Dear Moderator:
As a member of the school committee I have read the survey with great
interest. I thought the most important page was the one where 48 city
services were ranked. In the "highest priority" category were the
condition of the streets and the quality of the education at the high
school. In the "high priority" category were the condition of the schools,
the quality of education in the Middle school and the quality of education
in the elementary schools.

To rank city services the consultants ranked the importance of the
service rendered and the inverse of the satisfaction of the service. Those
responding ranked the schools high in "importance", but low in
"satisfaction", making these services rank high in their "I-S" values, which
were used to rank the level of priority. (The consultants explain their
procedure in the report.)

My take home message from this study is that the citizens of Newport
value education and feel it is important,;however, were not satisfied with
the educational product. It is my hope that the school committee,
administrtion teachers, and parents get this message and double our efforts
to improve the quality of education throughout the school system.

Charlie Shoemaker, MD