Sacramento Country Day School soon could become the only high school in the grid. School officials are close to signing a lease for the Newton Booth School, 2600 V St., according to Stephen Repsher, Country Day headmaster.

It also would mark the first time since 1976 that the Newton Booth School is being used as a school. Since closing because of earthquake concerns, it has been home to a medical insurance group and an environmental consulting group.

"It could be in the next few weeks," Repsher said. "However, we still have to go to the city's planning commission and raise $1.7 million. We've moved a long way forward, but we're probably coming up in the next two to three weeks on some sort of final determination."

As mentioned earlier in this storyline, school officials looked at more than 100 locations over the last twenty years, before locking their sights on the old Newton Booth School location. According to an article in the Octagon, the school's newspaper, fulfilling a "dual-campus vision" has been a priority since 1989, when it was brought up by then-Headmaster Dan White.

Currently, Sacramento Country Day School serves 14 grades, pre-K through high school. If the school is able to lease the site, it will move its high school students to the new location to give them more room.

A move to the Newton Booth School would increase Country Day's building size from 13,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet. Its current location, 2636 Latham Drive, holds more than 500 students.

"One major hurdle is the special use permit. Because it was used as an office, even though it was a school through 1976, it's considered a 'change of use' today," Repsher said. "Of course there are a myriad of hurdles you need to go through to be ADA compliant, there are fire department requirements, there are additional city requests for repairing sidewalks -- none of those are necessarily insurmountable."

A second major hurdle is raising $1.7 million, he said. "Funding will really depend upon the ability of our community to support this cause. We have a community that is very supportive of education, but this economy is a real challenge for folks. We usually don't get support from other entities, it's usually the parents."

Fortunately for the school, there is no lack of community support.

"It will improve the quality of life in that area of the neighborhood because of (the school's) commitment to working with the neighbors," said Richard (Bud) Halliday, president of the Newton Booth Neighborhood Association. "My understanding is that when they have events, neighbors are invited to participate and there is no cost involved. It will bring a sense of togetherness (and) add some class to that area of the neighborhood."

In an interview with The Sacramento Press nearly six months ago, Halliday said that there was no opposition to Country Day moving in. He said Thursday morning that he still has heard "nothing" from opponents of the move.

"Everything is very positive," he said. "It's a win win situation really."

The school will not increase traffic, Halliday said, citing the last two tenants as an example. "Basically, the traffic pattern is people come off Highway 50 at 26th Street and go into the parking lot. They (also should) encourage people to take light rail, and there are two light rail stations convenient to the school."

An ideal move-in date would be the beginning of the next school year, late August, 2010. But that's an ideal date, Repsher said. "There are hurdles. It's hard to imagine how many there are, a tall order. It's a twenty-year dream that the school has had."