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Retention becomes School Board focus

Posted 8/30/22

The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board met last Wednesday, Aug. 24, for a work study session. The Board discussed its goals and expectations, and next meeting superintendent Dr. …

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Retention becomes School Board focus

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The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board met last Wednesday, Aug. 24, for a work study session. The Board discussed its goals and expectations, and next meeting superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski will present objectives to reach those goals and will receive feedback from the Board.

The Board has had five specific goals in place that relate to academic success, school safety, positive climates for students and staff, fiscal responsibility, and promoting success within the district. The Board discussed reworking the language of the goals to explicitly mention retention.

According to Board members, retention of both students and staff has been worse than ever in the last three years. Enrollment has been a concern for years, and the schools lose money and consistency every time they hire a replacement teacher and put them in training.

Jagodzinski is trying to get feedback from as many demographic groups as possible in town to work on improving the schools. He and high school Principal Chris Hartmann assembled a student advisory group that will meet for the first time soon. Jagodzinski, Hartmann and other administrators are also hosting coffee sessions and solicitating feedback from parents and stakeholders.

Each administrator will have coffee sessions at different times on different days, and all administrative coffee sessions can be found listed on the FHUSD website calendar.

Staff survey

Jagodzinski also created a strategic planning committee and has been meeting with Fountain Hills Education Association President TJ Buckley once a month. Buckley presented survey results from all staff to the Board that offer a snapshot into where the staff are compared to January 2022.

The survey questions were the same questions asked in the January Meet and Confer meetings. Buckley had 53 responses in January, and 47 responses after the first week of school in August, and all responses were anonymous.

The biggest change was when overall opinion of FHUSD professional development rose from 21% positive to 72% positive. Personal morale rose from 51% positive to 83% positive, and 87% of staff feel respected by site and district administrators, compared to 42% who felt respected by district administrators and 60% who felt respected by site administrators last January.

Buckley and the Board discussed factors that possibly skewed the results. The teachers and staff that left FHUSD after last year were not able to respond in August, and according to Buckley, morale is typically high among teachers at the beginning of a school year.

Buckley wants to survey staff each quarter to avoid inconsistencies in his reporting. This past year was the first time that the FHEA had regular representation at Board meetings, and according to Buckley, FHEA saw over 80% increase in membership this summer.

Jagodzinski wants to regain stability and consistency in the district and is using data points to chart a path to success. There have been three different state standardized tests over the past three years, but Arizona finally settled on using the ACT as the state standardized test.

Last year was the first time freshmen took the ACT Inspire test, and juniors took the ACT. When FHUSD receives those test scores later this year, Jagodzinski will use the data to create a benchmark to improve on in the future.

Jagodzinski will present actionable objectives to help reach the Board’s goals at the next business meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held in the FHUSD Learning Center and will be recorded and livestreamed on the FHUSD YouTube page.