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Tracy's oldest school preparing to close for good

Students and staff at the Central School will be moving into their brand new $30 million building next door after spring break, but the old building will leave behind quite a bit of sentimental value.

TRACY, Calif. — The oldest school building in the City of Tracy is preparing to close for good next week, before facing the wrecking ball.

Students and staff at the Central School will be moving into their brand new $30 million building next door after spring break, but the old building will leave behind quite a bit of sentimental value.

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For many students...

"It does bring back a lot of memories," Robert Rickman, the Mayor of Tracy said.

And staff…

"It's bittersweet for everybody," Christine Pemberton, a paraeducator at Central School said.

It is more than just an old building.

"We're all getting very sentimental about it," Nancy Link, the principal of Central School said.

The old Central School building is celebrating its 80th birthday this year. But sadly this will be its last.

"It's very bittersweet. We are very sad. There are things here you'll never get in another school, no matter how much they try, these huge windows, the stories that are in this building are so important, so we're feeling a little torn but very excited," Link said.

Link tells ABC10 repairing everything from the old plumbing, the ceilings, the chipped paint and the old bricks outside, outweighed the cost of a new school, with the opportunity for a fresh, innovative learning environment for their students. 

"We hate to see it go, hate to see a piece of Tracy's longtime history [demolished]. I mean, this is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, elementary school here in town. But at the end of the day it's all about the students," Rickman said.

Generations of Tracy families have walked its halls.

"When you're a kid it seems so much bigger," Rickman said.

Mayor Rickman is no exception.

"We're sad to see it go. It's a great memory for a lot of us here in Tracy and a great historical value for a lot of us and we're going to miss it," he said.

The school has to be packed up by next Friday and the Tracy Unified School District will begin moving everything over to the new building during spring break.

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When kids return at the end of the month, they'll be starting classes in the brand new $30 million school next door, with a few familiar features, funded by taxpayer bonds.

"I get very joyful when I think about these children being able to actually walk into a brand new building and see all of this brand new stuff. [I'm] so super excited about that," Pemberton said.

Link says the old school will go through the abatement process before being demolished and turned into a soccer field, extra blacktop and a parking lot later this year.

"We definitely know we're going to have some tears when they pull this down," Link said.

The Tracy Unified School District will hold an official ribbon cutting for the new Central School on May 13 at 6:30 p.m.

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