AURORA | About a dozen schools in the Aurora Public Schools district are expected to move on or off the state’s so-called accountability clock next summer, while another 12 APS schools that are already on the state’s unofficial watch list will stay there, APS superintendent Rico Munn confirmed Oct. 4.
Century Elementary, Lansing Elementary, Lyn Knoll Elementary, Mrachek Middle School, Boston K-8 and Vista PEAK Exploratory have each earned their way off the accountability clock, according to preliminary school ratings recently issued to school districts by the Colorado Department of Education. Those ratings will go into effect next July.
On the contrary, Dartmouth Elementary, Kenton Elementary, Laredo Elementary, Aurora Hills Middle School, East Middle School, Vista PEAK Prep and AXL Academy (a charter under the purview of APS) will simultaneously move onto the accountability timeline.
Another dozen APS schools that have been on the accountability clock, including the highly scrutinized Aurora Central High School, will continue to operate under that framework next year.
Approved by the state legislature in 2010, the accountability clock was designed to provide additional oversight for chronically struggling schools. Any school or district that stays on the clock for more than six years is susceptible to a slew of state sanctions, including charter conversion and closure.
While the legislature elected to freeze the clock last year to adjust for new academic standards, Aurora Central is the lone APS school heading into the final year of the clock.
The district as a whole is also going into year five of the accountability clock with the tag of priority improvement status. However, the state’s department of education has yet to solidify the process for schools or districts that have remained on the accountability timeline since it was conceived.
Munn added that the end of the clock is equally nebulous for Aurora Central.
“Our latest understanding from the state as of a week-and-a-half ago is that … the clock doesn’t start over, that you just kind of keep moving down the clock until you earn your way off,” he said.
Munn said he is optimistic the state board of education will accept Central’s existing innovation plan as a turnaround plan and allow the school to continue operating under that framework.
“We’ve already done (innovation) — the state board already approved that, so what we expect is that they will then acknowledge that under Senate Bill 09-163 and we keep moving forward,” he said. “I’m not sure what the clock means for Central anymore. We now have a plan in place; the plan has a three-year life under the state statute for innovation.”
The district has until Oct. 17 to appeal the new school and district ratings with the state. Munn said that the district is already planning to appeal the district’s status as well as the frameworks for both Vista PEAK Prep and Jewell Elementary, citing a glitch in participation numbers as reported by the state.