The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board held both an executive session and open meeting on Feb. 13 to discuss several upcoming FHUSD field trips as well as to recognize two outstanding Falcons.

The open meeting started with Superintendent Dr. Robert Allen delivering his comments to the board about events in the district since their last meeting.

Allen talked about the Jan. 31st district spelling bee and how winner,Miach Laughlin, will compete on Feb. 22 at Deer Valley in the Regional Spelling Bee.

Dr. Allen finished his comments mentioning that wrestler, Leyton Kauffman, recently became the second Falcon in Fountain Hills High School history to become state champion.

Kauffman attended the meeting to be recognized in person.

The Board then quickly heard from the FHHS student government, which reported on an upcoming blood drive on March 26.

After that, the board moved to the informational and discussion portion of its meeting where members heard a presentation from FHHS principal Dr. Cain Jagodzinski, FHHS P.E. teacher Luke Salzman and Middle School social studies teacher Chris Peterson about an upcoming field trip to Zamosc, Poland.

The trip to the Fountain Hills Sister City would be from May 27 to June 12 and would be the second part of an exchange program with Zamosc.

The first part happened earlier this school year when Polish students came to Fountain Hills and stayed with FHHS students while attending the school.

The 11 Falcons who hosted the Polish students will now stay with their Polish counterpart and their families on the trip to Zamosc.

Along with showing to the board the cities and historical sites the field trip will visit, Salzman and Jagodzinski explained in detail the vetting program that the Polish families go through to qualify as host families as well as the training and information the students will receive to prepare them for the trip.

Vice President of the board, Dr. Wendy Barnard, complimented the trio saying that in her time as a board member, she has not received a packet concerning a field trip as informative and detailed as this one.

Board president Jill Reed echoed that sentiment.

Next, the board heard from Allen about a field trip for the FHHS music department to Anaheim from April 3-7.

Allen explained that the trip would not affect any of the students going in regards to taking their AzMerit tests.

The last item of business for the board was a vote to approve the FHHS Key Club trip to the state convention in Albuquerque, which they did.

The next FHUSD Governing Board meeting will be on Wednesday, Feb. 27.