On Monday night, the #MiddletownRI Town Council okays a sit down with Newport officials about regionalizing schools. Local leaders said the preliminary conversation was intended to get facts and see if there was common ground between the communities.
MIDDLETOWN OKAYS REGIONALIZATION CONVERSATION WITH NEWPORT
MIDDLETOWN, RI (OCTOBER 20, 2025) – Middletown and Newport look to be heading back to the table to discuss regionalization again.
During a meeting Monday night in Town Hall, the Town Council voted 7-0 to accept an invitation from City-By-The-Sea leaders to chat about what combining schools could look like for both communities.
A date, location and other details for that potential meeting were not discussed.
At the same time, the council decided it was too early in the process to accept two other regionalization requests from Newport — naming representatives to an advisory commission and talking about an endowment fund to support education.
“We just want to start talking about it in public and see where it goes…” council President Paul Rodrigues said. “It certainly warrants a discussion, in my opinion.”
“All of this is not sustainable,” Councilor Charlie Roberts said. “We may have to regionalize highway departments eventually, police departments, fire, all kinds of things. This is an opportunity here to just sit down with somebody, with Newport and talk.”
In August, City-By-The-Sea officials asked Middletown to take the following actions on regionalization:
- Appointing local representatives to an Academic Integration Advisory Commission.
- Participating in a meeting between the Middletown Town Council and Newport City Council to talk about creating an endowment fund to improve educational opportunities with additional state reimbursement money generated from regionalization.
- Holding a regionalization summit between the councils and School Committees from each community with the Rhode Island Department of Education to go over what regionalization could look like for both communities.
The Middletown council and School Committee met on Oct. 9 to discuss the proposal from the basement meeting room of the Oliphant administration building.
There, the school board reiterated its concerns, saying there was too much happening to consider regionalization with Newport — right now.
This included construction of the new Middletown Middle High School, an overhaul of the curriculum, raising student test scores and achievements and other important obligations.
To read the school board’s Aug. 21 statement, visit https://mdl.town/LTE-Regionalization online.
The council appeared split on the concept at the Oct. 9 session, with some saying the conversation wouldn’t bind Middletown to anything and was worth investigating.
They maintained that with rising costs, declining student enrollment and more needs than ever before, what Middletown was doing with its schools wasn’t sustainable for the long term.
In response, others said the regionalization conversation was coming at the wrong time and could hurt building momentum within the Middletown schools.
On Monday night after a lengthy discussion, the council was unanimous in its willingness to meet with Newport and see where things went.
School Committee Chairperson Greg Huet also said the school board could reconsider its position if several important issues were addressed. Among those included the financial impact, academic impact, the process of integrating business and facility operations, labor relations, policy and governance and facility operations.
The regionalization conversation between the two communities isn’t a new one.
Middletown voters overwhelmingly approved plans to create a joint School Committee, combined school administration and other measures in November 2022. But that conversation ended when Newport voters rejected the idea by about 400 votes.
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