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Clearwater, FL -- After the final bell today, the slides will sit silently, the halls will carry no echoes, the cafeteria will go quiet, and Kings Highway Elementary School -- after 51 years of teaching kids life's most basic lessons -- will go away forever.
Kings Highway is one of seven schools the Pinellas County School Board voted to close next year to save money as the district struggles to balance its budget amid a drop in revenue from taxes. An eighth school that was already slated to shut down will close as scheduled.
The elementary schools closing are: Kings Highway, Clearview Avenue, North Ward, Palm Harbor, Rio Vista, Gulf Beaches, and Madeira Beach.
Southside Fundamental Middle School and Coachman Fundamental Middle School will also close. Madeira Beach Middle will actually grow, because Madeira Beach Elementary will be merging into the middle school to create a K-8 school.
Arthurene Williams started her career at Kings Highway as a second grade teacher straight out of college. She's now walked the halls of this school for 34 years.
With a breaking voice, Williams said she always expected to retire from Kings Highway and leave it behind. Now, the school will be shuttered, and she says she'll be among the hundreds of district staff members who'll learn where they'll be assigned for 2009-2010 sometime in the coming days.
Up against a back-breaking budget shortfall, the district approved a plan to close a total of eight older, smaller schools and move their students and staff to various newer, bigger schools. The move's expected to save millions.
Teachers will all keep their jobs; the district expects to save money by not having to pay the bills to operate and maintain those eight campuses.
Williams and her colleagues at the school understand the move and appreciate that it wasn't an easy decision for school board members. But she said that doesn't make it any easier to take.
The little ones have also been turned around by this big decision. Williams says students at the school haven't generally been concerned with where they themselves are going -- they want to know where their teachers and friends will end up.
When Williams looks back, she pictures 51 years of faces -- young lives and minds. They're memories that will no longer have hallways to haunt and no longer have a place to call home.
Staff and former PTA members hosted an ice cream social last month for people who have been a part of the Kings Highway family over the years as a student or staff member. The school also held a neighborhood festival, giving families one last chance to say farewell.
Follow 10 Connects multi-media journalist Grayson Kamm on Twitter as @graysonkamm.
Grayson Kamm, 10 Connects
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