Future Uncertain For Prudence Island Schoolhouse

PORTSMOUTH, RI — The fate of Rhode Island's last one-room schoolhouse is up in the air. The Portsmouth Town Council will discuss the school's future at Monday night's meeting.

In 2009, an agreement known as a memorandum of understanding was signed between the town council, Portsmouth School Department and Prudence Island School Foundation that provided ongoing support for students who chose to stay on the island, designating the one-room school as a "home school" option. Earlier this year, the school department terminated that agreement, leading to uncertainty about the school's future.

"Nothing is definite yet. We will be open next year," a spokesperson for the school said Monday afternoon.

Prudence Island families have several options for their children's education: enrolling their child in the mainland Portsmouth public schools system, traditional home schooling or the Prudence Island School Foundation, a non-public school, tuition based nonprofit organization. Because of the agreement with the town council and the school department, families do not have to pay for their children's education at the Prudence Island Schoolhouse for kindergarten through fourth grade.

The one-room schoolhouse has been operational since the fall of 1896, serving as the island's school for more than a century. Current Portsmouth state Representative Dennis Canario attended the school as a child, the foundation. More information on the school and its history is available on the foundation's website.

If the school is closed, island children would be forced to take a ferry to the mainland to attend public school, which could lead to children being away from home for more than 10 hours per day, WJAR reported.

Monday's town council meeting will be held at the town hall, located on East Main Road at 7 p.m.