School Regionalization – Restarting the Movement

I started this blog more than 4 years ago, in February 2010. My main purpose was to advocate for school regionalization.  If the reader is interested in the reasons Newport Country schools should regionalize, they are the same and the articles are still available on this blog. But now I need to bring the reader up to date.

In July 2013, Councilman Richard Adams and I renewed the effort to provide better educational opportunities to the students of Newport County, particularly at the high school level. 

Enrollments have dropped dramatically since 1990 and the country has recently been in a recession; as a result, school districts are not able to offer the same opportunities to students as they had to their parents. Reduced budgets and declining enrollments have meant fewer teachers and fewer high school courses while, at the same time,  RIDE is demanding higher standards. School districts are nearing the breaking point.  

But timing is everything. The community wasn’t ready in 2010. We think it is finally ready now to see that, to serve our high school students well, we have to put aside our emotional attachments to past glories and accept the need for change.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you what we did to re-start the discussion.