EARTHQUAKE: DISASTER BEFORE DAWN : L.A. Schools Closed Today to Regroup : Education: Employees are asked to report for cleanup and damage assessment. Bus routes must be altered.

All 640 Los Angeles Unified School District campuses are closed today as officials embark on the giant task of assessing widespread and costly damage that is likely to keep many campuses closed for days, especially in the San Fernando Valley.

While students must stay home today, all district employees who can safely make it to work have been asked to report to their schools and offices for the arduous task of cleaning up badly jumbled classrooms, surveying damage and preparing for the reopening of class.

Authorities will announce today a full list of school closures, openings and amended bus routes after a clear damage picture emerges.

“We are extremely fortunate that there were no children in classrooms Monday,” said school board President Leticia Quezada, referring to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. “The closures today will give us an opportunity to figure out where we go from here. I would suspect there is going to be an incredible amount of damage.”

Information on campus damage trickled in Monday as many principals, school police and maintenance workers began to survey their schools. At least 12 schools suffered structural damage, including Kennedy High School in Granada Hills and University High School on the Westside.

Despite regular earthquake preparedness sessions at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, Principal Consuelo Garcia said she was not prepared for the scene inside her school: light fixtures dangling by wires above children’s desks, overturned shelves, books everywhere.

Several San Fernando Valley principals said it will take days to clean up their schools and expressed concern over serious structural damage.

“It’s a real mess,” said Vicki Montez, principal of hard-hit Morningside Elementary School in San Fernando. “I have floor-to-ceiling gigantic cracks in the walls, ceiling tiles down. I walked into my office and all I could think was thank God we weren’t in school.”

Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias said early indications show that many schools have burst water mains. A water tank atop the roof of Bravo Medical Magnet High School in East Los Angeles toppled, drenching the classrooms below.

Ahead lies a mammoth logistical task as officials decide how to reroute school buses for 22,000 students and identify alternative school sites for children whose campuses are badly damaged.

Bill Ivy, a district busing supervisor, expressed concern that numerous traffic hazards may impede school buses and said any new routes will be carefully mapped.

Even an earthquake could not quell strife between the district and its teachers union, as United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein sharply criticized the request for employees to report to work today.

“I’m telling teachers that in my opinion it is unsafe to go to school,” Bernstein said. “We certainly don’t expect anyone to endanger themselves. What really irks me about this is no one from Downtown bothered to tell me.”

Zacarias said that safety should be the top concern when deciding whether to report to work. He said employees will not lose pay if they decide it is unsafe to return.