By Owen Lentner, Editor-in-Chief
From the dark and desolate days of January to the long and blissful days of Branford’s infamous summer, 2025 has been a year.
For the Branford Buzz, 2025 has been the best year. Statistically speaking, The Buzz has had its highest readership in its thirteen years of online existence.
In fact, the news site garnered more views in 2025 than the last two years combined.
I, personally, attribute The Buzz’s success over the last couple of months to our group of new staff reporters, mostly made up of freshmen.
Each reporter, freshman or not, has the enthusiasm and desire to write good pieces; they want their work to be spot on. They have single handedly help revive the newspaper, via their determination and persistence.
Steady Photography
Our group of staff reporters consisted of the following students: Vesa Bejleri, Lucy Mitchell, Zara Serrano, Alexandra Martinez-Alfaro, Leila Verzella, Ben O’Brien, Sufia Ali and Caitlyn Lentner.
In addition, we have had other contributions from Lily Coppola, Nate Frohlich, Stella Herzog and Aziley Crespo.
As the year draws to close, we also want to say thank you to our readers for the success we’ve had this year. None of this is possible without you.
As we look ahead to 2026, which we hope will be even better and more successful than 2025, it’s also valuable to look back on some of the top stories of the year.
In keeping with the latest trends, check out our top six (or seven) stories from this year:
(Click the underlined title to read each piece)
6 – “Well-liked PE teacher takes on Athletic Director role for the remainder of school year“
Brian Zaklukiewicz, the PE teacher turned AD with the longest name, but biggest heart. This piece ran in early April as Michael Woods, the previous AD, left the district. Zaklukiewicz was promoted and has held the position since. Many have praised his leadership as AD; his current position also appears to be more permanent rather than his ‘interim’ title suggests.
5 – “Branford Boys Ice Hockey to play with West Haven via co-op deal“
Hockey will look a little different at BHS this year; the Hornets team will begin playing under the West Haven co-op due to low participation numbers. This piece ran in mid October, outlining a change to the Hockey program and how the new co-op would work. Branford will accompany a couple of other schools, all playing under the West Haven name.
4 – “New House Principal joins BHS administration“
From Mathematics Director at North Branford to House Principal at BHS – Jessica Cavallaro joined the team of administrators (now called House Principals) at the high school. This story ran right before the school year started and outlines her career shift to administrator, and a little bit on her history.
3 – “Branford High School falling into disrepair, district in critical position“
11.5 million dollars is coming to the high school; the district has received critical funds to replace the entire roof and F-Wing HVAC . This story ran in early December as the town passed the request by the school board to replace aging infrastructure at the school. Funds for the crippling restroom framework and fire alarm system are also included in the 11.5 million figure.
2 – “Main Street reconstruction displaces graduation“
Construction on the Branford Green displaced the 2024-2025 graduation, causing a flurry of opinions about the location of graduation, and impact to the ceremony. This story ran in January and gained more than fifteen hundred views as the news spread: graduation would have to be on the football field. With information on both the construction and the ceremony, it ranked second highest of our articles for the 2025 year.
1 – “Student voices: “The Hydrangea Lesson”
Of the 43 pieces written in 2025, the Hydrangea Lesson, by Stella Herzog, fared the best with readers, garnering almost two thousand views. This reflective style essay was written as a simple journal in late October. My advisor, Christian Miller, thought it would be fun to publish the piece after his student, Herzog, wrote it in class. To our surprise, the piece was a huge hit.
Her prose is a quiet reflection on the shifting or ‘changing’ of the seasons. It follows the her observation of a wilting hydrangea near her house and sparks the realization that the flower didn’t die, but rather changed just like the seasons did, and just like we, people, do with time.
And with that, 2025 draws to a close.
From all the Buzz Staff, thank you for such a rewarding year!
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