The Brief

When Thomas Pace, director of facilities at San Bernardino City Unified, thinks about all the construction that needs to happen at the schools in his district, he struggles to get the math to work.

Many of the existing kindergarten classrooms don’t meet state standards, and now, they’re preparing to layer in another grade for young children: transitional kindergarten.

In 2021, California embarked on a $2.7 billion plan to offer TK to all 4-year-olds by the 2025-2026 school year in what’s poised to be the largest free preschool program in the country.

But school districts across the state, like Pace’s, are struggling to build or modify the facilities most appropriate for these new young learners.

Why the rollout is expensive and hard

San Bernardino City Unified is at the tail end of using $250 million in bond money the city raised over a decade ago for school improvements.

“All of the specialized space is highly expensive, and for those school districts that lack the local resources, we struggle to make those improvements on a grand scale,” Pace said. “So we were already struggling to catch up even in the kinder realm. Now you add in a greater offering for TK, it just puts a larger burden on local school districts.”

State requirements for new TK classrooms (and kindergarten classrooms) are different than those of typical classrooms. Four-year-olds can’t just sit at desks all day. They also need space to play, indoors and outdoors. They also need supervision when going to the bathroom, which means having a restroom inside the classroom, or close by.

In San Bernardino, 150 of the 190 early education classrooms don’t meet those standards, Pace said.

An initial analysis of state data by the Learning Policy Institute, yet to be published, found most districts reported having classroom space for early learners, but a third expressed concerns about adequate facilities, including square footage, bathrooms, and outdoor play areas.

In 2022, California expanded a grant program to help school districts build or renovate TK classrooms. Through two rounds of funding, the state has given out $585.9 million dollars.

But that program requires school districts to be able to provide matching funds at the local level. And districts have asserted that the way funding is structured makes it harder for lower-resourced districts to get money.

“We have lots of classrooms that need to be modified,” Pace said. “We lack the local funding source to match, and we lack the state funding for it. So if the governor doesn't continue to fund TK improvements to facilities, we are going to struggle.”

Last month, the governor in his May revised budget cut more than half a billion dollars for that program. Lawmakers are weighing putting a statewide bond on the ballot in November.

A spokesperson for the Department of General Services said in its last filing round, $1.04 billion worth of requests were not funded.

Why learning environments matter

Children gather around on a large colorful rug in the center of a TK classroom at Will Rogers Elementary in Santa Monica. The classroom has a wooden toddler play loft, puppets and toys, and tiny-sized furniture for 4-year-olds. But it’s only about 900 square feet and doesn’t have a restroom inside.

Space is important for young children, because they learn through play, said Susan Samarge-Powell, director of early learning at Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

“So rather than students sitting at a desk all day long, that's not what our early learning environments are about. It's about moving around, they're moving all day long. And so having that space to afford them that ability is a big deal,” she said.

She said restrooms are also a big deal because 4-year-olds don't have quite the same bladder control as older kids.

The construction site of a new building and field at Will Rogers Elementary School.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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The construction site of a new building and field at Will Rogers Elementary School.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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"When you have little bodies, they have to go to the bathroom often. With the older kids, we can say, we're going before recess. But with littles, whenever they're ready, you have to go. So, it's a challenge," she said.

Across the other side of the elementary school, construction is underway to build new early learning classrooms that offer students an ideal environment — with their own play yard and their own bathrooms. District officials hope it’ll be ready by summer of 2025, but the district won’t be finished with most of its other TK construction until 2026 or 2027, said Carey Upton, the district’s chief operations officer.

“We’re playing catchup, and I think all school districts are,” Upton said. But Upton added his district, which includes Malibu, has the benefit of high-assessed property values and bond measures that tend to pass.

“It works OK for school districts that have funding. It works really poorly for school districts that don't, who don't have the money to front the costs,” Upton said.

Should the state wait to expand TK?

When state lawmakers announced the expansion of TK in 2021, officials said it would provide “high quality learning opportunities” for every child.

But Sara Hinkley, a program manager for the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools, says quality may look different based on ZIP code.

Dr. Susan Samarge-Powell, Director of Child Development Services at Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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Carey Upton, Chief Operations Officer of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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“If you see that as being very uneven, then the idea of TK being a way to make up the difference between kids who have access to nice, expensive preschool experiences and kids whose families can't afford to send them to those kinds of experiences — we've kind of missed the entire goal of the expanded program, and that would be a shame,” Hinkley said.

“I think what we'll also end up seeing is that local districts that can raise money locally, that can issue voter-approved general obligation bonds to retrofit these facilities, will have better educational environments for their very young kids,” she said.

LAist reached out to Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, who authored the expansion of transitional kindergarten. His office said he was unable to comment.

Dale Farran, professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, said the state should wait to implement TK until schools have the appropriate spaces for it.

Farran worked on a 2022 study in Tennessee that found that students who went to Tennessee’s public pre-K program had more behavior problems and lower test scores.

“[Kids] need to be up, they need to be exploring, they need to be interacting with each other and with the teacher, and they need to have an environment that facilitates all of that happening,” she said.

The garden at Will Rogers Elementary School where students can have classes to maintain it.

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Ashley Balderrama

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When bathrooms aren’t in the classroom for instance, or their lunch is in the cafeteria with older students, it leads to more “transition” time, she explained — kids having to line up to go to the bathroom, or walk down the hall. Not only does that lead to less learning time, it leads to teachers having to exert more behavioral control on kids, she said.

“There's a lot of just waiting. And what happens with 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds is they get fidgety during all that wait time, right? And they may even start talking to a friend. And that leads teachers then to start what we call ‘behavior disapproval.’ Like, ‘put a bubble in your mouth,’ or ‘I told you no talking in the hall,’” she said. “And so children are hearing a lot more no's than they are hearing yes's. And that's also not good for children.”

If not done right, she said: “It will solidify the inequity at an earlier age.”

How does the state help besides money?

The California Department of Education says there are ways to make classrooms best suited for children, beyond the actual building. It’s advising local school districts on best practices — on how to arrange child-sized furniture and make classrooms appropriate for 4-year-olds. The department also has a toolkit on helping kids go to the bathroom.

When bathrooms aren't inside the classroom, teachers work with aides and other support staff to make sure they're taking kids to the restrooms in teams and developmentally appropriate ways, said Sarah Neville-Morgan, deputy superintendent at CDE.

“I think it goes far beyond what the school looks like now,” she said.

One of the TK classes at Will Rogers Elementary School working on a project.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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A study by the American Institutes for Research found children who attended TK in California had stronger literacy and math skills when entering kindergarten than kids who didn’t attend the program.

Neville-Morgan also pointed to touring Boston preschools, where, in one case, children had to go up a floor to use the restroom because they’re in an older building. “But their outcomes, their results from the Boston public schools, universal pre-K are phenomenal,” she said.

She said giving 4-year-olds access to transitional kindergarten will better set them up for success later in life.

“We're investing in [TK]... to give more children, those chances, those opportunities to later go out and have access to home ownership, to higher ed or for pathways that give them, not just a living wage, but a really good salary occupation,” she said.

What do districts without local funds do?

San Bernardino City Unified got some funding from the state grant program to help build an early learning center at the site of a high school, but that would be for just seven classrooms across a large district. Pace said the district didn’t apply for another round because they didn’t have enough local money to put up a match, which the state requires for the grants. There’s an exception for financial hardship, but that adds some limits on how money can be spent.

"That's the inequitable part about the system — if you have the money, you can turn in [the applications],” Pace said.

Fontana Unified School District applied for more than $23 million but hasn’t received any of it, and the district is in the process of putting up a bond in November. Leslie Barnes, an associate superintendent at Fontana Unified, said the district is looking to put TK classrooms in seven schools.

“The fact that they haven't slowed down the TK rollout, but yet aren't providing the funding we need to be available to provide that on our own,” Barnes said.

Alan Reising, business services administrator with Long Beach Unified and chair of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, said districts will be forced to re-prioritize their local dollars.

“It was disappointing because there's such a demand out there for [the funding],” he said.

“Whether or not we are ready for them, students are coming,” Reising said. “And so we will do what we have done for decades, which is, we will make do with what we have.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Following the Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights, many residents have expressed concerns about contaminants from smoke and ash settling into the soil. 

The Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods (CLEAN) project at USC is offering free soil testing for Boyle Heights and East L.A. residents. 

CLEAN is a rapid response soil testing program from the USC Department of Earth Sciences and Public Exchange developed by USC faculty, students and staff to assist local communities impacted by fires in L.A. County.

Residents can collect soil samples and drop them off at Boyle Heights City Hall for CLEAN to collect. 

Below is a step-by-step guide.

How to collect your sample: 

1. Review USC’s CLEAN project guide
2. Submit this survey– Your sample ID will be provided upon completing the survey. Make sure to save your ID as this is how the CLEAN team keeps track of your sample and provides results to you. 
3. Before getting started, gather your materials and protective equipment. (ADD points)
   
   1. Disposable gloves and an N95 or KN95 facemask
   2. Plastic spoon or shovel
   3. Ziploc bags (2 per composite samples)
   4. Permanent marker 
   5. Masking tape (for bag label)
   6. 9-digit sample ID code (from your survey)
4. Select your sampling zones
   
   1. Your sampling zones are where you will be collecting the soil from. Your zones can be your front or back yard, garden, etc. The picture on page four of the guide shows the different zones in a home and though your home may not have all zones, what’s important is that you understand what zones you’re collecting from and labeling them accordingly.
5. Once you’re wearing your protective gear and have your equipment, you are now ready to collect the sample.
   
   1. Collect two spoonfuls of soil for 2-5 different spots within a single zone
   2. Drop all spoonfuls from the zone into one Ziploc bag. By the end of collecting, the bag should have about a cup size of soil in it.
   3. Seal your Ziploc bag and for extra protection, put it over another Ziploc bag. This bag will now contain the zone’s composite sample. 
   4. Then repeat for every other zone you want to test. You should have one composite sample per zone you test. (e.g. one for the garden, one for the front yard, etc.)
6. Using a permanent marker, label each Ziploc bag with your unique sample ID and the zone name either on tape or directly on the bag. 
7. Then you repeat steps 5 and 6 for each zone you are testing. 

After collection 

Once you have finished collecting your samples, make sure to wash your hands. If you suspect your soil to be contaminated, CLEAN suggests limiting access to that area, wiping or taking shoes off before entering your home, and preventing children from playing in bare soil.  

CLEAN will test all samples for lead and some select samples will be tested for Arsenic, Chromium(VI), and Mercury. Testing for lead can take up to four weeks, while tests for other materials may take longer.

Where to submit your sample

After collecting and labeling your soil samples, you can submit them using one of the following methods:

Option 1: Drop Off Your Sample

Option 2: Mail Your Sample

Who to contact: 

If you have any questions or concerns, contact cleanproject@usc.edu

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood’s video billboards just secured a big legal victory.  

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Inglewood can, for now, continue its deal allowing WOW Media to run its digital billboards along the city’s major roads. 

Last summer, companies tied to SoFi Stadium, Kia Forum and Intuit Dome sued to block the agreement, arguing that the city had violated competitive bidding rules and policies governing the use of public roads and sidewalks.

The stadiums, which run their own massive digital billboards on its properties, also claimed the city’s dealings with WOW breached their contracts with the city. Court records previously reviewed by The LA Local suggested the yearslong relationship between Mayor James Butts and SoFi Stadium owner Stan Kroenke was fraying.

At one point, Butts claimed the city’s SoFi Stadium development agreement was void.

The dispute also moved beyond the courts and onto the streets when stadiums launched a ballot initiative aimed at banning WOW’s billboards. WOW fired back with a pair of its own ballot initiatives aimed at stadium taxes and parking fees.

Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner rejected several claims brought by the stadiums, saying in a 25-page ruling that WOW’s agreement with the city adhered to rules governing the public right–of-way, the legal term for publicly accessible roads, sidewalks and other paths.

The judge also ruled that the city was not required to open a competitive bidding process for the agreement because WOW and its patented spiral video kiosks were uniquely positioned to fulfill the contract. 

But Lipner said he did not have jurisdiction to rule on allegations by the Forum and Intuit Dome that the city breached their development contracts.

A spiral video kiosk is seen on Prairie Ave. in Inglewood on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif.

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Butts told The LA Local that the court’s findings speak for themselves and touted the revenue the billboards bring the city. Inglewood has made as much as $7.4 million in billboard revenue in a year, according to budget documents. 

WOW celebrated Lipner’s ruling in a statement to The LA Local, calling the stadiums’ court case and ballot initiative part of an “expensive misinformation campaign.” 

“The court’s ruling makes clear that the city followed the law and acted in the best interests of its residents,” WOW CEO Scott Krantz said. “It has become abundantly clear that the stadium duopolists want complete control of every facet of Inglewood life.” 

A spokesperson for Hollywood Park, the complex that includes SoFi Stadium, said it plans to appeal and that the case raised important questions.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision regarding the city’s long-term agreement with WOW and continue to believe that leasing public rights-of-way in this manner is inconsistent with state and municipal law,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Beyond a possible appeal by the stadiums, Lipner wrote that the parts of the case he did not rule on will be transferred to another court department to be calendared for future proceedings.

A judge declared a mistrial on Friday for a former Pacific Palisades resident accused of starting a fire that led to last year’s destructive Palisades Fire after the jury said it was deadlocked.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, was facing up to 45 years in federal prison for one count of destruction of property by means of fire, one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and one count of timber set afire.

The judge set a new trial date for Oct. 19 and the court ordered Rinderknecht remain detained.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said on social media that the evidence against Rinderknecht is "strong."

"We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts," Essayli said.

It was announced Thursday that the jury had reached a verdict, but when attorneys and Rinderknecht filed into the room, the judge said the opposite — the jury cannot make a unanimous decision on each of the three charges based on a note they shared with the court.

The jury exchanged further notes with the judge that said there is nothing the court could do to help them reach a unanimous verdict and there were jurors dead set on both sides.

What happened in court?

The trial reconvened Friday to figure out the next steps after the jury said it was deadlocked.

Prosecutors were pushing for the court to tell the jurors to go back to deliberations in an attempt to work it out, but U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang expressed concerns that it could come off as coercion.

Hwang decided to call the jurors into the courtroom to confirm they cannot reach a unanimous verdict, and that there is nothing else the court could do to help them. All 12 members confirmed that was the case and said the split was 10 not guilty and two guilty.

Prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht maliciously started a smaller fire — the Lachman Fire — near a hiking trail in the Santa Monica Mountains just after midnight on New Year’s Day 2025. About a week later, it became the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. It killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.

How we got here

Firefighters initially kept the Lachman Fire contained to about 8 acres, but it continued to burn underground in the days following. A strong, widespread windstorm spread the remnants to the surface and into nearby communities, becoming the Palisades Fire on Jan. 7.

According to the criminal complaint, Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve and dropped a passenger off in the Pacific Palisades before walking up the trail about a block from his former home. Two passengers later described Rinderknecht as appearing angry and agitated that night.

He took two phone videos from a hilltop clearing about half an hour before the first signs of the Lachman Fire were spotted in the area. According to prosecutors, Rinderknecht unsuccessfully tried to call 911 several times in the following minutes, eventually reporting the fire when he got through to authorities toward the bottom of the trail.

This undated photo shows Jonathan Rinderknecht, who was accused of starting the Palisades Fire.

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U.S. Attorney's Office

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Cameras captured Rinderknecht driving away from the area before turning around and following fire trucks to the scene, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said he then hiked back up the same trail to take phone videos of the fire and first responders.

Officials later said the Palisades Fire was a “holdover” fire, a continuation of the smaller Lachman Fire from six days prior.

The Palisades Fire burned for more than three weeks across 23,000 acres. It destroyed homes, businesses and displaced thousands of residents, some of whom still haven’t been able to return to their neighborhoods more than a year later.

About the trial

Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty to the charges last October, and his trial started earlier this month.

Steve Haney, his defense attorney, has said prosecutors are trying to blame Rinderknecht for a fire that started nearly a week before.

"Well what about what happened between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7?" Haney told reporters last fall. "Jonathan wasn't out there with a fire hose putting that fire out at the Lachman location, the Fire Department was. So why are they blaming him for whatever the Fire Department didn't do?"

Haney said during the trial that “no matter what the government's theory is, the evidence will show Jonathan did not start the Jan. 1 fire," according to LAist’s media partner CBS LA.

Moving forward

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after action report, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire started fell short of the standard for extreme weather conditions. Despite the high risk, the report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was made in part to save money.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore, who was tapped for the top job after the former chief was removed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass citing the fire response, said things have changed since then.

Moore told LAist’s AirTalk in January that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions and promoted training in wildland firefighting, which have different challenges than those in urban environments and contributed to confusion during the Palisades Fire.