Page 3 - Chris Eftychiou News Today

The 24-year-old gunman contacted authorities and confessed to shooting 15-year-old Joshua Simmons during a cell phone sale gone bad, according to police.

The agreement, which still needs approval by the district and union, likely ends a year-long dispute that included threats of a strike. 

Come Monday, masks will still be “strongly recommended,” but won’t be required. Public sentiment around masks in schools, meanwhile, has been difficult to gauge.

The Long Beach Unified School District and the union that represents 3,000 classified workers have begun state-mediated fact-finding sessions, part of a protracted labor dispute largely over pay.

“Essentially, it’s too soon to say when our local schools might lift the indoor mask requirement," LBUSD spokesperson Chris Eftychiou said.

In the first academic year of 2018-2019, 548 students were referred to FRCs; the following year that jumped to 771 referrals.

The number of teachers and students missing school has started to stabilize as coronavirus cases continue to decline.

After reaching unprecedented highs in recent days, the Long Beach Health Department reported three straight days of declines in key metrics measuring how quickly the coronavirus is spreading.

The tests arrived too late to screen kids before they returned from winter break, so the LBUSD nows recommends parents use them when they're notified of possible exposures.

"We're seeing that the kids of color, the kids in poverty, the kids who are the furthest from success, they were the ones harmed the greatest," one official said.