Fires Delay First Day Back at Lake County Schools

The Mendocino Complex fires -- the largest in California's history -- have delayed the start dates for at least four Lake County School Districts.

Lakeport, Upperlake, Lucerne and Konocti Unified Schools Districts were scheduled to start school in the next two weeks but have delayed their start dates until mid-August.

The delay will affect at least 5,100 students in the area.

Upperlake and Lakeport Unified School Districts were scheduled to start school this week but may push back their start dates even further, as only 34 percent of the Mendocino Complex Fires has been contained.

Lakeport District Superintendent April Leiferman says the classrooms are filled with ash and soot and the air quality is currently at an unhealthy zone, according to the Lake County Air Quality Guidelines 2017.

"We have to have all of that cleaned up before we can have students come back," says Leiferman. "You have the cleaning of the buildings, including the outside, because there's ash everywhere and then you also have the air quality. You have multiple things happening at the same time."

Lucerne Unified School District is one of the smaller schools in Lake County with only one school teaching students from kindergarten to eighth grade and has about 260 students.

Lucerne District Superintendent Mike Brown says, "We try not to close unless it's absolutely imperative to close the school."

Brown says Lucerne Unified will be holding a special emergency meeting on Wednesday to determine a start date for their school.

According to both Brown and Leiferman, the last time both districts had to close down for a "smoke day" was last year during the October wildfires.

Kelseyville and Middletown Unified School Districts are the only school districts that will retain their normal start dates and do not anticipate any changes as of now.