Superintendent's Message

Dear Newport Schools Parents, Families, and Staff,

This week is National Assistant Principal Week and an opportunity to give a big thank you to our hard working Assistant Principals: Kathryn McKeon at Pell, Nicholas Vockerodt at Thompson, and Michael Monahan and Evelyn Folcarelli at Rogers. Thank you for everything that you do for our students, teachers, and our schools! These individuals are often the unsung heroes in our school buildings. Thank you to all of them for their hard work!

State testing for grades 3-8 is underway!! An important reminder to parents that we are still in the state mandated RICAS testing period for many of our students. That means a continued focus on Attendance Matters, Every Day!, supporting our students with a strong routine including a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast, and checking in with your child each school day about how they are feeling about and doing on their exams. Please talk to your children about the testing and encourage them to do their best. We have amazing teachers and students, so let’s support each other and help them do well.

Conversations about bringing Newport and Middletown public schools together continue for better educational opportunities and future financial planning. While we await the City’s action on the Academic Integration Advisory Committee resolution passed last month, the superintendents are moving forward. Both of us have met and continue to share data and ideas with one another, as well as common goals on improving educational opportunities and efficiencies. We want our families to have different venues/opportunities for what they believe is best for their children’s education. Some of the ideas being explored include the possibility of Universal PreK for both communities, ways to continue our CTE growth to match today’s industry standards and hands-on learning, and a curriculum review that aligns to high quality instruction. Another very big desire is for a commitment from our community leaders, to dedicate a portion of the savings through the 80% building project reimbursements, for investment back into the schools to help plan strategically, budget wisely, and make a true investment in our educational systems. This promise will allow school leaders and our communities to have clarity on how this process would roll out with an actual timeline that is clear, actionable, and meets our goals for a great educational system.

We look forward to hearing from the City Council once the committee is operational, to share all the information and ideas we gather. In the interim, with time moving forward, we hope people will continue to share their thoughts, hopes, or concerns by taking 5 minutes to fill out our Regionalization Feedback Form. The more we hear from you, and the many opportunities we provide to our communities to participate regarding this possible merger, the better informed all of us will be. Thank you to those that have already participated!

It is budget time! I want to encourage families and all supporters of Newport Public Schools to attend the City Council’s April 24th 5:30pm public meeting where we will be presenting our school budget to the Council. Please come out to show your support for a budget that invests in our schools, teachers, and the success of our students! This is a very tough year and we are hoping all of you and the City Council will support our budget request.

Finally, a reminder that next week (April 14-18) is Spring Vacation. I hope everyone enjoys a few down days and comes back to school on Monday, April 21st re-energized for a strong end to the school year.

Have a great week of learning everyone!

Colleen Burns Jermain, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Our beautiful new, state-of-the-art Rogers High School building is coming together and we continue to offer students regular tours of the building. We are also excited to announce that the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the new high school will be August 22nd at 10:00 AM. Please save the date!

With a growing population of multilingual learners (MLL), we’ve been working with Seidlitz Coaching to provide MLL training sessions for our MLL certified teachers. Last week, Dr. Lora Escalante from Seidlitz provided great in-classroom training sessions. Thank you Dr. Escalante for working with our teachers to improve their MLL skills- and the teachers for all their hard work!

Tomorrow night is the ReNewport Community Dinner. All our community partners will be coming together for another family dinner at Pell. If you are a Pell grade 3 or 4 parent/family please sign up for this fun event.