[Second update -- Jan. 22] The first look at plans for a new Cosumnes River Elementary School -- expanding the campus from 4.5 acres to almost 20 -- was offered by the Elk Grove Unified School District board Tuesday night.

The board confirmed documents released in advance of the meeting, which showed the district has been negotiating to expand the school site by purchasing land from two parcels adjacent to the school.

The new plan will be discussed at a Murieta community meeting 7 p.m. Thursday at the Country Club.

The school board unanimously approved a $900,000 purchase option for 15 acres surrounding the school and the option to purchase 2.5 acres more on the north side of Jackson Road, which could be used to widen Kiefer Boulevard and move it 100 yards to the west to better integrate with the school facility.

District officials said the "paper planning" for the school would take at least a year and the facility might open in 2010 or 2011.

The plans for the new school call for a 15-acre expansion adjacent to the present school and possibly 2.5 acres north of Jackson Road to widen and relocate Kiefer Boulevard.

Board President Brian D. Myers said the new facility will have road setbacks of 100 to 150 feet for safety and noise mitigation. He called it a "full-sized elementary school" with "ample off-street parking and loading and unloading zones (and) fields for sports ... and their own enclosed sewer system."

"I'm just so thrilled ... to be able to announce this tonight," he said.

He recounted the history of trying to build a new school to serve Murieta's children, who make up 80 percent of the Cosumnes River Elementary enrollment.

Myers said the process began in earnest in October 2000, when enrollment reached 450. The goal was to build a school that Murieta children could walk to, he said.

He recounted the problems with the Escuela site, at the northwest edge of Murieta, and the "numerous threats of lawsuits" over plans to put a public facility into a private community.

Then the district focused on the Stonehouse Road property owned by the Frank family. Myers called the sewer and water issues there the deal-breaker.

He criticized the Rancho Murieta Community Services District for not following through on a promise to provide water and sewer service to the site.

"It was promised, at least implied, by the CSD, but it couldn't be pinned down," he said, adding, "The final best estimate we got from that agency was at least four, five, six, seven years ... before we could have access to water and sewer services."

After failing to get water service, and taking flak about whether drilling wells on the site would damage existing wells of other landowners, Myers said the district's staff was given instructions: "Find another alternative. It's time."

He said the district opened negotiations with the Mosher and Ledbetter families two months ago. He said the families are owed public thanks.

"There wasn't a time when we reached loggerheads," Myers said. "There wasn't a time when we couldn't sit at a table and hash it out...."

District consultant Constantine Baranoff, left, reports on the new school to Board President Brian D. Myers, right.

He said the same families sold the district the land for the present school.

"In the late '40s, the Mosher and Ledbetter families sold the site to the district for a thousand dollars," Myers said. "They chose that site for this school because it had the best water of anywhere in the area. It's on an aquifer that was really well known at the time as having absolutely great water."

Myers said the current water flow -- more than 50 gallons a minute -- "solved a huge problem right there."

Superintendent Steven M. Ladd said the process of creating the school would be an open one, continuing the path the district has taken with the plans so far.

Constantine Baranoff, the district's longtime associate superintendent for facilities and planning and now a consultant to the district, said the district would repurpose the plans that were approved for the Stonehouse property.

Baranoff said it's not clear how to accommodate the children and staff while building is going on. It's possible children may be sent to other schools, he said. "It's a very tough question," he added.

After the board's vote, Baranoff signed the option agreement, which had been signed already by the landowners, and jokingly gave the signing pen to Myers as the audience applauded.