The Benton Harbor School Board voted Tuesday night to close down Fairplain North East Elementary at the end of the year. The district is struggling with a deficit in the millions, and shuttering Fairplain North East will save it about 500-thousand dollars a year. The school -- located on Donald Adkins Drive in Benton Township -- has about 160 students, all of whom Superintendent Carole Schmidt says can be absorbed by the district's other elementary schools without families having to split their kids between different locations.
The school's teachers will also be shifted to other facilities...and there are no plans for additional closings. Schmidt said that there has been discussion of using the vacant building as a professional development center for the district staff, but nothing is definite at this time.
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