Fountain Hills Unified School Board approves consent agenda, conditionally approves Washington, D.C., trip and hears student presentations

The Fountain Hills Unified School Board approved its consent agenda and several personnel and policy items and gave conditional approval for a seventh- and eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C., while hearing student and community presentations.

The board voted to approve the consent agenda, which included the personnel report, payroll and accounts payable vouchers, and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation board representative process document. A board member noted appreciation for completing the representative process for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.

Golden Eagle Education Foundation representatives outlined four signature programs — classroom grants, mentoring, scholarships and staff appreciation — and described recent activity. Marcia Hundley said the foundation has distributed “well over $50,000” to classrooms since about 2006 and expects “at least $50,000 to give away this year” in scholarships; the foundation also reported it currently facilitates roughly 33 scholarships annually. Hundley described efforts to rebuild the mentoring program after the COVID-19 pandemic and said the program currently has 23 active mentors across district sites.

A group of Girl Scouts presented a PBIS student-store project, describing donated and refurbished items, painted murals and handprints to be installed in the store. Board members praised the students’ preparation: “That was one of the best presentations I’ve heard while I’ve been on this school board,” one member said.

On personnel and policy business, the board approved reclassification of position titles to create greater consistency across human resources and salary schedules and approved policy advisories 07-37 and 07-38 as submitted in the meeting packet.

The board also moved, seconded and approved a posthumous nomination for the Arizona School Boards Association Honor Roll to Judith Bukowski, citing her long service as an ASBA delegate.

On field trips, the board granted conditional approval for a three-night Washington, D.C., trip for seventh- and eighth-grade students in spring 2023 through EF Tours. The motion required Mr. Peterson to submit a complete packet before final approval; the packet must include sponsor and vendor details, chaperone information (Mr. Salzman is listed as a staff chaperone in the packet), and a student behavior agreement. Dr. Jay described the trip as “a long standing trip within the district” and recommended approval pending completion of the documentation.

The board approved updates to the 2022–23 extracurricular fee schedule, including removing the preACT fee because the district now pays for that exam and adding the ACT and SAT to the fee schedule for tracking and student-assessment purposes.

Separately, Dr. Jay described an instructional time model the district is preparing to file with the state that would allow emergency closures to count toward attendance and average daily membership (ADM) when the district implements remote-instruction options such as IXL, Google Meet and Zoom. That item was presented for information and will return to a future agenda for action.

The meeting closed with announcements of upcoming meetings, including an executive-session-only meeting on Nov. 29 and a Dec. 14 meeting beginning with executive session. A motion to adjourn carried by voice vote.

What’s next: Several items discussed (instructional-time model, the Washington, D.C., trip final packet, and incomplete grades) will return to a future board agenda for action.