Letters

Appreciation For Generous Donations
By Jim Maher

Published: Oct 24, 2016 12:00 AM

To the Editor:

Friends of the C.H. Booth Library held their usual Fall Donation Day event on Sunday, October 23. Once again, it was a pleasure seeing so many generous townspeople bringing boxes, bags, and trunk loads of books, CDs, DVDs, books on CD, records, and puzzles for donation.

Thank you to everyone who dropped off collections to support the Friends' effort. Also, many thanks to the volunteers who were on hand to collect and sort donated items. We were extremely pleased with the overwhelming response to our request for donations and appreciative of the variety and quality of the donations. The items collected will be prepared for our annual Book Sale at the Reed Intermediate School running from July 8-12, 2017.

Your support will hopefully permit the Friends to continue our $120,000 yearly donation to the library, which provides funds required for materials and programs at the library, thus reducing the overall tax burden.

We hope you will continue to drop off your books and media at the library or at our trailer at the town recycling center, and we look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Holiday Sale (December 3, 9:30 am to 5 pm, and December 4, 11 am to 5 pm, as well as the annual Book Sale in July.

Jim Maher, President

Friends of the C.H. Booth Library

25 Main Street, NewtownÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ ÃÂ October 24, 2016

Referendum At Midpoint: 5% Turnout Reported

Susan Medve

George Miller

Donations For Newtown Lions Stuff-A-Truck Food Drive Help Fight Hunger

Fire Reports | April 10-April 15, 2024

Teachers Union - nuff said.

Vote No To The BOE Budget And No it Should Not Be Higher

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.

Vote Yes On April 23

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.

Go Out And Vote April 23

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!

All I Ask Is That You Think About It

An investment is done with a hope for a return. The operative term here is 'hope'.

Continue To Invest In Newtown’s Schools

<< Apr 2024 >>
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	1	2	3	4

Log In

Appreciation For Generous Donations By Jim Maher