A difficult school year ahead as students, many of them already behind, return to classrooms

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 17. I’m Andrea Chang, a wealth reporter in the Business section writing from Hancock Park.

One of the cruelties of summer in Los Angeles is that just as the weather starts to really heat up, it’s time to go back to school. And this academic year is already shaping up to be especially tough.

The Los Angeles Unified School District welcomed students back on Monday amid serious challenges, including low standardized test scores and the absence of large numbers of students who have yet to return to classrooms after pandemic shutdowns sent them home more than two years ago.

My colleague Howard Blume spoke with Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the country’s second-largest public school system, who warned that the upcoming release of last year’s test scores is “not going to be pretty.”

“It is going to reflect all the fears that we have felt — meaning significant declines in achievement performance,” he said, “particularly in reading and mathematics, across the board, all grade levels.”

To get kids back in class, district administrators and counselors worked the phones and hit the streets on Friday to identify students who had missed too much school, failed to reenroll or never enrolled in the first place. They plan to repeat the initiative “for as long as we need it,” Carvalho said.

Similar problems are plaguing students in San Francisco, where 49,000 students will begin school today.

In more lighthearted school-related fare, my colleague Christopher Reynolds has compiled a travel guide to the best places to sightsee, shop, stay and eat in nine college towns around California. (I got through my undergrad years subsisting on Chipotle burritos and Potbelly sandwiches — you can do better.)

You’ll find tips for cities including Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and Claremont. As a Bay Area transplant, I was happy to see my restaurant standbys like Protégé and Rooh make the cut for Palo Alto; I’d add Evvia Estiatorio and Ettan to the food list, and a hike among the rolling hills at the Stanford Dish before dinner.

Berkeley also gets a section in the college towns guide. Lately, when I’ve been in the East Bay during my monthly Bay Area trips, I’ve preferred to spend more of my time in neighboring Oakland. Among my favorite newish spots: Viridian, a neon-lit cocktail bar; Snail Bar and Daytrip, a pair of wine bars and bottle shops with great food (big thanks to my editor, Jeff Bercovici, for both of those recs — read his recent story about the falcons atop UC Berkeley’s bell tower); and Horn Barbecue, for some seriously outstanding smoked meat (for those who want to try Horn without having to travel, the restaurant will be at the Smorgasburg food market in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 28 for its annual barbecue day).

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

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A heat wave was baking the Bay Area, threatening to break temperature records in parts of Contra Costa County and increasing the area’s risk of wildfires. It was expected to begin to subside as soon as today. Read more at the Mercury News. Meanwhile, California power grid officials have issued a statewide Flex Alert for today due to above-normal temperatures across much of the state. Customers are asked to conserve electricity, particularly into the afternoon and early evening, when the grid is most stressed. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Amid a slowdown in the Southern California housing market, some would-be home sellers are waiting. That limits how high inventory can climb, with broad implications for current homeowners and future buyers. In Los Angeles County, there were 7% fewer homes for sale during the four weeks ended Aug. 7 compared with the same period a year ago, while the number of new listings plummeted 30%, according to Redfin. Los Angeles Times

Three people were shot Tuesday afternoon in Wilmington, authorities said. A 45-year-old woman, a 20-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were transported to a hospital in moderate condition, said Nicholas Prange, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is in a fight over plans to modernize and expand CBS Television City, which is next to his Grove shopping center. The development battle over studio expansion threatens to complicate Caruso’s message as a businessman focused on growing the region’s economy. Los Angeles Times

CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING

A California appeals court has overturned $190,000 in fines against Calvary Chapel San Jose for ignoring state and county limits on indoor public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Santa Clara County is still seeking $2.3 million in penalties against the church for refusing to require face masks and follow other health precautions during services in 2020. San Francisco Chronicle

California’s Supreme Court has eased the criteria for immigrant youth seeking legal status. It ruled on Monday that youngsters who entered the state after fleeing threats of violence in their home countries can seek legal status without having to prove their parents abused, neglected or abandoned them. San Francisco Chronicle

THE ENVIRONMENT

The Dipsea, one of the most picturesque and popular trails in Marin County, is finally getting a new bridge at a cost of $2 million. Hikers and runners will no longer have to use a 2-foot-wide, 30-foot-long wooden plank to cross a creek along the trail. San Francisco Chronicle

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

A K-pop mega-festival is coming to Pasadena in October. KAMP, a new two-day K-pop festival that launched in Singapore in 2019, will be held at the Rose Bowl Oct. 15 and 16. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny, 87. San Diego: partly cloudy, 79. San Francisco: partly cloudy, 70. San Jose: sunny, 86. Fresno: sunny, 106. Sacramento: partly cloudy, 103.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory is from Bonnie Valant-Weiss:

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.