Schools

Tiverton To Talk School Regionalization; Newport Joins Push

Newport will join Middletown on a unified high school exploratory committee, while Portsmouth still objects any proposal for school regionalization.

Written by Olga Enger and Sandy McGee 

Newport will join Middletown in the next steps towards school regionalization. Newport City Council voted, 7-0, to support a unified high school exploratory committee at Wednesday night’s city council meeting held at Newport City Hall.

The committee was formed by Middletown on Oct. 7, with a mission to conduct join discussions related to a combined school.  

“Newport will now appoint members from their council to be part of the committee,” Middletown Town Councilor Barbara VonVillas told Patch. 

She said although the Portsmouth Town Council has not provided full commitment to join the committee, they were receptive to the idea Tuesday.

“We are trying to see who is on for the exploratory committee, “said Vonvillas.  “Even if they don’t want to be a partner, each community has a very different perspective,” she said. 

Find out what's happening in Tiverton-Little Comptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Portsmouth town council has so far taken no action regarding school regionalization. This might be because of the Portsmouth School Committee's firm opposition to the plan. 

The Portsmouth school committee recently voted 7-0 in favor of a resolution against the creation of a Unified High School Exploratory Committee. 

Find out what's happening in Tiverton-Little Comptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The resolution calls for three things: 

  1. The school committee respectfully requests that the Portsmouth Town Council not appoint nor authorize any action related to the request to appoint members to the Unified High School Exploratory Committee; 
  2. The Portsmouth School Committee respectfully requests our representatives to the Rhode Island General Assembly oppose any legislation regarding consolidation or regionalization of Aquidneck Island Schools; and,
  3. That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Portsmouth Town Council, the Middletown Town Council and our representatives to the Rhode Island General Assembly. 
Tiverton is also scheduled to discuss the issue of a Unified High School Exploratory Committee on Dec. 10. 

After the committee is formed, the next step is to seek enabling legislation and promote the concept within the partner communities. 

The committee’s goal is to allow voters to decide on the issue in November's election. 

What do you think? Should there be a regionalized school district? Why or why not? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here