After taking a summer break during the month of July, the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing board returned for the first meeting of the 2019-2020 school year on Aug. 14.

Vaping prevention

The main item discussed at the meeting, during the information portion was a vaping education and prevention curriculum for FHUSD students, provided by the Fountain Hills Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

The Coalition is using money from the Parents Commission Grant they were awarded in July to fund a curriculum for FHUSD that was developed by Stanford Medicine, called Tobacco Prevention Toolkit.

The material, covered in P.E. classes, would specifically come from the E-cigs/Vapes Pod of the Toolkit.

At the meeting Coalition member, Shelly Mowrey, showed the Board numbers from Coalition surveys that showed cigarette use has gone down since 2010 among students, but there has been a 108 percent increase in the use of e-cigarettes just from the year 2016.

The Board was receptive to Mowrey’s presentation and agreed that there was an urgent need for students to see this information.

The Board did, however, ask Mowrey if the program addressed the root issue of vaping, stress.

As part of the money from the grant, the Coalition has also provided an additional counselor to FHMS who will help students deal with toxic stress.

The board will vote on approval of the curriculum for FHHS and FHMS at its next regular meeting on Sept. 11.