Entering under a gold, blue and white balloon arch, community members of all ages, from preschoolers to alumni in their 70s, walked through the halls of Clear Lake Elementary School for the last time this week.
The elementary school, which has a 73-year-old history in the community, is shutting its doors at the end of this school year due to declining enrollment and budget deficits at Bethel School District. The school opened in 1952, but after a fire in the 1970s, it reopened in 1976 with its current building.
“It’s a pretty hard thing to close an elementary school,” Superintendent Kraig Sproles said. “An elementary school represents the heart and soul of a community…