The Joe Namath/John Dockery Instructional Football Camp, now in its 29th year, will be held Sunday, June 25, through Friday, June 30, at Nichols College in Dudl...
DAR To Host Barrie Kavasch Talk
NEW MILFORD — The Roger Sherman Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution will host a ...
Plan Playgrounds With Disabled Children In Mind        Â
To the Editor,
Last week, I read the article about the new playground being planned for Tread...
Frank Runyeon To Perform ‘Sermon On The Mount’
WASHINGTON, CONN. — Television actor Frank Runyeon will perform the Sermon on...
Storytelling Highlights Museum Magic Hours
BRIDGEPORT — Contemporary children’s stories combined with a crafts project make up the Museu...
Presbyterian Missionaries Share Their Stories
Five members of Community Presbyterian Church in Newtown attended the sixth annual Women’s Retreat on...
New Treatments For Arthritis
SOUTHBURY — A free seminar on new treatments for arthritis will be held at the Southbury Public Library on Thursday, Ma...
Freak Accident Kills Motorcyclist
By Andrew Gorosko
A wild turkey entering the road set off a chain of events April 27 that resulted in the violent death of a M...
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!