NEW FAIRFIELD -- Every two years for the past 36, candidates for selectmen in New Fairfield have faced off in a debate sponsored by the town's weekly newspaper, the Citizen-News.
But that long-running tradition may come to an end this year.
Democrat Monika Thiel said that long-standing ties between the forum's organizers and town officials made "a bias-free, independent" debate impossible.
As a result, Thiel announced Tuesday that neither she nor Selectman Thomas Corbett will be debating three-term Republican First Selectman John Hodge and his running mate, Susan Chapman, unless the Brookfield League of Women Voters moderates the event.
"New Fairfield is a small town, and a lot of folks are familiar with what's going on around here. Because of their relationships and associations with town government, we felt it would be appropriate to have an independent party involved," Thiel said.
In a letter to Burnett earlier this week, LWV President Deirdre Coury offered the group's assistance in finding a moderator for the debate, which is scheduled for Oct. 14.
The League wouldn't be involved in planning the format, providing timekeepers or formulating questions for the candidates, Coury said.
Citizen News editor and publisher Ellen Burnett said Tuesday evening she has no objection to working with the League, but under the guidelines the forum has operated under for years, the main job of the moderator is to introduce the candidates.
"The league has never been the issue," Burnett said. "If I could have done anything to prevent the debate from going under, I would."
Burnett said she's still hopeful of reaching a compromise that would allow the debate to go on.
Thiel's assistant campaign manager, Jody Gemmell, said Democrats contacted the Citizen-News and the Republicans several weeks ago about getting a non-partisan group involved in running the debate. "We couldn't get anybody to talk to us," she said.
Hodge said Republicans have no objections to the current format, and accused the Democrats of "trying to shove the League of Women Voters down the Citizen-News' throat."
"It's not up to us or the opposition party to tell the Citizen-News how to run their event. I think, at the end of the day, they just don't want to debate," he said. Contact John Pirro
Ron Oliveri's Column from the Citizen News, February 4, 2004.
Image flip to show how Mr. Oliveri flips on issues
in his own words!
THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS! During these difficult and trying budgetary times, - in between all the talk and analysis around building space needs, technology improvements, and significant road repair programs, there has emerged a noteworthy bright spot. We pass it everyday, although by now it probably goes unnoticed. However, during its proposed stage, it was a lightning rod for heated debate and commentary, some of which was abusive and personally insulting to those of us who have steadfastly supported its development. Its supporters, especially Ron Graiff, held to the belief that its construction was necessary to enhance emergency communications in our Town, provide improved cellular communications for its citizens, and bring in much needed revenues. Of course, I am talking about the town owned Communications Tower that stands behind our police and Fire Departments at 302 Ball Pond Road. It was always contended that the Town should benefit from the potential revenue generated by this facility rather than a private individual. "Build it and they will come", urged Mr. Graiff. And indeed, several carriers have signed on and the others will soon follow.
We have been saying all along, and I have also carried this message with Mr. Strilowich through the Town's own approval process, that this tower would be the focal point of a critical enhancement to our emergency communications. Even during the election campaign of 2001, when my opponents doubted the wisdom of a Town owned Communications Tower, we held steadfast to our beliefs. It has been a difficult road, but to all who have supported Mr. Graiff's efforts, we have been vindicated!
It was estimated that this enhancement to our emergency radio system would cost the taxpayers about $500 thousand. It would require an expensive "repeater" system to assure about a 95% coverage of Police, Fire, and EMS radio communications throughout our Town. In a report prepared for the Board of Selectmen and the Town's Office of Emergency Management, it has been shown that our Communications Tower alone can provide that same 95% level of radio coverage without the need for a "repeater" system. This will save the Town about $250 thousand. Over a ten year period, this project has the potential of saving the taxpayers of New Fairfield about $1 million! To paraphrase Bill Murray in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes - "watch out for the nay sayers who will rush to take credit for the success of this project". To all who have steadfastly supported this project - a well deserved THANK YOU! I am personally gratified that I have supported a project that will have such a positive affect on the future of our Town.
THANK OUR LUCKY STARS THAT MR. OLIVERI IS LEAVING TOWN ... BEFORE HE DOES MORE DAMAGE!
Since another municipal election campaign in New Fairfield has begun, I have been reflecting on some of “Hodge’s Follies”that are directly attributable to John Hodgeduring King John’s ego-driven administration. Below is the fourth example of our self centered monarch’s decrees:
Hodge's Follies #4 ~ Firing the entire Building Committee. Our Machievellian Producerthrewa collective 150 years of project engineering experience into the Orchestra Pit. Why? Because [1] they would not cater to hisdecrees and [2] because JH always knows best, regardless of the topic. Just ask him.Talk about abuse of power, this was a classic!
Only an individual with a monster ego could believe he knew more than 6 building professionals and proceed to throw them under the bus. That is scary, but that is a fact.
The new Building Committee, appointed by Hodge, has 4 of the 6 members with virtually no building construction expertise but they are very good at rubber stamping our 1st Selectman's orders. Thisgroup of amateurs will be managing the recently approved $32+ million dollar construction project with the "guidance" of our egomaniac CEO. That scenario is flat out frightening.
The result of firing the entire Building Committee continuedJohn Hodge'sSeniorCenter debacle that wound up overrunning the approved fundingby more than $50,000. Why? Because Hodgereneged on an implicitpromise to repay the $74,500 cash advance he requested, and was given, to immediatelystart working with an architect on the design. When it became patently obvious that the project was headed into the red, our devious CEO had an attorney find a technical loop hole in the wording of the cash advance resolution to negate the agreement to repay it.That is the only reason Hodge did not overrun the project.Were Mr. Hodge an honorable and trustworthy man, that $74,500 would have been put back into the general fund and new funding would need to have been approved by us voters in order to legally be able to finish the project over the previously approved funding. However, that would have resulted in John Hodge having a lot of deserved egg on his face so the $74,500 was not repaid.Draw your own conclusions...
When you read John Hodge's campaign promises, please remember the above deceit that was perpetuated on the Board of Finance at the expense of us taxpayers. Character matters andI hope the votersremember that whencasting their vote for 1st Selectman in November.
Boz Scaggs gala a success for Ridgefield Playhouse
Updated: 09/18/2009 09:14:23 PM EDT
RIDGEFIELD -- From the abundant food from Bernard's, to the flowing champagne from Cellar XV in the VIP tent, to the performance by Boz Scaggs, the Ridgefield Playhouse Gala on Sunday was a success for the playhouse, which needed a good turnout.
"We wound up selling about 400 gala tickets, which is where we needed to be so as not to take a hit financially on the show. Of course a sell-out (500 tickets) is always ideal," said executive director Allison Stockel. "But all in all, it went very well, and most importantly it was a great upbeat mood and everyone left having seen a great show.
"Raffle tickets for a Mercedes courtesy of Mercedes Benz of Danbury kicked off at the event and many were sold. Auction items were bid on and everyone had a great time," Stockel said.
The playhouse is not yet out of the woods. Ticket sales are still down a bit, but there are plenty of shows coming up, she said.
In October there's rock with Robin Trower, folk with the Bacon Brothers, jazz with Bernie Williams, blues with Susan Tedeschi, and pop with America. There is also a children's show with Peter Yarrow, a documentary film called "Sari Soldiers," country folk with Nanci Griffith, music by singer/songwriter Martin Sexton, bluegrass with David Grisman, and the soulful sounds of Rickie Lee Jones.
"If people aren't afraid to come out and have a good time, expose themselves and their kids to the arts, and buy tickets, then we'll be OK," Stockel said.
"I just really want to thank everyone who worked on the gala, donated to the gala, and came to the gala. People really came out and showed their support and that's what it's all about."
For tickets or more information about The Ridgefield Playhouse, call the box office at 203-438-5795; tickets may also be purchased online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org.
The playhouse is at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street.
Recently the New Fairfield Board of Education voted 5-4 to allow the removal of the Education Channel (17) from the high school and give it to the town for town use. Decisions such as these that impact our students negatively should not have been made without any public input.
The primary intent and purpose of an education channel is to showcase the schools, its activities and its students by educating the students in all aspects of audiovisual technique, by producing, directing and editing programs and to develop a program that would gradually be integrated into the curriculum.
Our educational school side however, has never been emphasized, nor developed, over the years, with the focus increasingly shifted to, and centered on, town meetings and events. There is little or nothing coming out of our schools. This is absolutely wrong, and if this live feed is removed from the schools, the reason and intent of the generous $60,000 grant from the New Fairfield Community Foundation to our schools for the development of these educational opportunities will never be achieved. Not to mention the negative influence this decision will have on the future generosity of those who see their contributions diverted from its original intent.
The Board of Education needs to do what is most beneficial for the students and the school district by emphasizing and expanding this channel and to push for its development and support. There should be a teacher, or educator, in charge of the school side of the program for it to achieve its potential.
If the town wishes to broadcast its meetings live from the new Community Room, the town can find a way to do so without taking the opportunity and future potential away from the students, and their ability to broadcast live from their own facility.
Negative news flow continues for the U.S credit rating agencies, as a U.S. federal judge rejected the appeal by Morgan Stanley (MS: 28.75 -0.07 -0.24%), Moody’s Corporation (MCO: 25.18 -0.06 -0.24%) and McGraw-Hill’s (MHP: 27.55 -0.15 -0.54%) Standard & Poor’s to dismiss the fraud charges brought against them for not disclosing the risks associated with an investment related to subprime mortgages.
This fraud claim was brought against the defendants by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and King County in Washington State. However, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed all claims brought against a fourth defendant, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. We believe this ruling could adversely affect the prospects of these credit rating agencies as it might strengthen other pending cases against them.
Recently, the rating agencies have been in the news for providing inaccurate information about some securities to certain clients.After that, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the market watchdog, criticized a rating agency for approving the application of another agency, even though the former rating agency was suspicious about the authenticity of the financial information. This whole issue is under SEC review and will give us more clarity once the SEC comes out with its findings.
In the aforementioned New York case, Morgan Stanley has been alleged for wrongfully marketing Cheyne Structured Investment Vehicle (SIV), which was declared bankrupt in August 2007, as the quality of its assets crashed. The other rating agencies are accused of giving it a high rating which ultimately misled the investors.
We believe the series of events are putting question marks on the credibility of the ratings provided by these reputed agencies, which may negatively affect their reputation and business. It is high time that the agencies took necessary measures to make their rating process much more transparent, which is very important for regaining customer confidence.
How long will it be before the John Hodge re-election video of "How great I am" ... Shows up on Channel 17?
U.S. Broadcasting Regulatory Rule
It is the closest thing in broadcast content regulation to the "golden rule." The equal time, or more accurately, the equal opportunity provision of the Communications Act requires radio and television stations and cable systems which originate their own programming to treat legally qualified political candidates equally when it comes to selling or giving away air time. Simply put, a station which sells or gives one minute to Candidate A must sell or give the same amount of time with the same audience potential to all other candidates for the particular office. However, a candidate who can not afford time does not receive free time unless his or her opponent is also given free time. Thus, even with the equal time law, a well funded campaign has a significant advantage in terms of broadcast exposure for the candidate.
To really understand the debate, it's important to understand what the Fairness Doctrine is and what it is not. We've seen many politicians referring to the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule in the same sentence, as if they are part and parcel of the same thing. In fact, they are different issues. Essentially, the Fairness Doctrine simply required that stations provide balanced coverage of controversial issues of public importance. The Fairness Doctrine never required "equal time" in the sense of strict equality for each side of an issue on a minute for minute basis. In talk programs and news coverage, a station just had to make sure that both points of view were presented in such a way that the listener would get exposure to them. How that was done was in a station's discretion, and the FCC intervened in only the most egregious cases.
The application of the Fairness Doctrine was never limited to simply news and talk programming - but it also intruded into the commercial sphere. In the case of advertising about controversial issues, where parties in favor of an issue bought time to push their views, and the opponents could not afford to buy time to respond, the station might actually have to give the opponents time - but it was usually only a third or a quarter as much time as the proponents had bought, not strict equality. And the station could choose which opponents to give the time to - the viewpoint, not the spokesperson was what counted.
The application of the Doctrine in the context of advertising could have profound effects. For instance, the use of the Fairness Doctrine as a weapon against smoking advertising - requiring that stations give anti-smoking advocates time to talk about the ill health affects of smoking in a ratio of 1/3 or 1/4 of the advertisements that ran for cigarettes - was one of the reasons that the constitutionality of the legislative ban on smoking ads enacted in 1970 was never challenged by the tobacco companies.
While enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine was declared unconstitutional by the FCC in the late 1980s, the "equal time" rule is still very much alive - as it stems from a different source in the Communications Act - the Section 315 provisions on the political rules dealing with the treatment by broadcast stations of candidates for public office. Essentially, equal time requires that, if a broadcast station gives one candidate free time, all other candidates can get the same amount of free time. If a candidate buys time on a station, the station must be willing to sell each candidate equal amounts of time. In connection with candidate time, it is strict minute for minute equality - unlike what was once required by the Fairness Doctrine. See our Political Broadcasting Guide for details of the application of the equal time or "equal opportunities" rule.
A BILL TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Propose a bill in the 2010 Election Cycle
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomendo not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable forpersons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in theirownbenefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan...
For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments...
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA!!! ZILCH!!! This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them.You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched byour employer), We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per monthafter retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen.. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us Then sit back..... And see how fast they would fix it! If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
For your advance info, the Candlewood Watershed Initiative (CWI) in conjunction with the Candlewood Lake Authority will be hosting a 'Celebrate Candlewood' event on Monday evening, 9/28, to coincide with the conclusion of the Lake's 80th birthday. Below is draft copy of a 'save the date' notice to appear in some form in this week's Citizen News. We are hopeful that residents from throughout our Watershed will make it a point to attend, particularly those living in communities bordering the Lake.
Agenda is basically three-fold: history of the Lake for perspective; importantly, Environmental Review Team (ERT) report findings on the state of the Lake and implications going forward; and a birthday reception following. Date designed to dovetail with conclusion of Lake's 80th birthday, recent receipt of the ERT findings (a CLA web site reference will be provided), and to precede the ZC hearing on the new proposed zoning regs on Thurs, 10/1 (more to follow), so residents will have the benefit of the ERT results to provide some context for the recommended zoning reg revisions. Note that attendance will likely be limited so, if interested, suggest looking for future CN announcements re reservations and other specifics.
Also, keep an eye out for the upcoming CN article series by Alex Messerle on impervious surfaces, their impact on stormwater management and resulting pollution runoff -- all factors in protecting/preserving Lake and Watershed quality and health (and helping to control algae and milfoil proliferation).
Jim McAlister, Co-Chair
Candlewood Watershed Initiative (CWI)
18 Fox Run, CI
203/254-0474 - B
-----------------------------
Reserve the Date: Monday Evening, Sep 28th, for a Special Celebration of Candlewood Lake and the entire Candlewood Watershed --
Come learn of the Lake's origins by the authors who compiled the pictorial history, 'Candlewood Lake' (for the Images of America series), hear from the environmental group that just completed a review of available Watershed research and compiled their recommendations to protect the Lake's future, and toast the concluding hours of Candlewood's 80th birthday. Join in a special'Celebration of Candlewood' to be held Monday evening, September 28, in the Community Room adjoining our new Senior Center. Sponsored by the Candlewood Watershed Initiative in concert with the Candlewood Lake Authority, this educational and celebratory event promises to enhance our appreciation, understanding, and collective wisdom, and guide our community actions going forward to preserve this unique and treasured resource. A birthday reception will follow. Space will be limited so keep an eye out for further specifics in future editions of the Citizen News.
OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
TODAY’S MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer .
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
They really title to this story should be "CHILDREN SECURE IN THEIR NEW ROLE IN EDUCATION - SECOND PLACE BEHIND THE REAL EDUCATION MISSION" [Danbury-area schools falling behind]
BUT THEN UPON REFLECTION ... WHEN DID TEACHING EVER TEACH 'MOTIVATION' ... WHEN DID TEACHING EVER ATTEMPT TO TAP INTO THE REAL GOAL-MIND OF REVEALING TO EACH CHILD THEIR INNER MOTIVATION OF LEARNING? I GUESS THE OLD ADAGE OF 'YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER' HAS SOME TRUTH AS SHOWN IN THE RESULTS. BUT THEN AGAIN.
This story is written like the "Daily Racing Forum" ... just the relative rankings, nothing else, no professional suggestions as to what went wrong and is still going wrong. Perhaps the CMT is too difficult, not relevant, perhaps teaching has turned its head on the real mission? Perhaps the real mission has been mummified in layers of policy, rules, threads that bind with grants, in the end the children and learning have been ignored; worse teaching has been relegated to the guards for the mummies. Perhaps, the real mission should be implementation of the annual program of involvement of the family [parents] and teachers in a program/discussion of what it really means to have a mutually shared investment in 'their children's' education. Perhaps an annual review by the parents of how effective they believe teachers and school system have been in the "wealth creation of their shared investment"? Obviously the PTA isn't effective and most likely has nothing to say or do about education. [I don't have children in the school system any longer and must admit I'm not that close to the PTA] However, I have should have a voice in the "shared investment", after all its partly my tax dollars that support the enterprise and I would like to see something positive ... like a reason why someone would like move to our town [increase demand for home and hence value]. After all local education consumes the majority of our taxes, so a voice would be important. Today the voice generally is viewed as negative when 'we' are asked to continue increasing expenditures to education without enjoying the reward.
Well the 'hole' story is below, but first let me invert the ending for those that don't wish to read to the end. I will put a final listing here for a quick review. After reading the "Daily Racing Forum" quick review ... ask yourself, where would our tax dollars be better spent ... on toilets or books, buildings or salaries, children and education. JUST A QUICK NOTE: I BELIEVE OUR CURRENT BOE HAS MISSED THE MISSION.
The failing list No Child Left Behind requires eight of 10 students achieve at or above the proficiency level on math and reading test to meet adequate yearly progress. Some area schools are on the failing list for the whole school's scores and some for scores of subgroups of students. Subgroups are at least 40 students -- whites, blacks, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English-language learners.
Area schools that failed to satisfy No Child Left Behind are:
Bethel Middle -- subgroup reading.
Danbury Danbury High, Alternative Center for Excellence -- whole school math and reading.
Broadview Middle -- subgroup math and reading. Hayestown Avenue -- whole school reading, subgroup reading. King Street Intermediate School -- subgroup reading.
Mill Ridge Intermediate -- whole school reading, subgroup reading and math.
Morris Street School -- whole school reading. Pembroke School -- whole school reading, subgroup reading.
Stadley Rough -- whole school reading and math, subgroup reading and math.
New Fairfield New Fairfield Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Meeting House Hill -- subgroup math and reading.
New Milford New Milford High -- subgroups reading and math
Schaghticoke Middle -- subgroup reading and math.
Sarah Noble Intermediate -- subgroup reading and math Also:
Newtown Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Redding -- subgroup reading.
Scotts Ridge Middle,
Ridgefield -- subgroup math and reading.
Ridgefield High -- subgroup math.
Sherman -- subgroup reading.
New Fairfield High School ranked in Newsweek
Updated: 09/03/2009 09:57:09 PM EDT
SCHOOLS
High School ranked in Newsweek
For the fourth year in a row, New Fairfield High School has been included in Newsweek's ranking of America's Best High Schools, based on student participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses in May 2008. A total of 359 AP exams were administered, exceeding the previous year's total.Only 17 high schools in Connecticut were included in the list and New Fairfield High School was ranked as 10. A total of 24 AP courses were offered to students for the 2009-2010 school year.
SO WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE ... RELATIVE RANKINGS ... MAYBE A BETTER ANALOGY IS ACCURACY VS PRECISION OR PERHAPS, HAND GRENADES AND HORSE SHOES ... WITH HAND GRENADES YOU ONLY HAVE TO GET CLOSE. ... SELECT YOUR ANALOGY, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A BROADER MEASURE OF EDUCATION?
Now check out this ... I wonder what AP courses they took ...
Danbury-area schools falling behind
By Eileen FitzGerald
Staff writer
Updated: 09/02/2009 12:50:29 AM EDT
Only the Brookfield school district remains unaffected by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that has labeled as many as 40 percent of the state's schools and at least one in each area town as failing to make adequate yearly progress.
The state Department of Education released the list of schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress and those now deemed in need of improvement because of repeated failure to reach the standard.
A total of 406, or 40 percent of the state's schools, did not make adequate yearly progress, just two schools shy of last year's number. Elementary and middle school reading were cited as falling short of making adequate yearly progress, while math is the challenge in most high schools.
Danbury, the area's only urban district, has nine schools on the list.
For the first time, Ridgefield High School and one of the town's middle schools are on the list because students with disabilities did not satisfy the standard.
New Milford and Bethel made the list because of the test scores of their students with disabilities.
"We will continue focus on these students," Catherine Richard, interim assistant superintendent in New Milford, said Tuesday. "We do a lot of team teaching and we will continue to work hard to reach them."
Bethel students with disabilities have improved their math scores in the past few years, but their reading scores must improve.
As the number of students who must reach proficiency continues to increase, so too, the challenge will grow to have them make adequate yearly progress, said Janice Jordan, Bethel assistant superintendent.
Ridgefield Superintendent Deborah Low said the district is working to improve the scores of the students with disabilities. "We know it's a challenge we need to address.
But William Glass, Danbury deputy superintendent, said Ridgefield and Redding making the list this year shows the flaws in the law that educators predicted years ago.
"If you look at the top four achieving districts in the state out of 166, Ridgefield is among them and now they are failing. That illustrates the lunacy of the law,'' Glass said.
According to the results released Tuesday, 334 of the state's 804 elementary and middle schools did not make adequate yearly progress, which is 15 fewer than last year.
But 72 high schools did not make the grade, which is 13 more than last year, and 55 of the state's 172 school districts did not make adequate yearly progress, which is 11 more than last year.
Danbury made substantial gains on the Connecticut Mastery Tests, which are used to determine adequate yearly progress, in nearly every elementary and middle school, Glass said, although two more city schools failed to reach adequate yearly progress this year.
He blamed the continuing shortfall of the high school in part on the revolving door of principals in recent years, which hopefully has ended.
The state reported 296 elementary and middle schools are "in need of improvement" because they failed to reach adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years in the same area, including 87 that are on the list for the first year.
Fifty-six high schools were identified as needing improvement because of 10-graders' test scores on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, an increase of 12 high schools from last year.
There are 37 districts identified as needing improvement, 16 more than last year.
Schools that receive Title I federal money face sanctions when they are identified as needing improvement, and the sanctions grow tougher by the year.
But a Connecticut law enacted in 2007 requires the state education department to work directly with districts that are in year three or more of sanctions and must take corrective action.
The state is now working with 15 districts that are in corrective action, including Danbury.
Contact Eileen FitzGerald
at eileenf@newstimes.com
or at 203-731-3333.
The failing list No Child Left Behind requires eight of 10 students achieve at or above the proficiency level on math and reading test to meet adequate yearly progress. Some area schools are on the failing list for the whole school's scores and some for scores of subgroups of students. Subgroups are at least 40 students -- whites, blacks, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English-language learners.
Area schools that failed to satisfy No Child Left Behind are:
Bethel Middle -- subgroup reading.
Danbury Danbury High, Alternative Center for Excellence -- whole school math and reading.
Broadview Middle -- subgroup math and reading. Hayestown Avenue -- whole school reading, subgroup reading. King Street Intermediate School -- subgroup reading.
Mill Ridge Intermediate -- whole school reading, subgroup reading and math.
Morris Street School -- whole school reading. Pembroke School -- whole school reading, subgroup reading.
Stadley Rough -- whole school reading and math, subgroup reading and math.
New Fairfield New Fairfield Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Meeting House Hill -- subgroup math and reading.
New Milford New Milford High -- subgroups reading and math
Schaghticoke Middle -- subgroup reading and math.
Sarah Noble Intermediate -- subgroup reading and math Also:
Newtown Middle -- subgroup math and reading.
Redding -- subgroup reading.
Scotts Ridge Middle,
Ridgefield -- subgroup math and reading.
Ridgefield High -- subgroup math.
Sherman -- subgroup reading.
