Wednesday’s 5 p.m. meeting of the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education will take place remotely via Zoom, instead of in person at district headquarters, the LBUSD announced Monday.

The move was made “In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” according to an LBUSD release. The Board had been meeting in person for the last several months but with no audience. The change Monday came as health officials said the rate of new coronavirus cases across California was increasing faster than ever.

The board stopped receiving public comment via email in favor of in-person testimony earlier this school year, but will accept public comment only via its new voicemail system for this week’s meeting, with the voicemails played during the virtual meeting.

To leave a comment, the public should call (562) 242-2190 prior to noon on Wednesday. Messages are limited to three minutes.

The Zoom board meeting, like all LBUSD Board meetings, will be broadcast live at the district’s YouTube page. The meeting agenda is available here.