California wants to greatly expand the definition of public schools. Will it help students?

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, July 22. I’m Paloma Esquivel, an investigative reporter on the education team.

In April 2020, about a month after the pandemic led schools to shut their doors, I visited an elementary school in Inglewood to write about a teacher who, in addition to preparing online lessons for her sixth-graders, had been spending much of her days distributing meals to families in need.

I arrived early in the morning to find hundreds of parents and children lined up around the campus, waiting for food. Nearly every parent I encountered that day had lost a job or had a partner who had lost a job. Many didn’t know how they would pay rent that month.

I remember thinking about all the stressors the children in that line were experiencing and wondering how they would manage to continue with math and reading lessons.

I’ve thought about that scene many times in the years since as I’ve tried to make sense of the pandemic’s effect on education. For so many students, the stressors only increased after those early months. Some experienced the deaths of friends and family members, some took on child care and other family responsibilities, many felt the effects of prolonged isolation.

Yet the clock keeps ticking on their schooling.

I thought again about the scene in Inglewood this week as I read my colleague Laura Newberry’s story on California’s $4.1-billion effort to expand community schools.

A “community school,” Laura writes, “dramatically expands the traditional definition of a public school, overhauling campuses into neighborhood centers that seek to comprehensively meet the needs of students. Healthcare, mental health services, tutoring, pediatric care and other social supports converge on campus.”

The hope is that by offering services that help address the many outside stressors and barriers that can make it difficult for children to thrive in the classroom — like housing and food insecurity, inadequate access to healthcare, and racism — these schools will put students in a better position to learn.

In her story, Laura takes us inside Social Justice Humanitas Academy in San Fernando, which has been a community school for 11 years. The school partners with outside groups to help connect families with basic needs — such as temporary shelter, food and legal help — and to provide individual, group and family therapy.

When it comes to academics, student performance on state English and math assessments at Humanitas has surpassed district averages, though scores dipped in the 2021 school year, which was largely virtual.

Despite the large influx of money, there are formidable challenges to expanding community schools, including workforce shortages and securing sustainable funding.

“It’s not clear that this will work,” Deanna Niebuhr told Laura. The California policy director for the Opportunity Institute has worked to establish community schools. “But we believe it’s our best chance for real change in education.” .

You can read Laura’s story here.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

L.A. STORIES

An L.A. County mask mandate is likely a week away as COVID cases keep climbing, report Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin II. The mandate would apply to people 2 and older in office space, retail settings, restaurants and bars, gyms, educational settings and other indoor settings. Los Angeles Times

Many people are shrugging their shoulders, even as the mandate looms. Experts said that so many people had already been infected that the fear that once motivated heightened precautions has faded. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Sandra, a medical assistant, stands in a room where abortion procedures take place at Planned Parenthood in El Centro, Calif.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A California desert town has long been an abortion refuge for Arizona and Mexico. Now it’s overwhelmed, writes Cindy Carcamo. The increase is likely just a preview of what’s to come. Experts estimate that 8,000 to 16,100 more people will travel to California each year for abortion care in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Los Angeles Times

Steve Lopez looks at the results of a nationwide survey on political violence in which about half of respondents believed that “in the next several years, there will be a civil war in the United States,” and about 42% favored having a “strong leader” over “having a democracy.” Los Angeles Times

The city of Sacramento launched an investigation into a councilman’s residence but won’t say who is conducting the investigation or when it will be completed. The investigation comes about a month after the Sacramento Bee published a report in which neighbors questioned whether City Councilman Sean Loloee lived at the home he claimed as his residence. The Sacramento Bee

CRIME AND COURTS

Sunset in the marina at Porto Montenegro, Tivat, the destination of Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian.

(Ranko Maras / Getty Images)

Michael Finnegan recounts the wild story of two COVID swindlers from Tarzana who dodged the FBI and fled to Montenegro. Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian were convicted by a federal jury in June 2021 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and related crimes. Before they could be sentenced, they fled, leaving behind their minor children. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Is Riverside County failing to protect residents near a 1.8 million-square-foot logistics center being built in Cherry Valley? This week the Beaumont City Council wrote to the county raising concerns about the county’s oversight of the project. The controversy comes as the years-long warehouse expansion across the Inland Empire pushes east. The Press-Enterprise

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

There’s a battle raging for control of Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, the famous high desert music venue where Paul McCartney, Los Lobos and many others have played, reports Randall Roberts. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: 83, partly cloudy. San Diego: 72, partly cloudy. San Francisco: 64, partly cloudy. San Jose: 81, sunny. Fresno: 105, sunny. Sacramento: 98, sunny.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Linda Maman:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.