The Los Angeles school district will not reopen campuses when the spring semester starts Jan. 11, and in a Monday statement Supt. Austin Beutner provided no timetable for bringing students back to campuses amid the dangerous coronavirus surge and “alarming” data from the district’s own testing program.
“It will not be possible for us to reopen school campuses by the time next semester starts on Jan. 11,” Beutner said in a Monday pre-recorded briefing. “We’ll remain in online-only mode until community health conditions improve significantly.”
His remarks also contained a foreboding data point: 10% of students coming in to school-based campus coronavirus testing sites are positive for the virus.
“The most recent data from our testing program is alarming,” Beutner said. “Over the past week, 5% of adults — who did not report any exposure or symptoms — tested positive, and close to 10% of children.”