APS extends 2 charter school contracts after questioning Global Village Academy spending

AURORA | Despite financial concerns from the Aurora Public Schools board members about the operation of the Global Village Academy charter school, board members approved a three-year contract extension.

The unanimous vote on Tuesday didn’t come without discussion about concerns.

Last year, Global Village Academy exceeded their annual budget spending during the 2022-2023. 

Amelia Muenier, the school district’s director of charter schools, told the board that this was the first time that this has happened for the charter school. However, exceeding the budget runs the risk of depleting  reserve funds and  facing a deficit. 

School board director Debbie Gerkin asked what would happen if the charter school went into a deficit. 

Muenier said APS Superintendent Michael Giles would work with them “to come up with a corrective action plan to ensure that doesn’t happen.” 

She added that the district is financially monitoring the charter schools throughout the year, and that they are required to submit monthly financial reports. 

“Because we’re monitoring and we are paying close attention to that, we intervene quickly and work with the school to remedy any concerns,” Muenier said. 

When asked what would happen if those interventions didn’t work, Giles said that the district would have to re-evaluate the contract with the charter school. 

Global Leadership Academy’s leadership also came under scrutiny because they had “significant administration and leadership changes” in the past several years.

The Global Village Academy Collaborative is a network of charter schools with campuses in Aurora, Thornton and Parker. The two K-8 schools and one K-5 school have a language immersion model where students learn core content in English and a second language of either French, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese, according to the school.

The Aurora charter school was lauded by the French ambassador to the United States in 2022 for their French language program.

Muenier said that like the charter school’s financial status, their leadership will also be monitored. 

The board also unanimously approved to renew the contract with another charter school, Aurora Expeditionary Learning Academy. That contract was renewed for five years.