Feature Photo By: Alivia Lee- Board member Eric Nelson was not in attendance in a recent Board meeting; Nelson was voted onto the APS Board of Education in 2013 and since then it has been revealed that he lied about his educational and military background. Aurora voters will now vote on a $300 million bond that will be used to remodel buildings and upgrade technology throughout the district.
By Alivia Lee, Review Staff
The Aurora Public Schools will be turning to Aurora voters tomorrow to ask for a whopping $300 million bond; it is almost comedic that the district would ask its constituents for such a large amount of money considering that in the past when Aurora voters have voted for something, it ended up being a giant slap in the face.
Back in 2013, Aurora voters had decided to elect a fraud, Eric Nelson, to serve on their students’ Aurora Board of Education for a four-year term. Apparently, few Aurora voters and district leaders cared enough to look into Nelson’s background or platform and just decided to vote for him, and this year, I am almost certain that less than 10% of Aurora voters would have even heard about or researched this $300 million bond that they will vote for or against tomorrow.
This bond would cost average Aurora residents roughly $60 a year in taxes or $1.93 per month for every $100,000 of home value. The amount of money may not seem drastic to many, but that is beside the point. The point is that many of the Aurora voters will go ahead and vote for something that they know very little to nothing about and the district board knows how uninvolved Aurora Public Schools are with education, which is apparent by the fact that disgraced board member Eric Nelson continues to serve such an important role in a district and hardly anyone seems to care.
Aurora voters voted in a man, Nelson, who lied about both his military and educational background on his resume and as this man has yet to resign, no one in the Aurora community has decided to get a recall petition on Nelson. There have been no social media movements to pressure him to resign.
All of this chaos just shows how education is such a low priority to not only the Aurora community but to the parents of Aurora students. If parents do not care enough about who they vote into the APS Board of Education or care enough to attempt to get a corrupted person out of office, then obviously they will not care enough to make a rationalized decision on this $300 million bond. Will this money be well spent? Can the board be trusted with this money when at least one out of seven members has zero credibility?
The Aurora community and APS parents need to be more aware of what is going on with student education in order to prevent themselves from looking foolish and allowing the APS Board of Education to make big decisions. Is the actually bond needed? There is a good argument for it, but the real question remains — can APS be trusted with our money and can the voters be trusted to make the right decisions and stand up for the education of more than 30,000 students — many disenfranchised — who need them more now than ever.
For more details on the bond, visit: http://bond.aurorak12.org/
Previous stories on Eric Nelson can be read at: http://rangeviewraiders.info/?p=5160 and http://rangeviewraiders.info/?p=4918
