Katherine Rosales watched as her daughter ran through the fields at Bonneville Elementary School one last time.
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Cecilia, who just finished second grade, looked happy. But she’d cried when she learned her school would close this year, Rosales said, worried that friends might not be in class with her next year.
“She’s scared about going to a new school, what it’s going to be like. It has her nervous. She understands it’s a big change,” she said.
Hundreds of people filled Bonneville’s campus Thursday evening for a “One Last Bark” farewell — the school’s mascot is the bulldog — to the school, one of seven Orange County Public Schools campuses that will close when the 2025-26 school year ends Wednesday. The six other closing schools held similar goodbye events this week.
At Bonneville in east Orange County, students carried Sharpies and asked friends and teachers to sign their blue Bonneville Elementary Bulldogs t-shirts. They joined parents and former students in paging through albums filled with old class photos and yearbooks.
The event was “bittersweet,” said teacher Renee Smithwick, who organized the gathering. It was part carnival, with face painting, bounce houses and a petting zoo, and partly a time for hugs and teary goodbyes.
“This was an event that we wanted to make positive and joyful, and we wanted people to know that we are a community that can’t be broken,” said Smithwick, who has taught at the school for 15 years.
Bonneville and the other six are shutting down because of declining enrollment. The school, which opened in 1961, enrolled 382 students this month on a campus meant for 938.
The school’s closure hasn’t sunk in yet, Smithwick said, but she’s happy that the school where she’ll be working come August is one that many Bonneville students will attend next year.
The other schools slated to close, all also under enrolled, are Chickasaw, Eccleston, Meadow Woods, McCoy and Orlo Vista elementary schools and Union Park Middle School.
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Orange County Public Schools lost thousands of students this year and expects to lose thousands more in coming years, which mean more half-empty campuses could close in the future. The district attributes the enrollment losses to declining birth rates, increased immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, and increased use of the state voucher program, which offers scholarships for private school or homeschooling services.
Rosales said she’s lived in a neighborhood near Bonneville since Cecila was two. The school’s closure has her considering whether to move, fearing that whatever school she sends her daughter to next could also shut.
“I’m scared that the next time it will hit her next school, or her middle school, or even worse when it’s high school, when it’s going to be more detrimental to her education,” she said.
Kayla Rodriguez, whose three children attended Bonneville, said the upcoming closure and Thursday’s event were “a little overwhelming and sad” because the school was a welcoming place.
“The way they treat our kids, it just feels like home,” Rodriguez said.
Her youngest, Jacob, who finishes third grade this year, took the closing news hard and is scared of leaving his friends behind, she said.
But not every Bonneville student is nervous about what’s next.
Rycen Bowman, who will finish fourth grade at Bonneville and will spend fifth grade at Waterford Elementary, said he was excited to start at a new school. And his mother, Anna, said she’s excited for him.
Still, leaving Bonneville for the last time will feel like a “little jab” to the heart, she said.
“I’ve always heard good things about Bonneville, and growing up in it, and building that sense of community, the relationships with the teachers and the admin. It kind of sucks to have to start over,” she said.
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