Tens of thousands of students flooded Long Beach Unified campuses on Tuesday and were met with balloons and banners, celebrations of the first day of school.
At Wilson High School, a drumline and cheerleaders marked the first day of class. As is school tradition, seniors streamed in between them wearing ties decorated with “senior” or their graduation year.
Students, faculty and staff are returning to a suite of changes — from district leadership to new tech and safety policies to a barrage of budget cuts that take effect this year.
Under the district’s phone policy (rolled out across all campuses in January 2026), students in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade are banned from using their phones and personal devices all day. High schoolers are prohibited from using their phones during class.
The district also implemented a school safety policy, which authorizes school safety officers to intervene when students are suspected of small crimes, an effort to reduce reliance on outside law enforcement and offer students more opportunities for diversion.
New curriculum changes also go live this year. High schoolers are now required to complete three years of math, down from the previous requirement of four years. The change aligns LBUSD with the state’s A-G requirements (a threshold for entrance to the University of California and Cal State systems) and those of many other major districts.
Students, faculty and staff are back in class this week amid a heat wave that will keep temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s in most parts of Long Beach throughout. Some are suffering through without air conditioning.
Work on HVAC systems is still planned or ongoing at Millikan High School, Poly High School and Sato Academy, Hoover Middle School, Marshall Academy, Carver Elementary, Henry Elementary and Los Cerritos Elementary. All classrooms are expected to be equipped with air conditioning by the end of 2027, a process the district expedited in 2022.
And over the summer, career LBUSD employee David Zaid was named the new superintendent, succeeding Jill Baker, who served six years in the role and announced her retirement in January.
In a school board meeting in June, Zaid noted that the LBUSD is “entering one of the most important transitional periods in our district’s history,” and he committed to stabilizing the district’s finances, strengthening instruction and ensuring all students are prepared for their futures.
LBUSD enrollment has been steadily declining for the last two decades, and the district recently projected it would dip below 60,000 students this school year, further reducing the district’s funds. That news comes as LBUSD is continuing to navigate insufficient revenue to cover costs, which prompted the school board to approve $47 million in cuts last year. Campuses may feel noticeably leaner after reductions in mental health resources, library staff, parent-support workers, nurses and teachers.
Despite the challenges the district is facing, Superintendent Zaid reassured the community, “Long Beach can meet this moment.”