BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      First-opened in 1950 to combat overcrowding at Boardman School (that at the time served students in first grade through high school), Market St. Elementary School closed its doors at the end of the 2019-19 school year in light of the district’s enrollment that has been declining for more than a decade.
      “While most may believe cost savings is the driving force behind the recommendation [to close the school], cost savings is not the only benefit, nor the greatest benefit,” said Supt. Tim Saxton. “Ultimately, we believe this move will help us provide greater educational services in a more efficient manner.”
      A news release about closing Market St. Elementary School, stated “The prospect of closing Market Elementary has been discussed in district-wide focus groups and strategic planning sessions that date back more than a decade. The school board believes now is the time to move ahead with that plan.”
      With the closing Market Street Elementary School, the remaining three elementary schools (Stadium Dr., Robinwood Lane and West Blvd.) became kindergarten through third grade buildings; and all fourth grade through sixth grade students in Boardman Local Schools were enrolled at Center Intermediate School; and Glenwood Jr. High School was tapped to service seventh and eighth grade students.
      History
      Market St. Elementary School was built with funding (a bond issue) approved by the electorate in the late 1940s.
      At that time, enrollment in the local school district reported enrollment growing at some 8 per cent annually. Amidst such growth in student population, Supt. Irvin J. Nisonger noted “The need for Boardman’s new, separate elementary school...being built on a 14-acre plat between Meadwobrook Ave. and Erskine Ave. is shown by the large number of children between the ages of five and seven-years-old in the school district.
      “The new elementary school at the north end of the township will absorb part of the overcrowding when the first six grades are opened there.”
      Although the school board projected cost of the new school to be $700,000, its construction was actually closer to $1 million.
      Among 19 firms that submitted bids to construct Market St. Elementary School, G.F. Howard Co. of Canfield was selected as the general contractor for the project at a cost of $557,501, a cost that was reported at the time at about $120,000 lower that the next lowest bidder.
      Other bids for the construction of the new school were taken for cafeteria equipment, plumbing, heating, and electrical work.
      “Despite its desire for economy, the school board is faced with the problem of providing adequate room, even at inflated prices, for the children of Boardman,” Supt. Nisonger said at the time, adding “The school will be one of the show places of Ohio, rating as perhaps the best of its kind in the state in physical equipment.”
      During the construction of Market St. Elementary School, then Boardman Trustees Fay C. Heintzelman, Howard Cherry and J. Donald Smith waived building permit fees for the project.
      “Collecting that fee, we felt, not only would be kind of double taxation, it would be diverting tax money from Boardman people which can be well used in building our new school,” Trustee Cherry said.
      At the time of its closing, Ohio Department of Education statistics claimed more than half of the students attending Market St. were “economically disadvantaged.”