Registered Newtown voters are heading to the polls today, for the second attempt by the Board of Education to get a budget for the 2024-25 academic year passed.
BOE Referendum, Round Two, UnderwayRegistered Newtown voters are heading to the polls today, for the second attempt by the Board of Education to get a budget for the 2024-25 academic year passed.Registered Newtown voters are heading to the polls today, for the second attempt by the Board of Education to get a budget for the 2024-25 academic year passed.All voting is again taking place at Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street. Polls opened at 6 am and will remain open until 8 pm.Following a rejection of the school budget by 507 votes at a referendum on April 23, the Legislative Council at its April 29 meeting slashed $1,408,307 from the Board of Education’s proposed 2024-25 budget.The reduction was unanimously approved by all 12 councilmen, in contrast to a previous, pre-referendum meeting on March 27, where no bottom line for the school budget drew more than a simple majority of seven votes.The new bottom line of $87,409,066 is a $2,339,415 or 2.75% spending increase over the 2023-24 budget, which places it in line with the municipal budget, which was passed by voters.The previous proposed 2024-25 BOE budget rejected by voters was $88,817,373, which would have been a $3,747,722 or 4.4% spending increase.The education budget failed, 1,701 No votes to 1,194 Yes votes.On the secondary question to the education budget — If the proposed sum for the Board of Education is not approved, should the revised budget be higher? — the responses were 727 Yes and 2,071 No.The Registrar of Voters reported 15.1% of Newtown’s registered voters participated in the April 23 referendum, with 2,952 people showing up at the middle school to vote and another 47 turning in absentee ballots.
The Legislative Council authorized a reduction of $1.4 million from the Board of Education budget's increase, and the new budget will go out to referendum on May 14.
Dave at the NCC, this letter says that this letter was written on behalf of the Newtown Conservation Commission. Your website lists Land Use Staff, does this mean they are part of your Commission and your letter above speaks for them, or does it just speak for the 7 "citizen" members? I ask because typically, letters to the editor are written as individuals, don't remember any Commission or board representative writing in for the whole land use department. This brings up another question your charter doesn't say anything about opposing all new privately held property developments, I think your coalition was only supposed to "preservation and protection of 2,000 acres of town-owned open space". Do you have a new charter?
I think that it is a shame that the NIMBY Coalition is preventing the town from reverting this paper road back to its original owner. If, by some magic of beurocratic shamemanship the NCC is successful I think the Town should pave the road. Some of it is already a gravel road, paving this section of road would allow residents to avoid traffic at the flag pole by cutting through the newly paved "Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau Road". Ok, we have to work on the name of the road. Just think of the traffic freed from having to go through West Street or around to Taunton Hill.
Barbara was a mentor to me in my youth. I learned many things from this loving , sweet lady. May God bless Rudy and the kids.
Rest in peace Barbara.
Cheryl Booth Hornal
WA. State
We are not investigative reporters. We've never claimed to be. We cover meetings, write features, and do other very good work for this town.
We're not doing any less than when John Voket was Editor (nor any of his predecessors). Sorry we're not doing enough for you.
-SH
Well, Shannon, its a good thing that my post didn't mention "everything" from print being published online. I do note, however, that you didn't address the main point of my initial comment, that as of the paper of record for the town you might actually publish information from the majority of the Town's Commissions and Boards online. Its not like there is hard hitting investigative journalism in these stories; they're really just a regurgitation of the meetings minutes. John Voket used to post these types of stories on the Bee's website, even if the updates were several weeks in arrears.
For what its worth, I didn't miss any of those stories as I am a subscriber (that's how I knew about it in the first place). However, many people in town who aren't subscribers did miss those stores and otherwise have no idea because its clearly not a priority for the Bee to post them online anymore. Fortunately, however, your online readers are fully informed of the First Selectman's ability to bake sour dough bread.