The Department of Education released Progress Report grades for high schools. Newtown is very proud of the B that we earned for the 2011-2012 school year. The school did very well on this data driven evaluation. The D.O.E. also released the list of possible closings for this year and Newtown was not on the list.

The students and staff are proud of this achievement. Everyone has a new motivation to continue working hard to achieve even more this year.

Over the past decade Newtown HS guitarists have performed at countless community events. they are part of a venerable and award-winning guitar program that has been cited by a number of local dignitaries, community leaders and politicians, most notably state Sen. Jose Peralta, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and others. These young guitarists and their teacher, Mr Fred Vasquez, have been featured in Queens Public Television productions called “The Multicultural Guitar”. These productions show how the diverse cultures at Newtown are brought together by the guitar, its traditions, music and history. In 2011 “The Multicultural Guitar” won first-place honors in a film festival that covered the entire northeast region of the U.S. The tradition of reaching out to the community continues for Newtown’s guitarists. Recently, Newtown HS guitarist performed at the Chan Meditation Center’s mid-autumn festival. They played a traditional Chinese folksong and a number of Latin American pieces for the classical guitar to round out the evening’s festivities. The guitarists also performed recently at Francis Lewis HS and at Brooklyn Tech HS as part of high school fairs held at those schools. In these fairs, schools send representatives, parents and students for the purpose of recruiting for their schools. The young musicians attracted a sizable audience with their virtuosic playing. Among those listening was NY Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
Queens Chronicle, Thursday, October 25, 2012.