On April 9, the Croydon School Board voted to phase out Newport School District as a district approved for tuition under Croydon’s School Choice Program. Effective for the upcoming 26/27 school year, only existing students enrolled in high school as of April 2026 will be permitted to enroll in Newport School District. In total, 5 children will be affected. This decision was not made lightly and was made after Newport required certain terms in our contract that would have put the district in a challenging legal and ethical position.
This is the first time Croydon has eliminated any option from the list of available schools since starting its School Choice Program. The Board has always gone to great lengths to approve schools requested by parents. So far, all of our partner schools have established mutually beneficial agreements. This latest change in Newport’s policy comes after deciding to discontinue serving as Croydon’s anchor school starting in the 23/24 school year, as well as a request to increase their tuition rate beyond Croydon’s cap in 25/26 (which the Board avoided).
Since the last year in which Newport served as Croydon’s anchor school, Newport enrollments have steadily decreased from 19 students to 9 originally expected for 26/27, resulting mostly from their increasingly selective admissions. This will represent an approximate $332k annual loss to Newport once all students are placed elsewhere.
Further Details
In November of 2025, Newport presented a draft contract for the 26/27 school year that included a tiered tuition structure based on students’ special education status. This would have required Croydon to set different tuition caps for students with or without special needs. Not only would this have been a departure from all past contract structures, but it would also be different than all other tuition agreements held by the district.
Typically, receiving districts charge a flat tuition fee (inclusive of special education case management services, which use preexisting staff) and charge separately for direct services (those that are added costs to the receiving district). This enables Croydon to have one standard tuition rate for all students regardless of special needs.
The Board requested legal counsel and met in December to discuss the matter further. The advice of legal counsel was that Croydon should not enter into a contract structured in this manner. This aligned with the Board’s practical and ethical desire to maintain a clean tuition cap across all students.
After a verbal discussion that took place between Newport Superintendent Forrest Ransdell and Croydon Senior Education Officer Sue Blair, the School Board was given the understanding that the tuition surcharge would be removed from the contract. However, on March 17, the Board was informed that Newport had, in fact, retained the rejected language in the contract. The Board instructed our SEO to clarify if this was intentional and, if so, to inform affected families that Newport’s approval would likely need to be phased out.
As soon as Newport confirmed that the language was non-negotiable, our SEO immediately and individually contacted each family that has any students attending Newport.
Newport has agreed to provide individual student contracts for those students currently enrolled in high school while we make this transition.
Next Steps
The Croydon School Board has revised its tuition policy to only permit existing high schoolers (as of April 2026) to continue enrollment in Newport School District. This means all students will be phased out by June of 2028.
The School Board has indicated they would more than happily reapprove Newport into the School Choice program should they return to an agreement that is satisfactory to the needs of Croydon.
Our SEO has indicated she will work individually with families to place their children in one of the other 11 options currently approved under the School Choice Program.
Other News
In other news, the Croydon School Board also approved Claremont Christian Academy into the School Choice Program. CCA was requested by one of our families and is approved by the NH Department of Education as a private school approved for attendance.