Nearly all of LAUSD will reopen on Monday. Several Eaton fire-area districts remain closed

Nearly all Los Angeles Unified campuses and offices will reopen on Monday after wind-fueled fires led to a districtwide shutdown, officials announced late Sunday afternoon.

The decision was reached after consideration of school readiness, weather forecasts, current outdoor conditions and cautiously encouraging levels of fire containment, said L.A. Unified schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho.

The environmental conditions seem promising and schools are ready, Carvalho said.

“We’ve turned on all systems for them to be operating continuously, providing air flow into our schools,” the superintendent said. “So schools shall be clean. AC units shall be working. And we conducted the necessary inspections, evaluation and replacement of filters. We also surveyed our workforce to ensure readiness.”

The vast majority of the 80 school districts in Los Angeles County are planning to be open.

Pasadena Unified and La Cañada Unified will remain closed, as will schools in Malibu, which is part of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. In the Santa Monica portion of the district, only Roosevelt Elementary will be closed.

Pasadena Unified was hit especially hard by the Eaton Canyon fire, which broke out last Tuesday night, seriously damaging or destroying five campuses.

At L.A. Unified schools Monday, outdoor and athletic activities will be limited and masks will be available for students and staff. The district said it will continue to monitor weather conditions through the night and will post updates at 10 p.m. Sunday and 5 a.m. Monday.

Those later check-ins are based on the reality that fire and weather conditions could change quickly. The 5 a.m. notice will go out before buses leave the depots to begin their routes.

Carvalho interacted with district teams that evaluated and prepared campuses, joined by school board member Nick Melvoin on the Westside and Karla Griego in the eastern part of the school system, which was near the Eaton Canyon fire.

During a late morning visit to Eagle Rock Elementary, Carvalho said he’d received reports that “we are on target specific to all interior and exterior inspections of schools. ... The reports I’m getting, the filter quality and level of cleanliness is better than what we had anticipated.”

The neighborhood around that school had never been under a mandatory evacuation order, but heavy smoke from the Eaton fire had blanketed the area, which also was buffeted by the winds. A car with its top bashed in by a fallen tree remained parked by the school Sunday morning.

Crews replaced all the air filters at Eagle Rock and replaced filters as needed at other campuses, officials said.

A cleanup crew had gathered leaves and branches into massive piles on the playground and sidewalks and also on the roof.

On Sunday, custodian Scot Schneir was sweeping up leaves. But at the height of the windstorm, he had dashed around campus to secure loose windows — to keep them from shattering.

PTA President Amber Martinez praised the condition of the school after a walk-through, although she expressed concern that the school was not maintained as well on an ongoing basis because of limited staffing.

The Palisades fire wreaked worse damage at several schools.

Marquez Charter Elementary, a campus with a view of the Pacific Ocean, was destroyed by the Pacific Palisades fire.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Palisades Elementary and Marquez Charter Elementary were destroyed and those students will not be resuming classes until at least Wednesday and at nearby campuses, Carvalho said.

Students who were attending Palisades Elementary will shift to Brentwood Elementary Science Magnet in Brentwood, a neighborhood adjacent to Pacific Palisades.

Students who had been at Marquez Elementary will report for class at Nora Sterry Elementary in the Sawtelle neighborhood, which is south of Brentwood.

The plan is to keep the two relocated school communities intact, with the same teachers instructing the same students.

All four of the schools opened for the spring semester on Jan. 6.

The other L.A. schools closed Monday are in mandatory evacuation areas, either in Pacific Palisades or the Santa Monica Mountains area: Kenter Canyon Charter Elementary, Canyon Charter Elementary School, Paul Revere Charter Middle School, Topanga Elementary Charter School and Lanai Road Elementary School.

Palisades High School, an LAUSD property that is managed by an independent charter school, was hard hit with about 40% of the structures either damaged or destroyed, wrote Principal Pamela Magee in a post to the school community.

Pali High, an independent charter school, will not open for the spring semester on Jan. 13, as previously scheduled.

District officials estimate that about 340 workers lived in mandatory evacuation zones as of Sunday night. For these employees — and others on a case-by-case basis — the district will provide five paid days off.

Officials said they anticipate a greater use of substitute teachers than normal on Monday.

A next step will be to review — again, based on addresses on file — the number of students affected by evacuations and fire losses, said Deputy Supt. Pedro Salcido.

The district is working to set up an informal network where people in the larger L.A. Unified community can temporarily share their homes with displaced workers and families.