At the end of this past school year the Fountain Hills Unified School District sent out a survey to the families of the District to gauge how the community felt about FHUSD’s responses to the school closure caused by COVID-19 and feelings on returning to school in August.

A total of 329 responses were gathered, representing about a third of the Falcon community. On the survey families answered both short answer and multiple-choice questions.

The short answer questions dealt with the effectiveness of the virtual instruction provided. Responses to this section of the survey revealed a wide range of opinions on the instruction ranging from very positive to very negative.

The district concluded from those results “that while there was some success with remote learning, a more organized, structured approach is needed for the future.”

A total of 46.8 percent of respondents agreed that their child was able to keep learning during the online instruction whereas 27.1 percent of respondents disagreed.

The multiple-choice section covered the virtual learning offered but also touched on the potential return to school in the fall. A total of 37.1 percent of respondents believed that COVID-19 will no longer be an issue by August with 31 percent saying it would still be a concern and 31.9 percent unsure.

Many of the families who responded were also open to taking extra precautions when returning to school. A total of 77.8 percent of families said they would be okay with schools taking students temperatures daily, with 72 percent in support of limiting outsiders from entering campuses and 76.9 percent of families willing to drive their student to school to increase social distancing.

Finally, 66.6 percent of families said they would be able to send their student to school with PPE.

The final question on the survey asked what families would want to happen if schools could traditionally open in the fall and the majority (46.2 percent) answered that they would like to see a hybrid schedule of on-site and online learning.

The School Reopening Task Force is currently taking the answers to this survey into consideration and should have more information on the reopening of FHUSD available this month.