Police Commission Raises Issue On Ambulance Garage Access
By Andrew Gorosko
Police Commission members this week asked the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Associati...
Mary Hawley’s Gift Is
In Very Good Hands
To the Editor:
Passing the Booth Library the other day, I was pleased to see adults and children filling i...
Why did you attend this year’s Labor Day Parade?
Denise and Cliff Evans: Our daughter — Megan Evans — is a cheerleader, her ...
Mountain Laurel Lane
Anthony and Anne Bloss sold a home at 26 Mountain Laurel Lane to Angela Dukate.
Debra Trillhaase of Prudential Connecticut Realty was ...
Girls’ Basketball
The Skills, Drills & Thrills basketball program is offered for girls ages 9-15 (grades 5-8). The program runs September 21 through...
Labor Day Parade Winners
More than 120 volunteer and athletic groups, schools, organizations, and bands participated in the 51st Annual Newtown Labor Day Parade...
I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it’s only a choice of attitude.
                —Judith M. Knowlton
Ea...
Program For Teen Girls, Support Groups
At Women’s Center
DANBURY — The Women’s Center is taking registrations now for â...
New Guest Artist For SCAN: Paul Batch, Sept. 12
The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN) will have Paul Batch painting a tonal landscape in oil on Wednes...
Premature Baby Cousins Celebrate
First Birthdays Together
By Nancy K. Crevier
A baby’s first birthday is always a wonderful milestone, and when tha...
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!