Aurora Public Schools asks city council to help spread survey shaping $1 billion bond priorities

Aurora Public Schools officials asked the Aurora City Council on Aug. 11 to help distribute a short community survey intended to shape the district’s five-year vision and the spending priorities for a $1,000,000,000 generational bond.

Michael Carter, vice president of the Aurora Public School Board, told the council, “We are currently at about 40,000 students. We have about 6,000 staff,” and asked council members to “push that survey out” to reach hard-to-reach communities in the city.

The board’s presenters said the survey takes about four to five minutes and contains four questions designed to collect community priorities that will inform the board’s guardrails and the metrics it uses to monitor the superintendent.

Why it matters: The board said the survey results will guide new goals and guardrails the board will routinely monitor and use when evaluating the superintendent. Board members tied the metrics directly to accountability: how well the superintendent meets the board’s limits and expectations could affect whether the district retains that superintendent.

At the study session, trustees outlined five priorities the board monitors monthly: early literacy, high school graduation, diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI), the whole child (social-emotional and physical well-being), stakeholder engagement, school climate and culture, and staff retention. The presenters said those priorities will be reviewed and possibly updated based on survey responses.

Carter and the presenters emphasized recent gains and asked the council to seek and relay more specific data requests. Councilor Laureen Oxenberg asked whether student outcomes have improved “from, say, I don’t know, three or four years ago?” Carter replied that graduation rates and enrollment are growing and that the district has shifted to monitoring students earlier — beginning in ninth grade — to prevent later catch-up work. He said, “yes, our graduation rate is…growing exponentially,” and that interim measurements indicate rising third-grade reading and math scores, though he offered to provide hard data to council members.

Councilmember Murillo sought clarification about the board’s use of the word “limitations.” A presenter responded that the board’s limitations are the “thou shall not” guardrails that define and constrain the superintendent’s delegated authority and that the board uses those metrics in superintendent evaluations. The presenter added the board is preparing a third formal evaluation of the superintendent.

The board invited council members to visit district schools and said it would share underlying data upon request. Presenters also stressed the district’s demographic scale — service to students from more than 130 countries, roughly 75% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, and about 42% multilingual — as a reason for targeted outreach.

Separately, the council adopted the study-session consent calendar after a motion to move items 2a through 2f forward. Mayor Pro Tem Sundberg moved the consent calendar item; the motion was corrected on the record from an initial reference to item 9c1 to items 2a–2f and was moved forward without recorded objection. The study session then adjourned to prepare for a 6:00 p.m. public listening session.

Ending: Aurora Public Schools asked the council to promote the survey and offered to provide detailed outcome data and school visits to interested council members; the district said survey responses will shape its five-year goals, guardrails, and superintendent evaluations, and council business proceeded with the routine consent calendar approval.