Governor visits burned school in Napa County

Gov. Newsom visited the burned remains of the private Foothills Elementary School near St. Helena in the Napa Valley on Thursday, as part of a tour of damage from the Glass fire, which has burned more than 56,700 acres and was 5% contained since it began Sunday. The school had resumed in-person instruction about a week before the fire that destroyed a portion of its campus broke out, according to the Press Democrat.

“I’ve got four young kids in elementary school,” Newsom said, standing in the charred schoolyard after surveying the damage. “And I can’t imagine for the children and parents and the families…what’s going through your minds, with all that anxiety that you already had coming into this school season, to see your precious school burned down.”

“My heart goes out to every single one of you,” he said, adding that the state will help to restore the area. “We’re not just here for a moment. We’re here to rebuild and to reimagine your school. To all the kids out there, you’re going to get through this…You’ve got a lot of people that have your backs. And God bless you. We’re very sorry you’re going through all this.”

Napa County is in the red tier of the state’s county monitoring system, meaning schools can reopen for in-person instruction if they comply with Covid-19 guidance from the California Department of Public Health and the county health department. However, many schools are closed indefinitely due to recent fires and evacuations in the area.