Marquez Elementary First to Return After Palisades Fires

uaetodaynews.com — Marquez Elementary First to Return After Palisades Fires – The 74

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Author: Mallika Seshadri
Published on: 2025-10-03 14:30:00
Source: www.the74million.org

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Sign up for The 74 Newsletter\n \n \n \n \nOn a sunny Tuesday morning, students, parents and community members walked atop the bluffs alongside charred foliage and barren lots, back to Marquez Charter Elementary \u2014 almost nine months after the Palisades fire ravaged the school site and surrounding region, sparing only three classrooms in its wake. \n\n\n\nFor the remainder of the 2024-25 academic year, and for the initial period of this school year, the entire school shared a campus with Nora Sterry Elementary. Now, the roughly 130 children attending Marquez are the first public school students to return to a campus destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires in January. \n\n\n\nRelatedLA Fires in Photos: How the Crisis Destroyed Schools, Uprooted Students’ Lives\n\n\n\nEven though students are returning to portable structures, the campus\u2019s reopening marked a larger milestone for survivors of the fires. \n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the first thing that\u2019s back in a very serious way,\u201d said Christopher Baffa, a community member whose children attended Marquez but now go to Palisades Charter High School. \u201cWe got excited when CVS opened. \u2026 It\u2019s these little milestones along the way that really get us further and further from Jan. 7.\u201d\n\n\n\nMarquez\u2019s recovery\n\n\n\nBaffa and his wife tried to remember the lyrics to Marquez\u2019s school song as they returned to the campus Tuesday morning to witness the progress being made. \n\n\n\nHe recalled the words \u201cthere\u2019s a school on a hill\u201d \u2014\u00a0and texted his daughter, a first-year student at Palisades Charter High School, currently relocated to a former Sears building in Santa Monica, for the rest of the lyrics. Other parents in the crowd embraced as they listened to speakers at Tuesday\u2019s press conference. Some held back tears. \n\n\n\n\u201cEvery day since, we\u2019ve been writing new pages and chapters in the story of the Palisades\u2019 recovery. Some days left us filled only with sorrow and loss,\u201d said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park. \u201cBut others captured the strength and resilience that only a community like this can summon. And today, in particular, we\u2019re writing a new page, a brighter one.\u201d \n\n\n\nMarquez\u2019s temporary campus, along with the larger rebuild, will cost the district roughly $202.6 million and is slated to be completed by 2028. The rebuilding of all three campuses damaged or destroyed in the conflagration\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including Palisades Charter Elementary and Palisades Charter High School \u2014\u00a0will likely cost around $600 million, and will be made possible by a $9 billion construction bond that was approved by voters in November. \n\n\n\nThe temporary campus is home to 19 classrooms, as well as a kitchen, library and play areas. \n\n\n\nMarquez\u2019s enrollment has declined roughly 58% since the fires \u2014\u00a0from about 310 to 130. And the Los Angeles Unified School District has estimated that three-quarters of the enrolled students are not currently living in the Palisades. \n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not perfect. But, I think not perfect is the beginning of figuring all this out,\u201d said Baffa, whose children attended Marquez. \u201c(The district) figured out a way to get them into a place where they could socialize and see each other every day and have in-person learning, and let\u2019s celebrate that.\u201d \n\n\n\nBeyond Marquez \n\n\n\nMarquez may have been the first to return \u2014\u00a0but it will be far from the last. \n\n\n\nThe Palisades fire devastated roughly 70% of Palisades Charter Elementary and about 30% of the historic Palisades Charter High School. Meanwhile, the Eaton fire damaged or destroyed five district-run schools in the Pasadena Unified School District and three of its charters. \n\n\n\nLAUSD\u2019s decision to reopen Marquez, but not the other campuses, came in part from a parent survey, according to district officials, who also said Los Angeles Unified engaged families in multiple town hall meetings. \n\n\n\nJust over 45% of the 66 parents who responded to an April survey said they wanted to return to a temporary facility in the Palisades as soon as possible; 36.4% wanted to return by August. \n\n\n\nMeanwhile, just over a fifth of parents said they would not stay with Marquez if it remained at the Nora Sterry Elementary school campus. \n\n\n\nBut David Levitus, the parent of a TK student at Marquez, said parents\u2019 concerns \u2014\u00a0ranging from environmental risks to longer commutes for those no longer living in the area \u2014\u00a0seemed much more widespread; 52.4% of parents who participated in the survey noted that the availability of transportation was a factor in their decision-making, along with the timing of students\u2019 relocating and other personal circumstances. \n\n\n\n\u201cThere is (nothing) resembling consensus in moving back right now,\u201d he said. \n\n\n\nParents of Palisades Charter Elementary students, on the other hand, opted to wait for a full return to permanent buildings, in part because their campus has less space to house both a temporary school and the ongoing construction of permanent buildings. \n\n\n\nDistrict officials also said Marquez Elementary was home to more students whose families were returning to the Palisades and that Palisades Charter Elementary was closer to commercial properties that were further behind in their cleanup and demolition efforts. \n\n\n\nUncertain future in Pasadena Unified\n\n\n\nPasadena Unified, the hardest hit district in the January blazes, has also installed portable structures at various campuses, including Allendale, McKinley, Don Benito, Audubon and Webster, according to spokesperson Hilda Ramirez Horvath. \n\n\n\nThe district still does not have a timeline for any potential rebuilds, she added. Without the support of a construction bond, Pasadena Unified will rely on multiple sources of funding, including its insurance carrier, and will look into additional sources of public funding. \n\n\n\nRelatedMonths After Los Angeles Wildfires, Child Care Providers Are Still in Crisis\n\n\n\n\u201cEveryone\u2019s just so interested in what\u2019s happened to us \u2026 and we\u2019re just trying to survive,\u201d said Julianne Reynoso, Pasadena Unified\u2019s assistant superintendent of student wellness and support services. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re just still trying to do the job we\u2019re supposed to do every day.\u201d\n\n\n\nReynoso said, \u201cPeople are coming to school. They feel connected, and that\u2019s a really great opportunity for us to see the trust that people have, no matter what we\u2019ve been through, that they\u2019re willing to still show up.\u201d\n\n \n \n \n Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter\n \n \n !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n document,’script’,’https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js’);\n fbq(‘init’, ‘626037510879173’); \/\/ 626037510879173\n fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDisclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification. \r\nWe do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAuthor: Mallika Seshadri\r\nPublished on: 2025-10-03 14:30:00\r\nSource: www.the74million.org\r\n\r\n”,”publisher”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”,”@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”uaetodaynews”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https:\/\/uaetodaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/images-e1759081190269.png”},”sameAs”:[“https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uaetodaynewscom”,”https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/uaetodaynews\/”,”https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uaetoday_news_com\/”]},”sourceOrganization”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”},”copyrightHolder”:{“@id”:”#Publisher”},”mainEntityOfPage”:{“@type”:”WebPage”,”@id”:”https:\/\/uaetodaynews.com\/marquez-elementary-first-to-return-after-palisades-fires-the-74\/”,”breadcrumb”:{“@id”:”#Breadcrumb”}},”author”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”uaetodaynews”,”url”:”https:\/\/uaetodaynews.com\/author\/arabsongmedia-net\/”},”image”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/uaetodaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/marquez-elementary-825×495.jpg?fit=825%2C495&ssl=1″,”width”:1200,”height”:495}}

Disclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification.
We do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.

Author: uaetodaynews
Published on: 2025-10-04 11:30:00
Source: uaetodaynews.com