Little School Has Tough Test in Economics and Geography

The school is only three years old, but people here have all felt, at one time or another, as though they owned a part of it. They have seen the roaches and mopped the floors and sat through class as rain leaked from the ceiling into uncountable pails.

To be sure, students at Acaciawood School have an uncommon affection for the place: Many youngsters say they would rather stay in their ramshackle Anaheim building than move to a school with a basketball court and a library and maybe a place to eat lunch.

“It’s falling apart,” said student Shiloh Warden, 17. “It leaks. It’s old. But I would never want to leave.”

So folks there are trying not to think about what will happen over the next six months or so when the private school’s short life will probably come to an end under the hard blade of a bulldozer: The building might be torn down because, by all accounts, it is in such bad shape, and the school might even close permanently because officials can’t seem to find anyplace else to go.

It’s a small school--with about 110 students in grades three through 12--and there is no place officials can find, or afford, that is within reasonable driving distance for students and their parents, who live across Orange and Los Angeles counties. Building a new school is out of the question with such a small student body and paltry financial resources, officials said.

“I have no idea what we are going to do,” said Larry Wilde, the gentle-voiced headmaster who also drives school buses and sweeps floors. “It’s a shame because everybody here feels like a part of this school. . . . I’m not sure we even have a future.”

The school had found another spot in Anaheim, and parents and students gathered over a weekend to prepare the site--cleaning, tearing out ceiling tiles--to move in. But the new site, in an industrial park, was zoned for “light industrial use,” and the City Council voted against allowing a permit for a school.

To be sure, there were possible risks of hazardous fumes and surroundings.

“The question is, do we allow commercial use in industrial zones or not? We need to keep it industrial. It runs along railroad tracks. It’s a question of safety too,” said City Councilman Frank Feldhaus.

School officials are trying to find a new school within a five-mile radius of the so-called Orange Crush--where the Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove freeways meet--to be more accessible to students from Irvine, Long Beach, Yorba Linda, Torrance and cities farther away.

But finding the right place at the right price has been impossible: The school is looking for about 20,000 square feet with a common area, and about 2 acres for a playground and basketball court. So far, rent for good locations has been too high.

The Acaciawood School prides itself on its Christian leaning, and on the moxie and camaraderie among its students and roughly 25-member staff. Grades are not stressed as much as effort and developing strong character.

Its classes, students say, are difficult and hark back to something simpler and smaller, when eduction was book learning but also lessons in compassion and cohesiveness. Tuition is $4,600 a year.

Parents boast about the school and the sense of individual pride they say it offers beyond an anonymous public school system.

“We’ve been at the school ever since it began,” said Beno Warden, whose three children have attended. “It began because there was a lack of interest in our kids in public schools. They just knew [my son’s] name was on [an attendance] list. My son’s grades had gone down and he closed up. When he went to Acacia, he opened up again. There is a closeness among people there that opens the students up”

Warden said “it would be devastating to my other children, who still go there, if it closed. Devastating.”

Back-to-school night, all about looking forward, is Monday. And it could well be the school’s last.