The following is a statement from Fountain Hills High School Principal Cain Jagodzinski concerning the upcoming school year:

The 2018/19 school year is upon us and we are excited for students to return and get started. As we look to the upcoming year, we have worked hard to ensure that our students receive an innovative education in a caring environment.

I am pleased to share with our community new faculty members that will be joining the Falcon family. After an amazing year as assistant principal at FHHS, Mr. James Carrick was promoted to principal of FHMS. We are so proud of him and are confident he will do amazing work at the middle school.

I am excited to introduce our new assistant principal, Mr. David (DJ) Graham. Graham comes to us from Sunrise Middle School where he taught in their gifted program, the Digital Learning Center (DLC).

Kailani McClain will join our team as our new Spanish teacher and comes to us with several years of successful teaching at Poston Butte High School. She implemented the AP Spanish program there and was instrumental in bringing Beyond Textbooks to their campus. Her understanding of Beyond Textbooks and her willingness to start an AP Spanish program at FHHS will help us continue to grow and achieve academically.

Dr. Leslie Santicola will be joining our English department after recently relocating to Scottsdale from Pennsylvania. Dr. Santicola began her career teaching elementary school and has experience at the middle and high school level. She will be returning to high school after serving as a professor at the college level. Dr. Santicola has a wealth of experience and chose to come to Fountain Hills for its small town experience and to contribute to our efforts utilizing the Beyond Textbooks model.

After 25 years serving FHHS, Dena Bruch, our registrar, retired at the end of last year. Her dedication to FHHS is unparalleled and is evident in the fact that she spent almost half of last year training her replacement to ensure that our school would not skip a beat.

We are very excited to have Mrs. Jalynn Smith taking on the registrar position moving forward. Jalynn is a local resident and her son Davis graduated in 2018 from FHHS, and her son Bruin will be a sophomore this year.

After many years of service in FHUSD, Paula Goblet, our district nurse retired at the end of last year. Paula was an amazing presence on our campus and led our MPOWRD group and hosted several trainings for the district. Lisa Schreiner will replace Paula, and has been busy spending time getting to know our schools. Lisa comes to us from Morrison Vein Institute and will have children attending school in the district.

Programs

We have many things to celebrate from the 2017/18 school year. We successfully implemented the AP Capstone program and have seen the program grow to 40 students for next year. Ms. Hawks, one of our Spanish teachers, will be teaching AP Capstone Seminar, while biology teacher Mrs. Andreadis will teach the AP Capstone Research course.

We also successfully implemented our AVID program, which provides students the skills and the extra push they need to find success at the university level. Mr. Dudley will continue to teach the introductory course, while Ms. Hawks will teach the advanced AVID course.

AVID is special to our hearts at FHHS, as it is a program that goes the extra mile to show students how much we care for them and how successful they can be when the have individual determination. AVID is made possible thanks to the Verne C. Johnson Family Foundation.

We will continue to focus on our Beyond Textbooks model this year as we saw monumental growth in student achievement this past year. Beyond Textbooks (BT) is a framework and philosophy that encourages teachers to be creative, innovative, and go beyond the traditional textbook in search of materials and knowledge.

BT also ensures that students are not left behind as the year progresses. Through Reteach, our after school intervention program, students truly know and understand that we care about them and want them to be successful no matter how many times it takes to understand a concept. We will continue to have Reteach on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s after school for students who need assistance.

We are excited to continue our quest to be the best comprehensive high school that we can be. Our focus this year will be on fine-tuning our programs and creating opportunities for our teachers to share their best practices and ideas with the faculty.

We look forward to seeing all of our students and parents on Aug. 3rd, at Falcon Fest. Falcon Fest is our high school walkthrough that allows students to receive their schedule, get a parking spot, pay fees and tour the campus.

You will receive a letter from us soon in the mail outlining Falcon Fest and back-to-school information. Our office is open and we encourage you to stop by for a visit and take a tour.