I would like to congratulate Nadya Jenkins as our newest Fountain Hills Unified School District School Board member! Ms. Jenkins will be a wonderful addition to a stellar school board. Congratulations to incumbents Judy Rutkowski and Wendy Barnard for also being elected.

Edith Stock, our current president of the school board, chose not to run again after sharing so much of her life with us the past four years. Ms. Stock, you will be dearly missed and we deeply thank you for your service.

Our district is performing very well academically! Our high school recently received a letter grade of “A,” which was only given to 36 comprehensive public high schools out of 231 in the entire state of Arizona.

Our sports teams have performed tremendously, with several state championships in the past couple of years. And our band, led by Ms. Lynn Truby, is one of the best in the state. Our high school students won the coveted first place award in the Nov. 1 Junior Achievement Student Stock Market Challenge out of 63 high schools who participated!

In addition, we are blessed with passionate teachers and administrators who deeply care for our students and are financially compensated this year at a level far beyond previous years.

Thanks to our very generous residents, you have passed every bond and maintenance and operations override request over the past 14 years. There is always more work to be done, but the campuses are beautiful due to your incredible support, especially regarding the bond initiatives.

So many of us greatly look forward to the outstanding school board we’ll have over the next two years, including the continuation of school board members Jill Reed and Dr. C.T. Wright. I have every confidence our Fountain Hills public schools will continue to thrive!