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MANSON - Members of the VFW and American Legion lowered the flag for the last time at the Manson Northwest Webster elementary Wednesday afternoon at the school building's closing ceremony. The district's school board decided late in March to shut down a building to reduce costs caused by an enrollment decline.

"The laughter and memories and tears and natural disasters that these walls and this building have resisted over the years will indeed remain behind," said Elementary Principal Rose Davis. "But the heart of the administration system, the children and the community will go over to Barnum."

To commemorate their school, each elementary class gave a short presentation of favorite school memories to about100 audience members including parents, staff and community members. Recollections included fun on the playground, lunch memories and tornado drills. A particular anecdote that brought smiles to the audience's faces was a fourth-grade memory of the class's fear of the cougar statue in front of the building during their kindergarten days.

Several third-graders also fondly remembered their secretary, Nancy Klaassen.

"Nancy pulls our loose teeth," the children said, giving gap-toothed smiles to a laughing audience.

The Manson elementary opened in 1959 and allowed for the education of local youths in one building. Prior to its opening, students were taught in a variety of locations within Manson, including the town hall and old Mennonite church.

With an almost 25 percent enrollment reduction from 10 years ago, the space of three school buildings is no longer necessary and running the facilities has become too expensive, according to school officials

"The Iowa Department of Education believes we could be negative as much as $712,000 by the end of 2010 if we keep all three buildings open," said Superintendent Mark Egli in March. "We are looking to prevent that from happening."

Closing the elementary will save the district a target amount $300,000 in the areas of personnel, maintenance and utilities, Egli said.

Architectural firms and community and staff members decided in March that the elementary should be moved to the current Barnum middle school, citing greater space availability and a newer facility as the main drawing points of the Barnum location. The firms also found an asbestos problem within the Manson elementary's framework.

With the new arrangements, grades prekindergarten through sixth will attend class at Barnum, and seventh through 12th grades will be located at the Manson high school starting next fall.

Although the elementary will no longer be used for school purposes, parts of the building will remain open. The kitchen, multipurpose room, gym and room adjacent to the gym will be open for the community's use.

"We will still have a community asset even though we're leaving behind something we treasure," said Egli during the ceremony.

The wings of the building not in use will be demolished after asbestos removal, which could cost upwards of $100,000, Egli said. Because of this cost, demolition is dependent on budget allowances and may not occur for three years.

The building should be open for community use in the fall after the unused wings are blocked off this summer, Egli said. Community members will be able to host events in the building and use the gym for exercise during school hours. After hours, the gym will be used for practices and games.

As the MNW school year came to a close and the elementary classrooms became silent, kindergartner Tanner Gerke expressed reservations about attending school in Barnum next fall.

"I don't feel so well about it," Gerke said of leaving the elementary behind. "But the rooms (in Barnum) are pretty nice, and I'm kind of excited."

Several adults reminisced their own days spent in the building as they stood outside the school looking at the brick building.

"This place is special to me," said Marie VanRoekel, 95, who spent some of her 26 years teaching in the district at the elementary building. "It makes you feel sad that it's closing, but time has to go on."

Connie Peters, who has three of her five children in the elementary school and who herself started kindergarten at the school in 1971, expressed sadness at its closing as well.

"I have many memories here," Peters said. "But we're looking forward to the future."

The ceremony concluded with pictures of the youth next to the building and the singing of the National Anthem and school song. The American flag was then lowered and given to Principal Davis to be raised in the fall at the Barnum building.

"We will continue to be just as strong, just as committed, just as loving in the upcoming years as we have when the doors opened in 1959," Davis said.

Contact Laura Johnson at (515) 573-2141 or editor@messengernews.net