WESTBROOK – Wednesday morning was a bittersweet one for the entire Prides Corner Elementary School family.

On one hand, they were celebrating the school’s annual “Fly-Up Day” at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, where staff members and families gathered to celebrate the end of the school year and congratulate the young students on “flying up” to the next grade.

But this year, the ceremony was marked with more than a tinge of sadness, as it was the last one in the 50-plus-year history of the school, which is closing for good at the end of the school year Friday.

School officials made the decision to close the school earlier this year after they determined keeping it open wasn’t feasible in its current state. According to the school department, to keep the school open, the building would have needed about $2.8 million in immediate repairs and upgrades, including $800,000 to replace an aging boiler that officials say could fail at any time, and $400,000 to fix a poorly made driveway system.

“People are keeping their chins up,” said Principal Janet Crawford, who said that in their spare time, teachers are working to pack up their classrooms.

“For parents coming into the lobby, it’s really sad to see the boxes. They say that’s when it’s really hitting them,” she said.

As for the staff, while they are looking forward to next year in a newly aligned school district, where students in kindergarten through fourth grade will attend one of the city’s three remaining elementary schools, they will still miss their old school.

“It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” said Clare Harrington, a Title 1 math teacher who has taught at Prides Corner for one year and will be at Congin Elementary School in the fall. “We’re really excited about the new K-4 situation, but I think we’re all a little sad that we’re all leaving our families and Prides Corner, particularly for some people who have been there for 20-30 years. It’s been a part of their home, a second home for them.”

One of those longtime staff members is literacy coordinator Katie Ford, who has been at the school for 23 years.

“It’s sad,” said Ford, who will be going to Canal when school reopens. “We’re like a family together, the staff, the families and the community, and we’re all being split up all over town.”

Reading teacher Becki Wellman, who will be going to Congin after five years at Prides Corner, echoed Ford’s feelings on the school’s closure.

“It is kind of sad because there is something special about Prides Corner School,” Wellman said. “With the staff and the community, the families and all the students, it’s really been one of my favorite places to teach. But I am looking forward to next year.”

“There’s excitement and there’s sadness, there’s anxiety and there’s hope, there’s just a full scale of emotions going on right now,” said Liz Fiore, who has been Prides Corner’s guidance counselor for the past two years and will not be in the district next year. “(It will be hard) for families, too, Prides Corner has been there for a long time, and the transitions were predictable. But I think it will be good, and the kids seem really excited about it.”

But Wednesday was about the kids and their accomplishments, said Crawford, who will be taking over as principal at Congin in September. “We’re just trying to make it special, so they remember it as a special time,” she said.

As the children filed into the Performing Arts Center, they all sported homemade crowns in the colors of their new schools. Students heading to Congin wore gold crowns with the school’s cougar mascot, while those going to Canal wore blue with that school’s coyote mascot and the students heading to Saccarappa wore gold crowns with stars.

Crawford welcomed the students and their families, thanking the community for its support over the years.

“Parents, on behalf of the teachers and staff, it has been a privilege to teach your children each and every day,” Crawford said. “They are truly a joy.”

Crawford then told the students that while it was OK to feel sad about their school closing, that doesn’t mean the end of the friendships that started there.

“When you think about leaving someone or someplace that you love, it’s natural to feel a sense of loss, and to be sad,” Crawford told the students. “All of us are. You will make new friends that you will have for a long time, and at the same time you can keep in touch with the friends and teachers that you are leaving behind.”

With those words, it was time for the students to march up on stage, greet the wildly popular Prides Corner Panda with a high-five, walk across a bridge to receive a diploma from Crawford and then march off the stage into history – the last students to grace the hallways of Prides Corner School.

Thomas Lewis, a student in Susan Blanchard’s kindergarten class at Prides Corner School, high-fives the Prides Corner Panda as he crosses the bridge during the school’s “Fly-Up Day” Wednesday. (Staff photo by Mike Higgins)