As parents prepare for their children to go into their next year of school, one thing that has put a stop in some of their plans is the closure of schools. The D51 school district has made a decision to close one school going into the upcoming school year and possible two more. This was a decision that many people didn’t know was happening until recently and has become a controversial topic among students and parents.

The schools that are going to be closed are Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School, Orchard Avenue Elementary School and East Middle School. These three schools all had similar things in common that made them be considered for closure. Shannon Bingham, the president of Western Demographics, Inc., recommended that these schools be closed in a letter to D51 Superintendent Brian Hill.
“In the letter, Bingham identified the criteria for his suggestion for the district to close those three schools: low enrollment, future growth, adjacency to schools with more space, building condition, pedestrian viability, additional transportation requirements, the logic of post-change boundaries, and budgetary impacts on level of service”according to an article in the the Daily Sentinel

Though it seems like this major decision came out of the blue, it is actually something that the district has been thinking about for a while. Over the past four years there has been a large decline in the enrollment of students to D51 schools, and that number is only going to increase with time. This decision will provide the land to be open for other opportunities and to prevent more staff having to be let go because there is a too small number of enrolled students.

Many parents and students have been disappointed and even angry at this decision and don’t want the schools to close, but there is hope that this solution will provide students with more stable classrooms that have everything they need, better buildings and support for loss in recent years. It is a shame that the schools are closing, but with the decreased number of enrollment it has to be done.