ELK COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — A community in Elk County on Friday said goodbye to an elementary school, now closing its doors for good.
It was a tearful goodbye not just for this most recent and final class of children at Bennetts Valley Elementary — but for the generations of people who walked those halls.
"It's the heart and soul of the community," Bennetts Valley Elementary parent Laura Antonelli told 6 News.
Crowds gathered across the street from the school, rooting on the kids as they walked a final lap around the building. Fire, police, and EMS vehicle sirens blared, out of support.
"My husband grew up in the school, went through this school, grandparents have grown up and went through this school," parent Nicole Meyer told 6 News. "And just to see it down, it's part of our small community that's no longer gonna be here."
One large group of friends met at Bennetts Valley. On Friday, they went to say goodbye to their elementary school, before graduating from Saint Marys Area High School together later in the day.
"All of us kids here, we grew up together at this school and we have such a tight-knit group of friends." said Owen Smith. "And it's just sad to see something like this go, where we all met and formed this bond that we still share to this day.""I think just like the overall sense of community is going to be what is missed the most," one of Smith's friends, Eli Rippey, chimed in to say, "because this school brought a lot of togetherness to our community, and it's just a shame to see it go."
A major reason that Saint Marys Area School District is shutting down this school is finances. As the district superintendent, Dr. Harley Ramsey, told us in September, Bennetts Valley Elementary serves just under 90 students. Ramsey estimated at the time that closing Bennetts Valley would save the district a little over six hundred thirty thousand dollars each year.
Parents and the community fought hard against closure. But ultimately, the school board sealed the Bennetts Valley's fate on October 10 of last year.
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Parent Sherri Holjencin, fighting back tears, told 6 News on Friday, "I feel horrible for everybody involved."
Next school year, a number of kids from Bennetts Valley will attend Fox Township Elementary. For some Bennetts Valley parents, it's a longer but still-reasonable commute. However, that's not the case for everybody.
"Next year, the three of us are pretty much the furthest people away," said parent Kristi Blythe, gesturing to Meyer and Holjencin.
"it's gonna be about an hour bus ride [one way]," Meyer added. "That's on good days."
With the school district covering about 350 square miles, these three mothers say Fox Township Elementary is the closest elementary school to them.
"It takes us 15 minutes to get here [Bennetts Valley Elementary] if our something's wrong with our kids," Blythe mentioned.
"Now we're looking at 30-plus minutes to get to our kids if something happens," she brought up. "And that's— as a parent, that's hard."
Despite this loss, some see a bright future down the road, with Antonelli saying, "It's a new opportunity for our kids to— as they get up that hill, to go to the middle school and high school, to meet some more kids."
A number of parents at the event tell us that, as of right now, there are no official plans announced for what to do with the property that Bennetts Valley sits on.
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