FULLERTON : Board May Approve Conversion to School

Parents living near the Maple Community Center finally may have a local kindergarten--and an end to 23 years of busing their youngest schoolchildren--if the school board votes tonight to convert the center to a school.

For at least six years, school officials have looked into the possibility of converting the Maple Community Center into a K-6 school, but have been unsuccessful in raising the more than $1 million necessary, said Pat Puleo, director of instructional services for Fullerton School District.

More recently, the school board has focused on the less expensive possibility of opening a kindergarten at the site. According to Puleo, the cost of opening a kindergarten for 60 children would be $322,000.

Tonight the school board will debate whether to open a kindergarten at Maple starting in September, 1995, and whether to begin advertising for bids for the renovation project. Registration for kindergarten begins April 6, and the board wants to decide if Maple will be on the list before that date.

Board member Karen Chavez expressed concern during the last meeting over the cost of opening the school.

Several board members also expressed doubt as to whether parents and children are best served by a kindergarten at the center, since youngsters will be bused out of the area for the rest of their education once they complete kindergarten.

They worried that the children would be separated from their friends and thrust into a foreign environment when they reached the first grade.

Maple Elementary School was closed in 1971 because of racial imbalance, and students were bused out of the area in anticipation of a court order on desegregation.

But other board members argued that many of the children already attend the Head Start program at Maple and that a kindergarten would allow the children to stay close to their families and friends for one more year while they are still very young.

Parent Lilia Garcia said a local school would allow parents to participate in the children’s beginning education. “I want to help and participate, but when it’s so far away, I can’t do it,” she said.

“We keep saying that we can’t do the whole thing (a K-6 school), so we’re not going to do anything at all, and that’s unfair,” said board member Elena Reyes-Jones.

“We’re long overdue in making a demonstrated commitment to that neighborhood,” board member Rosamaria Gomez-Amaro agreed.

Reyes-Jones added that the board should open the kindergarten as a first step and then work to raise money to open eventually a K-6 school at the site.