April 11, 2021
School system leaders are cautiously optimistic that the 2021-22 school year will see more students learning in-person and that the school day will resemble pre-pandemic routines, but with safety protocols in place. Increased vaccine administration for adults and the hope of childhood vaccines this fall, winter or early in 2022 are helping drive this confidence….
April 11, 2021
Many long-standing processes and procedures were turned on their heads as a result of the pandemic, and attendance record keeping was no exception. Prior to the final months of the 2019–20 school year, distance learning was an undefined term, and the most comparable instructional model came in the form of independent study. The advent of…
Every state has butted heads with its teachers unions over reopening. But in California, the entire political power structure consists of Democrats who are union allies. Neither the politicians nor organized labor is dealing well with suddenly being adversaries of the other. Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to reopen schools, which was summarily rejected…
An administrator at the California Department of Education was put on paid leave Thursday while department officials investigate allegations that he authored books and articles about conspiracy theories and used anti-Semitic rhetoric. The department began an internal investigation of Craig Heimbichner, who was promoted in January to the position of education administrator in the charter…
Thousands of English language learners could be headed for American public schools in the coming months due to recent changes in U.S. immigration policy and devastating natural disasters in Central and South America. Their arrival could pose a challenge for local school systems, particularly poor districts that might not have enough teachers or space to…
After COVID-19 forced the nation’s schools online, thousands of districts scrambled to partner with internet service providers to cover the cost of broadband for low-income students. The result was a patchwork of temporary agreements that connected millions of families, often via innovative public-private partnerships. Now, though, many of those deals face looming expiration dates—with no…
Los Angeles Unified students are one step closer to returning to their classrooms after the district and its teachers union reached a tentative agreement on the reopening of schools for in-person instruction. The agreement, announced after months long negotiations, would affect 465,000 students in kindergarten to 12th grade in the state’s largest school district. Under…
Signed by Gavin Newsom in September 2020, Assembly Bill 841 created the “School Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program” (the SEES Program) which, in turn, created two new grant programs intended to fund specific air quality, ventilation, energy efficiency, plumbing, and water efficiency improvements. Funding will be awarded to school districts and charter schools for HVAC assessment,…
Passed by both the Senate and the House, the Budget Reconciliation American Rescue Plan was signed by the President and now becomes law. The Reconciliation Bill carries additional federal COVID-19 aid to support reopening schools and classrooms safely for students, staff and families. Here is a recap of the bill from Californians for School Facilities…
March 14, 2021
By Robert McEntire, Ed.D. on March 11, 2021 As we approach the one-year anniversary of the first wave of statewide lockdowns, we are starting to see a few rays of sunshine poke through the cloudy skies that have hung over the state, or at least our collective mental state, for too long. If the estimates…