Superintendent's Message

Dear Newport Public Schools Parents, Families, and Staff,

Spring is here, and we're entering a very busy season with many important updates to share. Your input and involvement is SO important. Please read today’s newsletter carefully as we still need more parents/families taking the Survey Works survey with links further down in the newsletter, Parent Conferences this Monday, March 31 from 12-5, and the Calendar of Events from ReNewport is full with important events and activities in April - free and open to all. So take advantage of all the great events/happenings in Newport and with our schools!

This week we continue our focus on three items- attendance, state testing, and regionalization (Yes, it’s back!)

Daily Attendance Matters

Attendance is crucial to your child’s success in school. Consistent attendance helps children stay on track, build good study habits, and stay connected with their peers and teachers. Our school report cards are very clear- student achievement and learning are THE AREAs that need the most improvement in our schools. Our teachers are working hard every day- and our data shows our teachers are here. We need students here every day, to learn and achieve. You can view our attendance metrics and see how we stack up against schools from across the state on the RI Department of Education’s School Attendance Leaderboard. We need everyone’s support to do better. Help us help your children be successful.

State Testing
State testing, including Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) and high school assessments, will begin soon and this is the tool RIDE uses to see if our students are learning and improving. These tests are an essential measure of our students’ progress, their success and our schools’ success. I want to thank our teachers and staff for their hard work in preparing students. I now ask all our parents/families to help us by making certain students attend school every day.

Regionalization/Coming Together with Middletown Schools
I’d like to update you on an important conversation regarding the potential for regionalizing/ joining together the Newport and Middletown school districts. Last week, the Newport City Council passed a resolution to begin exploring this possibility. One part of the resolution asks for a group of residents, community members, and educators from both communities to work together to outline the possible educational advantages of combining our school systems, always keeping in mind the focus should be what is best for all our children. That conversation is already underway between the superintendents in both communities as we start to gather more information from our teams and our communities on this.

While this discussion is still in the very early stages, it is clear that the way public schools are funded now is not sustainable or practical for good, well thought out planning and success for any organization. Each year this scenario of city, towns, and school departments battling over funding goes round and round. The unpredictability and timing of when a school district finally knows all its funding allocations - sometimes literally one week before the next fiscal year - is mind-boggling. A successful and productive enterprise cannot be run this way. Coming together with Middletown schools will, at the very minimum, have several financial gains that may help both communities now and going forward to know what is affordable and plan appropriately. But what about the educational benefits to move forward? That is and should always be the focus of what we do for our children. That is the work that is now underway, and in the future weeks we will share more ideas and information with everyone, and hopefully get feedback and support on how to make this a success.

In the meantime – this is what we do know if Newport and Middletown school districts join together:

1. Increased State Funding: By regionalizing, we can take advantage of enhanced state support for school building projects, which would increase the state reimbursement to the communities at a rate of 80% or slightly higher to both Newport and Middletown. This would relieve both communities of their bond payments to a lower amount, freeing up money that would have been used to pay the now required payments without the 80% reimbursement.

2. Additional Transportation Resources: Both communities would benefit from increased funding for transportation. This would also allow more planning options while implementing bus routing opportunities for students to travel to school safely and efficiently. The districts could also help reduce out of district bussing costs by consolidating routes and the number of buses to different locations.
   

3. Shared Resources and Programs: By working together, the two districts can pool our resources and plan with a wider lens a comprehensive PK-12 school system that would have more buying/negotiation power due to its larger student population and needs. This joint venture would also help provide more opportunities for students, including enhanced programs in areas like Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), arts, and athletics.
   

4. Improved Educational Opportunities: A larger, regional school system would allow for more specialized educational programs, including more advanced coursework, career training, and a broader range of extracurricular activities for students from both communities. Both communities have a lot to offer and working together more students will be able to participate in these programs. Working with the Directors from each community, we will dive into how we can ensure programming for all our students that is already in place, and new opportunities for the future, to enable as many of our students as possible to stay at his/her home school receiving special education services to multiple career tech programs and advanced course work.

Next Steps
This is a critical moment for all of us to take action- and may be the very last time in a while that this type of financial opportunity comes before us. It is the very incentive all of us may need to think, plan, and seriously consider the educational opportunities that could be possible and come together as one school district. The decision though will need to be made this year. Now, in the next couple of months, the General Assembly must approve language to be put on a ballot for both communities to be able to vote on, and then a special election would need to be held in the fall of 2025 in order for both communities to benefit and take advantage of a 80% or more school building project reimbursement.

So, we will continue our task, reviewing educational possibilities to ensure that any decision made is in the best interest of our students and their future success. Going forward each week we will keep you informed as the conversations continue. I encourage you and everyone reading this to share any thoughts or ideas you may have on how regionalization could benefit our students. Please send your feedback to Ms. Nash using this LINK. We want to hear from as many voices as possible.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement!

Have a great week of learning everyone!

Colleen Burns Jermain, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Upcoming Events and Things To Do

• Spring Art, Music, Dance & Theatre calendar
• March 27th, Pell School Report Card Night, 5:30pm
• March 31st, Parent/Family Teacher Conferences, 12:00-5:00 pm at all schools.
• April 3rd, Parent/Family Advisory Council meeting, 9:30am CCRI Newport, Room 233
• April 10th, reNewport Community Dinner, Pell Elementary, 5:00pm
• April 30th, Unity In The Community Resource Fair, Thompson Middle School, 5:30pm

Thank you to all the families who joined us for Pell’s Art and Literacy Night! It was a fantastic evening filled with creativity and community spirit. Students proudly showcased their artwork, and families enjoyed fun games, delicious food, and engaging activities. We appreciate everyone who attended and helped make the event a success. It’s always great to see our students' talents celebrated and our families coming together to support their learning. Over 300 parents/family/community and students attended. We look forward to more opportunities to connect with you in the future! Look below as Principal Westman shares a great moment with one of our amazing students and families enjoy lots of fun working with our Salve Regina University student teachers that set up games and learning activities for our families. Thank Teacher of the Year, Kate Caruolo, for all her efforts setting up the SRU students for our Pell community.

Last Saturday, yes Saturday, our teachers and community partners involved in our 365 after school programming participated in a professional development session focused on strategies for improving student achievement in literacy and math. Preliminary data is very positive for all their efforts in this joint initiative of school and city coming together to support education and our families. Many thanks to Director Patti Aull and Meghan Hill, along with Maryclaire Knight, and our amazing partners from EBCAP, MLK, and Boys and Girls Club. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Please don't forget to complete the Rhode Island Department of Education’s annual SurveyWorks survey. The feedback we gain from survey results is invaluable and the participation rate from families helps us in our accountability. We value your input as we work to improve Newport Public Schools. So please help us take a few minutes to complete the survey for your school by the March 31st deadline:

Claiborne Pell Elementary School

Frank E. Thompson Middle School

Rogers High School

Thank you to everyone who attended the recent School Report Card Nights at TMS and RHS this past week. We appreciate their great questions and engagement. Your involvement is essential to improving our schools and supporting our students.

Being engaged in your child’s learning is key to their success, and one of the most important opportunities to be engaged is to participate in parent/family-teacher conferences. There will be no school on Monday, March 31st as all of our schools will hold parent teacher conferences. See the times below and reach out to your school’s principal with any questions:

Pell - 12-5

TMS - 12-5

RHS - 12-5