Jamestown’s Washington Elementary School to close by next school year, teachers looking for jobs

It’s official: as first reported by the Jamestown Sun, Jamestown’s Washington Elementary School will close before the 2025-2026 school year, as decided during the Jamestown Public School Board’s January 20th meeting. The city will now have four operative elementary schools, due to the trend of declining kindergarten enrollment rates, and general fund that would dry up by 2029 if the school stayed open at its current capacity. Superintendent Rob Lech stated that “we are not talking about staff reductions,” there will be placements for the 32 staff members at other schools in the district, and they are actively trying to figure that out now. The fate of the building and adjacent Ernie Gates Football Field is still being decided, but the property will stay in the school district until they decide its future use.