This year, school systems returned to a sense of normalcy as several activities returned after a long hiatus. Fountain Hills Unified School District did not see the daily impact from COVID-19 as it had over the past two years, but FHUSD did have its fair share of controversy between a superintendent investigation and budget concerns.

There were plenty of positive moments this year as well. What follows is a recap of the biggest news stories of the year, starting with the spring semester. Next week, The Times will continue to cover the top events of the school year with a focus on the fall semester.

Superintendent

On Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, the Fountain Hills Unified School District (FHUSD) Governing Board voted 4-0 in a special session for a third-party investigation into then Superintendent Kelly Glass. The Board heard multiple reports of conflicting information leading up to the investigation, and Glass was removed from in-person work in the district until the investigation’s conclusion.

Legal fees were covered by the Arizona Risk Retention Trust, and the board met with legal counsel on March 18. The Board decided to mutually part ways with Glass on April 6, and the Board released a statement on April 7 as part of the employee separation agreement.

The statement said that the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, but it also stated that Glass and the Board had different visions for the future of FHUSD. The Board recruited Dr. Patrick Sweeney, who worked as FHUSD Superintendent from 2015-2018, out of retirement to steer the ship while a search was conducted for a replacement .

Sweeney was able to provide the Board with accurate information about potential land sales and bond measures, and the Board assembled a Facilities Use Advisory Committee to come up with a plan for potential campus consolidation while Sweeney was interim Superintendent.

Dr. Cain Jagodzinski was offered the position of Superintendent on April 20. The Board was ahead of its timeline to hire a superintendent by May 10 because they started with old applications to conserve time. Sweeney reentered retirement on June 30, and Jagodzinski officially took over on July 1.

Jagodzinski taught middle school and high school classes in FHUSD previously, and he led the boys basketball team to three straight state championships. He was principal of Fountain Hills High School in 2020 before leaving to become principal at Arcadia High School in Scottsdale.

Arcadia has roughly the same number of students as all of FHUSD, and the large school environment better prepared him for the superintendent role. Jagodzinski was offered a three-year contract extension at the last School Board meeting of 2022, and it will last until June 2026.

Consolidation

Consolidating schools had been discussed by the FHUSD Governing Board in years past, but the Board finally voted to pass a consolidation plan this year. The discussion was renewed at the Jan. 12 meeting, and the vote to consolidate happened on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Preschool will be kept at McDowell Mountain Elementary School (MMES), but they will move to the kindergarten wing. Those classrooms are 12 years newer than the rest of MMES, they are outfitted with nine bathrooms and there is room to grow the pre-K program.

Grades K-5 will go to class at the current Fountain Hills Middle School campus. Grades K-3 will move from MMES, joining fourth and fifth grades on the campus. They will be in newer buildings, have access to a gym and field for P.E., and there are more advanced labs for science and culinary projects.

Grades 6-8 will relocate to the high school, which was originally built to maintain a junior high building on campus. Those grades will have outdoor learning spaces, collaboration with high school coaches for athletics and access to pre-Advanced Placement courses.

The Board assembled the Facilities Use Advisory Committee to tour each site and brainstorm solutions. That committee came up with a consolidation plan and was waiting for approval before Dr. Cain Jagodzinski dialed back the intensity and put the plan on hold back in September.

The committee was made up of staff members, parents and neighbors, and they met 10 times from February through November. All meeting agendas and meeting minutes were made public on the FHUSD website.

After scaling back the idea of consolidation, Jagodzinski held three town hall sessions at school buildings. He provided pen and paper for people who were shy or didn’t want to stand out in the crowd, and he said he received no negative feedback concerning consolidation.

Jagodzinski held his first coffee session with parents, “Coffee with Cain,” on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Jagodzinski received lots of positive feedback about making himself available for stakeholders, and he continued to have coffee sessions every three weeks throughout the school year. He discussed a variety of topics and concerns with parents, including consolidation.

National honors

Two Fountain Hills High School students received national awards for their academic achievements this year. Tyler Ludwig received recognition as a National Merit finalist before he graduated in May 2022, and Analiz Lara-Lopez received honors from the College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program ahead of her upcoming graduation in 2023.

Ludwig was in the top 1% of 2022 graduating seniors, and he carried over 44 college credits into Arizona State University’s Barret Honors College when he enrolled this past fall. He took 11 Advanced Placement (AP) classes in high school and is currently studying mechanical engineering.

Ludwig attended FHUSD schools from K-12, and he was president of the National Honor Society and a student tutor as a senior. He also assisted Student Government with prom informational videos, all while he worked his own job of designing virtual model trains.

Lara-Lopez received her honors for her grades in the classroom and for scoring within the 90th percentile of all high school students on her practice SAT exams. She also passed five AP exams for college credit before her senior year and is currently taking her sixth AP class, AP statistics.

Lara-Lopez is also involved at school like Ludwig was. She has been cheering on the sidelines for four years and served as captain of the pom team in her junior and senior seasons. She also serves as the social media manager for Student Government and is a member of the yearbook staff.

Lara-Lopez works as a part-time instructor for Mathnasium and does dual enrollment classes at East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT). She has taken film program classes and wants to pursue acting and production further in college.

Lara-Lopez and Ludwig were both awarded for their stellar academics, and they became well-rounded individuals because of the small-town environment they both grew up in.

Land sale

Fountain Hills Unified School District owns several parcels of land and Governing Boards have debated the possibility of selling some or all of that land in years past. This year, the discussion was renewed in January, and it carried on for several months.

The three parcels that FHUSD owns but has not utilized are located off Aspen Drive, Cavern Drive and Arroyo Vista Drive. FHUSD has owned the land since 1974, and the Board is only able to vote to put land sale on a ballot. It cannot simply choose to sell the land.

The Board thought that all three parcels of land could be valued as high as $20 million, and interim Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney brought in school real estate experts to talk with the Board. FHUSD would not have been the developer or realtor of the land, and they would not have been required to sell the land had it passed in a vote.

Fountain Hills community members came to Board meetings week after week to give public comments urging the Board not to sell any of the land. By late May, the community pushback was so vocal that the Board looked at other ways to bring money into the district.

The Board had to give Maricopa County 150 days’ notice for the election to reach the ballot, and they looked to beat the deadline on June 11. On June 1, the Board voted unanimously to leave the land alone and call for a special election for bond package instead.