Mildred F. Choun
Mildred F. Choun, 77, of the Nichols section of Trumbull, died November 29 at Bridgeport Hospital.
She was the mother of Charles W. Choun of Ne...
BAHA’I FAITH OF NEWTOWN
Contact Michael or Susan Dutton
364-1738 • mdutton@bestweb.net
Devotional meetings; spiritual discussion meetings; di...
Social Work Program Spring Schedule
WEST HARTFORD — Have you been thinking about taking the next step to further your education? Are you considering...
Back in June, 33 girls tried out for the Newtown Hawks 12-and-under softball team and only three of them (Christie Caruso, Jessica Duch and Amie Walston) had ev...
Sportsman of the Year!
It’s that time of year again – time to nominate someone for The Newtown Bee Sportsman of the Year Award. The...
The Newtown Blue & Gold Booster Club will hold its next meeting Wednesday, December 13, at 7:30 pm, in Room B134 (the teacher’s lunch room, near the...
Johanna Bombaci of Newtown received honors at the close of the first marking period at St Joseph High School. She is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Wayne Bombac...
Winter Guard Receives Donation
The Newtown High School Winter Guard received a generous donation Thursday night. Richard Locke left a $1,000 donation to the clu...
A Holiday Celebration
Through Psalms & Carols
Connecticut Choral Society will present two performances of its holiday concert program, “Psalms And C...
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!