Beallsville High School to close permanently after 96 years due to low enrollment
Switzerland of Ohio Board votes 5-0 to shut down Beallsville High School; staff jobs remain secure.
Beallsville High School in Monroe County, Ohio, will close its doors permanently after nearly a century of operation, following a unanimous vote by the Switzerland of Ohio Board of Education. The decision, made during an emotional board meeting, eliminates grades 9-12 from the Beallsville campus, citing low enrollment numbers as the determining factor. Students, parents, and teachers attended the meeting in hopes of reversing the outcome, but walked out in tears after the 5-0 vote.
Only 53 students were projected to attend the high school in the 2025–2026 school year, including just 14 juniors and seniors. Superintendent Phil Ackerman emphasized that this level of enrollment made it unsustainable to continue operating the school. While grades 7 and 8 will be moved to Beallsville Elementary, the high schoolers will be reassigned to either River High School or Monroe Central High School based on their home locations.
Students and staff Face transitions
Despite the closing, every Beallsville High School employee will keep her job with the district. Teachers and staff will be reassigned based on need, either staying at the Beallsville campus for pre-K-8 or being transferred to other schools in the district. Ackerman told the public that no one would lose her job and that the district would follow its collective bargaining agreement to move through the process.
For students like incoming senior Lyndsey Kinney, the loss is personal. "They took our school, they took our heart, they took my senior year." Kinney claimed her class would have been the first to go through the current building from kindergarten to 12th grade. Community members had bigger concerns outside of their local public school such as property valuations dampened interest in local businesses to grow and develop. Many residents bemoaned the loss of homecoming parades and years of community pride that was tied to schooling that first began in 1928.
Beallsville's Legacy and Community Impact
The decision to close has sparked worries over potential community fragmentation in Beallsville. Students and parents alike, like Michaela Murdy, spoke to the town’s resilience and spirit, saying Beallsville kids “fight for everything that they have.” The high school has long been the cultural and emotional heart of the town, where generations of families have gathered for pigskin matchups, shuffling into the school together for events over the past 96 years, now the final chapter has closed.
Students, donning blue and white, locked their arms and proudly sang the alma mater following the meeting, a tribute to their school. This is the end of an era but students and teachers recognized how proud they were of their legacy and on the spirit that will carry them on transition and beyond. As Beallsville High School closes after 96 years, the community will now figure out how to preserve what was their town identity with a missing focal point.
