AURORA | Whether a 3-year-old change in direction at an Aurora Public Schools elementary school will continue is unclear after the loss of an integral principal and confusion about whether the school still has waivers from district regulations.

Parents and staff at Tollgate Elementary School say they like the school’s longer school day and move toward an “expeditionary” learning model, and want to continue.

Three years after being granted district-level innovation status by the Aurora Public Schools board, Tollgate Elementary School leaders and parents petitioned Tuesday for three more years as a “school of innovation,” a status that gives certain schools more leeway in how they operate. But much to the surprise of the school board, discussion of Tollgate’s innovation status should have happened earlier than this December meeting. 

“We probably should have had this conversation in February, March or April of last (school) year to determine whether going into this school year, innovation status was in place or not,” said Rico Munn, APS superintendent.

Tollgate has been in a period of transition since the departure of its former principal, Laurie Godwin, who led the school for nearly 20 years before unexpectedly resigning in June 2016. Munn said the sudden change of leadership is one reason this discussion has been pushed back.

“I would call it a miss on our part, nobody was tracking the dates as to when (innovation status) expired and with the departure of their leader, there’s been lots of transition,” Munn said.

Board director Barbara Yamrick expressed her concerns with Tollgate’s leadership, urging the school to let the board know what needs to be done in order to prevent this type of situation again.

Amber Drevon, board president, echoed these same concerns.

“I do feel it is very important to have a permanent leader in the building to be involved in that process as you go forward,” Drevon said. “You’re going to need to that buy-in, that commitment. You guys obviously have a lot of passion, you put a lot of work into your application and your presentation. I do not feel that is going to be difficult for you to get a leader on board…but I do think it is important to have that person identified.”

The school has used the past three years to hone its Expeditionary Learning model, an educational approach that places more emphasis on learning-by-doing and project-based exploration rather than traditional testing and lecturing. The school also operates on its own calendar rather than the traditional APS K-5 calendar, tacking on 30 more minutes of instruction each day but having fewer school days.

According to testing data, Tollgate met its performance targets in the first two years of innovation but not the third, which is one of the reasons Munn suggested one more year of innovation as opposed to three. Munn wants one more year of data before deciding what direction the school should head in.

When it comes to testing, Tollgate faces the additional challenge of having a higher percentage of non-English proficient and limited English proficient students than other K-5 schools in APS. This problem is addressed in Tollgate’s work plan for 2016-17, which places a greater emphasis on literacy.

A decision regarding Tollgate’s innovation status will be made at the next board meeting Dec. 13.

An earlier version of this story contained inaccuracies. This story has been updated to show correct information regarding Tollgate Elementary and it’s innovation status.