Three local schools will hold classes for the last time today

YOUNGSTOWN -- Three city school district buildings will close their doors to pupils for the last time today.
Southside Upper Elementary on Maple Avenue and Cleveland Elementary on West Princeton Avenue will be razed, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs.
The John White Building on Lyden Avenue, which housed the Athena School of Excellence for Girls this year, will be closed and likely serve as a district warehouse, he said.
Well used
All three were built in the 1920s and have outlived their usefulness as school buildings, he said.
The Southside Upper and Cleveland closings are part of the district's $192 million rebuilding program.
Once they are razed, the city hopes to trade those vacant lots and three others for some property the city owns on Teamster Drive near the school district's bus garage.
DeNiro said the Southside pupils will attend Sheridan Elementary next fall as will fifth- and sixth-graders who would have been at Cleveland.
Those in kindergarten through the fourth grade who would have been at Cleveland will now go to Kirkmere Elementary, he said.
The district is moving the Athena school to the Hillman building on West Myrtle Avenue because the White building won't be big enough to house it.
Athena had only seventh- and eighth-grade girls this year but will be expanded to include ninth-grade girls next year, school officials said.