District may close Rhode Island's last one-room schoolhouse

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island's last one-room schoolhouse could close if funding is withdrawn.

The nonprofit Prudence Island School Foundation and Portsmouth School District have an agreement in which the district funds the education program and the foundation runs the program and maintains the building.

The foundation in a statement Saturday said the district wants to halt funding by the end of the academic year.

If the school closes, students would be educated off Prudence Island.

Parents say that new commute would take elementary school kids away from home for 10 hours a day.

District leaders have referred to the schoolhouse education as a kind of home-schooling and said in December they had to pay $15,000 toward a roof replacement.

The foundation was to make its case at Monday's Portsmouth Town Council meeting.