Following a new push from state officials, several school districts Tuesday announced plans to bring students back to in-person learning in January. District leaders called the plans tentative, and urged their communities to help COVID transmission continue to decrease so that schools can remain open once students return. The plans in Aurora, Adams 14, and […]
aurora public schools
Posted inCrime and Courts, Education, News
In Aurora, a bigger conversation about police in schools
As school districts around the country grapple with the role of officers in schools, Aurora Public Schools is renegotiating an agreement with a police department that has been the subject of intense public scrutiny. District officials say they aren’t expecting much to change in the agreement, but some students and parents say it’s time to […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Colorado’s older teachers face a crossroads: Risk coronavirus or retire?
Tara Holst could have retired ahead of this school year, but it would have cost her about $40,000. The elementary school teacher, who works for Douglas County School District, was nearing 30 years of teaching and on the brink of qualifying for retirement under the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association. She could have expedited her […]
Posted inEducation, News
Aurora working group presents draft plan to recruit and retain more teachers of color
Creating mentoring programs for teachers, not just those who are new, training advocates who can represent educators of color, and requiring districtwide training. Those are some of the strategies that a group of Aurora educators proposed to improve staff diversity in the district. The Aurora school board in February passed a resolution to improve the hiring […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Aurora delays in-person learning for high school students until November, following Denver Public Schools
High school students in Aurora will continue remote learning through at least mid-November, with the school district veering away from its original plan for ninth to 12th graders to start a hybrid model of learning on Tuesday. That means many students in two of Colorado’s largest school districts will continue the school year remotely. Denver […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
“They silenced us”: Colorado parents-turned-teachers want schools, lawmakers to give them a voice
Last month, lawmakers on the Colorado House and Senate education committees listened virtually to learn how the fall semester was going for schools, with a few teachers, superintendents and leaders from education groups dissecting the start of the year. Outside of some words shared by the Colorado Parent Teacher Association during the eight-hour session, lawmakers […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, News
Aurora school board struggling with who will decide when it’s safe to start in-person learning, and how
Faced with difficult decisions about opening schools, Aurora school board members say they’re struggling with what evidence and whose advice to trust. Aurora students will start the school year online at least until the beginning of October, but the school board is grappling with who will be in charge of deciding if it’s safe to bring […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, News
Aurora students will learn virtually for their first quarter this fall
Aurora’s school board on Friday asked to change its district’s fall reopening plan to start school online. The new plan would have students learning remotely, not just for a minimum of two weeks as other districts have done, but for the entire first quarter. “If we have this many questions left unanswered, I’m going to go out […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, News
Aurora will offer its 4,000 teachers two coronavirus tests a month come fall. Will other school districts follow?
Gary Community Investment Company and The Piton Foundation on Tuesday said they will invest up to $1 million in testing every Aurora Public Schools teacher for COVID-19 every two weeks during the school year, the foundation of a sophisticated new tracking system that could dramatically improve the district’s ability to monitor the potential of a […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, News
Colorado drops school-day minimums, won’t make districts recoup time lost to coronavirus shutdown
School districts in Colorado will not have to meet minimum days or hours of instruction this school year. That’s a key piece of guidance that the Colorado Department of Education provided to state superintendents late last week as they navigate new realities in the face of closures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “This […]