Monday was the first day of school at our local public schools. One Buzz reader reported seeing long lines at several of our area schools early in the morning, but LAUSD officials told the Buzz most of the issues were resolved within the first hour. By the time we drove around at 10:00 a.m., everything was quiet.
“Overall, it was a great day,” Dr. Adaina Brown told the Buzz at the end of her long day yesterday. Brown is the Local District West Superintendent for LAUSD, with more than 77,000 students in her district, which includes the Larchmont Village/Greater Wilshire area.
“We welcomed back over 445,000 students across the city,” said Brown. “Students were eager to get back to school to see their friends and their teachers. Some schools even made it a celebration with balloons.”
Large schools like LA High and John Burroughs Middle School saw most of their of students returning after a year and a half of online and/or hybrid learning. Â State officials visited nearby Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA) on the LA High Campus to personally welcome students.
Brown specifically complimented staff at Wilshire Crest Elementary for efficiently managing some longer lines and geting all their students into classrooms by 8:15 a.m. And she also congratulated both Wilshire Crest and Vine Street Elementary for enrolling more kindergartners this year.
Asked why she thought there were more kindergartners at these schools, Brown told us, “families were ready, they know these are good schools and they were ready for their students to start in person.”
The initial delays seen at many schools yesterday were due to glitches in the Daily Pass software schools were using to check students in and confirm compliance with school COVID protocols, according to local news reports. Brown said the district is working with Microsoft to make sure the system can handle the load of students checking in every day at the same time to get their daily pass for school.
“Parents and students were patient,” said Brown. “They appreciate that we are doing all this to keep everyone safe. We are suggesting that parents check in early in the morning when they get up, and don’t wait until 7:30 a.m. when everyone else is trying to check in too. I have two children and I’m going to try check them in when I get up at 6:30 a.m.”
