Despite pleas from parents, the Haven school board has reaffirmed an earlier decision to close an elementary school.
The board voted 4-3 Monday night to close Mount Hope Elementary School at the end of the current school year. The south central Kansas school has fewer than 40 students in kindergarten through eighth grades.
Parents, students and Mount Hope residents showed up at Monday's meeting to argue that closing the school would devastate Mount Hope.
The Haven school district is facing a deficit of over $707,000, through a combination of losses from state block grant funding, an expected drop in its local option budget, an increase in health insurance costs and a drop in state funding for the current year.
The district has reserves of $15,000.
