It is so much more difficult to live with one’s body than with one’s soul. One’s body is so much more exacting: what it wonâ...
Gruce Tile 4, Aerco International 1: Anthony Gruce, Adam Wenick, and Joe Fedak combined on the mound for 14 strikeouts to lead Gruce Tile to a season-openin...
WestConn To Host Area’s First Professional Holistic Health Fair
DANBURY — The area’s first professional holistic health fair...
For Carol Reilley’s Art Career,
Timing Has Been Everything
By Shannon Hicks
When The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown opens its 33rd Annual Jurie...
Addressing Problems
With Watercolor
“Addressing Frequent Problems In Watercolor,” a lecture/demonstration by Marija Pavlovich McCarthy, ...
A Misguided Effort To
‘Rebuild’ The Baseball Team
To the Editor:
In a misguided effort to “rebuild” the Newtown ...
Post Office Food Drive Needs Volunteers
By Dottie Evans
Planning is underway for the 11th annual Letter Carriers’ Food Drive to be held Saturday, Ma...
Lake Patrols
To Begin
The Lake Zoar Authority is gearing up for another boating season.
Meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm at the Sou...
Newtown Property Tax Appeal
Process Is A Joke
To the Editor:
Five months after moving into my new town home, my assessed property valuation went up over 65 perc...
The Proposed Budget
Is Fair
To The Editor:
As a Legislative Council member, I have listened to the discussions regarding this year’s budget and the ...
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!