Eddy Elementary In East China To Close

In a special meeting held Tuesday evening, the East China Board of Education decided unanimously to close Eddy Elementary at the end of the year.   An $800,000 budget deficit was the basis for the decision according to reports.  Discussion had been held in the past concerning closing the school, but the district had made the decision to keep the building open.  Following the rejection by voters of a $148.6 million bond proposal and consolidation plan this month, the district, when looking at cost-saving measures at a board meeting on May 20, looked again at closing the school.   Officials say the district has been seeing declining enrollment in recent years and  projections show this  likely to continue. In 2001, the district had just over 5,700 students; that number dropped to just under 4,100 in 2019 and is expected to continue to drop about nine percent between 2019 and 2023.