Occupation: I have been a nurse at Newtown High School for the past eight years. I love my job, and I feel fortunate to work in the community that I live in...
In 2005, I wrote a book called Gardens to Go: Creating and Designing a Container Garden. It is chockablock with color photographs by my friend Steve Silk, who h...
A community-wide tag sale being planned by members of Newtown Congregational Church for later this month has been postponed.
One of the event’s co-chairs this w...
Each week we compile a list of some of the most-read stories published at newtownbee.com. Here is a roundup of the week’s recent top stories, based on the numbe...
A volleyball camp is offered for girls who will try out for the Newtown High School varsity and JV teams this fall. The camp will take place at NYA Sports & Fit...
Charles C. Keller, 88, of Sandy Hook, passed away Wednesday, August 4, at his home. Mr Keller was the beloved husband of Irene (Gregor) Keller. He was born in H...
Now that he has finished directing his first event for NewArts, Ryan Loucks is already well into the next offerings for the nonprofit program that provides stud...
The rain held off, the show went on, and thanks to Tom T. Hall, the perfect encore closed “Legends: From LaBelle to Lupone,” a fundraising cabaret presented las...
RIDGEFIELD — Singer/songwriter Colin Hay — the voice behind ’80s anthems “Down Under,” “Overkill,” and “Who Can It Be Now?”— is back on the road. Backed by a fu...
Published: Aug 05, 2021 at 02:33 PM
Newtown Parks & Recreation has announced the early closure today of Eichler’s Cove.
The beach each at 11 Old Bridge Road is closed for the remainder of the afte...
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!