The Fountain Hills Unified School District (FHUSD) Governing Board met for a work study session last Wednesday, Feb. 23. The Board discussed two items, an update from the Fountain Hills Education Association and background and considerations on undeveloped properties.

The Board is leaning toward putting the district’s unused parcels of land to a vote for sale or exchange, and Interim Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney brought three guests to the meeting to shed light on the requirements and procedures needed to do so. The guests were attorneys James Giel and Laura Sever-Blanco from Gust Rosenfield, and Randie Stein, Managing Director of Stifel Investment Services.

First, the Board would need to apply and receive written approval to sell from the School Facility Board (SFB), or conversely, have the SFB confirm that written approval isn’t needed. Then the Board would work with the County to call for an election under ARS 15-491 to seek voter approval. If the vote passes, the district would need to obtain an appraisal to assess the commercial value, and then FHUSD can list the site and field offers. The Board discussed getting an appraisal or at least an evaluation of the land’s value prior to the potential election.

While a vote to sell the land may sound final, it isn’t. The Board has several options in how it can approach the vote and what comes after. They can put all three parcels up to vote on the same ballot or break them into multiple questions. The Board is also not required to sell land after the sale has been approved, and the approval lasts indefinitely if passed. If the Board chooses to auction the land instead of selling to a chosen developer, FHUSD will have less control in the transition of ownership.

According to the guests, school land sales are typically approved, but they warned of voter fatigue if the land sale questions are broken into multiple votes. The Board planned to rerun the District Additional Assistance (DAA) Override election this November after failing to pass in 2021, so voter fatigue may already be in play.

According to azednews.com, there were 20 school override elections statewide last year, and 14 passed. Fountain Hills was the only school district where voters voted no to a DAA Override.

There were more concerns raised later in the meeting regarding the DAA Override. The Board was under the assumption they had one more year of additional assistance funds, but according to Stein, FHUSD’s DAA Override ends on July 1, 2022.

Board President Nadya Jenkins said during the meeting that the Board put both the DAA and Maintenance and Operation Overrides to vote last November because they were “going into the downturn, but we haven’t completely lost it yet.” Not much later, Stein said the fiscal year for the previous DAA Override ends this year. Board Member Jill Reed asked for clarification, and there was a chorus of “I thought we had one more year,” from Board members in response.

FHUSD will still receive funding without the DAA Override, but Board member Dr. Wendy Barnard went so far as to describe the funding situation as “desperate.” One of the big reasons for selling unused land is to increase FHUSD’s capital budget, but the land sale and DAA Override are not interchangeable. The DAA Override covered some upgrades and repairs, but it was not enough to repair every old piece of equipment and technology on school campuses.

Reed repeated that the idea of selling the land had always been a “rainy day fund,” and she said it’s raining now.

FHEA Update

Prior to the discussion on unused land, TJ Buckley, President-elect of the Fountain Hills Education Association, informed the Board about on-going teacher initiatives. Buckley was joined by staff representatives from each campus, Jill Cooper from McDowell Mountain Elementary School, Richa Perkins from Fountain Hills Middle School and Laura Herron from Fountain Hills High School. Together, they walked the Board through a PowerPoint filled with Meet and Confer ideas and areas of concern.

Buckley asked certified staff members to answer a survey from Jan. 10 to Jan. 21, and Buckley received 53 responses from the 91 total certified staff members. Last year, Buckley received 30 responses. From the 53 responses, 57% of staff have been with FHUSD for less than five years, but only 19% of staff have less than five years total experience.

Buckley said it was concerning that 73.6% of respondents said their prep time was interrupted at least once a week; 66% said they received their agreed upon 175 prep minutes, 49% reported no pay for substituting on their prep time and 100% supported Meet and Confer advocating for a salary schedule.

Survey numbers regarding respect and morale were noteworthy. Of responders, 39.7% of staff do not feel respected or valued by their site administration, and 58.5% do not feel respected by district administration. Positive personal morale was split, with 51% reporting they have a consistent job satisfaction, but only 19% reported a consistent positive school morale.

Ahead of Meet and Confer meetings, the FHEA listed the five main concerns as pay/salary, student behaviors, professional development, rigid district initiatives and a lack of teacher representation in committees.

More than half of the survey respondents said there are too many district-mandated instructional tools, like Beyond Textbooks and PLP. The FHEA representatives explained those initiatives weren’t working as “one-size fits all,” even though they were applied the same at each campus. According to Cooper, PLP is “set up well for high school,” but she described it as “much more difficult,” for elementary students.

Future Action

Teachers will meet with Interim Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney for meet and confer in March, and there will be another update at either the next business meeting or work study session. Sweeney is also meeting with an advisory committee for facility use every two weeks. The first site consolidation meeting was held the day before the Board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

The site consolidation meetings are open to the public, and the next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 8, from 4-5 p.m. at McDowell Mountain Elementary School. The committee will rotate through each school site every two weeks for their meetings.

There are two parents from MMES, two parents from Fountain Hills Middle School, one parent from Fountain Hills High School, a staff member from each school, two neighbors, Dr. Sweeney, FHUSD Director of Transportation and Facilities John Flynn, and Board member Jill Reed on the committee.

The Board will meet again on Wednesday, March 9, for a business meeting at 6:30 p.m. The next work study session is Wednesday, March 23, at 5 p.m. All meetings are held at the District Learning Center and are recorded and streamed on the FHUSD YouTube channel.