The success of L.A. Unified's massive testing program depends on SummerBio, a company just started by a former business associate of Supt. Austin Beutner. The deal came outside the district's normal contracting process, under Beutner's emergency powers.
Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner had a problem. He was firm in his stance that reopening schools safely during the COVID-19 pandemic would depend on rapid, extensive coronavirus testing. But but no city, county or state program was available to provide or pay for it at the scale he thinks is needed in the nation’s second-largest school district.
But at the start of the pandemic, the Los Angeles school board set aside customary guardrails to give Beutner the ability to act quickly — powers he has exercised repeatedly, including in efforts to distribute meals and purchase computers and Wi-Fi hot spots.This effort could end up being a major test of whether Beutner — whose background is in business rather than education — can deliver results to the sprawling district.
“We knew they were building a real company,” Beutner said. “Part of our due diligence was to understand who would be in charge,” he said, referring to Dayton and Guido Baechler, who was named SummerBio’s chief executive in August but was associated with the project earlier. Baechler formerly ran a medical testing company.
SummerBio’s Aug. 14 contract with L.A. Unified, which the district released to The Times on Wednesday, states that the company “has not received an Emergency Use Authorization” issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the tests. That could normally create legal hurdles for the company’s ability to operate, but during the pandemic emergency, the company can do business legally by submitting an application for authorization. The company submitted its application Aug.
Under the contract, L.A. Unified is to get next-day, early morning results for up to 40,000 daily tests, at a price that no one else can match, Beutner said. The first 475,000 tests are $20 apiece, and the price drops gradually based on volume. Tests purchased after the 2-million mark drop to $10 apiece, which the contract schedule estimates to happen in February.
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