The Cotati-Rohnert Park School District is pushing forward with plans to reopen La Fiesta Elementary School for the upcoming school year.
A kids' fair and school information night will be held on the Liman Way campus from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday for families interested in enrolling students in the fall.
District officials are seeking to enroll at least 42 students to launch the program.
"We are aiming to have two classes to begin with and then grow it over time," said Elizabeth Kaufman, assistant superintendent with Sonoma County's third largest school district. "Initially we would start with kindergarten or some multi-grade K-2 programs, but we are also trying not to be prescriptive."
Class sizes would be limited to 24 students or fewer in kindergarten through second grade, according to Kaufman.
La Fiesta was closed in 2008 when 331 students were enrolled and the district faced mounting budget pressure. Gold Ridge Elementary School was shuttered the same year.
Cotati-Rohnert Park has been hit by declining enrollment and the ongoing state budget cuts. In an effort to stem the flow of students transferring out of the district, officials this year have promoted a plan that would re-open La Fiesta while reconfiguring three elementary schools, turning Thomas Page into a kindergarten through eighth-grade campus and restructuring the John Reed and Waldo Rohnert schools, focusing one on kindergarten through third grade and the other on fourth through sixth grade.
The five-member school board last month unanimously agreed to ask voters to support a $89-per-parcel tax for five years, a move that officials believe could bring in $5.3 million over that span.
The tax proposal will appear on the June 5 ballot.
La Fiesta is located at 8511 Liman Way.
Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com.
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