EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Charter School Students Return to Campuses : Aftermath: Many express fear of another quake. Some parents admit worry about being separated from their children.

One week after a powerful earthquake rocked their homes and jangled their nerves, students at the Valley’s two charter schools returned to campus, some talkative, others withdrawn, but all offering a preview for the rest of the mammoth district of the struggles that lie ahead.

Using their flexibility as charter schools, Vaughn Street Elementary in Pacoima and Fenton Avenue Elementary in Lake View Terrace opened their doors Monday morning, one day before regular schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

At both schools, attendance was low, but teachers and counselors still scrambled to assess the psychological and physical needs of the students who showed up, as administrators attempted to determine the whereabouts of those who didn’t.

Many students expressed fear of another quake, and some parents admitted that they were worried about being separated from their children. At Fenton, which suffered significant cosmetic but no structural damage in the quake, about 100 of nearly 775 students showed up for the first full day of class. Principal Joseph Lucente attributed the low turnout to miscommunication.

But at Vaughn--now called the Next Century Learning Center--where teachers and administrators went door to door last week with flyers announcing the opening of school, 397 of nearly 700 students arrived for the first of two consecutive half-days. Administrators at Vaughn identified 47 students rendered homeless by the quake who dressed for school in the parking lots, cars or parks where they are now living. They anticipated that many of the absent were homeless as well.

Despite the high number of absentees, the atmosphere on campus before school appeared normal, with many children playing with soccer balls and talking to friends on the playground. But after the morning bell rang, clusters of students, parents, and teachers gathered and lingered, comparing quake stories and sharing fears.

For some students, school offered a comforting change from the disruption caused by the earthquake.

For others, it simply meant more worries.

“I’m happy and sad,” said 10-year-old Arnulfo Villalobos, who is sleeping in a parking lot with his parents, brothers, nieces and nephews. “If the big one comes and my family dies, I want to be over there with them when they die.”

But Faviola Rangel, a 12-year-old, said she felt safer at school than at her grandmother’s house, where she moved when her family’s Pacoima apartment was destroyed by the quake.

“Just staying in the house I get scared,” Faviola said. “I wanted to come to school.”

For parents, some of whom stayed at school after the bell, talking to one another or helping in the school’s parent center, emotions about the quake and its aftermath were also mixed.

Maria Alvarez, who has spent every night since the quake sleeping with her three children and her husband in the family’s van outside their San Fernando home, said she hated to leave her sixth-grade daughter at school.

“I didn’t want her to come because I was scared something was going to happen,” Alvarez said. “But I don’t want her to miss more school.”

Inside the classrooms, which were stocked with bottled drinking water, counselors took turns encouraging children to express their fears about the quake by talking to one another and drawing pictures of their experience. Teachers led earthquake drills and emphasized lessons on the science of a temblor and the unpredictable power of Mother Nature.

Rodolfo Vega, one of three counselors making the rounds at Vaughn Monday, held a teddy bear as he introduced himself to a classroom of fifth-graders.

“We’re all scared,” Vega said. “It’s OK to be nervous.”

Several children stood and shared--some in elaborate detail--what happened to their homes, their families and their lives when the quake hit. Others listened, not uttering a word.

In addition to the challenges the schools already face--calming the children’s fears, assisting those rendered homeless by the quake and repairing damaged buildings--absorbing students displaced by closed schools will present some administrators with yet another test. “We can do it if we have to,” said Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan, who calculated that the school could accommodate nearly 100 additional students.

“We need to be strong enough to stand up to whatever happens.”