FACILITIES PLAN CALLS FOR SCHOOL’S CLOSURE TO BECOME AN EARLY LEARNING CENTER

The citizens of Newport are planning to hold a parade in support of Newport Elementary Thursday March 24 at 4 p.m., after the longrange facilities plan for South Washington County Schools was revealed to recommend closing the elementary school to turn it into an early learning center instead.

“”This Thursday March 24th join Newport Elementary School (NES) parade of support as we drive to the District Service Center at 4 p.m.,” Marien Fernandez- Paris Borras says on Facebook of the parade sponsored by the Newport PTO. Those joining in the March 24 parade are asked to wear red or else Newport Eagles gear, with organizers promising supplies to decorate participant’s cars. “Let’s do everything we can to save our School,” Paris-Borras says.

As to the rankings for Newport Elementary, U.S. News and World Report put Newman Elementary at number 5 in terms of elementary schools for South Washington County, with 16 total in the district when Nuevas Fronteras Spanish Immersion School in St. Paul Park is counted.

As to test rankings, the PK-5 school at 851 6th Avenue in Newport ranked at 336 out of 871 schools statewide in reading, with reading performance “well above expectations.” For math, the school ranked 498 out of 871 schools across the state with a performance rated “somewhat above expectations.”

The rankings for Newport further show a larger percentage of female (56 percent) to male (44 percent) students, with 48.5 percent minority enrollment as of 2021, of which 17.7 were Black or African-American and 12.5 percent were Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander. Of the remainder, 10.2 percent were two or more races and 7.5 percent were Hispanic/ Latino, with 0.7 percent being American Indian or Alaskan Native As to non-minority enrollment, 51.5 percent of Newport students were white according to official 2021 statistics. Additionally, the school had a student to teacher ratio of 12:1.

As to the reason for the parade in support of Newport this upcoming Thursday, the long-range facilities plan calls for Newport to be discontinued and its students transferred instead to Woodbury, Bailey, and Cottage Grove Elementary schools. Recognized as a “beat the odds” school by the St. Paul Star-Tribune for its high reading and math scores in 2020, 2019, and 2018 per the district website, the March 24 parade in support of Newport seeks to change the pending district plan to close the site.

Following the formal presentation of a long-range facilities plan at the March 24 school board meeting for South Washington County Schools, the district will request formal board approval for the $462 million plan at the regular business meeting Thursday, April 21. A bond referendum would then take place in August to seek voter approval of the plan.