Arrest made in Gilbert slaying
Firm writes letters for you
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS................................. 5 Council OKs new logo for Gilbert.
COMMUNITY......... 14 Gilbert woman matches penpals with elderly.
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Campaign 2020 barrels toward the finish line The town has 74,010 registered Republicans, 42,169 Democrats, 53,658 who are ore people in Gileither independent or not bert voted by mail registered with a recognized than are heading to political party and 1,821 Libthe ballot box in Tuesday’s ertarians. General Election. This year’s election promOf the 171,058 registered ises to break a record in the voters in town, 136,839 number of people casting balare on the permanent early lots with contentious races voting list, according to the from the president on down to County Recorder’s elections Gilbert mayor. department. Maricopa County vot“Over 60 percent of early ers have already returned more Matt Nielsen Brigette Peterson ballots requested in Gilbert early ballots than they did in have been returned,” said spokeswoman Me- Election Day. To find a location, go to Loca- the 2016 General Election, elections officials tions.Maricopa.Vote. gan Gilbertson. said. Of over 2 million ballots requested, the Gilbertson said the town has seen an in- County Recorder reported 1.26 million have For voters wanting to cast their ballot in person, eight Vote Centers in Gilbert are crease of roughly 14,000 new voters since open 9-5 p.m. tomorrow and 6 a.m.-7 p.m. on July 3. see ELECTION page 6 BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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GPS to change metrics for campus closings
BY CECILIA CHAN AND WAYNE SCHUTSKY GSN Staff Writers
SPORTS...................... 24 Jags jazzed about champion run.
COMMUNITY....................................... 14 BUSINESS............................................. 18 OPINION..................................... 22 SPORTS.......................................24 GETOUT...................................... 27 PUZZLE.......................................30 CLASSIFIED..........................................32
Sunday, November 1, 2020
W
ith COVID-19 cases increasing in the county, Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board this Wednesday is expected to adopt metrics that would trigger a return to hybrid and virtual learning. Superintendent Shane McCord in a special board workshop and meeting last Friday recommended using the percentage of positive virus cases on a campus to make a change in the learning model. The change would be on a school-by-school basis. “With the rising cases we do have concerns,” McCord said. “We want to make sure
we are doing all we can to make sure people are safe.” The board’s meeting came on the heels of the state health department’s change in the criteria that school districts use to determine what type of learning takes place. “One red in the past we considered going virtual,” McCord said. “And now it’s all three.” The state now recommends that schools revert to virtual learning when the three benchmarks – cases per 100,000 people, percent positive new tests and the percentage of hospital visits by people with COVIDlike illness – are all in the red or are in “substantial” range for two consecutive weeks. Previously, just one of those metrics had
to move from moderate to “substantial’’ spread to prompt schools to go back to fulltime online teaching. Data within the district’s boundary last week showed the number of positive cases in the substantial risk category during Oct. 18-25. The other two criteria were in the moderate risk and minimal risk but were trending up. McCord told the board that he was caught off guard by the state’s new interpretation of the health benchmarks – as were his peers when he contacted them about it. McCord gave a range of percentages for the board to choose for triggering a switch
see VIRUS page 8