After spending the past 12 months laying the groundwork for the future, Fountain Hills Middle School is ready to welcome the new school year and reap the success of that hard work.

Last year was the first year that the middle school utilized the Beyond Textbook teaching resource that has proven successful since its implementation at Fountain Hills High School.

“One of the biggest highlights, I think, and one of the things I am most proud of is getting Beyond Textbooks implement for the first year,” Fountain Hills Middle School Principal James Carrick said. “Creating that scope and sequence that provides the rigor students need and consistency so they can excel each year into high school is very important to me.”

The results of the introduction of this new resource speaks for itself.

“We saw the results…Every single category, every grade level was above the state average,” Carrick said. “That is a huge jump for us. It is always nice to see increases.”

Last school year also saw the implementation of a new student management or discipline model, PBIS.

“PBIS is Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports and, when I explain it to the teachers, I say PBIS provides consistency,” Carrick said. “It is not a discipline model, but it provides us a framework so that we are all on the same page. I have worked at a few schools that employ PBIS and the culture change and the buy-in from the students is very positive.”

Looking forward to this year, Carrick said he is excited to have FHMS offer a host of new electives for students to take.

“We have changed up our electives, so for sixth, seventh and eighth grade we will have what will be called a technology class, but they will be learning coding,” Carrick said. “Each grade will have a STEAM class, which is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics; hence ‘STEAM,’ not ‘STEM.’ It will vary by grade level what they do in those classes. We are also adding journalism classes to six through eighth grade, along with an independent living class.”

To teach all these new classes, FHMS hired around nine new teachers for the 2019-20 school year, a process that Carrick did not take lightly.

“We have some great staff coming in,” Carrick said. “There is a lot of great experience coming in and that was critical to me. We actually turned down a lot of people to get to where we are. We weren’t in a rush, we wanted to find the right people. So we have some nice variety with teachers who are newer to the field and then veterans with decades of experience.”

Along with hiring new educators, FHMS also hired a new counselor and, thanks to a grant secured by the Fountain Hills Coalition, the middle school was able to hire additional counseling support to bring the staff up to three members.

Along with all the institutional changes, Fountain Hills Middle School has also added a fresh coat of paint to its interior walls this summer, adding a blue and gray trim.

“I am excited to get another great year at Fountain Hills Middle School underway,” Carrick said.