Webster Elementary rebuilding after fire
I am writing to bring the Malibu community up to date on the damage caused by the recent fire at Webster Elementary School, and, more importantly, the inspiring efforts of so many people that are restoring our school to its former condition. During and immediately after the fire, news reports varied on the extent of the damage at Webster. It was much greater than most of us originally thought and, in retrospect, it is no small miracle that the school survived.
There was fire on all four sides of the school and within it in many different places. Embers must have been flying and setting fires wherever they landed. One of our classrooms, Ms. Harris’s second-grade, sustained significant fire damage in the ceiling and firefighters had to break in the door to extinguish the fire. Hundreds of paperback books and other instructional materials were destroyed by fire, smoke and water. The adjacent computer lab also had fire in the ceiling, but none of the computers were damaged. We have had to move out of these two classrooms and expect that they will be repaired sometime in the next few months.
Several structures burned completely, including a storage shed containing art supplies and disaster preparedness materials, a small storage building in another area and the arbor at the entrance to our Poets’ Park. The exterior wall of the classroom next to the storage shed was on fire. Many of the most significant and discouraging losses involved landscape. All around the perimeter and in various places inside the school, trees, vines, hedges and shrubs were blackened and destroyed. We are estimating that it will cost about $20,000 to replace the palm trees and everything else that made our school so beautiful. Our PTA has established the GROW Fund (Garden Renewal Of Webster) for this purpose and we would be thrilled to receive donations of any size.
We have experienced wonderful support in our efforts to make our school safe for students, staff and parents and to reestablish our normal routines as soon as possible. The school district marshaled more than 20 custodians, painters, gardeners and workers such as locksmiths, electricians and plumbers who worked throughout the week we were closed and the weekends. A group of about 40 Webster parents worked for five hours on a Sunday clearing brush and preparing gardens for replanting. Our friends at LanDesign West, owned by Aaron Landworth, have contributed more than 100 man hours of tree trimming and brush clearing. Outside companies were hired to monitor classroom air quality and clean all of our computers.
I am extremely happy to be able to report to the community that our students are back in their classrooms, learning from their dedicated teachers and moving forward from what was almost an unthinkable disaster. We are so grateful to the firefighters and Sheriff’s officials who saved us and we have all learned a memorable lesson in appreciating what we have at Webster.
Phil Cott
Principal, Webster Elementary School