Council hopefuls envision 2030
Candidate forum in Gilbert
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS.............................10 Higley board squabbles over school statue.
COMMUNITY........ 24 Vet uses Jiu-Jitsu to help people.
BUSINESS................. 27 Gilbert salad chain raises workers’ wages.
COMMUNITY.......................................24 BUSINESS............................................. 27 OPINION.....................................28 SPORTS.......................................33 PUZZLE.......................................34 CLASSIFIED..........................................36
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Ready, set, go! Primary voting begins BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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ilbert voters can cast ballots beginning Wednesday for a host of candidates running for federal, state, county and local offices in the Aug. 4 Primary Election. People can drop off their ballots or vote in-person through Aug. 4 or they can mail in their ballots. People who requested to vote early could see their ballots in mailboxes as soon as Thursday. All registered voters will have the opportunity to cast ballots in
The signs of the time can be found along the streets of Gilbert as candidates and their supporters mounted posters in advance of the Aug. 4 Primary Election. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)
Gilbert’s mayoral and city council races. Voters registered with a specific political party will also be able to vote in their party’s primaries. Gilbert voters not affiliated with a political party and are on the early voting list will not automatically receive a ballot by mail. To get one, they must contact the Maricopa County Recorder to request a political party’s ballot or a Gilbert-only ballot. They can call 602-506-1511 or go to recorder.maricopa.gov/ earlyvotingballot/earlyvoting-
see ELECTIONS page 4
GPS to start the school year online Aug. 5 BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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ll Gilbert Public School students will begin remote learning on Aug. 5 and then transition into a classroom, stay online – or do both – two weeks later or when the state says it’s safe to do so. The district was poised to launch all three learning options for the first day of school until Gov. Doug Ducey last Monday delayed in-person classes until Aug. 17 – a date that surging COVID-19 could push back further. “Things still remain fluid,” Governing Board President Charles Santa Cruz said in last week’s special meeting. “We don’t know what tomorrow brings. “We don’t know what will happen to change or disrupt our thinking again. We think we are on solid ground at this point
and yet I can still feel the ground moving beneath me.” Others last week wondered if teachers or students will return Aug. 17. Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, said there’s anxiety among teachers coming back to work. “They want to be back,” he said “But they just don’t feel safe.’’ State schools chief Kathy Hoffman said there’s no guarantee that that it will be safe to open schools on Aug. 17. Even Gov. Doug Ducey called that date “aspirational.” Hoffman noted, “We can’t even have groups of more than 10 people at the pool. How can we possibly open our schools safely where we know that we have classrooms of 20, 30 or more students and high schools with upwards of thousands of students and
teachers all coming together?’’ To bring some certainty to students, their families and staff, the GPS board voted 5-0 to accept the reopening plan devised by a task force of over 130 stakeholders. Families eventually will have three options when campuses finally open – Option A, full-time, in-person learning; Option B, full-time online Global Academy; or Option C, a flex option that combines both. The district didn’t announce last week when it will open registration for the models. Students will be asked to stay with an option for a full quarter before changing to another model and their grade will transfer with them. Teachers will be assigned full-time to a
see GPS page 14