On Tuesday, February 4th, after adding K-6 Spanish and accepting offsets proposed by the Superintendent, the Board of Education adopted the 25-26 budget. The 25-26 Proposed School Budget now represents a 5.99% increase over the current year’s budget. Major drivers of the budget include the impact of last year’s $2 million dollars in cuts, an unprecedented increase to insurance, rising electricity and special education costs. The budget includes what the administrative team believes is needed to deliver a high quality education to all students. To offset the impact of costs to taxpayers, the budget includes more than 25 staffing reductions among other cost-saving measures.
Proposed Board of Education Budget Presented to Board of Finance
February 10th, 7:30 PM Council Chambers
At this meeting, the Superintendent, Director of Finance and Board Chair will present the Proposed Board of Education budget to the Board of Finance. This will usually include questions asked by Board of Finance members in order to assist them in understanding the rationale for requests.
Board of Finance Public Hearing on Board of Education and Selectmen Budgets
February 20th, 7:30 PM Council Chambers
During the meeting, the Board of Finance will receive comments from the public on the Board of Education budget and Board of Selectmen budgets and continue their discussion and deliberations as they work to finalize their recommendation to the Legislative Council on setting the budget that will ultimately go to referendum.
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
The Visual and Performing Arts offer students the opportunity to explore and develop individual creativity. Music Technology is one area of study in which Newtown High School students create projects in sound design and music composition, as well as multimedia projects such as film and video game scoring. They are introduced to and work with professional software from the world of commercial and film music.
The Music Technology 2 class is currently working on an exploration activity, studying music of non-Western cultures such as Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and other places. As they explore the music and sounds of other cultures they will select the ‘ingredients’ for their piece (i.e. drum/percussion track(s), instruments, tempo, scales of the region). Once the framework is in place, students can then enhance their work with other musical elements. An image will also be attached that shares their vision with the audience.
This, along with the compositions and projects created in Music Technology 1 and 3, as well as Harmony and Composition, and AP Music Theory, will be presented in performance on April 23 in the annual NHS Composers Concert.
