Newport committee votes to close elementary school
11:47 AM Thu, Jan 22, 2009 | Permalink
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By Rich Salit NEWPORT -- Faced with declining enrollment and costly repairs and improvements to its many aged buildings, the School Committee has voted to close one of its five neighborhood elementary schools. The committee voted 4-to-2 to close Carey School, a 113-year-old multi-story brick building on Narragansett Avenue, in the south end of town, at the end of the current academic year. About 140 students attend school there. Nearly 150 people attended the meeting, including many parents of current and future Carey students. They urged the committee to keep the school open or to at least take more time to review options. But the committee followed the recommendation of schools Supt. John Ambrogi, who said that for a variety of reasons Carey was the best choice to be closed. One of the main reasons, he said, is that its students will be able to attend another school in the same part of town, Underwood School, on Harrison Avenue. Enrollment has declined for several years in Newport, forcing the department in 2006 to close another building, Sheffield School, on Broadway, in the central part of the city. Meanwhile, many of the elementary schools are close to 100 years old and lack a combination of such modern facilities as gymnasiums, libraries and playgrounds. Fire safety upgrades are another costly and timely issue, since the school department must go before the state fire marshal later this month to discuss its plans to come into compliance with state fire codes. "Closing an elementary school, much less two in a three-year period, is a superintendent's nightmare. I would rather be building than tearing them down," said Ambrogi, but he said that "given these economic times" the decision had become a "necessity." To the large crowd in the cafeteria at Thompson Middle School, he said, "No matter which school I recommended for closure, the room would be filled tonight." The School Committee has discussed for several years plans to consolidate its elementary program in "fewer, newer" schools. But it has failed to agree on a plan that the state is willing to finance. 
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