Community gathers at news of school closing
The Saturday night soup supper and auction at Lake Minatare Elementary School gathered the community who knows the school personally for the memories and to support students through their secondary education.
By News Channel NebraskaSCOTTS BLUFF COUNTY -- Saturday night was announced as a Soup Supper and auction at Lake Minatare Elementary School.
The event went deeper than that as parents, grandparents and alumni processed the news the school will close at the end of the school year.
Alexa Graves, a parent and a member of the Parent Club, said the school district's decision is frustrating.
"Obviously, I'm upset about it, and pretty sad about it. We've only got to have one year with this school, and I was really hoping for a lot more, especially as an alumni myself," Graves said Saturday.
She said she attended Lake Minatare Elementary School through seventh grade, and hoped her child would experience the school as well.
"It's kind of an end of an era, honestly, and its, it's kind of hard to wrap your head around as a parent, and as a member of this community out here, whose really been with it since I was a kid," she said.
Parent Brett Moser said the school's future was discussed last year.
"Even when my son was a kindergartner last year, we had kind of dealt with the, the question of it closing, and this year we had kind of thought we were in the clear. We didn't know that it was ... you know it was announced a little later to us this year than it was last year, but, you know, it's hard to find a new place for your kids to go and to have to search for new schools," Moser said.
Construction on Lake Minatare Elementary School started in 1964, according to Tim Carlson. The Carlson family sold the land to that became the home of the school.
"Seventh grade was my first year here, and of course I went seventh and eighth grade and then I went to town," Carlson said.
He said his girls attended Lake Minatare Elementary from kindergarten through Eighth Grade. Watching the school she started her education in causes emotions to rise. Nikki Hoffman, one of Carlson's daughters, said the decision should be more than a budget concern.
"It's sad. I feel like progress is not always for the best, and some things just don't add up to just dollars and cents,"
The land the school sits on was sold by Carlson's grandfather.
The school district announced the school closure would save the district about $750,000. The school will close at the end of the school year.
Saturday's soup supper and auction is a farewell for the community, Carlson said, but it is also a fundraising effort for scholarships to Lake Minatare Elementary students.