Small, private schools that offer young students individualized, multicultural and an emotionally holistic approach to academics have long been the goal of many parents in Santa Fe, especially those with cosmopolitan backgrounds themselves.

However, recruiting enough students and parent support to make such schools financially sustainable can be problematic.

Despite the obstacles, a group of parents, many of them with international backgrounds, have taken up the gauntlet and are about to open the doors of the Santa Fe International Elementary School on the Old Santa Fe Trail campus of the defunct New Mexico Academy for Science and Mathematics.

The academy, founded by Fernando Multedo and his wife, Molly, in 1998, had been teetering financially — especially since the Multedos went off to Brazil in December 2006.

The Multedos had turned operation of the school, which had about 50 students, over to a board of parents, but without the regular infusion of cash from the Multedos, the financial situation worsened and the school closed in May of 2008.

Margaret Rigatti, president of the five-member board of directors for the new international school, said the idea for the school was somewhat of a spontaneous event shared by the women who soon became the board of directors and founders of the school.

"We woke up on a Tuesday morning (in May of this year) and said, 'Let's start a school,' " Rigatti said.

She said it wasn't long before several of them just happened to be driving by the property at 7300 Old Santa Fe Trail, "saw the 'for lease' sign and called him (Frank Matthews, the property owner)."

Rigatti said the women explained their vision for the 12,000-square-foot school building to Matthews, Molly Multedo's father, and "he really liked it, and here we are renting his building."

Rigatti declined to discuss the financial arrangements but suggested it was a deal they couldn't turn down.

Matthews could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Co-founder and board member Dominique Sire, originally from the south of France, said the goal is for the school, which opens for classes Sept. 7., is to combine the structure and high standards of European schools with highly defined artistic, creative and emotional components.

The school's lead — and so far only — teacher, Carol McClure, formerly a teacher at Little Earth and La Mariposa Montessori schools in Santa Fe, said the students to some extent will choose their own educational direction under her guidance and within the curriculum of the school.

She said the students — expected to number 24 by the end of this school year — will be immersed in a different culture every two months, beginning in September with India.

She said the school will draw from the multiple cultures represented in the Santa Fe community, which will offer presentations on such subjects as music, the arts and cuisine.

The school will open with seven students in grades one through six, most of them children of the members of the board of directors. McClure said all will be taught by her in the same large classroom.

Rigatti said the school, after its first year, will apply for accreditation as an International Baccalaureate school. Desert Academy, a seventh-12th-grade private school, and a designated International Baccalaureate institution at both the middle and high school levels, will be assisting in the accreditation effort.

Rigatti said yearly tuition at the new school is $9,421.

For more information about the school, visit www.SFIES.org.