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COMMUNITY
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ORDER OF THE DAY
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INSPIRING FOR A DECADE
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SALON FOR KIDS
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CONTINUING A LEGACY
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Wednesday, June 24, 2020
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TU reopening plan offers no �ive-day classroom option BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
A
s more Valley school districts begin rolling out reopening plans in the shadow of a surge in COVID-19 cases in Arizona, Tempe Union Superintendent Dr. Kevin Mendivil last week unveiled a plan that would put students in classrooms only once a week – and then without most of their classmates. Only hours after Gov. Doug Ducey cited the alarming rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, Mendivil announced that parents will have only two choices for their kids at the district’s seven campuses.
Students can have five-days of distance learning or they can have four and return to school one day a week on staggered schedules so that the entire student body – or even all members of one grade – will never be on campus together. Classrooms would see no more than a dozen students for any course. The announcement drew mixed and strong reactions from parents. Some hailed Mendivil’s bold move as a way to protect students and staff while others condemned its impact on students’ ability to learn and enjoy a high school experience that already has been ravaged by social distancing measures necessitated by the pandemic.
One parent started an online petition to demand a five-day in-class option, garnering slightly more than 1,000 signatures in five days. At 3:15 p.m. today, June 24, parents were urged to show up at the district headquarters, 500 W. Guadalupe Road, Tempe, to protest the absence of a five-day in-class option. The public is not allowed in the board room because of social distancing and the board is scheduled to discuss school resource officers at a 4 p.m. study session. Mendivil stressed the virus surge was as the
see SCHOOLS page 14
SRO opponents gain unlikely ally in DiCiccio BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
A
s the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board prepares for a study session tonight on two members’ controversial request to not fund school resource officers on four campuses – including Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe – they’ve found an unlikely ally. “I don’t like the idea of having police officers in our schools,” Councilman Sal DiCiccio told AFN in an interview last week. DiCiccio’s stance puts him in the same camp as board members Andres Barraza and Brian Garcia, who want $450,000 earmarked for SROS at Desert Vista, Mountain Pointe, Corona del Sol and McClintock to be used for counselors instead. While the board will take no vote on the proposal until next month, it will conduct a study session beginning at 4 p.m. today.
Tempe Union Superintendent Dr. Kevin Mendivil, left, will lead a study session on school resource officers today while Governing Board member Brian Garcia leads the move to reallocate $450,000 in funds for SROs at four campuses, including Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe, and Board President Berdetta Hodge could cast the deciding vote on the issue next month. (Special to AFN)
Because the meeting will only be virtual, viewable on the district’s Facebook page, public comment will be limited to the comment section on the site.
But hundreds of parents, students, alumni and staff have made their opinions known in
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see SROS page 16