True happiness is…to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
—Seneca
If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long ...
New YMCA
Health And Wellness Initiative
DANBURY — The Regional YMCA of western Connecticut’s Boughton Street branch announces a new com...
A Raffle Night For Winterset
Scott Forstrom and Michael Hennessey show off a snowboard bench which was raffled off at the recent Winterset Ski Club Raffle Night...
Local Elementary School Sends Pajamas And Teddy Bears To Adopted Schools
Head O’ Meadow (HOM) Elementary School is continuing its efforts to help sc...
Weekend Holiday Events
The first weekend in December has become a major calendar event, with countless groups scheduling more events between Friday evening and ...
Three of our readers correctly identified the oars that are serving as a house number sign as being at 74 Underhill Road. Those calling in with the correct loca...
Holiday Musical Celebration
WATERBURY — The Waterbury Chorale will perform “Christmas at The Palace 2005” featuring the cant...
Two-Day Christmas Festival In Woodbury
WOODBURY — Woodbury will host its annual Christmas Festival this weekend, with events planned for Friday even...
Hovey Appointed To Health Care
HARTFORD — State Rep DebraLee Hovey, R-112th District, has been appointed to a group of legislators that will be w...
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!