AURORA | Aurora Public Schools officials have a plan for the next five years — make that about 38,000 plans.
The APS Board of Education last month signed off on the district’s new strategic plan, dubbed “APS 2020.” The plan replaces the Vista 2010 and Vista 2015 plans that expired last year.
The centerpiece of the new document that will guide the next five years at the 38,000-student district are individual plans for every student complete with academic, extracurricular and college or career goals. Within 90 days of starting at APS — whether as a kindergarten student or as a transfer in middle or high school — every student will create their plan and develop it further during their time in the district.
Georgia Duran, the chief communication officer for the district and a member of the task force that crafted APS 2020, said this strategic plan is different from the Vista plans in a few ways.
For one, this plan is simpler. The two Vista plans focused on a wide swath of big-picture ideas, including the community, achievement, school environment and the various groups involved in education.
“Those were appropriate for those times,” Duran said.
This plan is much more student focused, she said, something that community members asked for in meetings about the new plan.
Superintendent Rico Munn said the plan reflects what the community wants.
“It has students at its center and we are committed to achieving our community goals that every student has a plan, skills and credentials that open doors for a successful future,” he said in an email.
APS Board President JulieMarie Shepherd, one of four board members who voted for the plan at the meeting last month, said she liked that the plan wasn’t as complicated as previous plans and was simple enough to fit on the front and back of a single piece of paper.
“It is a very different take at strategic planning,” she said.
The individual plans are an important piece, Shepherd said, because they can be tweaked for every individual student based on that particular person’s needs.
“The key piece that reflects is that education is individual,” she said.
Several board members voted against the plan because they didn’t like the plan’s vision statement, which said: “Every student shapes a successful future.”
Board member Mary Lewis said she supported APS 2020, but voted against it because she didn’t like the vision statement, according to minutes from the Jan. 20 board meeting.
Amy Nichols, president of the Aurora Education Association, said the teachers’ union backs APS 2020. She said the individual plans in particular are the right move.
“It’s an absolutely fantastic idea to have all students start to think about where they see themselves,” she said.
But, Nichols said, figuring out a way to work drafting those plans into teachers’ schedules could pose a challenge.
The new plan makes little mention of test scores, and Nichols, who was part of the group that crafted the plan, said performance on standardized tests rarely came up when drafting APS 2020.
“(Test scores) are a snapshot on one day in that student’s life that year, and there are so many other components that go into making that student successful,” she said.
The plan aims to focus on those other components, she said.
Beyond the individual plans, APS 2020 calls for students to develop five skills in particular: critical thinking, collaboration, self-direction, information literacy and invention.
The third piece of the plan calls for every student to achieve more than just a high school diploma by the time they graduate. That could include some college courses, internships, workforce training or other skills.
Duran said that focus on making students ready to enter the workforce is crucial in today’s economy.
“Too often in this era where technology is such an issue and jobs are changing rapidly many people aren’t ready to be in the workforce,” she said.
Duran said district officials are meeting with school staff in the coming months to come up with ways to implement the plan. In late March the board is expected to vote on a plan for implementing APS 2020, she said.