The Middletown Town Council put a formal end to its exploration of merging its school system with the City of Newport, according to the town's published meeting recording of a Town Council regular meeting.
The item appeared on the docket as a memorandum from the council president in reference to regionalization. The council voted by voice vote to receive the memorandum, and then held the discussion in open session rather than continuing it behind closed doors. Receiving a memorandum is a procedural step that places a document in the official record; it does not by itself authorize any action.
The chair said the subject had been discussed in executive session in the past, and that the purpose of putting it on the public docket was to stop leaving residents "hanging out there" on the question. "I think the timing of it at this point in time, based on discussions with counselors, is that there's not a will to move forward," the chair said, according to the recording.
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The council's stated basis for stopping was financial. The chair pointed to "circumstances that have evolved over the past six or eight months with the City of Newport," and said, "There's pretty large debt down there and some uncertainty at this point in time." He added, "I'm not slamming Newport. Things change."
The recording does not include any figures, documents, or independent analysis of the City of Newport's finances. The council's characterization of that debt was not accompanied in the discussion by a report, a consultant's finding, or a dollar amount that a resident could check. What the transcript supports is that councilors described Newport's financial position as the reason for stopping, not that the recording establishes the condition of Newport's books.
A second councilor stated flatly, "I have no interest at this time in pursuing regionalization with Newport." No councilor spoke in favor of continuing the process. The chair summarized the outcome by saying, "So, we are not moving forward."
A councilor says he needed an ethics opinion to speak
One councilor opened his remarks by addressing why he was able to participate at all. "First, I just want to state publicly that I was cleared by the Rhode Island ethics [commission], so I can speak on this," he said, according to the recording. "There were some accusations out there, and if you want to look at it, it's Ethics Advisory Opinion 2026-16. It allowed me to speak here tonight."
The recording does not identify who made the accusations, what conflict was alleged, or what the Ethics Commission's opinion concluded beyond the councilor's own summary that it permitted him to speak. The councilor's name is not established in the recording in a way that can be verified here, so he is described by role.
An advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission is a written ruling issued at the request of a public official, telling that official whether a specific proposed action would violate the state Code of Ethics. Officials who follow an advisory opinion generally receive protection from later enforcement on the same facts. Advisory opinions are public documents and are numbered by year, which is why the councilor was able to cite the number from the dais.
That detail matters procedurally: a sitting councilor described needing state ethics clearance before he could publicly discuss a school merger that his own council was weighing. The recording does not explain the underlying conflict question.
Not a permanent no
Both the chair and the councilor who cited the ethics opinion framed the decision as one about timing rather than principle.
"I still think we should have discussions with Newport about how we work together," the councilor said. "It came up in a lot of our regionalization meetings in the past. There are other methods to do this, and I hope our School Committee can do that with the Newport School Committee." He said he wanted voters to decide the question eventually, and said, "I think eventually it's going to happen. I'd rather control it."
He also gave a version of the recent history from Middletown's side: "I think this Council, when Newport wanted to push this, really wanted to push this and get it on the ballot, and we pushed back and said we weren't ready."
The chair tied the pause to Middletown's own construction timeline and school programming. "It's important that at this point in time, given the circumstances, we're opening up a new school," he said. "Let's get our schools opened up. Let's start our new CTE programs that our superintendent has initiated and put in place." CTE refers to career and technical education programs.
He said future councils could revisit the question. "Maybe things improve in Newport financially and academically, and then we start having discussions," he said, adding that Middletown should "continue to have a seat at the table at some point in time."
The chair also predicted enrollment would rise once the town's new school opens, citing a person who spoke earlier in the meeting about possibly moving to Middletown for the school. That is an expectation stated from the dais, not a projection presented with data in the recording.
What happens next
The chair said he had already notified Newport directly. "I did have a discussion and did call the mayor a couple of weeks ago, after our meeting in July," he said. "I had a conversation with him letting him know that, at this point in time, there's no desire to move this topic forward."
No vote was taken to formally abandon regionalization, and no ordinance or resolution was adopted on the subject. The only recorded council action on the item was the voice vote to receive the memorandum. That means there is no scheduled next step, no pending referendum question, and no comment deadline attached to regionalization at this time. Any revival would have to return to the council as a new docket item.
Residents who want to read the ethics ruling the councilor cited can request Advisory Opinion 2026-16 from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, which publishes its advisory opinions. The council's memorandum on regionalization is part of the docket for the meeting and is in the town's official record following the vote to receive it.