The Beaver Dam (Wis.) Unified School Board has voted to close one of its elementary schools after the 2019-20 school year.
The Beaver Dam Daily Citizen reports that the board unanimously approved a plan to close South Beaver Dam Elementary School, which is the last rural campus in the district. The current building was constructed in 1959.
Students there will be reassigned to Jefferson Elementary School in fall 2020. A small addition at Jefferson might be necessary to prepare for additional students, administrators say.
Board member John Kraus Jr., who attended South Beaver Dam, said that closing the school was emotionally difficult.
“I’m among four generations that had went to that school,” Kraus said. “I have heard my grandmother taught there when it was a one-room school house. I don’t see any scenario that is any better than shutting it down. There are too many buildings and not enough money.”
South Beaver Dam is one of two elementary schools in the district that has only one class for each grade. Wilson, the other school with one grade level, was part of earlier discussions about school consolidations.
