GLASTONBURY — At a school board meeting on Monday, it was announced that a Glastonbury elementary school that has fought a long fight will officially be shut down after the 2017-18 school year.
The school board vote to shutter the Eastbury School passed 7-1.
In May, the board voted to keep the school open one more year, and then decide on its permanent future at a later date. That date has come.
This comes after a decision by the Board of Education two years ago that called for the closing of one or two schools when the number of projected students dipped below 2,000. Parents were very vocal at that time about their desire for schools to remain open.
In January 2015, the school was voted the 30th best elementary school in the entire state of Connecticut.
School officials first started reconsidering the closure because they believed the 2,000 number would not be reached, which led to reconsidering the potential closing of Eastbury.
Based on the decision to close Eastbury, the school system will likely be forced to redistrict.
There were more than 700 signatures on a petition to save the school last spring. The petition said the decision would lead to over-crowding in kindergarten through fifth-grade classes, Spanish would be taken out of the classroom and teachers would have to visit students with materials on a cart. Schools, they said, will also be forced to give up their computer labs.
The petition also said although tax assessments would remain the same, home values would decrease as the education system would no longer the same as when the homes were purchased.
