Grand Opening for Acacia Multimedia Center

Eleven-year-old Anna Schlotthauer easily maneuvered a soccer-playing robot in the new Acacia Elementary School Multimedia Center on Monday.

“This is a lot better then before,” the sixth-grader said, recalling the center’s cramped quarters in the cafeteria last year. “There’s a lot more room here.”

The center, which includes a 15,000-book library and computer lab, opened in grand style Monday before students, teachers and more than 75 parents and community members, including the mayor and the city’s police and fire chiefs.

“I am thrilled to have a place where we can provide students the resources and skills that they are going to need to be successful,” Principal Georgia P. Menges said, crediting a communitywide effort for the new center.

The school moved the library into a small section of the cafeteria last year because space was needed for extra classes created by the Fullerton School District’s class-size reduction program, the principal said.

The new, 1,900-square-foot center is a portable building that cost more than $120,000.

Once it arrived last summer, parents and students began working on its interior decor. One parent, Jason Kim, built an Acacia tree replica out of wood and plastic for an open corner. The Parent Teacher Assn. gave $500 for books and materials and wooden shelves were donated from Cal State Fullerton.

Said Schlotthauer:.”When it was in the cafeteria, you were all squished and there were no computers.”