About 44K LAUSD students miss first vaccine deadline and risk losing in-person classes
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "Close to 80% of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are on track to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, school district officials announced Monday, raising concerns about the potential for thousands to be displaced from in-person classes for the start of the spring semester on Jan. 10.
The figure represents substantial progress — and officials hope many more students have been vaccinated, but simply have not yet uploaded documentation to the school district. About 225,000 students ages 12 and older fall under the mandate, half of the district’s enrollment. Based on the percentage, about 44,000 students have not met the deadline — either by getting at least one shot, obtaining a medical exemption or receiving a rare extension.
The experience of L.A. Unified, the second-largest school district in the nation and the first large system to approve such a requirement, represents an early test of compliance levels with student vaccine mandates. The vast majority of families appear on track, but the district faces logistical problems and difficult decisions if that number does not rise quickly."
Stakes are high in the Byzantine world of redistricting
CHUCK McFADDEN, Capitol Weekly: "For most Californians, redistricting is a dark and mysterious process that has little to do with their daily lives. For politicians, it could be a matter of career life or death.
The creation of new district lines is underway right now in California, with the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission working to redraw 52 congressional districts, 80 Assembly and 40 state Senate districts, along with four state Board of Equalization districts. Preliminary maps already have been released, but there is little doubt that many — of not most — of the districts will be redrawn before an initial Dec. 17 deadline or, at the latest, a Dec. 27 deadline set by the courts.
By law, the new districts are drawn every 10 years, based on the latest census numbers.
California sees welcome dip in COVID-19 heading into holidays
JOHN WOOLFOLK, Mercury News: "After a worrisome upward trend last month, Bay Area counties have seen COVID-19 transmission rates decline and the state overall is seeing hopeful signs of improvement heading into the holidays — even as outbreaks worsen across much of the country.
Gov. Gavin Newsom noted the progress as he visited a vaccine clinic Monday in San Francisco to urge more people to get the shots. But he also sounded a wary tone as infections continued a sharp upward trend nationally in the upper Midwest and Northeast as well as in Europe, suggesting a coming winter surge.
“We saw a few weeks ago some troubling signs with case rates going up, positivity rates going up, hospitalizations and ICUs going up,” Newsom said. “That said, in the last 10 or 11 days, we’ve seen some stability. Some good signs. That is good news.”
Karen Bass brings star power to crowded L.A. mayoral race
RICH EHISEN, Capitol Weekly: "Former California Assembly Speaker and current U.S. Rep. Karen Bass wasn’t the first person to get into the L.A. mayoral race, nor the last. But with approximately seven months still to go before the June 7 primary, her candidacy has put a charge into the crowded competition to lead the nation’s second largest city.
“I think we’re all anxious for any mayor who can make a difference from what we have right now because the city of Los Angeles needs all the help it can get,” says one prominent L.A. campaign consultant who spoke on condition of anonymity due to having close ties to several of the candidates currently in the race. “Karen Bass is a great addition of fresh blood.”
Bass, whose congressional district encompasses much of west L.A., announced her candidacy in September, joining a field that includes two more former California legislators: current Council member Kevin de León, a former California Senate pro Tem; and L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer, who represented the 42nd Assembly District from 2006 to 2012."
California officials release long-awaited report on troubled state testing lab
LA Times, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "After investigating its own COVID-19 testing lab for much of the year, the California Department of Public Health closed its case without issuing sanctions as the state released a long-overdue report Monday that downplayed widespread issues identified during inspections at the Valencia Branch Laboratory.
The lab, which was opened in partnership with Massachusetts-based diagnostics company PerkinElmer, has been beset with problems since the $25-million facility opened late last year. The Newsom administration promised a full report in March on “significant deficiencies” found during inspections, but it was not released until Monday — weeks after the state renewed its $1.7-billion, no-bid contract with PerkinElmer to keep the testing site going.
Newly released documents show California inspectors raised alarms earlier this year about whether staff were properly trained, how the lab was reporting its own processing errors and whether protocols that reduce the likelihood of contamination were being followed, all of which called into question the accuracy of tests at one of the largest testing facilities in the state."
Hiring shortages and COVID complicate schools' year of recovery
LA Times, KRISTEN TAKETA: "This was supposed to be a recovery year for schools and for students.
But it doesn’t always feel like it for Jennifer Davis, who teaches seventh-graders at the Language Academy near San Diego State University.
Often there aren’t enough teachers or substitutes to teach classes, she said, so sometimes the librarian has to take over a class and the school library must close, or the assistant principal takes a class and there’s nowhere to send students who are having a tough day or acting out."
State gives SF 30 days to explain why it blocked 800 housing units in recent months
