Superintendent's Message

As the 2023-2024 School Year came to an end there were many causes for celebrations as well as excitement for the upcoming school year.  Since our last Your Schools publication in February both the Winter and Spring sports seasons brought in several notable accomplishments including multiple state placers in wrestling and track highlighted by an individual gymnastics state title on the balance beam by Hannah Salgado.  We also collected our fourth Softball League title in the last four years. In the Arts, we were treated to the Spring Musical Legally Blonde under the direction of Rob Albrecht and the District Art Show which featured work ranging from our first graders up through our Advanced Placement artists at AHS.  Spring Concerts for Orchestra (grades 4-12), Choir (2nd-12th), and Band (5th-12th) also filled the auditorium with beautiful music so needless to say a lot was going on in our district outside of the school day for the community as well as during the school day with the community.  

The Aurora community/school connection continued to take place as this Spring Harmon welcomed 17 volunteer presenters from all different backgrounds for their 7th grade Career Day.  Thanks go out to the 7th Grade Team and especially to math teacher Lauren Sobolewski for recruiting the presenters and coordinating this event.  At AHS, science teachers Laura Bell and Megan Watt paired up with Aurora City’s NOWCorps Service Member, Jake Johnson.  This is a volunteer position through AmeriCorps, which is a federal program that encourages its members to serve the community.  Jake came in to work with our Environmental Science classes in order to discuss and complete activities focused on watersheds/wetlands. Laura and her Environmental Science students also paired up with Matt Valencic (Audubon Society) in conjunction with the Citizen Science Project connected with Project H2Ohio/ODNR to exterminate buckthorn, which is an invasive species in this area.  In March, the students braved the cold to help reduce the negative impact on our young forest areas here in Aurora.   Also at AHS, Government teacher, Mike Rubin, teamed up with Physics Teacher, Dmitri Kourennyi, to provide some great insight to the young people in AP Comparative Government Class.  Dmitri, who is originally from Ukraine and still has family there, spoke to students regarding his perspectives on the USSR and Russian culture!  What a great way to take advantage of a primary resource.   

If you have not seen or heard yet, the Leighton Adaptive Playground was “unofficially” opened the last week of school.  We will have an “official” ribbon-cutting ceremony in August.  A big thank you goes out to so many people, especially staff members Alisa Deininger (Leighton), Jen Simmerman (AHS), Kasie Stewart (AHS), and Michelle Nizen (Leighton) who all took the lead on the project. Thank you as well to all the committee members who contributed their time to reach this goal as well as to all of our donors from the community.  Lastly, despite the rain, there were lots of smiles at the first annual Exceptional Greenmen Track Event which replaced our participation in the Special Olympics at Nordonia.  Shout out to our entire PreK-12 Special Education Department who planned, organized, and of course hosted this event at Veterans Stadium.   This change provided a wonderful opportunity for our students to showcase their talents and abilities in a supportive environment right here in Aurora!  It was awesome to see these young people compete while being cheered on by typical peers they see each day.  What a great experience and memory for all involved.  

April and May were also busy months for our potential new construction.  During the middle of April, we held two Construction Communication Community Nights at the ACSD Conference Center.  At these meetings, I shared current renderings of the potential high school which included a campus overview, targeted renovations in each of the other buildings, and then finished with a question/answer period. Our architects from Then Design Architecture shared a similar presentation to our Board at the Regular April Board Meeting except the latter presentation provided the projected costs for a new high school as well as for the reprogramming of our other four buildings. The Board then held two Special Board Meeting Work Sessions on April 30th and May 18th to further discuss the Master Facilities Plan.  At the Regular Board Meeting on May 20, 2024, I presented an overview of this Master Facilities Plan, which included the potential costs, with the Board and for the public to hear as well.  There is a recording of that presentation on our website under the May 2024 Board Meeting link.  Toward the end of the meeting, the Board gave Treasurer Bill Volosin the green light to start the paperwork process to prepare a resolution for the Board to vote on which would start the process of putting a bond issue on the November 2024 ballot.  That resolution will be discussed and voted on by the Aurora Board of Education during a Special Board Meeting on June 12, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. in the ACSD Conference Center. If approved there will be a final resolution to be voted on by the Board in July which, if approved,  would put a bond issue on the November 2024 ballot. If you would like to learn more and find out the latest on this project, please go to our district website at www.aurora-schools.org and click on the ACSD Facilities Master Plan Project link on the top right-hand side of the webpage.  

I hope you enjoy the time this summer with family and friends and I look forward to seeing everyone in August as we look toward the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

Go Greenmen!

Mike