AURORA | Staff at Aurora West College Preparatory Academy reversed course this week after teachers voted in favor of an updated innovation plan that would enact sweeping reforms at the school next year, nullifying a previous vote in which staff members rejected an earlier version of the plan by a wide margin.
The exact percentage of West teachers who voted in favor of the plan was unknown as of Friday afternoon, according to Patti Moon, spokeswoman for Aurora Public Schools. At least 60 percent of West teachers needed to approve of the new plan in order for the school to proceed with its goal of achieving state-sanctioned innovation status. If approved, the innovation tag would grant West more procedural autonomy.
Only about 40 percent of West staff members voted in favor of the original plan last month, with many dissenters citing a lack of details, according to Amy Nichols, president of the Aurora Education Association, which acts as the local APS teachers union.
West, which enrolls a student body that is about 72 percent Hispanic, now stands poised to join Aurora Central High School, Boston K-8 and Paris and Crawford Elementary Schools in a so-called innovation zone — a cluster of at least two schools with state-approved innovation status — in northwest Aurora. Plans for Central, Boston, Paris and Crawford were unanimously approved by the APS Board of Education last month. The plans must now clear the final hurdle of receiving the approval of the State Board of Education later this spring.
Among the many waivers requested at West: Allow the school to refuse district-mandated teacher placements, offer one-year contracts to teachers hired after July 1, instate an alternative calendar, and grant the school greater autonomy in assigning credits to students. The waivers are tied to the state’s 2008 innovation law meant to bolster the performance of struggling schools.
Staff from West will present their plan to the Aurora School Board at its next regular meeting, Tuesday, April 5.