The Mountain View Parent Nursery School has raised big bucks in an effort to move to a new location next year, coming up with nearly $300,000 in donations. Now the preschool is in the final stretch of their funding goal, and will keep up the pace with a 5K "fun run" at Shoreline Park.

The morning event will be at the Kite Field at Shoreline Park on Saturday, Oct. 11, and will include a 5K run at 8:30 a.m. and a "tot trot" walk at 9:30 a.m. The event will also have a Halloween costume theme, face painting and raffles.

The preschool started its "School-on-the-Move" fundraiser earlier this year when it was announced that the Mountain View Parent Nursery School and Parent Observation, both preschools that are housed on Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District property, would have to move in order to make room for high school district expansion plans.

Next year, both preschools will move to a vacant lot adjacent to the Foothill Covenant Church -- just across the street from the Mountain View High School campus, and a short walk from the current location.

So far the preschools have raised over $295,000 of the $380,000 needed to pay for estimated project costs, which includes grading the land, installing utilities, lifting and relocating two portable classrooms and installing a third classroom at the new site. The fundraising goal jumped from $200,000 to nearly double in June after they lost an expected line of credit.

The preschools have received "tremendous" support from its parents and alumni as well as family and friends, according to Marie Faust Evitt, a teacher at the Mountain View Parent Nursery School. One grandmother of a preschool student pledged $20,000 to match donations, Evitt said, and an alumni dad pledged another $7,500.

The fundraiser is run by volunteer parents involved with the preschools, including Salila Sukumaran, who said they weren't likely to get much traction with a Kickstarter campaign that relied on donations from strangers. Instead, they focused on reaching out to current and former families of from the preschool going back anywhere from 30 or more years.

The preschools were slated to move in June, but were given another year to set up utilities like plumbing and electricity at the new site. It also gave the preschools much-needed time to continue raising funds for the move.

Though the preschools still need to raise upwards of $80,000 and are well beyond their previous fundraiser deadline of June 30, they have proceeded with the first phase of construction. Evitt said they are working with architects to finalize plans and prepare the new site, and will move over the portable classrooms in June.

The move will give the high school district more room to expand on the parcels currently occupied by the two preschools, next to the softball field near Alta Vista High School and Mountain View High School. Superintendent Barry Groves said enrollment is projected to grow by 20 percent in the next five years, and with it comes a growing need for the facilities currently occupied by the preschools.

The district plans to use the facilities to expand Alta Vista High School and offer a place for the district's career technical education program, Groves said.