Hundreds of public school teachers were among the Southern Californians left homeless in last week's raging wildfires. Some are scrambling to find a place to live, even as they hope to get back to the classroom and some semblance of normalcy for their students and themselves.
The Pasadena Unified School District includes the area where the Eaton Fire killed at least 16 people and destroyed thousands of structures, leaving about 300 employees homeless, the district's union said. said Jonathan Gardner, president of the Pasadena United Teachers Association. The district has about 1,500 teachers, according to federal statistics.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, which includes the entire neighborhood destroyed by the Palisades fire, the teachers union counts about 150 teachers left homeless and hundreds more evacuated. Cecily Miart Cruz, president of the district's union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said she expects the numbers to rise.
Gardner also predicted that many students would lose their homes and the large-scale displacement could impact the rest of the academic year and beyond, leading to a decline in enrollment. .
“There will be nothing resembling normal for the rest of the semester,” he said.
The Pasadena School District is closed this week, but nearly all schools in the Los Angeles School District reopened on Monday. Students and teachers from the two elementary schools destroyed in the Palisades fire will resume classes later this week in space set aside at two nearby schools.
In the Los Angeles area, teachers evacuated due to the fire were given a week's leave. Rebecca Mitsuse, 57, a middle school science and English teacher whose Altadena home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, is using the time to find housing for herself, her husband, and their 16-year-old son. he said. She hopes to return to the classroom next week.
“Life has to keep moving forward,” she said.
Still, she grapples with loss on many levels, including irreplaceable mementos. They include books she used in her lessons, notebooks where she recorded plans and resources, and notes from students she received 20 years ago during her difficult first year as a teacher. “I'm really glad you're our teacher. I know it's hard, but please stay here.” She remembered what she had written in her notes.
Lorian Denne, 66, a middle school English teacher and college and career advisor, also lost her home in Altadena. She said she is lucky because she and her husband live with her brother, who lives nearby.
Still, she found the process of filing an insurance claim and applying for assistance daunting.
“People who can't even cope and don't have a home should have it all done yesterday,” Denne said.
Many teachers in the Los Angeles area already couldn't afford to live near their schools, and the cost of temporary housing was a major concern.
About half of Pasadena's staff lives within the district, Gardner said, and the short commute has allowed many to coach sports teams and advise after-school clubs. These staff members were said to have suffered greatly from the damage caused by the Eaton fire.
Gardner said “schools are going to lose some of that color and joy for students who can't find places nearby” created by teacher-led extracurricular activities.
Scott Mandel, 68, has taught in the Los Angeles area for 40 years. As one of the union's eight regional chairs, he has spent the past few days calling about 15 teachers in his area who have lost their homes to check on their situation and share information. Some people were crying when they picked up the phone.
He said the closest comparison to this fire was the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which killed about 60 people and caused $35 billion in damage. Several teachers lost their homes in that quake, he said, but it was “nowhere near the scale we're seeing now.”
With school reopening, Mitsuse said she is looking forward to the sense of normalcy that returning to work will bring. In the meantime, she knew her students could go to their math and history partner teachers with questions and concerns. He lives in Pasadena and said there was a fire within a few blocks of his home, but he was unharmed.
