It’s A Dog’s Life—
Dog Owner’s Responsibility
By Mary Jane Anderson
“All domestic animals have a rig...
Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Teaches CPR To Newtown And Sandy Hook Au PairsÂ
According to statistics, about 80 percent of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests o...
Coin Collection At Middle Gate
To Help Haiti
Students at Middle Gate Elementary School are asked to bring in 100 coins — pennies nickels, dimes, qua...
Nourishments—
O’ My Darlin’ Clementine
By Nancy K. Crevier
Call me lazy, but my favorite fruits are the ones that are easy t...
Mission Of The Heart
Volunteers from the Second Company Governor
’s Horse Guard escorted Reed Intermediate School students from the building ...
Disabled Skiers Leave The Lake For Snowy Slopes
By Kendra Bobowick
Trading Lake Zoar for Mount Southington are as many as 12 participants in the Leaps of Faith ...
Help For Haiti Will Come From One Reed School Student And Dozens Of Cookies
By Shannon Hicks
Sage DeSimone was watching the early news reports of last monthâ&#x...
Newtown Support Groups
Friday, February 5Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
AA, Newtown United Methodist Church, 92 Church Hill Road, 8 pm, beginners meeting, open discussion...
Renaissance Festival Auditions
DANBURY — On Saturday and Sunday, February 6-7, open auditions will be held for those interested in participating in ...
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!