Fullerton’s Maple Growing Back to School It Once Was

Any time I hear about an elementary school closing, it’s like a kick in the stomach. I think about its many graduates and their sadness that something so influential in their lives will exist no more.

These schools almost never reopen. They become warehouses for the school district, or someone’s meeting place, or get torn down for a new development. So it seems to me that when one of them does reopen, it’s time for a little rejoicing.

You can bet the celebration will be enthusiastic next Thursday night at the Maple School on East Valencia Drive near downtown Fullerton. Parents and teachers will be attending the school’s first open house since it closed its doors (as a school) 24 years ago. Only kindergarten opened there this fall, but that’s a start. Maple School is back in business.

Maple, built in 1924, is the oldest school in the district. Valencia Drive used to be known as Maple Avenue, which is how the school got its name. It was a two-story structure, but after the 1933 earthquake, it was reopened as a one-story building.

It was closed in 1972 during the heyday of court-ordered busing, a national attempt to racially desegregate schools. The many Latino children in the Maple area were transferred out, by bus, to five area schools. District leaders couldn’t justify keeping Maple open.

The building continued to be important to the low-income neighborhood. It became a community center, with preschool and Head Start programs. But Emma King, who became a social worker there 23 years ago, missed it as a school.

“We all did,” she told me. “The school was such an important part of this community.”

King had good reason to consider it special. In the 1940s, King was a student at Maple, all the way through the sixth grade. She and I see it the same way: When you go to one school that long, it becomes a part of your life.

In her early days at the community center, King watched the neighbors form a committee to try to get the school reopened. That committee folded, but then another was developed. It folded too, but was followed by another. All of them unsuccessful.

“I’d finally given up,” King said. “I just decided it would never be a school again.”

But a couple of years ago, a new neighborhood committee was formed. And Maple Principal Glenda Thompson suggests “everything just happened to come together at the right time.”

The district needed more classroom space, the city had redevelopment money available for renovations at Maple, and parents overwhelming vowed to support it. District Supt. Ron Cooper led the way, Thompson told me. She also gives high praise to Harriet Herman, now the principal at Fern Drive Elementary, who helped put the plans together for reopening Maple before transferring to her new post.

Thompson wanted me to meet Claudia Casillas. She was one of the parents who went to the district board, urging it to reopen Maple. She’s now president of the reopened school’s PTA. Casillas and her family live in an apartment across the street from Maple.

With Thompson, who specializes in bilingual education, interpreting for me, Casillas told me why the school is so important to her. When one of her children, bused to another school, got sick once, it took her an hour to get to the school, taking a county bus, and an hour to get back.

With her daughter now in kindergarten, Casillas says, “All I have to do is walk across the street. It’s wonderful.”

Not everybody is happy about all this. One Fullerton resident I respect suggests that, in effect, the reopening of the school is a return to keeping Fullerton segregated. If it is, that hasn’t dampened its support for reopening in the neighborhood.

The plan right now is for Maple to grow one grade level each year, until it has kindergarten through third-grade classes. Because the preschool, Head Start and other community support services remain in the building, there is room for only four grade levels (counting kindergarten). But that’s a school. And a school--especially one brought back to life--is something to be proud of.

Around the Town: Here’s the lead paragraph on a story one of my colleagues came across recently:

“Possible conversion of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to a civilian airport is to be studied by a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.”

Hot news? Not really. It was a clipping from the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner--27 years ago. . . .

In the past year, the nonprofit educational theater group, Stop-Gap, has made 750 presentations throughout Southern California. You can get a free peek at its upcoming productions Sept. 30 at South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage Theater in Costa Mesa. Stop-Gap tackles issues such as drug abuse, racial prejudice and AIDS. Theme for the coming year: “Family.” . . .

If you’re running in the Race for the Cure on Sunday in Newport Beach, you might be interested to know that 75% of the proceeds go to local cancer programs. The other 25% goes to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s research grants program.

Lawyer Watch: In the many years I covered trials at the county courthouse in Santa Ana, I never met a lawyer who combined skill with grace as well as Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans.

But don’t mistake grace for softness. A few lawyers may soon be wishing they’d never heard of Evans. He’s the chair of the discipline committee of the Board of Governors for the State Bar of California. Recently, the board followed the recommendation of Evans’ committee to toughen the rules on bad lawyers.

Before, disbarred attorneys could apply to practice law again after five years. But the board has decided it should have the discretion to order permanent disbarment for some attorneys. The State Bar sent out this quote from Evans:

“I am very proud to be an attorney. I was given a privilege. It’s not a right. [Lawyers] are responsible to high ethical standards. If you fail in that responsibility, that option of permanent disbarment should be there.”

Wrap-Up: Almost all the 66 kindergartners at Maple are Latino, and a number of them struggle with English. But the classes are taught in English, Thompson said. For one thing, the community requested it.

“We want the children to improve their English,” Casillas told me. Thompson explained: “We use Spanish when necessary to help a child along. We try to use a common-sense approach.”

I told Thompson it must be exciting to be in on the development of a new school. Her reply: “I love it. This is such a warm community.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com