A rummage sale Saturday raised $1,250 for the school’s music program to help cover some of the damage.

[KHTS] – The Castaic Union School District has been vandalized three times in the past month, but members of the community are stepping up to help mitigate some of the damage.

Castaic Elementary School families held a rummage sale on Saturday to raise money for the music classroom that was vandalized between Dec. 23 and 29.

The organizer of the sale, Lara Strahs, a Castaic Elementary parent with students in second and fifth grade, said the response was overwhelming.

“We had over 1,000 items donated from not only our school families, and families of other Castaic schools, but we even had families that don’t live in Castaic, and don’t have kids at our school, who dropped off items for the sale…” she said. “It was incredible.”

The music room at Castaic Elementary was vandalized in December.

The sale, which was open between 7 and 11 a.m. on Saturday, raised $1,250 for the damaged music classroom.

“We didn’t want to lose our music program, which we had worked so hard to get,” Strahs said.

The money will go towards the Castaic Elementary Music program in general and specifically to purchase new musical instruments and replace instruments that were damaged, said Renee Ayers, assistant office manager at the school.

The vandalism, which involved discharging a fire extinguisher and pouring floor stripper all over the music classroom, cost the school about $1,000 and was only the first of three incidents in recent weeks.

Between Jan. 10 and 13, the tires were taken off of five buses in the Castaic Union School District bus yard, causing more than $6,300 in damage and interrupting bus service on the morning of Monday, Jan. 13.

Between Jan. 25 and 27, the special education preschool classroom at Castaic Middle School was broken into and trashed. Similar to the incident at Castaic Elementary, the vandal(s) discharged a fire extinguisher, smeared food on the floors and walls and plugged the sinks and toilets with diapers.

Someone also tried to ignite a pile of books against the wall of the building in what appears to be attempted arson, according to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials.

The rummage sale on Saturday was the second time Castaic Elementary students and parents made an effort to raise money for the damaged classroom.

On Dec. 31, students Bailie and Rylie held a bake sale and raised $214 to replace a class set of damaged recorders.

Anyone with information about this or the other two incidents is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Station at (661) 255-1121.