New teacher program may save full-day kindergarten

PHOENIX-- Governor Doug Ducey's program Arizona Teachers Academy promises to create and retain teachers in Arizona, combatting a decades-long shortage that forced schools to make drastic cuts. 

There are some unlikely benefactors of this new program too. At Starlight Park Elementary, kindergarteners are spending yet another day in school learning numbers with counting blocks. Their teacher, Teresa Gibbs, walks around and offers help.

"...five, six, eight, nine," one little girl says to Gibbs.

"Can you check that for me?" Gibbs responds, "You missed a number."

For Gibbs, programs like the Teachers Academy are a victory for her kindergarteners who just started school and are already at risk of falling behind.

Gibbs has been teaching kindergarten for over a decade. Her students are English Language Learners (ELL), kids who may have never spoken English or stepped into a classroom until now.

"Children who never had these additional exposures--going to preschool or [having] literature in their homes--I think the full day kindergarten better prepares them."

Starlight Park is one of many Title I schools that offer this.

Eileen Guerrero went that route, despite worrying about her daughter's discipline.

"She came in a baby and she came out this full-grown little girl that can read," Guerrero said.

Now in first grade, her daughter, Emma, isn't scrambling to catch up to her peers.

"I like math," she said.

Programs like these are in jeopardy around the state and country, but teachers say it is critical to give English Language Learners the full-day option so they aren't playing catch-up in first grade. Kids can learn the basics, like counting, and learn what matters to them.

"I know how many hearts a squid has," Emma said. "They have three hearts."

Downtown theater closes its curtains

PHOENIX––A local downtown theater named Space 55 is taking its final bow after 10 years.

"We give a place for local artists, local performers," said Dennis Frederick, director of 'Ear', an original Space 55 production. "We give them a home."

It's a home they will have to leave. The small, self-made theater was transformed from a bail bonds building and a coffee shop.

"Oh yeah, there's all kinds of weird history here." Ashley Naftule, an actor and writer, said about the space. He joined the theater eight years ago. It was his home, and its inhabitants were his family.

Today, the small storefronts that combine to make Space 55 are home to quirky original plays and underground theater classics. 

"It's a very, very different building, and it has changed over the years," said Naftule.

But no one knows what will become of the ever-transforming space when the theater troupe clears out. 10 years and nearly 30 plays later, Space 55 is closing its location here. It grew with the rest of downtown Phoenix as a witness to its transformation.

But the surrounding high rises came with high costs, forcing actors to get creative with props and costumes.

"We put a lot of pride in doing do-it-yourself efforts," Naftule said.

Space 55 is facing what many have faced before it; High costs prevent these downtown art icons from staying where they began.

Artistic director Duane Daniels says he's working hard to not uproot the family home.

"We wouldn't feel comfortable in Scottsdale," he said. "We're sort of a downtown sensibility."

Despite the financial troubles, Space 55 hadn't crumbled in more than a decade.

"What Starbucks does up the street, somehow we're doing that here," Daniels said. "They're paying market value rent on their building and I'm paying market value rent on my building..."

"...I think that's a pretty amazing accomplishment."