Andre Wright, a finalist for Aurora Public Schools’ next superintendent, said if he gets the job, he wants to make sure no students get left behind in the midst of Aurora’s rapid growth and socioeconomic evolution.

“When the opportunity presented itself, I said, ‘I know what the district needs. I know how quickly we can get there and understand the dynamics of the district in ways that many others don’t,'” Wright, a former district executive, told The Denver Gazette on Monday.

“I want to be able to say to all of us that we provide the best resource for all of our students, regardless of where you live, whether that’s near 6th Avenue or out near (C-470),” he added. 

With his candidacy for the superintendent position, Wright hopes to return to Aurora Public Schools after he left in September 2021. He spent seven years at the district from 2014 to 2021, including four as the chief academic officer, overseeing a budget of up to $250 million each year in that role. Wright was also one of three finalists for the Denver Public Schools superintendent position 2021 that ultimately went to Alex Marrero. 

He is currently the senior vice president of educational transformation for MGT Consulting. 

The other two APS superintendent finalists include Michael Giles, the Cherry Creek School District’s assistant superintendent of equity, culture and community engagement, and Nia Campbell, Aurora Public Schools’ current chief academic officer.

Superintendent Rico Munn announced late last year he would resign at the end of this school year.

Aurora Public Schools superintendent finalist touts qualifications, responds to past controversy

Wright touts his success in improving the district’s performance during his previous years there. But focus on students and academics in Aurora Public Schools is something Wright feels has gotten lost amid a cycle of news reports that have appeared to link him to an embezzlement scandal, and, separately, an implication of grade fixing at Gateway High School. The allegations have been unearthed in an audit and a report by the Aurora Police Department.

Wright pushed back against allegations in published news reports that he did not follow up on $60,000 for one year of funding approved in 2020 to hire a student engagement advocate focused on athletes in grades nine through 12 – a position that was never created.

According to an audit report by the school district and BKD CPAs & Advisors, a former Gateway principal and secretary allegedly used more than $54,000 of the money for other purposes between October and June 2021, including to buy clothing for staff, cover expenses for a trip to a state football game and rent a prom venue.

Wright expressed frustration about the implication that he is tied to the alleged embezzlement. The chief academic officer doesn’t supervise principals or the individual schools’ budgets, Wright said. While he could approve funding for initiatives or issues beyond what the district had already allocated, Wright’s role didn’t include personally transferring money to schools, he said, adding that’s a budget function and he wouldn’t have been responsible for then personally tracing individual transfers.

Budget techs have the authority for making such transfers, a position that doesn’t report to the chief academic officer, Wright said.

“Can you imagine the responsibilities that that seat has? You’re not focusing on the $60,000,” he said, adding, “If you’re responsible for a billion dollars (and) if you weren’t a good steward of that money … I’m sure the district would have taken that responsibility away from me.”

The board president for APS and an assistant to the board, which selected the superintendent finalists, did not respond to the Denver Gazette’s requests for comment.

Wright also provided explanation about an investigation into grade changes at Gateway, prompted by concerns raised in 2020 by an administrator about what appeared to be an unusually high number of changes. The audit report mentions allegations the principal – the same man who allegedly embezzled funds – pressured staff members to change grades, and that staff accepted money to change grades, though the audit did not find evidence supporting the second accusation.

Out of 467 grade changes investigated, 274 had been changed from “incomplete” to Fs, according to a memo Wright wrote in March 2021 to Munn that he provided to the Denver Gazette. The investigation verified the 193 remaining grade changes by methods, such as speaking with teachers, reviewing official grade change forms and looking at the online portal Gradebook, according to a spreadsheet Wright provided. He wrote in the memo the investigation discovered no irregularities in the grade changes.

Wright said the investigation lasted six months and involved district executives and the human resources director.

He wrote in the memo that Gateway’s principal believed the grade changes that involved shifting “incomplete” marks to Fs should have been verified easily by a records management system used by the district.

“The Principal indicated that this was an ‘intellectually lazy’ approach to discrediting him and his team,” he wrote.

Prior to joining APS, Wright served in his home state of Georgia as area executive director for the Northeast Learning Community in the Fulton County School System, an urban Atlanta-area school district with nearly 100,000 students, 100 schools, and 14,000 staff and support personnel.

“Andre’s educational experiences from paraprofessional to Chief Academic Officer, reaffirm his belief that every adult who has contact with a student is essential to that child’s success, and it does truly take a village to raise a child,” stated his profile, which was provided during the DPS superintendent search process.