Peter Wilkes, 60, of Newtown, died on Monday, August 5, at New Milford Hospital.
He was the husband of Brenda (Rangoni) Wilkes and son of Sarane “Sally” (Ives) ...
Newtown Kindness was launched in January to encourage, facilitate and recognize the value of kindness. The organization’s signature event is The Charlotte Bacon...
A memorial service for former Newtown resident Robert James Curtis, of New Preston, will take place Saturday, August 17, at noon, at the First Congregational Ch...
This report was updated August 8 adding comments from Fund Chairman Dr Charles Herrick.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen issued a notice to the U...
During a brief special meeting August 5, the Board of Finance unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the town to appropriate $49,250,000 for the planning...
DANBURY — In 1957, the waifishly beautiful Italian actress Giulietta Massina starred in the film Nights of Cabiria, which was written and directed by her husban...
Not everyone has a reindeer to call her own, but Newtown native Sas Carey does, in the northernmost region of Mongolia.
Why she was gifted a reindeer is only a ...
To the Editor:
We have all heard of Treadwell Park, named for our First Selectman Timothy B. Treadwell, who died tragically in a house fire in February, 1972.
T...
The nonprofit Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI) released a report on Monday that praised the state for having “one of the country’s m...
The Newtown International Center for Education (NICE) welcomed two Japanese delegates from Jiyu Gakuen, a prominent kindergarten through college private school ...
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!