Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by Comcast.

Today is Tuesday, March 9th, and we're looking back at this same week last year, the week that America changed.

This is our COVID-19 decision-maker series.

Conversations about some of the most consequential decisions made this time last year.

Today, we look at the decision to send over 650,000 students home for remote learning

with Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Butener.

On the Tuesday of that week, the L.A. Unified

School District's board gave Butner emergency authorization to take action in the interest of

health and safety. By Friday, March 13th, an announcement was made that physical schools would

close, a decision that remains in effect today.

Austin Butner, who leads the nation's second largest school district, takes us inside of that week in March.

He tells us about when he really made the decision, how the district stood up remote learning

and one of the largest food distribution programs in the nation's history, all with very

imperfect information about the coronavirus

and in the face of community criticism that he was overreacting. That conversation in 15

seconds. We're joined now by Austin Butner. Austin, can you walk us through how you made the

decision to send students home?

Discussions and thought started back in February.

We started tracking the first case of COVID in Los Angeles, the second case of COVID in Los Angeles.

Two days later, there was the 14th case in Los Angeles.

And my discussions at that point of time with health authorities, state,

local, and other people I just knew in that world was we're at this tipping point. You know,

...