By: Mariana Dale
LAist
https://laist.com/
Hugs, high-fives and handmade signs welcomed students and their families back to Pasadena’s Don Benito Elementary School on Wednesday.
How Pasadena students are settling back in at school after the Eaton Fire
“You feel the love,” said parent Ravea Miller. “It’s always been love. But you just feel it more [today] because everybody was affected.”
The majority of Pasadena schools that shut down during the peak of the Eaton Fire have now reopened. Pasadena Unified staggered reopenings over two weeks, and the final nine campuses welcomed students back Thursday.
Unanswered questions remain about rebuilding, how to make up for three weeks of lost in-person schooling and how the fallout from the fires could exacerbate existing financial challenges.
There’s also relief.
“We’re just excited, ready to get back and get the kids back into school, and get them back into the groove again, and make things go back halfway normal,” said Gilbert Moore as he walked his kids into Washington Elementary STEM Magnet School on Monday morning.
Taking stock of feelings
Some students grappled with mixed emotions.
“I’m happy that I didn’t get affected by the fires, but I’m sad because other people got affected by the fires,” said fifth-grader Jezzebelle Hernandez.
The district estimates that more than two-thirds of its 14,000 students and 1,387 employees live in evacuation zones.
“We don’t know if they’re going to come in smiling or they’re going to come in crying,” said Cherise Holmes, a wellness coach at Washington.
It’s important to provide opportunities for young people to read, talk about [and] make sense of their experiences during the fires.
— John Rogers, professor of education, UCLA
Dulce Bernabe said her second-grade daughter was worried about her school and her friends during the closures.
“Creo que les sirve mucho estar aquí,” Bernabe said as she walked out of the school. She thinks its helpful for the students to be in class because it shows them that this is their reality. “Tenemos que seguir viviendo con lo que haya pasado.” We have to continue living with what’s happened, she said.
A ‘warm and inviting’ return to school
According to district data, an average of 82% of students showed up on the first day of class at the first 11 schools to reopen, and at most schools, attendance has increased in subsequent days.
Don Benito first-grade teacher Amethyst Juknavorian invited her students to wear their pajamas and bring their favorite stuffed animal to the first day of class in more than two weeks.
“We never start like that; we always start with our instruction,” Juknavorian said. “But, for this week, I want it to be just more warm and inviting.”
The students sat in a circle with their stuffed animals in their laps and one by one (and sometimes all at once) shared their feelings and experiences.
They ranged from fear to boredom. A boy in blue plaid pajama bottoms recounted how a tree fell in his apartment courtyard and he saw a dead squirrel — which prompted his peers to shout out dead animals that they’ve seen.
“That does happen,” Juknavorian said.
Abel Hernandez wore a navy blue onesie with a candy cane pattern and held a fuzzy plush longhorn cow. He said he felt sad and nervous.
“The wildfire almost hit my house,” Hernandez said.
LAist spoke with two education researchers who said it’s not the lost time in the classroom that has the greatest potential to negatively affect students, but the stress and trauma of being evacuated, losing a home, or witnessing others in the community go through those experiences.
”It’s important for educators to provide opportunities for young people to read, talk about [and] make sense of their experiences during the fires,” said UCLA education professor John Rogers. “Because we want young people to come away from this really difficult time feeling a sense of their personal power, as well as how they’re connected to others who care about them and about their future.”
USC education, psychology and neuroscience professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang said young children process disturbing, distressing and frightening experiences throughout a lifetime.
“They are woven into the story of how the world can work and how the world does work and what it means to be safe, what it means to live in a home, what it means to have a school and friends and adults around you who care about you,” Immordino-Yang said.
The Los Angeles County Office of Education and other organizations have deployed dozens of additional mental health staff to Pasadena schools since they reopened.
Juknavorian said she’s already requested support for one child who experienced some anxiety on the first day back, but was “pleasantly surprised” that her students were largely excited to return.
“Children are very resilient,” Juknavorian said. “They just have a gift of just living life and being so full of hope.”
She said in her more than 20 years of teaching, she’s watched students rebound from the loss of parents, divorce and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They can see all, all the destruction and the homes gone, but they’re going to smile again,” Juknavorian said. “They’re going to move forward because that’s what we do.”
Post-wildfire clean-up
Pasadena Unified has said in statements that more than 1,500 workers joined existing maintenance staff to clean schools, remove more than 159 tons of debris and the top layer of sand from playgrounds.
Wildfires can release chemicals from plastics, lead, asbestos and other toxic substances. The smoke and ash makes the air dangerous to breathe, particularly for children and pregnant people.
Several of the parents who accompanied their students on the first day back followed them into the classroom.
“Other than the worried faces on some of the parents, everything’s looked good,” Henry Ortega said after dropping his daughter off at Washington Elementary STEM Magnet on Monday.
“I drive by a lot and I’ve seen them working day and night,” Ortega said. “So I know they did a good job.”
After cleaning, the district tested the surfaces inside schools for soot, char and ash and published the results online.
“Every result that’s come back has been positive and that our schools are safe places to be,” said Pasadena Schools Supt. Elizabeth Blanco.
California does not mandate specific cleaning or testing before schools located near wildfires can reopen, nor does it require ongoing monitoring.
Though recent rain has tamped down the ash, as it dries and debris clean-up continues, toxic materials can become airborne again.
Blanco said the district will monitor air quality and keep children indoors and restrict outdoor activity as needed.
District staff said they are communicating with the Army Corp of Engineers about debris removal and are looking into installing additional air sensors.
“We’re hearing you, we want you to feel safe returning to schools,” Blanco said after listening to parents and families give hours of public comment at a board meeting Thursday and question the district’s reopening plan. “We’re responsible for all of your safety … without the regulations to help us.”
Students return, but questions remain
Each of Pasadena Unified’s 14,000 students now have the option to attend school in person, but there are still a lot of unknowns.
To start: The fire destroyed or otherwise forced the relocation of six campuses, including Eliot Arts Magnet Academy, Altadena Arts Magnet Elementary, three independent charter schools and Franklin Elementary, which closed in 2020. The district has also moved several early education programs.
“We had to fit many pieces into this puzzle,” said Chief Business Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi. “We had to figure out what was best overall under very difficult circumstances.”
Bravo-Karimi noted the offers include less space than schools had before and that the district is building additional portable classrooms.
Relocated schools in Pasadena Unified
Six schools were badly damaged or destroyed.
PUSD opened schools in two phases: An initial batch of 10 schools on January 23, followed by the rest of its district-run schools the week of Jan. 27-30.
Three charter schools remain closed. For Aveson: The district moved an early education program and offices to create space. The proposed campus is also home to another charter, Alma Fuerte. The proposed relocation for Odyssey Charter South Campus is also the location of Odyssey North Charter. For Pasadena Rosebud Academy, the charter would share space with district students at Don Benito Elementary.
Pasadena voters approved a $900 million facilities bond and $5 million parcel tax in November to fund repairs at existing campuses, mental health support and educator wages. The district’s board of education has resolved to rebuild Eliot, though no details about cost or timeline exist yet.
Charter school leaders have not yet accepted the district’s offer to lease space at three other campuses, according to a presentation at Thursday’s board meeting.
“We created a plan to make sure they had a place within the PUSD where they could return to school at the same time we were returning to school,” Blanco said.
Odyssey South parent Veronica Jauriqui said she doesn’t feel comfortable sending her son to the proposed relocation site because of its proximity to the wildfire burn zone. Several other parents have raised similar concerns.
”We’ve lost our neighborhood,” Jauriqui said. “We don’t want him to lose his friends and his school.”
The region’s schools are no stranger to historic upheaval. White families fled Pasadena schools following a 1970 desegregation order.
There are also the financial questions. Like other Los Angeles-area districts, Pasadena Unified enrollment has declined in recent years— 19% in the last decade.
So far, the district has counted 862 families who lost homes in the fire, and it’s unclear how many may be permanently displaced.
The district reports 90 students have unenrolled since the start of the fires. Fewer students means less funding, because California funds public schools based on an average of how many students show up each day.
CHARTER SCHOOL 101
- Who’s in charge? An independent nonprofit organization with an un-elected board. Some charter schools are affiliated with public districts.
- Who funds them? Taxpayers. Charter schools are publicly funded.
- Is there tuition? No.
- What makes them different from regular public schools? Charter schools are exempt from many laws that govern public education.
- Read more.
Learning recovery will be another long-term issue. Results from national standardized tests show students in California — and throughout the nation — have not made up reading and math skills lost during the pandemic.
District Chief Academic Officer Helen Chan Hill said students had access to online learning materials during the closures and the district’s focus on social and emotional learning as school reopened was informed by other schools that have experienced disasters.
“You have to ensure that basic needs are being met so that academics can really flourish when the time is right,” Hill said.
Blanco said the district was already working to address learning loss through summer programs.
“ We were working on that prior to COVID and making sure that students were learning grade-level content as well as making up skills that they need,” Blanco said.
The district has not announced any academic recovery programs specific to the wildfires.
UCLA’s Rogers suggested that instead of adding additional days to the calendar, schools consider how to create opportunities for students to collaborate on creative work over spring break and during the summer.
“ I think it’s by taking action and showing that you can do things together with others that young people will feel a greater sense of belonging and will feel more whole in the process,” Rogers said.
