BUCHANAN — Just a year after Niles Community Schools closed Eastside Elementary School, Buchanan Community Schools is shutting down a neighborhood elementary school.

The Buchanan school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to close Stark Elementary School — a move that Supt. Andrea van der Laan says will save the district $120,000 annually.

“That will save at least a couple teachers’ jobs,” van der Laan said.

Stark was at less than 50 percent capacity this year, she added.

Van der Laan said she isn’t worried about overcrowding with one less school in the district, pointing out that when the district’s enrollment peaked at 2,497 in 1970, there were only four schools.

“We’ve never closed or consolidated schools until now,” she said.

The board also voted unanimously to reconfigure the district into grade level centers. Beginning next school year, Moccasin Elementary will be the home to pre-kindergarten through second grade, Ottawa will be third and fourth grade, the middle school fifth through seventh grade and the high school eighth through 12th grade.

The decision was made despite argument from Buchanan resident Sean Overmeyer, a father of four students in the district, who voiced concerns during public comment.

Overmeyer said he had collected more than 140 signatures of residents against grade level centers.

“This is the voice of the people,” he said.

Overmeyer also said that many of the people he talked to didn’t even know that a switch to grade level centers was in the works.

“No one knew what was going on,” he said.

Overmeyer argued that parents with students in multiple buildings will be forced to make a decision of which child to visit when they have activities going on at the same time.

Van der Laan, who is in her first year as superintendent, said the move to grade level centers has been in the works for several years, and a committee has done extensive research, including visiting four other districts with similar configurations.

The closing of Stark Elementary and the reconfiguration of the district came after a $31 million bond proposal failed in May. If the bond had passed, the plan was still to close Stark, but the other four buildings would have been expanded and improved.

After Tuesday’s meeting, van der Laan said she would not rule out seeking out another bond in the future, possibly as soon as November.