Newtown Public Schools

This past Thursday our senior leadership team and I attended the Connecticut Association of School Superintendent’s Spring Conference in Bristol. There we had the opportunity to engage in a variety of learning sessions spanning from developing a portrait of a graduate to adapting to the age of artificial intelligence to designing innovative school spaces.

While the mini-sessions were certainly informative, no doubt the highlight of the conference was the keynote speaker, Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation. I know that many of you have read the book, some in book clubs with our principals. For those who haven’t, I would encourage you to do so. Mr. Haidt brings to light a concerning trend: the profound impact of smartphone-dominated childhoods on adolescent mental health. Haidt's work suggests a strong correlation between the rise of social media and the alarming increase in anxiety, depression, and self-harm among our youth. As a school community, it's crucial that we understand these connections and work together to ensure healthier environments for our students, both in and out of the classroom.

Last week, the Board of Finance presented their approved budget to the Legislative Council. You can listen to the presentation by clicking on this link (forward to 1:02:50 to hear the start of the BOE discussion). I look forward to having an opportunity to correct some of the misinformation that was presented at Wednesday’s LC meeting. Our budget has already been reduced $900K and currently sits at 4.96%. When you subtract the 2.77% attributed to insurance costs, our budget increase is just over a modest 2%.

I strongly urge all stakeholders to also attend this week’s public hearing as this may be the public’s last opportunity to comment on the budget before the LC decides on the final amount that will go to referendum. If you cannot attend, please consider writing to the members of the LC to share your views: Email the Legislative Council. A regular meeting dedicated to discussion and possible action on the budget will follow the hearing. Another meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 31st.

Additional cuts to the Board of Education's Budget will impact our students, staff and families and I hope I can count on your support.

Have a wonderful week!

Anne

The full district calendar can be found here.

Last Wednesday, the Board of Finance presented to the Legislative Council which included their recommended $900K reduction to the Board of Education budget. With that reduction, the Board of Ed budget represents a 4.96% increase over the current budget.

You can view or listen to the BoF presentation by clicking on this link (forward to 1:02:50 to hear the start of the BOE discussion).

This Wednesday, the Legislative Council will hold a public hearing on the budget and then will move into their regular meeting with the only agenda item being Discussion and Possible Action on the 2025/2026 Board of Finance Approved Budget. Members of the school community are urged to attend this important meeting and provide voter comment on the budget.

If you cannot attend in person, you can view the meeting via livestream.

If you don't feel comfortable speaking in public, you can also email the Legislative Council to provide input on the budget. Be sure to include your name and address:

Email the Legislative Council

An agenda has also been posted for a Legislative Council Special Meeting for Monday, March 31st, noting the same agenda item.

According to the Town Charter, the LC has the power to reduce any item with 6 affirmative votes or increase any item or add items above those included in Recommended budget with 8 affirmative votes. The Board of Education will not take action to determine where the $900,000 will be trimmed from until the final budget number is known which will not be until the referendum passes.

Recognizing the diverse holidays and celebrations that shape our students' lives and experiences.

As we celebrate the diversity of our school community, we extend warm wishes to our Muslim families celebrating Eid al-Fitr. This joyous holiday marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid al-Fitr is a time for communal prayer, festive meals, gift-giving, and acts of charity, symbolizing gratitude and unity. It's a beautiful celebration of faith, family, and the spirit of giving, reminding us of the shared values of compassion and community that enrich our school.

The application portal for tuition assistance awarded by the Newtown Scholarship Association is LIVE! The deadline to apply for our flagship award, the Hertberg Family Scholarship ($10,000/year) is Friday, March 28th. The deadline for the general pool (awards from $500 to $7,500 traditionally) is Friday, April 11th. Students who graduate from NHS (or live in Newtown but attend school elsewhere, ie. Immaculate) are eligible.

Link to the homepage: newtownscholarship.org

Link to the application form: newtownscholarship.smapply.io/

Come out and support Newtown Unified!

The K-12 art teachers are busy preparing the work of our talented artists for the upcoming district show. Our National Art Honor Society students will be assisting the art teachers in those preparations as they learn the ins and outs of running an art exhibition. The show runs March 31-April 10 at the Newtown Municipal Center and features work from every school. Music will be provided by Newtown High School students and the NHS Culinary Program will provide delicious treats. Thank you to the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission for their help and support of using the Municipal Center Gallery.

This show is a precursor to each of our building art shows in May. You can find all of those dates on the district calendar.

Thank you for your interest in the Newtown Public Schools Preschool Program. The program offers quality educational services to children who have disabilities and to typically developing peers, referred to as Play Partners. Play Partners are role models to their disabled peers and benefit from instruction aligned to Connecticut Early Learning Development Standards.

If you are interested in having your child participate as a Play Partner, please complete the Play Partner Questionnaire 2025 - 2026 (LINK) by February 15, 2025. Play Partners are required to be three years of age on or by September 1, 2025 and be toilet trained before they are admitted to the program. You are still encouraged to complete the questionnaire if your child turns three shortly thereafter. We accept play partners throughout the year, accordingly. Children five years of age by September 1, 2025 are kindergarten eligible and will not be considered for participation as Play Partners. Kindergarten eligible children may not remain enrolled as a student in the Newtown Preschool Program.

Following submission of your questionnaire, the preschool team will contact you to invite your child to participate in a Play and Meet the Teacher activity scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, March 14, 2025 at Newtown Preschool Program located at Sandy Hook School. A preschool staff member will email you prior to the play session to confirm the details of the activity. Only one adult may accompany the child for the play activity.

You will receive notification through email by April 4, 2025 regarding your child’s Play Partner status. Parent confirmation of Play Partner participation will be due on April 25, 2025.

Newtown Public Schools Preschool Program Details are as follows:

Program Days: Mondays through Thursdays

Program Hours: Morning sessions run from 9:00 to 11:45

Afternoon sessions run from 12:45 to 3:30

Location: Newtown Preschool located at Reed Intermediate School

Rate: $2,400.00 for a full year four half day program

If you, a caregiver or an educator have any questions or concerns about your child’s development in any of the aforementioned developmental domains, rather than moving your child’s application forward as a Play Partner, it may be more appropriate to discuss your concerns and provide you with specific information regarding early childhood development or consider an evaluation. Please feel free to call Ms. Laura Pellerito, School Psychologist, at (203) 426-7683, if you have any questions about your child’s development.

Sincerely,

Laura Esposito

Supervisor of Special Education

Tel (203) 426-7626 • Fax: (203) 270-6185

Please ensure your child's lunch account is up to date so they can enjoy nutritious meals at school. If your family is facing financial challenges, we’re here to help! Reach out to your child's counselor or principal for assistance and resources. Every student deserves a healthy meal!

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey on school meals from Chartwells.

There are many valuable benefits for children involved in the arts - fostering creativity, enhancing problem-solving skills, developing motor skills, developing critical thinking skills, boosting academic performance, and promoting emotional well-being, self-expression, and cultural understanding. The arts create community and brings a sense of joy to everyone. The Visual and Performing Arts Department provides many opportunities for students in art, music and theater. Here are the current happenings at Reed Intermediate School.

Creating is fun and developing your own design is exhilarating! The Reed artists love creating and look forward to the extracurricular Art Club and Ceramics Club each week. In Ceramics Club students are introduced to basic construction techniques and are making coil vases and pots. They are developing their design and learning how to successfully build their vision. Students have to determine how much clay to use, keep proper moisture in the clay as they work, manipulate the clay into the correct size and shape, and problem-solve to come up with solutions if something doesn’t come out just right. Once their pieces are fired, students will be able to add their colors.

In Art Club students are working with recycled bottles to make a paper mache critter. Again, students are using their imagination to create. They have to develop the right consistency for the paper mache and be able to mold it into the shapes needed to bring their critter to life. Lots of designing, planning, and problem-solving to achieve success!

These pieces, along with the work of all Reed children, will be on display at the upcoming Reed Art Show on May 14. RIS student work will also be displayed in the District Art Show from March 31-April 10 at the Newtown Municipal Center.

Making music is fun! Learning to play in other types of ensembles is exciting!! Making music with friends creates magical and memorable memories!!! In addition to scheduled music classes during the school day, students at Reed have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular ensembles before school including Bucket Band, Chamber Choir, Chamber Orchestra, Honors Band, and Jazz Band. They enjoy the challenge of rehearsing together to learn new music. Last week the Chamber Choir was learning an advanced piece in 3 and 4-part harmony, the Chamber Orchestra was performing compositions that students in the ensemble wrote, and the Jazz Band was adding soloists into their pieces.

All of these ensembles will be showcased in the upcoming ‘Club Concert’ on April 2. On May 1 the RIS Jazz Band will perform with the NMS and NHS Jazz Bands at the Newtown Night of Jazz. On May 16 the extracurricular ensembles will participate in the Trills and Thrills Adjudication Festival.

The CT Music Educators Association (CMEA) provides a series of concert festivals each year for students in grades 5-12. “Newtown’s musicians have the opportunity to be challenged through the performance of high quality repertoire and to develop relationships with other high caliber young musicians from around our state. CMEA produces several auditions and concert festivals during the course of each school year. These include an elementary first festival experience, four middle school and four high school regional festivals, and the premier All-State Festival which brings together the finest high school musicians in the state of Connecticut.” (CMEA)

On March 21 seven Reed students (Band, Chorus and Orchestra) had the opportunity to participate in this year’s Elementary Honors Festival at Central Connecticut State University. Our students and their teachers attended a full day of rehearsal and performance under regionally and nationally recognized conductors. Students participated in sectionals, had lunch with many new fellow musicians, and performed a concert to share all that they have put together that day.

This was an excellent first festival experience to honor and challenge our motivated and hard-working students. We hope they are excited for future festivals such as regional festivals and beyond!

he annual musical opens up the world of theater to Reed students. They can choose to audition for a lead role to a member of the ensemble, or dance. Those that are interested in the technical side can work on set construction, help with lighting and sound, or serve on the crew that moves sets and props on and off the stage. This year’s production will open on May 2.

Beetlejuice Jr.

Newtown Middle School Drama Club

April 4 - 6

The next musical will feature Newtown Middle School students in their production of Beetlejuice, Jr. “With music and lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Eddie Perfect and a book by Tony Award-nominated pair Anthony King and Scott Brown, Beetlejuice was nominated for eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best New Musical.” (Music Theater International).

Families, friends, and the Newtown community can enjoy the Unified Music class performance of their rap songs in the NHS Chorus Spring Concert on May 19. Here is a link to the district calendar: https://www.newtown.k12.ct.us/calendar as well as the district’s Visual and Performing Arts Calendar of Events: https://hiscavichm.wixsite.com/nhs-fine-arts/calendar-of-events

NHS Cheer finished off their season with a huge win at the New England Cheer Championship held at Worcester State University. The team placed first in Division 2. A first for the Nighthawks.

Winning the Championship is an incredible achievement, showcasing months of dedication, teamwork, and determination.

The Nighthawks concluded their season with the Triple Crown, winning the SWC, State & New England Championship.

Congratulations ladies!

Leave your Legacy at Newtown High School with a personalized tile installed at Blue and Gold stadium! You can honor your student, family, team, business or anyone that you would like to be a part of the permanent structure at Blue and Gold stadium.

This fundraiser will run through May 1st 2025. Click here to submit a form!

Questions? Contact nhshawksnation@gmail.com

Newtown High School senior, David J. Baghdady, has been selected as a candidate for the 2025 United States Presidential Scholars Program. Being named a U.S. Presidential Scholar is one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.

Established in 1964 by Executive Order of the President, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program recognizes and honors some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.

Application is by invitation only, so students may not apply individually to the program, nor may their schools nominate them, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The selection of approximately 4,000 general program candidates is mostly made based on SAT and ACT scores. Approximately 650 candidates are named semifinalists and forwarded to the Commission on Presidential Scholars for review.

In April, the Commission reviews the applications of all semifinalists and selects up to 161 U.S Presidential Scholars each year. All scholars are honored for their accomplishments during the online National Recognition Program. U.S. Presidential Scholars are awarded the U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion each June.

Congratulations to David!

Newtown Schools place 4 students at the State level for the national PTA Reflections program!

PTA Reflections is a nationally acclaimed student recognition program to encourage artistic creativity in the classroom and at home. Each year, students from all over the country work to create an original piece of art to respond to the year's theme. Art can be submitted through various categories including dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. These young artists are also broken down into divisions by grade. This year's theme was "Accepting Imperfection." These four students, along with their peers from across the state, will be honored by CT PTA in an awards ceremony in May in Fairfield. Great job, artists!

-Emmie Ibbitson, Sandy Hook School: 2nd place primary division/ literature category: "The Adventures of Crayon Girl and Eraser Boy!" comic book

-Cayleigh Heyda, Sandy Hook School: 2nd place intermediate division/ dance category: "I'm a Really Tough Kid" dance routine

-Shravan Madhavan, Reed Intermediate School: 2nd place intermediate division/ visual arts category: "Imperfect Bracelet"

-Tess Rickey, Newtown Middle School: 1st place middle school division/ literature category: "Accepting Multiple Sclerosis is Part of Who I am"

As a first place finisher, Tess will move onto the National level competition- good luck, Tess!

A huge shout-out to the Newtown High School FBLA Chapter for their outstanding performance at the CT State FBLA Leadership Conference & Competition, which was held yesterday on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University!

Our future business leaders shone brightly throughout the day, which was filled with inspiring workshops and exciting competitions.

Article written by CSHS member Annika Van Sickle

Excitement buzzed through the air as seventh and eighth graders gathered for Computer Science Night, sponsored by NHS National Computer Science Honor Society (CSHS), an evening filled with hands-on technology and creative problem-solving. Through creative, hands-on lessons designed and executed by the CS Honor Society members, students had the chance to dive into coding with Python, experiment with Micro:Bits, and program Edison robots, all while having a blast exploring the world of computer science.

One of the highlights of the night was the Micro:Bit station, where students got to program tiny, handheld computers to display messages, create animations, and even make simple games like rock, paper, scissors. “I learned so many new things, I liked playing rock paper and scissors against the Micro:Bit,” Shared one student enthusiastically.

At the Python coding station, students worked through engaging challenges, learning how to write and test their own code. Whether it was making text-based games or solving puzzles, they quickly saw how powerful and fun programming can be. “It's good you can try something new and it's very fun,” said another participant.

The Edison robots were another huge hit, as students programmed them to navigate mazes, follow lines, and respond to different commands. Laughter and cheers filled the room as robots zipped across tables, successfully completing their programmed tasks. “It was a fun introduction to computer science at the high school!” Said an excited student Kyler Cook. By the end of the night, younger students left feeling inspired, many eager to continue coding and exploring technology on their own. “It was a great experience to help spread the possibilities of computer science to the younger grades.” – Finn Roche. With such a successful event, the CSHS is already looking forward to hosting another Computer Science Night in the future. According to Miss Violette, a computer science teacher at the high school and CSHS adviser, the next CS Night will be offered to Reed Intermediate students on Wednesday, April 30th.

NHS National Computer Science Honor Society teaching students about Edison robots with a fun rainforest theme!

On Thursday evening, Sandy Hook School's stars dazzled the stage in the 2nd annual PTA sponsored Talent Showcase. Nearly doubling the number of participants from last year's inaugural show, 45 students took the stage in a 36 act show, complete with a kickoff number by the staff group SHS Recorder Rockettes. The breath of talent on display was vast, including singing, dancing, piano and other musical instruments, sports demonstrations, gymnastics, Irish step dancing, and drawing demonstrations, to name a few. There was also a wonderful crew made up of six students who worked hard to keep the show moving.

Congrats to all who participated- your courage is admirable and may you continue to shine bright!

Did you know that joining your PTA offers several benefits for both you and our school community? Our PTAs do many wonderful things throughout the school year that support and enhance the educational experience for our students. In addition to raising funds for educational programs and classroom resources, members have the opportunity to have their voices and ideas heard, meet new people and build connections within the school and greater community, as well as gain leadership skills that can be both personally and professionally valuable. In addition, being involved in your PTA gives you a closer look at what is happening in your child’s school by participating in or organizing events that foster a positive school culture.

You can find a link to each school's PTA by clicking on this link.

Thank you for your support!

Being the parent of a student with special needs can be confusing, isolating and frightening. Newtown Special Ed PTA, or SEPTA, is a great way to connect with a supportive community. We look forward to you joining us!

For more information, please visit the Special Ed PTA's website by clicking on this link.

Several of our schools are in need of student support services staff. If you enjoy working with kids, we encourage you to visit our employment opportunities page.

All-Star is actively seeking drivers. Flexible schedules and a paid training program.

Consider calling today!