Newport Public Schools


Newport Public Schools is the public school system of Newport, Rhode Island.

History

NPS hired Jack Ambrogi as superintendent in 2005 and Colleen Jermain as superintendent in January 2014.

Schools

Its schools are Claiborne Pell School, Frank E. Thompson Middle School, and Rogers High School. Preschool students go to leased classrooms at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, a Middletown Public Schools facility in Middletown. The Middletown arrangement is scheduled to expire in 2021.
Pell, named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell, opened in August 2013 as a consolidation of previous elementary schools. Pell, constructed on the former Sullivan school site, serves all areas of Newport, allowing for all families to have access to the same facilities and services at the elementary level. The building has a capacity of 842 students. A bond worth $30 million to build a new consolidated elementary school was approved by voters in November 2010. The Rhode Island Department of Education only funded the amount of space that the school was projected to have; it added an additional two classrooms after a request from Newport authorities. Pell had 890 students when it first opened, and Pell is overcrowded as it had 950 students. By 2014 NPS sought to lease classrooms at JFK School to relieve overcrowding at Pell. The enrollment levels were higher than expected as a previous economic recessions around 2008 made private school unaffordable for area residents, because the Catholic school in Newport, St. Joseph of Cluny School, closed in 2017, and because parents were interested in Pell's new facilities. Pell has two playgrounds.
In 2018 Linda Borg of the Providence Journal wrote that "Newport had successfully rebuilt the aging Thompson Middle School, which was hailed as a success."

Defunct schools

There were previously multiple elementary schools, with seven in operation as of 1997, and six in operation in the mid-2000s. The relatively small schools remained in operation even though the city is only large; members of the Newport community wished to keep them open as they wanted their children to be in walking distance of their elementary schools. The schools served different socioeconomic groups as their service areas were different. By the 2000s the enrollment levels had declined. In addition, all of the elementary schools needed maintenance; three had been originally built in the late 1800s. Some students traveled by school bus to other elementary schools because special education services were only offered at certain schools and so the schools could have better socioeconomic and/or racial balances.
The idea of a school merger was brought up in 2005 after the district experienced a budget shortfall. Ambrogi closed two schools after he became superintendent in 2005; he received death threats afterwards. In 2013 the remaining elementary schools were consolidated.

List of defunct schools

;Callender School
;Carey School
;Thomas Coggeshall School
;Cranston-Calvert School
;Sheffield School
;Dr. Michael H. Sullivan School
;George H. Triplett School
;William J. Underwood School