September 2017
Relentlessly local coverage of Gilbert and our neighboring communities
Rally Around
The Fiesta Bowl’s Mike Nealy gets help from Gilbert students to announce a whopping $2.5 million donation to local charities.
GPS seeks education star to tackle deep challenges BY SRIANTHI PERERA
Town trying to overturn Big League Dreams contract BY JIM WALSH
Twenty-seven applicants from coast to coast have applied to become the next superintendent at Gilbert Public Schools. The GPS Governing Board met Aug. 30, mostly behind closed doors, to screen the applications for promising candidates who will be called for first interviews on Sept. 12. The selected candidate, who will oversee 40 schools with a total enrolment of about 33,000 students, will earn an annual salary ranging from $180,000 to $210,000. A negotiable benefits pack-
age and a start date will be finalized along with the contract. Meanwhile, a July e-survey inviting community input regarding GPS’s superintendent choice received a stunning 5,599 responses. More than 60 percent of those who took the survey had a family member as a student, while over 40 percent worked for the district. “One of the major takeaways is the enthusiasm the stakeholders have,” said see
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An attempt by Big League Dreams to prove its Gilbert facility is safe has appeared to backfire, with Gilbert’s attorney saying an engineering report from the company meant nothing. Paul Scott, a Phoenix engineer hired by the California firm, performed “fullscale load tests” on the columns that support the grandstands and “confirmed there are no actual safety concerns that could be identified.” Chuck Jelloian, a Big League Dreams spokesman, said Gilbert should reopen
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the facility, which features eight baseball fields and a soccer field. The facility is popular with youth club teams for tournaments. “These findings validate what Big League Dreams has been saying all along,” Jelloian said. “These fields are safe. It’s time to get these fields open so our employees can return to work and people can play ball.” But Robert Grasso, Gilbert’s attorsee
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