DENVER | State school board members gave Aurora Public Schools the go-ahead Thursday to partially hand two schools over to private education consultants.
APS officials including Superintendent Rico Munn successfully pitched their plan to the state Board of Education to have private consultants handle aspects of North Middle School and Gateway High School, deferring a state-mandated plan that could have included shutting the schools down next year because of low performance.
Board members voted 6-1 to approve the external management plan for MGT Consulting to work in North Middle School, with member Rebecca McClellan – representing Aurora – dissenting. Members voted unanimously to approve private consultant Communities in Schools to manage mental health services at Gateway High School.
It’s the first instance of a school district successfully asking the state school board for outside management of its schools, which the board commonly imposes on struggling schools and districts.
The APS school board will now have to approve contracts with the two private consultants for the plan to move forward.
North Middle and Gateway have earned low performance ratings for four years in a row. Barring improvement, the schools could have faced conversions to charter schools, shutdowns or forced takeovers next year.
Munn pitched his plan again Thursday to bring in consultants of the district’s choice before possibly being mandated to do so.
APS school board members initially approved the plan in February to bring in MGT for teacher trainings and professional development and CIS for mental health staffing at Gateway.
Then, board member Kyla Armstrong-Romero jumpstarted a conversation about community buy-in to the plans and raised concerns that APS officials offered no choice of other consultants for the jobs. Officials and the schools did not hold open houses for parents and teachers to ask questions and raise possible concerns about taking direction from private consultants.
State Board of Education member Rebecca McClellan also raised those concerns Thursday at the meeting, citing a “lack of intentional public outreach” on the part of APS before bringing in the consultants.
McClellan also asked for the specific contract estimates for both consultants and pressed Munn.
CIS’s four-year proposal requested more than $400,000 a year for compensation, plus more than $50,000 for this spring. MGT requested more than $1 million in its four-year contract proposal, beginning with $380,000 for the first year.
“I can tell you, I have no interest in paying a dime more than I have to,” Munn said of the contracts.
The state school board approved the plans for two years, after which the schools could face sanctions without improving.
If APS school board officials approve the CIS proposal, the group would place two full-time, master-level social work professionals and one full-time site manager in the school, in addition to the four existing counselors, two social workers and two school psychologists, according to Gateway’s website. Aurora Mental Health also provides mental health services there.
CIS would manage staff responses to events like a student suicide, but also facilitate motivational speaking, counseling, mentoring and even consulting on student nutrition, according to a proposal from earlier this year.
If approved, MGT would take over staff professional development and manage teacher instruction practices at North Middle. The school has experienced rapid staffing turnover, having five different principals in five years.
MGT recently finished managing the district’s Blueprint APS policy-making process.