There was a time when Warren County’s high schools were packed to the gills with students.

Of course, that time has long passed. Now, we have a district using about half of its allotted space. At Youngsville, there were 1,733 student-periods available in unused classrooms. For WAHS, the unused space represented 1,008 student-periods. Sheffield had 788. The data for Eisenhower shows no unused spaces. That’s a lot of empty rooms using heat and electricity at taxpayer expense.

Obviously this means there should be some sort of change in how Warren County provides education. There are two avenues the district can pursue to make the best use of its available space. One is to fill some of those empty rooms with services or providers who can help children who are struggling. This could mean mental health providers, contracted tutors or other services that can help children. Of course, that comes with additional expense to the district.

The other option is to consolidate buildings. It’s hard to see the county’s population decline continue and think we will ever need this much space for high school students ever again in our county’s history. Making the decision to close a building means makng tough decisions regarding bus routes — and we can understand the Warren County School Board’s anguish over the idea of sending students on lengthy bus rides on nice days and potentially dangerous long rides during the winter months. But the building utilization study prepared by Thomas and Williamson leaves the district little choice.

Sooner or later, to operate efficiently, Warren County will have to close a school building.