West Valley View - January 13, 2016

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 SEWER PIPES SPILL ONTO I-10, PAGE 5

westvalleyview.com — the newspaper of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park & Tolleson, AZ 50¢ Wednesday, January 13, 2016 (623) 535-8439

INSIDE Have a news tip? Send it to news1@westvalleyview.com

W.V. preps for wet winter Rural fire departments, schools stock up on supplies by Emily Toepfer assistant editor

GIFT HORSE Waddell stable helps improve lives of riders with disabilities — Page 2. View photo by Jordan Christopher

MARICOPA COUNTY TRANSPORTATION WORKER PAUL GOMEZ works to pump water from flooded roads into a truck Jan. 6 at 403rd Avenue & Indian School Road in Tonopah. Tonopah Valley High School and Ruth Fisher Elementary were both closed Jan. 6 and closed early Jan. 7 because of flooding in the area. To see all photos from this shoot, go to www.westvalleyview.com/pictures.

WARRIOR PRINCESS Xena is this week’s Pet of the Week — Page 16.

COP UNDER FIRE Buckeye police officer investigated for physical assault — Page 4.

DAILY UPDATES! News Updates and fresh Classified ads posted Monday - Friday at 4:30 p.m. online at www.westvalleyview.com Volume 30, No. 76 24 Pages 1 Section Circulation: 71,947 INDEX Classifieds .................... 20 Editorials & Letters .......... 6 Obituaries ...................... 18 Sports ........................... 10 Briefcase ....................... 24 Pet of the Week ............. 16 9 Days a Week............... 17 Recycle this paper

With heavy rains expected throughout the winter season, the Buckeye Valley Fire District is planning ahead and urging residents to do the same. Multiple storm systems swept through the West Valley last week thanks to El Niño, bringing downpours that drenched roads and filled normally empty washes. In response, fire officials are reminding drivers and pedestrians about the dangers of crossing flooded roads. “Any time there is moving water in the roadway, it is imperative to drive or walk around rather than through the water,” said Capt. Cliff Turner, a spokesman for the Buckeye Valley Fire District. Flooding is one of the top causes of weatherrelated deaths in the United States, with the number of fatalities averaging about 90 each year, according to the National Weather Service. “The rural areas that we cover have quite a few washes that run through them, so when we do get flooding, we respond to quite a few water rescues and just try to keep people out of the washes,” Turner said. An adult can be knocked over by a mere 6 inches of fast-moving flood water, and it takes (See Winter on Page 5)

Millennium students ace test 4 earn perfect math scores on standardized tests by Emily Toepfer assistant editor

In his spare time, Millennium High School senior John Schonert, 18, works on math problems, and he even taught himself calculus — for fun. So it’s probably no surprise that the Goodyear student got a perfect score on the math portion of his SAT and ACT tests. Schonert isn’t alone, either. Four students in this year’s graduating class at Millennium have earned a perfect math score on one of the two standardized tests. “Less than 1 percent of the students that take the SAT in our country achieve a perfect score on the math portion of the exams,” Millennium math teacher Mel Artz said. “This is a challenging task and our students should be proud of their accomplishment.” For the SAT, a perfect score on each of the three subjects is 800, for a total of 2,400. On the ACT, which has four parts, a perfect rating in each category is 36 and the final score is an average of all the sections. Samir Fierro, 17, is also among the Millennium students who got top math scores, along with seniors Julie Pham and Jason Guglielmo, both of whom the West Valley View reported on previously. “The teachers at Millennium are very fortunate to work with a group of very hardworking and motivated students,” Artz said. “The students often go above and beyond to take extra steps and time to solve the more difficult problems.” While Schonert said he’s always been pretty good at math, he didn’t start to love it until high school. “I really do love math quite a lot, and I think I’m probably going to pursue it in some way as a career. Maybe not as a mathematician, but as an engineer or something like that,” Schonert

said. “I like how everything is so logical. There’s nothing in it that doesn’t make sense.” While other subjects can be based on interpretation, math relies on basic laws, he said. “I just kind of like that freedom how everything sort of fits together with one another; everything is logical,” Schonert said. Both Schonert and Samir are in the International Baccalaureate higher level mathematics class at Millennium. While Samir acknowledges he’s been good at math pretty much his whole life, he doesn’t necessarily love it as much as Schonert does, he said. “I really liked math when I was younger, because it came easy to me,” Samir said. “Whenever I have math, I know I don’t have to study for the test or prepare as much.” However, both teens recommend some preparation for the SAT and ACT exams, including taking multiple practice tests. “When I did that, I realized the math portion was going to be something I’ve been going over for a while now and I shouldn’t worry too much about it,” Samir said. Since the tests consist of math that most students have already learned, they should focus on test-taking strategies and being able to complete the questions in the time allotted, Samir said. “I feel like what really helped me was just kind of doing math in high school — paying attention in class and making sure you try on every single problem,” Schonert said. They also suggest getting a good night’s sleep and taking a Gatorade, fruit and other snack on test day. “Your brain runs on sugar, and Gatorade has sugar and electrolytes. Fruit can also give you sugar, and you need food to sustain you, because it’s almost four hours long,” Samir said. “When you have a break, go out into the hall, drink

View photo by Jordan Christopher

MILLENNIUM HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS John Schonert, left, 18, and Samir Fierro, 17, review math problems Dec. 15 in the Goodyear school’s library. Both seniors earned perfect scores on both their ACT and SAT math sections. Gatorade and then don’t worry about it. You can take the test a ton of times.” Which is something both teens have done. “The time I got [the perfect score], I was kind of just relaxed and felt like whatever happens, happens,” Schonert said. “I’d say an important thing is just your mindset, so don’t really stress out about it.” Samir got a perfect math score on the ACT his first time taking the test. “I felt like I did terrible and thought I got like (See Test on Page 5)


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