#MiddletownRI Town Council and School Committee members met Thursday night to discuss an invitation to restart talks about combining school districts. No decisions emerged from the session, but there were plenty of opinions about the idea.
MIDDLETOWN UNCERTAIN
ON NEXT STEPS WITH REGIONALIZATION
MIDDLETOWN, RI (OCTOBER 9, 2025) – The idea of reopening discussions of regionalizing schools with Newport received mixed reviews Thursday night.
At a lightly attended meeting from the Oliphant administration building, School Committee members remained firmly against potentially disrupting the momentum of the Middletown schools by restarting conversations about combining educational systems.
However, Town Council members were split on how best to move forward. Some said there wasn’t the will or need now to regionalize, with others open to discussing the subject and seeing where things led.
No formal decisions came out of the joint session. It was unclear what was next for the subject, with some talk about including the issue on the council’s next agenda for Oct. 20.
“We’re no better than them and they’re no better than us, in my opinion,” council President Paul Rodrigues said. "We just need to have a discussion about it and see where it goes.”
“I am in favor of regionalization, not under the current situation…” council Vice President Thomas Welch said. “Once we didn’t get regionalization (before), then we went ahead on our own and we are doing very well for a whole host of reasons.”
“If you don’t have teachers and educators and administration (sitting at the table and working on regionalization), it’s very difficult…” School Committee member Theresa Spengler said. “The timing of this is not good for our district because we’re so knee deep into the buildings and Building Committee meetings and all the things that are happening right now.”
In August, City-By-The-Sea officials asked Middletown to take the three following actions related to 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.
Initially, the Middletown School Committee rejected the idea outright, saying there were too many other priorities for the district to investigate regionalization again.
To read the School Committee’s Aug. 21 statement, go to https://mdl.town/LTE-Regionalization online.
In early September, council and school leaders agreed there needed to be a face-to-face discussion on the subject before acting formally on Newport’s request from over the summer.
On Thursday night from the basement meeting room, council and school board members went into executive session after opening the session.
Among the items on that section of the agenda were collective bargaining, potential litigation and legal strategies as well as discussion of real estate and asset transfers. Each are eligible for private conversations between elected officials under state law.
In sum, they met for close to an hour before emerging from behind closed doors to open the discussion to the public.
The entire five-member School Committee was in attendance, with five of the seven members of the council on hand — Vice President Thomas Welch as well as Councilors Peter Connerton, Charlie Roberts, Dennis Turano and Barbara VonVillas.
Council President Paul Rodrigues joined the open discussion about an hour and a half into the conversation, apologizing for a work commitment that kept him from arriving earlier.
From the outset of the public session, it was clear the school board’s opposition remained.
After the discussion was opened, School Committee Chairperson Greg Huet read the education board’s prior resolution on regionalization.
Going through the memo word for word, Huet wrapped up by saying “Our position has not changed.”
His fellow school board members agreed, with several offering their perspectives on the issue.
“We’re in a different place from 2022 to today…” School Committee member Tami Holden said. “I have a lot of concerns with the timeframe of everything.”
“I don’t necessarily think regionalization is the way to go,” School Committee Vice Chairperson Wendy Heaney said. “I’m willing to have that discussion, but I’m not willing to rush this, which is what I feel like is happening with the resolution (from Newport).”
“Some of you are businessmen and businesswomen,” Huet added. “Would you merge with another business if it’s falling short of meeting its core mission responsibilities? Would you merge with another business that is not fiscally sound?
The idea of regionalizing schools has been an off and on again subject between Middletown and Newport over the past two decades plus.
In November 2022, Middletown voters overwhelmingly approved plans to form a joint School Committee, a combined school administration and other measures. That round of the conversation was ended when Newport voters rejected the idea by about 400 votes.
Over the years, regionalization advocates have said combining schools would create more opportunities for students, save money and help address declining enrollment figures.
In response, opponents maintain there are too many obstacles, no money would be saved and other examples of regionalization in Rhode Island have never produced the promised results.
Council members added their ideas, with some on board with extending the talks and others saying it wasn’t the right time.
“Here we are, at the eleventh hour trying to push something through potentially without really digging into it,” Connerton said. “If this is something we really want to do, why are we not forming committees, not under a rushed timeline, to come to common sense goals to go forward, to really plan this thing. In my opinion, it’s a money grab.”
“I want to have a conversation about this,” Roberts said. “That’s all I’m seeing here, to discuss. It’s not binding us to anything.”
“If we do form this committee, I’m going to be asked to be put on it,” Turano said. “Let’s stay open minded and take that next step. Don’t be afraid. Let’s figure it out and in the end, if it’s not the right thing to do for our students, if it’s not the right thing to do for our voters, our residents, then we won’t do it.”
“If we’re going to talk about this at all, don’t talk about the money,” VonVillas said. “I don’t want to hear anything about the money. I want to hear about how it’s going to be better for the kids.”
Document Link: https://mdl.town/NYCU-TCSC-10925
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