Students at Los Angeles Unified School District and Burbank Unified School District will return to the classrooms on Monday for the 2024 – 2025 school year.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told KNX News’ Jon Baird it’s his favorite day of the year and that he will be visiting several classrooms throughout the day.
“The excitement is seen in every single classroom with teachers, great support personnel, all welcoming our beautiful kids,” he said.
He also said there are still some challenges he and other school officials need to work on overcoming.
“Top three challenges -chronic absenteeism. We need to continue to reduce it,” Carvalho said. “Average daily attendance needs to continue to go up and academic acceleration.”
Also happening this school year - the cell phone ban.
In June, the LAUSD Board approved a resolution prohibiting students from using their cell phones during the school day. The ban is expected to take effect in January. Carvalho told Baird they’re still working out the details.
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“Well, the process envisions the next three months being spent in conversations with our stakeholders, with teachers, with parents, with researchers, with principals, with support staff,” he said. “ We're also looking at technologies to separate the students from the cell phones or technologies that will actually disable the phone signal during the day.”
The school district has 59 buses that are electric. The district is expecting to transition to have 250 electric buses by the end of the school year.
LAUSD is also looking to upgrade its classrooms. Last week, the Board voted to put a $9 billion bond measure aimed at modernizing schools on the November ballot.
In a report, school officials said 60% of the school buildings are more than 50 years old and that upgrades are needed, including modernizing the facilities
If the voters approve it, property taxes in the district will increase an estimated 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, according to City News Service.
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