Los Angeles Unified schools reopened Monday, as educators worked to provide respite for shell-shocked students seeking refuge from uncontrolled fires still raging across the city.
LAUSD officials said Sunday night the nation’s second-largest district would reopen all but seven schools that were destroyed, badly damaged or immediately threatened by flames.
Questions about the district’s reopening remained, including unresolved challenges around where displaced students would attend school and how they would get there or if remote learning would be offered. i, or if remote learning would be offered.
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Dozens of much smaller districts in Los Angeles County also reopened, with the exceptions of two districts in Pasadena, where the Eaton fire had destroyed at least five campuses and was mostly uncontained.
At a press conference Sunday night, LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho said schools were safe to resume instruction after the district last week closed all campuses amid the largest and most destructive fires in LA history.
LAUSD schools would operate on modified schedules without extracurricular activities, he said, and special allowances would be made for students and staff who missed class.
“Students and our workforce will come back having witnessed and experienced a level of disruption not paralleled in the history of our community,” said Carvalho of the decision to reopen schools. “We will embrace our work with empathy, flexibility and patience.”
The historic L.A. area fires that began last week have killed at least 25 people and destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 buildings. LAUSD began closing schools last Wednesday as fires in the city intensified, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds. At least 340 district staff have so far lost their homes in the blazes, Carvalho said.
As of Monday, the Palisades fire had burned nearly 24,000 acres, destroying many homes and businesses in iconic Los Angeles neighborhoods including Pacific Palisades and Malibu. The Eaton fire, located on the city’s east side, had burned more than 14,000 acres in the neighborhoods of Pasadena and Altadena, and was 33% contained.
Gusty winds returned to LA on Monday, bringing the possibility of renewed growth of existing fires and the creation of new ones as local and out-of-town firefighters battled the deadly blazes.
Famed Palisades High School, which was also badly damaged in the fires, will not reopen this week, Carvalho said. In all, more than 2,000 students enrolled at the three schools were displaced, he said.
Two additional chools in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that were completely burned, Palisades Charter Elementary and Marquez Charter Elementary, would be relocated to other campuses later this week.
He said the district is still working out logistics such as the possibility of providing some transportation for displaced students.
Marquez will be relocated to Nora Sterry Elementary, about nine miles away. Palisades Charter Elementary will be relocated to Brentwood Science Magnet, about five miles away.
Another four LAUSD schools located in areas of LA that were under mandatory evacuation orders Monday remained closed. Those schools included Canyon Charter Elementary, Kenter Canyon Charter Elementary, Topanga Charter Elementary, Lanai Road Elementary, and Paul Revere Middle School.
Carvalho said those schools would reopen as soon as fire conditions allowed. He did not say where or if those students would report to class in the meantime.
Two additional LAUSD schools that were also threatened by fires could also be closed if conditions worsen, officials said.
On Monday morning blue skies overlooked Nora Sterry Elementary, which later in the week will host students from Marquez, as teachers and staff scrambled to get ready for the first school day there .
As cars pulled up to drop off students on a seemingly normal crisp school morning, teachers and staff ran into the building to prepare for a busy week. A school nurse clenched her lunch as two district employees loudly backed up a truck to unload supplies for the school.
One mom, walking with her hand tightly clenched to her son, expressed gratitude for the school reopening on Monday. “We live in the neighborhood. It helps that he has something to do,” she said.
David Tokofsky, a former LAUSD educator and board member turned consultant, said the district’s response to the fires is a work in progress. He said district officials should’ve notified families sooner of school closures last week and that they could’ve told families sooner of the plan to reopen Monday.
“Normally, the district is at its absolute best operationally in crisis,” said Tokofsky, who counts fires, earthquakes, floods, the coronavirus and the AIDS epidemic among the disasters he’s experienced while working in the district.
Still, the district’s performance in the face of the ongoing fires can’t really be assessed so soon, Tokofsky said. Challenges facing LAUSD including trauma, lost instructional time and logistical matters such as student transportation are still ongoing, he said, and the fires that have already engulfed the city may yet flare again and bring even more unprecedented destruction.
“Nothing compares to this,” said Tokofsky. “We need teamwork and real, concrete action.”