April 11, 2021 | www.santansun.com
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler
Narducci named new CUSD superintendent BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Assistant Superintendent Frank Narducci has been promoted to replace Camille Casteel as the Chandler Unified School District’s next superintendent. The district’s Governing Board voted unanimously on April 7 to appoint Narducci, a 25-year veteran of CUSD, as superintendent for the 2021-2022 school year while the board begins its search for Casteel’s long-term successor. Narducci will be the first new superintendent CUSD has had since Casteel got the job in 1996. “I’m honored to continue to serve our students, families, staff and administration during this transitional time,” Narducci said.
Though Narducci doesn’t officially assume his new job until July, the interim superintendent said he’ll be spending the next few weeks solidifying the district’s plans for how schools will operate during the upcoming school year. “What we’re going to prioritize first is making sure we have comfort and safety when our kids are returning,” he said. “We’ll have some plans for mitigation and how we’re opening up the school year.” Though Naducci’s contract only lasts a year, he will be presiding over CUSD during one of the district’s most precarious times in recent history. Teachers and administrators have spent this last year having to contend with declining enrollment and financial See
SUPER on page 14
Frank Narducci
Shrinking revenue blunts Son’s suicide attempts state road projects frustrate Chandler mom BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor
More electric and fuel-efficient motor vehicles and a gas tax that hasn’t been changed in 30 years are making it increasingly more difficult for Arizona to provide a highway system that can serve its rapidly rising population. During a briefing last month for the PHX East Valley Partnership, Floyd Roehrich Jr., an executive officer of the Arizona Department of Transportation, said shrinking revenue has cut by a third the state’s annual spending on its highway system. As annual revenue has shrunk from $1.6 billion to about $1 billion, ADOT is focusing its dollars on preserving the state’s highway network and cutting back on projects that upgrade or extend it. “We’re trying to deal with an ever-increasing demand on the system of growing state, but the revenue stream for it has not kept up with those demands,” Roehrich told the business and community leaders who are part of EVP. But that won’t impact two of the biggest projects looming on the horizon for Chandler motorists over the
next five years. One is the widening of the Santan Loop 202 Freeway to two lanes in each direction between the Loop 101 Price Freeway and Gilbert Road and one lane in each direction between Val Vista Drive and Gilbert Road; The other is the three-year, $600 million overhaul of the I-10 from the Broadway Curve to Ray Road – what Roerich call “the most heavily traveled corridor in the state.” The latter project, set to get underway this summer as commuter traffic steadily returns to pre-pandemic levels involves several major undertakings. They include widening I-10 to six lanes in each direction between the Santan Freeway and Baseline Road and eight lanes in each direction between Baseline Road and the I-17 split; demolishing and replacing the Broadway Road bridge over I-10 and SR 143 between I-10 and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; and a major reconfiguration of the I-10/US 60 interchange. Roehrich said traffic management on I-10 is a major component of the project “with a lot of detouring for a period
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ADOT on page 12
BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Nailah Hendrickson can vividly recall the night last August when she awoke to police officers banging on the door to her Chandler home. It was just after 1 a.m. and Hendrickson was stunned to wake up to the presence of law enforcement in her relatively quiet neighborhood. Officers frantically asked Hendrickson the whereabouts of her 15-year-old son, prompting her to believe he might have gotten into trouble for something. But the cops weren’t there to arrest Hendrickson’s son. They were there to save him. A friend had apparently alerted the police after Hendrick’s son made some statements suggesting he might harm himself. She quickly escorted officers to the teenager’s room, where they found him barely conscious after swallowing a bunch of pills. He managed to survive, yet the family’s problems were only beginning. “It just escalated from there,” Hendrickson recalled. “He really withdrew from the family.” Since the pandemic began last year,
Nailah Hendrickson Hendrickson’s son, now 16, has attempted to take his life multiple times and has ended up in hospitals for days waiting to receive psychiatric care. His third attempt forced Hendrickson and her younger son to break down his bedroom door. They found him unconscious.
F E AT U R E STO R I E S No layoffs seen in Chandler schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . COMMUNITY . . . . . Page 6 Nortrup Grumman here part of big job . . . . . . . . . BUSINESS . . . . . . . Page 28 Chandler student invents new blood test . . . . . . . NEIGHBORS . . . . . . Page 35 Chandler author on AZ Creates!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ARTS . . . . . . . . . . Page 40 Coffee Press deal helps local schools . . . . . . . . . . . . EAT . . . . . . . . . . . Page 46
Health & Wellness ..................... Center Section
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SUICIDE on page 9
More Community . . . . 1-21 Business . . . . . .28-31 Sports . . . . . . . 32-34 Neighbors . . . 35-39 Arts . . . . . . . . . 40-42 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Directory . . . 44-45 Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46