It's been a season of ups and downs for FAITH Food Pantry.
This past spring, the pantry's volunteers learned that its home of 35-plus years - the meeting room a...
Police this week are warning the public about a continuing drive by criminals seeking to defraud residents through telephone calls, in which the callers fraudul...
Back-to-back shutout victories on the road, and wins in each of its last three games away from home bolstered Newtown High School's field hockey team's playoff ...
On Saturday, October 22, C.H. Booth Library will host an open forum discussion titled "Issues Facing America."
The moderator of the program is Arthur Meyers, re...
The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN) will have Dmitri Wright painting in oil at its next meeting, on Wednesday, October 12, at 7:30 pm. His su...
Eftihios "Eddie" Marnelakis, 81, of Southbury, owner of the Blue Colony Diner in Newtown, died peacefully October 5, surrounded by his loving family. He was the...
Graham Lee Hill, 71, died after a brief illness on October 2, surrounded by his family at the Veterans Hospital in Johnson City, Tenn. He was a longtime residen...
Alexa Wilhelmina Fitchett, 64, of Danbury died at home on September 27. She was born January 8, 1952, in Yokohama, Japan, while her father, Curtis S. Fitchet, s...
Robert J. Collier, 64, of Newtown died unexpectedly in his home on September 27. Mr Collier was born in Teaneck, N.J., on November 29, 1951, to the late Catheri...
On Sunday, October 16, the Newtown Republican Town Committee will host a Family Picnic and fundraiser under the pavilion at Treadwell Park, 39 Philo Curtis Road...
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!