The birds are coming back PAGE 37
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Gilbert maps water savings strategy.
COMMUNITY ............. 17 Gilbert man uses company to do good.
BUSINESS ..................... 24 Meet Gilbert's piano man.
COMMUNITY................. 17 BUSINESS ..................... 24 OPINION .......................30 SPORTS ......................... 32 GETOUT .........................37 CLASSIFIED .................. 43
Sunday, March 3, 2019
GPS to state: Students need more support Gilbert, other EV students plead for help. Page 4 BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS ............................... 14
Try this quick, tasty snack PAGE 41
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tudents asked for help and Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board delivered by passing a resolution asking the State Legislature for more money to hire additional counselors, psychologists and social workers. Over the past few months, Gilbert high school students joined their counterparts across the East Valley in appearing before
school boards and asking them to consider the resolution in light of a rash of teen suicides here and the rash of fatal school shootings across the country in recent years. “If a child comes to school and their emotional needs aren’t met, they are not going to learn,” board member and retired educator Sheila Uggetti said at last week’s meeting. “I don’t care what anybody says, it’s not going to happen,” Uggetti continued. “We need to make sure we give every child the opportunity to be in a safe learning environment. We can’t control what goes on at home, but we can hopefully help them when they get to school.” Half of all U.S. children will experience
some sort of mental or emotional disorder at some point in their life with suicide the second leading cause of death for those 15-24, according to the resolution. Recognizing that mental health is a major component of school safety, the district is calling on state lawmakers and the governor for additional funding to lower the ratio of students to school counselors to 250:1, social workers to 400:1 and school psychologists to 500-700:1. Superintendent Shane McCord said the district would love to have the ratios noted in the
see RESOLUTION page 4
Waymo self-driving The celebration is on! into the Gilbert, East Valley fast lane
BY JASON STONE GSN Contributor
E
xactly how many vehicles are in the fleet is anybody’s guess. The number of jobs it brings to the East Valley is kept hush-hush. And where service is going next and when that will happen is still a closely guarded secret. But nobody can dispute the potential impact Waymo self-driving cars could one day have for Chandler, the East Valley and even Arizona as a whole. If you’ve seen one of those vans moving around the East Valley roads, you’re seeing drivers working out the kinks and passengers giving their feedback on how to make the rides better in the future. That select group of testers is rating the performance of the vans through the Early Rider Program, and others have advanced to the new Waymo One program in
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see WAYMO page 8
Gilbert High seniors Carson Towt (holding trophy) and Doc Self lead the celebration after the Tigers came back from a 12-point, third-quarter deficit to nip Millennium, 38-37, for the 5A boys basketball state championship, to the delight of a large Gilbert crowd at Arizona State University’s Wells Fargo Arena. It was the fourth state title for Gilbert and its first since 2003. Details in Sports. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff)
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