Long-Closed School Will Reopen in Fall

Maple School, which has been closed for 24 years, will reopen this fall for kindergarten students.

Trustees of the Fullerton School District on Tuesday said that two teachers will be hired for two kindergarten classes, and that first- through sixth-grade classes may be added in the future.

Trustees said Maple-area residents have been asking the district to reopen the school, at 244 E. Valencia Drive and now called the Maple Community Center, for the past two decades, but financial constraints prevented the opening.

The school board was prepared to reopen the school last fall but had to delay the move as a result of the failed Orange County investment pool that caused the county to declare bankruptcy. All but $500,000 of the district’s $5-million investment in the pool has been returned.

The district will spend about $130,000 to operate the kindergarten classes.

Parents of children who are bused to other schools applauded the board’s action but said they will press the district to eventually convert the center into an elementary school with kindergarten through sixth grade.

“I am very happy with the kindergarten, but we urgently need an elementary school at Maple,” said Claudia Casillas, whose daughter will attend Maple next fall.

Officials said it would cost about $2.9 million to open an elementary school.

Tony Anderson, the district’s director of information and planning services, said the school was closed in 1972 because 98% of its students were minorities.

In those days, the statistics did not meet ethnic and racial balance requirements and the district could have been sued.

“The times have changed and the legal tone these days is that a neighborhood school is very important,” Anderson said.