Print
The first week of in-person school at Warner Avenue Elementary in Westwood rolled out like a joyous sigh of relief. Families lined up around the block, exchanging hugs as children chased one another on the grass.
Parent Dina Cohan was “ecstatic,” she said, before flying into an embrace with Principal Agnes Kamau just outside the entrance gate and shouting, “This is the best day in a year!”
About 95% of students at Warner Avenue Elementary were back on campus, Kamau said.
That makes it something of a rarity among L.A. public schools. There are only four communities where more than 40% of students were expected to return to in-person school, according to district data collected in a parent survey: western Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, Westchester and Venice. Each is a higher-income community, with majority white populations in which COVID-19 has not had the same magnitude of impact as neighborhoods with larger Latino and Black populations.