Fresh Air Fund Hosts Needed
Each summer, many Newtown area mothers become Fresh Air moms, as they open their hearts to New York City children through The Fresh ...
Trinity Youth
Car Wash
On Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8, the youth of Trinity Episcopal Church will be holding their annual car wash and plant sale to rais...
Claude William Lewis
Claude William “Bill” Lewis, 80, of Dover Plains, N.Y., died April 27 at New Milford Hospital. He was the husband o...
Magnet School Students To Perform ‘At Arts Day At The Mattatuck’ Event
WATERBURY — Students from the Waterbury Arts Magnet S...
Saturday, May 7Â Â Â Â Â Â
Daily Reflections meeting, St Rose School (Monsignor Conroy Room), Church Hill Road, 6:30–8 pm.
Sunday, May 8 ...
Cedar Hill Road
William H. Papazian & Arpine Papazyan purchased a home at 28 Cedar Hill Road from GMAC (Smith) of Houston, Texas.
Lee W. Glover, Broker Ass...
Motorcyclist In Critical Condition
 Following I-84 Crash
By Andrew Gorosko
A motorcycle accident on eastbound Interstate 84 on the afternoon of Sunday, May 1,...
Cubs For A Cure Planning A Night Of Shopping
St Rose Cub Scouts are planning their Second Annual Ladies Shopping Bazaar for Saturday, May 7. The boys are part o...
A Day For Artists At
Flanders Nature Center
WOODBURY — Flanders Nature Center is holding its 3rd Annual Artists’ Day on Saturday, May 21...
Individual Youth and Family Counseling Available. Please call for further information.
High School After Prom — NYS is pleased to be working...
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!