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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
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Wednesday, April 25, 2018
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Families brace for teachers’ historic defiance
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor and HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services
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undreds of Ahwatukee families are preparing for one of Arizona’s most far-reaching political confrontations in history as public school teachers gear up for a strike this Thursday. The walkout will come a week after leaders of the #RedforEd movement reported that 78 percent of more than 57,000 teachers statewide cast paper ballots favoring a walkout – spurning Gov. Doug Ducey’s effort to defuse their threat and directly challenging the State Legislature’s decade-long stance on public education funding. And for now anyway, the Legislature is in no mood to budge – even after Ducey on Friday vetoed 10 bills unrelated to education in an effort to force “This is undeniably and clearly a mandate for action,’’ said Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, which has been leading the #RedforEd movement with
teachers had to submit a doctor’s note if they were absent from their jobs for three or more consecutive days. On Monday, top Republicans huddled to see if they could reach an accord over the issue of teacher pay ahead of Thursday’s strike deadline, potentially forestalling or at least undermining the walkout. Senate President Steve Yarbrough told Capitol Media Services Monday there is “unease’’ among many House and Senate Republicans over Ducey’s predictions that a 19 percent pay hike for teachers by 2020 can be enacted and money from a special assistance fund for schools can be restored – all without a tax hike. Ducey contends that there will be sufficient strong economic growth to both generate new tax revenues and reduce state spending on health and social service programs. He said that’s why some GOP lawmakers are holding out until they can identify firm sources of revenue “to help us get to this very ambitious goal.’’
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS DECADE OF FITNESS
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BIG BUCKS DEAL
More inside
Where to find child care help .........… p. 10 Why I support Red For Ed ……................….p. 34 Impact on varsity sports ……..........…….p. 45
a start-up group called Arizona Educators United. That announcement triggered a series of events locally. Both Kyrene and Tempe Union High School District announced all schools will be closed Thursday. Tempe Union schools also will be closed Friday. On Saturday night, the Tempe Union governing board held a hastily called meeting to waive a requirement through June 30 that
See
STRIKE on page 19
St. Benedict’s parishioners glimpse ‘the Promised Land’ BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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t was a most unusual site that awaited congregants of the Parish of St. Benedict in Ahwatukee after Mass last weekend. Within a chalked diagram on the large lot outside the church on 48th Street, a baby wading pool lay where the baptismal font would be. The coat tree with the wedding gown signified the bridal waiting room that will also host crying infants. A toy piano and four folding chairs stood in an area where the choir would be. And behind a makeshift altar where a plastic facsimile of a stained glass window hung from a fully upraised scissor lift, life-size cardboard dummies of the pastor, Father Bob Binta, and the pope greeted all who inspected the site. “We wanted to have a carnival atmosphere,” See
CHURCH on page 18
(Special to AFN)
One the new church is opened around Christmas Day 2019, it will have a 40-foot-high tower and will allow parishioners to expand their many active ministries.