To the Editor:
At the Newtown BOE meeting this week, school officials shared with the public that there has been a sharp increase in “students with behavioral c...
To the Editor:
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Newtown-based corporate gun lobby, will be holding its annual firearm trade show and conference in L...
To the Editor:
Upon retirement after 49 years of work, I started using the facilities in the Newtown Senior Center. My wife and I enjoy going to the Senior Cent...
Newtown Photographer Marleen Cafarelli is presenting her fifth solo exhibition, “Life in The Second Company Governor’s Horse Guard,” throughout the month of Jan...
The Flagpole Photographers Camera Club began the new year with a Camera Maintenance Workshop on January 7. Members of the public joined the club at this informa...
The Connecticut Authors Reading Series continues at C.H. Booth Library, spotlighting the work of four authors who live and write in the Nutmeg State.
The next e...
Getting a picture of what Newtown is thinking at any given moment typically involves public hearings, forums, and surveys where a range of impressions are artic...
Newtown High School’s basketball teams are prepared to embark on four-game stretches on the road and home, respectively. The girls will visit Bethel, and the bo...
Organizers of The Sandy Hook 5K announce the fourth annual race to honor the memories of the victims and support those affected by 12/14 will take place on Satu...
Christina “Chrissy” Marie Byrnes, 41, of Danbury, died suddenly at her home, January 5. She was the daughter of Barbara (Ricketts) Kostecki and Craig Byrnes. Sh...
Yes, she did say that. Why would any bureaucrat publicly admit they made a mistake or recommended violating policy? Yet others, including board members, acknowledged naming the vendor for the routing services as All Star was "a mistake" and likely poisoned the well to other bidders (as was explicitly specifying the fuel type of the rolling stock.) While the members knew they did not get a competitive response to the RFP, they awarded the contract anyway... to the same vendor who got a no-bid contract in 2017. That means Newtown's ~$4.5M annual bus contract has not been put out to bid in 10 years, something to consider when asking why our PPE is so high.
They clearly didn't get the message ! CUT THE BUDGET by 20% , not raise it ! Newtown spends $2,500,000.00 every week now ! It will be $2.6m if you approve it ! Who are these people not paying attention to the cost of living? Throwing money at the school administration will not make your kids any smarter ! We are at $22K per kid per year, that is insane ! CUT THE BUDGET ! Go show up and VOTE, because 1200 people who voted yes will show up again, and it's the 1200 people who decide your cost of living for years to come. 51% voters turnout should be mandated to approve the budget, not pathetic 15% of voters. Stop these nonsensical referendums and send everyone a card in the mail so we have a true outcome what people actually want.
All due respect, the headline to this article is misleading. The budget presented was a proposed budget that did not pass public referendum. There are no cuts to anything, rather a reduction in the Board of Education original asking dollars. As matter of fact, the current recommendation from the LC is an increase of 2.3M more than the previous budget from 2023/24.
Some background on the Bus comment Mr Knapp made on not following policy. From ther Bee may 2023.
Following a Request for Proposal (RFP), the school board learned at its March 15 meeting that only one bid came back for the school district’s transportation contract. The current contract with All-Star Transportation, which oversees the majority of bus routes for the district, is set to end at the end of this school year.
At the May 3 meeting, district Director of Business & Finance Tanja Vadas said — reacting to Public Participation speaker Ryan Knapp who, among other things concerning the transportation contract, questioned the school district’s RFP process — she stands by the district’s RFP process “but other companies just didn’t bid.”