Market tumbling fast / P. 3
Candidates on issues / P. 21
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS......................... 4 House Speaker Rusty Bowers forms panel on teen mental health.
BUSINESS ............. 19 GM Proving Grounds' last parcels eyed for projects
Sunday, June 5, 2022
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
Some troubling data for Mesa school officials BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
P
arents, teachers and leaders hoped this school year would finally bring normalcy for Mesa Public Schools’ 56,000 students, but data presented by administrators to the Governing Board at a May 31 study session suggest that 2021-22 may have been just as rocky as previous years of the pandemic – or worse. Problems aggravated by the pandemic, like chronic absenteeism and misconduct, persisted into this year, with 38% of MPS students absent for more than 10% of school days in 2021-22. “This is way, way too many – way too many – of our kids” absent from school, board President Jenny Richardson said. Other metrics of student well-being failed to improve this year, and the data includes signs that the pandemic affected students’ mental health. For example, MPS saw a rise in behavioral
Mesa Public Schools Governing Board members hunkered down May 31 for a deep look at a variety of statistics on the 2021-22 school year. (YouTube) issues this year, with 18,807 incidents – more than in any of the previous five school years. And 2021-22 saw an especially sharp increase in aggression, with 5,928 incidents this year compared with 3,681 in 2019-20.
“We know that many of these incidents of aggression and those other policy violations are begging for additional mental health cri-
is actually being diverted from the landfill. City officials admit the program has been buffeted by problems in recent years, and not all blue barrel material can be recycled currently. Mesa’s total reliance on outside vendors to recycle has given the city limited ability to respond to setbacks, which hit the city’s program in rapid succession near the start of 2020. Environmental Management and Sustain-
ability Director Scott Bouchie told Mesa City Council earlier this year that 2023 might finally be the dawn of better days for his department’s recycling program. Republic Services has announced that it will begin rebuilding its Materials Recovery Facility at the Salt River Landfill, which used to be Mesa’s top recycler before the facility was destroyed in a fire in 2019.
see SCHOOLS page 6
Mesa recycling may get back on track next year SPORTS ..............
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High school football enters new phase. COMMUNITY................................. 17 BUSINESS....................................... 19 OPINION......................................... 21 SPORTS........................................... 24 CLASSIFIED.................................... 30 Zone 1
BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
T
he title of Mesa’s recycling program promises action: “Mesa Recycles.” But for the past two-and-a-half years, it might have been more accurate to put the name in the form of a question: “Mesa Recycles?” Disruptions to the city’s program have left some residents wondering how much waste
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see RECYLES page14