Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest school district began the 2024-25 school year Aug. 12, with more than 400,000 students returning to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses amid a renewed focus on student safety and ambitious plans for campus improvements.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he is entering the new year with a particular feeling of optimism, recently touting what he called rebounding test scores and stable finances in spite of declining enrollment since the coronavirus pandemic began.
He hailed those achievements late last month in his annual back-to-school address, delivered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown, noting that while “other school districts have been forced to lay off employees due to the challenging economic conditions, we have not and we shall not.”
The district has taken a financial hit from dipping enrollment, since state funding to districts is based on student attendance. But Carvalho maintained his upbeat tone, noting that general attendance and graduation rates have improved in the district. He said that has paid off in terms of test scores, with math and English scores rising — although still short of levels seen prior to the pandemic that forced students into remote learning.
“We truly have much to be proud of in our effort to get students back on track after the pandemic — but we’re not done,” he said in his speech.
He called the start of a new school year another “golden opportunity … to change the lives of our students, every one of them.”
In the midst of the coming school year, the LAUSD will ask voters in November to approve a $9 billion bond measure to fund campus upgrades and modernization. Carvalho told the Board of Education last week that more than 60% of the district’s school buildings are more than 50 years old and in desperate need of upgrades.
The proposed bond measure will need the backing of 55% of voters to pass on Nov. 5.
It is opposed by some including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which says that over 30 years, the bond measure would cost the owner of a median-priced more than $8,200 in increased property taxes.
But local officials are pointing to safety improvements that have already been made around many campuses.
Mayor Karen Bass said Aug. 9 that more than 450 slow zones and 250 speed bumps have been installed near schools to make it safer for children walking to campus.
She also said the city Department of Transportation will deploy more than 500 crossing guards in the 2024-25 school year, calling it the “widest deployment” of crossing guards in over a decade.
“The city moved urgently to install hundreds of safety provisions near schools ahead of this new school year,” Bass said in a statement. “In partnership with the City Council and Los Angeles Unified School District, we took action to make streets safer near schools and we will continue to do more to promote student safety.”
Los Angeles Police Department officials urged residents to be aware of the start of classes, and the resulting increase in children who will be walking, biking or otherwise traveling to schools. LAPD leaders noted that the “leading cause of death for children aged 14 and younger is vehicle accidents, whether they are passengers riding their bikes or getting struck by a vehicle while walking.”
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Heather Hutt, who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, added that with school starting, these safety measures are “crucial” to safeguard children.
The hundreds of safety treatments Department of Transportation installed over the last year, and the record number of crossing guards hired, represent the most significant investment our city has ever made to prevent dangerous driving behavior near schools,” Department of Transportation General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo said in a statement.
Carvalho noted that in recent years, LAUSD students and families have become victims of “senseless” vehicular traffic incidents while walking to and from school.
“As we welcome back our students, staff and families to the 2024-25 school year, our Board of Education members and I are grateful for the steps Mayor Bass and the City Council have taken to address these safety issues with urgency,” Carvalho said in a statement. “Los Angeles Unified looks forward to continuing to work collaboratively with all our governmental partners to safeguard the wellbeing of our students and school community.”
