Chandler Arizonan 01-22-2023

Chandler asks on GoFundMe vary widely

BY CECILIA CHAN AND KEN SAIN Arizonan Staff Writers

Christmas isn’t the only season for giving and spreading kindness. For crowdfunding platforms, it’s a year-long activity – as it is for the largest and better-known GoFundMe. com. In Chandler alone, more than 1,000 people and groups have set up an account on that platform with requests for a broad range of activies, needs and wants.

Since its launch in 2010, the California-based GoFundMe has become the go-to online fundraising tool for chari-

ties and just about anybody who wants the public to help bankroll an expense. Within minutes, someone can set up a money request on the global site. To date, the site has helped individuals and charities around the world to raise more than $25 billion, according to GoFundMe, which did not respond to questions for the story.

The requests for donations run the gamut from classroom supplies and Girl Scout projects to relief efforts for crisis events such as Hurricane Ian in

see GOFUNDME page 18

Air quality curbs could throttle Valley growth

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

The Phoenix Metro region could lose more than $100 million in economic growth if it fails to meet upgraded federal air quality standards for ozone levels by August 2024, a Valley environmental official warned this month.

And those losses would steadily increase over the next 20 years to as much as $848 million if the Valley’s ozone levels are not brought under control, Tim Franquist, environmental policy director for the

Chopper lesson

Maricopa Association of Governments told Phoenix City Council Jan. 4.

Though he was addressing a Phoenix City Council subcommittee, Franquist’s assessment naturally applies to the entire Valley.

And it wasn’t very encouraging.

He said the controls necessary to meet more stringent federal air quality controls will carry a substantial cost to taxpayers.

“That’s going to be a big issue for this area,” he continued. “We really

see AIR page 12

Yuna Buhrman helped Rhett Howard, 5, create a helicopter from markers and a plastic cup at the 2023 Chandler Multicultural Festival on Jan. 14. The festival at Dr. A.J. Chandler Park drew hundreds of people who celebrated the city’s diversity. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

The Chandler Outlaws 7-and-under football team had little success on GoFundMe.com with its plea for $15,000 to get to the Florida Nationals. It raised only $140. (GoFundMe.com)

TU board tries to mend rifts as it reorganizes

BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor

The two school governing boards that serve Ahwatukee each officially welcomed a new member last week and for one, the traditional January reorganization session to elect a president and vice president was uneventful.

But while that was the case for the Kyrene Governing Board, the Tempe Union board saw a little drama before its new leadership was installed.

In Kyrene, Ahwatukee educator Triné Nelson took her oath to begin her first term while Kevin Walsh was sworn into his second four-year term. Walsh was then elected president of the board for the third consecutive year while longtime board member and Tempe Union administrator Michelle Fahy was elected vice president.

Tempe Union saw some action after Ahwatukee speech therapist Amanda Steele was sworn into her first term and

Andres Barraza his second.

It came when the board elected a new president and vice president.

Sarah James nominated Vice President Armando Montero – an Ahwatukee resident, Arizona State University senior

and Desert Vista High School alumnus –for president. He got some competition when Berdetta Hodge nominate Barraza for the job.

Hodge had nominated Barraza for president in the Tempe Union board’s

January 2022 reorganization meeting but then-board member Brian Garcia was voted into his second term in the position. She then nominated Barraza –

see SCHOOLS page 6

During the Tempe Union Governing Board meeting, Desert Vista High School alumnus Armando Montero, left, was elected board president after board member Andres Barraza. center, declined his nomination. He had just been sworn in for his second term while Amanda Steele of Ahwatukee also was sworn in for her first term and then elected vice president of the board. (Special to the Arizonan)

Fired teacher accuses Valley Christian of gay bias

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

Adam McDorman says that his Christian beliefs include acceptance and equality for all LGBT people and that God’s children should never discriminate or show hostility toward them.

The English teacher at a private Christian school in Chandler says he lost his job because of those beliefs.

In a twist, he is claiming in a lawsuit filed Dec. 27 that Valley Christian Schools in Chandler discriminated against him for his religious views. Usually religious schools make that claim when they are sued for anti-gay bias.

According to the federal suit, here’s what McDorman said led to his termination:

Last fall, a Valley Christian School student made a social media post saying they identified as pansexual, which means they are attracted to all genders or gender identities.

High school Principal Josh LeSage learned about the post and urged his staff at a Nov. 1 meeting to share the belief in the sinfulness of LGBT sexual orientation and that anyone who disagreed was like a cancer that needed to be removed from Valley Christian.

McDorman voiced his objection during a Nov. 3 department meeting, saying the school needs to find a better way to care for the school’s LGBT students and protect them from discrimination.

LeSage sent out an email later that day, saying he planned to meet with the student, whose parents were not invited.

In the email he wrote: “There is a hideous lie that “You can be both,” meaning homosexual and otherwise sexually deviant and also a Christian. God is clear that we cannot openly live in and celebrate our sin, much less elevate it to the status and being part of our identity and serve Christ at the same

time. The very thought is so offensive.”

In the email he specifically mentioned McDorman, stating:

“We have a faculty member and a ‘central office’ employee who supposedly suggested in a meeting today that we invite a pastor of a local gay-friendly church to come and speak to our faculty to help us better understand this lifestyle and better minister to those kids we may have. Hell no! We are not doing that.”

McDorman claims he told LeSage on Nov. 8 he did not think that it was a good idea to exclude the student’s parents from his meeting with her.

Adam McDorman has filed a federal lawsuit against Valley Christian School in Chandler over his firing for what he said were his beliefs gay people should not be discriminated against. (Special to the Arizonan)

happens in his brain that shifts and makes his preference cannot always, but can, give him a preference for men sexually.”

He also told the student, “Same-sex relations are an abomination to God.”

What he said appears to be consistent with school policy.

The Chandler Arizonan is published every Sunday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout Chandler. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of The Chandler Arizonan, please visit www.ChandlerNews.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Main Number 480-898-6500

Advertising 480-898-5624

Circulation Service 480-898-5641

The principal responded that he had a “problem” with Christians who identify as gay or gender nonbinary and met for several hours on the topic.

McDorman was fired the next day.

The student met with the principal and the school’s coordinator of student health and wellness soon afterward without the parents being present. The student recorded the conversation.

In the recording, LeSage tells the student that transgender people have a mutation in their brain. He said they’re not crazy, it’s biological.

He also said this:

According to the lawsuit, the school’s Foundational Positions states, “Any form of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, and attempting to change one’s biological sex or acting upon any disagreement with one’s biological sex) or advocacy of sexual immorality, is sinful and offensive to God.”

The lawsuit claims the school deprived McDorman of his right to be free from discrimination based on his religious views. It says LeSage subjected McDorman to threats of discriminatory treatment.

His lawyer, Krista Robinson, said McDorman declined to be interviewed for this story. She said he is not working now and has taken his firing very hard.

Robinson also said that he was reluctant to file the lawsuit, and waited until the last day he could file to give the goahead.

A voice mail to LeSage’s phone asking for his side of the story was not returned.

Chandler Arizonan 1900 W. Broadway Road Tempe, AZ 85282

Publisher Steve T. Strickbine Vice President Michael Hiatt

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT

Display Advertising 480-898-6309

Classifieds/Inside Sales TJ Higgins | 480-898-5902 | tjhiggins@TimesLocalMedia.com

Steve Insalaco | 480-898-5635 sinsalaco@TimesLocalMedia.com

Director of National Advertising Zac Reynolds 480-898-5603 | zac@TimesLocalMedia.com

NEWS DEPARTMENT

Executive Editor Paul Maryniak | 480-898-5647 | pmaryniak@TimesLocalMedia.com

Reporter

Ken Sain 480-898-6825 | ksain@TimesLocalMedia.com

Photographer David Minton dmonton@TimesLocalMedia.com

Production/Design Supervisor Shannon Mead | smead@TimesLocalMedia.com

Graphic Designer Tonya Mildenberg | tmildenberg@TimesLocalMedia.com

Circulation Director Aaron Kolodny aaron@TimesLocalMedia.com

Distribution Manager Brian Juhl | brian@TimesLocalMedia.com

Valley Christian School Principal Josh LeSage allegedly said homosexual men became gay because they were sexually abused as youngsters.

“The homosexual community is shying away from the fact that most homosexual men did suffer sexual abuse as an adolescent. And there is solid scientific research outside of Bible circles, that shows your first sexual experience has a strong determining factor in what your sexual preferences are.

“So again, sin coming into the world, a boy is abused by a man, something

McDorman also filed a discrimination charge with the Arizona Attorney General’s office.

Dan Kuiper, the head of schools for VCS, wrote in an email, “Since this is a pending lawsuit, we are not able to comment at this time. Our insurance company has not assigned a lawyer to the case.”

The lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, back pay and lost benefits, and reasonable attorney’s and experts fees.

Chandler Arizonan is distributed by AZ Integrated Media a circulation company owned and operated by Times Media Group. The public is limited to one copy per reader. For circulation services, please contact Aaron Kolodny at aaron@TimesLocalMedia.com.

To Start or Stop delivery of the paper, please visit https://timespublications.com/phoenix/ or call 480-898-7901

To receive your free online subscription, please visit: https://www.chandlernews.com/digital_editions/

The content of any advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertiser. The Chandler Arizonan assumes no responsibility for the claims of any advertisement.© 2023 Strickbine Publishing, Inc.

480-922-1968

Kevin Walsh was sworn into his second term and elected to his third term as Kyrene Governing Board President while Trine Nelson took the oath to start her first term. Longtime board member Michelle Fahy was elected vice president. (YouTube)

SCHOOLS from page 3

who started his first term the same time Garcia did – for vice president but Garcia backed Montero.

Before the voting last week, Barraza gave a speech that suggested he still felt bruised by that maneuvering, together with some largely behind-the-scenes battles with Garcia over the board’s ultimately failed effort to discontinue armed school resource officers on Tempe Union campuses by August 2023.

Barraza said he felt shut out when he tried to slow down the dismantling of SROs after numerous parents, students, staff and community members decried the move.

“I value everyone’s point in positions, but leadership has to be about supporting our board,” Barraza said. “I had no voice... I had it shut out largely last year and that was very detrimental to me and very hurtful.”

Without ever mentioning Garcia, who decided against a second term, Barraza continued, “

“I think at the end of the day, leadership has to be about supporting the district, supporting the students, supporting what our district does,” he continued. “We can’t be political and push issues to the forefront because we believe in it. This district has a history of working with the community.”

Enrolling Now!

February Etiquette Course for Ages 9-12

SueAnn Brown, a certified etiquette instructor and owner of It’s All About Etiquette, will offer her popular etiquette class for children ages 9-12.

The location is at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Scottsdale.

Our classes are interactive and FUN!

Students will learn the following: Table manners, proper social skills, shaking hands, how to make conversation, respect others and more. Your child will be amazed at how much fun learning about manners and proper etiquette can be.

Students receive a training manual, snacks and a certificate of completion. Advanced registration is required as space is limited. For more information or to register, please visit our website www.itsallaboutetiquette.com or call 480 510-6346.

We offer ages 6–8, 9-12, 13-18 and business etiquette workshops.

www.itsallaboutetiquette.com

Adding salt to his wounds, he said, was a “board evaluation meeting” held partly behind closed doors last month.

“I was devastated last December when we held our board evaluation, but we held it not in the boardroom here. We held in a back room, but it was still a public meeting because we kept the door open for evaluations,” he said. “The work that the board does should always be transparent.”

Barraza didn’t think his speech would change the course of the vote, stating, “Now, I don’t have any presumption I will get elected.”

He had reason to feel that way. During the January 2022 reorganization meeting, he seemed pretty confident he’d win the vice president’s chair and gave a long speech that sounded more like an acceptance

than a campaign speech. He ended up with only Hodge’s vote on the five-member board. Barraza has made no secret of his past and has spoken at length about his early life, which saw him enter prison for a short time for unspecified drug-related charges.

Ultimately, though, he became a U.S. Forest Service firefighter, earned an economics degree while a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College – which Montero also attends – and became a Tempe businessman.

“This is my fifth year and I’m very proud to serve at Tempe Union High School District for my fifth year on a second term – coming from being a teen parent that went to prison just shortly after high school for drug abuse. I learned the importance of education and I realized that the school-to-prison pipeline is a real issue,” he said. “And that’s ultimately why I restored my rights and ran for school board.”

But he said “that’s not really why I want to be president of this board” and referred to “a lot of turmoil and division among this board.”

“I think it really just kind of took a toll on me because I think it all began after the SRO situation and after that, I didn’t get an opportunity to really heal or talk to any of my other board members regarding that.”

Garcia had tried to push through the SRO ban, which Montero supported.

But the uproar over that attempt forced him to back off an immediate action and have the district conduct a series of surveys of different sectors of the district community and then conduct a series of other hearings and studies.

Barraza took a conciliatory tone to end his speech, stating, “We’re all former students of this district and….I think Armando Montero would make a good president.”

Then, he said, “in a spirit of healing,” he was asking that his nomination be withdrawn and Montero was unanimously elected. Hodge cast the lone vote in support of his nomination to be vice president.

Montero thanked Barraza after he withdrew from the president’s race, saying, “We are going into. very transformational year here in Tempe Union and as we’re going to renew our strategic plan and have some really robust discussions about the values that we hold, not just as a board but as a district.”

Chandler lawmaker seeks to end voting by mail

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

One of Chandler’s newly elected state lawmakers who wants to overturn the 2022 election is now trying to get colleagues to outlaw voting by mail.

The proposal by Republican Rep. Liz Harris says anyone who wants to vote has to go to the polls. HB 2229 says the only exception would be those who are physically unable or those in the military who are overseas.

But that’s only part of her agenda.

Harris also is sponsoring HB 2232. It not only would preclude early voting even in person but also require that all ballots be counted by hand.

And her HB 2233 seeks to expand the grounds on which anyone could sue to overturn election results and give them and their allies the power to inspect each and every ballot. Current law permits the review of only a random sample.

But it is her bid to require people to ac-

tually go to the polls and vote in person that could have the broadest impact.

In the most recent race, more than 80% of the nearly 2.6 million voters chose to take advantage of a 1991 law that allows anyone to request an early ballot. But Harris said that doesn’t make it right.

She said the audit of the 2020 election ordered by then-Senate President Karen Fann provided access to both the ballot envelopes and each person’s voter registration card.

“They have a 12% mismatch rate that’s a firm mismatch rate,’’ Harris claimed. She said people “can see it firsthand’’ if they sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Harris, who lost her 2020 bid for the Legislature before winning a House seat this year, said this isn’t about Donald Trump or Kari Lake, who continues to insist that the gubernatorial election was stolen from her. She said the problem has existed since the law was adopted three decades ago.

So why would voters and lawmakers

agree to kill a program that has proven so popular? Harris said it comes down to convincing the majority that there was fraud in the election and that their votes were stolen.

“Their vote is being canceled because there’s another vote being entered into the system,’’ she told Capitol Media Services. Harris said the reason people don’t know that is “the media.’’

Similar claims were raised in lawsuits challenging both the 2020 and 2022 elections. But challengers have failed in each attempt to convince a judge that any laws were broken.

Harris’s legislation is based on the legal theory that the only form of voting specifically authorized by the Arizona Constitution is in person and on Election Day. And she is hanging her hat on requirements for a “secret ballot.’’

“An election by secret ballot is an election in which voters are provided abso-

see HARRIS page 10

Chandler Republican Rep. Liz Harris wants to end voting by mail and require all votes to be counted by hand. (Facebook)

INFL ATION

lating laws dealing with early voting.

FREE SEMINAR

BY SAVING TAXES & INCREASING INCOME

RISING INFLATION IS THE “TOP PROBLEM” FACING AMERICANS TODAY. Increasing food costs, pain at the gas pump and poor investment returns are causing panic and depression for many. Stop feeling helpless to do anything about it. This seminar will deliver important and effective options for reducing your taxes and fighting back against the rising costs draining your budget. Learn about:

•Why Inflation is American's #1 concern

•How continued high inflation can kill your retirement

•Ways to Double your Social Security and retirement income

•Tax saving strategies that can help you retire 5-15+ years earlier

•Which solar business leasing program returns 10-14% income for 10 years

•Why solar powered reefers are today’s most powerful tax-savings strategy

•How the solar reefer leasing program is safer than stocks or real estate

lute protection against the possibility of any other person knowing how they voted,’’ Harris wrote in her legislation. And that, she said, includes family members, friends and coworkers.

“A person who is the head of a household can demand that the household vote together at the kitchen table or that any adult children allow the head of the household to vote their ballots since they live in that person’s home,’’ Harris said in HB 2229.

What in-person voting also precludes, Harris said, is the ability to buy someone’s vote, as the person offering the money has no way to know how the other person who was paid off, filling out his or her ballot inside a voting booth, actually marked the ballot.

“This physically protected area is the polling booth with privacy curtain, within a staffed polling location, with the ballots strictly controlled within the polling location and with no ballots coming in or going out,’’ her legislation reads. “Ballots are voted on site, folded and placed in a ballot box.’’

If the arguments sound familiar, they should.

They closely parallel claims made by attorney Alexander Kolodin last year in a lawsuit filed by the Arizona Republican Party. And he, too, cited that constitutional right to a secret ballot in his bid to kill early voting.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen acknowledged that Kolodin presented examples of “bad actors’’ vio-

That includes instances in Yuma County where a woman pleaded guilty to collecting the early ballots of others and, in some cases, marking how they should be voted. The judge said, however, that didn’t make the system unconstitutional.

“Furthermore, they do not show a pattern of conduct so egregious as to undermine the entire system of no-excuse mail-in voting as provided by the Arizona Legislature,’’ he wrote. “Enforcement mechanisms exist within the statutes to punish those that do not abide by the statutes.’’

Kolodin, elected this year along with Harris to the state House, has taken the case to the Court of Appeals which head arguments last month but has not yet issued an opinion.

Harris is doing more than introducing bills to change laws on voting based on her beliefs that prior elections were stolen.

Just days after the election, Harris staked out a public position by not only demanding a revote of the Nov. 8 election but saying that “I will now be withholding my vote on any bills this session without this new election in protest to what is clearly a potential fraudulent election.’’

Even though Republicans hold a bare 31-29 margin in the House, her refusal to go along may not matter.

Any measure approved strictly on party lines is likely to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. And if legislation has bipartisan support, Republicans won’t need her vote.

haven’t put in ozone-control measures for about 20 years, so we’re definitely going to need a lot more measures coming into place.”

Right now, the only way the Valley could meet the elevated Environmental Protection Agency’s ozone limits would be taking all four million gasoline-powered motor vehicles in Maricopa County off the road by August 2024, Franquist said.

And even then, he added, “we would barely make the standard.”

And since that’s a virtual impossibility, the cost of meeting tougher air quality standards could result in lost industrial development opportunities as businesses avoid relocating or expanding here rather than pay for expensive federally-imposed, tougher emission controls.

That cost would extend beyond the Valley since tougher emission standards could even be imposed for trucks and cars that come into the region regularly from other parts of the state and country that may not have similarly tough standards, he said.

And it also could be reflected in other ways, Franquist said, such as more stringent air quality permits and more stringent emission control programs.

“It impacts us by impacting businesses,” he said, noting that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co plant in

north Phoenix theoretically would need a permit and be operating before the new standards kick in. “Now, a $40 billion investment: I think the White House gets involved and I think (it) comes here.”

Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari seized on that example, saying “the hallmark example of an incredible foreign investment” would be scuttled because “we are dangerously close to reaching serious non-attainment, which means that those businesses would not be able to come here after 2024.”

“Non-attainment” is the classification that the EPA gives metro areas that fail to meet air quality goals. Other metro areas already have studied the economic impact of non-attainment and project staggering losses in future growth.

For example, Franquist said, the Oklahoma City metro area faces an economic loss of as much as $15.2 billion over the next 20 to 30 years for violating tougher federal air quality standards. Corpus Cristi, Texas, estimates a loss of $600 million to $1.7 billion a year in economic activity for failing to meet impending EPA ozone standards.

“We have kind of a table of increasing stringency in programs as we don’t meet the standard,” Franquist said. “So obviously. as we don’t meet those standards, those programs become more stringent and there’s more of them.”

Franquist said the culprit in all this is the ozone level.

While Maricopa County has actually done a good job reducing many air pol-

lutants, he said, ozone levels have been aggravated in large part by things beyond its control – namely, forest fires in both Arizona and California and the Valley’s average 300 days of sunny weather.

“Unlike some pollutants, like carbon dioxide – which is a direct pollutant that comes from your tailpipe or from an industrial stack,” Franquist explained, “ozone is considered a secondary pollutant. So it actually requires volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen.”

And those compounds react to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, adversely affecting air quality.

Franquist produced a chart showing how wildfires in Arizona and California have adversely impacted air quality, posing a growing health risk to vulnerable adults and even more children.

“This is what our children are breathing,” he said. “What most folks don’t realize with children – they do breathe in the same amount of air as an adult. They just breathe faster than we do. So they actually take in these pollutants at the same level as adults but in smaller bodies.”

Franquist said the Valley’s future ability to meet federal air quality standards has been crippled by former Gov. Doug Ducey’s veto last year of a bill that would have asked the public to vote last November on an extension of the half-cent gas tax that funds a variety of rapid transit and road improvement projects.

While the Legislature could again vote to put Proposition 400 on next year’s ballot ahead of the tax’s expiration in 2025, the uncertainty currently surrounding it threatens a number of projects already on county and municipal drawing boards – including an expansion of public transportation aimed at curbing car traffic.

Franquist praised Phoenix for being “a fantastic leader” in programs aimed at reducing ozone pollution – mainly involving its multi-million-dollar investment in replacing a large portion of the city’s gas-powered vehicles such as fire engines and garbage trucks with electric ones and its aggressive expansion of bus and light rail routes.

But many of those city vehicles won’t be replaced until 2028 – well beyond the federal deadline for ozone reduction.

Franquist also warned, “There’s no sil-

all ozone is harmful. Ozone in the stratosphere, 6 miles to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. But ozone in the troposphere, where we live on the surface of the Earth, can result in severe health problems. (Olivia Dow/Cronkite News)

Rising ozone levels in the Valley’s atmosphere will force increasingly tough emissions control programs as early as 2024, the environmental policy director for the Maricopa Association of Governments told a Phoenix City Council subcommittee last week. (Courtesy of MAG)

AIR from page 12

ver bullet in terms of reducing ozone in one different control program. It takes a lot of different control programs working together to actually reduce ozone.”

“I think it’s important that we continue to get the word out to both the public and to our legislators that this is important for our economy, but it’s absolutely important for our public health,” he added, conceding the ozone control programs “are not cheap to implement.”

Franquist’s message provoked Ansari to express alarm about the impending air quality measures and the region’s attitude toward them.

“We are treating them as though they’re not urgent, and they’re not priorities and they don’t have financial implications even though they really, really do and they will hurt us economically,” Ansari said. “So I feel very strongly that we need to be doing a lot more than we have.”

Chandler • Gilbert • Mesa

14 Chandler students among 82 Flinn semifinalists

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

The Chandler area is well represented on the list of 82 Flinn Scholarship, with two Chandler Unified School District high schools tying for the most from any one school in the state.

There are 14 students who either attend a Chandler or CUSD school, or who are Chandler residents that were selected as semifinalists.

Hamilton High School Principal Michael De La Torre said all four of his students named semifinalists are exceptional in some way. He says he’s noticed some commonalities among the Flinn semifinalists over the years.

“They have been those students who really push themselves,” he said. “These students are taking a full course load of advanced placement courses, and they’re at the highest levels. They’re special individuals, these kids are not just doing stuff in the classroom. If you look at all the other things that they’re in-

volved in, they’re in community service, they’re in clubs, and they’re busy. They keep themselves genuinely busy.”

Arizona College Prep and Hamilton high schools both had four named. They tied with Tucson University High for the most in the state. Basha High School was

one of two that had three students selected.

The Flinn Scholarship awards about Arizona 20 students tuition, housing and meals at any one of the state’s three public universities. It’s valued at more than $130,000. They also have two opportunities for all-expense paid study abroad and are connected with some of the leading professionals in various fields.

There were 1,045 applications. The semifinalists will each be interviewed and about half will be selected as finalists. That group will interview again in March with the committee that will make the final decision on who will be awarded a scholarship.

The is the Flinn Foundation’s 38th year of awarding the scholarship. The final winners will be announced in April. Of the 82 semifinalists, 34 live in the

Flinn Semifinalists

East Valley. That’s more than 41%.

De La Torre credited the teachers who came before with playing a significant role in helping these students become such high-achievers.

“Being at the high school level, you know, we’re the beneficiary of kids who have been on track to do some great things for years coming into us,” De La Torre said.

“So it doesn’t just happen in high school. You know, it’s about their elementary experience, or middle school experience, and where they were supported there, and the families that are supporting them to get there as well.”

He said the school will do everything it can to help their four semifinalists advance to the final round, and potentially be named a Flinn Scholar.

“Our counselors will set up mock interviews and work with them on questions and how to project themselves as best as possible in those interviews,” De La Torre said. “It’s kind of a group effort, of all those people that are involved in supporting those students. But those students are very special for what they’re doing to prep themselves to get to this point.”

The Flinn Foundation named 82 semifinalists for its prestigious scholarship. Of the 82 Arizona students, 14 either live in Chandler, or attend a Chandler or CUSD school. They are:

STUDENT SCHOOL RESIDENCE

Cameron Bautista Basha High School Gilbert

Dean Brasen Arizona College Prep Chandler

Carol Chen Hamilton High School Gilbert

Joseph Chen Hamilton High School Chandler

Richa Chirravuri Hamilton High School Chandler

Megan Dowd ............................ Arizona College Prep ......................... Gilbert

Allyson Huynh ............................ Basha High School ............................ Gilbert

Mihira Karnik ............................. Arizona College Prep ....................... Chandler

Sneha Lakamsani ....................Hamilton High School ...................... Chandler

Anika Lanke .....................................BASIS Chandler ............................... Gilbert

Merilyn Li .......................................... Corona Del Sol ............................. Chandler

Sofia Llanos ................................. Basha High School .......................... Chandler

Diya Nath ................................... Arizona College Prep ....................... Chandler

Lorraine Osterling Casteel High School Gilbert

Dean Brasen, a senior at Arizona College Prep and a Chandler resident, is among the local Flinn Scholarship semifinalists. (File photo)

Around Chandler

Chandler to honor residents who integrated Chandler High

The City of Chandler plans to pay tribute to eight Black students who were the first to integrate Chandler High School in 1949, five years before the U.S. Supreme Court decision mandated it in Brown v. Board of Education.

The city plans to celebrate them at 9 a.m. Jan. 28 at its Celebration Plaza at Tumbleweed Park. They are: Willie Arbuckle, Robert Turner, Artie Mae Turner, Joella Arbuckle, Ernestine Jackson, Willie Ruth Payne, J.L. Payne and Nina Loftan.

Willie Arbuckle and Robert Turner became the first Black students to graduate from Chandler High in 1951.

Others to be honored include Major General Jackson and Barbara Bogle and Rev. Joseph Patterson. The Bogles ran the Pecos Valley Alfalfa Mill and were active in the community. Jackson served on the Chandler Unified School District and Barbara was involved in many civic organizations, including the Chandler Historical Society.

Patterson was a strong education advocate and helped start St. Mary-Basha School and Seton Catholic High School.

Group plans ‘wedding walk’ in downtown Chandler next weekend

Couples planning a walk down the aisle this year are invited to participate in a self-guided “wedding walk” 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Jan. 28 in downtown Chandler to see how it is “the premier destination for a complete wedding weekend experience,” according to the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership.

For $5 per person, participants can get a raffle ticket for the chance to win a stay and play at the San Marcos Resort and Golf Course, a free venue booking with SoHo63, and other prizes from participating vendors. Additional raffle tickets may be purchased for $5 each or purchase five for $20.

City co-sponsoring Shred-a-thon, RX drug takeback event

The Arizona Attorney General’s office and City of Chandler Police Department are sponsoring a shred-a-thon and prescription drug takeback event from 8 a.m. to noon Jan. 28 at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Residents can safely dispose of any sensitive documents they have or turn in prescription drugs they no longer need.

The event will take place on the east side of campus near the baseball fields.

Southwest Cajun Fest coming to AJ Chandler Park next month

The Angry Crab Shack Southwest Cajun Fest is Feb. 4 at AJ Chandler Park in downtown.

It will invoke the spirit of Mardi Gras, with beads being thrown, brass bands playing, an alligator petting zoo and a Bourbon Street experience. Tickets are $25.

Visit Forty8Live.com to purchase tickets.

Tarwater to celebrate the lunar new year in grand style Feb. 3

Tarwater Elementary School plans to host a lunar new year celebration from 5:30-8 p.m. Feb. 3 at the school, 2300 S. Gardner Drive in Chandler.

The school is home to a dual-language Mandarin immersion program. Students will perform cultural activities, including Lion dancers and lantern making.

Nominations open for city’s Disability Awareness Awards

Chandler is accepting nominations for its 31st annual Disability Awareness Awards. There are five categories: student of the year, educator of the year, volunteer of the year, employee of the year and employer of the year.

Nominations can be made through the city’s website, chandleraz.gov/disabilityawarenessawards. The deadline is Feb. 3.

The winners will be honored at the Feb. 23 City Council meeting.

City urges residents to apply for commissions, boards

The City of Chandler is urging residents to apply for its citizen commissions and boards.

Applications are being accepted until Feb. 15 at chandleraz.gov/boards. The city has dozens of boards and commissions available, from airport to arts, planning and zoning to parks and recreation.

Mayor Kevin Hartke will review the applications and nominate people for the Council to approve.

WARNING!

PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY AND CHRONIC PAIN TREATMENTS NOT WORKING!!

Mesa, AZ – When it comes to chronic pain and/ or neuropathy, the most common doctor-prescribed treatment is drugs like Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Neurontin. The problem with antidepressants or anti-seizure medications like these is that they offer purely symptomatic relief, as opposed to targeting and treating the root of the problem. Worse, these drugs often trigger an onset of uncomfortable, painful, and sometimes harmful side effects.

The only way to effectively treat chronic pain and/or peripheral neuropathy is by targeting the source, which is the result of nerve damage owing to inadequate blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet. This often causes weakness, numbness, balance problems. A lack of nutrients causes the nerves degenerate – an insidious

cannot survive, and thus, slowly die. This leads to those painful and frustrating consequences we were talking about earlier, like weakness, numbness, tingling, balance issues, and perhaps even a burning sensation.

The drugs your doctor might prescribe will temporarily conceal the problems, putting a “Band-Aid” over a situation that will only continue to deteriorate without further action.

Thankfully, Mesa is the birthplace of a brandnew facility that sheds new light on this pressing problem of peripheral neuropathy and chronic pain. The company is trailblazing the medical industry by replacing outdated drugs and symptomatic reprieves with an advanced machine that targets the root of the problem at hand.

1. Finding the underlying cause

2. Determining the extent of the nerve damage (above 95% nerve loss is rarely treatable)

3. The amount of treatment required for the patient’s unique condition

Aspen Medical in Mesa, AZ uses a state-of-the-art electric cell signaling systems worth $100,000.00. Th is ground-breaking treatment is engineered to achieve the following, accompanied by advanced diagnostics and a basic skin biopsy to accurately analyze results:

1. Increases blood flow

2. Stimulates and strengthens small fiber nerves

3. Improves brain-based pain

The treatment works by delivering energy to the affected area(s) at varying wavelengths, from low- to middle-frequency signals, while also using Amplitude Modulated (AM) and Frequency Modulated (FM) signaling

It’s completely painless!

THE GREAT NEWS IS THAT THIS TREATMENT IS COVERED BY MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND MOST INSURANCES!!

The number of treatments required varies from patient to patient, and can only be determined following an in-depth neurological and vascular examination. As long as you have less than 95% nerve damage, there is hope!

Aspen Medical begins by analyzing the extent of the nerve damage –a complimentary service for your friends and family. Each exam comprises a detailed sensory evaluation, extensive peripheral vascular testing, and comprehensive analysis of neuropathy findings.

Aspen Medical will be offering this free chronic pain and neuropathy severity evaluation will be available until January 31st 2023 Call (480) 274-3157 to make an appointment.

Due to our very busy office schedule, we are limiting this offer to the first 10 c allers Y OU DO NOT HAVE TO SUFFER ANOTHER MINUTE, CALL (480) 274-3157… NOW!!

We are extremely busy, so we are unavailable, please leave a voice message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

As displayed in figure 1 above, the nerves are surrounded by diseased, withered blood vessels. A lack of sufficient nutrients means the nerves

Effective neuropathy treatment relies on the following three factors:

Depending on your coverage, your peripheral neuropathy treatment could cost almost nothing – or be absolutely free.

Aspen Medical 4540 E Baseline Rd., Suite 119 Mesa, AZ, 85206

274-3157*

Math program at Willis producing impressive results

BY KEN SAIN

Arizonan Managing Editor

Aprogram that was started to help close the learning gap caused by the pandemic is working so well at Willis Junior High School, the principal wants to expand it.

Arizona State University Prep Digital and the state Department of Education came up with the Math Momentum partnership. It was originally expected to last for three years and cost $9 million.

Willis teachers started using the program last school year and say they’ve already seen significant results. As part of the program, each student is required to take three assessments each year.

“So, 14% of students have closed gaps in 10 weeks,” said Sarah Wiese, a pre-algebra teacher at Willis. “I would say maybe of my 80 to 90 kids in there, only one or two didn’t show any sort of growth between August and Thanksgiving.”

Math Momentum is essentially inviting a second teacher into the classroom for more individualized learning. Wiese

teaches her pre-algebra class with Jennifer Cooke, who lives in Montana and works for ASU Prep Digital.

After an introductory period of the class, students break up into three groups: Four work with Cooke online in a Zoom classroom. Four work directly with Wiese. And the rest, maybe 10 or so, work on their own. After 15 minutes or so, they switch.

Wiese said the students who do not need as much individualized attention and have passed all the requirements for whatever lesson they are working on, are given more fun things to do. The students who feel they could use some additional help will often sit in her group.

“The reason I’m talking to you, and the reason I was talking to my superintendent, and the reason I will talk to anybody about this is this model is not limited to grant money,” Wiese said. “I think this model is something that you could implement outside of the math subject area and is very feasible and doable.”

Her principal is on board.

“The most effective thing that happens is that they’re continually assessing kids,” Principal Jeff Delp said. “And so through that assessment piece, they have data to see where specifically kids are struggling, and then they’ll group kids based upon what they need.

“And so we’ve seen some dramatic shifts in terms of gains that kids are making and growth that are that kids are making, just because of that targeted ap-

proach.

“I’m pushing ASU,” Delp continued. “I tell them ‘if you want to expand, I think in education just in general, the exciting thing is that this would work in other subject areas.’

“Especially right now, with teacher retention, and teacher shortages, when you start saying, ‘Okay, can we bring in people that are willing to work online, to supplement what’s going on in the classroom?’ It’s a pretty good deal.”

The key to tracking student performance is ALEKS, an adaptive learning platform put out by McGraw Hill. It tracks each student, identifying areas that they need more work in. That allows teachers such as Wiese and Cooke, to put students who need work in the same area together for one of their small group sessions.

Wiese said the key to making it work is the communication between the two teachers.

“You’ve got to build this relationship, right?,” Wiese said. “You got to meet weekly, you’ve got to go back with that person and refine. But now that we’re in our second year, this class just kind of runs itself.”

Brian Austin is the Math Momentum Principal at ASU Prep Digital. He said being able to bring in teachers from across the country has helped with recruiting teachers, even when there are shortages in the profession in many communities.

“We have the opportunity to recruit amazing talent from across the United States,” he wrote in an email. “This allows us to bring on amazing, talented teachers with a wealth of experience. We have teachers from all over the U.S., from Florida to California.”

Willis is sharing its math classrooms with five ASU Prep Digital teachers.

Wiese said she’s is the programs biggest advocate and would love to see the program continue past its three-year window, and expanded.

“As a teacher, I feel so supported, because there’s someone behind me helping me to kind of track data,” Wiese said. “And we are targeting intervention. The kids have taken so much ownership of their own learning. And then this is kind of what you’d love to have in a classroom.”

Sarah Wiese works with a small group of students in her eighth grade Pre-Algebra class at Willis Junior High School as other students work with another teacher out of state using Zoom. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

Young chefs to compete to ‘feed the future’

BY JOSH ORTEGA Arizonan Staff Writer

An event that aims to “feed the future” is being sponsored by a nonprofit with a name that’s hard to forget.

Blue Watermelon Project’s annual Feeding the Future culinary contest challenges high school seniors to create healthy, great-tasting meals that meet the requirements of the National School Lunch Program, National School Breakfast Program and Afterschool Snack Program.

The contest gives both students and the surrounding community a better understanding of the challenges that school food professionals face and the ever-changing conditions that impact access to good food in schools.

While the contest teaches students to develop tasty, nutritious, and affordable school meals that can be served to Arizona school children, the public can join in the fun by tasting the creative dishes that the top 10 student teams are presenting to guest judges at the Farm at South Mountain with live music, yard games and children’s activities.

The event is 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Farm at South Mountain, 6106 S. 32nd St., Phoenix, and proceeds benefit the Blue Watermellon Project.

There’s potentially an extra green in those dishes for the young chefs – or so the teams hope: first place receives $5,000, second place receives $3,000, and third place receives $2,000.

This year, finalists include Concordia Charter School in Mesa, Perry High, Chandler High, Casteel High and Queen Creek High.

Charleen Badman, chef and co-owner of FnB Restaurant in Scottsdale, said the idea began 13 years ago.

“I was asked to come to visit a school that had a really beautiful garden, and still does to this day and make a connection with all the beautiful things that were growing in this garden and be able to have students be able to enjoy it in a culinary way,” Badman recalled.

Since officially starting in 2016, Blue Watermelon Project has grown from its first location at Echo Canyon School in Scottsdale to 24 other schools across the state.

The nonprofit comprises chefs, restauranteurs, farmers and community food advocates who want children to have access to wholesome food in school. It does so by working with K-12 students, parents and the community to integrate taste education and interactive programming into their curriculum and everyday life.

With funding a growing issue for many schools, the program also gives the students an idea of what their school food professionals endure daily.

The guidelines set forth by the NSLP act as the contest rules and require students to get creative in the kitchen and have pride in the dish they whip up.

“It’s a lot of moving stuff around, because, you know, they may be like three cents over, but they have all the nutritional parts, and they bring the cost down, and then the next thing they know, maybe they don’t have enough calories, because they have to make sure they stay within those guidelines,” Badman said.

Much of Blue Watermelon’s funding comes from the Steele Foundation and Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, but for schools, the answer isn’t so easy.

For approximately a million schools in the country, the federal government provides around $3.23 for each lunch served

to a student who qualifies for a free meal. After labor and other costs, schools have about $1 per meal to spend on food.

Iris Tirado, food and nutrition manager at Concordia Charter School, said kids get excited not just to participate in the competition when they get to fifth grade, but get excited for Tirado as well when she was featured on Blue Watermelon’s YouTube channel “Chef in the Garden.”

“They get really excited because they identify themselves with it,” Tirado said.

Tirado retired from the Madison Metropolitan School District after 22 years and said that while the school works with local farmers to get fresh produce, Blue Watermelon helps ease the impact of inflation.

“When they provide these new recipes and are successful already, then we can try it on our schools and they already analyze to be in compliance with the cost of food and the nutrient analysis,” Tirado said. “So, it’s nice to have all these new ideas to be able to incorporate it in our program.”

Chad Faria, culinary teacher at Casteel High, has helped his students participate in the program for the past four years, but the pandemic nixed one of those years.

Faria spent 12 years in the restaurant

Teams of students from 10 schools will compete at The Farm at South Mountain Saturday, Jan. 28, to five a meal that can be replicated in school cafeterias. (Special to the Arizonan)

GOFUNDME from page 1

Florida and the war in Ukraine.

The “Stand with Ukraine” fundraiser launched by actors Mila and Ashton Kutcher in partnership with GoFundMe is the platform’s second-largest campaign of all time, raising $37 million from 75,000-plus donors.

For 2022, there’s been a 110% increase in money raised for baby formula, a 60% increase for gasoline and a 10% increase for groceries, GoFundMe reported.

With a donation made every second, 28 million people so far this year have sent or received funding, the public nonprofit said.

Most requests in Chandler are for help with funeral expenses, memorials or medical bills such as a 4-year-old girl who was struck by a car.

Mike Ryan set up a Go Fund Me page for Shannon Ryan and her mother, Zoraleigh Ryan.

Shannon, a Hamilton High graduate. and her mother were struck by a vehicle in Chicago after celebrating her 20th birthday. Her mother died and Mike Ryan is asking for $5,000 to help Shannon get through her rehab.

Chandler resident Caitlin von Hagen asked folks to help her niece and her family and raised $11,828 of the $20,000 goal so far. The niece’s husband, Ben, was injured coming home from work on an electric skateboard.

They thought he would miss five weeks of work because of an infection to his injured knee. However, it looks like he won’t be ready to work until this spring.

According to GoFundMe, one in three fundraisers is started for someone else.

Another popular ask in Chandler is for animals – to help with things such as rescue efforts, medical expenses, fostering costs for horses saved from abuse and slaughter, and physical therapy costs.

Luigi is an 8-year-old shepherd/boxer mix. Amber Alfaro Ramirez and Adolfo Alanis of Chandler write that their internet provider’s technician left the gate open and Luigi escaped.

They began a search for the dog, but he was found by animal control after he was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle. They are asking for $8,000 to help pay for his surgeries. So far, they have raised more than $1,300.

Chandler resident Chrissy Fisher has raised $425 toward her $4,000 goal

to help pay veterinarian bills for a dog named Kaito. The dog became sick in November and his owners took him to the pet hospital a couple of times to determine what was wrong, but never got an answer.

They did get the bills for those attempts. The many tests cost more than $4,000 and the most likely diagnosis they have received so far is it may be cancer.

GoFundMe said help for animals is one of its fastest growing categories and that there are more repeat donations made to these fundraisers than any other fundraising category.

To date, more than $50 million has been raised for dogs and cats with $1.8 million donated this year.

Education is another popular category.

Eric Gibbs Jr. is asking for help to pay his tuition at Justice College in Chandler. The Chandler resident said he lost his job in November. He’s a college athlete, so he can only work side jobs while balancing school and the team.

He asked for help on Dec. 23, and only a few days later had raised all $800 of his goal.

The color guard director for Basha High School is asking for help raising $10,000 to get padded protection for the gym floor so they can rehearse there.

Zeth Shirley said students have had to rehearse outside on uneven concrete, which has led to injuries. Shirley writes this is a long-term goal and they will keep raising money until they reach their goal. So far, they’ve raised about $1,800. Additionally, GoFundMe’s received over $400,000 in donations to LGBTQ+ causes.

Hamilton High student Dawn Shim raised more than $1,600 of her $3,000 goal to cover expenses for the walkout her Support Equality AZ Schools group

staged earlier this school year. They were protesting what they called anti-gay laws passed by the Legislature in 2022.

There’re also four requests to help pay for gender-reassignment surgeries, including one from a Chandler teen asking for $90 for a device to use a men’s bathroom.

A number of Chandler based sports teams and athletes are seeking money to help them compete.

Chandler Prep Academy swim coach Erin Biegel asked that a fund be established to help the athletes in the CPA program before she died last spring. They’ve raised about half of the $20,000 goal.

A less successful fundraiser was for the Chandler Outlaws 7-and-under football team, which was trying to raise $15,000 so they could compete in Florida at nationals. They only raised $140.

The 8U Diplomats football team were a little more successful, raising nearly $2,200 for their trip last month to nationals.

Some atypical requests include a fan of empanadas bought at the Chandler Farmer’s Market trying to raise enough money for the cook to open her own restaurant.

Maria Gorosito makes the dishes only on Saturdays to serve at farmers market, which the anonymous organizer said brought them back to their days as a missionary in Argentina.

So far, they’ve raised only $460 toward the $50,000 goal.

Chandler resident Anthony Valencia says he’s raising $5,000 to transfer his wrestling license to Mexico so he can compete internationally, possibly at the Olympic level. He competed in college at Arizona State. So far, he’s raised more than $1,600.

The online requests in Chandler go

from needs to wants in some cases.

A Chandler woman is asking for $5,000 so she can go on a school trip to see the Eiffel Tower, as well as side trips to London and Italy. She’s raised $510 so far.

Some residents of the SunBird Golf Resort in South Chandler are trying to raise $10,000 to sue their homeowners association and have raised only $120 since Dec. 21.

Organizer Mark Lastovica says the money will go toward attorney fees, filing fees, court costs, etc. to initiate action to “right the wrong” over an alleged failure to fulfill its fiduciary duty.

The owner of two sober living homes in Chandler raised nearly $1,000 to give residents there a happy holiday, including gifts and food.

Some Chandler firefighters are having fun at a colleague’s expense. They started a fund “to keep Johnny handsome.” They write that he was injured while performing a routine firefighter task, and it has put his image and only contribution to the department at risk.

They say they have a team of plastic surgeons on stand-by once they get enough funds. So far they have raised $20 of the $100,000 they are asking for.

The global crowdfunding market is projected to almost triple by 2025, according to Fundly, another crowdfunding site. Other crowdfunding sites include Donorbox, Kickstarter, Crowdfunder, Indiegogo and a host of others.

Globally, $34 billion has been raised through these platforms, according to Fundly.

(Left) Some residents of the SunBird Golf Resort in South Chandler are trying to raise $10,000 to sue their homeowners association board, but have raised only $120 since Dec. 21. (Above) The color guard director for Basha High School is asking for $10,000 to get padded protection for the gym floor so they can rehearse there and so far has raised about $1,700. (GoFundMe)

Biden infrastructure program passes on I-10 widening

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

Arizona taxpayers could end up having to shell out another $360 million if they want to smooth car and truck traffic between Tucson and Phoenix.

Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, said last week he is preparing legislation to have the state provide that cash after a request for a federal grant to widen a section of Interstate 10 was rejected.

He said using the funds the state already has would ensure the project’s completion – which he said is justified, given the number of Arizonans affected by the fact that a 26-mile stretch is now just two lanes in each direction.

The Legislature last year appropriated $400 million for the widening project.

Shope said his measure will have a sweetener for his colleagues who might otherwise balk at ponying up additional cash.

It says the dollars the state puts up would go back into the treasury for other

priorities if and when some new source of federal dollars could be found.

Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland said that having the state front the funds fits into the scenario where there would be another bid for the grant.

“But we need to start moving on it now,’’ he said of the project. “We can’t wait for us to get all the money and begin the process.’’

Arizona’s bid for a share of National Infrastructure Project Assistance was rejected.

What appears to have happened, Shope said, is federal highway officials were more interested in funding what he called “green transportation’’ for this round of grants. That might include things like alternatives to driving, like bikeways.

“If we were talking about a central Phoenix or central Tucson project it obviously would have been more helpful,’’ he said, versus “a 26-mile stretch in the middle of the desert.’’

Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande,

was blunter in her comments why the state lost those federal dollars.

“To not fund an interstate because it does not have bike paths? because it doesn’t have a trail?’’ she asked.

“That’s ridiculous,’’ Martinez said. “If the Biden administration thinks that the I-10 interstate is not as important as a bike path I think they have misjudged the situation.’’

But it’s not clear that Arizona lost out because its proposal wasn’t “green enough.’’

Information provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly shows that of the nine grants that were funded this year, five were interstate expansion projects. And two actually were for widening stretches of I-10, one in California and the other in Louisiana.

It may also be the Arizona ask was just too large.

The California grant was for $60 million and Louisiana got $150 million. And

The stretch of I-10 would be fully widened between Phoenix and Casa Grande, making the. highway three lanes in each direction between here and Tucson. (ADOT) see WIDENING page 21

industry before he became a teacher 15 years ago and said the most important aspect of this event remains the financial aspect because cooking shows show you how to bake and baste, but don’t show the bottom line.

“This program teaches kids about money and that’s a whole different component that’s actually necessary,” Faria said. “So, the financial component of it is really key, not only the nutritional side, or the creativity, but the financial component.”

As a teacher, Faria said he enjoys the real-world applications this program helps his students learn “they can do something, and use the skills they learn in a classroom immediately.”

This event also gives his students perspective on the work that goes into the educational ecosystem beyond teachers – especially the food professionals who

work hard to feed them every day.

“So, it really allows them to see how hard they work and it gives them a little more respect of what other people do in the school structure that is outside of the realm of just teachers,” Faria said.

“Even with all these cuts and everything, they’re making do with what they have, and the kids don’t notice it,” Faria said. “I find that really impressive that they’re still making it happen.”

Angela Stutz, who has spent 15 years as the culinary arts instructor at Perry High, said this program helps students understand the food, work and money that goes into their school lunch, gets them involved in the process and gives them feedback from adults outside of school.

“I think just all around, them being able to not only work with these amazing Blue Watermelon chefs but getting out and showing the community what they created gives them empowerment.”

Stutz said programs like Blue Watermelon shows students opportunities that could impact their lives.

“Not everyone goes to college,” Stutz said. “And by having Career and Technical Education classes in our schools, it is making a pathway for students to do other things.”

Before she became a teacher, Chef Priscilla Ortiz spent 10 years at the Flying Fish restaurant at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Now, Ortiz teaches at Chandler High School and said in a school cafeteria, flavor can sometimes go on the backburner to the nutritional rules that schools have to follow.

Programs like Blue Watermelon can help reinvigorate a school’s flavor palette, she said, adding:

“Having a chef paired with it, their possibilities can be immense with the same ingredients that they have just used differently.”

Besides understanding the different positions in the culinary industry, Ortiz said she wants her students to walk away knowing something as simple as flavor can make a huge difference in their lunch experience and that of others too.

“I feel like that’s going to be even more rewarding to our students to understand how great that is,” Ortiz said. “That not only are they making a meal for someone, they’re making them happy.”

Feeding The Future 2023

WHEN: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Jan. 28

WHERE: The Farm at South Mountain, 6106 S. 32nd St., Phoenix.

TICKETS: Students and school food professionals: $25; School administrators: $50; Public: $100

All proceeds benefit Blue Watermelon Project.

INFO: bluewatermelonproject.org

there was only $1.1 billion available this year.

Less clear is whether the rejection by the U.S. Department of Transportation will delay the scheduled 2026 completion of the project -- and whether Shope can convince colleagues to pony up additional dollars.

For its part, the Arizona Department of Transportation isn’t saying much. Spokesman Luis Lopez said his agency has not received official notification of the status of its grant application.

The state has been widening sections of the interstate, which stretches from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, for years. But the last section has been an issue.

Shope, who sponsored last year’s $400 million appropriation, said some of that had to do with the fact that the stretch from Queen Creek Road on the edge of Chandler to State Route 287 outside of Casa Grande runs through the Gila River Indian Community.

He said some of that was residual bad feelings from the tribe which felt it didn’t have any say when I-10 was cut through the reservation. Now, Shope said, Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the community, has been a participant.

Last year’s $400 million appropriation had little trouble getting enacted, with a 27-1 vote in the Senate and 55-1 in the House, as the state was flush with cash.

That was the result of a 17% increase in

revenues in the 2022 fiscal year. But legislative budget staffers predict that will moderate to 6% this year and just 2% the year after that.

But Shope said he hopes to convince colleagues that this isn’t just a Pinal County problem.

He said probably half of the residents of the Casa Grande area with jobs drive daily into Maricopa County.

“When they do that, they drop their sales tax dollars into Maricopa County,’’ Shope said.

He also figures that the road links the three largest counties in the state where more than three-quarters of its residents live.

And Martinez said the road is used by more than just Pinal County residents. Then there’s the commerce aspect of it.

“If people in Maricopa want their Amazon packages or groceries in the grocery store, Interstate 10 doesn’t just benefit people in Pinal County,’’ she said.

Kelly said he shares the view of the importance of this project.

“Arizonans rely on the I-10 to connect them to jobs, educational opportunities and their families, which is why improving and expanding this highway is still a top priority for me,’’ he said in a prepared statement.

The guarantee of a refund to taxpayers if a federal grant comes through is based on the premise that Arizona will have more success the second time around.

“I hope so,’’ McFarland said.

“I think we’ll learn from the first one,’’

he continued. “And, hopefully, we’ll get some feedback from the feds hopefully as to what we may have not done right in the first application.’’

McFarland also called it “pretty normal’’ for applicants not to get federal grants the first time they ask for it.

An aide to Kelly said the senator is waiting for state officials to be briefed “on why projects were or were not funded this year’’ to figure out how to get the grant moving forward.

Shope said Arizona may have something else working for it in its bid for federal dollars: Newly elected Republican Arizona Congressman Juan Ciscomani was placed on the House Appropriations Committee.

Shope also said he understands if the feds are looking to fund alternatives for transit aside from more pavement.

“I don’t believe that just the three lanes (in each direction) alone is going to solve the long-term problem that this is going to be,’’ he said. And part of that, Shope said, is the fact that the situation will become more than the current rushhour pattern, with heavy northbound traffic in the morning and the reverse in

the evening.

For example, he said Lucid Motors –which is now operating in Casa Grande –already has upwards of 5,000 employees. And many, Shope said, are driving in from the Southeast Valley of Maricopa County.

“You’re going to have the same situation with Nikola,’’ he said, which is expanding its truck manufacturing operation in Coolidge. And Shope noted that Procter & Gamble selected Coolidge as the location for its next manufacturing plant.

“So you’re going to have cross-traffic going either way, as opposed to just directional,’’ he said.

So far, though, intercity rail in Arizona has largely gotten no farther than studies.

Amtrak last year unveiled a 15-year expansion plan to connect communities in 25 states, including trips between Tucson and Phoenix with stops in Marana, Coolidge, Queen Creek and Tempe, with extensions out to Avondale and Buckeye.

Stephen Gardner, Amtrak president, estimated the line would attract 200,000 annual riders.

CUSD program to get ahead of teacher shortages

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

Chandler Unified School District has felt little impact from the teacher shortages that have left tens of thousands of positions nationwide unfilled.

Still, district officials are thinking – and about to do something – about it.

“We have been fairly immune to the teacher shortage,” said Abby Druck, the district’s director of human resources, Professional Pathways. “As a lot of people know, it’s a great place to work, it’s a great place to live, so we’ve been fortunate in that way.

“But it is trickling down even to us now, particularly in some of the hard to fill areas, like special education.”

The district hopes to be fully certified soon for the state’s Educator Preparation Program, which they call Chandler RISE. It will allow them to fast-track converting teachers in residence to fully certified teachers.

In 2017, state lawmakers allowed anyone with a college degree to teach if they had at least five years of relative experience in the field they would be instructing. CUSD calls these positions teachers

in residence.

The district has already been approved to begin the process for general teachers in grades K-through-8. It expects certification to include special education next month.

Chandler RISE is a two-year program in which the district will provide the training to its uncertified teachers for free with the hopes that they will teach for at least two years in CUSD once they are fully certified.

The district is covering all costs for that training, saving the teacher thousands they would have to pay in tuition to a college or university. That’s not the only benefit.

“They are working in that full teacher of record capacity, which means they’re on a full teacher salary and benefits,” Druck said.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy. In addition to teaching at a school, the participants will have to take classes and do the work required to get certified.

The district plans to use its own expertise to instruct these candidates.

“If we have, maybe a principal who is super strong with assessment and has taught assessment before, that’s kind of their area of expertise, we can bring that principal in for a two-hour course, and send them right back on their way to the rest of their day at their site,” Drucvk said.

“We’re not asking them to commit for like three months at a time, it’s really these

little one-to six-hour chunks at a time.

CUSD is currently holding informational sessions to let staff know about the program. It will begin taking applications this month from internal candidates only.

Officials expect to choose the candidates by summer since classes will begin on July 5. The average salary for a CUSD teacher is $63,447.

The U.S. Department of Education released a report in August that detailed schools have about three unfilled teaching position on average. That’s means 200,000 classrooms nationwide have uncertified teachers. Arizona lawmakers decided to allow students who are currently seeking a bachelor’s degree to get training in the classroom in last year’s session.

Last year, awmakers changed the law again to try and deal with the shortage. Starting this school year, people no longer must have a college degree to be a teacher.

The new law allows anyone who is enrolled in college, and working to become a teacher, to gain classroom experience by doing some teaching in a monitored capacity.

CUSD spokeswoman Stephanie Ingersoll said the district has not hired anyone as a teacher who does not have a college degree. She also said all the participants in the Chandler RISE program will have college degrees.

Druck said the initial RISE class will be limited in size and that eventually up to 25 teachers in residence will be in the program.

For now, officials will only consider applicants who are already working in the district, though Druck said that may be expandedt to include external candidates in the future.

The biggest need for people to fill positions, Druck said, is in special education.

“Some of our paraprofessionals that provide support in the classroom, maybe they have an undergraduate degree in another area, like psychology or something,” she said.

“But now that they’ve been working in the classroom, and they have found this kind of passion for education, they’ve decided they want their teacher certification. … At the end of that two years, they’ll be able to be fully certified in Arizona.”

Math teachers undergo training by Chandler Unified School District staff. (CUSD file photo)

Chandler businesswoman has scary time in riot-torn Peru

BY KEN SAIN

Arizonan Managing Editor

Chandler business owner Jody Murray said it was like a scene out of a movie – except it wasn’t staged and her life was on the line.

Murray was at an airport in Peru in December as the civil unrest in the country was beginning. Her flight was scheduled to leave that day, but officials had just announced the airport was closing.

“They were sort of saying, don’t go outside, but you can’t stay here,” said Murray, now safely back at her business, Longevity Wellness Clinic of Arizona.

Whiel trying to leave Peru, Murray called a friend whom she had been staying with and they hatched an exit plan.

“She’s like, ‘go out the way you came in. When you get to the road, turn right run down that road. Across the street, you’ll see a gas station. This van is going to be waiting for you and the drivers name is Julio, don’t get in a van with anybody but Julio,’” Murray recalled.

“So we’ve got all of our baggage and there’s throngs of people who are all trying to figure out what to do. There’s no

cabs, because the roads are all closed. So we found Julio, and Julio took us back to her house where we were perfectly safe.” Murray, who is an acupuncturist and athletic trainer, had arrived in Peru to volunteer at a nonprofit that she serves as a member of the board of directors. The nonprofit provides medical services to people in need.

On Dec. 7, the country’s Congress was scheduled to meet to vote on the possible impeachment of President Pedro Castillo. It would have been the third time they tried to impeach him. Castillo is a member of the indigenous population of Peru and viewed as a liberal, making him very popular with the people. Members of Peru’s Congress are often viewed as corrupt and self-serving. Castillo tried to dissolve Congress before the impeachment vote, which is in violation of that nation’s Constitution. His attempt to install a new government failed and Congress then voted to impeach him and this time easily had the votes to do so.

The former president was arrested and charged with rebellion and conspiracy.

That triggered widespread protests. Murray, unaware of the unrest until Dec. 11, the day she was scheduled to leave.

“We were in one of the villages eating lunch at what we’ll call a café… and the TV was on and it was not the World Cup,” Murray said. “It was a person

and a sash and I wasn’t really paying attention, but I was like, ‘What is this?’”

That’s when Murray’s Lifetime movie scene played out at the airport in Cusco. The rest of her stay in Peru was not as exciting, outside of two Army airplanes flying over the place where she was staying that were bringing in troops o deal with the protesters.

More than 25 people have been killed in the protests, the youngest being 15.

Murray was able to safely wait until the airport briefly reopened on Dec. 16. She said she believes the protesters took a weekend off so they could watch the World Cup.

“I was really happy to hit L.A.,” she said. “I never thought I’d be happy to be in L.A.”

Murray only lost one day of business, having to reschedule all of her appointments that were slated for that Friday. She thanked Congressman Greg Stanton’s office, saying they stayed in touch and did what they could to help her while she was stranded in Peru.

She had been working for someone else at an Ahwatukee clinic when the opportunity to start her own practice in Chandler about a year and half ago. Most of Murray’s clients come to her for acupuncture, but some of them also seek her advice as an athletic trainer.

are used as suction on the skin. If you’ve seen pro or top amateur athletes who have dark circles on their skin, that’s from cupping therapy.

Murray said it may be a while before she’s ready to travel out of the country again, but she suspects she will go back to Peru at some point.

“I started out as an athletic trainer, and then at some point, I went to acupuncture school,” Murray said. “And I’m probably one of, I don’t know, half a dozen people who have both licenses in the country.”

In addition to acupuncture she also does cupping therapy. That’s where cups

Longevity Wellness Clinic of Arizona

“I will not leave the country really quickly for a while because it was definitely a little unsettling,” Murray said. Jody Murray is back at her Chandler clinic after being stranded in Peru for five days because of the civil unrest in that country.

(Ken Sain/Chandler Arizonan)

Chandler business owner Jody Murray gets ready for a van trip to get from Cusco to Manu in Peru during her recent trip. (Courtesy of Jody Murray)

Valley housing analyst sees sellers bouncing back

ARIZONAN NEWS STAFF

The leading analyst of the Valley’s housing market says 2023 is starting to look like the year when the sellers market will return after a gloomy second half of 2022.

But the Cromford Report says it might take a while psychologically for both buyers and sellers to find much to be happy about.

“The trend is now moving in favor of sellers, having been favorable to buyers a month ago,” it said earlier this month. “So, although there is gloom and despondency almost everywhere, amid the murk there are clear signs of improvement. Because sentiment is so

poor, there is psychological pressure to lower prices. However there is no such downward pressure coming from the market. If all trading was done by unemotional computers, prices should be stabilizing right now.”

It also advised, “At this stage in the market cycle, where we are just emerging from despair, all positive signs will be greeted with generous amounts of cynicism. We recommend eliminating all emotions and just focusing on the numbers.”

Still, it’s hard put on a happy face in light of some of the numbers the Cromford Report served up.

Compared to Jan. 1, 2022, it said, the

With genuine love for real estate and her home state of Arizona. Striving to provide integrity and quality service to build relationships with clients and committed to hard work, listen and follow through effectively, to help buyers and sellers accomplish ownership and/or relocation real estate needs.

Always happy to help, speaking English and Spanish.

Cal today with any real estate related questions.

opening bell for this year found that while listings were up 182%, those under contract were down 41.9% and monthly sales plummeted 44.6% – from 9,265 to 5,132.

“We have very low volumes of closings because both buyers and sellers are discouraged,” Cromford Report explained.

“The numbers confirm that demand is very weak compared to normal for the time of year, and even weaker compared to the strong demand 12 months ago,” it continued. “However weak demand does not necessarily make a market crash. Excess supply is what really drives prices down hard. This is what we saw in 2006 through 2008. But in 2023 supply is low and getting lower. It is much higher than this time last year, when it was abnormally low, but it is still a long way below normal.”

It also saw little reason to worry about a 3.5% decline in the median price of homes – down to about $410,000 from $425,000 – because “sales prices are a trailing indicator and these moves reflect the balance in the market in No-

vember, when we experienced a clear advantage for buyers.”

“Leading indicators are looking more positive,” it said. “This probably stems from interest rates being less horrible than they were six weeks ago. Demand is starting to stabilize and even showing a few signs of a slow recovery. With new supply very weak, we are not witnessing a market crash. This is merely a correction, with prices now just a tad lower than a year ago.”

The big unknown is the Federal Reserve, it said.

“We are still dependent on the whims of the Federal Reserve. If they continue to push the Federal Funds Rate higher in an attempt to curb inflation, then mortgage rates could move higher too, putting a quick damper on any recovery in demand. However, if the 30-year fixed mortgage rate stays between 6% and 6.75%, then we should have confidence that the housing market can operate normally at this level.”

It said such market confidence will

see MARKET page 25

This 4,100-square-foot hangar home on Venus Way in Chandler’s Stellar Air Park recently sold for $2.27 million. Boasting four bedrooms and bathrooms, the house is the only one in the park with two hangars and featured a fireplace, chef kitchen, putting green and numerous other amenities. (Special to the Arizonan)

come from several months of interest rate stability and conceded, “This is by no means certain to happen, but it is possible.”

“Once the fear is removed,” it added, “we should see more signs of a recovery in demand and volumes will rise back towards a more normal level.”

The Cromford Report also said, “The gap between the re-sale and newly built numbers continues to grow. The new-home market is far more healthy than the re-sale market both in volume and in pricing.”

It also said that among the Valley’s 17 major home sub-markets, “Paradise Valley is improving for sellers at an astonishing pace, with supply dropping and demand rising. Not far behind are Avondale, Chandler and Mesa, all up

more than 30% over the past month.” Phoenix was not far behind, rising 24% in favor of sellers.

That data helped explain the Cromford Report’s cautious optimism when it said, “Confidence could be making a comeback sooner than expected.”

Chandler Girl Scout’s healthy Indigenous recipes lauded

BY JUSTIN LIGGIN Arizonan Contributor

After becoming aware of rising food insecurity in Indigenous communities during the pandemic, Chandler Girl Scout Jessica Burke took action and encouraged healthy eating habits with her project that earned her the highest honor in Girl Scouts – a Gold Award.

“I learned through the news about the increase in food insecurity and while researching this topic I discovered that Indigenous people have a greater chance of having diabetes than any other U.S. racial group,” Burke explained, noting:

“This issue is important to me because I have seen in my family how diabetes impacts a person’s physical and mental health.”

With this, Burke set out on her journey to address the lack of resources for making a nutritious meal fit for the Indigenous palate.

The answer was the Native Health Cookbook, a collection of recipes using common commodity foods given to Native families across Arizona through the food distribution program on Indian Reservations.

“Families rely on food pantries across their tribes and even though the pantries provide hearty essentials such as vegetables and legumes, it is easy to be tempted by the sugary treats when you are unfamiliar with how to cook,” said Burke.

The Native Health Cookbook contains recipes for dishes such as bean and tomato soup, lentil curry and potato pancakes as well as healthy dessert options such as cranberry oat bars and peach cobbler.

In addition to these custom recipes, the cookbook also includes important information on how to structure meals, read food labels and more.

While compiling the Native Health Cookbook, Burke had to take

on the challenge of using unfamiliar ingredients to create recipes that people will enjoy.

“Some of the commodity items I had never cooked with before, such as blue corn. It was difficult using this ingredient to create muffins that were both healthy and delicious,” Burke said.

“To tackle this, I researched past recipes using the ingredients and took the necessary time to become familiar with how the ingredients are cooked.”

A Girl Scout for 12 years, Burke credits the organization for helping her develop the essential communication and teamwork skills to succeed during her Gold Award project and beyond.

Burke also said the experience creating the Native Health Cookbook taught her how to be a leader and manage large scale projects.

see SCOUT page 27

Area women’s choral group slates introductory session

Vocal Connection, a women’s a cappella chorus, takes pride in what it does.

“It’s a proven fact that singing in a chorus is more fun when surrounded by friends, singing their hearts out,” it said in a released. “According to recent research, humans are wired for rhythmic togetherness, and bond best when making music with each other. Why?

“Studies show that singing in a chorus improves our mood, with a decrease in stress, depression and anxiety. These effects are linked to the use of deeper breathing techniques associated with singing. The benefits are enhanced in a group setting because singing in a group offers a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves.

“Beyond the psychological effects, our physical health is impacted also: lower blood pressure, increased blood oxygen saturation, elevated immunity, higher pain threshold, and stronger respiratory muscles.”

The group also believes “making music together provides a sense of awe not just for the observers of a performance, but for the participants, as well. Research shows that this emotion seems to shift our focus from our own self-view to that of our community.

Toward that end, Vocal Connection is inviting area women looking to decrease stress, improve their health and make connections with other like-minded women in the community while singing

see VOCAL page 27

ARIZONAN STAFF

Chandler resident Jessica Burke earned Girls Scouting’s highest award for assembling a book with healthy recipes for Indigenous people. (Special to Arizonan)

Current members of the East Valley a cappella chorus called Vocal Connections, hope other interested women will attend a guest night Jan. 30. (Special to Arizonan)

VOCAL from page 26

to a guest night 6:30-9:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at Seton Catholic Preparatory, 1150 N. Dobson Road, Chandler.

Attendees must be able to sing but do not need to be able to read music to join. Vocal training and music education are components of Vocal Connection’s many benefits.

To accommodate those attending the Guest Night, we ask that you pre-register by emailing us at guestinfo@vocalconnection.org. Additional details will be provided but attendees must pre-register.

Vocal Connection Chorus is one of hundreds of Sweet Adeline International choruses that make up a worldwide organization of women who sing four-part a cappella and barbershop harmony.

Vocal Connection Chorus performs regularly throughout the community, offering its talent for entertainment at civic events and charitable functions, in addition to promoting harmony and friendship among women.

Information/registration: GuestInfo@vocalconnection.org or vocalconnection.org.

SCOUT from page 26

To earn the most prestigious honor for Girl Scouts, the Gold Award, Burke applied her expertise she learned in the organization to create a long-lasting positive change in a community through the creation of the Native Health Cookbook.

As a recipient, Burke can receive distinguished scholarships at the local and national level, stand out during the college admissions process and other Gold Award perks.

Currently a student at Hamilton High School, Burke hopes to study nutritional or food science in college – a career path she began to consider while writing the Native Health Cookbook.

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

First off, there’s one question the people who work at Gummi World, a new manufacturing plant in Chandler, hear all the time.

“We don’t do any CBD,” said Dr. Seemab Zaman, the director of quality and regulatory affairs for Gummi World of cannabidiol the second most prevalent active ingredient in cannabis. It does not cause a high by itself, according to Harvard Health. Still, CBD gummies are popular because they lower anxiety and will make you sleepy, but they don’t give the same high as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

“All the time,” Zaman said when asked if they get that question a lot. “They’re like, ‘Oh, you did CBD.’ We’re like, ‘No, we are specifically dietary supplements.’”

Gummi World started in 2019 in Tempe, but has outgrown that location. Zaman said the company liked the pro-business attitude in Chandler and that’s the main reason they ended up moving their factory to the city’s west side.

Seemab Zaman, N.D., director of quality and regulatory affairs for Gummi World, a new custom recipe vitamin and supplement manufacturing facility in Chandler, is excited about the company’s new location. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

The company also manufactures the gummies and then ships them to wherever the customers want them.

Zaman said handling all both R&D and manufacturing makes Gummi World unique. Many of its competitors require customers do their own research and development.

“Almost everyone wants to make whatever they’re making it a capsule and put it in a gummy,” Wessel said. “Everyone is kind of going towards the gummy route right now.”

The Tempe factory was 35,000 square feet. The new Chandler location is 55,000.

Zaman, and Christina Wessel, the research and development manager, said they need the extra space because of the growth they’ve already experienced, to say nothing about future growth.

They hope to go international soon. So if they don’t do CBD, what does Gummi World do?

“We do vitamins and botanicals and minerals,” Zaman said.

Gummi World does not put out its own line of products but rather supplies the products for other companies.

“We are unique in the sense that we actually have a R&D on site,” Zaman said of research and development. “Because gummies are such a different form of getting your vitamins and minerals, that you have to have that R&D right.”

“And the reason for that is because gummies are tastier than a capsule,” Zaman said. “They’re easy to swallow. They’re chewable, so many people don’t like the idea of a giant capsule, or soft gel or tablet. And gummies seem to be an easier route to be able to get the same type of botanicals and vitamins and minerals that your body needs in a more fun way.”

Gummi World moved to West Chandler in September, but construction was still underway. It didn’t host an official

see GUMMY page 30

Gummy World opens in Chandler as it eyes future growth Area couple aims to help seniors stay in their homes

BY KEN SAIN

Arizonan Managing Editor

Both James and Analaura DeVary had first-hand experience with how essential a good caregiver can be. When it came time to start their own business, they said it was an easy choice to buy a Senior Helpers franchise.

“My dad actually had a pretty debilitating stroke three years ago,” Analaura said. “So when [James] was looking at different franchises and things like that, I just felt like that was something that I had experience with and something that we can contribute to somebody’s quality of life.”

They purchased the franchise for the Chandler and Gilbert area.

“I’ve been around, or been a caregiver, for quite a while,” James said. “So my brother is one of the oldest surviving patients from St. Jude’s.”

His brother, Tony, is still living, but continues to face medical challenges.

Senior Helpers is one of the nation’s leading caregiving organizations for seniors. Their employees can perform a range of tasks, from helping with light housework to driving patients to medical appointments and back.

see HELPER page 31

James and Analaura DeVary have started the Chandler-Gilbert Senior Helpers franchise. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

City of Chandler, college partner on student jobs

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

The City of Innovation is doing it again.

“Other municipalities are calling me saying, ‘How’d you guys do that?’” said Rae Lynn Nielsen, the city’s human resources director.

The other cities are calling to ask about a new internship partnership between Chandler and Chandler-Gilbert Community College. “‘What are you guys doing? What does it look like?’”

Like many other employers, the city is having trouble filling open position. Nielsen said they currently have about 110 openings. The college has about 13,000 students who are looking for real-world work experience to both give them an edge when they enter the work force, and also to give them a taste for different jobs that are out there to make sure they are on the right career path.

The city and college have teamed up address both of their needs. They are

sharing one employee, Devon Mohan, to coordinate CGCC students taking on internships with the city.

The city and college are splitting the

cost of Mohan’s salary and benefits in half. He has two supervisors, one who works for the college and Nielsen, who works for the city.

A pilot program kicks off this month with an expected hire of 10 interns to work at city departments for between 10 and 19 hours a week. The city will pay them for their work. The internships will last either 12 or 16 weeks.

Nielsen said the city has a history of finding some good employees through internships. “We have 25-year employees that are here based on those programs,” she said. “So I think that’s our goal is to hopefully bring them in and keep them.”

Mohan has been meeting with the city’s department heads to figure out how CGCC students can help.

“That was a really exciting piece for me, was getting to go around and meet all of the various departments that are here, ask them ... ‘where could you see an intern fitting in with your department, your di-

vision? What would they learn,’ and then I would get to tie it back to the academic programs that we offer at the college.”

Mohan’s job will be to match what students want to learn with openings the city has. For example, one student wants to be a wedding planner, which is not something the city does. However, the city does have an events coordinator, who stages major events like the Parade of Lights and Chandler Contigo festival.

Nielsen said many inside the city are looking forward to the interns starting.

“There’s a lot of buzz at the director level,” Nielsen said. “’When are we going to start this?’”

The city used to get most of its high school interns from the Cooperative Office Education program, but Nielsen said they phased that out. She said they hope to bring it back at some point.

She said a number of those 25-year employees she was talking about earlier

see JOBS page 30

Less pop. More culture.

Devon Mohan works for both the City of Chandler and Chandler-Gilbert Community College to help place students in city internships. (City of Chandler)

grand opening until last month. The company employs about 50 people now, but is slowly ramping up as it prepares to go international.

To do that, it needed to get a lot of certifications.

“There was a company that’s a global company that wanted to make gummies,” Zaman said. “And they’re like, ‘as soon as we get your halal certification, we will definitely want to make gummies with you guys.’ So there is potential there.”

Gummi World is now halal certified, kosher certified, organic certified, non-genetically modified certified, and – most importantly – GMP certified. That Good Manufacturing Practice, which lets consumers and clients know everything is manufactured using best practices. is essential if you want to do business internationally, Zaman explained.

Still, all the certifications won’t matter if the gummies don’t taste good – which is Wessel’s job to make that happen.

A client comes to them and tells them what they want to make and sell.

“We have to tell them our limitations,” Wessel said. “Usually they want to do like some crazy

JOBS from page 29

came from that program. The city also takes interns from other schools, including Arizona State University.

However, the partnership with Chandler-Gilbert Community College is a new concept that they hope will inspire college students to think about careers in city government.

“What you said is what we’re trying to change,” Nielsen said. “I mean, I’ve been in local government at three different places, and people always think of police, fire, garbage. When we start talking about the Museum and the Center for the Arts, and all the social media side of it, we’re really trying to highlight all of the exciting things that we have.”

The city is just one employer looking to get students interested in their openings. The college often hears from businesses that are also struggling to bring in new

amounts of milligrams in a gummy. And it’s like, well, we can only fit this amount. And you know, our job for R&D is to make sure that it’s a great tasting gummy.”

They taste test all of their gummies, and Wessel said there are times when they know a gummy will not work.

How do they make a great tasting product when someone wants to make a gummy out of ashwagandha, a herb found in India and Africa that seems to help people deal with stress and anxiety?

“It’s kind of about flavoring and making sure the flavors pair well with what we’re putting in,” Wessel said. “Like we did this ashwagandha gummy that has kind of a darker note to it. So we paired it with a darker berry to kind of play with that.”

employees.

“In career services, we do get constant emails and phone calls from employers saying we have all these gaps to fill help us, and everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, can we can we come to make classroom presentations?’” said Deb Ruiz, the manager for academic advisement and career services for the college. She’s Mohan’s other supervisor. “We can’t have 100 employers come and take classroom time away to make a presentation.”

Mohan said he’s eager to get to work, for both the city and the college.

“I’m excited,” Mohan said. “I don’t think that all of the students at Chandler Gilbert Community College are aware of the amount of opportunities that are just a couple traffic lights down.

“So I have the ones who are already reaching out to me, but I am excited to continue to reach out to the other students as well.”

Quality control samples in the lab at Gummi World stand on a shelf. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

The DeVarys offer an option to seniors who wish to remain independent, but need a little help around the house. They can staff a client for as little as four hours, or for 24 hours a day, seven days a week if needed.

They opened up their Chandler-Gilbert office in mid-December and had their first client in a couple of days.

“Our first client was a woman that called and she needed care for her mom that was in hospice, and she was like, ‘I need care today, now,’” Analaura said. “And that was literally what she needed.”

James says what sets Senior Helpers apart from others is the training they provide for the caregivers. In their office they have a space set aside that is set up like a small apartment, with a bed, couch, bathtub and kitchen area.

Each person they hire to be a caregiver goes through training so they know what to expect and how to handle different situations when they are at someone’s home.

Each applicant must pass both a background and drug test before they are officially hired.

“There’s a lot of competition here,” James said. “There really is. But to that, we chose Senior Helpers because the company started 20 years ago.”

He said having the support of the other Senior Helpers offices in the Valley, including in Scottsdale and Mesa, helped them decide this was the right franchise

for them to join.

The company currently has seven employees with hopes of growing that to 75 or so, as they continue to expand. He said they haven’t run into any issues hiring, pointing out they had 11 applicants come in last weekend.

He said the company has a reputation for giving their caregivers a lot of support, and paying them well.

“We’re rolling out what we believe to be a fair compensation package,” James said. “And we’re also doing a lot of bonuses. Right? So if you’re hit all your shifts, you’re not late to your shift, we’re going to bonus people out.”

Not everyone is cut out to be a caregiver. There is a good chance the people they care for will die. What they hope to do is extend their lives by allowing them to remain independent in their own homes, where they tend to be happiest.

He said they also go into every new client’s home and do a full assessment.

“There’s 144 risk that we’re looking for,” James said. “And we create the care plan based on that. So dementia, right, so we’re looking for, are they falling? What’s the front door look like? Are there bars? Are there steps? Is there screen doors? So we’re looking for all these little things? … What’s the proper bench to use? So all of this goes in our care plan.

“Our goal is to get them to not go into the hospital. So we create our care plan, based upon the risks that we see we make recommendations.”

Valentines for Seniors

The Chandler-Gilbert Senior Helpers office is conducting a Valentine’s Day card drive to give to residents at senior centers in Chandler and Gilbert. The owners are hoping to get at least 500 cards donated.

Address them to: Dear Senior, and drop them off at the Senior Helpers office by Feb. 10.

Senior Helpers

604 W. Warner Road, Unit B2, Chandler

480-908-0976

seniorhelpers.com

Freshmen playing key roles in Basha basketball’s success

BY ZACH ALVIRA Arizonan Sports Editor

Basha basketball coach Mike Grothaus knows he has a special team on his hands this season. His players have come together to form a bond that extends well beyond the court. They’ve been able to win close matchups with some of the best teams in the state. They’ve been able to show their strength and win big at time, too.

While they have stumbled twice on the year — a one-point loss to Brophy and big loss to the state’s top program in Perry — it doesn’t change the trajectory of the Basha program this season.

The Bears are contenders for the state title. And they have two freshmen helping lead the charge.

“They’re big time,” Grothaus said. “For one, they’re great kids. They come in, they’re coachable and work hard every day. Their potential is limitless. They’ve got a chance to be big time players.”

Mason Magee and Elijah Summers-Livingston have had to grow up on the fly this season. The two freshman stars have quickly become pivotal to Basha’s success.

It started last off-season in an open gym shoot around. The two frequented them at Basha and made their desire to attend the school well known. Throughout the summer they worked with the team, building chemistry and earning their spots as starters.

“I had no idea where I was going to go for high school, but I saw Basha lost one of its seniors from last year and I knew I could fit right in,” Magee said. “This summer changed my life. It’s a blessing.”

Magee, a shifty 5-foot-11 guard, runs the point for Basha. The offense goes through him and it’s an opportunity he enjoys. Summers-Livingston is a 6-foot7 big man that has already proven his ability to crash the boards on numerous occasions this season. Together, the duo is a unique pair of first-year high school

students with the talent level of veteran players.

But with the rest of the Basha roster, they make up a portion of a starting rotation that has been dominant at times this season.

“Our chemistry, we’ve all known each other for a long time,” Summers-Livingston said. “So, the way we play together, the way we can bring each other back up when we’re down, it’s really good. We’ve built bonds that are stronger than just on the court.”

Magee and Summers-Livingston have learned from the older players. Junior wing Christian Warren has taught them grit and toughness on the floor. Guard Izaih Johnson has shown them how to push the ball up the court in transition and how to be a natural leader.

Those are key characteristics the two have had to pick up on in a hurry. Magee especially.

With the offense running through him he knows he has to bring his A-game on a

nightly basis. So far, he’s done just that.

There are times Grothaus forgets Magee is only a freshman. He played his first two games of the season at just 13 years old.

The speed of the game at the varsity level was a transition for Magee. But he took it in stride. He shined throughout the summer at major tournaments such as Section 7 and it’s carried over to the regular season.

“Age has always been just a number to me,” Magee said. “I’ve always played up and high school it’s the same thing. I just keep going. I’ve been hooping my whole life, since I was 4, so it’s nothing to me.”

At 19-2 heading into Thursday’s matchup with Hamilton, Basha is off to its best start since the 2016-17 season,

when the Bears went 31-1 and captured the 6A title.

But the Bears’ goals are different this time around with the Open Division in play. Thirty-two teams from the 4A-6A conferences will all be placed in one bracket to contend for a true state championship. Teams that lost in the first two rounds will be placed back into conference tournaments, giving them another shot at making a run just not for the Open.

The new tournament presents the opportunity to truly see which team reigns supreme in Arizona for both boys and girls. It’s a unique opportunity Grothaus and his players are aiming for this season.

“Big games in general, those conference games, that’s where we need to bring the same energy,” Summers-Linvingston said. “We all know we still have so much potential for growth.”

Basha still has region games against Hamilton, Chandler, Brophy and Perry — the only two teams to beat the Bears — remaining on the schedule. Even with the lopsided loss to the Pumas last Monday night, Basha remains confident.

The Bears have the veteran leadership to make a run. They have the coaching to make a run.

And perhaps something that has become important this season with other schools displaying the same characteristic, they have talented freshman players that are willing to do what it takes to help their team make a run.

“We’re talented across the board and we have great depth,” Grothaus said. “Every guy on the team understands their role. We just have to continue to get better. We’re still a long way away from a finished product, which is an exciting thing as a coach.”

(Left) Basha freshman guard Mason Magee is one half of a duo that is helping lead the Bears to a successful season. Currently, they are one of the top-ranked teams in the state in the new Open Division rankings. (Right) Basha freshman forward Elijah Summers-Livingston has grown into his role as one of the starters for the Bears this season alongside Mason Magee. Together they add a unique set of skills that help cater to other starters at times.

(Dave Minton/Arizonan Staff)

Chandler director to debut new thriller at film fest

BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Managing Editor

As part of his day job, Chandler resident Kiran Kondamadugla sees what happens when someone’s identity is stolen on a regular basis.

He’s a software engineer for a tech company that handles digital payments.

So, when he was asked to do a thriller for his weekend job, the film screenwriter and director wrote about what he knew.

Kondamadugla, who goes by “Kiran” in the film industry, plans to show his latest film, “ID,” during the Chandler International Film Festival. The festival that started Saturday, Jan. 21, at the LOOK Dine-In Cinema in downtown Chandler and “ID” will be shown at 8:30 p.m Jan. 27.

“When I was working as a software engineer there, I noticed there was a lot of online fraudulence,” Kiran said. “So it was an interesting fact that I came across just in the U.S. that approximately $2.5 billion dollars of transactions were reported as fraud because of identity theft.”

This is Kiran’s second feature film. His first, “Gatham” was a psychological thriller that earned awards and is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

He said doing thrillers was not necessarily what he wanted to do when he started making films.

His first film was a thriller because that’s what he said he could afford and still make compelling art.

“If I want to engage the audience purely based on the screenplay, and narration is the best genre, because you can indulge audience, with twisted screenplay, and nonlinear nonlinear narration, … if the thrilling factor is sustained throughout the movie. So that’s why I picked the thriller genre for the first movie.”

Kiran said he had about $150,000 to make his first feature film. His budget for “ID” was more than double that. A lot of

that extra money came because of the success of his first film.

Before making those two films, Kiran did about a half dozen short films and also some commercials.

“Gatham” won two awards and was nominated for three others, according to the Internet Movie Database. So far, “ID” has surpassed that, winning 18 awards and being nominated for five others.

In ID, Sid and Priya decide they want to move back to India and throw a party. When he wakes up the following morning, Sid is naked and his entire house is empty. His identity has been stolen. He teams up with a broke attorney to deal with it.

Chandler International Film Festival director Mitesh Patel called the film dark, something Kiran agrees with. He says it takes a lot of crazy turns and there’s a twist that he couldn’t reveal.

Kiran moved to Chandler in 2014 after

earning his master’s degree in the U.S. He said perhaps the biggest challenge to being a feature film director is balancing three jobs.

He has his day job, his weekend job, and then there is his family.

“My wife is my great strength,” Kiran said. “She has given me enough freedom to explore my off time, to do something creative. Initially, it was a bit tough because I’m not only talking ... about my IT career, and the filmmaking period, but there is also something called personal life. If you are married, or if you have kids, you need time for them as well.”

Kiran continues to work his day job and juggle in the filmmaking and attending festivals when he can. He said he’s not ready to give up either at this point. That could change if he keeps earning awards and notice for his films.

He said festivals like the Chandler International are vital for new artists trying to get noticed.

“Not only do you get to showcase your talent, but it also provides an opportunity for you to network with other filmmakers, distributors and whatnot,” Kiran said. “You can’t get the kind of that kind of opportunity anywhere, except for at a good film festival.”

If you go

“ID” at the Chandler International Film Festival

WHEN: 8:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 27

WHERE: LOOK Dine-In Cinema, 1 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler

TICKETS: $15, chandlerfilmfestival.com

You can watch Kiran Kondamadugula’s first feature film, “Gatham,” on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Chandler International Film Festival

WHEN: Through Jan. 29

WHERE: LOOK Dine-In Cinema, 1 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler

TICKETS: chandlerfilmfestival.com

Chandler resident Kiran Kondamadugula is putting the finishing touches on his sec ond feature film, “ID,” which will be shown at the Chandler International Film Festival.

(Courtesy of Kiran Kondamadugula)

JOIN OUR TEAM! NOW HIRING JOBS.PHOENIX.ORG LOCAL JOBS. LOCAL PEOPLE.

Now Hiring in Mesa!

CMC Steel Arizona has proudly been making the steel that builds America since 2009.

• General Laborer

• Shipping & Inventory Crane Operator

• Maintenance Mechanics/ Electricians

We are hiring immediately for all skilled operator positions to be part of building our new, state of the art micro mill from the ground up!

At CMC, we offer great benefits and provide all necessary training and certifications.

Foster Home Providers Wanted

We are looking for caring people to welcome developmentally disabled people into their homes similar to a foster home. Homes funded by the State of Arizona, Division of Developmental Disabilities are administered by provider agencies such as ours, Consumer Advocacy Projects, Inc. (CAP). CAP was founded in 1997 and has provided services to hundreds of disabled members primarily in their group home system.

Becoming a Foster Care Provider requires several steps to become licensed as a State of Arizona approved provider. Steps include background checks, physical environment inspections and training to ensure a safe environment for the member(s). Our agency provides guidance to work through these steps with you and / or your family. Individuals or families wanting to welcome our adults into your home, should be caring, compassionate and attentive to the needs of the members.

If interested, please email ddfosterhomes@az-cap.com to learn more, or if you have questions or would like to initiate this exciting process.

Arizona’s Resort-St yl e Home Builder

MASTER PLANNED CELEBRATED COMMUNITIES BY BLANDFORD HOMES

Award-winning Arizona builder for over 40 years.

Blandford Homes specializes in building master planned environments with a variety of amenities, parks, and charm. You’ll find the perfect community to fit your lifestyle.

A STRATFORD – NOW SELLING

A Dramatic Gated Community in Gilbert

Greenfield and Germann Rds in Gilbert

From the low $700’s • 480-895-2800

B PALMA BRISA – In Ahwatukee Foothills CLOSEOUT

A Dramatic Gated Community

From the $800’s • 480-641-1800

C BELMONT AT SOMERSET – Prime Gilbert Location SOLD OUT

Luxury estate homes and timeless architecture

480-750-3000

D MONTELUNA – Brand New Gated Community in the Foothills of Northeast Mesa NOW SELLING

McKellips Rd just east of the Red Mountain 202 Fwy

From the $700’s • 480-750-3000

E RESERVE AT RED ROCK – NOW SELLING

New Upscale Resort Community In the Foothills of Northeast Mesa with Stunning View of Red Mountain

Vintage Collection • From the low $700’s • 480-641-1800

Craftsman Collection • From the high $800’s • 480-988-2400

Artisan Collection • From the $900’s • 480-641-1800

F TALINN AT DESERT RIDGE – NOW SELLING

Spectacular gated community in Desert Ridge • 480-733-9000 BlandfordHomes.com