District overview
Barrington Public Schools
A town-funded district rebuilding four schools while it changed superintendents three times in a year
Who decides how much Barrington's schools get?
Barrington Public Schools is paid for mainly by an appropriation from the Town of Barrington, topped up by Rhode Island state education aid. The School Committee, five elected members, builds its request over the winter and must file it with the town's Committee on Appropriations by early March. For 2026-2027 the committee adopted a budget of $71,539,000 on February 26, 2026, asking the town for about 4% more than the year before, with no layoffs and six new positions. The Committee on Appropriations cut that request twice, ending at $70,705,000, a reduction of $834,000 or 1.5%. The School Committee decided not to fight for the whole amount but voted on April 16 to put a ballot question to Barrington voters asking for $278,100 of it back, and adopted the reduced budget in June. Building work runs on a separate track: the four-school construction programme is funded through a town bond with state school construction aid, and every stage has to clear the Rhode Island Department of Education before money follows it. A capital reserve fund, about $4.151 million in March 2026, pays for one-off items such as playground equipment and athletic netting.
The town committee, not the School Committee, sets the number
The Committee on Appropriations took the school request from a 4% increase to 2.5% in two steps, a $834,000 cut, and the School Committee adopted the lower figure in June 2026.
Voters get one route back
Rather than seek the full restoration, the committee put a $278,100 ballot question to Barrington voters in April 2026. The outcome does not appear in the filed record.
Buildings are funded separately, through the state
The rebuilding of the high school, Nayatt, Sowams and Primrose Hill runs on a state-approved schedule of design submissions, with a builder's contract signed in February 2026 and completion planned for August 2028.
A capital reserve absorbs the one-offs
About $4.151 million in March 2026, and drawn on during the year for $400,000 of temporary playgrounds, $222,600 of solar panels and $79,000 of athletic netting.
Employee health insurance nearly blew a hole in it
The district's insurance trust proposed a 17.5% increase for 2026-2027, and the committee moved to a different provider, WB Community Health, rather than absorb it.
A committee that lost its superintendent, ran a Title IX investigation into child sexual abuse on its buses, and started a four-school rebuild in the same twelve months still finished the year with a signed construction contract, a new superintendent, an after-school care programme, a phone policy and a police-in-schools policy. What the record does not show is any measure of whether the schools themselves got better: the only student outcome data filed all year was one presentation of state assessment results in October 2025, which reported proficiency steady and still below pre-pandemic levels.
Where the district stands
A reduction of about $834,000, or 1.5%, from what the School Committee adopted.
Equal to 0.5% of the town appropriation. The result of the ballot question does not appear in the filed record.
About $3.475 million before the prior-year carryover, per the finance office; drawn on later in the year for playgrounds, solar equipment and athletic netting.
An acting superintendent in September 2025, an interim superintendent from October 2025, and Dr. Holly Hageman appointed in May 2026.
Two waived by the state as a declared emergency, one covered by giving up a professional development day, three covered by a waiver counting extra instructional minutes. The last day of school stayed June 18, 2026.
January 27, April 8, April 15 and April 30, 2026. Three of the four fell in the weeks the budget was with the town.
No enrolment figure appears in any document filed with the School Committee's meeting papers for this period. The committee commissioned a demographic study in 2026 precisely because it did not have reliable projections.
Major projects
Rebuilding Barrington High School, Nayatt, Sowams and Primrose Hill
under contract; construction under way, completion planned August 2028A four-site renovation and addition programme, approved by town bond and funded in part by state school construction aid, that will have children learning around building work for two years.
- Project team presents designs, enrolment assumptions and tax impact to a joint meeting with the Town Council
- Committee approves the stage three design development submission to the state; Primrose Hill shown carrying the largest cost variance
- Shawmut construction contract approved, with $5,000 a day owed either way for late or early completion of each school
- 60% construction drawings and an updated state agreement approved for submission
- Trade bids awarded; town asked to waive building permit fees of close to $1 million in favour of a $150,000 inspection arrangement
- $400,000 moved from capital reserve for temporary playgrounds at Sowams and Primrose Hill; demolition and abatement contractors approved
- Guaranteed maximum price amendments for all four schools listed for the new superintendent's first meeting
Funding
Town of Barrington bond with Rhode Island Department of Education school construction aid, governed by a memorandum of agreement with the state that fixes project costs and state reimbursement
Filling the district's senior jobs
superintendent appointed; facilities director still being recruitedA year of acting and interim appointments, ending with a permanent superintendent and a recruitment contract to fill the jobs the district could not fill itself.
- Robert Mitchell appointed interim superintendent, 4-0, with the high school principal acting in the meantime
- HYA presents the superintendent search timeline; chair names finance, facilities and attendance coordinator as the key vacancies
- $15,000 HYA engagement approved; search committee membership set, without teachers' union leadership
- Dr. Holly Hageman appointed superintendent and her contract approved, 4-0
- Recruitment contract awarded to HYA, starting with a Director of Facilities post vacant 12 to 18 months
- New Hampden Meadows principal appointed as the sitting principal moves to Primrose Hill
Funding
District operating budget; the search firm HYA was paid $15,000 for the superintendent search under a prior contract clause, plus a separate recruitment agreement
2026-2027 operating budget
cut by the town, part of it referred to votersA budget built with no layoffs and six new posts, trimmed by $834,000 by the town's appropriations committee, with one slice of the cut put to a public vote.
- Chair opens planning around a feared state funding shortfall of $1 million to $1.5 million
- Finance office reports the feared shortfall now appears not to exist
- Draft budget presented: 5.9% overall increase, no layoffs, six new positions
- Budget adopted 3-0, with the second school police officer's funding reclassified as general security
- Committee on Appropriations cut of $834,000 reported; $278,100 ballot question approved 4-0
- Reconciled budget of $70,705,000 approved 4-0
Funding
Town of Barrington appropriation and Rhode Island state education aid
Safety, phones and screens
police policy and phone policy adopted; screen time and AI rules still being writtenA year in which Barrington wrote down, for the first time, the rules for police officers in its schools and for the devices in its students' pockets.
- Police memorandum of understanding approved; committee notes it has no policy on school resource officers
- Students, the ACLU and residents speak against the draft policy; it is referred back to the Policy Advisory Committee
- Third reading; committee asks for language acknowledging the officers are town employees
- First read of the personal device policy; district AI literacy team presents its work
- School resource officer policy adopted 3-1 with a training requirement; personal device policy adopted on second read
- Screen time, an academic integrity policy and an amendment to the cell phone policy listed for discussion
Funding
District operating budget; the second school resource officer's cost was carried in the 2026-2027 budget as general security spending
Recent news
Built from every Barrington School Committee meeting notice, agenda and set of minutes filed with the Rhode Island Secretary of State's Open Meetings system between September 11, 2025 and August 20, 2026, the statutory public record under R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 42-46. Sixty-four documents covering twenty-six meetings were read in full, including joint meetings with the Barrington Town Council. Where a decision appears only as an agenda item it is described as proposed or scheduled, not as done.
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