The dispatchers at the Newtown Emergency Communications Center at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, report the following fire calls and the responders:
Thursd...
With little discussion, the Board of Selectmen authorized a rate hike for out-of-town users of the Newtown Community Center, effective March 1. Depending on the...
UPDATE (Monday, February 1, 2020; 10:54 am): This post has been updated to clarify who was given a verbal warning for driving while distracted in a two-vehi...
Throughout 2020, the many essential workers — from store cashiers to nurses to teachers — helped bring some normalcy to an otherwise, in so many ways, abnormal ...
HARTFORD — Governor Ned Lamont has announced that he is extending Connecticut’s Severe Cold Weather Protocol to continue through 12:00 p.m. on Monday, February ...
Published: Feb 01, 2021 at 08:53 AM
Due to the winter storm and its accompanying snow across the region, The Newtown Bee has heard from some businesses and locations that are going to be closed to...
At The Newtown Bee, we are working on articles every week for our readers’ education and enjoyment, and subscribers get the first — and sometimes exclusive — lo...
Evelyn M. Farrell passed away on January 29 in Danbury Hospital. Ms Farrell was born on March 15, 1942, in Queens, New York, to Frank and Ann Kulpa. She went to...
Margaret E. Paniccia, 78, of Newtown, entered into the gates of Heaven on Saturday, January 30, at Bethel Health Care. She was the loving mother of four childre...
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!