An Aurora City Council committee has recommended about a $2.5 million, five-year contract to continue a STEAM program for underserved youth in the city.
The contract would be with Aurora-based APS Training Academy, which has been involved with the program for the past three years.
Aldermen on the Finance Committee voted to recommend the contract Thursday. The full council will consider it at the Committee of the Whole meeting set for Tuesday evening.
The STEAM program began three years ago as a pilot program in Aurora’s 2nd and 7th wards. It grew to having 600 student participants from throughout the city in 2021, and to 2,029 students in 2022.
The program began as a public-private partnership between the city of Aurora, Elmhurst-based TinkRworks and Aurora’s APS Training Academy. It delivers science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or STEAM, services to underserved youth in the city.
With the new contract, APS would take over the program by providing the kits each student in the program receives. In the past, APS has provided the locations for the training, as well as the teachers. With the new contract, it also would provide the kits, according to Jeff Anderson, Aurora’s deputy IT director.
“It’s a turnkey operation,” said Chris Minick, Aurora’s finance director. “More so than it has been.”
Anderson said the city sent out requests for proposals for this year’s program, and got back seven responses. Four of the respondents did not meet the curriculum the city wanted, he said, and two of the others were not in Aurora, so they did not have Aurora facilities, he said.
“The other two were looking for us to secure locations from throughout the city,” he said.
Last year, the city contracted with APS for the programs for $500,000. The new contract would run for five years at $2.525 million, which comes out to $500,500 a year. The contract would actually be for three years, with two more, one-year options.
slord@tribpub.com
