On Wednesday, May 15, the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board held an open meeting where members recognized excellence within the district, discussed renewing the Beyond Textbook contract with Vail and approved the board’s meeting dates for next school year.

FHUSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Allen gave a rundown of how spring sports did in his opening comments, along with taking a moment to draw attention to two recent events.

The first was McDowell Mountain Elementary School being award the official A+ School of Excellence Banner from the Arizona Education Foundation on May 6.

MMES principal Valerie Dehombreux was at the meeting, along with a myriad of staff and teachers, to show off the banner and share the experience of the day.

The other event that Dr. Allen brought attention to was the heroic efforts by Fountain Hills Middle School P.E teachers, Patti Schultz and Mandy Baca, when they performed CPR on student Rocco Pelano after he went into cardiac arrest while running the track.

Pelano’s family was at the meeting and thanked both Schultz and Baca as well as Rural Metro Fire Chief Dave Ott and Assistant Fire Chief/Fire Marshal Jason Payne.

Following Allen’s comments, the board heard from Fountain Hills High School Principal Cain Jagodzinski.

Jagodzinski informed the board that FHHS had received a U.S. News and World Report Best High Schools award and shared with them pictures from the Life Skills class’ recent trip to Vail School District for their Special Education Prom.

After Jagodzinski finished his comments the board moved into the informational portion of the meeting and began by discussing the renewal of the District’s contract for the Beyond Textbooks program with Vail School District.

There were only two significant changes of the contract. The first was a reduction in cost because of FHUSD’s continued use of the program and the merge of the Middle School and High School’s contract into one.

Next, the board discussed new extracurricular fees along with the increase of some existing fees.

At the high school, five new fees are proposed; ($50) basic design, ($25) digital arts, ($50) photography, ($50) graphic design/video and ($75) life skills club.

At the middle school a new band fee, band apparel and binder ($25), is being considered, along with a $10 increase to the $100 band instrument rental fee.

At MMES the price of the chess club would go up to $215 and two fitness clubs would be added: a running club and a rhythmic fitness club, both at $50.

The board then approved the meeting dates for the 2019-20 school year and the new Life Skill assistant class at FHHS.

The board also approved policy JJJ concerning student athlete eligibility, the renewal of the district contract with Sodexo and a field trip to Spain next spring for the high school World Traveler Club.

The board’s next meeting is June 12 where members will discuss the proposed 2019-2020 budget.