Pine Bluff School Faces Possible Closure

"I can walk out of my front door and see the kids out of there playing it," Cynthia Pearl Marks said.

Marks' children walked to the school, and now it's her grandchildren who sit in the desks.  But that simple walk for the next generation could turn into a ride across town if board members vote to shut it down.

"It is something that is very hard. Nobody wants to see their school closed," Piccola Washington said.

Washington, the board's president, said the school poses a financial burden for the district.

Enrollment is shrinking, now just three-hundred students, and it costs more to upgrade a school built six decades ago.

"We can't continue to operate as we've operated in the past. Too many things have changed, and we have to change with it," Rudolph Howard, the district's deputy superintendent, said.

Perhaps the toughest challenge is convincing neighbors like Marks,who can't imagine a piece of home fading into history books.

"It's been there a long time and I just believe when they close the doors, it's gonna be hard," Marks said.