Miguel In Suk Lovato

Miguel In Suk Lovato

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Miguel In Suk Lovato was a candidate for at-large representative on the Aurora Public Schools school board in Colorado. Lovato was defeated in the at-large general election on November 7, 2017.

Elections

2017

See also: Aurora Public Schools elections (2017)

Four of the seven seats on the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education in Colorado were up for nonpartisan general election on November 7, 2017. The race included incumbent Barbara Yamrick and challengers Kyla Armstrong-Romero, Jane Barber, Kevin Cox, Debra Gerkin, Marques Ivey, Miguel In Suk Lovato, Gail Pough, and Lea Steed. Armstrong-Romero, Cox, Gerkin, and Ivey won the spots on the board.

Results

Aurora Public Schools, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Kevin Cox	16.58%	12,636
Debra Gerkin	16.26%	12,391
Kyla Armstrong-Romero	15.13%	11,527
Marques Ivey	12.9%	9,830
Gail Pough	9.76%	7,441
Miguel In Suk Lovato	8.91%	6,793
Jane Barber	7.15%	5,447
Barbara Yamrick Incumbent	7.07%	5,385
Lea Steed	6.25%	4,760
Total Votes		76,210
Source: Arapahoe County, Official Results," accessed August 28, 2023 and Adams County Elections Office, "Official Results," accessed August 28, 2023

Funding

Lovato reported $16,856.00 in contributions and $16,735.33 in expenditures to the Colorado Secretary of State, which left his campaign with $120.67 as of December 8, 2017.

Endorsements

Lovato was endorsed by Colorado Senator Rhonda Fields (D).

Campaign themes

2017

Chalkbeat questionnaire

Lovato participated in the following questionnaire conducted by Chalkbeat. The questions provided by the news organization appear bolded, and Lovato's responses follow below.

Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you lived in the school district? What do you do for a living?

“	My family moved from Denver to Northwest Aurora in the early 1980s due to the cheaper rent prices. I graduated from Aurora Central High School in 1989 and was the first person in my family to attend college and earn a degree. I earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master of Arts degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado Denver. I completed my student teaching at Denver West High School and taught at Escuela Tlatelolco back in the 1990s. I was also the executive director of a college preparatory nonprofit and a substitute teacher in APS. In 2000, I joined the newly launched Daniels Fund, one of the state’s largest private foundations. As one of the founding members of the Daniels scholarship team, I helped design and refine the scholarship selection process. Since inception, our scholarship program has helped thousands of students break cycles of poverty by earning college degrees and moving on to successful careers. Currently, I manage a multimillion-dollar grantmaking budget for aging and disabilities organizations in the Denver-metro area and for cradle-to-career educational efforts in the entire state of New Mexico.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Tell us about your connection to the school district.

“	As mentioned, I graduated from Aurora Central High School. Unlike the many classmates of mine who moved away, I stayed living in Northwest Aurora and have watched the face of the community evolve and change. Aurora is the most diverse city in the Rocky Mountain region and a “majority-minority” city where people of color outnumber Whites. This creates a beautiful mosaic of languages, cultures, and customs. Years ago, I was a substitute teacher in APS in many long-term assignments at several high-need schools. I believe that the classroom experiences I’ve had have given me an on-the-ground perspective that not all school board members (or candidates) have. Lastly, as part of my work with the Daniels Fund, I led an outreach effort to understand the assets and highest needs in Aurora. This included several meetings with district, government, nonprofit, and business leaders.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

The district’s state test scores improved this year, enough to lift the district’s state quality rating and get APS off the accountability clock. Why do think the district was able to achieve this, and do you think APS is on the right track?

“	Due to academic growth and increasing graduation rates, APS was able to convince the Colorado Department of Education to move the district off of the accountability clock. This is certainly movement in the right direction, achieved by taking a hard look at opportunity and subsequent achievement gaps and supporting educators in providing differentiated instruction to student needs. William Smith showed some of the highest growth in the state. While I do believe that we should recognize and celebrate these milestones, we are far from winning the race. Academic proficiency (achievement) still lags far behind other districts. Schools — like my alma mater Aurora Central High School — remain on the accountability clock despite showing growth. Now is not the time to pause or slow down for improvement efforts in the district. I sincerely hope that moving off the clock will not give our district and school leaders a false sense of final achievement. I believe that we need to keep our foot on the gas, and must continue the push for bold, urgent improvement efforts in the district.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Some candidates have said they would like the school board to have more accountability or transparency. What would you say to that, and should anything change on that issue?

“	I do believe that we should push for greater accountability and transparency to the students, parents, and community. Ultimately, it is the school district’s job to educate our children. The district must be held accountable for their education and should make changes and course corrections along the way as necessary. We can’t have accountability without transparency — parents need to know how good of a job our schools are doing of serving their students in order for the district to be accountable. I think that the district took the right first step to communicate with students, parents, and the community about school performance through the launch of their new interactive online map. However, in order for this to be a truly meaningful tool, additional information and clarifying language in an easy-to-understand format would strengthen this resource. It is the school board’s role to hold district leaders accountable to specific and measurable goals. When I am elected, I won’t be afraid to ask tough questions, buck the status quo, or hold district leaders accountable. Our kids deserve no less.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Aurora has sought to increase school quality by recruiting the high-performing charter school network DSST. Is this a sound strategy and was the process sound, or would you have done anything differently?

“	I personally know families that are living in Aurora and sending their children to DSST in Denver. The families I know love DSST and welcomed the news that Aurora-based schools would be opening in the coming years. Having spoken to numerous students and parents, I know that many members of my community in NW Aurora are looking for high-quality educational options that fit their needs. Further, even with the declines in student enrollment in APS, most schools are still overenrolled. This points to the district having the capacity – and need – for additional schools. I support the right of parents to choose the school that best fits their families needs — if parents enroll their kids in DSST, I think that tells us something important about what our families want. I think that APS could have done a better job of engaging stakeholders to explore the option of bringing DSST to the district. For the board to be a good authorizer, we need a clear system as a district for how we approach applications in the future. As a school board member, I will push for the inclusion of all vested constituents when it comes to these types of decisions.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

What role do you believe local school boards should have in reviewing, approving or managing charter schools that wish to open in the district?

“	The school board has the important role of ensuring that charter schools are held accountable to high standards. This is accomplished during the charter authorization process and by holding charters to the terms of their contract. If a charter school is not in compliance, the board has the authority to revoke the charter. As a school board member, I would be committed to holding all charters in the district accountable to this high bar and would not be afraid to take action against any charter school that is not able to clear this bar. In my opinion, the school board should adopt a strategy for charter schools in APS. This might include codifying the high bar needed for charter approval and school launch; outlining the complementary role that charters would need to demonstrate in the district; and a strategic plan for the integration of charters over the next five to seven years.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Aurora Public Schools is likely to continue facing budget issues. What funding do you think ought to be cut, and how should the district go about deciding what should be cut?

“	Ultimately, the school board has the important role of fiscal oversight of the district. This includes regular monitoring of income and expenses to ensure that spending is in line with established budgets. This also includes monitoring existing assets and liabilities. Finally, this also includes the development and approval of future year budgets, and fighting for Bond and Mill Levy dollars. I believe that it is vital to engage with our various district constituents – students, families, teachers, school leaders, and teachers, community members – before the approval of budget cuts. Keeping cuts away from the classroom as much as possible should be prioritized — budgets reflect our priorities, and my priority is ensuring that students, particularly those who have historically been underserved by our schools, have the resources that they need to succeed. I also think that we should explore creative and flexible school-level budgeting districtwide, learning from the innovation zone schools in northwest Aurora that used their budget-setting autonomy to keep interpretation and translation services despite the cuts to this service districtwide.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Do you agree with the resolution the school board passed earlier this year to support immigrant and refugee students? How would you judge what the district is doing to respond to the concerns of those communities?

“	I do. I thank the school board for approving the Resolution to Keep APS a Safe and Inclusive School Community – the community-led resolution to support students regardless of immigration status which passed in the spring. I feel that it is an important reaffirmation of the role that schools play in our community. It is also an important declaration of what role the schools will not play – that of assisting immigration and customs officials with the enforcement of immigration laws. Schools must be safe zones for all children. I think the district could do a much better job of serving the diverse immigrant and refugee communities of the district. For example, I was deeply disappointed that translation services were one of the services being reduced during the APS budget cuts. It is our absolute obligation as a district and a community to ensure that we are reaching all kids, and ensuring that all of their families are included in all district communications. We need to prioritize resources for our emerging multilingual students and their families which hail from all parts of the world. This means having multilingual educators, paras, guidance counselors, and translation services in school meetings and school board meetings.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

What do you see as the biggest issue facing Aurora schools today and how do you hope to have an impact on said issue as a school board member?

“	For me, the single most pressing issue in Aurora Public Schools is student achievement. It is our obligation as educators to push our district to ensure that every student has access to a high-quality education. It is the promise that we’ve made with the families of these students. We owe it to them to deliver. Common sense tells us that performing at grade level is meaningful at any age. But critical milestones, like third grade reading, are well-researched predictors of future success. Students who struggle to learn to read tend to go on to develop more behavioral and social problems, and they need our resources and success to close those gaps. Even more troubling, children who read below grade level by the end of third grade are much more likely to drop out of school in later years. All this to say that I believe that student academic achievement and growth are two of the most critical factors to gauge our success by. We must strive for a district where all students – including our historically underserved kids – are earning a great education.	”
—Miguel In Suk Lovato (2017)

Recent news

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Miguel In Suk Lovato - Google News

See also

• Aurora Public Schools, Colorado
• Aurora Public Schools elections (2017)

External links

Suggest a link

• Aurora Public Schools
• Campaign website
• Facebook campaign website