Following a discussion item at the Aug. 24 School Board meeting, Fountain Hills Unified School District could be well on its way to implementing online curriculum in the near future.

At the meeting, the board took a look at intergovernmental agreement with Paradise Valley School District for online curriculum. This IGA would cover eight online courses ranging from English to various math and science classes.

Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney explained why he thought this agreement would be a big step forward for the local district, which has not yet taken advantage of the fact that it is accredited to host online courses.

The Board is expected to vote on the IGA at the Sept. 14 meeting. If approved, FHUSD would take ownership of the purchased courses, which they could then fine-tune to match the needs of local students.

Dr. Sweeney said his hope is to have a “soft open” during the current semester, allowing students who come into the district late to use the courses to get up to speed. From there, a full launch of the courses could follow next semester.

“It’s a good start to get us up and running with online learning options,” Sweeney said. “This could be really good for a variety of students.”

From local home school students to students looking to catch up, diversify their learning options or even for students outside of the district, Sweeney said FHUSD could use these eight classes to build a foundation and continue to grow the local district’s education options.

Another added bonus, according to Sweeney, is that the purchase of these courses would prevent FHUSD from having to start from scratch. He explained that it has been his experience that it takes several iterations of an online course to really nail it down and find a system that works. The courses being considered by the Governing Board were referred to as “version 7,” as opposed to starting with “version 1” on their own.

“I see great potential for this,” Sweeney said, adding that teacher involvement will be a strong focus at FHUSD to help complement the self-paced and independent nature of online courses. “I find [teacher involvement] is mandatory for these courses to be successful.”