After more than 50 years as a center for educating young minds, a school building in Poland will be closing its doors.

Poland Schools Superintendent David Janofa announced on Thursday that Dobbins Elementary will be closing.

Starting in the 2018-2019 school year, third and fourth graders in the Poland School district will be attending McKinley Elementary.

The district’s administration and staff are working together to develop a bell schedule and classroom schedule with the move.

A staffing analysis for the new grade level configurations is currently taking place, according to a media release from the school district.

The new schedule will have Poland Middle Schools students ( 6th- 8th grades) on separate schedules for arrival and dismissal than McKinley students (3rd-5th grades).

A state performance audit performed due to the projected deficit in the Poland Local School District listed several recommendations the district could implement to reduce expenses.

One of the recommendations was closing Union Elementary and Dobbins Elementary.

At this time, the district is only closing Dobbins Elementary in an effort to continue what school officials call the “right-sizing” of the district.

There have been discussions about the condition of the McKinley building which currently is used for eighth-grade students. Janofa says the building is absolutely safe.

“The Mckinley building is an expensive building to operate due to the style of construction. The Board of Education has been discussing the conditions of all our facilities, and the resources we are allocating to repair the buildings for many years,” said Janofa. “McKinley is no different than the other buildings. Significant resources have been used for all our buildings for repairs. The McKinley building will have the normal summer cleaning, painting, and waxing, just like every other building in the district.”