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View Winners → Health Aug 15, 2022
An LAUSD school bus. | Photo courtesy of Griffin5/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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Amid more relaxed COVID-19 protocols, classes resume Monday for thousands of LAUSD students — and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho will mark his first opening day as head of the L.A. schools with a tour of numerous district sites.
“I hope each of you are returning to school on Aug. 15 energized and ready for a new year after a refreshing summer break,” Carvalho said at his Opening of Schools Address last week.
“Many of you undoubtedly traveled during the summer months to experience new sites, visit old friends or reconnect with family members after the pandemic lockdowns.”
Carvalho will start Monday early, with a scheduled meet-and-greet with school bus drivers at 5 a.m. at the LAUSD depot on San Julian Street. He will then visit two bus pickup sites: Plummer Elementary at 7:45 a.m., followed by Vena Avenue Elementary at 7:55 a.m.
The superintendent will next make five classroom visits — to Vena Avenue Elementary, Porter Ranch Community School, Marina Early Education Center, Marlton School and John H. Liechty Middle School.
Carvalho will wrap up his day with a school assembly at Ellen Ochoa Learning Center at 1:15 p.m., where backpacks and school supplies will be distributed. There will also be a end-of-day news conference at King-Drew Senior High Medicine and Science Magnet at 2:15 p.m.
Meanwhile, inside the classroom, many of the hard-line COVID-19 control measures that had been in effect over the past year are being dropped.
Most notably, students and staff will no longer need to undergo weekly COVID testing. Mask-wearing will still be only strongly recommended indoors, and the district’s COVID vaccination requirement for students remains on hold until at least next year.
Students also will no longer be required to update their health and testing status on the district’s Daily Pass system to access campuses each day. The system will remain in general use, allowing students to upload the results of “response testing” or vaccination records. The system will also be used “to notify close contacts of a person who has tested positive.”
Carvalho, who took over his post in February after 14 years as superintendent of the Miami-Dade County public schools system, vowed in his address last week to enact quick change — while conceding that issues of declining enrollment and difficult financial times are on the horizon.
“I know this is going to be a difficult year,” Carvalho said.
“It has been several difficult years. But it will be especially challenging to right the course of an altered future while confronting the obstacles before us. I know you will correct the trajectory and then some.”
