The struggle to find a new campus has been an endless task that has remained at the crux of the Country Day Mission Statement for 20 years. 

Research for last issue’s spread page (“After over 30 years and 100 sites,” March 17) emphasizes how daunting the process for a new campus was, as our reporters sifted through 30 years of history, 90 potential sites, and countless headmasters and Board presidents, several of whom are dead.

The editorial board, along with 70 percent  of students polled, praises headmaster Stephen Repsher, Anita Marmaduke, president of the Board, and the rest of the administration for finding the perfect campus.

Many students are nostalgic about the Latham campus and will undoubtedly miss the connection to the middle and lower schools, but the positive aspects of Newton Booth dramatically outweigh sentimentality.

The first rule in real estate is “location, location, location.” And Newton Booth follows this rule better than any of the other prospective campuses. 

Unlike the White Rock campus in Folsom, the school will remain Sacramento Country Day School and will have a close connection to the Latham campus. 

Not only is Newton Booth a five-minute walk from the light rail, but it is just off Sacramento’s main freeway corridor. 

Students may complain that there are no restaurants or coffee shops nearby, and nothing will ever compare to “walking to Loehmann’s.” 

But, every student would rather drive the half mile than walk, and students at the Newton Booth campus will undoubtedly drive to the plethora of midtown restaurants, coffee shops and stores. 

Which brings to mind the second advantage of the new campus—parking.

Parking has been a major problem in the high school as students have schlepped back and forth between the Unilot (and now the Congrelot) and campus. 

Now, students (and teachers) will be able to leave their houses, park on campus at 8:15, and still make it to class on time! 

On top of this, the school is no longer necessarily a closed campus, a city requirement since we were declared “a nuisance” at Latham.  

Students may also complain about the lack of playing fields, but the school is already taking steps toward working on a solution. (See story, page 1).

The school and the city are looking into condemning the property across the street. The mostly vacant lot with one house and one small building is too run-down, and thus the school could buy the condemned land after negotiations with the city.

Aside from the fields at Sacramento High School and the gym at the YMCA, the obvious place is the block of S Street between 28th and 29th Streets. Part of the block is an empty building currently for lease, and the remainder is an empty lot. Only five blocks away, this would be a perfect location for sports fields. 

Additionally, the school could use the 300-plus parking spaces, including the surrounding street, as space for an additional quad or a gym.

 The ultimate benefit of the new campus, however, is the ability to expand the high-school student body. Though some people like Malcolm Gladwell’s “Rule of 150” (which says that no matter how large a group/school people are in, the maximum number of people they can know well is 150), expanding to at least 200 will prove a huge boon in other ways. 

Sports teams can field more players, and junior varsity teams can be added. Clubs and other extracurricular activities—like Medallion, Glass Knife, Student Council, drama and Octagon—will have more participants, and activities such as Science Olympiad could return.  

If the school moves, we urge them to work hard to retain the sense of community and hominess of the small campus. But overall, The Octagon  supports the move to Newton Booth.