Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin announced Wednesday that the city will be creating a new Division of Education and Workforce Development, along with a number of other initiatives.
Few details were given about the new city division, except that it will work closely with the city’s Education Commission and to strengthen the city’s relationship with its schools. The new division will be headed by retired West Aurora School District 129 Superintendent Jeff Craig, Irvin announced at his State of Education in Aurora address on Wednesday.
“I knew that for this division to be successful and respected among educators, we had to have a leader who was also an educator with proven results,” he said.
Wednesday’s speech on education was held at Aurora University and was the third of four State of the City addresses Irvin plans to make this year. Previous State of the City address topics included economic development and public safety, with the fourth planned to be the State of Innovation and the Future address.
Irvin’s speech on Wednesday focused primarily on the successes of Aurora schools and school districts, highlighting awards received by teachers and other educators in addition to various new programs and facilities. In between singing the praises of Aurora schools, Irvin announced a number of initiatives the city would be taking on.
The first initiative Irvin announced will also highlight the city’s schools and educators. He said that, starting at the end of the 2024-25 school year, the city will hold its own Educator of the Year Awards, which will be an “annual celebration of Aurora educators” that all of the city’s educational institutions can take part in.
The largest of the announced initiatives was Aurora Promise, a program that will start an educational savings account with a starting balance of $50 for every kindergarten student in Aurora. Irvin previously announced this program in an interview with The Beacon-News in early August.
“It is said that the hardest part of a journey is the first step, so we’re taking the first step,” he said during Wednesday’s speech.
According to previous reporting, a student’s family could contribute additional funds to the savings account, which would then go to pay for a post-secondary education, be it college or a trade school.
The program will start in East and West Aurora School Districts, he said. The goal is to eventually expand the program to all students living in Aurora, regardless of which school district they attend, according to previous reporting.
Studies have shown that these types of programs increase post-secondary educational enrollment and completion, along with increasing parents’ expectations, Irvin said during his speech.
“It says to our young students that we believe in them and that they can do what they want in the future,” he said about the program.
Irvin also grandfathered into the Aurora Promise program a number of young students from East Aurora School District who got up on stage to show off the language skills they developed in the district’s dual language program, where students district-wide from kindergarten to fourth grade are taught all subjects in both English and Spanish.
Irvin also announced the new Barbershop Book Program, which was designed by the city’s newly-established Aurora Barbers Alliance to improve literacy rates, specifically among young men. He said the program will put books in barbershops with incentives to read before, during and after getting a haircut.
The city will be looking to school districts and other community organizations to partner on this initiative and provide books to the program, Irvin said.
In his speech, Irvin said that the state of education in Aurora is “robust,” “resilient” and “remarkable.” That means the educational system is strong, unlikely to fail, bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic and is worthy of attention, he said.
A number of other speakers at the event Wednesday backed up Irvin’s claims about the state of education in Aurora, including Susana Rivera-Mills, president of Aurora University.
“As a member of the City of Aurora Education Commission, I am continually impressed by the exceptional work of our local schools,” she said. “Many of our university students come from these very schools, arriving well prepared and eager to continue their education, and this speaks volumes about the education of our pre-K through 12 schools.”
Adrian Talley, superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204 and the chair of the city’s Education Commission, said that Aurora “is a destination for businesses and families due in part to our education systems.”
