Palisades and Marquez Elementary School Rebuild in Design Phase

This is an aerial view of a design for Palisdaes Elementary, which includes new buildings and yard space for different play activities.

Los Angeles Unified School District hosted two meetings last week, one for Palisades Elementary parents and the community and a second for Marquez Elementary School parents and the community.

The townhalls were used to solicit information from parents about their ideas for the replacement of schools that burned during the Palisades Fire. LAUSD has held 19 meetings over the past six months.

Both Elementary schools will be replaced with money from bond funds generated from Measure US, a $9 billion bond measure, passed in November 2024 (68 to 32 %). LAUSD will also use the insurance and FEMA money generated from the fires.

PALISADES ELEMENTARY:

This design shows Pali Elementary from a Via de la Paz street view.

The design concept meeting was held in spring 2025. A preliminary design phase for soliciting comments was held in May-June. Then school parents, teachers and community members were able to give input for the design of the campus. They asked for interwoven courtyards, multiple scaled outdoor environments, a kinder yard preserved in the existing location and separate from the older classes, and to honor the historical influences of the original building.

Last week’s July 24 meeting featured a design update. A final design meeting for the community will be held this fall.

To restore and repair the intact buildings at the Pali Elementary historic campus, located between Swarthmore Avenue, Via de la Paz, and Bowdoin, the cost is projected at $134.9 million. Construction will include 16 new classrooms: nine general, five kindergarten/TK and two flexible learning/maker space classrooms.

The next community meeting is planned this fall when LAUSD will show the final schematic design. Then construction documents will be drawn up and submitted to the Division of the State Architect for final approval.

Currently the restoration and repair of the standing buildings is underway. New building construction is set to start in the first quarter of 2027, with completion anticipated in the 4^th quarter of 2028.

Currently, Pali Elementary students are at Brentwood Science Magnet. LAUSD Board Member Nick Melvoin and LAUSD are pushing to expedite the process to get the kids back to Pali sooner, according to Allison Holdoff.

MARQUEZ ELEMENTARY:

This designs captures nature interwoven wiht buildings.

As of the July 23 community meeting, sitework construction had begun on Marquez Elementary. New building construction will begin the first quarter of 2027, and the campus is expected to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter in 2028. New construction will include 22 new classrooms, administrative space, a multipurpose room, library, a site for food services and maintenance facilities.

The new library, about 2,000 sq.ft., will have room for 6,000 books. The multi-purpose room will have a stage with theatrical lighting and built-in projector and motorized screen.

In the interim, 22 portable buildings for classrooms and administration have been installed on the lower courtyard. Mosaic restoration is underway and there are plans for students who are currently at Nora Sterry Elementary, to return to this campus sometime after the start of the school year.

During the initial townhall to redesign Marquez, parents and teachers emphasized that the existing stairway that connected the middle and upper level created a bottleneck and sought an alternative. It was recommended that the kindergarten/TK area should not be adjacent to other classrooms (because of the noise). Teachers and parents hoped that classrooms could have an exterior connection to the outdoors and that every classroom would have a green view.

Parents said the façade and identity of the school was important and needed to be preserved. The final design will be presented in the fall at a community meeting and a preconstruction meeting will be held after the state gives approval.

Sometime after Labor Day, students are expected to return to the lower yard of Palisades school campus utilizing the portable classrooms that have been placed on campus.