The Fountain Hills Unified School District Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) has offered its support through all the changes taking place with consolidation this past year. The PTO also held elections this summer and will continue its mission under new leadership.

The co-presidents, Robin Bratcher and Kim Duckworth, are combining their skills and taking a new approach to PTO leadership. They’ll continue to support ongoing projects, and each has their own ideas to bring to the table.

Duckworth previously worked on PTO planning committees before she moved to Fountain Hills in 2020, but she only started involving herself with the Fountain Hills PTO in early 2023. Bratcher’s children have attend FHUSD schools since kindergarten, but she only joined last August. Now that both women are in charge, they mix familiarity of the district with experience in similar positions.

Bratcher has lived in town since 1999. Her oldest, Emerson, will be a sophomore in high school, and Cullen is entering seventh grade at Fountain Hills middle school. Duckworth has one child in the district, and Joaquin will be a fifth grade student at McDowell Mountain this year.

Bratcher made early impressions in the PTO and used her experience as a race director for the wounded solider nonprofit, AZ Heroes for Hometowns, to plan the first annual Feathers and Flapjacks 5k and Fun Run fundraiser months after joining. After leading that successful undertaking, Bratcher’s name came up as a possible future president, but she knew she couldn’t take on the challenge by herself.

“Kim was down to Earth,” Bratcher said. “She’s just a solid person, hard worker, [has] a get-things-done kind of mind frame, and I think I just picked that up immediately.”

The PTO raised $143,293 under Jelaine Goldapper’s leadership during the 2022-23 school year. She moved to Florida with her family since stepping down, but she planned the Town Square theme for the preschool team room and interviewed three companies alongside Bratcher and Duckworth for a middle school interactive system before she left.

“We've lost a great advocate for our district in Jelaine,” Bratcher said. “Kim and I, we have four shoes coming in just to try to fill her set of shoes. That is a little bit of pressure because everything that she did as one person, I almost kind of feel like, we have to meet or beat it because there’s two of us.”

The PTO and Peter and Theresa Conti Foundation each donated thousands of dollars toward the elementary school planetarium, and the PTO purchased a “MulitBall” interactive system for middle schoolers. MulitBall is projector operated and the screen is 11.5 feet tall and 13.5 feet wide. Multiple kids can play educational math and geography games together, and teachers can use the space for movies, quizzes and staff meetings.

The PTO spends money on classroom equipment and technology, teacher and staff appreciation, senior scholarships and more. The PTO serves the entire Fountain Hills district from pre-K to 12th grade, and the PTO is not associated with the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

Duckworth and Bratcher will continue previously successful fundraisers, like discount cards and the silent auction, and they’re expanding and introducing other programs. The Day of Awesomeness and Step It Up fundraisers happened for the first time at Fountain Hills Middle School last year, and this year the elementary school will join in the fun as well. Duckworth is also introducing a new way for parents to get involved by becoming a PTO parent partner.

“The idea is that with COVID and the fact that parents were no longer allowed in schools for a long period of time, parents have dropped off in terms of participating in things like the book fair, or helping with the holiday pop-up shop or a classroom party,” Duckworth said. “This is our way to invite parents to come and be involved. They don't have to come to every PTO meeting. They get to develop a relationship with the classroom teacher and they are kind of our liaison in these areas. We're hoping that each teacher will have at least one parent that can be this PTO partner, and that will start to get that ball rolling again.”

In just a few months, the co-presidents have seen 10 more businesses join as PTO sponsors, bringing the total up to 31. Discount cards are good for one full year and have 22 deals honored by local businesses. The cards are available at each school site and the Fountain Hills UPS store for $20.

The annual book fair has been moved up to September, giving parents an earlier opportunity to help and check out campuses. The PTO will have booths at Falcon Fest on Tuesday, Aug. 1, and the next PTO meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at McDowell Mountain Elementary School. All meetings are open to the public.