School Staff, Parents Rush to Complete Move to New Quarters

Teachers, students and administrators rushed to prepare the new site of the Santa Monica Alternative School House on Tuesday for its first day of classes.

With basics like phones still being installed, the pristine modern building did not look quite ready to receive 190 students when it opens Thursday, but new Principal Viki Montera was hopeful that everything would come together by then.

The school is run by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. It aims to have children participate more actively in their learning than in traditional schools, Montera said.

Parent Leslie Scott, cutting up sheets of construction paper as her 6-year-old son Kieran watched, said she and other parents had originally been unhappy about moving from the school’s former, larger home on 4th Fourth Street, but “it’s not as bad as we all thought.”