New Electronic Medical Record Technology Improves Patient Safety
St Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport has introduced new capabilities in the ar...
Paul Knapik: Walking To Recovery For Himself And Others
By Kaaren Valenta
Newtown resident Paul Knapik has participated in the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon Jimmy F...
Nut Allergies Pose Serious Problems
By Susan Coney
There is no longer such a thing as an innocent peanut butter and jelly sandwich sitting in the bottom of the ...
Sunset was just around the corner as the pilot threw open the aircraft door. I popped my head in and saw nearly 60 crates stacked along the interior of the DC-3...
History never looks like history when you are living through it.
 —John W. Gardner
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and mis...
Town Cited By USDA—
Council
To Act On Farm Plan
By John Voket
(This is the second part of a special report on the Economic Development Council
...
American Cancer Society
To Honor Volunteers
DANBURY — The American Cancer Society will honor volunteers of the society at the annual Volunteer Reco...
Senior services for Newtown seniors are available at the Multi-Purpose Building on Riverside Road in Sandy Hook. The Senior Center is under the auspices of The ...
Newtown schools have degraded over the 3+ decades I've lived here as the concentrated social experiment curricula driven by the state and small but loud groups. Yet we continue to dig into our pockets while we witness the downward spiral.
Unfortunately as voter turnout continues to decline the chances of it increasing also decline. The LC and BOF already know that the budget will be approved by virtue of the low turnout so why try to make smart decisions? The so-called referendum is essentially just a rubber stamp. They will continue to increase the budget by 2-5% every year because it's low enough to not cause a pushback under the cover of "inflation" and "maintaining the schools." Sending the budget to vote with 9% turnout is meaningless and a waste of resources on April 23rd.
I have seen Mr. Pisani repeatedly assert in the pages of the Bee that Newtown schools are "testing at a failing 64.9%". I'd be curious if he could elaborate on this statistic, as I have been unable to verify it independently. Which test exactly is our school system failing? How do our schools compare to other towns? How does our score compare to historical measures? It's very hard to draw conclusions from a single data point, so here are a few more data points to think about for context: Newtown is consistently ranked among the top 20 school districts in CT by the US News and World Report and Niche, which consider a range of performance metrics in their rankings; on average, Newtown students perform similar to, if not better than, students in neighboring school districts on standardized math and reading tests; the only data point on the CT Department of Education District Report Card where Newtown "fails" -- that is, falls behind the state average -- is access to art instruction. I'm glad the council member has acknowledged in this letter what taxpayers in high-performing (and high-spending) school districts like Darien, New Canaan, and Westport already know: "School funding does impact student achievement." Please keep that in mind when you vote this week!