In the News!

Designed to recognize schools that exemplify solid planning and well-defined goals, this award is given to a new school that demonstrates promise as an emerging school of excellence. The New and Emerging School Award will be presented during the annual ASN Conference in October in Sarasota, Florida.

"This recognition is a testament to the creativity, passion and hard work of our students, staff and community," said Burrell Arts High School Principal Kurtis Quig. "It's just the beginning of something truly transformative in arts education. We have created an environment for students K-12 that is rigorous and arts-integrated for our students, and we have seen our students thrive in their creativity, their care for one another, and their confidence as learners and creators."

In 2022, Aurora Public Schools (APS) launched "Burrell Arts" as it is nicknamed as the first arts-focused public K-12 school in the district. Burrell Arts was also the first in many other categories. For example, it's the only magnet school that includes grades K-12 and has a campus which includes two buildings. The high school building (Aurora Central High School) is also a traditional comprehensive high school and Burrell Arts is the magnet pathway that runs through it.

The mission of the Burrell Arts campus is reflected in its namesake, Charles Burrell. Charlie, as most people refer to him, was the first African American in the country to get a contract with a major symphony orchestra. He played the upright bass and broke many racial barriers rising to the top of his profession. The school was appropriately named after him because the goal of the campus is to provide access to the arts to all students in the Aurora community.

APS has 38,000 students who come from more than 130 countries and speak more than 160 languages. Most of the families who reside in northwest Aurora cannot afford private art or music lessons so Burrell Arts provides important opportunities, starting at kindergarten, to explore playing instruments, drawing, sketching, dancing, theatre etc. while also providing cultural excursions to outside performances in the Denver metro area.

Dr. R. Scott Allen, Managing Director for ASN said, “Our organization offers guidance, inspiration, and incentives to arts schools and their leaders who strive for excellence on campuses across the country. When they demonstrate outstanding efforts toward this goal, we recognize and reward their achievements with awards such as the New and Emerging School Award.”

"As a K-12 school we are inspired by Mr. Charles Burrell as he helped support us in setting the vision for our students that they truly can be whatever they want to be just like him," Quig said. "Thank you to the Arts School Network for recognizing our community and what we have created as well as recognizing that we are continuing to grow and inspire students in our community to be creative." 

Knowing the answers to questions like this was a must for students who competed in the recent SkillsUSA regional competition for cabinet manufacturing. The competition was held at Gateway High School and featured three Gateway students going up against students from the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus and Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton.

First, the students were given a set of blueprints for a cabinet they needed to make. Then, they inspected a demonstration cabinet in the middle of Gateway’s woodworking shop. Finally, they sawed, glued and crafted multiple pieces of lumber together into a finished cabinet.

Gateway instructor Andrew Woods likened it to his students’ Super Bowl. “How many of the sports teams get to go to a state championship? Well, here we have a chance for students to go to a state championship for cabinet making.”

It’s exciting to see the sawdust fly inside Gateway’s shop. With each cut, the students got closer to achieving their goal of advancing to the state competition. Aurora Public Schools is proud to participate in SkillsUSA, which is a national organization that champions career and technical education (CTE) skills for students.

 February is CTE Month and Woods said it’s important for his students to have opportunities to showcase their skills. “I’m always proud to see what our students can do,” he said. “Some of the woodworking programs like this have been lost over the years. We’re really fighting hard to keep them growing strong and producing skilled workers.”

Gateway invited professional industry partners to serve as judges for the competition. Students from Cherry Creek and Riverdale Ridge took the top two spots and qualified for state. And while the Gateway students didn’t win the competition, Woods said they gained valuable experience and connections with the industry partners who could become their future employers.

“That’s the whole point of these types of elective classes,” said Woods. “It’s to give students a taste of what these careers are so they can start making that decision of, ‘Is this what I want to do for my career?’”