Hundreds of public school teachers are among Southern Californians who have lost their homes to raging wildfires in the past week. Some are scrambling to find places to live, even as they hope to return to their classrooms soon to restore some normalcy for their students — and themselves.
In the Pasadena Unified School District, which includes the communities where the Eaton fire has killed at least 16 people and damaged thousands of structures, about 300 employees lost their homes, said Jonathan Gardner, president of United Teachers of Pasadena, its union. area. The district has about 1,500 teachers and staff members, according to federal statistics.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, which includes an area where the Palisades fire leveled entire neighborhoods, the teachers union has counted nearly 150 teachers and staff members whose homes were lost and hundreds more displaced. Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of that district’s union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said she expected that number to rise.
Many students have also lost their homes, a mass exodus that will affect the rest of the school year and beyond, and could lead to declining enrollment, Mr. Gardner predicted.
“There’s not going to be anything 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 Monday. Students and teachers at two elementary schools destroyed by the Palisades fire will resume classes later this week in space set aside for them at two nearby schools.
In the Los Angeles area, more than 300 workers are living in areas under mandatory evacuation orders, a district spokesman said.
Teachers displaced by the fires were given a week’s leave. Rebecca Mitsuse, 57, a high school science and English teacher whose Altadena home was destroyed by the Eaton fire, said she was using the time to look for housing for herself, her husband and their 16-year-old son. He hopes to be back in class next week.
“Life must go on,” he said.
However, she struggles with the loss on many levels – including the memories she can’t replace. Among them are books she used in classes, notebooks where she recorded plans and resources, a note from a student she received during her difficult first year of teaching 20 years ago. “We’re so glad you’re our teacher and I know it’s hard, but please stay” he remembered the note saying.
LoriAnne Denne, 66, a high school English teacher and college and career counselor, also lost her home in Altadena. She described herself as lucky because she and her husband can stay with her brother, who lives nearby.
Even so, she found the process of filing insurance claims and applying for assistance overwhelming.
“Everything has to be done yesterday, by people who can’t even make ends meet and don’t have a home,” said Ms. Dan.
Many teachers in Los Angeles-area districts were already struggling to afford to live near their schools, so the cost of temporary housing was a major concern.
Mr. Gardner said about half of Pasadena’s school employees lived within the district, and their shorter commutes allowed many of them to coach sports teams and advise after-school clubs. Those staff members had been hit hard by the damage from the Eaton fire, he said.
“For those who can’t find a place nearby, these schools will lose a little bit of that color, that joy” created by teacher-led extracurricular activities, Mr. Gardner.
Scott Mandel, 68, taught in the Los Angeles area for 40 years. As one of the union’s eight regional presidents, he spent the past few days calling about 15 teachers in his district who lost their homes to check in and share information. Some, he said, were crying when they answered the phone.
The closest comparison to the fires, he said, was the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which killed about 60 people and caused $35 billion in damage. While some teachers lost their homes in that earthquake, he said, “it was nowhere near the scale we have now.”
Ms. Mitsuse, whose school has reopened, said she was looking forward to the sense of routine that returning to work would bring. In the meantime, she knew her students could go to her teaching partner, who teaches math and history, with questions or concerns. He lives in Pasadena, and even though the fire came within a few blocks of his home, he said, he escaped damage.
