THE NEWSPAPER OF AVONDALE, BUCKEYE, GOODYEAR, LITCHFIELD PARK & TOLLESON
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westvalleyview.com
INSIDE
This Week
The Voice of the West Valley for 32 years
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December 20, 2017
New Teacher Academy provides some relief in teacher shortage By Derek Hall
NEWS .............. 6 Long battle to prevent South Mountain Freeway seemingly ends
SPORTS ........ 16 La Joya boys basketball starts strong with new roster
9 DAYS ......... 18 Looking for something to do? Check out the 9 Days a Week calendar
LETTERS ........................11 BUSINESS..................... 14 SPORTS ..........................16 FEATURES .....................21 NEIGHBORHOOD......24 SCHOOLS .....................25 OBITUARIES .................27 CLASSIFIEDS................28 WEST
As students file in to Adrianne Penullar’s general chemistry class at Westview High School, their first task is relinquishing their phones. Each student has a labeled pocket on a shoe caddy that hangs in the room. It’s called “Ms. P’s Cellphone Hotel,” and it’s a classroom management tool Penullar found on Pinterest and adopted with the help of her mentor, Teri Thomsen. Thomsen identified phones as a disruption during one of her many visits to observe Penullar in the classroom as part of the New Teacher Academy, a mentor program designed to support beginning teachers in the Tolleson Union High School District. The program was established in 2014 after a partnership with a teacher induction program dissolved, said Vickie Landis, director of curriculum and instruction at TUHSD. Landis was instrumental in planning and implementing the New Teacher Academy, which supports more than 100 teachers per year in the district. “Without a teacher mentor program, it can take five to seven years for a teacher to be effective,” Landis said. “We know that we can reduce that time by providing a mentor.”
Adrianne Penullar (left) discusses her chemistry class with Vickie Landis, TUHSD director of curriculum and instruction. (West Valley View photo by Derek Hall)
Penullar, who is in her second year at Westview High School, credits the support she receives from the New Teacher Academy as the primary reason she’s still teaching. When Penullar began teaching in 2016, she was overwhelmed by the long hours
and large class sizes, and she considered quitting several times within her first few months in the classroom. Her mentor also saw she was struggling.
Teacher...continued on page 4
Chewy center bringing 700 jobs to Goodyear By Connor Dziawura Online pet products retailer Chewy Inc. is opening a fulfillment center in Goodyear, and with it will come 700 new jobs for Valley residents. The PetSmart-owned Chewy recently began construction on the facility, and a job creation agreement was approved by Goodyear City Council on December 11. The meat and potatoes of the agreement
will waive development fees and provide up to $910,000 in incentives for Chewy. Goodyear estimates $4.1 million of direct revenue to the city over five years. “We are getting just such great companies and Chewy.com is one of them,” said Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord. “The word ‘Chewy’ means something. I mean, we’ve heard that, so it’s not a company
I’ve never heard of. I’m very comfortable with it, and I think their location is just perfect.” The 802,671-square-foot fulfillment center, on 49 acres of land south of Van Buren Street on 143rd Avenue in Goodyear’s Airport Gateway master-
Chewy...continued on page 2