Heading into 2020 Fountain Hills High School leadership is looking to continue its efforts to care for their students’ mental health along with reinforcing positive behavior on campus.

Mental health issues in teenagers have been on the raise in America and the Fountain Hills community is coming together to address the problem.

Along with working with community partners like the Coalition and Teen Lifeline, FHHS is bringing Frank, the therapy bulldog, on campus to help keep spirits up.

“We have seen really good stuff with him (Frank),” FHHS principal Dr. Cain Jagodzinski said. “We have seen kids in tears just totally turn right into laughter when he is around. When he walks the hallways the kids are excited to see him. I think he has been a really positive influence.”

Along with walking the halls and comforting students in distress, Frank will also be the face of the campus’ new anti-bullying posters.

Another way FHHS is trying to spread positive behavior is with Pride cards.

Teachers will hand out these new cards to students who they see exhibiting good behavior and that student can then put the card in for a drawing for prizes like a Campus of Champions shirt.

“We started doing more of these drawings this year,” Dr. Jagodzinski explained. “In the past we just have conversations with kids. Like, ‘hey, I saw you do something really cool, I just want to say I appreciate that.’ Now we are trying to amp it up a little bit”

On the academic side of things, one major project that FHHS is starting to get the ball rolling on is a Coding Academy.

While still in the early stages, FHHS is working with EVIT, community colleges and community members to put together a coding class where students will have the option to either work toward a certificate or college credits.

“We are looking at the possibility of building a program where kids can either finish with an EVIT certificate or finish with the community college and receive concurrent enrollment and an internship,” Dr. Jagodzinski said. “The reason we feel that this is a good step is that we have 42 kids in code right now, so it’s a growing elective and we now have two teachers that can teach dual enrollment.”

Along with these new initiatives, Dr. J said FHHS also has plenty of other things planned for 2020.