Domain Customers:
Watch Deliveries
Newtown consumers who may have money on deposit with the Brookfield Domain home furnishings store that filed for bankruptcy ...
Early Morning Fire
Hits Old Farmhouse
Dodgingtown, Hook & Ladder, and Hawleyville firefighters were alerted at 1:36 am Monday to a report of a structure fire ...
James Carroll
Native Son,
Avid Cyclist
James Houlihan Carroll, 73, son of Patrick and Alice Carroll, a native of Newtown, died Saturday, January 26, ...
Saturday, February 2
Breakfast with Dr Cary S. Passik, 9:30 am, Newtown Senior Center, 14 Riverside Road, free breakfast and meet Danbury Hospitalâ€&#...
New Session Forming:
Catholics Coming Home
Nonpracticing Catholics who may be worried about feeling unwelcome if they were to approach the Church are invited t...
Fish Fries Returning For Lenten Season
St Rose’s Annual Friday Knight Fish Fry, a popular event that has grown exponentially each year since its int...
Primary Day Tuesday—
Registrars, Superintendent Hoping To Ease Voter Access, Student Safety
By John Voket
Newtown’s Registrars of Voters...
Free Fitness Introduction Launching Saturday
Picking up where he left off with the ongoing “Newtown Fitness Challenge,” local trainer an...
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!