SHOP (Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity) President Joe Hemingway presented Newtown Scholarship Association President Glenn Nanavaty with a donation of $1,0...
August 4, 1989
If a new pool is built at Treadwell Park, residents will have to pay higher fees for public swimming. At a special meeting Tuesday evening, ...
Newtown Parks & Recreation’s summer camp “Fresh and Fun Cooking” ended Friday, July 18, with an End of Cooking Camp Party.
Parents were invited to enjoy differe...
The first of at least two public hearings being conducted by Newtown’s newly seated Charter Revision Commission (CRC) only took about 12 minutes, but it provide...
As the family and friends of Robert Hoagland this week formally marked the first anniversary of his mysterious disappearance from town, police continued to purs...
A wandering peacock chose a beautiful late afternoon to walk into a backyard on Shepard Hill Road Thursday, July 24.
Looking outside that evening, Lex Nalley sa...
On Friday, August 15, at 7 pm, the SilverTones will perform at Newtown Congregational Church, 14 West Street.
Reet Lubin of Brookfield, director of the band, pl...
Laurie and Jim Borst rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and looked again last Friday morning. Sure enough, there was a black bear ambling across their Beechwood...
Due to the likelihood of extreme heat, and no other place in the facility with air-conditioning, Republican Registrar of Voters Karin Aurelia is moving all GOP ...
The second session of Newtown Continuing Education’s SMART (Summer Music And Arts) Camp began on July 21, and offered a range of classes for students.
The first...
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!