The Jackson County School Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to close Flat Rock School at the end of this academic year, according to Superintendent Jason Davidson.

In an email to AL.com, Davidson cited low classroom attendance, staffing issues, and lack of opportunities for students as motivations for closing the school.

“We are responsible for being good stewards of taxpayers dollars and have to look at what’s best for ALL of Jackson County students,” he wrote.

This school year, only 64 students are enrolled in total at Flat Rock from Pre-K to sixth grade, according to Davidson.

Due to low student numbers, teachers at the school have been responsible for multiple classrooms, and most are teaching as many as five subjects at a time, he added.

“Getting the same person adequately prepared in each subject is nearly impossible,” Davidson wrote.

The school is also currently operating without a counselor, he said.

Current Flat Rock students will finish the remainder of the school year as planned and can then feed into one of the county’s other nearby schools like Rosalie Elementary or Pisgah High School, according to Davidson.

Despite the school’s challenges, many members of the Flat Rock community have recently taken to social media to mourn its impending loss.

The school was founded in 1905 as a mission school by the United Methodist Church Conference, according to the school system’s website. The church school in 1929 was purchased by the state and became a public school for grades one through nine.

Earlier this month, Flat Rock mother Sarah Wooten filed a petition on Change.org in an attempt to keep the school open.

“Our lives, particularly those of our kids, are directly intertwined with our small community school, Flat Rock,” she wrote.

“My son, who just joined PreK this year, has his world centered around this warm and nurturing space. The one-on-one time he gets with his teachers has ensured tremendous growth and learning, something bigger schools with larger classrooms cannot guarantee.”

“The closure of our school means uprooting our children, forcing them into unknown territories which can negatively impact their learning and overall development,” she continued.

“Children thrive in environments where they feel comfortable and safe. Smaller class sizes, as demonstrated by several research studies, often have a greater impact on student achievement than larger ones.”

The petition had received 365 signatures as of Mar. 26.

“Our school has been serving the community for years, shaping generations, and building the fabric of our society,” Wooten wrote.

“It is heartbreaking for us to see our beloved school having to close its doors…Society functions on the strength of its communities, and schools play an integral part in building these communities.”

A foster mother whose children also attend Flat Rock joined in praising the school’s nurturing environment.

“If every school was like Flat Rock School, this world would be a better place,” she wrote in a post to Facebook.