Let\u2019s jump into Blume\u2019s article, get his direct perspective and chat with an expert as LAUSD confronts carrying out a budget-cutting plan<\/a> to prevent a deficit that, in a worst-case scenario, could increase to $3.5 billion by June 30, 2029.<\/p>\n You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n L.A. Times reporters guide you through the most important news, features and recommendations of the morning.<\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n Money to rebuild South Los Angeles schools<\/p>\n The school district has moved forward with its ongoing school reconstruction and modernization program, backed by $9 billion in voter bonds.<\/p>\n Since June, six South L.A. elementary schools \u2014 Menlo Avenue, Normandie Avenue, 93rd Street, 96th Street, 107th Street and 122nd Street \u2014 and Harbor City\u2019s Narbonne High School received approval for seismic-risk reconstructions totaling nearly $820 million.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the current and upcoming projects to address seismic safety are expected to cost more than $2 billion.<\/p>\n The debate of rebuilding versus shuttering<\/p>\n The imperative to close all or portions of campuses potentially competes with the concurrent high priority of providing students with safe, up-to-date, fully resourced and inviting educational environments.<\/p>\n Given the years-long time frames needed for construction projects, the district facilities team doesn\u2019t want to delay upgrading facilities in ways that students immediately would benefit from.<\/p>\n The district also is moving quickly to address the risk posed by the so-called lift-slab construction style of many school buildings erected in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n One option would be not to rebuild some of these schools at all \u2014 given the district\u2019s excess capacity. But the district does not have a plan for closing campuses.<\/p>\n Enrollment crisis<\/p>\n Since peaking at more than 720,000 K-12 students in 2003, L.A. Unified has lost about 2.3% annually \u2014 with the exception of steeper drops during the pandemic and since the start of the second Trump administration last year, according to data from the state Department of Education.<\/p>\n Published enrollment data from the district put transitional kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment at 378,468<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to state data from last year, ultra-small elementary schools include Glen Alta in Montecito Heights (55 students); Ann Street in Chinatown (71); Annandale in Eagle Rock (78) and Hillside in Lincoln Heights (96). Wright Middle School in Westchester is down to 435 students. Crenshaw High in Hyde Park is at 423 students.<\/p>\n Blume\u2019s corner<\/p>\n Blume, The Times\u2019 LAUSD beat reporter, believes it\u2019s \u201cvitally important\u201d for the district to focus funding on modernizing schools most likely to remain open.<\/p>\n \u201cThis does not appear to be happening because the district is literally spending hundreds of millions of dollars on schools and it has no plan regarding which schools will remain open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He noted there remain two important issues the district is addressing in very different ways.<\/p>\n He said there is an \u201centirely legitimate need\u201d to maintain and improve schools, buoyed by voter-approved school bonds paid through property taxes. The pot of money is ample but not suited for long-term facility needs, he said.<\/p>\n Conversely, the second imperative is a \u201cneed to consolidate programs and close portions of campuses or entire campuses,\u201d Blume said. The district is half the size it was two decades ago.<\/p>\n Small schools might sound ideal, but Blume points out that they are expensive and offer fewer classes at the middle and high school level and combined courses in elementary programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of operating schools falls on the side of the budget where money is tight, and thousands of job cuts and layoffs are in the budget plan for the next three years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Closing schools is never an easy choice<\/p>\n Kyo Yamashiro,<\/a> an associate professor at Loyola Marymount\u2019s School of Education, said closing schools is \u201cone of the most politically charged decisions that a school district can face.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo one wants to close schools, especially those with long histories of serving their communities over generations and decades,\u201d Yamashiro emailed The Times. \u201cSo these decisions are typically not taken lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n Yamashiro said some districts turn to a demographer. This individual can map the demographic trends across neighborhoods and help systems make enrollment zoning decisions that can shift zones or consolidate to nearby schools as enrollment declines. The method is meant to stave off closures.<\/p>\n \u201cThat isn\u2019t always an option,\u201d she said. \u201cAlso, the fact that there are fixed costs to operating a school puts a strain on budgets as enrollment dwindles, since enrollment is not dwindling necessarily in nice, neat packages of families that would allow for a school to easily remove one full class\/grade\/teacher, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n Check out the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories (Rich Pedroncelli \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n California laws and regulationsState and local electionsHigher educationEntertainment newsMore newsEditor\u2019s pickMore picksThings to do (Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Rebecca Sapp \/ Getty Images for The Recording Academy)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Recipe (Hanna Carter \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n You might think of fried rice as a greasy side dish, chef Jet Tila said<\/a>, but growing up in a Chinese home, I always looked forward to my grandmother\u2019s fried rice. It was a complete one-dish meal with vegetables, protein and rice all on one plate. Fried rice also is fast and easy to prepare. It\u2019s the perfect solution for leftovers.<\/p>\n Photo of the day Francisco Ortiz pays his respects at a makeshift memorial for reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, the crew of NBC NewsChopper4, at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. Moreno and Marciniw were killed last week when their helicopter crashed while covering a bus accident in Chatsworth. <\/p>\n (Genaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Games Here\u2019s today\u2019s mini crossword<\/a>, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jack Dolan, investigative reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Unified School District finds itself in a difficult, if not unfamiliar position. Enrollment is down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-470041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Election](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789913529_711_.jpeg\")
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n