Superintendent Message

Dear Newport Schools Parents, Families, and Staff:

Welcome to our first full week of school. Hopefully all our students are enjoying their classes and studies, and all of us are encouraging them to do their best to learn and achieve. Our children are bright, talented and are so creative. We need to nurture that- grow it and allow them to soar! Scholarship and academics are the first steps to future success.

As a reminder, we must be at school to learn. We also must have schools that are welcoming, safe places where our students and staff want to be every day. This year all of us will be focused on instruction in the classroom implementing our Vision of Excellence. Our Vision of Excellence is about fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration between our students and their teachers. This means creating respectful and affirming relationships between students and their teachers, where teachers believe students can achieve at high levels as we create environments of joyful and collaborative learning with peers as our students engage in active discourse and building off of each other's ideas.

What else is new? Open Houses are scheduled for next week Monday-Thursday.

This is a time when parents and families, along with students, are able to show off their

rooms, their school, and most important of all, you are able to meet their teachers! It is meant to be a fun welcoming night for everyone. Being clearly aware there are labor disagreements going on we are hoping for all our teachers and staff to attend, despite our labor differences, as we move forward to arbitration. I want to thank all the teachers that are coming in before and staying after school, and appreciate their efforts. As I mentioned earlier to staff, teachers will be compensated for attending Open House as we give back our mandatory December 19th faculty meeting time to show them our appreciation for their time outside normal school hours. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that all of us have a joyful time next week.

Finally, our new school year has lots of changes underway. We continue to implement our new math and ELA curriculums throughout the entire district, we have coaching models being set up to help our teachers have powerful instruction in the classroom and we are monitoring the elementary students' progress in literacy and math. It is a year of change and working together we will be successful.

Last year we made great strides improving student attendance and decreasing chronic absenteeism at all of our schools. That’s something to celebrate, but we need to keep the momentum going this school year as well. Our early attendance numbers are not where they need to be. So now is the time to get engaged and recommit to making Attendance Matters, Every Day a priority. We need everyone’s help getting our students to school every day. We welcome ideas from everyone!

A reminder that next week we’ll be holding School Open Houses. These are a fun opportunity to tour Pell, Thompson, and Rogers, visit classrooms, and talk with your student’s principals and teachers. (Please note that School Open Houses are not parent - teacher conferences, which will be scheduled for later this fall.) Here are the dates for next week’s School Open Houses:

• Pell Elementary School - Grades PreK, K & 1 - September 23rd - 5:00- 6:00 PM

• Pell Elementary School - Grades 2, 3 & 4 - September 24th - 5:00-6:00 PM

• Thompson Middle School - September 25th - 5:00-6:30 PM

• Rogers High School - September 26th - 5:00 - 6:30

We are always looking for engaged parents and family members to provide feedback and with whom we can share information about what’s happening in our schools. So please attend our Parent/Family Advisory Council’s first meeting, tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM at CCRI Newport, Room 233. A virtual link to participate is also available. Please email Cathy Nash at cathynash@npsri.net to request the virtual link.

We understand that 9:30 AM may be a challenging time and not convenient for some parents/families to participate. That is why we will be discussing other time windows for future Parent/Family Advisory Council meetings that will enable parents/families to have a space to speak with the Superintendent.

• This Week’s Athletics Schedule

• TOMORROW: Newport School Committee Candidate Forum, 6:00-9:00 PM at Innovate Newport.

• This Saturday: Newport and Aquidneck Island Join Scouting Day.

• This Saturday: Newport Tree Conservancy Miantonomi Park Reforestation Volunteer Day.

• This Saturday: Conexion Latina Newport Festival Latino 2024.

• September 28th Bike Newport “Bike To The Beach” Fundraiser to support Thompson Middle School’s weekly Life Skills/Bike safety program.

• Buy Your Tickets for the Newport Public Education Foundation’s October 17th “An Evening For Education” Celebration. (all funds raised will benefit Newport Public Schools)

• Free Vaccination Clinics - REGISTER HERE