About a half-million of students will return to classes Wednesday at schools across the Southland, with various elected officials planning to be on hand to welcome them back to campus.
School will begin at more than 740 Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, prompting warnings from police to motorists be aware of children and school zones.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, about 500,000 students will be heading back to classes Wednesday. Children aged 5 to 9 are considered to be at the greatest risk of traffic-related pedestrian injury or death, according to the department, which noted that parents often overestimate their children's pedestrian skills.
LAUSD Board of Education President Monica Garcia will greet students and parents at several schools, including Central Los Angeles New High School #9, UCLA Community School and New Open World (NOW) Academy at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, Ann Street Elementary and Young Oak Kim Academy.
Board Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar will tour William R. Anton Elementary School and Early Education Center, while board member Nury Martinez will tour Sun Valley High.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will visit students and parents at 99th Street Elementary School and the Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center.
Eighty-nine of the district's more than 800 campuses were in session Tuesday when President Barach Obama delivered his national "back-to-school" message to students. There were no plans to rebroadcast the speech at the hundreds of LAUSD campuses that begin their calendar year today.
