Three new members joined the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board last Wednesday, Jan. 11. After a call to order and pledge of allegiance, Lillian Acker, Madicyn Reid and Libby Settle were sworn in by town mayor Ginny Dicky, kicking off their four-year terms.

The Board moved to elect officers for 2023, and Jill Reed won the office of president by a 3-2 vote. Dana Saar won the election for vice president by the same margin, and Settle and Reid were the opposition on both counts, having nominated each other for the leadership positions.

After the elections, Superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski gave a recap on current events and let principals come up to honor student and teacher Falcons of the Month from each school.

Jagodzinski said he continues to push for high expectations in the district, and he worked on consolidation plans through winter break. Jagodzinski will meet with Orcutt Winslow, the architecture firm behind the renovation plans, this week. He wants to hit the ground running and hopefully start tours of the new middle school facilities by spring break.

After the district celebrations, the Board heard four presentations. Student Government told the Board about the upcoming “Hoopcoming” dance. Spirt week will be from Monday, Jan. 30, to Friday, Feb. 3, and the “Red Carpet” dance will be on Saturday, Feb. 4. Mike Scharnow led two presentations on the Coalition and on the two different Kiwanis clubs in town, Noon and Sunset. He updated the new Board members on all the ways that Kiwanis impacts children in Fountain Hills, and he brought up CATCH My Breath, an anti-vaping program. According to Scharnow, a previous Board had approved the Coalition to come and do the presentation on campus, and he broke down some of the statistics the Coalition has gathered over the years concerning the community and substance abuse.

The final presentation came from three representatives from HyeTech Network & Security Solutions. They presented a slideshow about Verkada Solutions, one of the most advanced camera systems available. FHUSD added additional panoramic cameras in 2019-2020, but Verkada cameras hold more advantages for administration, according to the presenters.

Verkada is more proactive than reactive, and its sensors can detect people of interest, temperature changes, vape smoke and more. Verkada provides real-time alerts to any device and is compatible with an app on a smartphone.

Verkada comes with a 10-year warranty and no annual maintenance or software costs. With over 100 outside doors at Fountain Hills High School alone, Jagodzinski is concerned with protecting and monitoring the perimeter and access in and out of all school buildings. The Board will consider Verkada in more detail at a later meeting.

The meeting turned toward public comments, and only Tana Boersma spoke. Boersma, a 20-year resident, spoke of her disappointment that the recent bond and override failed to pass, and she acknowledged the tight budget on the athletic programs right now. A supporter of high school athletics, Boersma is leading a charge with the Booster Club to fundraise a new football field and other athletic supplies and equipment.

“I would just ask the Board to be supportive of the efforts the parents are spearheading and to be sure that the funds that we’re raising through tax credits are used for the student athletes and the field that we are working so hard to replace,” Boersma concluded.

The Board handled its only action item quickly, deciding to schedule a Board retreat on Monday, Feb. 6, from 4 to 6 p.m. The retreat will function as a time for the Board to create a list of goals and discussion topics for future work study sessions, and the Board will also discuss procedural items to ensure consistency among members.

The Board finished the meeting with discussions on two student trips. There will be a trip through EF Tours to Scotland, England and France in March 2024, and a trip to Germany in May 2024 in conjunction with the Fountain Hills Sister Cities program.

The Board also discussed renaming Fountain Hills Preschool to Little Falcons Preschool after grades move for consolidation reasons, since all FHUSD schools have a Falcon mascot. The Board will vote on the name change at the next meeting.

The next meeting will be a work study session on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 5:30 p.m. All meetings are held in the FHUSD Learning Center and are recorded and livestreamed on the FHUSD YouTube channel.