![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fullertonobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Environmental-mural-painted-on-Maple-School-multipurpose-room-e1778287856938.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAn environmental\u00a0mural was painted on the Maple School multipurpose room.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bMaple Elementary\u00a0is\u00a0one of Fullerton\u2019s oldest schools.\u00a0Aul\u00a0showed me a photo of the original structure from 1924.\u00a0She said, \u201cIt was called Maple School because this street (Valencia) used to be Maple\u2026The streets have changed, but the school has remained in this place. The\u00a01924 structure was\u00a0damaged in the 1933 earthquake, and so that was one of the structures in Fullerton that got on the radar of the federal government for the WPA, Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal.\u00a0 And so we got a New Deal and a new structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bWhen it first opened, Maple School served the south side of Fullerton, which historically was the only place that a non-white family could rent or own a home in the city.\u00a0According to\u00a0Aul, although this\u00a0housing discrimination was deemed illegal by the Doss v. Bernal case in 1943, it continued in practice for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aimee Aul in front of historic Maple Elementary School.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, by the mid-1960s,\u201d\u00a0Aul\u00a0said, \u201cFullerton had a real segregation problem, which was addressed, to the dismay of just about everybody involved, with one-way busing, and that was very unpopular for a long, long time\u2026The neighborhood didn\u2019t like it, and they wanted to have their own school. It took a long time to reopen. Maple School was closed in 1972. It was still used as a community center and\u00a0as\u00a0a\u00a0 headstart\u00a0 program location, but it wasn\u2019t reopened until 1996\u2026then\u00a0added one class per year until it was fully filled and fully operating as one of our wonderful seventeen Fullerton public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n Maple\u00a0has since been transformed into an\u00a0\u201cenvironmental science and experiential learning\u201d\u00a0school\u00a0that is\u00a0\u201cstriving to be at the forefront of environmental education,\u201d according to the Fullerton School District. Fourth through sixth graders now get to go on field trips to places like the Catalina Marine Science Institute and\u00a0 Astrocamp, multi-day experiences they get to have as part of an environmental sciences learning community. These ideas\u00a0are\u00a0definitely illustrated\u00a0in the many murals\u00a0that can be found across the school\u2019s\u00a0campus,\u00a0 with\u00a0nearly\u00a0all of them representing different global biomes.<\/p>\n Arctic tundra biome mural on the Cahill Library in the Maple Elementary School campus.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n Driving down Lemon, it\u2019s easy to spot a red-orange\u00a0hued\u00a0mural painted on the side of one Maple school building, depicting a southwest desert biome with saguaro cacti, jagged plateaus and desert wildlife coexisting. However, many of the other biome-themed murals can only be viewed within the school\u2019s gated campus. <\/p>\n Fortunately, I was able to obtain permission\u00a0from the school\u2019s administrators and\u00a0was allowed to photograph\u00a0the Maple School murals\u00a0on the same Saturday that the group Love Fullerton was hosting a volunteer-led event on the campus.<\/p>\n Ocean landscape mural painted on the historic Maple School building 1.<\/p>\n \u200b<\/p>\n On the back of\u00a0a\u00a0building facing\u00a0East\u00a0 Valencia\u00a0Drive, there\u2019s a\u00a0long\u00a0mural showcasing an ocean ecosystem. The entire wall facing the school\u2019s cafeteria benches is painted\u00a0in various shades of\u00a0blue\u00a0to reflect the underwater landscape.\u00a0Facing\u00a0the\u00a0ball courts\u00a0area,\u00a0there are\u00a0four\u00a0murals\u00a0painted\u00a0on different buildings: two unique forest landscapes with walls painted green, one reddish sub-Saharan desert biome, and one purple tundra.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u200b\u201cApparently, it was a group of artists under the direction of a commercial sign painting company\u00a0[that made these murals],\u201d said\u00a0Aul. \u201cBut it is all\u00a0hand-painted, and custom-designed for this site.\u201d<\/p>\n \u200bNear the corner of a Maple Elementary building facing the intersection of Valencia\u00a0 Drive and Lemon Street, there\u00a0is a stunning three-part mosaic created by Fullerton School District students under the direction of guest artist Katherine England, who is well known in the community for her mosaics and devotes countless hours to the All the Arts for All the Kids Foundation.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n