FHUSD Moving Forward Despite Tough Economy

Despite the current lack of a state budget and reduced state education support, Fountain Hills Schools continue to seek an educational environment for increasing student achievement. Since the beginning of school on August 10th, we have lowered elementary class sizes adding teachers at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade levels. Our current class sizes reveal our commitment to protecting this key student development time.
KG 19-20
1st 21-22
2nd 22-23
3rd 23-24

In addition we have brought back our Computer Specialist at Four Peaks Elementary (grades 3-5) with this teacher to share time beginning second quarter with our McDowell Mountain Primary School (preschool - grade 2). Technology literacy is a key component for our students' future and our P-12 system provides a strong array of technology tools for their access and use.

Last week we had almost two dozen parents, staff, administrators, board members and community members work over two days in a visioning activity to identify instruction and curriculum visions with goals. This came from a large amount of data and dialogue to be developed into an achievement action plan with measurable indicators. With the important passage of our two upcoming override renewals this November (K-3 and Maintenance & Operations) our district will position itself to systemically improve despite the below average support from the state. On going initiatives also include benchmarking assessment, instructional walkthroughs, website renewal, academic rigor and a new student/parent informational system.

As a district we recognize, that despite the external challenges, the opportunity is now for continuous and embedded improvement for learning systems. We continue to have the fortunate support of the Fountain Hills Community that help create graduating classes of 92%
moving on to higher education. A strong school system supports our community and protects property values. We will continue to seek improvement and with your help support the future for the Fountain Hills.

FHUSD Moving Forward Despite Tough Times

Despite the current lack of a state education budget and reduced state support, FHUSD continues to seek an educational environment for increasing student achievement. Since the beginning of school on August 10th, we have lowered our class sizes by adding teachers at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade levels. Our current class sizes reveal our commitment to protecting this key time in student development.

KG 19-20

1st 21-22

2nd 22-23

3rd 23-24

In addition we have brought back our computer specialist at Four Peaks (grades 3-5) with this teacher to share time with our McDowell Primary School (grades preschool-grade 2) beginning second quarter. Technology literacy is a key component for our students' future and our P-12 system provides a strong array of technology tools for their access and use.

Last week we had almost two dozen parents, staff , administrators, board members and community members work for two days in a visioning activity to identify our district instruction and curriculum vision. This data and dialogue will be developed into a district achievement plan

with measurable indicators within an action plan. With the passage of our two upcoming override renewals this November (K-3 and Maintenance & Operations) , our district will position itself to systemically improve as support returns to normal levels.

As a district we rocognize that despite the external challenges the opportunity is now for continuous and embedded improvement for our learning systems. We continue to be fortunate to have the support of the Fountain Hills Community that creates graduating classes with over 94% moving on to higher education. A strong school system supports our community and protects property values. We will continue to seek improvement and with your help support the future for the greater Fountain Hills community.

New School Year Brings Opportunities

The new school year has begun with the usual challenges associated with the opening week. Facilities, technology upgrades, personel needs, class size adjustments and transitioning some 15-20% of our student population new to the district is an annual journey. However, the truly best part of the new year is seeing the opportunities the new year brings. We have some opportunities that we have focused on as the year begins.
1. The passage for the "renewal" of two current overrides slated for November 2009 election. In a difficult time for public school education, the Maintenance & Operations override and K-3 override, will help maintain our strong instructional program, professional staff and protect community housing prices. A strong school district is a cornerstone for a strong FH community and culture.
2. A laser like focus on student achievement. With our community visioning team's work (August 18-19) this week along with the full implementation of tri-annual student benchmark assessments, we will seek to make our entire instructional system stronger. Despite the budgetary challenges our energy must remain focus on student achievement and character development. As the financial world recovers our current work will propel our system forward. Next month at our annual school directors retreat, we will reflect then embed our learning vision and district learning goals promoted by the committee work done on August 18-19.
3. A continued focus on technology and its impact to our students' future will continue. Our classroom and building technology continues to expand and offer our students direct use in real world applications.

Despite external obstacles FHUSD will continue to seek and demand continuous improvement in all areas. It is said an organization must expect excellence in all areas if they truly want to have a community of learners and evolving, improving culture. We welcome your thoughts and comments as we apply this practice of reflection.

New School Year Brings Opportunity

The new school year begins with the usual challenges associated with class sizes, technology upgrade needs, facility needs and short term personel challenges brought about by unbalanced class sizes and a 15-20% change in the students attending our schools. We are always amazed at the movement that takes place over the summer that brings

High School Athletic Code

Fountain Hills High School has a year round athletic code that currently applies only to high school student body school officers and student-athletes. It became very apparent when I arrived that the enforcement code was being ignored to a large extent due to a lack of communication between the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and our high school leadership team. Working with MCSO and our attorneys, we were able to come to a shared belief that the names of students receiving "minors in possession" or "minors in consumption" could be shared to protect the integrity of the school code and help mitigate dangerous teen behaviors.

We now have a deterrent and protocol that has cost some student-athletes and school leaders playing time (first offense - 1/3 of sports season) or loss of thier school office.

FHUSD Education Vision Initiative

FHUSD is currently in the middle of a data gathering initiative involving the various stakeholder groups making up our school community. Based on administrative training by our principal team last year, we are attempting to take a data driven look at our overall school system concerning our most important mission - student achievement. Since last spring we have surveyed and inteviewed students, staff, parents, community leaders and School Board members to gather qualitative data to be combined with our available quantitative demographic and assessment data. On August 18th we will have a committee of these various stakeholder groups review all this data with the support of a consultant from the McREL, Mid-Continent Research for Educational Learning. On August 19th we will set some specific education visions for our district.

Currently we have a parent survey on our district website to gather information. We have had over 200 responses on a two question survey with comments welcomed. It has been very useful and will serve as a cornerstone for our August 18th discussions.

We welcome all input from whatever the source in supporting our belief that FHUSD must practice and apply being a school system focused on continuous school improvement based on data driven systems.