As the President of the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education, I hear my fair share of conspiracy theories. As a Board, we never shy away from sharing information, answering questions and engaging with our stakeholders. Thus, I want to clear up the misconception that APS schools are being “taken over” by private companies and that there is a school closure list. Both of these conspiracy theories are NOT true and cause angst for our students, families, staff and community.
What is true is that the APS Board of Education voted to take proactive measures to address the state accountability status of two schools. Both Gateway High School and North Middle School were in Year Four on the state’s Performance Watch. Once a school reaches Year Five, the State Board of Education directs one of four pathways: School Closure, Conversion to a Charter School, Innovation Status or an External Management Partner. For both schools that would have reached Year Five this year, the Board voted to put in supports a year early with external management partners.
Communities in Schools is the external management partner at Gateway High School working with staff to implement a research-based social-emotional learning framework that provides curriculum and mental health supports. This is designed to assist students and staff to mitigate non-academic barriers that inhibit student learning. At North Middle School, we hired MGT Consulting to ensure the effectiveness of teaching practices by helping staff with assessments, curriculum and instruction, and the effective use of data.
These partners have not “taken over.” We still have principals at both schools who are very much responsible for managing the schools every day. If someone tells you that APS is handing over schools, correct them. Please explain that external management partners are hired for a specific purpose to help improve the school, not to “take over”.
Now to address the other conspiracy theory, APS does not have a school closure list. Blueprint APS is our long-term facilities and educational planning process that we started in 2017. It is focused on empowering community voice, addressing community need and providing community choice. As we all know, Aurora is changing. APS has seen an historical enrollment decline over the past few years, but we are also anticipating a huge enrollment increase over the next decade as many new developments are building thousands of homes in far east Aurora. It is indisputable that the district needs to look differently to best serve our students into the future.
Blueprint APS is not about closing a bunch of schools. Rather, it is about taking a community-driven approach to designing a school district that can serve students equitably with more district-operated choice options for families. Regional Design Teams for seven regions throughout the district will be proposing specialization ideas to provide that choice (e.g. STEM, Arts, Aerospace, etc.). This important planning process needs your voice. Please get informed, get involved and apply to be a Regional Design Team member. We are looking for current parents, community members, secondary (grades 6-12) students or recent alumni, school leaders, teachers and other school staff members.
As always, if you’re looking for the facts, visit our Blueprint APS website: aurorak12.org/blueprint/.
We also welcome you to attend our Board of Education meetings, which are held twice a month on Tuesday evenings starting at 6 p.m. at the APS Professional Learning and Conference Center located at 15771 E. 1st Ave. If you are unable to attend in person, you can always stream the audio live and tune in from home. For more information, visit: boe.aurorak12.org.
Marques Ivey is president of the Aurora Public Schools board.