As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to be averse to water after more than a week of unremitting clouds and rain, the Newtown Health Departme...
Anna Lupienski
Anna Lupienski, 83, of 10 Pilgrim Lane, Sandy Hook, died July 29, at Mediplex of Danbury.
She was born in New Fairfield and had resided in Sandy ...
State Surplus Expected To Hit $530 Million
HARTFORD (AP) — Gov John G. Rowland on Monday gave a breakdown of how a state law will split up a predi...
Ambulance Corps Attracts New Members To Help With Record Number Of Calls
By Steve Bigham
The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps announced this week that its memb...
When it comes to fine tuning basketball skills, dozens of young basketball players have been finding what they needed at Summer Basketball Camp at Newtown Middl...
Bee’s Buck
Five of our readers had no trouble finding the little flag bearer (inset) pictured here last week. It is on Glover Avenue, and those call...
Taking On Town Hall South
Town Hall South will have its own maintenance man starting next week. The man hired for the job is Mike Snyder, who has been working p...
Grief Group
To Meet
DANBURY — The Danbury chapter of The Compassionate Friends (TCF), a grief support group for families who have experienced the d...
By Kim J. Harmon
STERLING, West Virginia – The numbers are positively staggering.
A 29-2 record and 0.87 ERA are just the start, though. There is a...
Residents Rush Toy Meet The Tax Deadline
By Steve Bigham
The line of people waiting to pay their taxes stretched out the tax collector’s door and do...
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!