Aurora School Board reluctant to add middle school sport, raising concerns about timing, resources, dwindling enrollment
A request to add middle school soccer as a school-sponsored extracurricular activity stirred emotional conversation Monday from a room full of parents, students and soccer advocates who left disappointed with the response they heard.
No vote was taken on the matter after a brief presentation and more than an hour of Q&A on the concept of adding 7th and 8th grade boys and girls soccer programs to the spring schedule, each with a six-game season. However, the message was clear from Supt. Jody Phillips and board members that broader conversations going on now throughout the district regarding a strategic planning process and pending facility needs mean the timing is not right to be adding a new middle school sport.
“Part of our role is to protect us from being too diluted, doing too much,” said board member Chad Carlson. “We just can’t do everything and I know it’s not what everybody wants to hear but at some point we have to be disciplined.”
“Where I stand right now is the timing of it,” commented board member Brock Wyatt. “We are at a monumental shift in our district. What we have to think about as a board in our district is everything combined. My preference is to see what happens with the shift in our district, and then reassess.”
Monday’s conversation began with a brief presentation led by Mitchell Lyon, who said his two sons are part of a growing “soccer first” generation, meaning soccer is their first sport of choice. Lyon said a local group of soccer advocates, many of whom were in the room, had done its homework, providing the board with a proposal addressing cost, coaches, referees, facilities and uniforms.
“We already offer soccer at the high school, obviously, and right now we can’t expect a real return on it because we’ve never given it a foundation,” Lyon began, noting that Aurora launched its high school soccer program in 2017. “Kids arrive at high school soccer with wildly different levels of experience because as of today there’s no proper feeder program underneath it.”
The proposal listed Madison Farris and Scott Phillips as two Aurora teachers who have agreed to serve as coaches if the board approves the program. Lyon noted that six opponents have already been lined up with three home and three away games next spring, with the existing high school soccer facilities to be utilized for games and practices.
“Middle school soccer is low cost, low risk and ready to go,” he said. “At the very least, it is worth implementing so we can give it a proper shake and evaluate it the right way. It gives more of our kids a place to belong. It meets Aurora school’s mission of enriching academic experience for a variety of kids, and it gives a sport that is clearly the future of youth athletics the foundation it has never had.”
Grant Moody, who was a member of the inaugural Aurora school team in 2017 and went on to play soccer at the college level, said there is a gap in between the Optimist Youth Soccer program and the high school program, which causes kids to play for area travel teams, lose some of the skills they have gained as young participants, or given up on the game altogether.
“Having a middle school program would allow these kids to continue to play soccer through these years and allow for kids to try a new sport, make new friends and have fun making memories with these friends,” Moody said.
All ears perked up when young Taylin Phillips and Jack Lyon stepped to the speaker’s table and shared their thoughts with the board.
“At an early age, I’ve seen my teammates who were girls give up the sport because in co-ed soccer there’s a big difference between a third-grade girl and a fourth-grade boy,” Phillips said. “Middle school is all about finding out who we are and what path we want to take when we enter high school. I want this program to be approved not just for myself, but for future students that love soccer as much as I do.”
Lyon shared similar thoughts, then reported that he had 118 petitions signed by people who support the idea of adding a middle school soccer program in Aurora.
Other speakers included Lady Husky soccer coach Micayla Dunn and former boys coach Madison Farris.
“From a high school standpoint, I often get these girls that are just raw,” Dunn said. “They’ve never played 11 versus 11 and they’ve never played with only girls. And anytime you take two years off of something, then your skills aren’t as good as they once were.”
“It’s not really a matter of if we’re going to have a middle school soccer program,” Farris added. “It’s when. It’s a fast-growing sport. One thing I would ask of the board is to consider is this an achievable opportunity and it is a need we need to fill based on what our kids want now.”
Carlson changed the tone of the conversation by pointing out that the district has a finite budget, adding that in his opinion the board and district as a whole may have to give something up in order to add something new.
“I’m not saying soccer is wrong,” Carlson said. “I’m just saying at some point if this is where we’re at as a community we have to ask, what can we give up?”
Carlson then directed a question to activities director Jay Staehr, asking: “Is baseball working?”
Staehr responded by noting that grade 9-11 boys enrollment numbers will drop next year from 161 to 146, adding that enrollment numbers are slowly going down in the younger grades as well, with an incoming class of 65 kindergarten students compared to this year’s senior class of 97 graduates.
“Do we have enough people to make it work,” Staehr asked. “Not just to be successful, but to make it work? We are not a Class B school. We are a Class C1 school in terms of numbers. Is baseball successful? Our record hasn’t been very good and our participation numbers have dropped by two or three.”
“I’m willing to say we know what our priorities and focus are and we need to be disciplined,” Carlson said. “I personally don’t think we should have four spring sports for boys. I’m asking us where are we going to cut. If we cut baseball, for example, if we decided it’s not working, which is going to make a certain group unhappy, then you’ve just freed up a whole bunch of resources.”
Board members Chad Svoboda, Cindi Muilenburg and Tessa Stevens also voiced concerns with a proposal that in effect died for lack of a motion.
4R facing major decisions
After listening to the presentation and the boards initial reaction, Supt. Phillips waited for a pause before weighing in.
“I love the conversation and I love a little bit of the conflict,” he began. “There is a competitive edge to that. The thing is, the timing in the next five years in our school district is going to be massively huge, for multiple reasons.
“Number one, to be able to answer the question of it is working or is it not working, I think within the next five years we will have that answer, so long as we can identify what working is,” Phillips said. “That’s a question that I have, and I talk to a lot of people about. What is it about? Is it about opportunity? Is it about the desire to be good and competitive, and win? Is it both? Is it participation numbers?”
When addressing some of the enrollment numbers mentioned, Phillips said the next five years for Aurora Public Schools will be critical.
“Birth rates are down nationwide,” he said. “Those classes of 60 to 70ish will be middle school age in five to six years, and when we start talking about is it working or is it not, if we’re dealing with 10 to 20 kids less per grade level, what does that do to participation rates? What does that do to everything? What does that do to staffing?”
Community survey
Phillips then mentioned a community survey taken recently regarding the district’s facility needs and the probability of a pending bond issue.
“In the survey that we just put out, one out of the probably four or five major themes that came across from the survey was ‘If this is about sports, I’m out,’” he reported. “So we have some discussions that have to occur when it comes to facilities. And again, programs and facilities go hand in hand, but they are separate.
“I also think in the next five years there will be more conversations around opportunities,” he continued. “Just this last year we were approached formally to add four extracurriculars — middle school soccer, middle school FFA, a high school dance team and a power lifting club team. Nothing was moved on any of it, but within the next five years I don’t suspect that those requests are going to go down, based off a community that’s full of opportunities for its people and for its kids. So if we can prove that what we’re trying to do budgetarily, if we can prove what we’re trying to do facilitywise and our community is on board with that, I think this discussion is much different five years from now than what it is right now.”
Other action
Other reports and action items during Monday’s nearly three-hour meeting included:
* a report that Principal Doug Kittle and Activities Director Jay Staehr are working to fill three coaching vacancies for next year;
* an unofficial report by Steahr projecting that all boys sports will compete in Class B next year, while girls basketball, cross country, softball, soccer, track and wrestling will compete in Class B, with volleyball, golf and basketball teams projected to compete in Class C1;
* Assistant Principal Cody Hoegh reported that juniors who took the ACT in April received their scores, posting an average composite score of 19.5;
* outgoing curriculum director Desiree Teahon reported year one results of the district’s continuous improvement program, with math scores showing that 74 percent of students tested reached benchmark totals in the fall, 79 percent in the winter and 76 percent in the spring. She said the goal is to reach an 80 percent benchmark by year five;
* approved the purchase of four 2026 Ford Transit 350 vans, at a cost of approximately $62,000 each, with three district vehicles to be traded in;
* approved a motion to raise the rate for substitute teachers from $145 to $160 per day;
* approved a number of updated district policies regarding pupil rights, parental involvement, student fees, with a number of other policies given first reading review;
* approved the 2026-27 student handbooks with minor changes;
* approved the school breakfast and lunch prices, raising student breakfast from $1.90 to $2, adult breakfast from $2.90 to $3, elementary student lunches from $3 to $3.15, elementary adult/guest lunches from $4.25 to $4.50. At the middle school and high school, student lunch prices were increased from $3.25 to $3.40 and adult/guests lunch prices increased from $4.25 to $4.50.