Palisades High will reopen campus in January

Classes will be held in portable buildings as a $266-million repair project continues.

- BY HOWARD BLUME

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

AN AERIAL view of the Palisades Charter High School football field this week.

Palisades Charter High School students are scheduled to return to their campus in January, one year after the Palisades fire devastated their community and badly damaged the popular school, displacing some 3,000 students.

The plan is for students to use the approximately 70% of campus that was damaged by smoke but not destroyed as well as portable buildings that will temporarily occupy the baseball field.

"For the buildings... that are intact, we're going through the industrial cleaning process and getting those buildings repaired," Issam Dahdul, a senior facilities administrator, said in a presentation Tuesday to a committee of the Board of Education. The property occupied by the independent charter school is owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"We're hoping they'll be able to return after winter break," Dahdul said. "They have not cleared all of the environmental clearances yet, so we're still working on that, and we're going to continue to work with that community to inform them as to when it's safe to return to those buildings."

The school district estimates the cost of setting up the temporary campus at about $30 million, which includes installing roughly 30 portable classrooms along with administrative and restroom facilities, and site preparation for interim recreation areas and hardscaping and landscaping, according to a district statement. The cost also includes "comprehensive site work," including utility installation, surveys, and architectural and engineering costs, the district said.