The Monroe Public Schools Board of Education voted March 22 to seek bids for the demolition of South Monroe Townsite School. 

     In early February, Monroe Pubic Schools and the Monroe County Intermediate School District announced that the ISD’s Head Start program, which had been housed at Townsite School for the last several years, will move to Arborwood North Elementary School with the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. 

     The other educational entity housed in South Monroe Townsite School – Monroe Virtual High School, the first virtual school ever established in Monroe County – will move to the Riverside Early Learning Center, 77 N. Roessler St., over the summer and start hosting its classroom sessions there in September.

     Since the announcement of the Head Start move, the board of education has discussed at great length the future of the Townsite building.  During that time, few public comments were submitted.  However some neighbors have expressed a concern about having a vacant building in their neighborhood.   SMT was closed as an elementary school in June 2009. 

     Two other schools which were closed at the same time – Christiancy and Lincoln elementaries – were demolished in 2011.