Fountain Hills Unified School District maintains a partnership with Mesa Distance Learning for online education options but, back in 2009, the local district was approved to lay the groundwork for its own online program.

FHUSDs online classes have been operated under probationary status for the past three years, set for final approval by the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year.

While Superintendent Tom Lawrence said he does not foresee any complications preventing the districts online program from reaching final approval, he said that funding for a fully fleshed out offering simply isnt in the cards at this time.

[Average Daily Membership] is a big part of it, Lawrence said.

You basically need seed money to get something like this up and going and we dont have a source for that yet.

In 1998, the Arizona Legislature created the TAPBI Program to improve student achievement and extend academic options beyond the traditional classroom.

The original group of schools included the Mesa Distirct, Peoria, and a handful of other district and charters, Lawrence said.

The Arizona Online Initiative opened it up to a second wave of schools a few years ago and we jumped in on that. We received approval and began our pilot program.

FHUSD was approved for every course it submitted, including oral communication, written communication, honors/pre-AP English, world history and geography, United States history, economics/free enterprise, education professions 1, elements of design, photography II, photography III, advanced placement studio art and 2D design, graphics intern and boys health.

The high school offered social studies, U.S. history and sophomore English during its pilot year in 2010-11 and, since then, have had a handful of students take advantage of the program each year.

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Online offerings at FHUSD