Newtown Veterinary Specialists (NVS) has donated specially designed pet oxygen masks to Fairfield County fire companies to help firefighters save the lives of c...
Challenged deep into the game for the first time this campaign, Newtown High School’s football team overcame a tough Joel Barlow of Redding squad to earn a 34-1...
The love of a good consignment piece is generational for Sandy Hook resident Leslie Troy, owner of Pemberley Designer Consignments in Monroe.
“My mom raised me ...
Stepping back for a better view of the new Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association (NVAA) garage at Fairfield Hills, Board of Trustees President Robert Grossman...
Newtown Veterinary Specialists (NVS) has donated specially designed pet oxygen masks to Fairfield County fire companies to help firefighters save the lives of c...
Adam R. Hicks, 37, of Meriden, the husband of Erica (Holbert) Hicks, died September 30. He was born July 25, 1977, in Danbury, and was the son of Robin Zigray o...
Mortimer William Berliner of Trumbull and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., died October 1. He was the beloved husband for 63 years of Janice Rosenfeld Berliner.
His sons ...
Challenged deep into the game for the first time this campaign, Newtown High School’s football team overcame a tough Joel Barlow of Redding squad to earn a 34-1...
Governor Dannel P. Malloy has proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the State of Connecticut.
And on October 1, Newtown Police Lieutenant C...
William Arnold Beebe, 83, a resident of Brookfield since the 1970s, and a former Newtown and New Milford resident since 1959, died October 1, at New Milford Hos...
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!