Newtown Public Schools

When I wrote last week, I had shared with you that the source of my confidence in the safety of our staff and students in Newtown Public Schools is grounded in the well-established security measures we have in place, inclusive of equipment, personnel, practice and, perhaps most importantly, the collaborative relationship we share with the Newtown Police Department. All of those factors have come into play during the past week as we have experienced similar situations to what has been occurring nationally - social media driven false threats and phone pranks. The difference for NPS has been the immediate involvement of police to assess the threats, followed by active communication with administration and clear follow-up communication to families, faculty and staff. I would like to reiterate that it is important to have conversations with your children about social media responsibility. If your child sees something that concerns them, they should tell a trusted adult in school. If something occurs outside of school hours, you can also reach out directly to the police. Please speak with your children about the dangers of sharing screenshots or posting stories of these disturbing messages, as this only causes undue alarm and dilutes investigative resources. I ask that you, as parents and guardians, exercise similar discretion when posting on social media, and instead direct your concerns to your building principal or me directly. It is my sincere hope that this cycle of spreading baseless fear will soon quiet down. Until it does, please know that we will continue to handle every incident with diligence and open communication.

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with representatives from All-Star regarding the ongoing bus issues. The outcome of the meeting was that these problems are a result of a nationwide driver shortage and are being experienced by all of our neighboring towns. When there are not enough drivers, routes are combined in an effort to reduce the number of drivers needed. Combined routes result in crowded buses and longer route times. However, this is often the only option to avoid “parking” a bus and then asking another driver to “double-up”, meaning that they complete their route and then run the route for the parked bus. Sometimes to avoid both of these options, if All-Star is short a driver or drivers for a short-term period, they will call in a spare driver from a neighboring depot in which case the bus and driver come from that depot to our town to run the route. If you see your child getting off a bus with another town’s name on the side, that is the reason.

I am appealing to the community for both patience and help. The reality is WE NEED DRIVERS. More drivers would mean the ability to provide reliable service for all students every day. More drivers would mean the possibility of breaking up longer routes, reducing crowding and shortening route times so kids get home earlier. Driving a bus is a great option for stay-at-home parents who can have a schedule that works with their school-age kids’ schedules and can accommodate caring for younger children by having them ride on the bus during the route. Driving a bus is also a great option for retirees who want to earn supplemental income. In the past, these folks rounded out the corps of drivers. We lost a lot of these types of drivers during COVID. And we need them back to get our bus service back to what it once was. If this has any appeal to you, I encourage you to consider becoming a driver. If you have grandparents in the area who may want to help out, please mention this to them. At this point, it practically fulfills a civic duty as a fundamental expectation of public school education is to provide reliable transportation. For more information, please refer to the flyer below.

Please note that this week, there will be no school on Wednesday as our faculty and staff will be participating in professional learning.

Happy first day of Fall!

Anne