The Elk Grove Unified School District's plans for a new elementary school to serve Murieta got a mostly sour reception at a community meeting at the Country Club Thursday night.

About 70 people attended the session, many of them critical of some aspect of the plan to expand Cosumnes River Elementary by adding 15 acres to its campus and building a new facility. Paul Frank, who tussled publicly with the district over plans to put a school on his land, was at the meeting and offered a number of pointed questions and comments.

The early part of the meeting revisited information from Tuesday night's school board session, in which the board unanimously approved a $900,000 purchase option for 15 acres surrounding the school and the option to buy 2.5 acres more on the north side of Jackson Road, which could be used to widen and relocate Kiefer Boulevard for better access to the school.

Some in the audience were skeptical about the availability of water for the school, and several were adamant about not wanting the children taken to other schools during construction. Others expressed the wish that the school could be closer to Murieta, or that the original plan, to build it on Escuela Drive, inside Murieta, had been followed.

A minority in the audience supported the district and criticized the neighbors who were attacking it.

District officials sketched the pre-construction process of creating the school, which they said was under way already.

"Today, there were people out there putting markers on the ground in the rain," said Brian Myers, school board president. Then come aerial surveys, then the engineers, he said, adding, "As you know, it's pretty hilly. There's a lot of dirt that's going to be moved around."  Only then would the architects be involved, he said.

He estimated the "paper planning" part of the process at a year or more.

Officials repeated the plan for a completely new facility, with a setback of at least 150 feet from Jackson Road and a berm to make the school safer and quieter. They also mentioned plans for a traffic light at the intersection with the realigned Kiefer Boulevard.

Murietan Scott White told school officials they spent $2 million to $3 million trying to make the school work on the Frank family property, on Stonehouse Road. He asked what the district can do to recoup the investment.

Superintendent Steven M. Ladd said the district would repurpose all the engineering and architectural work possible, but he acknowledged some of the money spent would only be recoverable as saved time in the new project.

Superintendent Steven M. Ladd fielded a number of questions that challenged the district.

In response to another question, Myers said the planned two-story classroom building can accommodate 450 pupils and the kindergarten classrooms can handle another 60 or 80. That totals about the current enrollment of Cosumnes River Elementary.

If attendance grows, officials said, it can be handled with portable classrooms, a standard feature in the Elk Grove district, allowing flexibility.

In response to a question about the need to relocate the children during construction, Myers said, "If the children can't be accommodated on the site, it will be for a very specific reason. ... It will be because something beyond our control says this is what we have to do."

Officials emphasized that they want parents to be involved in the process and the final decisions around how construction impacts the children.

"I'm a little disappointed that we don't have a neighborhood school," said neighbor Mike Martel, who said displacing the children was harmful. He wondered what other options there were and added, "I just have this feeling that we're not going to have a school until 2012 or 2013."

Ladd said he appreciates that "sense of place is important," and noted the volunteers and sense of community Cosumnes River Elementary has now. "I would be surprised if that changes," he said.

Officials gave no estimate for the opening of the school Thursday, but at Tuesday night's board meeting, in response to a question they predicted an opening in the 2010 or 2011 school year.

The next four months are important in the process of due diligence, officials said, and they pledged continued community meetings as the process goes forward.

Paul Frank, who battled with the district over plans to put the school on his Stonehouse Road property, opened his comments by saying, "Cindy and I are thrilled at the prospect of never having to deal with you guys again."

He said the district offered no reason when it canceled the negotiations to buy some of his land earlier this month. He challenged the way the district handled that process and questioned how well the district was addressing the issue of water on the new site.

"I would suggest and hope you've learned from your mistakes," he told Ladd, drawing applause. Said Ladd: "We appreciate your input," one of several times he seemed to be trying to draw the conversation with Frank to a close.

White, who had asked how much the district spent pursuing the Frank property, shot back at Frank, "I think personally you submarined this whole thing. I think you're trying to come out looking like the good guy and you're at the bottom of the whole thing."

Frank persisted in challenging the district, saying, "Frankly, I'm pissed off as a taxpayer" and called the district's actions "a case study in malfeasance."

Neighbor Jeanie LeBlanc asked when the district would be certain there was enough water to support the expanded school.

Ladd said there has been sufficient water at the site -- 50 gallons a minute -- for as long as the school has been there, but there should be a definite answer to the question in four to six months.

Neighbor Tracy Dunn said it seemed the district was pursuing this property eagerly and "it feels as though you're grasping at straws." She added, "I really enjoyed hearing Mr. Martel say this is not what anyone in this community was hoping for." She drew a smattering of applause.

Neighbor Anne Spencer got the night's strongest applause when she asked whether the district would consider expanding the school to include grades seven and eight.

Ladd answered that schools are built with the future in mind, and a school handling kindergarten through sixth grade seems the best forward-looking plan. Myers added that the district has 60,000 children overall and, "It's the whole district that would have to be looked at ... not just this community."

As the 90-minute meeting was drawing to a close, two speakers defended the district.

Neighbor Phil Fitch drew applause when he criticized some in the audience who had offered "counter-productive comments that do not represent Rancho Murieta very well."

"I'm telling you, this is a very important time in the life of this community and getting a new school," he said. "I've heard some people trying to represent the whole Rancho Murieta community. You do not represent me. We need to move ahead to get this school."

Scott White offered the evening's final comment:

"When we all moved out here, we had certain expectations of what life was going to be. When I moved out here, life was going to be a retirement community. Demographics have changed. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not necessarily good, because the demographics that have moved out here all of a sudden have taken an idea that 'we're special.'

"When you moved out here, you knew what the circumstances were, and they're not changing the way you want them to be. And to be honest with you, you're not that damned special. They're giving you something better than what you had. And if you don't like it, move!"

Recent coverage:

• District outlines 20-acre Cosumnes River Elementary School (January 21, 2008)