Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "newton booth school"

School's Newton Booth expansion stalls

2010-10-22T01:16:16Z

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, according to its website. Country Day’s high school students would transfer to the Newton Booth site, according to the school’s plan.

Repsher said the school is still actively fundraising. For example, people can donate through the school’s website.

“But we’re also recognizing that in this economy, it’s very difficult to expect a lot of funds in a short period of time,” he said.

Repsher said he’s mindful of the possibility that another entity might buy the property.

However, he noted that the school has wanted a second campus for 20 years, and will not “give up easily.”

Photos of Newton Booth School by Jonathan Mendick.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

High school students welcomed to Newton Booth neighborhood

2009-11-20T04:39:54Z

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.

Last month, Repsher identified two major hurdles the school needs to clear before moving the private high school students into the building: being granted a Special Use Permit by the city and raising $1.8 million to complete the first phase of reconstruction, which will renovate the first floor for classroom use.

The pre-K to 12th grade school, now in the suburban Sierra Oaks neighborhood east of the central city, has 520 pre-K and elementary students and 152 high school students that Repsher said he hopes to move into the first floor of the Newton Booth campus by August. It will fulfill a dual campus vision first imagined by Dan White, the school's headmaster 20 years ago.

Repsher said that a planning committee likely will convene in January to plan for the move. Repsher said he hopes the school can accommodate at least 100 more high school students, and expand beyond the first floor over the next several decades.

Since hearing about the possible move last spring, the neighborhood has welcomed the school. Last month, Halliday told The Sacramento Press that the situation is a "win-win," and that he has heard no opposition to the move.

"It's a good fit for the neighborhood," said Dairl Helmer, a Newton Booth Neighborhoods Association board member. "So far, we haven't heard anyone objecting to it." Helmer said that he was looking forward to seeing what kind of culture the school would bring, and that he would like to attend school plays and concerts.

Repsher added that Councilman Rob Fong and Mayor Kevin Johnson approve of the move.

"Welcoming us is the biggest thing," Repsher said. "When I first looked at the facility, the first thing I did was check with the neighborhood leadership to see what they thought."

Country Day students aren't as uniformly supportive of the move.

"Some students are nostalgic about moving from the old campus," said sophomore Richard Whitney. "They've been there their whole lives."

However, Whitney and his friend Cabot Jackman, also a sophomore, support the move and are excited about the prospects of a larger school. Jackman said that once students visit the campus and get to know the neighborhood, they will lose their preconceptions and "forget about" the old school.

"It seems to be a great community," Jackman said. "At the old campus we are limited to what we can do in the community."

He pointed out that the Newton Booth area is closer to a larger concentration of businesses, museums and historic buildings.

Friday from noon to 1 p.m., students and Newton Booth community members will get their first taste of the Newton Booth campus. Middle and high school students will be transported to the site for a tour and they and members of the neighborhood will be served free hamburgers. Neighbors who wish to attend should e-mail office@saccds.org.

Sacramento Country Day School to expand into the grid?

2009-04-12T03:43:13Z

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 said to the Journal.

The article specified that one good candidate for the property could be Sacramento Country Day School, though Headmaster Steve Repsher wrote in to the Journal that he did not have "enough time to evaluate the idea" of buying the property.

Perhaps Repsher is still hoping Country Day will be able to rent the 50,000 square foot building at 2600 V Street, which was once the Newton Booth School — a large upgrade to their current 13,000 square foot facility.

The building was originally a public school which opened in 1921, according to an article from the Octagon, Country Day's Newspaper. Newton Booth School closed in 1976 due to the Field Act which forced schools to close if they were not up to earthquake codes. It was then converted into office buildings in the 1980s.

Jones and Stokes, an international environmental and natural resources consultant recently used the building, but they moved out over six months ago.

This historic site is one of the over 100 schools Country Day headmasters have looked at over the past 30 years, says another Octagon article which provides a history of Country Day's consideration of other possible sites.

Though quoted in Octagon as saying the discovery of the location was "beautiful," Repsher told Sacramento Press, "we are considering a property there but there is nothing final at this point. At this point it would be speculation."

"I would be happy to share the news if something firm becomes a reality," he added.

"Personally I have had no negative response, and I've talked to a number of people," said Newton Booth Neighborhood Association board member Richard (Bud) Halliday. "It would be a definite advantage for our neighborhood." The group meets once a month in the McClatchy Public Library the third Wednesday of each month.

"There are many in this neighborhood who attended the Newton Booth School," Halliday added.

The Newton Booth Neighborhood Association received a project notification April 1, and for those in the Newton Booth neighborhood, Halliday encourages people to email him with feedback about the project.

The following is from the Association's website:

Would you like this school in our neighborhood or would you rather not have it located here? What advantages would there be? What disadvantages?

Let the board members of the association know your feelings not later than April 17, 2009 so a timely response to the request for input can be made. E-mail responses to bud@newtonbooth.org or mail to Newton Booth Neighborhood Association; P.O. Box 161466 Sacramento CA 95816.