NEWPORT, R.I. — The Newport City Council will consider a resolution at its Aug. 13 regular meeting that would put a school regionalization question before voters in April 2026, marking a renewed effort nearly four years after Newport voters narrowly rejected a similar proposal.
City Councilor Jeanne-Marie Napolitano will introduce the resolution, which proposes a an option presented by the Rhode Island Department of Education combining administration only for the purpose of a Newport/Middletown Regionalized School District. Both communities will share one superintendent and one finance office. Teachers and students will remain in their respective communities for the foreseeable future. All other personnel will be under the direction of the superintendent and newly elected school committee consisting ofmembersp from both communities.
Learning from 2022’s close defeat
The new proposal comes after Newport voters rejected regionalization in November 2022 by a narrow margin of 52.8% to 47.2%. That defeat also scuttled Middletown’s plans, where voters had approved both regionalization (64.5%) and a $235 million school building project (73.9%), contingent on Newport’s approval.
The 2022 result stood in stark contrast to the overwhelming success of school bond issues across Rhode Island that year, with communities like Providence (90% approval for $125 million), Pawtucket ($330 million) and Warwick ($350 million) all passing major school construction bonds.
Financial incentives
A regionalized administration office would enable both communities to greatly increase the state’s reimbursement for the new Rogers and addition to Pell Elementary School from 52.5% to 80.5%.
Other incentives including two-year bonuses and 50% reimbursement for in-district busing would go directly to the regionalized school system. The current level for funding for both municipalities would be combined to become the baseline funding going forward.
Community involvement planned
The resolution calls for robust discussions among the combined communities of educators, parents and students to take place outlining ways communities would work together to use some reimbursement funding to improve programming and student outcomes in a regionalized district.
Both Middletown and Newport would provide an equal number of appointments to an academic advisory commission to discuss potential educational improvements and make recommendations going forward.
The Newport City Council would engage in discussions with Middletown Town Council to prioritize and commit the use of reimbursement funds to create an endowment to improve educational opportunities for all students in the regionalized district.
The Aug. 13 Newport City Council meeting will take place at 6:30 pm in the Council Chambers at Newport City Hall.
The Resolution
