LA Middle And High Schoolers Finally Return To Their Classrooms

Los Angeles CA

26 April, 2021

3:56 PM

Description

LOS ANGELES, CA — High school and middle schoolers in the Los Angeles Unified School District returned to their classrooms for the first time in more than a year Monday. After a year of virtual learning, Los Angeles schools are fully reopened for all students ready to return. To keep students and their families safe, classrooms are being cleaned and disinfected, air is filtered through the equivalent of an N-95 mask, and facilities have been reconfigured to keep people at a distance. Additionally, everyone has been COVID tested before returning to school and regularly thereafter with LAUSD providing its millionth COVID- 19 test this week, district officials said. Over the last three weeks, the district reported that 105 employees and 196 students tested positive for COVID-19 before their schools opened, preventing those individuals from immediately returning to campus. Los Angeles Unified is now testing about 25,000 to 30,000 people each day. The testing has been key to the district's reopening. "If 90% of the people on a school campus are children who have not been vaccinated, the safest thing to do is to test everyone, children and adults, before they start school and regularly thereafter," Beutner said. "Our goal is regular, weekly tests, but on a few occasions it might be 8 or even 14 days between tests instead of five or seven ... operating the most comprehensive system in the nation to keep COVID out of schools. "It's going to be a gradual process like this as families see how it's working and hear from friends and neighbors about their child's experience in schools," said Beutner, who announced last week that he will step down as superintendent when his contract expires on June 30 after serving for three years in that capacity. Deputy Superintendent Megan Reilly will take over as interim superintendent at that time. Still, many families remain leery of the reopenings. Though California has currently has the lowest infection rate in the country, some Los Angeles neighborhoods were among the hardest hit during the height of the winter coronavirus outbreak. Just as Los Angeles Unified was among the last school districts to reopen in the region, many of its students are among the more hesitant to return to their classrooms. About half have opted to continue virtual learning for the rest of the year as schools began reopening. Slowly, more and more students are returning, however. A spring survey of LAUSD families showed that many aren't yet comfortable with their children returning to school amid the pandemic. According to the survey, only 49% of elementary school parents wanted their kids to return to the classroom. At the high school level, only 25% of families who participated in the survey said they'd return their students to campuses; and 35% of middle school families said they'd come back to the classroom. Beutner said it's impossible to create an NBA-style bubble for the entire school district, and "as long as there are individuals with COVID in the communities we serve, some of them may bring the virus to school." But Beutner said more and more families are coming around to the idea of returning to campus. As of April 15, the district reported that fewer than half of the 8,500 students who were expected back had returned, but just one week later, more than 85% of students had returned. And an additional 1,000 families also have now indicated they'd like their child to shift from online instruction back to the classroom. "Reopening schools is an important part of the healing process," Superintendent Austin Beutner said Monday. "We need to build on this and make sure all students are back in the classroom where they belong. "We have built a foundation to enable dedicated teachers, hard- working staff and an engaged board to continue on the path to recovery for children and provide them with the education and opportunity they deserve," Beutner said. The on-campus experience for middle and high school students returning this week will be somewhat different from elementary school students. Secondary students will start the day with in-person, teacher-led engagement in an advisory period to help reconnect with each other before participating in classes online, having lunch with friends, and then working independently before participating in after-school activities like sports or music. Students won't have in-person instruction in most of their classes. Los Angeles Unified COVID-19 testing centers are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. For details, call the Family Hotline at 213-443- 1300. For details about receiving a free vaccination at a school, the Family Vaccination Hotline is 213-328-3958. Now that schools are reopening, LAUSD's Grab & Go Food Centers have all closed. Food relief remains available at schools for children every weekday, for students studying in-person or online. Adults who are still in need of food assistance may visit the LAUSD website for more information about alternative sites for food assistance. Specific dates for this week's reopening of individual schools can be found on Los Angeles Unified's website or individual school websites. City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.