Coronavirus: LAUSD expects nearly $200 million in additional costs for remainder of school year
The announcement came after LAUSD provided meals to local communities Monday morning at the district's Grab & Go Food Center in San Fernando.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Unified School District expects to incur nearly $200 million in additional costs for the remainder of the school year due to the coronavirus.
LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner made the announcement Monday morning.
The additional costs include:
-$9 million for safety equipment and supplies
-$78 million to provide meals to children and adults
-$23 million to address the digital divide
-$31 million to train educators
-An additional $50 million for summer school
Beutner said the state Board of Education has been informed about the expenditures and is committed to ensuring the district helps all students continue to learn, and provide support to students and families in need.
Beutner also said the state would normally pass a budget by June 30 for the school year which begins July 1. About 90% of school funding is provided by the state, and the remainder comes from the federal
government.
The district expects that the state will delay passage of a complete budget until later in the year.
Beutner also said LAUSD continues to receive support from individuals and institutions, large and small.
Among the contributions the district received this past week were $1 million from Reed Hastings, $300,000 from T-Mobile and $250,000 from Chuck Lorre to LA Students Most in Need, a California Community Foundation initiative.
The announcement came after LAUSD provided meals to local communities Monday morning at the district's Grab & Go Food Center in San Fernando. The district has served about 10 million meals to the community.
At the event, Beutner said the district will continue to hand out meals as long as necessary, and the demand is growing.
Beutner said LAUSD receives some reimbursement for meals provided to children but has no funding right now for the food being served to adults.
"At this current pace, we're serving about 2.5 million meals per week. Last Friday, we served almost 600,000 meals," he said.
