Construction officially begins on new Rogers High School as talk of regionalization looms

NEWPORT — The soon-to-be former Rogers High School auditorium is where state and local officials, as well as students of Rogers past, present and future, convened Friday for an official groundbreaking ceremony for a new school building expected to open in the coming years.

“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s here, finally, and now we’re ready to move on to the next phase,” School Building Committee Co-Chair Rebecca Bolan said to the audience.

After 78% of Newport voters approved a $106.33 million bond to build a new Rogers High School and an addition to Pell Elementary School in 2020, the high school project faced redesigns and cuts as inflation bloated the price to build it.

Once estimated to cost around $98.8 million for a 169,875-square-foot school building, the latest plan now rings up between $108.2 million and $109.4 million and at about 3,000 less square feet.

The most recent design for the new high school greeted attendees for the groundbreaking ceremony on large placards as they walked into the school auditorium. One by one, government officials, including Gov. Dan McKee, U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Mayor Jeanne Marie Napolitano came forward to express their excitement for the occasion and thank the residents of Newport who made it possible.

More: Meet Rogers High School's top 10 students from the Class of 2022

“When you hold everything else constant, the condition of a school facility is directly tied to everything from attendance to asthma rates, to reading levels and test scores,” said Rhode Island Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who helped the Rhode Island Department of Education assess all 306 public school facilities in Rhode Island in 2017. “(In our 2017 report), Rogers High School held the dubious distinction of being the worst-rated facility of all 306, so this is a day we have been waiting for for a long time.”

Regionalization talk draws pushback

RIDE Commissioner Angela Infante-Green spoke about how the collaboration between the city, the school district, RIDE and other state officials made the project possible.

However, when she mentioned RIDE collaborating with the city to aid in the “smooth transition” to regionalize Newport and Middletown’s school districts, she received some negative pushback from the mostly quiet audience.

After speaking with Newport resident Aida Neary, one of the three mothers who helped to push forward the bond referendum for the new high school in 2020, about her concerns having two high schools under one school district, Infante-Green said it's too premature for her to comment on the issue.

More: Want to own a piece of Rogers High before the school is demolished? Here's how you can.

“It’s a small island,” Infante-Green said about regionalization in general. “They’re the same kids. Kids are kids, and what we’re looking forward to is to have a unified school system (in Newport and Middletown).”

The commissioner said she's hoping a regional school district encompassing the two municipalities will save costs for both communities and provide more educational opportunities and resources for students in both areas.

While the new high school has officially begun construction, Neary and her fellow former-bond referendum activists, Amy Machado and Kendra Muenter, are concerned the combined reimbursement costs between Middletown’s new school building projects and Rogers High School will cause RIDE and the new regional district to put Rogers on the backburner.

“I’m worried that because of Middletown’s effort, there could be a push to slow us down,” Neary said. “I haven’t seen it written anywhere, but it’s just a concern I have until we actually cut the ribbon and the kids are in there.”

'I'm so excited'

Still, all three are relieved to have this project finally off the ground. Their children will be high school sophomores when the new building is projected to open its doors to start the 2024-25 academic year.

More: Meet Allison Thompson, the Rogers grad seeking to become Miss Rhode Island USA

“I’m so excited,” Muenter said. “I cannot wait until 2024, when my daughter is able to attend a school that’s safe, with NACTC (Newport Area Career and Technical Center) next to core classes, without 78 doors that could be opened at any time, and she won’t have to worry about roof tiles falling or getting rained on.”

Although the building faced several redesigns, Machado said she’s satisfied with how the project was handled overall.

“Changes in design are going to happen,” Machado said. “Credit goes to the Newport voters who took action and said, ‘This is what every child in Newport deserves.’”

Different reaction from different generations of students

Machado’s daughter, Ruby, watched the ceremony alongside a few friends and her mother. As a rising eight-grader at Thompson and future student at the new high school, Ruby said she's not as excited about the specific changes to the building so much as a change in scenery in general.

“I’m so bored when I’m at school, and I’ve been at that school for years,” Ruby said. “I can’t wait to get out of Thompson right now, but if I’m at (the old) Rogers for two years and then get to go to a new school for the next two years, that will be pretty awesome.”

Muenter’s daughter Grace, who is in the same grade as Ruby, said she’s glad it will be a more safe environment than the current building.

“There’s a lot of old structures (at the old building) that could fall at any point,” Grace said. “It will be cool to have everything new.”

More: 'An awful lot of money': Newport-Middletown regionalization bill passes Senate. What's next?

Another attendee, Rogers High School alum Penelope Hunt, watched row after row of officials don hardhats and dig shovels into a pile of staged dirt in front of the high school feeling a mix of excitement and nostalgia.

The idea of losing the school building of her childhood caused Hunt to choke up a little during an interview, but she said she’s happy the younger generation will have an updated building.

“I’m excited about the new designs,” Hunt said. “There’s always a sense of nostalgia when you’re losing the whole building, but it will be a great opportunity for the kids to have a great, 21st-century building, absolutely.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport RI: Rogers High School groundbreaking ceremony held