Gilbert Sun News 05/13/2023

Inside This Week

Ten buildings with 568 residential units

GPS board to consider bond, override measures

GPS’ 250 buildings need $198M in repairs. See page 14

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

Gilbert Public Schools is preparing to ask voters this November for more money by continuing a 15% budget override and approving a bond likely to be

between $100 million and $125 million. A resolution calling for a Nov. 7 election is expected to go before the governing board on Tuesday, May 16. Mail-in ballots would go to voters living in the district’s boundaries.

“The electorate can approve the budget override and the $100-million bond – or $125 million or $200 million – and not see a commensurate tax rate increase,” because assessed property values have grown, said

Bonnie Betz, assistant superintendent of business services, at the May 9 board retreat. An override, which GPS is now referring to as a “budget continuation,” allows school districts in Arizona to increase their maintenance and operations budgets up to 15%. The M&O budget pays for day-to-day expenditures such as salaries, supplies and utilities.

see BOND page 12

Jury convicts killer of a Gilbert war hero That’s a stretch

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

Seventy-three-old Frank Bernal was living his retirement years tending to vegetables on his acre-plus lot about a mile from Gilbert Town Hall, playing golf and visiting with his extended family of 10 siblings.

But in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, Oct. 11, 2020, police found the highly decorated Vietnam War veteran with deep roots in Gilbert in his home clinging to life from a brutal beating. He died nine days later.

Earlier this month, a Superior

Court jury took less than four hours to convict Jacob Kanakaholoki Samia, 35, of first-degree murder in Bernal’s slaying. Samia, who has been incarcerated since his Oct. 26, 2020, arrest, faces sentencing June 22.

Samia was a 2006 Chandler High graduate who played varsity football.

“I hope the sentence will reflect the viciousness of his attack on Frank,” said older brother Andy Bernal days after the jury’s verdict on May 2. “There’s not really any closure to any of this because it’s

see BERNAL page 6

Gilbert

Williams Field star Saira Prince shines on track.

heading to Cooley Station.

Ashley Young and Elizabeth Freer stretch during a Yoga at the Museum class inside HD SOUTH, Home Of The Gilbert Historical Museum. Darien Pruitt holds the ckasses every Monday night at the museum. For detail about this class and other programs: HDSOUTH.org. (David Minton/GSN Staff Photographer)

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BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

Ten buildings housing 568 residential units are coming to the 738-acre master-planned Cooley Station neighborhood.

TRAX at Cooley Station is proposed on 25.12 acres at the southeast corner of Williams Field Road and Wade Drive. The farmland has been zoned for medium-density multifamily housing for 15 years.

Developer Frankel Family Trust, which submitted a pre-application in 2021, is proposing deviations from the development plan approved over a decade ago that would increase the height of two buildings to 69 feet, or five stories, and decrease building and landscape setbacks.

One of the five-story buildings will incorporate an enclosed five-story parking structure. The heights of the other buildings rangs from two-story carriage units to four stories.

“I don’t see any issues with the deviations,” Commissioner Brian Andersen said at the May 3 Planning Commission study session. “The deviations that they’re requesting, they just seem pretty minimal to me.”

The four carriage units will have garages underneath and are planned along the eastern boundary of the site, according to senior planner Keith Newman.

Adjacent to the carriage units will be a parking lot for a hotel that will be coming to the commission in the near future, he added.

Access to the development will be off of Williams Field Road. Somerton Boulevard will be extended along the railroad tracks to Wade Drive, which heads out to Williams Field on the

west side – “which is a huge benefit to this project and to the Cooley Station area in general,” Newman said.

“This was in order to establish the original vision of a looped road system in this area that was originally envisioned on the original master plan to better ensure higher level of vehicular circulation and relieve some of the pressure of vehicular traffic along Williams Field and Recker roads,” Newman said.

He said the developer’s proposed deviations would “balance the impact of purchasing Somerton Boulevard, which obviously decreased the size of the original site.”

Installing the new road will reduce the area for residential development to 20.24 acres from 22.73, according to the developer.

Proposed amenities include a clubhouse, two pool areas, shaded tot lot, tennis and pickleball courts, a sand volleyball court, a corn hole area, two dog parks, a bocce ball court, bicycle

repair areas and ramadas.

The clubhouse is anticipated to include a cyber lounge, fitness center, pilates studio, basketball, racquetball and pickleball courts and a rooftop deck.

Newman said there weren’t a lot of impacts in the requests to reduce the building setback along the eastern property boundary and reduce the landscape setback from 20 and 15 feet down to 10 feet.

He noted that no surrounding residents attended a virtual neighborhood meeting on the proposal in January nor has staff heard from anyone since.

Across Williams Field Road is another apartment project that won Town Council approval last month.

District at Cooley Station project calls for 612 multifamily units, two parking garages, restaurants and retail on 15 acres at the northwest corner of Williams Field and Recker roads.

Ten

been a nightmare for us for two and a half years.

“It’s been a nightmare that doesn’t go away and then sitting in that courtroom for 11 days hearing the details of what took place that night was even worst.”

Police officers heard Frank moaning inside his home after they had followed an “obvious” blood trail that started less than half a mile away where Samia attempted to break into Kure CBD and Vape, smashing the glass door with his fists.

Sami had spent the night drinking with friends.

Unfazed and bloodied, Samia made his way east toward 131st Street toward Frank’s home.

Samia, who is 6’3” and weighs 250 pounds, forced his way into the house through a back door, according to police. His blood was found on the back security door, another door and in a vehicle parked in the driveway.

“He said he was looking for a place to crash, for some place to sleep,” said Andy, who sat through Samia’s two days of testimony. “But he didn’t go to the front door and ring the bell. He broke in through the back.

“After assaulting Frank he rummaged through the house because blood was throughout one bedroom and a bathroom,” Andy continued. “He was looking for something.”

Painful testimony, memories

Andy said it pained him to sit through the trial and that he felt Samia “seemed like he was enjoying the whole process.”

“He was gloating about what he did,” Andy said. “He took responsibility for breaking and entering. He felt ashamed for breaking into the vape shop but he never felt ashamed beating up a man almost 42 years older than him. He was almost enjoying the moment.”

The police report said Frank was likely sleeping when he was awoken by Samia breaking through the door and was attacked in the living room.

“I didn’t get to see Frank until the day after he got assaulted – the brutality and viciousness that Frank endured,”

Andy said. “When I saw him more than 24 hours later in the hospital, he was cleaned up.

“It was 2 a.m. and Frank was surprised. The body cam of the police officers showed how he was brutally beaten in the face and how he was strangled. The police did an excellent job with the body cam capturing everything and there’s no denying the state of Frank.

“It was very difficult for us to watch it all.”

Police said among the injuries the right side of Frank’s face showed signs of a bite mark and his earlobe was partially severed.

Andy said Frank was in a coma, intubated. When the Chandler resident saw his brother in the hospital bed the following day, his thought was, “There’s no way Frank’s going to survive.”

“It took us a few days before we decided to take him off the intubation,” Andy said. “Once we took him off…he lasted 30-some hours in hospice, which all his family was there.”

Frank was pronounced dead at 1:48 a.m., Oct. 20.

Heroic native son

Frank Saiz Bernal was born Jan. 3, 1947 at home.

The family’s house was near Oak Street and Page Avenue, within walking distance of Gilbert’s iconic Water Tower in the Heritage District

“It’s now a parking lot,” Andy said.

Frank was part of a large pioneering family in Arizona, residing and thriving in the East Valley for well over 150 years and in the state since 1725, according to the family.

Frank went to Gilbert Public Schools and excelled in the classroom and in sports. He played baseball, footfall, basketball and ran track.

He lettered in baseball and football, winning All-State in 1964 and MVP, according to his obituary.

Frank continued to be an outstanding athlete while attending Phoenix Community College and is on the re-

cord books for excelling in baseball.

He was getting offers from different universities but Uncle Sam came knocking and he was drafted in February 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Six months later he was deployed to the Southeast Asian country.

Shortly upon arrival, Frank and 11 of his fellow infantrymen were ambushed – seven were killed while Frank and three others were severely wounded, according to his family.

Even though Frank was badly injured, he returned accurate fire to the enemy, according to his Army citation. He came home with the nerves in his left leg severed, hampering his ability to talk normally for the remainder of his life.

For his service, he was awarded the Purple Heart, a Combat Infantry Badge and the Army Commendation medal.

‘A ‘generous man’

Frank soon went to Arizona State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business. He later worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for over 25 years, helping underserved people in rural communities in Arizona with community development, affordable housing and water and waste control infrastruc-

The late Frank Bernal played football as a teen and he was included in a video celebrating Gilbert’s Centennial. (GSN file photo)

Jacob Kanakaholoki Samia

Frank Bernal

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BERNAL from page 6

ture development.

Andy said that it was difficult to hone in on just one fond memory of Frank.

“He was a very generous man,” he said. “People in Gilbert knew him because he was a great athlete but we knew him as our brother. He was more than a great athlete.

“He was a great person, a man of good will. He didn’t talk evil or had malice toward anyone.”

The jury also found Samia guilty of three other charges, including burglary in the second degree and kidnapping.

For all four charges, the jury also unanimously agreed beyond a reasonable doubt on aggravating factors, including Frank’s age and that the crime was “committed in a brutal, vicious or violent manner.”

“The thing that bothers me the most is he survived an ambush in Vietnam in September 1968 but he didn’t survive an ambush in his own home,” Andy said. “That’s really difficult to reconcile with him.”

Mesa agency helps foster kids find loving moms

BY JOSH ORTEGA GSN Staff Writer

Mother’s Day has a special meaning for Keosha Merriweather.

She and her husband, Jovon Merriweather Jr., are parents of seven foster children in addition to three of their own. Ranging in age from a pair of fostered year-old girl cousins to their own 17-year-old son, the children all live in their home.

“We believe in giving back to our community, and there is no better way to do that than providing a stable and caring home for our most vulnerable children,” Keosha said. “Our family is large, but it’s full of love.”

That the Merriweathers are giving a home to seven children who didn’t have one with their birth parents is a testament to the work done by A Place to Call Home.

With its Arizona operations based in Mesa, a Place to Call Home helps

Because the Merriweathers’ seven foster kids’ whereabouts must remain secret, supporters of the couple who started a gofundme.com campaign to raise money for a 15-seat van used this photo to illustrate the fundraising effort. (gofundme.com)

place some of Arizona’s 13,000 foster children. The agency is operated by StepStone Family & Youth Services, a Kentucky-based health services provider specializing in foster care, mentoring programs and counseling services across the country.

Keosha, an Arizona native, grew up with three siblings and Jovan had five

siblings when he was growing up in Chicago and their respective home lives helped fuel their desire to become foster parents.

“We were both raised with so much love around us and we felt like we had so much love to give and we would con-

see MOTHER page 16

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Mesa mega-park owners file for bankruptcy

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER GSN Staff Writer

The owner of Mesa’s financially troubled Legacy Park, formerly known as Bell Bank Park, has filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Arizona.

Chapter 11 provides temporary protections from creditors while an entity attempts to reorganize in the hopes of returning to solvency. It is different from Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which an entity’s assets are liquidated to pay off outstanding debts.

In a statement following the filing, park owner Legacy Cares saidhet intends to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy “to protect and support the park’s business operations and address Legacy Cares’ debt obligations while working towards an orderly and efficient possible sale of Legacy Cares’ assets in a manner that maximizes their value.”

In the filing, Legacy Cares states that it currently owes $366 million to bondholders, contractors and various service providers.

The filing says it currently possesses $242 million in assets, mostly from the $229 million it figures the structures and improvements at the 320-acre park are worth.

Its assets don’t include the land under

the park, which Legacy rents from landowner Pacific Proving for about $300,000 a month.

Legacy reported it had $1.4 million in cash or cash equivalents as of late April and says it also owns $8 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment.

The filing shows that a considerable portion of the technological bells and whistles at the park’s fields are leased: $17 million in leased fixtures and equipment, including scoreboards and audio/visual equipment, are detailed in the filing.

Legacy said it “anticipates” finalizing a sale of its assets in the park by August 2023. Until then, the park “will continue to be open and operate in the normal course of business” during the bankruptcy case.

In the statement released following the filing, Legacy Cares said “all (employee) wages will be paid on time and in full” and all vendors doing business with the park after the filing will also be paid.

The organization said it is working on securing debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lender, subject to court approval, to support its day-to-day operations in the coming months.

Debtor-in-possession financing is a specialty loan for companies in Chapter 11 bankruptcy that takes priority over other debts and allows the organization to see LEGACY page 10

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The owner of Legacy Park in Mesa filed for reorganization in federal bankruptcy court, listing debts totaling $366 million. (Tribune file photo)

continue operating.

The bankruptcy filing requires Legacy to detail many of its expenditures during the year prior to the filing and the document reveals large compensation packages for the principals of the park.

The filing shows that Legacy Cares President Douglas Moss was paid $298,982 in salary and expense in the past 12 months.

It also indicates that Legacy Cares had a “fee agreement” for an undisclosed amount with a company Moss owns called Kingdog Enterprises in Scottsdale.

Legacy paid its Chief Financial Officer Lawrence White $641,012 in “professional fees” rather than a salary, according to the filing.

The nonprofit Legacy Cares owns the park, which was necessary for it to sell tax-exempt municipal bonds to investors through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority.

But it was managed until last month by Legacy Sports USA, a for-profit whose principals included Randy Miller and his sons Chad and Brett, the masterminds of

Legacy Park.

According to the filing, Legacy Cares paid Legacy Sports $3.5 million to manage the park in the past year.

Last month, Legacy Cares announced a management change, ostensibly firing Legacy Sports and hiring a new manager, Elite Sports Group LLC, an entity formed just two months ago.

As the park has wrangled with its creditors over the past months, there had been talk of the senior bondholders requiring management changes if they were to continue forbearing on their rights under the terms of the loan default, but it’s not clear to what degree Elite Sports Group actually represents new management.

Elite Sports Group did not respond to request for more information about it and the names of its principals.

A document included in Legacy’s Chapter 11 filing lists Brett Miller as a managing member of Elite Sports Group, suggesting the Millers have not exited the park yet.

Online, Legacy Sports’ website redirects to Elite Sports’ website, which is very similar in look and design as the Legacy

Sports website.

Legacy Sports’ social media feeds have also seamlessly transitioned to Elite Sports Group content.

Whatever Elite Sports Group’s connection to Legacy Sports, Legacy Cares said one of its own employees, Rodney Reese, would “oversee the day-to-day management.”

Reese previously worked at the park as director of sports business development under Oak View Group, a national sports and entertainment company that had a management agreement with Legacy Sports.

He left the park when the management change occurred last month.

The general manager and executive chef at the park under OVG are no longer at Legacy Park.

Legacy Cares’ bankruptcy filing fulfills a prediction made by an accountant in Rhode Island eight months ago at a time when people associated with the park were still puffing up the project and local officials eyed the promise of youth sports tourism filling up hotel rooms.

Griffin saw trouble brewing after he

read about the park and caught the attention of federal agencies. He is assisting the SEC and others on fraud-related investigations.

Griffin said he doesn’t think the bankruptcy filing is anywhere close to the end of the story for Legacy Park and its developers.

“I think we are only in the second inning,” he said. “The bankruptcy process will be messy and lengthy. However, civil litigation will begin to fly in multiple directions.”

“In addition, regulators will step into the mix due the amount of the losses and nature of the securities (tax-exempt bonds) via a conduit such as the Arizona Industrial Development Authority,” Griffin continued.

The park’s primary investors are large institutional investors, including Vanguard and PIMCO, which manage retirement accounts and pensions, Griffin said.

Vanguard and PIMCO “simply managed money for Main Street investors (like) retirees and widows,” he said, adding that “$284 million is a sizeable amount to flush.”

State budget passes over voucher opposition

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

doubled the original $200 million estimate.

State lawmakers approved a $17.8 billion spending plan last week after Republican lawmakers beat back efforts by Democrats to curb ever-expanding universal vouchers.

Curbing vouchers that wasn’t part of the deal GOP leaders negotiated with Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson, sought to impose an immediate pause to enrolling more students in the program until lawmakers could get a better handle on costs.

She pointed out that the price tag just this school year to allow students to get tax dollars to attend private or parochial schools at taxpayer expenses, regardless of financial need, already has more than

And that doesn’t include another $176 million that finances the original program started in 2011 to serve students with special needs.

Even Hobbs in her own budget released in January predicted that universal vouchers, unless repealed, would consume $1 billion in state funds a year within a decade.

That pause, however, went down to defeat on a party-line vote as Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said that would run afoul of Hobbs having agreed to the continued expansion.

But despite the party-line support for limits, several Democrats agreed to sup-

BUDGET from page 10

port the budget anyway.

Backers said that ensured the package contained other priorities they wanted, like adding $300 million to K-12 schools.

That didn’t impress Rep. Athena Salman.

The Tempe Democrat pointed out that is just a one-time infusion. She said that the exploding costs of universal vouchers, formally known as “empowerment scholarship accounts,’’ will make it more difficult in future years for public schools to get additional cash.

In an effort to sweeten the deal, GOP House Speaker Ben Toma of Peoria agreed with Minority Leader Andres Cano of Tucson – who voted for the final package – to create a special study committee “to provide clarity and ensure that the governance and administration of empowerment scholarship accounts is appropriately designed to manage a growing and complex problem.’’

There is nothing that ensures any changes actually will be made to the program or limits imposed after the report is issued at the end of the year.

Still, there was enough in the package to add the votes of 16 of the 28 Democrats to all 31 Republicans for the main spending plan.

A separate bill to fund K-12 education – and the vouchers – fared less well with just 12 Democratic votes, but still enough to get it approved.

Those votes, coupled with divided support from Senate Democrats earlier in the day, were sufficient to send the budget to Hobbs, who praised lawmakers for ratifying the deal she cut with the GOP leaders and promised to sign it.

“Not everybody got what they wanted,’’ the governor said.

She said the deal made “historic investments’’ in affordable housing, road and bridge construction, and expanded health care for the children of the working poor.

One of those Democrats who was convinced there was enough worthwhile in the package to support it was Rep. Analise Ortiz.

She told colleagues she did a lot of talking during the campaign with residents of her district that includes the Maryvale section of Phoenix and part of Glendale.

“The people who sent me here were asking most often for relief from the housing affordability crisis that impacts Arizonans in every part of the state, of all ages and demographics,’’ she said.

“There is no portion of the state that is not touched by the rising cost of rent and mortgages,’’ Ortiz said. “There is a humanitarian crisis as seniors on fixed incomes are living in their cars and as people continue to die on our streets.’’

What got her “yes’’ vote, she said, was a $150 million deposit into the Housing Trust Fund to help finance affordable housing and even eviction-prevention programs, more, she said, than has been added over the past 10 years combined.

And there is another $60 million into a new emergency fund that can immediately go to finance homeless shelters.

Rep. Cesar Aguilar, D-Phoenix, also agreed to go along. “Democrats seem to be in the same boat as if we had a Republican governor,’’ Aguilar said.

And that, he said, includes Hobbs’

see BUDGET page 18

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As displayed in figure 1 above, the nerves are surrounded by diseased, withered blood vessels. A lack of sufficient nutrients means the nerves cannot survive, and thus, slowly die. This leads to those painful and frustrating consequences we were talking about earlier, like weakness, numbness, tingling, balance issues, and perhaps even a burning sensation.

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BOND from page 1

The bond pays for capital projects such as fixing aging infrastructure, installing school security and buying school buses.

Both are repaid through local property taxes.

“We had a very hard time when there was no bond, no override,” board member Jill Humpherys said. “There was lot of hard decisions we had to make as a board that was not fun.”

The chance of both proposals passing in an off-cycle election is good, according to Paul Bentz, senior vice president for research and strategy for HighGround. The public affairs firm conducted a 12-minute caller survey of 400 likely voters April 1-5. The poll’s margin of error was 4.9%.

Bentz told the board to expect a 3035% turnout, less than half that voted in the 2020 Presidential election.

“Most who show up at the November 2023 election have no kids at home,” he said.

The majority of those voters are 65 and older who vote no matter what, Bentz said, adding “less than 30% of your voters have kids at home.”

As such, he advised the district to do outreach and educate the older voters and voters without children who don’t have direct communication from the district and instead rely on cable news and newspapers for information about schools.

Bentz went over the polling questions, which included gauging voters’ support on proposed M&O spending.

Those that ranked high on the list in-

cluded student and staff safety, followed by maintaining competitive teacher salaries, campus security, and suicide safety and prevention.

For proposed bond items, voters ranked critical repairs to restrooms, roofing and air conditioning at the top of the list, followed by increased school security, improved entry ways and perimeter fencing and expanded and upgraded career and technical education facilities.

The poll used $100 million as the test number.

Bentz said the polling showed voters more likely to support the override and bond after they were informed of their purpose and that there would be no tax rate increase.

Voter approval for continuing the override rose to 62.5% from 46.3% after the facts were given. Those opposed to the override dropped to 28% from 39.7%.

“I’m not here telling you it’s going to pass with 62%,” Bentz said. “I’m telling you there is viability for an override in an off-cycle election. If you place it on the ballot there’s a chance of passage. When people are educated and understand it, it does well.”

The bond support also improved, increasing to 58.5% from 52.8%. Those in opposition dropped to 30.5% from 36.5%.

However, Bentz warned, support for the bond is more volatile because factors such as inflation and construction costs play a big role.

If the district was to put both measures on the ballot, 46% would say yes to both and 22% would say no on both, Bentz said, adding that 11.3% were undecided.

Noting that school security was high in importance for voters, board member Chad Thompson asked if they were in-

formed that the district already “implemented a lot already.”

Bentz said no.

Humpherys said there were still many safety measures to be implemented at the elementary school campuses.

She added that it will be a challenge for the district to reach out to those without kids and the political action committee for both proposals has a lot of work to do heading into November.

Bentz advised the board that the placement and wording of the projects proposed for bond funding on the ballot are important, He also advised the board not to overload the public with too much information.

However, he added that people 65 and older will sit down and read an elections pamphlet cover to cover.

District voters last approved a

see BOND page 13

Bonnie Betz, Gilbert Public Schools assistant superintendent of business services, outlined the bond and override measures for the school board last week. (Cecilia Chan/GSN Managing Editor)

The political consulting group HighGround polled 400 likely voters in the Gilbert Public Schools district on how they felt about a bond issue. In the “pre-test,” respondents largely opposed the bond. But as the post-test results charty shows, once those same people were told what the bond pays for and that it would not affect thjeir taxes, more were far more favorable to the idea. (GPS)

$100-million bond and a 15% override in 2019. The bond will be entirely spent by summer, except for $500,000 in contingency, and the override is good for seven years but funding drops by a third in year six.

Betz explained the importance of continuing the override as school districts with higher assessed property values get less state dollars.

Gilbert receives $158 million from the state and $125.8 million from local property taxes, she said.

Thompson said there’s a risk if property values plummet or interest rates go sky high.

Betz said the district could wait until it was more favorable market conditions to sell the bonds but that property values are increasing as the current assessed valuation is two years in arrears.

She added that if voters approved the bond, it would give the district a 10-year authorization to sell $100 million in bonds or whatever the board picks as the number.

Board member Sheila Uggetti asked if staff talked with other districts that lost their bond elections. For instance, voters rejected Higley Unified School District’s $77.2-million bond in 2022 and a $95-million bond in 2021.

Superintendent Dr. Shane McCord said it was his understanding that pollsters told the school districts they would not do well in an election.

“I think it was voter preference and timing,” he said. “Our polling’s favorable as of April.”

Betz said she was informed that the Queen Creek Unified School District lost its $198-million bond election last year due to the infiltration of charter schools in the neighborhoods.

The growing town planned to use the bond money to build new schools and “taxpayers don’t like to pay for new buildings,” Betz said.

On the other hand, Tempe Union voters in Tempe, Chandler and Ahwatukee approved the district’s $100 million bond request and two capital overrides by a 2-1 margin last November.

Thompson said perhaps GPS should

put the two proposals on the ballot during an on-cycle election year when federal and state elections are held.

Otherwise, he said, “it can be perceived as gamesmanship” in that fewer people vote in an off year.

Humpherys disagreed, saying it took her two hours to fill out the ballot in 2022 and that having just the override and bond allows for more discussion and more attention.

“An off-year gives the community an opportunity to actually talk about our schools,” she said. “There’s a very positive aspect to it.”

The board also was told that the district has to go out anyways to the voters in November in order to continue the override and putting the bond on the same ballot made sense as the district has to pay $330,000 to Maricopa County to oversee the election.

If the bond was put off later, the district would have to pay that cost again.

The board member also pitched going higher than the $100 million figure used in the polling.

Humpherys noted that most of the district’s buildings were constructed from 1990-2000 and the district will need more than the $20 million it allocates each year to maintain them.

She suggested asking for $125 million or $150 million “so 10 years down the road we don’t raise taxes to get a $200-million bond to address these issues.”

McCord said he would love to ask for $400 million and not have to go back to the voters for a long time.

Mesa Public Schools Governing Board last week approved a ballot measure for November seeking voter approval of a$500 million bond.

McCord said, “I think that voters have been very good to Gilbert Public Schools, I don’t want this to be a money-grab.

“I’m still set on $100 million. This is what voters are used to. We can show them what $100 million will get them. We can use more obviously. But again if you go to our voters we have to respect them (like) they respected us.

“I don’t want the perception that we are just hitting people up for money. It’s mutual respect.”

GPS faces $198M in building repairs

BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor

Gilbert Public Schools spends $20 million a year to keep its 250 buildings in shape but it needs well over that amount annually in order to sustain them through the remainder of their life cycles, according to consultants.

The Governing Board at a May 2 work study heard from asset managers who assessed all the buildings in the district’s portfolio, determined their condition, developed a life-cycle cost and prioritized needs.

“What does it take in order to achieve what we call asset sustainability?” said Tim Dettlaff, senior vice president of asset management for Ameresco. “Just maintaining those facilities as they are over the next 30 years would require $48 million per year. So that’s the reality.”

Dettlaff noted that GPS’s overall portfolio right now is about 32 years old on av-

erage, “which isn’t bad.” The district constructed 75% of its buildings in the 1990s and 2000.

Mitchell Boatman, Ameresco project manager, said the district’s portfolio is sizable, comprising around 250 buildings housing about 4.8 million square feet.

“And if they were all torn down today and you were tasked with rebuilding them,” Boatman said, “it would cost you about $1.8 billion to rebuild them like for like.”

So that the public doesn’t confuse the 250 buildings as 250 schools, Boatman gave an example of the Campo Verde campus, which has five buildings on site. The district has 39 schools.

According to Dettlaff, each building’s age, size and function were noted and then a software tool identified the elements within “from roof to foundation and everything in between mechanical, electrical, architectural (and) structural.”

“We then attached a cost to each one of those elements,” he told the board, explaining:

“Probably the most important piece is how long are those systems going to last based on when I installed them, how I’m maintaining them, etc...We track all of these practical life cycles for every single building element in your entire portfolio.”

The information is then added to a database that the district can use to help determine funding allocations.

“What’s nice about this data is it puts you in a position and your staff in a position where they now have a view that is concrete that basically says these are the things I need to pay attention to coming up over the next 30 years,” he said.

District staff also will be able to update the database, which was referred to as a living, breathing capital plan versus a static excel spreadsheet by Boatman.

“In Gilbert we were building a lot of schools,” Superintendent Dr. Shane McCord said. “At least one a year but sometimes two or three in certain areas and all of those things are coming due in a lot of different ways.”

McCord asked the consultants what common infrastructure issues they’ve seen on campuses in Arizona.

The cost of deferring maintenance on Gilbert Public Schools’ buildings now totals $198 million but would grow to $1.6 billion over the next 30 years if there was no continuous capital investment by the district. (Ameresco)

“The one thing we do see is that school districts typically will go ahead and fix things that are visible,” Dettlaff said. “So the exteriors, the interiors, walls, finishes, mill work, things like that – washroom renovations upgrades, which are all necessary and wonderful to do.

“What typically gets missed is everything that’s behind the walls. What we refer to as MEP – mechanical, electrical, plumbing. You’re doing all these sorts of things that you can see but it’s all the mechanical systems that start to catch up and that’s usually the stuff that surprises everybody. Those end up being and becoming the larger ticket items over time especially as you build something.”

Boatman said a majority of the district’s buildings were designed to last 50 years.

“Historically about 35% of a facility’s value comes due in the first half of its life, in the first 25 years,” he said. “Typically, a bunch of items but smaller ticket items, so flooring, finishes, wall finishes, lighting equipment, water heaters, stuff like that.”

The remainder, about 65% of a facility’s worth will come due in the last half of its life, in years 26 through 50, he added.

Dettlaff said the district, which will see a lot of needs coming over the next three decades, has a $198-million backlog of things to fix today – 88% are mechanical, electrical and plumbing needs.

“That may look like an alarming number,” he said. “It is a big number, there’s no

question. But I’m going to tell you it’s not a sky-is-falling number.”

He said that most school districts try to figure out what the risk rating could be and should be.

“In other words, do I have to spend all $198 million today to fix my schools so that I don’t compromise the quality of teaching and learning in the environment?” he said.

“The answer is no you don’t.”

He said if the district did nothing over the course of 30 years, that $198 million in fixes would balloon to $1.6 billion worth of need.

But if the district continued to invest $20 million every year for the next 30 years, the $1.6 billion drops the unfunded liability to about $1 billion, Dettlaff said, adding at which point does it affects teaching and learning.

He said the industry standard for measuring risk of a campus or building is to use a facility condition index, a simple ratio – how much money is needed to fix a school today divided by its current replacement value.

“If I built the school brand new it’d be zero dollars needed to fix it divided by its replacement value meaning an FCI of zero is perfect, it’s in great shape,” he said.

An FCI between zero and 5% means the facility is running perfect, in great shape; 5-10% is in the fair range; 10-30% is poor

Stop PAD: The Silent Killer

“PAD is often called the silent killer because you may have it and not even know,” says Dr. Joel Rainwater, chief medical officer of Comprehensive Integrated Care (CiC). The reason it’s sometimes missed is because people dismiss the symptoms of this dangerous disease as ‘just a sign of getting older’. But it’s not. “It’s not normal to have difficulty walking to your mailbox, it’s not normal to have constant leg pain or cramping,” says Rainwater, “That’s not normal aging, it could be a sign of PAD.”

PAD (peripheral artery disease) is a circulation disorder and those with it are at a much higher risk of heart problems and death from heart attack or stroke. “If there’s poor blood flow to your legs and feet, you’ll have pain, cramping or wounds that won’t heal,” explains Rainwater. “If you ignore these signs, it may lead to an amputation. If you get an amputation because you have PAD, your life expectancy is worse than if you had breast cancer or lymphoma. PAD is no joke.”In some cases, people have been diagnosed with neuropathy. The symptoms of neuropathy and PAD are very similar and include difficulty walking without taking a break, burning, tingling, numbness and/or pain. “When I see a patient who has been told they have neuropathy and they’ve been maximized on medication that’s not working, I know there may be something else causing it and one of the big, notorious offenders in that scenario is PAD,” says Rainwater.

PAD is caused by the buildup of fatty material inside the arteries. This buildup occurs gradually over time and

Tell neuropathy pain, “later alligator.”

hardens into plaque inside the artery. This condition is known as atherosclerosis. Sometimes, it’s called “hardening of the arteries.” No matter what you call it, this plaque causes a narrowing of the passageway, restricting the amount of blood that flows throughout the body.

Without an adequate blood supply, your body can’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs to maintain healthy legs, feet and toes. “This is something we can fix,” explains Rainwater. “The good news about PAD, is that there’s hope. There is treatment and it’s excellent, it’s been one of the biggest success stories in all of medicine.” Patients are able to get back on their feet and everyday living with almost no downtime, no stitches and no overnight hospital stay. Medicare as well as most insurance plans will cover treatment.

Dr. Rainwater’s focus is on teaching people to recognize PAD and take action. “I’m here to tell patients that there are options, all they have to do is ask. They might have to ask a different doctor, but they don’t have to live with the idea that they’re going to suffer for the rest of their life,” says Rainwater. His best advice, “Go look for answers.”

If traditional neuropathy treatments haven’t given you the pain relief you’ve been seeking, it’s time to start asking questions.

YES / NO

Could I have been misdiagnosed with neuropathy?

If I do have neuropathy, is poor circulation making my symptoms worse?

Is medication the only option to treat neuropathy pain?

If you don’t know the answer to these questions it’s time to start asking the doctors at CiC questions about how we can treat your symptoms in the comfort of one of our Valley wide locations.

Call CiC today to schedule an appointment with one of our specialists.

PAD is caused by the buildup of fatty material inside the arteries, limiting blood flow.

and over 30% is critical, according to Dettlaff.

“It would be ideal to manage my risk and make sure that all my buildings are at least in the good or the fair range,” he said. “So in other words, at least 90% of the value of my schools are unencumbered, they’re working the way they’re supposed to.”

That said, he added that he would rank GPS today an A-minus overall.

“You’re sitting at an 8.7% FCI,” he said. “Having done hundreds of these across the country, that is a good place to be compared to others. That doesn’t mean that you should put the brakes on and stop.

“I’m just letting you know that you’ve done a really good job, your team, your staff…done a really good job of figuring out where to invest next over the past number of years to keep you where you are today.”

Bonnie Betz, assistant superintendent of business services, noted that if the dis-

MOTHER from page 8

stantly see the need of children needing forever homes,” Keosha said.

“We always grew up on giving back and life’s purpose is to serve other people and what better people to serve than children.”

The Merriweathers’ opportunity came in March 2022, when they began fostering one girl and then, within a month, were asked to also take care of her sister.

In August, five more foster children arrived to the couple’s open arms.

All seven foster kids come from “a very traumatic background” and all have some type of special needs including autism, developmental delay, speech delay, behavioral challenges, PTSD, and severe anxiety, Keosha explained.

While raising these children has its challenges, Keosha said the reward comes from watching them emerge from initial apprehension to smiling kids who seek out her hugs and kisses.

“It’s doing those types of things that just makes me feel like it was also worth it,” Keosha said.

This life comes a long way from when Keosha spent five years in a home health career including working as a caregiver, phlebotomist, certified nursing assis-

trict continued investing the $20 million a year, it would still be within that fair range through 2028-29.

Dettlaff added that if the district did nothing to its portfolio, it would reach the critical stage by 2033.

“I can tell you at that point with great confidence that if you let that happen, your ability to teach and learn in those classrooms would absolutely be compromised and challenged,” he said.

He gave examples such as a premature failure of equipment that would send students home and teachers complaining about inadequate lighting.

“At the end of the day the idea here is yes you will want to try and target towards $48 million per year,” Dettlaff said. “That will ensure that the facilities stay in a position where teaching and learning won’t be challenged.”

Board member Chad Thompson asked the consultants if they created a list of things for the district that need to be tar-

tant and home health director.

Along with that career, she also had planned to start a food truck that would serve various foods including wings, tacos and vegan food options.

Suddenly, Keosha’s 9-5 career and food truck went on the backburner and she found herself a stay-at-home mom “completely booked with appointments” and ensuring she meets all her children’s needs.

“I have a very, very busy life,” Keosha said, “but I wouldn’t change one minute of it, not one minute.”

While the family has made due with their new life, a family friend started a GoFundMe to buy the family a 15-passenger van to easily haul the large family around. The fundraising has already raised over $19,000 toward their goal of $55,000.

One of the biggest problems Keosha said she’s found with Arizona’s foster care system is the understaffed Arizona Department of Child Safety.

DCS looks to reunify families when a foster child has “a sufficient, feasible and sustainable safety plan” or “is not in impending danger” in their birth parents’ home.

“I don’t think that’s always the best thing, in my opinion,” Keosha said.

geted more urgently.

Dettlaff responded that lot of the district’s mechanical systems will start to come due around 2029 and that “stuff that’s coming due in the next five years actually has a prioritization score” in the database.

“Some of the things that popped out are things like fire and life safety or code-related items,” he said.

“In your portfolio in the next five years you have about $8 million worth of life safety code issues that you want to pay attention to and they’re not all due today but they’re going to be due in the next five years.

Thompson asked Betz if it was feasible and sustainable for the district to jump from spending $20 million to $48 million.

Betz said the $20 million over the last five years came out of the district’s bond and that it would be difficult to spend $48 million each year given that students are in class most of that time.

Keosha said she’s found that state case managers have a “very stressful” job and she understands why they don’t last very long.

“It takes a special kind of person to be able to handle a job like that or a career like that day to day because it can wear and tear at you over time,” Keosha said.

Since 1998, A Place To Call Home has helped families become licensed to provide safe, loving homes to children in foster care.

It also is working to debunk common misconceptions about the foster care system.

“We may think that fostering a child is something that we’re not able to do,” Keosha said. “It is if we open our hearts.”

A Place To Call Home said foster parents do not have to be heterosexual, married couples. They can be single, married or in a relationship. A Place to Call Home does not discriminate against sexual orientation or identity.

Nor do foster parents have to own a home. The requirement is to have adequate space, including a bed, dresser and closet space for a foster child.

Foster parents receive support from the state and community partners. A Place to Call Home provides case man-

Board member Sheila Uggetti pointed out that $2 million of the $20 million is from the state.

“So, if we didn’t have the bond, we would only have $2 million,” she said.

Thompson asked, “How are we … without an ability to keep things up to date without asking taxpayers for more?”

Betz responded that it’s “all about prioritizing” and that monies can be moved between two funds to meet regular ongoing facility reinvestment costs.

“We had a time when we didn’t have bonds. It was about one year and it was tough,” board member Jill Humpherys said. “We didn’t have an override and we didn’t have bonds. We didn’t do anything that wasn’t a major emergency or what had to be done and so there was a backlog created.

“Thankfully our voters came forward in 2015 and passed our override and our bond and then we were able to go back and address some of those issues and put more money into our buildings.”

agers to help meet the needs of the children placed in a home.

Foster parents do not need prior parenting experience. A Place to Call Home provides intensive training and ongoing support.

Becoming a foster parent is an affordable process. A Place to Call Home offers CPR and first aid training, fingerprints and background checks at no cost to the foster parent.

“With thousands of children in Arizona’s foster care system, we’re always looking to connect children and youth to loving families,” said Elisia Manuel, a spokeswoman for A Place To Call Home.

With May designated National Foster Care Month, she added, “our message is that you can change a child’s life— we encourage you to reach out if you’re interested or have questions about becoming a foster parent.”

EV kids home pitches huge hotel plan

BY SCOTT SHUMAKER GSN Staff Writer

For nearly 70 years, Sunshine Acres Children’s Home has provided long-term homes for children in need on its 110-acre campus in Mesa.

Supported primarily by private donors, the orphanage – which often calls itself “The Miracle in the Desert” – is eyeing a move that could be a landmark in its history and give it greater financial independence.

In a plan submitted to the Mesa Planning Department, Sunshine Acres proposes to turn a 36-acre strip along the southern edge of its property into a 250-room resort hotel and waterpark with a 30,0000 square foot conference center, 21,000 square feet of retail space and four full-service restaurants.

To the east of the resort there would be another 125-room limite- service hotel, and east of that, a 220-room dormitory and training facilities for students of the CAE flight school, which operates at the nearby Falcon Field.

The land now is mostly undeveloped desert. A small part of the site currently has a baseball field and parking lot on it.

The land would be developed for Sunshine Acres by Mesa-based Power Hotel Group, which currently operates Sheraton Mesa Hotel at Wrigleyville West, Doubletree by Hilton Phoenix Gilbert, Best Western Legacy Inn and Suites and Marriott Courtyard Mesa

at Wrigleyville West, according to the LinkedIn profile of PHG Director Kevin Thorpe.

Documents submitted to the city say that Sunshine Acres would retain ownership of the land under a long-term ground lease with Power Hotel Group and receive rent revenue from the developer.

“This arrangement is critical to helping Sunshine Acres and their ongoing mission to provide housing, training and resources for homeless children,” project documents state.

“It will significantly lessen their dependence on fundraising and grants.”

The proposed hotels, convention center and CAE dorms would be a maximum of four stories tall.

The concept for the large waterpark attached to the larger 250-room hotel envisions many amenities, including a lagoon with beach entry, a lazy river

and pool bar.

The children’s home campus was established in 1954 by the Rev. Jim and Vera Dingman, who bought a former boarding school on 125-acres of land for $29,500 with the help of the Mesa Optimist Club.

Sunshine Acres’ website states that the home does not receive government funds for the direct care of the children.

Instead, the Christian organization relies primarily on donations from individuals and businesses, its thrift shop and fundraisers like the annual Shootout for Sunshine golf tournament held at the nearby Longbow Golf Club.

Sunshine Acres reports that it has helped raise over 2,000 children since its opening.

The kids live in large single-family homes, 10 to a house with “house parents,” and the organization provides numerous enrichment programs.

According to the most recently available 990 form filed with the IRS, Sunshine Acres reported $6 million in revenue in 2020, including $5 million from private contributions and $440,000 in government grants.

The proposed resort and convention center and other projects along Longbow Parkway are currently in the pre-submittal phase, with developers submitting project plans and meeting with city staff ahead of a formal submission.

The land is currently zoned for single-family homes, so Power Hotel Group will seek a zone change to Limited Commercial with a Planned Area Development overlay.

The project narrative states the CAE dormitory will require a Council Use Permit for part of the site that is underneath a Falcon Field overflight zone.

CAE Phoenix is a major flight training school that provides cadet programs for American Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Aeromexico. It operates over 80 aircraft in the Phoenix metro area.

According to the project narrative, the dorm and training space on Sunshine Acres would allow the school to consolidate its Phoenix-area facilities and living accommodations into a single location.

The plans also include a new thrift and boutique store on the property for processing and selling donated goods, as well as selling items created by Sunshine Acres residents.

Sunshine Acres in Mesa would lease 36 acres of its 110-acre campus, which includes a farm, living quarters for dozens of children, a chapel and other facilities. (YouTube)

better program.’’

agreement to not just leave last year’s universal voucher plan in place but to allow it to grow without caps.

“What is the point of holding the governorship,’’ Aguilar asked. “Why did we all work to get Gov. Hobbs in office and we are still short?’’ he said, saying what was adopted was “not a Democratic budget but a Republican budget.’’

Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, however, was unwilling to accept the arguments by some of her Democratic colleagues that there was enough good in the package to allow them to swallow the bad.

“We as a caucus were given crumbs,’’ she said.

Yet at the same time, Sandoval said, the spending plan is packed dollars for other priorities, like $15.3 million for capital projects for the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo.

That is part of what Salman called $633 million in “pet projects’’ handed out by GOP leaders to lawmakers who agreed to support the package.

Salman said these are things like road and bridge construction and improvement which are not priorities in the Arizona Department of Transportation FiveYear Plan but “some of which jumped the line because they had an ‘in’ with a certain member.’’

•

Still, the central point of contention was the decision to leave intact the universal voucher plan and the complaints by Democrats that the ever-increasing price tag will leave the state with less money for other priorities including public education.

But Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, said that has to be examined in the context of what he said has been nearly a doubling of state dollars in public education since 2013.

“And what have we gotten for our investment?’’ he asked.

Heap also decried the “constant stream of attacks’’ on the voucher program. He said it has to be seen not as an attack on the program but “an attack on the students, on the kids and the families that rely on the ESA program to put their kids into schools.’’

“Why?’’ Heap said. “Because they had the audacity to take their children out of a government school and put them into a

In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein of Tempe said she, too, believed that she and others were forced to vote for the Hobbs-negotiated package, saying that was the price Democrats had to pay to get their priorities included.

“I did not want and do not want to vote ‘yes’ on these budget bills,’’ she said. “But in order to keep the funding for K-12 and to keep the funding for housing and to establish a homelessness fund, I had to vote ‘yes.’ ‘’

Epstein’s contention that whether a better deal might be negotiated is speculative at best.

Senate President Pro-Tem T.J. Shope said it always was clear that Republicans would not get the budget that might otherwise be enacted with a Republican as the state’s chief executive. And the Coolidge Republican said they were prepared to negotiate.

But he said GOP leaders also made it clear to the governor from the start that some issues were non-negotiable. And that specifically included continuation of the universal vouchers that were enacted just last year.

Sen. Priya Sundareshan of Tucson decried a tax break that the conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus got inserted into the package that Hobbs approved. Only those who have paid some taxes in the past three years will be entitled to get a one-time $250 credit for each child, up to $750.

“That means that the most vulnerable, the most needy families will not actually receive the benefits of this tax rebate,’’ Sundareshan said.

But Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, one of the architects of the plan, defended it.

“Arizona families are being crushed right now,’’ he said, with rising costs of food and fuel. “Our job is to do all we can to support Arizona families and Arizona citizens to the best of our ability.’’

Republicans inserted language to ensure that the governor gets no credit when the funds go out. They added language which states that any communications about the rebate cannot be sent from the governor’s office, be put on the governor’s letterhead, or contain any reference at all to the governor’s office. BUDGET

Colleges try to fill gap in veterinarian positions

BY SARAH MIN HELLER Cronkite News

Veterinarians and students dashed around and huddled over exam tables, as caged dogs and cats awaited or recovered from treatment at Midwestern University’s College of Veterinary Medicine

“I like making an impact on animals, as well as the people who care for them,” said Jazmine Kim, who plans to graduate in 2024. “The opportunities that I’ve had here are ones that I will carry with me forever.”

Kim, 32, was a vet tech before starting at Midwestern. She planned to work with wildlife, but found she enjoys dogs and cats. And because Arizona has made veterinary school affordable through a new loan repayment program, she is planning to practice veterinary medicine in Arizona for at least four years.

Kim is helping to bolster the shortfall of veterinarians in Arizona and the United States.

There has been a recent decline in veterinarians and vet technicians nationally, said Stephanie Nichols-Young, president of the Animal Defense League of Arizona.

Employment of veterinarians is projected to grow 19% from 2021 to 2031, compared with 5% for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s in large part because new veterinarians are needed to replace ones who are retiring or leaving the occupation.

The American Animal Hospital Association estimates about 2,000 veterinarians retire each year in the U.S., while others leave the often-demanding field, and only about 2,600 veterinarians graduate annually.

To help fill the gap, Arizona’s Legislature passed SB 1271 in 2022, creating the Arizona Veterinary Loan Assistance Program. It includes up to $100,000 of student loan reimbursement for veterinarians who obtain a degree after Jan. 1, 2023, and work in Arizona for at least four years.

Two years must be at a municipal,

county, or nonprofit shelter, or in an agricultural practice designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as having a shortage of vets.

The Arizona Humane Society, which pushed for the legislation, said, “Animal lives have been at risk because Arizona doesn’t have enough veterinarians to provide lifesaving services at public shelters and private clinics — in both urban and rural areas.

“This has negatively affected pet owners, ranchers, private veterinary practices, and animal shelters and rescues across the state.”

Compounding the problem for decades was the fact that Arizona had no official veterinary schools. There are only about 32 accredited ones nationwide, according to the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.

In 2012, Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine started a four-year program and expects 125 vets to graduate this May.

In 2020, the University of Arizona created a College of Veterinary Medicine and started a three-year program, enrolling 110 veterinary students out of about 518 applicants.

The two schools will graduate a combined total of about 230 veterinarians this year, and they continue to get more applications than they can accommodate.

Midwestern alone said it gets more than 1,400 applicants annually.

“We’re sending the students out to general-practice clinics where they see things that they’re going to see every single day once they graduate from vet school,” said Goetz, adding that rather than a curriculum full of lecture classes, UArizona students engage in active learning and check their knowledge with a team of classmates.

“They stick in those teams throughout the entirety of their school education until they get to their clinical year,” Goetz said. “

The school also has been trying to teach students about the overall challenges of veterinary medicine and running a practice.

At Midwestern — a private college with a main campus in Downers Grove, Illinois — students learn early on how to neuter an animal, which covers many surgery basics, according to Dr. Rachael Kreisler, associate professor of shelter medicine and epidemiology at the school.

“Our students are our primary surgeons for our cases,” said Kreisler. “We’re out here, trying to help the community.”

Midwestern works with nonprofits such as St. Vincent de Paul, the Humane Society and some tribal entities, including the Navajo Nation, Kreisler said.

They schedule patients’ pets for students to learn and practice their skills in the college’s 7-year-old mobile surgery clinic and a pop-up clinic for non-surgery cases introduced in 2019.

It also has the Companion Animal Clinic building where people can have their pets treated.

UArizona has a three-year, year-round course, said Dr. Nellie Goetz, associate professor of practice at its College of Veterinary Medicine. A doctor of veterinary medicine degree typically takes four years with summer breaks.

“The design of the vet school being three years was intended to address the vet shortage,” Goetz said. “They’re done a little earlier, so they’re not spending as much time in school, and also … they’re not spending as much money on school.”

There is no teaching hospital for students on campus.

A 2018 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found veterinarians in the U.S. at increased risk for suicide — a trend that has spanned over three decades.

Factors cited in the study included long hours, work overload, difficult practice management responsibilities, poor work-life balance and access to euthanasia used for animals.

UArizona isn’t ignoring issues of worklife imbalance, Goetz said.

Both Midwestern and UArizona encourage veterinary students to nurture their mental health.

UArizona students get mental health breaks, a gym, counselors, learning specialists and mental health specialists. Midwestern has free counseling and a mental health hotline, and the school works with a chapter of Not One More Vet, a mental wellness organization for veterinarians.

“The school is very forward-thinking about those kinds of things,” said Goetz, “and really making sure they’re paying attention to what the students are feeling and thinking and what they’re going through.”

One side effect in Arizona of having fewer vets is an inability to offer adequate basic community services like trap-neuter-return to help lower the feral and stray cat population.

When cats with microchips get

Midwestern University’s mobile veterinary clinic sits outside the university’s Animal Health Institute. The pop-up has the ability to move locations. (Izabella Hernandez/Cronkite News)

CUSD please with audit of 2021-22 finances

BY KEN SAIN GSN Staff Writer

Lana Berry, the chief financial officer for Chandler Unified School District, said the audit of last school year’s finances was the most encouraging she has seen in her time with the district.

The independent audit found only seven areas of concern out of the 400 areas that were examined.

And the district was aware of one of those areas but doesn’t care about it.

“This is our best kind of audit, in a sense of the number of findings, we only had seven,” Berry said at the April 26 governing board meeting. “But there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”

The audit was performed by Heinfeld Meech and company representative Jennifer Shields was at the meeting to discuss the findings.

Here are the seven areas of concern:

• Student attendance tracking: This is the one the district willingly doesn’t follow. The state wants to give credit only for students

who attend an entire class period while the district credits them as “present” if they stay at least half the class period.

“Parents want to know if their students have been in attendance, usually for that period, and not get a phone call every time that they’ve missed a couple of minutes of that class,” Berry said. “And so we figure if they’ve been there for at least half of the class, they came back from a doctor’s appointment, or a dentist appointment, or had to step out for an appointment of some form, they get credit and that’s how we code it.”

• Board management procedures: The audit found a case where the cash receipts of a fundraiser were not approved by the governing board. That has been fixed for this fiscal year.

• Accounting records: There was a wrong code on a battery for a cleaning tool. The district said it has reconfigured its workflow process so that won’t happen again.

• The district was charged $140 in late fees for credit cards. The district has switched from credit cards to procurement cards,

which have a very low limit, usually $250.

Berry said the district made the payment on time, but the bank had switched addresses. The check was returned and had to be sent to the new address. She said the bank agreed to waive late fees on two of the three bills.

• The audit found that students enrolled in Arizona Online Instruction Programs in grades 7 and 8 were only required to be in session for 1,000 hours. They are required to be in session for 1,068 hours. The district says it will revise its policies to the state standard.

• Student attendance reporting, part 2: The audit found that of the seven Arizona Online Instruction students reviewed, the district did not retain an intended full-time equivalency enrollment statement.The district says this has been fixed.

• Student attendance reporting, part 3: In one case a student’s enrollment date did not match. Berry said in this case, a parent enrolled her child, but the child did not begin attending classes until five days later. This was a bookkeeping error.

trapped, their owners are contacted and asked for permission to neuter them, said Kelsey Dickerson of the Arizona Humane Society.

Because Arizona’s loan repayment program is new, it isn’t yet clear how effective the program will be.

Other states have repayment programs that encourage rural veterinary practice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers a national Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program.

Dr. Steven Hansen, president and CEO of the Arizona Humane Society, said veterinarians are able to apply for Arizona’s loan repayment program after they get a state veterinary license.

They must practice for four years in the state, after which they will receive the loan repayment funds, Hansen said.

Veterinary student debt averaged $157,146 in 2020, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Veterinarians’ median pay was $100,370 per year in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gilbert grad grateful for his education at ASU

GSN NEWS STAFF

Kwam Kassim’s love of coding inspired him to pursue a bachelor of science degree in software engineering, and he accomplished that last week through the hard work and his mom’s dedication.

e Gilbert resident earned his degree at Arizona State University’s spring graduation ceremony May 8.

Once a high school athlete, Kassim received a football scholarship that would have enabled him to earn a four-year degree. But shortly after starting school, he realized he’d lost his passion for the sport.

Withdrawing from school, he took some general education classes, worked at warehouses and call centers, and tried to discover his true passion in life.

Not long after relocating to Arizona, he discovered coding. What began out of

curiosity quickly developed into a major pursuit.

“One day, I picked up coding and I just never let it go,” Kassim said. “A year passed by and I coded every day. I decided to take a real chance at engineering. I hadn’t even thought about majoring in STEM because I was afraid of the math, but I decided to take a chance and not be afraid of it.”

His mother, a driver for Uber, approached him with an opportunity: Earning his degree at ASU Online. rough the Uber Education Partnership, a tuition-coverage program for qualifying Uber drivers and eligible family members, Kassim was able to apply to ASU Online and take the rst step on a new life path.

“She’s the reason I was able to attend ASU,” he said. “ is partnership was incredibly helpful as it allowed me to focus on my studies without worrying about

the nancial burden of student debt. It provided me with the opportunity to pursue a great education, which I truly appreciate.”

Going back to school felt di erent this time around, Kassim said.

While he had struggled before to nd a focus in school, his educational goals had become clear, he explained.

“ASU made me realize how much I love and enjoy engineering and computer science,” he said. “ASU showed me all the possibilities and how fun this eld actually is, especially when you’re working on solving real-world problems. … ASU really helped transform my life in a major way.”

Kassim explained that his “aha moment” came “when I stumbled upon an advertisement for coding.”

“Out of curiosity, I decided to try it out

East Valley nonpro t strives to help unsheltered people

BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA GSN Contributor

The acronym HOPE in the Ahwatukee nonpro t ‘HOPE for the Homeless’ has an emphatic and personal de nition to founder Tim Berry.

“Humbly O ering Positive Encouragement” emerged from Berry’s own “nearly homeless” experience as well as his compassion for those on the streets struggling with addiction.

Berry said he thanks God that he was able to not only overcome his own dark time of his life, but to overcome it to help others.

“I was never actually on the streets, but real close,” he explained. “After losing my home, I went into chemical dependency treatment for three months and then a transitional living home for three months.

at’s why I refer to this time as ‘essentially homeless.’ I rebuilt my life through faith in God.”

e nonpro t was incorporated in 2018 at Mountain Park Church and every month up to 100 volunteers gather at the church to pack 1,500 to 2,000 HOPE bags with toiletries, snack packs, socks, survival blankets, rst aid kits and more.

e bags are distributed to the homeless the following day, Sunday, at Andre House in downtown Phoenix, where HOPE volunteers lead a Recovery meeting that’s followed by attendees being served a hot homemade meal.

e remaining packed HOPE bags –emblazoned with their logo and major sponsors on the opposite side – Sunday’s meal are forwarded to ministry partners throughout metro Phoenix.

e next HOPE Bag packing is sched-

uled for Saturday, May 20, 9 to 11 a.m. in the lobby of Mountain Park Church, 16461 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. Volunteers are welcome.

Even as the bags are being packed, other volunteers work preparing the meal for the following day’s post-recovery meeting dinner.

Overseeing it all is Berry who, with his brother Scott Berry, own and operate Precision Auto Body in Chandler and Tempe. is is the business that Tim Berry nearly lost when his life spiraled downward after becoming addicted to opiates.

He is neither afraid nor ashamed to recount his story of how he ended up losing so much of what had been a good life with his sweetheart and now wife, Bernice.

“In 1999, I was prescribed opiate pain medication for a back injury,” he recounted. “ at triggered a physical and psycho-

logical dependency that spanned almost a decade.

“It was a rollercoaster ride of multiple stays in treatment, moments of sobriety that eventually led back down the same dark path of addiction, each getting progressively worse than the last,” he recalled.

“Inevitably, the disease progressed to the point that I lost my business, home, all relationships, and almost my life from a heart attack. I ended up broke, hopeless, and homeless,” he said.

At one of his “lowest points”, Berry recounted, some strangers started taking him to Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) in downtown Phoenix for a recovery meeting using the 12-step program.

CASS, 230 S. 12th Ave., was founded in 1984. It is Arizona’s largest and lon-

Kwam Kassim of Gilbert earned a B.S. in software engineering last week from Arizona State University. (Courtesy of ASU)

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Robert (Bob) Bowen DeVane

Robert (Bob) Bowen DeVane was born in Roanoke Rapids, NC on May 13, 1942. He grew up in Norfolk, VA, where he apprenticed to be a newspaper printer. He served in the Air Force from 1960-1964 in the Field Maintenance Squadron as an Administrative Specialist at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He then moved to Phoenix where he worked

as a printer for the AZ Republic Newspaper for more than 30 years. He served as an adult Bible Study teacher for more than 50 years and in The Turkey Club, a social group for retired men.

Bob is survived by his wife, Camille DeVane (Carlock), 5 children: John DeVane (Jennifer), Steve DeVane (Peggy), Laura Meehan (Charles), Travis Munson (Tracie), Lisa Crews (Tim); 11 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren who were by his side at home when he died on May 9, 2023.

His funeral service will be on Monday, May 15, at 6 pm at Royal View Baptist Church, 201 Elliot Rd., Gilbert, AZ, 85234.

and quickly found myself captivated by it. However, my true ‘aha moment’ occurred when I created my rst web application that assisted users with budgeting.

“I was so engrossed in the process that I did not even realize I had spent about 30 hours that weekend working on it, because of how much I enjoyed the process.

“It was then that I knew for certain that I wanted to pursue a career in software engineering. So majoring in the (computer science) software engineering eld was a no-brainer.”

He said that while he was at ASU Online. “I was surprised to learn about the strong correlation between math and software engineering, which ultimately changed my perspective.”

“Initially, I was taken aback by the sheer number of math classes required for a software engineering major and could not fathom why they were necessary. However, after taking a course in discrete math at ASU, I came to understand the critical role math plays in soft-

“It opened my eyes to the fact that mathematical concepts can be used to tackle complex software engineering problems, and this realization altered my perspective on the importance of math.”

Kassim is particularly grateful to ASU Online database Professor Diego Del Blanco, who “taught me the most important lesson.”

“He emphasized the signi cance of having the ability to solve problems, even if there is limited information or assistance available. He also stressed the importance of being exposed to various technologies and having the skill to read and comprehend documentation.”

For those still in school, Kassim advises they “persevere through the di cult times.”

“ ere will be moments when the workload seems overwhelming and you may feel like giving up,” he said. “However, it’s important to remember not to quit and to keep pushing forward, the end feels so much sweeter.”

Kassim will continue working as an engineer for Starbucks.

gest-serving emergency shelter program for individuals, families, seniors and veterans experiencing homelessness.

Its website’s notes that homelessness has “reached crisis levels,” with the number of unsheltered individuals in Maricopa County increasing 34% from 2020 to 2022.

Berry recalled how that following that recovery meeting at CASS, a caring gesture moved him and helped put his life back on track.

It also inspired him to help others.

“ ey served a meal after the meeting, and I was given the responsibility of orchestrating the volunteers to bring the food each week,” he said.

“At this point my entire outlook on life and priorities changed. e sense of fulllment from serving those in need was greater than anything I’d experienced.

“Knowing that my path in life was altered by the caring of a few strangers has

been the motivation behind HOPE for the Homeless,” he explained.

Berry said he’s aware that chemical dependency and homelessness often go hand-in-hand, and HOPE for the Homeless organizes and hosts 12-step recovery meetings to bring to those who could use encouragement.

“We currently facilitate a meeting every Sunday at the Andre House followed by a meal. Each Sunday is hosted by a di erent group or organization who chair the meeting and sponsor the meal. e third Sunday is HOPE for the Homeless’ day,” he said.

“We support the meeting attendees with food, blankets, clothes, new socks and underwear, toiletries and basic necessities that we package in our HOPE bags.”

Berry said HOPE for the Homeless wants to help even more.

“ e Andre House would like to add more meetings during the week, and, in addition, the new St. Vincent de Paul shel-

DAR names Higley High junior Outstanding Cadet

GSN NEWS STAFF

The Daughters of the American Revolution Desert Wells Chapter has awarded Higley High senior and Cadet Chief Master Sgt. Annika Good the DAR Outstanding Cadet Award for 2023.

Cadets from both Williams Field High School and Higley High School JROTC received individual and squadron awards during a ceremony last month.

Squadron leader Col. David S. Vaughn nominated Annika for her “outstanding leadership in the JROTC program.”

“She is an outstanding young woman,” he said.

Annika, who will graduate in 2024, been a member of the cross country and track team for the past two years, typically running the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m at track meets.

She also volunteers as a leader in a youth group at her church and is a volunteer with Leigh’s Mission, a nonpro t that makes and donates blankets for children in need.

Annika traveled to Kenya in 2022 with the nonpro t to serve children in need at

Annika Good receives her Outstanding Cadet Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution Desert Wells Chapter Regent Tracy Paulsen. (Courtesy of the Desert Wells DAR Chapter)

Huruma Children’s Home.

She hopes to travel to Kenya again on another mission this fall.

Annika hopes to eventually become an author once she completes her education at a college or university.

ter on Washington and 28th Street is also looking to host additional meetings.

To increase their mission to the homeless requires more funding.

And that requires imagination.

A car a cionado, Berry is using his interests to bring other car enthusiasts into the fold.

Cruise N Cuisine is one way HOPE for the Homeless attracts motorheads and those who appreciate vintage and classic cars.

e monthly gathering, held the rst Saturday of each month, is free to the public, and funds are raised through food purchases.

In March, Boy Scout troop 301 brought out their grills to o er food choices. Other months may attract one or more food trucks. Every Cruise N Cuisine is held in the parking lot of Mountain Park Church.

e next Cruise N Cuisine is June 3, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Another fundraiser is the annual HOPE for the Homeless annual car ra e.

e fth annual 2023 HOPE for the Homeless ra e vehicle is a cherry red

1971 Chevrolet Stepside pick-up with full frame restoration, turbo 400 transmission and air conditioning. Full details of the vehicle are on the nonpro t’s website.

Tickets are $25 each, ve for $100 or the blockbuster 12 for $200. e drawing will be Nov. 25 at the fourth annual Ahwatukee Fall Car Show held at Mountain Park Church.

Berry said all the e orts of volunteers and supporters are essential to the HOPE for the Homeless ministry.

“We shine light in our community by feeding the homeless who are hungry, meeting the homeless in their recovery journey, and loving the homeless for who they are, where they are,” he said.

Along with details on upcoming events, that is the message of HOPE outlined on their website Hope4theHomelessdAz.com.

As a registered nonpro t, donations to HOPE for the Homeless are tax deductible.

ey are also an AZ State Qualifying Charitable Organization and as such maintains the Arizona State dollar-for dollar tax credit.

For more information see Hope4theHomelessAZ.com

HOPE for the Homeless packs “Hope bags” for unsheltered people once a month at Mountain Park Church in Ahwatukee for distribution to at the Andre House in Phoenix. Volunteers are welcomed to the next packing event May 20, 9 to 11 a.m. at Mountain Park Church, located at 16461 S. 48th St. Ahwatukee. (Special to AFN)

EV stone supplier overcame rocky road

BY JOSH ORTEGA GSN Sta Writer

Lane Cook never expected to work in the construction field but he’s built a reputable business brickby-brick for the last 20 years.

The Westwood High alum is the owner and president of Visionmakers International stone supplier with showrooms in Mesa, Scottsdale and Utah.

For 20 years, Cook has specialized in custom stonework for new and remodeled custom home builds that imports sought-after stone from “every continent except Australia and Antarctica,” along with other architectural products such as steel/iron, wood, lighting fixtures and vents.

“If I worked in a cubicle at some company and just typed in X’s and O’s, you don’t see the direct result of that down the line,” Cook said. “But here I can drive by all over the Valley and see lasting things that we’ve done to help people beautify their house.”

Having overcome a global financial crisis and pandemic, he also is marking eight years in remission from a battle with a disease that involved five different chemotherapy treatments – a battle Cook credits his wife and four kids for his motivation to live and succeed.

“They were my motivation to try to fight what I had to fight to survive,” Cook said.

After earning a master of business administration in international business degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Cook spent a decade working for several firms, living between U.S. and Mexico before his last stop in Guadalajara, Mexico.

For a decade, Cook worked in vari-

ous fields including the trucking and logistics industry building a network of exporters that worked for major companies like Walmart, Target and J.C. Penney, pulling various orders of textiles, furniture and leather goods.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Cook said, many businesses chose to cut costs and move many of their operations to China. At the same time, a relative asked Cook for some help with a project at his 8,000-squarefoot home built in Gold Canyon.

“I knew nothing about stone but I just kind of started walking, flooring the field and asking around,” Cook said.

That logistics network came to roost when Cook needed it most and he said he found a Cantera stone – a volcanic rock from Mexico and Central America known for its properties that allow detailed cutting and carving – that “looks great still.”

“I said ‘okay, this could be a good business,” Cook said. “I just took the dive when I moved back.”

Since then, Cook has built custom home projects for some of top earners throughout the Valley – such as baseball players, football players and a couple of politicians – that includes work on a 3,500-square-foot guest home and a mansion that’s now selling for $26.5 million.

But his favorite projects come from a higher calling.

Over the last seven years, Cook has developed good working relationship with the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and has worked on several chapels throughout the Valley.

With computer-assisted design software, Visionmakers turns 400-pound pieces of marble and stone into the highly carved marble altars, arches and pillars with craftsmanship reminiscent of St. Peter’s Basilica.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cook said he enjoys working on all houses of worship because the art withstands the years and inspires spirituality.

“You’re doing something that lasts and you’re doing something that helps people feel closer to God and so, it’s more than just money and just pumping out a house but there’s something lasting there,” Cook said.

A customer’s dream for doorways, lighting fixture, or fireplaces starts similarly with a design by an architect or interior designer who takes it to Visionmakers to add details via AutoCAD software.

Visionmakers also takes measurements to ensure a snug fit of the cur-

Lane Cook, owner of president of of Visionmakers International, started his business early this century after discovering stone while helping a relative with a home improvement project. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

Full-scale stonework pieces fi ll Visionmakers International’s Mesa warehouse. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

vature, length and linear footage of the product.

Due to labor shortages, the manufacturing of its products takes place at a factory in Mexico that Cook has worked with for over 20 years.

In 2007, Cook initially received a diagnosis of follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of slow-growing blood cancer that affects white blood cells. Though his first bout with the disease went rather smoothly, it returned two years later with a vengeance.

“I was in danger of losing the company, losing my life, losing everything,” Cook said.

He also got help from his nephew Court Zulauf, who had just graduated from college.

After a crash course in the business, Zulauf and the “skeleton crew” kept business from hitting rock bottom while Cook left for treatment.

“He did a really good job and it’s just a team effort with good employees that kind of kept us going at that point,” Cook said.

That was around 2010-2011, when revenues went down 70% during the Great Recession.

He endured a two-year period paying four employees out of his own savings simply to retain them.

Cook saw light at the end of the tunnel when many of his competitors shut down or downsized to one-man operations, and by 2012 he started rebounding.

In that same time, Cook went a couple more rounds with the disease, and after the fourth bout, doctors informed Cook that a stem cell transplant was the last option to beat the disease.

With his eldest brother as a donor, Cook wasn’t out of the wood just yet.

A small risk of severe side effects worse than death still existed and he had a 14-20% chance of not making it past the first year. But he fell into the 25% of patients that beat the disease and has enjoyed a good quality of life.

“I’ve been blessed personally because the odds were not good that I was going to survive this,” Cook said. “So, I was really blessed.”

A year after the transplant surgery, Cook said 2016 marked a ramping up for business and the beginning of “the wildest ride in the world.”

The current economy has strained business and Cook said it derives from one part “antiquated and dysfunctional” immigration policy and one part “American culture.”

“None of us tell our kids ‘hey, go be a stonemason, go be a drywaller,” Cook said. “They’re all like ‘you need to go to college, you need to go work at GoDaddy, you need to go work at a solar place or something.’”

With not very many construction workers under the age of 30, Cook said the solution could easily come from the south, if not for a “frozen border” and worker programs that prioritize nurses and temp workers over construction.

“There’s been so much construction that there’s just not enough people to fill it,” Cook said. “And so, the big struggles that we’re having is trying to keep up with our commitments.”

Through the struggles and investing so many of his “healthy years” into the business, Lane Cook feels it’s a part of him now.

He has enjoyed building friendships among his customers and “a little family” of 30 employees.

“There’s a lot of hard work that’s not so fun, but there’s a lot of good that comes from it,” Cook said. “When you finish a job well done, it just feeds me. I love it.”

While his wife of 31 years and his four kids have made some sacrifices with his 60-hour work week, Cook added:

“They were my motivation to try to fight what I had to fight to survive. They’ve been able to balance and live in rhythm with my schedule a lot and they’ve just been awesome.”

Chandler taco shop likes to surprise

BY KEN SAIN GSN Sta Writer

Ghett’Yo Taco likes to get a little wild and crazy with its tacos.

e goal is to surprise their regular guests, by always having something new on the menu.

“Try coming up with something new every week,” said Stuart Shaneberg, the director of operations for the downtown restaurant. “Every week I change it … we have fun with it.”

Sometimes those wild and crazy ideas become favorites. So, when they revise their regular menu, they consider promoting the most popular from weekly special to a menu staple.

And that’s how the Stu-Taliano found its way on the menu. It’s a taco lled with spaghetti and meatballs, tossed in house marinara and mozzarella cheese.

Ghett’Yo Taco hosted a special Cinco de Mayo event and gave some of the pro ts to the Chandler Education Foundation.

“We just wanted to give back,” said owner Wally Ansari. “We gured this is the best way to do it. Obviously, it’s a lot of fun.”

“We try to think of our restaurant as a very family-oriented restaurant with a

diverse menu to accommodate families and kids,” Shaneberg explained. “For us to get involved with the Chandler school system was another way of showing our diversity of the menu.”

Ghett’Yo has built a reputation as one of the best places to go for a late night

meal in downtown. “If you ask anyone in downtown Chandler where to where to eat late, we’re hands down the answer,” Shaneberg said.

e 6-year-old restaurant is a bit o the main path. It’s inside a 100-plus-year-old building on Oregon Street, next to e Perch. e quality food and fun vibe has helped the owners attract customers.

It was really hard when they rst opened because Oregon was closed as the city built a parking garage at the corner of Oregon and Chicago.

Ansari said they are considering expanding their patio area within the next couple of years, taking over more space that is currently a parking lot.

He said new apartments currently under construction will be open by then and the downtown scene has improved.

“We’re unique in downtown Chandler – you know, a 100-year-old home,” he said. “It kind of feels like you’re in Rocky Point (Mexico).”

Info: gettyotacos.com

Ghett’Yo Taco downtown operations director Stuart Shainberg and owner Wally Ansari of want the downtown Chandler restaurant to be a fun place to visit. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

Former EV quarterback now at ASU

BY NICK HOGAN Cronkite News

It is impossible to study the recent history of high school football in Arizona without coming across Jacob Conover’s ngerprints.

e 6-foot, 213-pound quarterback won three consecutive state championships while playing at Chandler High School.

And in the 2017 Arizona Division 1 State Championship, as a junior, he outdueled former Perry High School star and current San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy in shootout style. e two sides combined for 91 total points in a thriller that added another jewel to Chandler’s trophy case.

Conover threw for 462 yards and four touchdowns in that showdown. However, that didn’t mark the end of his impact in the Valley.

And after transferring from Brigham Young to Arizona State, he is reunited with former coach Shaun Aguano and hoping to rekindle that success.

Aguano was a member of former ASU coach Herm Edwards’ sta and served as interim head coach when Edwards was dismissed. when Kenny Dillingham was hired, he announced that Aguano would remain on his sta .

Aguano helped build Chandler into an Arizona high school football power and Conover thrived there. Aguano’s presence in Tempe helped draw Conover back.

“It de nitely played a role,” Conover said. “Having someone that has seen me play and is con dent in my abilities is a huge factor.”

Aguano’s coaching record of 88-19 with four state championships makes for a strong resume. And Conover’s high school feats and Aguano’s success there are intertwined.

“I think opportunities present themselves in the right moments, you know having coach Aguano here and just the right people around me,” Conover said. “I felt really comfortable and con dent that this was the place to be.”

A four-star recruit by multiple outlets, Conover committed to play for the Cougars over Alabama, ASU and Arizona among others, then served a mission for e Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Asuncion, Paraguay. Conover announced his commitment to Arizona State via his Twitter account in December.

He sees some similarities between BYU coach Kalani Sitake and Dillingham that make the transition easier.

“One of the biggest things is that they are both player coaches,” he said. “You know, they give the players a lot of control in how they run the team and how things go. It is really healthy for us as

individuals to get that responsibility as young men. It’s been really awesome.”

Fellow Sun Devils quarterback and former Marana High School signal caller Trenton Bourguet faced Conover in a seven-on-seven league game years before their paths crossed as college teammates.

e connections to Arizona high school football have led to some friendly smack-talk between teammates. e news of Conover’s transfer gave Bourguet a chance to re ect on the pair’s history on the gridiron.

“I talked to him a couple of years ago after we played up at BYU, so we’ve talked here and there and just super excited to be in the same room together,” Bourguet said. Bourguet enters the summer as the only quarterback on the roster who played in a game for the Sun Devils in 2022. He tallied 11 passing touchdowns and threw for nearly 1,500

yards on 204 passing attempts.

Like Conover, former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne is a notable transfer who has entered his name in the quarterback battle. It was only a few months ago that Pyne and Conover were standing on opposite sidelines in a battle between BYU and Notre Dame in Las Vegas.

Pyne joins Bourguet and Conover in a battle with several underclassmen for playing time.

That group includes freshman Jaden Rashada, who joined Arizona State after originally signing with Florida. Like Conover, Rashada was a four-star recruit with a plethora of impressive offers.

“We’re all just in there getting better,” Rashada said. “Everybody is learning, you know, so that’s pretty important.”

Needless to say, Conover has his work cut out for him. Earning playing time as a quarterback at a Power Five program can be di cult. It’s especially challenging when competing with the program’s returning starter, a fellow transfer who led one of college football’s biggest brands to an 8-2 record in 10 starts last season and a highly sought-after recruit with seemingly sky-high potential.

Conover has embraced the challenge and said he is just focusing on “personal improvements” during the o season. And he said nothing was settled during spring ball.

“You know, I think spring was just a showcase,” he said. “ ey haven’t named a starter at all, so everyone’s just going to put their head down and go to work.”

Heading into the summer, Conover was all smiles and welcoming the possibilities.

“It’s great to be back here,” he said. “ ere’s some change, but I’m loving the transition.”

Former Chandler High School quarterback Jacob Conover hopes his decision to transfer from BYU to Arizona will prove fruitful. (Courtesy of BYU)

SanTan Charter coach wins big award

ASan Tan Charter School coach has been National Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coaches Association.

When Bobby Davis was hired by San Tan Charter School in July 2021 to be the school’s new strength and conditioning coach, he knew he wanted to bring an innovative and well-rounded approach to the school’s student athletes.

Davis works with middle school and high school students at the Gilbert school, as well as the student athletes who play ag football volleyball and boys’ basketball.

e school said he “has created a successful program that focuses on speed, agility and nutrition instead of only spending hours in the weight room.”

After going through a lengthy evaluation process, Davis was thrilled to learn that he won the prestigious award.

“I was very humbled to be nominated, let alone receive the award. ere are a lot

of phenomenal coaches in this state, so it is humbling to know that they believe in me and what I am doing,” Davis said.

Principal Brandon Tauscher of San Tan Charter School’s 7-12 Power Campus said he is pleased but not surprised that Davis was named the NHSSCA National Coach of the Year.

In his recommendation letter to the association, he said Davis is one of the most “uniquely gifted, personable, and popular teachers” he has worked with in his 20plus career in education.

“What stands out most is his ability to connect with any person on campus, and in how quickly he has built the weight

room into a destination classroom experience,” Tauscher wrote.

He also noted that Davis overhauled the school’s athletics department by attracting both student athletes and a large number of non-athletes to the weight room and his classes.

“Coach connects with his students not just because they recognize his obvious competence in his discipline, but because they trust him.”

Davis came to San Tan Charter School with a wealth of experience in strength and conditioning.

After working alongside his dad Bob Davis at the family’s Strength of America program, Davis began working as a head strength and conditioning coach in 2015.

“I believe that a rising tide raises all ships, and the people that surround me here push me to strive to be better for them and the student athletes here. I have also really enjoyed the relationships I have created with the student athletes here as well as the community here,” Davis said.

Students at San Tan Charter 7-12 Power Campus in Gilbert cheered strength and conditioning Coach Bobby Davis (front row, right) after he was named National Coach of the Year. (San Tan Charter School)

With JAN D’ATRI GetOut Columnist

This savory dish is a festival of flavor

Melted cheese over steamed vegetables has always been a popular side dish. But when I came across an old Iowa Farmer’s Almanac recipe for roasted vegetables served in a cheese crust, it turned everything upside down for me and became one of my favorite ways to enjoy seasonal produce.

e instructions were as follows:

“Roast over a hot re, one handful each of four or ve vegetables in season. Make a crust of cheese and cornmeal. Use

crust as a plate to serve vegetables in.”

I need no excuse to channel my inner farm girl, so I went right to the task of guring out what kind of heat would equal a “hot re” and which vegetables would taste best snuggled in a cornmeal and cheese crust.

Whether you take my vegetable suggestions, or choose your own combination, you’re going to end up with a delicious festival of avor in a savory cheese crust.

Ingredients - Crust:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal

• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

• 3 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan cheese

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1⁄3 cup milk

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Ingredients - filling

• 1 cup broccoli flowerets

Directions:

Vegetables:

Combine vegetables in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to completely coat vegetables.

Spread vegetables evenly on a large baking sheet and bake at 475 degrees, turning often, until vegetables are browned and thoroughly cooked, about 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Crust:

Reduce oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter an approximately 10-inch tart or pie pan.

In a bowl, whisk egg until frothy. Whisk in milk and oil. In another bowl, combine cornmeal, cheddar, parmesan, sugar and salt. Stir into egg mixture until well blended. Press crust mixture over bottom and halfway up the

• 1 cup cauliflower flowerets

• 1 cup baby carrots (mini’s are best)

• ½ red onion, cut in large chunks

• 1 cup small white mushrooms cut in half

• 1 cup zucchini, sliced ½ inch thick

• 3-4 Roma tomatoes, sliced thin, then sliced in half

• 1 ½ cups cheddar or mozzarella cheese

• 2 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan

• 2 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon pepper

sides of pan.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. (If crust bubbles during cooking process, poke down with fork or skewer. You may have to do several times.)

Assembly:

Sprinkle ½ cup cheddar cheese over crust. Pour half of the vegetables over top. Sprinkle another ½ cup cheddar cheese over vegetables.

Pour in remaining vegetables and finish with ½ cup cheddar cheese and two tablespoons of parmesan.

Slice the tomato slices in half and place them in scallop design around the edges of the tart. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden on top.

Two Day Hiring Event

When: Friday, May 19; 9 am - 2 pm

Saturday, May 20; 8 am - 1 pm

Where: CMC Steel Arizona 11444 E Germann Rd. Mesa, AZ 85212 •

CMC Steel Arizona has proudly been making the steel that builds America since 2009. Come tour our facility and learn about our openings and potentially receive an on-thespot offer! At CMC, we offer great benefits and provide all necessary training and certifications.

Gems of Southeast Europe

Gems of Southeast Europe

May 20-27, 2024

May 20-27, 2024

7-night Danube river cruise aboard AmaVerde from Giurgiu, Romania to Budapest, Hungary

7-night Danube river cruise aboard AmaVerde from Giurgiu, Romania to Budapest, Hungary

ONBOARD CRUISE INCLUSIONS

ONBOARD CRUISE INCLUSIONS

» 7-night cruise in elegantly appointed accommodations

» Fine dining in multiple venues

» 7-night cruise in elegantly appointed accommodations

» Unlimited hand-selected wine, beer and soft drinks with lunch and dinner

» Fine dining in multiple venues

» Small group guided shore excursions with a variety of choices

» Unlimited hand-selected wine, beer and soft drinks with lunch and dinner

» Professionally trained Wellness Host leading wellness activities

» Small group guided shore excursions with a variety of choices

» Live local entertainment

» Professionally trained Wellness Host leading wellness activities

» Live local entertainment

» Unlimited complimentary Wi-Fi access

» Unlimited complimentary Wi-Fi access

CRUISE FARES STARTOMG FROM $3,999 $3,749 per person, category E

CRUISE FARES STARTOMG FROM $3,999 $3,749 per person, category E

OPTIONAL LAND PACKAGES:

Pre-cruise: 4 nights Braşov/Bucharest $1,300 per person

OPTIONAL LAND PACKAGES:

Post-cruise: 2 nights Vienna $900 per person

Pre-cruise: 4 nights Braşov/Bucharest $1,300 per person

Post-cruise: 2 nights Vienna $900 per person

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Dream Vacations - Karen Coleman-Ostrov & Associates

Karen Coleman-Ostrov

Dream Vacations - Karen Coleman-Ostrov & Associates

480-646-4969 | kcolemanostrov@dreamvacations.com

Karen Coleman-Ostrov

www.4mycruise.com

480-646-4969 | kcolemanostrov@dreamvacations.com

www.4mycruise.com