AURORA | Teachers, parents and community members from northwest Aurora asked questions and flipped through hundreds of pages of planning materials during a town hall event Tuesday night, Feb. 16, at Aurora Central High School in an effort to glean details on how Aurora Public Schools aims to retool five of its most troubled schools.
The event marked the first chance for residents to pick the brains of APS teachers and administrators, who have spent months devising plans intended to improve the quintet of beleaguered schools, since framework planning documents were released Feb. 5.
If approved, the plans would grant the affected schools innovation status, which is tied to a state law passed in 2008 and would free qualifying schools from many state and local regulations, including those regarding budgeting, graduation requirements and credit dispersement.
Longer school days, a stronger emphasis on competency rather than time spent in the classroom, and shortened teacher contracts were among the dozens of new recommendations outlined in the innovation plans.
Administrators from the five schools vying for innovation status — Aurora Central Aurora West College Preparatory Academy, Boston K-8 and Paris and Crawford Elementary schools — spent the majority of the roughly 90-minute event on Tuesday fielding questions on the at-times clunky details within the respective plans.
“A lot of the questions that we’ve gotten have been around what waivers we’re going to be asking for, what project-based learning really means and how that will be different for us next year,” said Tammy Stewart, principal at Paris Elementary School. “And my answers to that is we plan on taking it really slowly and not have everything done for next year — just dig into what does that really mean at the beginning next year … and then actually use it second semester.”
Paris is seeking waivers for extra student learning and teacher planning time, as well as a departure from the official district calendar and APS professional development requirements, according to the school’s framework proposal.
Stewart said that Tuesday’s turnout far exceeded that of similar events that took place last year. She added that the event provided a rare chance for teachers from different schools to absorb the intricacies in each of the plans.
“This is good for us to be able to see each other’s plans,” she said. “It’s nice to have everybody in one room.”
Gerardo De La Garza, principal at Aurora Central, said that the event provided a welcome avenue for cross-pollination between the potential innovation schools, and echoed Stewart’s thoughts on the event’s attendance.
“I would have liked to see some more parents,” he said. Roughly 50 people showed up to the town hall.
The innovation plans must go through several rounds of approvals prior to implementation, which likely would happen at the start of the 2016-17 school year, according to district officials. The plans will need to be approved by the APS board of education next month and again by the state board of education later this spring.
But first, the plans must survive a vote by the teachers at each of the five affected schools.
Shari Summers, an English teacher at Central who attended the town hall and sits on a Central committee that helped develop the school’s plan, said that she believes teachers haven’t had enough time to thoroughly review the details of each planning document. She fears that if the teachers feel slighted or unprepared to vote, they’ll simply vote ‘no.’
“A lot of our faculty is concerned that there’s not enough detail, so I’m afraid that it’s not going to pass when the teachers vote on it,” Summers said. “They want more detail, they want more time, they think that we’re rushing this too fast and they’d like to be able to have more input on it.”
She added that she’s doesn’t see the merits of fast-tracking such an important decision.
“I know that the superintendent means well in that he wants to get this going by fall, and that’s a great idea, but if we’re not ready then I’m afraid it’s not going to work,” Summers said. “I’m kind of in a quandary here.”
De La Garza said that the master plan has never been to provide exact, long-term plans at this point in the process. Instead, the intent is to receive approval from the local community, state and local boards, and flesh out details in the coming months and years.
“There are a few things that could use some clarification,” he said. “What we’re trying to communicate to folks is that what we’re asking for is a vote of support. Moving forward, we want to do things differently here at Aurora Central. We’re seeking some waivers around certain state, district and (Aurora Education) Association policies. We’re asking for that approval to seek those waivers, and then, if we get that approval, we can then start figuring out the fine details as far as what that’s going to look like.”
The staff at each of the five schools is expected to vote on their respective plans by the end of the month.