Mammoth EV complex planned
Cactus League curbing fans
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Planners like go-kart, mini-golf project here
Sunday, February 7, 2021
On target
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS. .............................. 4 Gilbert’s only marijuana store is thriving.
COMMUNITY........20 She fullfills her mom’s dying wish.
A
n outdoor family entertainment center with miniature golf and go-kart racing is finally coming to 4.5 acres at the southwest corner of Knox and Greenfield roads. While the Planning Commission in a study session last Wednesday gave input on San Tan Adventure Park at the 92acre Crossroads Park, members generally were fans of the project. “I’m pretty excited about this project when I heard about it three years ago,” Chairman Carl Bloomfield said. “So, I’ve been waiting for it to come around.” Senior Planner Stephanie Bubenheim said SAP Holdings plans to build the park in two phases. The first phase will include an 18-hole miniature golf
see GO-KART page 6
GPS’ Global Academy thriving, may add features BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS...................... 28 Teammates comfort mourning local athetes.
COMMUNITY.......................................20 BUSINESS.............................................24
SPORTS.......................................28 GETOUT................................................ 30 PUZZLE....................................... 32 CLASSIFIED.......................................... 35
Bradley Fulghum practices on the shooting range at Gun Club 82 in Gilbert, a unique venue that is coping with the national shortage in ammo and firearms. See the story on page 24. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer
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ilbert Public School’s Global Academy thrived during the pandemic to where administrators are looking to improve the online program with full-time teachers, in-person open labs and face-to-face tutoring. For the past four years, the online school was a small operation with 125 full-time students at any one time. But with COVID-19, enrollment grew and peaked in August with 9,193 full-time and part-time students. “As a long-time school administrator and somebody who has taught in Gilbert schools and has been a principal at multiple schools in Gilbert schools, brick-and-mortar cam-
puses, I fought the fight of brick and mortar,” said Jared Ryan, Global Academy interim principal at last week’s Governing Board work study session. “I fought the fight of, ‘you need to be on campus to receive a great education.’ And fundamentally, …four months ago, five months ago, I would have told you the exact same thing. What I’ve learned in my time at Global Academy and working with its leaders is that there are students in our community, teachers in our community and leaders in our community that excel in this environment. “This is something that is a unique opportunity to provide to our entire community and with excellence in mind.” Global Director Peter Bartanen said that
as of Feb. 1, the K-12 online school had an enrollment of 4,300 full-time and about 2,000 part-time students. “Global has brought in some out-of-district students as well,” Bartanen said. “I ran a report his morning and found right now we have about 156 students who chose Global as their first GPS school.” He added that quite a few of the students over the summer came from Queen Creek and a few from the Legacy Traditional schools. Global has been using an accredited online curriculum from Florida Virtual School since 2016 and staff has spent countless
see GPS page 8