[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/03/11/missouri.school.closings/t1main.schoolhallway.kshb.jpg caption="The Kansas City, Missouri, school board voted Wednesday to close 28 of the district's 61 schools."]
(CNN) - Superintendent John Covington called for the closing or consolidation of almost half of the schools in the Kansas City, Missouri, school district, and a school board voted Wednesday to approve the downsizing.
Covington calls it the "right-size" plan," but many residents say it's plain wrong.
A packed room of people watched the board make its historic move after weeks of debate and years of declining enrollment. Some parents voiced their anger, while some students cried.
"I have an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old that will be going to school with 12th graders. I find that very inappropriate. I don't feel my children will be safe," Deneicia Williams told CNN affiliate KSHB-TV.
"I feel like I have nothing, I have no high school legacy. I feel like I have nothing, nothing to go back to," said Prince Jones, a senior, who will be part of the final graduating class at Westport High School.
Covington proposed the "Right-Size" plan arguing that the financial future of the entire school district was at stake. The plan shutters 28 of Kansas City's 61 public schools, cuts 700 jobs and saves $50 million to help reduce a burgeoning deficit. FULL STORY