Efforts to open a new campus in the central city’s Newton Booth neighborhood have stalled because of fundraising difficulties. Stephen Repsher, headmaster of Country Day School in Sacramento’s Sierra Oaks neighborhood, said the school is struggling to raise a remaining $1.2 million to launch a campus in the old Newton Booth School at 2600 V St. “We’d love to have the money right away, but we’re having a dickens of a time raising the funds,” Repsher said. At this point, the preschool-to-12th-grade school has collected about $1.3 million of the $2.5 million it needs to start a new campus, he said. The school enrolled 471 students at its Latham Drive location in the 2009-2010 school year,

Wednesday night's Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association meeting saw an increase in teenage members. Held at Temple Coffee's 28th and S streets location, the meeting was attended by Country Day high school students and several faculty members, including headmaster Steve Repsher. Though a long permit process lies ahead, the school is closer to the goal of moving into the vacant Newton Booth School, 2600 V St., by August. The neighborhood group consisted of residents from three areas: Poverty Ridge, Newton Booth and Alhambra Triangle. Richard "Bud" Halliday, Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association president, welcomed the school's representatives and invited them to attend future meetings.

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 so

What improvements can a high school make if already 100 percent of graduates are accepted to four-year colleges and universities? One answer might be to expand. With the private school Loretto High School closing, Sacramento Country Day School might be an option for those who wish to purchase a quality education, given that the school prepares every student for college. Real estate agent John Banchero, who is marketing the Loretto property, said in a recent Sacramento Business Journal article that the best possible tenant for the Loretto property would be another high school. "This [property] would be the one they would try to get their hands on" if a school wanted to expand, Banchero sa