Start with a roll call, please.

David Carlin.

Lynn Underwood Segley.

Here.

Charlie Holder.

Here.

Side camps for G Marina Politano.

Here.

Ellen Pinnock.

Here.

Stephanie Smythe.

Here.

There's a quorum present, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, one of these owners.

I was gonna read it in the meeting.

It is now the agenda.

What?

So the Newport City Council, we are uh meeting here today with a joint uh joint meeting talking about school regionalization with the town of Middletown.

Um so uh I make a motion to uh begin the meeting.

I have a second.

Uh motion and second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, thank you, Charlie.

Uh joint meeting uh council uh meeting workshop with the city council Newport.

Motion to begin the meeting workshop.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

So I just want to uh welcome everyone tonight.

Uh thank you to the uh Atlantic Resort uh for having us here again uh for our second workshop of uh of the joint regionalization or re joint workshop regional uh on school regionalization.

So um we had a good uh start last uh last month um December 8th, and we decided that we want to keep the talks going and keep the motive uh momentum going.

And we are very happy to have uh members of the Rhode Island uh Department of Education with us tonight as well, uh so we can answer some questions on that and then talk about what the status is uh where we are currently with uh both the city of Newport and the town of the okay.

Yeah, I just I just echo Charlie's uh comments.

Um pretty good meeting last time.

There was a will to continue discussions on uh uh if there's a path forward on regionalization or not.

Um you know, lists of questions have come out um that uh in a lot of times we can we can answer the questions the best we can, but some of the questions really the the professionals that ride could do probably much better job, and you probably have a lot more confidence in them hearing it come from them because you can hear it come from us and have heard it come from us in the past.

So sometimes it's better to have the folks in the room.

So Mario, I don't know if you want to introduce uh the folks you're with or and then it's up to you.

I gotta try that.

Uh good evening, members of the city and town council.

Uh my name is Drew Eccleson, very proud to be the deputy commissioner at the Rhode Island Department of Education.

I'm here with some amazing colleagues representing different functions within the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Uh specifically Dr.

Mario Mario Carrano, uh the chief uh operation operating officer for Ride.

He also leads, as you know, the school building authority work, our director of finance, uh Brandon Bull, and our chief legal counsel, Anthony Catone.

Uh so we really appreciate uh the questions that were posed to us in advance of the meeting.

It was really helpful to have some insight uh to the things that were important to you as uh respective leaders within your communities.

I I just wanted to lead um with saying that our presence here is is certainly and clearly at your invitation.

We take no stance at all.

We've we feel like this is a very much a local matter about whether or not uh the town should should think in the city should think about regionalization.

But it is very important to our commissioner that we provide support.

And so we are here to provide technical assistance.

We we sort of are here this evening to do that, and we'll maintain that effort and that interest uh for as long as you all want.

Um so just know that we stand ready to support.

Uh some of these are very technical, particularly legal questions.

And so also as we sort of move forward, your respective LEA legal counsels might want to work with our chief legal counsel, uh, and we're happy to uh provide any support we can on that front.

My job uh sort of just to kick us off is just to like lay out some themes uh from the questions that we propose uh that you all propose to us, um, and then my colleagues who are sort of much more content experts in some of these areas will be available to answer any specific questions that you might have.

Um, so one uh there was a specific question about process and uh and specifically what the law states around uh what is what needs to be done relative to process.

And so um we want to be very clear that our reading of the state law provides great clarity on the process that local municipalities need to go through to plan for regionalization.

It lays out a very explicit framework of what needs to be included as part of that process and included in an uh a local agreement.

The law is much uh less clear on exactly how that process needs to look.

So, what decisions you all come to if you decide to pursue this moving forward are things that are at the discretion of the local leaders.

Um and so um while there will be an expectation that once it once or if a local agreement is crafted that that would be submitted to Ride for review.

Uh the commissioner has been very clear that her interest is meeting the needs of local communities and being responsive to their needs.

There is a question uh specifically about sort of governance and specifically the role of the school board.

Um and so a regional school board would need to be established and to be elected, and that ensures proportional representation based on the enrollment for each community.

So just hypothetically, let's just say that there are community A and community B.

Community A has 60% of the students coming from that community and community B, 40%.

You would expect there to be some representation of about 60 40 in terms of elected officials from those two communities leading uh the school board.

One of the key duties, of course, of a school board is to uh make decisions on the hiring and firing of a superintendent.

That would be the core work, one of the core responsibilities of that school board.

But another important core responsibility is about the establishment of a budget.

And so we looked specifically at the ways that uh regional regionalized school districts across Rhode Island uh establish the budget.

Generally, what they do um is they establish a whole group in terms of the sort of regional school board, uh, what the overall sort of budget needs to be for the respective community.

Then a joint finance committee, which represents the two has equal representation of two communities, comes together to make decisions about how that money is going to be allocated.

So that is the way that almost every sort of regional school district in Rhode Island is sort of leading that process.

We have that documented.

Uh and so there is a question in one of the 12 questions that was posed by these councils about sort of research and best practices, and we have those documented and we'd be prepared to share them with you at any point if you'd like.

There was also a question about um how what sort of ride role Ride plays in terms of approval of uh materials.

Um, and our job would be to review um and to provide any recommendations that we might have about the local agreement.

And so after the local regional board meets and makes decisions about what the proposal is going to be, Ride is happy to play a part in any um sort of discussions as part of that process, but also would then um through the commissioner provide explicit feedback uh on that should the uh should the regional board be interested in that.

So we're happy to take any questions that you might have.

Um we can answer things.

We have representation from the legal office from the operations, specifically SBA.

There were a lot of SBA questions, and so Mario is here and can answer those questions and answer any questions that you might have uh relative to finance.

And I can answer any questions that you have about data and accountability uh because it's part of the portfolio that I leave.

So I'll turn it over uh to the president or chair, however, you all are going to facilitate, and we're happy to uh answer questions you might.

Charlie, I don't know how you want to handle it, but there's um I think I think it's important that you know the the questions, there was a lot of questions, but they're basically a lot of them were condensed to 10 questions.

And it's not just 10, but I think those 10 were kind of prioritized.

Yeah, so I don't know if you want to go one by one or how you want to do it.

Yeah.

Um, before we get to that, though, I want to uh just touch on uh basically where we are with a couple of things that we uh discussed last time, mainly the um Quinnick Island Academic Committee.

Um when we were here last time we talked about and actually the city of Newport drafted a resolution and it passed uh to form an academic uh a Clinic Island Academic uh advisory committee.

Um since that time uh we have taken in uh over 20 uh applicants and starting tomorrow and then Thursday as well, we will be doing interviews on uh with the majority of those applications.

Um the hope is to have uh about well we want to have six people in place.

Um it's gonna take us uh probably that early part that probably that first meeting in February to have our our council in place or our uh our committee in place, and then with uh uh Mr.

President, wherever your uh wherever you guys see your application process or interview process will we'll follow those lines as well.

Okay.

Um but we are looking to uh get that going again.

We have interviews this Tuesday and Thursday.

Um, and those are gonna be it will take us some time to get through all of them because there are a lot of good applications, a lot of good applicants.

Um, and then we also have our in our meeting this Wednesday night um a redraft of the resolution for that um for that advisory committee.

And if if you don't mind, I'm just gonna take a minute and just to read the resolves on that, that's okay.

I don't know, Ellen and anybody go through.

Yeah, I don't want to do the whole thing, but so uh regional academic integration advisory committee uh be resolved that the city uh of Newport Council supports the formation of an academic integration advisory committee, the AIAC, to advise on ways Newport and Middletown can collaborate to provide fair access and improve student outcomes, and respectfully request that the Middletown Town Council join in the formation of the same, and be further resolved that the AIAC shall be compromised of 12 total members with each council to appoint six of these members members shall include uh educational experts, experts from both communities, including superintendents or their advisors on curriculum and academic success, representatives from parent teacher organizations, public school educators, a designee from each school committee represent representatives from community-based educational support programs, such as each community's Learn 365 programs and other individuals with demonstrated experience in educational integration, school finance, and school regionalization.

And be it further resolved that the AIAC's work will be supported by a consultant selected from firms approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education for such work agreed to, hired, and compensated as mutually agreed to by the Newport City Council and Middletown Town Council, and be it further resolved that the AIEC shall pursue a proposed action plan to identify the existence and adequacy of opportunities for educational improvement through integration across Newport and Middletown public schools.

And by May 31st, 2026, the committee shall prepare a comprehensive report detailing such opportunities and the governance and funding mechanisms necessary to pursue pursue such opportunities to improve educational opportunities and the equitable access to such, and be it further resolved that this report may be used as a guide for current and any future efforts regarding educational regionalization under the present council.

The report's findings shall be reviewed prior to the Newport Council seeking to seeking to put forth to the voters any matter of regionalization.

Now please keep in mind that this is gonna be in front of the Newport City Council on Wednesday, this Wednesday, the 14th.

So there could be some changes uh made, but that is basically the uh the nuts and bolts of what we're looking to do on our side of the academic integration uh commission.

Uh Mr.

President, I will turn it over to you.

So uh we're a little bit behind.

We you guys started a little bit earlier than we did with the uh with um the advertising stuff.

So we've advertised.

I think we have three right now.

Um so we got a little bit of work to do.

But Wendy, what's the timeline for the appointments?

Yep.

Okay.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And then that's our last meeting.

I know we had discussed it would probably be uh probably later.

Yeah.

Yep.

But at least uh you know we have that we have that part going and going forward.

Um that's that's what we have on our on our side.

Um probably hopefully uh if we decide to continue and these talks have our next meeting, we'll have a better idea of that we'll uh anything uh any questions or comments from the council.

Yeah, yeah.

Sorry.

Um I do have a question I'm sorry for for Ride.

Um you mentioned that the joint uh finance committee that would have equal representation.

Um it would be 50-50.

Is that right?

And then how are they selected?

Um it it depends on how it's selected.

We have uh in some communities that the city or town council selects them, in other cases they make decision as a governing team of a regional school board.

Um so that would be as part of the sort of agreement language that you all would need to make that decision about how that's done.

Um I probably misspoke when I said, and I know that I did say equal representation, it's probably proportional representation would have been a more appropriate one.

Thank you.

Yep.

Hi True said uh my name's Anthony Catone.

I'm chief legal at Ride, and we're here to help.

So I mean, um, you know, I'm familiar with the uh attorneys for the school committees.

And you know, we're here, I have a staff that any questions you guys have, that's why we're here.

So it's not to take sides, we don't it's just if you have technical questions.

Just as an overview, basically there's a uh chapter of the island general laws, Title 16, chapter three, which has like 26 provisions that deal with regionalization.

And that's the template that is sort of the basic structure.

You guys may know this already, you know how but within that, you know, there's also the legislation that was in 2022 that you guys enacted.

You're able to agree to vary what's in that statute in terms of most of the provision.

So a lot of this has to do with your own agreements uh with respect to many aspects of the how it works.

That legislation, if we can agree upon it, it'll just kind of fairly similar, at least in my opinion, would be very similar to what we had in place in 22.

Okay, I think it was very equitable for both sides.

Um actually we proposed something and newport came back and we we said, yeah, that's it.

Let's do that.

My my question was just hearing um equal representation because I thought the majority that would be on the school committee with the opposite would be on the finance committee.

The opposite majority would be on the finance committee.

So I just wanted to make sure that that was correct.

That's where the 2022 legislation was.

Yeah.

The only thing that the only thing I'll mention before I sit down again is there's a case that uh Bristol and Warren got into a dispute, you may be familiar about what they're entitled to in the way the state on aid.

Uh Warren was making the argument, and they were successful, that because they had more free and reduced price lunch students, they got a higher amount of state aid per pupil, and that they believe that rather doing calculations based on per capita just on the students, they should be able to have that reflected in in the in the calculations.

Brandon can explain the the mechanics of that, but they were successful when you do have to, in fact, include the increased amount of one or the other communities regard to the population.

Okay, thank you.

Chairman, question for counseling.

Yes, counseling.

Uh, if you could, counselor.

Thank you very much for making the long drive down.

I don't know how many bridges you all crossed.

Two, one, how would you guys?

So I live in Portsmouth, so it's not you went to the wrong way.

It wasn't too far, but you think you can bring them in on this whole regionalization thing too?

All right, so so one um statutory question for you, and then I'll have a more specific technical question.

Yeah.

Statutorily, is the 2022 law still in effect?

Uh the state that law is is essentially a moot.

I mean, you can do whatever you want with that.

You can change it, amend it, um, and resubmit legislation.

The session ended, and so the legislation is, you know, uh it can be changed, it's not not bound by it in any way.

But is it in does it do the provisions set forth there, for example, for equal representation with an alternating share on the finance board?

Do those remain in effect, or will we have to re-introduce that legislation for that to be an optional pathway for us?

I think that is if you didn't do anything to it and it stayed as as is, you wouldn't have to do anything.

If you want to change it, you'd have to reintroduce legislation.

So it does not sunset.

I don't believe so.

I'll get back to you on that to make sure.

That's an important detail for us here.

If that's the if that's the framework legislation, I would think that the starting point for us is understanding the basis of the law that we're operating under here in terms of what's potentially possible.

So that'd be very helpful to know.

Um second, when we say proportional representation, is it based on population of the community, or is it based on student population in attendance?

Student population in attendance as of a certain date of enrollment.

Very helpful.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair.

Council.

Thank you.

I just um before we like really get too deeply dug into this process.

I do have um just I guess a concern and then a question for um Mr.

President or for representative from Ride.

And I'm gonna preface this by saying no one is gonna like this question, okay.

Um so it's just it's on the top of my mind as someone who works with kids, and trust building is super important, I think, in this process.

And if this process does move forward in every iteration after.

So like I'm a little bit not a little bit, I'm a lot concerned um about the advocacy that came from Middletown to not reroute the trucks when Admiral Calf is boulevard, um, the weight restriction, because in my mind, like those are kids that we should really be concerned about in this process.

And I didn't really feel like that was important at that meeting.

And I know people are gonna think these two things are not related, but they are because I feel like if we can't agree to keep our kids safe, like I look at all of our kids as all of our kids.

I want kids to be safe in Middletown, I want kids to be safe at Portsmouth, I want kids to be safe in Portsmouth in uh Newport, and that's just who I am as an individual.

So I think what I'm concerned about is like the guardrails for like accountability.

How do we make sure that Middletown um is looking out for all of us involved in that newport is looking out for all of us involved?

It's not a one-sided thing.

I'm just curious about the accountability and the equity in this process if we get to more points where a decision needs to be made that benefits one and not the other.

And I'm not sure if you're the person even answering.

Oh, I'll be glad to answer that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So you might not like my answer.

Um Charlie had called me about this um yesterday or the day before, and said a couple of councils in Newport were upset about Sean's representation.

The count our council sent Sean there.

Right.

Okay.

Because, you know, I didn't see the two issues tied together at all, regionalization or or um and divert trying to divert the traffic from your town and putting more traffic in our town, and without even us knowing it from the beginning or a conversation.

And I think that was wrong.

So I had the same feeling.

I'm like, well, you know, in the bigger picture of things, how are we going to move forward if we can't figure something like this out?

So there was some concern there.

Um but we sent, I want to be very clear, we had Sean go represent the town of Middletown.

We're gonna protect ourselves and our roadways and just as you're trying to do.

So I didn't really tie that into regionalization at all.

Yeah, so not necessarily tied into really regionalization, but like that type of issue, like it's we're on two separate sides of that issue, and it does involve school children, and this issue involves school children also.

So I just want to make sure that we can like in the future get to a place where we can like converse and really look at like the benefit of something.

Yeah, I don't I mean the kind of have any issues.

I don't think anybody on our council has any issues talking about something like that, but it was more of we almost felt it was being jammed down our throat.

And then it, you know, the DOT said no to you guys, and so you appealed it.

There was another process.

We went up there, Sean called me and said, Hey, what do you think?

I said, he said, our police chiefs going.

I said, I think you should go too.

And so he did to represent the town, and that's that's kind of what happened.

And you know, they they held by what the state traffic experts said, not by what the Middletown said.

It's just how we felt.

But you know, I think the uh the facts point towards hey, that's not the right thing to do.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

I do have one more question for Ride, I think.

Is it a good one?

No, I mean that's all right.

It's better.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Um so I just uh my question, like so administrative decisions, whether um intentionally unintentionally, we'll say unintentionally, administrative decisions can unintentionally widen like gaps if equity isn't explicit explicitly considered.

So I'm wondering how RIDE has looked at an administration only regionalization plan and how that could affect different groups of students.

So like if you've looked at this, have you noticed any areas or any gaps where our kids could like fall through, particularly like our learners with disabilities, our multilinguage learners, our black indigenous and kids of color uh I could have the data and accountability team run an analysis of academic performance and uh other SEL measures that Ride collects at a state level to particularly um analyze uh these factors uh for regional school districts.

Okay.

What I what I will also say is that the role of the regional school board is going to be critical here, the regional school committee.

As a regional school committee, uh they should set uh sort of um goals for their s for their regional school board or for the regional school uh community that reflect the vision and values of the community that should uh have a specific attention to students that as a state we have historically not served as well as we need to, and those students need need to in many ways be at the center of the work that the school board is monitoring in terms of student progress.

Uh obviously one of the key critical factors will be uh for the regional school board to hire a superintendent uh that will continue and push the work and focus on the goals uh that the regional school board sets.

Thank you.

And just one more question, Mr.

Chair.

Um well, I have like 15, but I'm just gonna ask one for the sake of time.

One at a time.

Okay.

So you want me to stop or keep going?

All right.

Thanks.

Thanks, Charlie.

Um, so I'm I'm just curious if for just say like the regional administration setup does end up showing that there is some harm that happens on either the middle town side or the newport side when it comes to our students, who would be responsible for going back in, reevaluating that and fixing that would that be right?

Just for your hypothetical, uh hypothetical.

Could you just give me an example of what you mean by harm?

So, like if um scores are lower anything on either side, um, or if services are diluted on either side.

Um the the work around monitoring academic performance for st for ag students in the aggregate and for groups of students is the local responsibility.

That's something that the school superintendent in collaboration with his or their board should be monitoring.

Uh it should it there should be clear goals that the board sets that they would like the superintendent to go after.

There should be clear guardrails uh to help dictate uh the things that the board does and does not want the superintendent to do.

Uh and the board should be getting uh monthly updates at minimum around student performance relative to those goals.

Ride uh for every LEA provides feedback to the LEA about how their performance is each academic year at the conclusion of RICAS uh uh SAT, PSAT data, as well as other measures such as survey works where we are getting information from our parents, students, teachers around their experience in schools.

We are providing uh a summary of that data to each superintendent and encourage that superintendent to share that information with his her or their board.

Thank you.

And that that has detailed information around the performance of groups of students.

Thank you.

And there are data points that that you would collect to see how this is working.

Correct.

Thank you.

Does Does Ride differentiate between uh administrative regionalization and full regionalization?

I would defer to our legal one.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The um state law doesn't define administrative regionalization, it's just regionalization, and then you can operate as you want.

If as you'll see in Rhode Island, every single I don't have many, but regional district has different frameworks and different rules.

So that term isn't isn't found anywhere, though I believe your 2022 version intended to be something somewhat of that nature.

Mr.

Chair.

Yes, counseling.

Um I received some inquiries from members of the school committee with varying opinions on what's being considered here this evening in a generalized two communities.

The point specifically and their understanding is is the understanding of this body as a group gathered right now that what we're talking about relative to regionalization is full integration of kids across every grade and across every school within the two municipalities, or is it to keep students operating in separate different schools and just merging administration?

I'll say what what my belief is.

It has to be one high school, one middle school, one elementary school, at the very least two elementary schools, because I understand the uh not wanting to have the younger kids travel, you know, on a on a daily basis.

So um I think at the end of the day, that's what we have to we have to go for.

I think that's what's in our our best interest of both communities.

Again, this I'm speaking for myself.

I'm not speaking as a newport counsel for the council, but I think that's where we have to be at the end of the day.

Uh one of the reasons that the administrative regionalization has been put in a place is because of where each community is or has been for the last couple of years with the more can you hear me?

Yeah.

So wherever everyone has been since 2022.

Obviously, we just built our new high school middle towns in the process of building uh middle school and high school.

So I think that's because of where where those and a lot of it has to do with with finances, but I think that's because where we're at is where why the administrative regionalization aspect has been put into place.

But at the end of the day, the bottom line is if we can't regionalize fully, then I think we're wasting our time up here.

Uh my understanding was that it was administration that we were working towards right now.

It that's said, I guess we're starting there, but yeah, we need to.

So the word the word administrative needs to kind of go away, in my opinion, because maybe that's how maybe that's how it starts with um so that there's I guess there's no such thing as administrative regionalization.

It's how you want your you want this to look.

Both bodies would have to agree on how to decide to set it up and what you want it to look like.

So, you know, we want to make sure we finish our buildings like you guys finished your building.

So, you know, going forward, is it five years before that happens or three years before that happens?

So those are the things we need to talk about and discuss.

At the end of the day, you know, it's full regionalization.

So there's no such thing as administrative.

But again, you can design it towards to that if you want.

If you wanted it to say, hey, you know what?

You know, the elementary kids stay where they're at and the high school kids integrate.

I don't know.

Whatever you wanted to say, that's but at the end of the day, I think um I think that's what we're we're looking at is full regionalization.

But because of the timing of where you're at versus where we're at with our our bonds and our buildings, that's not gonna it needs a few more years to so we can finish our our project.

Mr.

Chair, um if I could.

If we look at the last legislation, what it authorized was the establishment of a single regional school district, which combines both existing districts.

It also allowed to add language that stated it may consist of all public schools in both communities, and may include all grades and programs now provided, or which is otherwise authorized by the regional school committee.

So I think what we have is it had flexibility.

You could start off with something that was closer to administrative and then go the full route.

And I would agree that it's nothing in the law talking about administrative regionalization.

So if we look at the previous act, if we follow it, I think the flexibility is there to do from that to start administrative all the way to full.

And so to be clear, this new body that gets created, the regional school district board, it will be their decision whether the schools are fully integrated.

It will be their decision whether they're separate facilities.

They will ultimately be the body that has the ability to make those decisions.

So what we're moving towards here is essentially a governing body that will have the power to make all of those decisions.

Is that correct?

Well, that's correct, but it you you know it's all how the legislation is written as well.

I mean, they would they would have to follow the legislation.

If I can't do that, if we agree upon whatever we agree upon.

Right.

If we get to that point, then you know and it passes at some point, if it goes forward and passes, then they they're bomb, they're bound by uh my understanding by the legislation.

So under the existing legislation, those avenues exist.

There's nothing that prohibits schools from being merged or shut down or other that the new school board under the existing legislation has that power.

I would say so.

Yes.

So let's touch on the existing legislation again.

This is important because we are meeting with our state legislators for their priorities in a couple weekends, and I highly suspect if we need new legislation, that will have to be a request.

But if we don't, and the existing law is in effect, we don't need new legislation, and that time constraint on us goes away.

Yeah, the the existing the existing act, there are only a few provisions when the General Assembly passed it, there were two or three provisions in there that took effect, and they're really irrelevant to the regionalization.

All the rest were contingent on the communities voting for the regionalization, which didn't happen.

That's why I said it was moot.

I agree.

There's a lot of things that have this dates, there's there's details that have to be amended.

If you were going to even adopt the legislation in substance, you'd have to make amendments to make it effective currently.

There's also a transition period built into current legislation whereby there's uh essentially an administrative, as you guys are describing it, uh situation that occurs for a certain period of time before full integration.

Yeah, just so back back to the original question.

Yeah.

Is the existing legislation still in effect, or do we need to pass new legislation to continue down this pathway?

I would say that Mr.

Regan can also uh pipe in uh I don't it is not.

It is not if they were a couple of provisions that which did take place, but they literally was the language for the referendum, the bond, and a couple of other administrative things which uh no longer relevant.

So all the other provisions uh uh moot because it was never passed by the both communities.

So we would have to submit a new, in my opinion, a new uh new bill, and I think you have the the framework for it, and uh um and it doesn't need a lot more work.

You have a good framework.

Um it just needs to be updated.

So just to bring it back, so I know we have some reporters here and a lot of the public following.

The existing legislation, which we'd earlier stated was in effect, is not in effect currently.

No.

Legislation frames so that most of its provisions do not have effect until there was a uh a vote approval by towns.

It was not in effect approved.

And so it's it's moot.

So most of the legislation that's relevant is not in effect.

There are some provisions in there.

You need new legislation.

Okay.

Yeah.

Bottom line is we need um uh Peter.

This is my gun.

Yeah.

But it's our understanding under the existing legislation that if that existing legislation were resurrected and the General Assembly enacts it, and then the voters approve on the new timeline.

Under the existing language, the new regional school board would have the ability to fully regionalize schools if they wanted to.

Is that correct as an interpretation?

If both communities agreed that that's how they wanted to go and just leave it up, all of those questions up to the regional school committee.

That's that's essentially what the current the 2022 legislation does.

Thank you.

But if you want to do something different and then you would need to include that in the new bill.

It's very helpful.

Thank you.

All right, Charlie.

Uh Charlie, uh Council Roberts.

There we go.

You know, I I think um one of the things I'm pushing for is just to get this out to the voters, right?

I I don't want us to make a decision.

I think we're getting, in my opinion, we're getting into the details of how this is going to work by and and that's kind of taking the power away from what this new regional school board would be.

I mean, I I have full confidence in our communities that we can elect six people or or select six people, and they can make those decisions for us.

I don't like the administrative title that's been thrown around in this.

I I think the voters from both communities need to know we are voting to regionalize the school district.

Now, I would ask Ride.

There are many examples of regionalized school districts across the country.

They don't, it doesn't say you have to put all the kids in one building right off the bat.

Like I and I think that's where I think we to build that trust, we're gonna have to build that trust together as two communities.

Like we are going to be putting people in office on a regional school district that can make those decisions for us.

And and I think if we go into this trying to like say every single middle school kid has to be in the same school right now, I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot because look at our communities right now.

We have you have a pretty much a brand new school, Pal, brand new high school.

We have a brand new middle high school coming.

We're gonna have some of the best schools in the state.

And if we go into this and now start making decisions about we we have to have every kid right off the bat in the same building, I I just I think we're gonna lose the the the whole point of this is is coming together as two communities in a regionalized school district and let our new regional school board uh board make those decisions.

Thank you.

But I think just to follow up on what what I think it's the most important thing for us as a city council and town council, is that we get we give all the information we can possibly get out to the voters so they can make the decision and make a thoughtful and smart decision.

And I think that's what we've missed in the past.

I think that's why we're still we have decided that we're that's why we're here tonight, because we have had these discussions thinking, you know, this is something that's gonna be beneficial for both communities and for the students, especially.

Um but we have to make sure that we we turn over every rock, every stone.

So when we do turn this over to um a joint school committee or joint finance board or just to the voters at some point, we make sure we do the give them everything that they need.

And and one thing I want to make sure that we don't forget is we're gonna have a lot of dates put in front of us or put in front of the public.

I'm not as concerned with those dates.

I'm more concerned that we make sure we get this correct.

And if it takes another six months or an extra year further than we want it to be, then so be it.

But I don't want to come up this, you know, talk to our legislation and get the general assembly to pass this and come, you know, September, October, and there's still confusion on the public.

And there's they're still not sure what exactly we're doing.

And so November, it come November, we're they're not ready to vote in a educated way.

I don't want that to happen.

If we have to wait another six months after that, I'm fine with that.

I just want to make sure we get it right once and for all.

Whether it passes or it doesn't pass, that's a that's not my that's that's not up to me.

But I'm not I don't want to be up here and not have the public educated into what exactly we're asking them to do, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I have a question for Ride, because one of the things that we heard in 2022 and recently is that that 80.5% reimbursement has an expiration date that if we don't make a decision ASAP, that deal is off the table.

Is that correct?

So under current law, this is what we're operating under.

Um every community is given a base reimbursement.

In this case, you're both 35%, same as Bristol and Warren, they each get 35%.

At the time of completion, when you go to submit your housing aid forms to request state payments, that's when we go to uh Rhode Island General Law 16740, and we see which bonuses you qualify for.

The very first one is two percent per grade regionalized.

So at the time back in 2022, the the thought and the way that that one is written out uh in terms of the specific timelines of that legislation, it would have um this new region would be created.

So when when you come to submit for housing aid in your case, ask for Rogers High School, we would look, you would get your 26 points additional for 2% per grade, and then we would go to your temporary bonuses, which gets you into the 80%.

Uh so again, under current law, and until that moment in time when we receive official documentation that your project's done, which is the housing information, that's DBD when you submit it to us, though that still applies.

So if if this comes in if you send your forms in in July of 26th, but you regionalize five years later, well, there would be no bonus to apply for you because you wouldn't be a regional district at the time of submission.

If you complete that process first and then request school housing aid, you would be treated just like Bristol Warren and Extra West Banich and get that higher reimbursement.

So there is a time element to this.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Questions of follow-up on that?

Also, just to be clear, Rod, we are so thankful that you all made the trip down.

Both these committees obviously voted um to not vote, but made the decision to keep working forward because we see the potential here and it's sincere.

So we're just trying to understand.

Um those reimbursement rates, where does the money come from?

I know it sounds basic, but those are general revenues.

What what happens?

Do we have any idea what could happen or how baked is that in the event that the state is facing a substantial deficit at some point in time?

Is this something that could move?

So since housing aid, school housing aid has been around since 1960, and the state has never missed a single payment.

Even when COVID came that year when we were facing a negative $800 million budget, every school housing aid payment was done because the General Assembly understands that communities are making choices to issue debt, and that debt was pledged with the expectation of state aid.

So again, if we're using history as the best indicator, the state is 100% in making those payments to community.

This is a technical question, but um I'm just thinking different avenues through which we have optionality to pursue.

We've heard now that we would potentially we need to reintroduce legislation for the existing concept that the two communities put forth.

That's just one pathway.

There are other pathways to pursue regionalization.

Is that correct?

We don't need to go through the special legislation the General Assembly had put forth for us.

We can function existing under existing 16.2 with different pathways to pursue regionalization.

I guess theoretically, but the legislation enables you to to craft your individual uh decisions in terms of what you are trying to do.

The legislation is basically declarative of what is one path, but it's rather rigid.

It says what it says, right?

It defines the defiance committee, defines the members, just says what is one path towards regionalization.

What you have with the ability to do with legislation is to, of course, alter any of that or pretty much any of that.

I mean, certain things constitutionally you can't do, right?

I mean, but generally speaking, as you did in 2022, you can craft what you want to do.

So I don't know why you would want to not.

I mean, it just seems an option that would be logical to any community looking regionalized to do certain things to be in aligned with what their desires are.

And we're trying to just figure out the pathway and the through line and the risks that exist.

But the this requires us to pass legislation, which even in the best of times can be a challenging thing.

We're exceptionally lucky with the legislators that we have down here.

If for whatever reason the legislature decided, you know what, we're only going to support this if the communities commit to X, Y or Z concept of regionalization, or you know what, the state no longer has enough money to continue reimbursing at that rate.

We need to make a proactive adjustment so we don't end up with a community in a place where they can't seek uh the full level of reimbursement that they should.

Those are all very real risks out there, which is why I raise the question of you know how certain are we that new legislation like this will sail through.

Are there other pathways we can pursue that wouldn't be as legislatively susceptible to interference?

And if there isn't, that's okay.

But that's kind of the the question.

You could uh craft uh something that would be completely in aligned with existing general laws in the chapter title sixteen chapter three and and not have legislation to exactly what statutes.

Um I can't handicap the politics, but I really have no idea.

That's helpful.

So there's a pathway if if Newport and Middletown just said, look, all we want is a ballot question that lets us take advantage of 16.2, we could do that as a pathway.

Mario, um, do you see would would we be eligible for reimbursement that way?

As a requirement, yeah.

Yeah.

So you wouldn't get the benefit of the 80 percent in the absence of the.

Yeah, because you have to review everything that we send up before it, you know.

So and you're gonna say this, you'll you know, like you did last time, hey, you'll make your opinions and say, hey, look, you need to potentially change this or this or this for this to work if you want it, if you want this, whatever your end goal is.

And that's what we did last time.

And as far as legislation goes, um I mean I thought it was a pretty solid document last time.

That's just my opinion, and it was no issue with uh legislators, they they passed it.

No problem.

Yeah, I just I'm being realistic about the environment we operate in, right?

This is a tough budget year, it's gonna continue being tough budget years.

It's gonna continue being tough budget years.

Newport and Middletown are seeking what is a deal that will lead us to hopefully a pathway for better educational outcomes, which is great, but um we always get knockdown here where we don't we don't get equal treatment all the time.

And I think we're very lucky last time with the legislation.

It's a testament to the quality of both our legislators and these two bodies that had worked together under power leadership.

I just want to make sure we we you know appropriately consider the different pathways we might have to pursue here in the event that we don't have one because these decisions get made very quickly in the final 60 days of session, um and we're not always gonna have the benefit of being asking these questions.

Okay, uh Charlie, Tom has a question.

Thank you.

Um so just uh a couple of comments.

Council Roberts, not Charlie said that um this regional school board is gonna have a lot of power here, right?

And they're they have the ability to make decisions, maybe we're getting in the weeds.

I don't necessarily agree with that.

And I don't agree with that because given today where we are, the amount of effort that we put into customizing our school for the population that we have, um and to think that the school board could come in and and just change that up, and we never got it.

I mean, there's we never get a chance to even give it a whirl.

I I'm against that.

Now, maybe that's just me.

So maybe voters would look at that differently.

But as far as whether we we don't do anything for five years or 10 years or or whatever, I think that needs to be discussed a lot before we can get to the bottom of it.

Um Charlie Holder, uh, I agree a hundred percent that if this doesn't happen in this time, this compressed timeline that we're talking about right now to get out to the voters this fall, so be it.

I realize there's a cost to that, and I think I think it's important for everyone to understand what that cost.

So um kind of on side, what Sai was saying was so Newport, I don't know if it's been one cycle or two cycles, right?

You've you pushed off the reimbursement, right?

For I don't know how much time, right?

But there is a cost to that.

But you'll also uh if I'm right from Ride standpoint, you'll get that if if we put off Newport puts off the reimbursement this year, they'll get it on the end, right?

They'll still get it, they just won't get it now.

So if that were to happen again, if we couldn't figure this out by this fall, and it takes another year, now they got three years worth of reimbursement in the bank.

In other words, this is pushing right out further and further.

And to size point, does the state at some point look at that money that they have to keep aside and and it doesn't make it?

I know you don't know, and there's it's never happened since 1960.

I understand that, but I think it's a real it's a real concern.

Um so uh, you know, it it's it's a chance.

And then if we if we don't get it right, so it's 26 now, if it takes till next year, now we're effectively done, our kids are in our school.

Now we would have to discuss whether we put off reimbursement.

I mean, how long, and this would be a question of ride.

Maybe it's never happened, but is there some endpoint at which you say, all right, long enough?

You you guys have been at this for a while.

That's enough.

Like either in or out.

We don't have an example of that.

The state like you get an approval from Ride to complete your project that you would follow under that, but it doesn't say anywhere you have to submit the moment it's done.

We've had an example from 15 years ago when the General Assembly had increased the minimum reimbursement.

East Greenwich held their project for a year to get a higher re so there is some precedent to holding it, that that was one year to hold it in theory.

Uh five years.

I I don't know what that like uncharted.

I just didn't know if there was some rule that we don't know about.

Thank you.

Okay.

And just to remind everyone to make sure we everyone's speaking into the microphone too for the uh for the public and for the recording.

Well okay.

Do you do you want to get to some of these specific questions?

I think we should.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Um, I just want to clarify something.

My point earlier, I want the voters of Middletown, the voters of Newport to know what they're getting into.

Okay.

And if and I'm already hearing like the I think there's some folks on Newport side want to have specific language about making sure we combine everything.

There's folks, it seems like on the Middletown side that want to say, let's we've got to wait five to ten years.

You know, is there anything that's you know say we pass the legislation that way?

Um there's nothing that says that legislation can't be changed again in the future.

Um I I just you know, I think if we're gonna do this, I think we have to build that trust up between our community.

Like that's what this is to me.

This is you know, I've see it, I say this all the time.

Like our kids are already regionalized in so many ways in our community.

So many ways.

We are basically together all the time.

All of us.

We run into each other all the time around town, everything.

So I I just want to be very clear.

I my point to this whole thing is to be very clear to the voters of our municipalities of what they're voting for.

And and if we get into this where we're gonna be going back and forth and specific things, I I don't see it uh I don't see us being successful.

I'm just being on it.

I think that I think there's something to having that flexibility the way the language is written now, and and allow that new regional school.

You know, we gotta go into this thinking though they gotta know too.

It doesn't make sense for us to combine everybody right this second, but five, ten years down the line, it does it may it may, you know.

Well that's all.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So just on that on that point, Charlie, I think, you know, you have to have you have to have structure.

And you it's it's the responsibility of these two boards to create that and agree or not agree on that structure.

And then once that structure is established and you agree upon it, then there's legislation, and then that's what goes out to the voters, and that's what the I don't care what regional school board, whether it's Bristol Warren or whoever it is, Charaho Exeter or Exeter Charaho, though they they they have to they're bound by that structure.

So that that's you have to discuss things.

It can't just be, hey, here you go.

And I'm not saying that's what you're saying.

There has to be you have okay.

Okay.

Maybe I'm just thinking wild west.

I'm I'm just saying like we're getting into specifics of we are combined, we all middle school kids have to go to the same.

That's that's what I'm okay.

I don't think that's prudent at this time, and I think that's something that the joint school community.

And then just uh jump on that.

So, you know, one of the things is the the AIAC.

You know, we'll have people that have I'll say expertise in some of these things that might have a better idea than than we do up here as a body that that could you know at least guide us to or guide the voters to where where we want it.

But the um could I just say that the advisory committee will be appointed, but let's not forget that the regional school committee will be elected.

So people will be campaigning on certain issues, right?

And they and so we will we will uh have an idea of where people stand when they are running for the for their positions.

Yeah.

Um council Connerton.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I should have a couple statements, questions.

Um I don't think we can really dig too deep in this.

I don't I think we should try not to not dig deep enough.

You know, I think we need to know the motivation, the impetus for why we're doing this.

I think uh well, I'll say the first thing before I was in the council, I did support this.

I have my hesitations and reservations now.

Um it's because a lot of the specifics, and I think we need to dig into those in the existing legislation or the existing plan, whatever you want to call it.

Um, I think governance is a big issue.

And just my opinion, I am personally not in favor of one side because of the number of voters being able to dominate one committee or another.

I'm just not we you know, you and I had had conversations about this.

Um I think that needs to change.

I think you need to flip it after a certain time frame, so there's equity, whatever you want to call it for everybody.

Um but I think that's important.

I think those details we do need to dig into.

So I agree with with Mayor uh Holden is you know what?

This takes as long as it takes.

We need to give the voters of Middletown the answers to all of the questions, because I missed a lot and I thought I dug into it quite a bit last time.

And even if you're in the middle of it, you can miss things.

But whether you support it, you don't support it, let's ask all the questions, let's clear everything, let's get it out there.

So we and the residents can make the decision.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, you want to get to the questions?

Okay.

So a lot of this is gonna be directed at your team.

Um there was there was 10 combined questions.

Um the first one is under the first question was permissible structures.

Under Rhode Island law, and some of this we've already talked about, but we just need to go through the questions.

Title 16, what regionalization models are legally permissible, including full regional districts, administrative only districts or hybrid arrangements.

And those were derived from questions on what does administrative regionalization mean in practical terms.

You know, SI Seditor asked it earlier is the proposal for a regional full district, administrative only or a hybrid.

Um and how does Ryder interpret Title 16 with respect to administration only?

So I think you've answered some of those, but if you don't mind just making sure we clear that up and everybody's on the same page.

I think I think we were clear uh there is no term for administrative only regionalization and general laws.

And how you guys decide to um structure control is within the permissible structures that are allowable under the general laws.

It would be something that would be reflected in your okay.

Can you guys hear him?

No.

Is that mic on?

Okay.

Sorry, I'll try to talk louder.

Okay.

Um does anybody have any questions um from the and some of them again we've already talked about, but we need to make sure that we've talked about them, but some of these questions maybe folks in the order.

Yes.

Yes, perfect.

Um the second question is authority and governance.

What authority would remain with each municipality, and what authority would be delegated to a regional entity, including the powers of a regional school committee.

Well, there's a lot of authority that's specifically given to school committees under state law, which would remain with the regional school committee.

Um other than that, and that's a breadth of of things that everybody uh in every school committee throughout the state has in the way of uh authority.

You know, um in addition to that, it would depend again upon what you guys craft.

I mean, there's there's certain provisions in the 2022 legislation that are specific and you're familiar with, and whether you continue to follow them or decide something different is up to you.

Okay.

In in that Pa Paul, one second.

So in that question.

Does everybody have the questions?

No.

You don't?

Okay.

I know the they were circulated.

Yeah.

And we we have full faith in you taking us on this right.

Okay, just in hit print.

Oh, all right.

So it in in that in that question, there was so because these came from a variety of questions we got.

We basically just combined numerous questions into one general question, so on authority and governance.

Would a regional school committee have independent taxing authority?

Is that no.

That's one thing that would be well, technically, I suppose the General Assembly has the authority under both is plenary authority over taxation education to delegate that, but it politically, I mean, I can't imagine that would be something that would be allowed that would happen.

Taxation.

I just don't um I haven't done the legal research, but I don't believe that as a practical matter that that that would be something that could realistically occur, that you could be delegated a taxing authority as a uh uh regional school.

Um, you would also of course be bound by the current collective bargaining that are in existence.

Through the term with the agreements after which you negotiate with the uh bargaining units as you would normally, but you would have to be bound by it wouldn't like you wouldn't be able to start over with the collective bargaining agreements.

Could I ask a follow-up on that?

Absolutely.

Uh your opinion on taxing authority, is that statutorily based or politically based on the politically based because uh the General Sor General Assembly does have plenary authority over education and taxation, among other areas, and so they could theoretically, but they've never done that before.

I can't imagine because of the politics.

Well, I think it comes to I think that question came up last time when we met because if they have the authority to take property.

Condemnation, right?

You know, the level of um accountability for being responsible, because a lot of times school committee, look, they do all do uh the best they can, right?

And we do the best we can.

But you know, when you keep saying four percent, four percent, four percent, you know, where's the level of accountability?

So if you can, in my opinion, if you can take property, why shouldn't you be able to be accountable for for your budget?

And that's a double-edged sword, too.

Do you want that, you know?

So that's something that just came up in a question, and I think Yeah, it's interesting, right?

We we've seen the General Assembly create uh special districts for fire protection.

We've seen them create special districts for economic development, like a soccer stadium, right?

We've we've seen them do it for different utilities.

Um I agree with you that it would be novel and new within the school space.

I think your assessment is fair on the the political aspect of it.

Um but legally, if there is a case to be made that we need to be reconsidering how public education is funded and where the accountability lies, I think Paul, to your point, this is absolutely something we should be considering as part of this.

I would be happy to work with your solicitor or school committee counsel and research that issue.

Yes, I I don't know the answer.

Thank you.

Counselor Carnetton has a question.

Thank you, sir.

Um just going back to you were talking about the contracts, they say effect.

Yeah.

Eventually, we're talking about consolidation, the whole thing.

They'd have to put them on new union, correct?

At some point.

Yes.

Okay.

As far as the benefits, salaries and all that, there's differences from community to community.

How is that typically resolved?

Well, that when the contracts were uh I don't know.

I mean, uh, well, I guess my question is this.

Yeah.

One community pays their teachers more than the other one.

Okay.

We joined together.

How is that?

And I know it's not necessarily your responsibility to answer this question, but it's a question of bargaining.

It's a it's a it's a question that would have to be answered between the uh bargaining units, whatever.

I don't know if there's a different uh you union that represents the two communities here.

Is the NEA and the AFT are they both involved or just the NEA?

I don't know.

If we are NEA, I think that's something that can be researched.

But it's a negotiation.

It's a bargaining it's a bargaining issue that you'd have to deal with just like you would if it hadn't been uh a consolidation, you'd have to bargain with the unions.

Right.

Good faith.

And I agree with that.

And Mr.

President, but that's that's an answer we need to know.

What's going to happen with that?

And you can say we could wait until the new school board or the finance committee is formed through the legislation if it passes.

But I think people want to know ahead of time how that's going to work.

Well, there's case law that establishes you have to honor the contracts in existence through their completion.

Okay.

After which you would be engaged in collective bargaining.

Okay.

If I if I may, the 2022 legislation addressed all those issues.

They addressed uh they even address unfunded liabilities for pensions and OPEB and required the communities to still be responsible for them up to the transition period.

So it does it it does address that.

There's a whole section on the uh labor and the collective bargaining agreements in that.

Thank you.

Maybe a separate question, but on the same vein.

Are there any school districts operating in the state that you are aware of where the teachers in similar positions are represented by different collective bargaining units?

And then the follow-up question to that is under Rhode Island labor law, and I realize this may need a follow-up, is that permissible?

Can you have two people in comparative positions in different bargaining units beyond the contract extension?

So if this were a water department, could I have a water department employee operating in Newport checking meters represented by a different bargaining unit getting compensated differently than a water department employee operating in another city or town, but under our same utility, getting paid differently under that's a I just within collective bargaining in the state, is that something that's permissible?

I don't know if I understand your question exactly.

The the description of the job and the bargaining unit would be such that you'd have to have you couldn't have somebody who had that job description in that in that jurisdiction that was outside the bargaining unit.

The bargaining unit was certified by our state labor relationship.

So is there are there any school districts in the state where there are multiple schools, let's say there are two middle schools in a town or two elementary schools where a math teacher in one school is represented by a different bargaining unit than a math teacher in another school?

No, no, because they'd be part of the same bargaining unit, and they therefore would be represented by the same certified bargaining uh representative.

So when the contracts expire, the two separate ones that we would have now legally could they continue operating as separate bargaining units, or per nature of the fact that they are part of the same parent entity under Rhode Island law, would they have to merge?

And I think it's an equity issue ultimately, not in terms of compensation, but just in terms of collecting bargaining rights.

I just, you know.

I don't know if that's addressed in the legislation that uh 2022 legislation or not.

Well, the as you stated, the existing CBA's collective bargaining agreements continue on until they terminate or they're renegotiated by the the uh school board.

But those are interesting questions.

And we did, and Mr.

Regan can confirm that when we were preparing, we had outside council preparing the legislation, we also brought in independent labor council to to review and to formulate the language for the for the labor provision.

So did it get down to those details?

Um probably not, but I think um it would be addressed.

We could address that if those are concerns.

I would just think if I'm a if I'm a school teacher in other school district right now.

Great.

My contract extends out two years, maybe three years.

What happens in year four?

And who is representing me in those decisions?

Um that's a really important thing for an educator who's you know committing their career to that.

I just think at least understanding what the permissible lanes are.

I realize again to Charlie's earlier point, right?

We're not going to figure out all these details, but we need to at least understand what general law allows there to be possible in the future.

Yeah, I apologize.

I don't know the details of the existing legislation as well as perhaps I should, but back to the matters, I believe it actually is addressed in this legislation.

It is.

It is addressed there, and the idea was that once those agreements expired, you the regional district would negotiate a new contract that would cover all the employees within that bargaining unit.

So you would not have a situation where you had uh people in the same job in different schools being represented by different unions.

That's excellent.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

So you okay with me continuing the okay, thank you.

Uh approval requirements, question number three.

What specific approvals or findings would Ride be required to issue before any regionalization proposal could proceed to voters?

The uh requirement in Rhode Island General Law is that copies of the agreement drawn up by the regional district planning board uh be submitted to the council, which our the K-12 Council, which is the board uh for the department, Rhode Island Department of Education for review and recommendations.

Um the commissioner has made clear her expectation that Ride uh provide technical assistance and support uh to any of those planning boards so that if there is feedback or questions uh that ride team is in a very timely way providing that as you are moving through that process.

Okay.

Um has ride reviewed or provided guidance in any proposed structures and what formal actions are required before a proposal can proceed.

I think we just answered that.

Yeah, we stand ready.

If I think one of the I think you all have been talking about this, one of the first moves probably has to be to review the 2022 legislation uh to make adjustments as you see fit, and Ride would be happy to do an analysis of that and provide any any feedback.

Okay.

Any counselors uh from Middletown have any questions on that question.

No.

No.

Okay.

Number four, uh Mario reimbursement eligibility.

We touched on it earlier.

Uh under what statutory authority would state reimbursement be provided for regionalization, what cost categories are eligible, and for what duration?

Um under what laws would state reimbursement be provided, what costs would be eligible for reimbursement for how long and um how would reimbursement funds be allocated and restricted.

Hello.

How are you doing?

Good, how are you?

Good.

I was I was waiting for you to say I'm uh I'm Brandon Bull, I'm the finance director from Ride.

Um so there's two types of reimbursements that we wanted to discuss specifically with respect to this question.

Uh first would be a regionalization bonus that's in current state law.

Uh the year, the first fiscal year after you regionalize, there is a 2% of your formula aid bonus.

So for a Newport uh Middletown Regional School District in year one, you'd be eligible for $400,000 bonus.

It is subject in the law to the availability of funds.

So if the the General Assembly has to appropriate those those funds, so it's not guaranteed.

Um year two uh after the regionalization is one percent.

So in year two, you'd be eligible for 200%.

Not a lot of money.

Uh again, that's subject to the availability of funds and the General Assembly needs to appropriate.

Sorry, could I just ask?

So that is are those funds separate from when we're talking about hazy housing aid?

They are.

That's different.

It's in addition to, yeah.

This is specifically a regionalization bonus.

Okay.

Thank you.

So it's does when we say that the housing aid has been going on since 1960.

This is in this is a separate matter.

This is Yeah, the housing aid to my understanding was two percent per grade.

Correct, right?

Yeah, the bonuses for housing.

Is that two percent per grade?

Does that include I know there's been a lot of talk about pre-K.

Does that include that or no?

Because at some point the state keeps talking about maybe it's you that keep talking about it.

I don't know.

No, so it does just to clarify it.

I think perhaps in the question, the word reimbursement might have been throwing it off.

So there's um basic education aid or operating budget, and then there's capital budget.

Housing aid is associated with capital budgets to reimburse your debt service for your school construction projects.

But there's also money available within uh for operating, and one of them is startup funds, which is that 2%, 400,000 for year one, and 200,000, which is 1% in year two.

That's really to help this uh regional school board with the consultant or to start hiring people to get the ground moving.

So that that is not guaranteed, right?

That that hasn't been we haven't had a regional district in over 30 years in Rhode Island.

I suspect though I suspect if you get your legislation through, that would likely come with it.

Um but that's under current law.

The other piece of money that's available is for transportation, but in district transportation at the moment, uh the state pays for half.

So for XR West Greenwich, Foster Gloucester, Charajo and Bristol Warren, the state pays $7.8 million, which is half of what they spend.

So that is available now.

Again, that's on the operating side, not on the reimbursement or the school housing side to answer your question.

With again, subject to General Assembly appropriation.

The the busing and the bonus are not necessarily guaranteed, but the housing aid is.

Yeah, I just don't want people to be confused between what the General Assembly might uh not approve, and but that that doesn't mean that the housing aid would not be um approved, which is really a I mean that would put us up to 80 percent reimbursement.

So I just I just want to make sure that there's a clear divide there.

So oh, you're not getting off the two and answer your pre-quake your pre-quake has pre-K question.

Yes, that's two percent for pre-K as part of calculation.

Okay, so thank you.

So going back to the transportation, Mario.

So if say between Middletown and Newport, it's seven million dollars a year, the the you you'd reimburse three and a half percent, uh three point five million dollars.

Correct.

Have they never not reimbursed it?

We we went through the UCOA files to see what transportation expenses were for both uh districts to see what you'd be eligible for.

So given your your fiscal year 22 to 24 expenses, we were estimating about 2.8 to 3 million dollars, you'd be eligible for reimbursement and transportation.

How how is that factored?

Is it based on our uh contract with with the bus company?

I mean, uh what we expend, is that is that what that's based on?

It's it's based on what you expend with students going back and forth between Newport and Middleton.

And that law hasn't changed since the last time we tried this, 22, right?

All right.

So have they never not has as the General Assembly said, hey, you know what?

We're not paying Middletown and Newport.

All those guys down there are rich.

So I would it's it's a categorical fund.

So similar to the way high cost special education gets reimbursed, uh the General Assembly will decide to what level they're gonna fund that categorical funding, and then you would get reimburs if it was a hundred if the category was a hundred percent reimbursed, you get a hundred percent reimbursement.

But if they only fund fifty percent of the eligible expenses, you would only be reimbursed 50 percent of how do you know it's just the decision they make given their economic uh abilities or climate?

Base based on when the state sets its budget.

Okay, okay, Mr.

President.

Mr.

Chair, just a follow-up on that.

That 2.8 million is that per community or in totality?

In total as a as a region.

That was my question.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah.

Any councils have any other uh Tom?

So as far as the school bus thing goes, and if this goes forward and we don't integrate all the students for five years, um it's based solely on the kids that are moving between districts, right?

Not everybody.

Correct.

Understood, thank you.

So if if no kids are going between districts, no increase in transportation aid.

That is that is correct to my knowledge.

I may have to I may have to follow up with you, but I do that's how it's written.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Um so number five is I'll read it.

Some of it may have been answered already.

Uh reimbursement certainty and deferral.

What level of certainty can RIDE provide regarding reimbursement levels?

How does reimbursement deferral work?

And how will all and how would delaying a referendum affect eligibility or timing?

Those are the questions we just tried to answer.

Okay.

Okay.

So number six, exit and modification provisions.

Because there's always that what if in the back of your mind, right?

If what if this doesn't work out, or what if there's problems and we can't communicate?

Um whatever it is.

So what mechanisms are legally permissible for modifying or dissolving a regional arrangement if it proves ineffective or unsustainable?

I'll defer to ride legal counsel on questions.

That's again a function of what you guys agree.

Um currently the statutes provide that it's done on the basis proportionately.

Oh, it really is a function of what you agree to in terms of what happens when you there's a process for amending or ending or dissolving the regional district, and what happens at that point, what formula is used is addressed in the 2022 legislation, but again, it's something you can you can you could change if you wanted to.

Okay.

Any councils have any questions on that?

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh number seven is enrollment data and projections.

What enrollment data and projections does RIDE maintain for Middletown and Newport, including those for recent school construction approvals and how should they be interpreted for regionalization?

You know, do you m I don't know if you have the recent enrollment trends uh for both districts?

Um what enrollment projections were approved by the state for recent school construction.

Um how would uneven enrollment changes be addressed fairly um it appears according to our records uh that Newport last applied in 2020 for necessity of school construction application in Middletown in 2024.

Uh we would suggest that one of the recommendations might be to sort of get uh um to conduct a study to look at enrollment projections into the future at least five years out.

Um we can provide, we have um looked at information uh around an enrollment dashboard.

We have pulled uh information for both Middletown and Newport.

We have those links.

We could share that uh with the appropriate town city managers to distribute uh to your community.

Uh those are also live on a uh sort of uh website or dashboard uh that why that ride hosts.

Uh we also have uh the latest version of uh information that's been provided by each local LEA in the state.

Uh it's hosted on our website in a document called Rhode Island Enrollment Forecast Report.

Um and we'd be happy to share that uh with the with the respective committee council.

Okay.

Any questions?

No.

Okay.

Number eight, accountability and performance metrics.

How would regionalization affect accountability measures, including star ratings when districts with difference differing performance levels combine?

And those questions derive from questions on how would regionalization affect accountability ratings?

And how would higher performing schools be protected from academic dilution?

Yeah, in order to precisely answer this question, it would be helpful for us to actually understand the proposal.

Um so as the as the sort of agreement is is uh becoming more clear, we'd be happy to run an analysis for you about what the accountability would what the accountability system, what the results for the accountability system would be.

However, if the regional planning board recommends few, if any boundary changes, it would be my expectation as someone who leads the accountability team that there'd be little change to the current individual school ratings, and any change that did happen would be a result in changes in data.

If major boundary changes were proposed, ride would need to work with the respective LEAs to identify a new path that could include resetting accountability ratings.

Ride, the the question seemed to imply that Ride um provides accountability ratings for each LEA.

That is not accurate.

What we do provide is an LEA performance by each individual accountability measures.

We provide star ratings for individual schools, but not for LEAs or districts.

And so there would be no change to any rating across a system as a result of regionalization.

There potentially could be a resetting of the accountability system if there were major boundary changes.

Okay.

Any questions?

Yes, sir.

Sorry, I do have a question in the part of the question I asked, I think was in your answer.

But do you would RIDE regularly review data broken down by student and by district or overall numbers?

We do that for every LEA in the state.

So we'd be providing uh written uh summary and our analysis of performance data and other important metrics to our accountability system to each LEA, and each LEA leader is strongly encouraged to share that with their community and with their school board.

Thank you.

And it does include disaggregated data by groups of students and flagging issues that we see in the data that we think the LEA needs to be on top of.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Okay.

You guys are easy.

Uh number nine, use of housing related funds.

What is the legal basis for using housing aid or housing reimbursement funds for educational purposes rather than bond reduction?

And are education endowment concepts permissible?

And those question was derived from what is the legal basis for housing related reimbursement funds for education.

Is creating an education endowment using such funds legally permissible?

So with school housing aid, you issue, and we'll do Newport's example because it's it's a live one.

So they have a $98 million bond which has interest and principal payments.

Uh once they submit for housing aid, then I'll make the math.

Let's say it's a million dollars a year, and they end up getting 80% in this hypothetical scenario.

Umport would pay the million dollars payment, it immediately would get back its 800,000 or 80%.

And at that point in time, it would be up to the city council or you.

I don't know if the answers would be in your legislation, but you can decide what to do with that.

You don't have to pay down debt.

You can choose to do that in lower taxes, you could put it in the fund, but you that you would have flexibility in that regard.

So for in order to qualify for school housing aid, the only requirement is that you actually make your debt service payment, which you would.

Uh and then at that point in time, we would release the payment to you.

Once you receive it, you're free to spend it as even though the voters say the voters say, hey, well, look, we we say in Middletown they they we passed the 190 million dollar bond.

And say, so you know it's it's it's under the understanding, I'm sure that um you know that reimbursement, because that's a big part of selling that to the public or educating the public on it, is probably a better term.

Of hey, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna have this much debt, and this will pay down the debt.

And then all of a sudden you're like, well, you know, now we're gonna do this.

Yeah, so the the two bond votes that have already passed, I think highlighted a minimum amount of reimbursement that is at least required.

What we're discussing is the additional reimbursement that wasn't decided at the time of voter approval.

Okay.

And whether you put that in this legislation to make it very clear to voters where it goes or not, but they've already voted both communities, actually, and you have specific language that you have to meet.

Anything above that, I think there's some discretion here for the town council or the city.

Okay.

Ask a follow up on that.

Council.

Under the status quo, then, assuming this is the spoken to in the legislation right now, when you remit that reimbursement aid, it is flowing to the city's accounts, not directly to the school's accounts since the city pays debt service.

So functionally absent legislation speaking to it specifically, those additional funds would remit to the city for the city's discretion as to how they get spent.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

All school housing aid is paid to the municipality.

Thank you.

Okay, we're on number 10.

Precedence and lessons learned.

What lessons positive and negative does Ride identify from existing Rhode Island regional school districts?

And how relevant are out of state examples to Rhode Island?

And those questions uh derive from questions on again.

How relevant are examples from other states with different funding or governance systems?

Um Ride is currently in conversations with uh influential researchers who have conducted studies on regionalization and consolidation of LEAs in other New England states.

Uh we are collecting all that information.

We will share that with the respective councils and the town and city manager.

Uh we also welcome an opportunity uh to connect uh these leaders, school board leaders, other LEA leaders uh with other communities, specifically in Rhode Island, including Cherhoe, Bristol Warren, Exeter West Greenwich, and Foster Gloucester, uh, in order for you to learn more, should you want to from either municipal or school district?

That'd be great.

That's all the 10 questions.

I don't know if um wanna just take a few minutes have some public uh sure absolutely.

Is anyone in the public that has a uh comment or a question for Ride?

Uh we'll take about five questions.

Come on first, Sangler Middletown, one thirty second lane.

I have just a quick question.

If the uh number six, if you have the exit and the modification provisions, there was no answer.

If you if if we did dissolve, what happened?

Do we lose reimbursement from Ride?

Does money have to go back to the state if we if it didn't work out?

Uh that's one question.

And I don't know if you want to answer that now, or if I can just ask a couple of questions.

The other question is wasn't clear about um based on enrollment, based on what Ride had said, if the one district has larger enrollment than the other, they would always be in charge of the school committee.

And that's by understanding of what I heard.

So I don't know if that's correct or not, but I think that's that's a concern that I think for either district to have that much control and not have some uh balance there.

And then the other uh question I wanted to Mr.

Roberts had made a comment that if you know if we do things now, we can always change legislation.

Is that something that is feasible or is that an does that is that allowed?

Is that how can that happen?

So those are the three big questions that I had.

Um that's thank you, Teresa.

Could you uh questions be answered now?

All right, with respect to the first one, no, there's no example of a regional district getting school housing aid and then not becoming a regional district.

Uh we would have likely have to do some research historically.

Once you qualify for housing aid bonus, it's yours.

Um the one exception is there's an energy and water efficiency bonus that uh is allowable to periodic review, and if you are not operating your building efficiently, you could lose that bonus.

Uh whether this regional one falls in that category or it's historic, we would likely have to do some research, but there's no precedent to the to determine whether or not you would lose a hypothetical bonus if you regionalized and then unregionalized in the next 20 years.

Okay.

Um the other ones.

I mean, that would be for the assembly to decide whether they wanted to take up a change or not.

It might be useful to look at the Cherhoe Act, for example, which was passed in I think the 1960s, just to see if it's been modified or not.

Uh as an example.

I don't I don't know if it has.

It may be in effect the last uh 50 plus years, but I would look at some of the existing ones first, but then again, that's subject to the assembly whether they wanted to take on that better or not.

Um the other question was about um the um the makeup of the boards.

Uh like okay, so one per one group one group have one uh town has a majority of students.

Will they always keep the um majority uh or does it switch off or how so this is where you get to decide what's in your legislation?

So every other regional district has different rules.

In Charho, for example, they have uh each town has it's an uneven number, but every two years the the chair of the school board has to be from a different town, even if they're in the minority.

Right.

That's what they chose.

Uh I don't know, and again, this is where you have flexibility to to put whatever rules you want in place.

Yeah, the 2022 legislation has for the school board, it's based on the voting, the top vote getters.

So that you you have to have the top three Newport, the top three Middletown go on the board, and then the seventh one is the top vote getter uh from either of those towns, the next one in line.

Then there's a switch off uh on the chairs of the uh committee, they had their opposite.

So the chair of Newport has uh the four members, then the chair is gonna be from Middletown, and then um then you have the finance committee, and the chair of the finance committee is going to be the uh uh from the community that doesn't have the four members.

So that's how they tried to at 2022 legislation tried to deal with it.

The student population only applied to the appropriation of costs.

So it was based on just uh um in terms of paying for operation costs.

So you know that that keeps coming up, and that's a concern, right?

Even though in 2022 I thought it was fair, and I still think it's fair.

But to take that off the table, why don't we just do uh consider, just think about this.

Just do three-three.

Figure it out.

Three-three fails.

Figure it out.

Then there's that takes that question right off the board.

So just a thought.

You know, as we three repers from Newport and three reps from Middletown.

And then look, if you're there to make the best interests of of the kids in the in the district, you're gonna make the best decision whether you agree or respectfully disagree.

So figure it out.

If you can't figure it out, sometimes when a council is not there and you do a three-three vote, it fails.

So you we could take this right off the table.

Um uh Benny.

So currently where each community state your name and Penelope Hunt, uh 15 Dartmouth Street, Newport.

Currently, where each town has approved their bond and um their scope of work.

The towns own that debt obligation.

So that sort of makes sense to me, certainly through the scenario where if we regionalized where children from each community only attend schools in that community.

So my question is about the the feasibility, I guess statutorily or financially.

If children from each community start attending the other schools, you sort of have a scenario unless so the question I have is whether the bond debt can be reass would be or can be reassigned to this joint finance committee, I think it's called.

Because is it feasible sort of politically in the future that then you have taxpayers in each community paying for different scopes of work?

I just don't really know what that looks like in the future if there is a scenario where the kids go to school together, which I think many people in the room are being led to understand that we all want to get there.

So can the bonds be assigned to a joint authority?

Yes.

The most technical people.

Thank you.

I think I just wanted to highlight that question.

I know it's something in the future, but to the point that was made about understanding how we if it's feasible to combine the kids in the future, I just see that as a major hurdle.

Yeah.

Don Moran, 549 Turner Road in Middletown.

Um I introduced myself last time as having come from Massachusetts, spend six years on a regional school district.

I'm regional school committee, I'm sorry.

Um, the earlier question about modifying the agreement.

Um I've been doing some research.

Bristol Warman modified their agreement about six, seven years ago to add a clause to have them go back and revisit their agreement so many years to make sure it needs to be updated.

So you can change the agreement.

Granted, it has to go through both councils and has to go through general legislation, but it has been done.

Secondly, an earlier question about um I don't know if it's more on cooperation or whatever.

You're going to have disagreements.

The towns, I mean, Bristol Warren is is a clear example.

Warren sued relying on the Department of Education back in 2012 or some 2015, whatever, because of the way they were getting their reimbursement as a regional district instead of as individual towns.

You know, there's you know, um free and reduced lunch, um, English language learners, you know, there's um median income, total property values.

That's all figured into the reimbursement rate.

Warren sued that they were getting under reimbursed by the tune of two million dollars.

It they won.

They took it to the Superior Court, they won.

It was helpful upheld in the Supreme Court, and then Bristol had to go make, I don't know if they had to make up that two million dollars, but you will have disagreements um between the council and the regional school district.

It's how you work them out.

And I think I brought that point up last time with the three and three, because you have to work together to work that out.

I know it's not done that way in Massachusetts.

It's done that way pretty commonly in I mean in Rhode Island, it's been pretty commonly in Massachusetts, and it's something to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Evening, I'm uh Art Weber from Middletown.

Everybody on this side knows that I am a bellot when it comes to regionalization.

But on this event, I think we need to take a pause.

I find it remarkable that we've got two councils and two school committees.

And we have a school committee that's not wanting to regionalize at this time.

And I have to depend on them because the other people take care of our kids in the school.

So my thought is that the current agreement, basically what I've gotten from information from the school committee, which has been public.

There's a little bit of an imbalance in the benefits for each town.

And I think until that is uh put together correctly, we need to just take a pause on this and and so on.

Thank you.

Thank you, Art.

Anyone else have any more?

All right.

Any other uh questions or comments from the Newport City Council?

I just want to thank um our respective leaderships for pulling this together and uh to the folks from Ride who came as experts.

We clarified several very important facts that I think most people are gonna want to answer.

The first is when we're talking about regionalization under the 2022 legislation.

If similar legislation was provided, there is a pathway should future school committees decide in their wisdom to pursue different structures for kids fully integrating if they deem that to be most beneficial.

Second, um, from a teacher's perspective, because I know a lot of educators are following this, ultimately we are moving towards one collective bargaining unit.

I thank Attorney Regan for clarifying that point.

And the third is that when it comes to taxing authority, um that is likely a politically challenging pathway to be the blazer on, but um is something that may be statutorily permissible.

Those were really big things to clear up.

Um if we got nothing else but those things, I think this would be valuable, but I think um uh Mayor Holder and Cherry Rodriguez, the work you've done bringing this together is commendable, and we appreciate your work on that front.

Yeah, thank you, sorry.

Um so I guess uh we we kind of need to figure out what is it?

I can't believe we're thinking alike.

That's that's kind of scary, Trisha.

Hey, take it easy, Conanton.

Um so we need to talk about next steps, obviously, and um, you know, you know, we need to start if we want to continue to move forward to get these questions answered, you know, the the um academic advisory committee once they're once they're uh rolling, you know, then they're gonna be working kind of I don't want to say in the background, kind of parallel with trying to move forward, if that's what we do with trying to figure out legislation and what it looks like now.

I would like Sean.

Where's Sean?

Sean, can you just review the the timelines?

Um, because I think it's important that we all keep in mind the timelines of whether you know where we're at and what it would where we where we need to be if if we continue to move forward with this.

The first timeline I think we're working towards um is getting the draft legislation completed.

Uh there's been a lot of discussion about what the date actually is, but I think we're targeting having that available on March 1st.

But there is some leeway there to work with the General Assembly in getting some legislation introduced.

Uh the other piece to that is that there would be a hearing process that takes place up at the state house.

There would be the ability to submit amendments to the legislation as we go through the process.

So uh even though we would have drafted something and moved it forward, the uh two councils would have the ability to amend it as it moves to the uh process up at the state.

And that that would take place between March and June 15th, roughly when the General Assembly typically uh ends their sessions, have a it was discussed earlier about a 60-day window to work out the final details.

Umce that's done, we get to July, and uh that's when the Board of Canvasers and the City Council will need to certify the ballot question that would be put on to the ballot if it was going to be heard in November if both councils wanted to proceed.

And then after that, we we basically work on communications with mail-in ballots going out roughly around September 21st.

So that's that's the rough timeline.

Uh the academic integration advisory committee.

Both councils are in the process of appointing members to that.

And I think more or less where we're there's an aggressive timeline for for that committee to work through uh the questions that are being posed by them to work at uh the city manager, myself and and others met with different consultants this past week, um, looking at a very aggressive eight-week uh engagement to basically get a rough draft done.

I think that's a that's another point.

Colin, if you want to address the yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, Sean.

Um this is close enough.

Uh we did uh have an opportunity to speak with uh uh two uh potential partners for a consultant study.

They were both on Rhode Island Master Price Agreement number 624.

Uh this is these are pre-vetted uh firms that are available for professional consulting that have applied for and received permission through the division of statewide purchasing.

Um there was a third vendor that also had some familiarity with education that we uh that we reached out to, uh, but they respectfully declined because they felt that they weren't the best fit uh for our model.

They focused mostly on post-secondary education and charter school alignments, uh so they they respectfully withdrew from consideration.

That left us with two.

Uh we had a chance to sit down with both of them for an hour apiece and receive some uh presentations uh uh uh on Friday.

Um and uh I have since uh spoken with Sean afterwards.

We kind of rehashed what we heard and and and truthfully, one of the presentations was excellent.

They were both very good, but one of the presentations definitely stood out uh far above the other.

And I'll just I won't name names yet.

I don't know if it's the appropriate time to do that, but just to to talk a little bit about what differentiated the two.

Um we'll say firm A was very, very uh um uh uh committed to and uh felt comfortable with uh an eight-week timeline.

Um they kind of shelled out a a format for us that was based on four phases, mainly two phases.

They do what they call phase zero, which is some preliminary data gathering.

They don't charge for that, it's just something they do as basically preliminary research.

And then phase one and uh uh phase one and two, which are uh a current state assessment that takes about three weeks.

And then the remaining five weeks they do implement implementation planning, and there's significant community engagement involved in all of this, but especially early on in the process uh that they have uh experience with.

Um I was very uh it was very generous of uh officials from Ride, and I will I will clarify that Ride at Ride endorses no particular firm.

However, they were comfortable in telling us some of the firms that they have uh been familiar with for for work in the past, and this particular firm uh they're very familiar with.

In fact, uh this firm provided services to Ride itself not that long ago and has also been working in the city of Pawtucket.

It's a national firm, but they do because of that have a significant experience uh in the state of Rhode Island and recent experience.

Um they were very well prepared for the presentation, uh and we thought they would be a pretty good fit.

The other firm, again, very good presentation, uh, but their focus was mainly on much larger districts.

Uh they they were quoting examples from places like Los Angeles and Chicago and Boston.

They have worked in Providence, which is a significantly larger school district.

Uh so uh that they were also not as certain on their ability to perform in an eight-week timeline, which is what we were asking for.

Now, for those of you listening in the in uh in the public, the reason for the eight-week timeline is because of what I like to call the tyranny of the calendar.

Uh John has mentioned it uh frequently that that um if we are to uh uh try to get a question on the ballot in November, we have to have significant enough time for whatever output a consultant works on to inform the academic integration advisory committee and ultimately uh with enough time left to make any adjustments to the legislation while it is still in committee.

Um so that's the reason for the aggressive timeline.

Uh firm A that we spoke with uh has uh significant experience in meeting these kinds of timelines and and uh uh hearing from the experts at Ride.

They they noted that this firm does not miss their debit.

Um so that was a concern we we thought about, you know, is there a chance that this could spill over into May or June when it's too late for us to take advantage of the information and thus have essentially kind of wasted our expenditure.

Um and and the feedback we got from Ride.

Well, again, not endorsing any one firm, they said we're we have not known them to miss a deadline.

So uh they're very uh they come well regarded for that.

Um so that was the that was uh uh the the two presentations we received.

Uh I felt one stood out from the other and and and speaking with Sean on Saturday morning.

Uh he felt the same.

Uh I can't speak, I haven't had a chance to speak to President Rodriguez and and Council Chair Holder.

Uh uh they may think the same as well.

Um we'll have those discussions later.

If if the councils are ready to to carry forward with a formal request for proposal, uh the city of Newport would be happy to take the lead on doing so and ultimately trying to uh get one of get that particular firm uh under contract with the agreement of both the town council and the city council.

So that's where we stand with the engagement on potential consultants.

Thank you.

Um okay.

So I first I just want to say uh thank you, um Mario Brandon, Drew, and uh Anthony for being here.

I think for so many meetings you guys have been uh a baseless organization that keeps getting talked about, but uh you guys coming down and taking time tonight has been a uh great help.

So thank you.

Um and I so I just want to take uh informal vote of the Newport City Council to hold one second.

Yes, I just wanted to but what is the projected cost for this customer?

Thank you, good question.

Uh firm A, and I think this can be negotiated down a little bit, but firm A came in at 250 to 300.

And firm B came in between 400 and 600.

So that was the other thing that the firm that we thought made the best presentation and made the most sense also was more affordable.

How does that get paid?

Thank you.

Cash.

So the city of the city of Newport in its in its budget set aside 250,000 in in capital funds for this.

Uh I have spoken with uh and I don't want to speak for the town council, but I've informally spoken with Sean, and he indicated that there may be a willingness to partner with us on sharing some of that expense.

Yes, quick question.

Yeah.

Come up.

Hi.

Um I listened to the time frame.

So and what you said and what you said.

So the legislation will be drafted, and then the report will come in, and then the legislation may be amended according to the report for the advisory committee.

It it certainly could be.

Uh we we have to get the legislation, uh, a draft of it uh to the general assembly within the fielding window prior to March 1st as the legislation drafted before we haven't um.

You can draft the governance piece.

You're just gonna based off of the prior legislation.

Yeah, I mean that's a it's certainly a nice guide.

I personally think it is, but that may change.

I don't I don't know.

That's something we would need to agree upon.

A little out of order when boss is paid every time we need to.

Oh, for sure.

But you still have to have seemed a little like completely.

We still have to have a timeline involved, but it does mean we're we're binded by that timeline in my in my case.

But yeah, so things get changed all the time.

I make a point of clarification.

Yeah.

The fielding window does not apply to municipalities.

Period.

So we can put this bill.

out of order when also had whatever time we need oh for sure but you still have to have seemed a little like we still have to have a timeline in but involved but it does mean we're we're binded by that timeline in my in my case but yeah so things get changed all the time can make a point of clarification yeah the fielding window does not apply to municipalities period so we can make the fielding window there's no deadline by which Newport has to submit legislation that only applies to non-government entities so we could submit a piece of legislation up until the day the General Assembly convenes the question is whether or not that is a prudent move if we're serious about moving forward uh and hope to have proper public hearing at the General Assembly but we are not racing against the deadline set forth uh in statute correct and then one one other thing on that so uh we have a meeting with our legislators uh january twenty fourth uh nine a m at the city council chambers at Newport City Hall uh it's open to the public um and that's one of the subjects we will be talking about obviously is gonna be regionalization with them and getting there um so feedback from them and and advice on how to uh go forward with this not how what the exact legislation is but you know uh as far as what's a good tactic to take to make sure it gets when it does get to the General Assembly we have a good uh uh a good plan in place so uh that being said I just want to take an informal vote of the city council of Newport to see if we want to continue to move forward so I make a motion that we we move forward with these discussions with uh the town of Middletown uh before a next meeting uh to be determined motion and second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay I have it okay I guess we're gonna do the same thing yes Tom I have a question so right now we're sitting both councils but there's no school committee so um I mean whether we continue to talk like this is fine but uh when do we sit down as a council with our school committee to at least get some feedback and I would imagine you guys want to do the same so well I mean our school committee they chose not to participate at this point in time they said Greg left because he went to the watch the Pittsburgh Steelers game I want to Mark man yes we should all be there so um he said he told us that he would depend upon what the the answers to the questions whether he would they would he would or they would change their minds at that point in time so I'm not sure if we're there or not no problem meeting with them and talking to them I think I think that's what we should do but that's that's certainly whether they want to participate or not.

Mr President just for clarification uh the Newport City Council and the Newport school committee have already had meetings um and and uh both agreed to this is the uh the path we want to take to continue the regionalization okay thank you uh Peter do we need a motion for this or we can just I I think you can either do a motion similar to what the city did or just sort of poll the board if uh get a general sense motion to schedule a meeting with Newport City Council to discuss regionalization in the future whatever whatever they said is there a second okay we have a motion a second all in favor aye anybody opposed okay excellent uh we need to talk one of the things I wanted to talk about before we left was um is once a month enough right at this point in time because if we're looking at time frames we really need to we can figure it out in between now and then but I just think it's yeah we're gonna we'll we'll definitely uh be well once especially once we get the AIAC going I think we'll be having more okay conversations okay more frequently so we'll schedule another meeting at some point yeah okay excellent all right um I think that's to be determined we'll we'll give plenty of notice all right so uh we have a motion what is it we don't need a motion to adjourn so adjourn we're out not yet not yet the ninth the ninth Charlie is it the ninth of February okay it's tentative okay all right motion to adjourn second all in favor aye aye