Superintendent's Update

Dear Newport Schools' Parents, Families, and Staff:

Wow! What a beautiful day to start the 2025-2026 school year! It was so much fun visiting Pell, Thompson, and Rogers this morning to greet and welcome back our students and families. The energy on the first day of school is just electric with students eager to learn, classrooms ready to go, and our teachers, principals, and staff excited to see their students and for the year ahead.

Have a great week of learning everyone!

Colleen Burns Jermain, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

As we return to school, I want to reiterate what I shared in last week’s newsletter; Newport Public Schools are a safe and welcoming environment for ALL of our students. Our district has policies and procedures in place to keep our students and schools safe, and our administrators and staff have received extensive training on these policies. I also want to strongly reiterate that students are only dismissed to people authorized by their parents/guardians in writing and no other persons, including law enforcement. Newport Public Schools are open, safe, and we want all of our students in class everyday, where they belong! Should you have any questions regarding our school safety protocols, please reach out to my office or to your child’s building principal.

I want to remind everyone that beginning this school year, cell phone use is prohibited in all of our schools. We know this is a big change and there may be a few issues in the first weeks, but this is the right policy for our students and our schools. We want our students engaged in learning, free from the distractions of cell phone text messages and apps. Please take a moment to review the Student Cell Phones and Personal Electronic Devices Policy, and if you have any questions, please reach out to your school principal.📵

Today was Day 1 with our new parking arrangement at RHS for our students. Thank you to everyone for their assistance, patience, and to our student drivers- great job arriving and leaving safely. The morning session went very smoothly as our buses dropped off students as they arrived, while parents mixed in and dropped off as well. In the afternoon, it was a bit more crowded with buses that had to line up, students leaving , and then parent cars lined up behind our many buses loading our students.

Beginning tomorrow we want to separate the buses and parent cars. So we have moved the parent/student dropoff to the WEST parking lot. Signs have been posted AND we strongly recommend that cars travel from Brenton Road via either Wellington or Harrison Avenue to enter the WEST parking lot. Otherwise, parent cars will be lined up behind buses, as they did today, before they reach our building. In the West lot, there will be an area for line up and then the ability to circle out safely from the parking lot back to Wickham Road. In this way we hope to avoid too much traffic. We also have asked our friends at Newport Police Department to see if they can assist on Wickham Avenue from 1:50-2:20 pm. Newport Police will also allow student parking only on the school side of Wickham Road. Students should pull as fully onto the grass along the school side of Wickham as possible in front of the new school if the bus loop area is full.

Principal Vance will be sending an update as well to all families explaining the new process.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be reaching out to families about the possibility of moving Grade 5 students, who currently attend school at Thompson, to be based at Pell Elementary beginning next year in the 2026-27 school year. The Newport School Committee will be discussing this possibility at their next meeting on Tuesday, September 9th at 6:30 PM at Pell. Please note that no decision has been made yet, and this will not impact students for the current school year.

Click here to see this school year’s bus schedule. Please note that in the first weeks of school there are often minor hiccups with school bus pickups and dropoffs as our drivers get used to new routes. If you experience any issues, please reach out to your school’s principal or contact our school bus transportation provider Ocean State Transit at 401-399-3229.