AURORA | Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Mary Chesley addressed a very different kind of graduating class during the final board meeting of the 2012-13 school year held on June 17.
Chesley had spent the past few weeks circulating between commencement ceremonies for the graduating seniors from the Cherry Creek School District’s six high schools. Her message to the combined class of 2013 touched on familiar cues; her words were rooted in the journey that follows K-12 education. Chesley, who started her term as superintendent in 2008, spoke to the upcoming challenges of college and career.
But when she spoke to fellow administrators, community members and teachers at the board meeting held at Fox Ridge Middle School this week, the theme was a bit different. She spoke directly to longtime veterans of the district, assistant superintendents Eliot Asp and Eric Flor who were among the many retiring or moving on to a new job after this final meeting.
Chesley was in the same boat. The meeting on June 17 was her final board meeting as superintendent. She spoke about the “retirement class of 2013,” and among those in the small crowd in the school’s cafeteria was Harry Bull, the next superintendent of the Cherry Creek district.
“Last December, I announced my intent to retire and I said at that time that it was not a time for goodbyes,” Chesley said. “Neither is tonight. Tonight is so far from being a singular good-bye,” she said, speaking to the importance of the “circle of life.” “Dr. Bull, I congratulate you.”
Chesley’s discouragement of good-byes went largely unheeded during the meeting that saw input from the current board, Aurora police officials and other community members. Cherry Creek Board President Jennifer Churchfield praised Chesley’s work in the district during a time of historic budget shortfalls and economic pressures. Board member Claudine McDonald praised Chesley for teaching her “how public education should work.”
But the praise wasn’t limited to members of the school board. The larger events that shaped the wider community figured into words from Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, who spoke to the shifting role of school security in the days, weeks and months following last year’s tragic shootings at an Aurora movie theater.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Oates said. “I’ve worked in two other cities in my career, and this is by far the best service in terms of police working closely with educators for the good of the students.”
Chesley took the praise in stride, pointing to the wholesale changes in school security and safety that followed the Columbine shootings in 1999, the theater shootings in Aurora last summer and the school shootings in Newtown, Conn. last December.
Chesley also tempered the praise with a good deal of credit to the current board of education. She spoke to the construction projects popping up around the district following the successful passage of bond and mill levy elections last November. She reiterated a common message about public education, one that’s been a standard staple in speeches for the past five years.
“I’ll say what you think I’m going to say about public education,” Chesley said. “It is the best hope for our country and the Cherry Creek School District next year will be an even better example of that best hope.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com