This new play yard is up the steps from the “old” lower one. One can see standing homes on the hills in the background.
Two tours were offered at the Marquez Elementary School campus last week to allow residents, families and potentially time to look at the school, which could potentially reopen at this site off Marquez Avenue in September.
Nothing short of amazing, was the reaction of this editor. The portable classrooms, library, administration building, kindergarten area, science room and music room, were clean, with windows and air conditioning. The kitchen in the lunch building was sizeable, with everything brand new. There were so many play areas, with more equipment to come. This campus sits on 7.73 acres, which gave ample room to build a temporary campus.
A kindergarden room is complete with desks, a new carpet and cushions.
The lower play yard will now house the school buildings. The area where the gym, kindergarten and offices have been turned into large playground. Looking out across the canyon, one could see a sizeable number of homes in that area that survived (unlike the Alphabet Streets or the Via de Los Olas Bluffs, which were devastated).
There are areas of green grass on the campus, which is refreshing, the native garden hasj z been replanted and is by the new entrance to the school. There are three air monitors on campus.1
Once students return, they are still temporarily at Nora Sterry, the school will open with a new principal Lisa Timmerman. Timmerman was a teacher at Marquez before obtaining her administrative credentials and had been principal at Westwood Charter for two years.
The decision to come to a school that must be reinvented from scratch and to take it to the next level was not an easy one. “I love the school, my kids went here,” Timmerman said, but asked herself, “Am I the person who can get this done?”
With support from her husband Brian, a long-time swim team coach, and her two daughters Leah, who graduated from U.C. Davis Law School in May, took the bar exam and will start work as a deputy district attorney in Ventura and Quincy also graduated in May with her master’s degree in sports management from Georgetown, Timmerman accepted the position. (Her kids went to Marquez, Paul Revere Middle School and Palisades High School.)
A master swimmer and a former L.A. County Lifeguard, Timmerman said, “There are going to be a lot of challenges, but we have the opportunity to create a really amazing campus.”
LAUSD is keeping the same number of teachers as it had last year at the time of the fire. Then, the school population was 314 in kindergarten through fifth grade. That means with fewer pupils attending this year, the teacher-to-student ratio will be high.
Board-certified art therapist Lauren Hunter was working in the library, which has books on the shelves and a cozy nook reading area.
During the tour, CTN spoke to Lauren Hunter, a board-certified art therapist, who is funded through Cedars Sinai. “We are currently in 40 schools, but after the fires we went into Marquez and Palisades Elementary,” said Hunter who was fixing up the library. “Every Thursday morning, we’ll have a parent support group here.”
She said that she and Timmerman had spoken and there were plans to bring back community events and fund/raisers such as the highly anticipated Marquez Halloween Carnival. “We want to bring the community joy again,” Hunter said.
A parent contacted CTN and said that many families are not in a rush to return for dozens of different reasons including transportation, clean up, pickup only – nothing to walk to or from our “neighborhood school,” construction noise in neighborhood, terrible roads, soil testing and shade structures not until December.
All valid points. Vons, and the strip mall at Palisades Drive and Sunset now have several amenities that could use support from school parents. This editor interviewed Timmerman at the Starbucks (totally redone) in that mall last week. Supposedly the Post Office will reopen in September in the town next to several businesses that could also use support, Palisades Pit Stop, Chipotle, Palisades Garden Café, Prima Cantina, Ruby’s Nails, CVS, Pilates, banks and the vet.
The roads are bad throughout the town, and one would hope that AECOM, hired for $30 million by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, would have plans and find money to have roads and water pipe infrastructure fixed. The home lots and the Marquez business area have been cleaned. CTN reported on the last residential property cleared, yesterday, August 26.
But if a parent is not comfortable about coming back to Marquez, I’ve been told that the child can stay at Nora Sterry, or transfer to Palisades Elementary at Brentwood or there is room at several of the private schools, including Calvary, which will be back at their campus in the Palisades after Labor Day. After the trauma the town has been through, everyone has to make their own decision about what feels right.
But in the meantime, Timmerman said, “I’m excited to watch the community return and thrive again.”
And she added, “It’s going to take everyone.”
The Marquez Elementary lunchroom kitchen has been remodeled with new appliances.