With the school year quickly coming to a close, Newport School Superintendent Colleen Burns Jermain joins What’sUpNewp for her monthly videocast at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 29, and we’ll ask her to reflect on this past year and her hopes and expectations for the year ahead.
This is a school system with considerable challenges, based upon the city’s makeup as among the most impoverished in Rhode Island, and a school system with a high number of multi-language learners.
Additionally, the latest Kids Count report, issued a few weeks ago, showed numerous areas where students were underperforming, concerned about violence in schools, and many in the system economically disadvantaged.
These are challenges faced daily in a number of ways by the superintendent and her staff, while they continue to face budget challenges, and a shortfall in funds needed for the Rogers High School building project.
Among areas we hope to cover:
- School attendance, an issue not only plaguing Newport schools, but schools across the country. We’ll want to find out how well the schools are addressing absenteeism.
- School budget, and how the schools ae coping with a loss of federal COVID funds, and the loss of funds as the Rhode Island Department of Education penalizes schools for lost enrollment. According to Kids Count, between 2010 and 2020, Newport’s under 18 population dropped by 10.4 percent, compared to a statewide decrease of 6.3 percent.
- Because of budget challenges, how many teachers will the system layoff in the coming year, and how that will impact the system.
- According to the superintendent in her latest newsletter to the community, construction of the new Rogers High School is progressing well, with an anticipated opening in September 2025. We’ll explore that further, and look at the finances, and what expectations are for the automotive and cosmetology programs, not included in current construction plans.
We’ll also try to touch on many of the areas discussed in the Kids Count Fact Book, including:
- Homelessness — Kids Count identified 36 children in Newport Public Schools experiencing homelessness.
- Nearly 70 percent of Newport public-school students are characterized as low income, third highest in Rhode Island.
- Some 16 percent of Newport High School students worry about violence in school (tied with a few towns at 11th highest in the state); some 27 percent of middle school students worry about violence in school (tied for second highest in the state with a few communities).
- Kids Count found that 19 percent of Newport students are multi-language learners, fourth highest in Rhode Island.
- Only 15 percent of Newport’s third graders are meeting expectations in reading, third lowest in Rhode Island. Only 14 percent of eighth grades are meeting expectations in reading, tied for second lowest in the state.
- Only 17 percent of Newport’s third graders are meeting expectations in math, fifth lowest in Rhode Island. Only 6 percent of eighth grades are meeting expectations in math, third lowest in the state.
- Newport school’s dropout rate of 13 percent is third highest in Rhode Island, and the graduation rate of 77 percent is fourth lowest.
