LOS ANGELES (KNX) — With thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District students still noncompliant with vaccine mandates, the Board of Education voted Tuesday to increase the number of online course options to better serve its remote learners.
With just one online option in place, and a high number of vaccinated students, the district decided in December to hold off on transferring unvaccinated students to an online-only model. Primarily because it feared that “City of Angels,” the one independent study program available, would be overwhelmed by enrollment.
Scott Schmerleson, a board of education member, joined KNX In Depth to discuss the reasons behind the vote to move forward with six new online programs.
“The reason that I at first was not in favor of this was because I’m more concerned with in-person learning and doing everything we can to get kids back to school…that to me was the most important factor,” he said, explaining that he changed his mind once he realized how education would degrade if City of Angels were to be the only educational option for unvaccinated students.
“We used to have about 1,800 students at City of Angels,” Schmerleson said, explaining that some 16,000 enrolled this year.
“That was not the best learning situation for our kids, so we’re hoping that these six new online schools will create the idea that parents and their kids can take a study option for what they want to study in each one of these academies and hopefully they’ll be regulated as far as the number of students, teachers and administrators… and it should be a more educationally friendly atmosphere.”
The six new programs would accommodate children from transitional kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade, and could enroll up to 15,000 students, according to The Los Angeles Times.
To date, the news outlet reports about 90% of LAUSD students are fully vaccinated, but that other 10% accounts for some 20,000 students who will not be allowed on campus once Fall semester begins.
Tuesday’s vote to move forward with the new online programs now allows the school district to apply for “county-district-school codes” which are the U.S. Department of Education’s method for tracking California schools. Each of the six online programs will require the code.
With those in hand, LAUSD will then outline the programs and ultimately decide if all six schools are needed, the Times reported. Enrollment is expected to open in March.
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