Eastmark kitchen magic / P. 18
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
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Sunday, December 13, 2020
With 3,500 fewer students, MPS sees tough road ahead
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS .........................
Rough fall season / P. 21
BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
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Mesa lawmaker defies some party colleagues.
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onfronting a pandemic-fueled loss of at least 3,500 students and new expenses related to COVID-19, Mesa Public Schools of�icials are increasingly concerned about the district’s �inancial condition in the coming school year. That concern came across loud and clear at the Governing Board’s �inal meeting of the calendar year last week as it addressed a
$27.8-million hole in the $491.7-million budget it approved only six months ago for the current school year. For now, it’s not as bad as those numbers suggest. The shortfall was covered by a $22.8 million enrollment stabilization grant from the state and the remaining $6.4 million of $17 million in federal pandemic-relief funds the district received earlier in the year. But Assistant Superintendent Scott Thompson warned that come spring, the new govern-
ing board may face tough choices unless the state and federal of�icials come to the rescue. Pointing to the enrollment decline – and suggesting more students may be leaving the district in the coming months – Thompson said: “I think it’s critical to understand that if this had happened in a typical year, we would have to do mid-year layoffs of staff – teachers, classi�ied personnel, administrators. That would be happening right now.”
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Brady rides out 15 years of Mesa storms City manager
NEWS ........................10 First COVID-19 vaccine doses due this week.
COMMUNITY ....... 16 Mesa teacher maps mandated Holocaust class. COMMUNITY ............................... 16 BUSINESS ..................................... 18 OPINION ....................................... 20 SPORTS ........................................ 21 GET OUT ....................................... 22 PUZZLES ...................................... 24 CLASSIFIED ................................. 24 Zone 1
BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
I
t would be the rare little boy who dreams of growing up to be a city manager. Chris Brady was not one of them. As a student at Brigham Young University in the 1980s, Brady aimed instead at a business career. That, after all, is where the money is. But an unexpected detour by means of a political science class got him interested in city government – the upshot for Mesa being that for 15 years, he has steered the city through some of the hairiest moments in its history. The �ield of municipal government is littered with the �igurative corpses of city managers who got crosswise with their mayors or their city councils. But Brady, 58, has avoided stepping on land mines to such an extent that he hopes Mesa will be the last stop of his career. “Every city has challenges, Mesa included,”
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Chris Brady has navigated Mesa through some turbulent times in his 15 years as city manager. (Pablo
Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)