AURORA | Hope Online Academy Co-Op is challenging an Aurora Public Schools district decision removing approval for the online charter school network to operate in the district, repeating a similar controversy from 2016.
Hope Online appealed APS’ decision to the state Board of Education last week, said a Hope Online spokesperson.
The state school board rules on disagreements between charter schools and the districts that approve them and occasionally with districts that don’t have oversight over the schools but allow them to operate in their boundaries. In this case, the Douglas County School District oversees Hope Online, a hybrid online and in-person school system that operates in 11 school districts statewide including APS. The school board can overrule district decisions regarding charter schools.
Munn said last week he would not approve a new memorandum of understanding agreement that would have allowed Hope Online Academy Co-Op to operate three brick-and-mortar “learning centers” in APS boundaries. Munn cited low performance among statewide Hope Online students.
The situation lands APS between a rock and a hard place. APS has no decision making authority over the schools, but in 2016, the state Board of Education overruled a district decision to keep Hope Online out of the district.
“If the state board overrules the local board, they’re kind of stuck,” said Matt Cook, director of public policy and advocacy at the Colorado Association of School Boards, last week,