The Fountain Hills Unified School District recently released to families its plan for returning to classes in August, a plan that emphasizes choice and an adherence to CDC guidelines.

Families have their choice of four options for returning to school and those four options are divided into two categories including traditional, in-classroom instruction with remote learning or virtual academy instruction.

The first two options are in-classroom instruction and then a remote learning option based off a live feed of that in-person instruction. These two choices will be interchangeable; meaning a student who chooses in-person learning will have access to the live feed of that instruction when they are absent.

The finial two choices are both virtual academies, with “Virtual Academy A” being for high school students and “Virtual Academy B” being for grades K-12.

Academy A is provided by Edgenuity and Academy B is provided by Schools PLP. Academy A will be teacher-led, whereas Academy B will have the choice of having teacher-led instruction or self-paced instruction.

No matter what option a student chooses, the district emphasized that they are still a part of the “Falcon Flock” and extracurricular activities like clubs, sports and graduation will be available to everyone when available.

For the students who choose to return to campus, a new set of guidelines will be in place in an effort to keep the school as clean as possible. Campuses will be disinfected twice a day; once during the lunch period and again at the end of the school day. The same practice will be in place for district transportation after uses and other high-touch areas like bathrooms.

Since masks are required within Maricopa County, currently every student on campus will be required to wear one. Students will also go through a health screen when they arrive on campus to ensure they don’t have a temperature or are showing signs of COVID-19.

FHUSD reached out to local families on an individual basis with more in-depth information about school re-opining procedures and selections for each student’s education need to be submitted through the survey sent out by July 24.