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Select closures possible at Tempe Union campuses BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
THERAPY THAT MATTERS
@AhwatukeeFN |
empe Union High School District on Friday raised the possibility of selectively closing some classes “for a short period of time” as an emergency measure if teacher and bus driver absences fall below an unspecified threshold. Superintendent Dr. Kevin Mendivil stressed
Housing tops city’s $220M pandemic fund shopping list
in his announcement, “I want to be very clear – we do not have any intention of returning to a district-wide virtual learning model.” But he said the district could not ignore the impact of “the troubling upwards trend of Maricopa County’s (virus transmission) metric” and the fact that “the metrics for students and staff within our District are at an all-time high.” Calling rumors of a district-wide return to
virtual learning “untrue,” Mendivil said, “It is our responsibility as a District to plan for the worst and expect the best. Just as we have emergency plans for fire incidents and lockdowns, it is critical that we are prepared to face this situation as well, should it arise. “At a District and site level, administrators have worked to prepare learning contingency
see VIRUS page 12
Getting ready for The Lakes?
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
M
ore than $93.5 million for housing – including $50 million to buy apartment complexes – tops the list of the Phoenix city administration’s spending suggestions for its second round of pandemic-relief money from the American Recovery Plan Act. Those proposals also include $7.5 million to buy trees for 5,000 homes in “qualifying neighborhoods,” $13 million for free child care for a year for new city employees and $500,000 for a public restroom pilot program at the Human Services Campus. In all, the shopping list totals $220.1 million but City Council will have to pare it down because the city will have $141 million in relief money to spend come the fiscal year that begins July 1. Phoenix was allotted $396 million under
see COUNCIL page 16
Could she be tuning up for the imminent reopening of the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course? Actually, 4-year-old Vivienne Yang was getting an introduction to the game from her dad, Yz Yang, on Saturday as Yang Wen and 18-month-old Melody Yang watched at Pecos Park during the Junior Golf Association of Arizona’s Itty Bitty Open. The event aims to introduce tots to the game. (David Minton/AFN Staff Photographer)
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