Now almost two weeks since a series of wildfires broke out around Los Angeles, most school districts have reopened.
Three school districts, however, have had lingering closures:
- All of Pasadena Unified School District (Eaton Fire)
- The Malibu schools within Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (Palisades Fire)
- A handful of schools within Los Angeles Unified School District (Palisades Fire)
Here's where things stand now.
Los Angeles Unified
The Palisades Fire destroyed Palisades Charter Elementary and Marquez Charter Elementary schools. On top of a massive cleanup effort, the district relocated the 410 students who attend Palisades Charter Elementary to the campus of Brentwood Science Magnet and the 312 students who attend Marquez Charter Elementary to Nora Sterry Elementary.
Nora Sterry principal Sara Lasnover said that on top of figuring out the logistics, she also wants to build bridges between the school's current students and those incoming, like through meet-and-greet activities.
" It's important to me that my students here feel that they are part of this change, not that the change is being made to them," she said.
Palisades Charter High School — an independent charter school in LAUSD — was substantially damaged in the fire. The school has delayed the start of its second semester, and plans to begin virtual classes on Jan. 21 as it looks for a physical campus.
Andres Chait, the district’s chief of school operations, said in an email statement that 2,189 students live in areas that are under mandatory evacuation, as do nearly 350 employees.
LAUSD is offering relief grants of $500 to displaced employees through relief funds. District employees can call the Wildfire Employee Assistance phone line at 213-241-2222 for more information on eligibility and application.
Pasadena Unified
Hundreds of Pasadena Unified staff members were affected by the Eaton Fire, and as many as 10,000 students may be displaced.
PUSD lost at least five campuses in the Eaton Fire:
- Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School
- Franklin Elementary (closed in 2020)
- Odyssey Charter School, South Campus
- Rosebud Academy and Oak Knoll Montessori (located on the same campus)
- Aveson School of Leaders
Two other schools, Altadena Arts Magnet and Webster Elementary, are in evacuation zones and have not yet been assessed, although the former is expected to be heavily damaged.
Many parents in PUSD — which serves Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre — said they are waiting for answers that district leaders said they aren’t in a position to give: When will displaced students get back to class? Where? What will the recovery look like?
On Friday, the district announced 10 schools will reopen Jan. 23, the first step in a two-phase reopening. The district said it's prioritizing getting students in less-affected schools back to class as soon as possible.
Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said in a news conference Thursday that all schools will open by the end of the month, but that the timeline remains unclear because of cleanup effort logistics.
Families at several schools, including the three displaced charters, have said the district is ignoring them, a charge district officials rebutted in a school board meeting Thursday night.
“We are committed to making sure you will have a space for your schools within the PUSD,” Blanco told the attendees. “That’s the same for Eliot Arts and Altadena [Arts Magnet].”
Joshua McGuffie has a daughter at Altadena Arts. His family’s home is still standing, but his parents lost theirs to the Eaton Fire. His daughter has been able to attend one of the L.A. County Parks pop-up childcare options, for which he’s grateful.
He’s also very, very tired.
"Everyone is maxed out. No one has any bandwidth," he said. "If I don't know where my kid's gonna be in two weeks, that, like, knocks over the whole tenuous line of dominoes that I've desperately tried to set up to keep my life and my family's life together. And if the district could just help us by being as concrete as possible, that would be amazing."
Santa Monica-Malibu
More than 70 families in the district lost their homes, said Gail Pinsker, a district communications officer.
All schools survived the Palisades Fire, she said. One school, Webster Elementary, had recently completed repairs from a previous fire and reopened to students — one day before the Palisades Fire broke out. It and the other Malibu schools remain closed due to road closures, cleaning, power outages, and other maintenance issues that require power to fix, Pinsker said.
What about the lost days of instruction?
On Jan. 14, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order offering school districts flexibility in their recovery. One key element: a hold-harmless provision that exempts shuttered districts from needing the minimum number of instructional days this school year.
Two dozen school districts experienced full or partial closures because of the fires, although most children missed out on only one or two days of class. But for students in PUSD, Malibu, and a handful of LAUSD schools, they're looking at weeks of lost lessons.
District officials say right now, the focus is on students’ short-term well-being.
“We’re really focusing on their social-emotional health,” Pinsker said. “Our goal is to get schools open as soon as possible and then we will take a look at the future beyond that.”
When asked whether LAUSD will offer some kind of summer session or otherwise extend the year for students who have missed out, a spokesperson said the district is “in communication with state officials.”
But Karla Estrada, deputy superintendent of instruction, said in an email statement that the district will rely on the combination of interventions, tutoring, and social, emotional, and mental health initiatives that have been central to its COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
"We will continue this approach with schools that have been impacted by the wildfires and will provide differentiated resources based on the specific needs related to their recovery," she said.
What about the air quality?
Many families are still wondering what kind of exposure their children might have right now to harmful particulates. Although the Air Quality Index for L.A. looks good, it's also an imperfect measure.
LAUSD announced Jan. 14 that it would resume outdoor activity, however, “principals can still implement modified schedules based on local conditions and needs.” Chait, the operations officer, said the district will make those decisions in areas that are directly impacted by fire. Schools have N95 masks available for students who want them.
SMMUSD ended its "inclement weather" schedule late this week, Pinsker said. That allows for more outdoor activity, though she noted that students are still welcome to mask as they want. Classrooms themselves have MERV 13 industrial air filters in their HVAC systems, she said, which are “better than most residential units.”
Experts LAist talked to said parents should be mindful of their children’s outdoor activity; an N95 mask might be good for areas closer to the fires.
Will new school bonds help in the recovery effort?
All of the school districts with lost, damaged, or long-closed buildings also had school bonds that passed in the November election:
- In Los Angeles Unified: Measure US
- In Pasadena Unified: Measure R
- In Malibu: Measure MM
Bond language includes a list of projects that might be supported, categorized under general buckets like "safety" and "emergencies." District officials demurred on how bond money might be used for repair.
Pinsker noted, however, that this experience may help guide spending on future projects. For instance, previous SMMUSD bonds upgraded entryways — “windows, paint, doors and floors” — which she said held up well during the fires.
Saman Bravo-Karimi, PUSD’s chief business officer, said at the board meeting Thursday that federal and state grants and insurance money will be used to repair campuses, with limited — if any — use of district funds.
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