The all-teacher volunteer production team of Ridgefield Now We’re Talking! has decided to retire, ending the show with tonight’s live broadcast. From left, standing, are Melinda Violante, Jean Jaykus, John Nessel, Diane Caggiano, John Renjilian, Janet Leiphart, and Lynn Meyer, and sitting, Christine Kochefko, Sue Goff, AnneMarie Surfaro-Boehme, Cleo Villamarin, and Tom Vogt. Team members not in the photo include Carolyn Balmer, Frieda Johnson, Ingrid Mallon, Janice Patzold, and Toby Payne. — Liam Bauer photo
Education initiatives, curriculum concerns, testing talk — a quarter-century of television about education in Ridgefield, produced by Ridgefield educators, is coming to an end.
Tonight Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking!, the award-winning cable TV program put on by Ridgefield teachers, will air not just its season finale but its last show after 25 years of live broadcasts.
The topic is “Technology and 21st-Century Learning” and the program will air live at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 8, on Comcast cable Educational Access Channel 97.
“Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking! helped keep the communication channels open between schools and community, ensuring an effective and respected educational-business-government community platform,” said AnneMarie Surfaro-Boehme, the show’s executive producer and on-air host.
“Over the years, the program focused on current events and trends pertinent to building educational excellence. Live, call-in panel discussions of cutting-edge topics were a vital part of the program, which served as a forum for members of the schools’ staff, the student body, local businesses, and state dignitaries to interact and glimpse each other’s interests and concerns.”
Earlier this week the program put on a special broadcast on drug abuse in collaboration with the Ridgefield Coalition Against Substance Abuse. That program had a panel that featured Reed Idriss MD from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Danbury Hospital, Ridgefield police Chief John Roche, First Selectman Rudy Marconi, schools Superintendent Deborah Low, attorney Joseph Walsh of Cohen and Wolf, and Ridgefield PTA representative Linda Maher.
Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking! began in 1989 with three pilot programs produced by teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools in Ridgefield. In 1990, the show was awarded a grant from Boehringer Ingelheim Corp., the pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Ridgebury, and the show has been financed by Boehringer for the past 24 years.
The teachers who collaborated on Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking! identified issues involving the education of children in kindergarten through twelfth grade, and developed programs designed to build awareness of those issues within the community.
Program topics included science, engineering, mathematics, literacy, technology, the arts, health and wellness, parent and community issues, student educational issues, and world languages.
The program used a variety of formats, including video clips of systemwide school activities, panel-style discussions, and audience participation via phone calls and emails.
“Community participation was a vital component of the program,” Ms. Surfaro-Boehme said.
The program often featured officials from the Connecticut state government and the Department of Education, including the governor, attorney general and commissioner of education.
The program has received numerous awards, including the CEA Salutes Award from the Connecticut Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, the ABCD Award from the Connecticut Education Association, the CABE Award from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, and the Videographer Award of Distinction, for excellence in educational programming and communications.
In March 2001, with mini-sabbatical grants from the Ridgefield Public School System and Boehringer Ingelheim, 16 teachers from Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking! traveled to Ingelheim, Germany, and met with educational leaders there to create a link between the two communities.
Ridgefield teachers spent the week visiting Ingelheim schools and immersed themselves in the history and structure of the German schools. Partnerships reflecting goals of both Ingelheim and Ridgefield education communities were illustrated via presentations and research data shared with the Ridgefield public schools staff at meetings following the visits.
At the end of the 2013-14 school year, Ridgefield: Now We’re Talking’s production team of 17 teachers will retire the show. The volunteer team put hours of creativity and professionalism into each broadcast.
Production team members — all teachers in the Ridgefield public schools — include Carolyn Balmer, Diane Caggiano, Sue Goff, Jean Jaykus, Frieda Johnson, Christine Kochefko, Janet Leiphart, Ingrid Mallon, Lynn Meyer, John Nessel, Janice Patzold, Toby Payne, John Renjilian, AnneMarie Surfaro-Boehme, Cleo Villamarin, Melinda Violante, and Tom Vogt.
The team, Ms. Surfaro-Boehme said, appreciates the support of and would like to thank the Boehringer Ingelheim Corp., the town of Ridgefield, First Selectman Rudy Marconi, the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce and media outlets, the Ridgefield Public Schools’ staff and students, school Superintendent Deborah Low and the Board of Education, as well as the PTAs and Ridgefield community members.
Programs from the series are currently re-broadcast on Comcast Educational Access Channel 97 on Tuesdays and Thursdays all day, and Sundays from midnight to 6 a.m. and again from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The programs also may be viewed by visiting www.ridgefieldnwt.org.
“The program,” Ms. Surfaro-Boehme said, “supported the Ridgefield Public Schools’ goal to ‘celebrate excellence in learning for children in partnership with parents and the community’ — so necessary for participation in the global community.”
