Red brick building’s closing ends centuries-long history of education
On Thursday, students walked out of the “red brick building,” most recently known as Butler Middle School, for the last time.
Every summer, generations of students have walked out of the building that functioned as a senior high school, a junior high school and finally a middle school starting in 2015 during its century-long history.
Tracey Fritz Ewing moved to Butler in seventh grade. She went to seventh and eighth grade in 1973-1975, when the school was made up of two brick buildings, one red and the other yellow.
Fritz Ewing said she was sad to hear the school was closing because she appreciates its look and its history. Fritz Ewing retains some good memories of the challenges of going to such a packed school.
“It’s sad because that's such an old building, and it's got character,” Fritz Ewing said. “When the bell rang, those halls were crammed, and I had to go from the third-floor yellow to third-floor red, so I never made it to math class on time. I was always a little late.”
According to Butler Area School District superintendent Brian White, administrators decided to close the building due to declining enrollment and because the cost of maintaining it is too expensive. The district is constructing an addition to Butler Senior High School to house ninth-grade students, to shuffle the students who would attend the middle school.
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