Jessup Bruce Robertson
Emhardt Manufacturing Employee
Jessup Bruce Robertson, 58, beloved husband of Belinda (Cote) Robertson of Stratford, died February 2...
Theodore J. Seiter
Former Director Of Software Technology For GE
Theodore J. Seiter, 72, of New Hartford, N.Y, formerly of Newtown, died February 25 at his...
Gloria Fico
Secretary At Remington Rand Company
Gloria Fico, 79, of Trumbull, died February 25 at Bishop Wicke Health Care in Shelton. Ms Fico was born in ...
Antiques Show At Edmond Town Hall, Sunday
Newtown Historical Society will host its 21st Annual Antiques Show on Sunday, March 5. The event will run from 10 am u...
Planning Begins On Sixth Great Pootatuck Duck Race
Excitement was running high at the first Lions Club Duck race meeting of 2006. The goal is to make this, the ...
JODI
Jodi is a four-and-a-half-year-old American Pitbull Terrier mix. She has a beautiful brindle coat and weighs 58 pounds. She walks beautifully on a leash an...
Megan Hartley and Sean Reilly
Kenneth Hartley, New Hope, Penn., and Cynthia Cerva, Stroudsburg, Penn., announce the engagement of their daughter Megan Hart...
Dock Drive
Brian and Lindsay Knoche purchased 36 Dock Drive, Sandy Hook, from Wolfgang and Charlotte Hilse.
Necole Salveson of William Pitt Sothebyâ€&...
Respecting Rules And
Regulations
To the Editor:
For the benefit of our community, the Newtown Residential Preservation Society is disappointed to learn that th...
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!