Amid the uncertainty and chaos of 2020, one bright spot for the Fountain Hills Unified School District this year is Fountain Hills High School receiving the A+ School of Excellence award from the Arizona Educational Foundation.

FHHS received its visit from the AEF on Sept. 22-23, but the judges visit was originally scheduled to happen last school year.

“It was a collaborative effort,” FHHS Principal Kris Alexander said. “Dr. J [Jagodzinski], myself and assistant principal Barrie Pinto, we worked together once we finalized everything in regards to when the virtual visit by A+ judges would be. The visit was supposed to take place after students returned from spring break last year, but obviously that didn’t happen.”

A delay was not the only hurdle that COVID-19 put in the way of the visit. Traditionally, the A+ judges would visit a campus in person, but that wasn’t possible given the limited number of people allowed on campus. So, the visit was virtual.

“I had been through an A+ visit before, as an assistant principal at Desert Mountain, under normal circumstances, so I know what it was supposed to look like,” Alexander said. “This was obviously very unique because the judges were popping into our classes virtually, which was a very different scenario.”

Alexander said he believes that is enough of a challenge to show everything a school offers in person, let alone trying to communicate that through a laptop.

“Just being able to show what our high school is, what it is all about, was difficult,” Alexander said. “The climate and the culture, the rigorous academics, as well as our extracurricular activities are challenging to do in a normal setting, but is even more so virtually. I think with any good school, you can feel a strong climate and culture when you step foot on the campus and that wasn’t possible.”

Despite the unique circumstances the students and staff of FHHS did their best to show off their school.

“We still had a group of students we selected to do a campus tour, which was a unique thing to do,” Alexander said. “We literally had a Chromebook set up with a camera and the kids walked it around just as they would have walked an adult around.”

While Alexander put a lot of work into making sure the visit went smoothly, he gives a majority of credit to former principal Cain Jagodzinski,who got the ball rolling on this project.

“All the leg work had been done by Dr. J and his staff prior to my arrival,” Alexander explained. “The application is the biggest part. It is over 20 pages that they had to complete and figure out. So, I have to commend Dr. Jagodzinskiand his staff prior to my arrival. I know from talking with Cain leading up to the visit, he was extremely nervous about it because of all the work.”

After all the delays and alterations, it was a relief to Alexander to get the call saying FHHS had been awarded the title of a School of Excellence.

“The phone call I got from our lead judge, Darcy, she said ‘Kris, you know I am happy to tell you that you got it and it was unanimous,’” Alexander said. “She said that they were blown away by what they (the judges) saw and what they were able to experience. It was really cool to hear the judges say that and I am going to take that to my school.”