One of Beaufort County’s oldest schools will close its doors this summer

One of Beaufort County’s oldest schools is shutting its doors for good. The students’ last day is Friday, and demolition of the building will be sometime this summer, school secretary Alyiah Burns said.

Students at Galer Elementary School, which houses preschool through second grade, will move to Elliott Elementary, another school for the Laurel Bay military community.

Around 230 Galer Elementary School students will join Elliott students for an enrollment that will be somewhere between 350 and 400 students, Burns said.

The school, named for World War II hero Robert E. Galer, opened for residents of Laurel Bay military housing in 1957. Galer was one of the first schools in the state to desegregate, paving the way for other schools in the South to do the same, WSAV reported.

Galer and Bolden, another school for the Laurel Bay military community, faced environmental complaints from parents and teachers in 2010, though testing of toxin levels weren’t found to be high enough to have caused health problems.

This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 12:05 AM with the headline "One of Beaufort County’s oldest schools will close its doors this summer."