There is excitement around the district as FHUSD looks forward to welcoming back our students and their families for the 2017-2018 school year. On behalf of the entire district, I share with you our warmest wishes for an exciting and enriching school year for everyone.

You will notice many changes as the year gets underway. At the middle school, Ms. Linda McKeever is our new principal and she has many plans for engaging our parents and community in order to improve the learning opportunities for our students. Expect to see an increased focus on ensuring our students are mastering the Arizona College and Career Ready standards through increased student engagement and the deliberate connections of the curriculum across content areas. The middle school now represents grades four through eight and you will see greater consistency in instruction, operations and communication across grade levels. Last year, we rolled out class sets of Chromebooks in grades four and five and expect to see the infusion of technology over the course of the year in grades six through eight.

At McDowell Mountain, 2017 saw significant and impressive increases in student achievement as measured by AzMERIT. Expect to see a continuation of the teamwork and thoughtful planning that characterizes the MMES staff. Teachers will continue to focus on the individual needs of all students and collaborate with their peers and parents to meet those needs. Special areas will continue to provide students rich experiences in music, art, physical education and technology. Early in the year, classroom sets of Chromebooks will be deployed in all of the third grade classrooms and grade levels sets will be available in both first and second grade. Mrs. D. will continue to provide the instructional leadership that characterizes her tenure as principal.

At Fountain Hills High School, Mr. Jagodzinski begins his sophomore year with the full implementation of several new programs and initiatives that were the focus of last year’s planning and preparation. In its first year, AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) will operate with one guiding principle: Hold students accountable to the highest standards, provide academic and social support, and they will rise to the challenge. AVID brings research-based curriculum and strategies to students each day that develop critical thinking, literacy, and math skills across all content areas. Also new this year, the AP Capstone is comprised of two AP courses — AP Seminar and AP Research — and is designed to complement and enhance the discipline-specific study in other AP courses. The AP Capstone program provides unique research opportunities for current AP students and expands access to AP by encouraging students to master the argument-based writing skills that the AP Capstone program develops. You’ll also see increased opportunities for our high school students to take advantage of our expanded partnership with EVIT (East Valley Institute of Technology), with a number of new CTE courses offered on the high school campus and at the new EVIT-Fountain Hills campus.

So welcome to the 2017-2018 school year! We look forward to another year of achieving and celebrating educational excellence.