May 21, 2021
Home of the Falcons!
"We Achieve and Celebrate Educational Excellence"
Falcon Focus
Photo courtesy of The Crazy Tourist https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-fountain-hills-az/
A Message From The Superintendent

Happy Last Friday of the School Year!!!
 
Just a couple of updates for you all…..we hope you enjoy the beautiful weather in Fountain Hills this weekend.
 
Surveys
The surveys will close on Monday. The link was sent out again today to families who have not yet completed the survey . Please take a few moments to complete it. We really appreciate the feedback for the development of our strategic plan. 
 
Summer School
Summer school starts on June 1st and runs through June 24th. If you want your child to attend summer school from FHMS or FHHS, please contact the office to sign up. This is a first come first served situation based on the number of staff we have available for summer school. With the Governor’s requirement for ESSER II and other funding, we are focusing on 3rd grade and intervention at MMES. If your student met the qualifications for summer school, MMES has already contacted you. While the program is full, if you’d like to get on a waiting list for summer school at the elementary school, please call the MMES office. Please note that we will be serving breakfast to all summer school students. To sign up for summer school at the high school, go to the district website and click on the red PAY HERE button. All the courses are there as well as our summer youth sports camps for students. 
 
Masks
Starting June 1, masks will be optional for everyone including our staff during summer school. This will be a good transition for us into the fall as we move towards gradually eliminating the requirements of the mitigation plan including masks. We’ll provide masks for children that still want to wear them, but they won’t be required starting in the fall barring any mandates from the state.
 
Graduation and Promotion Ceremonies
We are all so excited to share in the joy of the accomplishments of our graduates and students being promoted to another grade. If the ceremony is on school property in an enclosed space, masks will be required. High School graduation will be held at Fountain Park. Masks will not be required for anyone at the ceremony. It’ll likely be 100 degrees and, really, what virus lives in that ;) This is a big day for them and they’ve worked so hard to get to this point. Please join us in uniting in celebration for all the accomplishments of our students. 
 
Chromebook return
The principals have communicated with you or your students on Chromebook return. Your student will need their device and power cord at check in. MMES return will take place on Monday, FHMS will take place on Wednesday, and FHHS on Thursday. If your student was remote or enrolled in the virtual academy this school year, please note the times for parent return. It’s important that we get all the devices back so that they can be updated, reimaged and ready for next school year. We really appreciate your help.
Registration and Enrollment
We are completing online registration and enrollment for the 2021-2022 school year. To start your registration or enrollment, on the main page of the district website, you’ll see the blue box with the orange ENROLL NOW button or the green REGISTER NOW button. Click on the appropriate icon to get started. If you have any challenges with this process, we have staff at each site that can help or you can call the district office at (480) 664-5083 and Carmen Ontiveros will help you through the process. 
 
This is our last Falcon Focus for the school year. We know and recognize the difficulty of this school year. Remote instruction, masks, mitigation strategies, and quarantine are things that I NEVER thought I would experience in my 25 years of education, but here we are. While everything was not perfect all of the time, our staff rose to the occasion and learned so much about instructing students in a different manner. I am SO PROUD of them. I would honestly say that I’ve not met a more professional and student focused group of school staff than here in Fountain Hills. We are celebrating our staff next Friday and are so excited to do so. 
 
We’ve accomplished so much with the help of so many. Click here to see the long list of all the people who helped our district grow this year including an incredible group of parents. Thanks goes to each and every one of you. If we missed anyone on the list, we thank you as well. 
 
We look forward to seeing you all in the fall. Have a wonderful, relaxing summer.
 
Kelly Glass
Superintendent
Fountain Hills Unified School District
McDowell Mountain Elementary School

Dear MMES Falcon Families: 
 
It’s May, the last month of school! Here’s what’s been happening and what’s coming up at MMES:
  
End of Year Information and Events
 
Thursday, May 20: On the evening of May 20, we held our Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony to honor kindergarteners’ first year of formal education and to welcome them into first grade! Now they have 12 grade levels ahead until they graduate from high school in 2033! MMES kindergarteners proudly sang songs at the ceremony and showed that they’re ready!
 
Monday, May 24: MMES students and parents must return all school Chromebooks and Kajeets, if applicable. Classes of students will do this in sessions at school in the morning on May 24, so please make sure your child has their Chromebook ready and charged at school that day. Then from 3:00-5:00, parents of remote and FHVA students will need to come in to return all school Chromebooks. May 24 will be the last day of remote instruction. Afterward, any remote students will need to pick up work packets for the last 2 ½ days of school. FHVA students must be done with their online work.
 
Tuesday, May 25: Third grade will celebrate the completion of their education at MMES with Kona Ice in the afternoon. Congratulations, 3rd graders! You will be greatly missed at MMES but you’ve got a bright future ahead at FHMS!
 
Wednesday, May 26: Sometime in the afternoon, your child’s class will watch the last awards video of the school year. This will include the top class awardees and one top school-wide winner for all six Character Counts traits: Citizenship, Caring, Respect, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, and Fairness as well as Bobby’s Best Buddy awards.
 
Thursday, May 27: May 27 is the last day of school with student dismissal at 12:30. By 9:30, the FHHS graduating seniors will do their senior walk through the school and our own preschool graduation starts at 10:00 for a limited audience. Congratulations, FHHS seniors and MMES preschoolers! 
 
Final report cards will be sent home with students. Thank you, all students and families for working hard and doing your best this school year!
 
 Kiwanis Terrific Kids Awards 
We awarded four more sets of Kiwanis Terrific Kids awards in May to finish out the school year. This includes announcing the awards for the last week of school! Terrific Kids is a weekly award with one student from each grade K-3 earning a certificate and prizes sponsored by the Fountain Hills Noon Kiwanis Club. TERRIFIC stands for Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive, and Capable. Congratulations to the following Terrific Kids:
  • Week of May 3-7: Kieran Weil, Kindergarten; Minnie Duenas Nelson, 1st Grade; Rori Wester, 2nd Grade; Mila Valdez, 3rd Grade
  • Week of May 10-14: Lacey Eminhizer, Kindergarten; Xavi Arellano-Casillas, 1st Grade; Sloan Kirby, 2nd Grade; Madeleine Lettieri, 3rd Grade
  • Week of May 17-21: Madelyn Malone, Kindergarten; Easton Jones, 1st Grade; Benjamin Mackiewicz, 2nd Grade; Madison Foster, 3rd Grade
  • Week of May 24-28: Ryke Rees, Kindergarten; Dania Velasco-Ruiz, 1st Grade; Peyton Jochens, 2nd Grade; Sadi Talahaftewa, 3rd Grade
 
 Town of Fountain Hills Stellar Student Awards 
The Town of Fountain Hills have been recognizing one boy and one girl from each FHUSD school as Stellar Students who are “demonstrating good citizenship through compassion and consideration of others, complying with the rules, encouraging empathy, anti-bullying, and being responsible for their actions in the classroom.” Below is a recap of our January-February winners and we’re finishing out the school year with six more MMES awardees selected by our special area teachers between March-May. The January-March winners will be honored at the June 1st Town Council meeting and the April-May winners will be honored at the June 15th Town Council meeting. Congratulations!
  • Month of January: James Good, Kindergarten and Lilliana Perla, 3rd Grade
  • Month of February: Kellen Bryant, 1st Grade and Kaycee Dehaan, 2nd Grade
  • Month of March: Emma Tobias, 1st Grade and Matthew Walters, 3rd Grade
  • Month of April: Carson Adams, 2nd Grade and Lillian Centofante, 3rd Grade
  • Month of May: Jonah Maroon, 3rd Grade and Adison Shroyer, 3rd Grade
 
We love our MMES A+ Falcon Family and Community and hope everyone has a marvelous summer!
 
Valerie Dehombreux
Principal
McDowell Mountain Elementary School
Fountain Hills Middle School

Happy Falcon Focus Day!

I hope this message finds you and your family doing well and seeing the bright light now at the end of the tunnel. It is hard to believe how fast the year goes, it seems like only yesterday, the Markle family was loading up the car in Colorado to travel out here to Fountain Hills and see the new school and job. I know that we have thrown around the term, return to normal, but for me, I loved this year. I loved the challenges we faced together and how we came out of them more resilient and stronger in the end. I love the fact that our students had to learn in various ways and on various platforms. I love that our teachers were challenged to think outside the box and always answer the bell to meet our students where they were at. This has been a lightning-fast year, but a great year and I am proud to be the principal leading Fountain Hills Middle School to the conclusion of the 2020-2021 school year and into the future.

FHMS Celebrations
All Stakeholders should be celebrated for their work and efforts this year. Students, parents and staff all came together to make this school year one to remember. Thank you for all that you did in your role for the students of Fountain Hills Middle School.

Important Dates and Reminders
May 26th -
  • Chromebook return - All school-issued Chromebooks will be returned on this day. Students will need to have their Chromebook and charging block with them at school. We will have a detailed check-in process this day. Students who do not have their Chromebook or it is not in working order will be charged for the Chromebook during check-in.
  • Yearbook distribution at the end of the day - Students may bring their yearbook to school on the 27th for others to sign. Please note that any student who defaces or destroys another student’s yearbook will be responsible for paying to replace it.
May 27th -
  • Last day of School with a 12:15 Dismissal
  • May 27: 8th-grade promotion ceremony 6:00 pm in the gym 

Parents:
Registration: Please go online and complete the online registration process. This is no different than the paper forms you used to do, but we have automated and are getting a jumpstart on next year’s registrations. If you have questions, please call our main office and schedule a time for registration help.

As a district, we received ESSER II money to provide summer school for students in grades 4-8 in mathematics and English. If you would like your student to attend summer school, FREE of charge, please call the office to sign up. This is on a first come first served as we have limited staff. We’d love to have your student join us for summer school June 1-25th. 

As we close out the year I just wanted to say one more heartfelt thank you for this year and I look forward to recharging the batteries for another great run in 21-22. 

In Partnership,

Jeff Markle
Principal
Fountain Hills Middle School
Fountain Hills High School

Hello Falcon Families!

It’s hard to believe but, we only have 1 week remaining in the school year! Definitely one for the books! With graduation and final exams next week, there is a lot of information that we wanted to be sure to share with each of you.

Graduation - Friday, May 28th at 7:30pm at Fountain Park
As many of you are aware, graduation will be held at Fountain Park on Friday, May 28th. We are very excited to be recognizing this year’s seniors and all of their amazing accomplishments! For those of you planning on attending, be sure to get there early to reserve your place to sit. Additionally, masks will be optional for anyone in attendance. We hope to see everyone there to celebrate the Class of 2021!

Senior Breakfast & Senior Walk - Thursday, May 27th from 7:30-10:00am
This year’s Senior Breakfast will be at 7:30am in the cafeteria. All seniors will need to be in attendance for this event as we will also be having them return their chromebooks. Our seniors will also be taking part in the annual tradition of visiting their former schools at McDowell Mountain Elementary and Fountain Hills Middle School to visit with former teachers and reminisce about the good old days. Seniors, you will need to bring your cap and gown for this event.

Spring Sports Conclude Seasons
All of our spring sports have come to an end. Here is a brief update of how things ended:
Beach Volleyball - Our beach volleyball team ended a wonderful season by losing a hard fought match in the 2nd round of the state playoffs. Congratulations to Coach McGloin and all the members of the team on a great season.
  • Baseball - The baseball season ended at the hands of the Odyssey Institute in the semi-finals. The team battled all season long and gave everything they had all the way to the end! We couldn’t be more proud of the efforts of Coach Langer and all the players in the program!
  • Golf - Our golf team made a valiant effort over the two day state tournament down in Tucson last week. They were in contention for the state championship most of the tournament but ended up finishing 4th overall. Great job by Coach Wilson and all the members of the golf team for a wonderful season!
  • Tennis - Seniors Andrei Urda and Penny Enterline represented the Falcons by competing in the state singles tournament. Both players had tough matches during the tournament with Andrei bowing out in round 1 while Penny advanced to round 2. Congrats to Coach Love and all the players in the tennis program!

Football Car Wash Fundraiser - Saturday, May 22nd
Due to the great success of their first car wash fundraiser, the FHHS Football team is looking forward to securing the final funds to pay for their summer camp. Please come through the driveway at the high school and make your way back to the football fields where the car wash is taking place. Any donation is appreciated! We will have donation forms and tax credit forms for those who want them. Thank you in advance for supporting our team so everyone can attend camp. Please see the flyer for more information. 

Final Exams Next Week!
Last week, communication was sent out regarding the final exam schedule. Please be sure to review the schedule prior to next week to ensure you are prepared. 

Summer School
We are offering two programs for summer school this school year. As a district, we received ESSER II money to provide summer school for students in grades 9-12 in mathematics and English. If you would like your student to attend summer school, FREE of charge, please call the office to sign up. This is on a first come first served as we have limited staff. We’d love to have your student join us for summer school June 1-25th. We’ll also be offering our regular summer school where students can take a variety of classes through Fountain Hills Virtual Academy (FHVA). You can register for FHVA summer school through RevTrak on the district website.

Thank You!
Lastly, I’d like to thank the community for all of the support this year. We recognize that this has not been an ideal situation for any of us, but we're thankful for an understanding and supportive community. Without your efforts, this year would have been even more challenging.

Again, we can’t thank the staff and teachers enough for all that you’ve done for our school this past year! Your love and dedication for our students is unrivaled. You all are amazing educators and we’re fortunate to have you as members of our Falcon Family!

Sincerely,

Kris Alexander
Principal
Fountain Hills High School
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