Girl Scouts of Connecticut announced that February 22 to 24 was National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend, and across the state, Girl Scouts will be delivering their c...
RIDGEFIELD — Stephen Schwartz’s Working, A Musical, based on the Studs Terkel book with the same title, has been updated and localized by Director Daniel C. Lev...
About 10:50 pm on Monday, February 25, police were dispatched to a motor vehicle incident that had occurred in Huntingtown, near the intersection of Huntingtown...
The following students made the High Honor Roll and Honor Roll for the second quarter marking period at Newtown High School for the 2018-19 school year. The hon...
Bunnell High School in Stratford hosted the Musical Arts Conference (MAC) competition on Saturday, February 23, when the Newtown Junior Varsity Color Guard earn...
STAMFORD — Kyle Lyddy, 32, formerly of Newtown, and his defense lawyer appeared on February 27 in Connecticut Superior Court in Mr Lyddy’s ongoing first-degree ...
In recognition of April as National Poetry Month, Yale College Dean Mark Schenker will present a series of lecture-discussions at C.H. Booth Library on three of...
The March 13 meeting of the Town and Country Garden Club of Newtown will host guest speaker John Himmelman, with “Singing Leaves: Songs and Stories of the Night...
“... I think it is important the public knows ensuring the board has good legal counsel is beneficial to the town as well.” ~Michelle Embree Ku
Responding ...
With an anticipated increased legalization of recreational marijuana in the Northeast, town police expect that they may encounter more motorists illegally drivi...
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!