Just Build the School!
Letter to the Editor — Rogers High School
By Stephanie Smyth, PhD.
It is time to put the students FIRST and BUILD THE SCHOOL!!
I graduated from Rogers High School in 1992, following in the footsteps of my dad and many of our family members before us. My siblings and their children also went to and graduated from Rogers, so I come from a family of proud Rogers Vikings. I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Rogers at a time when Newport was a more thriving community that was resident and school focused. And sadly, now those areas are struggling.
Over the years Newport has become a vacation destination, the “IT place to be”. And why not, it’s a beautiful city with amazing things to offer. However, the greatest collateral damage in that pursuit has been our schools, our teachers, and our students.
And why have our students suffered? They are never put first. It’s embarrassing to see that our teachers and students don’t have the resources that they need to succeed while the rest of Newport, the vacation destination parts of Newport, flourish.
What do we have now? We’re seeing a City Council that isn’t providing as much support as the School Building Committee and School Committee needs in order for the teachers and students to have the resources THEY need to excel. Instead, the most recent conversations are an attempt to delay completing the new Rogers High School and they appear to be trying to supersede the authority of the School Building Committee (a committee that was put together by the RI Department of Education), and the School Committee which is comprised of ELECTED members whose authority is dictated by the City’s Charter.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m all for questioning a process but the time to question the process was prior to the start of demolition. The time to bicker over funding, and over dirt piles is long past. That is a lessons learned conversation to have AFTER the school has been built. Those are conversations to have on how to avoid those issues on future development sites not in the middle of construction!!
We are at the point of Just Build the School that the voters approved to have built!!! Why are we now questioning what the voters wanted?! Why are officials trying to circumvent the authorities of those appointed or elected members whose job it is to uphold what the voters approved?!
The students need a school period. They need a school that they can be proud of. They need a school that isn’t leaking, that isn’t falling apart. They need a school that they can thrive in, feel safe in. They need a school that they can learn in and not have their learning process hindered by rats running around or ceilings falling down!!
As a Newporter, as a Rogers Viking, it’s embarrassing to see the attempts to delay the construction of the new Rogers. It isn’t helping the students. It NEEDS to stop!! Please complete the building of the school!!