When Palisades Charter High School reopens its home campus on Jan. 12, it won’t just mark the end of a yearlong displacement. It will mark the return of a community that has been waiting to come home.

After the fires forced students and staff into a temporary Sears building in Santa Monica, Principal Pam Magee said the upcoming return represents “a moment of healing, rebuilding and reconnecting,” not just for the school’s nearly 3,000 students, but for the entire Palisades community that has felt the void since the campus went dark.

For Magee, returning is not simply a logistical milestone but an emotional one: “This isn’t just about opening doors,” she said. “It’s about bringing our people back to the place that shapes their identity.”

The road back has required an unprecedented pu

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