Jaylah Hartsfield, a senior at Palisades Charter High School, felt mixed emotions Tuesday. On one hand, she was finally back on campus — albeit a temporary one — reunited with her classmates and teachers, something she said many of them had been eagerly anticipating for quite some time.

No doubt about it, the opening Tuesday was a milestone moment in the recovery from the catastrophic Palisades fire.

But though returning to in-person school was a joyful moment, Hartsfield was sad knowing she will end her senior year away from the original Pali High campus, which sustained major damage in the mammoth January blaze.

“This is my last year, so I’m kind of devastated that it burned down and I can’t see it,” she said.

Still, she embraced the benefits of the new location, right smack in the hustle and bustle of Santa Monica.

The new campus’s proximity to the ocean brought a smile to her face.While she and her classmates could see the ocean from Pali High’s original hilltop campus, the new spot, dubbed Pali South, is less than two blocks from the water and the Santa Monica Pier.

She and her fellow students are learning to navigate the new campus.

“I really love it,” Hartsfield said. “It’s a perfect area. You have the pier and the beach right there. I think it’s the best we could have gotten. Everyone is really happy, but everyone is a little stressed out because it’s a new campus.”

About 2,500 Palisades Charter High School students began in-person classes at the new location, a repurposed Sears building at Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street.

Different? Yes. But it seemed to be working — a solution for the school’s students, teachers and staff members who saw their campus shuttered by the January fire.

“I’m happy to welcome the administrators, educators and students of Palisades Charter High School back to in-person learning,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who welcomed students back Tuesday. “While this home is only temporary until we can get them back to their regular site, the partnership and collaboration between state and local officials to get this new site up and running shows the spirit of our recovery. This is an important step forward for the Palisades community as we rebuild and rise together.”

The school has been immersed in remote learning since January.

Tuesday’s opening was the culmination of weeks of work, catalyzed by a city emergency order that enabled schools to find a home in city commercial zones and a state executive order seeking to get displaced students back in classrooms.

Newsom on Tuesday said all eight public schools that were damaged by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January have resumed in-person instruction.

Debris removal at the original Palisades Charter High School was completed last month.

At around lunch time Tuesday at Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue, students sat on the grass beneath palm trees, a Sears sign behind them. On the other side of the building, fresh signage declared the building’s new use, reading Pali High in tall, white letters.

As their lunchtime came to a close, Pali High students walked back to their new campus from a multitude of neighboring food joints near the bustling Santa Monica Place and Third Street Promenade.

With all that, city officials have shared information on how to navigate the area, which just got a lot busier:

First off, the school will hold classes at the new site through the end of the school year on June 6, then return to campus after summer break for the fall semester, according to the city.

Pali South’s school day begins at 8:30 a.m. and lets out at 2:46 p.m.

Nearby Santa Monica High School has a similar schedule.

Peak traffic is anticipated from 7-8:30 a.m. and 2:30-4 p.m. Those who don’t need to be in the area during these times are encouraged to avoid traveling there, officials said.