Students at Crane Country Day School returned to their Montecito campus on Monday, five weeks after the deadly Jan. 9 debris flows forced a long-term closure.
The K-8 school at 1795 San Leandro Lane was undamaged in the storm, but crews have been cleaning up dust and additional ash from the Thomas Fire.
Some residents sheltered at the campus until they could be evacuated from Montecito, and first responders used the school as a base, so “there was a lot of debris that ended up collaterally being there,” parent Elizabeth Karlsberg said.
Classes had not been held at the Montecito campus since Jan. 5. and students were hosted at four sites in the meantime: Congregation B’nai B’rith for kindergarten through third-grade students; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s McCormick House for fourth- and fifth-graders; and the downtown 27 E. Cota Street space for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
That building also houses Kaplan International and Active Life Scientific.
The United Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara County in Carpinteria briefly hosted students whose families were stuck south of the Highway 101 closure.
Crane Country Day School will be able to use these remote sites again if necessary, during future evacuations or other emergencies, school staff said.
(Teresa Pietsch photo)
“I think everybody’s happy to be back, even though everything worked out really well,” Karlsberg said.
Air- and water-quality testing at the school all came back clean, Head of School Joel Weiss wrote in a message to parents, and school staff are preparing for future rain events and evacuations.
“Beginning this weekend we will have a new ritual at Crane,” he wrote Friday. “Every Sunday night, a team (Alexis Fischer as safety committee chair, Joel Weiss as head of school, Don Cook as business manager, Tom Kenny as board president, and Winifred Lender as chair of risk management) will look at the weather predictions for the week ahead and decide the best course of action, and we will keep the school community informed of any changes to our regular schedule.”
Laguna Blanca’s Lower School campus remains closed
Laguna Blanca’s Lower School is still closed, with no timeline for students to return to the 250 San Ysidro Road campus.
Its K-4 students are attending classes at the Goleta Girls Inc. facility, said Tara Broucqsault, director of communications.
Utilities have been restored to the campus, which had minimal damage and clean-up, but officials are waiting to resume classes there, she said.
“At this point, our most important goal is to maintain a sense of consistency and uninterrupted instruction time for our students,” she said in an email.
“Items we are taking into consideration before returning to Montecito include: overall traffic congestion in Montecito, air quality, and the potential for future evacuation orders when rain returns to the area. At this point, no timeline has been set for our return to Montecito.”
About 85 students are displaced from the Lower School, and the students in fifth through 12th grade at the Hope Ranch campus were not displaced following the Jan. 9 debris flows.
The school established a free bus service to the Hope Ranch and Girls, Inc. campuses to help families, Broucqsault added.
School officials previously said they would be considering a faster return to the Montecito campus if the “Laguna North” facility was not such a good fit.
“Their staff has been an incredibly willing and accommodating partner with our school. If we were in the position of not having a desirable location to support our program, we would be considering a speedier return to our Montecito campus. However, the Girls Inc. facility is well equipped, which allows us the flexibility of a more measured approach during the rebuilding process,”” Broucqsault said in late January.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.