Work is ongoing at Las Lomitas Elementary School in Atherton, where 20 classrooms and learning spaces flooded in the last week because of the severe winter storms. District staff who were monitoring the storm discovered the flooding, said Superintendent Beth Polito.

Some 12 classrooms have been moved to temporary housing and eight additional programs are using flexible space, Polito said. Lots of items were lost, too many to list, she said. It appears that debris built up across the street that clogged drains and sent water over the street and onto the campus, located at 299 Alameda de las Pulgas.

"It's been a wild week," Polito said in an email Jan. 10. "Our modernization contractor XL and insurance subcontractor Balfour have done an amazing job moving classrooms and repairing spaces in an incredibly short turn-around time."

Polito said that with their help, students and staff were able to return to school after winter break as planned on Monday, Jan. 9. "A big shout-out to our site and district staff who lived and breathed this project for the last seven days," she added.

Some classrooms part of construction project

January 2020 marked the end of about five years of construction of new buildings at the K-3 school of the Las Lomitas School District.

The projects were funded through Measure S, a $60 million bond measure passed by voters in 2013 for repairs, upgrades and construction projects. Half of those funds were allocated for projects at Las Lomitas.

Back in 2020, Camou told The Almanac that because of a persistent flooding problem on campus, workers also installed metal grates near the kindergarten buildings and in the parking lot to drain excess water.

The flooding affected both new and old buildings, Polito said.