By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

The Fountain Hills Unified School District superintendent is hoping to keep momentum on several fronts the staff and students have made over the past three years.

He’ll be able to keep that going with a boost of confidence in terms of performance-based pay for him personally.

The FHUSD Governing Board voted 3-2 at its April 16 meeting to give Dr. Cain Jagodzinski the full 5% performance-based compensation he can receive by state law.

Board President Rick Rutkowski made the motion for the 5% compensation for the superintendent, with board members Lillian Acker and Bernie Hoenle joining him in voting in favor of it. Vice President Madicyn Reid and board member Kim Duckworth voted against the 5% number.

Reid had proposed 3% compensation for Jagodzinski in a motion she made a moment earlier, with Duckworth voting in favor of it, but Rutkowski, Hoenle and Acker defeating that proposed amount by that same 3-2 margin.

The votes marked a rare sequence of events for the 2025-26 board in terms of a single-vote defeat of a motion being immediately followed by one passed by that same narrowest of margins.

“I have been very impressed with Dr. J and all the creative things he’s done to change the atmosphere of the district,” Reid said. “When I first got involved, things were pretty dismal. I do think that in the midst of budget cuts, it’s difficult to do the full 5%. I would be comfortable with the 3%.”

Another FHUSD board meeting rarity — applause for a compensation vote — was heard in the board room when the 5% compensation vote passed.

Jagodzinski told the Times Independent that Arizona school boards are obligated to decide on pay-for-performance for superintendents each year, permitting boards to award a maximum percentage as other district staff receive.

He said he was uncertain exactly what his base salary presently is, but it’s more than the $125,000 he made in his first year of 2022-23.

Jagodzinski also pointed out many of the things he helped make happen over the past year and in the three years he’s had the top FHUSD job. Those include arranging for budget reductions that only resulted in letting go two teachers, reducing the number of routine-audit findings and other projects to improve outcomes and student opportunities.

“We did end up having to RIF (reduction-in-force, or lay off) some classified staff,” Jagodzinski said. “But, by and large, we did reductions with the minimum impact to students. And that’s just one of the ways I feel I measured up in the goals the board set out for me.”

Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrookss@iniusa.org.

INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA

Jason W. Brooks
Associate Editor

Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.

He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.

Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.