L.A. Unified looks for smoother tech operations this school year

Students Jordann Ventura, 14, left, Karyna Mills, 15, Guillermo Romero, 15, and Dayanara Trujillo, 15, try out their iPads in pre-first-day orientation at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)Getting students into the right classroom on the first day of school is a modest goal.

But it's a huge improvement over last year, when thousands of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District were left without class assignments and teachers couldn't even take roll.

Officials this week are trying to right two major technology debacles: a malfunctioning records system and a now-abandoned plan to provide iPads to all students.

Last year, the records…