Newtown Schools Consistently Deliver What Parents Want
To the Editor:
I beg to differ:
Last week all five of The Republican Legislative Council members voted against the Finance Board’s recommended school budget. One member stated in The Bee last week that there was no correlation between student performance and school budgets. That is such nonsense it really isn’t worth commenting on. The legislators voting No used their regular book of reason. School performance is lower, never mind we just came out of a pandemic. Costs are too high, never mind we are working our way through epic inflation caused by the pandemic. Spend less and our performance will go up. Times are tough , so take it out on the teachers and school staff. Neighborhood schools are too expensive, never mind the voters supported the dispersed school locations overwhelmingly. All the no arguments have been recycled over and over again.
The facts are we have a very strong school system. Consistently rated in the top 10% of the state. National school rating agencies have continued to rate Newtown Schools as among the best in the state. Scores dip and rise but over time Newtown Schools consistently deliver what parents want, an excellent system to educate their children.
Newtown homes are in high demand, principally driven by the reputation of our schools. Don’t let the anti-school legislators fool you, pushing lower education budgets is a sure formula for destroying what we all are seeking. It’s Nicer In Newtown.
Bruce Walczak
Newtown
Newtown homes are in demand as people flee higher taxes in New York. My new neighbors were shocked at the increase of their assessments and resultant property taxes months after they moved here. This influx was balanced by the long time Newtowners taking the cashout and heading for the hills.
Sorry Bruce, You got it all wrong. We have a very weak school system that is trending downward. Students are leaving the Newtown School System in droves and the test scores are failing. I would recommend any parent with a student age child to run as fast and far away from Newtown as you can unless you want your kid to be indoctrinated. The superintendent just resigned; what does that tell you? How many superintendents is that over the past 10 years? 6?!? Voting for the astronomical BOE increase will not benefit our students. It will just add to the inefficiencies and the Newtown taxpayers can expect nothing in return.
Newtown schools are out of touch with what parents actually want.
The entire budget needs to be cut not raised. The proposed budget now would sit that we spend $2.65 million dollars every week. For population of less than 30k people it is absolutely absurd ! You cannot keep driving older folks out of town just to create a revolving door of parents who come here, educate their kids and run away ! There is no need to be paying 190K annual salary to an ASSISTANT to superintendent, not in the best interest of tax payers ! The voting turnout at 9% is ridiculous ! Lobby lawmakers to change the voting by mail, so everyone gets a ballot in the mail and at least 51% of residents vote to approve, otherwise the budget should not be approved if you don’t have the majority ! Most folks don’t even know when the vote is ! They have taxes bundled with mortgage and don’t even know ! We are raising cost of living for everyone and it is absolutely not necessary.