Newtown Agency Earns
Two Design Awards
Goodwick/Liazon’s Leverage Marketing Group, a leading Newtown-based marketing communications and promotions ...
New Homes For Nearly 4,000 Animals—
Rescue Group To Celebrate Tenth Anniversary
SOUTHBURY — Animals For Life, a nonprofit animal rescue ...
Farm-To-School Program Brings Local Food To Cafeteria Tables
By Kendra Bobowick
Apples, peaches, meat and vegetables found in some state schools do more than fo...
School Shootings
Prompt Local Vigilance
School shootings in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania have put parents and school officials on edge about security ...
The dispatchers at the emergency communications center at Town Hall South report the following fire calls:
Thursday, September 28: 10:03 am, alarm, 27 Ridge...
Business Founder Completes Kripalu Certification
Kathleen Barton, co-creator of The Graceful Planet in Sandy Hook, completed her YogaEd teaching certification t...
Saturday, October 7
NHS Varsity Cheerleaders Car Wash, begins 8:30 am, Botsford Firehouse, Main Street South, cheerleaders will be washing cars and collect...
Newtown’s HartzStone Receiving ‘Rocky’ Award
The Marble Institute of America (MIA), recently announced that HartzStone, a st...
NVCC Theater To Offer Trio Of Plays For Kids
WATERBURY — New Zenith Theatre, the Naugatuck Valley Community College theater company dedicated to pe...
Flu Clinics Planned
SOUTHBURY — Walzer Family Jewish Community Campus, 444 Main Street North, will host two clinics offering flu and pneumonia shots...
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!