FUND-RAISER SET FOR ALMA MATER.

Byline: Jon Engellenner The Sacramento Bee

Toni Fonseca was either the valedictorian or the salutatorian - she can't remember which - in the last graduating class at Dutch Flat Elementary School in 1962.

It's a safe bet that she was one or the other, however, since only two pupils got diplomas that year. The school had two classrooms, but only needed one.

Now Fonseca, 47, who recently returned to live in the mountain hamlet, has summoned other alumni and former residents back to school Saturday. The occasion: a garden party and fund-raiser for the 98-year-old white schoolhouse, which still serves as the town meeting hall.

The event at the two-story, steepled schoolhouse was expected to feature food, refreshments, an art show, music and tours. As co-chairwoman, Fonseca said the event aimed at attracting the support of Dutch Flat alumni and former residents of the community, thought to number in the thousands.

The schoolhouse still is used for weddings, funerals, potluck dinners and an assortment of meetings. Stately but slightly sagging, it needs a new roof and unknown structural repairs, according to the owner, a local Community Club.

``We just want to get the structure sound, then do the cosmetics,'' Fonseca said as she walked through the upstairs auditorium, which will remain unused until the extent of structural needs is determined. ``All these years the Community Club has been trying to hang on - just trying to patch the building.''

Several dozen Dutch Flat children now attend elementary school in neighboring Alta. Enrollment at Dutch Flat was down to 18 in first through eighth grades in 1962.

The Dutch Flat school district, which had merged with Alta, wasn't exactly rolling in money, either, according to Janet Fonseca, Toni's mother and a former school board member. The school's final-year budget was only $8,200.

Dutch Flat, 30 miles up Interstate 80 from Auburn, nestles among dozens of hydraulic diggings, the deep scars left by hydraulic mining. Having had its mining, logging and railroading heydays, the town is quiet now. The population, mostly retired, is estimated at 200 to 400.