Education

Transportation Task Force Proposals Do Not Pass

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Apr 12, 2018 12:00 AM

For its third meeting in a row, on April 10 the Board of Education took up the topic of recently presented Transportation Task Force proposals. After roughly 40 minutes of public input and roughly an ...

School Board Hires Tim Napolitano As New HOM Principal

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Apr 11, 2018 12:00 AM

The Board of Education unanimously hired at its April 10 meeting current Sandy Hook Elementary School Assistant Principal Tim Napolitano to be the new principal of Head O' Meadow Elementary School fol...

Reminder: Relocation Drill Set For NMS On April 11

Published: Apr 09, 2018 12:00 AM

A drill to relocate students from Newtown Middle School to the NYA Sports & Fitness Center on the Fairfield Hills campus will be conducted between 8 am and noon on April 11, according to the school di...

NHS And NMS Teachers Take Part In CS4CT Summit

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Apr 09, 2018 12:00 AM

After taking part in the recent Computer Science for Connecticut (CS4CT) Summit hosted by the Connecticut Computer Science Teachers Association (CTCSTA), both Newtown High School computer technology t...

Winter Season Continues For Newtown Percussion And Guard

Published: Apr 07, 2018 12:00 AM

Percussion groups from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York competed at a Musical Arts Conference (MAC) competition on March 31 at Jonathan Law High School in Milford. Newtown Percussion continued ...

St Rose Of Lima Graduate Returns To Share Story Of Starting A Preschool Program In Uganda

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Apr 07, 2018 12:00 AM

Grace Anne Herrick shared stories with St Rose of Lima School students recently about her work to create a nonprofit, called Grace's Promise Incorporated, which focuses on providing preschool educatio...

NMS Eighth Grade Spends Day Of Art Designing Shoes

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Apr 07, 2018 12:00 AM

Newtown Middle School eighth grade art enrichment students spent the school day on March 23 designing and creating larger-than life-shoes out of cardboard. As students worked to construct shoes using ...

St Rose Of Lima School To Host An Open House Event On April 12

Published: Apr 07, 2018 12:00 AM

St Rose of Lima School is scheduled to host an open house event on Thursday, April 12, from 5:30 to 7 pm. Teachers, parents, and students will be on hand, along with Principal Sister Colleen Therese S...

Carolyn Bloomberg

Tourette Syndrome Awareness

Garden Club Offers Thanks

Mary E. Hanlon

Remembering Sandy Hook

Unfortunately, I think this is likely to get worse, not better... Based on both public comments and private conversations, I’m increasingly concerned that our newly elected First Selectman intends not just to install these cameras, but to expand their use for full-blown enforcement and fines. Try getting a straight answer out of him about the long-term plan and you quickly realize how vague the responses become. Tyler is absolutely right to raise the privacy issue. These systems don’t just “catch speeders” — they quietly build a database of where we drive, when we drive, and who is in our vehicles. Once that infrastructure is in place, it becomes very easy to justify expanding its scope: more cameras, more locations, more uses, and eventually more automated enforcement. If Newtown is going down this road, residents deserve clear, written answers to some basic questions before anything is expanded: What limits will be placed on how and where cameras are used? Will footage and plate data be used only for speed enforcement, or for other investigations too? How long will data be stored, and who can access it? What safeguards will prevent vendors and individuals from abusing this information? Without firm, enforceable rules in place, “just a few cameras to slow traffic” can turn into something very different over time. I support safe roads — but not at the cost of unchecked surveillance and vague promises from our leaders. You try getting straight answers out of our First Selectman, myself and others have not been able to...

Discusses Traffic Cameras

I had to hold back a laugh at the idea that 7:30 pm is apparently such a late-night hardship that we’re already talking about moving meetings earlier. For a lot of residents, 7:30 is the earliest they can realistically get to Town Hall after work, family obligations, and the rest of real life. Shifting BOS meetings to 7:00 might make the calendar look tidier for those in the building, but it makes participation harder for the people who pay for the building. If the new First Selectman’s week is already booked solid and evening meetings feel like a strain, that’s not a reason to move the goalposts on public access—it's a reminder that the job is supposed to be demanding. Public service means accommodating the public, even when it’s inconvenient.

Walczak Adjusts To New Role, First Board Meeting

Real people were just in a frightening car accident. To immediately frame their misfortune as rhetorical ammunition against new housing — affordable housing included — feels less like concern for “health and safety” and more like opportunistically using a scary moment to support a pre-existing position. If we’re going to debate this proposal, we should do it honestly: with data on traffic volume, accident history, engineering recommendations, and the town’s housing needs, not by seizing on a single crash as proof that 300 apartments are inherently unsafe. Newtown deserves a thoughtful, fact-based conversation about growth, safety, and affordability — one that doesn’t turn other people’s bad day into a political talking point.

How Many Accidents Will It Take?

To add context that did not occur at the meeting would not be an accurate representation of the meeting and would, in fact, be editorializing to shape public opinion. The editorial staff here do not consider ourselves to be final arbiters of what the truth is (and if we did, it would make us partisan and biased), and we would need to provide a source for any dissenting information (sourcing all information in an article is literally Journalism 101). There were no such sources present at the meeting in question, and so it would not be appropriate to include such information in an article about the meeting. Dissenting voices appear in meeting stories when there were active participants with dissenting opinions, such as during public participation or the words of a council member who disagreed. It should be noted that the Interfaith Council, like many local boards and commissions, conduct meetings that are open to the public. This was not an article on the actions of the Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants, or on immigrants, or on ICE's actions in the community, where including other voices or perspectives would be appropriate. We appreciate your opinion, but we stand by our meeting coverage and consider this discussion closed.

NIC Speaks With Danbury Unites For Immigrants, Discusses 12/14 Service

Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to shape public perception and behavior toward a specific political cause or point of view. I'm not asking for Newtown Bee to editorialize, but providing context, where appropriate, to provide the reader with a more holistic view of the facts seems like a reasonable practice, particularly when encouraging the reader to decide what to believe/not to believe. Absent that context, this feels biased and misleading and intended to shape public perception.

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Transportation Task Force Proposals Do Not Pass

School Board Hires Tim Napolitano As New HOM Principal

Reminder: Relocation Drill Set For NMS On April 11

NHS And NMS Teachers Take Part In CS4CT Summit

Winter Season Continues For Newtown Percussion And Guard

St Rose Of Lima Graduate Returns To Share Story Of Starting A Preschool Program In Uganda

NMS Eighth Grade Spends Day Of Art Designing Shoes

St Rose Of Lima School To Host An Open House Event On April 12