A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Every school in the country's second-largest school district remains closed today. The fires that have killed at least 10 people and reduced thousands of structures to ashes in and around Los Angeles have also destroyed or even badly damaged at least eight schools in the district. On the line with us now is Nick Melvoin of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. He represents District 4, which includes Pacific Palisades. That's the neighborhood that's dealing with the largest of the blazes. Nick, first of all, how are you doing? How's your house?
NICK MELVOIN: My house is OK. My district director, who's also a parent in the Palisades, lost her house. So we're safe, and, you know, I haven't had a moment to let anything set in yet, but it's devastating here, A.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Well, that's good news. It's good to hear that you're OK.
MELVOIN: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: Tell us about some of the schools in Pacific Palisades.
MELVOIN: Yeah. So, you know, this went from when we evacuated a few of the schools just for safety and for smoke, air quality on Tuesday to, by Tuesday night, them being destroyed. So two elementary schools, Palisades Elementary and Marquez Elementary, both close to their 100-year anniversaries, completely destroyed. Palisades High School, an independent charter school that's also the resident school for that neighborhood, is luckily about 80% still intact, but the thousands of the surrounding homes, of course, are not. And so we're unsure how many families will be moving back to be at that school. But so, two elementary schools destroyed, the high school still stands.
MARTÍNEZ: I know this might be too early of a question, Nick, but I mean, so when indeed things can clear up in terms of smoke, in terms of ways to get kids back into learning, what's the plan there? I mean, I don't imagine that there's schools that can take kids, but is Zoom possibly an option to get kids back in school, technically?
MELVOIN: Yeah. Well, it's not too early to think about that. I've been thinking about that since Wednesday because to the extent that we can get some continuity back in these kids' lives and keep them together, and so I'm actually going to be walking the grounds of some nearby schools today. And I actually think, A, that we might be able to get the two elementary school communities, their - the students, the teachers, their principals, completely moved to a nearby elementary school campus to kind of colocate, if you will, with a current school, by potentially the end of next week. And so for those elementary school communities, they'll be able to be in another physical site nearby as soon as maybe by Wednesday, which would be really amazing, to get those kids up and running, give their parents peace of mind, too, that the kids are out of the house, they're safe as these folks are trying to figure out what to do next.
For the high school, my No. 1 priority is going to be, as soon as we can go back in and clean it to structural damage, assess the air quality, is to get those kids there. You know, that high school senior class, they were freshmen during COVID. They were virtual learning.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MELVOIN: And so it is my No. 1 priority to make sure that school can reopen and that those high schoolers can graduate in a physical location for the end of their high school career.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Getting the kids back into an actual physical building - I mean, a lot of families rely on schools not just for education, but for meals for their kids, for shelter. Kids - parents have to go back to work and they need to put their kids somewhere, so, I mean, how are families coping with not having that option right now?
MELVOIN: Yeah. Of course, it's devastating. It's not just LA Unified. You know, my hearts are out. We have some independent schools, some parochial schools, and so I've also reached out to their leadership to see how we can help with surrounding elementary schools that are still intact. We, of course, know, including, like, my district director and her family, who are displaced in a hotel - you know, we don't know where some of these families will end up next week, next month, but we want to have that option for them. We also want to provide continuity of food service, you know?
But it is really remarkable, A, I'll say, the way that families throughout LA Unified are hosting other families. Teachers are supporting teachers. School communities in my district have reached out. They're doing toy drives for kids in the Palisades. It is inspirational. I know it sounds a bit trite, but tragedy can bring out the best in people, and the community of LA, and the Palisades in particular, has been incredibly uplifting.
But, of course, you know, my No. 1 priority is getting kids in a physical location for next week, not only so they can be there and safe with their peers, with their teachers, with their principal, but so their parents, many of whom are staying with family members or in small hotel rooms, can have the kids in a safe location during the day so those parents...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MELVOIN: ...Can figure out how they're going to be - rebuild, where they're going to go, and how they can take care of their basic needs as well.
MARTÍNEZ: I mentioned that all of LA Unified, all the schools are closed right now. Some of those schools, though, a lot of them are not in the path of fire. What's the reasoning for closing the entire district down? Is it smoke, or is it something else?
MELVOIN: Yeah. So this obviously happened quickly over the course of the week. On Tuesday, we had a few schools evacuated. Wednesday, we had about 130 schools closed. And then yesterday and today, as the school day starts in a few hours, we've decided to keep all schools closed. It was a combination of, you know, six fires raging at one time. And so we have some schools in the mandatory evacuation zones, we had had air quality and smoke. We also wanted to keep roads cleared for emergency personnel. So in an abundance of caution, we made that decision. It is my hope that 99% of schools in LA will be open on Monday, but, again, it's touch and go here, and we have an emergency board meeting this afternoon to make that determination.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Nick Melvoin, member of the Board of Education in the LA Unified School District. Nick, thanks for checking in with us.
MELVOIN: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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