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History of GVA

The impetus for GVA began in January 2005, when a group of parents discussed the need for a public school offering international education and bilingual education using partial immersion. (Some of these parents first considered a charter school in 2003). The project gained momentum when Jade Amick Fulgenzi, an education with 35 years of experience in international and multilingual, multicultural education in public and private schools, was invited to organize the Planning Committee in spring of 2005. GVA received a Walton Family Foundation Planning Grant for $20,000 in August 2005.

A charter application was submitted to Aurora Public Schools on September 1, 2005. APS had just discontinued a dual language immersion program (English-Spanish) at Crawford Elementary School in June 2005, despite strong community support for the program. While APS, a large school district, has a Middle School and HIgh School IBO program, they do not have a K-5 IB school. Following denial by the APS Board of the charter application on December 13, 2005, GVA's appeal was remanded to APS by a 6-1 vote of the Colorado Board of Education. APS Approved a resolution of conditional approval for GVA on March 14, 2006 by a 4-2 vote.

GVA will expand school choice in APS and fill the gap created by the loss of the dual language immersion program at Crawford Elementary. It opened with 250 (K-5) students in the fall of 2007 and will add one grade a year to create a middle school. As a K-8 school, GVA will serve a diverse group of 675 students as both a neighborhood school and a regional school that draws students from a distance because of its unique educational offering.