The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board held an open meeting that covered AzMerit test results and upcoming field trips on Nov. 13 in the District Learning Center.
The board’s …
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School board talks grades, trips
FHUSD seal.jpg
Posted
Joey Postiglione, Reporter
The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board held an open meeting that covered AzMerit test results and upcoming field trips on Nov. 13 in the District Learning Center.
The board’s next meeting is on Wednesday, Dec. 11.
AzMerit
The November meeting began with FHUSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Allen briefing the Board on the results of the 2019 AzMerit testing by grade level.
Almost all grade levels tested (third grade to 11th) in FHUSD have a higher percentage of proficient or highly proficient scores then the state average.
Fountain Hills High School, in particular, has high rates compared to the state with 54 percent of 10th graders passing the English Language Arts AzMerit test to the state average of 34 percent.
The target growth areas that Dr. Allen identified for the board were sixth grade math and English, eighth grade math and sophomore science.
The percent of sixth grade that passed the math test was 42% compare to the state average of 41%. The percent that passed the English test was 41%, whereas the state average was 42%.
The percent of the eighth grade class that scored a proficient or higher on the eighth grade regular math AzMerit test was 23%, lower the state average of 32%.
Dr. Allen explained to the board that a reason for such a dramatic difference at the eighth grade level is that Fountain Hills has less eighth grade students taking the regular math test than the state average. Eighth grade is the year where students can take regular math or advance classes, like algebra and geometry.
Field trips and school calendar
After hearing from Dr. Allen, the Board discussed two field trips and the school calendar for the 2020-21 academic year.
One of the field trips is the annual middle school trip to Washington, D.C. and the other proposed trip is for the high school art club to visit Japan. No action was taken on these items.
Finally the board discussed a possible calendar for the 2020-21 school year. The calendar that the board is considering was selected by committees of teachers, administrators and PTO members.
The start date for the school year would be on Aug. 11 2020. Fall break will be from Oct. 12 to 16 and Dec. 21 to Jan. 4 2021 will be winter break. Finally Spring Break will be from March 15 to 19 and the final day is on May 27.
