Chaparral, Horizon rule! / P. 26
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Inside This Week
NEWS........................ 15 Scottsdale leader of Red Cross retiring - for now
BUSINESS ............ 24 Scottsdale restaurateur named a Yelp favorite
'Chairz' exhibit takes a back seat to nothing NEIGHBORS ................................ 22 BUSINESS ....................................24 SPORTS ........................................26 ARTS..............................................28 CLASSIFIEDS ..............................30
Sunday, MARCH 5, 2023
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Native son watches over his hometown BY TOM SCANLON Progress Managing Editor
W
hether you live in a modest apartment or a mansion, whether the sounds of wailing sirens or howling coyotes fill your nights, his boots have probably been on your block. If his face is familiar, he may have written you a speeding ticket, escorted your inebriated child home on prom night, or rang your doorbell to investigate a noise complaint. Maybe he even kicked down your door – if you’re a drug dealer. Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther may be the city’s “top cop” now, but he worked
his way up through the blue ranks on the its streets. Hired as a patrol officer in 1994 he moved on to detective, SWAT member, patrol sergeant, training lieutenant and commander. Ask Walther how his skills at target shooting compare with the rest of his officers these days and he says with laugh, “There’s plenty better than me. I’m just an administrator.” But his experience – and those who know him – tell a different story: This native son has covered nearly every inch of the city’s 184 square miles in four decades. And
see NATIVE page 4
Police Chief Jeff Walther prepares to shoot on the same range he first learned police techniques 28 years ago. The Scottsdale native says his officers and new ones coming in desperately need an upgraded training center, which will now cost around $20 million, double its original budget. (Tom Scanlon/Progress Staff)
SUSD instruction costs dipped, but students tested well BY TOM SCANLON Progress Managing Editor
ARTS ........................ 28
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cottsdale Unified School District spent 2.6% less on instruction last school year than in pandemic-challenged 2020-21, but students continued to out-test their peers both statewide and in similarly sized districts. According to a new state Auditor General’s report released last week, the slight dip in instruction spending is in line with a trend: over half the state’s districts “allocated a smaller proportion of the increased
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operational spending to instruction than in prior years,” SUSD spent 56.7% of its money on instruction in the 2020-21 school year, but that percentage dropped in the 2021-22 school year to 54.1% – lower than the state average of 54.5%. In 2003-04, SUSD spent a high of 63.7% of its budget on instructional spending; the low came in 2017, when the district spent only 53.6% of its budget on instructional spending. Broken down in dollars., instruction spending per pupil in Scottsdale Unified dropped by $273 from 2020-21 to last school year while spending in two other classroom-
related areas increased. Instruction costs don't include all the spending that Scottsdale Unified devoites to the classroom – which consumed 70.7% of all district spending in 2021-22, according to the report, which breaks total classroom spending into three categories. Instruction costs include “teachers, teachers’ aides, substitute teachers, graders, guest lecturers, general instructional supplies, instructional aids, field trips, athletics, cocurricular activities, and tuition.”
see STUDENTS page 20
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