Occupation: I am a trusts and estates attorney at Cohen and Wolf, P.C.’s Danbury office. I primarily prepare estate planning documents and administer and ad...
Unlike botanical nomenclature, which employs Latin, the vocabulary of color is plain English. The words are simple and familiar. The trick to using color effect...
Registration is open for the Newtown Tennis Association’s Newtown Open and Junior Classic. The Open will be held September 18 and 19; the cost is $25 to enter. ...
Why be limited to enjoying wildlife in the daylight when there is a vast splendor of creatures waiting to be discovered come nightfall?
For those who may be war...
Each week we compile a list of some of the most-read stories published at newtownbee.com. Here is a roundup of the week’s recent top stories, based on the numbe...
Newtown Public Schools have a two-hour delayed opening on Thursday, September 2.
The announcement was made by the school district early Thursday morning.
...
The Friends of the Second Company Governor’s Horse Guard (2GHG) will hold the second Your Horse — Our Trails Pleasure Ride on its grounds at 4 Trades Lane, Fair...
By Jim Taylor and John Voket
UPDATE: This report was updated at 4:30 pm on September 3 to include the names of the council members voting agaist the mask ma...
The Pootatuck River was roiling Thursday morning, and hundreds of local homes were in the dark after the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida passed through the regio...
Labor Day has always been a little more special in Newtown, and not just because its many capable residents can celebrate their individual contributions to our ...
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!