Garner Inmate Arrested After Fight At Prison
About 11 am April 23, state police learned of a violent incident involving an inmate at Garner Correctional Institu...
Winton Farm Road
Winton Farm Partnership recently sold the property at Lot 34, Winton Farm Road, to Steve Mallary and Terry Balian of Newtown.
Lawren Habal...
Around The Horn — Baseball Recap
Babe Ruth Prep 13-Year-Olds
Newtown Shell Hornets 6, Ridgefield Five 2: Led by Chris Robinson’...
GiGi Needs A Home
GIGI, an affectionate, loving and sweet 1-year-old kitty, is up for adoption through The Animal Center. She loves to purr, be petted and s...
Shelter From The Storm—
Women’s Center Fundraiser Will Honor ‘A Few Good Men’
DANBURY — Three commun...
Commentary—
The Emerging Water Crisis In The US
By Shiney Varghese
I am amazed: since last summer, almost every day we hear about another water cri...
Ruth Ray Works Sought For Catalogue Raisonne
EASTON — James Steven Lipton of Appraisers Associates of NY & CT, Inc is seeking any and all artworks o...
The Priceless Contributions
Of Volunteers
To the Editor:
Many readers may not be aware the week of April 27 through May 3 is National Volunteer Week. This desi...
Painting Critiques By Anda Styler
The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown will have a critique of members’ paintings by Anda Styler, one of their mo...
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!