This story was updated on Thursday, 10/24, with new information from school officials explaining another reason for the delay of the new ag building’s use as well as an image of what the student desk furniture looks like; it was updated again on Monday, 10/28, with more information about bike racks that still need to be installed at the farm to add to the existing ones there.

After waiting for almost two months since the start of the 2024-2025 school year, agriculture students and teachers were allowed since the start of this week to meet for classes in the nearly $3.8 million new building at the farm.

“I feel like everyone first had the same reaction, like, ‘Wow, is this really happening? Are we really deserving of this?'” said sophomore Ryan Kim, one of the chapter sentinels for the school’s Future Farmers of America [FFA] program. “But then as soon as we started having our first class lessons in there [on Monday], everyone’s like, ‘This is so nice. … We finally have AC [air conditioning].'”

Ag teacher Shannon Deskin agreed that the transition to the new building this week has been a positive one for her and her students.

“The students have been enjoying the transition to our new building and seem to like having the space. We can’t wait until all our new furniture arrives in the next few weeks.”

Even though construction to the three-classroom building was completed by Monday, Aug. 26 — two weeks after the start of the fall semester — assistant principal Sarah Murrietta said the delay in allowing students and teachers to use it was attributed to two reasons:

• school officials had addressed additional concerns about the new structure, and so the contractor had to complete those repairs
• ag classrooms were still missing new furniture for student use 

“They still had to do the list of repairs when we did the walk-through, so the contractor has the list of little items that needed to be fixed,” said Murrietta, who didn’t recall what those repair items were.

The assistant principal also said she had received an email on Friday, Aug. 30, from the supplier stating that the ordered items wouldn’t arrive until an estimated eight weeks later, which would be near the end of October.

“Once we realized that the [arrival of] furniture was going to [take] a lot longer than we expected, then we said, ‘Let’s just go ahead [with the move],’” she said. “‘We don’t want to wait any longer; we want to use the new building.’”

According to an image provided by Murrietta, one example of the missing furniture includes student rectangular desks similar to work stations; each black-covered table can seat three students on each side. Each side contains three metallic stools that can be magnetically attached to the bottom edge of the table’s base.

At the end of each work station, students can pull out a drawer to put trash into a receptacle.

In the meantime, Kim said the students this week have been using the same desks they had in the past from the old ag portable classrooms, which will eventually be torn down and removed from the property. The student also noted the lack of big-screen ViewSonic monitors that many other classrooms on campus have.

ORIGIN STORY

The new one-story building was needed because the air conditioning systems in the 20-year-old portables were not working as efficiently. And since they could not just be replaced with new ones, district officials were able to successfully apply for the federal government’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief III funds, which were established as part of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency money issued to public schools, according to a report provided to the Fullerton Joint Union High School District [FJUHSD] board of trustees.

Last November, the school board unanimously approved the construction project to be awarded to Ontario-based Spec Construction Co. Inc., which submitted the lowest bid for the job at $3.77 million. 

Groundbreaking for the new building started in January. Officials then had anticipated the project to be completed by the end of June, which would have allowed time in the summer for the ag teachers to prepare their new classrooms for student arrival on the first day of the fall semester in August.

After the Monday, Aug. 26, completion date, the FJUHSD’s construction project manager Troy Shandy, accompanied by four representatives from Spec, led a walk-through of the building on Thursday, Aug. 29, showing Murrietta, principal Craig Weinreich and ag teacher and department chairman Brian Kim various aspects of the new structure.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Noah Lee

Principal Craig Weinreich (back center) is among those who attended a Wednesday, Aug. 28, walk-through during first and second periods of the new, nearly $3.8 million agriculture building that houses three classes: rooms 201-203.

Murrietta also invited an Accolade reporter and photographer to join the walk-through, which included a tour of Rooms 201 (Kim’s class) and 202 (Deskin’s class), a teacher’s work room and a storage area. Each classroom features gray wood flooring.

The concrete was redone, and the parking spaces were adjusted so that more open space is provided for students to walk up the stairs leading to the classrooms.

Outside, the new building contains rampways on each end leading up to the three classrooms (Room 203 is scheduled to be used for the district’s adult transitional learning class). Behind the structure to the left, students have a patio area they can use. 

WAITING GAME

One issue that students and staff had to deal with was the delay in moving into the modernized classrooms.

“The construction crew said that we’d be in the new building on the first day of school, but that obviously didn’t happen,” Kim said. “We had to wait another [few] months to officially move in, so that part was definitely frustrating — how the move-in day was delayed and delayed.” 

Even though it was annoying because the new building couldn’t be used right after its completion, FFA president senior Thomas Polentz said he had to learn to adjust and wait it out.

“I wasn’t frustrated learning that we weren’t going to move in to the new building right when the school year started because things take time, and you have to learn how to be patient,” Polentz said.

Kim said he was among a group of FFA students who, since after school last Thursday, Oct. 3, and Friday, Oct. 4, helped ag teachers Brian Kim and Deskin move what they can into the new classrooms so the instructors can be prepared to welcome their students this Monday, Oct. 7.

“On Friday, it was definitely helping with the move for at least three hours after school,” said the FFA student, who has fifth period Agriculture Chemistry with Brian Kim.