Plan is to create goals, action steps for use by this fall
The Aurora 4R School Board conducted a preliminary review last week of feedback gathered through a detailed community survey process and will now begin using that information to establish goals and action steps that will guide district decisions over the next five to 10 years.
Supt. Jody Phillips explained during a 2-1/2-hour special meeting that in his view this strategic planning process is both timely and necessary.
“Overall, I feel good with the results that came back,” Phillips told board members and administrators attending the May 31 meeting. “This whole process is based off stakeholder feedback. Our job is to keep doing what we are doing that is good and figure out how to improve.”
An online survey invited participants to weigh in on a variety of topics involving Aurora Public Schools, including academic programming, extracurricular activities, student achievement, communication, budget and finance, school safety and security, and facilities. Phillips reported that 427 people responded to the survey, which he believes is a good measure of local sentiment on various topics.
“We had great responses to the survey, with most of them being parents, community members, staff and alumni,” he said, noting that parents were the largest representation. “One of the things I have been tracking over time is Omaha Westside, which is doing a strategic plan using a similar model. They are a Class A district with 5,000 students and they had 400 responses to their survey, so I think we had a great response.
“I do think so far that people have appreciated being able to be heard, whether through the survey or through attending community meetings,” he added. “I think that will lead to a good product as far as buying in to what our priorities are.”
Phillips then reviewed survey totals on the various topics, beginning with the school mission statement and motto. Some noted that “core values” are not currently listed or recognized.
“To me, that’s one thing we were missing,” Phillips said. “People can identify Aurora Public Schools and know who we are, but I think it’s good to identify them. It’s also helpful when we hire staff that we can communicate to them that this is what our district is all about.”
After considering a number of words and concepts suggested in the survey, the board decided to list respect, hard work, integrity and responsible as the district’s core values.
“We may not always have the most talent, but our kids are going to outwork other kids,” said high school principal Doug Kittle. “I think our kids really handle themselves well. There is an expectation that the name on the front means something and I think our coaches and teachers do a great job of making sure that is understood.”
Academic programming
As for academic programming, 82 percent of respondents said they believe the district offers high quality classes, though when asked the purpose of academic programming there was a variety of responses.
“Parents responded that being good citizens and real-world learners are most important,” Phillips said. “All the things we are graded on had nothing to do with what the parents responded.”
After considerable discussion, Kittle noted two areas he believes need attention based on survey feedback and conversations he heard.
“No. 1 is we really don’t hit honors programming until junior year,” he said. “There was conversation about 9-12 honors programming. And the other piece is financial literacy. I think there shouldn’t be a senior who graduates without an economics class. To me, there needs to be a financial literacy piece because they don’t understand pricing, supply and demand, so they are missing out on the things that have become so obvious the last three years. We’ve had extended conversations this spring about every senior taking American government for nine weeks and nine weeks of economics.”
“We provide a lot of opportunities for kids who are not meeting the mark or expectations,” Phillips added. “We can’t forget about the other end as well. What that looks like I don’t know yet, but it needs to be looked at. Right now, 9 percent of kids identified as high ability. I would say we could easily double that.”
Extracurricular activities
The board discussed responses on the topic of extracurricular activities at length, noting that when asked if more activities should be added in Aurora 42 percent said no, 30 percent said yes and 26 percent were indifferent.
“Extracurricular-wise, I’ve always said it’s 5 percent of budget and 95 percent of our stress,” Phillips said. “It’s important to people. It’s also well proven that students who are engaged and involved in activities are more successful.”
Board member Tessa Stevens asked that since involvement is so key could the district offer something that might engage a group of kids not currently being reached.
“I don’t know what it would be, to be quite honest,” Kittle responded.
“If you try to offer activities trying to reach kids who aren’t doing things do you want to dilute it down by adding more things, because that could be what happens,” added activities director Jay Staehr. “You have to think about the time of year as well because we don’t have enough bus drivers in the spring with sports, FBLA and everything else. Also, these kids are involved in FBLA, sports, choir and the musical, so adding something more for them to do during certain times is difficult because some of those kids show up at 6:30 and get home at 7 o’clock.
“It is interesting to watch and see what is happening across the state with kids not being involved in school activities,” Staehr continued. “I would say we are faring pretty well as far as kids being involved. That’s part of our community. It’s what people do here.”