Thirty minutes after the Palisades fire erupted, Head of School Elizebeth English and Associate Head of School for Finance & Operations Jane Davis made the decision to evacuate the school immediately Tuesday, Jan. 7.

“We had just finished our senior admin meeting, and at 10:30, we started to hear all the sirens. At that time, it was a conversation with the entire senior admin team of, ‘If this thing goes sideways, what will we do?'” Davis said. “Within 15 minutes after they left, and [English and I] continued our meeting, it was really obvious to us that we needed to close the school.”

Davis said Archer has an outline to rely on during an emergency, so they were able to evacuate the students quickly and safely. Director of Facilities Ari Horn ensures the campus runs properly even during a crisis. Horn said the Incident Command Structure is one of the infrastructures that outlines the chain of command for an emergency, along with different teams of specified jobs with diverse responsibilities. It is important so faculty members know who is in charge of their respective teams and what their responsibilities are during a crisis, he said.

The Emergency Action Plan is a protocol that states the command structure and step-by-step guidelines on how to make decisions and communicate those to the community. This action plan is a broad plan that contains the Incident Command Structure. Horn said the tiers of communication are effective, and he has not seen these structures at other institutions.

“All these layers of communication and oversight mean that there’s a strong network of people to respond to any sort of emergency or issue that would come up,” Horn said.

Archer has structures in place to maintain campus safety and functionality, one of which is a preventative maintenance schedule that keeps the property unsusceptible to the elements. Tree trimming is a critical annual protocol with purposes beyond cosmetics, Horn said.

“What we’re trimming is a lot of the dead leaves, so heaven forbid that the fire comes closer — which it looks like it’s not, hopefully, at this point in time — but having dry or incendiary material on the trees makes us exposed to unnecessary dangers,” Horn said. “[Tree trimming] is part of the windstorm protocols because, without the fires, we have issues with trees [that] could potentially get uprooted or knocked over from the force of these winds, especially because they’re so unusual with these hurricane-level winds that we’re not normally getting.”

Horn said there are other unique features at Archer that people outside of his department might not be aware of, including Archer’s structural foundation. Archer was built in the 1930s by an architect in the Mason Lodge, meaning the architect specialized in masonry and built Archer’s historic buildings solely out of concrete. The academic center is constructed with no combustible or flammable materials.

“[The historic] structure, for its endurance levels against fire or wind or earthquakes, is much greater than any other facility I’ve ever worked at,” Horn said. “This is an incredibly safe environment not just because of what we do socially to protect our student body, but physically, we’re actually very safe from things like these fire events and earthquakes and high wind.”

Last week, teachers conducted school remotely with a blend of short Zooms and asynchronous work. All classwork was optional, and any material covered will be reviewed when students return. Archer had originally planned to be back in session Monday, Jan. 13, but the administration changed that plan when a shift in the fire put the campus in the mandatory evacuation zone.

Davis said they are not finished dealing with the fires yet, and there are many logistics that the administration needs to think about when coming back to school. On Saturday, Jan. 7, Archer sent an update informing students that they would not have school on Monday so teachers could prepare for more asynchronous planning. The new plan calls for grade-level and mentorship Zoom meetings from 10:30-11 and more flexible asynchronous work Tuesday through Friday, Jan. 17.

Davis said approximately 20% of the Archer community is directly impacted by the fires, the administration is working to adapt the school structure so the students feel supported and create a safe and compassionate space.

“We’re not done dealing with all the things that are going to unfold about this, this particular crisis,” Davis said. “So we’ve only had the evacuation piece of it. We haven’t had the reunification of students on campus.”

This story was originally published on The Oracle on January 15, 2025.