Bethany Tabb, Courier Times Staff Writer

Greenstreet Elementary Schools students will go to new schools next year, the New Castle Community School Board decided Monday.

At least 130 people crowded the New Castle Chrysler High School cafeteria, where the meeting was held to accommodate a larger crowd. In a role call vote, each board member voted in favor of the motion.

No one spoke out at the start of the meeting asking the board to keep the school open. But afterward, some were fighting back tears.

One woman's voice broke as she stood to thank the Greenstreet teachers. Her son has been at the school since preschool, she said, and the people there were amazing.

Now, she said, she's worried about what will happen to those teachers.

"You say want teachers in school," she said. "But where are these teachers gonna go if you close Greenstreet? If you call them back, where are they coming back to?"

Under the board's motion, current Greenstreet students will go to Parker, Westwood or Wilbur Wright elementary schools next year.

Students at the Raintree Education Center, also called the alternative school, will then move to the Greenstreet building. That allows the corporation to close the REC's 14th Street building, which has the corporation's second highest utilities.

Board members said closing Greenstreet was a difficult decision but was necessary for the corporation's financial stability.

Supt. Steve Fisher said because of state cuts and a shortfall in property taxes, NCCSC must permanently cut $2.7 million from its budget.

To make up for those cuts, Fisher said he looked at three "big ticket" items: buildings, insurance and staffing. Moving Greenstreet students and closing the REC building will save the corporation about $650,000, he said.

Before voting, board member Mike Fleming said all three of his children attended Greenstreet when they were young. He said he regretted needing to make the motion, but financially it has to be done.

Board member Mark Davisson, who made the second, said he'd rather close a school and even a second building than cut programs or teachers.

"Programs will never get touched as long as I can sit up here and vote no," he said. "... The kids have to come first."