Education

Year In Review: An Eventful Year For Newtown's Private Schools

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 31, 2017 12:00 AM

Newtown's three private schools - Fraser Woods Montessori School, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, and St Rose of Lima School - each had an eventful year in 2017.Fraser Woods Montessori School Hou...

Year In Review: A Year Of Changes For School District Administrative Positions

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 30, 2017 12:00 AM

There was a good amount of movement in the school district for administrators in 2017. Then-Superintendent of Schools Dr Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, shared an e-mail with the Board of Education and Newtown ...

Year In Review: The Newtown High School Auditorium Project

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 30, 2017 12:00 AM

Almost a year ago, the Board of Education was waiting on news for when the Newtown High School auditorium renovation project would begin. Since then, the project has been building to its conclusion, n...

Year In Review: Topics Covered By The Board Of Education

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 30, 2017 12:00 AM

The Board of Education looked at a number of topics in 2017, from sleep and transportation to searching for a new superintendent.Transportation And Finances Like every year, 2017 began with looking a...

NHS Art On Display At C.H. Booth Library

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 29, 2017 12:00 AM

Artwork created by Newtown High School students in this year's first semester Art Portfolio class is on view in the Meeting Room at C.H. Booth Library until January 3, when a closing reception will be...

Author Lauren Tarshis Visits Reed Intermediate School

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 26, 2017 12:00 AM

Reed Intermediate School Principal Anne Uberti introduced I Survived series author Lauren Tarshis to an assembly at the school on December 8 by telling her students, "We have such a wonderful presenta...

Head O' Meadow Students Shop To Give And Give

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 23, 2017 12:00 AM

Head O' Meadow Elementary School kindergarten students sorted through prepared gift bags to find just the right presents for their loved ones, on December 13. The school's annual Holiday Giving Shop a...

Hawley Third Grade Kindness Spreads

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Dec 23, 2017 12:00 AM

Thanks to kind acts completed by Hawley Elementary School third graders, gifts of pajamas and books will be donated to the Women's Center of Greater Danbury to be distributed to children this holiday ...

Top Of The Mountain

Newtown’s 41st Annual Ram Pasture Tree Lighting

Edmond Town Hall Celtic Series To Celebrate Irish Music, Dance, And Heritage

Reed Prepares For Author Visit With Book Club

Author Dana Meachen Rau Visits Reed Intermediate School

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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Year In Review: An Eventful Year For Newtown's Private Schools

Year In Review: A Year Of Changes For School District Administrative Positions

Year In Review: The Newtown High School Auditorium Project

Year In Review: Topics Covered By The Board Of Education

NHS Art On Display At C.H. Booth Library

Author Lauren Tarshis Visits Reed Intermediate School

Head O' Meadow Students Shop To Give And Give

Hawley Third Grade Kindness Spreads