Chris Robertson has stepped in to fill the position of head of school at Fraser Woods Montessori School this year.@cdr1969, to share educational news and update...
Newtown High School's Career Center is seeking adults in the community to help support programs for students - from speaking in classrooms to offering unpaid le...
St Rose of Lima School Principal Sister Colleen Therese Smith welcomed gathered students at a school assembly on Friday, September 23, ahead of introducing Kimb...
When current Newtown Middle School seventh grader Jeremy Voegeli was thinking about what service project he could complete before his October Bar Mitzvah, he re...
On the request of Selectman Herb Rosenthal, the Board of Selectmen September 19 deliberated and agreed to add a half-million more dollars in year two of the Cap...
Fluid muscles froze to hold a pose as ballerinas paused, spun, and resumed their dance on stage at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, September 25. Quickly they dashed...
It didn't take Newtown High School's football team long to seize control in its visit to New Milford, on a damp September 30 night. The Nighthawks scored early ...
To the Editor:
I am a practicing psychiatrist for many years and a constituent of Rep Mitch Bolinsky's. I wanted to share how helpful Mitch has been regarding b...
To the Editor:
On Wednesday September 28, the Connecticut General Assembly was in special session. In this session I voted in favor of a $220 million agreement ...
Every year, Boy Scouts across the country are involved with projects to benefit their communities. Along with this hard work, the scouts not only gain valuable ...
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!