Students from two burned-down Los Angeles elementary schools will resume classes Wednesday in new locations in neighborhoods near fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades as employee unions estimate that at least 150 district staff, including many teachers, have lost their homes.
Students who were attending Palisades Charter Elementary will shift to Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet in Brentwood, a neighborhood adjacent to Pacific Palisades. Students who had been at Marquez Charter Elementary will report for class at Nora Sterry Elementary in the Sawtelle neighborhood, which is south of Brentwood.
Palisades Charter Elementary School is seen on Sunday, days after it was destroyed in the fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Officials announced the opening of the relocated schools at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
The relocation plan keeps the two displaced school communities intact, with the same teachers instructing the same students.
Over the weekend, some teachers at the receiving schools worked to move out of their current classrooms to allow the entering groups to be together in a designated portion of campus. At the same time, the arriving teachers were organizing to move in.
Students’ belongings are among the charred ruins of Marquez Charter Elementary School.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
All of the district’s 1,000 campuses were closed last week on Thursday and Friday. All reopened on Monday except for the two destroyed campuses and seven others affected by evacuation zones.
The teachers union said it has identified 148 employees it represents who lost their homes. United Teachers Los Angeles represents about 38,000 teachers, counselors, psychologist and nurses. The union said it knew of 550 displaced as of 3 p.m. Monday.
A separate union, the California School Employees Assn., which represents library aides, said two of its members had lost homes.
Together those two unions account for about half of district employees.
For affected employees, the district will provide five flexible paid days off, a number that is likely to rise, said L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho.
Teachers union President Cecily Myart-Cruz and administrators’ union president Maria Nichols sharply criticized Carvalho’s administration for not shutting down campuses sooner after the Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires ignited on Tuesday and also for poor communication that left principals and parents scrambling.
Carvalho acknowledged the problems but said it wasn’t for lack of diligent attention. The district’s actions, he said, were based on protocols developed in 2021 after a major fire.
Palisades Charter Elementary School after the fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“This guide actually contemplated a single event,” Carvalho said. “And by the way, this is consistent with level of readiness and response that fire departments, municipal entities, CAL FIRE have declared. At no point has there ever been a level of preparation for three, four, five or six simultaneous fires with hurricane-level strength, winds with a degree of instability and wind shifts that were hard to predict.”
On Wednesdasy, Carvalho said air-quality dashboards were “inconsistent with with what I was seeing” and conditions that were reported to him by principals.
Carvalho decided to expand school closures and even to shut down schools in progress on Wednesday, which caused logistical problems, but seemed more prudent than waiting out the school day, he said.
He added that the district would review and improve procedures for the future.
Remaining closed this week is Palisades High School, an L.A. Unified property that is managed by an independent charter school.
About 40% of the structures were either damaged or destroyed, wrote Principal Pamela Magee in a post to the school community.
Pali High intends to open next Tuesday, offering classes online while it looks for a temporary location.
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced measures to help schools recover and maintain funding. Among other elements, the order suspends attendance, class size and residency requirements for affected campuses.
Districtwide on Monday, attendance was 87% across L.A. Unified, compared to 91% for the year as a whole. The attendance rate at Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet was 65%; at Sterry it was 79%.
The Eagle Rock area was affected by heavy smoke and high winds and attendance was below normal in that area as well. At Eagle Rock Elementary, the attendance rate was 84%, at Eagle Rock High School, it was 90%.
