AURORA | Aurora Public Schools’ upcoming P-8 schools will be named Del Mar Academy and Aurora Highlands P-8 after the school board approved the names at its meeting on Tuesday.
Del Mar Academy is being built on the site of Lynn Knoll Elementary School in the Del Mar Park neighborhood. The elementary school closed in 2021 under Blueprint APS.
The school will initially open as a P-6, according to a news release from the district, and will include “an expansive three-story building featuring state-of-the-art science rooms, a STEM lab and an art room.” The school will serve students who currently attend Sixth Avenue Elementary School, which is also scheduled to close at the end of the school year.
Aurora Highlands P-8 is the first of four schools that will be opening in The Aurora Highlands planned community in northeastern Aurora. The school will also serve students in the Green Valley South, Painted Prairie and Singletree neighborhoods.
Construction is underway at both P-8s, which are scheduled to open for the 2023-2024 school year. Del Mar has a projected enrollment of 650 and Aurora Highlands of 1,000 once they reach full capacity. The schools are being built using money from APS’ $300 million bond measure approved by voters in 2016.
According to a presentation to the board, the district held two in-person meetings in each region to solicit name ideas for the schools and then distributed an online survey that was open for two weeks.
Considerations for the Del Mar Parkway school included that it will serve a population that is 70% Hispanic and is in an area where the district loses half its enrollment to charter schools, all of which have the word “academy” in their title, according to the presentation.
The two final suggestions were Del Mar Academy, in recognition of the neighborhood, and Guadalupe Briseño Academy, after the Latina labor and civil rights activist inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020.
Del Mar Academy was the overwhelming choice, according to the survey, which also included options to continue on the Lynn Knoll name.
Five names were suggested for The Aurora Highlands school that reflected the geography of the area or the neighborhoods it would serve: Highlands Prairie P-8, Denali P-8, Harvest Creek P-8, Sparrow Ridge P-8 and Aurora Highlands P-8.
Out of 75 survey respondents, Highlands Prairie P-8 was the strong favorite and Aurora Highlands P-8 came in third. These became the two final suggestions.
The presentation said the district ultimately suggested Aurora Highlands P-8 because it already has strong name recognition from previous communications and because there’s a possibility that future boundary changes will mean the school only serves students in The Aurora Highlands and not the Painted Prairie neighborhood.
The names were approved by a 6-1 vote on Tuesday’s consent agenda, with board member Nichelle Ortiz voting no. At press time, Ortiz could not be reached for comment.
According to agenda documents posted online, Ortiz asked in advance of the meeting how much weight the survey held if the district chose one first choice and one third choice recommendation.
A response cited the reasons listed in the presentation as well as the fact that the second-choice option did not meet the district’s naming guidelines.
You have your school’s confused.
Lyn Knoll school has been demolished and the new school is in construction on that site.
South Middle School is closing at the end of May.
I did my research on this. You can drive to locations to see for yourself.
A further waste of money to line the pickets if construction companies while the children still can’t read anything or do simple math. Let’s hope this new school helps but there are reasons Charter schools are doing well while these boondoggle APS schools suck.
Please send a photographer to these addresses next time you write on this subject. Same as previous article regarding Lyn Knoll school, you have presented incorrect and incomplete information by not physically visiting the location(s).