Fountain Hills board reviews proposed 'I' grade and mandatory reteach policy for high school

The Fountain Hills Unified School board reviewed a proposed change to how incomplete grades and reteach sessions are handled at the secondary level, focusing on whether an 'I' should replace an immediate failing score and how to enforce mandatory makeups.

Administrators explained the model: when a student is assigned a reteach session for significant gaps in mastery, teachers would 'freeze' the grade and require the student to attend mandatory reteach (after school or on scheduled Saturdays). Once the reteach is completed, the teacher would unfreeze and post the updated grade. If a student repeatedly fails to attend mandated reteach, administrators said they would hold credit until the work is made up.

"The only way we found as a faculty...that we believe will work...is to hold that credit and saying, until you made up this time...we're not changing that grade from an incomplete until that work has been made up," the superintendent explained, describing the approach used in past years to improve completion and mastery rates. Board members voiced concern about students being disadvantaged if reteach is missed, requested clearer timelines (for example, whether an incomplete could persist all semester), and asked administration to provide tracking data once implementation begins.

Administration agreed to refine language about deadlines and consequences, ensure consistent application across teachers, and return with implementation metrics. The board did not adopt a final policy at this meeting but asked for updates after initial rollout and data collection.