All LBUSD schools now reopened, elementary students to have in-person summer school

Alvarado Elementary School, 1900 E. 21st St., Signal Hill March 29, 2021. (Mark Savage | Courtesy LBUSD)

All schools now reopened

As of Monday, April 26, all students who have chosen to do so—about half of LBUSD’s 70,000 total students—are back on school campuses for hybrid instruction involving both in-person and online learning, after more than a year learning exclusively online. 

Students who have chosen not to return to campus are continuing to learn from home through June 16, the end of the school year. 

Ninth, tenth and eleventh graders were the last group to return to campuses this week, after high school seniors returned April 19 and middle schools reopened April 20. Elementary schools reopened on March 29.

See related: LBUSD Board celebrates elementary reopening success as middle and high schools prepare to open next week

Student representatives from various LBUSD high schools shared their enthusiasm with the Board of Education during its April 28 meeting about returning to high school campuses, expressing appreciation for teachers and staff—including custodial crews helping to maintain safety protocols. 

Students shared how they helped orient freshmen to their high schools prior to returning since the ninth-graders had not set foot on a campus since middle school.

They also described celebrating with festivities such as cheerleading, live music, welcome posters, donated care packages and T-shirts. 

David Alvarado, a student at Browning High School, said 142 Browning students had chosen to return.

“Everyone is excited to return to campus and physically see their teachers, staff and classmates,” he said. “The comeback is always better than the setback.”

Elementary students to have in-person summer school

LBUSD will soon invite the approximately 5,000 elementary school students who received below-standard grades in reading and math in Fall 2020 to participate in an in-person summer school program.  

The support, enrichment and accelerated-learning (SEAL) program will run from June 28 to July 23. 

Students will attend in-person classes on elementary-school campuses for 3.5 hours of direct instruction Monday through Friday over the four weeks. 

With an overarching theme of “imagining a better world,” students will focus on reading, writing, math, hands-on science and creating art. 

Dual-immersion language options for kindergarten through second grade will be offered at some schools. 

Dr. Damita Myers-Miller, director and principal supervisor of the program, said the focus will be less on remediation and more on sparking interest through interactive learning. 

“We knew that our students had disrupted learning,” she said. “We needed to really think about how we were going to bring that curiosity, that engagement, and that love of learning back for our students.”

Students will also receive incentivizing take-home educational supplies, including a “literary backpack” with four or five diverse texts, a microscope, ruler, jump rope, frisbee, fuzz balls and art projects, Myers-Miller said. 

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