The idea of a regionalized school district on Aquidneck Island has been proposed many times over the years, but it has never moved forward. In 2014, Middletown voters rejected a ballot question about exploring school regionalization, while Newport voters overwhelmingly supported the idea. More recently, over one thousand people signed a petition in 2020 asking Middletown’s Town Council to study the possibility of school unification. The council, however, rejected the petition on a technicality and declined to pursue regionalization.
Since then, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on school districts, and the cost of necessary school construction projects has grown. Newport Mayor Jeanne-Marie Napolitano says that’s one reason why Newport and Middletown are now reconsidering how unifying the districts could help communities save money and qualify for increased state aid.
According to the Rhode Island Department of Education, school unification could make Newport and Middletown eligible to have up to 80% of new school construction costs reimbursed by the state. Officials also estimate that it would save approximately $2.5 million in redundant administrative spending.
“It’s really having [a] unified administration. When they looked at the numbers and the amount of money that goes [toward] administration, it’s rather top heavy — particularly for the sizes of our schools,” said Napolitano. “Middletown has about 2000 students, as does Newport. And if you look at other communities, their school systems are much larger.”
In a joint statement Tuesday, Newport and Middletown said the possible consolidation would allow the two communities to maintain their existing schools and sports programs. Noting this difference from previously floated proposals, Middletown’s official website announced the districts will “consider restarting talks about regionalizing their school systems — with a twist.”
Beyond cost reduction, Napolitano said she also believes school unification has the potential to improve and expand class offerings for local students.
“We’ve seen this in both Newport and Middletown, where some classes have 10 students in advanced classes, when they probably could have 20 students, if it were offered to both systems,” she said.
Newport is already in the middle of a roughly $100 million project to build a new high school and expand its elementary school, which voters approved in 2020. Local officials say these preliminary discussions about regionalization with Middletown will not impact the ongoing construction.
Moving forward, Newport City Manager Joe Nicholson and Middletown Town Administrator Shawn Brown, as well as other local officials, plan to meet with RIDE staff to study potential regionalization arrangements.
Antonia Ayres-Brown is the Newport Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio and a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at antonia@thepublicsradio.org
