter (330,000 square foot) facility was built.

• Staples High School official website
• Staples student-operated website
• Town of Westport
• Official Staples High Wiki (editing restricted to school affiliates)
• Staples Alumni registry website

• [1] Staples High School "Strategic School Profile 2005-2006", Connecticut Department of Education
• [2] Staples High School Web page at Great Schools Web site

Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference
Bassick • Brien McMahon • Central • Danbury • Darien • Fairfield Ludlowe • Fairfield Warde • Greenwich • Harding • New Canaan • Norwalk • Ridgefield • St. Joseph • Stamford • Staples • Trinity Catholic • Trumbull • Westhill • Wilton