Regionalization - How To Do It Ourselves

The article in the Newport Daily News last week (“Can Regionalization Be Mandated?”) certainly stirred up a hornet’s nest. I don’t know anyone on Aquidneck Island who thinks the state should meddle in local affairs of this magnitude.

At the same time, more and more islanders are beginning to understand that school regionalization is just about the only way that taxpayers can support the towns’ services, provide a decent education for their children, and still keep their shirts.

So the question is: How do we make it happen proactively before the state gets impatient and decides to save us from ourselves? ? We can’t do it by burying our heads in the sand and waiting for it to go away. The cataclysm is upon us. Have you seen the losses our island communities will incur when the school funding formula becomes law – and it most certainly will - if not this proposal, then one just as onerous? Rhode Island is the only state that doesn’t have a funding formula. The answer for us is to recognize reality and rely on the legislation:

1. § 16-3-4 Creation of planning committee … – (a) Any city or town, by majority vote of its appropriating authority, may create a special unpaid committee to be known as a regional school district planning committee…, to consist of three (3) members, two (2) of whom shall be appointed by the president of the city or town council and one of whom shall be appointed by the chairperson of the school committee….

2. § 16-3-5 Formation of regional planning board. – Regional school district planning committees from any two (2) or more cities or towns may join together to form a regional school district planning board or boards.

3. § 16-3-6 Studies and reports by planning board. – It shall be the duty of the regional school district planning board to study the advisability of establishing a regional school district, its organization, operation, and control, and of constructing, maintaining, and operating a school or schools and the types of services to be performed by the school or schools to serve the needs of the district; to estimate the construction and its operating costs; to investigate the methods of financing the school or schools, and any other matters pertaining to the organization and operation of a regional school district; and to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the city or town councils of the several participating cities or towns…

4. § 16-3-7 Recommendations as to establishment of regional district. – The regional district planning board may recommend that there shall be established a regional school district….

5.  § 16-3-8 Submission of agreement to board of regents for elementary and secondary education and the cities or towns. – Copies of the agreement drawn by the regional district planning board in accordance with § 16-3-7 shall be submitted to the state board of regents for elementary and secondary education for review and recommendation

6.  § 16-3-9 Action by city or town on recommendations. – Each city or town council of the respective cities or towns shall, upon receipt of a recommendation that a regional school district should be formed, and of a proposed agreement submitted in accordance with the provisions of §§ 16-3-4 to 16-3-8, and with the approval required by § 16-3-8, direct the city or town clerk to cause the question of accepting the provisions of this and the following sections and the proposed agreement or agreements to be placed on the official [ballot…for a] referendum….

In other words, the legislation calls for the process to begin locally, at the level of the governing bodies. That means that the individual city and town councils have to take the official step to appoint planning committees, representing both council and school committee members, to explore the feasibility of school regionalization as it would affect their communities. I proposed such a committee for Middletown a couple of months ago, but the proposal was defeated.

Finally, at its February 16th meeting, the Middletown Town Council voted to tentatively explore regionalization as a committee of the whole. This is not quite what the legislation calls for, but it is the first official step taken by a governing body to actually discuss the idea.

The first meeting of the Middletown Town Council Committee of the Whole met on Monday, March 1st and conducted an open discussion of regionalization for the first time. Members were asked to state their opinions regarding school regionalization and they did so, absent the time constraints of the docket and the eye of the camera. I spoke with several observers, and they applauded the openness of the councilors and the willingness to express opinions.

The truth is that nothing will happen until the individual city and town councils begin the conversation, even if only in limited talks. The next step is for Newport and Portsmouth to conduct discussions of their own and for each council to dialogue with their individual school committees. That would initiate the beginning of the legislated process.

The resulting individual community planning committees - Middletown’s, Newport’s, and Portsmouth’s - if they so desired could each decide to explore the concept together. Following the legislation, a regional planning board could then be formed to discuss the possibilities of school regionalization.

All the talk in the world will leave us at the mercy of the state if the local city and town councils refuse to conform to the legislation and officially engage in the discussion. To delay is merely to postpone the inevitable. We are finally engaged in Middletown. What about Newport and Portsmouth?