Original Research by School Decision on Empower Community High School
Empower Community High School in Aurora is a closed charter school that served middle school grades. Because it is no longer operational, there is no current data on enrollment, student demographics, state assessment results, graduation rates, or program offerings. The school's directory status lists it as closed, and the academic performance and enrollment sections of its profile are empty. For any family researching this school today, the key fact is that it is not accepting students.
The school was part of Aurora Joint District No. 28, commonly known as Aurora Public Schools. The district itself has recently undergone changes that prospective families should understand. Voters approved a bond measure in 2022 that funds facility improvements, safety upgrades, and school modernization across the district. At the same time, the district has undertaken a school consolidation and repurposing process, closing or repurposing underutilized buildings. These two initiatives together mean that the district’s physical footprint and school assignments have been in flux, and families looking at any school in Aurora Public Schools should expect that building-level plans may shift.
Aurora is a large, sprawling suburban city and the third-largest in Colorado. Its built environment is car-dependent, with hundreds of subdivisions and commercial centers rather than a walkable downtown. The city is served by RTD light rail lines, but daily life relies heavily on driving. Major employers include Buckley Space Force Base, the Anschutz Medical Campus, and the hospital systems associated with it. Growth continues, particularly along the corridor near Denver International Airport, where an Aerotropolis development is planned. Housing in the area around the school’s former location on South Chambers Road, based on publicly reported data, has seen a modest decline in both home values and rental prices over the past year, and rents are somewhat lower than the cost of a mortgage in that zip code.
Because the school is closed, there is no peer environment to describe, no academic pathway to assess, and no student support structure to evaluate. A parent researching this school is effectively looking at a shuttered campus. The district context is the more relevant piece: Aurora Public Schools is a large, urban-suburban district with ongoing facility reinvestment and a deliberate downsizing of its school portfolio through consolidation. Families considering this area would be better served by researching the currently operating schools within the district, paying close attention to which buildings remain open and what their feeder patterns look like under the new district plan.
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