The Brief

The first of 30 Bob Ross paintings — many of them created live on the PBS series that made him a household name — have been auctioned off in L.A. to support public television.

Ross, with his distinctive afro, soothing voice and sunny outlook, empowered millions of viewers to make and appreciate art through his show The Joy of Painting. More than 400 half-hour episodes aired on PBS (and eventually the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from 1983 to 1994, the year before Ross died of cancer at age 52.

Ross' impact lives on: His show still airs on PBS and streams on platforms like Hulu and Twitch. It has surged in popularity in recent years, particularly as viewers searched for comfort during COVID-19 lockdowns. Certified instructors continue teaching his wet-on-wet oil painting technique to the masses, and the Smithsonian acquired several of his works for its permanent collection in 2019. But his artwork rarely goes up for sale — until recently.

In October, the nonprofit syndicator American Public Television (APT) announced it would auction off 30 of Ross' paintings to raise money for public broadcasters hit by federal funding cuts. It pledged to direct 100% of its net sales proceeds to APT and PBS stations nationwide.

Auction house Bonhams is calling it the "largest single offering of Bob Ross original works ever brought to market."

Ross has become synonymous with public broadcasting and some activists have even invoked him in their calls for restoring federal funding to it.

"It's a medium that Bob just cherished," said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross, Inc., in a phone call with NPR. "With the cuts, it's just a natural inclination to support public television."

"Winters Peace," which Ross painted on-air in 1993, was among the first of his works to be auctioned to support public television, in California in November.

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The first three paintings sold in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a record-shattering $662,000. Bonhams says the works attracted hundreds of registrations, more than twice the usual number for that type of sale. Each sold for more than its estimated worth, led by "Winter's Peace," which fetched $318,000 to set a new Ross auction record.

"As anticipated, these paintings inspired spirited bidding, achieved impressive results and broke global auction records, continuing the momentum we've seen building in [Ross'] market," said Robin Starr, the general manager of Bonhams Skinner, the auction house's Massachusetts branch. "These successes provide a solid foundation as we look ahead to 2026 and prepare to present the next group of Bob Ross works."

"Winter's Peace," which Bob Ross painted on-air in 1993, is among his first three works going up for auction in November. He used especially vibrant colors with his TV audience in mind.

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The next trio of paintings will be auctioned in Massachusetts in late January. The rest will be sold throughout 2026 at Bonham's salerooms in Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

How the offering could benefit public broadcasters 

At President Donald Trump's direction, Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion in previously allocated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), leaving the country's roughly 330 PBS and 244 NPR stations in a precarious position.

CPB began shutting down at the end of September, PBS has already cut 15% of its jobs, and several local TV and radio stations have also announced layoffs and closures.

Demonstrators dressed as Bob Ross at a Chicago protest calling for the restoration of federal funding to PBS in late September.

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"I think he would be very disappointed" about the CPB cuts, Kowalski said of Ross. "I think he would have decided to do exactly what we're doing right now ... I think this would have probably been his idea."

Kowalski, whose parents founded Bob Ross Inc. together with the painter in 1985, said Ross favored positive activism over destructive or empty rhetoric.

"That just was his nature," she said. "He was like that in real life. So I think this would have been exactly the thing that he would have chosen. I suddenly got really emotional thinking about that."

Ross spent about 26 minutes painting "Home in the Valley" on live TV in October 1993. It's been in storage ever since and will go on sale in November.

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The Ross auction aims to help stations pay their licensing fees to the national TV channel Create, which in turn allows them to air popular public television programs including The Best of the Joy of Painting (based on Ross' show), America's Test Kitchen, Rick Steve's Europe and Julia Child's French Chef Classics.

Bonhams says the auction proceeds will help stations — particularly smaller and rural ones — defray the cost burden of licensing fees, making Create available to more of them.

"This enables stations to maintain their educational programming while redirecting funds toward other critical operations and local content production threatened by federal funding cuts," the auction house says.

Ross' paintings rarely hit the market

The 30 paintings going up for sale span Ross' career and are all "previously unseen by the public except during their creation in individual episodes" of The Joy of Painting, according to Bonhams. Many have remained in secure storage ever since.

They include vibrant landscapes, with the serene mountains, lake views and "happy trees" that became his trademark.

Ross started painting during his 20-year career in the Air Force, much of which was spent in Alaska. That experience shaped his penchant for landscapes and ability to work quickly — and, he later said, his desire not to raise his voice once out of the service.

Once on the airwaves, Ross' soft-spoken guidance and gentle demeanor won over millions of viewers. His advice applied to art as well as life: Mistakes are just "happy accidents," talent is a "pursued interest," and it's important to "take a step back and look."

"Ross' gentle teaching style and positive philosophy made him a cultural icon whose influence extends far beyond the art world," Bonhams says.

While Ross was prolific, his paintings were intended for teaching instead of selling, and therefore rarely go on the market.

In August, Bonhams sold two of Ross' early 1990s mountain and lake scenes as part of an online auction of American art. They fetched $114,800 and $95,750, surpassing expectations and setting a new auction world record for Ross at the time. Kowalski says that's when her gears started turning.

"And it just got me to thinking, that's a substantial amount of money," she recalled. "And what if, what if, what if?"

Bonhams officially estimates that the 30 paintings could go for a combined total between $850,000 and $1.4 million. But Starr, of the auction house, predicted in October that they will continue to exceed expectations, based on their artistic value, nostalgia factor and more.

"Now we add in the fact that these are selling to benefit public television, I think the bidding is going to be very happy," she said. "Happy trees, happy bidding."

Disclosure: This story was edited by general assignment editor Carol Ritchie and managing editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood plans to break ground next month on a $287.5 million network of stadium shuttle buses that are slated to roll out in April 2028, linking the city’s stadiums to the Metro system just in time for the Olympics.

City officials hope the Inglewood Transit Connector —  a pared-down version of the nearly $2 billion automated rail line that was first proposed in 2018 —  will ease traffic pressure on locals and boost foot traffic for businesses in the city’s historic core.

Verona Burks, one of the owners of Little Belize Restaurant on Nutwood Street, thanked the city for working to improve the Market Street area. 

“It has been a pleasure being there, watching it grow,” Burks said during the City Council meeting last week.

The shuttle network is designed to ferry visitors between the stadium and Metro K Line and C Line stations at the north and south ends of the city.

Four transit hubs will anchor the network with parking for cars and bikes along with drop-off points for rideshares. The four hubs include three on Market Street and one at Hawthorne Boulevard and 111th Street.

The Inglewood Transit Connector will link the Metro K and C Lines to Inglewood’s stadium district.

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The largest hub will cover nearly a full city block at the corner of Market Street and Florence Avenue. The intersection is currently home to a shopping center that the city is taking over and demolishing through eminent domain. Some business owners in the shopping center told The LA Local they weren’t ready to move.

Locals will see the largest changes along that Market Street corridor, where the city is also putting money into refreshing sidewalks, landscaping and storefronts. 

Here’s what to expect from the project, according to the city.

• Market Street and Florence Avenue hub: A pedestrian bridge across Florence Avenue will link the K Line’s Downtown Inglewood Metro Station to this transit hub, which will have a five-level parking structure with about 1,000 spaces and seven retail spaces between 90 and 270 square feet each. 
• Market Street and Manchester Boulevard hub: This hub will get a new 38-space parking lot and serve for rideshare drop-off or other transportation functions. 
• South Market Street and Hillcrest Boulevard hub: This hub will be focused on pedicab and bicycle services, and will have a reconfigured parking lot, refreshed lighting and landscaping. 
• Manchester Boulevard sidewalks: Wider sidewalks along Manchester will connect Market Street with Prairie Avenue, the stretch of road that gets heavy pedestrian traffic on event days. 
• Market Street and Queen Street streetscape: The corner of Market and Queen streets will get new sidewalks, seating, bike racks, landscaping and a shaded plaza.

The shuttle project layout leaves room for the city to revive its plan for a rail line in the future, if funding and needs align. 

The largest hub of the Inglewood Transit Connector will be on the corner of Market Street and Florence Avenue in place of the current shopping center. The shuttle network will link the Metro K and C Lines to Inglewood’s stadium district.

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At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor James Butts said the transit network is the single largest project the city has undertaken itself.

“We’re building for opening day in 2028 and for every ordinary day after that,” Butts said. “We’ll have a new front door to Inglewood.” 

All of the project’s budget is covered by a batch of state and local grants, according to the city.

Angelenos have escaped to Santa Barbara for generations. While neighboring Santa Ynez Valley captured the culinary spotlight in recent years, the coastal strip is striking back.

Fueled in part by a surge in commercial and real estate investments, and bolstered by the expansion of the California Michelin Guide, Santa Barbara and neighboring Montecito are experiencing a hospitality boom. (The region received a similar jolt more than two decades ago when the film Sideways spurred interest in Santa Barbara County’s wines and restaurants.)

The Basque restaurant has been open for just a year, but is regularly packed.

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With a string of buzzy new openings this past year — like Little Mountain and Monte’s in Montecito and Dom’s Taverna in downtown Santa Barbara — and more high-profile debuts on the horizon, including the return of legendary chef Thomas Keller to Southern California at the Coral Casino, the current momentum shows no signs of abating.

Underpinning this expansion are Santa Barbara’s long-standing institutions delivering genuine hospitality, alongside the region’s unrivaled bounty: pristine seafood, unmatched seasonal produce and world-class wines. This combination of heritage and innovation has transformed the American Riviera into a bona fide gastronomic destination.

While experiencing every notable establishment would easily require more than 48 hours, this ambitious itinerary covers significant ground. It purposely bypasses some well-trodden staples already in heavy rotation among Angelenos — such as Loquita, Bettina, Caruso’s, Cold Spring Tavern, La Super-Rica Taqueria and the like — to focus on lesser-known gems and standout newcomers.

Here is how to spend a gloriously food-centric weekend eating and drinking your way through Santa Barbara.

Friday

Happy Hour:

Arrive between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. to snag $2 off all drinks and food.

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Set your out-of-office message by midday Friday and escape north via the 101 or aboard Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. Well-made drinks upon arrival are non-negotiable, and the veteran bartenders at The Pickle Room deliver exactly that.

Arrive between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. to snag $2 off all drinks and food. Order a signature Pickletini or classic Old Fashioned, pair it with a fried-to-order Reuben egg roll and settle into a space steeped in history.

The venue was once Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens, Santa Barbara’s last Chinese-owned business in its New Chinatown. When the Chung family closed the beloved restaurant in 2006, after 59 years, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation stepped in to buy the property. Today, Clay Lovejoy operates both the adjoining Three Pickles sandwich shop and the bar.

For a slice of local Chinese American history, peruse the life-size photo exhibit dedicated to the founding Chung family along the bar’s back wall.

Kick off the weekend with The Pickle Room's signature Pickletini or classic Old Fashioned.

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Dinner:

The energy inside Dom’s Taverna is electric. Though open for just a year, the Arts District dining room is already packed with local couples, friends, and families.

Most people are here for Chef Dominique Crisp’s Central Coast spin on Basque cooking.

“It's intrinsically Basque to take whatever amazing ingredients are available, make them part of your menu, not really fuss it up,” Crisp said.

Herbaceous smashed papas brava at Dom's Taverna.

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Backed by strong ties to regional purveyors like 805 Seafood and La Pluma Farms, the menu changes almost daily. On a recent night, locally caught bluefin starred in both a crudo and pasta special, while the day’s oysters hailed from Morro Bay.

The menu is anchored by mainstays like wonderfully herbaceous smashed papas brava and arroza al forno made with morcilla from La Española Meats in Los Angeles’s South Bay. To drink, owner Raj Nallapothola’s Laie vermouth, served simply on the rocks with an orange slice and a green olive, cuts beautifully through the rich menu.

For the finale, a spoonful of whipped housemade Basque cheesecake topped with Osetra caviar delivers a perfect, decadent balance of sweet and savory.

Saturday

Coffee:

The third-wave coffee scene in Santa Barbara and its surrounding communities is exceptionally stacked, anchored by trailblazing stalwarts like Dune Coffee and Handlebar Roasters alongside hip newcomers like Little King.

Joining the lineup is Dawn, a breezy cafe attached to the State Street Drift hotel. With its central location and inviting indoor-outdoor seating, Dawn is a fetching option for classic espresso drinks, matcha, seasonal sippers — and prime people watching.

Breakfast:

Treat yourself with French Bordier butter at Oat Bakery.

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Ease into the day at Oat Bakery, a serene Scandinavian-inspired shop located just off State Street, with additional locations in Goleta and Montecito. Inside the minimalist, jewel-box space, co-owners and spouses Louise Ulrich-Fontana and Lou Fontana showcase a tightly edited lineup of Danish breads and pastries baked with locally sourced grains and minimal added sugar.

The dense, satisfying hygge buns are laced with cinnamon and packed with dates and walnuts, while the flaky frøsnappers feature an almond marzipan filling under a crust of toasty sesame and poppy seeds.

For the ultimate morning fuel, order the Danish breakfast: a crusty sourdough bun sliced and slathered with French Bordier butter, layered with Gouda and brightened with apricot-jalapeño jam. Grab a loaf of the bakery’s signature sesame charcoal sourdough for the perfect edible souvenir.

Lunch:

This family-owned restaurant draws crowds with its hyper-local catch, including box crab, sea urchin, and rock crab.

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Stearns Wharf is packed with touristy attractions, but the 46-year-old Santa Barbara Shellfish Co. is a refreshing exception. Perched on the West Coast’s oldest working wooden pier, this family-owned restaurant draws crowds with its hyper-local catch, including box crab, sea urchin and rock crab.

Order the uni, and it comes plated alongside its outer shell, spines still subtly moving. Delicately steamed crabs arrive with drawn butter and hefty metal crackers for extracting their meat.

Whether seated on the L-shaped patio with expansive views of the Pacific or along the dining room bar overlooking the busy open kitchen, there are no bad seats at this bustling pier-side eatery.

Cocktail Hour:

While staying overnight at Montecito’s storied San Ysidro Ranch starts at $2,500, the idyllic property, originally a Spanish land grant, has several food and beverage venues open to the public. Stroll the meticulously maintained grounds with a spritz, martini, or margarita in hand by ordering from the Garden Walk drinks menu available at The Speakeasy and The Stonehouse restaurant; live music starts at 5 p.m. daily.

For a secluded, moodier affair, duck into the eclectically appointed cocktail bar The Speakeasy — cool stone walls, low wooden ceilings, plush red booths and bold animal prints — for rare spirits and expertly made drinks.

Walk-ins are welcome, but reservations are encouraged on Fridays and Saturdays.

Dinner:

Little Mountain, a nine-month-old hotspot in Montecito’s Upper Village.

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Chef Diego Moya may be new to the Central Coast, but he has quickly mastered the region's micro-seasons. At Little Mountain — a nine-month-old hotspot in Montecito’s Upper Village — the Chilean American chef dazzles diners nightly with a skillful, less-is-more restraint centered around a wood-fired kitchen.

Moya trained globally at famed institutions like Paris’ L’Arpège and Bangkok’s Nahm, and most recently served as executive chef at Racines in New York.

On a recent visit to Little Mountain, freshly caught local lingcod was transformed into an irresistible ceviche with burnt tomato and basil. A gorgeous flank of ruby-red tuna came lightly brushed with guajillo, and paired with ripe honeydew and a fermented pepper-and-melon gazpacho. Even simple koshihikari rice, fortified with housemade butter and white sesame seeds, becomes a main event under the chef’s care.

Beverages — including wines, cocktails and spirit-free selections — mirror Moya’s culinary ethos, focusing on small-scale, sustainable and low-intervention producers.

Little Mountain is an important opening not just for Montecito, but for all of Southern California.

Sunday

Brunch:

Bistro Amasa is tucked into the ground floor of the 155-year-old Upham Hotel — the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California.

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Tucked into the ground floor of the 155-year-old Upham Hotel — the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California — Bistro Amasa is just the place for Sunday brunch.

Executive chef Julian Martinez and restaurateur Jesse Gaddy, the hospitality pros behind local favorite Barbareño, opened the restaurant late last year, bringing chill yet refined vibes to the historic Victorian property.

Grab a seat on the wraparound patio overlooking a quieter stretch of downtown and settle in for brunch classics done right. The shakshuka with vadouvan-spiced tomato ragu, over-easy eggs, and sautéed kale offers pure comfort; the grilled pan de cristal served alongside is ideal for sopping.

For something sweet, a small stack of pancakes made with house ricotta is served with butter and preserved lemon syrup. A slate of whimsical cocktails is on hand for the boozy brunch crowd, including a requisite espresso martini and a summery strawberry shrub highball spiked with vodka.

When it first opened in 2015, Blue Butterfly Village was hailed as a rare sanctuary for women veterans overcoming homelessness.

But some tenants now say conditions at the taxpayer-subsidized San Pedro townhome complex have become so bad, they’re willing to give up their rental subsidies and take their chances on finding a home they can afford on their own limited incomes.

“I’d rather be freaking homeless than continue to live [at Blue Butterfly],” said Jade Easley, who served in the U.S. Army for nearly a decade.

She said that in 2024, the city’s Housing Department inspected her unit and found violations, such as faulty smoke detectors, defective stairs and bad plumbing. She said she frequently heard mice crawling in her walls.

Easley said she told property managers last year that locks on one of her doors were broken. The next month, she suffered a break-in. Seven months later, she said, the door still hadn’t been fixed, so she paid out of pocket to repair it herself.

Easley left Blue Butterfly earlier this year. She now lives with her two children in Tucson, Arizona. She said she moved there because rent is cheap enough to cover with her VA disability benefits. But she is now cut off from her social support system.

“This was not a choice to live here," Easley said. “I’ve lived outside before. I’ve lived deployed. But I never experienced mice in my home for that long of a period of time, clawing at my walls as I'm trying to sleep, and my kids running to my room saying something’s trying to get them.”

What happens after veterans get housed?

Easley is one of 12 current and former tenants who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week against Blue Butterfly’s nonprofit landlord, Volunteers of America.

The tenants allege the organization and its affiliated groups have neglected the property, have failed to provide safe and habitable housing and have harassed residents who complained about worsening conditions.

According to the lawsuit, the property — which is nestled in a hillside down a winding private street lined with other abandoned military housing structures — has become infested with snakes, insects and other wildlife. Coyotes have crawled under poorly maintained fences, tenants say, and black widow spiders have taken over their patios.

Other alleged problems at the property include broken street lamps, sewage overflowing from defective septic systems, trash piling up as collections stopped and lax security that allowed one unit to operate as a “drug den” for years.

“It really has been stressful,” said Alisa Randell, a Public Counsel attorney representing the tenants. “There have been impacts on folks' mental health because of all of these issues not being able to get their homes fixed and not feeling safe and secure at this property.”

Raytevia Evans, a Volunteers of America spokesperson, declined an interview. She emailed a statement, saying the organization could not comment on active litigation.

“We regularly inspect our properties, including Blue Butterfly Village, and respond promptly to maintenance and safety requests from our residents,” the statement read. “We remain deeply committed to ensuring Blue Butterfly Village serves as a supportive environment for female veterans and their families, and we continue to collaborate with municipal partners and property management to address any outstanding maintenance or operational needs.”

Blue Butterfly Village is located down a winding private road. Residents must drive past derelict former military housing in order to reach their homes.

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The allegations come at a time when L.A. has been making progress on bringing unhoused veterans indoors. According to this year’s regional homeless count, about 2,250 veterans currently experience homelessness across L.A. County on any given night. That represents a decrease of about 42% from levels of veteran homelessness seen in 2020.

But veteran advocates said some of that decrease is the result of placing people in substandard housing where habitability concerns go unaddressed.

Rob Reynolds told LAist the Blue Butterfly allegations are similar to complaints he has heard from veterans placed in new housing on the VA campus in West L.A. He said those complaints also involve alleged lack of security, frequent staff turnover, pests and broken plumbing.

“I hope the plaintiffs in this case are successful in holding the defendants accountable, and I hope this leads to greater oversight and accountability for the property management groups operating veteran housing in Los Angeles,” Reynolds said. “They deserve better.”

Units received public funding, then failed city inspections

Easley said she spent about one year couch surfing and living in her car before moving into her unit at Blue Butterfly. At first, she said, her new home was “rainbows and sunshine,” describing it as a life-changing opportunity that gave her a reason to keep living.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Easley said, the property managers changed and problems in her townhome were left to fester. At the time, she was running a licensed, in-home daycare.

“I was actually pretty proud of myself because I finally was owning my own business,” Easley said. But she said neglect by the landlords left her home too unsafe to operate the daycare.

“I didn't want to be in my own unit,” she said. “I didn't want other people to be in my unit, so I just stopped that completely.”

A car with a popped hood is parked in a driveway outside of a townhome at Blue Butterfly Village in San Pedro.

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Disputes between landlords and tenants over habitability are fairly common in L.A. But the situation at Blue Butterfly is notable for how much taxpayer funding has flowed into the property.

The property consists of 74 two-bedroom townhomes. They were repurposed from existing structures that previously provided housing to military families stationed at a nearby Navy base. That housing was closed in 1997. The complex was redeveloped in part with about $12 million in state and local funding, loans, waived development fees and donated land.

Tenants living at Blue Butterfly typically pay up to 30% of their income on rent, with government-funded housing vouchers covering the rest. Some vouchers are administered through the HUD-VASH program, specifically targeted to housing veterans, while others are funded through mainstream Section 8 vouchers.

When landlords fail to fix deteriorating conditions, the local governments that administer these vouchers can place housing units under “abatement,” meaning rental subsidies will be withheld until homes pass future inspections.

LAist discovered through a public records request that the Housing Authority of the City of L.A. has placed at least three units at Blue Butterfly Village under abatement in recent years.

In 2024, Housing Authority officials told a Volunteers of America subsidiary they would not provide rental subsidies until the landlord fixed a faulty toilet, a broken bedroom door handle, a damaged refrigerator and dishwasher, non-functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and cleared a mouse infestation.

‘It makes you feel like nobody cares’

Anesha Aird, a U.S. Navy veteran, spent about two years without stable housing after retiring from the military. She said she was usually able to pay for short-term hotel stays, but she spent some nights in her car.

Like Easley, Aird said her early days at Blue Butterfly were positive. But over time, her requests for maintenance and increased security on the property were ignored, she said.

At first, “we had proper security that stopped you at the gate, asked you where you were going, checked your name against a ban list to ensure that you were allowed to be on the property,” Aird said. “All of that is gone.”

Anesha Aird stands in front of her townhome at Blue Butterfly Village in San Pedro.

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When the attached townhome next to hers burned down in February 2024, the unit was left as a burned-out husk for about nine months, Aird said.

Before the repairs began, Aird said, she asked management to relocate her. She said she worried the construction noise and irregular work hours would disrupt her son’s home-schooling and trigger her post-traumatic stress disorder.

She said management denied her request.

“There are veterans here — veterans like myself with extreme PTSD and bad anxiety and depression,” Aird said. “It makes you feel like nobody cares.”

Tenants say they faced retaliation after asking for repairs

The tenants’ lawsuit alleges that Volunteers of America and other defendants violated the city of L.A.’s tenant anti-harassment ordinance by threatening to remove tenants and blaming them for conditions that landlords are responsible for maintaining.

Randell, the tenants’ attorney, said the lawsuit asks the court to require the landlords carry out repairs, restore services, end alleged retaliation and pay damages to compensate tenants for alleged overpaid rent and emotional distress.

“This site has a lot of promise,” Randell said. “We just want to see it live up to its promise.”

A spokesperson for the L.A. Housing Department said it currently had no records of open complaints or violations at the property. Officials with the Housing Authority of the City of L.A. did not respond to LAist’s request for information on current conditions at the complex.

Aird said she recently came home to find a three-day notice warning of a potential eviction on her door. She said she did not believe the threat would hold up in court. In any case, she plans to move out once she can find another building where she can use a housing voucher.

“I served this country honorably for 20 years,” Aird said. “All I'm asking is that I get treated with that same respect.”

The Los Angeles Unified Board is reevaluating how students, educators and schools use artificial intelligence as some parents call for an in-classroom moratorium. A new board committee on AI use meets for the first time Wednesday.

“I think that success will look like, in a quickly changing world, knowing that we are being proactive to protect our students and safeguard their health, their wellbeing, and their development first and foremost,” said Kelly Gonez, the committee chair. “But also ensuring that we are truly preparing our students for the world that they will emerge into once they graduate from our schools.”

Gonez said the goal is to create AI policy recommendations that could then be voted on by the full board next year.

What’s AI use like in schools?

Recent surveys indicate that many students and educators are using AI, even as research about whether the tools help students learn are mixed.

LAUSD students 13 and older can use AI tools at their teacher’s direction and after they complete a lesson about “digital citizenship,” under current district policy.

The board voted to create the generative AI committee when it adopted student screentime restrictions in June. In addition to Gonez, the committee includes board members Nick Melvoin and Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

A group of LAUSD parents who advocated for those restrictions wants the district to block all student AI use until more research is done.

“I think the current policy needs to be discarded completely, and we need to start from scratch with the foundational question of what is the benefit of these tools in education?” said Anya Meksin, deputy director of Schools Beyond Screens and the parent of a district elementary school student.

How to weigh in in LAUSD's AI policies

The first LAUSD board generative AI committee meeting is 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Sept.2, where district leaders are scheduled to give a presentation about AI in education.

Community members can tune in to the meeting online, over the phone or in person at board room at 333 S. Beaudry Ave.. Registration for public comment starts at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Meetings are also scheduled for the following Wednesdays at 10 a.m.:

• Oct. 21, 2026
• Dec. 9, 2026
• Jan. 20, 2027
• March 3, 2027
• April 7, 2027