Fountain Hills Charter School in the new school year is focusing on utilizing its smaller campus, among other things, to raise the bar for the school’s academics.

The most visible change to FHCS in the 2018-19 school year is the use of only one building, located at 16811 E. El Pueblo Blvd, as the school’s campus.

The other building, located at, 16751 E. Glenbrook Road, was closed this past summer because of school size, but principal Martha Braly is excited for what the smaller campus will let staff accomplish.

“We are all going to be together which is important,” Braly said. “It is important because you can have collegiality among staff and I think when you are separated like that you don’t really know what your peers are doing.”

With the staff of six teachers being so close together on campus they can make sure that their curriculums match and cross over.

“That is the goal across campus,” Braly explained. “In junior high if they are teaching European history, then the art teacher is going to teach the art part of European history. That’s what we want to do, teach across the curriculums.”

Along with allowing better communication among teachers, the closer classrooms will make it easier to send one student who has shown proficiency in a subject to a more suitable grade level.

“If I have a first grader who is reading at, say, the second or third grade level,” Braly said. “I could move them right next door to the second and third grade room where that teacher can diagnosis the situation.”

Along with the change in campus size Braly is also making some adjustments to the division of class time on subjects.

“What I have done with the schedule is I have cut a few of their specials,” Braly explained. “A lot of hours were being cut out of academics so we are back to one special a day and one day a week with two specials. I don’t want to take away the specials, I just think you need to focus on the academics.”

Part of the Charter school goal for the new school year is to attract more students for enrollment. Braly believes that word of mouth about the schools academics, along with community events, will help.

“I think more and more people are starting to come in because public schools obviously have larger class sizes,” said Dr. Braly. “Here, though, their children can be in a class with between 10 and 15 kids where they can get a lot of help.”

The school also offers the chance for interested students to spend a day shadowing their grade level.

“What we do is have the student come in and say, for example, they are going to be a third grader, they would spend the day in the second to third grade class,” Braly said. “They eat lunch and they go to specials so that way the student has a real understanding of what it is like here.”

Braly also wants to look into hosting an open house for parents in the community who are not yet a part of FHCS. Along with an open house, the charter school would like to have a haunted house this October and put on a play, “The Wizard of Oz.”

The first day of Fountain Hills Charter School is Tuesday, Aug. 7. Parent/teacher conference will be held on Aug. 6.