On June 12, the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board held an executive session before holding an open meeting where members heard a proposal from the Fountain Hills Pickleball Club, voted on the superintendent’s performance-based compensation pay and the proposed budget for the 2019-2020 school year.

According to the agenda in the board’s executive session, which is closed to the public, the board reviewed Superintendent Dr. Robert Allen’s performance incentive goals for the 2018-19 school year.

After concluding their executive session the board began its open meeting with informational reports. With school out of session, Allen did not have much to report other than that the three graduation ceremonies in May were successful.

With no public comments the meeting moved onto the information and discussion portion, which started with a proposal from the local Pickleball Club to have the board approve updates to lights on existing courts and to approve the building of two new courts.

Claire Keyworth and Walt Conway from the club was on hand to answer questions from board members.

It was explained that the club wants to install L.E.D. lights that, along with complying with the Town’s Dark Skies initiative, would also be more cost effective.

The cost for updating the lights, which would be taken care of by the club, would be around $5,000 and installation should take only a day.

On the proposal for two new courts south of where the existing courts are located, it was stressed that the club had no immediate plans to build, wishing first to obtain approval from the board before doing any serious planning.

Board President Jill Reed asked about how the addition of two courts might affect parking and it was explained that the parking at Golden Eagle Park, which club members use while school is in session, is sufficient.

After the pickleball proposal the board discussed a myriad of the district’s intergovernmental agreements (IGA) with Maricopa County Community College, EVIT and SmartSchools Plus. The only major changes in the IGAs were the updating financial dates.

Next, the board reviewed a handful of board polices that need to be updated to comply with changes made at this year’s legislative session.

Policies discussed ranged from the length the district can have a contract with an accounting firm, to a change in what is classified as a public record.

The information and discussion portion of the meeting ended with the board discussing expanding the Director of Transportation title to Director of Transportation and Facilities.

The board went on to approve an IGA with Vail School District for the Beyond Textbook program, the extracurricular fee schedule for 2019-2020 and the new FHHS course, Algebra III Concepts.

The last two things the board voted to approve were Dr. Allen’s performance-based pay and the proposed budget for the 2019-2020 school year.

The board voted to give Allen the full five percent compensation pay, saying that he had met his goals.

The Board also approved the proposed budget of $10,426,358 which is slightly smaller than last year’s budget but still fulfils Governor Ducey’s promise of a 20 percent raise for teachers by 2020.

The board’s next meeting is on Wednesday, June 26, and will serve as a regular board meeting and an open meeting on the proposed budget for adoption.