To the Editor:
Last Sunday at the Edmond Town Hall, I was so pleased to welcome enthusiastic audiences who turned out for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the f...
Heading into this week’s action, the 19U Bethel Admirals American Legion baseball team, which comprises both Newtown and Bethel athletes, posted a 7-4 record.
T...
To the Editor:
There is someone new at the Booth Library. He is in a lighted glass case in the children's section. He is a dragon.
Last fall, when the kids at...
The Board of Selectman has created the volunteer post of Poet Laureate and has asked The Newtown Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC) to recruit, screen and recommen...
To the Editor:
I would like to thank our town for coming out to celebrate and honor Mae Schmidle and Julia Wasserman this past Sunday. Hearing all the wonderful...
The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown will have Peter Seltzer conducting a critique of paintings by members during its next meeting, on Wednesday, July 8, at ...
The Newtown Scholarship Association (NSA) held its 23rd Annual Jack Friel Memorial Golf Scramble on June 22. The event is sponsored by Newtown’s two golf venues...
Newtown Women’s Softball League highlights from recent action are as follows:
Cork N’ Barrel 15, My Place 13: The Corks got big hits from Denise Croden wit...
Performed poetry is even older than theater, and Robert González imagines and recreates what poetry was like delivered from a stage to an audience – just the pu...
The 100-bed psychiatric hospital bid for development at Fairfield Hills has refocused to sites elsewhere in town.
Fairfield Hills Authority Chairman Thomas Conn...
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!