Marquette Elementary School (Photo Credit: Smoky Valley Public Schools, USD 400)
MARQUETTE, Kan. (AP) — Officials of a central Kansas school district say they had no choice but to close a small town's last remaining school, but that's little comfort to residents who believe their community is losing a way of life. The Salina Journal reports more than 200 unhappy residents of Marquette packed a recent meeting where the Smoky Valley School Board voted to close Marquette Elementary School at the end of the academic year. The school has 67 pupils in kindergarten through third grade and grades five and six. Its fourth-graders were moved to a school in Lindsborg at the start of the year. Smoky Valley officials expect to save $400,000 by sending Marquette's pupils elsewhere in the district. But many unhappy parents say they'll send their children to a different district altogether.