The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board met Wednesday, Jan. 26, for a business meeting and work study session. This was the first regularly scheduled Board meeting since Dr. Patrick Sweeney was tapped as the interim Superintendent of the district.

The business meeting was added to the agenda as a revision on Tuesday, Jan. 25, and was brief. The Board approved two overnight field trips for the high school wrestling team for a tournament this past weekend and their sectional competitions this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 3-4.

The work study session began with public comments from four individuals. Two comments expressed a welcome toward Dr. Sweeney and thanked the Board for listening and acting on concerns from stakeholders. The third comment came from a former FHUSD preschool teacher who expressed concern over the special education programs. While the Board could not respond to the public comment, the Board and acting Superintendent Sweeney discussed later that special education concerns are a priority to address.

The final comment came from a homeowner along E. Cavern Drive. The homeowner understood the Board is in the early stages of the conversation, but they expressed concern over the possible sale of the district’s land parcel on E. Cavern Drive and asked to have access to more information as the discussion evolves. The Board later decided to have a detailed discussion about the sale of land at the next work study session on Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 5 p.m.

Two weeks ago, Fountain Hills Education Association President Elect TJ Buckley gave a public comment that shared feedback from multiple teachers. Public comments are limited to a three-minute time length, and the Board is legally unable to respond to items not on the agenda. This time, Buckley was written into the agenda as an information report, which allowed him to engage in an extended conversation with the Board.

Some concerns from faculty include workload, professional development, disconnect and lack of communication from the district, clarifying special education paperwork, behavior issues, COVID concerns and more. Buckley held a Zoom meeting on Thursday, Jan. 20, and provided the Board with the full list of grievances from the 20-odd staff members who took part. (See related article.)

Buckley and staff plan to further address working condition issues at meet and confer meetings later this semester. Buckley has already received 53 survey responses from staff about meet and confer meetings, which is up from the 30 responses he received last year.

The Board then discussed facility planning, starting with an update on the middle school fire alarm system. According to Dr. Sweeney, the renovation will take four to five weeks and will cost the district about $40,000.

The Board then continued its discussion on possible future site consolidation and the sale of land. The Board views site consolidation as the more immediate priority, and they will authorize a committee that includes stakeholders at the next business meeting on Feb. 9 to further dig into the topic.

The Board finished the meeting with conversations with the athletic director, high school counselor and each principal about contract changes. No position received an actual contract change since this was only a discussion item, but the Board gained a better understanding of the administrators’ summer duties and what their contracts were like in other districts.

Board members and the staff brainstormed ideas to keep the school staffed over the summer to allow parents easier access to registration and other information. One of the ideas was to provide administrators with a stipend for periodic summer work, and another was to keep the district office open over the summer except for one or two weeks, possibly the week of the Fourth of July, and explicitly tell stakeholders when the office will be closed.

The Board’s next business meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. and the Board’s next work study session is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 5 p.m. All meetings are held at the FHUSD Learning Center and are streamed and recorded on the FHUSD YouTube channel.