The latter half of 2018 saw just as much, if not more, excitement as the first half of the year brought to Fountain Hills schools.

Since July, the high school band has been ranked one of the best in the state, a new school board member was elected and the State Board of education released school grades.

Following are some of the biggest stories about the local schools from the months of July to December.

Board election

Originally, there was not going to be an election for the Fountain Hills Unified Schools District Governing Board.

Only three candidates filed to run for the three seats on the ballot but, when a write-in candidate joined the race at the eleventh hour, FHUSD had an election on its hands.

Candidates Dr. Wendy Barnard, Judith Rutkowski, Nadya Jenkins and write-in Bob Shelstrom took part in a Times Q&A series where they shared with the community their views on enrollment, school spending and the like. No forum or debate was hosted.

Ultimately, the voters decided to re-elect both Barnard and Rutkowski to their seats on the school board and to elect Jenkins to fill the seat being vacated by Edith Stock.

EVIT update

FHUSD was not the only school district to hold an election this November, as the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) also elected new school board members this year. FHUSD has offered dual-enrollment programs through EVIT for years and recently opened a satellite campus in Fountain Hills.

Split into nine districts in Maricopa County, each EVIT district is represented by a school board member.

The Fountain Hills campus is a part of District 5 which, until this year, was represented by Erwin C. Heimbuck since 2006.

Heimbuck lost the November election to Ronda Shumway Doolen.

Along with a change in representation, the Fountain Hills EVIT campus is continuing to grow its enrollment and attract students from neighboring districts to Fountain Hills.

Band state

Just like most other major extracurricular activities, the Fountain Hills High School marching band has a season where it competes against other high school bands to determine who has the best marching performance.

This season the FHHS band and its show, “A Night at the Movies,” went on to be ranked number one in its division at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association State Marching Festival. This was a first for the local band, only to be outdone with yet another win at Super State.

The act, which the band performed during this year’s football halftime shows, opens with the 20th Century Fox theme and includes music from the scores of “The Incredibles,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Avatar.”

Grade reports

In October, the Arizona State Board of Education released its yearly assessment of public and charter schools with local campuses resting on both the high and low ends of the assessment.

The two FHUSD schools receiving ratings both did well. The middle school received a B rating and the high school showed huge improvement, moving from a C rating in 2017 to an A this year.

The Fountain Hills Charter School received an F rating, which the school immediately filed to appeal. By demonstrating that factors outside of the school and students’ control affected the school’s performance, FHCS successfully appealed for a D grade.

Consolidation

Another big event this year for the Charter School was moving all of its operations for the 2018-19 school year to one campus.

The decision to close the school building located at 16751 E. Glenbrook Road was made to create a more efficient use of the school’s space and budget.

Beyond Textbooks

After the successful implementation of the Beyond Textbooks teacher resource network at FHHS, the local district decided to expand its implementation to the middle school for the new school year.

FHMS principal James Carrick said he is excited to see how the tool is implemented on his campus as, among other benefits, it allows teachers to communicate and share resources/ideas with other educators across the state.