Charters reap big bucks
Waymo growth not in Gilbert
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS................................ 8 Ducey addresses Gilbert, other EV leaders.
BUSINESS................ 23 Life is sweet for this Gilbert company.
SPORTS...................... 28 3 Gilbert seniors are captains with a mission.
COMMUNITY.......................................20 BUSINESS.............................................23
SPORTS.......................................28 GETOUT................................................ 30
PUZZLE....................................... 31 CLASSIFIED..........................................32
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Board, citizen discord mark GPS’ full reopening BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
G
ilbert Public School students return to the classroom full time Monday after nearly a month of hybrid learning and despite parents, students and teachers arguing against it. While some parents and students on Jan 26 told the Governing Board how they felt about full reopening, the district prepared to host a point of dispensing site for COVID-19 vaccines to school employees Feb. 13-14. Five people spoke passionately on both sides of the issue while 92 people submitted comment cards at about a 2-to-1 ratio for
staying in hybrid or going to virtual learning as COVID-19 cases are at a substantial spread in the community. Data released by the county health department on Jan. 18 showed that in GPS boundaries, two of the three metrics for virus spread were trending up. COVID-19 cases per 100,000 were at 990 – the highest level since cases have been tracked. Positive new test results were at 25.3 percent and the percentage of hospital visits with COVID-like symptoms was at 13.7 percent. Both cases for 100,000 and positive test results were up from the previous week. The only options parents and students have as of this week are going to campuses five days
Town’s economy grew in 2020 despite pandemic
a week or enrolling in the Gilbert Online Academy. Opponents of fully reopening campuses included student Sophia Young, who told the board, “My mother is a very sickly woman. She has Hashimoto’s thyroid disease as well as arthritis and more medical conditions I can’t even begin to pronounce. “I’ve lived 10 years of my life terrified but all the terror I felt as a child does not compare to the terror I feel today,” she said, adding that father, a front-line medical worker, comes home and doesn’t embrace his wife in fear of getting her sick and watching her die as he has
New at museum
see GPS page 6
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
G
ilbert’s economy weathered the COVID-19 pandemic quite well the past year and even grew, according to town officials. Town Manager Patrick Banger and Mayor Brigette Peterson recently spoke at the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce’s Good Government Buzz Session, which drew about 75 people for the virtual discussion. “I’m pleased to say, all in all, the community is performing very well,” Banger said. He pointed to new businesses that opened last year in the downtown Heritage District such as The Porch, Sotol Modern Cocktail Kitchen and The Collab building, featuring three levels of offices and one level of retail. Manufacturing also grew with Northrop Grumman adding
see CHAMBER page 4
This haunting photo by one of two Valley photographers who engaged in a cultural exchange with two peers from Guatemala is one of many now on display at HD SOUTH in downtown Gilbert. What the exchange was all about is reported in a story on page 20. (Rebecca Wilks)