No decision yet on when LAUSD students can return to classrooms, superintendent says
LAUSD's superintendent promised structure in online classes, listing a set of guidelines for the upcoming school year that include a regular class schedule and taking daily attendance.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner said Monday no decision has been made on when school facilities will reopen and he outlined how the district plans to improve students' online learning experience when the school year starts next month.
Beutner promised structure in online classes, listing a set of guidelines for the upcoming school year that include a regular class schedule, taking daily attendance, daily live instruction and other requirements that must be met.
The new school year will come with updated goals for teachers meant to keep students focused.
Beutner urged students and teachers get set for more online learning, and said tools and training will be supplied.
LAUSD has assembled a training team to help teachers engage, and get 600,000 students to log in every day.
A team is working to simplify the technology teachers used at the end of last school year for online instruction, the superintendent said.
"We knew we were heading into uncharted waters,'' Beutner said. "Training was needed for students and their families on how to use these tools, as well as the many different communication and education technologies that are part of an online education. Teachers were asked to adapt lesson plans based on classroom instruction virtually overnight to somehow complete the last few months of school online.''
During the next academic year, each school principal will host regular updates on their plans to reopen and provide education, and community administrators will hold regular town hall meetings to discuss issues related to the new school year, Beutner said.
"If these sound like an ambitious set of expectations, they are and they're necessary,'' Beutner said. "COVID-19 continues to be a real threat to all the communities we serve, and it doesn't look like that'll change anytime soon. We have to do the best we can to adapt to challenges it presents."
The first day of instruction is scheduled for Aug. 18.
City News Service contributed to this report.
