On March 24, 1970, an order was signed to create the Fountain Hills School District. County Superintendent of Public Schools, Richard L. Harris, appointed a three-person board to serve as school trustees. The board quickly voted to establish a mailing address for the district, chose every second Saturday of the month to meet at 10 a.m. in the P-Bar Ranch Building, and adopted a budget by July 10, 1970. At that time, children in Fountain Hills attended school in Mesa, as the district did not yet have a school and paid Mesa School District $27,764 in tuition for the 35 students.

Fifty-three years later, our district continues to innovate, build for the future and provide signature academic programs for our students while providing them with competitive athletics and award-winning performing arts. From a district without a school at its inception, I like to think that our founders would be proud to see our four schools and their dreams become reality. Their willingness to take risks and provide the children of our community with their own school system is quite impressive.

We have embarked on a new era in Fountain Hills Unified School District. Our new alignment of a stand-alone preschool, Little Falcons, a K-5 elementary school at McDowell Mountain, a 6-8 middle school, and a 9-12 high school sets us up to continue to grow and serve our children for years to come. I am delighted that we could complete the consolidation of our schools on such a short timeline. However, we could not have done it without the help of our community. I want to thank everyone for their support and patience.

Like those who came before us, our mission is to provide the children of our community with an amazing experience where they can learn and grow locally.