Aurora's Lincoln Elementary closing

Lincoln Elementary School in Aurora will close at the end of this school year, the West Aurora District 129 school board decided Monday.

Shuttering the school, more than 100 years old, is expected to save the district more than $900,000 per year, nearly two-thirds of that in salaries. It will also allow the district to eliminate or delay up to $1 million in repairs it expected to make in the next five years.

Lincoln students will be transferred to Nicholson and Freeman elementary schools, and to the Partnership School at Aurora University, all in Aurora. Some students at Nicholson will be transferred to Greenman and Smith elementary schools, also in Aurora.

Lincoln has about 265 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Closing it is an "efficiency measure," said district spokesman Mike Chapin, to take advantage of empty classrooms elsewhere in the district. The district lost about 350 students this school year when it determined they didn't live in the district and were registering with false addresses.

District 129, which is in the midst of making its 2009-10 budget, blames a lag in state aid receipts for some of its financial problems. It has already borrowed up to $15 million this budget year in short-term tax-anticipation warrants to pay its bills, until state money arrives. The district relies on state aid for about 31 percent of its revenue.

It announced in March it would lay off 169 workers next school year, including 106 teachers, librarians and other certified personnel.