Los Angeles schools will delay in-person student classes and services of any kind while coronavirus infection rates remain high in local communities and teachers remain unvaccinated, Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday, a firm stance that is driving the district toward a mandatory summer session and an extended academic year in 2021-22.
In some of his strongest criticism of state guidance on reopening schools, Beutner called the waiver process that has allowed schools apply to open in-person classes for lower grades “bass ackwards” and called the state’s newest coronavirus threshold for reopening elementary schools a “magic number” not adequately explained or justified.
His comments — made after he commemorated the district having provided 100 million meals to families at 63 campus-based Grab and Go centers — come as the district is locked in a new round of negotiations with its teachers union over returning to campus, growing anger among some parents to reopen schools and reluctance among others in hard-hit areas to send their children back.
Questions about the possibility of reopening campuses for kindergarten through sixth grade emerged last week when L.A. County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said declining coronavirus rates in the county could hit the state threshold number in two to three weeks.
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