APS school board signs off on ‘innovation’ plan for Aurora Central High School

AURORA | A proposal to give staffers at Aurora Central High School more flexibility to turnaround the long-struggling school cleared one of its first hurdles this week.

The Aurora Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to back an “innovation” model for the school as it restructures under a state-mandated timeline for poor-performing schools.

With that, Superintendent Rico Munn — who has pushed for the innovation model — will ask the State Board of Education to sign off on the plan at their meeting next week. If the state board backs the plan, Munn said he hopes to be back in front of the APS board in January 2016 with a more-detailed model of what innovation status at Aurora Central will look like.

“We are still at the beginning of a process, not at the end,” he said at the packed board meeting Tuesday.

Under state law, schools like Aurora Central — once placed on a five-year “Priority Improvement Plan” — have to launch dramatic changes after the fifth year if they haven’t turned things around by the end of the fourth year. As of now, 30 other schools around the state are facing the same situation.

The restructure options for Central include turning it into a charter school, letting an outside agency manage it instead of APS, installing the innovation plan, or even closing the school — though district officials stress closure is not an option they have ever supported and one they deem unlikely.

Munn said Tuesday that district leaders considered the charter school model and determined it would require shifting many of the elementary schools and middle schools that feed Central to charter schools as well.

Munn has said the innovation model will allow Central staff some autonomy and give them the flexibility to improve student performance as they see fit. Plus, Munn said, the model requires cooperation between staff, community members, district leaders, state officials and others.

While Munn and other district officials have worked for months on how to change Central in the coming years — and specifically on the innovation plan — the idea remains short on specifics.

The plan calls for more community involvement but what shape that will take hasn’t been decided. Munn said there will need to be involvement from the business community, as well as groups of parents, students and teachers at specific schools crafting ideas, but specific individuals who would participate haven’t been determined.

APS board member Mary Lewis said that piece — the community involvement — is especially important for her.

“The greatest possibility of success at Aurora Central is if we are able to get the entire community involved,” she said.

Board President JulieMarie Shepherd said the plan’s flexibility and insistence on collaboration are important.

Still, the lack of specifics was somewhat of a concern, said board member Dan Jorgensen.

Jorgensen voted for the proposal, but said it wasn’t an easy call.

“For me it’s pretty difficult to be able to support something that is yet to be defined, but of course that is the catch with innovation status,” he said.

Jorgensen said if he finds out groups such as teachers or alumni, or outside groups like The Arc of Aurora aren’t involved in the process, he won’t support it anymore.

“Then to me it’s not a legitimate proposal,” he said.

Last year, 60 percent of Central’s seniors graduated. That’s up from just 49 percent in 2010, but it still trails the state average of 77 percent.

Test scores for Central have been a mixed bag, with reading and writing scores up since 2010, but math and science down. And across the board, Central students are far behind the rest of the state. In writing, for example, just 21 percent of Central students were proficient or advanced last year compared to 51 percent statewide. In math, just 11 percent scored proficient or advanced compared to 36 percent statewide.