Newtown High School, Newtown Parent Connection, Newtown Prevention Council, and the Newtown Board of Realtors invite the public to hear former NBA player Chris ...
Despite a brief and unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the school district’s requested 0.34 percent budget increase, the Legislative Council unanimously voted to...
On Wednesday, April 8, The Town and Country Garden Club will host a program by club member Marilynn Klepfer on composting, a subject near and dear to the hearts...
Newtown students and jazz bands earned recognition while attending and participating in the University of New Hampshire’s Clark Terry Jazz Festival on March 14....
Elizabeth “Betty” Christensen died March 30, 12 days before her 100th birthday. She was born in Collingdale, Penn., on April 11, 1915, and had been a resident o...
To the Editor:
I'd like to encourage Pat Llodra, the Board of Selectmen and all others who have focused their effort on this topic to gather new organizers and ...
If the wedding dress that Fiona (Emma Stierle) wore in the Newtown Middle School production of Shrek The Musical Jr, staged Friday, March 27, through Sunday, Ma...
The radio dispatchers at the Newtown Emergency Communications Center at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, report the following fire calls and the responders:
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Stephen J. Link, 76, of Norfolk, Conn., died March 16. He was born November 9, 1939, and was the son of Irene Koteles Link and John J. Link, Sr. He was married ...
While local registrars withheld comment on the matter, Democratic Registrar LeReine Frampton said she and her Republican colleague JoAnne Albanesi were looking ...
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!