(WHAS11) - The schools are closing and parents and students are heartbroken.
The move was made official Thursday night in New Albany Floyd County.
Four Floyd County schools will close because of massive budget cuts.
The superintendent says he's very unpopular but had to be fiscally responsible.
Many parents and students say the decision came too fast and they're forced to say goodbye too soon.
One by one, kids got dropped off for class and crossing guards talked to neighbors and parents for one of the last times.
“The school's been here so long. It's just upsetting," said one parent.
Silver Street Elementary, an award winning school in New Albany that President George W. Bush visited in 2007 will soon close.
It is a sad day for 4th grader Jasmine Papp.
"We're saying that we don't want to go to another school. A couple of friends of mine were in tears yesterday because it was closing," says the 4th grader.
"We have a growing room and at $6.6 million and there's not a darn thing we can do about it," says one school board member.
Pine View, Silver Street and Galena Elementary plus Children's Academy of New Albany will all close.
"We'll probably put Pine view and Silver Street up for sale. We're going to shudder Galena and then we're going to try to re-purpose Children's Academy into an early learning center," says Superintendent Dr. Bruce Hibbard.
"I think it's ridiculous. I think they should've caught the problem a lot sooner…said something a lot sooner and given us a chance to do something instead of just springing it on us,” says parent Andy Papp.
Little Jasmine Papp tells WHAS11 News her teachers are helping her out during tough times.
“They're saying don't worry about it and if you're going to a new school don't worry about it because it's going to be fine," says Jasmine.
