Former Grand Union—
Police Commission Reviews
Traffic Aspects Of Eton Center Redevelopment
By Andrew Gorosko
Police Commission members this week ...
Waldorf School Plans Info Evening
The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School will hold an informative evening focusing on the Waldorf Curriculum grades one through f...
All town offices will be closed on Monday, October 8, in observance of Columbus Day.
The Senior Center and Cyrenius H. Booth Library will be closed.
The transf...
Performance, Not Platitudes
To the Editor:
Curtiss Clark suggested in a recent Bee editorial that our political candidates spend too much time “dwel...
Sandy Hook FD Open House
 This Weekend
Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company members invite everyone to stop by the fire department’s main sta...
Funding A College Education
On Tuesday, October 9, at 7 pm in the main auditorium, the Guidance Department at Newtown High School will be hosting a program on u...
Cabaret Performers Sought
BROOKFIELD CENTER — The Brookfield Theatre for the Arts will host open auditions for the final show of its 2007 season, A...
Absentee Ballots Ready For November Elections
Newtown Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia advises town voters that absentee ballots are available for the municipal electi...
A Wonderful Health Fair
To the Editor:
On September 29, we once again had a wonderful Health Fair at the middle school. It was our 14th annual! The weather was ...
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!