Nursery School Open House
& Tour Dates
MONROE — Step-A-Way Nursery School is announcing open house dates of January 9, 16, 23 and 30 at the school....
Kathleen Ann Burns Hart
Passionate
Philanthropist And Humanitarian
Kathleen Ann Burns Hart, 49, wife of William G. Hart, Jr, of Sandy Hook, died Dece...
‘Amahl’ Staged
EASTON — Amahl and the Night Visitors, the story of three kinds, a star, a boy, and a miracle by Gian Carlo M...
Grand Place
Christopher Mawdsley purchased 24 Grand Place from Eric and Eva Roman.
Eileen Holleran of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Real...
The Career Center At NHS Lists Scholarships
The Career Center publicizes all scholarships of which it is notified. A few of the scholarships, typically national...
Commentary—
Programs To Benefit Autistic Children Lack Funding, Expertise, And Oversight
By Matt Parenti
With Congress passing legislation to fund f...
For police reports
Currituck Crash
Police report a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of Currituck Road and Main Street about 12:55 pm December 29.
M...
Cutting Edge Research At Newtown High School
By Laurie Borst
High school science teacher Frank LaBanca is a research scientist himself who wants to see his stud...
Vocal Openings Also—
Choral Society Needs A Few Non-Singers
Newtown Choral Society announces an open call for the non-singing parts of narrator, ush...
Youths Arrested On Vandalism Charges
In Graffiti Incident
Town police arrested two teenage boys late on the night of December 26, following an incident in whic...
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!