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Superintendent of Aurora Public Schools presents early-stage framework for the future to Board of Education

Aurora Public Schools is starting a conversation about the future as enrollment declines and demographics in the region shift.

AURORA, Colo. — Superintendent Rico Munn presented the Aurora Board of Education with an initial implementation framework for the future of Aurora Public Schools during Tuesday night's meeting. 

It's part of Phase III of Blueprint APS which is described as "a plan focused on our facilities and educational systems that will support the ongoing and existing implementation of our current strategic plan."

Superintendent Munn described Blueprint as "an ongoing conversation...that's going to play out over a period of time." 

That conversation began in October 2017. 

"This is driven by what the community has told us it needs and what the community says it wants from us," Munn told 9NEWS. His presentation to the Board of Education on Tuesday night is the "next step in the conversation."

The Implementation Framework presents a master plan "so we're really talking about a 10, 15 year timeline for how we roll that out" Munn said.

It looks at moving away from the current model of neighborhood schools and toward what Munn called boundary schools instead where "the boundary lines would be larger. So, It might still be a school that you're geographically assigned to, but it might be from a larger area than just your small contained neighborhood." 

The goal is to increase efficiency. 

"We know that we have some buildings that are currently under-utilized and projected to be underutilized," Munn said. "We recognize that’s not the best use of this community’s resources. We want to make sure that we realign our resources to the needs of the community." 

That could mean re-purposing certain schools. Munn defined re-purposing as "changing grade configuration...serving a different community purpose such as a learning center. In some cases, it may mean closing the school and finding a different use for it in the community." 

The presentation does include a list of schools that are being included in that conversation now but Munn told 9NEWS the list is not definitive. It "may change, it may grow, it may get smaller," Munn said.

Munn told 9NEWS that the district is looking at years of declining enrollment combined with growing development east of E-470 as it continues the Blueprint APS conversation.

There are also talks of creating four to eight regions within the district. Specialized schools in each region would cater to the area's strength. 

For example, Munn told 9NEWS that "as the area grows close to DIA and Amazon and the Gaylord, it may make sense to really have more programming focused on logistics and hospitality in the schools in that area because they can take advantage of that proximity." 

That raises questions of transportation to which Munn said "that's what we have to get to. We’re very early in that conversation and so we want to make sure that we are providing access to all those things across the entire community."

APS plans to come back with a more detailed implementation plan in the fall. Munn told 9NEWS he expects that plan to address questions like "where in the district do we start some of our work? Where might we build new buildings? Where might we start having conversations with communities?"

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