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Kate Mullins (Founder of Vega Collegiate Academy): In building a school you sacrifice everything, because that’s what you have to do to build a quality school. And that’s what I and my team had done for years.

[Audio plays from Aurora Public Schools Board Meeting]

Kate Mullins: When the APS Board voted unanimously to revoke our charter was literally the hardest day of my life.

Veronica McCarty (Vega 5th Grade Math Teacher): When they actually said it, I just started crying.

Tirzha Zabarauskas (Vega 6th Grade Science Teacher): It just felt like the floor came out from under us.

Kate Mullins: Watching my students wait to hear that vote, tears streaming down their face, just incredibly confused.

Tirzha Zabarauskas: They asked, does this mean we’re closing? I told them no. This isn’t over.

[Audio from a Vega Classroom]

Kate Mullins: I’m Kate Mullins. I’m the Founder and Executive Director of Vega Collegiate Academy. Every kid represents opportunity and every school represents opportunity. And when you do what it takes and you set the bar high and children achieve, it shows that it can be done.

Mark Marshall (Vega Board Chair): Students here in our school will come from neighborhood schools that are underperforming, who come in and read below grade level. And to see that advancement, I think says, this is a path that we should be pursuing.

Tim Farmer (Vega Board Member): Vega serves 91% of their students on free and reduced lunch, 70% of their students are English language learners, 12% their students are students with disabilities. So, this is a population of students that has historically been a challenge to attain academic performance with.

Kate Mullins: We’re incredibly lucky to serve a diverse population. We actually have over 30 different home languages at our school. Many of our students come from refugee camps.

Juhara (Student): Hi, my name is Juhara and I’m 17. I’m from Malaysia.

Siti (Student): My name is Siti Ruhena and I am in sixth grade.

Tim Farmer: We’re talking about closing down a school. A school that’s been chosen by hundreds of families as their school of choice, many of whom are sitting behind me here today.

Modest Monatulum (Parent): [Spoken in French] My children’s dreams? My dreams for them? I want them to have strong foundations. After Vega, wherever they go, they will be the best because they’ve received a strong foundation at Vega, the best.

Kate Mullins: So, there’s nothing worse as an adult or child than feeling like your voice is never heard. In February that’s very much how our students and families felt. And then we go to the State Board level, and they started to hear the tone change a little bit. Vega is doing a great job with their students. I think it was a moment that provided a lot of validation in our students and families.

[Audio from the State Board of Education Meeting]

Veronica McCarty: When the State Board decided to keep us open it felt so amazing. Charter schools give families and children a choice.

Tirzha Zabarauskas: We’re taking students and we’re telling them, this is where you can achieve, and they’re doing it.

Mark Marshall: There’s equal and then there’s equality. Equal is you’re giving everybody the same thing. Equality is given each student what each individual student needs. So we try and succeed at providing what each individual student needs to advance.

Teacher: So, a child’s access to quality education is not a political issue, it’s a human rights issue. And my goal is to create a school that is the safest possible school that guarantees children a quality education and ensuring that quality schools of choice are not punished because of success.