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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
DV TEEN MOURNED
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
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Teacher pay protests come to Ahwatukee today
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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he protests by Arizona elementary and high school teachers over their pay and the refusal by the governor and state Legislature to do much about it was to come to Ahwatukee today, April 11, in the form of “walk-ins” and a mass rally. While teachers – and some administrators and parents – were to gather outside Ahwatukee schools April 11 and march to their campuses before classes begin, Kyrene teachers
were also planning to gather for a rally after class outside the district’s central office in Tempe. The protests mark a slow but steady increase in public expressions of dissatisfaction among teachers over salaries that rank the second-lowest for teachers in the nation. They come in the wake of strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma in recent weeks over pay and related compensation issues – actions that could still occur in Arizona in the final weeks of the 2017-18 school year. The advocacy group Expect More Arizona
recently reported that elementary teacher pay in Arizona rose nearly 5 percent from 2016 to 2017, but the increase bumps the state just one position in the national rankings – from 50th to 49th. “Arizona moved ahead of Oklahoma, for now, but remains well behind its neighboring states,” the group said in a release. The data – analyzed and adjusted for cost of living by researchers at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS HELPING ADDY
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TEACHERS on page 16
Family more than a platform for mayor hopeful BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
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KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
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As he forges ahead in an effort to become the first Ahwatukee resident to be elected the mayor of Phoenix, Moses Sanchez has made City Hall’s unresponsiveness to families and neighborhoods a big part of his campaign. That’s not hard to understand. Family and neighborhoods have comprised a major part of life for the 41-year-old father of three. His youngest daughter is his business partner. His oldest daughter lives next door. He brags how his son is probably one of the few people in the nation to have had his father not only present him with his high school diploma at graduation but sign it, too. He credits his kids and physician wife with helping him readjust to civilian life after the E-6 noncommissioned officer took part in counterinsurgency operations in war-torn Afghanistan as part of his duties in the Navy Reserve. He is a member of the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club and was its president for four years running. He worked on the Kyrene K-8 Com(Kimberly Carrilo/AFN Staff Photographer) mittee for a number of years. He was a mem- Moses Sanchez, Ahwatukee’s candidate for Phoenix mayor, and his wife, Dr. Maria Manriquez, attended this See
KEYSTONE
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MOSES on page 12
year’s Easter Parade – a perennial activity for the couple.
Toddler • Primary • Elementary • Adolescent www.keystonemontessori.com • (480) 460-7312 1025 E. Liberty Ln. , Phoenix, AZ 85048 (Across the street from the YMCA)
• (480) 460-7312