First-grade teacher Jean De Longe had no time to waste when she arrived at Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet early Wednesday morning. Her mission: to re-create a classroom that was lost in the fire that ravaged so much of the Palisades.
De Longe, who taught at Palisades Charter Elementary for 11 years, was slightly frazzled as she tried to figure out how to haul a big new rug and boxes of school supplies from the sidewalk to her new classroom at the end of a long hallway. Other displaced teachers were whizzing by, arms laden with boxes of their own. Some looked distressed and teary, but most were insanely cheerful.
Honestly, is there a better person in the world than a primary school teacher?
In a little more than a week, L.A. Unified School District had figured out how to get class going again for students from the two charter elementary schools that burned down in the neighborhood, Palisades and Marquez. The Palisades students will be in Brentwood for at least the rest of the school year, and the Marquez kids will be at Nora Sterry Elementary in the nearby Sawtelle neighborhood.
Remains of Palisades Charter Elementary, which was destroyed by the Palisades fire.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Palisades Principal Juliet Herman was buzzing around the Brentwood campus, checking in with students and teachers while dealing with her tech team and a brief visit from LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho. Eight members of her staff and a considerable share of her 410 students had lost their homes. The Brentwood school had been able to offer them 20 classrooms.
How long did Herman think they would be in Brentwood?
“I’m trying to plan for the end of today,” she replied. “That’s what my brain can do.”
In De Longe’s classroom, I grabbed a pair of scissors, cut through the new rug’s plastic packaging and unfurled it on the hardwood floor. Each of its brightly colored concentric circles would soon be occupied as children plopped down for story time and games such as Jenga. The rug was an important touch: It was just like the one they had lost.
De Longe had set up desks in quartets and placed nameplates on each one. A new class birthday calendar was tacked to the wall next to the door.
She had also taped pink and red hearts bearing each child’s first name on the door: Ozzy, Rivers, Koee, Peyton, Lennon. (How far we’ve come from the Nancys, Lindas and Steves of my youth!)
There were 21 hearts in all, though only 12 children came to school that day. Several would not be returning at all, De Longe said. One family moved to Phoenix, another to Santa Barbara.
First-graders displaced from Palisades Charter Elementary at Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet.
(Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)
“Who can tell me two numbers that make 12?” De Longe asked as she took attendance. “What is 12 plus 12?”
A stack of envelopes on the teacher’s desk contained handmade cards from kids at Santa Monica’s Roosevelt Elementary School: Dear friend, Have fun at your new school. I hope you do great. Don’t be nervous. I’m sorey your school burnd. Love, Stori.
Jake Takeuchi wandered in with his dad, James, who would spend the next 90 minutes in what looked like Ikea hell, putting together a mailbox organizer for the class. Most of the new supplies were provided by parents eager to see their children back in school, but many had forwarded De Longe’s wish list to friends, and she had received donations from total strangers. The district also gave each teacher a $500 Amazon gift card.
The children checked out their new desks and then, like ducklings, lined up behind De Longe, who took them on a school tour (mostly to locate the bathrooms).
Unlike their Palisades classroom, this one has a back door, which opens onto a generous patio with a large raised garden box. De Longe’s mother, Marcia Paonessa, is a landscape designer who served as the garden teacher at Palisades, and De Longe hopes she will be able to help the children revive the planter, which was speckled with blue and green aquarium pebbles and one large, very dead goldfish.
At story time, De Longe plucked a new book off the shelf, “Ira Sleeps Over.” It’s about a little kid who wants to take his teddy bear to a sleepover but is afraid his friend Reggie will make fun of him. (Spoiler alert: Reggie has a teddy bear too.)
“What a nice story,” De Longe said. “I’m curious, first-graders. Do you have things at home that give you comfort?”
“My brother has an owl named Hootie,” said one little boy. “I have one too. I wanted to bring it to where we were staying, but my mom couldn’t find it.”
That was the morning’s first allusion to the fire and evacuations.
First-graders displaced from Palisades Charter Elementary in their new classroom at Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet.
(Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)
Soon, their third-grade “reading buddies” trooped in from a classroom down the hall, and the group settled in to make some art.
I figured the children would produce scenes of flames and destruction. Instead, the first-grade girls drew unicorns, hearts and bumblebees, and the boys drew figures from Roblox and “Squid Game.”
Some of the third-grade girls chatted about the fires.
“My house is standing,” said one. “But my whole neighborhood burned down.”
A 9-year-old who lives in Santa Monica chimed in: “If I had to evacuate, I would take three suitcases. I would fill one with clothes, one with Squishmallows and one with skin care products.”
I looked over another girl’s shoulder. She had drawn a dolphin, her old school’s mascot. Under the dolphin, she added two words: “Pali forever.”
Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social. Threads: @rabcarian
