Middletown Rejects Newport County Charter School Proposal

Middletown Town Council voted Monday not to support the Newport County STEAM Charter School proposal.

At the same time as the proposed school's first public hearing took place in Newport, Middletown Councilors voted 6-0 vote on the resolution, which was introduced by Vice President Robert Sylvia. Council President Christopher Semonelli recused himself.

“Decreasing enrollment has already had a negative effect on academic opportunities in the existing schools in Newport County, particularly in the high schools,” said Councilor Barbara VonVillas. She added it is impossible to provide the same academic opportunities that were available in 1990, when enrollment was double.

The resolution stated the charter school would encourage exclusivity, forced segregation and that the School Committee should revisit the town’s master plan for education facilities in light of the changes to the economy.

VonVillas said if the charter school opened, operating costs for the public schools would remain the same or increase, but revenues will decrease, which will even further limit academic opportunity for students left behind.

“I believe in providing academic opportunities for 100 percent of the students,” said Vonvillas.    

At the public hearing in Newport, Tim Ryan, Executive Director of the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association, said he does not support the proposal because the committee failed to work with the districts.

“I see a public school curriculum,” said Ryan about the proposal.

Middletown Superintendent, Rosemarie K. Kraeger came from the Newport hearing to reiterate those same concerns to the Middletown Town Council.  

“As an educator, I am not opposed to charter schools,” said Kraeger.  “I opposed to this one and so is the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association because there was lack of collaboration from the committee that proposed this charter school with any of the districts."

She said while the charter school application mentions diversity, the staffing proposal does not provide resources to meet those students' needs.

"There was no dialogue with the four districts.” said Kraeger.

She added the cost to send one student to the charter school would be $9,315 for Middletown, $11,568 for Newport and $10,092 for Portsmouth.

Councilor Dick Adams said districts should be working towards consolidation, not creating new schools.

He recalled living through segregation in Alabama. “One of the things that occurred the white population created private schools to avoid integrating,” said Adams. “The result was a disaster.”

Adams said charter schools could have a similar, even if unintended, result.