LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles Unified School District's summer classes will begin June 24 online due to the coronavirus pandemic, and almost every student in the district has been connected to the internet, Superintendent Austin Beutner announced today.
LAUSD will offer some new classes for summer, including animation, environmental science, music classes, space exploration, sports science and something called “Voyage of the Titanic” with film director James Cameron, who helmed the blockbuster hit film.
The school district partnered with Verizon in March to purchase $100 million in computers and Wi-Fi infrastructure, especially for students and families that cannot afford the technology.
Last week, Beutner announced the district's 2020-2021 academic year will begin Aug. 18, but it remains unclear how classes will be held amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The transition to online learning is our moonshot. It's that important and that difficult,” Beutner said last Monday. “And like the astronauts on the Eagle, we'll all benefit from the learning when all are safely back home, or in the case of our students, safely back in the classroom.”
The superintendent wrote on Twitter that the district is working with UCLA to plan for a “safe reopening,” but there is no timeline as to when LAUSD will have students return to its facilities.
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