Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
Long Beach Schools Push Back Elementary School Reopenings To Late March

By Mike Guardabascio | Long Beach Post
Despite an announcement from health officials this week that coronavirus cases have subsided enough that elementary students can safely return to campuses, the Long Beach Unified School District has pushed back its planned reopening once again.
Classroom instruction for LBUSD students up to fifth grade will resume on March 29, according to an LBUSD presentation given at Wednesday evening's Board of Education meeting. Previously, school officials had said they would start reopening campuses March 1.
The presentation said classroom instruction would be on a hybrid schedule, meaning there would be a continued online component.
The LBUSD also announced a targeted reopening date of April 20 for middle schools, and a reopening for high schools on April 19 for seniors and April 26 for grades 9 through 11.
The state does not currently permit those grades to be on campus, and coronavirus cases in Long Beach and Los Angeles County must decline further before those campuses can reopen.
CONTENTIOUS DECISION
The decision of when to bring teachers and students back to class grew more contentious recently as the teachers' union lobbied to have their members vaccinated first. The city has been prioritizing vaccines for teachers this week, with the mayor promising they would get their second doses before being expected to return to the classroom.
The district said Wednesday that 3,600 LBUSD employees would receive their first dose of the vaccine by the end of this week.
Despite many students' grades plummeting during the pandemic, the majority of elementary school parents aren't eager to have their kids back in class, even as cases of COVID-19 decline, according to a survey conducted by the district. Slightly more than half of parents said they would prefer to finish the year online, while 44% said they would send kids to classrooms.
THE PLAN
Under the plan announced at Wednesday night's school board meeting, elementary school parents and students will have a choice of whether to send their kids to class the Monday before spring break, or whether to finish the year virtually.
In order to open campuses, the district will also first have to meet an array of state-imposed safety precautions, including physical distancing, masking, adequate ventilation, infection control and a testing plan for symptomatic and asymptomatic students.
The campuses must also maintain fixed cohorts of students who interact with only their own class. The sizes of those groups would be dependent on maintaining 6 feet of distance among members.
L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week that if campuses follow the required protocols, schools "are not high risk settings" for COVID-19 transmission.
As long as they're approved by state and local health officials, schools can reopen a week after submitting their plans, according to Ferrer, who emphasized that each district or school will have to make the decision for themselves about when to welcome back students.
The ability to reopen K-6 schools came Tuesday, when Los Angeles County met the state threshold of having an adjusted average of fewer than 25 daily cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents.
Kids in sixth through 12th grades will have to wait to return to the classroom until the county has fewer than 7 cases per 100,000 residents.
WATCH THE BOARD MEETING
This story was originally published by our friends at the Long Beach Post and is republished with their permission.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity.
-
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?