Superintendent's Message

Dear Newport Schools Parents, Families, and Staff,

Welcome to daylight savings time! Spring is just around the corner.

For our students, spring means lots of study, work, and to be prepared for upcoming assessments including the SAT and PSAT for our Rogers students and RICAS Math & Science exams for our Thompson and Pell students. The next several weeks of classroom instruction are so important for students to review key materials, master new concepts, and be confident going into these state mandated assessments. Our teachers are doing their part. We need our parents and families to help with making certain students are in school every day.

We need to continue to focus on Attendance Matters, Every Day! Students need to be in school every day, for the entire school day, benefitting from classroom instruction and other supports to keep them on track. Newport Public Schools have seen improvements in reducing chronic absenteeism, in each of our schools. Yet we have far too many students on track to be chronically absent this school year. We still have time this school year to turn these numbers around. So let’s work together and get our children, our students to school every day and on time. Remember- no more coffee stops- let’s get to school on time. As a One Newport community, let’s make a pledge to support our students, reduce chronic absenteeism, and make sure they are prepared for important assessments this spring. Students cannot learn if they are not in school. Let’s make it a theme-every day in every home learning matters.

I want to celebrate last week’s celebration at CCRI Newport to support and grow Aquidneck Island’s culinary industry. Governor Dan McKee visited Newport to announce the launch of an Associates Degree program in Culinary Craftsmanship on the CCRI Newport Campus, which is designed to meet the growing demand for skilled professionals in the workforce. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to continue their culinary pathway and build stronger ties with the culinary world, here in Newport, across the country and the world. Our NACTC Culinary Arts students were honored to participate in the Governor’s event and to cook up something special for gathered guests.

Finally, I want to remind our parents about the importance of attending School Report Card Nights at Pell, Thompson, and Rogers. These are important opportunities to review insights about learning happening in each of our schools, where our students are doing well, where they need more support to improve, and how we’re implementing our strategic plan to raise student achievement. These will be interactive sessions and our school principals want your feedback on how we can all work together to better support our students. Our first School Report Card Night is next Monday evening at Thompson. Please see the full schedule below and make sure to attend these important meetings about our schools:

TMS - March 17th at 5:30pm

RHS - March 25th at 5:30pm

Pell - March 27th at 5:30pm

Have a great week of learning everyone and please continue to focus on and emphasize that Attendance Matters, Every Day!

Colleen Burns Jermain, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Upcoming Events and Things To Do

Last Friday night, our Pell students and families had a blast participating in Glow Night. Students wore glow in the dark attire and played with neon glow sticks, lights, games, necklaces, and lots of fun. Principal Traci Westman got in the spirit with this fantastic unicorn outfit!🦄

We need ALL of our Newport Public Schools families to take 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 need to show parent/family participation and feedback. 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

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

Our One Newport partner Looking Upwards is offering a free Zoom seminar on March 25th about dealing with anxiety. Use this link to register.