The Warren County School District board of directors is moving ahead to close two high schools; Sheffield Area Middle/High School and the Youngsville Middle/High School will close at the end of this school year.
This follows a mandatory 90-day waiting period after October's public hearing on the potential closures.
The board narrowly voted at a heated meeting Monday night following about a half hour of public comment, where several community members gave a last-ditch effort to save Sheffield and Youngsville.
Jason Snell is a Sheffield High School graduate and the school’s track and field coach.
“I hope, and I pray with all my heart, that you are making the right decision for our children's futures," Snell said.
Other speakers pointed to longer bus rides making it more difficult to participate in athletics, loss of small classroom sizes, and fear of what will happen to their already shrinking communities. Community members have spoken in support of saving these schools at other school board meetings, even when the potential closure was not on the agenda.
School officials cite declining enrollment, population loss and budgetary constraints as reasons for consolidation.
Ahead of the vote, the board’s vice president, Mary Passinger, said consolidation would be a difficult decision to make, and no solution would please everyone.
“There is actually a very large, mostly silent faction that has been emailing, texting, calling, asking us to please not back down, that we need to consolidate now," Passinger said.
Community members called out during and after the vote to close the schools, with one person shouting, "You guys are awful!" Another person said, "We're going to PA Cyber." The board tried to regain control of the room several times before leaving for an executive session to "discuss next steps."
Students in grades 9-12 from the Sheffield Area Middle/High School will be relocated to Warren Area High School, while 9-12 students from the Youngsville Middle/High School will be relocated to Eisenhower Middle/High School.
According to a frequently asked questions sheet released in December 2024, the Sheffield Middle/High School building will remain open for middle school students. School officials say there are no renovations planned, but they "would continue to service the building in a way that would make it appropriate for the middle school students and elementary students using the high school portion of the building."
Administration officials recommend moving Youngsville middle school students to Youngsville Elementary, according to that FAQ sheet, but this was not voted on during Monday's meeting.
UPDATE, 01/14/25: This story was updated to add quotes from Monday's school board meeting.