The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board met last Wednesday, Sept. 14, for a business meeting. The Board discussed new policies, approved items related to their budget, and Superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski started a new tradition.

Jagodzinski wanted to celebrate the success going on in FHUSD and administrators from each site honored a faculty member of the month and student of the month. Site leaders introduced each recipient and praised them for their recent behavior and actions.

The students of the month were Sammantha Hughes for Fountain Hills High School, Haylee Prince for Fountain Hills Middle School and Ruth Kawulok for McDowell Mountain Elementary School. The staff of the month were Jeff Bonner for the high school, Leanne Reinhold for the middle school, Gillian Levin at the elementary school and Jodi Luft at the District Office.

Prior to the celebrations, the Board approved minutes from the August meetings to be uploaded online. Then Jagodzinski gave an update on current events, mentioning each school now has monthly coffee meetings with principals. Jagodzinski met with the Student Advisory Board for the first time recently, and there is a new online employee portal that will help FHUSD stay organized.

The Fountain Hills Coalition presented its new mission statement to the Board and introduced two new part-time employees that are from the community. The Coalition gave a general update on its efforts and mentioned they will be bringing back Red Ribbon Week at the middle school this October.

The Board is required by statute to get the Auditor General to approve the district’s audit contracts and financial and compliance audits. The audit contracts for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 have been approved.

Jagodzinski provided data from previous years on spending on substitute teachers and air conditioning maintenance. Based on previous data, it is expected that costs on AC maintenance through Bel-Air Mechanical and substitutes through ESI, Inc, will each exceed $100,000. The Board has to approve any budget item over $100,000, and both budget items were approved.

The Board also increased daily and long-term substitute teacher pay to be more competitive with surrounding districts. Short-term substitute pay was raised to $135/day, and long-term substitute pay was increased to $160/day.

The Board approved its 2022-2023 Board goals and a new Board-appointed Advisory Committee to Consider Consolidation of Sites. Even though Jagodzinski recently said FHUSD would slow down it’s consolidation timetable, there is still a lot to consider and the committee will work to find solutions.

The Board also approved an out-of-state cross country trip. The Falcons will travel to Walnut, Calif., from Oct. 20-23, and will compete in one of the largest meets in the country, the Mt. SAC Invitational. The cross country team will also spend a day at Disneyland after the race.

The Board ended it’s meeting with first readings of Policies Advisories 716 through 736. The policies come from recent legislation and the Board is required to have two policy readings before approval. Policies ranged from referrals to parents’ rights to COVID-19 and more. The Board will amend regulations and exhibits to better fit FHUSD’s population in a future work study session, but FHUSD is required to comply with Arizona law and adopt new policy changes.

The next work study session is on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 5 p.m. The next business meeting is on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m. All meetings are livestreamed and recorded on YouTube and are held in the District Learning Center.